October 18, 2023 • 50 mins
On this exhilarating episode of Building Billions we have the privilege of sitting down with the remarkable Giacomo Freddi, the visionary CEO of Marketing Programmatico. With an unparalleled passion for marketing, Giacomo is on a relentless mission to empower Italian business owners in amplifying their brand presence.
In this captivating interview, we delve into the dynamic world of marketing, uncovering the transformative power of strategic branding and promotional techniques. Giacomo shares invaluable insights on leveraging the expertise he's gained from working alongside myself, Grant Cardone, and the entire Cardone Ventures team. The synergy between his own strategies and the renowned Cardone Ventures team is propelling businesses towards a global 10X growth trajectory.
Tune in to this enlightening conversation as we unravel the secrets behind building an international presence, and gain exclusive access to the cutting-edge tactics that are revolutionizing the marketing landscape. Discover how Giacomo Freddi's unwavering dedication to driving business success is redefining the boundaries of marketing excellence, and learn how you too can unlock the full potential of your brand.
If you're a visionary looking to 10X your business, this episode is for you.
Support the show: http://cardoneventures.com
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
S1 (00:00):
Hey, everybody, that's Brandon Dawson. Welcome back to another episode
of Building Buildings with Brandon Dawson. I have a good
friend of mine, Giacomo. Freddy.
S2 (00:07):
Yeah, we all from Milano. Italia from Milano.
S1 (00:13):
He's teaching me some Italian, you know, so we're going
to go slow because I'm going to do it in English.
Then he's going to teach me how to do it
in Italian. This will be a three hour podcast, but
it's going to be badass.
S2 (00:23):
We have to learn a lot of English. You can.
You can say from my accent, from my bad English,
but I think we can understand each other, in fact.
S1 (00:30):
Okay, so, so so why don't you tell everybody what
we've been working, mentoring you? You've been working with us
in the community. Grant Cardone myself. Um, you've done a
lot of programs, uh, with me. And you're taking us
back to Italy. Yeah, but you should tell everybody, like
what you do in Italy, uh, what your passion is.
And then why are you working with Grant and I?
S2 (00:52):
Yeah. Uh, the thing is that, uh, moved me from, uh,
going alone to going with a mentor like you guys.
Is that, uh, we have a passion. A passion to
help people in Italy that want to increase their company,
to grow their company through marketing. Because I like, uh, marketing,
I freak, I'm a marketing freak. Uh, to maybe reach
(01:13):
more people. So we have to reach more people. So, uh,
I like so much the way you push us forward with, uh,
the next mentality mentality. And, uh, also, uh, I love
you because, uh, you put everything in place, uh, like,
you have to follow a process to, to grow the company. Right.
So that's a way for me to reach more people
(01:35):
in Italy because we need that. And, uh, I be
asking you some questions for them.
S3 (01:40):
Of course.
S1 (01:41):
Of course. And I will just state for the record, uh,
you've done a lot of my programs. You just went
into my leadership program. So thank you for trusting me. Um,
and the goal is to get you to, um, get
through all these programs so you can take a little
bit of Grant in me. Yeah. Back to Italy. Uh,
we would love to have a presence at ten x
(02:02):
presence with a team of people in Italy. So. So
that's one of the things I love about this is
getting to meet people like you that have the ambition,
the desire, the aptitude, the ability to to want to
expand and grow and and help us come to Italy
and do it as a team.
S2 (02:18):
Yeah. I think Italy needs a lot, uh, all this
stuff because, uh, a lot of people, entrepreneurs, uh, uh,
that want to, uh, start their company, uh, grow their company.
They you were talking about belief. You talk about belief
a lot, right? And, uh, I mean, I think in
Italy we have a lot of potential because really, the
(02:39):
creativity that we have, the products that we have are,
I mean, are among the best in the world. Right? But, uh,
we lack the knowledge of how to run a business,
how to promote, how to recruit, how to sell, how
to manage people, how to be a leader. That's why
I'm here with you right now. Uh, right. So, uh,
(02:59):
I think the, uh, this could be a really good
opportunity to grow the Italian market and then even beyond,
because I. I won't stop there. Right? Yes. Good. It's
just a starting point, but it's a big one for
me because Italy, uh, creating good products, even digital products
are really good in Italy. But, uh, we have a
(03:20):
limiting belief. So that's why we are here.
S1 (03:23):
That's great. What? This shows when I was bought by
an international company and I rolled out, uh, to eight countries,
one of the first countries I went to was Italy.
And so I did a talk to, uh, 450 business owners. Um,
and it was, um, it was, uh, I can't remember
the name of the village I was in, but it
(03:44):
was beautiful. I rented a, uh, a 430. Uh, no,
I rented a, uh, 488 convertible, I think. Well, and, uh,
drove through the country, and it was it was awesome. Um,
I ended up buying the car and shipping it back
here because I loved it. So much.
S2 (04:02):
But when he was in the north, in the center
of Italy, it.
S3 (04:05):
Was, uh.
S1 (04:06):
It was an hour outside of Milan. Okay. Yeah. So
I can't exactly. It was south. Of Milan, but I
can't remember exactly what town it was in.
S2 (04:17):
Maybe not. Like, um, more in the I. I think
more in the North because they usually, uh, foreign, foreign people,
when they come in Italy, they go to Como Lake.
S3 (04:29):
Yeah. It wasn't, it wasn't Como.
S1 (04:30):
Yeah. Lake Luigi Lake. There's Lake Lake Liguria, there's a
lake before Como. It's it's it's I guess it would
be going.
S3 (04:44):
Garda got the.
S2 (04:46):
Leg of Garda. Yeah.
S1 (04:47):
My buddy lived on that lake.
S3 (04:48):
Okay.
S2 (04:49):
That's a beautiful.
S3 (04:49):
Lake. Yeah. Beautiful. Yeah. And the.
S1 (04:51):
Little town. And it had a nightclub in it.
S3 (04:53):
Yeah. And it.
S1 (04:54):
Was awesome.
S3 (04:57):
Nightclub?
S2 (04:57):
Nice guy. We have a lot of nightclub in Italy. Yeah,
really good ones.
S1 (05:02):
Great wine, great food, great pasta, beautiful women, great people
I love it. Beautiful language.
S2 (05:08):
Yeah, we are little, but we have a pretty much
a lot of things. Yeah. And we vary a lot
from the north to the south. Right. So you have
Sicily that we have here right now that is uh,
recording too. And uh, they are so different from Naples
and from Milan. They are three different kind of people. Uh,
thinking also language, I should say sometimes. Yeah.
S1 (05:31):
The language is entirely different because I was down in
Sicily in 91. I spent three weeks there, and I
learned a few words, and I went up to Milan
and they're like, no, no, no, no.
S3 (05:40):
No, no, don't say that. Don't say that. Which part.
S2 (05:43):
Did you learn in.
S3 (05:44):
Sicily?
S1 (05:45):
Uh, I probably shouldn't say it that way.
S2 (05:48):
We want to say that we wanted to. Yeah.
S1 (05:51):
Yeah, they weren't good words.
S2 (05:53):
So, uh, can I ask you some question for the
Italian market? So, uh, just to, uh, introduce you to
the Italian market. Who are you? I mean, uh, you are,
I know. Who are you in, uh, USA? A lot
of people know we are even in Italy, but, uh,
could you introduce yourself, Mickey Amo.
S1 (06:13):
Brandon Dawson?
S3 (06:14):
Yeah.
S1 (06:16):
Um, and, uh, and, uh, I'm an entrepreneur. Yeah. Um,
I've built multiple businesses. Uh, I sold my first business
that my private equity group sold to an Italian firm.
S3 (06:31):
Yeah.
S1 (06:33):
Um, and so I had to spend a little bit
of time in Italy, which is. Which is the business
I was doing.
S2 (06:38):
Can we say the company name? Because. Yeah, it's it's
a really popular in Italy.
S1 (06:42):
Largest hearing aid retailer in the world.
S3 (06:45):
Ample fun. Yeah.
S1 (06:46):
And the CEO of amplified was a friend of mine.
S3 (06:49):
Yeah.
S1 (06:50):
And I was one of two companies that that expanded,
amplified into the United States.
S3 (06:57):
Wow.
S1 (06:58):
And so and before they bought my company, I worked
on the manufacturing side and they were my customer. Wow.
So I had a many years experience.
S2 (07:06):
And so, uh, let me recap this one, because just
just to, um, to, to to know if we are
on track. So, uh, you started the company, you, uh, um,
went public, right? Yep. And then you grew that company, like, uh,
to 10 million.
S1 (07:24):
Uh, 75 million.
S2 (07:26):
75 million. And then they, uh, with, uh, an excuse,
I should say private.
S1 (07:31):
Equity group decided to sell it. Yeah. And we sold
it to amplify.
S2 (07:36):
Okay. And then what? You started, you started another.
S3 (07:38):
Company, right? And then I.
S1 (07:39):
Started, uh, Odyssey Group. Yeah. And built that to the
largest group in the United States. Okay.
S3 (07:47):
And, uh, and and.
S2 (07:49):
It was like 38 million, uh.
S1 (07:52):
38 million. And I sold that for 151 million.
S2 (07:56):
Wow. 77 times.
S3 (07:58):
EBITDA. Yeah.
S1 (07:59):
Wow. And I sold that in 2016. To a Danish
hearing aid manufacturing company.
S3 (08:05):
Well.
S1 (08:06):
And then, uh, I helped them go from $17 a share.
It was $1 billion company. And then when I left,
it was $94 a share.
S2 (08:15):
So you helped them go from 1 billion to 4.
Four and a half.
S3 (08:21):
4.5 billion. Wow. Wow.
S2 (08:23):
Can I say something in Italy? Yeah. Italian. Uh, ragazzi
abbiamo un millionaire. K k un multimillionaire e de la prata.
A pesar de un miliardo billions miliardo un miliardo a
quattro di questo e un per cento. Uh, I, uh,
I'm saying to the Italian market that, uh, you are
(08:45):
in 1%, even less than 1%. I mean, that's why we,
we love, we love, uh, bringing people like you in
Italian market because they need that. They need they they
they need to know that it's possible. Right?
S1 (08:59):
Just like, uh, the reason I partnered with Grant Cardone
is I needed that. Right. We all need that.
S3 (09:05):
Yeah.
S1 (09:06):
And and so think about this. Uh, when I started
my second company, it was 14 years. I grew it
to $38 million. In 14.
S3 (09:17):
Years. Well.
S1 (09:19):
I partnered and started this new company with Grant Cardone.
Four years ago. And we'll do 135 million this year.
S2 (09:27):
In four years, from 0 to 135. How many capital
did you raise to do that?
S3 (09:34):
Zero. Yeah.
S2 (09:35):
That's the point. That's why I'm here, right? Uh, it's, uh.
You are a genius. I mean, uh, I've been following
you since, uh, two years ago, and I'm shocked every
time you speak. That's why. Because you you bring, uh,
not only passions, passion, but, uh, results, and you prove
them right. So that's the best part. Can you talk
(09:57):
about how did you, um, joined with the Grand Garden?
S1 (10:04):
Well, my wife, uh, at the time, she suggested that I. Look, uh,
I knew what I wanted to do. I had all
the research. I had all the success. I just didn't
know how to do it fast. And she had suggested
that we look at some of these social media people. Yeah.
And after going through them, I'm like, nope, nope, nope.
And then Grant, I was like, no, no.
S2 (10:27):
There's no way I've been following you.
S3 (10:30):
Never. Yeah.
S4 (10:32):
Hey hey hey, get down here.
S2 (10:35):
And when you go in social media, you see, you
see Grant. Yeah. Of course.
S3 (10:38):
Right. Everywhere.
S1 (10:40):
Everywhere in the world we go. People like Greg are down.
S3 (10:43):
Great car down. Yeah.
S1 (10:44):
So except for in Italy, it was Grant Cardone.
S2 (10:47):
Grant Cardone got.
S3 (10:49):
Cardone.
S2 (10:49):
Cardone is a popular name in Sicily, I guess. Right.
S3 (10:52):
Uh, well, down in the South, yeah. For sure.
S1 (10:55):
Um, so, so, uh, she showed me some social media
and then. And then, uh, got me interested, and I
started reading his books, and, and I was like, okay,
this guy knows what he's talking about. He he's a
big promoter, but he's really super. Yeah. Legitimate intelligence, which.
S2 (11:14):
Is that the book that, uh, made you realize.
S3 (11:17):
1010.
S2 (11:18):
Zero.
S3 (11:18):
Yeah.
S1 (11:19):
And then I read them.
S3 (11:20):
All, and.
S1 (11:21):
Then we went to his 2019 convention, and. And I
knew what I wanted to build, and I knew what
I had engineered, and I just wanted to know what
I conflict with, what he does, compliment what he does. Or, um,
would we amplify what we both do? And and beautifully enough,
there was no conflict. There was 100% compliment and we
(11:47):
could amplify what we both do. So I went and
saw what I needed to see. So I approached him
and said, hey, we should talk about partnering.
S3 (11:53):
Yeah.
S2 (11:54):
Could you explain how did you convince them? Convince him?
I mean, how did you persuade him to to do
business with you because you were unknown? I mean, you
were known in another country.
S1 (12:06):
Yeah, but totally unknown to to to to Grant. Now,
one of my dear friends, one of my mentors, dear
friends and somebody I helped grow their business was speaking
at his event. Well. And so we went to dinner
the night before he spoke. And, uh, and that's Doctor
(12:26):
John Maxwell. So, number one, leadership guru in the whole world. Yeah.
And he and I were very he and I are
very close. So after he spoke, he pulled me up
on the side stage and he ran over and he said, hey.
And he just pointed to Natalie and I, he loves
Natalie and I. I mean, we are we are family
with him. He points and he does something. I don't
(12:47):
know what he says though. And then we go sit down.
And he texted me because he left and he said, hey,
I told Grant if he gets a chance to meet you,
he should. And anything you tell him is the truth.
So Grant, when he met me, he's like, man, you
come with high regards. But he had no idea who
I was.
S2 (13:05):
Okay, well, what did you say? That there to convince him.
S1 (13:09):
Uh, I said there's ten elements. To building a any
any successful business. You're an expert at three of them.
I'm an expert at seven of them. Um, if we
put them together, we could build the biggest business in
a $12 trillion space and add so much value to
(13:33):
the people that are already working with you that we
would be the number one in the world.
S2 (13:37):
Well, that's great. And you're doing that. You're on track.
S1 (13:40):
That was four years ago.
S3 (13:41):
Yeah. Wow.
S2 (13:42):
Congrats. And I would like to ask you some questions
for the Italian market. As I said, um, Grant, I
love Grant, I love you. Um, sometimes in Italy, uh,
we see not me, but we as countries see the
America as like, uh, Paradise. It's like something that is
not achievable. And what did you, would you say to
(14:03):
Italian people that, uh, would like, would like to do
money to, to grow their business, to serve their community,
but as this false belief because me and you, we
know that is false. Well, let.
S1 (14:17):
Me ask you, is there anybody in Italy that's made money?
S3 (14:19):
Yeah.
S1 (14:20):
Are there wealthy people in Italy?
S3 (14:21):
Yes.
S1 (14:22):
Because I know a lot of different companies in Italy
that have wealthy people.
S3 (14:26):
Yeah.
S1 (14:28):
So. In fact, Italy is the innovator some of the
best products in the world. And that's created wealth, right? Yep.
So my belief is if one can do it, anybody
can do it if they apply themselves. So. My question
to all Italians would be what could you do? To
(14:50):
create wealth, where there's already examples of people that have
done it to create wealth. Yeah, you don't have to
reinvent and create something from scratch.
S2 (14:59):
I usually talk about modeling, right. Yeah. That's why you
you are talking about that. And so, uh, what do
you think about the money? I don't know if in, uh, in, uh, USA,
I should say you are based on Scottsdale, right. Or
Miami or other user country. It's like a taboo. Is
(15:19):
it a word in English? Taboo is the thing that
you don't say, right? Yeah. Uh, but in Italy, you. Oh, no, no, no,
don't talk about money. Don't talk about money, don't talk
about money. What will you say to those people that
want to do money but they won't talk about money
because yeah, you are really transparent about your money, about the, uh,
companies money about.
S3 (15:38):
Yeah. Because.
S1 (15:38):
Because to me, to me, it's, uh, you know, in,
in what's the favorite sport in Italy called soccer?
S2 (15:45):
Okay.
S1 (15:45):
Would soccer be a fun sport if there is no goals?
S3 (15:50):
No at all.
S1 (15:52):
What would be the purpose of playing soccer if you
didn't keep score?
S3 (15:55):
Yeah.
S1 (15:56):
So I talk about money because money is a score. Yeah.
And and it's how, you know, if you're improving, if
you're winning or if you're losing. And so in a
culture where people have been taught not to talk about money,
the law of attraction is a real thing. It's it's intention, action, attraction.
That's that's how it works.
S2 (16:17):
It's not it's not magic. I mean.
S3 (16:19):
It's not a lot.
S2 (16:19):
Of Italian people, they think that it's magic.
S1 (16:21):
No, it's intention.
S2 (16:23):
Intention.
S3 (16:24):
Action.
S1 (16:25):
Then you attract. Yeah. So if you know what you
want and you take action towards that objective, you tend
to attract it. Okay. So if you're spending your time
talking about what you don't want, you attract it. The
algorithm is whatever you're thinking about, whatever you're talking about
and whatever you're doing, you get.
S3 (16:45):
Yeah.
S1 (16:46):
So if you're talking about not having money and you're
telling everybody they can't have money, you're never going to
have money, you will attract no money because that's what
you're fixated on.
S2 (16:55):
So when they say like, uh oh, we our market
is too little, uh, we can find good people.
S3 (17:01):
That's awesome.
S1 (17:02):
That creates unbelievable opportunity for the one person that wants
to own that market. Yeah, it's easier to penetrate a
small market than a big one.
S3 (17:11):
Well.
S1 (17:12):
Can't find any good people. That's awesome. That means the
few people that are amazing that are here that want
to win with me, we're going to have no competition.
You see, every time somebody throws out an obstacle, it's
it's either an obstacle or it's an opportunity.
S2 (17:26):
And what do you say to the people that say,
I don't have money? Because to make money, we need money?
S1 (17:31):
Yeah, I would say that, um, you don't need money
to make money. You need intention, you need action, and
then money materializes. So imagine a world where where, uh,
somebody is from a small town and and they go
(17:52):
and do what you did, like, your English is very good.
I wish my Italian was as good as your English.
I love the Italian language.
S3 (17:58):
I'm not I.
S2 (17:59):
Don't I don't agree with you, but.
S1 (18:00):
Okay, but I studied Italian 30 years ago. I wish
I would have perfected it. It's such a beautiful language.
But imagine a world where you decide I'm going to
go learn to speak English. Hmm. Step one. Then imagine
a world where you go, I'm going to go and
learn from the world's greatest marketing and sales person out
(18:22):
of the United States, how they became successful. Step number two. Yeah.
Then let's say you go, you know what I'm going
to do? I'm going to get his sales training program,
and I'm going to master every single sales module, and
I am going to be the perfect Italian Grant Cardone.
(18:43):
Step three. Step four is you start teaching other people
in Italy how to use Cardone. You and you're translating
it form. Yeah. But instead are you doing it with
one other person? Maybe you're doing it with 10 or
20 hmhm and step number 4 or 5 is then
you go to the businesses and you're like, hey, if
(19:05):
we could help sell more things for you, you can
outsource sales to me. And next thing you know, you
have businesses. Automotive repair. Pizzerias, coffee shops, doctors, opticians, hearing acoustics.
How do you say hearing acoustics?
S3 (19:26):
Good acoustics.
S4 (19:27):
So, so so.
S1 (19:28):
You know, all of a sudden, uh, rental car companies,
car sales companies. All of a sudden you have a
salesperson you've trained and you're in ten, 20, 30, 40, 50, 60, 70, 80, 90,
100 companies and you make a millions of dollars a year.
It all started with a thought that you're going to
learn English. Yeah, you're going to master sales. You're going
(19:52):
to teach others to do what you learn to do.
None of that required a whole bunch of money. It
just required time.
S2 (19:58):
And action.
S1 (19:59):
And then action. But the action followed the intention. I'm
going to learn to speak English. I'm going to learn
to speak English. I'm going to learn to master Grant
Cardone process. I'm going to learn to teach other people
to do it. I'm going to go to other businesses
and help them create more sales. And I'm going to
create a team of 100 people doing it, and I'm
going to have a $100 million or $50 million, $20
million company. And then for companies that I find that
(20:23):
are underperforming with business owners that want to retire, I'm
going to buy their businesses. And then the next iteration
is one day you wake up and you've got 30
different companies with phenomenal salespeople in them, and all those
businesses are bigger than they've ever been. And you have
a portfolio of $1 billion of businesses, and someone comes
along and says, man, you are so lucky.
S2 (20:44):
You're so lucky because you are not in Italy, right?
They see you are not in Italy, but you could.
S1 (20:49):
Do all that right in.
S3 (20:49):
Italy. Yeah, yeah.
S1 (20:51):
And I've seen people do it.
S3 (20:52):
Yeah.
S1 (20:53):
So I've been involved with, I don't know, $50 million
of acquisitions in Italy. Well so, so, so, so you
cannot tell me there aren't companies, corporations, there are public
companies in Italy that would love to have remarkable salespeople.
I know for a fact amplify. And if somebody went
in to amplify and showed amplify and I can reach
(21:15):
out to more hearing aid, people around the world get
you better deals, get you better pricing, get you bigger
companies teach people how to sell. They'd be like. Thank
you that this person fell into my business, I. So?
So nobody can tell me there's not an opportunity anywhere
in the world to improve whatever they've got going on.
S2 (21:35):
And what do you say to people that want to
do all this? But all the people around are telling
them not not to say that.
S3 (21:43):
People will.
S1 (21:44):
Always tell you not to say it because they don't want.
S3 (21:46):
To do it. Yeah.
S1 (21:49):
Yeah, I'm going to tell you don't do that. Because
then if you do it and you succeed, I gotta
live with the fact that I was unwilling to.
S2 (21:55):
Do because they quit and they have to find an excuse, right? Yeah. Yeah.
Is that. That's great. So another question that initially a
lot of people, even with a company, uh, tell to
people that are successful. Right. Why don't you stop. You
have money, you have money, you have a private jet, right?
Private jet. You have, uh, watches. Here we go. Yeah.
(22:19):
Do you share this one with Grant or you have. No, no.
S1 (22:21):
He has his own. He. He has a bigger one,
a bigger one.
S2 (22:24):
You will beat him, right?
S3 (22:26):
No, I.
S1 (22:26):
Mean, I get to share with him, you know, this
is the value of having partners. Yeah. When we went
to Europe, we took his plane and Elena's. The value
of having partnership is when his plane goes into the
shop and he doesn't have a plane, he uses my plane.
S3 (22:39):
Yeah.
S1 (22:40):
Uh, my wife is coming. Coming flying home right now.
And she's on Grant and Elena's helicopter.
S3 (22:46):
Well.
S1 (22:47):
Um, so when you have partners.
S2 (22:49):
To giants like.
S1 (22:50):
And I want Grant to have bigger things because it
inspires me to do bigger.
S2 (22:55):
Yeah. Oh that's great. And so why don't you stop?
This is a challenge question for because I love.
S1 (23:01):
Because I love meeting people like you. To be honest,
I love I love helping, I love watching success. I
just like we talked about with soccer, if you didn't
have a if you didn't have goals, yeah, there'd be
no purpose for the game.
S3 (23:16):
Yeah.
S2 (23:16):
You're dead right.
S1 (23:17):
You're dead. You're just just boring. Right. And and so
to me, the score sure. Part of the score is
how good I am. But what's really fun with the
score is how many other people can I get to
score well? And and because I have a talent, I
have a responsibility to share. And because I love people,
(23:40):
I want to see them succeed. And because I'm smart
about how I make money helping other people make money.
I win when they win. They win when I win.
And and I think that's the most beautiful. Thing about
business is if you create a business system where everyone's
winning together, then it's a lot more fun. You know,
(24:02):
I think about when we were in Italy. Yeah.
S2 (24:04):
And you were just for the sake of, uh, make
people know, uh, you were in Italy like, three weeks ago. One.
S1 (24:12):
So we were there in June for for a week. Yeah.
And then we went back in, uh, uh, August for
a week. Yeah. And we were down Amalfi.
S3 (24:20):
It was vacation, right.
S2 (24:21):
You were with, uh, the Maxwell.
S1 (24:23):
Um, it was it was a it was vacation, but
with Andrea Bocelli. Maxwell. It's something I do. I've done
every year for ten years to support the Andrea Bocelli Foundation. Wow. Congrats.
And and so, um, and so we were down there and,
and we had a lot of friends there as well.
So it it's an event. We do. And I took
(24:44):
Grant with Grant and Elena with us to introduce them
to all of our friends. And uh, we were we
were in Capri, um, on the first trip and on
the second trip and the first trip, we were on
a 207 foot yacht. And, you know, we were anchored
and and that was a big yacht, but we were
surrounded by bigger yachts. And it's. So you can either
(25:10):
look at those big yachts and be like, oh, nobody
needs that. Or you can look at them and go, man,
I really want to work hard enough to be able
to do that. Yeah. I think being around success is
so inspirational when I think of Italy, Italy surrounded with
constant success. But instead of viewing it saying, I'm not
entitled to that or I shouldn't want that or people
(25:33):
don't need that. If you change your thinking to how
do I put myself in a position? To choose to
have something like that. It forces you to ask questions like,
what am I doing every day? Am I maximizing my
potential and my being creative enough? And I think the
opportunity you have with us to to to put Grant
(25:53):
Cardone and Brandon Dawson into Italy is I 100% know,
based on my own international and global work, that there
are a percentage of people that when you invite them
to take charge in their life and you're willing to
show and help them do it, they want it.
S3 (26:14):
Yeah.
S1 (26:15):
And I believe we can create an army of people
who want it in Italy. Have fun watching people succeed
and provide value into the communities they live in.
S2 (26:28):
Well that's great. And could you talk about, uh, um, how, uh,
did you or do you usually, uh, constantly. You and
Grant Cardone improve each other because you were talking about that,
like this morning, I guess.
S3 (26:41):
So yesterday. Yeah.
S1 (26:42):
I, you know, I admire him so much, right? Yeah.
And and we're very competitive. We're we're very similar in
some ways and we're different in others. And so when I'm,
when he's thinking here, I realize I was here when
I go, you know what, if you're going to be
thinking here, I'm going to think up here. He's like,
you know what? If you're thinking here, I'm going to
think up here. And and instead of working against each other,
(27:06):
we sit down together and figure out how do we
do it, what do we need to do? Who do
we need to do it with? How do we need
to do it? We're always having that conversation. Grant, Elena,
Natalie and I, we sit when we're on, on our
trips at least one hour every day with a notepad
and say. How can we get bigger? What more could
we do? What does it look like in ten years
(27:28):
from now? What would we be doing? What would we
be saying? Who would we be talking to? And we
write it all down. And then we ask ourselves, when
we come out of that, who can we call? Who
can we meet right now to start that process?
S2 (27:40):
Well that's.
S3 (27:41):
Great. And this is.
S1 (27:42):
What we do with each other. And this is why
they're such great mentors, but also great business partners. And
it gives me somebody to compete against because I love
the competition. Yeah.
S2 (27:52):
It's like I do CrossFit, right? Yeah. And when you
have a body with the you train with you, you.
S3 (27:58):
Push harder, you.
S2 (27:59):
Push harder a lot harder. Right. So that's great. You
are like two giants that are multiplying their, their capability. Right. Uh,
one thing I wanted to ask you, because this is
a thing that we lack in Italy, uh, how important
is to have a mentor? I mean, you had, like
you said this morning, like 1012. Mentor one is John Maxwell.
(28:20):
I guess how important it is and why you should
have a mentor.
S1 (28:25):
Yes, very important in my 12 mentors weren't all at
the same time that it evolved. It changed as I
realized I had gaps in my life I found a
mentor to.
S3 (28:33):
Yeah.
S2 (28:34):
Usually you focus on one mentor. Yeah.
S3 (28:36):
Yeah, because.
S1 (28:36):
You got to master what you tried to do ten things.
You can't. You can't master it. So leadership, John Maxwell,
operations Jim Collins process, Michael Gerber cash flow and business
building Sharon Lecter like I like I can pin Hector
Lamarck mindset doctor Robert Anthony. Right? I know what I'm
(28:58):
learning and who I'm learning from. Grant Cardone thinking bigger
and doing more tenax. Um, and so what's important is
if you're just kind of drifting around and you're not
trying to level up, you're not being intentional about where
you want to go. So you remember the law of attraction, intention, action, traction.
So if I want to become a great leader, that's
(29:19):
my intention. Then the action is who should I learn from? Well,
why don't why don't learn from the world's greatest John
Maxwell and then and then attract. All of a sudden
I get followers because I'm teaching what I learned based
on what I did. So you just got to, like, pick,
like if I wanted to be the best. At making pizzas.
(29:42):
I would go into Milan and I would ask as
many people as possible, where is the best pizza in Milan?
Who absolutely makes the best pizza in Milan? And I
would go to that pizzeria and I'd say, I'm from America.
You don't know me. I'm committed to staying in Milan
as long as I have to. Until you sign off
(30:02):
to say I have learned to make pizza as good
as you. And then I'm going to go open pizzerias
in the United States, and I'm going to make you
a 5050 partner for teaching me well. That's how you learn.
You give something back in exchange and, and, and all
of a sudden you take and create an opportunity, which
is what you're doing. You're here and you're going to
(30:24):
take us back there.
S3 (30:25):
Yeah.
S2 (30:26):
And listen, um, this is amazing. Amazing. Um, which, ah,
which is the moment that you realize that, uh, you
should have a mentor just to continue the conversation.
S1 (30:38):
Well, in reflection, I had more mentors than I thought
I had, I didn't know.
S3 (30:44):
Yeah.
S1 (30:45):
To call my mentor. I just knew I was learning
from him, and, and and I think most people, when
they think back to some of the most important people
in their life, they didn't know what word to put
to it. But mentors are good word. But once you
realize you can pick your mentors intentionally based on what
you want to learn. Then anybody that's an example to
(31:08):
what you want to do can become a mentor. The
question you have to ask yourself is, what do I
give to a mentor to teach me?
S3 (31:15):
Hmm.
S1 (31:16):
Because if they're already successful, they're busy.
S2 (31:19):
So you pay for them either or you.
S1 (31:22):
You can or you can read their books.
S3 (31:24):
Yeah.
S1 (31:25):
You know, John Maxwell put books out. I read all
his books before I ever met him. He was a
mentor to me, even though I'd never personally met him.
S3 (31:34):
Yeah, but when I.
S1 (31:35):
Met him, I knew his work so well. I made
him interested in what I was doing. And then we
became friends. And then we started working together. And now
we're friends that work together and love each other. We're family.
That that's the evolution of the opportunity for a mentor.
S3 (31:52):
Okay.
S2 (31:53):
So we are talking about, uh, we talked about, uh, like, uh,
billions right this moment, but you started from zero. Uh,
so what would you say will be the first, like
five steps? 3 to 5 steps for someone that is
starting from zero to not maybe, uh, collect cash from investors, um,
(32:14):
to be desirable or, uh, yeah, to auto finance their activity.
S1 (32:19):
You know, uh. 50 years ago. There was a husband
and wife in Milan, and they opened a hearing aid
office and they sold hearing aids to people in Milan.
(32:42):
And they became successful because they were good at it.
And then they open another office, and they use the
cash flow from the one office to open the next office.
And then they did it again. And they did it again.
They did it again.
S3 (33:00):
And they did it again.
S1 (33:02):
And then one day they were the largest retailer of
hearing aids in Italy. And then they realize they're buying
all this specialty equipment to do hearing aids sales. So
they started manufacturing their own specialty testing equipment. And that
(33:22):
was called and played. The hearing aid retailer was called
amplify and. And they launched Ambulate, which was medical equipment
for testing hearing aid, and they realized if they needed
it for them, maybe the rest of the world needs it.
So they started selling amplified hearing testing equipment all over
(33:44):
the world. And then they started buying hearing aid offices
in other countries. And now they're the largest retailer of
hearing aids in the globe.
S3 (33:55):
Where's my.
S1 (33:55):
Phone? I don't have it. And I think they have, uh,
their stock in 2005, their stock was $3 a share.
I think they had, uh, 250, $300 million valuation. And
today their stock, I believe, is 30 something dollars a share,
and they're worth billions of dollars. Well, um. But it
(34:20):
all started with a husband and wife. Selling hearing aids
in a little office.
S5 (34:26):
An amplifier.
S1 (34:28):
Named amplifier. So? So things always start somewhere. And if
you're successful, they generate the resources to start the next
one and the next one and the next one. But
you know, I wonder what would have happen.
S3 (34:45):
If.
S1 (34:47):
That husband and wife. Never decided to open the second shop. Hmm.
S2 (34:54):
Like a lot of people does.
S1 (34:56):
Right. Because they were comfortable with one. Yeah. So, you know,
I'm a big Ferrari fan. I own multiple Ferraris.
S2 (35:04):
All my own Ferrari.
S1 (35:05):
Well, I've had three at once, but right now it's two.
S2 (35:09):
And you have also other kind of, uh. I've got vehicles.
S3 (35:13):
I've got a couple Lamborghinis. Yeah. Uh, I have a.
S1 (35:17):
Whole bunch of cars. Yeah.
S2 (35:18):
I see on, uh, on this Rolls-Royce Bentleys.
S3 (35:21):
Yeah.
S1 (35:21):
I'm a I'm a.
S3 (35:22):
Big car guy.
S2 (35:23):
Was yours. The Bentley that was parked, uh, right here
was yours, my beautiful.
S3 (35:28):
One.
S1 (35:29):
And and I have a 1967 Eleanor Mustang.
S3 (35:33):
Um.
S1 (35:34):
Uh, some beautiful cars. But I think back to, uh,
Enzo Ferrari and everything he went through to create one
of the biggest brands in the world. Right. Started out
with a passion for cars. And so, you know, there's
a lot of big companies that have come out of
Italy because somebody was passionate and committed to building something.
(35:57):
So you ask me about starting a business, you just start.
And you create value. And when you create value. The
algorithm for success is start. Duplicate multiply.
S2 (36:17):
And why some people, um. What do you think? Why
some people? Which is the reason why someone a lot
of people actually stop. To the first success.
S1 (36:29):
Because they never believe they're going to get that. Their
intention wasn't to get big. It was just to to
to their intention might have been to just be independent
or why?
S3 (36:38):
Because they chose to stop.
S2 (36:43):
Maybe where probably.
S1 (36:45):
The way they were raised or it's, it's it's their
comfort level.
S3 (36:48):
Yeah.
S1 (36:49):
Like a lot of people stop because they're comfortable because
they want to control.
S2 (36:52):
Yeah, they feel good right there. But they stop and
they aren't satisfied by their life. Right. And then they
complain because if you stop, you get back. Right.
S1 (37:04):
So let me just tell you this, this is generally
all over the world. I found this all over the world. Fear.
And then you can translate this in Italian. Yeah. Beer
is a bigger motivator and motivator.
S2 (37:20):
Piu grande.
S1 (37:21):
Then opportunity.
S2 (37:23):
The opportunity because fear, fear of loss is, is greater
in our mind right, than the the things that we
could achieve, right. There's a say that uh, a story
that one mentor a previous method that I had I
which I really, really appreciate him for the results that
I got at the beginning. Uh, it was telling us
(37:44):
always this story because it is a marketing genius. Right.
And he was telling us, uh, um, if you imagine
you are sleeping right now, it's 3:00 in the morning
and someone knock on your door and you wonder and say, oh,
there are four. Um, I call the, uh. Oh, yeah.
(38:07):
There are four ways that the market for a discount
of 50% discount. Uh, go there. You take him like
for crazy. Yeah. You are crazy. Well, why you are, uh,
waking me up in the morning, right? But if you
are 3:00 in the morning, someone knock on the door, and, uh,
is your, uh, neighbor and say you. Oh, they are
stealing all your will. You are. You are losing something, right?
(38:31):
This morning, for example, I, I wanted to to buy, um,
Rolex here in Milan. Uh, in Miami because in Milan
we can find them at, uh, at the price, at
the retail price. So I went there. Uh, I saw that, uh,
last night when they were closing, and I wanted I,
I didn't mean to buy that this morning. This, uh, night,
(38:53):
I thought about. Oh, my. It's good. It's right. I
can do that. Because with the cashier serves as a
you you, uh, teacher. I can do that. And so
in the morning, I come to your meeting and, uh,
I say, okay, I send my video maker to to
take the, um, the Rolex with my card. They don't
take the card because it's the first Rolex I buy
(39:15):
at a retail price. Right? I go, there you go,
there he goes there. And they say with, uh, with
without an ID and the real person, you can buy that.
I go there when the meeting was over for the
lunch and, uh, it was gone, they sold it and
it was like I lost it. It was not anything,
but I felt I didn't think about that before to
(39:37):
come in Miami and even before yesterday or night. Right.
And this morning it was like, oh no, it was
like a my leg. They cut my leg.
S3 (39:45):
Right.
S1 (39:46):
I know I went over and bought it and I
have it in my office for $20,000 more.
S3 (39:51):
Yeah. Just kidding.
S2 (39:53):
You stole you stole my, uh, 20,000 more for 40
K from your. I will buy that because. Because you
own that. Yeah. Yeah, yeah. That's great. So, uh, uh,
talking about those shiny objects, right? Um, what do you say?
When do you say, uh, people with a company should
buy them? Because sometimes when you.
S3 (40:14):
Yeah.
S1 (40:14):
So this is what we say, right? The rules of investing. Yeah.
S3 (40:17):
Okay.
S2 (40:18):
Interesting topic in Italy.
S1 (40:20):
First, invest in yourself in your development.
S3 (40:25):
Yeah.
S1 (40:25):
Not in you having fancy things.
S3 (40:27):
Yeah.
S1 (40:29):
Second, invest in the thing that generates the income, the resource. Third,
when you have excess capital, invest in something that's going
to produce. Passive income.
S3 (40:44):
Then.
S1 (40:45):
When you're producing more passive income than you earn. Buy
whatever you want.
S2 (40:52):
Well. That's great. Can I ask you, uh, which kind
of passive income do you have? Because I know Grant
does a lot of stuff with, uh, real estate. Uh,
I think you are investing with him.
S3 (41:02):
I guess I'm.
S1 (41:03):
Outside of Grant. I'm the second largest investor in Cardone Capital. Oh, well. Yeah.
So Grant first, me second.
S2 (41:09):
So you you go in with him or you diversify,
you know?
S3 (41:12):
Uh, before.
S1 (41:13):
I met Grant, I also invest in many storages. I've
been doing that for 22 years. I invest in oil
and gas resources. Uh, I invest in in warehouses, uh,
medical buildings. Um, so my passive income, uh, right now
(41:34):
is probably $3 million a year. Just straight passive.
S3 (41:38):
Well.
S1 (41:39):
Um, and my active income is is about $22 million
a year. So I make about $25 million a year.
My goal is for my passive income to be 25
million a year.
S2 (41:54):
And then which is, uh, which will be the next step?
S3 (41:58):
Um.
S1 (41:59):
Well, when my passive income is $25 million a year,
I expect my active income to be $250 million a year.
S2 (42:07):
Because you guys always say, uh, you have to wait.
You have to push till you, your passive income, uh,
to reach the the active one. Right. But it doesn't
it doesn't happen, right?
S3 (42:20):
It does.
S1 (42:20):
You just keep playing that game. Yeah. That's a target.
So I want my passive income to be 10% of
my active income. If I keep raising my active income,
I have to be strategic about where I'm investing for
my passive income. Well, but then I live off my
passive income. Yeah. That way all my active income can
(42:41):
get reinvested.
S2 (42:43):
Let's see. Yeah. Just because you don't want to keep
money stable, right? You have to invest.
S3 (42:49):
Money means to keep.
S1 (42:50):
It means to make money. The purpose of money is
to make you more money.
S3 (42:53):
Yeah.
S2 (42:53):
That's great. How much time do you have?
S3 (42:58):
What time is.
S2 (42:58):
It? Uh, five to.
S3 (43:01):
Yeah.
S1 (43:01):
So I think I need to go next door at
three or.
S3 (43:03):
Yeah. Okay.
S2 (43:04):
So that's, uh.
S3 (43:05):
That's just a couple more. Yeah. Good.
S6 (43:09):
But you better also. See. Okay. Now imagine that. Well,
you know, studio version studio.
S7 (43:22):
Am I gonna see?
S2 (43:25):
Okay. Uh, another question that, uh, Italian people always ask
to successful people. Um, which is your routine? I mean,
when do you get up? When do you go to bed?
What do you.
S3 (43:35):
Do? Yeah. So.
S1 (43:36):
So my wife gets up really super early in the morning.
I get up later, I stay up really super late.
She goes.
S3 (43:42):
To bed.
S2 (43:42):
What time? What time?
S3 (43:43):
More or less.
S1 (43:44):
Uh, I'm usually midnight.
S3 (43:46):
Midnight? She goes to.
S1 (43:46):
Bed at 930. She gets up at six, maybe 530. Uh,
I get up at 730 to 830.
S3 (43:56):
Yeah. Um.
S1 (43:58):
But once I'm up, I'm just like.
S3 (44:02):
You.
S1 (44:02):
Hammer all the way through. Like last night I went
to bed at the last three nights. I've gone to
bed at 1030, and I didn't even get home till
1015 because I was at dinner with people. Yeah, like, I,
I do the, I do the dinners with clients, dinners
with prospective partners, dinner. You know, I do like the
whole day through evening. She does the early morning to
(44:26):
evening because she operates the companies and I build them.
S2 (44:31):
Well that's great. Just I ask you, just because we
are curious, which are the routines which are there? Yeah, sure.
I mean.
S1 (44:38):
You know, I work out occasionally, I try to I
do intermittent fasting. Uh, I have a red light therapy setup.
So when I'm back in Washington or back in, uh, Scottsdale,
I'll do my red light therapy. And, you know, I
like my massages. Yeah. You know, because I'm up on
my feet all the time, and and so my probably
my favorite routine, though, is when I'm on my airplane,
(45:00):
and that's where I, I just. I go into my
state of future.
S3 (45:06):
Yeah.
S1 (45:07):
I see myself in the future. I can spend hours
living ten years out.
S3 (45:12):
Wow.
S1 (45:13):
And just feeling it. And what conversations and the kind
of people I'm with and what we're talking about and
what we're doing. And then when I, when I come back,
I start writing all that down.
S3 (45:23):
Yeah.
S2 (45:23):
I was asking you that. So, so so every morning
you write down your goals.
S3 (45:27):
I don't need to do it.
S1 (45:28):
Every morning I do it. I my goals are so solidified.
Yeah that I my goals are now intention statements. Yeah.
So instead of writing a goal down I want to
do this. It's my intention to. And my intention statements
are not changing. So I have a list in my
book of my intention statement. So when you go into
my book, you'll be able to to to see what
(45:51):
my intention statements are. So intention statements are bigger than goals.
S2 (45:55):
Well because they are right now so strongly you did
this exercise so, so much that uh, in the years
or um, right now is so solidified in your head. Right?
S1 (46:07):
Yeah. It's like when I'm on the board and I go,
we did this revenue, this revenue, this revenue, this revenue,
this I have my revenue planned out every single year
until I get to $1 billion. Yeah. So I don't
need to write. My goal down is to generate 10%
more sales. Screw that. I'm doubling. Well, my goal is
to double every two years. Double double double double like like, uh,
(46:27):
you know, I, I don't need to.
S3 (46:29):
And you.
S2 (46:29):
You you've done that. We talked about that like a
few minutes ago with the new company that you you
run with the Grant Cardone. Right. So you started from
zero one year. You were like 6 million.
S3 (46:40):
No, I.
S1 (46:41):
First first few months, I did a couple.
S3 (46:43):
Million, couple million. Okay. Then I did.
S1 (46:45):
Uh, 14.
S3 (46:46):
Million in the second year, then.
S1 (46:47):
38 million, 83,000,135 million.
S3 (46:51):
In.
S2 (46:51):
In four years. Amazing, amazing. We'll talk just two seconds
about your book.
S3 (46:56):
Yeah.
S1 (46:57):
The nine figure mindset. I mean, this really it's universal. Yeah. Um,
I think that the the truth is this book right here, um.
And feel free to translate it for people at home.
Like like this book is about how to. Move to
the things that you have decided you want. Yeah. And
(47:20):
that's really what this book is about. And for it
could be different things for different people. But the point is,
once you learn how to do it, it doesn't matter
if it's personal, professional or financial, you learn the skill
to do it. You program your mindset to do it.
You do.
S2 (47:34):
It. And you're taught.
S3 (47:35):
That.
S2 (47:35):
Yeah, wonderful. Can I get one copy before you release that?
S3 (47:38):
Uh, yeah.
S1 (47:39):
I'm sure we have some free copies.
S3 (47:41):
Wow.
S2 (47:41):
That's great. That's great. Thanks so much. One last question,
because we ran the one person podcast in Italy. Uh,
we call that, uh, because, uh, you guys are 1%. And, uh,
what do you think? What do you say? Uh, what
does it mean to be in 1% for you to
be part of the 1%?
S1 (48:01):
Uh, to be part of the 1%. It's it. It
means you can help 99%. You have so much opportunity
to help other people. If you're in the 1% category,
that means everything that you've done. You can teach to 99%.
That tells me how much opportunity there is to help
people in this world.
S3 (48:22):
Well, if.
S1 (48:23):
I was in the 10%, I'd only be able to
help 90%. If I was in the bottom 30%, I'd
only be able to help. Yeah, 30%.
S2 (48:30):
Is the capacity you have.
S3 (48:31):
Right? Yeah. If I'm in the.
S1 (48:32):
Top 1%, I have almost 100% of people I can help. So.
So instead of viewing it that, oh, I'm in the elite,
it's like I have worked so hard to get where
I'm at that I know I can help 99% of
anybody who wants to work with me, and that just
(48:52):
gives me unbelievable enthusiasm, excitement and energy that I can
go out and help 99% of the world.
S2 (49:02):
I think it is the best answer I got. You know, episodes,
of course, of, uh, this podcast. I think that's the
best way I think I'm I would be wrong. Um,
I wrote down that. I think I'll write down that
and I put on my walls on the, on our
offices was because really, really, uh, you quote the as
(49:25):
I expected that you, you quote the real excess of 1%. Yeah.
S1 (49:28):
And you translate it, you talk about it and you
send me something in Italian that I can put on
my wall. Yeah. That's my quote that.
S3 (49:35):
You've.
S1 (49:36):
Produced. My quote.
S3 (49:38):
Yeah.
S2 (49:38):
We send you when we're back to Italy. Let's do it.
That's great. Thanks so much. Brandon, to asked me here
because it's your studio. It's it's wonderful. You're my mentor.
I've been following you since two years. We grew a
lot because of you. Thanks so much. And we'll be
growing a lot in the next few years, because.
S3 (49:55):
I can't wait to.
S1 (49:55):
Do an event with you in.
S2 (49:56):
Italy. I just wrote a check yesterday for you. So perfect.
I'm with you. I'm with you, Justo.
S8 (50:02):
Correcto.
S3 (50:03):
Perfecto.
S2 (50:04):
The next time, uh, Brandon in Italy, uh, Lobato la
Porto davonte nostro client for pizza. Next time you will
be in Italy. I wrote the I'll write a text
to you and the UK in Italy to speak to
our clients would be amazing. Amazing.
S3 (50:19):
Thanks me to do it. Love it. All right.
S1 (50:21):
So this was another episode of building billions not only
in the United States, but around the world. I am
so excited to be able to start featuring people that
we work with from all over the world is especially Italy,
because it's I love Italy. So thank you for joining
me on another episode of Building Buildings.
S3 (50:39):
Was a pleasure.
Hey, everybody, that's Brandon Dawson. Welcome back to another episode
of Building Buildings with Brandon Dawson. I have a good
friend of mine, Giacomo. Freddy.
S2 (00:07):
Yeah, we all from Milano. Italia from Milano.
S1 (00:13):
He's teaching me some Italian, you know, so we're going
to go slow because I'm going to do it in English.
Then he's going to teach me how to do it
in Italian. This will be a three hour podcast, but
it's going to be badass.
S2 (00:23):
We have to learn a lot of English. You can.
You can say from my accent, from my bad English,
but I think we can understand each other, in fact.
S1 (00:30):
Okay, so, so so why don't you tell everybody what
we've been working, mentoring you? You've been working with us
in the community. Grant Cardone myself. Um, you've done a
lot of programs, uh, with me. And you're taking us
back to Italy. Yeah, but you should tell everybody, like
what you do in Italy, uh, what your passion is.
And then why are you working with Grant and I?
S2 (00:52):
Yeah. Uh, the thing is that, uh, moved me from, uh,
going alone to going with a mentor like you guys.
Is that, uh, we have a passion. A passion to
help people in Italy that want to increase their company,
to grow their company through marketing. Because I like, uh, marketing,
I freak, I'm a marketing freak. Uh, to maybe reach
(01:13):
more people. So we have to reach more people. So, uh,
I like so much the way you push us forward with, uh,
the next mentality mentality. And, uh, also, uh, I love
you because, uh, you put everything in place, uh, like,
you have to follow a process to, to grow the company. Right.
So that's a way for me to reach more people
(01:35):
in Italy because we need that. And, uh, I be
asking you some questions for them.
S3 (01:40):
Of course.
S1 (01:41):
Of course. And I will just state for the record, uh,
you've done a lot of my programs. You just went
into my leadership program. So thank you for trusting me. Um,
and the goal is to get you to, um, get
through all these programs so you can take a little
bit of Grant in me. Yeah. Back to Italy. Uh,
we would love to have a presence at ten x
(02:02):
presence with a team of people in Italy. So. So
that's one of the things I love about this is
getting to meet people like you that have the ambition,
the desire, the aptitude, the ability to to want to
expand and grow and and help us come to Italy
and do it as a team.
S2 (02:18):
Yeah. I think Italy needs a lot, uh, all this
stuff because, uh, a lot of people, entrepreneurs, uh, uh,
that want to, uh, start their company, uh, grow their company.
They you were talking about belief. You talk about belief
a lot, right? And, uh, I mean, I think in
Italy we have a lot of potential because really, the
(02:39):
creativity that we have, the products that we have are,
I mean, are among the best in the world. Right? But, uh,
we lack the knowledge of how to run a business,
how to promote, how to recruit, how to sell, how
to manage people, how to be a leader. That's why
I'm here with you right now. Uh, right. So, uh,
(02:59):
I think the, uh, this could be a really good
opportunity to grow the Italian market and then even beyond,
because I. I won't stop there. Right? Yes. Good. It's
just a starting point, but it's a big one for
me because Italy, uh, creating good products, even digital products
are really good in Italy. But, uh, we have a
(03:20):
limiting belief. So that's why we are here.
S1 (03:23):
That's great. What? This shows when I was bought by
an international company and I rolled out, uh, to eight countries,
one of the first countries I went to was Italy.
And so I did a talk to, uh, 450 business owners. Um,
and it was, um, it was, uh, I can't remember
the name of the village I was in, but it
(03:44):
was beautiful. I rented a, uh, a 430. Uh, no,
I rented a, uh, 488 convertible, I think. Well, and, uh,
drove through the country, and it was it was awesome. Um,
I ended up buying the car and shipping it back
here because I loved it. So much.
S2 (04:02):
But when he was in the north, in the center
of Italy, it.
S3 (04:05):
Was, uh.
S1 (04:06):
It was an hour outside of Milan. Okay. Yeah. So
I can't exactly. It was south. Of Milan, but I
can't remember exactly what town it was in.
S2 (04:17):
Maybe not. Like, um, more in the I. I think
more in the North because they usually, uh, foreign, foreign people,
when they come in Italy, they go to Como Lake.
S3 (04:29):
Yeah. It wasn't, it wasn't Como.
S1 (04:30):
Yeah. Lake Luigi Lake. There's Lake Lake Liguria, there's a
lake before Como. It's it's it's I guess it would
be going.
S3 (04:44):
Garda got the.
S2 (04:46):
Leg of Garda. Yeah.
S1 (04:47):
My buddy lived on that lake.
S3 (04:48):
Okay.
S2 (04:49):
That's a beautiful.
S3 (04:49):
Lake. Yeah. Beautiful. Yeah. And the.
S1 (04:51):
Little town. And it had a nightclub in it.
S3 (04:53):
Yeah. And it.
S1 (04:54):
Was awesome.
S3 (04:57):
Nightclub?
S2 (04:57):
Nice guy. We have a lot of nightclub in Italy. Yeah,
really good ones.
S1 (05:02):
Great wine, great food, great pasta, beautiful women, great people
I love it. Beautiful language.
S2 (05:08):
Yeah, we are little, but we have a pretty much
a lot of things. Yeah. And we vary a lot
from the north to the south. Right. So you have
Sicily that we have here right now that is uh,
recording too. And uh, they are so different from Naples
and from Milan. They are three different kind of people. Uh,
thinking also language, I should say sometimes. Yeah.
S1 (05:31):
The language is entirely different because I was down in
Sicily in 91. I spent three weeks there, and I
learned a few words, and I went up to Milan
and they're like, no, no, no, no.
S3 (05:40):
No, no, don't say that. Don't say that. Which part.
S2 (05:43):
Did you learn in.
S3 (05:44):
Sicily?
S1 (05:45):
Uh, I probably shouldn't say it that way.
S2 (05:48):
We want to say that we wanted to. Yeah.
S1 (05:51):
Yeah, they weren't good words.
S2 (05:53):
So, uh, can I ask you some question for the
Italian market? So, uh, just to, uh, introduce you to
the Italian market. Who are you? I mean, uh, you are,
I know. Who are you in, uh, USA? A lot
of people know we are even in Italy, but, uh,
could you introduce yourself, Mickey Amo.
S1 (06:13):
Brandon Dawson?
S3 (06:14):
Yeah.
S1 (06:16):
Um, and, uh, and, uh, I'm an entrepreneur. Yeah. Um,
I've built multiple businesses. Uh, I sold my first business
that my private equity group sold to an Italian firm.
S3 (06:31):
Yeah.
S1 (06:33):
Um, and so I had to spend a little bit
of time in Italy, which is. Which is the business
I was doing.
S2 (06:38):
Can we say the company name? Because. Yeah, it's it's
a really popular in Italy.
S1 (06:42):
Largest hearing aid retailer in the world.
S3 (06:45):
Ample fun. Yeah.
S1 (06:46):
And the CEO of amplified was a friend of mine.
S3 (06:49):
Yeah.
S1 (06:50):
And I was one of two companies that that expanded,
amplified into the United States.
S3 (06:57):
Wow.
S1 (06:58):
And so and before they bought my company, I worked
on the manufacturing side and they were my customer. Wow.
So I had a many years experience.
S2 (07:06):
And so, uh, let me recap this one, because just
just to, um, to, to to know if we are
on track. So, uh, you started the company, you, uh, um,
went public, right? Yep. And then you grew that company, like, uh,
to 10 million.
S1 (07:24):
Uh, 75 million.
S2 (07:26):
75 million. And then they, uh, with, uh, an excuse,
I should say private.
S1 (07:31):
Equity group decided to sell it. Yeah. And we sold
it to amplify.
S2 (07:36):
Okay. And then what? You started, you started another.
S3 (07:38):
Company, right? And then I.
S1 (07:39):
Started, uh, Odyssey Group. Yeah. And built that to the
largest group in the United States. Okay.
S3 (07:47):
And, uh, and and.
S2 (07:49):
It was like 38 million, uh.
S1 (07:52):
38 million. And I sold that for 151 million.
S2 (07:56):
Wow. 77 times.
S3 (07:58):
EBITDA. Yeah.
S1 (07:59):
Wow. And I sold that in 2016. To a Danish
hearing aid manufacturing company.
S3 (08:05):
Well.
S1 (08:06):
And then, uh, I helped them go from $17 a share.
It was $1 billion company. And then when I left,
it was $94 a share.
S2 (08:15):
So you helped them go from 1 billion to 4.
Four and a half.
S3 (08:21):
4.5 billion. Wow. Wow.
S2 (08:23):
Can I say something in Italy? Yeah. Italian. Uh, ragazzi
abbiamo un millionaire. K k un multimillionaire e de la prata.
A pesar de un miliardo billions miliardo un miliardo a
quattro di questo e un per cento. Uh, I, uh,
I'm saying to the Italian market that, uh, you are
(08:45):
in 1%, even less than 1%. I mean, that's why we,
we love, we love, uh, bringing people like you in
Italian market because they need that. They need they they
they need to know that it's possible. Right?
S1 (08:59):
Just like, uh, the reason I partnered with Grant Cardone
is I needed that. Right. We all need that.
S3 (09:05):
Yeah.
S1 (09:06):
And and so think about this. Uh, when I started
my second company, it was 14 years. I grew it
to $38 million. In 14.
S3 (09:17):
Years. Well.
S1 (09:19):
I partnered and started this new company with Grant Cardone.
Four years ago. And we'll do 135 million this year.
S2 (09:27):
In four years, from 0 to 135. How many capital
did you raise to do that?
S3 (09:34):
Zero. Yeah.
S2 (09:35):
That's the point. That's why I'm here, right? Uh, it's, uh.
You are a genius. I mean, uh, I've been following
you since, uh, two years ago, and I'm shocked every
time you speak. That's why. Because you you bring, uh,
not only passions, passion, but, uh, results, and you prove
them right. So that's the best part. Can you talk
(09:57):
about how did you, um, joined with the Grand Garden?
S1 (10:04):
Well, my wife, uh, at the time, she suggested that I. Look, uh,
I knew what I wanted to do. I had all
the research. I had all the success. I just didn't
know how to do it fast. And she had suggested
that we look at some of these social media people. Yeah.
And after going through them, I'm like, nope, nope, nope.
And then Grant, I was like, no, no.
S2 (10:27):
There's no way I've been following you.
S3 (10:30):
Never. Yeah.
S4 (10:32):
Hey hey hey, get down here.
S2 (10:35):
And when you go in social media, you see, you
see Grant. Yeah. Of course.
S3 (10:38):
Right. Everywhere.
S1 (10:40):
Everywhere in the world we go. People like Greg are down.
S3 (10:43):
Great car down. Yeah.
S1 (10:44):
So except for in Italy, it was Grant Cardone.
S2 (10:47):
Grant Cardone got.
S3 (10:49):
Cardone.
S2 (10:49):
Cardone is a popular name in Sicily, I guess. Right.
S3 (10:52):
Uh, well, down in the South, yeah. For sure.
S1 (10:55):
Um, so, so, uh, she showed me some social media
and then. And then, uh, got me interested, and I
started reading his books, and, and I was like, okay,
this guy knows what he's talking about. He he's a
big promoter, but he's really super. Yeah. Legitimate intelligence, which.
S2 (11:14):
Is that the book that, uh, made you realize.
S3 (11:17):
1010.
S2 (11:18):
Zero.
S3 (11:18):
Yeah.
S1 (11:19):
And then I read them.
S3 (11:20):
All, and.
