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Sam Taggart 00:44

Everybody, this is Sam Taggart and I’m here with Tony Kassaei flew in from Orange County. And this is going to be an interesting podcast. Why? Because Tony has 20 years on Wall Street where he literally went through the whole Happiness Advantage or the what’s the pursuit of happiness, you know, that’s a book with Will Smith.

You know, he’s just like rags to riches and figured it out. And then had some crazy experiences with this business partners that went south with some of the integrity that Wall Street doesn’t tell you. And it’s kind of been on this journey to kind of expose Wall Street a little bit and is told some, some more under-told stories of okay…this is stuff they don’t tell you.

And we’re gonna dive into a story. And what’s crazy is, Tony has had a similar transformation as I have like, but maybe even on like a whole different scale. But we all go through journeys, and I’m super excited to dive into Tony’s journey today.

So thanks for being on the show, man. So tell us kind of like, I guess, not like where did you get started, you know, but like, so you’re on Wall Street and you’re making tons of money? And then when did things kind of start to pivot? And you start to be like, Oh my gosh, like, this isn’t what I think it is.

01:57

You know, I think just like all of us growing up, we had our favorite movies. And I’d seen all the movies like everything from Wall Street to boiler rooms, all the movies that basically showed you what Wall Street Life was. And it was an industry that I didn’t really know how to get into. I didn’t go to a fancy school I went to Cal State Fullerton down in Orange County, California, didn’t have super wealthy parents so that I could rely on their referrals, if you will. So getting into the business, it was probably the highlight of my life. You know, the day that I passed the seven, very similar to that movie that Will Smith portrays the character. It’s actually a pretty accurate movie. He gets his job at Dean Witter, which is where I started at Morgan Stanley. And I was supposed to be in the Trade Center. I mean, I was we had the Twin Towers, we were in the second tower, they got head, there’s about 50 stories from I believe the 50th like the aliens, floors, we had a firm, and that’s where I was as a rookie. So I was there up until September 3, right with planes came in. My partner that became my partner, a business partner was actually in the building when the plane came in. So that’s how long we known each other. So through the course of being at that firm, both being hot shot rookies, we developed a bond and a friendship. And we ended up staying partners for about 10 years. And we started a firm together went independent started on firm, if you will, financial services firm. And we went our separate ways during the recession. And then one day, one of his old employees comes up to me and says, basically, to all the referrals, you’ve been given him, this $40 million with real estate that you think he owns. It’s a Ponzi scheme. And, you know, I don’t know if you’ve ever been in that one of those situations where you literally feel like you’re going to throw up. And but it’s not because you’ve been drinking all night, it’s just you’ve been cut punched, yeah. And to think that somebody who was like a brother to you, you know, betrayed not just you, but people that are closest to you, you know, my own mom was over a quarter million dollars with her. So you know, he’s still in prison to this day. And from that point on, though, my perception of Wall Street and then seeing how the regulator’s reacted to him, it really hit me this other side of Wall Street that I hadn’t been able to talk about. So going through that was kind of an awakening for me, from literally suicidal to Oh, my God, all these people lost all their money to shit, what am I going to do with my life? Now, you know, to be able to really tell the story the way that I want to tell it, to be able to really expose the secrets of Wall Street, I had to walk away, I had to walk away from all my licenses. So a 20 year career as a financial advisor, all of a sudden you wake up and you’re like, holy shit, what am I doing with my life? Wow, that was kind of the past five years, two minutes and 30 seconds.

Sam Taggart 04:28
That’s crazy. So now what do you what do you start to do? What’s the new mission? What’s the what’s the journey?

