Hey friends it's Danny Morel and welcome to another edition of The Danny
Morel Show it's obviously been about a week since our incredible event vision
We had 600 of you who joined us for two incredible days at the Lowes Coronado
Hotel and I got to tell you I wanted to share at least a little piece of that
event to you our followers here on our show and the piece I'm gonna share with
you is personally one of my favorites is an interview that I had with some that I
respect and admire someone that has built one of the largest trade
organizations in the the entire country really Mr. Gary Acosta and I it's one of
my favorite parts of Vision because it really for me was a moment where I got
to speak to one of my mentors got to ask questions and and you feel the crowd the
crowd really opened up during this session about what it takes to really
fulfill your vision whatever that vision may be so I'm excited to also announce
that we're gonna be getting rid of all of this furniture here we're gonna be
forming a professional studio and on Thursdays we are gonna be committing
every single day every single week to bring you a live Q&A show so I will be
telling you a little bit more about that later but for right now if you're
currently not following me on Instagram go follow me there because every single
morning by sunrise I'm bringing you some free coaching free advice sometimes it's
just a free motivational message to get your day started the right way
so go check me out on Instagram just look for Danny Morel you'll be able to
find me other than that without further do a
small piece of what was an incredible two days my interview with Mr. Gary
Acosta the founder and CEO of Narep enjoy if you're serious about making a
change here's what I'd like you to do I'm like you keep your hands raised keep
your hands raised and I'd like somebody from the back of the room Julia just
come sit next to you and sign them up five four three two one just sign them
up keep your hands raised go faster yeah faster
breach Fritos yeah no Fritos okay here's the sauna keep your hands up come on who
was it you had them race you signed up already okay sign them up yes you had
them raised you already signed them alright awesome are you ready to go
we have you already did it okay good alright go there's still some of you
guys know somewhere you guys and all we want to do is help you guys we want to
help you stop picking strawberries is that cool all right let's rock and roll
who's ready to meet Gary Acosta yes I'm excited guys I'm excited somebody there
is he even in the room okay somebody that I respect somebody that I
admire a creator of what is right now guys the largest Hispanic business
organization in the country period on the story and he started it from scratch
that took a vision that took perseverance please help me welcome to
the stage mr. Gary Acosta please
by the way I hope our microphones have not gotten jacked
they're still out there somewhere we've lost track of them so what Gary and I
are gonna oh there they are right there well Gary and I are gonna do we're gonna
have a basic conversation and then what I would I have an intention behind
bringing Gary here because he has created something enormous and even
though it's not a business like you're in there's value in understanding and
finding now how he took that vision from vision from an idea from literally an
idea to making it a reality so in a little bit I want to open up for some
Q&A sure and I'd love for you to just kind of share your thoughts with them
okay great so just give me some basics right like how old family sons kids how
old am i you can throw that well I just turned 50 a couple years ago I have a
great family that is my rock lived here in San Diego three children two a
daughter's one that's grown up in a working one of them is a senior in
college in New York and my youngest is my son who is a star basketball player
at a local high school here in San Diego they play Torrey Pines it's the biggest
game of the year tonight so if I seem nervous
that's why he just got a scholarship yes can play at Colorado College it's gonna
be hard the whole empty-nester thing is scary yeah for me and my wife
fortunately we like each other so good so so so take me back to your roots like
what was your first business or how did you get started in business in general
yeah so I was born in East LA and I went to Montebello High School which is just
outside of LA southeast LA was a pretty good student went to college went to
Pomona College played basketball there played basketball for a gentleman by the
name of Gregg Popovich by the way oh yeah he was his first head coaching job
he was my coach so great pop that's from the same time yeah yeah
- goat as I call now yeah so he was my basketball coach in college hold on
that's like saying you know my roommate was Kobe Bryant and then yeah a second
what was that what did you learn from him well obviously he wasn't who he is
today yeah we didn't know better but there was something special from him
from the get-go you realized that this guy was very intense very focused just
went about the game very differently had a way to get things the best out of
people hmm that was extraordinary I remember one of
the first games I played for him I started the game and it got down to
crunch time in the fourth quarter very close game and he took me out on an
inbound play just underneath the basket which is kind of a vulnerable play for a
defense and you know I was a little cocky back then so I'm coming out of the
walking off the court and I say something under my breath right by him
when I walked by and he says what did you say and I said I said I could play
defense and he says oh really yeah because I've never seen that you want to
show me right now so literally puts me right back in the game and of course I
never played defense harder than I did that very play and he was brilliant that
way so it was it was a great experience did he teach you anything that you use
later in life or business any any principle that week any nugget that we
could maybe Apple well I'll tell you you know the one thing that I've always you
know looked back and admired about him was his vision right I mean this was a
Division three college basketball team and he approached that game like we were
playing for the Final Four we used to joke about the fact we're like broke we
go out you know this isn't the Final Four you know but even in a small crowd
small college basketball environment he played like it was the NBA championship
coach like it was the NBA championship expected that of us and I would say you
know nobody expected that he'd go on and be given coach that he is which a lot of
people now consider him the greatest coach that ever lived in the NBA but I
can see back in retrospect that he had that vision for himself and it was
inspiring to me to this day I love that could you guys kind of apply
that right that's that's kind of like future thinking right would you agree
yeah so I went to Pomona College and you know I always thought that I would kind
