From $348K Debt to $3.45B Empire: Chris Christofi's Journey of Resilience

What separates a good salesperson from a truly exceptional one? It's not just closing rates or revenue figures—it's the mindset behind the success.

Chris Christofi, founder and CEO of Reventon, embodies this distinction perfectly. Starting from $348,000 in debt after losing everything, Chris built a company that has now sold 3,500 properties worth $3.45 billion and helped over 10,000 clients. His journey from selling scratch tickets as a 10-year-old in Cyprus to becoming one of Australia's most respected property investment strategists reveals powerful lessons about persistence, humility, and continuous improvement.

In this riveting conversation, Chris shares how he maintained a remarkable 93-94% closing rate while still considering himself "only a 2 out of 10" in ability—because he recognized how much more there was to learn. This hunger for growth led him to identify and shadow the top performers in every company where he worked, absorbing their techniques while developing his own authentic approach to sales.

The most fascinating aspect of Chris's story isn't just the financial success, but his philosophy on business and life. He awakens at 5 AM (previously 2:45 AM) for visualization and reading—completing an astonishing 87 books in just seven months using his unique method of simultaneously listening to audiobooks while reading physical copies. His perspective on work-life "choices" rather than "balance," his approach to team building, and his commitment to philanthropy (raising over $1.2 million for St. Vincent de Paul's) provide a masterclass in holistic success.

Whether you're a seasoned entrepreneur or just starting your journey, Chris's insights on recovering from setbacks, scaling through team development, and maintaining humility despite massive success will transform how you approach your own path. As he powerfully states: "The smallest action is more powerful than the greatest thought."

How might your success change if you adopted Chris's mindset of continuous learning and improvement, regardless of your current achievements? Listen now to find out.

Chapters

• 0:00 Welcome to Million Dollar Days
• 8:16 From Street Hustler to Real Estate Professional
• 16:30 The Mentality of a Great Salesperson
• 28:12 Building Teams and Transferring Knowledge
• 43:25 Work-Life Choices and Morning Routines
• 56:14 Health, Legacy, and Rebuilding After Loss
• 1:12:23 Giving Back Through Philanthropy

Transcript

George: 0:00

Welcome back, ladies and gentlemen, to Million Dollar Days. Hope you're having a million dollar day. We are joined by a special guest today, chris Christoffi. Thank you very much for joining us. Mate, thanks for having me boys.

Robby: 0:11

Chris, I've been a follower of your journey for I would say I wish I could look it up and find out when I actually first started following you on LinkedIn, but I would say back in my real estate days, probably 2016, 2017. Wow, when did your book come out?

Guest: 0:28

My book. I think about 219.

Robby: 0:31

219.

Guest: 0:32

Something like that 219, 220. I had three weeks off at the end of the year and obviously I can't stay still having ADHD. So I researched a bunch of writers. I found one that I liked, that I gelled with in Budapest and he goes I'll help you write a book. I said, fly over, though If we're going to do it it's got to be properly. And he shadowed me and lived with me, following me writing, writing a book with me, because there's no chance I'm going to write that many pages and stuff. Then, after he wrote the book, then I had a lady who does my at the time HR. Her name was Lisa. She reread the book to me while I'm walking around pacing through the office and I'm making all my changes as well. So three weeks I thought when I'm off, why don't I write a book? But I actually wrote two books, but I never published either. I didn't like it enough to publish it. That's how Brick by Brick was born.

Robby: 1:18

Oh yeah, Nice. That's a a pretty cool story. We'll get into that, I'm sure. But for those of who may not have heard of you before, do you want to give us a little bit of a spiel about yourself and what you do?

Guest: 1:28

So my name's Chris Christoff. I'm the founder and CEO of a company called Reventon. This year we celebrate our 20 years in business, which is a very, very big milestone.

George: 1:36

It's a huge milestone.

Guest: 1:38

So back in the day I started in real estate I was about 19, 20, bought my first piece of real estate, fell in love with the process bought two, bought three, bought four. I bought a property as I was maybe 23. I was a national manager of a company, had about 17, 18 reps across a few states. That company I was working more into receivership only 780 grand didn't pay me. How do you do that much? I always wanted to start my own business. I think I mentioned that within the first month when I got hired in that industry and just before I was about to leave, he said find me someone as good as you. My ex-boss.

Robby: 2:17

I'll get you to just pull the mic a little bit closer as well please, Chris.

Guest: 2:21

So I trained my brother, my older brother, for about a year and as I was about to exit, he said I want to set up franchises for a quarter of a million dollars. I'm going to give you one for free. Stay with me, because you knew that I'm a home run. I know the business very well. I buy the leads and I make most of the profit.

Robby: 2:38

This is the person you were working for at the time.

Guest: 2:40

Yes, okay, it was the first person that interviewed me. So when I got the job, I remember back I was in sales. So I've been selling stuff since I was 10 years old. I love sales In Cyprus.

Guest: 2:51

I was 10 and my uncle would sell scratch tickets. He'd give me 32 tickets on consignment. I had to pay him for 32 as my profits. On the weekend, when I wasn't at school, I was selling and he had about six, seven reps and I could outsell all of them. And I was only a kid.

Guest: 3:05

But my secret was I'd speak to everyone, I'd joke with everyone. I'd walk up and there was sheets of five scratches. I'd say buy a ticket, it's a lucky one, and they go. I'll have one, chris, I go. There's only two left. Buy them, it's the last ones. I'd buy them and I'll take my other sheet. I think, chris, you said the last ones, I go. That's shit, I've got more. So I got a good rapport with everyone. They'd see me come and they'd laugh and they'd buy more tickets.

Guest: 3:27

And three months when I was off school, because Cyprus is very hot, I lived in Cyprus from nine to 16. I was working more regularly because I wanted to make more money. Then I got into pool when I was about 13. So April started hustling making money there. So in Cyprus I was always either playing pool or working. It was always what I wanted to do. So anyway, long story short, I did door-to-door. When I came to Australia, I did telemarketing, I worked at Fastway Couriers selling tickets, and every job I went to I would always ask the same question who's the best person here? And I can name them all Barry was the best at Holiday Concepts, colin was the best at Fastway Couriers, valeria and Duncan were the best at InHomes. And the reason I remember their name is can I spend one week with them? So I'd find out who the best salesperson is? And I'd shadow them.

George: 4:19

And how old were you at this stage?

Guest: 4:22

About 18, 19. So I was working three jobs. At the time I was studying full-time broad meadows TAFE it's the only thing I could get into at tech and I was trying to become a professional snooker player, which I did for many years, and I was fighting as well. I had seven fights at the time. My brother's a pro fighter. So I was doing a bit of everything because I like to keep busy, as I said before.

Guest: 4:45

So my partner at the time, who I had a son with, saw an ad. It said 120K plus Sales professionals wanted Do you have a card, do you have a phone? Do you have a fax? She cut it out from the paper Back then it was paper and she goes you should call this. It sounds like you. So I called the number lady by the name of Robin and said she was the EA to the owner or to the two. I see Jason Paris at the time and as I'm talking he goes how old are you? I said I'm 19. She goes you're too young, I don't hang up the phone. Don't hang up the phone. Let me come in. Let him say no to my face, don't hang up the phone.

Guest: 5:20

So Trent, who was my ex-boss I did an interview with him and another guy. He probably thought I'm not going to interview a 19-year-old on my own because he's probably going to waste my time. He's 19. He's too young. After he pitched me, he said to me Chris, what do you think? I said I'll be honest with you. I don't know the difference between commercial or residential real estate, but if you give me a chance, I'll be your best guy in three months. He said sure, I worked relentlessly.

Guest: 5:44

I studied sales intensely and all I was doing at the time was introducing clients or prospective buyers to the office without meeting a mortgage broker and a property consultant. So my job was to book them to get them charged $330 on the weekend, $275 Monday to Friday and get them in there open-minded. Their job was to help them with finance and sell them a piece of real estate. So I loved that, and that's when I kept buying real estate. My original manager who hired me started his own company and wanted me to be his national manager. So that's how I got that gig.

Guest: 6:18

When that company went into receivership because I had a franchise at the time he owed me so much money. That's why he owed me 780 grand. So I had eight properties. I was making hundreds of thousands. I've got no job now. Everything's very, very tough.

Guest: 6:35

The worst part of the story is my son almost died. He got back to a meningitis. I was hospitalized for two and a half weeks. He was or you were my son. Yeah, your son was. Yeah, he's got two binding implants now. So my son's a profound death.

Guest: 6:46

So when all this happened, within the space of one year the company went into receivership. I lost my income. Eight properties were sold, liquidated. I was gambling a lot, partying a lot, everything. Everything just really happened fast and I didn't have time to catch it. I moved back into my parents' house and ended up with a debt of 348 grand. So if you look at my first office Reventon it's basically my parents' living room. There was a fax, an old computer, so it's online, it's very well documented and I've got it in my office, my first office.

Guest: 7:22

But back then the goal was to become a fully integrated financial services company across all platforms. So 20 years later, we achieved that. So we've helped now 10,000 clients. We've sold 3,500 properties, which is $3.45 billion in sales, over a billion dollars under assets under management. We had over 500 reviews featuring 150 publications, one close to 60 industry awards, wrote that Amazon bestselling book your Path to Wealth, brick by Brick, and we were able to open property finance accounting, financial planning and property management. So we did integrate it. We did exactly what we were going to do 20 years ago. Obviously it wasn't the same. We built the team to close to 80. But the first few years were very, very good because it's what shaped me and the business to grow into what it is now.

George: 8:08

Fantastic.

Robby: 8:10

A couple of things there. What a journey for a start, yeah.

George: 8:15

I liked when you said that at 18 years old it's very rare. I find it's rare now, and it probably is back then too, for an 18-year-old to have so much self-awareness and that drive to say, hey, give me a chance, hey, let me see who is the best person in this room. I want to shadow them. I don't feel correct me if I'm wrong. It might be different in your space too. Do you get many youngsters coming up like that and do you feel that that was unique to you and what was a driving factor to you being successful? Because so many people in that age at 18, you're still relatively young and influential- You're a kid yeah, you're influenced by those around you.

George: 8:55

I think you hit the nail on the head, though.

Guest: 8:56

You're influenced by who around you. I mentioned before that I did snooker. My friends were the best players this country's ever seen or produced. I grew up. I represented Victoria five times in the under 18s and under 21s. I was number two and three in the state. Number one is Neil Robinson. If you look this kid up, he's the most successful non-British player of all time. He's won 24 ranking events. He's a 2010 world champion. This year he got awarded an Australian Award of Merit for his services to Snooker Lives in Cambridge. We're talking a freak one of the best players to ever pick up a cue. He was one of my closest friends when I was fighting. I always hanged around world champions when I was training, kickboxing, kickboxing.

Guest: 9:42

Yeah, so my brother's a Commonwealth and two-time Australian champion. So the people that I mentioned prior to this was on my podcast Sam Groco, sam Solomon so if you see the bump on my nose, back before Sam Solomon was a three-time world boxing champion. He was actually a world kickboxing champion, so he kicked me in the face when we were sparring and broke my nose. That was one of the times it was broken. So I always was in close proximity to champions and I knew in sales I was very, very good, I was very, very hardworking, but I knew how much I needed to learn. So I'd still study sales till today and I'm doing all these courses. You name it. I did it Back then, from Anthony Robbins to Brian Tracy to Tom Hopkins.

Guest: 10:24

I spent so much money educating myself to get better and the funny thing is the things that were teaching me I was doing instinctively as a 10-year-old kid. Now, I wasn't as refined, I wasn't as good, but I just gave things a go. I wasn't scared of failing and I think my biggest strength was I was never intimidated to speak to anyone, even as a 10 year old, because I always saw someone. It's a human to human connection. I don't think anyone or there was one person that walked the earth that's greater than everyone else, but everyone else were the same. We're all human beings. No one's better than me and, conversely, I'm better than no one. I always had that mentality. I didn't care who it was yeah, whatever field they were and always made it my business to know who's good at something, because if I learn from them and I incorporate that into my selling style, my selling style was relentless, my follow-up was great and I had a lot of conviction in what I was saying. I was just a good closer yeah, good, important, that's highly important. But other people are different. They're really funny and they can close Other people highly important, but other people are different. They're really funny and they can close Other people. There's no wrong or right, but there's lessons in all of them.

Guest: 11:27

And I think when you look at old school sales those philosophies of understanding how to uncover a client's challenge, provide a solution and to really ask the right questions you're not going in as a salesman, you're going in like a specialist to really dig. And I use this analogy. I came up with a training methodology I use for my staff and I used to call it three, four deep and they said what is that? Imagine you go to a dentist. They go where's the nerve? They said it's underneath. So you've got to go three, four deep and what that means. You've got to ask three, four questions to get to that nerve and to really unpack. Why is this person going to proceed? Why haven't they proceeded before and what would stop them? So I was very good.

Guest: 12:09

And when they would ask me how good are you when I was closing better than anyone I got asked that question one to 10, where would you rate your abilities? And I said two. And they said why I go? Because there's so much more I need to learn. There was people that were closing at 70%. There was people that were closing at 70%. I had a 93, 94% quarter, booked 53 clients in a row and I was 20. I said that's how much I want to learn. This person gave themselves they were a 70% close of 75, somewhere in that range. They said they're about a nine out of 10. And I thought that's the difference right there. It's the ability to think I'm already very, very good at what I do. Now I knew I was good. My results indicated I was good, but how much better can I get?

Guest: 12:49

And that's what it was. I was just.

George: 12:51

I just used to work hard. Do you find that now with your team? Do you have young? Do you have younger people that you employ as well? I do so. Do you find the people coming up now Because there's all that talk in almost every industry finding good?

George: 13:08

people with now the introduction of AI and the internet and all these things. It's a real level of people don't need to. I personally find that people don't have that drive as much to be successful in that space. Are you finding that's the case or is it a little?

Guest: 13:22

bit different. It's very different and I think what people are forgetting or it's not as prevalent as it used to be is communication skills, exactly what we're doing now. Now, ai is great. I guess social media is great. I'm not a big fan, but I understand the purpose of it and where it fits into your business. It's a tool spot on.

Guest: 13:40

But this old fashioned ability to communicate and to converse will become a commoditizable thing you could sell, because people it's a lot harder. But I think give me someone that's hungry, give me someone that's humble, give me someone that understands they need to learn all day long. Because for me, I knew that I had that as a kid. I knew that I wanted to work hard, but I always wanted to. Where can I improve? How can I sharpen my ability? And the best way to do that, in my opinion, hang around great people that have a different mindset. So it all starts with mindset. Mindset creates you think differently, you work differently, you train differently, you upskill differently. When you hang around people that are great at what they do, there's a lot of commonalities in any industry. So when I mentioned those people prior to this, I saw so many similar traits in them all and I never try to emulate them. I try to borrow things to put into my personality because no one does you better than you. To be authentic, I know the things that I'm good at, but anyone that can close, I want to look at the process and when I'd close successfully I'd always say could I have done it better, could I have closed faster?

Guest: 14:54

And when I'd miss which wasn't often, they were the ones that kept me up at night. I used to sometimes wake up in the middle of the night having nightmares about missing a client. Why won't you do it? And I used to role play with my partner and just pretending I'm a different person in practice because it's free and I'd go and I'll do things like that all the time because I always thought if I miss a client, I've done them a disservice If I know that my service and my product is going to help them go from A to B. It is my job, it's my duty to take them across that journey 100%. So I saw that as an obligation of mine and when I'd miss or let someone down, I took that to heart.

Guest: 15:31

I'd read my missed report that I'd write when did you miss? Did you break the pact properly. When did the challenges come out? Did you unpack it? Did you go deep enough there? And I'd always analyze my presentation and think where could I have done it better? And if I booked it, could I have been more efficient, could I have asked better questions? And I've done that even to now, and I'm 45. So I've been in sales since I was 10. So you're thinking it's 35 years of my life managing teams in my early 20s. It's a long time.

Robby: 16:04

Is it something that came naturally to you, though? Do you feel like it was something you kind of just realised you were good at? Not to say that there weren't things that influenced you or, you know, effort put in on your behalf, but sometimes you just find like, hey, I'm good at this thing.

Guest: 16:20

Without a shadow of a doubt. Yeah, it was like walking to me. It was something I enjoyed, making people laugh, connecting. I love selling, I love closing. People say it's a dirty word. I think it's an amazing word If you're selling the right product and you're providing a service.

Guest: 16:36

The amount of clients that have said to me Chris, if it wasn't for you, I never would have started investing, if it wasn't for you, I wouldn't have started building my wealth. All these beautiful messages I get from my clients, I go. That's why it's my job to get better at what I do. That's why I need to upskill. And even going back to what you said, with we do have a mixture of different ages, because we've got a property management division, we've got a sales division and our sales. We like to teach our team from sales associate to become a BDM, to become a property investment strategist.

Guest: 17:08

So there's three stages in any part of the business. You go from a junior mortgage broker to processor, to a broker. There's always stages where they can keep improving and evolving. Now I say to them all you go as fast as you want. If you want to sit here in this position, that's up to you, but if you want to be pushed and you want to grow. It's my job to do that, and sometimes people don't know that that's what they want to get. Give them a bit of a nudge and you can actually see who stands out. So I do a lot of things in the company, where I do lunch and learns. I do masterminds. Some are compulsory, some are not. Is this with your team? Yeah, compulsory, some are not. Is this with your team? Yeah? Yeah, we did a Harvard course with one of our business advisors for six modules and I want to see who shows up. The ones that are non-compulsory I put zero pressure on them, but the ones that show up and the ones that try that extra mile in my eye, I tick.

Robby: 17:58

I want to spend more time here.

Guest: 18:00

I've got to groom that here. So with me I was always self-motivated, so I was always going to get in there and do well, because there was no other option for me. I wanted to go in, I wanted to perform and I wanted to learn. And sales is where I found I guess I found my niche.

Robby: 18:16

Yeah, I also heard you say something that stuck with me once Um might've been in your interview with, uh, nick Bell when you said when you're interviewing people, you don't ask them, that you don't give them a time, you just say whenever you can and you base it on the response time, like they come back to you quickly, you're like cool, they're quick, they're good, they're prompt, they didn't drag it on. Yeah, and that really um, that really stuck with me. Want it? Yeah, who's got the?

Guest: 18:40

100, right, I.

Guest: 18:42

Should have to ask you. So me and Nick. I remember Nick, this is what I love. You've got people like Nick who's a gun, right? He messages me, asks me a question. He needed something that I might be able to help him. I respond back SMS and I said to Nick seven messages, four minutes done, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom done. Because business likes speed. Yeah, and also, too, you figure it out, and when I deal with people like that, it makes it fun, it makes it exciting. You ask a question back and forth, it was done, finished, not by the time you dwell. Now, not everyone's going to be like that. So very, very hard for me to understand and as I get more mature that everybody's different and people that are like that are usually CEOs, or they're high up in the ranks or they're national, whatever the case may be not everyone's like that, go getters.

Robby: 19:36

Yeah, and make sure it happen.

Guest: 19:38

So that was very, very hard for me to accept because I was not as lenient with slowness or not being as effective. But as I'm getting older, there's a room for everybody. It's just what role would you play, I guess?

Robby: 19:54

Yeah, how did you find? Moving from? So my background being in real estate I found that sometimes the best salesperson wouldn't necessarily be the best sales leader, right, like there'd be a really good salesperson, they could close, they could do really well, but then put them in a leadership or management role and there would be some level of struggle because then, all of a sudden, there's egos there, there's clashing heads. They think they can do a better job. They don't necessarily know how to transfer the skills that they have. How did you find that?

Guest: 20:23

I think very few great leaders are great managers. I think it's a rare breed to be both and I'll share a story with you. I was always a great closer and I remember during my journey I had one of the most open-minded bosses. He was a phenomenal salesman. And he calls me up and I'm doing finance at the time because I wanted to learn finance. I've got a full real estate license and a full finance. I wanted to understand each part of the process. So if I'm selling it, I want to be well-versed in each.

Guest: 20:49

So I went on a bit of a hiatus and he calls me up and he goes Chris, you need to come back. I go. Why he goes? And I never thought I'll ever hear the words that came out of his mouth the team can't close. And they're saying it's the leads. I said are you serious? You're actually saying that to me. Wow, have you been that brainwashed or negative? You're saying that to me. Stop wasting my time, man, come on. Boom. A week later he calls me back. I was cringing to come back. I go, mate, I'm busy, I'm doing something I wanted to finish my Anyway calls me back.

Guest: 21:20

Eventually it was probably, I don't know, four to six weeks. He's calling me, bugging me. I said all right, I'll come, but you know the answer. You already know the answer before I come. I can't believe I'm actually doing this, but you'd even got me curious. So I did 22 new leads. I was a bit rusty because I was out of the game. I closed 17. My usually close rate might be about 19, 20. I go to him, mate. What did you expect? He goes come back and run the team. I said sure, but if you come back, I'm running them my way. He said okay, it was towards the end of the week, monday I started. I said I'm letting everybody go.

Guest: 21:57

The whole team you're all gone, you can reapply for your job tomorrow. This is what I'm after, or not. I'm starting from scratch. It was a small team six, seven. I managed to keep two or three of them we're talking 25 years ago Only a few of them, but I told them what I want. I was very, very clear what I want. If you're going to make excuses or blame the leads, don't even bother coming back. I don't care if it's just me converting. I know I'm going to convert higher anyway. I saved one or two, but it's the mindset that I was after. I wanted the belief that it's not the leads, it's what you make of those leads.

George: 22:34

You go into that meeting straight up thinking the lead's shit, that's probably going to be shit.

Guest: 22:38

I had a guy when I was working at no Limit. He said to one of them he goes, chris gets all the good leads. Now, at a 19, 20-year-old kid coming in, they don't know who's good or who's not. How was I getting the good leads? I positioned myself like that. His name was Murray. I won't forget his statement. He goes if Chris doesn't get better leads than me, I'll bear my ass in Bourke Street. And I said to him can we just do a little experiment? He goes yeah, let him pick any leads he wants and give me any things I want. Now I'll still close everything. You can't control the borrowing capacities, but your closing rate will be the same yeah.

Guest: 23:11

The thing yeah like the per sale. Yeah, yeah, yeah so.

Guest: 23:14

I said Murray, you up for it? He goes, sure, I go. Trent, would you allow us to do this for a month? