Ask the Expert: Launch a business with the EASY Button with Hugh Zaretskey

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Hello, hello amplify your family Michelle Abraham, your host here today. And have I got an awesome ask the expert guest for you today. I'm talking to Hugh Zaretsky today. And I know how to say his last name because it rhymes with Gretzky. And we were laughing about that before we started. I think Canadian loving hockey that was really easy last night for me to to get so I hope I got it right. Let me tell you more about you in a minute. But here, let me just say Hi, and welcome. Thanks for being here today.

Oh, no problem. Thank you for having me. I appreciate it.

You are so welcome. Well, we've been lining up this interview for a while. So I'm excited to actually finally dive into what you're all about. And you just launched a book in November, which was just recently, and it was already like top of the charts in so many different categories. And I love the title of the book is the Launch button. So we're gonna dive lots into Hugh's books today. But before we do, let me just tell you a little bit more about his background. So he was an IT executive until his wake up call at 911. And I'm sure there's a big story around that we're gonna get into you. And he realized how short life can be and how important it is to do something that you truly love. So he loves investing in cashflow, investing in cash flowing properties, businesses and training entrepreneurs. And I was looking at your website here you've trained 1000s and 1000s and 10s of 1000s of entrepreneurs. Over the last few days, you're used to being up on stage and delivering 10s of trainings and three days worth of standing on stage and, and training. And so that's super amazing. And you've been in books with people like Jack Canfield and Les Brown. And like I mentioned before you have a new book out just recently. So lots to dive into today. We're so excited you're here. And I want to just dive off the end with like, the Launch button, like what were tell us about the launch button. Because I think that's an intriguing title. And I know what it's about. And I think our audience is going to totally love it because they're all vote, making, making a living and making money and having fun with something that they're super passionate about. And I know that's why I do podcasting because I love it. And I became passionate about it. And then it turned into my business. So I love it tickets there.

Yeah, so the Launch button. You know, I feel a lot of people float through life like a lot on a river. And then unfortunately, some sort of trauma has to happen, some sort of thing that is their wake up call. Like for me it was 911. And yeah, there's a big story about that, you know, that we can go to in a little bit. But that was sort of the thing that sort of woke me up and realized I wasn't happy. Right, I have taken some of the first pictures of the scene that they even though I was in it, because back then we didn't have handy dandy cell phone cameras, right? We actually had to like, develop the pictures and stuff. So the only camera we had was the name badge Tamar. So I ran to the roof to give it to a photographer with the pitcher does better and they weren't there. So she was like, I'm not taking the picture. I was like We came all the way to the roof. You know, as both planes that flew past our window earlier won't go into all of that right now. But that was like, alright, so that trauma woke me up and was like, What do I want to do? I fell backwards in the real estate investing. And I kind of have three generations of teachers, some, both my parents are teachers, my grandfather was a teacher, my sister's a teacher. And so teacher was sort of in the blood. And they were like, Hey, I took a course. And that's why I always tell people, you know, go after, if it's 70 to 80% of you what you want, say yes to it, right? Because you're never going to get 100% of what you want. And so many of you are waiting for that, oh, it's not perfect. So 78%. So I said, Yeah, I'll go to this course, I'll pay for this course through a bootcamp. And they're like, Do you want a job find around the country teaching and training and real estate investors. Now granted, we've already been invested. It's sort of like you with podcasts and like, I can get paid to podcast right? Like, in the beginning, I was like, I just want to do it. And I was like, so you're gonna put me in front of real estate investors that I want to get to know. And you're gonna pay me to do it. I was like, alright, let's check it out. See if we didn't do it. And that launched me into the real estate world. And I find that most people get stuck either by ego financially, or what when I say ego, you know, like their reputation is tied to their you know, I got a I'm a VP because I was director of technology. We only had director, it was VP SP P CTO, right? That was it. Right? There's only so many positions as you go up the corporate pyramid. So and so people were just like, not happy. And so whether you're not happy at your job, or you feel because your family you're not gonna make enough money by doing that. So it's about starting your passion on the side and building that up why you still have your job. Because I don't believe just fireballs tomorrow, like, say like, drop it. But let's, let's build up that income, you get to a certain point you aren't in a fire them and walk away, you're gonna launch out. And we use the rocket launch analogy where the hardest part is to get off the ground. Right, that first six inches off the ground is why the rockets need like four boosters. Right?