of take the corporate you know track work for a big company and whatnot for
whatever reason I was a science major probably because I got a good grade in
science my freshman year and you know after I graduated it realized that you
know pursuing science was probably not what I really had a passion for I like
people and a friend of mine invited me to check out a local bank that was
hiring underwriters and so my first job in the industry I was about 25 years old
was as an underwriter for independent or I should say a community bank called
Mission Viejo national bank and that's how I learned the business per se and I
worked in that environment that structured environment for a couple
years and I learned a little bit of more about the business I competed out there
against mortgage brokers and I thought at 26 years old I could start my own
business mm-hmm which you know sometimes you know that naivete of being young is
helpful yeah and it certainly was the case for me so I started my own mortgage
brokerage at 26 met a friend by the name of Ernie Reyes who was 20 years older
than me but kind of my mentor in the business and always used to talk to me
about the Latino marketplace and we did a lot of loans for Latino homebuyers
ourselves so it was always kind of a subject that was top of mind for us but
he said Gary someday we got to do something big for the Latino community
and I used to go to business conferences like this and I liked you know hearing
from successful people and learning about where the trends were going and so
forth so I went to a conference in San Francisco called the Inman conference
which still exists today yeah and it was all about technology and you know all
the chains that were happening the internet this is like 1988 1999 and so
it was exciting because you know I was young and you know you see the change
and there was you know Yahoo was there and realtor.com was just getting started
there was a company called ile ohn so I used to go and check that out and I
remember at one of the meetings that I was at
I was so filled with energy and so just overwhelmed with you know ambition and
conflict and everything I went for a long walk in San Francisco after the
event and it was at that walk that I contemplated Nara and the idea was you
know I had a mortgage business and I wanted to grow that but I started to
realize that there was artificial barriers out there that were keeping me
and people like me from taking my business to the next level because I
didn't have the uncle that owned the community bank that said hey Gary this
is how you do it or let me introduce you to my pal who works for Fannie Mae or
anything like that I didn't have those contexts and I thought you know what I
know there's a lot of people out there like me and I got together with Ernie on
a Saturday and we sit down and we wrote out the acronym there and we came up
with the idea with Nara and after we were excited about it you know reality
set in and we said now what do we do right you know sounded good well we were
having a traditional breakfast but then afterwards reality set in and we had to
actually do something and I can tell you that's a longer story of how we got it
launched but since then it has been a labor of love and it has been the
greatest professional experience of my life but the most the greatest thing
I've really you know felt during the 18 years now since we started the
organization was just the privilege to meet the people that I've met across the
country you know just see that aspiration and that passion in their
eyes and to have created a platform where people feel that they actually
have something that they have a sense of ownership about yeah that they can
thrive and and hopefully achieve their goals professionally you know we talked
a lot on day one about something called your own personal life view it's kind of
like what what you see and think about yourself and what you see and think
about your potential yeah and what struck me was that by 26 you were
already trying to like break the mold you were already trying to do something
different where did that come from and what kind of upbringing did you have
that led to that because there's a lot of confidence
there you know that's a really good point you know I see Danny up here and I
think you know he reminds me a lot of myself just his big vision and you know
you're a lot more talented that I was but you know just that infectious
personality you have and the ability to see beyond just the superficial is is a
gift and you know I was blessed to have parents that you know convinced me
didn't just tell me but somewhere down the line convinced me that I can do
anything right and you know I grew up believing that for whatever reason you
know not because I was necessarily better than anybody else you know I grew
up in East LA so it's not like I had all of the privileges that other people may
have whether its financial or even educational but I still believe that I
can do anything so the barriers that maybe a lot of people feel early in
their careers for whatever reason they weren't there for me and so like I said
the naivete at times that you know you don't know what you don't know um can
work to your advantage and that's what I think was for me you know it's so funny
um the second thing that we said was that you know our our purpose here is to
show our children what is possible in life but we we they they guide what they
think is possible based off of what they see or now hear us through our example
and that is it you guys agree that's a perfect example of that right you guys
agree like he just said my parents just showed me or taught me they convinced me
you know that's the difference right you know because parents are so powerful you
know and I've always said that you know the the kids and the young people they
they're gonna remember what they saw and observe more than what you've said hmm
you know and I don't know exactly what it was that my parents that was the
tipping point but it wasn't you know son you should do this and you should pursue
that and you can do great things somewhere along the line they went
beyond that and like I said they can be sometimes it was a matter of holding me
accountable to myself you know whether it was a report card or a performance in
you know you know athletic endeavor or whatever the case may be but like I said
that's that's the difference I think between some parents who just have the
ability to convince their kids what is possible and so you started the
organization and I know you said it's a long story
yeah but you actually had to like get to work right because there's one thing to
have a vision guys and then there's another thing you got to actually like
go out and like it Gary says you gotta actually go out and do something right
so give me just give me a little a little taste of it well okay so you know
because because by the way guys mother how big is your organization how many
members Oh about 32,000 individual members 65 local chapters awesome