S1 (11:21):
Then we went to his 2019 convention, and. And I
knew what I wanted to build, and I knew what
I had engineered, and I just wanted to know what
I conflict with, what he does, compliment what he does. Or, um,
would we amplify what we both do? And and beautifully enough,
there was no conflict. There was 100% compliment and we
(11:47):
could amplify what we both do. So I went and
saw what I needed to see. So I approached him
and said, hey, we should talk about partnering.
S3 (11:53):
Yeah.
S2 (11:54):
Could you explain how did you convince them? Convince him?
I mean, how did you persuade him to to do
business with you because you were unknown? I mean, you
were known in another country.
S1 (12:06):
Yeah, but totally unknown to to to to Grant. Now,
one of my dear friends, one of my mentors, dear
friends and somebody I helped grow their business was speaking
at his event. Well. And so we went to dinner
the night before he spoke. And, uh, and that's Doctor
(12:26):
John Maxwell. So, number one, leadership guru in the whole world. Yeah.
And he and I were very he and I are
very close. So after he spoke, he pulled me up
on the side stage and he ran over and he said, hey.
And he just pointed to Natalie and I, he loves
Natalie and I. I mean, we are we are family
with him. He points and he does something. I don't
(12:47):
know what he says though. And then we go sit down.
And he texted me because he left and he said, hey,
I told Grant if he gets a chance to meet you,
he should. And anything you tell him is the truth.
So Grant, when he met me, he's like, man, you
come with high regards. But he had no idea who
I was.
S2 (13:05):
Okay, well, what did you say? That there to convince him.
S1 (13:09):
Uh, I said there's ten elements. To building a any
any successful business. You're an expert at three of them.
I'm an expert at seven of them. Um, if we
put them together, we could build the biggest business in
a $12 trillion space and add so much value to
(13:33):
the people that are already working with you that we
would be the number one in the world.
S2 (13:37):
Well, that's great. And you're doing that. You're on track.
S1 (13:40):
That was four years ago.
S3 (13:41):
Yeah. Wow.
S2 (13:42):
Congrats. And I would like to ask you some questions
for the Italian market. As I said, um, Grant, I
love Grant, I love you. Um, sometimes in Italy, uh,
we see not me, but we as countries see the
America as like, uh, Paradise. It's like something that is
not achievable. And what did you, would you say to
(14:03):
Italian people that, uh, would like, would like to do
money to, to grow their business, to serve their community,
but as this false belief because me and you, we
know that is false. Well, let.
S1 (14:17):
Me ask you, is there anybody in Italy that's made money?
S3 (14:19):
Yeah.
S1 (14:20):
Are there wealthy people in Italy?
S3 (14:21):
Yes.
S1 (14:22):
Because I know a lot of different companies in Italy
that have wealthy people.
S3 (14:26):
Yeah.
S1 (14:28):
So. In fact, Italy is the innovator some of the
best products in the world. And that's created wealth, right? Yep.
So my belief is if one can do it, anybody
can do it if they apply themselves. So. My question
to all Italians would be what could you do? To
(14:50):
create wealth, where there's already examples of people that have
done it to create wealth. Yeah, you don't have to
reinvent and create something from scratch.
S2 (14:59):
I usually talk about modeling, right. Yeah. That's why you
you are talking about that. And so, uh, what do
you think about the money? I don't know if in, uh, in, uh, USA,
I should say you are based on Scottsdale, right. Or
Miami or other user country. It's like a taboo. Is
(15:19):
it a word in English? Taboo is the thing that
you don't say, right? Yeah. Uh, but in Italy, you. Oh, no, no, no,
don't talk about money. Don't talk about money, don't talk
about money. What will you say to those people that
want to do money but they won't talk about money
because yeah, you are really transparent about your money, about the, uh,
companies money about.
S3 (15:38):
Yeah. Because.
S1 (15:38):
Because to me, to me, it's, uh, you know, in,
in what's the favorite sport in Italy called soccer?
S2 (15:45):
Okay.
S1 (15:45):
Would soccer be a fun sport if there is no goals?
S3 (15:50):
No at all.
S1 (15:52):
What would be the purpose of playing soccer if you
didn't keep score?
S3 (15:55):
Yeah.
S1 (15:56):
So I talk about money because money is a score. Yeah.
And and it's how, you know, if you're improving, if
you're winning or if you're losing. And so in a
culture where people have been taught not to talk about money,
the law of attraction is a real thing. It's it's intention, action, attraction.
That's that's how it works.
S2 (16:17):
It's not it's not magic. I mean.
S3 (16:19):
It's not a lot.
S2 (16:19):
Of Italian people, they think that it's magic.
S1 (16:21):
No, it's intention.
S2 (16:23):
Intention.
S3 (16:24):
Action.
S1 (16:25):
Then you attract. Yeah. So if you know what you
want and you take action towards that objective, you tend
to attract it. Okay. So if you're spending your time
talking about what you don't want, you attract it. The
algorithm is whatever you're thinking about, whatever you're talking about
and whatever you're doing, you get.
S3 (16:45):
Yeah.
S1 (16:46):
So if you're talking about not having money and you're
telling everybody they can't have money, you're never going to
have money, you will attract no money because that's what
you're fixated on.
S2 (16:55):
So when they say like, uh oh, we our market
is too little, uh, we can find good people.
S3 (17:01):
That's awesome.
S1 (17:02):
That creates unbelievable opportunity for the one person that wants
to own that market. Yeah, it's easier to penetrate a
small market than a big one.
S3 (17:11):
Well.
S1 (17:12):
Can't find any good people. That's awesome. That means the
few people that are amazing that are here that want
to win with me, we're going to have no competition.
You see, every time somebody throws out an obstacle, it's
it's either an obstacle or it's an opportunity.
S2 (17:26):
And what do you say to the people that say,
I don't have money? Because to make money, we need money?
S1 (17:31):
Yeah, I would say that, um, you don't need money
to make money. You need intention, you need action, and
then money materializes. So imagine a world where where, uh,
somebody is from a small town and and they go
(17:52):
and do what you did, like, your English is very good.
I wish my Italian was as good as your English.
I love the Italian language.
S3 (17:58):
I'm not I.
S2 (17:59):
Don't I don't agree with you, but.
S1 (18:00):
Okay, but I studied Italian 30 years ago. I wish
I would have perfected it. It's such a beautiful language.
But imagine a world where you decide I'm going to
go learn to speak English. Hmm. Step one. Then imagine
a world where you go, I'm going to go and
learn from the world's greatest marketing and sales person out
(18:22):
of the United States, how they became successful. Step number two. Yeah.
Then let's say you go, you know what I'm going
to do? I'm going to get his sales training program,
and I'm going to master every single sales module, and
I am going to be the perfect Italian Grant Cardone.
(18:43):
Step three. Step four is you start teaching other people
in Italy how to use Cardone. You and you're translating
it form. Yeah. But instead are you doing it with
one other person? Maybe you're doing it with 10 or
20 hmhm and step number 4 or 5 is then
you go to the businesses and you're like, hey, if
(19:05):
we could help sell more things for you, you can
outsource sales to me. And next thing you know, you
have businesses. Automotive repair. Pizzerias, coffee shops, doctors, opticians, hearing acoustics.
How do you say hearing acoustics?
S3 (19:26):
Good acoustics.
S4 (19:27):
So, so so.
S1 (19:28):
You know, all of a sudden, uh, rental car companies,
car sales companies. All of a sudden you have a
salesperson you've trained and you're in ten, 20, 30, 40, 50, 60, 70, 80, 90,
100 companies and you make a millions of dollars a year.
It all started with a thought that you're going to
learn English. Yeah, you're going to master sales. You're going
(19:52):
to teach others to do what you learn to do.
None of that required a whole bunch of money. It
just required time.
S2 (19:58):
And action.
S1 (19:59):
And then action. But the action followed the intention. I'm
going to learn to speak English. I'm going to learn
to speak English. I'm going to learn to master Grant
Cardone process. I'm going to learn to teach other people
to do it. I'm going to go to other businesses
and help them create more sales. And I'm going to
create a team of 100 people doing it, and I'm
going to have a $100 million or $50 million, $20
million company. And then for companies that I find that
(20:23):
are underperforming with business owners that want to retire, I'm
going to buy their businesses. And then the next iteration
is one day you wake up and you've got 30
different companies with phenomenal salespeople in them, and all those
businesses are bigger than they've ever been. And you have
a portfolio of $1 billion of businesses, and someone comes
along and says, man, you are so lucky.
S2 (20:44):
You're so lucky because you are not in Italy, right?
They see you are not in Italy, but you could.
S1 (20:49):
Do all that right in.
S3 (20:49):
Italy. Yeah, yeah.
S1 (20:51):
And I've seen people do it.
S3 (20:52):
Yeah.
S1 (20:53):
So I've been involved with, I don't know, $50 million
of acquisitions in Italy. Well so, so, so, so you
cannot tell me there aren't companies, corporations, there are public
companies in Italy that would love to have remarkable salespeople.
I know for a fact amplify. And if somebody went
in to amplify and showed amplify and I can reach
(21:15):
out to more hearing aid, people around the world get
you better deals, get you better pricing, get you bigger
companies teach people how to sell. They'd be like. Thank
you that this person fell into my business, I. So?
So nobody can tell me there's not an opportunity anywhere
in the world to improve whatever they've got going on.
S2 (21:35):
And what do you say to people that want to
do all this? But all the people around are telling
them not not to say that.
S3 (21:43):
People will.
S1 (21:44):
Always tell you not to say it because they don't want.
S3 (21:46):
To do it. Yeah.
S1 (21:49):
Yeah, I'm going to tell you don't do that. Because
then if you do it and you succeed, I gotta
live with the fact that I was unwilling to.
S2 (21:55):
Do because they quit and they have to find an excuse, right? Yeah. Yeah.
Is that. That's great. So another question that initially a
lot of people, even with a company, uh, tell to
people that are successful. Right. Why don't you stop. You
have money, you have money, you have a private jet, right?
Private jet. You have, uh, watches. Here we go. Yeah.
(22:19):
Do you share this one with Grant or you have. No, no.
S1 (22:21):
He has his own. He. He has a bigger one,
a bigger one.
S2 (22:24):
You will beat him, right?
S3 (22:26):
No, I.
S1 (22:26):
Mean, I get to share with him, you know, this
is the value of having partners. Yeah. When we went
to Europe, we took his plane and Elena's. The value
of having partnership is when his plane goes into the
shop and he doesn't have a plane, he uses my plane.
S3 (22:39):
Yeah.
S1 (22:40):
Uh, my wife is coming. Coming flying home right now.
And she's on Grant and Elena's helicopter.
S3 (22:46):
Well.
S1 (22:47):
Um, so when you have partners.
S2 (22:49):
To giants like.
S1 (22:50):
And I want Grant to have bigger things because it
inspires me to do bigger.
S2 (22:55):
Yeah. Oh that's great. And so why don't you stop?
This is a challenge question for because I love.
S1 (23:01):
Because I love meeting people like you. To be honest,
I love I love helping, I love watching success. I
just like we talked about with soccer, if you didn't
have a if you didn't have goals, yeah, there'd be
no purpose for the game.
S3 (23:16):
Yeah.
S2 (23:16):
You're dead right.
S1 (23:17):
You're dead. You're just just boring. Right. And and so
to me, the score sure. Part of the score is
how good I am. But what's really fun with the
score is how many other people can I get to
score well? And and because I have a talent, I
have a responsibility to share. And because I love people,
(23:40):
I want to see them succeed. And because I'm smart
about how I make money helping other people make money.
I win when they win. They win when I win.
And and I think that's the most beautiful. Thing about
business is if you create a business system where everyone's
winning together, then it's a lot more fun. You know,
(24:02):
I think about when we were in Italy. Yeah.
S2 (24:04):
And you were just for the sake of, uh, make
people know, uh, you were in Italy like, three weeks ago. One.
S1 (24:12):
So we were there in June for for a week. Yeah.
And then we went back in, uh, uh, August for
a week. Yeah. And we were down Amalfi.
