From Debt to Determination: Andrew Cartwright on Resilience, Real Estate Mastery & Ironman Spirit

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Episode Transcript

Paki (00:11):
Welcome to Vegas Circle Podcast with your hosts, paki
and Chris.
We are people who arepassionate about business,
success and culture, and this isour platform to showcase people
in our city who make it happen.
On today's podcast, we're goingto be sitting down with someone
I can confidently call one ofthe most interesting people in
the world.
He's an author, a coach, apublic speaker, financial expert

(00:31):
and content creator.
We're going to be coveringeverything from mastering
financial independence tobuilding a personal and business
credit, navigating the uniquereal estate market in Las Vegas
and his experience on taking onthe world's toughest challenges
the Ironman Plus.
We're going to be discussinghis inspiration behind his book,
the Origin of Opportunity andthe Importance of Surrounding

(00:52):
Yourself Around People thatElevate you in Business and Life
.
So we welcome to the circle MrAndrew Cartwright.

Andrew (00:58):
Yeah, welcome.
Thanks for having me.
I'm wondering is it reallySmith?
It is.

Chris (01:03):
Smith?
Yes, it is Smith.
Is that your real name?
It is yes, Okay, and.

Andrew (01:06):
Phillips yeah, are you?

Paki (01:08):
guys, real Not at all.

Andrew (01:10):
You guys are in witness protection 1,000%.

Paki (01:12):
Yeah, yeah, 1,000%.

Andrew (01:13):
You look, Smith or Phillips, you're going to find
tons of people.

Chris (01:16):
I have an Arabic background and I'm Chris Smith,
so it's kind of a little fishy.
I A little fishy.
I tell my parents the samething.
I'm like wow, and we and what'sfunnier.

Andrew (01:25):
Although Paki there's.
I've never met anybody namedPaki.
It's Swahili.

Paki (01:30):
Really yeah.
Swahili means witness in.
English and then when, my wifebeing from the Philippines, it
means in Tagalog means pleasebelieve it or not.
Really, yeah, so you say onthere.
Yeah, so how they say it inTagalog.

Andrew (01:40):
I know some Tagalog Like I can count to five Issa,
delaware, tatlo, lima, apot.

Chris (01:46):
Darrell, is that good?
Is that right?
Okay, my kids are close.

Andrew (01:50):
Issa Delaware Tatlo.

Paki (01:52):
Apot.

Andrew (01:52):
Lima.

Paki (01:54):
He'll give you a hard time .
We got to get you.
Keep you on your toes, man.
Keep guessing you, man.
You um inspiration.
You know I was doing someresearch on you being an
entrepreneur.
What caught my attention likeright off the bat, is your
parents cut you off at 12 yearsold 12 financially yep done.

Andrew (02:11):
Dad was like I was on the streets at 12 years old in
greece and guess what you'regonna have to find figure out
how to make your own money.
It was the first time I eventhought about taking my own life
.
Um, because at 12 he he grabbedme at the door, brought me
inside, threw me on the bed andstarted yelling at me like don't
ever ask me for money, don'task your mom for money.

(02:32):
Literally, don't ask fornothing and I'll give you a roof
and I'll give you food, buteverything else you have to
figure out.
So I actually started workingin the cafeteria at school so I
can earn food.
Jeez, did you say Greece Not tocut earn food, did you say?

Paki (02:45):
Greece.
Not to cut you off.
Did you say Greece?
That's my stepfather's fromGreece.
Okay, I'm sorry.
Greece.
Okay, got it Okay.

Andrew (02:49):
He didn't even speak very good English too.
Wow, he'd call lawnmower a lotmore.
And he was big and he whippedme all the time.
I had straight A's.
If I got one B, he'd whip me.
Oh, wow, yeah.
There was no excuses, nojustifications, no reasons and
no stories for anything in myworld.

Chris (03:10):
And looking back at retroactively, that's a it does
a lot to a kid right Like Ithink it does a lot to
confidence and you know I likegoing through life and security,
like, I think, just imaginingall the different things that
come as a result of that.
But do you think, looking backon it, obviously with the
business success, was there anybenefit or merit to doing some
of those behaviors, or was itall very challenging?

Andrew (03:30):
You mean the fact that he cut me off?
Yeah, obviously the beatingisn't the good part, but maybe
making him physicallyresponsible, I'm so glad that he
I mean, you know he whipped allthe bad out of me and like,
literally, you know, I was analtar boy, went to church, got
straight A's, you know, startedmy first business at 12 years
old.
I was like there was no.

(03:50):
I was terrified of him and, asa result of that, I was focused
on doing the right thing.
I remember one time he spankedme and I'm like I didn't do
anything.
He goes you must've donesomething at some point.

Paki (04:05):
So if I didn't catch that this, is for that, making up for
it, the psychology around it.

Andrew (04:09):
And you're thinking, yeah, I did.

Chris (04:11):
How'd he know that?
How'd he know that?

Paki (04:12):
You know like Apparently my pops used to do it.
He's going to deny this becausehe's probably going to listen
to this.
We would eat dinner and hewould tell us we were getting a
spanking after dinner.

Andrew (04:21):
Oh, I hate it so, me and my brother would be like, oh my
God, three hours trying to eatevery pea as we go.
Oh, I got a story just on that.
So, oh, also I thought later onin this podcast I have a really
unique set of skills that areperfect right now.
That will blow your mind.
Let's get into that, Okay.
Fire restoration I've restoredover 200 homes here in Vegas and

(04:45):
literally less than 50 feetfrom here I had a company with
over 100 people that restoredpeople's homes Wow From fire.
So I know how to work withinsurance companies.
I know how to rebuild.
I know what they're goingthrough.
I know the whole process.

Paki (05:00):
Especially what happened in California right now, the
whole thing.

Chris (05:02):
I thought we'd get into that towards the end.

Paki (05:03):
Yeah, the whole process, the whole thing.
I thought we'd get into thattowards the end, yeah 100% jump
into that.

Andrew (05:07):
But just because it's so , you know people are going to
get screwed right now.
So bad.
And there's free money outthere, there's loan money out
there, there's like literally,and there's ways to
strategically restore your lifeback to where it was let's
definitely end on that for sure.

Chris (05:20):
That's my thing.

Andrew (05:21):
I'm a strategy tactic guy, you know.
So I've been on the bankingside.
I own an insurance company, soI've denied tons of claims on
purpose, which is the whole goalof insurance.
I sold my insurance company.
It is a gross ugly business.
I had it in Turks and Caicos 30years.
No taxes in Turks and Caicos.
Invest in that money.

Paki (05:45):
So yeah, it's, but I figure we get.
I definitely want to, becauseyou just mentioned something
that sparks something.
I want to ask you.
But first step back for onesecond 12 years old, what was
your first business?
Then jewelry, so I grew up invallejo, right, okay, okay born
in san pablo, richmond, oakland,were my stomping grants e40 was
like I was just about to saythat, okay, I met e40.
Good, all Good dude, reallygood dude.

Andrew (06:03):
Very good, dude, and Rashad, his brother, very cool.
So Mac Dre and all the— thewhole nine.

Chris (06:12):
Yeah.

Andrew (06:12):
So I used to breakdance.
Get out of here, yes, okay, infact, you can still look it up
me doing a windmill.

Paki (06:18):
I can still do a no-hand nutcracker, freehand, windmill
cracker and free hand this iswhy I said it's the most
interesting man in the world,because stuff like this man that
I would not expect.

Andrew (06:26):
But what was cool is like when I got really good at
break dancing I stopped gettingbeat up.
I get jumped all the time bytwo and three and six people,
you know, just walking aroundthe neighborhood college park,
the crest, all that kind ofstuff, and it was just what, you
, it just what you dealt with.

Paki (06:41):
The layout is a real space .
Yeah, it's a.
Yeah, it's a real place.

Andrew (06:43):
We had a place called the Thousand and every Friday we
had race wars.
So we had straight-up fightsevery Friday between Guamanians
and Filipinos and Mexicans anddifferent Latinos fighting.
Black, latino, it was justconstant.

Paki (07:00):
Madhouse.

Andrew (07:01):
Dumb people carrying guns to school.
I had people that are in jailnow for murder.
Just crazy neighborhood.
That's what I grew up in.
We had a drug dealer right infront of my home.
I remember one time, runningout of the house at two o'clock
in the morning, the drug dealertackled me and was getting ready
to beat me up and he goes oh Iforgot, you live here.
So that was that's the type offoundation that was my

(07:22):
neighborhood.
I'm so glad I grew up there.
I'm so glad that I was aminority.
I'm so glad that I went throughall that because it forged like
the unbelievable person that Ifeel I am.
But so in that whole thing,guess what people were, guess
what E40 and everybody waswearing was wearing Jewelry,
jewelry, 100% Jewelry.

(07:44):
So I figured 15 years old.
Well, 12 years old, I got going.
I went and got my resale permit.
There was no age limit ongetting a resale permit.
No age limit.

Chris (07:56):
No, did you know that?
I had no clue.

Andrew (07:58):
Anybody.
You can be 8 years old, neverknew that, because what you're
getting is a permit to pay taxeslike why would they stop you
from doing?

Chris (08:05):
that very true, right like who's gonna block that?
Stop that.
Yeah, like I never knew that,okay, yeah they're not gonna
cock block that right okay so atany rate we're basically.

Andrew (08:15):
I go in.
I can't believe I got a license.
I walk out like I just stolesomething.
I go to the jewelry mart in sanfrancisco.
I look at the jewelry pricessilver, which a lot of guys were
wearing, silver because theycouldn't afford gold and they
would say it was white gold hey,you know you got to do it so so

(08:36):
before they could buy the gold,e40 was buying gold.
Just so you know.
Make that clear, you make itclear.
Yeah, yeah, it's all good, youknow gold brother.
I know he never sold you nosilver, but like a silver rope
chain would be a hundred bucks.
I still have the photocopy ofwhat I took around to everybody.
But I got silver for 65 cents agram.

(08:56):
Wow, right, the stores wouldcharge a thousand percent markup
.

Paki (09:02):
That means and you were 12 years old doing this, yeah.

Andrew (09:04):
So, at a $100 for something I'd pay $100 for, they
were selling for $1,000 at thestore and I was selling it for
$200 and doubling my money.
I got half the money up front,right, and then I would collect
the other half, so I already hadthe money to buy the jewelry.
All I gave them was a photocopyof all the different jewelry I

(09:27):
could get and a price, and theyknew they just beat me up if I
tried to take their money.
For sure, right, like, oh, lookat this, yeah, square straight,
a student, we'll, we'll beatthem down, you know.
So he ain't taking our moneyand I was delivered.
That's fascinating, have?

Chris (09:41):
you always been in the entrepreneur space?
Like obviously starting at 12,becoming entrepreneur and
realizing success, I mean atearly age.
Do you think that's somethingyou?
Have you always been in theentrepreneur space?
Like obviously starting at 12,becoming an entrepreneur and
realizing success at an earlyage, do you think that's
something you've always done?
Have you ever done like a nineto five?
Or you've always been in thisentrepreneur business space?

Andrew (09:54):
To be honest, I think as a kid I probably would have
dreamed about being like apolice officer or a fireman.
A job would be the thing whenyou get cut off at 12, nobody's
hiring you.

Chris (10:09):
Yeah, they gotta figure it out.

Andrew (10:10):
It was out of terror and desperation that I started my
entrepreneurial journey.
It was definitely not the plan.
The plan was to go to college,but my dad said no college money
for you, right?
And I did go to college.
I spent six months there.
I got all the girls phonenumbers that I wanted and I had
no reason to be there likeeverybody.

(10:32):
I saw that I was interested inI got all the phone numbers, and
that was it in fact, I used tosell numbers, uh like when I was
at school.
So I saw, I got food.
Right, that's how I got paid.
So what I would do would sellnumbers.
I'd give girls free food.
You know, like, here's somefree food, are you interested in

(10:53):
him?

Paki (10:54):
Are you interested in him?

Andrew (10:56):
And they'd go, yeah, he's kind of cute.
I said I'll sell him yournumber.
And they'd go, yeah, sell him anumber, shut up.
So I had to get it.
And then I hooked up all myteachers that would come in,
because I was there at five, sixo'clock in the morning getting
all the food prepped, gettingthem their donuts and their
coffee, and I'd threaten themI'll spike your coffee if you
give me a bad grade.

(11:17):
You know I'm teasing them.

Chris (11:19):
Right, I'm teasing them, but not really.

Andrew (11:21):
Yeah, you know uh, so I would do that and then at I'd go
into the courtyard and I wouldtake all the food because they'd
give me like Andrew, takewhatever you want.
So I bought enough food forabout 10 people, so I fed about
10 people that didn't have money.
They'd all come around and we'djust shoot it and eat food.

Paki (11:44):
That's amazing, man, just how your your thought process
how your mind works to be ableto know to sell numbers and you
know as funny as guys you wantgirls numbers.
You would do a 100 pay for it.
Yeah, and that's so funny.

Andrew (11:54):
I'm like I don't know why they don't ask for it.
Yeah, like I never had aproblem in the relationship
department.
I'm like you know, if you'rebatting like 300 is a great
school, yeah, that's a thousand,right, if you ask a thousand
women that you're interested inyeah.

Paki (12:13):
So like, come on, yeah, as long as you're gonna ask.

Chris (12:18):
One of them might think man.

Andrew (12:19):
You know, I was thinking , I really wanted somebody, and
god spoke to me, and now you'rehere.

Paki (12:25):
I'll go with that Slick, slick with it.
No-transcript, by the way.

Andrew (12:40):
I had 200 employees at 17 years old, so things got
pretty real, pretty fast.

Chris (12:45):
And this is all that jewelry business?
Oh, no, so.

Andrew (12:48):
I started out in jewelry and got going and then I said,
well, I'm limited to how manyrope chains is he going to buy,
or whatever?
And then I was like, well, whatcan I do?
And then I thought what's thenext level?
That was retail and streetretail.
I was selling in San Franciscotoo, on the streets.
You know scarves and G-Shockwatches and disposable cameras.

(13:14):
So I started selling to stores.
I sold the Longs and Paylessand Macy's and I started a
company called E&A Imports.
So I started selling.
Then I met this lady at the fleamarket.
It's a Korean lady, she didn'tspeak any English.
It was really bad and she hadamazing products at really
inexpensive prices.
So I said let me go, take allyour products and I'll sell them
to all the stores.
So I was the bridge and I was.

(13:35):
I was selling G-Shock watchesfor like a dollar, something
$1.25.
I was picking them up for 65cents and if you go to the store
, g-shock watches were $30.
Oh wow, those watches reallycost a couple bucks, and the
reason why they put them at thecash register it's the biggest
moneymaker, it's like justcollecting dough when you said
the jewelry industry.

Paki (13:56):
What was it like?

Andrew (13:56):
700%, markup 1,000.
It's 1,000?
Not all items?
Okay.

Chris (14:01):
But the average is around that but yeah, like silver
especially.
That's amazing.
Yeah, I'll make sure that's whythey can do all those deals all
the time that are, you know,half off.
It's always the hustle, it'salways the hustle, yeah.

Paki (14:13):
So through life, you've done multiple different things.
As far as jewelry business, youknow, being a middleman, oh
then I wholesaled.

Andrew (14:25):
I'll middleman.
Oh, then I wholesale, I'll getto the so 17.
I met a mentor, my I met amentor at 15 years old.
That changed my life, okay,forever.
I was listening to tony robbins.
I was listening to dellcarnegie.
I was listening to all likeeverything, like cyber,
cybernetics.
I had a whole thing nightingale, all this stuff.
I was listening to stuff everysingle day, every day.

Paki (14:41):
How'd you find out about it, though, because that's at 15
years old?
Did your mentor tell you?
Hey, well the thing is?

Andrew (14:46):
I didn't meet this.
When I met this mentor, mywhole life changed.
I've read think and grow rich.
Okay, now what, what?

Chris (14:53):
am I gonna do with this?
What do you do, yeah?

Andrew (14:55):
what's the next step one ?
Yep, right, what's step?
No, step one.
What, what do you?
What?
No step one.
Tony Robbins, no step one.
Nobody's got a step one.
Then I run across this guy.
I saved up all the money I had,e Joseph Costman.
I gave him everythingI had he'd, but then like 22, 23 or 25

(15:20):
products that he took to marketthe spud gun that shoots
potatoes.
Um, the ant farm.
Remember the ant farm.
Remember the ant farm.

Paki (15:27):
He came up with that.

Andrew (15:27):
It was on TV, right, yeah, he came up with that the
original first workout recordslike a record for a workout.
That's crazy right.
Yeah, I have nothing like thatone.
But he taught me how to set upcorporations, how to sell
overseas, how to get governmentmoney, free money.
He taught me how to licenseproducts.
He taught me how to getexclusive rights, gave me all
the contracts, everything Ineeded to market, sell, put a

(15:51):
company together, like all thesteps.
So when I got that at 15 yearsold, after I gave him all my
money right away, I startedasking for exclusive rights.
I got exclusive rights to alingerie line.
I got exclusive rights toMaster Art Press and I started a
factory framing pictures andselling to stores.
So I had prints to go, whichwas one company.
And then I got exclusive rightsto Catherine's Finest and that

(16:14):
blew up.
It was a fundraising line andthat blew up.
I got exclusive rights all overCalifornia.
Interesting thing, all overCalifornia Interesting thing.
I went to the actual guy thatwas the manufacturer to sign the
agreement for exclusive rights.
I flew into Oceanside,california, the manufacturer was
in Philadelphia and Oakland andI'm getting ready to sign the

(16:37):
paper.
He goes, by the way, I didn'tcheck your driver's license.
How old are you?
And I'm like I took a deepbreath 17.
Oh, how old are you?
And I'm like I took a deepbreath, 17.
Okay.

Paki (16:48):
Okay.

Andrew (16:48):
And uh, I'm like, I'm 17 .
And he goes uh, I can't sign acontract with you, you're not
even old enough for me toenforce the contract.
Or vice versa Right, you canenforce it on me, but not not
like.
I and I told them.
I said you know I flew all thisway.
You've got nobody selling yourproduct in Northern California

(17:11):
and Central California no one.
And I know I can sell yourproduct.
So here's the deal Give me anumber you don't think I can do,
just just entertain me as a kid, like a dreamer.
That can't do it.
Give me a number you think Ican't do.
He gives me a number like 3,000boxes, right A week.
I do that in a day, rightAlready, because I'm selling his

(17:36):
competitor's product.
Already by then I had like 10,15 employees.
I get exclusive rights.
Now my youngest manager was 37years old, yelling at a
37-year-old, teaching them aboutsales, overcoming objections,
reasons to buy, how to rehash,how to tell a story.

Chris (17:58):
How to introduce merchandise.
Yeah, that's pretty interesting.
That's fascinating to be ableto grow that young, that
intuition.

Andrew (18:05):
Absolute fear and terror has been my driving force.

Paki (18:07):
Absolute fear and terror how'd you get them to buy into
you, being such a young age andbeing able?
Was it the swagger that you hador what was the confidence that
you had?
Because 17 years old, beingable to, that's tough.
It's tough to be able to havethe buy-in.
It was hard a lot of yelling,yeah, a lot that worked, or did
they just be quit andrew, I'mgone, or I paid him too much

(18:28):
money.
Okay, so they would just takeit they just deal with it okay.

Andrew (18:31):
and later I remember a guy that came back to me tom tom
mccree's like incredible guyworked for me for like got a
decade and I remember he movedon, got him After a decade.
He started a business, gotgoing and he said, andrew, is
that territory over here reallyas good as the other territories

(18:53):
?
You can tell me now this hasbeen a decade, because I always
tell him that you just can'tadapt to the people you're in
front of.
You can sell to anybody if youcan adapt to the person, that's
in front of you Be a comedianyeah, be a comedian, right.
So you got to speak theirlanguage, you got to relate to
them and you got to fulfill aneed that they have right.
And then they've got to want totrust you, to believe, to take

(19:16):
it on.
And I said, no, that area isnot as good, but I couldn't tell
you that You're not going tocherry pick my territory that I
own.
You're not going to cherry pickmy territory that I own.
I own this piece of real estatejust because you don't like
working it.
You need to work it and behappy.
So I tried to tell you whatwould make you happy.
But it is true, you, you needto adapt.
Yeah, like we'd have poorneighborhoods would oftentimes

(19:39):
buy more product than richneighborhoods.
How so they just had the poorneighborhoods had real
compassion.
Like understood that, being atthe ground level, I've been
homeless.
I mean, you can, I can likewalk by a homeless person.
I can relate Because you'vebeen there.

Paki (19:57):
Yeah, I know it's just like not to have a place to go.
Business takes a lot of grit,you know mindset being able to
push through everything.
That's why I wanted to jump tothe Ironman so fast, because I
was so impressed with a lot.
Not a lot of people do ironmans is it.
Is it?
Was it that challenging for youand my?

Andrew (20:16):
understanding is have you done more than one?
Or I've been doing iron mansfor a decade, okay, that's why
okay okay started out doing the70s and then graduated to doing
fools.
So there's 70.3, which is ahalf half, and then you have
140.6 miles.
For the full it's a 2.4 mileswim, 112 mile bike ride, 26.2

(20:36):
mile run, and all consecutively.

Paki (20:39):
This is like a 24 hour period.

Andrew (20:41):
right, you only get 17 to finish 17 hours Jeez.
Yeah, so it's pretty intense.
Originally, the reason I gotinto Ironman is so I've been
consulting for companies big,huge corporations that I'm under
NDAs that I can't talk abouthelping them restructure, do

(21:01):
lean, put in theory ofconstraints and sig sigma into
their companies so that they canbe more efficient.
One of the guys that was I'm atthe top two tier guys, the top
guy in theory of constraintsthat's trained me in Israel on
manufacturing and I got thisother miracle guy that's like a

(21:21):
superhero, like he's thesuperhero's mentor.
I see the entrepreneur, the CEOis the superhero.
He's the superhero's mentor.

Chris (21:29):
I see the entrepreneur, the CEO is the superhero, this
guy is the Yoda.

Andrew (21:31):
You never meet him Right .
So I wanted to spend time withthis guy.
His name is Dick Norquist,richard Norquist, and I'm like I
just want to spend time withthis guy and he does Ironmans
right, and I'm like there's noother way I'm going to know.

(21:56):
The guy's like 65, 70 years old, still doing iron mans, like I
was a beast.
He was training with me for thethe world championship.
I just did um and he wasrunning in a walker because he
had spinal surgery and he'srunning with like a walker with
wheels.
I got it on my socials.
I'm like it's just, he's abeast, he's insane.
So I got to spend a lot of timelistening to him downloading
you know company big, huge ideasabout companies and how they

(22:18):
work.
And then I got caught up in thesport because he got me.
So he signed me up.
He told me to come down becausehe had an entry into Vineman in
California in 2014.
So I get down there.
I don't have a wetsuit, I don'thave a bike, I got tennis shoes
.
That's about it.
And I'm thinking, man, I'm notgoing to have to do this.

Paki (22:41):
I don't.

Chris (22:42):
I'm going to get out of this no problem.

Andrew (22:44):
So he's got this guy's entry.
That's 70 years old.
I said this no problem.
So he's got this guy's entry.
That's 70 years old.
I said I can't get to thestarting line.
I don't look 70 years old, I'mlike in my 40s.
Come on.
He's like, oh, I'll talk to therace director.
I'm thinking the race directoris not going to do anything for
him.
Meanwhile, uh, dick has won thatparticular iron man like 20
times.
So I know exactly who he is, sohe knows.

(23:06):
And he does have bull with him.
So he gets my name in there.
I'm like, oh damn, I don't havea wetsuit.
So he starts knocking on doors.
We find a wetsuit that's liketwo sizes too small, bare.
I barely got into it, and youknow I'm swimming.
And then I go, I don't have abike, he goes.
Well, my wife, we have amountain bike.

(23:28):
So I have pictures of my firstIronman.
It's so funny I'm in a mountainbike with tennis shoes, I'm in
a swimsuit with no you know.
And I remember getting to thefinish line and two miles before
he ran back to come get me, andI'm like don't talk to me, dick

(23:48):
.
And he's like what's wrong?
I said don't talk to me.
I think I saw elvis jesus backthere yeah like I can't believe
you told you got me in thisthing.
I like I was so mad at him, youknow.
And then, about 100 yards fromthe finish, all of a sudden I
get this burst of energy becausethere's a bunch of people there
and I just run across thefinish line and he, he goes.

(24:10):
Where was this?
Like two miles ago?
So after that I startedtraining and part of the reason
I signed up for the full Ironman, the 140, is because I didn't
think I could do it.
So it's like I won't quit.
Quit, which means if I don'ttrain I'll die.
Because I won't quit, becauseI'm relentless, I just won't

(24:32):
force.
You literally force yourself, Iforce myself.
So I just sign up, like I'msigning up for brazil, uh, in
june.
So I'll do the brazil.
But it took me 10 years toqualify and go to the world
championship ironman in kona,which is one of the most right,
yeah okay, just did it october26th and it was a 2.4 mile swim.

(24:53):
There's a current, we hadjellyfish biting us, sharks came
in so there was like that's ahell.
No there's no way to get intothe water sharks and uh, what
was interesting is, dolphinscame in and actually circled,
went back and forth and actuallykept the sharks to shore.
Wow, I guess they do this.

Chris (25:13):
Yeah, that's crazy.
I've heard about it.
It's weird to see it.

Paki (25:16):
I've never heard about it, I just watched this documentary
with my kids about all of thatstuff.
It's amazing.

Andrew (25:22):
Here we are.
There's, you know whatever.
2,000 of us, 2,400 of us, 2400of us, crazy a personalities
qualified from all over theworld, that the best of the best
, the.
I mean I was the only one thatbrought fat to hawaii.
I got, I introduced fat to the.
They've never seen it before youknow, they're like totally like
, lean, yeah, and I like my, Ilike my steak with a little fat

(25:46):
on it.
I'm with you, brother, I'm withyou.
So we're doing this swim.
We get out there.
Jellyfish are biting, we gotsharks and of course people are
hitting and kicking you not onpurpose, but you're just getting
scratched.
I had jellyfish that werebiting me here and here, and
then one guy had it all over hisface.

(26:07):
He looked horrible.

Chris (26:08):
It was ugly, the determination to power through
that is wild.

Andrew (26:11):
So we get out there and come back.
I get out of the swim, I'm likebecause I thought I was going
to die.
And let me backtrack a littlebit more on that.
The day I got there, which wasa week before the race, I went
and did the swim and I swam 2.7miles and I looked at my time
and I was like, ah, this timesucks and I was scared to death.
But when I got a mile 1.2 milesout into the middle of the

(26:35):
ocean, there was nobody aroundand I'm like this is insane.

Paki (26:41):
Yeah, like that's dumb, Like I don't even mess with the
ocean like that Once you getpast a certain setup.

Chris (26:47):
It's a different.

Paki (26:48):
You don't play with the ocean.

Andrew (26:49):
That's not a place to play with.
Yeah, I got no buoy.
Are you with somebody?
No, it's all alone out there.
Oh yeah, dumb, that's a littleI'm like, but I had to see that
I could do this.
So I get back because I've doneriver swims and stuff like that
, but not an ocean currentjellyfish shark adventure.

(27:09):
So I come back, I walk into thehotel room, my wife looks at me
and then I said I'm going to goget us some coffee.
So I went and go get us coffeeand have some conversations and
I come back it's a couple hourslater.
She's reprinted my trustagreement, she's made revisions
to my trust.

Paki (27:29):
Oh, Jesus, she thinks this is a done deal so what are you?

Chris (27:33):
doing.
Is there a way of telling youwhat you're doing?

Andrew (27:35):
Oh, so you know, because I'm like I could die.
Yeah, that's scary, and it waswritten all over my face that I
could die, right, and just onthe swim I could die, Somebody
hitting me, getting cramps,something could happen.
And so she revises this.

Chris (27:52):
We spent three days negotiating my trust we're
fighting over the trust by thethird day.

Andrew (27:55):
I'm like honey, I just I signed it.
We went to the notary, we hadall the attorneys prepare
everything, the whole bit forthe amendments.
We get it signed.
I'm saying, okay, it's beenthree days, I got four days till
the race.
Can we stop talking about?

Chris (28:09):
my death.

Andrew (28:10):
Can we stop planning for my death?
Can we just do that now?
And she says yes, I'm like,thank you, I'm like that's the
craziest part.

Chris (28:23):
I was terrified.

Andrew (28:23):
I was completely terrified all the way up till I
finished the swim.
And then, once I finished theswim, I was like I got that down
.
They called my name out thereand it was I mean cause it's
televised all over the world.
So I've come out, they say myname.
I'm like ecstatic.
I go on the bike ride.
There's trade winds blowingagainst me in both directions.

(28:47):
I know that sounds crazy.
I had to ask like five otherpeople that did it happen to
them to believe it myself, andall of us had the same
experience.
Yeah, we go out and the windswere against and then we come
back in and the winds were theother way.

Chris (29:00):
They have trade winds, they switch.
No way, yeah, there's no way.

Andrew (29:03):
And then it rained so then I'm like and you know I'm
so close to God when I'm in anIronman Like God and I are like
this, we're like.

Paki (29:11):
I bet you are.
We're like boys in an Ironmanwe talk a lot.
I bet you know we have somedeep discussions.

Andrew (29:19):
I bet and in fact I couldn't figure out why I was
doing the Ironman.
I've been on other podcasts.
They go.
Why are you doing the ice hit?

Paki (29:27):
I have no idea that was my next question I have no idea.

Andrew (29:29):
Why put yourself through that torture?
Well, I found out, you know,through prayer, on three miles
from the finish line.
So I do my 112-mile bike ridein the rain, crosswinds, people
flying off their bikes,ambulances taking people away.
You're seeing that I got my myoh, oh, crap.

(29:50):
Bars I'm holding.
I don't even want to drink oreat because I'm so freaking
scared.
Right, there's 6,000 feet ofgrade.
You go up, in addition to 112miles, plus the wind and the
rain.
So I get back, I get off thebike.
I'm like tore up.
I'm like God, I got to run afull marathon.
Now I get out, I get off thebike.

(30:11):
I'm like tore up.
I'm like god, I gotta run afull marathon now.
Yeah, I get out, I get off thebike.
I'm running the marathon and II go in about three miles, three
or four miles before the finishline.
I'm like why, why and what.
What came to me was I don'tknow if it's god, or just maybe
after I saw jesus, or thatliterally, this is to inspire

(30:31):
other people.
I'm putting you through this sothat you'll inspire other
people to take on their dreamsand their goals.
That's what it is the ones theythink that they can't do.
You're proving stuff that youcan do, that you don't even
think you can do.
Subconsciously mind games,everything we play, oh you'd be
shocked at how far you canreally go, who you really are

(30:55):
Like, who you're being today isprobably a grain of sand on the
beach of who you are.

Chris (31:01):
Do you think it's like one of those things, though,
like Iron man?
Obviously you need a lot ofdetermination, grit, discipline
to be able to get through thisand push yourself to the end as
you're facing all thosechallenges.
It's almost like Unless youwant to die.
Yeah, as you're almost going todie, it's very cinnamon to be
successful in business, right,like a lot of those same things
you're going to go against arethings you're going to challenge
in Ironman, but are thosethings that you could train

(31:22):
people on?

Andrew (31:28):
on like that discipline and that determination, like
those almost inherent, yeah I Iwould say can you train somebody
on it?
I think you can maybe scaresomebody into being that way.
I guess, like I was.
Yeah, you said scare somebody inthat way you need, like a
life-changing event, to like youknow, you know.
So I remember, I looked up,because my wife and I we use the
word cognition, realization andepiphany all synonymously and

(31:52):
I'm like man, I'm being loosewith my language.
I like to be impeccable with mylanguage.
I look up words, I look at thederivation.
Just to give you an idea, howmany definitions of the?
Do you think there is Four?
No clue.
Take a guess 20?
About 27.

Paki (32:08):
Take a guess 20?
About 27.

Andrew (32:10):
Oh, okay, so it's close.
Are you serious 27?
Yeah, of has like the same.

Paki (32:13):
Okay Of, yeah, that's wild .

Andrew (32:15):
Can you think of over 20 ways to use the word the?
But you do.
You just don't know that you'redoing it because it's just in
our language, it's embedded,yeah, yeah, and you'll see that
in law, because they use wordslike math, right, our whole
country is based on impeccablewording.
They get that wrong, you know.

(32:37):
That's why I was lobbying withthe blockchain and helping with
the blockchain task force tohelp with crypto in Wyoming to
get the best laws in the country, because every word mattered,
right.
Yeah, so that that cognition,epiphany and realization.
Like a cognition is where youhave your thinking and you
cognize, you have thoughts thatyou have.

(32:57):
A realization is you realizesomething over time.
You just, oh, okay, you knowyou've observed something enough
that you have a realizationabout it, but epiphany is a
realization about it.
But epiphany is atransformational moment, yeah,
how do you get more of thoseones?
Yeah, so, but distinguishingthose two.

(33:20):
Now the communication whenwe're communicating about
something that's come to us,we're like did this transform
our life?
Because epiphanies are what I'minterested in.

Chris (33:27):
Iron man will give you an epiphany that's life-changing,
yeah.

Andrew (33:30):
So it's like an epiphany has to happen for somebody if
they're able, and then theirlife is just never the same
again.
It's never the same again.
Yeah, that's interesting.

Chris (33:40):
And I feel like you get so much time in those
environments.

Andrew (33:51):
And when you put yourself to the boundaries,
almost you realize who you areright.
I think that's the.
The epiphany part comes in.
You learn a lot about yourself.
You should hear all the excusesI have.
Oh yeah, I, you know, it'sfunny, my thought, my, my mind
doesn't own me.
I have thoughts all the timeand I look at them, some of them
I laugh at them, some of them Iuse, some I consider, but my
mind is literally a workouthorse for me.
I, I use it, but it don't ownme.
I own my mind, I own my body.

Paki (34:11):
You can tell it what to think.
I tell it what to think.

Andrew (34:14):
And during an Ironman I'm listening to my mind say all
kinds of crazy stuff.

Chris (34:17):
Oh yeah, you're tired, eat something your leg's hurting
.

Andrew (34:21):
Is it really?
Yeah, is it really, or are you?

Paki (34:23):
just trying to get me to stop.

Andrew (34:25):
You know your mind is.
It's funny when you getdetached Navy SEALs get to the
point where they detach pasttheir mind and when you free
yourself of your mind, it is soincredible.
You free yourself of emotions.
Even better, you free yourselfof your body, where you jump in
like an ice bath and you tellyour body listen, you're going
in here.

Chris (34:44):
Shock your body, yeah, yeah, yeah, listen you're,
you're going in.
Shock your body, yeah, yeah.
Yeah, that's, that's tough.
Yeah, I feel like you gotta putthose more of those things into
action.
I think that's the hard partfor the average.
Well, it seems like you'reforcing yourself.

Paki (34:52):
You say you've been doing it for over a decade.

Chris (34:54):
It's you're forcing yourself to continue.
Nothing enjoyable about it.
Yeah, it's crazy.
You keep doing it over and overagain too.

Paki (34:59):
It's even more impressive, yeah so for real estate, I know
you're a big, big piece estateI mean he owns this building.
To give you an idea of how muchreal estate that you own and
been involved with anddeveloping and everything
Different states, not just here.
Yeah multiple areas, right.
So what do you see happening inLas Vegas as far as the real
estate market and some of thecreative things that have been
happening over the last 20 yearsand 25 years?

(35:21):
What do you think it takes usover the next?
You know, probably five toseven years.
It takes us over the nextprobably five to seven years.

Andrew (35:25):
Provided we still have a good supply of water.
This place is blowing up and aslong as it doesn't become too
blue, I got you.
If we get taxes, then peoplewill be in Tennessee All the
rich people.
There's a reason I moved 25years ago from California.

Paki (35:43):
To here.

Andrew (35:44):
Yeah, it's called the Franchise Tax Board Right, and I
own two pieces of propertythere.
I got a place in Napa, in SanFrancisco, cathedral Hill, right
next to by Nancy Pelosi in thebillionaire area.

Paki (35:55):
Okay.

Andrew (35:55):
It was really cool.
Love San Francisco.
We spend about three days aweek, just for the record.

Chris (36:00):
No more than that.
Yeah, I know what you get.

Paki (36:03):
Four days in Dragon Ridge.

Andrew (36:04):
But yeah, like I drive if you drive down Pama I built
like that whole street ofindustrial buildings.
I tore down that entireneighborhood and rebuilt it.
I run by in.
I live in a custom community.
My house is about 12,000 squarefeet under roof, 11,000 livable
, designed it on a napkin, builtit right.
I was in the show FlippingVegas, the Dream Home episode.

Chris (36:26):
I co-starred in that.

Andrew (36:27):
So Scott needed another house.
He goes, hey, can we do it forthe show?
I said, sure, let's go.
I'm finishing it anyway, somight as well, capture it.
It was pretty cool.
So I run by about six or sevenhouses that I built in Dragon
Ridge anywhere from 8,000 to12,000 square feet a piece, all

(36:47):
custom homes and then I drive bythe neighborhoods that I built
and so it just feels good LikeGod had dirt there, and look
what I did with it you know,together as a collaboration you
know it's interesting from likethat perspective.

Chris (37:02):
Like, are you more interested in the development,
retention or acquisition?
Like, what is your passion?
Because obviously I can see youkind of light up when you're
talking about building thecustom home.
That seems like a passionproject almost.

Andrew (37:12):
I love creating.
That's the exciting part is,where are you going to put that
window?
For example, my house.
It has a level five finish.
Every single wall in the entirehouse is hand sanded and the
roof it's in the show they showevery square inch of it.
There's no molding in my house,all of them are bullnosed into

(37:34):
the actual frame of the door.
Yeah, that's.
Wow, that's crazy.
I have real silver painted onthe ceiling.

Chris (37:40):
Oh gee, real silver, that's uh that's awesome, so we
can scrape that off if thingsget really bad.

Andrew (37:44):
Yeah yeah, um, my pool is designed for bumper boats.
I have a full kitchen insidethe pool, 11 waterfalls and a
water slide Jesus Christ.
Beach entry, and you know.

Chris (37:57):
It's nice to be able to make what you want, right?
Yeah, the whole backyard istravertine.

Andrew (38:01):
That's awesome.
People have travertine on thecountertop.
I got it on the countertop.
I got out in the whole backyard.
I built like these in Greeceand 12 years old in the summer
house.
I'd look outside at 12 yearsold and in this beautiful near
the beach summer house therewere these rows of roses.
So in my backyard I builttravertine steps for those roses

(38:22):
.
So every morning I wake up, thesun comes up over the mountain.
It goes directly on me, youknow, because I built the room
where that would happen.
I built the room with exactlyhow I wanted to receive the sun
in the morning.

Chris (38:35):
That's crazy.

Andrew (38:36):
And then I look out the window and it reminds me of you
know, that 12-year-old boy thatwas at the summer house in
Greece, you know, with my twocousins who I adore.

Paki (38:45):
That's powerful.

Chris (38:46):
Yeah, that's one of those cool things like real estate.
What we love about it is thatonce you build it and you put
thought into it and design intoit, it stays there for a long
time.
So a lot of people get to seethis real estate over a long
period of time and knowing thatyou had that part in that for
the next 30, 40, 50 years itseems exciting to be a part of

(39:08):
it's fun.

Andrew (39:08):
I mean I brought in chisel it's wire brush and
chisel carved wood, european oakthat I brought in.
That's five times moreexpensive than travertine, just
because I like the way it felton my feet Must be nice.

Chris (39:18):
It must be nice.
I can't get shoes the way Ilike to fit on my feet.

Paki (39:22):
I should have took Logan up on him.
We should have did theinterview at your house.

Andrew (39:26):
Yeah, we can.
Yeah, that's awesome.
In fact, I want you to be on mypodcast.

Paki (39:29):
I would love that We'll make that happen 100%.
It's inspiring to listen towhat you're saying because the
mindset I mean all these thingsthat we hear from the Kobe
Bryants of the world, theMichael Jordans of the world,
the David Goggins of the worldand you know, I was just talking
my oldest son's strength andconditioning coach and he was
trying to explain to my10-year-old the mindset of
playing sports and pushingyourself is going to help you in

(39:51):
everything in life.

Andrew (39:51):
Oh, it's amazing.
And teamwork, and I'm seeing itwith you.

Paki (39:54):
I mean, you're successful in business, being an
entrepreneur, because you'vepushed yourself since you were
12 years old.
I don't know how old you arenow, but all these years you've
been continuing to push yourselfand not accept.

Andrew (40:05):
failure is extremely powerful, well failure is only
if you quit.
But you said that.
You said it.

Paki (40:12):
I've failed lots of times.

Andrew (40:13):
I've eaten more failure than I've eaten success.
Success is easy.
Failure is where you grow.
I love failure.
Failure is fun, yeah.
It'll mine F you and you'll sitthere and go.
I did everything right, I hadthe perfect plan, I had the
perfect people and I had theperfect everything, and my bank

(40:34):
failed and now everything's goneto crap and there's nothing I
can do about it.
Okay, now what you figure itout.

Chris (40:42):
You don't feel like a failure because you didn't quit.

Andrew (40:45):
I think I've gotten disconnected from money and
things.
They don't own me.
I don't let things own me.
I don't let money own me.
So I look at it like even whenI lost, I had disintegrated over
$100 million and was $12.8million in debt in 2008.
I had to give this buildingback.

(41:08):
I paid like $5 million and hadto give it back.
And you know just ton of stuff.
I had 100 jobs goingsubdivisions, construction
company, 14 different companiesgoing dealerships, insurance
company, all this stuff right,and I kept all my employees
working.
I lost $50,000 a month for fouryears.

(41:29):
I had established I'd learneddifferent lessons.
Each time I failed because I'vebeen a multimillionaire,
decamillionaire and beyond that,four different times.
So each time I learnedsomething.
This last time I learned aboutbusiness credit and I separated
all everything.
I got like 39 different creditcards.
I've got different accounts.

(41:50):
We lived on credit for fiveyears.
At one One of my credit lineswere $8 million, Jeez.
So I was digging a hole, yeah,but business credit, yeah.

Paki (42:00):
Business credit.
Yeah, yeah.

Andrew (42:01):
So I was able to get all that and by April 12th 2012, I
paid back the $12.8 million,cleared all my debts and I was
finally debt-free.
That's saying, when DonaldTrump says, you know, I'd look
at a bum and they were in bettercondition than I was, this was
in like 92.
He was billions of dollars indebt upside down and bankrupt,
but didn't file bankruptcy.

(42:22):
He negotiated with his banks.
I did the same thing.
I called every one of mybankers every single day.
They still talk about it in thebanking industry today, which
is why I have an unlimitedcredit line to do as many loans
for people across the country aspossible, with no tax returns,
with no, I don't care aboutsomebody's income, Doesn't
matter to me.
We'll do fix and flip ground up, construction and rentals for

(42:44):
people.
So that's my big thing ishelping people get capital.
That's the big thing.

Chris (42:51):
What would you say to people that are new in business?

Paki (42:54):
What would you say?
Because we always talk aboutbusiness ownership and culture
and things like that.
That's what our platform isbased on.
What would you share?
Just one tip for somebody thata nugget of maybe they're
thinking about.
They want to start their owncompany right now.
They know they're listening to,to this podcast.
What would you say to them isthe first thing they do stop
thinking start, declare it, telleverybody you're doing it, put

(43:17):
yourself at risk.

Andrew (43:20):
If you're terrified, good.
If you're scared, better, right, terrified, I think is the best
.
I love being terrified yeah,yeah, fire in the basement,
because it makes you makes youyeah it wakes you up, you're
alive, you're 100 present in themoment um, stop thinking, do it
, I like that and start, startearly, fail fast and fail

(43:41):
forward and keep moving.
The thing is like even with thewholesale business everything I
bought was wholesale.
Worst case scenario I sell itback to the wholesaler.
My fail forward is I get mymoney back.
But I can't get back if I don'tdo it, because I'm going to
regret that the rest of my life.
I want to be all used up on mytombstone and as little regrets

(44:05):
as possible.
So if there's something I wantto do, I do it.

Chris (44:09):
I do not want to regret.
That's a first for me, I thinkthe first time I heard that.

Andrew (44:17):
I'm saying I'm always looking strategically at how do
I fail forward.
I created a bank so that Icould finance the dealership, to
make sure that if I failed, Istill had all the notes.

Chris (44:25):
Yeah, damn, that's deep.

Andrew (44:26):
Okay, right, and then I had a financial advisor go.
This is insane.
You're just as stacked on onassets as you are on debt that
people owe you.
Like there's no losing withyour balance sheet, I said yeah,
only the paranoid survive Idon't even have the mindset to
even think of that.

Paki (44:44):
Yeah, which is cool man.
Yeah, that's interesting, thatamazing, as I pocket one of the
most interesting people in theworld.

Chris (44:49):
That's what I start off with.

Andrew (44:51):
Right now you are in somebody's balance sheet, are
you an asset or a liability tothem?
I've heard of it.
I've been asked that multipletimes.
Right, yeah, so I have wellover 86 streams of income, right
?
All coming from differentplaces.
You said 86?

Paki (45:09):
86.
I stopped counting at 86.
It's probably in the 90ssomewhere we have to have a part
two of this?

Chris (45:12):
Yeah, definitely yeah, this is great.

Paki (45:13):
So transitioning for one second.
We always ask guests about foodand restaurants in Vegas.
Vegas is becoming the mecca forfood and amazing restaurants.
I'm very curious with you.
You probably eat at your homemost of the time is what I'm
very curious with you.
You probably eat at your homemost of the time is what I'm
assuming.
That's what I probably would do.
But what's your favoriterestaurant in Vegas?
You've been here for 25, almost30 years.

Andrew (45:32):
So Mon Ami Agabi at the Paris is one that's a regular,
me and the wife love escargot,so it's one of our staples.
Anywhere that has escargot, wego.
You're all over it.
Yeah, we're all over it.
The san francisco area we'vebeen to every single place.
We go to paris all the time.
We just got back we spent amonth in amsterdam, portugal,

(45:53):
which I love.
Portugal is like californiaweather.
We went to poland and, um uh,spain, okay.
So we have a crew of 22 peoplein spain that help process and
underwrite loans that's awesome.

Paki (46:06):
They're incredible.
Met with them.

Andrew (46:08):
They're like just incredible people.

Paki (46:10):
But that's your go-to Monobie Agave is your go-to
restaurant here.

Andrew (46:13):
Monobie I Love Sushi is another place that is really one
of my favorites.
Hank's is another place thatI've been.
Henderson right Steakhouse,green Valley, green Valley.

Paki (46:25):
Okay, I've been Henderson right Steakhouse Green Valley,
green Valley, okay, yeah, yeah,yeah, green Valley Parkway, I've
not been to Hank's yet.

Andrew (46:28):
There's another one that's inside the Wynn.
I forget the name.

Paki (46:33):
SW.

Andrew (46:34):
The SW is great.
Yeah, delilah, delilah,delilah's excellent, delilah's
fun.
Yeah, yeah, all the dancing andthe Really good food.

Paki (46:43):
Yeah, both of those places .

Andrew (46:44):
Yeah, it's a weird experience because four days
here, three days in California,just for the record, yeah, legal
reasons, tax reasons.
So basically the restaurants inSan Francisco are unbelievable
and we have all the money thrownat these restaurants and the
celebrity steps and all thatkind of stuff.
When you're in San Francisco,the owner is usually serving you

(47:07):
and they've been there for like30 years.

Paki (47:09):
They don't have any franchises in San Francisco.
I love them.

Andrew (47:12):
And one of my most favorite places ever as far as
food in the country is Rayo's.

Paki (47:20):
Oh, rayo's.
Yeah, Rayo's is excellent.
You have to buy a table.
Wait a minute.
I went to Rayo's here in LasVegas.
You have to buy a table.
Wait a minute.
I went to Rios here in LasVegas.

Andrew (47:28):
We have a Rios in here.

Paki (47:28):
They're gone now.
I believe, oh, that I wentduring the pandemic is when I
went.

Andrew (47:31):
That's where all the mafia people go.

Chris (47:32):
You're talking about the one in New York, okay, that's
the same one they get the saucefrom at Walmart.
Yes, yes, isn't that funny.
The food's excellent.

Paki (47:43):
But yeah, people own the table there.

Andrew (47:45):
The who's who is there and I was in the middle of
working on buying a castle andbuilding 275 units luxury condos
to compete with theRitz-Carlton over there.
We still have the deal incontract, but it's just.
It's been a tough go to buy thenote from the bank over there

(48:06):
because they just don't want tosell it.

Paki (48:07):
Yeah, yeah, that's no joke I've never realized.
It's fantastic, man, I wasgoing to talk to you for hours,
man, you're very inspirationaland you got an interesting
mindset and perspective on life,man, which I take that
everybody can do it and don'tthink that's what I took out of
this.
What is something that youmaybe we forgot to ask you, that

(48:29):
you want to leave us out on,other than talking about the
fires with California?
But what's something else youwant to leave us out on that we
maybe forgot to ask you?

Andrew (48:35):
It's so funny I never think from there, because I'm
all about serving.
I'm like give me some problems?
Okay, good, come on.

Paki (48:42):
Let's go.
You're a firefighter for realyeah, I.
You're a firefighter for realyeah, I've been a firefighter
since I was 12.

Andrew (48:46):
Like, give me a problem.
I mean let's roll.
I mean you know?
No, I'm not narcissistic, eventhough I have like 20 million
people that set their eyeballson me a month and I'm like,
thank God, I can't believe thatlike some 54 year old old ugly
looking dude that people wouldactually watch on a daily and
stop me and give me hugs it onit daily and stop me and give me

(49:10):
hugs.
It's crazy, but I try and putout content that is strategic,
tactical and, no, it's not goingto be the most explosive viral
stuff, but the most valuablestuff on the internet is not the
stuff that has a million views,it's probably the one that has
500.
It's probably the one that hasa thousand and it probably fits
you and I think that gets missed.
So I, you know, I have videosthat have done millions and then

(49:33):
I have some that have done thatI feel really proud of, that
have done like 30,000 or 20,000or 10,000 views, and to me it's
more about like even the video Ihave coming out tomorrow about
the fire is like 10 steps.
You can do how to work throughthis stuff.
You know cause.
I've been there.
I've been you own insurance yousaid your own insurance company
and and also in a conconstruction company that

(49:55):
actually fixed the houses and Ihad all four board up contracts
here.
I had the Las Vegas board upcontract and I'll tell you what
a board up contract is the NorthLas Vegas.
If you don't know, north LasVegas contract, henderson and
Clark County you know what aboard up contract is, I'm
assuming.

Paki (50:11):
when something messes up, you got to board everything up,
so fire happens, you come outthere.

Andrew (50:16):
So what we did, I got all these contracts.
I can't really say how I gotall of them, because it was.
You know you do what you got todo, right.
Yeah, it was.
You know you do what you got todo, right, yeah.
Yeah, life ain't fair, you know.
So there's a price to pay andit's long, long pass, so nobody
could get in trouble, so, at anyrate.
So I would show up, I'd put aring around the entire house,

(50:40):
right, caution, right so, andthen I would board up the houses
and then we would talk topeople.
I'd have a crew, I'd have Glennand my guys that would go out
there and talk to people whojust had their houses that burnt
down.
All my competitors, othercontractors, were behind the
caution line.

Paki (50:59):
Because you set everything up, because we set everything
up.
That was your business plan.
That's why we had the contract,ah, okay.

Andrew (51:05):
So to me it was like the way to have exclusive rights.
So our thing was to bepassionate, to be compassionate
and to take care of them.
Our board ups we lost money on.
We didn't make any money ondoing board ups for people.
Our thing was let's get outthere, let's secure them, let's
tell them where they can stay,hotels they can go to, what
services are available,available to them what life's

(51:27):
going to look like for the next6, 12 year and a half, if they
want to know to get theinsurance done with insurance
yeah it's weird.
Some people are totally sad and,uh, disappointed.
You'll see other people thiscrazy thing that are relieved
and feel cleansed, it just justwent out.
Fresh start, yeah Like there'sno right way to feel is what I,

(51:51):
what I learned.
You know we've done hundreds ofhomes that we've restored, that
have burnt down or part of thehouse burnt down, and there's no
right way to feel.
It's like whatever you feel isokay.
Yeah, it's really okay.
Yeah, each person's situationis different Every.
It's really okay.

Paki (52:05):
Yeah, each person's situation is different Every
situation is completelydifferent.

Andrew (52:08):
So it's a matter of like you know, what do you do now?
That's where I always thinkokay, what's next?

Chris (52:16):
What do we do?
That's a weird thing.
I had a fire personally in myown home and I had no idea what
to do.

Andrew (52:21):
You don't?

Chris (52:21):
think about it until it happens.
Now you're like okay, randompeople just start calling you.

Andrew (52:29):
You're like okay, they always random people just start
calling you like where do youget my number from?
I completely forgot about thatwhen you had a very surreal
experience when it happened.
So this is going to be a longbattle because there's
negligence, like grossnegligence on the side of the
fire department and the stateand the county and the
municipalities that areresponsible for providing, like
if you're paying taxes and thekind of taxes that they were
paying.
A lot of these fire insurance32,000 people had their fire

(52:52):
removed and so the insurancecompanies are basically they
collect everybody's money andthen they pay like 80% of it
back out to people and thenmaybe they keep 10 or 20%.
It's not like you're keepingall the money right, but as an
insurance carrier we, or like we, would invest that money until
we earn it, cause you don't youdon't get to spend the money

(53:16):
until you've earned it out inthe policy, got it?
So we'll get paid for the wholepolicy upfront, but then we'll
invest it, but we can't actuallyspend it until it's earned all
the way out.
We have to wait like a year.
So we'll invest it intreasuries and stuff.

Paki (53:31):
That's really kind of bulletproof investments, or at
least investment grade stuffWith something as I mean, I
don't even know what to put theword of the California and the
Malibu and everything that we'veseen right now, 150 billion,
probably be 200 billion by thetime we're done.
How does insurance companiesable to cover?
That I mean that's the type ofmoney, that, and it's still

(53:51):
going.

Andrew (53:52):
So I think a lot of insurance companies are going to
look to suppurgate, right.
They're going to look for whocan we blame for this?

Chris (54:00):
So you're going to see like a class action lawsuit
against California.
Yes, class action lawsuitagainst California, which is
going to pay a lot.
Action lawsuit against.

Andrew (54:05):
California, which is is you're going to pay a lot of
attorneys, a lot of money, andyou know it's because insurance
companies oftentimes the firstcall they make cause.
I, I sued.
I've been suing farmers forseven years.
I'm going on my eighth yearsuing farmers Uh, we're in
appeals right now on on the case, but supposedly it was.

(54:28):
Uh, my eighth year suingfarmers, we're in appeals right
now on the case, but supposedlyit was.
I had a $75 million claim thatthey didn't pay on a claim and
they should have, but theydidn't investigate the claim.
So we get a jury trial and it'sjust been.
So.
Insurance companies, the thingis deny the claim for anything.
Any way.
They can deny the claim, butthe first thing they do before

(54:50):
they deny a claim is listen toyou, follow the policy
guidelines, but then the firstthing they're doing is how do I
subrogate this?
Who else can I make pay forthis?
And this one is so clear cut ifyou go to a fire hydrant and
there's no water there, yeah,making sense Like you don't have
.
And the 32,000 policies thatgot canceled, the insurance

(55:12):
companies sent letters sayingthe brush around the area was
like literally not cut down, itwas dry.
This is not maintained.
Maybe they showed up to thefire hydrant and went this.
Maybe they checked thereservoir that was empty Right
up to the fire hydrant and wentthis.
You know, maybe they checkedthe reservoir that was empty
Right.
And if you're an insurancecompany, your job is to mitigate

(55:33):
risk.
You're not in the business,you're not in the lottery
business.
You're in the risk business.
So you do an actuary, you lookat the possibilities and
somebody caught it and said youknow, we're getting out of this
game and 32,000 people canceled.
And it's funny.
Politicians will blame theinsurance company.
But if you created anenvironment that allowed the

(55:54):
insurance company to insure theproperty at a reasonable risk,
why would they cancel the policy?
They're going to make money.
They're in the money-makingbusiness Good point.
But they're not in thestupidity business.
That's for governmentGovernment's in the stupidity
business.
That's for governmentGovernment's in the stupidity
business Because they got ourcheckbook Blank checkbook.
Gavin makes these mistakes.

(56:15):
Who's going to pay for it?
People, everybody in Californiaand I own property in
California.
I know our insurance on some ofour properties has doubled
Already.

Chris (56:28):
Mm-hmm, that's wild, that's wild.
See, I could talk all day aboutinsurance.
Yeah, we're going to continue.
We're going to have that allday.

Paki (56:37):
This is excellent to be able to sit down with me.
What's your social handles forpeople to reach out to?
I know you have a YouTubechannel also, man Andrew
Cartwright on YouTube, andrew.

Andrew (56:43):
X Cartwright on YouTube Andrew X Cartwright because
somebody took my Instagramhandle, so Andrew X Cartwright
and Cartwright007 on X.
What other platforms are there?
And then I'm on LinkedIn.
You'll see me as CEO is CapitalVelocity, which is our lending
company that we help people getreal estate New people too, Okay
, so that are first-timeinvestors or fix and flip or

(57:06):
want to buy rentals or ground-upconstruction.

Paki (57:09):
You need some experience with that the other ones, you
guys, help get the capital yeah.

Andrew (57:14):
I don't care what people make, and the money is infinite
.
You can buy as many propertiesas you want.
That's what people don'tunderstand.
I lend to LLCs.
I don't lend to Fred and Martha.
I lend to assets that feed you,that don't eat you.
I don't do loans at all thateat people.
I only do loans for smallbusinesses and for real estate

(57:36):
that are going to feed you andpay you.
I don't do things that eatpeople.
No do-dads here.

Paki (57:43):
Well, keep track of this gentleman man.
He's a motivated man and thenrunning the next Ironman and
motivating me, man.
So check us out atthevegashowcom and thanks for
your time, Andrew.

Chris (57:50):
That was good stuff, that was motivational.
Thank you, brother, that wasgreat stuff, really appreciate
you.