Transcription
The wind is pretty solid. How very good! Good to meet you. You're everywhere! Yes, sir, I appreciate that. That's great. Who am I here with today? Patrick.
What was the most amount of money that you made in a single year?
$250 million.
$250 million. This property we're on right now, the guy that owned this bought it for $25 million in 2018. This was announced that it's going on the public market for an auction. 4,400 people were interested in this property; 131 signed an NDA. Then, there is the day that everybody's bidding. You have to put a million dollars to compete. The day the auction comes, we ended up buying this for $25.2 million cash. We wired the money a week later, and we bought the property. This is probably a $40-$50 million property. Having cash allows you to pick things up. Unfortunately, not having cash when the market goes back, a lot of people don't make it.
They want to become Patrick Bet-David wealthy in today's world; they want to become really successful.
Your last message?
[Music]
Listen, guys, we're about to go flat out to Miami, Florida, to interview multiple hundred-million-dollar entrepreneur Patrick Bet-David. This is a guy who went from dead broke as an immigrant to building and selling a company for several hundred million. Guys, this interview that we're about to do with Patrick is going to be a master class on all things business, from sales to negotiations to money. You do not want to miss out on this, so stay tuned from start to finish to figure out how you can be just like Patrick and dominate any industry that you're in. Let's head out to Miami and go meet Patrick. Come on!
[Music]
The wind is pretty solid. How are you?
Very good! Good to meet you. You're everywhere!
Yes, sir, that's great. And how old are you?
About 22.
Okay, 22 years old. What you're doing is very important, specifically that you're 22 years old doing this. Imagine how many billions of people have watched your message, whether it's TikTok or Instagram. Very important what you're doing. Do you want to do it here with the wind? You're not worried about the wind? You're good with that?
Yeah, no, we're good.
Go for it right over here. Right over here. Awesome!
Who am I here with today?
Patrick.
And for those that don't know, what industry did you decide to pursue a career in?
First one was insurance; now it's media consulting.
Yeah, you built your wealth in insurance. There's a saying that I love: concentration builds wealth, diversification keeps it. At what point should an entrepreneur begin to diversify?
I would put the number at $10 billion plus. When I first got in, I read a book called "Blue Ocean Strategy," and we had an emergency meeting with 20-30 of us. We got in, and I said, "I want you to help us find a blue ocean for the company." At the time, I was selling life insurance, disability, stocks, bonds, mutual funds, variable annuities. I said, "We're not doing all that." We eliminated everything. I'm serious. 766, 3126 life and health. I used none of my licenses but only life insurance. We grew it from 66 agents; we've licensed 60,000 agents, and eventually, we sold it.
Now, you've consulted for some of the biggest companies in the world. In today's world, eight out of ten companies don't make it past five years. When you're consulting for a company, what's the most common mistake, the number one mistake you're seeing business owners make that prevents them from scaling and having that longevity?
Well, the operator. Everything rises and falls on the operator. If the operator isn't maniacally focused on growing the business and isn't emotionally stable, he's going to have a hard time. He's got to be maniacally focused; he's got to be emotionally stable. He's got to be able to understand who to take feedback from and who not to take feedback from. Sometimes, when you're first getting started, you may hire somebody with a Harvard degree, but you go, "My God, this guy's got a degree from Harvard; he must know more than I do," and you allow that person to change the culture of the company. Then you're like, "Wait a minute, we just lost what we used to have." Degrees don't mean anything. First, they have to come in and prove to you that they understand what the culture of the company's all about. You have to have the wherewithal to know, "I should take this feedback; I shouldn't take this feedback," and in the meanwhile, drive for the vision. Don't get distracted from the vision.
You guys, this interview with PBD has been amazing so far. We're about to get right back to it, but I've got a very, very special announcement to make real quick. So, a couple of months ago, I launched and created one of the largest entrepreneur communities in the entire world: the School of Mentors, where every single week I host live calls with the millionaires and the billionaires that I interview on this channel. The members inside of the community, you guys that join, have the ability to ask your questions and speak directly to the millionaires and the billionaires that I interview, so you can get the necessary knowledge that you need.
For example, some of the mentors I've had on calls were people like Todd Napola, who owns over $500 million worth of real estate, and he taught our community how to get access to capital and create wealth in real estate without a ton of money. Or how about Shawn Mike, who's done over $3 billion in sales throughout his career? He taught our community the art of sales and how to negotiate. Or even James Keys, the CEO of not one but two multi-billion-dollar companies, Blockbuster and 7-Eleven. He taught our community leadership, team building, and how to find the right people to help grow your business.