And I'm glad you said that, because I was thinking, you know, in my mind, I'm one of those people that like dumps all into something. And in fact, I did do that when I first started my entrepreneur journey. And I wouldn't recommend people doing that, like just quit your job and just start a business without like having that safety net, that, that that side hustle for us. So I'm glad that you said that, because that's really a way that you can experiment I think with like what you're actually are passionate about. And you know, what you're naturally drawn to outside of your normal work hours. Did you find that you were drawn then to is that when you were drawn to the real estate initially?

Yeah. So I felt like I went to a friend's wedding. And we were ended up saying that this motel I'll call it a motel. And it was like a two story outdoor thing. Now I come from New York City, right? Well, I realized you were on the Outer Banks of North Carolina. And, you know, we're sitting at this place. And every room was decorated, different, like different themes, and different bed sizes. And all of this and that, you know, there's only probably like 40 rooms in this whole motel. And we were like 20 of them. And everybody had a different motif and a different bed size. And I was like, don't get this, like, we all pay for the same, right? Standard room. And they're like, Oh, they're owned by different people. And I was like, oh, and the prices of those compared to New York City. It was like, at that time you buy like $60,000 data condo on the ocean and rent it out. And I was like, oh, that's way cheaper than New York City, or Vancouver, or Montreal or something like that. And so that's what started us down that path. And then it just, we ran out of friends and family money. So I took a course to learn how to raise capital. And it was like, All right, and then they offered me that position. And I was like, I didn't know I could do it. So I did my IT job during the day. And then I would fly around New York, in the US and Canada on the weekends, and do 3d live trainings, and then fly back to work to see if I could do it. Because I don't even know I could do it. And that's what I have in the book. There's ways you can test your business, like their secret things inside of the Airbnb platforms that you can even create a business in, like giving running tours or painting, or whatever it is that you guys can do to test at a very low cost. And that'd be like, Yeah, I like that.

Awesome. I love that. And so for our listeners that are like, maybe not, they haven't dove right into entrepreneurship, yet they're, you know, thinking about starting a podcast that people getting their name out there thinking about starting a business, what is your suggestion for like, kind of first three or four steps to kind of get going I love what you just said about that kind of testing some things out low cost to see what you like, I've been seeing all sorts of things on tick tock these days about print on demand, and, you know, affiliate marketing, and all this, all this other stuff. And as you can see people just start dabbling and trying a whole different things to see what sticks. What's the next kind of steps after you find something that you do like.

So what's so there's a couple things, there's always funding, which is going to be your oxygen, right? I mean, you've run out of farms, and you see this with most businesses is that when they start out, they run out of funds, or they run out of funds, they can't grow their business, right? So the oxygen is depleted from it. And what most people don't understand is if you fire your boss, and like how to be an entrepreneur, no more job, which is great. And I'm all for it, right? We're not high pressure, do it with a plan because as soon as you do that, and the bank looks at you and goes, Oh, you don't have two years of business success, I can't lend it to you, I don't care, you got a 700 credit score, I don't care, you got an 800 credit score. So I lay out in the book, some steps to do so that you can do that. Right. And there's some things before you leave your job, you get all these things lined up. And other things like health insurance, right? People don't understand when they leave now they gotta pay all their health insurance, right? Like, you know, there's different things, you know, 401k is I know, they're different in Canada, but like your retirement accounts, right? Like, all these things come into consideration and there's things you can create for yourself that you can borrow from yourself. So it doesn't matter if the interest rates are super high in either country. You can set things up so you can borrow the money from yourself and it's tax deductible. So that's one of them, too, is spend some time coming up with a good name right spend some time coming up with a good name. You know, like you said like the Launch button, it's simple like people are like alright, you know, we followed like the easy button right, you know, the easy button right? That was easy. All right, here's a little update, we got the little rock the little button there with a little rocket in the middle to launch it out. Right? So coming up with that name is gonna get people to like, just stop and click. And it got to be simple. Like, I think that's the biggest thing I see with most entrepreneurs is they try and overcomplicate it. I know Albert Einstein has that, quote, make it simpler, but not, you know, make it as simple as possible, but not simpler. So in my short, like, there's currently a domain name still out there. So if,