04:34
You know? I think you you touched on it. I think one of the reasons you and I kind of started coming close recently is just how vulnerable you’ve been on your shows and just on socials. When you go through moments like that, you discover you almost go through self discovery, right? I was lucky enough fortunate enough to at the right moment in my life. I opened up to the possibility of hiring additional mentors or life coaches or business coaches, and I found myself on a private plane too. Cabo with a guy named Ryan Suman, and didn’t know who he was didn’t know he was kind of a self help guru and not been a business world. But got to know him personally, on a level got to know his staff, and decided to kind of pay for access to this kind of community, if you will, of like minded, you know, top top level CEOs, executives, business owners, and by putting myself in that room continuously, my mindset shifted, I went through 75, hard lost 30 pounds and started going from destructive behavior to productive behavior, if

Sam Taggart 05:31
you will, yeah. And so what kind of things have come from that, where you’ve been able to surround yourself with high people, you know, realize that there are other people like you,

05:42
you know, the firms, when you when you’re an advisor, when you work for any of these firms, the type of licenses that you have 24 766, they allow you to do a lot of things, but they really restrict you on the things that you can do. So in other words, one of our mutual friends out here, Wagner owns a bunch of restaurant franchises and concepts. And if I wanted to go to a couple of my clients and say, Hey, let’s pull money together and invest in this, I just couldn’t do that being a financial advisor, it would be called selling away, or you’re now pulling money away from the pockets of brokerage firms. And instead of selling these dogshit, stocks, bonds, mutual funds, you’re not taking money out of that ecosystem and putting it directly, you know, in an investment, if you will, if I wanted to buy a piece of real estate, I couldn’t leverage, you know, my clients, I couldn’t come to you and say, Hey, let’s make 100 grand and throw it in it. So by walking away from those licenses, it really opened up the world of all the shit that I couldn’t do back then not only can I do now, but I’m more transparent. We can talk about fees commissions, we can wipe out the little the middle guy, and really just put business owners together and go invest in Go, go do cool shit together.

Sam Taggart 06:46
So you say something that’s so critical. And this is something I’d tell every, you know, person making good money, business owner, whatever, when it comes to investments is how often do they get hit up by the northwestern guy trying to sell them some insurance product or some, you know, Edward Jones guys, it’s gonna just pigeonhole him into this, like, you know what I mean? So like, talk to me about that.

07:06
You know, I definitely hate disparaging anybody within the industry, just because I, there’s a lot of respect for the guys do.

Sam Taggart 07:13
I train, I train them, I teach them, I might go sell your shit. Like, that’s a good thing. But, you know, there’s this like battle and middle ground that I feel like

07:21
there is and what it is, is these guys, and this is what I try to talk about a lot now and a lot of the public speaking that I do on financial services, and the problem within the industry, is you have this mafia at the top, and it’s called FINRA and FINRA is this regulatory body. Similar to the Bar Association for attorneys.

Sam Taggart 07:40
I literally just watched the suits episode, yes.

07:46
These guys have so much power, they’re empowered by Congress. But people think that you have this entity to protect investors. And while on paper, it looks that way. They’ve created this just archaic system of rules and compliance, that the brokerage firms like the Edward Jones, LPL has the independence. They’re jumping through the same hoops we are as advisors, and everybody’s passing the buck on. Well, you should have been watching it, you should have been watching it give you an example, there was these REITs that we would invest in REITs, or real estate investment, trust REIT, pulling together billions of dollars in buying assets, and these companies would come out and we would raise money for them. But in order for them to be on our platform, they needed to get shelf space at the firm, you follow me? And so they would pay for these, over the top vacations, Aruba trips, top producer conferences, and they’re always in these exotic destinations. Well guess who was paying for those trips, these entities, right? They circumvent these rules of how they can, quote unquote, bribe the brokerage firms to get on their platforms. But then when the when the product goes to shit, or the investments don’t materialize, because they’re so heavily laden with fees and commissions and costs, they’re just buried entities. And all those fees go to the brokerage firms and compliance officers, FINRA and all trickles up. And then you get the financial advisor that Edward Jones guy who’s worked as

Sam Taggart 09:03
Yeah, he’s doing it all. Yeah.

