Special Guest: Mike Vasu

Count money, man. Money back riches.

I'm trying to try and told them I'm a beast.

But what's up, gang?

Welcome to the grind cast.

Stop it, area's here. Get ready to do.

New day. New day.

What's up, gang? Welcome to another episode of the grind cast.

Got big perm in the house.

What's up, brother?

Got the biggest biceps in the game in the house.

We got Michael Vasu in the house from H town.

You said look at them guns, brother.

Look at that.

And for, you know, many of you know Mike, but for those you that don't know Mike,

he's super successful in our business has crushed many company records and

probably sits in a position of probably less than 20 people in the history of

our company's 70 plus years have been able to accomplish what he's accomplished.

And he's only in his 30s.

Yeah.

And you're getting better looking by the year.

You know, I can honestly tell you that, you know, you look better today than you

did 10 years ago, 15 years ago, because my man was you were getting big.

You know what I mean?

You're already big, but you were, you were an inspiration, brother, because now

when I'm when I used to think I was half decent looking, I could dress when I'm

with you. No one looks at me.

No one looks at me.

Everybody looks at everybody looks at you.

You've got guns.

And, but he turned down a full scholarship to law school because he and I started here

about the same time I started in December of 2005.

Vassu would come in in 2006, January 2006.

And I'll remember being introduced to him.

And then we would develop a relationship through the grind.

You know, anybody that, anybody that goes through the grind with you,

whether it is planned college football where you go to camp or you go to battle

together or friends that I know that we're in the military.

When somebody goes through the grind with you, that bond gets, get stronger.

Like me and you went through the grind together.

Our bond, my bond with him got stronger.

And I remember Mike, I remember you telling me, talking to me about, I don't know what

to do. But, you know, my mom's probably going to kill me.

I don't know if I'm, if I'm supposed to stay here or go to law school.

And he decided to stay here, turn down a full scholarship to law school.

When his parents were not privileged, they were hard workers.

They were, they were first generation to this company immigrants or to this country.

Immigrants and then they raise a son.

And he gets a full scholarship to law school and he says, no, mom and dad,

I'm going to take a straight commission job in the life insurance industry.

Okay, probably not real popular.

And he comes in and would end up exploding this business with me.

And then we would develop a relationship.

And so Mike, why don't you tell people out there because it's so,

it's so inspiring to me.

Tell us a little bit about your upbringing and your mom and dad and kind of, you know,

tell the story for me.

Thanks, Simon.

Yeah.

So I think, you know, if I think back to my life and I think you've got to know the history

of the person like, you know, when people get to really know your story, Simon,

it puts things in context of what you've done, you know, with your life.

And so I think it's always important to have some history and context.

And, you know, when you grew up in an immigrant family, like I did, that becomes very central

to who you are because, you know, I was born here.

You were born here.

Perm was born here.

I mean, we were all born here, but my parents could have chosen to go live anywhere.

And of all the places in the world, they chose to come to the United States.

And that was really born out of, you know, my dad, when he was younger, he didn't,

didn't want to live in a communist country.

He didn't want to raise his kids in a communist country.

He wanted there to be freedom and opportunity.

And he knew that the United States of America was absolutely the best place that you could do that.

And so I always joke around, but it's the truth.

You know, when I was growing up, my parents would say, Mike, you know, land of opportunity,

skies the limit, you can do and be anything you want in the United States of America.

And then they would say, as long as it's a doctor or a lawyer, we're good with it, you know?

And so they kind of gave me this decision between those two.

And so I really thought that it would be easier to become a lawyer than a doctor.

It was less school, which I like that.

And it just seemed like science and all that kind of stuff was a lot harder for me than,

than understanding laws, you know?

So I thought I was going to go to law school, but after I finished graduate school,

I came to American income because, you know, Nick Zangardi, who was our, our MGA,

Nick was in the business.

He was one of my best friends.

We grew up together, like literally probably the best guy, you know, you'll ever meet.

I mean, just like an angel, you know?

And Nick was doing really well.

And I was surprised because he's not really a business guy.

He's not a sales guy.

And so he was doing really well.

He told me how much he loved it.

And so I gave it a shot.

I said, I'll do it for about seven months, get my feet wet in business.

And after about seven months, you know, I decided to give up a full scholarship

to the only law school I applied to to stay with American income.

And like Simon said, it wasn't a popular decision.

I thought my mom was going to kill me.

But now, years later, you know, she talks about what I do like it was her idea.

So, you know, it's funny how the tables can get turned.

But I think it's, it's really important.

I learned some valuable lessons at that time.

I learned that just because someone loves you and cares about you,

doesn't necessarily mean they're going to give you the best advice about how you

should live your life.

Oftentimes they reflect their aspirations.