and I think we can double that in the next three years and you think you can
double that in the next few I think we will so that's so that's that's like the
vision is continuing yeah you started to really hit some interesting numbers when
you get up there you know get near the hundred thousand you know that is big
member base so so that's exciting so yeah so we wrote down this really cool
acronym it flowed off the tongue it was a great idea and then we said now what
you know so National Association of Hispanic real estate professionals two
guys in San Diego who really didn't know anybody outside of San Diego just
started a national organization so I gotta tell you at one point we I got
cold feet I went to Ernie and said you know what I think maybe we reached a
little bit far with this why don't we start the San Diego Association see how
it works okay that's how we're taught right start
small you know test the the model and I we had a mutual friend who at the time
served on the board of the US Hispanic Chamber of Commerce and he convinced me
not to go down that path he said there is no national organization it's needed
if you start with San Diego trust me nobody else is gonna call you Miami is
not gonna want to follow guys from Sandia you got to just go for the top
and build it from the top down I said but how we do that you know somebody is
gonna ask the next question I remember saying this you started the National
Association of Hispanic real estate professionals that's great you know how
many members do you have none - yeah you know well how large is your staff you
know and so forth so I said we have to have better answers to those questions
so that was the Eagle did you catch now I think Evo's already trying to weigh
the rational sort of ego yeah and so the same friend said look this is
what you need to do he says you just need to create a board that looks like a
national organization and people will believe that it is and it'll ultimately
become become that right exactly he says you don't need you know a thousand
members from all over the country you need 12 people and as long as one's from
Texas and one from Florida and ones from New York once with Chicago and a couple
were from LA you got a national organization yeah so
I said that seems more doable than the other thing so we issued a national
press release in hopes that people would actually respond to us yeah so we
created this press release and I remember to this day it said the
National Association of Hispanic real-estate professionals was formed
today in San Diego California to represent the interests of the fifty
thousand Hispanics employed in the housing industry where do we get the
number fifty thousand did you we just made it up it sounded big enough to be
impressive important not too big is that an absurd right and so we put that video
believe it or not that number got published about a hundred times over the
next four years from The Wall Street Journal to the realtor calm and like it
was the gospel truth like there was some science behind it and so so that's what
the press release said and people started to email and call us and they
would say hey this is really cool I'd love to be a part of it well who are you
oh my name is Tony Rouen oh I live in Miami what do you do I'm a real estate
broker I have two offices and I read a column for the Miami Herald for
Hispanics looking to buy a home awesome do you want to be on the national board
I wish I was making it up but that was an actual conversation that took place
so fast forward 15 conversations like that and we actually had a national
board all over the country and Ernie Ernie thing with my co-founder who
passed away three years ago by the way he was a product of the political world
he used to serve and you know he was a staffer for
a member of Congress back in the day he was a political animal and he said Giri
he tells me this well we're already half way into this he says we're not
qualified to do this and I said Ernie I don't think we can go back now you know
how do we fix that and he says he says well we don't have their credentials and
when you don't have to get you have the credentials you need to get somebody to
endorse you right like a political candidate who endorsed you right and I
said so somebody who is qualified I take it would have the authority to endorse
us and he said yes so we sat there in the conference room who could that be
and we wrote a bunch of names and one of the names we put on there on the wall
was Henry Cisneros and Henry Cisneros this is back in 1999 had had recently
been the secretary of HUD for Bill Clinton so he was the first Latino to
hold that position as a member of the president's cabinet so who knows Henry
Cisneros know but we didn't know anybody who knew Henry Cisneros and so we
decided to write him a letter cold just write him a letter a letter yeah at the
time he was the president of the individual which is up here in LA and
okay and so we wrote him a letter and said hey you know we started this
organization called now rap here's our mission statement which is to advance
the cause of Hispanic homeownership we would love any advice you can give us
any guidance you know and so forth basically in a nutshell that was the
letter lo and behold he wrote back he wrote back and he said I think this is a
great idea I wish Nara had existed when I was HUD
secretary because we could have done some partnerships together and whatnot
but if there's ever anything I can do to help you guys just let me know I said
you see that he says ever anything he can do to help us so it came on
letterhead it had a phone number in the bottom of the letterhead so I said we
have to call him and have him be the keynote speaker at our first kickoff of
that first thing Henry Cisneros is the keynote speaker at our first event we're
taught so we're real we're legit so we called the number up and his
assistant answer the phone and we said hey we just got this letter from Henry
and he offered to help us we were wondering if he could be the keynote
speaker at our first event in LA and she said well I can ask him she says when is
the event give me the details now we already had a date we already had a
venue everything already in place but at that moment I thought like the whole
conversation had gone through my head I said we're gonna give her that date and
she's gonna say he's not available and that's gonna be the end of the
conversation so she see already this happened it was Larry in a double second
in my mind so she said when is the event I said and this was the dumbest thing
that could come out of my mouth I said it's whenever he can make it and as I
said that I thought I must sound like an absolute idiot yeah and she said okay
I'll get back to you and I thought people must say dumb things like that
all the time to them so she called us back the next day and said he's
available March 1st and June 18th and whatever and I said we'll take March 1st
and we literally built the event around his availability and then issued a