09:04
And he’s like, dude, what do you want me to sell on which, you know, who do I jump through because there’s limitations on selling you this and I can’t sell you that. I could not take money from a little old lady and put it into a real estate asset, because that would be tying up her money. But it was perfectly okay for her to go by her entire life savings on five dogshit tech stocks, you know, like the rules were just so out of whack if you will, just just antiquated. And so the average investor really doesn’t have a shot. i People always say what’s your portfolio look like? I just say real estate are things that I can actually touch. I don’t trust that system anymore. Perfect example. You and I were talking about this. What happened recently with this AMC stock and the Reddit review boards were basically a group of people are getting together and saying let’s just drive up this really shitty stock, which is the movie stock during the pandemic. So a stock that was trading 68 bucks all of a sudden it’s $143 because everybody’s going out and buying it. Well, this was freaking out a firm that was owned by Schwab or Robin Hood. And some of these other firms are voting a bunch of their stock. In the fourth quarter, they changed the rules and I alright, you can’t buy the stock anymore, you can sell it. And that’s if that’s not manipulation by the highest powers. I don’t know what it so overnight, a fourth quarter football game became a fifth quarter football game, they just changed the rules on in the middle of time. So that’s just a small example of what Wall Street is capable of. And there’s dozens and dozens of those stories.

Sam Taggart 10:26
That’s crazy. And so being you know, this is interesting. And this is my two cents is I feel like I have been approached by a lot of different financial advisors. And the second that they say don’t do real estate. Yeah. Or the second they say, yeah. Is when I go Wait, what do you mean? And you’re like, let’s see the heart and the lows of your hearts. Would you do real estate? Well, yeah, okay.

10:54
Yeah, man, it’s, uh, it’s just, I used to joke that, you know, you go to a room, and people first question they ask is, what do you do? And you say, financial advisor. It’s kind of like saying you’re an STD or something, you know,

Sam Taggart 11:08
same thing with door to door sales. What do you do? I’m a door to door. Yeah.

11:13
But uh, but now you realize that, yeah, those guys are just we were handcuffed by what we’re allowed to sell. So, you know, these franchise concepts you and I’ve been talking about are just buying a cool apartment complex together. You can’t do that as funny. So, no, nine times out of 10. It’s a way better investment than some dogshit mutual fund that just maybe makes six to 7% a year and your best case scenario.

Sam Taggart 11:33
So let’s talk about the guys that do have money. Like here’s it, here’s a big piece that a lot of guys make good money in door to door. And right now, a lot of them are actually finishing up their summer, and they get big checks in October, like the they’re like, Oh, I worked my ass off. And then they all get paid in lump sums. Well, a lot of these guys are go just buy a cool car. No, go spend it be idiots. And then the few and far between are like hey, and that’s what I did. So like I was driving a Kia. I was the number one rep at Vivint. They’re like a billion dollar company. And I was making great money. And I was driving a Kia Optima. And I was like, why don’t you have like a beamer and a lifted truck like all of us. And I’m like, because I could spend an extra 50 grand on that. Or I could go put it into a rental property. And I just kept buying duplex and four Plex and duplex and four Plex and three Plex. And I’ve rolled it up an apartment complex is now and it’s like, I’m like, well, because I can put that money to work. I’m only 23 and 25. You know, like, why would I do that? You know, what? Why do I need a fancy car to get the chick like No, dude, like, and so I guess what if you’re in your 20s and you’re making a half million bucks, or you’re making 300 grand and you’re selling like what what advice would you give that guy?

12:46
Well, you know, I’m I’m only 44 and I got I was one of the youngest guys that got in the business at the time. I was 21 when I got licensed. So I know what that’s like, you know, I made my i We grew up relatively, I would say poor, but we didn’t have a lot of money. Growing up in, you know, shithole, Texas called dead at the time.

Sam Taggart 13:08
Hasn’t gentrified that much.