and I think that's easy to spell, using, like, amplify, you

know, like my last name, right? It's a long name, you don't want that, right. Something simple, that's catchy. Right? And you'll know it when you find it. And then just ask some friends, people want to help you. I think that's the biggest thing. Lots of people want to help. But most people are too scared to ask for help. Because it again, it comes down to ego, they're going to feel embarrassed. I don't know that. Right? I shouldn't know that. What's everybody gonna think the fear of failure and fear rejection. So the two major things that like, get people to like, stay at their jobs, like if I leave, I'm a VP. Now I'm gonna go be a baker? Like, what's that? What all my friends gonna think like, what are all? And that really holds people back? Right? And it's the six inches that mess us up all the time between our years,

right? Do you think there's like certain like mindset, that you have to have to finally be like, ready to, like, obviously, you had a trauma that happened. And there's a tragedy and something happened. That was the same in my story, too. There was a tragedy that made me feel like life was too short. But for the people that do this, everyone needs to have a tragedy, I guess it's like question, or can some people then like, get the mindset, right, and do it on their own without the tragedy?

I think some people are born into it. Like if your parents are entrepreneurs and those types of things. Though, you know, that helps. I think, if you did sports or something like that, and you're competitive, and you're used to failing, because that's the biggest thing as adults, right? It's like, Oh, I'm gonna try something new. And I have to be perfect. You know, when he's, I used to like baby analogy all the time, right? With the baby gets up, just crawl and tries to learn how to walk and they fall down, you're like, Hey, stay down for three to five years. Most people when they start a business, like they fail, like whether it was a network marketing business, whether it's a true entrepreneur business, whether it's like a solo product, and they fail, they feel embarrassed, and they don't do anything again for three to five years, right? It takes them that long to build back up the confidence. So that entrepreneur rollercoaster get used to bail in and expecting it, I tell my team, like, I always tell everyone, when they start out what you're gonna suck at it. And it's okay, it's okay to suck. Right? And get used to the socket, because you're gonna suck at it. And that's the only way you can get better. Right? You learn more from your failures than you do from your successes. And by doing that, you start to grow and learn and figure things out along the way.

Yeah, feel fast. It's also painful. And so you're in your book, do you lay out a plan for people who are launching because I know when I started my business, I was like, 25 years old, and had no freaking clue other than that my dad was an entrepreneur. And I knew that I didn't want to work for someone else and had had enough. So I was just like, Yeah, let's do this. But I fell into like, I love the sales and the marketing, and the cheese of that sale. I was super good at that. The rest of it, though, like that was like a lot of like shiny objects and a lot of like, an even foundation for many, many years. And in fact, was the demise of my first business because we went so quick to success that we didn't have some things in place that you probably should have, like taxes and things like that. Yeah. Yeah. So

I just added more as a workbook at the end of each chapter. There's questions, right? And I'll tell you what the answers are. And it's more like, Okay, what's your philosophy on money? What's your philosophy on this? Where does it come from, is what we don't understand. And I spent a lot of time diving into neuroscience, and I'm sure you have as well, like how people think and how they react to things. It's like, we either follow one of our parents, or we do the opposite, right? Like, and it's good to know where that comes from. I always joke about the love of coffee with people. It's like, Do you really love coffee? Or does it bring up a memory of somebody that first gave it to you, that's why you love it, or that's why you eat it. Like people either love coffee, or they hate it. There's not people that are like and just occasionally drink it, or there's very few percentage, it's like, you know, very skewed and usually it has to do with a memory of who gave it to them or what it was right? To do that. So all these things were implanted on us and half the time we had to unlearn those things. So yes, it's a Workbook format, it lays it out. I haven't have have enough on the site where people can go in download PDFs for to write it in and we're gonna have the questions in there eventually. The next upgrade on the site is they'll be able to type in their answers and then we'll print out a nice PDF for them at Yeah, I know there's some additional resources they can get access to.

That's awesome. Now, that's all. Normally, I would have read your book already, but because it was just launched at the end of November, and then the holidays, and I haven't gotten my little hands yet, so I'm looking forward to reading it afterwards. And that's for our audience listening, why am I bizarre questions about what's in the book, instead of like sharing with you what's in the book. And that's why so I do have good intentions of getting it and reading it, because sounds like a really amazing book. And I love how you structured it that way. So it's kind of like a guide book guy roadmap for people to kind of go from, like that rocket ship getting the six, six inches off the ground, with with a good speed.

Yeah, and a lot of people want to have in today's world, they want to have that freedom to run their businesses from anywhere, right. And so we talked about how you do pick up properties in different countries or different states, you don't have to do it. Right. So there's even a plan in there for as you get to that point of like, I you know, I want to be a snowbird, right, I want to, or you want to live in multiple places how to do that. So you're generating revenue through the whole process.

Yeah. And I think the one thing about the real estate space that I think maybe stress some people shy away from is they think you need to have all this capital sitting in the bank ready to put as a down payment on something. So it's, so for someone who's starting as a business or a side hustle, and you don't have that to put in there, there's ways that you can go about investing still, without having that huge nest egg sitting there in your bank account.

Yeah, and that's the great thing about like, the the buying a property where you eventually want to live and being able to rent it out what you're not using it, right. So now your cash flow, or even if you rent it, be able to re rent it there, stuff like that. And some of the things we talked to you about before you leave your business, you start setting up for your own protection, and then you can borrow from yourself. So one of the like pink concerns right now is interest rates are going up. And I'm like, awesome, cool. Because that gets rid of all the wannabes, right in the real estate space. Because in the last three years, you could have just thrown into art in Canada in the US hit a property bought it did nothing to it and made 50 sell it to you year later. And you make 50 to 100 grand. Right,

right. So yeah, it was pretty easy times. He

didn't take any knowledge, any training or anything like that. Now's the time, we're gonna get into that. But if you had set these plans up for yourself, you actually can borrow from yourself at very low interest rates. So that's there's some trips, then like tax savings and stuff like that, that people don't understand. Right? Both in Canada in the US have benefits of doing that. Because some people have a high paying job right now. And they just need tax write offs. So we need to start a business and lost money that they would actually make more money and people don't get that money. You're like, Yeah, but you just got all this money back over here. Like my dad teacher doesn't understand it. He's, he's like, but we didn't cashflow on that property. I was like, but you also got like a $10,000 tax deduction. So now you did, and you got money back. But you know, he doesn't count that he's like, but that's all from the property.

And I don't think we're gonna see in our lifetime, like my family members, we just, we have just sold the property they bought for $49,000. We sold it for $2.1 million. Like, I don't think we're gonna see that kind of in our generation right now. Like, we kind of missed the boat on that one. So we have to be a little bit smarter with our investments and find some other ways of finding property, what do you find is like something that you would encourage people to look at right now.

Yeah, so on the on the real estate side, we're in this weird transition right now, between the government, like people bailing people out on the government side, and all that, and that's starting to end. So we're starting to see more foreclosures, more unfortunately, bankruptcies and people that overextended themselves during the due time, that, you know, they took their tax money, instead of using it to pay their rent, they bought an iPhone, right, or whatever it is, like all those benefits that people got. So but that also is when really, true wealth is made. Because if somebody's gonna sell something, discount, we never want that on anybody, but somebody's got to sell us on this limited discount, eventually, the price is going to come back. So if you're able to pick it up at that discounted price, you know, maybe that 2.1 million drops to 1.2. Right? That really did it. And now let you get it for the 1.2 and get back to the nine What do you even do that on? $50,000 product? Right, right. And what most people don't understand is there's a, there's properties in their price range, that they just gotta have the confidence to look for them.

Right and like not necessarily looking for something that you're gonna live in or your dream house or like holding hands on that but like working your way up in the in the investment so that you eventually get there. And that's really interesting. Now we kind of jump back and forth between like starting your business and an investing in real estate, you would see like kind of like the secret sauce for us like a combination of the two. You know, I'd think there's like that saying that you should have what seven different advertisers have revenue coming in at any given time. So what's the like? What's the recipe that you recommend? Yeah, so

I believe you got to have both, you got to have the business and you got to have the real estate, because here's what we've seen, when businesses tend to crash, the real estate market takes off. And when the market takes market crash, businesses tend to do well, right. So when you have that, that getting a balance, when they're both doing well, it's awesome. And then you slowly add more revenue streams, but start with one on each light. And we also I mean, I know you see this with entrepreneurs as well, all the time is like, they're like, I want to do this, and I want to do this, and I want to do this, and I want to do this, and I was like, No, pick one, get that one up and running, generate some revenue, then you can add more, right, because you know, learn so much without one. But if you try and do seven, so I would pick one business, you want to start and then start looking at an area of the country, we could be right where you live, if you don't already own a home, it could be a second part of, you know, wherever you like to vacation to pick up a property because you didn't know those areas. And that's important, just like you know, you start to know your business. So pick one and one, start to just learn about it. Right? There's so much information out there we do. We do lots of trips, we do three trainings a week, I know you do a bunch of trainings a week for entrepreneurs. So like, between that you can just start to hone in what it is. Because some people should not do short term rentals, right? I know that's a big strategy, Airbnb, short term rentals. But you know, if your friend is not your cell phone, then you should not really be doing that or hire a millennial or hire, we run a co hosting business for people like that they can't handle it. You do those types of things, right? You're able to provide the services that they need. But I look at it as start one on one, you got it. If you're still at your job, it's easy, because you're just doing it part time, like whatever that time is. Right to do it. Yeah.

You know, for me, my entrepreneurial journey was like very, we looked at it on the map. It was not, it was like this idea. Let's go over here. And this idea, let's go over there. I wish I had just picked one thing and kept it really simple. Instead of complicating it by like, following what's the next newest marketing trend out there? Do you have any suggestions around mindset for people to kind of like stay like in their lane and focused?

Yeah, so it's really interesting. I just heard this the other day. In a book, and they talked about when something is new, like your whole entire brain lights up, right? Like, your whole entire brain lights up. That's why everybody's like, Oh, it's new. We got to do new things. And new is like the destruction of your business new is like the destruction of your plan. Because, you know, we don't call it you call it with shiny object syndrome, right, like the dog that chases you know, the different bones and balls and

all the reason that's that's the acronym for that is SLS, right help.

You know, and so, when we do that, but it's actually neuroscience now, you know, I understand it now. Like the whole brain, your left and your right brain lights up in your right brain is more creative. And then as you do something over and over, it shifts to your left side, which is just that routine. So it doesn't fire your whole brain up. You're like, Oh, I gotta make the phone calls. I gotta do the website. I gotta bake the cookies. I got it, right. Like, that just becomes mundane, and it's not exciting anymore, right? So it's fine. The key to it really is finding new ways to make your business feel exciting. Because look, the entrepreneurial rollercoaster you call it right? And we call it like, you'll be super high. You're like, yeah, I just made X number of dollars. And I just lost it all. Oh, no, I made it and then right like, it's a roller coaster up and down. And I think it takes those first couple years of like you settling into like, not assuming when you get super high super low. I think we all now trend just be like, Alright, we're gonna have good we're gonna have bad, let's just stay even keel we make through it. And But that takes time for people to address that. Right? So that would be the key, just, you know, stay away from new the new shiny object and focus in on your business. And that's where to help to be truly passionate about it. Right? truly have that deep why tied to it because you'll stay focused on it. You know, and I do this with lots of people. They're like, oh, I want to make more money. Great. So does everybody else not why you're doing it, right? Like, here's a quarter I'm raised to be older version of me would be a little more aggressive. Like, oh, who in this room wants to make more money, there'd be 100 people there during the training. I was like, great, here's a quarter I just made all your dreams come true. Because that's what you said. And then people are like, well, I don't want a quarter but people aren't really clear on why they're doing something or what they want. And it's getting clear on that. Yeah, that's

a really good I mean, it goes for podcasters too, that are starting up their podcasts like you're not clear on what you're doing and they lose interest in it pretty quickly. I feel like also to as you get out of the way the honeymoon stage of like having a new business and it's all exciting that that brain lit up. If you can find maybe the find the activities within your business So you you still love doing and find a way of outsourcing the rest of those things like nodding your wheel genes that maybe don't keep the brain lit. And I feel like that might also be really good. I really helpful to do that sooner than later where I know some people wait a long time to let go of those tasks, which I think, hold people back and maybe even stop them from pursuing their business altogether, because they're not excited about it. And

well, yeah, totally. And I would also say having a mentor or vote for somebody like that is hugely important. Because you'll be like, Oh, what about this idea? And they'll be like, well, this idea is gonna require this, this and this, right. So you know, everything I've ever done, very coachable, everything I've ever done, I was not the tallest guy. But I almost made the 92 Olympic team, I played sports my entire life, in a sport that most Americans don't know. It's all European team handball. And so the soccer players play in the winter and like, yeah, like water polo on land, you get to tackle people and hit people, right. But I wasn't the tallest. I wasn't the fastest. But I was coachable. And they said, do this. And I did it right, like, and most people having a coach or somebody that has been through the fire will shorten their learning curve, right? Not everyone's gonna bang their head against the wall. Everybody's got to go through their frustration point. But just be open to that coach or mentor did like guide you through some especially early on.

Absolutely. I forget who the accurate three now gosh, is going right into my brain. But when my coaches always shares a story about a famous actor, we all know his name, and I just can't remember at the moment, but he's famous actor, a Lister. But he has seven coaches. Because as he was getting better in his craft, he needed to coach for each different area in his business. So even someone of that caliber, like needs coaching in different areas. So whether it was the nutrition and the voice coach in the wardrobe coach or whatever, again, seven coaches, and I always appreciate that story. Because it just reminds you that you know, the one don't do it alone, too. When you have someone that's ahead of you have already been there, it shortens your shortens your frustration level for sure. So that's awesome, awesome advice. And I love how your book kind of actually sounds that leads people on that path of like, here's the the framework, and then can they then work with you afterwards to help them get going on their business?

Sure, yeah, we have them on the business. We have them on the real estate side. And I always, you know, to your point about that, you know, you look at the bass player in any sport, they all have coaches, right. And they have different coaches, I said in different areas. And the thing that that I think most entrepreneurs mess up and most people in general is when their coach asked them to do something, they asked them why they put that friction up right away. Right? They put that friction up, like why am I doing that? Well, you won't know why until after you do it. Right. Like you have better questions. So I always tell people make it a frictionless process. Like, I've gotten the chance to work with lots of multimillionaires, you know, billionaires, those types of people, people that are gonna become billionaires, because I they just said, Go do it. And I did it. You know, you look at Michael Jordan, probably the best basketball player, so arguable right? best basketball player, he was caught in seventh grade. And his coach said, Only if you show up before class every single day and run drills with me while I let you on the team next year. If you don't know what you're getting up, you're not then it wasn't like, you're not gonna bounce a ball, you're gonna run drills with me for one whole year. Right? And then my daughter wasn't like, you know, he could have said ego like, you know, have you on the best player on the team? Because he wasn't that time. Or he learned that discipline, right. And then when he got to the NBA, they lost the championship. He goes, Well, no, we lost the championship. I gotta go fix me, not the team. I gotta go fix me. IW better defensive player. And so I've always done that with people is make it frictionless. So for all my coaches and stuff like that, they give you more information, and then you actually do it and go, Oh, now I have a better question. But our brains go. What? Why are you making me do that? Michelle? Why should I do that? And then you're like, you're trying to explain it. It won't make sense to the person they go, Well, I'm not doing it. He's like, because you haven't gone through it yet. Right? You haven't experienced it. Just go do it, then come back with better question.

Yeah, that reminds me of Kevin Eastman was a guest speaker, and then one of the masterminds at 10. And he was sharing his story about Kobe Bryant and you know, Kobe was you know, practicing this drill and Kevin was like, Well, how long do you practice this drill for? Until you get better? It's like until and, and then he was like, what what do you mean? Like, how long are you going to keep doing this drill? He's like, until and until he tells just until it just see this keeps practicing, practicing and practicing and that's what makes the grades greater. They just keep they just go until there's no there's no like great Dima, I did my 10 reps. I'm done today. So I would love Kevin Eastman, sir A story about Kobe is so funny. Yeah. Yeah. So good. So I want to go back just before we can let you go about your, your 911 experience. Like, I think that was one of those days that like everyone remembers, like I'm Canadian. It happened in the US not even in the same countries. I mean, but I remember what I was doing that day, I think we all remember where we were what we were doing that day, I was in second year of college in the outdoor recreation program, and we were literally leaving on a bus that morning to go kayaking into the wilderness for three, three weeks on ocean kayaks. And we weren't going to be anywhere near technology or anywhere near civilization for three weeks. So as we went into the woods that day, we weren't sure what we were going to come back to. And so it was a crazy day, but I wasn't there like you were, I can't imagine what your day was like that day.

Yeah, so it was a really interesting time in my life. I just moved, I literally just moved to New York City on September 1 2001, I got the apartment with the, you know, on on top of our building had the pool at the corner office, I was tired on live. And, you know, I was just getting used to the commute from Upper East Side down down to our office, which is about five to 10 blocks away from the Twin Towers. So there are people that had it, we were some of my buddies, and for all the military veterans, first responders anyway, that kept us safe during COVID. Want to say thank you guys very much for all the things you guys did all the way down the janitors. Right? During that, but we were luckily for me, it was it was a Tuesday, because my guys came through the bottom of the Twin Towers because I ran it. We weren't able to take people off the floor, the call centers and everything like that during the day. So we came in a half hour early on Tuesdays and did a meeting. And we were inside conference room and all sudden a bunch of people would run into the window. And we could look right into the Twin Towers. And they're all pointing up and they were like, That's a Cessna right or that looked at the whole time. And everybody thought at that time thought it was a Cessna. And one of my guys turned to me and he happened to be from Bangladesh. And he goes, that's a terrorist attack you he goes, Look, you know, what are the clouds. And if you looked at the clouds from any of those pictures, there was not a cloud in the sky. He's like it, that pilot wanted to miss it, he would have missed it. But no, they, they went straight into it. So we went back into a conference room real fast. And then as we came out of that were like, Alright, anything our news division needs, because our all photographers were already running down to the sea, because we were like 10 blocks away. So they just grabbed their cameras and went, and we came out and just as a second plane went by the right into the twin towers with that big fireball. And after that it just wanted a firefighter mode. But I did, what I realized that day was the only difference between as I process it later, we got evacuated, we weren't able to evacuate till after 3pm. So that happened at like 9am. So we stayed there transferring data, like with like, no power on batteries, and then we evacuated and the CTO asked somebody from it to go back down to the scene. And it was a warzone. So I wouldn't allow any of my team members to go in. I said I would go just to be with the news team and everything like that. And my boss said, I didn't have to go, I know. But I, it's okay, if I got hurt, I couldn't live with myself if I sent another employee, and they got hurt. So I had to sneak past the national guard with em sixteens because nobody had neat, nobody had IDs, nobody had any of those things. But then, so I stopped past I got back to the office. And I realized the only difference would be in the people that jumped off the Twin Towers was my company just signed a lease on a smaller building. Right. Otherwise, that could have been us. And you know, they did you know, we process the photos of all the people jump in and we saw all those things. And just for weeks and weeks afterwards, we dealt with that. But when you sat back, you're like, This is where I want to end up. Right, like, and so there was a lot of thoughts, I won't go into all the things that happened. There's, there's, there's some deep memories there. But I gotta appreciate every day that right because like you said you had a trauma. Like, we appreciate more what we have we understand more. You know, and it's just, it's just something that I'll sit with you guys to have a picture of the twin towers that we hang here. And you know, it just reminds me of that. And we all have a choice, right? We have that choice. And we're to live our best lives and to, you know, to follow our passions, because the world needs your ideas. That's the biggest thing. You know, Les Brown says that right? The graveyard is full of, you know, the greatest ideas ever that ever happened. And I have the book, the book with you, but I wrote a book with Les Brown, Jack Canfield, and Brian Tracy. The funny thing is, Brian Tracy and Les Brown are on the back cover with me, because nobody knew who they were 10 years ago, right? 1015 years ago, right? Nobody knew who they were. And that's what I always tell people. You know, people may not know who you are out, but in 15 years, you could, you know, be on the front cover with all these people, but you can be a household name, but you got to have consistent daily action, right? We call it CDDA, consistent daily action leads to success in your business. Just do one thing every day for your business, do one thing every day for your real estate, do one thing for every area of life. And, and keep it going.

