Maxwell Trip

Count money, man. Money back riches.

I'm trying to told trying to told him I'm a beast.

But what's up gang?

Welcome to the grind cast.

Stop it. There is here. Get ready. It's a new day.

New day.

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

Get ready. It's a new day.

And I'm straight off the plane.

Right now.

Big perm came and scooped me up.

Yes, sir. What's up buddy?

Right from West Palm.

Yeah.

West Palm Beach.

And so the first half of the trip was a John Maxwell conference leadership conference

and there's I don't know maybe a hundred people that were their big business, you know

folks from all over the world.

So they were invited to do this thing. Only a hundred, a hundred people were.

Yep. Yeah, about a hundred.

A hundred.

I'd say I didn't count count them by hand, but that's what it looked like to me when I started

to look at probably about a hundred people or so.

And it was in West Palm Beach.

And we ended up being able to go to John Maxwell's house personally.

So anybody that knows me in business, if they're in leadership, anybody that asked me what

book they should read, I always tell them I already I start everybody off with with

John Maxwell.

That was the first real book that I ever read high school college.

I hustle my way through.

This book I ever read was John Maxwell, 21, 21 laws of leadership.

I've been on his stuff for, you know, for years.

And I got to meet him for the first time last year and hang with him.

And when was that that?

That was in London.

In London.

Last year.

Yeah.

And I was plugged in.

Coach Tressel brought me with him.

That was the first one that introduced me because coach was friends with them.

Maxwell had spoken at some of the Ohio State Michigan games, I think.

And then even in a couple of Maxwell's books, he's referred to Tressel.

So they're like friends, you know, they're both from Ohio.

So he hooked me up, you know, and without that door open.

And, you know, I don't I definitely would have never done it.

And I definitely would have never had the relationship to where the man, I can't even

believe I don't know how he does it at 72 years old because he got so many people that he's

working with and that are pulling on him.

But he knew me by my first name.

Simon.

Mind blowing.

You know what I mean?

I never would ever think that this person that I've read their books, I listen to all

their stuff would even say my name and not need a notepad or something.

And he actually knew me by name.

And how long have you been reading these books?

Fifteen years.

Fifteen years.

Fifteen years.

So that was dope.

You know, but I think what was even better, you know, my mom asked me because what we do

with this, what I did with the second half of the trip is every year, you know, I do

that trip with my mom.

So this was this was the fifth year.

And we do one trip a year, three or four days.

I let her pick where she wants to go usually.

And we do it because she lives in Florida.

I'm living in Pennsylvania.

I'm hustling.

You know, it's we don't get a chance to really get that time.

You know, and she was a single mom.

Me and her.

We grew up together.

Right.

Right.

And I want to look back and like, man, I never spent no time with my mom at all because

we don't live, you know, around each other.

So that was something we put into place.

And so when she saw me, she asked me, what was my favorite part?

And I told her, my favorite part of it was, was taking Tristan.

That was your favorite part.

That was my, that was my favorite part.

So, you know, for those of you that don't know, I got a young, young man in my business

22 years old now.

And he's been in the game for a few years, started out with us 18, 19 years old.

And he's been tearing it up.

So his name's Tristan and he's doing big things.

But it took me, you know, I'm 37.

It took me till I was 36 to meet John Maxwell.

And to see this person and see him teach and coach live.

And so to give Tristan that experience at 22 and to watch it and be a part of it and for

us to enjoy that together, that was probably my favorite part.

Because now that I've been doing this long enough, man, it truly is about, I get more

excited on the purpose and watching other people's lives develop and grow than anything

else.

Because I've already had this success.

You know, I've already won awards.

I've won all the trophies.

I've made enough money.

I mean, you always want to make more.

Of course.

Do that.

But it ain't like, that's my main, that don't get me off so to speak.

You know what I mean?

It's up there.

It makes it fun.

But it's more about, man, I'm watching Justin build a brand new house.

You know what I mean?

Somebody that came in the business with me watching Steve do things, Greg do things.

Greg bought some property.

Steve's killing it and doing well.

Watching their life, these other people's lives, transform is the key.

That was my favorite part of the whole thing.

We got to meet the CEO of the Breaker's Hotel, which is, I think, one of the oldest privately

owned hotels that's been around and hear their story.

And the guy said, the Marriott, you know, you hear the Marriott, I think the family, somebody

from the family told him that they're never going to make it.

And I thought that was cool.

We were on the largest, I think, yacht in America, the largest yacht in America.

The largest commercial yacht in America.

What part were you at?

In Florida?

Miami.

Miami.

We were in West Palm and then we took us to Miami and we got on this yacht.

Oh wow.

And I thought that was sweet.

That was nice.

That was fun.

They had a guy that he calls himself a mentalist, not a, his name was Wayne.

He was cool too.

Not a magician, but a mentalist.

And I'm talking about, if I told you what he, it was just wild.

I guess I got to say it now.

So he was, he did like a, he's been on TV a few times.

And so he did a study or something on, you know, there's been, there was a politician

that got shot and he was a twin with somebody.

And they, they, they were doing research because the twin collapsed at the exact same time

that the person got shot.

Shot and he fell.

And the twin fell.

And then later on that he went to the hospital, he said there's nothing wrong, you know,

with you, everything looks fine.

And then it would come out that his brother got killed and got shot in that spot and at

the exact same time.

And so he started to talk about how close people's energy, you know, can be if you're that

close and stuff like that.

So I don't know what he did, but here's what happened.

Okay.

Okay.

Two people up there.

Two people out.

He said you audience, but you have to be a friend.

Okay.

You had to, you had to be at least know about that person and have a close relationship

with them.

Could be spiles, could be friend, could be son, but you got to know the person.

Okay.

So boom, they picked two ladies.

They spread out across the stage, maybe 10, 15 feet.

And he says, blindfolded both of them.

I got nervous.

I don't know.

I'm like, slow down Max.

Slow it down Max.

I'm begging you too.

No, they, they, they, they, they blindfolded both of them.

And he started off and he had a feather.

And he said, if you feel it on your arm, then raise your hand.

So he did it on the one girl's arm and both of them raised their hands.

But he made them like before that, he's like, you know, just imagine this, breathe.

You know what I mean?

Baba, baba.

And it was almost like they were like hypnotized.

Right.

It was crazy.

But he wiped the thing, the feather on the both of them, then he, then he took the microphone

and he like, popped them in the back, you know, the girl, same girl.

He said, if you felt that on your back, raise your hand, both of them raise your hand.

Two times, you know, he asked them how many times.

So he did that a few times.

It was, it was, it was crazy.

He had an unblind fold them after they did a bunch of that stuff.

And then he asked them, uh, do you think it raised your hand if you think I hit you

with the microphone and both of them thing.

And then he left the audience telling what, what happened.

And it was like, I talked to the lady, she's from Miami.

She don't know that guy from Adam.

Right.

I want to make sure he didn't pay her.

You know what I'm saying?

Listen, I was talking to her from, I just want to make sure that you don't want to know

sneaky stuff going on.

Yup.

So then, then, then he was, uh, reading people's minds.

Mm hmm.

Bro, I watched it happen.

He went around to eight, seven or eight different people.

Yeah.

He said, everybody think it one time, hard.

Think about something.

And then he would, he would start asking, uh, whose name, uh, begins with the J and, and,

uh, drives a, and, and, uh, is thinking about a, uh, a car.

Boom.

Somebody raised their hand.

Yeah, my name's James, and, and I was thinking about a car.

Right.

All right.

Well, he's like, maroon 1987, uh, Cadillac.

Boom.

And the guy's like, oh my god, that's ridiculous.

So he kept doing stuff like that.

Yeah.

Stuff that made no sense.

I mean, and these are like real people from the, I saw him at the event.

You know what I'm saying?

Like these are real people.

And, uh, that was, that was up there with one of the more intriguing things on that yacht.

Yeah.

They had fireworks, uh, a fireworks display where we stood on, on the top of the thing with

a band.

And, and it had fireworks in the middle of the, the water in the, in the ocean, in South

Beach, area over there.

On the biggest yacht.

It was tight with fireworks.

Yeah, it was cool.

And Maxwell's dope had a good time.

Yeah.

It was, I think the biggest thing that I could say that I got, you know, just a reminder,

you know, it's, it's one thing to see someone teaching something.

It's another thing to watch them in person.

And I think just the way that he genuinely cares and, and make sure that you can feel that

he cares and, and, and practices what he preaches, relationships, you know, making people matter,

you know, stuff like that.

He would just slow down with all the people there, find a way to check on everybody and

at least tap you a couple times, you know, the main intention.

You could tell it was intentional, you know, for him.

So, you know, just to see the humility, you know, that he, that he walks with.

And, uh, you know, I think he, he, he talked a lot about just finding your, your, your,

your purpose.

And when people can find their purpose in within their organization, within what it is

that, that you're doing like, all right.

Yeah.

We're, we're, we're doing, uh, we're in the life insurance business as one of the companies.

So we're in the life, but we're really, we're, we're going to just serve people.

We're going to make it our mission to help people that struggle in their marriages.

We're going to, we're going to make it our mission to help people get in better shape physically

or mentally or, you know, whatever.

We're going to, we're going to make it more than that.

So, so you got a mission in a purpose of something that actually matters about, you know,

other people.

So, finding like, when people can start to find that purpose of why they're doing what

they're doing, try to make it no matter what it is.

Just try to wrap it around like, this is my mission.

This is why I'm doing this.

This is my purpose.

More than just, this is the business that I'm in.

Right.

That's when things can, can start to be majorly changed.

And I thought that was cool that they had a, man, I could just go on and on.

They had Ben Watson up there, tight end for the New England Patriots talk.

They had a, he had a book.

They started to talk right there about the country coming together instead of a, a part.

You have a black man trying to explain, you know, his perspective on what's going on.

You know, from, from that side of things and, and just being, everybody just being like

loving and open-minded and not judging, you know, people and, and so they started to

talk about like, you know, when, when the only person's opinion that matters is your

own, if somebody else has a different perspective and you're not open-minded to at least, at least

listen to it or not, you know, dog them out because they have a different viewpoint,

you know, than you, then it's, then it's immature.

Correct.

You know, and maturity is, all right, I have a difference of opinion with you.

I don't agree with you.

Right.

I have a difference of opinion, but you're entitled to, to, to your, to your, to your

opinion as well.

That's when you start to get to a different place of maturity.

So I think it was cool.

I'm not, you know, I don't think the majority of those people, you know, were in there,

were voting for this, you know, side, you know, of things, but there were some.

And in the way that he was rapping, you know, rapping his arms around everybody and just,

under, just trying to make the point of the country will be better off when you can love

somebody regardless of what.

That's right.

They're, who they're voting for and not dividing us.

And he said, he said, man, I'd have to look at the notes.

He said, great, good leaders or good countries or good teams.

They, they divide their enemies and bring together their friends.

And that's not the exact quote.

It was, here it is.

Great leaders drive, divide our enemies and unite our friends.

Great leaders divide our enemies and unite our friends.

And in the opposite happens is bad leaders unite their enemies and divide their friends.

So when you, when you divide your friends and then, then you unite your, your enemies

versus bringing everybody together.

So, so we're stronger together versus then, then, then apart.

We got enough people out there trying to kill us as a country.

We got other countries that would love to just take us off the map, blow us off the map.

And they were talking about, man, they haven't seen the country together, super together since

9-11.

Like when 9-11 happened, you saw Americans come together, Republicans came together with

Democrats and people with different beliefs.

And they were talking about how strong it was to see people like, you know what, we all,

we all together in this.

You know what I'm saying?

That type of vibe and feeling and it's a shame that it takes like a war, you know what

I mean, or something like that to maybe get things more, more together.

But he was just talking about just the division, you know, right now and how to overcome that

and having people speak into that to just broaden people's perspective.

And I thought watching that happen was powerful.

There was, I could just, I could take all day, you know.

talking about how cool it was. Tristan loved it too.

He loved it.

And out of blast.

What did he give from it?

You know, I think we'd have to ask him.

I think he was just in awe.

Just about like the same way I was the first time I went.

I mean, I've been to a lot.

I've traveled this point.

And I remember last year just being.

Very first time there.

Being amazed in London.

It was just it was crazy.

So just like I said, to see him was my favorite was my favorite part because he appreciated it.

Right.

You know what I'm saying?

It's like if you take somebody to a football game that don't like football, it could be two

of the best players of all time playing best team.

You could take them to the Super Bowl and they ain't going to appreciate it.

They like.

It's a big deal for somebody that don't like boxing.

You're taking them to watch boxing.

Whatever.

I want like he loves Max.

Well, it's the same way I did.

And I know it's helped him so much to develop as a leader.

And I knew he would take the note.

I mean, he was like the whole time just taking notes.

People asked me and even at that at that event, people older people, because he's 22 years

old.

Everybody average agent there.

I'd have to say he was the youngest.

He was 50.

Was he the youngest?

By far.

By far.

Here's how bad it was.

Didn't want to do it.

Didn't want to keep it real about this.

I don't know how I feel about this, but four or five people at some point was like, I see

it father son.

Oh, they gave you the can you believe this happens?

Just when I think I'm starting to look young.

You know what I mean?

I'm like man, I still got it.

I still got it.

They was like, I see it father son a couple of times.

I'm like, no, no, you don't see it.

No, you're talking about dog.

You know what I mean?

You're making a like.

Yeah.

So that was it.

That was it.

That's that's um, that was the funny part.

I would say about the deal, but just watching him interact with people and all that and

them asking me, what sticks out to you about him?

Why him?

Right.

Why him?

So I'd like to answer that.

Why?

Why him?

I said because number one, he's the most coachable.

This one I wish people don't miss.

I don't even care if they're in my business or in a trucking business.

I don't care what business you're in.

The if you're talented and you got a good coach, my advice is to just don't worry about

what you think.

Do what they think.

Do what the person tells you to do.

Follow them.

Here's why I say that.

It's not ego.

It's not like I just want somebody to listen to anything that I tell them to do and feel

like I get there my slave.

Okay.

That's not it at all.

That's not my leadership style.

I don't think it.

How do you win with that mindset and mentality?

It's because when I came into this business, I didn't know anything.

Anything.

I didn't know anything about business other than what I learned in the streets.

Right.

That was it.

And I listened to Marcus Smith, who was my leader and mentor.

And I go from having no job to making 200,000 a year in my first year.

200,000 a second, 600,000 the third year.

It's not about money, but when you don't come from money, that's a big deal.

That's a huge deal.

To me, I was like, what the heck is going on?

I thought so small for my own self.

I was scared to death.

I didn't think nothing like that was supposed to happen to someone like me.

Not that young.

I was scared.

You're saying right.

Something wrong.

It was because Marcus will tell you, I listened to every single thing that he told me

to do to the T100% of the time, no questions asked whatever it is.

You name it.

I'm going to get it done no matter what.

He says that I was the most coachable person he ever coach.

That's why I had a lot of successes.

I had him as a great coach.

He has already knew he was doing it.

Right.

One in the same game I'm trying to win.

So all I had to do was just shut up and follow.

Tristan does that.

Is he don't over complicated of, well, I'm going to do this, this and that, but I'm not

going to do that.

You see if that works right?

Or I'm not going to ask the questions.

He's a student.

He executes 100%.

And I got a lot of people that are super coachable and that execute things.

But I mean, to the T for the longest amount of time over the last few years, he's up there

with probably more than most forever, in ever and just coachable.

Right.

Executes 100% of what you ask them to do.

That's what I think expedites people's process in business.

If you want to get good and you find someone that's a good coach that's been where you're

trying to go, just shut up and listen.

Just follow it.

Takes humility though.

Because if you think you know it all, if you think you know better than the coach, if

you think you know better than that person, that's going to be in your way.

Humble yourself.

I'd listen to a 20 year old if they were teaching me golf and then I can't golf.

Right.

I'd listen to a 23 year old if they're teaching me boxing and I'm just learning the box.

Whatever it is, I'm going to just shut up and listen to the person that I'm, that

that I want to lead me and I'm going to execute 100%.

That's what he does that I told him that that number one thing.

The second thing I said was work ethic was impeccable.

Sacrifice, you know, moves around whatever whatever whatever takes, you know puts the work

in.

But the third thing I said is the more success that he's had, the hum, the more humble

that he got.

That's most people.

I think Abraham Lincoln said, I don't know for sure.

Don't quote me, but I think it was Abraham Lincoln.

He said that almost any man can handle adversity.

But if you really want to test a man, give him success.

Because sometimes we become our own worst enemy when we start to have success, we think

we know it all right.

And then we want to stop listening or we get a ego.

It's too big for your bridges.

Get a big head or start wiling out.

Yeah.

You know what I mean?

He was able to keep his spirit humble even as he was starting to have more success

at a young age.

And so again, I don't want this saying, this ain't a knock on anybody.

Right.

We got amazing people, talented people.

I'm just trying to keep it real.

I can name a slew of people that are really talented, slew of people that are loyal, slew

of people that are pretty coachable.

Pretty, I mean, slew of people that got a good work ethic.

I mean, it's not about, but if I can isolate the person that was with me and why and

someone else asking me, this is what I answered about it.

And hopefully it helps somebody out there.

This should only inspire and motivate.

This should help people out there.

And I think if you can apply that in your world, whether you're in a real estate business,

mortgage business, you're an athlete playing for a coach, if you can apply those things,

what happens over a 12 to 24 month period if you execute and you're that coachable at

that level, watch what happens.

More often than not, you're going to win.

And so I think the next one, if you could remind me, Giovanni, the other things that I got

that I want to talk about and give the people, we're going to do that next because I think

we're running out of time.

But we'll do that on the next one.

There was a guy by the name of Chris Hodges and he was a pastor.

And I think they were telling me he impacts or his church has 60,000 people on a Sunday.

And he talked about depression and how he went through a, as a pastor, a successful pastor

and good person, he fell in a period of a year to where he went through a bad mental

time and depression.

And he went on and explaining that and explaining some really good perspectives on that and how

to look at people that struggle for a year through depression or they have a hard time mentally

or whatever.

And then some solutions on how he learned, how to get better from that.

And I think people in this world, we're all grinding stress and hustling people died.

There's so many things that in this world, we ain't in heaven yet.

So whether it's illness or death or breakups or this, it's like, man, there's always something

that people are hurting from and going through.

And it's how we handle those moments.

And I think, man, the tips that he gave on how to battle through and understand people

that are going through depression or mentally at a tough place is explained phenomenal.

And I could read the notes and explain them.

And I think that would be a good one that I think people would find value in if you could

remind me of that.

So anyway, we got to run, we appreciate your time on the Grandcast.

If you found this helpful in any way, shape or form, share it with somebody, let other people

know about it.

So we can start to impact and multiply and add value to people's life.

So let's get it.

We'll see you next time on the Grandcast.

Don't money, man, money, that gritts is fine, fine, told him, I'm a beast, but...