second press release saying Henry Cisneros will keynote at Nara Panaro
event in LA and with that second email all of a sudden people were flying in
from Washington DC from Fannie Mae Freddie Mac people who I couldn't get on
the phone you know writing the business for ten years
all of a sudden wanted to see what this thing was all about and that's how we
got off the ground you know mo paws
you know guys how many of you guys can raise your hands to say there was a lot
of lessons in that just in that little like I mean I'm learning as he's
speaking right so so Gary look obviously since then the thing I just yeah yeah it
started to grow in fact I'll say this day an animal I don't want to take not
much time but you know for the first five years of the organization it was
like a rocket ship I mean it seemed like you know the timing is right you know
there was census information that came out in 2000 that said that Hispanics
were now the number one minority in this country was always african-american it
was 2001 that changed and so all of a sudden companies were interested in the
Hispanic market they were looking at it differently more strategically than
anything else governments we're looking at it you know
members of Congress said aim I might need the Hispanic vote if I want to win
in my district and so forth so the timing was really great in that regard
and it seemed like you know we could do no wrong for the first five years yeah
and you know a lot of it was just external circumstances we were lucky the
timing was right like I said but then the market crashed right right so this
is like mm now we're getting into 2006-2007 the wheels are starting to
fall off 2008 is a full-blown collapse yeah and things that we said that could
never happen happen we're happening like every day
Fannie Mae is gone washy Mutual's gone Fannie and Freddie are seized by the
federal government these are all companies that provided us with
financial support and so our budget which was at the time probably about two
and a half million dollars went from two and a half million dollars to a half a
million dollars and we had a Washington DC office and we had to shut it down and
we had to move everything back to San Diego what was close to Ernie and I and
we said okay we got a you know figure a way to reorganize and maybe think about
really what this organization should be all about and because as comfortable as
it was for Nara because a lot of people went through a tough time during that
period of time it was devastating to see what was happening to our members hmm I
mean people had started businesses and we're losing those businesses they were
losing their homes their losing their families this is not that
long ago yeah I mean we like to forget what happened ten years ago but this was
the low watermark perhaps of the century economically in this country and I
remember one story I've told the story many times I got a call from one of our
members from Ventura who said hey Gary can you help me out she said I have a
family member who was about to lose their home and sell date is next week
and city mortgage was the servicer and they couldn't get the right person on
the phone because they the family had rallied together to come up with the
money to save the home and I said I don't understand the problem you know
money they said they won't talk to us because the borrower in person who was
on the note had committed suicide he killed himself out of the shame losing
the home and losing you know the security for his family and all those
things and and that was just you know people these stories actually happened
during that period of time and fortunately I was able I did have a
contact at Citi mortgage because of Nara and they were able to resolve the
situation for the family but about two weeks after that I called up Henry
Cisneros again and I said we have to change what NAR opsahl about because you
know it can't just be about you know getting people together and figuring out
how to close more transactions and so forth it has to be said about something
deeper than that and we had recently read a story that said that during the
crisis the the the trough of the crisis that Hispanic household wealth in
America had dropped by 67% 2/3 of the wealth that the Hispanic families in
this country held during the crisis disappeared and that really load and
pushed us towards what we now call the Hispanic wealth private wealth project
and then our of 10 and these principles that now guide the organization that are
much more deep much more sustainable and resonate with people in a much more
powerful way and what you're doing right now Danny we're out whether you realize
it or not is a powerful engine to making that a reality so thank you that
as why I'm here I appreciate that Gary so um so question
wonderful business people great families all have vision all want to grow all
want to do better and whether we realize it or not all essentially want to do
what you did which was you know start with a vision in mind and grow something
grow something special grow something maybe not national maybe local it
doesn't matter sorry it the rules apply right right you guys are we agreed the
rules apply you know step number one what would it be well you know I I'm
kind of an action person right somebody told me once that I'm a guy that shoots
and then aims and you know that's not how most people do things correct but
for whatever reason has worked for me yeah and so I will take action before
I've thought out all of the possible scenarios that may or may not work I
won't wait and I do subscribe to the notion that a good idea today is better
than a perfect idea tomorrow all right so taking that first step to
me and taking action is critical right does that sound a little bit like the
sauna story isn't it the same I was just telling them like I recently heard a
sermon which you need to get a sauna by the way an infrared sauna I just sort of
story that was a pastor that essentially cured himself with cancer I got the tail
under that yeah yeah yeah you saw that and it was like it was just so amazing
like no one takes action yeah like what do you think stops people from taking
action well I think fear I think people are so influenced by external influences
yeah around them you know the people around us you know unless we've been
very selective you know they don't necessarily want to see you do better
than they are doing hold on what do you say striking a chord right now
yeah I mean the truth is is that the people around you unless you've been
very selective about picking those people and the time you spend with them
you know they want you to do well but none not better than they are doing you
know it's human nature you know so people will tell you a hundred reasons
why you can't do what it is that you set out to do you know there's no shortage
of that so I think that's a big you know the outside influences are generally
negative and I think that's one reason why people don't take action I think we
have this fear of failure yeah you know it's it's you've heard it many times and