I love that so powerful. one consistent thing. It's just like one step one foot in front of the other, that consistent momentum really helps you and I want to share with our audience, a quote that I read that you said, and it was just trying to find it at the moment I was trying to pull it up. Oh, you're talking there? And I can't shoot? I can't find it. And I'll let you know which code I'm talking about. It's the one about the wallet. So if you What's that? Can you share it? You know which one I'm talking about? I've heard it. It's the quote about the wallet. So the size of your wallet?

Oh, yeah. So I just want to tell people, right? You got if you want to change your mindset, you got to if you want a fat wallet, right, everybody wants a fat wallet, right? Then you got to change. You gotta change your mindset first, right? In order to change your mindset first, then you can have the fat wallet, because, you know, everybody's like, well, if I do just do this, I'll become wealthy. No, you're gonna have the same patterns. If you you know, I always joke credit cards, because so many people are credit cards are bad or good is like, no credit cards don't have personality. You don't have two credit cards sitting on your shoulder being like they did credit card and the bad ones. No, don't spend right now they just print out your financial personality. So we always say that, right? The if you want to change the size of your wallet, you gotta change your mindset.

Yes. And thank you. Thank you for letting me put you on the spot. Like folks, I read it earlier today. And it's like, oh, that's so good. So yeah, you know, a new key someone can give you a million dollars. It's like that's why those people that win the lottery sometimes go broke again, right aways because they don't haven't changed anything. And six inches between their ears, right? Yeah, exactly. So cool. Well, this has been great having you on here today. I've learned lots and I look forward to continuing learning more about you reading your book finally, and having you back on again and sometime in the future. So thanks so much for being with us. Any last words for our audience today?

Sure, you know, if you want more information, you go to Hughes rescue.com. We have the entrepreneur family, ze family, we follow the Ohana model. And you know we're going to have Michelle potentially be a part of that. And some other people come out there as you know, we don't I don't feel that anybody can be an expert in all areas of their lives. And we all need help. We all need coaching. I hire coaches, I know Michelle hires, coaches, trainers, right? We surround ourselves with the people that will help us get there. So it takes a village to get anybody where they want to be. So I appreciate you having me on here. It's awesome. As we get to know each other, we get to grow and do more things in the future together. So I appreciate that. And I look forward to getting to know you better as well.

Awesome. Well, thanks so much you for being here with us today. amplify your family grew up there, check out his book, we're gonna link it in the chat. Make sure you go and pick it up. If you want to start a business today with Alan cut out all the years of the years of the shiny object syndrome that I had, and get the fast path to where you want to go by turning your passion into profit. And especially if you're sitting at a job right now. Keep going on that job until you get that A until you get that going. Like I think that's so smart. Thank you so much for being here with us today and amplify your family. Have a fabulous week. We'll see you again next week.