13:10
I mean, everything in Texas has gotten a little bit bigger. But yeah, I mean, we grew up there. So I wasn’t born with a silver spoon, always kind of like hustled my way through college. And so I know what that’s like getting that first six, seven figure check. And, you know, I was never married, no kids, and I just, I was almost allergic to money, it would come and I would, I couldn’t spend it fast enough, because I knew how easy it was not for me to make money. The concept of saving, I wish I’d met myself 20 years ago, I wish I had a mentor. So I didn’t do any of that. So now I can tell you what you should do. But no, I didn’t do any of that either. And I wish I wish I had but I met I’m I went through similar pitfalls where investing with my buddy was investing in or investing what everybody else thought was going to be the next hot thing. And I lost a lot of money that way. And that was kind of the passion behind this newest venture that we started was I got tired of having to give shitty advice that the firm’s wanted me to sell. But then I also don’t want to charge my friends a commission or fee. They’re like, Hey, let me manage your portfolio, I’d rather just give you the same access that I have. So you’ve tapped into 20 years of Rolodex that I have in the context of app. So if you show me an investment in the PPM, within 30 to 45 minutes, I can tell you if it’s bullshit where the pitfalls are, or I can make a few phone calls if it’s in a sector that I don’t know. And so we started a club called insider investors club. Basically, for guys like what you were saying guys that are either just starting to get in or want to build a solid portfolio. We meet up Quarterly. We do zoom calls, and basically I just give you guys hey, this is what I would do. If it was me. If you’re 44 you want to do this. Like here’s the guy the best guy in multifamily. You want passive income. And I would say to the audience, specifically, you are guys that like you say they’re younger, they get this chunk of money, treat everything almost like a pie. And when I say pie, I think it was just like, you know, a pie chart and everybody’s pie is going to be different. If you’re single, you don’t have any kids, you know You really don’t care if anything happens to you and you leave a legacy, then you’re not going to care about life insurance. But if you do have three kids and you’re the breadwinner in your lifestyle, obviously life insurance has to play a part. But now you got to deal with the shitty life insurance salesman, right? Some of them are great. Some of them are just there to sell the one brand that they were promoted to sell. So there, we can just get partial advice. Were like, hey, that’s the guy I would use. So that’s the guy I would use. And then we can I can look at that portfolio and say, okay, that guy’s charging too much, you know what I mean? Yeah, but not charging a fee or commission to give that advice. So that’s become a really good passion project for us. And by doing that, we’ve now syndicated oceanfront, condos, restaurant franchises, and different investments where I’m putting my money side by side with other people. And we’re just doing a friends and family investment together.

Sam Taggart 15:43
And I love those. So I’ve partnered with a guy, Jason Harris, who we did this apartment complex together. And he was a financial advisor for 10 years. And some similar story. Like he’s just like, wait, and then he shifted everything to real estate. And when a guy can put his money side by side with you, you go, cool. He believes in this investment. Yeah, you know, and that that, to me is like, the biggest indicator of Is it a good investment or not? Is this guy doing it? Or is he just in concept talking about,

16:13
and you know, going back to that pie story, so for you, you you are really successful experienced in multifamily real estate. So for somebody else, you know that 30 to 40% should be in real estate. Now, if they want to do a template, instead of going to buy a Tesla stock, find a company leave it out here, or through guys like myself, making a True Private Equity play where you know, the CEO, you know, who’s you’re giving your money to, you can go and audit the books, you’re not dependent on some dude in Wall Street, you know, fudging the numbers, one zero and all of a sudden your stock goes down. 60%. So everybody says, you know, stock market stock market, and I’m just not a big believer in it day to night. I look over a 20 year career. You can’t really nobody ever says oh my god, I love my financial advisor. I love the stock market unless they grew up next Zuckerberg or had a big tip. You never generally over a long period of time successfully. That’s because you’re investing with emotion. You’re selling high buying low selling high buying low, you know, yeah, selling yourself buying high because the fear that FOMO as they call it, right? When the markets at an all time high. The Denny’s waitress, everybody’s like, Oh, we should be in the stock market. But then that’s right, when everybody jumps in and crashes when it crashes, and we get scared and gets out. So the cycle is continues. And people keep investing with emotion and they make money, they lose money, they make money. It was money. The brokerage firms make money, the financial advisor makes money, the average investor isn’t making money in that traditional model.

Sam Taggart 17:34
Yeah. So let’s say how do you how do you vet a deal? Let’s say your buddy comes to you. And he’s like, hey, I want to buy into this restaurant franchise, or I’m starting this tech company. And you should give me 50 grand so that we’re gonna go to the moon, you know what I mean? Like, how do you vet your Do you have like a vetting process?

17:51
Yeah, so one of the first things I’ve done, that was really hard for me to do is I started surrounding myself with people that I felt were smarter than me. And for the longest time, I felt like I was the smartest person in the room, even at these big events where the compliance guy was there, and the CEO of these firms were there. I just felt like they weren’t asking the right questions and the harder questions, right, because they had a financial interest in that product, making it onto that platform. So for me now, to use the example he said a tech play, we were approached recently, by a company that’s heavily involved in social media space, they’re designing a whole new platform against canceled culture and all these advertisers that are canceling people for different beliefs. And so, you know, it was a tech play. And it was a high risk tech play. So I consulted and called up everybody that I knew from the Wall Street days that knew those types of businesses that understood the metrics of a pure growth company that has zero revenue, but makes sense to have a half billion dollar valuation. So the first thing they answer your question is, yes, we have almost like a committee to one we’ll look at a deal. If it’s real estate, I have a panel of real estate experts I tap into if it’s multifamily if it’s development, if it’s value, add, if it’s tech, if it’s a tech player stock, then I definitely tap into those circles, then we look through their financials. Now, again, having gone through a massive fraud situation, seeing actually massive fraud unfold in front of my own eyes, not just at the wall street level, but on the individual level. I almost I go into a situation assuming it’s bullshit. So you know, our buddy Wagner that we were talking about that I’ve been up here, he’s been in this business 20 years. This is he lives eats and breeds hospitality. So I know he knows his shit in that category. But the old Tony would have just trusted him. Now I trust I think Reagan said trust but verify. So now I’ll still look through the books. I’ll still run the financials back into the numbers making sure it makes sense. You know, we’ve got heavily involved in this ever bowl franchise where Drew Brees is a big celebrity investor, etc, etc. The old days. Oh, well, Drew Brees just put in a couple million then my money say You know what I mean, now I’m not just relying on a fancy name or celebrity endorsement or even their own CFO. So I try to double triple quadruple, verify and go into situation no In that there’s a chance you’re going to lose your money. So whenever I give presentations or talks, it’s not to sell anything anymore. But I always tell people like don’t invest. If you can’t afford to lose every fucking Penny, you put it, because there’s really no guarantees. I used to always say, you know, when I’d sell it, whether it was an annuity or an insurance product or real estate, I would say, well, in a doomsday scenario, here’s what would happen with your money, right? Yeah. And I remember it was the recession was, I’m sorry, the right before COVID hit, I made one of the biggest risks, where we syndicated a huge project out in Corona del Mar, California, where, you know, a three bedroom condo goes for 2.8 million, so it was a tear down, we’re rebuilding it. And so it’s a lot of risk. And halfway through that fucking COVID hit, man check is down, we just definitely just $4 million asset we’re sitting on a pile of dirt. And I’m like, the doomsday scenario. So no, I don’t say it a doomsday scenario anymore. Like, you know, an asteroid, hit my project. So anything can happen. Did you know, one of the biggest lessons I learned in my career was actually, almost the first couple months into it. I just got back from New York at an amazing to exhibit Trade Center, my first time in New York. And that’s where my fancy suit and tie to the office and be at the top trade center and blah, blah, blah. And then we come back, and we’re pounding the phones because back then that’s the only way to get clients and the branch manager closer to the office about 100 advisors. And the market was just getting crushed day after day after day. 400 points down 500 points down. And it calls into the office and says guys, I’ve been doing this for 30 years, you know, relax. This is as bad as it gets. Call all your investors and clients tell them to double down and but you know, if you loved it at 10, you love it at five. Great we go to the phones do the very next day was September 11. So we come to the office, everybody’s crying. We don’t know if our friends are dead in the building. And he calls everybody back in the same conference room still get chills thinking about it. And he says, Guys, remember yesterday, when I told you this is as bad as it gets? Well, it just got a hell of a lot worse. And that that it hit me idea this guy’s been in the business 30 years. That was his doomsday scenario, you know? So just when you think something can’t happen, oh, real estate will never go higher, or it will never go lower that will that stock could never hit zero. Yeah, it can, you know, it probably will. So just be planned for it don’t go all in on one idea, whether it’s business and investment, even a career path, right? You know, so many people were so all in on their business, and then COVID It’s, they’re like, holy shit, I’m relying on human contact, what am I supposed to do? You know, so there’s so many lessons in those little calamities that I’ve learned over the years, whether it was the recession, whether it was, you know, the Lehman Brothers bankruptcy, or all these other big firms going out of business, and just seeing this huge pillars of Institute and Lehman had survived the great depression, they’ve been around for 100 years, be avai, almost going down, you know, their merger with Merrill Lynch saved him. So all these big names, if they could fail, then your business could fail, my business could fail. So learning to have additional sources of revenue. So if tomorrow tech goes down, or Internet just gets wiped out, you have other hustles, and you have other ways to feed your family.