people say you got a love failing you got to fail forward and all these types
of things it's really true yeah you know I mean you've got to you've got to
recognize that there's a pretty good chance you're gonna fail and it's really
the resilience and perseverance that makes it a success at the end of the day
you know if I if I had the choice of being you know a genius or being
somebody who was relentless hmm I would choose relentless all day long yeah
right yeah and then you need your motivators right right so I look I used
to carry this photograph of my two kids my two youngest kids when I would go
when we started the organization you know I was learning it as I went you
know I didn't think about some of the areas that I'd end up in a very short
period of time testifying in front of the United States Congress on issues
related to small businesses and the issues related to housing you know so
you've seen the guys testifying there with the you know the table and the and
the congressmen peppering him with questions sometimes trying to make him
look bad I've died it'd that you know two years
after I started the organization you know and I used to be a little bit
afraid of that you know it's like I'm not ready for this you know I was a
mortgage broker two years ago what am i doing walking into the United States
Congress and I'm gonna tell them something they don't know yeah but I
used to carry this picture of my kids you know and they had this this great
smile on their face and they were so innocent and I used to think if they
were sitting in the front row of this situation
I would have no choice but to do really well and that would kind of cut you know
that would keep me home you know and those little things kind of work for me
so my motivation was my family you know my kids wanting to be a good example for
them trying to you know do something that they could be proud of down the
line so yeah take action forget all of the external negative influences in your
life and find your motivators you know I have a picture like that too it's
literally on my screen it's every words my kids in an ice chest because it just
reminds me of like when we literally had no money and it was so hot I remember
that picture remember that and my picture was similar because my kids were
it was a picture that we took before Christmas and it wasn't a great
Christmas that yes that crazy one and they have this so innocent look in their
face yeah they don't know that the world was collapsing around us you know and
that Christmas was really hard that year you know they were just you know kids
you know looking forward to Christmas man that really hit home for me yeah
yeah yeah I know I know you but I'm just feeling I'm literally like either you
reincarnated or me I don't know there's something I mean literally to the
picture to the the the only thing is that I don't want to help people
understand this you did say one thing that I never had I never had not that I
never had of a family that told me or convinced no I never had that i honest
to god my family dynamic guys was so weird it was so weird because like
number one when we got the one we got divorced when my mom and dad got
divorced my mom single mom literally four foot two brought us over here at
the time I'm 11 or 12 Anthony is 1 or 2 and my brother Omar is 8 or 9 or so and
you know I'll never forget this at that time we literally from my dad we just
like separated like it was like it was like a brick wall it just kind of went
up right well my mom was never really like aggressive enough to to go out and
make it happen and I clearly remember this guy's I remember being six was
survival it was served it was literally like mom wasn't going to do it
she she she just she just it wasn't gonna happen so if it was gonna happen
like you look around and somebody had to make it happen and it was like I guess
that's me I guess I'll make it happen to the point Gary that you're gonna
laugh at this but I was 13 or 14 years old when we realized like there are no
trains here in California so my mom was used to traveling on the train you could
get around she didn't know how to drive she know how to drive my first sale ever
was convincing her to go buy a car and she bought a stick-shift a Hyundai Excel
well anybody ever remember learning how to drive would you ever learn how to
drive with a stick shift no you start with an automatic right so guess what
happened on top of that my mom is real timid
she was really timid very reserved right so you know when the street is like this
if the car starts going backward the clutch fires and the car turns off
forget about it she would just get nervous so I drove our family around at
13 and I was the driver from 13 until the cops finally found out then I got
scared and I couldn't do that anymore right but I'm saying that because I
didn't have somebody to convince me that anything was possible
on the contrary my mom wasn't like my mom there's where does this sound we
were like husband and wife almost because we ran the household together
you know for somebody that doesn't have or didn't have somebody to show them
that anything was possible can they still make it happen and if so how no
question about it no question about it you know you know I'll share something
you know very personal and that is you know my father my father grew up in a
very poor not a great environment you know there was a lot of negativity
around him when he grew up drugs he prison you know this these were family
members of his and you know he used to come home and when he was a boy and he
would find an uncle passed out because he was you know he had just taken heroin
heroin and and this is you know seven eight-year-old boy having to
encounter that and my father never drank alcohol his entire life you know this
day he's 75 years old healthy thank God and III and so he's a perfect example of
somebody who came from huge adversity but his mindset was always so you can
you can you can learn from your environment both what you want to become
and what you don't want to become right and for my dad it was with the lessons
he learned as a young boy we're very powerful in the sense he knew what he
didn't want to become Wow right and so I know I used alcohol as just an example
of that the thought of him drinking alcohol resonated to that childhood
where he saw people drunk and high and stuff like that and he got as far away
from that as he possibly could and he surrounded himself with people who you
know had the kind of environments that he desired desire which is what my mom
was to him so my mom you know wasn't wealthy but my grandfather was a
Pentecostal preacher a pastor of a church so she had the completely
opposite upbringing structures drug discipline this faith all these things
that he desired you know unfortunately for me they fell in love and here you
are and Here I am but you know not everybody had it as rough as my dad did
but it's an example of how you can use even negative influences to motivate you
