Start Over Rich

Most people think that building a marketing agency is laptops on the beach and passive income. The laptop on the beach thing is a lie.

I left that company that was making 500 grand a year. You love it. I burned all the boats. I got divorced from a woman that was not supportive of my entrepreneurial dreams. And I even divorced a zip code that I lived in for 40 years. And I made it to the point to where there was no other option. What commitment is, is the elimination of options.

If your company disappeared tomorrow, you had to start over with nothing, what would you do?

As long as you don't take my suits away from me, I would get my hair combed back, throw on a suit, and go door knocking to some damn businesses and sell them something that's a non-tangible product like consulting. I'd get myself a $5,000 check from them, tell them to pay me five grand a month, and I'd build myself up 20 consulting clients, and I'd be making 1.2 million a year. You know, when things aren't going right or things aren't going as fast as I'd like, I just remember it's probably only blow 66, and I just got to keep on swinging.

Welcome to Outside the Corporate Box. I'm JMan alongside Jeffrey Scott Stanton, and this episode is brought to you by our founding partners, Wise Agent, Subi, and the CE Shop. These are the companies that I believe in, that we believe in, that we're building here, and we're grateful to have them in our corner.

The playbook is changing. The question is, are you changing with it? This is Outside the Corporate Box. Real conversations with real leaders who broke the mold and built something better, with your hosts, JMan and Jeffrey Scott Stanton.

Most people think that building a marketing agency is laptops on the beach and passive income. Our guest today scaled to over 5 million in revenue, works with 300 plus clients, and built the whole thing with his wife sitting across the table. And he will tell you the laptop on the beach thing is a lie. That is who we're sitting down with today, and this is Outside the Corporate Box.

Today we're sitting down with Eric Winegard. Eric is the CEO and co-founder of Rare Blue Moon Marketing, a digital marketing agency out of South Florida that has helped thousands of businesses scale through SEO, paid ads, and content that actually converts. He's been in the game for over 20 years, and he's on a mission to build one of the most recognized marketing brands in the country. Eric, welcome to Outside the Corporate Box, my friend.

Hey, thanks for having us. I'm excited. Thank you.

So, Eric, take us back, man. I know you and I go way back to the old school, middle school. But take us back before Rare Blue Moon, before the 300 clients and 5 million in revenue.

Yeah, and those are old numbers. You know, we recently crossed, you know, eight figures, which we're very proud of. So, you know, I think to take it back, dude, I grew up with a single mom. Like, the idea of entrepreneurship or business talk just wasn't even in the household at all. So, you know, my whole thought process was, I was always told, you know, go to college, get a job. And I eventually went down that path.

Went to college, got a job, and you know, I became really good at the job. It was sales at a marketing firm. But eventually I just got to a point where I finally wanted to take the entrepreneurial journey. So I didn't even start my entrepreneurship, you know, till the age of 40. I'll be 46 this year. So I think if I can sign off on one message to anybody that hears this: like, dude, it's never too late to reinvent yourself.

So I had a question. Why did you go from more of a corporate to, hey, I want to be a founder? What was there? What made you do it?

I think most people, if you're in sales, you would love the idea of working for yourself, right? I mean, nobody wants to work for a boss. Nobody wants to be told, you know, what to do, when to do it, right? But I think at the core, it's, do you have the belief in yourself, right? Like, am I good enough to run a company?

And for a long time, I knew I was a really good salesperson. I knew I was a great salesperson, and I was a strong sales leader, but I think I probably just lacked the confidence that I had the ability to be a CEO, because a CEO is completely different than a sales leader or a salesperson. There's elements of it. You know, I think I just got to a point to where my confidence finally was at a point where I really felt like I could take it on. So I think at the core, I just, you know, started to believe in myself to the utmost ability at the age of 40.

There's a different skill set of being a sales leader or in sales and being a CEO. Like, we see a lot in real estate, people like, I'm a great salesperson, I want to become a manager, or I want to run my own team. And so how did you, like, did you take the shot at, hey, this is something I'm going to try? Did you know, like, you kind of saw you had it inside of you to be, to me a CEO is a leader, to be a leader, like a CEO?