Sam Taggart 23:01
I love that. And that’s like, one of the things that I love about door to door, and it’s probably where you got your grind was sitting on the phone, calling insurance, you know, or selling annuities, or whatever that is, and it’s like, you can’t take that hustle away. You know, there’s a muscle there. Yeah. And

23:17
you know, I think you’re, you’re bringing a good service and doing something that is much needed. Because one of the things that made me successful, just being in your studio here and knowing you from time period that I’ve known you, is you started thinking outside the box. So even though it’s called door to door, and, and your plug or gimmick, if you will, is tapping into the original, you know, you started to work on I started on the phones, but immediately we were looking for not necessarily an easier way. But we were thinking God, there’s got to be a better way. Rather, it’s reaching your audience, social media, etc, etc. For me, you know it. The only access I had was to people that were doing rollover, so I knew that if I can find an engineer that’s in between jobs, his 401k is up for grabs, and that roll it into an IRA. So while we were trained to cold call engineers, I went on hot jobs calm, and I pretended like I was an employer so that I could have access to everybody’s resumes, so that I call every engineer within a zip code and saying, I’m calling regarding your resume that’s online. They’ll be like, Oh my god, hey, no problem. You know, they saw what they were doing because they think they’re being called for a job. Are you calling me for job offers? No. But I know you’re in between jobs, and you probably gonna have a 401k rollover. So let me just give you some information when you’re ready, call me. Okay. They have no idea that I’m looking at the resume that I know every phone number that’s not listed in the phonebook because they put it on their resume. Yeah, to get myself on embracing it was online, so I never lied. But that’s how I contact my point is thinking outside the box when you’re in sales. You can’t just be so like if Facebook leads is the hot thing right now. Don’t just dependent on one truck right funnels as they call them out. It’s like constantly fill multiple levels of marketing funnel. So if one thing goes down or goes out of favor, you have other ways To do it, and I think that’s what’s made you really successful, and anybody who’s in sales right now listening to this, if think about it, think about your number one source of revenue right now, number one, lead gen source. If that got wiped out tomorrow, what would you do? Well, right? Or do you have a backup plan? implement those backup plans right now, even if there are if those is lower than what you’re doing? In a traditional sense,

Sam Taggart 25:22
that’s awesome. Yeah, cuz a lot of people get scared of door to door with COVID. It’s like face to face selling. You’re like, wait, what do we do? Yeah. And a lot of people pivoted to zoom or Facebook, you know what I mean? And then they, some people double down, but it’s just like, like you said, Doomsday, what is that? Yeah. And that can happen and being smart about it. And then also just like, playing full out, and but not being willing to, because I mean, how many people you talk to that just hoard their money and just have a million dollars in the bank account? Yeah. And you’re just like, What? What are you doing

25:52
fear, fear creates that inaction, right. So I mean, especially for people that have lost money. And unfortunately, I meet too many people that lost money through a shady salesperson, whether it was investment house, a bad investment, opportunity, crypto, whatever. But when people go through a financial loss, you know, I definitely don’t mean to diminish sexual assault or violation, if you will. But going through something like that, it is a violation, you know, it’s you’ve worked so hard for your money. And overnight, you realize you can get wiped out or that somebody else who you didn’t even know has access to you can wipe you out. And so when you go through something like that, when people go through a financial loss, or a divorce, or something really emotional like that, to where, you know, you thought you had net worth that was this and all of a sudden, it’s wiped out, and you’re just grateful to not be bankrupt. It’s, it’s, it’s powerful. Just what you do with that afterwards is even more powerful. And I think that’s the biggest thing too, that the more I started talking about the depression, I’d been going through the suicide thoughts and just being like, Dude, that’s good shit can happen. Anybody in anybody’s lifestyle that you see on Instagram, they didn’t start that way, you know. And the ones that are more authentic, I think are the most are the ones that are benefiting people, and the guys that are just showing the fancy shit, but then not telling you, the bad side of them all that and what they went through to be able to afford those things, whether they’re renting and posing with them or whatever. There’s a story behind all that. And if you’re just hiding behind the flash, you’re not being authentic to yourself or to your audience, or the people you’re trying to