Guys, if there's anything that I've learned over the last three years in building a multi-billion-dollar network, interviewing over a thousand millionaires and over ten billionaires, it's that there's only one cheat to success in today's world, and that's mentorship. That's why we created this community in the first place. Since it's Black Friday this week, we have an insane deal for you guys to get into this community for only $30 a month—the lowest the price has ever been and the lowest it ever will be. You have the ability to join this community, the School of Mentors, and get directly mentored by the millionaires and the billionaires that I interview on this channel. You get access to my network—the people you see time and time again that I interview. You will have the ability to get that knowledge because, guys, information changes any situation. Remember that: information can change situations.
To join this community, go to the link down in the description of this video. I cannot wait to see every one of you guys inside of this community. With that being said, let's get back to the interview.
Now, throughout your career, in terms of revenue, what was the most amount of money that you made in a single year?
$250 million.
$250 million. And what took that company from eight to nine figures?
Yeah, I'll never forget when I was doing around $10 million a year. I called Thomas and said, "I don't think I'm a good CEO. I have no clue what I'm doing. I'm a sales guy at best, the sales leader, and I'm good with money. I'm not a spender. I didn't buy my first Rolex until I was 35 years old. I didn't buy my first Ferrari until I had a half a million in the bank. I didn't buy a house until I was 37 years old, so I'm not the one that's spending all the money. I'm reinvesting into the company." I said, "But I don't think I'm an operator." He says, "Pat, we need to find a way for you to go be around other CEOs that have run bigger companies, and you'll learn from them."
I went three weeks to Boston. I went to this Harvard OPM program—Owner President Management Program—144 CEOs from 64 countries. The man who was my partner sitting next to me was the founder of the lingerie company. What is that company called? Victoria's Secret. He was the Victoria's Secret of New Zealand and Australia. So I said, "How big's your business?" This is what you can Google. I Googled his net worth: $5 billion. For three weeks, I kept asking him, "What is my job as a CEO?" He says, "I have 7,000 employees and six CEOs that report to me." He was the chairman of the board, and he told me this: "These are the four things. Okay, you're either one, thinking about linear growth, which is business development and systems. You can spend money into your system or business development—networking, shaking hands—but it's not going to explode your business. He said exponential growth is at the top: leadership development or innovative campaigns. For example, like Coke came up with 'Share a Coke with John.' I'm not a Coke drinker, but I'm buying the Coke to share it with John. One great innovative campaign for us when I came back took our business to the next level."
As a multiple nine-figure entrepreneur, what was the best financial advice that you ever received?
This is not going to be popular to a lot of people: always have cash. Always have cash. I remember one time I got a call. A guy says he needs $540,000. He has two Wayne Gretzky cards. I said, "What kind of cards are they?" He says, "These are the main cards of Wayne Gretzky: PSA 10 OPG and Tops." I said, "I'll give you $540,000, but I want to pick up the cards in 24 hours. I'm going to send somebody. I need you to meet me at PSA's headquarters in Orange County."
Who happens to be here? He flies out to LA. Yeah, you meet him, pick up the cards, put them in a new case, bring them back. He's in the airport with a half a million dollars in his pocket. That card we sold a year and a half later was a Guinness Book of World Record for $2.2 million.
This property we're on right now, the guy that owned this bought it for $25 million in 2018, put $7 million of finishes in it. This was announced that it's going on the public market for an auction. 4,400 people were interested in this property; 131 signed an NDA. Then, there is the day that everybody's bidding. You have to put a million dollars to compete. If you don't, you're not competing. The day the auction comes, everyone's sitting there on Zoom—40, 50 people raising hands, doing the whole thing. We ended up buying this for $25.2 million cash. We wired the money a week later, and we bought the property. This is probably a $40-$50 million property. Having cash allows you to pick things up when, for me, they're for sale. Unfortunately, not having cash when the market kind of goes back, a lot of people don't make it.
I went to a mastermind in March 2023, and there was a saying that great businessmen are often terrible content creators, and great content creators are terrible businessmen. What's been your secret to creating wealth in media?
Well, that's the concept with Trifecta. The market's going to tell you if you know what you're doing. Right now, like I was telling you earlier, you've proven that you know what you're doing. Now, operating is a different story, right? The operating aspect is day-to-day content creation. It's brutal. You're either able to get the attention of people or you can't.
I'll never forget this: in the beginning stages of the business, Mario comes up and takes out an iPhone and says, "Let's start a YouTube channel." At the time, I was only creating content for my insurance agents that was unlisted, wasn't public, it was private, unlisted. We started, and I said, "Let's see if the market likes the way I communicate." Two years later, we're blown up. We have around 1,000 subscribers. Nobody watches our content, including my family. Then we adjust. I went to an event, and at the event, they said, "Pick one word." The one word for me became "business" and "entrepreneurship." The next five years, every content we created, most of the videos at the end of it had one title in it: "Raising Money as an Entrepreneur," "Hiring People as an Entrepreneur," "Firing People as an Entrepreneur." Two years later, 50% of videos on page one were from our channel, and then that's how I started growing. But the market's going to tell you: you can either speak, you can either be good for video, or you're good at writing. Everybody has one of those three abilities to get their message out.
Now, I know in a podcast, I saw you mentioned that there are four categories everybody needs to be reading about: human nature, sales, negotiation, and money. What has been your secret to sales throughout your career?
Needs analysis with everybody. It doesn't matter. With my kids, I have four kids. Every day, I do needs analysis.
What's a needs analysis?
I like baseball. I want my son to be a professional baseball player. I'm a Yankee scout, so I want him to go and want to be a baseball player. He could care less about baseball; he loves watching baseball but doesn't like playing baseball. I do a needs analysis. He loves soccer; we put him in soccer. Now he's excellent. I talked to my oldest son; he could care less about sports, but he likes kickboxing and he loves politics. So I take him. When the Trump interview came in, he came and met President Trump. I take him to certain places because he's interested in politics.
Clients: needs analysis. I'm asking you what's important to you; maybe it's different than what's important to me. In the sales business, very few salespeople master the art of needs analysis. The more I do a needs analysis with you, asking you the questions that are important to you, then I can make the recommendation based on what's important to you instead of just jumping to a conclusion thinking whatever I sold to them, I can sell to you. The art of needs analysis.
By the way, how awesome is this? Huh? You exited a company for nine figures. You've been at the table with some hitters. What is your best negotiation advice for anybody in business?
Not putting yourself in a position where you are desperate. Whenever you are in a position of desperation, you're always going to get underpaid, and you'll make a bad move that could cost you $100 million.
I'll tell you what happened with me. The first time a guy came to want to buy our company, he walks around our facility and says, "Do you mind if I talk to all your employees?" I said, "Go talk to everybody you want." You were there. He goes and talks to everybody. Then we're going to dinner that night at this restaurant called Chamberlain in Dallas. We sit down; it's me, his CFO. Boom! They have the money to buy the business. We follow up; they make the offer. Here's the offer: the offer was a small offer—$120 million. Okay? He said, "However, the reason why we're making this offer and we're only giving you 50% up front is we need you to stay with us for five years." I said, "Why is that?" He says, "When I walked around your facility and talked to everybody, I asked them how hard does he work, and they all said you are the hardest working person in the company. You're there seven days a week. We can't buy the business because you're running the company." I said, "I can't sell it to you."
So I had a new strategy. I left Texas; I moved to Florida four years ago. I hired five new executives; they ran the business. The next time around, when they came and interviewed with everybody, they said, "Pat's only here once every six months, and I'm running by a team of our consulting firm here." Then I got more than two times the valuation. I got just because we were patient, not desperate. We waited two years.
When it comes to the way that people look at money, what separates the middle class from people who are able to build that long-term generational wealth like yourself in today's world?
What's your belief system, and what are you thinking about money?
I mean, at some point in your life, my dad and I are having a conversation about life and marriage, and he's telling me certain fears that he has about marriage. I said, "Dad, time out. I don't want to hear that." He says, "Why?" I said, "I don't want to believe that's the truth." You may believe that; I don't want to believe that's the truth. My mother bought money; I'm not buying that. So you have to, at one point in your life, refuse to buy into the philosophies that your parents and loved ones sell to you. If it doesn't make sense, question it. Don't believe it.
Your last message to somebody out there: they want to become Patrick Bet-David wealthy in today's world; they want to become really successful.
Your last message?
A guy sends me a message, and he says, "Hey, Pat, where I'm living at right now, nobody believes in money. No entrepreneurs in my country, no money. Much less made money. None of this stuff." He's just saying how it doesn't exist around him. I said, "Listen, when I was coming up, there was no YouTube. There was nobody to follow and seek inspiration from. Nobody in the world has an excuse to learn and went out at the highest level. If you're living in a place that you don't have access, that's a different story. But everybody today has access to information to be able to change their life. Do not buy into the mindset that it's too hard. Accept your parents were divorced. If you grew up in a poor family, don't buy into any of that stuff."
Anytime.
Hey, you guys, that's a wrap on today's video! I need you guys to like and subscribe for amazing content coming every week with the biggest business moguls in the entire world. And like I said earlier, you guys need to join my private community, the School of Mentors, where every week you will get direct mentorship and access to ask questions to the millionaires and the billionaires that I interview on this channel. You do not want to miss out on this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.
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