Have you ever envisioned a life where your days are not dictated by the corporate grind, where your family adventures across the globe are not just a vacation but a lifestyle? Jamie Gruber did, and he made it a reality. As a guiding light within the GoBundance community, Jamie joins us to share his extraordinary leap from a secure corporate position to a life of autonomy and travel in the Dominican Republic. His journey is not merely about change; it's a profound lesson in the transformational power of mindset and the magnetic influence of a community that mirrors the future you seek.
Embarking on the multifaceted world of multifamily real estate, Jamie's story is one of organic growth and brand-building — from launching his own meetup group while still employed to podcast hosting and creating a nationwide chapter model. Our conversation traverses the challenges of scaling such a community-driven initiative, the importance of taking the first step, and the richness that comes from genuinely helping others. But beyond real estate, Jamie's tale dives into the creation of GoBundance's Emerge program and Partner Portal, nurturing the aspirations of budding achievers and fostering connections that catalyze both personal and professional growth.
As we navigate the nuances of Jamie's entrepreneurial voyage, we examine the intricacies of purchasing real estate in the Dominican Republic and his endeavors in podcasting and content production. His strategic approach to hosting a show, cultivating relationships with high-profile guests, and launching BGD Productions encapsulates the spirit of creativity and attention to detail pivotal in building successful ventures. Jamie's experiences not only serve as a roadmap for aspiring entrepreneurs but also as an inspiration to anyone daring to pursue a life beyond the conventional.
Reach out to Jamie
jamie@jamiegruber.com
Go Bundance Emerge
https://www.gobundanceemerge.com/
BGD Productions
https://bgdproductions.com/
Tony Johnson is a Commercial General Contractor. Timeless Properties Construction Co. has been in business since 2007. He does all things commercial. Developing, Building, Upfits, and Renovations for Retail, Office, Industrial, and Multi-family. Timeless Properties is licensed in North and South Carolina. Contact them today for your construction needs. www.timelesspropertiescc.com
info@timelesspropertiescc.com
Discovering his passion for construction when entering the industry over 20 years ago, Tony obtained his general contractor license and created Timeless Properties Construction Co in 2007. The company has performed an Proving that grit and passion can overcome any challenge, Timeless Properties Construction Co navigated the worst real estate collapse in our lifetimes under his leadership. Coming out of the recession Tony made sure he kept a strong focus on building relationships, quality work, honesty, and integrity. With over 160 million on construction volume to date Timeless Properties Construction Co has grown to an area leader of Commercial Construction in eastern North Carolina.
Tony launched Timeless Capital Investments LLC in 2022. This company was formed to create an avenue for partners to invest alongside Tony Johnson on commercial development and value add of existing commercial buildings. Tony aims to help fellow investors take part in profitable projects
To learn more about Tony Johnson and Timeless visit us at:
https://timelessci.com/
https://timelessco.com/
https://www.linkedin.com/in/tonytimeless/
If you would like to discuss investing in Commercial Properties create a profile and schedule a call:
https://timelessci.investnext.com/
Reach out to us directly at:
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Tony Johnson (00:00):
Welcome to another episode of Carolina Commercial
Real Estate Connection.
Today we have Jamie Gruber onwith us.
Jamie, thank you so much forjoining us today.
Thanks for having me, matt.
Good to see you.
Good to see you too, sir.
So, jamie, you've got a ton ofdifferent things I could bring
up to introduce you.
The main way I've met you isI've joined GoBundance over the
(00:22):
past six months and you are aleader in GoBundance up and
coming within the GoBundanceover the past six months, and
you are a leader in GoBundanceup and coming within the
GoBundance community, and I seeyou everywhere.
You make your way to events andeveryone seems to know you.
So you've gone around.
You're obviously inspirationalto many people.
So thank you for joining us.
Do you want to tell me anythingspecial about yourself or what
(00:42):
you've got going on these days?
Jamie Gruber (00:45):
Sure.
So I think the thing that'svery unique about me not very
unique but that a lot of peopleare drawn to and I've learned
this as I've shared my storyover the years is sort of being
this guy that went the tried andtrue path and climbed the
ladder corporate ladder, to getto a certain level 400 grand a
year, equity, the whole nine andthen just kind of quitting and
(01:10):
leaving, not having a wifethat's a doctor In fact she
doesn't work, she stayed home.
Mom, having a couple of kids,like all the circumstances that
feel like it's impossible to getout of a high paying job when
you're the breadwinner.
I actually did it.
I it's crazy to think about now, but I actually did it.
And then to double down on that, making a move out of country
to the Dominican Republic, wherewe live now in Punta Cana, just
because we could People likewell, why there?
(01:31):
Well, my wife's from hereoriginally.
So that gave us incentive tochoose this country to start.
But my entire vision thatanchored me in on the idea of
maybe quitting this big job oneday was man, I want the
flexibility to travel three plusmonths with my family anywhere
in the world.
So we ended up coming down herefor a year, ended up staying
past a year, and now we'retalking about more of an
(01:52):
indefinite stay, as we've sortof fallen in love with some of
the features of this countrythat we believe are better than
the US.
For us right now and you justsaid it, man normal to do what
(02:21):
I'm doing right now being aroundother guys where, yeah,
everybody does that, you knowwhereas my, my friends at work,
this was like an impossibility.
It was a big, crazy, stupiddream, irresponsible even so,
just getting around other peoplethat represent who you're
becoming it just it changedeverything for me.
Tony Johnson (02:40):
That's.
There's a ton of tidbits justin there.
Yeah, let's break it down we'regoing to talk about but, yeah,
that's fantastic.
Yeah, it really starts withthat change in mindset, and it
sounds like your change inmindset was, yeah, taking all of
the self-doubt and the doubtersaround you in taking that leap
of faith from the 400,000 a yearafter you climbed the corporate
(03:03):
ladder.
Now, for those that don't know,how long ago was that leap?
What's the timeline on that?
Jamie Gruber (03:09):
Three years ago.
So, as we record, it was March,april of 2021.
So we're recording, you know,late winter, early spring of
2024.
So about three years ago.
Tony Johnson (03:20):
Now.
So just so, from what Iunderstand and I just want to
make sure I'm correct on this,because we haven't spoken a ton
I've met you just a few times inpassing.
Very nice guy.
It's hard to catch yourattention because 15 people are
grabbing on you all the timewhen you're around.
So that's okay, perfectly fine.
So, as far as I understand it,you had a group called
(03:44):
Multifamily and More.
Am I correct on that?
Yeah, okay, so that you startedthat while you were still in
your corporate career, is thatright?
Jamie Gruber (03:53):
Yeah, okay.
Tony Johnson (03:54):
So could you give us a little background on that?
So you were in your corporatecareer and that was your first
kind of dive in on creatingsomething where you were out
there, right?
Jamie Gruber (04:04):
A hundred percent.
I love this.
Yeah, so go ahead.
Did you have a follow-upquestion?
Do you want me to kind ofdissect?
Tony Johnson (04:09):
My question was can you walk me through the
creation of the multifamily andmore and kind of how that
sparked everything for you?
Jamie Gruber (04:16):
100%.
Yeah, I love this.
So I make this declaration thatyou know what I'm going to quit
my job one day here, soon andagain.
The anchor was the visiontravel three plus months with my
family anywhere in the world.
So I had that really, reallypresent in front of mine and it
was what kept me going initially, when things seemed bleak.
So I had a small single familyportfolio, two duplexes and a
(04:39):
single family property Kind ofgot into it when I had the
initial idea of, like, I want toleave my job, I don't know what
to do.
Let me go buy some real estate.
Hadn't made enough money, sobird a couple of properties and
had a single family as well.
And it was hard.
It was too.
You know.
I closed on those two duplexesat the same time.
It was two tax bills, twoclosing documents, two mortgages
.
It was just a.
That's insane.
So, whatever got my head around,it met a guy that I ended up
(05:12):
partnering with and we startedsaying, okay, we both had I
think we both had five singlefamily units and we're like
great, we can leverage thisexperience, go to brokers and
present ourselves as wanting tobuy certain types of multifamily
property.
So we put together a pitch deck, a buy box, all of this stuff
really, really well organizedand we start meeting with
brokers.
That's what you're supposed todo in the commercial multifamily
(05:32):
space.
And then we realized veryquickly that, even though we had
a portfolio in the commercialworld, we were nothing.
So whatever we told the brokerwe wanted, they would send us
nothing like it.
And whatever we did get hadpassed through six, seven lists
of buyers that they had alreadybefore it got to us.
So we weren't being takenseriously and in my mind I
(05:53):
didn't know how.
It's almost chicken and egg.
In order to become a priority toa commercial broker, you have
to have closed on something inthe commercial real estate space
, but in order to close in thecommercial real estate space,
you've got to have a brokerwilling to send you stuff.
And it's like, well, how are wegoing to do this?
So because we weren't gettingthe attention of the brokers, we
said you know what?
We have to become more of aface in the multifamily space,
(06:14):
and this was in Michigan at thetime.
So we created a meetup.
We called it Multifamily andMore, and it was born out of the
idea that one, we'd have abrand in multifamily, but two.
At the time there were nomultifamily REIA meetings.
Every REIA meeting I went to itwas flippers and wholesalers or
wannabe flippers andwholesalers, two, three ballers
(06:34):
and then maybe a multifamily guyor gal, maybe one.
So when we called itmultifamily and more, the idea
was, okay, either this hasn'tbeen done a multifamily specific
meetup or every time it's beentried it's failed.
So we're going to call itmultifamily and more.
So in case no one comes for themultifamily, well, we can talk
about more.
So that was the idea.
(06:56):
But when we had our firstmeeting, we just threw together
a meeting at like an insuranceoffice locally.
A friend's insurance agency hada conference room in it and we
put it out on meetupcom and like15 people showed up, all of
them for multifamily.
They wanted to either be in itor they were in it.
So it was like, okay, we'reonto something and that just
sort of grew.
Mind you, we had no multifamilyexperience at this point right,
(07:17):
all we had was some education.
We had learned how to analyze adeal.
So we just shared our journeywith the room and kind of create
a community around it, and thatbrand got us the recognition
and the partnerships to buydeals from that point forward.
So the idea of the brand wasreally how do we overcome or
circumvent brokers in our marketso that we can get attention
(07:40):
around buying multifamilyproperty, raise capital, meet
partners, whatever it might be,and it worked.
Tony Johnson (07:47):
That's amazing.
So this, this boils down tosomething that I think a lot
about, and you know it's just aquick analysis of something that
you're going through.
So everything starts with quickyou create the vision, right.
So then you create the goal ofwhat you're wanting.
Vision, right?
So then you create the goal ofwhat you're wanting, Then you
(08:08):
clarify that goal, change yourmindset around it and then you
take action.
And it's amazing what thingsspark out of these things.
So you just kind of envision itin your head.
You say like, yeah, we don'tknow anything, We've got a
little bit of education, Maybewe're listening to some podcasts
or whatever.
All of a sudden you turn fromsomething of nothing into
creating something and this hassparked that.
(08:28):
Really, that move in your life,if we would go back, is
probably what has sparked themomentum that has just continued
all the way forward to whereyou are now.
So you eliminate those limitingbeliefs off of the one step and
then it becribs the next stepand you keep on resetting those
goals.
So that is awesome.
So can you tell me and gothrough kind of, some of the
(08:50):
goals and mindsets that you setback then and where you are now
based on that?
Jamie Gruber (08:55):
Yeah, the goal was can we get deals, can we raise
capital?
That was really it.
We didn't have a specificnumber of deals or amount of
capital raised or whatever.
And very shortly I think twomonths after we started the
meetup we got our first dealunder contract from the meetup.
So a couple married couple hadan eight unit under contract.
The owner had two eight unitsthat were sort of non-contiguous
(09:15):
and they said, hey, if you guyswant to come on, then we can
get both eight units and putthis 16 unit portfolio together,
and that's what we did.
So the goal was to be able toget a deal, and we did.
Then, shortly after that, wehad a 22-unit that we were small
partners on in Cleveland with aperson that was running the
Cleveland chapter.
So our multifamily and morelittle Michigan meetup became a
(09:37):
chapter model after a while andso, yeah, so we were starting to
get deals.
The interesting thing for mepersonally was it was this
exploration that I think a lotof people that are in W-2s
especially are unwilling to do,me included because you get
afraid if you make the wrongdecision in whatever this side
hustle or plan is to get out ofyour job.
(09:57):
If you make the wrong decision,then, oh my God, I'm going to
be judged for that, I'm going tofail, and we just don't like
failure in W2 world.
So the lesson in it was I wentall in multifamily, that was my
thing.
I was okay, I'm going to be amultifamily investor and I
really love multifamily.
I still do some multifamilyinvesting today.
We could talk about that.
But the brand part, like bygoing out and creating a meetup
(10:21):
off of the multifamily going outand creating a meetup off of
the multifamily that was reallythe joy.
I really enjoyed theconversations around this, the
types of people that you meet,the mindset shifts that you had,
the community that you builtaround what real estate
investors typically are.
Most of us don't want to buyreal estate for the sake of
buying real estate.
There's a purpose involved init.
I want freedom, I want to beable to travel, I want to take
(10:42):
care of my family, I want tobuild wealth, whatever it might
be.
So for me, the lesson in thiswas wow, okay, without taking
step one, which is I'm going togo buy multifamily and I
pictured I'd have a hundreddoors and I would just be
operating my multifamily.
That was my image back then.
That was what I wanted to do.
But if I didn't go down thatpath and learn, like maybe
that's not quite what I quitewhat I want to do, like I want
(11:03):
to have multifamily representingmy portfolio and my wealth, but
my active work and what I lovedoing is brand podcast, all of
that Wouldn't have learned thatby not starting in multifamily
and then creating a meetup andthen getting to know that, wow,
you know, getting on podcast orwhatever is a lot of fun and I
enjoy that.
Tony Johnson (11:21):
All right.
Well, yeah, we got to get.
We got to get into how thattranspired.
So first going back real quick,so you brought up and I did
want to get in, so you got themultifamily and more and kind of
created a chapter model and itgrew beyond just your location.
So could you quickly kind ofjust overview how that happened
and how that grew?
Jamie Gruber (11:45):
you how that happened and how that grew.
When I so we started thismeetup, you know we would talk
about it, I would post it onsocial and friends would see it.
Go abundance members, people, Iwas at this point in the go
abundance community and be like,hey man, that's really cool.
Like I see this meetup thatyou're doing, like how'd you do
that?
And I got that question enoughtimes where I wrote it out, I
was like, let me just make asheet like a SOP, what platforms
to be on, how to start it, howto build it, whatever, just like
a two-page document, justbullets on a page, essentially,
(12:08):
and I would send it to them andmany of them would say this is
great.
Have you ever considered could Ijust call it multifamily and
more in my market?
I forget the first one, itmight've been Cleveland and I
was like you know what?
Yeah, why not, why not?
And again, completelydisorganized.
There was no contract signed,there was no nothing behind it.
Yeah, sure, cool, like this,we'll open a facebook group and,
(12:28):
and you know, this way we atleast own the facebook group uh,
you can have this process.
You'll call a multi-family andmore, we'll give you our
branding and, yeah, we got thischapter and that just kind of
went, you know, untamed.
We got like the 21 chapterslike, yeah, whoever wanted one
could have one kind of thing.
Um, so, yeah it, we startedhaving like chapter leader
meetings.
So we'd have like 20 peopleshow up on a call and I would
(12:50):
talk about things that I learnedin terms of facilitating the
meeting.
So it wasn't even aboutmultifamily, these leader
meetings.
It was how do you, how do youstructure an event?
Then COVID happened.
How do you structure a virtualevent?
What about this?
What about that happen?
How do you structure a virtualevent?
What about this?
What about that?
And we'd had kind of a centralmeeting, virtually before COVID
ever happened, for every memberof every community they could
come into.
We called it a virtualmastermind and then every
(13:12):
chapter would have their ownin-person meeting locally before
they had to pivot to virtual.
So yeah, we just sort ofexpanded.
It had no organization orstructure behind it to the point
where, flashing forward, whenwe finally got to a point where
it was like, okay, we couldprobably really structure this
and do something with it, I hadmoved on to other things,
honestly, and it was like youknow what Great learning.
(13:34):
It's too heavy, it feels tooheavy to unturn the grinding
wheels that are already in place.
Let's just set this down andmove on to the next thing.
Move on to the next thing withthe lessons that we took, or I
took, from multifamily and more.
But that's how it was just anorganic sort of like I really
like what you're doing.
How do I do it?
Okay, cool, I'd love to do itwith your support.
(13:55):
Can I do that?
By calling it my chapter,multifamily more.
And you're there to guide meand I said, yeah, sure, let's do
it, and kind of learned alongthe way.
Tony Johnson (14:02):
Me and I said, yeah, sure, let's do it, and
kind of learned along the way.
Yeah Well, you know, goodthings happen to those who are
good to others.
So obviously you know you'vegotten paid back tenfold for
doing that and helping others,um, mindless and, you know, with
no motivation behind it, justhelping others and leading
groups.
So that's great that you'vedone that.
So in this three year timeframeright, we're're talking April
(14:24):
2021 to now you're and I knowyou've been in DR, I think
you're on year two or almost atyear two.
You started for one year andnow you're at about a year or
two.
So this happened pretty quickly.
If we're backtracking for onlya three year backtrack, then
it's really one year in andyou're already.
You know you had clarified thatyou wanted to get out, get that
(14:51):
freedom and move to theDominican Republic.
Jamie Gruber (14:52):
What enacted and how?
How did you move so quickly onthat?
Every it's like an iceberg,right?
You see the ever see thoseimages of an iceberg and like
you see the tip of it, and thetip of it is the outcome.
But then underneath the surface, is the base of the iceberg,
most of the iceberg, and allthat happens.
All the foundation was set whileI had my job, and that's not
even intentionally trying toleverage my job.
But today, if you were to askme, what do you do?
(15:13):
So I have a podcast Tribe ofMillionaires that's growing and
become top 1%.
I have GoBundance Emerge, whichis my partnership with
GoBundance for, call it, futuremillionaires.
So for those that don't qualifyfor GoBundance men or women,
they can join GoBundance Emerge.
So I have that as a businessOff the podcast.
I created a production companyrecently and that's starting to
kind of spin up and it's a lotof fun to.
(15:39):
We're learning a lot, a lot offun to build that.
I've got the commercial realestate syndication business that
I'm partners with calledQuantum Capital.
Again, partners are allGoBundance people.
All of those things are what'shappening today.
Right, I'm probably missingsomething that I can't think of.
It's too many things, but most,if not all, of that was
formalized or the foundation was, while I had my job.
It was go try to buymultifamily.
That leads to multifamily andmore Multifamily and more starts
(16:01):
to get recognition as like aunique way to network and get
results in real estate.
So I was being platformed byconferences, podcasts, not on
multifamily per se, but how doyou network effectively in the
multifamily space?
That was kind of the niche Icarved out.
I kept being asked to come backand speak at these, speak at
these events, and thatculminated while I had my job
(16:21):
with Brandon Turner again a goabundance connection saying hey,
dude, you haven't been on thepodcast, like no, I thought you
had, let's get you on.
So that all happened late 2021.
I'm sorry, late 2020.
The episode releases early 2021.
Emerge had started right aroundthat time as well.
So all of this is happeningbefore I quit the job.
Once I quit the job, to behonest with you, in my mind it
(16:45):
took me a year, a year and ahalf, which was about how long
it was, before we moved downhere to just make sure I wasn't
going to go broke.
So it felt like for that year,year and a half, it was duck and
cover.
Okay, I don't want to doanything crazy right now because
I just left this job.
Am I going to have to go back?
Was that the right move?
(17:06):
Is this actually sustainable,like, are what I believe to be
the case of what's going tohappen?
Going to happen Is Emerge goingto grow?
All of that was the questions Iwas asking myself for a solid
year.
And then at that point, we saidyou know what we're actually
we're doing, ok, we can makethis move doing okay, we can
make this move.
Six months later, we made themove.
But yeah, it was, I think, onceyou make the leap.
(17:30):
Once I made the leap, it took ayear to really figure out a
cadence, a structure for my day,what I should be doing, what I
shouldn't be doing, who I needto hire if I can even afford to
hire anybody.
So, yeah, it's, I think, all ofwhat I'm doing today.
The foundation was built whileI had the W2.
And I'm I'm in a place now,honestly, three years later,
where I think it's like okay,now I have to think about what
is the next phase, what do Iwant next for my life?
(17:52):
What do I want to?
You know, what do?
I want to break and throw awaynow so that I can I can sort of
create the next level of success, whatever that means for me.
Tony Johnson (18:01):
So what does that look like for you?
What does that mean for you?
So what does that look?
Jamie Gruber (18:05):
like for you.
What does that mean for you?
Tony Johnson (18:05):
It's, it's what is your, what is your big, hairy,
audacious goal right now?
Jamie Gruber (18:10):
My bigger is to be a top 10 podcast in the world.
That's my number one, that's mytop, my top goal to do that.
To do that, I need to standeven more on my own two feet.
So I left my job yes, investingin multifamily and I had a
partner.
We've dissolved thatpartnership and I've sold my
active holding.
So I partnered up with thesyndication group, which is
great.
I'm very tied to GoBundance,which is awesome, meaning I have
(18:33):
a merge that pays me well and Ido some other stuff for
GoBundance that I'm able togenerate income from.
But my personal brand likestanding truly on my own two
feet at some point, I believe isthe next level.
So whether that's I didn't saytribe of millionaires
necessarily needs to be a top 10podcast, but I want to be a top
10 podcaster.
So is that what tribe ofmillionaires is with my own?
(18:54):
For me, it's like I went fromwithin the structure of W2 to
leaving and being anentrepreneur and partnering with
brands quantum, gobundance, soon and now it's can Jamie Gruber
, the brand, be just JamieGruber and earn income and build
wealth just by being on my own,without the need to be
partnered or the need to lean onany other brands.
(19:17):
That's for me the next step.
Tony Johnson (19:20):
So let me ask you this is your, I know.
The most recent thing you'vestarted is this um podcast thing
, right when you're doing uh,you're, you're helping other
people I think you know figureout how to get in the podcasting
world, and then you're workingon editing and helping.
Is that solely on your own?
Jamie Gruber (19:38):
Yeah, it is.
So the, the, the.
I partnered with a.
It's funny, I partnered with aguy that I used to work with and
, um, the objective for me is toget him out because he doesn't
want to be in his job either andhe's an amazing operator.
So, this guy, he does all thebackend.
That's a lesson from startingEmerge Like I was trying to do
it all.
I'm not good at it.
So, yeah, this is all on my own.
Um, gobundance is a client, soI host the GoBundance podcast
(20:02):
and GoBundance is a client thatpays my production company to
produce the podcast that I host,and then we produce for other
podcasts as well.
So, completely on my own.
That is the first truestandalone business that I've
started.
Tony Johnson (20:16):
Awesome, and that's been going on for it's
like six months.
Jamie Gruber (20:21):
Less yeah, about three or four months at this
point, three or four, okay, yeah, well, that's fantastic, all
right.
Tony Johnson (20:27):
And so the goal long-term is to be top 10
podcaster in the world.
So, based on you're doing theTribe of Millionaires now and
that is a top 1% podcast, wherewould we say that is in the top,
like thousand or how?
Jamie Gruber (20:40):
Oh, it's a great question.
I don't know, I don't know.
There's so many different cutsof that.
It's like entrepreneur podcast,self-improvement, top, this top
that We've been.
We've hit top like top hundred,I think, in entrepreneurship.
Once or twice I feel like wehit top 100 in self-improvement.
So the category matters and I'mlooking to be more globally top
(21:03):
10.
So, like Rogan Lex Friedman,school of Greatness, that kind
of level, what's his name?
Diary of a CEO, that sort ofthing that is hairy and
audacious Big hairy andaudacious.
Tony Johnson (21:15):
What is your timeline on this, Jamie?
What's your timeline?
Jamie Gruber (21:21):
I don't have one.
I actually learned to puttimelines down a little bit and
here's what I mean Like, do Iwant to do it in the next three
years?
Yes, I mean, sure that's to meis a reasonable amount of time
to achieve that with the rightfocus.
That said, I remember beingcoached by somebody and they
said hey, if you didn't achievethat goal in three years but you
did in four, do you consider ita failure?
I was like, oh no, they're likeokay, like timelines are good.
(21:42):
You should have something kindof a mindset around.
But you know, don't get solocked in that you know if
you're not right where you wantto be in two or three years.
Like you got to check progressand that's where I am right now.
Like I didn't.
I, you know, I, I my, my big,hairy, audacious goal is to be a
top 10 podcast.
I don't think I had that goal.
I know I didn't have that goalwhen I left.
I just wanted to be able toleave my job and move abroad and
(22:03):
we did that.
So did I think we could do itin a year, two, three.
I didn't really have a tighttimeline on it, but the fact
that we did it was like, wow,anything's possible, so why not
go for something even bigger now?
And the same thing.
What if I am top 20 in a yearor two, or top 50 in the world?
It's a pretty good life, likethat's I'd be.
I'd be solely podcasting, whichis the essence of it, right, I
(22:25):
would just all I would need todo is podcast.
I could earn income, whichwould allow me to do what I do
buy real estate, buy companies.
I can earn a significant incomeif I'm a top 50 podcast, right?
So top 10 isn't even like, if Idon't hit that, it's not
successful, but that's the aim.
I want to go as high as Ipossibly can.
That's awesome.
Okay, real quick on that.
(22:45):
Real quick on that.
I heard Grant Cardone tell youthat and his wife.
I interviewed both of them,grant and Elena, and they're
like we want to impact 8 billionpeople.
They're like there's no wayadage of if you shoot for the
moon and miss, you'll landamongst the stars, but they're
going to go for impacting everyhuman on the planet, which is
(23:06):
crazy.
And they know it's notachievable.
I don't think top 10% is not,or top 10 is not achievable.
I believe it's achievable.
It's going to take a lot ofwork and effort, obviously, but
if they can set the target at 8billion people, no excuse for me
not to set my target at top 10and then be honest with myself
If it's top 15 or 20 or 30 or 50, I'm still doing pretty well.
Tony Johnson (23:29):
Or if it takes 10 years instead of three, you're
still doing it, right.
Jamie Gruber (23:32):
I'm having a lot of fun doing it, so yeah, and
you're having a lot of fun doingit.
Tony Johnson (23:35):
So, all right, let's jump back.
I know because you're goingforward and I'm going to catch
you on some of your stuff alittle bit more.
So, going back, you were inMichigan and had the goal to
move to the DR, which a lot ofpeople have goals to do that or
get a second home or whatever,and a lot of them don't take
action.
So you actually took action,moving out of the country.
(23:56):
Now your wife is from the DR.
Jamie Gruber (24:02):
How many times had you been to the Dominican
Republic prior to doing that 30.
We've gone a bunch, yeah.
Tony Johnson (24:07):
Okay, you'd go quite a bit, all right.
So now, how is it different?
Getting a property in theDominican from the U?
S is what is the how would?
How would you get a loan onthat?
Do you even get a loan?
Is it all cash purchases whenyou're buying down there?
Jamie Gruber (24:22):
You can purchase cash.
That's the best way to do it.
It's.
It's very similar, um, the onlydifferent meaning mortgage
processes are very similar.
It's a little bit morepaperwork here, just by virtue
of the uh, of the uh, the, the Idon't know the.
The culture here is much morelike chill, you know, there's
not as much of a um, uh, of anorganization like.
(24:45):
They'll give you the list ofthings you need and then, once
you show up with the list ofthings you need, like, oh, you
also need this kind of come backand people here don't get mad
at that, right, like americansdo, like what the hell?
You gave me the list so verysimilar.
You can get loans 80, 20, uh,you know, 20% loan, that sort of
thing.
The differences are theinterest rate's a bit higher
depending on if you're buying indollars or pesos.
(25:06):
So if you're buying in dollars,probably you get 8%, 7% as a
loan rate, 30-year amortization,but there's typically a fixed
period and then it becomes it'salmost like an arm.
So it's typically like afive-year fixed period and then
it becomes variable after that.
So that's one, I guess twodifferences.
One is the percentage of theinterest rate is higher and the
(25:29):
interest rate becomes variableafter a certain amount of time.
The other thing here isconstruction.
So buying pre-constructionproperties is typically it's
something like $1,000 to hold it.
20% is due within 30 days oncethe purchase and sale is signed
and then the constructiontimeline is probably about two
years to build your unit, two tothree, and in that time you
(25:51):
have to pay another 30%.
So people will they would likeI'm buying a $200,000 property.
They'll put 40,000 down,essentially within 30 days, and
then $60,000 needs to be paidover the course of the
construction, say over two tothree years.
At that point you owe the other50%, which could mean you go
get a loan, a mortgage, and thatpays it, or you've got the cash
(26:12):
, the 100 grand, and you buy it.
So that's a little bit differentor unique.
What's surprising down here is,I think for most is the cost.
So we're looking right now tobuy a property in the community
that we live in and I mean toget anything under $700,000 is
nearly impossible.
It is impossible unless you'rebuying a complete gut job rehab.
(26:33):
So most people associatesomeplace like the Dominican
with like, ah, $30,000, you buya mansion?
No, not in the places you wantto live.
So that's a little unique ordifferent, or maybe a surprise
for some is how expensive realestate is down here.
Tony Johnson (26:47):
Yeah, I think we all missed the boat on that a
while back.
Now are you in the Puerto Plata, Punta Cana area.
Which side are you on?
Jamie Gruber (26:55):
Yeah, we're Punta Cana, so southeastern part of
the island Beautiful.
Tony Johnson (26:59):
That's amazing.
All right, okay, that's awesome.
Yeah, I think you know thesedays, you know you can look at
it in multiple fashions.
I'm really a believer at thispoint that I've got, you know,
four young children.
I would like to have dualcitizenship out of a different
country, just because I'm notpositive where the US is really
going these days.
(27:19):
So I think it's a fantasticidea for someone to do that
right now is get residency inanother country where, when you
don't know what's going on, youcan be able to move your
finances pretty easily and youcan get your family to another
country pretty easily if thingshit the fan.
100 percent.
Jamie Gruber (27:38):
That's the nice part.
My wife was born here,immigrated at 12.
So our kids got citizenshipwith like a couple of pieces of
paper.
I'm in the process of gettingcitizenship, but I completely
agree A second passport I mean,is the Dominican passport like
the most ideal one?
No, but it's a second passportand the easiest path for me is
to get a here, cause I'm marriedto a Dominican woman.
(28:01):
So an attorney signed somepaperwork I fingerprinted, sent
to the FBI so they can dobackground checks on me, send it
back here and you know, voila,I'm a citizen and I can get a
passport.
So, yeah, so right now I'mtechnically, I guess, an illegal
immigrant in the DominicanRepublic, but they don't really
disincentivize Americans,canadians, that sort of thing,
(28:22):
from living here for a while.
Tony Johnson (28:23):
So and just and so you can still, just to be clear
for anybody listen you canstill get these, the loans terms
you're talking about, whenyou're not a citizen, so it
doesn't have to be that yourwife is Dominican and that's why
you're getting these terms.
Jamie Gruber (28:37):
Anyone could get these terms right, anyone can,
and more than that.
Honestly, again, if you'rebuying in pesos, it's worse term
.
So, like US dollars, get youbetter terms.
So if you're from the US andthere's a lot of incentivizing
for investors to buy down here.
So just a couple of littlequick things about DR.
One is if you buy property inwhat they call the confotor zone
(28:57):
, that's an acronymC-O-N-F-O-T-U-R, c-o-n-f-o-t-u-r
, confotur.
Let me take it a step back.
If you went to buy a propertytoday, the way it works is it's
a 3% transfer tax on the priceof the property.
So you buy a $500,000 property,there's a $15,000 transfer tax
due upfront once you transferthe property and then you're
(29:18):
paying 1% annually for propertytax.
Above it's about 170,000.
So under 170,000 is tax-free,over 170,000 in value you pay
100%.
So in our example if it's500,000, you have a $370,000
amount that you have to paytaxes on.
1% is 3,700 bucks a year.
Not bad, you15,000 to get intoit.
(29:39):
You pay $300 a month in taxes,essentially to own this
half-million-dollar home.
But if you find a property in aconflator zone and there are
many, especially in the twoplaces you mentioned Punta Cana,
puerto Plata if you buy in theconflator zone, the transfer tax
is waived, so that 3% is waivedand your property tax is waived
for 15 years.
And if you buy this isimportant too if you buy that
(30:03):
inside of an LLC essentially Ithink a Dominican version of an
LLC then when you go to sell,whatever's remaining of your
exemption status transfers tothe new owner.
So it's a really great sellableproposition.
If in five years you want tosell to the next person, if it's
in your name, it's gone, theconfrator is gone.
That new person has to buy andpay the transfer tax and pay the
(30:25):
1%.
But if it's in an LLC and yousell it to the next seller, you
can say hey, you buy my property, you get the 10 years remaining
of no taxes essentially.
So there's some benefits tobuying and then buying in an LLC
so you can transfer that overif and if and when you decide to
sell it.
Tony Johnson (30:43):
That's awesome.
Yeah, that's great information.
Thanks so much for sharing.
Sure Me, I'm, I'm looking.
So that's good information forme personally.
So that's awesome.
All right, I want to jump in tosomething else now, outside of
this.
So within GoBundance youmentioned briefly you have been
(31:04):
leading and growing the Emergeside of GoBundance.
For those who don't know, couldyou briefly explain the Emerge,
what it means inside GoBundance, and kind of tell us your
background within the Emerge andhow you have grown it?
Jamie Gruber (31:15):
Sure, I joined GoBundance, so we have these
levels.
We have Elite and Champion.
Back then it was 1 to 5 millionElite, five to ten, five plus
million champion.
That's updated recently.
So I've been an elite memberfor about five years now.
At a certain point a couple ofyears ago it bumped to two
million for elite and 10 millionfor champion and I went to the
founders the elders, we callthem so goofy.
(31:36):
But I went to the founders atone point when, honestly, all of
this stuff in my life washappening.
I was building this multifamilyportfolio and my pod is holding
me accountable to bigger thingsand all of this stuff and I
said, guys, look, I've gottensuch value from this community.
What is the number one thingyou're working on right now?
They're like you know what?
We would love to have aGoBundance just like we have it
(31:56):
now elite, champion for peoplethat are not yet at that level
but structured the same way,looks the same way.
And they had the name Emerge.
That was not my name.
They came up with Emerge andthey said do you want to partner
on it?
I said, sure, I'll partner,I'll build it.
I'm an insurance executive andI'm going to build a mastermind.
So again, it's kind of takenthat leap.
So I go, I go in and I'mlooking at it.
(32:17):
You know we're at the time itwas like, well, how do we want
to structure this?
We did like a course and acommunity and we just sort of
tested it out and tried it andeverything.
This was in late 2020.
And the first 30 people thatjoined they were like we went
through the first three monthsas like our test phase and
they're like man, this has beenamazing.
They got connection toGoBundance Elite and Champion
members.
They got the contentessentially of GoBundance
(32:38):
without you know like not thesame content, but they got the
same structure of content.
They get to build thesecommunities.
They get an accountability.
They're using the one sheet,all these tools we have within
GoBundance.
So what Emerge looks likehonestly is exactly what elite
and champion look like.
So anybody that joins thosecommunities it's you know.
You've got an accountabilitygroup.
You've got content.
You've got local chapters.
You've got content.
(32:58):
You've got local chapters.
You've got events.
You've got all these thingsthat you get to participate in.
And we built that the same wayfor Emerge.
Only differences are one thefirst six weeks we structure is
onboarding, so we do kind of amodule weekly, with a live call
with me each week to make surepeople are clear on everything
you talked about.
Week one is vision.
Week two is goals and creatingthe one sheet.
Week three is planning.
Week four is getting into howto leverage the tribe.
(33:21):
Week five is how to have agreat go pot or accountability
pot.
So we use that first six weeksfor onboarding.
That's the one key difference.
The other one is that we'reco-ed, so there's GoBundance men
, there's GoBundance women,gobundance Emerge is co-ed, so
it kind of feeds either one.
So the best way, joinGoBundance.
It's like, okay, where's yournet worth?
Depending on where your networth is, you either come in at
Emerge, at Elite or at Champion,and obviously if you're Elite
(33:43):
you're going to be a Champion,if you're Emerge, you're going
to be Elite, and that's kind ofwhat it's all about.
Tony Johnson (33:49):
That's awesome, yeah, and the other thing that I
find great as a business ownerand that you've kind of enacted
within Emerge is this ability tolook for a number two, so
someone that's within thatcommunity.
A lot of times you know youwould love the ability to meet
someone that is a little fartheralong in business than you.
(34:10):
You might just be younger,newer to business, and you have
the ability then to interactwith successful business people
being in that emerge.
You can interact with peoplethat are in elite and champion,
and we're looking constantly.
People that are successful arelooking for the next and the
greatest, and who is up andcoming, who is motivated out
(34:31):
there, looking to make adifference and looking to grow
individually and help out a teamto grow, and that offers them a
humongous opportunity.
In my opinion, that's one ofthe biggest opportunities of
being in a merge, and so you'veenacted something within that,
haven't you?
Could you expand a little bitmore on how you've kind of
worked with that?
Jamie Gruber (34:52):
Yeah, yeah, we've fits and starts, but we built
what we call the partner portal,the go abundance partner portal
.
So, um, to give you an ideareal quick of the of the avatar
of an emerged person, becausewhen we started we were thinking
this was going to be likeyou're young and up in kind of
like 22, just getting started.
But what it really is is like35 to 45, mostly men that are
(35:13):
making maybe 150 grand a year,married to kids.
But, to your point, they'rejust getting exposed to the idea
that, oh, I don't have to justwork a job and put the company
match into a 401k.
So they haven't built a ton ofnet worth, but they make a good
living and they're like well,how do I get myself to another
place with this?
(35:34):
So those folks often are perfectcandidates to go work for or
with, or be mentored by, orwhatever, or partner with a
member of elite, member ofchampion that is, like you just
said, further ahead in business,maybe a natural born
entrepreneur has been doing itsince 20 or whatever.
So, yeah, so the partner portalis essentially a system we
built or a marketplace you couldsay that we're building or
built that showcases the skills,abilities, desires of the
(35:57):
emerged folks.
So it's like, here's what I do,here's what I can offer and
here's what I'd love to be ableto gain from a relationship with
an elite or champion member.
And the ideal is that and we'vehad this happen a few times and
a leader, champion member says,hey, I'm looking for somebody
to run this, or I wanna giveback and I wanna mentor five
people this year.
(36:17):
That's part of my contributiongoal this year.
I wanna mentor five people inthis sort of avatar that they
can use this partner portal andwe've gotta do a better job of
communicating it but they canuse this partner portal to dip
in like a marketplace and say,okay, steve, steve, is you know
doing this, doing that?
He's got this skill that'sideal for my company and I would
(36:38):
absolutely love to mentor him.
In exchange for that, maybe someside hustle work with me.
Or I'm looking for my numbertwo.
I'm willing to pay a hundred,150, 200 grand because I need
that great number two.
Let me dip into this group andfind the person that maybe
becomes that.
So that's one thing.
The other thing is that we'vehad a lot of members who have a
(36:59):
number two that they want todevelop and get sort of common
language around, gobundance sortof terms, right.
The pillars you mentioned, theone sheet, all of that that have
their number two, go in and bepart of Emerge.
They're not at the elite orchampion level, so as a perk
they pay for their number two goin and be part of Emerge.
They're not at the elite orchampion level, so as a perk
they pay for their number two ornumber three person to come in
(37:20):
and be part of Emerge and getall of that education, all of
that exposure, the exposure tocommunity.
And those folks who have donethat the elite and champion
members have said to me like man, just our conversations are
better, we're speaking a commonlanguage, we understand, you
know, they understand what I'vebeen working on forever now and
I can have these discussionswith them so kind of two-pronged
.
We're making sure that ourfolks get exposure to elite and
(37:43):
champion members for potentialpartnership opportunities.
But also elite and championmembers are putting their folks
in a merge for their ownpersonal development.
Tony Johnson (37:51):
I love that.
I wasn't aware that it was thatcrystal clear and that you had
that opportunity.
So me, I'm hiring personally anintegrator, right?
So we're always looking.
So I need to dip in there andlook, now that you're saying
that you're kind of showcasingpeople's skills and ability
through there and see if you'vegot any matches for that.
That's a great option.
(38:12):
I wasn't even aware you weredoing it that in-depth.
That's fantastic.
And I love the idea of gettingthat number two if they're not
in there and putting them inthere because you want them to
understand that mindset and thatgrowth that normally a business
owner has.
And it's hard to kind of relaythat when you get somebody and
kind of get them more accustomedto how we're thinking and how
(38:35):
we are constantly trying to grow, grow, grow, grow, grow, you
know, if you don't have the timeto sit and spend all that time
with them, getting them aroundlike-minded individuals that are
all looking to grow is nothingbut helpful to anyone in that
type of situation.
Jamie Gruber (38:49):
So that's awesome.
Agreed I appreciate it.
Tony Johnson (38:51):
So let's go on to the next piece of you.
You got so many pieces I justgot.
I'm trying to get througheverything in a timely fashion
here.
So the next thing that you'redoing and you kind of went
through it with Grant Cardoneand his wife you've been hosting
the tribe of millionairespodcast.
So in that tribe ofmillionaires podcast you've gone
from, you know, interviewingsome of the normal people today
(39:13):
to now interviewing people likeGrant Cardone and you get this
large list of all thesehumongous people that are in the
business world and you'vereally taken it almost to
another level.
So could you kind of walk usthrough how you've gotten to a
position where you're in contactwith all of these people and I
(39:34):
know you put in a ton of workand so kind of give us an
understanding of how one you'vecontacted a bunch of these
people and all of the work youput in prior to interviewing
someone.
Jamie Gruber (39:44):
Sure, yeah, the the.
I think that the understatedvalue of podcast being a podcast
host whether your ambition,like me, is to be top 10 in the
world or if you just want to,you know, serve a small audience
or no audience, just meetpeople in a way that, um, that
they're, that, they're not, um,you know, that's, that's fun.
Like the podcast is therelationships you build with the
(40:05):
guests.
So there's a few different waysthat I go for the guests that I
want to get.
Honestly, sometimes it's coldoutreach, it's going on
Instagram, it's somebody youfollow and you just make the ask
, and every so often one ofthose people they have a book,
they have something coming outthey say, yes, I'll talk about
the next step here in a second,because it applies to all of
these guests.
That's one.
The second thing I've done is Igo for the number two.
(40:27):
So an example of that might beKale Owen.
You ever heard of Kale Owen?
No, right.
Have you ever heard of AlexHormozy?
Yes, okay.
So Kale Owen runs all of AlexHormozy's businesses.
He's essentially his number two.
Now, I didn't necessarily goafter Kale solely for access to
Hormozy, but because Kale's gota great brand and I really
(40:51):
enjoyed his stuff.
Like that's got to be part ofit.
If you're overly transactionalor if you're overly tactical,
it's just that inauthenticitycomes through.
But Kale is truly interestingto me, so I interviewed him.
But there's, of course, a partof me that's like boy.
This is a great step one tobeing in the world of Hormozzi
and maybe getting that guy to beon the podcast.
(41:11):
So that's an example ofsomething that I'll do.
I'll go for the number two.
The other one is it's really theother podcast hosts that you
get to meet while being onpodcast or whatever.
So I've got one or two otherpeople, one in particular.
His name is Dennis Meralda.
He and I started really aroundthe same time.
He has had Building Men, I'vegot Tribe of Millionaires and we
just started talking aboutthese interesting guests that we
(41:33):
had and we started sharing themand swapping them.
And those swaps sometimes arefor him at the next level than
what he's had, or for me at thenext level from what I've had,
depending on our own networks,and then by being the host of
that person that's maybe at thatnext level, they give you
exposure to the person at thelevel above them, and so on and
so forth.
So all of that are thedifferent ways of going about
(41:55):
meeting people and gettingpeople on the podcast, but what
I think is at the core of it isstep two, which is what you
mentioned is, I think, thepreparation, which you're
obviously well-prepared for thispodcast, which is not the norm
Usually it's hey.
So, jamie, let's give us yourfive minute backstory, right,
like that question right theretells me that a host isn't
prepared for the guest.
And I've done it.
(42:15):
I'm not saying I would never,of course.
I've done it and I probably insome way, shape or form still do
it sometimes today.
But I'll go through, especiallydepending on the guests and how
much information there is aboutthem.
I'll listen to multiplepodcasts that they've been on.
If they have a podcast, I'lllisten to their podcast multiple
of them of who they'veinterviewed.
I'll go back and look at orlisten to books that they've
(42:37):
written I will look at.
If they have a spouse that hasa profile, I'll go listen to
their spouse's stuff and hearwhat that spouse is saying about
this guest, so on, so forth.
So I'll just do a sort of a 360all the way around approach.
I keep notes in my Apple notesthing.
I have a folder for podcastprep.
And even if I haven't bookedthe guest, like I've got guests
(42:58):
like Mike Tyson that I'venowhere near booking Mike Tyson
yet.
Jordan Peterson there's a bunchof them.
Elon Musk I have Michael Jordan, I have questions already for
them now, before I ever get tothem and book them, just because
I consume their content and Iput questions there.
But for my own guests, the samething.
(43:18):
I just take a whole bunch ofnotes and then a day before I go
through my notes and organizeit a bit.
But that's that preparation.
Once you have the guest, whetheryou got it from a cold outreach
and they're like, yeah, I'lljump on this guy's podcast.
Or you get it from going to anumber two and they're like,
yeah, I'll jump on this guy'spodcast.
Or when Dennis, miralda orsomebody else sends me a guest
(43:39):
and they're like, well, dennissaid this guy's cool.
Okay, yeah, I'll jump on hispodcast.
What differentiates me?
Or the host is first questionWow, okay, this guy's not asking
me about my backstory, he justsummarized my entire life in a
sentence and then asked me avery deep question.
I had to think about game on,I'm here, this guy's prepped.
(44:00):
If you listen to the Cardoneinterview.
He said it two, three, fourtimes in it Like damn man, you
know that's a good question,right?
I aim for that.
That's my goal is to get that,not because of ah, not only
because of vanity Of coursethere's always a little bit of
ego in that but it's morebecause that person now looks at
me as credible.
I know I can get Grant Cardoneagain.
I know I can.
So that's the way that guestsat the next level refer you to
(44:24):
guests at the next level abovethem, because they can trust
that whoever they refer is gonnaget some shitty podcast
experience from you.
This guy's prepared.
I'm willing to share guestswith him.
The last thing sorry to go intoit, the last thing I do is for
the guests that really speak tome, like the ones I really
resonate with and it tends to bethose I do in person.
It's just, I don't know,there's a, there's a natural
(44:48):
connection you build in personthere's before, there's after,
there's during, whereas on azoom call or whatever it's like,
it's on, it's off.
But I like to send gifts tothose folks and I'm very
specific with how I do that.
One, it's a custom gift.
Two, it's specific to theirdesires and likes or whatever
that I learned about them.
And three, it has nothing to dowith my brand.
So I don't send them a Tribe ofMillionaires t-shirt or one of
(45:09):
those like bracelets that saytribe millionaires on them.
I send them something that isspecific to them and it's not
always the person.
Sometimes it's somebody withinthe organization that really
impresses me.
So the quick example I give isfor Grant Cardone.
Sherry Hamilton is his numbertwo.
One of his two number twos isJared and Sherry.
Sherry was amazing inconnecting me to who I need to
(45:29):
be connected to to get on theshow.
She connected me to AtlantaCardone's people to get me on
her show.
I'm sorry to get her on my showso honestly.
She was just very, very helpful.
So I stalk Sherry Hamilton onInstagram and what I learned
about her is she's thechairwoman and people love
calling her that.
She had so many things tagged.
The chairwoman spoke today.
We love our chairwoman, thechairwoman, the chairwoman.
(45:51):
Okay, so that's something shegoes by.
And second, there was not threeposts go by without her being
at some sort of concert, livemusic, everything from Lil Wayne
to like Garth Brooks.
She loves live music.
Obviously, I go on Etsy that'smy favorite platform Cause you
can buy custom stuff there and Ihad a wooden engraved plaque
sent to her that said SherryHamilton, the chairwoman, rocks
(46:14):
and had a little musical note atthat rocks thing.
So you can see the doubleentendre on that she rocks
because that's what they sayabout her, but she rocks because
she loves music and had thatsent to her as a thank you gift.
So those little things leave animpression and keep in mind
it's not a bottle of wine thatthey're going to drink and
forget about.
It's not a gift basket of foodthey're going to drink and
forget about.
It's not a gift basket of foodthey're going to eat and forget
about.
It's something that they'regoing to hang on their wall.
(46:35):
And when somebody says, oh,where'd you get that?
You know what?
This guy, jamie Gruber he sentthat to me, isn't that cool.
He had him on Grant's podcastand dah, dah, dah dah.
So I do those gifts without anyexpectation from anybody.
I don't need to thank you, Idon't need to know that they got
it, but I do those and thatleaves an impression with a lot
of people.
Tony Johnson (47:00):
That that alone is a masterclass.
It's a masterclass, yes, that.
That is what makes all thedifference.
So there was one.
So I was in sales.
Um, you know, before I didconstruction, which is what I am
now as a general contractor.
So I sold building materials andI had this builder that I could
not get in touch with.
I mean, I called this guy overand over and I was constantly
blocked.
So he had an admin that wouldnot let me through.
(47:24):
He's basically number two.
I could not, could not, couldnot get in.
So it took me seven or eightmonths of trying every
workaround.
I got his cell phone number.
I would text him, I'd go by hishouse, I would do try and knock
on the door.
He wouldn't ever answer.
I mean, I did everything to tryand get in touch with this guy.
Finally, I went, bought a pairof shoes and just took the pair
(47:46):
of shoes, dropped it off at hisoffice, inside the box, I put a
note and it was like I'm justtrying to get my foot in the
door with you and your company,can you please take my call?
He called me within 15 minutesof me leaving his office in
there.
So when you get creative and dosomething like that.
That's how you make animpression, something that you
don't see every day.
(48:06):
So when you're making theselong-term impressions with
people and that's what you'redoing specifically with guests
by, yeah, putting, saying thatthey're gonna put on a wall not
a glass of wine they're going todrink, and then throw away or
get them a liquor bottle ofliquor they don't even drink,
which is what people drop me offall the time I get these.
I don't even drink liquor.
I mean, all I do is give itaway to somebody and forget
about it.
It's like I don't even rememberto tell them thank you half the
(48:28):
time, stuff like that.
So that's amazing.
So congrats to you for doingthat and following through with
that and not expecting anythingin return.
But the returns are exponentialwhen you're doing something
like that, because it's thoughtout, and you're doing things
that are differentiating youfrom the 40 other podcasts that
they've been on, that have evengiven them junk that they do
(48:50):
nothing with or nothing at alland probably, like you say, not
be prepared All right.
Last thing I want to hit.
And then you know I feel likewe've we've done very good here.
So this thing that's so awesomeis you are starting your own
thing.
You've got a partner from yourold business and you started
this production company.
So I want to make sure that welet you kind of promote this,
take this off the ground andkind of tell us what you could
(49:13):
do Somebody like me I don't, Idon't, obviously I don't have a
big following in in podcasts, somy following to you would be
like a minuscule nothing but.
So you're a big step up for meto get somebody on a podcast.
So what could you help someonelike me with?
With my podcast?
So everyone else that's in thesame boat as me.
We're still trying to get ourfeet off the ground.
(49:34):
What do you do with someonelike us?
Jamie Gruber (49:36):
Yeah, so we do a full launch strategy.
So the company is called BGDProductions BGD I can explain
that if we have a second, it'sactually a cool story, but BGD
Productions and the idea is sortof podcast social media and
taking it off your plate.
So our core client that we'retargeting as we're building this
is somebody that has, say, aweekly podcast that they want
edited, posted and managed forthem, along with some clips that
(49:58):
maybe get taken from thatpodcast.
Or they can do their own clipsthat aren't taken from that
podcast that are also posted andmanaged for them on a weekly
basis.
So we take all of that offtheir plate.
We'll do a full launch strategy.
If they need to be launched orthey're already launched, we can
just take the editing burden,the posting burden, the captions
, the titling, all of that stuffoff of their plate.
So the perfect package, or thecore package, is one podcast
(50:22):
episode a week that also goes onYouTube with thumbnails and all
of that.
A social media manager isassigned to post all of this for
that podcast host.
All the editing is taken offtheir plate, obviously and then
doing three short form clips perweek that are also posted and
captioned and everything else byour team on behalf of the
(50:43):
podcast host or the person thatwants their content posted.
We can also do that for YouTubeonly, meaning if it's not a
podcast but you do like a weeklyvlog on YouTube, we could do it
there as well.
The idea is hey, I got a.
I got a long form piece ofcontent I want to put out every
week, but editing it and all ofthat is such a burden and I
don't want to have to post itand manage all of that.
We can do all of that.
Take it and then cut it intothree short form per week as
(51:06):
well, that we manage for you andget all of your content out for
you.
That's the idea behind BGD.
Tony Johnson (51:12):
And what is BGD?
Here's the background.
Jamie Gruber (51:14):
I was standing at a JetBlue counter to board in
Fort Lauderdale to come backhere to Punta Cana, and I paid
for the even more space seat.
So it's the upgrade on JetBlue.
It's like 50 bucks or whatever,is that much better?
I love it.
The only reason it's not theonly reason I wanted it was I
wanted to make sure I was goingto get my bag on the plane so
(51:37):
that I could just deplane andnot have to worry about it on
the other end, cause it takesforever Once you get down to
Punta.
Tony Johnson (51:41):
Cana, I was in boarding.
Jamie Gruber (51:43):
I was in boarding group D and I wanted to be in
boarding group A.
So I upgrade the seat, I get tothe airport and I'm like, hey,
I paid for the upgraded seat.
And the JetBlue attendant'slike I see that you're in it,
but I don't see that it was paidfor.
I'm like well, how am I in itif it didn't get paid for?
She's like oh, I don't know,cause, yeah, you would have had
to pay for it.
I'm like no, you have to comeup during boarding group D.
(52:11):
I'm like but I paid forboarding group H.
Like, but it says boardinggroup D.
I won't allow that.
I was talking to the guy that'snow my partner just kind of
complaining about it, and it waslike you know what?
It's just a reminder thatyou're always, always, always
going to make sure, always,always, always going to have to
overcome the challenges ofwhatever else is out there.
Like you're never better thanboarding group d.
Never forget that you're nevertoo big for boarding group d.
(52:33):
So bgd became bgd productions,but boarding group d, um, that's
the.
Tony Johnson (52:39):
That was the idea behind it, kind of a gritty
backstory to what we're tryingto accomplish with boarding
group d and for someone like meyou know that this type of thing
is is perfect for someone likeme, because we, you know, you're
just when you're doing apodcast like this, you're just a
solo person and you normallythis is just like a side thing
that you're doing.
(52:59):
So this is not.
You know, I'm not making a tonof income on my podcast, nor do
I foresee, but I do like to getmy podcasts out.
So, but you know, if I'mgetting it out, it's me doing
the editing, me doing thesnippets, me doing the posting,
me doing the thumbnail, you know, and that stuff takes a bunch
of time.
So you know, it's a fantasticthing that you're offering and I
(53:21):
think that's fantastic thatyou've done so well that it
should take right off, becausepeople see you, you're, you're
becoming a leader in thepodcasting world already and
continuing to grow it.
So I wish you all the best andI think it'll be highly
successful.
Jamie Gruber (53:37):
I appreciate that.
Tony Johnson (53:38):
So I think it's a good thing that you started.
Thank you, jamie.
Thanks so much for jumping ontoday.
I have sincerely enjoyedgetting to know you a little bit
better.
Hopefully I represented youpretty well today and you had an
okay time.
We didn't bore you to death.
Jamie Gruber (53:52):
Not at all, man.
This was great.
Tony Johnson (53:58):
So thank you so much for coming on.
Hopefully we'll get you on asyou continue to grow and expand
your empire in the coming monthsand years ahead.
But thank you so much forjoining us and we hope to have
you again soon, sir.
Jamie Gruber (54:05):
Appreciate you, thank you.
Tony Johnson (54:06):
Have a great afternoon.
Welcome to another episode of Carolina Commercial
Real Estate Connection.
Today we have Jamie Gruber onwith us.
Jamie, thank you so much forjoining us today.
Thanks for having me, matt.
Good to see you.
Good to see you too, sir.
So, jamie, you've got a ton ofdifferent things I could bring
up to introduce you.
The main way I've met you isI've joined GoBundance over the
(00:22):
past six months and you are aleader in GoBundance up and
coming within the GoBundanceover the past six months, and
you are a leader in GoBundanceup and coming within the
GoBundance community, and I seeyou everywhere.
You make your way to events andeveryone seems to know you.
So you've gone around.
You're obviously inspirationalto many people.
So thank you for joining us.
Do you want to tell me anythingspecial about yourself or what
(00:42):
you've got going on these days?
Jamie Gruber (00:45):
Sure.
So I think the thing that'svery unique about me not very
unique but that a lot of peopleare drawn to and I've learned
this as I've shared my storyover the years is sort of being
this guy that went the tried andtrue path and climbed the
ladder corporate ladder, to getto a certain level 400 grand a
year, equity, the whole nine andthen just kind of quitting and
(01:10):
leaving, not having a wifethat's a doctor In fact she
doesn't work, she stayed home.
Mom, having a couple of kids,like all the circumstances that
feel like it's impossible to getout of a high paying job when
you're the breadwinner.
I actually did it.
I it's crazy to think about now, but I actually did it.
And then to double down on that, making a move out of country
to the Dominican Republic, wherewe live now in Punta Cana, just
because we could People likewell, why there?
(01:31):
Well, my wife's from hereoriginally.
So that gave us incentive tochoose this country to start.
But my entire vision thatanchored me in on the idea of
maybe quitting this big job oneday was man, I want the
flexibility to travel three plusmonths with my family anywhere
in the world.
So we ended up coming down herefor a year, ended up staying
past a year, and now we'retalking about more of an
(01:52):
indefinite stay, as we've sortof fallen in love with some of
the features of this countrythat we believe are better than
the US.
For us right now and you justsaid it, man normal to do what
(02:21):
I'm doing right now being aroundother guys where, yeah,
everybody does that, you knowwhereas my, my friends at work,
this was like an impossibility.
It was a big, crazy, stupiddream, irresponsible even so,
just getting around other peoplethat represent who you're
becoming it just it changedeverything for me.
Tony Johnson (02:40):
That's.
There's a ton of tidbits justin there.
Yeah, let's break it down we'regoing to talk about but, yeah,
that's fantastic.
Yeah, it really starts withthat change in mindset, and it
sounds like your change inmindset was, yeah, taking all of
the self-doubt and the doubtersaround you in taking that leap
of faith from the 400,000 a yearafter you climbed the corporate
(03:03):
ladder.
Now, for those that don't know,how long ago was that leap?
What's the timeline on that?
Jamie Gruber (03:09):
Three years ago.
So, as we record, it was March,april of 2021.
So we're recording, you know,late winter, early spring of
2024.
So about three years ago.
Tony Johnson (03:20):
Now.
So just so, from what Iunderstand and I just want to
make sure I'm correct on this,because we haven't spoken a ton
I've met you just a few times inpassing.
Very nice guy.
It's hard to catch yourattention because 15 people are
grabbing on you all the timewhen you're around.
So that's okay, perfectly fine.
So, as far as I understand it,you had a group called
(03:44):
Multifamily and More.
Am I correct on that?
Yeah, okay, so that you startedthat while you were still in
your corporate career, is thatright?
Jamie Gruber (03:53):
Yeah, okay.
Tony Johnson (03:54):
So could you give us a little background on that?
So you were in your corporatecareer and that was your first
kind of dive in on creatingsomething where you were out
there, right?
Jamie Gruber (04:04):
A hundred percent.
I love this.
Yeah, so go ahead.
Did you have a follow-upquestion?
Do you want me to kind ofdissect?
Tony Johnson (04:09):
My question was can you walk me through the
creation of the multifamily andmore and kind of how that
sparked everything for you?
Jamie Gruber (04:16):
100%.
Yeah, I love this.
So I make this declaration thatyou know what I'm going to quit
my job one day here, soon andagain.
The anchor was the visiontravel three plus months with my
family anywhere in the world.
So I had that really, reallypresent in front of mine and it
was what kept me going initially, when things seemed bleak.
So I had a small single familyportfolio, two duplexes and a
(04:39):
single family property Kind ofgot into it when I had the
initial idea of, like, I want toleave my job, I don't know what
to do.
Let me go buy some real estate.
Hadn't made enough money, sobird a couple of properties and
had a single family as well.
And it was hard.
It was too.
You know.
I closed on those two duplexesat the same time.
It was two tax bills, twoclosing documents, two mortgages
.
It was just a.
That's insane.
So, whatever got my head around,it met a guy that I ended up
(05:12):
partnering with and we startedsaying, okay, we both had I
think we both had five singlefamily units and we're like
great, we can leverage thisexperience, go to brokers and
present ourselves as wanting tobuy certain types of multifamily
property.
So we put together a pitch deck, a buy box, all of this stuff
really, really well organizedand we start meeting with
brokers.
That's what you're supposed todo in the commercial multifamily
(05:32):
space.
And then we realized veryquickly that, even though we had
a portfolio in the commercialworld, we were nothing.
So whatever we told the brokerwe wanted, they would send us
nothing like it.
And whatever we did get hadpassed through six, seven lists
of buyers that they had alreadybefore it got to us.
So we weren't being takenseriously and in my mind I
(05:53):
didn't know how.
It's almost chicken and egg.
In order to become a priority toa commercial broker, you have
to have closed on something inthe commercial real estate space
, but in order to close in thecommercial real estate space,
you've got to have a brokerwilling to send you stuff.
And it's like, well, how are wegoing to do this?
So because we weren't gettingthe attention of the brokers, we
said you know what?
We have to become more of aface in the multifamily space,
(06:14):
and this was in Michigan at thetime.
So we created a meetup.
We called it Multifamily andMore, and it was born out of the
idea that one, we'd have abrand in multifamily, but two.
At the time there were nomultifamily REIA meetings.
Every REIA meeting I went to itwas flippers and wholesalers or
wannabe flippers andwholesalers, two, three ballers
(06:34):
and then maybe a multifamily guyor gal, maybe one.
So when we called itmultifamily and more, the idea
was, okay, either this hasn'tbeen done a multifamily specific
meetup or every time it's beentried it's failed.
So we're going to call itmultifamily and more.
So in case no one comes for themultifamily, well, we can talk
about more.
So that was the idea.
(06:56):
But when we had our firstmeeting, we just threw together
a meeting at like an insuranceoffice locally.
A friend's insurance agency hada conference room in it and we
put it out on meetupcom and like15 people showed up, all of
them for multifamily.
They wanted to either be in itor they were in it.
So it was like, okay, we'reonto something and that just
sort of grew.
Mind you, we had no multifamilyexperience at this point right,
(07:17):
all we had was some education.
We had learned how to analyze adeal.
So we just shared our journeywith the room and kind of create
a community around it, and thatbrand got us the recognition
and the partnerships to buydeals from that point forward.
So the idea of the brand wasreally how do we overcome or
circumvent brokers in our marketso that we can get attention
(07:40):
around buying multifamilyproperty, raise capital, meet
partners, whatever it might be,and it worked.
Tony Johnson (07:47):
That's amazing.
So this, this boils down tosomething that I think a lot
about, and you know it's just aquick analysis of something that
you're going through.
So everything starts with quickyou create the vision, right.
So then you create the goal ofwhat you're wanting.
Vision, right?
So then you create the goal ofwhat you're wanting, Then you
(08:08):
clarify that goal, change yourmindset around it and then you
take action.
And it's amazing what thingsspark out of these things.
So you just kind of envision itin your head.
You say like, yeah, we don'tknow anything, We've got a
little bit of education, Maybewe're listening to some podcasts
or whatever.
All of a sudden you turn fromsomething of nothing into
creating something and this hassparked that.
(08:28):
Really, that move in your life,if we would go back, is
probably what has sparked themomentum that has just continued
all the way forward to whereyou are now.
So you eliminate those limitingbeliefs off of the one step and
then it becribs the next stepand you keep on resetting those
goals.
So that is awesome.
So can you tell me and gothrough kind of, some of the
(08:50):
goals and mindsets that you setback then and where you are now
based on that?
Jamie Gruber (08:55):
Yeah, the goal was can we get deals, can we raise
capital?
That was really it.
We didn't have a specificnumber of deals or amount of
capital raised or whatever.
And very shortly I think twomonths after we started the
meetup we got our first dealunder contract from the meetup.
So a couple married couple hadan eight unit under contract.
The owner had two eight unitsthat were sort of non-contiguous
(09:15):
and they said, hey, if you guyswant to come on, then we can
get both eight units and putthis 16 unit portfolio together,
and that's what we did.
So the goal was to be able toget a deal, and we did.
Then, shortly after that, wehad a 22-unit that we were small
partners on in Cleveland with aperson that was running the
Cleveland chapter.
So our multifamily and morelittle Michigan meetup became a
(09:37):
chapter model after a while andso, yeah, so we were starting to
get deals.
The interesting thing for mepersonally was it was this
exploration that I think a lotof people that are in W-2s
especially are unwilling to do,me included because you get
afraid if you make the wrongdecision in whatever this side
hustle or plan is to get out ofyour job.
(09:57):
If you make the wrong decision,then, oh my God, I'm going to
be judged for that, I'm going tofail, and we just don't like
failure in W2 world.
So the lesson in it was I wentall in multifamily, that was my
thing.
I was okay, I'm going to be amultifamily investor and I
really love multifamily.
I still do some multifamilyinvesting today.
We could talk about that.
But the brand part, like bygoing out and creating a meetup
(10:21):
off of the multifamily going outand creating a meetup off of
the multifamily that was reallythe joy.
I really enjoyed theconversations around this, the
types of people that you meet,the mindset shifts that you had,
the community that you builtaround what real estate
investors typically are.
Most of us don't want to buyreal estate for the sake of
buying real estate.
There's a purpose involved init.
I want freedom, I want to beable to travel, I want to take
(10:42):
care of my family, I want tobuild wealth, whatever it might
be.
So for me, the lesson in thiswas wow, okay, without taking
step one, which is I'm going togo buy multifamily and I
pictured I'd have a hundreddoors and I would just be
operating my multifamily.
That was my image back then.
That was what I wanted to do.
But if I didn't go down thatpath and learn, like maybe
that's not quite what I quitewhat I want to do, like I want
(11:03):
to have multifamily representingmy portfolio and my wealth, but
my active work and what I lovedoing is brand podcast, all of
that Wouldn't have learned thatby not starting in multifamily
and then creating a meetup andthen getting to know that, wow,
you know, getting on podcast orwhatever is a lot of fun and I
enjoy that.
Tony Johnson (11:21):
All right.
Well, yeah, we got to get.
We got to get into how thattranspired.
So first going back real quick,so you brought up and I did
want to get in, so you got themultifamily and more and kind of
created a chapter model and itgrew beyond just your location.
So could you quickly kind ofjust overview how that happened
and how that grew?
Jamie Gruber (11:45):
you how that happened and how that grew.
When I so we started thismeetup, you know we would talk
about it, I would post it onsocial and friends would see it.
Go abundance members, people, Iwas at this point in the go
abundance community and be like,hey man, that's really cool.
Like I see this meetup thatyou're doing, like how'd you do
that?
And I got that question enoughtimes where I wrote it out, I
was like, let me just make asheet like a SOP, what platforms
to be on, how to start it, howto build it, whatever, just like
a two-page document, justbullets on a page, essentially,
(12:08):
and I would send it to them andmany of them would say this is
great.
Have you ever considered could Ijust call it multifamily and
more in my market?
I forget the first one, itmight've been Cleveland and I
was like you know what?
Yeah, why not, why not?
And again, completelydisorganized.
There was no contract signed,there was no nothing behind it.
Yeah, sure, cool, like this,we'll open a facebook group and,
(12:28):
and you know, this way we atleast own the facebook group uh,
you can have this process.
You'll call a multi-family andmore, we'll give you our
branding and, yeah, we got thischapter and that just kind of
went, you know, untamed.
We got like the 21 chapterslike, yeah, whoever wanted one
could have one kind of thing.
Um, so, yeah it, we startedhaving like chapter leader
meetings.