Sam Taggart 27:20
love the love that. Yeah, no, I I can relate. Right now? No, it’s been crazy, like even this last month, like it’s been a roller coaster of just like, wow, I have to pay how much like, you know, like, that’s, that’s stupid amount. And then now she moved on, and she’s now married or whatever. And it’s like, wow, I’m funding somebody else’s life. You know what I mean? Like, wow,

27:49
like and, and I’ve never been divorced. But again, being in the position that I am in, I went through a lot of divorces through my clients, where I was kind of the mediator and half that job is you end up being a counselor to your students, it’s

Sam Taggart 28:00
just like you said, you feel almost like violated, like, I worked so hard for x. And it just got swept out. And, you know, and obviously, she had a part in that and was support but it’s not like she was a breadwinner, like, yeah, you know, and

28:15
what, every morning you’re waking up, and you’re making a conscious decision to say, that still sucks. Yeah, I hope that guy fucking dies or whatever, like, it still pisses me off that I’m probably paying for his meal, or she’s being indirectly, but I’m just gonna go make more money. Oh, the best version of myself. So that five years from now she’s, I’ve got off that

Sam Taggart 28:38
meaningful? No, it’s cool. I’ve actually spent meaningful time meditating on that exact thing. It’s like, great, I pay you X amount a month. But I’m gonna be making X amount I don’t, I don’t even care. I mean, it’s like, so I’ve had to really change my victim mentality. And, and I think a lot of people, I mean, like, when this COVID thing hit in your head, you demo the building, and you’re just like, I can either sit here and be pissed off at the world and throw rocks and get depressed. Or I can say, Well, what do we do at this parking lot that we know.

29:11
And I truly believe regardless of what religious viewpoints, you have that there, there’s always this higher power, at least for me, and I can’t speak for anybody else. But I feel like I should be dead 10 times over. I literally was trying to kill myself, you know, at the at the peak of that when the feds are involved, and there’s all these poor people that have lost their money. I didn’t care about the money that I had lost. For me. I just felt so awful for all of his victims. Thankfully, none of my clients lost more than five or 10% of their net worth with them. But he had taken the last penny of people and at the victim impact hearings, you know, people that were coming in crying that they’re in loss, or their grandparent had died because they couldn’t afford to put them in the proper care. One lady was talking about how she peeled to layer toilet paper to make it last longer because they literally didn’t have any money left after he took every penny they had. So going through all that and feeling like a victim and a victim for my clients. But coming And out of that, you know, going through that I was, you know, I would drink as much as I could get behind the car drive as fast as I could, hoping that I would die or get pulled over. And, again, never got a DUI never crashed shame on me putting other people’s lives at risk. But no matter how hard I would try to hit rock bottom, it just wouldn’t come. And now when I look at my life and the people that I’m surrounded with, and being here with you, and where I was yesterday, and where I’ll be tomorrow, it was all meant to be like, I was not destined to be this pay corporate, you know, Wall Street guy that’s, I’ve been a financial advisor for 30 years and look at my life. It was all meant to be for me to be here right now. You know what I mean? I have for you in the relationship stuff. It’s like, God has gone through that but do there’s probably an amazing check that’s gonna walk into your life or just your, your even right now. Your mindset is completely there. You can’t stop smiling. I’m miserable.

Sam Taggart 30:54
I’m like, I’m happier than I’ve ever been. It’s like, a lot of people like are like, Wow, that must suck. I’m like, Yeah, but the sucky is what gets to create the greatness like, yeah, like you look at like, anything has to have its polarity. And it’s like, I get to experience higher highs because I got to experience lower lows. And I think that, like, so many people live life, just like so mundane. And they they’re so safe. They play everything with like, you know, they keep everything so close to chess, they they’re playing this game of like, walking on eggshells, and I’m like, cool, but you don’t like I’m like, I hope I fall on, like, break every time. And I hope you know what I mean? Like, like I get to, I get to experience life at its fullest. And that’s how I live everyday. Like I’m sitting at the airport yesterday. And this chicks like next to us at this bar. And she’s drinking and she looks at us. And she’s like, we’re like, Oh, where are you going? She’s like, Oh, I’m going to California to go to rehab. I was like, Oh, cool. That’s like, so awesome. And I was like, like, I’m so jealous. And she’s like, No, you’re not. I was like, I really am. I was like, I’m not addicted. I need to go to rehab. But for me to escape for four weeks and work on myself, like personally developing like, at the beach, at the beach like and be away from everything. Like, that sounds like the coolest thing in the world. And she was like, Are you effing kidding? She got so mad. Because I was so optimistic about her rehab opportunity. And she was just like, but I mean, I feel forced to go I go, Dude, I would force myself to go right. She was like looking to be the victim. Look at the perception. Yeah, just the perception. I was like, Yeah, you get to go to rehab. Your insurance is covering it. You get to go like life changing, like new trajectory for the rest of your life. And she was just like,

32:42
just like, you know, it’s funny, you mentioned that briefly. Last week, or two weeks ago, I was at this big event where three 400 people flew down to Texas to be, you know, networking events, slash mindset, personal improvement, etc, etc. And one of the kids was telling me like, you know, I’ve been trying to help my cousin. I even paid for his ticket. And I told him, all you got to do is show up at this hotel. 10 people don’t even show up. Certain people just aren’t ready for that help. Right? Or they can’t, their mind is so I’m going to be negative and I’m just going to wake up pissed at life or politics or Republicans or Appointmentcrats. It’s like fuck, like, just, it’s got to be exhausting being you but they don’t. They don’t want to help and they can’t. I mean, they’ll be going through the drive thru shoving Big Macs in their mouth, but they complain that they’re fat and they feel lazy. It’s like Dude, she can’t do both, you know, but I’ve tried to help a lot and I realized I can’t I just can’t help everybody. But you know, listen to that girl and they just call me Captain save a ho because I would just look for the girl that needed the most fixing and I wanted to fix you. Yeah, what’s your fixed I’d move on the next project.

Sam Taggart 33:45
Captain sin

33:47
my therapist says it’s a white knight syndrome we have a label for it.

Sam Taggart 33:51
Oh White Knights. We got to wrap up has been so good. Tony if somebody wants to reach out to you or follow you how would they best get out

34:01
you know probably social says the best and you know if you do direct message me just mentioned that you know, you heard me here so that I don’t ignore you. Or just thinking that you’re a random popping in but yeah, man on socials. Instagram would be the insider investor. Facebook, my name Tony kosai. And then if you go to www dot insider investors.com that you’ll get more info on our group. I think by the time this is launched, the website will be revamped. And yeah, just that’s the approach is and then if you are a business owner, you and I talked about this as well. There’s a tax incentive that most of you don’t know about. So if you own a business C Corp S corp, LLC or sole proprietor, you make money and you’re profitable. There may be some free cash that we can find you and for that just go to alternative business strategies comm put in your contact info and somebody will get to you. That’s awesome. Cool.

Sam Taggart 34:51
So hit him up guys. Go follow this man Tony. He’s doing big things. He’s changing the world. I love it. I love your

34:57
podcast on Spotify. And I believe iTunes now so I’d really appreciate if you guys follow that that’ll help with the rankings. And that’s just the insider show with Tony Kaye love which you’ll be down when you’re visiting me down in SoCal, I love that and you won’t have to go down for rehab just coming out.

Sam Taggart 35:12
Yeah, my stuff enemy, whatever. Just gay love you guys. Thanks for listening right thanks man