in a positive way and I and I think you know more than anything guys you know if
you're learning anything at this event is that you know number one your past
doesn't dictate your future and number two you can't make a choice you know you
get like like your dad literally made the decision like you know when one by
the way when you're that young you can't make the decision it is what it is your
stuff where you are right but I can pretty much imagine him at 16 17 or 18
he probably just uprooted moved and just started surrounding himself with better
people yeah and you know he had because and whatnot the group in the same
environment that went down the same path the same path you know so you do have a
choice absolutely absolutely are you guys loving this I could do this for
like the next like the next week I'm gonna tell you why you know you know I'm
just a believer that when you have great people around you that are doing great
things like you just pull up a chair and you just ask questions because I just
want to soak it all up and learn as much as possible because it just shows a
great example right I got another one for you because if if I want empire to
stand for anything it's that you can't have balance you know you can you can't
have balance you know you you really can be a success in the business world and
at the same time you can be a success at home how do you find that balance you
know that's a great question to me it's not a choice you know I I'm passionate
about my family you know I'm going to my son's basketball game I haven't missed
one yet this year I'm present in my family's life it gives me all of the
motivation and all of the you know just quality of life that I seek out more
than anything else so so balance you know it's not like I have to consciously
say you know this is what I have to do to balance my family and my business and
you know anything else that I might be interested in
it sort of happens naturally you absolutely in my view I guess my point
is is that it's not something that I recommend it's something that is
essential hmm it's essential because eventually if you're all business all
the time and you neglect everything else in your life you are going to sputter
out you're gonna find yourself at some point depressed and unfulfilled and it's
gonna affect your business in a negative way you have to have both it doesn't
have to be you know the traditional family yeah but you have to have you
know that balance in your life to where you have things that are more important
to you than yourself that's huge I'm sure some of you guys have some
questions any questions
yeah and I'll throw it to you this is one of
those microphones whatever and I am wait and you guys don't think I can do it
overhead and I can do it over him and I'll put that back on later go very
Christmas you mentioned having some ups and downs growing the business how did
you keep your mindset positive the entire time well you know somebody once
said that failure is not an option right and failure is a reality it is an
essential part of success but accepting failure is a probably a better way to to
characterize it is not an option and so for me you know it was never an option
just to say ah that didn't work out I'm moving on now you may have to pivot at
times hmm you know and you may have to say okay the path I'm going down from a
business standpoint is not the one that's gonna take me work where I want
to go and I need to pivot that and go in a different direction it was one of the
toughest things business quite frankly knowing when to persevere and when to
pivot right and sometimes you pull the trigger too quickly and sometimes it's
too late but but the option of folding the tent and going home was never one
that was the consideration question yeah yeah awesome
who else questions in question if you were in mine I just tossing it over this
these questions for both of you earlier Dani you had mentioned that there might
be a downfall in the economy or real estate and what is not worth doing about
that yeah that's a great question okay so what is the question well see the
economy going yeah look it's not what I see the economy doing it's what you can
kind of look back and see the economy has done I think I think that's what's
most important right I don't feel like I can remember back in 2005 2006 2007 in
hindsight you I mean if you were to be able to look out I didn't have the the
wherewithal to do this but in hindsight you could have been able to see
oh yeah there's something that's about to happen here right now you know the
only thing that I could see right now is we have massive amounts of debt massive
amounts of debt right trillions of dollars of debt and and notes that quite
frankly cannot be paid and and people say that there could be a catastrophe I
honestly believe most of those people are trying to sell you on something I
think that in 2019 later have there's gonna be some sort of a correction and I
think it'll last two to three quarters that's what I think or at least that's
what I believe but I don't have a crystal ball yeah I mean it's not an
exact science you know but Danny is exactly right there are signals out
there that were due for a correction our economy is cyclical to a certain degree
most of us here in the room are in the housing business also a very cyclical
business so it tends to have these kind of up trends and then has these sort of
Corrections or down trends we're due for a downtrend interest rates are starting
to eek up we're dealing with inventory challenges
in the market place there's a lot of fundamentals out there that lead us to
believe that that could happen what is Nara be doing about it
well two years ago we released what we call the Nara plan which are these
principles and disciplines that we think all members should subscribe to and one
of them says very clearly that you know prepare for a recession because they are
a normal part of economic cycles it is core for whatever reason be in the real
estate business attracts people who are by nature optimist mmm-hmm you kind of
have to be an optimist yeah a good salesperson right yeah but sometimes
that optimism works against us because we think what's happening today is going
to continue in perpetuity and the reality is not so you have to be very
frugal with your money you know we're big advocate towards reducing debt
that is the killer that's that'll tell you you know you think about anybody
who's you know you can't file bankruptcy if you don't have it have that right and
so reducing debt as quickly as you can is really a core principle that people
who understand money understand wealth they get that they know you got to avoid
debt as much as possible so reducing debt saving money investing in things
that are stable that may go down like real estate but not down to zero will
help you weather the storm and perhaps even put you in a position to succeed
even further when those around you haven't prepared and are selling things
cheap like real estate and like their businesses and so forth so so read those