So my parents who were blue collar people, you know, my mom, warehouse worker,

my dad's steel workers union, you know, growing up in that type of an environment,

all they wanted for their kids was for us to not have to be in that environment.

So their way out to them was school and having a, what they consider to be a professional

career, you know, but, you know, it's, it's, it's just funny to, at that time,

you know, if my mom and my dad, my dad was kind of cool with whatever,

but my mom was real hard still, you know, on me at that time.

I think if she would have been super supportive, I don't think I would have done

as well because I felt a sense like I had to prove to her.

I was playing with the chip on my shoulder.

I had to show her that it was the right move.

And so I was willing to sacrifice more, spend more time in the business

because I did want my parents to be proud of me.

And I knew that this was going to be a way to get there.

And I've been blown away now.

You know, it's amazing to think Simon that, you know, it's been 14 and a half

get not coming, coming close to 15 years that we've been in this business.

15 and how much we've grown.

The relationship we have, I mean, you know, I'm getting married soon.

And I'm looking at my wedding party and it's like 80% 90% American income life.

Yeah. Crazy.

It becomes like a family.

It does.

It does, man.

I think, you know, I think, you know, that it all goes back to that whole

aspect of, you know, show me your friends.

I'll show you your future.

You know, that's that's part of it.

Birds of a feather flock together.

And then the other part of it is to really

to really be the greatest in something.

And this is what people don't really want to admit or don't talk about enough.

The non-glorious grind is if you're really going to do something big next level

big, they're like 1% big for your life, you're going to have to work so hard.

You're going to have to invest so much time that you don't really have time to

be s around in party and go to clubs if you're going to build something and all this.

You end up your friends and extended family become those that you spend the most

of your time with and the people that you're spending the most of your time with is

people that you're grinding with all building and chasing a drain.

And that's, that's, that's what happens.

Vassu, good morning to you.

I want to see your cup that you show me a little bit of gold.

Show me your cup of Joe.

My daughter got me.

I love good man. Great dad.

It's crazy.

I love that.

There's nothing as apparent, you know, and we're all well got kids.

There's nothing better than children, man.

You know, it reflects the innocence of the world.

I mean, having the opportunity to raise children is there's nothing like it.

When they can get to an age where they start making decisions and want to do stuff for you,

it's like next level.

You know, it just gets better every year for sure.

I just got my cup to today.

I'm going to fill it up for you real quick.

Where did this day?

It's crazy that you know, just give me a moment.

That's it.

Just let me fill this up real fast.

Boy, what?

Man, you're fine.

You didn't tell me this dude had this.

He had the smuggler.

This over here, which you knew about this.

That this is funny.

This is perfect for you.

I'm the right normal size for you.

So I mean, how did your swag come about, man?

I mean, since you, since everything I've known you, so I've got introducing to you,

you mean, your swag is like crazy.

Like, you're a great dude.

Where did you get that from?

Are you you're talking about just my personality?

Yeah, just you being you.

So I don't think I've ever talked about this too much.

Yeah.

I think it's a great question because, you know, I think it's a good story for people to hear.

You know, when I, when I first like went to kindergarten and first grade and second grade,

I was really kind of an outcast.

I mean, I went to kindergarten.

I didn't speak English.

You know, I only spoke Romanian.

I mean, I knew some words, but I couldn't put a sentence together.

Right.

And so needless to say, I was like a really weird kid.

You know, people, it's not like my classmates attracted to me.

They were like, you're just kind of weird, you know, growing up and going at that time,

I was in Cleveland Public Schools and I was like an outcast, right?

I mean, I didn't speak the language.

And so as I got a little bit older, you know, what, what ended up happening was that I found out

number one that if I could make people laugh, it would take the focus off of kind of them.

You know, given me some crap, which is what happened when I was younger.

And, and then, and then what, what I learned was that a couple older people that I went to school with,

kind of maybe they felt bad for me because I was getting picked on, you know, what I was really young,

but they kind of took me under their wing a little bit.

And I remember how good that felt to have that, that kind of protection, you know, from someone that was over.

And so as I kind of hung out, as I became older and I started to get a better sense of myself,

my own, my own personal, you know, sense of security.

Right.

As I got a little bit older, I liked to play that role as well for younger people.

Like if I would see an outcast in school, I'd go sit next to that person, have a conversation with them.

And I just became really secure in myself and it was born out of someone else, kind of raising me up,

someone giving me wings when I didn't think I had them.

And so that kind of really inspired me for the rest of my life.

And I wanted to give that to people because I'll never forget what that was like.

You got Jeff, you know, wings.

Exactly.

Yeah, you got Jeff, you know, how was it?

How was it?

Of course you live in sex is traveling back forth, back, back and forth to see your daughter.

How is that?

Like how, like how hard is that to do being and being a business owner and do what you do?

Yeah.

It's been challenging because, you know, every month, you know, I'm basically, it ends up being about an average of about a week

a month, you know, seven, seven days or so of travel.

And it is a, it is a huge challenge on there's no doubt about it.

It's one of the hardest things that I've ever had to do on multiple levels.

But, you know, always kind of live by the motto that sacrifice creates opportunity.

It's my personal motto is the way that I've always looked at life.

And so what I try to do is I try to take the emotion out of the work element of it.

And I more so attach emotion to the vision of what I'm trying to accomplish and achieve.

And it makes it so easy for me to say that again, because we got to make sure that this is what you just got done

saying people understood clearly.

Yes.

Yeah.

I think I try not to attach emotion to the work that's got to be done to the sacrifice that has to be made.

But I more so attach emotion to the opportunity to the vision of what I'm trying to achieve.

Because the work, you know, I guess what?

You know, you guys know this.

Nobody likes the work part.

You know, it seems fun to do a podcast.

It seems fun to have all this stuff up.

And that's a process that takes years develop.

And it's a lot of work.

But then you get to enjoy it.

You know, you get to do what you love to do.

And so for me, it's a non-negotiable.

I have to have a great relationship with my daughter.

And you know, I'll tell you that my biggest inspiration for that Simon, you know, was Marcus

is the way that Marcus as committed of a father as he is

inspired me to say, you know what?

No excuses.

If he can do what he does, then I can certainly jump on an airplane, you know, for a couple hours

every other weekend to go spend those that time with my daughter, because I'll never get that time back.

And I'm sure she'll get to an age when, you know, she's 15, 16, 17 years old.

And she'll say, Dad, you don't come back every other weekend.

You know, I got friends and I want to do stuff on the weekends and I'll have to understand.

That'll probably be pretty tough.

I've been thinking about that day for a long time.

Yeah.

But, you know, when I think about the, the, the, the, it's so priceless to have a relationship with people.

And, you know, as you get older, you really understand friendship, family.

I mean, these are irreplaceable.

There's no amount of, you know, most things.

There's a certain amount of money, like I love what I do at American income.

But for the right amount of money, I probably would leave my job.

There's no amount of money that I would take for me to lose my relationship with my daughter.

It would not, it would never, there's no price that you could, there's, it would never, I would never sell myself out that way.

Right. Now talking about relationships.

How did you and this guy, Mr. Areas, how, like how do you guys meet?

Where'd you guys meet at?

How'd you guys come to talk to each other?

Yeah.

And that workout.

So I knew about Simon before he knew about me for sure because I was really good friends with Nick.

And I knew at that time I was going to get into the business.

And Simon came out and he did, he grew amazing right away, you know?

And so he was making an instant impact.

And I remember actually being at Nick's house Simon one time.

And this was before you and I even got a chance to meet and you asked him, you did a walk out clothes in a house

and you called him to get a couple tips of advice before you went back into that house.

This was like December of 2005.

This is like right after you got released.

And, and I remember and he's like Simon, you know, Nick goes, Simon is going to be, this guy's going to be an animal.

And so of course I was interested.

I couldn't wait to meet him, you know?

And so I remember that we met.

I don't know if it was Marcus or Nick,

they said something smart.

Like Vasu's gonna catch you or something.

And Simon said to me he goes,

well, I'm like Dion Sanders.

And that was a reference to the combine

when Dion Sanders went to ask him,

like how fast do you think you're gonna run the 40?

And his response was at least the 10th of a second

faster than anybody else.

He didn't put a time on it, he just knew he was gonna win.

So I liked him right away because he said that.

And I said, I like this guy.

And so we had the opportunity really to become close early on.

And at that time Marcus was just establishing himself

as an SGA.

And I think we both really admired his youth,

his youthfulness and we wanted to be in his circle.

And to be in Marcus's circle is like,

that's like a very fire-replace to be at times.

It's not for everybody.

Hey man.

So you gotta take some hard coaching.

Especially 14 years ago, 15 years ago.

Yeah, it was rough without a doubt.

So we found ourselves kind of in similar situations

and then we ended up road tripping together.

You know, at that time it was not how it is now.

We can do virtual and be on Zoom.

You guys run road trips?

We were on road trips.

Oh yeah, to, you know, I mean, just in the sticks in Ohio.

My favorite spot, your ex-ville.

Yeah.

You know what I mean?

New Philadelphia, Dennis and we used to hit that area together.

We would hit the road, you know,

we would hit the road on Tuesday and be gone till Saturday.

And every week, that's what we did for months.

And that's where we really cut our teeth in the business

because, you know, there was nothing else to do

at that best Western.

You know, I mean, the only thing you could do

is get up and go to work.

And you learn work ethic and, you know,

when you're with someone and the more success

you have in your life,

and I wouldn't consider myself to be successful,

but the more success you have,

the more you realize how hard it is to be successful.

That's why it's like only the people that are haters

are either right.

They have a reason to hate the, like the person's unethical

or they do something shady or something like that.

Maybe they have some truth to it.

But generally speaking, people that are haters

or people that are just not successful enough,

because they've never applied themselves to the level

that you need to achieve success.

Because if you do, you know how hard it is.

How could you have anything but admiration for someone

that gets up and goes to work every day?

Like, I was thinking about how ridiculous it would be.

You respect the game too much.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Because you know what it takes.

That's right, exactly.

You guys are like rappers, man.

Little things.

You know, little things like, you know,

I have people all the time, you know,

I run a business in Simon Udru2,

but like in our business,

I have people all the time like,

oh, I overslept, I ever did this.

Like, could you imagine someone being like,

oh, I had a meeting with Jim Sirace,

but he overslept.

No, never ever.

Never.

There's not possible.

So it's really the little things,

you know, doing the little things, right?

And when you see someone doing the little things,

you know that they're not doing it for accolades.

This was pre-real social media.

I mean, Simon got, came real late

to the game in social media.

But this was pre-real media.

I hate it, social media, remember?

Yeah, I'm part of this.

That's right.

Yeah, you know what I mean.

So like, we'd get up in the morning

and this guy's ready to go to work

and it wasn't because he wanted to post it

with the selfie that he was going to work.

Right.

He was going to work.

And he did this every single day.

And so, you know, I was raised with a similar work,

I think my dad was working two and three jobs.

My dad wasn't around hanging out and all that kind of stuff.

You know, he was at work.

What I was raised to believe was that men go to work

and they don't complain about it.

They appreciate the opportunity

to be able to work and provide for their family.

That's why I love that SEO.

You know, sacrifice creates opportunity.

It's very simply put way to explain to somebody

how they need to get to where they want to go

because if you show me somebody great in something,

or they have a great opportunity,

I'll show you someone that sacrificed

in order to create that opportunity either for themself

or their parents did it, just like we're trying to do it

as parents for our children.

You know, and I think if somebody were to look at

what you have been willing to do

in order to have the ability to create opportunity

for others in a sense of employment.

And in your family and your children

and we'll even get into the next phase

it's getting ready to happen.

But you know, what you've sacrificed,

most people wouldn't be willing to sacrifice

or they would make an excuse about, you know, going home.

And what I've learned, you know,

I'm not in the situation of, you know,

only coming home every other weekend.

But I do hit the road sometimes for a few days,

you know, with Perm.

And I know that I put in a lot of hours still

and I don't have to, you know,

hopefully I don't demotivate people that want to live the dream

and they're like, well, what's the sense of putting in the work

because you never get a chance to enjoy it.

Believe me, we enjoy it.

Believe me, Natalie enjoys it

and the family enjoys it.

And but what I enjoy doing is working.

And I enjoy that because there's a chip on my shoulder

that I still have to try to play

for other kids that are inner city youth

that I want to provide for.

There's other people in my organization

that came here because of them believing

that I could put their life in a better place.

And I need to grind for that every single day

to make those people's belief in me validated.

And so I'm not cool with not putting in the work.

So it leaves me at a spot where I do get time with my kids.

I'm there and we have a bond.

But I just know it's probably not at the level

of the people that get off a work at four or five o'clock

all the time.

And when I do, I know that our time that I have

with the kids is so, so quality.

That I can feel us getting closer maybe even

than if I were to take that time for granted

because I'm there all the time

because we have this quality bonding relationship

that I'm proud of when I'm out with the kids.

And I know you got that bond with your daughter as well.

And I think sometimes people with good hearts

that want to be parents, they're like, well,

maybe I shouldn't do what's required to be successful here

in this because I don't want to neglect the child.

And everybody's situation is different.

I know, not everybody's life is the same or motivations

are the same.

But I know your mom and dad sacrificed

to give you a better opportunity.

I know my mom and grandmother sacrificed

to give me a better opportunity and shame on me

to not do the same thing for the next generation coming after me.

Is that how you would describe one of my favorite things

that's not my own that I reference all the time

that sacrifice creates opportunity no matter what it is?

Yeah, you got to give something up.

It's a trade off.

And what I always tell people is that if you really want

to be successful, this pursuit of balance

is a very broken pursuit.

It's very difficult to have balance

if you want to achieve greatness.

You can have boundaries though.

You can say, during these hours, I have positioned myself

by being responsible and making good decisions.

And I'm going to set this time aside

to spend with my children focused because most people say

they need more time with their kids.

And it's like stick the kid in front of the TV

and then come back two hours later to check on them.

That's not really spending time with your kids.

And what I always try to remind people,

and I just use really simple math.

There's 168 hours in a week.

If you sleep seven hours a night,

we'll call it 50 hours a week.

That leaves 118 hours.

I mean, if you work 12 hours a day, seven days a week,

that's 84 hours.

You still have, you still have 34 hours.

That's if you work nine to nine, seven days a week,

nobody does that Simon.

As hard as we've worked, we didn't work nine

to nine every single day.

So when people say they don't have,

I get 34 hours in those 34 hours.

That's that you're not sleeping and you're not working.

You don't have time to spend with your kids in 34 hours.

You don't have time to go to the gym in 34 hours.

You know, it's ridiculous.

It's just, you know, side to show people math.

Yep, truth man.

Like this business right here that we got here

that you guys, it's like being a rapper.

You know, they see all the cars, the rims,

but they don't see the work that it takes to do that.

You know what I mean?

It's just, it's a lot of work like you guys do.

A lot of work.

What Vasu's rap name would be, Purn, what would you?

Oh man, off the cuff.

I don't know.

I mean, you dress fly, that's for sure.

I like, you only got, I know that you got,

it's like, if you watch or you're shooting,

you're like, you don't wear socks.

I mean, you do, but you got that little gap in between

that you, and only I know that you can pull that off, though.

I mean, you look fly.

I'm talking fly to motherfucker with that shit.

What was it?

So, I mean, what, what was your rap name?

I don't know, what, what would you call yourself Vasu?

If you had one, I don't know.

Yeah, I don't know.

I know what, I know you got it, I know you got a super tight,

tight fade right now.

You just stay polished like you just stepped out of it.

Stepped out of the GQ magazine over there, brother.

I know that.

Always, always MC, MC SEO, it would have to be something like that,

you know?

Like it.

You should show these people.

You guys, you should show these people the, the, the, the, the, the

Pager.

Oh, remember, you remember the Pager I used to suffer you into doing

in front of everybody.

We, me and Marcus, we love seeing them do that, you know, the, the

Pager.

You know, I mean, if you could see he just, you know, he shakes his

whole body.

I used to be able to, yes, do his whole six foot five,

you were 260 pound body.

And, and, and, and, and it just, you know, he's like his whole

body shaking.

That was like, I got a heart attack.

One of my stank, like having a heart attack.

Can you still do that or would you pull a muscle?

It's been a while.

And if I stood up, it would be probably weird.

It wouldn't be the right camera angle because I don't have the

same stuff.

You guys can take it.

Yeah.

But I think I can still, yeah.

Oh, there it is.

You say, you can taste.

There he is.

Ma'am.

Got it.

Ma'am.

I love it, dude.

Vasu, man, what, what, what, what, what, what, what advice, you

know, maybe would you give to someone that's, you know,

in our business, there's no way to, to get to where you want to go.

I mean, just in life, to get to where you want to go, without going

through some obstacles in adversities.

And, you know, I think when, when, when people look at you, because

that's what we're talking about right now in this podcast, as, you know, when

they look at others, but I'm going to say when people look at you, and they

see you, you know, with the woman of, of, of, you know, what seems to be your

dreams.

Let's just stop there for a minute.

Yeah.

That's an obstacle.

You know, we were, you know, slated to get married months ago.

Yeah.

You know, you're marrying my girl Daisy, which, you know, I don't know what put me

in the, in the, you know, president of what you're supposed to be doing with your

life department, but I have always shared with him unsolicited opinions and

advice in his life and date life.

Yeah.

And I've been super protective with my dude because I know he got good looks.

He got good swag.

His heart is, is his biggest yo draws.

I mean, he has a huge heart.

Very big big time.

Big time.

Okay.

It's the best way I can describe it.

So the, the, I had to, because he's a loyal cat.

So once he's in, he's in.

So I'm like, Vasu, you know, I don't want to see you doing this or, you know,

you shouldn't, you can't like this one.

And, and, and I'm coming into it negative.

I'm already coming into it like I don't trust you.

You know what I mean?

And, and Daisy never, ever gave me that vibe.

Not that my opinion matters to her or not.

We got a good relationship, but I just genuinely can say from my heart that I always

had a great vibe about Daisy.

And, and I'm actually genuinely excited to, to watch you get married.

And we had to bump the thing, you know, back.

Why don't you talk about what that's been like this year in the midst of getting

married and how, how your relationship is and what happened with the COVID-19,

which are wedding.

Yeah.

Well, so, you know, we were, we had engaged in September and we kind of tossed

around the idea of doing a little bit of a longer engagement or not.

And, you know, we both been married before.

So we thought, why don't we just kind of move a little bit more quickly

because we hope that, you know, God will bless us with the opportunity to have a family.

Yep.

And I'm not getting any younger, you know, I'm, I just turned 38 years old.

And so, you know, we, all this COVID-19.

25.

What's that?

You look 25.

Thank you.

I'm working on it.

I'm trying to stay.

It helps, it helps, it helps to be with the woman that's 10 years younger.

You know, there you go.

But it keeps me, it keeps me younger.

There you go.

You know, but, you know, so what I was giving you the thumbs up back, Terry.

What you did know, he's great.

Great.

Great.

He's in the same boat.

I thought, I thought that, that weddings and stuff, we're going to get a pass on this.

Yeah.

But nothing is.

Funeral is not, you know, nothing has.

So literally the day the CDC announced that there were going to be these restrictions,

our wedding planner called us and said, hey, we're going to have to move the wedding.

They haven't told us this yet, but I'm, I'm certain that we're going to have to.

And, and sure enough, she was right.

And so we have a great wedding planner in Cleveland.

And she's phenomenal.

And she basically took care of everything.

We had to change the venue.

We had to change the date.

And it was disappointing.

And we were talking about this last night.

What was really disappointing was on the day that the wedding was supposed to happen.

May second, we got flowers, edible arrangements,

hakes brought to our house, people that were thinking about us.

And it made us feel so blessed in the midst of a situation that was so, you know,

upsetting in a lot of ways and disappointing to have the friends that we had that cared about us

enough to think about us, you know, during that time.

And so, you know, we're grateful.

We're definitely not going to move it again, you know, if October 24th doesn't happen.

It is what it is.

And we're going to just get married and just have our wedding party there if they can make it.

And, you know, just celebrate with a really small group of people.

And, you know, just, you know, we got to get things done.

If things don't work out and we need to get creative and that happens, if, if Jim is

an available, maybe Perm can marry you.

Perm, perm.

Can you, can we dress you up in a priest's think?

Yeah.

Would they fit that around?

I look good in the suit, buddy.

Come on.

What a big what a big gold chain with Jesus piece Jesus would be right there with you

You know the main because boom he loves just wearing the big Jesus piece

The last couple days of of of being mr. Vasu by yourself

How does your new wife to be

Can she wait to be and have your last name miss Vasu?

How is she you know how long is she excited about?

Yeah, she's thrilled yeah, that Daisy is

We've had such a great relationship like Simon said

We don't we really don't argue much

It's very rare. She's like got a very that's one of the things I love about her

You know as I notice real quick that she was supportive of the process in the grind because your wife

Can only be in one of two places and we learn this from from one of the disciples Fred had died in the game

She could either be on your side

Or on your back for real and and and it's very hard

To do what's necessary to be successful if your wife or spouse or significant other is not on your side and

So I think she's been pretty supportive it seems like to me

Yeah, but I think as you get older to Simon for me at least you know

I've been through a divorce I've been through some you know kind of rocky relationships and stuff and what you learn is

The person is not bad, but the relationship just didn't work and so you start to think about why didn't it work

So when Daisy and I got together I kind of gave her this list of here are all the reasons you probably don't want to be in a relationship with me

You know, I'm like I got daughter. No, I go see her every other weekend. I got a good relationship with the concerns

Yeah, yeah exactly and and she said I'm good with all that actually all the stuff

You're worried about our things that I admire about you. I admire that you go visit your daughter

I love that you got a great relationship with your ex wife instead of being like this with each other all the time

But button heads that would be held to be in a relationship with someone like that, you know

And so all the things that I was concerned with that I thought potentially could cause issues

They were all positives to her and she's proven over the last couple of years that she was being sincere. Hey, man

You guys look great together. Thank you for sure like the best of red. I mean you guys look great

She makes sure she makes me better. She makes me better and she's tough good

You know, she was a powerlifter in high school, you know careful. He careful. Yeah, I get you down brother

She was an athlete powerlifter. She's she grew up in Texas. You know in Texas

One of the things I learned about Texas is that in Texas especially the guys

They're always ready to kill something they got guns. They got knives on on the things they got to go hunting fishing

Yeah, every picture they take is with a dead animal holding up antlers holding up fish and

You know Daisy has a sister and so when she was growing up her dad kind of raised her a little bit

Like a tomboy so she went hunting and fishing and and she's much more outdoorsy than I am actually I look like

It's like almost like traditional gender roles are reversed, you know, she's like the guy almost in a lot of ways

So it's it's cool to get that and to have that experience so it makes it really easy for us to get along and what's her background?

isn't she

From Hispanic descent. Yeah her on her mom's side her grandfathers from Mexico her grandmother was born in Spain and

Her grandfather's actually is a pastor and so on her dad her dad side though her dad is you know

He makes mostly European

But he's got some Native American and so she's she's a mix of the most things, but she's a she's half Hispanic. Oh

Got you like me like me

But part of her was one and a half Hispanic so they gave me two. Yeah

You

You

You know as we close out Mike, you know if you look at if people looked at your life from the relationship

You have with your friends your family getting ready to get married a beautiful woman nice suits and blazers

And you know helping a lot of people you look at your life and it looks like you know

It's it's all it's all W's all wins all success and and you know what advice would you give to someone and we're all

Still on the grind we're always going to be on the grind

But some you know the real grind bro like this ain't the real grind anymore

You know the main this ain't this ain't us door knocking these these people are giving zoom meetings

Okay, this ain't us driving three hours away to get to our appointment and standing in hotels and for six seven days and

You know this this ain't we're not in the middle of that nor is the company even like that anymore

But the but the we are not in that type of the process yet

It's still a grind. It's a different grind. It's a you gotta take care of yourself mentally because there's a lot of stress but

It's not what some people that are gonna be the new Vasu and Simon 10 years from today or five years from today

Those people are hopefully coming and me and you of course, you know

We just want to give them the game man

Yeah, just tell them what it takes what it requires serve them help them and try to position them well at this point of our life dog

That's right and and but someone's listening to this that's in that process

Yep, and and they're probably gonna go through shit

You know the the the things that no one talks about or sees they just see you with a nice red blazer with a nice girl

Getting ready to get married driving fast cars and it looks like you're just living the dream

but I watched you get

Beat up. I watched you go through obstacles

I've watched you go through adversities. I've watched you go through not physical fights

But just you know you have to get through battle here and

Be war tested in order to really win at the highest levels and I've watched you

Battle tested and you've watched me battle tested and and the people that are going to make it have to go through

Battle we can help them with the battle now

You know the main it's like having snipers or you know

We got you

But you have to go through the battle to get to that it why don't you help someone or give them some advice you know the the

Times where you've gone through obstacles and valleys, you know

How have you gotten through those and what suggestions would you give to those people that may be in a valley right now?

Yeah, I think that's a great question one of the things that I've kind of experienced and learned too over the years

Simon is that you're right the grind has changed for us in a lot of ways because when your brand new

You're kind of like it's almost like all day and all night you're just doing all the things you really don't want to do

But you know you have to to get to the next step right and I have spent so much time in my career

Trying to make it easier for the people that have come after us is almost like a parent wants life to be a little easier

Absolutely, absolutely and sometimes I wonder if I'm not painting the accurate picture of what it really takes

I wonder if I'm weakening people

Because I'm not keeping it real with them. There's roles to the game right right TD TD Jakes who I love and I know you do too

Has he has a one of his sermons he said that God's reward for us overcoming problems are bigger problems

And so the reality is that it's not about the situation you're in right now

But what God is preparing you for in the future?

That is so so important to keep in mind so been through a lot of challenges actually most of the time

This business and in any business anything that you do I mean you see

I know you like MMA or you see boxers right they may box twice a year

They're training the rest of the year. There's no glamour in that

There's no glory in the jump and rope and punch in the bag and hit in the weight room and hit in the sauna and doing all the things that they have to do to prepare themselves

So at game time and celebration time is such a small percentage of the time

True that if you fall in love with only being in a good mood and performing when that happens

You're never going to be able to experience it right come on and I think to be you know a real adult a real man a real woman a real

The type of person that can be an example to other people

Complaining is one of the worst things that you can do and I've done my share of complaining

Okay, but I try to complain to people that can help me and put me in the right state of mind

You know if I complain to Simon when we were coming up in the business he would immediately

Flip things around and get me into the right mindset and so the people you surround yourself with are absolutely critical for your success

The more you can do without complaining like

It's early so what it's late so what I'm working a lot hours

So what are your goals big are your dreams big do you want to accomplish a lot?

It's gonna be hard

That's the reality and where I want to go in my life easy is not an option

You know it's gonna be hard because at some point in time

My heart's gonna stop I'm gonna die. When is that I don't know it could be tomorrow

How do I want to go down? You know what I mean? Don't you want to go down fighting for?

People are like what happens if you die tomorrow and you put in all this work

And my daughter will know that her dad was a responsible dad and that he cared about her that he cared about the people that were in his business

And that he was willing to make sacrifices to create opportunity for other people

Because that's what it really comes down to as time goes on you know as you get a little bit older

You get a little bit more experience

You know you realize that there's no price that you could put on being able to change people's lives

That's what American incomes given me that's what it's given you Simon is the opportunity to change people's lives

And I'm not someone that should ever be in that position

You know I grew up blue collar. We didn't have money growing up. I mean we went to on vacation when I was growing up

And look my parents did everything for us. I mean, I would never sacrifice to the extent they did

You know, but we would jump in here in a minivan and drive 13 hours to my little beach and get a place across the street from the beach

Because it was way too expensive to stay on the beach

And my mom would bring pots and pans from home and we would go to the grocery store and she'd cook in that condo that we rented for the week across the street from the beach

And and because who's who can afford to go out to you all the time right but but that's the

Remembering that and remembering where I came from

It's very easy for me to remind myself that I ain't got it that bad

I'm not digging ditches. I'm not working factory work

My dad would come home cut up fiberglass all over his body

Perspect you know, we couldn't get anywhere near him

So I think perspective having an appreciation for the opportunity not not attaching emotion

To things I mean that's the biggest thing is controlling the emotions and asking yourself look

You know, we went through a really challenging time in 2017 and 18 in this business for me for my agency and

You want to know when things got better

When instead of saying well, we had a hurricane or we had this personnel issue or we had these people get promoted

You know what I said

We had these problems and I'm not a good enough leader to handle it yet

And if I was a better leader responsibility taken responsibility

When you do that I got to tell you want to release the stress

Stop trying to live a light

You know in your heart. You're just not good enough right now and that's okay. Yes

Why are you learning and how are you getting better? What is God preparing you for and so you have those tough challenges a lot of people give up

That's the time to mount up

That's the time to take it to the next level because once you overcome this

This isn't going to be hard anymore now. You're going to have bigger challenges bigger challenges bigger challenges

And if you want to have a big impact you're gonna have big challenges

You can only you can only move forward once you can accept the the reality and you have self-awareness

That's that's why you know, I remember one time I got in trouble as a juvenile and in part of my

Punishment was I had to do some community service and I had to go to an AA

Meeting and I had to be a part of so many of them

And when I went there

I remember watching in person what we all know now is but I watched it in person and

And and and they made you stand up and say you know, hello my name is Simon and and I'm an alcoholic and

And because that's that's I want you not to put you down

Not to make you feel like crap about yourself

But to just say for right now. Let's at least accept what's what's real?

You don't mean work. Where are you really at just like in jujitsu?

I'm a brown belt right now. That's just reality of where I'm at

It's it's it's good in some cases, but I'm not good enough to be a black belt

I don't deserve that. I'm not there yet

We're gonna we still have a lot of work to do buddy

But if you put the work in you can be there too just like these other normal people that have that black belt

And so what you're saying is

It's just be accepting of what belt that you're wearing at that current time

That's the only way to improve and get better is to realize it's not that jujitsu doesn't work

It's not it's just that you're at this level right now

You need to be at this level and to be at that level it takes a lot of non glorious hours

Put in and sweat equity and injury recovery and injury prevention

When no one's watching in order to

win when

Everybody is watching that's that's that's that's what you're saying so you got to keep it real and accept on yourself that

The greater you want to be to help others serve others do more

Produce more the more problems you're going to have that's why notorious bi g said mo money mo problems

Okay, you have to

Handle those problems and sometimes they're different problems and bigger problems with more on the line and

And if you can handle those then you graduate and go to the next level and until you are prepared to handle those and

You just make excuses

You never get to get promoted to the next to the next level is is what he's trying to say and what we're trying to say and if you really look at it

In perspective to what you do understand in life

Even if you don't yet understand business you understand basketball or you understand something and you ain't gonna find nobody that got

Great at anything even if his break dancing

Without putting in a lot of work and having some bumps and bruises and and doing what other people don't want to do Mike

I just want to thank you

For for joining us on the grind cast. I want to thank you even more for being an unbelievable man

In friend to me. I'm blessed to to be in your life really

Anybody that has you in their life is blessed to have you as a part of their life

You know, I always say and I'll just continue to say the biggest compliment that I think you could pay a man

Is to say that that you're such a good person. I want for my daughter to marry somebody like you that's true

I mean I don't let my daughter go I

I mean, Maya, dudes ain't even,

no one's ever been to my house yet.

And I'm inviting people that want to, you know,

possibly take her on a date.

She's 18 that if you can come to me

and show me love and respect

and let me see, look in your eyeballs

and see what's in your heart

and you feel me for a minute,

then I will be cool with and support.

Maya can go ahead and step out with you for a second

and see how you do with that.

I can, when Sienna's that age,

it's not gonna be any easier.

So for me to say that you would be someone

that I hope my daughter meets someone like you,

is about the biggest compliment

that I can pay to somebody

and all of us have daughters.

So you know exactly what I'm trying to put into words

and that's why I use it that way.

That's how good of a dude

in person that you are.

And anytime I need anything with the youth program,

whether you had it or you didn't have it

as much as you always had it.

Regardless of where you were at

and you always were there to support and help,

no matter what.

And those are the things that people don't see

and don't know and I'm just so grateful to have you

in my life and I'm so proud of you

for what you have accomplished so far.

And you know that we're just really getting started

in this game.

So I'm excited Lord Willen if we get blessed

with the second half at AIO,

I think me and you are just going into the locker room

right now to warm up to come out for the second half

of our AIO career right now.

And we about to storm the field brother.

So thank you Vasu.

Let's, hey, thanks for joining us on another episode

of the grind cast.

Share this, get ready, it's a new day.

Count money, man.