S3 (24:20):
It was vacation, right.
S2 (24:21):
You were with, uh, the Maxwell.
S1 (24:23):
Um, it was it was a it was vacation, but
with Andrea Bocelli. Maxwell. It's something I do. I've done
every year for ten years to support the Andrea Bocelli Foundation. Wow. Congrats.
And and so, um, and so we were down there and,
and we had a lot of friends there as well.
So it it's an event. We do. And I took
(24:44):
Grant with Grant and Elena with us to introduce them
to all of our friends. And uh, we were we
were in Capri, um, on the first trip and on
the second trip and the first trip, we were on
a 207 foot yacht. And, you know, we were anchored
and and that was a big yacht, but we were
surrounded by bigger yachts. And it's. So you can either
(25:10):
look at those big yachts and be like, oh, nobody
needs that. Or you can look at them and go, man,
I really want to work hard enough to be able
to do that. Yeah. I think being around success is
so inspirational when I think of Italy, Italy surrounded with
constant success. But instead of viewing it saying, I'm not
entitled to that or I shouldn't want that or people
(25:33):
don't need that. If you change your thinking to how
do I put myself in a position? To choose to
have something like that. It forces you to ask questions like,
what am I doing every day? Am I maximizing my
potential and my being creative enough? And I think the
opportunity you have with us to to to put Grant
(25:53):
Cardone and Brandon Dawson into Italy is I 100% know,
based on my own international and global work, that there
are a percentage of people that when you invite them
to take charge in their life and you're willing to
show and help them do it, they want it.
S3 (26:14):
Yeah.
S1 (26:15):
And I believe we can create an army of people
who want it in Italy. Have fun watching people succeed
and provide value into the communities they live in.
S2 (26:28):
Well that's great. And could you talk about, uh, um, how, uh,
did you or do you usually, uh, constantly. You and
Grant Cardone improve each other because you were talking about that,
like this morning, I guess.
S3 (26:41):
So yesterday. Yeah.
S1 (26:42):
I, you know, I admire him so much, right? Yeah.
And and we're very competitive. We're we're very similar in
some ways and we're different in others. And so when I'm,
when he's thinking here, I realize I was here when
I go, you know what, if you're going to be
thinking here, I'm going to think up here. He's like,
you know what? If you're thinking here, I'm going to
think up here. And and instead of working against each other,
(27:06):
we sit down together and figure out how do we
do it, what do we need to do? Who do
we need to do it with? How do we need
to do it? We're always having that conversation. Grant, Elena,
Natalie and I, we sit when we're on, on our
trips at least one hour every day with a notepad
and say. How can we get bigger? What more could
we do? What does it look like in ten years
(27:28):
from now? What would we be doing? What would we
be saying? Who would we be talking to? And we
write it all down. And then we ask ourselves, when
we come out of that, who can we call? Who
can we meet right now to start that process?
S2 (27:40):
Well that's.
S3 (27:41):
Great. And this is.
S1 (27:42):
What we do with each other. And this is why
they're such great mentors, but also great business partners. And
it gives me somebody to compete against because I love
the competition. Yeah.
S2 (27:52):
It's like I do CrossFit, right? Yeah. And when you
have a body with the you train with you, you.
S3 (27:58):
Push harder, you.
S2 (27:59):
Push harder a lot harder. Right. So that's great. You
are like two giants that are multiplying their, their capability. Right. Uh,
one thing I wanted to ask you, because this is
a thing that we lack in Italy, uh, how important
is to have a mentor? I mean, you had, like
you said this morning, like 1012. Mentor one is John Maxwell.
(28:20):
I guess how important it is and why you should
have a mentor.
S1 (28:25):
Yes, very important in my 12 mentors weren't all at
the same time that it evolved. It changed as I
realized I had gaps in my life I found a
mentor to.
S3 (28:33):
Yeah.
S2 (28:34):
Usually you focus on one mentor. Yeah.
S3 (28:36):
Yeah, because.
S1 (28:36):
You got to master what you tried to do ten things.
You can't. You can't master it. So leadership, John Maxwell,
operations Jim Collins process, Michael Gerber cash flow and business
building Sharon Lecter like I like I can pin Hector
Lamarck mindset doctor Robert Anthony. Right? I know what I'm
(28:58):
learning and who I'm learning from. Grant Cardone thinking bigger
and doing more tenax. Um, and so what's important is
if you're just kind of drifting around and you're not
trying to level up, you're not being intentional about where
you want to go. So you remember the law of attraction, intention, action, traction.
So if I want to become a great leader, that's
(29:19):
my intention. Then the action is who should I learn from? Well,
why don't why don't learn from the world's greatest John
Maxwell and then and then attract. All of a sudden
I get followers because I'm teaching what I learned based
on what I did. So you just got to, like, pick,
like if I wanted to be the best. At making pizzas.
(29:42):
I would go into Milan and I would ask as
many people as possible, where is the best pizza in Milan?
Who absolutely makes the best pizza in Milan? And I
would go to that pizzeria and I'd say, I'm from America.
You don't know me. I'm committed to staying in Milan
as long as I have to. Until you sign off
(30:02):
to say I have learned to make pizza as good
as you. And then I'm going to go open pizzerias
in the United States, and I'm going to make you
a 5050 partner for teaching me well. That's how you learn.
You give something back in exchange and, and, and all
of a sudden you take and create an opportunity, which
is what you're doing. You're here and you're going to
(30:24):
take us back there.
S3 (30:25):
Yeah.
S2 (30:26):
And listen, um, this is amazing. Amazing. Um, which, ah,
which is the moment that you realize that, uh, you
should have a mentor just to continue the conversation.
S1 (30:38):
Well, in reflection, I had more mentors than I thought
I had, I didn't know.
S3 (30:44):
Yeah.
S1 (30:45):
To call my mentor. I just knew I was learning
from him, and, and and I think most people, when
they think back to some of the most important people
in their life, they didn't know what word to put
to it. But mentors are good word. But once you
realize you can pick your mentors intentionally based on what
you want to learn. Then anybody that's an example to
(31:08):
what you want to do can become a mentor. The
question you have to ask yourself is, what do I
give to a mentor to teach me?
S3 (31:15):
Hmm.
S1 (31:16):
Because if they're already successful, they're busy.
S2 (31:19):
So you pay for them either or you.
S1 (31:22):
You can or you can read their books.
S3 (31:24):
Yeah.
S1 (31:25):
You know, John Maxwell put books out. I read all
his books before I ever met him. He was a
mentor to me, even though I'd never personally met him.
S3 (31:34):
Yeah, but when I.
S1 (31:35):
Met him, I knew his work so well. I made
him interested in what I was doing. And then we
became friends. And then we started working together. And now
we're friends that work together and love each other. We're family.
That that's the evolution of the opportunity for a mentor.
S3 (31:52):
Okay.
S2 (31:53):
So we are talking about, uh, we talked about, uh, like, uh,
billions right this moment, but you started from zero. Uh,
so what would you say will be the first, like
five steps? 3 to 5 steps for someone that is
starting from zero to not maybe, uh, collect cash from investors, um,
(32:14):
to be desirable or, uh, yeah, to auto finance their activity.
S1 (32:19):
You know, uh. 50 years ago. There was a husband
and wife in Milan, and they opened a hearing aid
office and they sold hearing aids to people in Milan.
(32:42):
And they became successful because they were good at it.
And then they open another office, and they use the
cash flow from the one office to open the next office.
And then they did it again. And they did it again.
They did it again.
S3 (33:00):
And they did it again.
S1 (33:02):
And then one day they were the largest retailer of
hearing aids in Italy. And then they realize they're buying
all this specialty equipment to do hearing aids sales. So
they started manufacturing their own specialty testing equipment. And that
(33:22):
was called and played. The hearing aid retailer was called
amplify and. And they launched Ambulate, which was medical equipment
for testing hearing aid, and they realized if they needed
it for them, maybe the rest of the world needs it.
So they started selling amplified hearing testing equipment all over
(33:44):
the world. And then they started buying hearing aid offices
in other countries. And now they're the largest retailer of
hearing aids in the globe.
S3 (33:55):
Where's my.
S1 (33:55):
Phone? I don't have it. And I think they have, uh,
their stock in 2005, their stock was $3 a share.
I think they had, uh, 250, $300 million valuation. And
today their stock, I believe, is 30 something dollars a share,
and they're worth billions of dollars. Well, um. But it
(34:20):
all started with a husband and wife. Selling hearing aids
in a little office.
S5 (34:26):
An amplifier.
S1 (34:28):
Named amplifier. So? So things always start somewhere. And if
you're successful, they generate the resources to start the next
one and the next one and the next one. But
you know, I wonder what would have happen.
S3 (34:45):
If.
S1 (34:47):
That husband and wife. Never decided to open the second shop. Hmm.
S2 (34:54):
Like a lot of people does.
S1 (34:56):
Right. Because they were comfortable with one. Yeah. So, you know,
I'm a big Ferrari fan. I own multiple Ferraris.
S2 (35:04):
All my own Ferrari.
S1 (35:05):
Well, I've had three at once, but right now it's two.
S2 (35:09):
And you have also other kind of, uh. I've got vehicles.
S3 (35:13):
I've got a couple Lamborghinis. Yeah. Uh, I have a.
S1 (35:17):
Whole bunch of cars. Yeah.
S2 (35:18):
I see on, uh, on this Rolls-Royce Bentleys.
S3 (35:21):
Yeah.
S1 (35:21):
I'm a I'm a.
S3 (35:22):
Big car guy.
S2 (35:23):
Was yours. The Bentley that was parked, uh, right here
was yours, my beautiful.
S3 (35:28):
One.
S1 (35:29):
And and I have a 1967 Eleanor Mustang.
S3 (35:33):
Um.
S1 (35:34):
Uh, some beautiful cars. But I think back to, uh,
Enzo Ferrari and everything he went through to create one
of the biggest brands in the world. Right. Started out
with a passion for cars. And so, you know, there's
a lot of big companies that have come out of
Italy because somebody was passionate and committed to building something.
(35:57):
So you ask me about starting a business, you just start.
And you create value. And when you create value. The
algorithm for success is start. Duplicate multiply.
S2 (36:17):
And why some people, um. What do you think? Why
some people? Which is the reason why someone a lot
of people actually stop. To the first success.
S1 (36:29):
Because they never believe they're going to get that. Their
intention wasn't to get big. It was just to to
to their intention might have been to just be independent
or why?
S3 (36:38):
Because they chose to stop.
S2 (36:43):
Maybe where probably.
S1 (36:45):
The way they were raised or it's, it's it's their
comfort level.
S3 (36:48):
Yeah.
S1 (36:49):
Like a lot of people stop because they're comfortable because
they want to control.
S2 (36:52):
Yeah, they feel good right there. But they stop and
they aren't satisfied by their life. Right. And then they
complain because if you stop, you get back. Right.
S1 (37:04):
So let me just tell you this, this is generally
all over the world. I found this all over the world. Fear.
And then you can translate this in Italian. Yeah. Beer
is a bigger motivator and motivator.
S2 (37:20):
Piu grande.
S1 (37:21):
Then opportunity.
S2 (37:23):
The opportunity because fear, fear of loss is, is greater
in our mind right, than the the things that we
could achieve, right. There's a say that uh, a story
that one mentor a previous method that I had I
which I really, really appreciate him for the results that
I got at the beginning. Uh, it was telling us
(37:44):
always this story because it is a marketing genius. Right.
And he was telling us, uh, um, if you imagine
you are sleeping right now, it's 3:00 in the morning
and someone knock on your door and you wonder and say, oh,
there are four. Um, I call the, uh. Oh, yeah.
(38:07):
There are four ways that the market for a discount
of 50% discount. Uh, go there. You take him like
for crazy. Yeah. You are crazy. Well, why you are, uh,
waking me up in the morning, right? But if you
are 3:00 in the morning, someone knock on the door, and, uh,
is your, uh, neighbor and say you. Oh, they are
stealing all your will. You are. You are losing something, right?