disciplines be frugal and and keep your debt low can I can I show to with you
you some of you have heard me say this before but Claudia and I took a class
called Financial Peace University and if you have never taken that class guys I
highly highly recommend it since then I'm happy to say not only do we not have
that but we don't own any real estate where we owe more than 50% on the
properties and not even take it a step further if you look at our portfolio and
complete we only owe thirty five percent or so on the yeah that's a week yeah and
I'll tell you something else and the other thing is honestly guys and this is
why I believe so much in what we're doing the biggest thing you can do is
increase your revenue increase your revenue right I taught you guys how to
do that earlier in so many different ways increase your revenue and then just
be smart about what to do with that revenue when it comes in increase your
revenue and just try not to increase your expenses unfortunately yeah I have
a friend by the name of Foster stand back and he's been a mentor to me for
the Hispanic wealth project he's a he's a gringo but he's married to a gal from
Mexico City so he's got a Latino sort of passion in his heart this sounds like an
old wives tale like something I made up but it's true he
father was Warren Buffett's best roommate in college and was the best man
in his wedding so they have that relationship that goes back years Foster
is if he was sitting here right next to us you might want to you know feel like
you have to buy him lunch oh yeah no he just just uh you know his mindset what I
described I describe him as having an evolved mindset when it comes to wealth
and prosperity he's way beyond the superficial hmm he doesn't measure
wealth the same way most people do how is he 52:53
I could tell you last year he gave seven million dollars to Caltech to provide
scholarships for low to moderate income kids he's a philanthropist out now on
the first time based on a full time basis he manages the family fortune
which is an excess of a billion dollars Wow I'll tell you this much just to give
you a sense of how well these as his father invested two hundred and fifty
thousand dollars in Berkshire Hathaway in 1958 what's worth that's oh it's it's
20 yeah it's like I have a billion dollars yeah
just at steak alone yeah so it's it's remarkable what they built but you know
his whole mindset and the way he lives his life he lives what he describes as a
clutter-free life it's quite a free this is I want to be able to get up and do
what I want to do I don't want to worry about thing I don't have pent houses
because then I have to maintain ten house he's like what do you think right
I go wild house if I want to go anywhere in the world I can rent a house for a
month and I could stay there and I'm fine he's got he's liquid you know he's
got his money in the market he knows how to do that he invests you know very
intelligently he does not have a money manager he manages it himself he
believes everybody has the capacity to do that so yeah you don't need to give
you know ten percent of your money - I am money manager it's a it's been a
remarkable education being around people like that and they're out there they're
out there and they want to help and they want to help yeah you know the problem
is people don't wanna listen to him could you see if he would come -
relentless in July I will talk to him you guys up for that
yeah that would be friggin awesome I just see yeah he's he's a great guy
he will I'll connect you to him before that and then you kind of get to know
him a little bit okay great that would be awesome yeah
good yes questions two more two more yeah go ahead and just toss it over you
guys started very young and I like to really know how you guys um kept your
momentum going through those hard times and you guys never stopped to reach your
full potential see I did stop and that's and that's okay I'm so glad you brought
this up guys because he was my basketball thought is you know look at
them they did it and how come I'm not doing it and there's this like
separation gap that we do in our own minds with people and I'm here to let
you know you or you probably just could be in that time where I was where things
aren't flowing exactly the way you wish that they would be flowing does that
make sense yeah here's the one thing I have never done I have never ever
stopped showing up I have never ever stopped dreaming I have never ever
stopped believing I have never ever sometimes I can't even sleep just
because I'm constantly thinking about the future that much does that make
sense so it's like sometimes yeah sometimes like you get beat up right but
even in the midst of being up like I mean just this we were here ten years
ago in this room and literally the market fell apart and I went and I went
yeah when I went to gross but I never stopped dreaming a beam back and if
anything I could have picked any other hotel and I always play games like this
with myself I don't know if you guys do I could have picked any hotel there was
a reason I picked this one because for me I wanted that I wanted that story
that Elias what did you use what word did use the evidence
this is evidence to me that nothing's gonna stop me so what and please learn
from those people because this also could have been evidence of a different
sort this could have been a reminder a reminder of a negative time right but
instead I made it now a reminder of the beginning of something new and you have
the choice and power to do that - I will say this ok this is an interesting
metaphor so my son plays high school basketball and he's a really good
3-point shooter he's good offensive player in the
beginning of season he started off in a slump uh-huh
he was expecting to have just this incredible year and he started off
poorly couldn't look like he couldn't hit the side of a barn and and I said
look son I said here's what you have to the way you have to look at this and
this is really hard really hard especially for somebody as young as you
I said you are gonna shoot 50% from the field you're gonna make half of the
shots that you shoot you're gonna make 40% of the 3-point shots you're gonna
make 80% of your free throws now it doesn't mean that every 10 that you
shoot you're gonna make 8 but over the span of the year you're gonna have that
so you're gonna have days where you're where you can't make anything you're
gonna have days where you can't miss anything but you have to have absolute
confidence supreme confidence unshakable confidence that you know at the end of
the day you're gonna shoot 50% of the field that's better than 99% of the
competition that's out there and you have to be relentless in your pursuit of
what it is that you want to accomplish and I can tell you right now he's
shooting 51% from the field right now 39% from three-point line I told him 40
he's shooting 39% and he's 85 percent from the free-throw line
and he's had bad games and good games and so it's a very small metaphor but