So we'd have like 20 peopleshow up on a call and I would
(12:50):
talk about things that I learnedin terms of facilitating the
meeting.
So it wasn't even aboutmultifamily, these leader
meetings.
It was how do you, how do youstructure an event?
Then COVID happened.
How do you structure a virtualevent?
What about this?
What about that happen?
How do you structure a virtualevent?
What about this?
What about that?
And we'd had kind of a centralmeeting, virtually before COVID
ever happened, for every memberof every community they could
come into.
We called it a virtualmastermind and then every
(13:12):
chapter would have their ownin-person meeting locally before
they had to pivot to virtual.
So yeah, we just sort ofexpanded.
It had no organization orstructure behind it to the point
where, flashing forward, whenwe finally got to a point where
it was like, okay, we couldprobably really structure this
and do something with it, I hadmoved on to other things,
honestly, and it was like youknow what Great learning.
(13:34):
It's too heavy, it feels tooheavy to unturn the grinding
wheels that are already in place.
Let's just set this down andmove on to the next thing.
Move on to the next thing withthe lessons that we took, or I
took, from multifamily and more.
But that's how it was just anorganic sort of like I really
like what you're doing.
How do I do it?
Okay, cool, I'd love to do itwith your support.
(13:55):
Can I do that?
By calling it my chapter,multifamily more.
And you're there to guide meand I said, yeah, sure, let's do
it, and kind of learned alongthe way.
Tony Johnson (14:02):
Me and I said, yeah, sure, let's do it, and
kind of learned along the way.
Yeah Well, you know, goodthings happen to those who are
good to others.
So obviously you know you'vegotten paid back tenfold for
doing that and helping others,um, mindless and, you know, with
no motivation behind it, justhelping others and leading
groups.
So that's great that you'vedone that.
So in this three year timeframeright, we're're talking April
(14:24):
2021 to now you're and I knowyou've been in DR, I think
you're on year two or almost atyear two.
You started for one year andnow you're at about a year or
two.
So this happened pretty quickly.
If we're backtracking for onlya three year backtrack, then
it's really one year in andyou're already.
You know you had clarified thatyou wanted to get out, get that
(14:51):
freedom and move to theDominican Republic.
Jamie Gruber (14:52):
What enacted and how?
How did you move so quickly onthat?
Every it's like an iceberg,right?
You see the ever see thoseimages of an iceberg and like
you see the tip of it, and thetip of it is the outcome.
But then underneath the surface, is the base of the iceberg,
most of the iceberg, and allthat happens.
All the foundation was set whileI had my job, and that's not
even intentionally trying toleverage my job.
But today, if you were to askme, what do you do?
(15:13):
So I have a podcast Tribe ofMillionaires that's growing and
become top 1%.
I have GoBundance Emerge, whichis my partnership with
GoBundance for, call it, futuremillionaires.
So for those that don't qualifyfor GoBundance men or women,
they can join GoBundance Emerge.
So I have that as a businessOff the podcast.
I created a production companyrecently and that's starting to
kind of spin up and it's a lotof fun to.
(15:39):
We're learning a lot, a lot offun to build that.
I've got the commercial realestate syndication business that
I'm partners with calledQuantum Capital.
Again, partners are allGoBundance people.
All of those things are what'shappening today.
Right, I'm probably missingsomething that I can't think of.
It's too many things, but most,if not all, of that was
formalized or the foundation was, while I had my job.
It was go try to buymultifamily.
That leads to multifamily andmore Multifamily and more starts
(16:01):
to get recognition as like aunique way to network and get
results in real estate.
So I was being platformed byconferences, podcasts, not on
multifamily per se, but how doyou network effectively in the
multifamily space?
That was kind of the niche Icarved out.
I kept being asked to come backand speak at these, speak at
these events, and thatculminated while I had my job
(16:21):
with Brandon Turner again a goabundance connection saying hey,
dude, you haven't been on thepodcast, like no, I thought you
had, let's get you on.
So that all happened late 2021.
I'm sorry, late 2020.
The episode releases early 2021.
Emerge had started right aroundthat time as well.
So all of this is happeningbefore I quit the job.
Once I quit the job, to behonest with you, in my mind it
(16:45):
took me a year, a year and ahalf, which was about how long
it was, before we moved downhere to just make sure I wasn't
going to go broke.
So it felt like for that year,year and a half, it was duck and
cover.
Okay, I don't want to doanything crazy right now because
I just left this job.
Am I going to have to go back?
Was that the right move?
(17:06):
Is this actually sustainable,like, are what I believe to be
the case of what's going tohappen?
Going to happen Is Emerge goingto grow?
All of that was the questions Iwas asking myself for a solid
year.
And then at that point, we saidyou know what we're actually
we're doing, ok, we can makethis move doing okay, we can
make this move.
Six months later, we made themove.
But yeah, it was, I think, onceyou make the leap.
(17:30):
Once I made the leap, it took ayear to really figure out a
cadence, a structure for my day,what I should be doing, what I
shouldn't be doing, who I needto hire if I can even afford to
hire anybody.
So, yeah, it's, I think, all ofwhat I'm doing today.
The foundation was built whileI had the W2.
And I'm I'm in a place now,honestly, three years later,
where I think it's like okay,now I have to think about what
is the next phase, what do Iwant next for my life?
(17:52):
What do I want to?
You know, what do?
I want to break and throw awaynow so that I can I can sort of
create the next level of success, whatever that means for me.
Tony Johnson (18:01):
So what does that look like for you?
What does that mean for you?
So what does that look?
Jamie Gruber (18:05):
like for you.
What does that mean for you?
Tony Johnson (18:05):
It's, it's what is your, what is your big, hairy,
audacious goal right now?
Jamie Gruber (18:10):
My bigger is to be a top 10 podcast in the world.
That's my number one, that's mytop, my top goal to do that.
To do that, I need to standeven more on my own two feet.
So I left my job yes, investingin multifamily and I had a
partner.
We've dissolved thatpartnership and I've sold my
active holding.
So I partnered up with thesyndication group, which is
great.
I'm very tied to GoBundance,which is awesome, meaning I have
(18:33):
a merge that pays me well and Ido some other stuff for
GoBundance that I'm able togenerate income from.
But my personal brand likestanding truly on my own two
feet at some point, I believe isthe next level.
So whether that's I didn't saytribe of millionaires
necessarily needs to be a top 10podcast, but I want to be a top
10 podcaster.
So is that what tribe ofmillionaires is with my own?
(18:54):
For me, it's like I went fromwithin the structure of W2 to
leaving and being anentrepreneur and partnering with
brands quantum, gobundance, soon and now it's can Jamie Gruber
, the brand, be just JamieGruber and earn income and build
wealth just by being on my own,without the need to be
partnered or the need to lean onany other brands.
(19:17):
That's for me the next step.
Tony Johnson (19:20):
So let me ask you this is your, I know.
The most recent thing you'vestarted is this um podcast thing
, right when you're doing uh,you're, you're helping other
people I think you know figureout how to get in the podcasting
world, and then you're workingon editing and helping.
Is that solely on your own?
Jamie Gruber (19:38):
Yeah, it is.
So the, the, the.
I partnered with a.
It's funny, I partnered with aguy that I used to work with and
, um, the objective for me is toget him out because he doesn't
want to be in his job either andhe's an amazing operator.
So, this guy, he does all thebackend.
That's a lesson from startingEmerge Like I was trying to do
it all.
I'm not good at it.
So, yeah, this is all on my own.
Um, gobundance is a client, soI host the GoBundance podcast
(20:02):
and GoBundance is a client thatpays my production company to
produce the podcast that I host,and then we produce for other
podcasts as well.
So, completely on my own.
That is the first truestandalone business that I've
started.
Tony Johnson (20:16):
Awesome, and that's been going on for it's
like six months.
Jamie Gruber (20:21):
Less yeah, about three or four months at this
point, three or four, okay, yeah, well, that's fantastic, all
right.
Tony Johnson (20:27):
And so the goal long-term is to be top 10
podcaster in the world.
So, based on you're doing theTribe of Millionaires now and
that is a top 1% podcast, wherewould we say that is in the top,
like thousand or how?
Jamie Gruber (20:40):
Oh, it's a great question.
I don't know, I don't know.
There's so many different cutsof that.
It's like entrepreneur podcast,self-improvement, top, this top
that We've been.
We've hit top like top hundred,I think, in entrepreneurship.
Once or twice I feel like wehit top 100 in self-improvement.
So the category matters and I'mlooking to be more globally top
(21:03):
10.
So, like Rogan Lex Friedman,school of Greatness, that kind
of level, what's his name?
Diary of a CEO, that sort ofthing that is hairy and
audacious Big hairy andaudacious.
Tony Johnson (21:15):
What is your timeline on this, Jamie?
What's your timeline?
Jamie Gruber (21:21):
I don't have one.
I actually learned to puttimelines down a little bit and
here's what I mean Like, do Iwant to do it in the next three
years?
Yes, I mean, sure that's to meis a reasonable amount of time
to achieve that with the rightfocus.
That said, I remember beingcoached by somebody and they
said hey, if you didn't achievethat goal in three years but you
did in four, do you consider ita failure?
I was like, oh no, they're likeokay, like timelines are good.
(21:42):
You should have something kindof a mindset around.
But you know, don't get solocked in that you know if
you're not right where you wantto be in two or three years.
Like you got to check progressand that's where I am right now.
Like I didn't.
I, you know, I, I my, my big,hairy, audacious goal is to be a
top 10 podcast.
I don't think I had that goal.
I know I didn't have that goalwhen I left.
I just wanted to be able toleave my job and move abroad and
(22:03):
we did that.
So did I think we could do itin a year, two, three.
I didn't really have a tighttimeline on it, but the fact
that we did it was like, wow,anything's possible, so why not
go for something even bigger now?
And the same thing.
What if I am top 20 in a yearor two, or top 50 in the world?
It's a pretty good life, likethat's I'd be.
I'd be solely podcasting, whichis the essence of it, right, I
(22:25):
would just all I would need todo is podcast.
I could earn income, whichwould allow me to do what I do
buy real estate, buy companies.
I can earn a significant incomeif I'm a top 50 podcast, right?
So top 10 isn't even like, if Idon't hit that, it's not
successful, but that's the aim.
I want to go as high as Ipossibly can.
That's awesome.
Okay, real quick on that.
(22:45):
Real quick on that.
I heard Grant Cardone tell youthat and his wife.
I interviewed both of them,grant and Elena, and they're
like we want to impact 8 billionpeople.
They're like there's no wayadage of if you shoot for the
moon and miss, you'll landamongst the stars, but they're
going to go for impacting everyhuman on the planet, which is
(23:06):
crazy.
And they know it's notachievable.
I don't think top 10% is not,or top 10 is not achievable.
I believe it's achievable.
It's going to take a lot ofwork and effort, obviously, but
if they can set the target at 8billion people, no excuse for me
not to set my target at top 10and then be honest with myself
If it's top 15 or 20 or 30 or 50, I'm still doing pretty well.
Tony Johnson (23:29):
Or if it takes 10 years instead of three, you're
still doing it, right.
Jamie Gruber (23:32):
I'm having a lot of fun doing it, so yeah, and
you're having a lot of fun doingit.
Tony Johnson (23:35):
So, all right, let's jump back.
I know because you're goingforward and I'm going to catch
you on some of your stuff alittle bit more.
So, going back, you were inMichigan and had the goal to
move to the DR, which a lot ofpeople have goals to do that or
get a second home or whatever,and a lot of them don't take
action.
So you actually took action,moving out of the country.
(23:56):
Now your wife is from the DR.
Jamie Gruber (24:02):
How many times had you been to the Dominican
Republic prior to doing that 30.
We've gone a bunch, yeah.
Tony Johnson (24:07):
Okay, you'd go quite a bit, all right.
So now, how is it different?
Getting a property in theDominican from the U?
S is what is the how would?
How would you get a loan onthat?
Do you even get a loan?
Is it all cash purchases whenyou're buying down there?
Jamie Gruber (24:22):
You can purchase cash.
That's the best way to do it.
It's.
It's very similar, um, the onlydifferent meaning mortgage
processes are very similar.
It's a little bit morepaperwork here, just by virtue
of the uh, of the uh, the, the Idon't know the.
The culture here is much morelike chill, you know, there's
not as much of a um, uh, of anorganization like.
(24:45):
They'll give you the list ofthings you need and then, once
you show up with the list ofthings you need, like, oh, you
also need this kind of come backand people here don't get mad
at that, right, like americansdo, like what the hell?
You gave me the list so verysimilar.
You can get loans 80, 20, uh,you know, 20% loan, that sort of
thing.
The differences are theinterest rate's a bit higher
depending on if you're buying indollars or pesos.
(25:06):
So if you're buying in dollars,probably you get 8%, 7% as a
loan rate, 30-year amortization,but there's typically a fixed
period and then it becomes it'salmost like an arm.
So it's typically like afive-year fixed period and then
it becomes variable after that.
So that's one, I guess twodifferences.
One is the percentage of theinterest rate is higher and the
(25:29):
interest rate becomes variableafter a certain amount of time.
The other thing here isconstruction.
So buying pre-constructionproperties is typically it's
something like $1,000 to hold it.
20% is due within 30 days oncethe purchase and sale is signed
and then the constructiontimeline is probably about two
years to build your unit, two tothree, and in that time you
(25:51):
have to pay another 30%.
So people will they would likeI'm buying a $200,000 property.
They'll put 40,000 down,essentially within 30 days, and
then $60,000 needs to be paidover the course of the
construction, say over two tothree years.
At that point you owe the other50%, which could mean you go
get a loan, a mortgage, and thatpays it, or you've got the cash
(26:12):
, the 100 grand, and you buy it.
So that's a little bit differentor unique.
What's surprising down here is,I think for most is the cost.
So we're looking right now tobuy a property in the community
that we live in and I mean toget anything under $700,000 is
nearly impossible.