(38:31):
This morning, for example, I, I wanted to to buy, um,
Rolex here in Milan. Uh, in Miami because in Milan
we can find them at, uh, at the price, at
the retail price. So I went there. Uh, I saw that, uh,
last night when they were closing, and I wanted I,
I didn't mean to buy that this morning. This, uh, night,
(38:53):
I thought about. Oh, my. It's good. It's right. I
can do that. Because with the cashier serves as a
you you, uh, teacher. I can do that. And so
in the morning, I come to your meeting and, uh,
I say, okay, I send my video maker to to
take the, um, the Rolex with my card. They don't
take the card because it's the first Rolex I buy
(39:15):
at a retail price. Right? I go, there you go,
there he goes there. And they say with, uh, with
without an ID and the real person, you can buy that.
I go there when the meeting was over for the
lunch and, uh, it was gone, they sold it and
it was like I lost it. It was not anything,
but I felt I didn't think about that before to
(39:37):
come in Miami and even before yesterday or night. Right.
And this morning it was like, oh no, it was
like a my leg. They cut my leg.
S3 (39:45):
Right.
S1 (39:46):
I know I went over and bought it and I
have it in my office for $20,000 more.
S3 (39:51):
Yeah. Just kidding.
S2 (39:53):
You stole you stole my, uh, 20,000 more for 40
K from your. I will buy that because. Because you
own that. Yeah. Yeah, yeah. That's great. So, uh, uh,
talking about those shiny objects, right? Um, what do you say?
When do you say, uh, people with a company should
buy them? Because sometimes when you.
S3 (40:14):
Yeah.
S1 (40:14):
So this is what we say, right? The rules of investing. Yeah.
S3 (40:17):
Okay.
S2 (40:18):
Interesting topic in Italy.
S1 (40:20):
First, invest in yourself in your development.
S3 (40:25):
Yeah.
S1 (40:25):
Not in you having fancy things.
S3 (40:27):
Yeah.
S1 (40:29):
Second, invest in the thing that generates the income, the resource. Third,
when you have excess capital, invest in something that's going
to produce. Passive income.
S3 (40:44):
Then.
S1 (40:45):
When you're producing more passive income than you earn. Buy
whatever you want.
S2 (40:52):
Well. That's great. Can I ask you, uh, which kind
of passive income do you have? Because I know Grant
does a lot of stuff with, uh, real estate. Uh,
I think you are investing with him.
S3 (41:02):
I guess I'm.
S1 (41:03):
Outside of Grant. I'm the second largest investor in Cardone Capital. Oh, well. Yeah.
So Grant first, me second.
S2 (41:09):
So you you go in with him or you diversify,
you know?
S3 (41:12):
Uh, before.
S1 (41:13):
I met Grant, I also invest in many storages. I've
been doing that for 22 years. I invest in oil
and gas resources. Uh, I invest in in warehouses, uh,
medical buildings. Um, so my passive income, uh, right now
(41:34):
is probably $3 million a year. Just straight passive.
S3 (41:38):
Well.
S1 (41:39):
Um, and my active income is is about $22 million
a year. So I make about $25 million a year.
My goal is for my passive income to be 25
million a year.
S2 (41:54):
And then which is, uh, which will be the next step?
S3 (41:58):
Um.
S1 (41:59):
Well, when my passive income is $25 million a year,
I expect my active income to be $250 million a year.
S2 (42:07):
Because you guys always say, uh, you have to wait.
You have to push till you, your passive income, uh,
to reach the the active one. Right. But it doesn't
it doesn't happen, right?
S3 (42:20):
It does.
S1 (42:20):
You just keep playing that game. Yeah. That's a target.
So I want my passive income to be 10% of
my active income. If I keep raising my active income,
I have to be strategic about where I'm investing for
my passive income. Well, but then I live off my
passive income. Yeah. That way all my active income can
(42:41):
get reinvested.
S2 (42:43):
Let's see. Yeah. Just because you don't want to keep
money stable, right? You have to invest.
S3 (42:49):
Money means to keep.
S1 (42:50):
It means to make money. The purpose of money is
to make you more money.
S3 (42:53):
Yeah.
S2 (42:53):
That's great. How much time do you have?
S3 (42:58):
What time is.
S2 (42:58):
It? Uh, five to.
S3 (43:01):
Yeah.
S1 (43:01):
So I think I need to go next door at
three or.
S3 (43:03):
Yeah. Okay.
S2 (43:04):
So that's, uh.
S3 (43:05):
That's just a couple more. Yeah. Good.
S6 (43:09):
But you better also. See. Okay. Now imagine that. Well,
you know, studio version studio.
S7 (43:22):
Am I gonna see?
S2 (43:25):
Okay. Uh, another question that, uh, Italian people always ask
to successful people. Um, which is your routine? I mean,
when do you get up? When do you go to bed?
What do you.
S3 (43:35):
Do? Yeah. So.
S1 (43:36):
So my wife gets up really super early in the morning.
I get up later, I stay up really super late.
She goes.
S3 (43:42):
To bed.
S2 (43:42):
What time? What time?
S3 (43:43):
More or less.
S1 (43:44):
Uh, I'm usually midnight.
S3 (43:46):
Midnight? She goes to.
S1 (43:46):
Bed at 930. She gets up at six, maybe 530. Uh,
I get up at 730 to 830.
S3 (43:56):
Yeah. Um.
S1 (43:58):
But once I'm up, I'm just like.
S3 (44:02):
You.
S1 (44:02):
Hammer all the way through. Like last night I went
to bed at the last three nights. I've gone to
bed at 1030, and I didn't even get home till
1015 because I was at dinner with people. Yeah, like, I,
I do the, I do the dinners with clients, dinners
with prospective partners, dinner. You know, I do like the
whole day through evening. She does the early morning to
(44:26):
evening because she operates the companies and I build them.
S2 (44:31):
Well that's great. Just I ask you, just because we
are curious, which are the routines which are there? Yeah, sure.
I mean.
S1 (44:38):
You know, I work out occasionally, I try to I
do intermittent fasting. Uh, I have a red light therapy setup.
So when I'm back in Washington or back in, uh, Scottsdale,
I'll do my red light therapy. And, you know, I
like my massages. Yeah. You know, because I'm up on
my feet all the time, and and so my probably
my favorite routine, though, is when I'm on my airplane,
(45:00):
and that's where I, I just. I go into my
state of future.
S3 (45:06):
Yeah.
S1 (45:07):
I see myself in the future. I can spend hours
living ten years out.
S3 (45:12):
Wow.
S1 (45:13):
And just feeling it. And what conversations and the kind
of people I'm with and what we're talking about and
what we're doing. And then when I, when I come back,
I start writing all that down.
S3 (45:23):
Yeah.
S2 (45:23):
I was asking you that. So, so so every morning
you write down your goals.
S3 (45:27):
I don't need to do it.
S1 (45:28):
Every morning I do it. I my goals are so solidified.
Yeah that I my goals are now intention statements. Yeah.
So instead of writing a goal down I want to
do this. It's my intention to. And my intention statements
are not changing. So I have a list in my
book of my intention statement. So when you go into
my book, you'll be able to to to see what
(45:51):
my intention statements are. So intention statements are bigger than goals.
S2 (45:55):
Well because they are right now so strongly you did
this exercise so, so much that uh, in the years
or um, right now is so solidified in your head. Right?
S1 (46:07):
Yeah. It's like when I'm on the board and I go,
we did this revenue, this revenue, this revenue, this revenue,
this I have my revenue planned out every single year
until I get to $1 billion. Yeah. So I don't
need to write. My goal down is to generate 10%
more sales. Screw that. I'm doubling. Well, my goal is
to double every two years. Double double double double like like, uh,
(46:27):
you know, I, I don't need to.
S3 (46:29):
And you.
S2 (46:29):
You you've done that. We talked about that like a
few minutes ago with the new company that you you
run with the Grant Cardone. Right. So you started from
zero one year. You were like 6 million.
S3 (46:40):
No, I.
S1 (46:41):
First first few months, I did a couple.
S3 (46:43):
Million, couple million. Okay. Then I did.
S1 (46:45):
Uh, 14.
S3 (46:46):
Million in the second year, then.
S1 (46:47):
38 million, 83,000,135 million.
S3 (46:51):
In.
S2 (46:51):
In four years. Amazing, amazing. We'll talk just two seconds
about your book.
S3 (46:56):
Yeah.
S1 (46:57):
The nine figure mindset. I mean, this really it's universal. Yeah. Um,
I think that the the truth is this book right here, um.
And feel free to translate it for people at home.
Like like this book is about how to. Move to
the things that you have decided you want. Yeah. And
(47:20):
that's really what this book is about. And for it
could be different things for different people. But the point is,
once you learn how to do it, it doesn't matter
if it's personal, professional or financial, you learn the skill
to do it. You program your mindset to do it.
You do.
S2 (47:34):
It. And you're taught.
S3 (47:35):
That.
S2 (47:35):
Yeah, wonderful. Can I get one copy before you release that?
S3 (47:38):
Uh, yeah.
S1 (47:39):
I'm sure we have some free copies.
S3 (47:41):
Wow.
S2 (47:41):
That's great. That's great. Thanks so much. One last question,
because we ran the one person podcast in Italy. Uh,
we call that, uh, because, uh, you guys are 1%. And, uh,
what do you think? What do you say? Uh, what
does it mean to be in 1% for you to
be part of the 1%?
S1 (48:01):
Uh, to be part of the 1%. It's it. It
means you can help 99%. You have so much opportunity
to help other people. If you're in the 1% category,
that means everything that you've done. You can teach to 99%.
That tells me how much opportunity there is to help
people in this world.
S3 (48:22):
Well, if.
S1 (48:23):
I was in the 10%, I'd only be able to
help 90%. If I was in the bottom 30%, I'd
only be able to help. Yeah, 30%.
S2 (48:30):
Is the capacity you have.
S3 (48:31):
Right? Yeah. If I'm in the.
S1 (48:32):
Top 1%, I have almost 100% of people I can help. So.
So instead of viewing it that, oh, I'm in the elite,
it's like I have worked so hard to get where
I'm at that I know I can help 99% of
anybody who wants to work with me, and that just
(48:52):
gives me unbelievable enthusiasm, excitement and energy that I can
go out and help 99% of the world.
S2 (49:02):
I think it is the best answer I got. You know, episodes,
of course, of, uh, this podcast. I think that's the
best way I think I'm I would be wrong. Um,
I wrote down that. I think I'll write down that
and I put on my walls on the, on our
offices was because really, really, uh, you quote the as
(49:25):
I expected that you, you quote the real excess of 1%. Yeah.
S1 (49:28):
And you translate it, you talk about it and you
send me something in Italian that I can put on
my wall. Yeah. That's my quote that.
S3 (49:35):
You've.
S1 (49:36):
Produced. My quote.
S3 (49:38):
Yeah.
S2 (49:38):
We send you when we're back to Italy. Let's do it.
That's great. Thanks so much. Brandon, to asked me here
because it's your studio. It's it's wonderful. You're my mentor.
I've been following you since two years. We grew a
lot because of you. Thanks so much. And we'll be
growing a lot in the next few years, because.
S3 (49:55):
I can't wait to.
S1 (49:55):
Do an event with you in.
S2 (49:56):
Italy. I just wrote a check yesterday for you. So perfect.
I'm with you. I'm with you, Justo.
S8 (50:02):
Correcto.
S3 (50:03):
Perfecto.
S2 (50:04):
The next time, uh, Brandon in Italy, uh, Lobato la
Porto davonte nostro client for pizza. Next time you will
be in Italy. I wrote the I'll write a text
to you and the UK in Italy to speak to
our clients would be amazing. Amazing.
S3 (50:19):
Thanks me to do it. Love it. All right.
S1 (50:21):
So this was another episode of building billions not only
in the United States, but around the world. I am
so excited to be able to start featuring people that
we work with from all over the world is especially Italy,
because it's I love Italy. So thank you for joining
me on another episode of Building Buildings.
S3 (50:39):
Was a pleasure.
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