for a 70 year old kid to have a game that's really bad it can be very
depressing he can get in his head and it could affect the way he plays this whole
season it's important that he has the mental toughness to fight his way
through that and I think the same thing applies to business you have to
recognize that there's going the peaks and valleys it's part of the
game it's actually the part that makes it all worthwhile
yes because if it was easy all the time we wouldn't appreciate the success as
much as we do when we do succeed if you've learned anything
have you learned like the theme of not beating yourself up people listen to me
if I can I remember I remember the year I did a hundred and fifty deals that's a
lot of business I remember I think what got me to those 150 deals is that I
would take those breaks to go see Anthony's games because that would allow
me just a little bit of your break my brother yeah I'm a basement and I would
never miss those games and I also remember on the days that I didn't feel
like it you know there were something I I'll be honest it's very rare that I
don't feel like it I always feel like working but sometimes on the days that I
don't I'll just check out and I'm gonna watch a movie by myself and I'll go hang
out and maybe go have a glass of wine and just kind of relax and I'm you guys
are not gonna believe this and if I don't feel like it the second day I
probably won't go to work again for the second day but on the third day I don't
make a negative meaning about the last two days that's the difference the
difference is that I have grace with myself I'm a human being being I'm not a
robot and neither are you the only difference my friends is my
relationship with pitting the pause button or failing or messing up it's not
that big of a deal to me as a matter of fact I see it differently I see it like
oh yeah all right watch next time and next time doesn't have to be the very
next day I've told many of you guys that coach with us before you know there are
times where you gotta know like you know what I'd rather if you don't feel like
it I'd rather do not go and infect your office with
that I'd rather you go hang out for a couple of days but come back on Monday
come back on Monday and hit it hard on Monday when my mom passed away you think
I felt like it who was around me during that time did we skip a beat we didn't
skip a beat I gave myself a period of time I remember I think she passed away
like on a Tuesday family's weighing in so forth and so on
I'm obviously grieving I obviously feel terrible and I told myself okay Danny do
you have till Sunday and from Tuesday through Sunday
I did nothing business-related and the beautiful thing is that everybody in
Tarot was obviously supportive of that and they came to the funeral and
everything because they all get it and you guys will hear me say this and the
company won't you hey guys I need a little bit of your patience for the next
two to three days because this and this is going on and then guess what I don't
care who me who makes a meaning about that to me it just means I need a little
bit of a break but on that final day on that Monday I'm gonna come back harder
than ever and I gave myself that grace and I don't know I really feel like God
blesses that maturity because I think there's a maturity with beating yourself
up over something that means nothing in the long term does that make sense
thank you
awesome awesome that was me seeking approval from I caught that
right now I was like Gary would you think we're good final questions for
Gary Lee by the way Gary you have got to meet Lee
Berenson yes you do me Barisan I love this guy
I love this guy Lee is more Hispanic than I am you know so I have seen omen
Dida Senora
he has his wallet is like a water table
awesomest human being on planet Earth you got you gotta be this guy Thanks
thanks Danny yeah well I've got a question for you Gary
um my wife and I have three beautiful kids and it's I feel it's my duty and my
obligation to them to convince them that anything in life is possible
and so I guess you know you kind of vaguely touched that there was no rhyme
or reason how you were convinced but what specifically convinced you to
understand that there was nothing was possible in this world your parent that
his parents yes yeah yeah you know so I remember you know conversations with my
my parents growing up especially my mom and my mom was the was the driver in the
household you know the firmness and so first of all you know they as I was
younger you know they would tell me you know you're gonna do great things you
know Gary you're you're smart as I got older it changed to more of care you
know better than that you know and the thing is I remember
very beginning is that my parents always talk to me like an adult
they always reasoned with me they were firm when they didn't like what I said
or what I was doing or whatever my mom was just say you know you have a
grandmother that's praying for you every day Gary you know better than this and
she was right I did know better and you know it's hot you can't argue with that
but she used to and I so you know she held me to a higher standard
it wasn't an unreasonable standard it wasn't one to where if I you know got a
be that you know the world was gonna end but she would reason with me and say why
did you do your best I don't think so you know and you know Gary if this was
you know anybody else maybe they'd be happy with this report card but I know
you and I know this isn't the best you can do and so it's not acceptable and so
you know it was a series of conversations like that where again you
know my mom at some point there was a tipping point or she convinced me that
yeah all right I should be doing something important with my life and
there's no reason why I shouldn't be able to achieve that you know it just
kind of clicked awesome that's beautiful Gary hey guys Gary I've got one more one
more question or not question but statement my good friends Moses and
Maria Rosales and myself just opened up an or in a group of us just brought Nara
to Bakersfield California so so I want to say one thing before we wrap up and
that is you know Danny you're definitely not a person that needs a whole lot of
encouragement you're always so nice I mean it's true I
mean so I say this with a great degree of humility but you know that I was one
of the guys behind the scenes they made Danny
you know because I see him post up on social media and you know whether it was
you know Mike theory whoever else that was there and he's been telling me for
like you know these guys can't hold a candle
to you you know they're not in your league you know and I would tell them
that because it was true he had a plan they mean let me be clear about that and
give him the benefit that he had a plan and he he had a particular path in mind
that he knew he had to pursue to be where he is right now but I can just
tell you I'm so grateful that you are where you are right now because this is
where you belong hey guys
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