It is impossible unless you'rebuying a complete gut job rehab.
(26:33):
So most people associatesomeplace like the Dominican
with like, ah, $30,000, you buya mansion?
No, not in the places you wantto live.
So that's a little unique ordifferent, or maybe a surprise
for some is how expensive realestate is down here.
Tony Johnson (26:47):
Yeah, I think we all missed the boat on that a
while back.
Now are you in the Puerto Plata, Punta Cana area.
Which side are you on?
Jamie Gruber (26:55):
Yeah, we're Punta Cana, so southeastern part of
the island Beautiful.
Tony Johnson (26:59):
That's amazing.
All right, okay, that's awesome.
Yeah, I think you know thesedays, you know you can look at
it in multiple fashions.
I'm really a believer at thispoint that I've got, you know,
four young children.
I would like to have dualcitizenship out of a different
country, just because I'm notpositive where the US is really
going these days.
(27:19):
So I think it's a fantasticidea for someone to do that
right now is get residency inanother country where, when you
don't know what's going on, youcan be able to move your
finances pretty easily and youcan get your family to another
country pretty easily if thingshit the fan.
100 percent.
Jamie Gruber (27:38):
That's the nice part.
My wife was born here,immigrated at 12.
So our kids got citizenshipwith like a couple of pieces of
paper.
I'm in the process of gettingcitizenship, but I completely
agree A second passport I mean,is the Dominican passport like
the most ideal one?
No, but it's a second passportand the easiest path for me is
to get a here, cause I'm marriedto a Dominican woman.
(28:01):
So an attorney signed somepaperwork I fingerprinted, sent
to the FBI so they can dobackground checks on me, send it
back here and you know, voila,I'm a citizen and I can get a
passport.
So, yeah, so right now I'mtechnically, I guess, an illegal
immigrant in the DominicanRepublic, but they don't really
disincentivize Americans,canadians, that sort of thing,
(28:22):
from living here for a while.
Tony Johnson (28:23):
So and just and so you can still, just to be clear
for anybody listen you canstill get these, the loans terms
you're talking about, whenyou're not a citizen, so it
doesn't have to be that yourwife is Dominican and that's why
you're getting these terms.
Jamie Gruber (28:37):
Anyone could get these terms right, anyone can,
and more than that.
Honestly, again, if you'rebuying in pesos, it's worse term
.
So, like US dollars, get youbetter terms.
So if you're from the US andthere's a lot of incentivizing
for investors to buy down here.
So just a couple of littlequick things about DR.
One is if you buy property inwhat they call the confotor zone
(28:57):
, that's an acronymC-O-N-F-O-T-U-R, c-o-n-f-o-t-u-r
, confotur.
Let me take it a step back.
If you went to buy a propertytoday, the way it works is it's
a 3% transfer tax on the priceof the property.
So you buy a $500,000 property,there's a $15,000 transfer tax
due upfront once you transferthe property and then you're
(29:18):
paying 1% annually for propertytax.
Above it's about 170,000.
So under 170,000 is tax-free,over 170,000 in value you pay
100%.
So in our example if it's500,000, you have a $370,000
amount that you have to paytaxes on.
1% is 3,700 bucks a year.
Not bad, you15,000 to get intoit.
(29:39):
You pay $300 a month in taxes,essentially to own this
half-million-dollar home.
But if you find a property in aconflator zone and there are
many, especially in the twoplaces you mentioned Punta Cana,
puerto Plata if you buy in theconflator zone, the transfer tax
is waived, so that 3% is waivedand your property tax is waived
for 15 years.
And if you buy this isimportant too if you buy that
(30:03):
inside of an LLC essentially Ithink a Dominican version of an
LLC then when you go to sell,whatever's remaining of your
exemption status transfers tothe new owner.
So it's a really great sellableproposition.
If in five years you want tosell to the next person, if it's
in your name, it's gone, theconfrator is gone.
That new person has to buy andpay the transfer tax and pay the
(30:25):
1%.
But if it's in an LLC and yousell it to the next seller, you
can say hey, you buy my property, you get the 10 years remaining
of no taxes essentially.
So there's some benefits tobuying and then buying in an LLC
so you can transfer that overif and if and when you decide to
sell it.
Tony Johnson (30:43):
That's awesome.
Yeah, that's great information.
Thanks so much for sharing.
Sure Me, I'm, I'm looking.
So that's good information forme personally.
So that's awesome.
All right, I want to jump in tosomething else now, outside of
this.
So within GoBundance youmentioned briefly you have been
(31:04):
leading and growing the Emergeside of GoBundance.
For those who don't know, couldyou briefly explain the Emerge,
what it means inside GoBundance, and kind of tell us your
background within the Emerge andhow you have grown it?
Jamie Gruber (31:15):
Sure, I joined GoBundance, so we have these
levels.
We have Elite and Champion.
Back then it was 1 to 5 millionElite, five to ten, five plus
million champion.
That's updated recently.
So I've been an elite memberfor about five years now.
At a certain point a couple ofyears ago it bumped to two
million for elite and 10 millionfor champion and I went to the
founders the elders, we callthem so goofy.
(31:36):
But I went to the founders atone point when, honestly, all of
this stuff in my life washappening.
I was building this multifamilyportfolio and my pod is holding
me accountable to bigger thingsand all of this stuff and I
said, guys, look, I've gottensuch value from this community.
What is the number one thingyou're working on right now?
They're like you know what?
We would love to have aGoBundance just like we have it
(31:56):
now elite, champion for peoplethat are not yet at that level
but structured the same way,looks the same way.
And they had the name Emerge.
That was not my name.
They came up with Emerge andthey said do you want to partner
on it?
I said, sure, I'll partner,I'll build it.
I'm an insurance executive andI'm going to build a mastermind.
So again, it's kind of takenthat leap.
So I go, I go in and I'mlooking at it.
(32:17):
You know we're at the time itwas like, well, how do we want
to structure this?
We did like a course and acommunity and we just sort of
tested it out and tried it andeverything.
This was in late 2020.
And the first 30 people thatjoined they were like we went
through the first three monthsas like our test phase and
they're like man, this has beenamazing.
They got connection toGoBundance Elite and Champion
members.
They got the contentessentially of GoBundance
(32:38):
without you know like not thesame content, but they got the
same structure of content.
They get to build thesecommunities.
They get an accountability.
They're using the one sheet,all these tools we have within
GoBundance.
So what Emerge looks likehonestly is exactly what elite
and champion look like.
So anybody that joins thosecommunities it's you know.
You've got an accountabilitygroup.
You've got content.
You've got local chapters.
You've got content.
(32:58):
You've got local chapters.
You've got events.
You've got all these thingsthat you get to participate in.
And we built that the same wayfor Emerge.
Only differences are one thefirst six weeks we structure is
onboarding, so we do kind of amodule weekly, with a live call
with me each week to make surepeople are clear on everything
you talked about.
Week one is vision.
Week two is goals and creatingthe one sheet.
Week three is planning.
Week four is getting into howto leverage the tribe.
(33:21):
Week five is how to have agreat go pot or accountability
pot.
So we use that first six weeksfor onboarding.
That's the one key difference.
The other one is that we'reco-ed, so there's GoBundance men
, there's GoBundance women,gobundance Emerge is co-ed, so
it kind of feeds either one.
So the best way, joinGoBundance.
It's like, okay, where's yournet worth?
Depending on where your networth is, you either come in at
Emerge, at Elite or at Champion,and obviously if you're Elite
(33:43):
you're going to be a Champion,if you're Emerge, you're going
to be Elite, and that's kind ofwhat it's all about.
Tony Johnson (33:49):
That's awesome, yeah, and the other thing that I
find great as a business ownerand that you've kind of enacted
within Emerge is this ability tolook for a number two, so
someone that's within thatcommunity.
A lot of times you know youwould love the ability to meet
someone that is a little fartheralong in business than you.
(34:10):
You might just be younger,newer to business, and you have
the ability then to interactwith successful business people
being in that emerge.
You can interact with peoplethat are in elite and champion,
and we're looking constantly.
People that are successful arelooking for the next and the
greatest, and who is up andcoming, who is motivated out
(34:31):
there, looking to make adifference and looking to grow
individually and help out a teamto grow, and that offers them a
humongous opportunity.
In my opinion, that's one ofthe biggest opportunities of
being in a merge, and so you'veenacted something within that,
haven't you?
Could you expand a little bitmore on how you've kind of
worked with that?
Jamie Gruber (34:52):
Yeah, yeah, we've fits and starts, but we built
what we call the partner portal,the go abundance partner portal
.
So, um, to give you an ideareal quick of the of the avatar
of an emerged person, becausewhen we started we were thinking
this was going to be likeyou're young and up in kind of
like 22, just getting started.
But what it really is is like35 to 45, mostly men that are
(35:13):
making maybe 150 grand a year,married to kids.
But, to your point, they'rejust getting exposed to the idea
that, oh, I don't have to justwork a job and put the company
match into a 401k.
So they haven't built a ton ofnet worth, but they make a good
living and they're like well,how do I get myself to another
place with this?
(35:34):
So those folks often are perfectcandidates to go work for or
with, or be mentored by, orwhatever, or partner with a
member of elite, member ofchampion that is, like you just
said, further ahead in business,maybe a natural born
entrepreneur has been doing itsince 20 or whatever.
So, yeah, so the partner portalis essentially a system we
built or a marketplace you couldsay that we're building or
built that showcases the skills,abilities, desires of the
(35:57):
emerged folks.
So it's like, here's what I do,here's what I can offer and
here's what I'd love to be ableto gain from a relationship with
an elite or champion member.
And the ideal is that and we'vehad this happen a few times and
a leader, champion member says,hey, I'm looking for somebody
to run this, or I wanna giveback and I wanna mentor five
people this year.
(36:17):
That's part of my contributiongoal this year.
I wanna mentor five people inthis sort of avatar that they
can use this partner portal andwe've gotta do a better job of
communicating it but they canuse this partner portal to dip
in like a marketplace and say,okay, steve, steve, is you know
doing this, doing that?
He's got this skill that'sideal for my company and I would
(36:38):
absolutely love to mentor him.
In exchange for that, maybe someside hustle work with me.
Or I'm looking for my numbertwo.
I'm willing to pay a hundred,150, 200 grand because I need
that great number two.
Let me dip into this group andfind the person that maybe
becomes that.
So that's one thing.
The other thing is that we'vehad a lot of members who have a
(36:59):
number two that they want todevelop and get sort of common
language around, gobundance sortof terms, right.
The pillars you mentioned, theone sheet, all of that that have
their number two, go in and bepart of Emerge.
They're not at the elite orchampion level, so as a perk
they pay for their number two goin and be part of Emerge.
They're not at the elite orchampion level, so as a perk
they pay for their number two ornumber three person to come in
(37:20):
and be part of Emerge and getall of that education, all of
that exposure, the exposure tocommunity.
And those folks who have donethat the elite and champion
members have said to me like man, just our conversations are
better, we're speaking a commonlanguage, we understand, you
know, they understand what I'vebeen working on forever now and
I can have these discussionswith them so kind of two-pronged
.
We're making sure that ourfolks get exposure to elite and
(37:43):
champion members for potentialpartnership opportunities.
But also elite and championmembers are putting their folks
in a merge for their ownpersonal development.
Tony Johnson (37:51):
I love that.
I wasn't aware that it was thatcrystal clear and that you had
that opportunity.
So me, I'm hiring personally anintegrator, right?
So we're always looking.
So I need to dip in there andlook, now that you're saying
that you're kind of showcasingpeople's skills and ability
through there and see if you'vegot any matches for that.
That's a great option.
(38:12):
I wasn't even aware you weredoing it that in-depth.
That's fantastic.
And I love the idea of gettingthat number two if they're not
in there and putting them inthere because you want them to
understand that mindset and thatgrowth that normally a business
owner has.
And it's hard to kind of relaythat when you get somebody and
kind of get them more accustomedto how we're thinking and how
(38:35):
we are constantly trying to grow, grow, grow, grow, grow, you
know, if you don't have the timeto sit and spend all that time
with them, getting them aroundlike-minded individuals that are
all looking to grow is nothingbut helpful to anyone in that
type of situation.
Jamie Gruber (38:49):
So that's awesome.
Agreed I appreciate it.
Tony Johnson (38:51):
So let's go on to the next piece of you.
You got so many pieces I justgot.
I'm trying to get througheverything in a timely fashion
here.
So the next thing that you'redoing and you kind of went
through it with Grant Cardoneand his wife you've been hosting
the tribe of millionairespodcast.
So in that tribe ofmillionaires podcast you've gone
from, you know, interviewingsome of the normal people today
(39:13):
to now interviewing people likeGrant Cardone and you get this
large list of all thesehumongous people that are in the
business world and you'vereally taken it almost to
another level.
So could you kind of walk usthrough how you've gotten to a
position where you're in contactwith all of these people and I
(39:34):
know you put in a ton of workand so kind of give us an
understanding of how one you'vecontacted a bunch of these
people and all of the work youput in prior to interviewing
someone.
Jamie Gruber (39:44):
Sure, yeah, the the.
I think that the understatedvalue of podcast being a podcast
host whether your ambition,like me, is to be top 10 in the
world or if you just want to,you know, serve a small audience
or no audience, just meetpeople in a way that, um, that
they're, that, they're not, um,you know, that's, that's fun.
Like the podcast is therelationships you build with the
(40:05):
guests.
So there's a few different waysthat I go for the guests that I
want to get.
Honestly, sometimes it's coldoutreach, it's going on
Instagram, it's somebody youfollow and you just make the ask
, and every so often one ofthose people they have a book,
they have something coming outthey say, yes, I'll talk about
the next step here in a second,because it applies to all of
these guests.
That's one.
The second thing I've done is Igo for the number two.
(40:27):
So an example of that might beKale Owen.
You ever heard of Kale Owen?
No, right.
Have you ever heard of AlexHormozy?
Yes, okay.
So Kale Owen runs all of AlexHormozy's businesses.
He's essentially his number two.
Now, I didn't necessarily goafter Kale solely for access to
Hormozy, but because Kale's gota great brand and I really
(40:51):
enjoyed his stuff.
Like that's got to be part ofit.
If you're overly transactionalor if you're overly tactical,
it's just that inauthenticitycomes through.
But Kale is truly interestingto me, so I interviewed him.
But there's, of course, a partof me that's like boy.
This is a great step one tobeing in the world of Hormozzi
and maybe getting that guy to beon the podcast.
(41:11):
So that's an example ofsomething that I'll do.
I'll go for the number two.
The other one is it's really theother podcast hosts that you
get to meet while being onpodcast or whatever.
So I've got one or two otherpeople, one in particular.
His name is Dennis Meralda.
He and I started really aroundthe same time.
He has had Building Men, I'vegot Tribe of Millionaires and we
just started talking aboutthese interesting guests that we
(41:33):
had and we started sharing themand swapping them.
And those swaps sometimes arefor him at the next level than
what he's had, or for me at thenext level from what I've had,
depending on our own networks,and then by being the host of
that person that's maybe at thatnext level, they give you
exposure to the person at thelevel above them, and so on and
so forth.
So all of that are thedifferent ways of going about
(41:55):
meeting people and gettingpeople on the podcast, but what
I think is at the core of it isstep two, which is what you
mentioned is, I think, thepreparation, which you're
obviously well-prepared for thispodcast, which is not the norm
Usually it's hey.
So, jamie, let's give us yourfive minute backstory, right,
like that question right theretells me that a host isn't
prepared for the guest.
And I've done it.
(42:15):
I'm not saying I would never,of course.
I've done it and I probably insome way, shape or form still do
it sometimes today.
But I'll go through, especiallydepending on the guests and how
much information there is aboutthem.
I'll listen to multiplepodcasts that they've been on.
If they have a podcast, I'lllisten to their podcast multiple
of them of who they'veinterviewed.
I'll go back and look at orlisten to books that they've
(42:37):
written I will look at.
If they have a spouse that hasa profile, I'll go listen to
their spouse's stuff and hearwhat that spouse is saying about
this guest, so on, so forth.
So I'll just do a sort of a 360all the way around approach.
I keep notes in my Apple notesthing.
I have a folder for podcastprep.
And even if I haven't bookedthe guest, like I've got guests
(42:58):
like Mike Tyson that I'venowhere near booking Mike Tyson
yet.
Jordan Peterson there's a bunchof them.
Elon Musk I have Michael Jordan, I have questions already for
them now, before I ever get tothem and book them, just because
I consume their content and Iput questions there.
But for my own guests, the samething.
(43:18):
I just take a whole bunch ofnotes and then a day before I go
through my notes and organizeit a bit.
But that's that preparation.
Once you have the guest, whetheryou got it from a cold outreach
and they're like, yeah, I'lljump on this guy's podcast.
Or you get it from going to anumber two and they're like,
yeah, I'll jump on this guy'spodcast.
Or when Dennis, miralda orsomebody else sends me a guest
(43:39):
and they're like, well, dennissaid this guy's cool.
Okay, yeah, I'll jump on hispodcast.
What differentiates me?
Or the host is first questionWow, okay, this guy's not asking
me about my backstory, he justsummarized my entire life in a
sentence and then asked me avery deep question.
I had to think about game on,I'm here, this guy's prepped.
(44:00):
If you listen to the Cardoneinterview.
He said it two, three, fourtimes in it Like damn man, you
know that's a good question,right?
I aim for that.
That's my goal is to get that,not because of ah, not only
because of vanity Of coursethere's always a little bit of
ego in that but it's morebecause that person now looks at
me as credible.
I know I can get Grant Cardoneagain.
I know I can.
So that's the way that guestsat the next level refer you to
(44:24):
guests at the next level abovethem, because they can trust
that whoever they refer is gonnaget some shitty podcast
experience from you.
This guy's prepared.
I'm willing to share guestswith him.
The last thing sorry to go intoit, the last thing I do is for
the guests that really speak tome, like the ones I really
resonate with and it tends to bethose I do in person.
It's just, I don't know,there's a, there's a natural
(44:48):
connection you build in personthere's before, there's after,
there's during, whereas on azoom call or whatever it's like,
it's on, it's off.
But I like to send gifts tothose folks and I'm very
specific with how I do that.
One, it's a custom gift.
Two, it's specific to theirdesires and likes or whatever
that I learned about them.
And three, it has nothing to dowith my brand.
So I don't send them a Tribe ofMillionaires t-shirt or one of
(45:09):
those like bracelets that saytribe millionaires on them.
I send them something that isspecific to them and it's not
always the person.
Sometimes it's somebody withinthe organization that really
impresses me.
So the quick example I give isfor Grant Cardone.
Sherry Hamilton is his numbertwo.
One of his two number twos isJared and Sherry.
Sherry was amazing inconnecting me to who I need to
(45:29):
be connected to to get on theshow.
She connected me to AtlantaCardone's people to get me on
her show.
I'm sorry to get her on my showso honestly.
She was just very, very helpful.
So I stalk Sherry Hamilton onInstagram and what I learned
about her is she's thechairwoman and people love
calling her that.
She had so many things tagged.
The chairwoman spoke today.
We love our chairwoman, thechairwoman, the chairwoman.
(45:51):
Okay, so that's something shegoes by.
And second, there was not threeposts go by without her being
at some sort of concert, livemusic, everything from Lil Wayne
to like Garth Brooks.
She loves live music.
Obviously, I go on Etsy that'smy favorite platform Cause you
can buy custom stuff there and Ihad a wooden engraved plaque
sent to her that said SherryHamilton, the chairwoman, rocks
(46:14):
and had a little musical note atthat rocks thing.
So you can see the doubleentendre on that she rocks
because that's what they sayabout her, but she rocks because
she loves music and had thatsent to her as a thank you gift.
So those little things leave animpression and keep in mind
it's not a bottle of wine thatthey're going to drink and
forget about.
It's not a gift basket of foodthey're going to drink and
forget about.
It's not a gift basket of foodthey're going to eat and forget
about.
It's something that they'regoing to hang on their wall.
(46:35):
And when somebody says, oh,where'd you get that?
You know what?
This guy, jamie Gruber he sentthat to me, isn't that cool.
He had him on Grant's podcastand dah, dah, dah dah.
So I do those gifts without anyexpectation from anybody.
I don't need to thank you, Idon't need to know that they got
it, but I do those and thatleaves an impression with a lot
of people.
Tony Johnson (47:00):
That that alone is a masterclass.
It's a masterclass, yes, that.
That is what makes all thedifference.
So there was one.
So I was in sales.
Um, you know, before I didconstruction, which is what I am
now as a general contractor.
So I sold building materials andI had this builder that I could
not get in touch with.
I mean, I called this guy overand over and I was constantly
blocked.
So he had an admin that wouldnot let me through.
(47:24):
He's basically number two.
I could not, could not, couldnot get in.
So it took me seven or eightmonths of trying every
workaround.
I got his cell phone number.
I would text him, I'd go by hishouse, I would do try and knock
on the door.
He wouldn't ever answer.
I mean, I did everything to tryand get in touch with this guy.
Finally, I went, bought a pairof shoes and just took the pair
(47:46):
of shoes, dropped it off at hisoffice, inside the box, I put a
note and it was like I'm justtrying to get my foot in the
door with you and your company,can you please take my call?
He called me within 15 minutesof me leaving his office in
there.
So when you get creative and dosomething like that.
That's how you make animpression, something that you
don't see every day.
(48:06):
So when you're making theselong-term impressions with
people and that's what you'redoing specifically with guests
by, yeah, putting, saying thatthey're gonna put on a wall not
a glass of wine they're going todrink, and then throw away or
get them a liquor bottle ofliquor they don't even drink,
which is what people drop me offall the time I get these.
I don't even drink liquor.
I mean, all I do is give itaway to somebody and forget
about it.
It's like I don't even rememberto tell them thank you half the
(48:28):
time, stuff like that.
So that's amazing.
So congrats to you for doingthat and following through with
that and not expecting anythingin return.
But the returns are exponentialwhen you're doing something
like that, because it's thoughtout, and you're doing things
that are differentiating youfrom the 40 other podcasts that
they've been on, that have evengiven them junk that they do
(48:50):
nothing with or nothing at alland probably, like you say, not
be prepared All right.
Last thing I want to hit.
And then you know I feel likewe've we've done very good here.
So this thing that's so awesomeis you are starting your own
thing.
You've got a partner from yourold business and you started
this production company.
So I want to make sure that welet you kind of promote this,
take this off the ground andkind of tell us what you could
(49:13):
do Somebody like me I don't, Idon't, obviously I don't have a
big following in in podcasts, somy following to you would be
like a minuscule nothing but.
So you're a big step up for meto get somebody on a podcast.
So what could you help someonelike me with?
With my podcast?
So everyone else that's in thesame boat as me.
We're still trying to get ourfeet off the ground.
(49:34):
What do you do with someonelike us?
Jamie Gruber (49:36):
Yeah, so we do a full launch strategy.
So the company is called BGDProductions BGD I can explain
that if we have a second, it'sactually a cool story, but BGD
Productions and the idea is sortof podcast social media and
taking it off your plate.
So our core client that we'retargeting as we're building this
is somebody that has, say, aweekly podcast that they want
edited, posted and managed forthem, along with some clips that
(49:58):
maybe get taken from thatpodcast.
Or they can do their own clipsthat aren't taken from that
podcast that are also posted andmanaged for them on a weekly
basis.
So we take all of that offtheir plate.
We'll do a full launch strategy.
If they need to be launched orthey're already launched, we can
just take the editing burden,the posting burden, the captions
, the titling, all of that stuffoff of their plate.
So the perfect package, or thecore package, is one podcast
(50:22):
episode a week that also goes onYouTube with thumbnails and all
of that.
A social media manager isassigned to post all of this for
that podcast host.
All the editing is taken offtheir plate, obviously and then
doing three short form clips perweek that are also posted and
captioned and everything else byour team on behalf of the
(50:43):
podcast host or the person thatwants their content posted.
We can also do that for YouTubeonly, meaning if it's not a
podcast but you do like a weeklyvlog on YouTube, we could do it
there as well.
The idea is hey, I got a.
I got a long form piece ofcontent I want to put out every
week, but editing it and all ofthat is such a burden and I
don't want to have to post itand manage all of that.
We can do all of that.
Take it and then cut it intothree short form per week as
(51:06):
well, that we manage for you andget all of your content out for
you.
That's the idea behind BGD.
Tony Johnson (51:12):
And what is BGD?
Here's the background.
Jamie Gruber (51:14):
I was standing at a JetBlue counter to board in
Fort Lauderdale to come backhere to Punta Cana, and I paid
for the even more space seat.
So it's the upgrade on JetBlue.
It's like 50 bucks or whatever,is that much better?
I love it.
The only reason it's not theonly reason I wanted it was I
wanted to make sure I was goingto get my bag on the plane so
(51:37):
that I could just deplane andnot have to worry about it on
the other end, cause it takesforever Once you get down to
Punta.
Tony Johnson (51:41):
Cana, I was in boarding.
Jamie Gruber (51:43):
I was in boarding group D and I wanted to be in
boarding group A.
So I upgrade the seat, I get tothe airport and I'm like, hey,
I paid for the upgraded seat.
And the JetBlue attendant'slike I see that you're in it,
but I don't see that it was paidfor.
I'm like well, how am I in itif it didn't get paid for?
She's like oh, I don't know,cause, yeah, you would have had
to pay for it.
I'm like no, you have to comeup during boarding group D.
(52:11):
I'm like but I paid forboarding group H.
Like, but it says boardinggroup D.
I won't allow that.
I was talking to the guy that'snow my partner just kind of
complaining about it, and it waslike you know what?
It's just a reminder thatyou're always, always, always
going to make sure, always,always, always going to have to
overcome the challenges ofwhatever else is out there.
Like you're never better thanboarding group d.
Never forget that you're nevertoo big for boarding group d.
(52:33):
So bgd became bgd productions,but boarding group d, um, that's
the.
Tony Johnson (52:39):
That was the idea behind it, kind of a gritty
backstory to what we're tryingto accomplish with boarding
group d and for someone like meyou know that this type of thing
is is perfect for someone likeme, because we, you know, you're
just when you're doing apodcast like this, you're just a
solo person and you normallythis is just like a side thing
that you're doing.
(52:59):
So this is not.
You know, I'm not making a tonof income on my podcast, nor do
I foresee, but I do like to getmy podcasts out.
So, but you know, if I'mgetting it out, it's me doing
the editing, me doing thesnippets, me doing the posting,
me doing the thumbnail, you know, and that stuff takes a bunch
of time.
So you know, it's a fantasticthing that you're offering and I
(53:21):
think that's fantastic thatyou've done so well that it
should take right off, becausepeople see you, you're, you're
becoming a leader in thepodcasting world already and
continuing to grow it.
So I wish you all the best andI think it'll be highly
successful.
Jamie Gruber (53:37):
I appreciate that.
Tony Johnson (53:38):
So I think it's a good thing that you started.
Thank you, jamie.
Thanks so much for jumping ontoday.
I have sincerely enjoyedgetting to know you a little bit
better.
Hopefully I represented youpretty well today and you had an
okay time.
We didn't bore you to death.
Jamie Gruber (53:52):
Not at all, man.
This was great.
Tony Johnson (53:58):
So thank you so much for coming on.
Hopefully we'll get you on asyou continue to grow and expand
your empire in the coming monthsand years ahead.
But thank you so much forjoining us and we hope to have
you again soon, sir.
Jamie Gruber (54:05):
Appreciate you, thank you.
Tony Johnson (54:06):
Have a great afternoon.
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