Well, yes. So, I think the one blessing that I certainly had was, if you're good at sales, and if you know you can network, do cold outreach, if you know how to use social media to generate clients, if you're a strong enough salesperson, then to be candid, you should never be fearful of not having revenue, right? So, at least for me, I was like, you know what? I'm so good at sales, I was like, whether I'm a crappy CEO or not, I know I'm gonna bring some money in. It's just, you know, do I do the right thing with that money?

But yeah, the skill set needed to now go from a, you know, a soldier to a platoon leader to, you know, the admiral in the Navy, it's totally different skill sets. And I do think people need to be honest with themselves about, you know, if they do want to take those leaps, if they possess those skill sets, or if they're willing to take on the necessary skill sets that are becoming of a platoon leader or, you know, a general in the army.

So I want to ask a question, because again, you've known JMan for a long time. Do you have a military background?

You know, I actually do. I was in the Navy for four years. Yeah.

One thing I've always noticed about people with a military background, and thank you for your service, by the way. People who have any military background, they can adapt and they can lead a lot easier than someone who doesn't. It's like what you go through in boot camp. You're told what to do, but you're always told what to do and have that open mind to look at things a different way. And I think that's what makes people, you know, I guess going from the military to a nine-to-five job, you know, you're in the military corporate box, but you're also in the, you know, consumer corporate box. And then to do it on your own, I think that's kind of cool.

Yeah. I mean, listen, dude, if you knew me, Jeremias, I don't know if you knew who I was when I was 18, 19, but I was a demon. Let me just get that out of the way. So, you know, I grew up without a father. You know, I grew up on the west side of town in Rochester, and you know, listen, these kids liked to have a good time. Like, they were kind of getting after it a little bit, you know, and I fell to that, you know, and the night life really grabbed a hold of me, and I just had no direction or purpose.

And so the military for me was a very personal decision, because it was me accepting, sure, I had some talents, but man, I had a lot of flaws. I had a lot of holes. And I knew the military would help guide and direct me and give me some of that structure and help strengthen some of those weaknesses. So, I would recommend the military to really any young man especially that's a little misguided.

Because you believed in yourself. And we love this, because there's no such thing as an unemployed good salesperson, right? Like, I used to sell, but I don't anymore. Well, then you weren't good at it, right? But you built this with your wife, right? And I love that story.

You believed in yourself, but I think, you know, I've seen some video online of you talking about it, that it takes that shared belief, right? She believed in you. Give us a little bit more on that. Not the Instagram, like, everybody, everything's great, and we met, and we ran down the beach, and next thing you know, we have this wonderful company. Give us the real version.

You want the whole jump, right? The whole leap.

Yeah.

I'll tell you kind of an interesting conversation my wife and I had probably maybe six years ago. I did great at this company I worked with. I was making half a million dollars a year. So, it's not like I was not making good money as a salesperson, okay? And I remember I said something to her, because I started this other venture, and it was actually real estate related, Jeremias, so I'll get into it offline. And I remember telling her, because we made about 800,000 additionally in a year with this new kind of TikTok thing. It was like a course on how to do Airbnbs, blah blah blah.

And I remember I was like, "Babe, babe, I think we can get to a point to where we're making like two or three million dollars a year." And she said to me, she was like, "You think that's all you're good enough to do?" She goes, "Eric, you are capable of so much more." She goes, "I see all these people that are doing this, this, and this, and this." She goes, "They got nothing on you, Eric." And she was someone that really kind of instilled even more belief in myself. And I'm not someone, guys, I'm not someone that lacks confidence.

Right. You're a confident dude. I know that.

For sure. So, for her to take me to the next level of not just surface level belief, but real spiritual belief that I could take on the world, or that we could take on the world together. I mean, yeah, dude. Like, when you're, you know, I remember my bills were $16,000 a month, and I remember once we got our company up to $16,000 a month, I remember I was like, okay, I can finally break even here. So to go from making half a million dollars a year and living this cushy, eh, lifestyle to now just kind of breaking even every month. You know, my savings were bleeding. You know, I had some losses in crypto, and you know, I had some ups and downs in real estate.

I mean, it wasn't smooth sailing at all. It's not smooth sailing today. But I believe that, you know, I said this on another podcast, I believe that whatever your dream is, if it's to make a million a year, 10 million a year, 100 million a year, man, the turbulence is going to be equal. So, if you want to build a hundred million dollar a year company like I do, brother, you're going to be feeling a little shaky on that flight. And that's where we're at now.

In that journey from, hey, I'm an employee, to now I'm starting, the CEO, and now I'm running my own company, I think one of the biggest things is that support behind you. Have somebody there saying, hey, you can do this, you can do this. Because I think even if you're self-confident, just having somebody in your corner and saying, hey, you can do this. Because I think no matter what, successful people doubt themselves to a certain point. I think that's what makes us successful, is always that little, am I sure I can do, you know, because I don't think everybody thinks 100% of the time they can accomplish it, you know, 100% of the time. So, just having that person in your corner makes it a little bit easier. So, we've talked about, what does your company actually do?

Well, we've evolved a lot, but the lead product is the lead services, or digital marketing. So whether it's, you know, whether it's a dentist or a realtor or a contracting firm, or it's a TRT clinic, it could be someone who's a coach online. You know, anybody that's looking to grow their business, you know, will apply a digital marketing strategy. So they may need a new website. They may need landing pages to run Google ads. They may need Google ads ran. They may need meta ads ran. When it comes to meta ads, you have to understand the different dynamics and creatives, with what type of advertisement are you actually creating on the meta platform. Now everybody's trying to rank on ChatGPT.

So we apply our digital marketing services to help scale a business. And where we're really growing exceptionally fast is we've become a tech stack company, Jeffrey, because when we start working with that company, we realize very quickly they have other tech needs. CRM, app development. You know, everybody wants this whole cloud bot thing, but the average business operator doesn't know how to implement it into their business to streamline a lot of their workflows. So, we sell an executive assistant. So, we're a marketing company, but we really help a business's overall tech stack.

So along the same lines, you know, digital marketing, and especially AI being so, where are the mistakes you see people, when they're spending their money, even if, like, we'll talk about real estate related, spending their money on the things that don't work, or just kind of pay and spray? Where are the mistakes being made?

Yeah, I think in the marketing realm, a lot of the mistakes are, because you hear this all the time. You hear about all these marketing companies that promise this, and they don't get these results. And you know, the average business owner gets really frustrated with it. People are going to hate to hear this, but usually if you're not spending enough, it's hard to compete. It really is. So, you know, if your Google Ads budget is $1,000 a month and you're an HVAC contractor in Rochester, you're not going to get the same results as if you're spending $3 to $5,000 a month. Let's say the top guys are probably spending 10 or 12,000 a month. So, I would argue sometimes the spend isn't enough.

But the other mistake that they make is, you want to build up to that spend. So, let's say you're running meta ads, for example. You don't just put together a creative, run that ad, and spend, you know, $20 a day at it and hope that it's going to work. You want to create a few different creatives, change some variables, whether it's the hook, whether it's the copy, whether it's the individual that's actually on the ad itself. You want to try to change up, testing them.

Test them. Yeah, test them. Exactly. So, testing and spend are the two biggest mistakes I see.

I'm a real estate agent, say, and I want to build a brand. Like, I want to do that digital marketing. I want to build a brand. Where do I start? Like, if I want to do it myself before hiring somebody like you, hey, I want to try to do it myself, I want to get some traction. Where do I start from?

You know, great question. So, when somebody asks me this question, or any question like this, I always have the business person's best interest at heart. And sometimes that means they don't spend money with me. And that's fine, because if I can help them grow, then eventually one day they will become my client. To me, what's crazy is, if you sign up to a LinkedIn profile, an Instagram profile, Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, the whole, you know, the big six, right, signing up is free. Grabbing your phone and doing a video is free. Putting captions on there and a little bit of music is free. Posting is free.

So to build a brand, most of it is going to come through social media usually, and there's really no excuse anymore, because all the information is out there. You can YouTube a video, you can find a video on TikTok to learn how to get better at social media. I just think that that realtor needs to be comfortable getting a little uncomfortable. And yeah, you might have a few videos like I did that make you look a little goofy or overweight.

JMan does it all the time. It's funny, right?

Yeah. Get comfortable being uncomfortable, and learn the trade. And if you get 1% better every day for a year, at the end of the year you're probably, you know, 500% better. And it's free. So, there's no excuse anymore.

So, then what separates, if I'm an entrepreneur, I left that job, I was making money, what's the big differentiator that helped? We talked about belief, that's important, but I think, what sets you apart, or why don't people grow from that side hustle, right? Somebody might have been in that, hey, I'm doing Airbnbs for money, this is good, I'm covering my bills, I'm making a little bit. Like, what sets them apart? What makes somebody grow so rapidly in a short period of time? Like, what's your formula? How did you do it, besides having, you know, a wife that believed in you, and you guys have this shared vision?

I just was on the phone with one of my friends, and he's kind of going through a similar dilemma right now. And sometimes we like two different things, but they don't help each other. So it's like, I want to be ripped and chiseled, I would love, but I also love pizza and Reese's peanut butter cups.

Right.

Speak my love language there, the cups. I try to do no carbs. I'm like, you just said two. I'm still loving now. Thanks.

Yeah. You see, so it's like, okay, and then, you know, so it's like, okay, listen, I didn't make up these rules. I didn't make up our body this way, but it's just a fact, right? So, you want to be ripped and chiseled, but which do you want more? Do you prefer the pizza and Reese's Peanut Butter Cup? So, obviously, there's some type of give and take there, and it ain't 50/50. It's more like 95/5, probably more like 98/2, if you want to be a bodybuilder, let's say.

So, that's how I look at business, you guys, right? It's like, what is actually your priority? What are you going to commit to? And I'm not saying you can't enjoy your life, but for me, it was burning the boats. It was, I left that company. I was making 500 grand a year. You love it. I burned all the boats. I got divorced from a woman that was not supportive of my entrepreneurial dreams. And I even divorced a zip code that I lived in for 40 years. And I burned all the boats, and I made it to the point to where there was no other option. I was either going to, you know, kill and eat on this island, or I was going to be slayed on this island. And I think what commitment is, is the elimination of options.

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I like that. So, for somebody who's in that corporate box now and says, "Well, you know what? I'm gonna keep my full-time job, and you know, I'm just gonna dabble. I'm gonna do real estate part-time. I'm going to do social media part-time. I'm gonna do whatever part-time." Like, what do you think about, oh, I'm doing that because I need that safety net? Like, I understand you said burn the boats, which is a lot different than burn the bridges. So you're burning the boats. There is this key distinction there.

Significantly different. Yep.

There is, significantly different. Like, what about people who say, well, I need that safety net? Like, you said you had bills, the $16,000 a month in bills, and you were like, hey, finally my company's just covered. What do you say to those people who want to take that leap but don't, because, I have that safety net?

You know what I would ask? I would actually ask them, "Do you want to be ripped and chiseled, or do you just say you want to be ripped and chiseled? Do you want everything that being ripped and chiseled takes? Can you handle not having alcohol? Can you handle not having pizza? Right. So, it's like, let's get this out of the way. Do you actually want what comes with entrepreneurship and success?"

Because what I would say to some people, I'm not here to convince you to go my journey. Like, the safe route may be better for you. You might not have the psychological capacity to take this head on. You may not have the mental toughness. Let's get that out of the way. I don't think this is for everybody.

But if you tell me you want to do this, all right, you want to go on an entrepreneurial journey. Okay, here's what it takes. You work your nine-to-five, and you know what? You might have to work from 5 to 9. You may have to work on Saturday and Sunday. And you may have to build up this side hustle to a point to where, you know, if you're making 50k a year as a teacher, and let's say you want to become a realtor, yeah, you may need to get yourself, I don't know what the number is, you know, 8 to 10 closings and a network of business before you can take the leap. And guess what that means? You're going to be working some 12, 13 hour days and some Saturdays and Sundays, and it's going to be a year of hell.

I don't think a lot of people know what it takes to be successful as a CEO or as an entrepreneur, when you're leaving that, hey, I got a job that's paying this, paying my health insurance, paying whatever, and then all of a sudden, to make that jump, to make that leap, I think it frightens a lot of people. And you're right, like you said, do you really want to be chiseled? Eh, I like the pizza a little bit too much. Like, that's the truth. It's like, you know, I could walk to Starbucks, but guess what? I want to, I'm driving. And I know if I walked to Starbucks, I'd lose that extra three pounds I need to lose, like, if I did that every single day, or if I just cut the Starbucks out totally and drank the coffee black.

So I think that's a really good point. The last thing is, at what point during this was it like, hey, this isn't going to work? Did you ever have that thought of, hey, I'm going to go back, I'm going to go back inside the box? Or was it just truly, boats are burned, I'm here?

Yeah, of course. Like, yeah, were there a couple times where the ship wasn't moving along as fast as I'd like? You know, there was never an option of, I'm going back. It was just like, of course, there were a couple times where I was like, damn, maybe this is going to go much slower than I thought, or maybe this is going to take a little bit more creativity. Maybe this is going to take a little more carb cutting than I realized, right? So maybe I have to stay in the gym a little longer. You know, there's such great parallels with entrepreneurship and fitness, which is why I love using it, because it makes sense to people, you know.

And I got to give it to my wife, man. Every time, you know, I probably had a couple times where I got really discouraged, you know, a minimum of two, where I was really, you know, she always found a way to kind of reinstill that belief into me. And so yeah, I think everybody has those doubts, right? But like, when you have that bad self-talk, do you know how to conjure up that good self-talk? And you know what? For me personally, Jeremias and Jeffrey, I can't be out drinking. I can't be out eating like crap. I have to go to the gym in the morning. So, it's like, I have to lead this life of health and vigor to be ready to take on the psychological hurdles that I take on every day in entrepreneurship.

To have a healthy business.

Dude, have to. Have to. You can't be that slob and run a company. It ain't gonna work.

Well, then, and let me, because we actually did a podcast on burn the boats one time, and that's why I smiled when you said it. For people that don't know, the Vikings, the Romans, this was an old adage where they landed, they burned the boats and basically said, "Hey, we don't need them, cuz we're not going back. We're going to conquer you, and that's all there is to it." I love that.

Oh, I love it, too. It's elimination of options. That's commitment.

Well, also, the thing with burn the boats is this, and this is what a lot of people miss out, and I do love the saying, and me and JMan said it, one of the quotes, it was burn the boats for two reasons. My people that I'm with, my Viking people, they can't run away now. Like, my people can't desert me, is one of the reasons. The other thing is that the enemy looks at me like, why did they do that? And that's more of that psychological factor of, oh, they're gonna fight till they die, because they have no other choice, because they can't go anywhere. So that's the reason why I like that. As, hey, I'm burning the boats, really, I had no option besides to move forward.

Yeah. Another way to look at this too is, let's say you're a guy who's never thrown a punch in your life, and I'm not suggesting you be a killer, right? But you know, you've never thrown a punch in your life, and you think, no, I'm really not that tough. Well, go inside a ring with someone who knows how to throw a punch, and you got two options. You're just either going to get beat to a pulp, or eventually you're going to have to fight back. But you're never going to learn how to throw a punch unless you put yourself in front of danger. Entrepreneurship is the exact same thing. You have to be willing to put yourself in the presence of danger. And I got Jeremias fired up right now. Let's go.

Yeah. Well, you know, and it's like, you get punched in the face a couple times, you're like, "Ah, that's not so bad. I could take this. Let me deliver a couple more." Right? And you kind of get used to it.

Or you go the opposite way, is what Tyson said, which I love that line. Everybody has a plan till they get punched in the face. And I think that sums up a lot of businesses. It's like, we all have a plan A. I'm going to do this. I'm going to get in real estate, a design company, a digital marketing company. And all of a sudden, you get punched in the face.

So I have a question, because this is always my question, I love asking people, what's the biggest failure? Like, everybody always talks about success and what makes them successful. I always want to know, like, what was the biggest failure? What's the one thing you would have changed or done differently?

What do I wish I would have done different? You know, there was a couple dumb hires. You know, I was a little, I don't want to say desperate, but, you know, maybe not calculating my decision making very well. There's a couple poor hires. Those kind of set us back a little bit. You know, I found out one of the hires wasn't even doing anything, servicing our clients at all, for a little bit. But we were young. We were green, and you know, we wanted to pay people on the cheap. You know, I couldn't give someone a six-figure salary or whatever it may be.

So, I think the hiring, a couple dumb hires. Whereas today, like, I'd rather just pay up for the real quality hire. And I hate to say it, if they don't work out, you got to be willing to fire them quick, too. Because if it walks like an egg, or excuse me, walks like a duck, quacks like a duck, it ain't a pigeon. So, be willing to pay.

Hire slow, fire fast.

Yes, sir. Yes, sir. So, hiring, I made a couple mistakes.

We have a lot of agents that we work with in the luxury, kind of higher price point. So, what kind of advice could you give them to landing those larger, higher paying clients, where they feel like, "Oh, I don't know if I'm ready. I'm not good enough"?

You know, let me give you guys, and I don't know if this answers your question exactly, but I do want people to understand this. A lot of, I'll use agents. There is a myth out there that wealthy people aren't on social media. My ass.

Amen. Say it again. Say it again.

The Wegmans are all on social media. They're just probably not active. You know, Danny Wegman, right? I'm sure he's on it. He's probably just not commenting a lot, right?

Yeah. They're consuming, not contributing. Consuming, not contributing to it.

Yeah. Right. So, understanding that, right, and understanding how Danny Wegman probably thinks and talks. But I think a big miss for an agent a lot of times, dude, and I'm giving out one of my secrets right now, like, I normally charge, you know, this is some high-level stuff, dude. Facebook lives. So yes, you should be posting content, but if you're doing a tour of a home, or if you're listing a home, dude, take your cell phone. Don't worry about how you look or sound. You got no opportunity to edit. Do a Facebook live, do a tour of the home, talk about the home. And those social media platforms will prioritize the heck out of your live, and you will end up drawing people that you've never been able to attract before. But every realtor should be gunning for Facebook lives when they can.

And I love that. I tell you all the time, that's why live and live are spelled the same way, because you need to live by that button. That's literally that. And I always love the lives better, because I like the raw video, the moment type of stuff, better than the highly produced. Listen, if you're an agent, you still need highly produced. You need those, you know, property tours and that type of stuff. But the walkthrough, and someone can see your personality, means so much more than just, oh, look, they did a nice commercial. Yeah, you need the commercials, too.

Yeah. If I can talk intelligently about real estate live, then you know that I know my stuff. It's not like, "Hold on, wait, wait. I didn't say that right. Let me do one more take. Let's do it again. Let's do it again." As if you notice, these podcasts, we do have very, very little editing, because we just roll with it. It's just what it is. It is what it is, and that's it.

Yeah. There's a craving for, like, we can already see on social, when I do a post on Instagram, if I just allow AI to do it, and it's an AI photo and it's an AI caption, it doesn't get anywhere near the same amount of engagement. But when I do something really raw, authentic, and organic, and I talk like me, which is, I don't know how I talk, but you know, it's real.

Talk like you're from the ROC, baby.

It's real. When I talk like that, you know, the engagement's crazy. So, there's a craving for authenticity, for sure.

If your company disappeared tomorrow, you had to start over with nothing.

Yep.

Just disappeared. The company's over, let's say something happened. You know, what would you do?

What would I do? Well, the beauty is, is I know how to create a transaction. And as long as you don't take my suits away from me and my hair gel, I would get my hair combed back, throw on a suit, and go door knocking to some damn businesses and sell them something that's a non-tangible product, like consulting. And I would sell that real estate office or that dentist or that contractor why they should hire me for consulting. I'd get myself a $5,000 check from them, tell them to pay me five grand a month, and I'd build myself up 20 consulting clients, and I'd be making 1.2 million a year. And then I'd start another marketing firm.

And it's like, drop the mic there. It's because, listen, you said it earlier, it's that you have that background of being a sales leader, and having that background. And me and JMan say it all the time, parachute us into any area in this country in real estate, we're going to do sales, because we're the ones that are going to knock on the door, we're the ones that are going to have conversations with people. And you seem the same way. It's like, nothing's going to stop you, because ultimately your success depends upon, it's your mindset, but it also depends upon what you say.

The only thing I need is my mouth. If I don't have my mouth, I'm going to fail. But as long as I have my jaw, I'm selling somebody something somewhere.

Here's what I love. And if you're watching this, rewind it back. If you're listening, you can hear it in his voice. He did not blink. We're just going to tell you, folks, we asked that question. He leaned in, looked at the camera, and said, "This is what I would do. I'd put on some suits, get my hair gel, and go make some money." Like, once you've done something and you know you can do it, it's repeatable. And I think that's why I was like, "Okay, that's it. Let's close this out. Ready to go."

But, you know, it's scaling, because, and I think you're right, you can only scale yourself so much. There's only so much you can do by yourself. And that's why I liked it. It wasn't just, hey, I'm going to go out there and just do this consulting. I'm going to go out there, do consulting, make enough money to start my own company again. Because, you know, like agents all the time, oh, I want to do more of this, I want to do more of this, you can only scale yourself to a certain extent before you need other people around you. And that's always fun, like that CEO journey of becoming, you know, from that inside the corporate box to outside the corporate box and doing it yourself, is you realize you need people around you. You can't do it all yourself. You had your wife there as your partner, which I think is cool.

Yeah. You know, one thing that I've taken to heart is, I really try to, if I have a weakness, right, I want to acknowledge it. And a man shouldn't have such a big ego that he thinks he's weaknessless. Like, that's absurd. Your ego should be big enough to realize that you have weaknesses, and your ego should be so big that you want to improve on them, to be the best version of yourself.

So I'm a great salesperson who's a great sales leader, and now trying to be a great CEO is a whole other, brings a whole other element of challenges. I didn't go to business school, so nobody, you know, taught me about HR, all these things. But I recognize the weaknesses, so therefore I study them. I pay for very high level mentoring and, you know, masterminds and consulting, etc. So, you know, I know it's a weakness, being a full-scale CEO, but I acknowledge it. I'm always working on it.

And I think that's what makes a good entrepreneur, a good CEO, a good leader, is knowing that you're not great at everything. You know, somebody once told me, if you think you're the smartest person in the room, you're in the wrong room. You know, surrounding yourself with people who are smart, people who, again, might not be your skill set. HR might not be your skill set. You know, if you're a real estate agent and picking up the phone isn't your skill set, you don't like doing that, hire someone to do it for you, you know. And that's how you build your scalability, or your team, you know, within real estate. Get good people around you to do good things, and they do good things well.

Agreed. Yeah. And I got plenty of good people on my team. Trust me, there's some things that we do in my company, and I don't even understand it. I don't even want to know how. I just, like, keep doing it. Let's go.

Well, I'm going to bring us to our last question. This is going to be our last question. What is your favorite quote, and why does it matter to you?

So, I've become much more spiritual the past year in my life. And there is no way this is a coincidence, because I'm actually, I'm still a San Antonio Spurs fan, Jeremias, by the way.

Still? Wow.

Still a big basketball fan. And you know, there was this quote that I loved as a young man, and I read it when, I think, I was in the military at the time. And it's by Jacob Riis. I think I can regurgitate it from heart. It's, when I go look at a stonecutter hit a stone with a sledgehammer a hundred times, it doesn't show a crack in it. However, at the 101st blow, it splits into two. And I know it was not that last blow. It was all that had gone on before.

Damn. Right.

It's about perseverance, right? And brother, I read that quote and fell in love with that quote. And back in 2007, I found out it was in the Spurs locker room. And they call it pounding the rock. Pounding the rock. Pounding the rock. So you'll actually hear my basketball team say, "Pound that rock. Pound that rock."

So whenever I have a salesperson that works with me, or an account manager, whoever, you know, I tell them, I'm like, you know, it's probably only blow 52. You probably just got to keep on hitting away. But that quote for me just, you know, when things aren't going right or things aren't going as fast as I'd like, I just remember it's probably only blow 66, and I just got to keep on swinging.

Love it. I love it. Well, I want to thank you, Eric, for spending some time with us. And look, folks, if you're listening or you're watching this, and if that conversation hit you the way it hit us, share it. Send it to somebody who's in the middle of building their own thing right now, or thinking about leaving that corporate box. Subscribe if you haven't already. And next Monday, we're sitting down with another guest. Another great story. You don't want to miss that one.

But before we let you go, we want to say thank you to our founding partners, Wise Agent, Subi, and the CE Shop. They make this show possible, and they are building tools that actually help people in this industry. Check them out. All the links are in the show notes. And thank you for spending time with us. That is not something we take lightly. Now go make it happen.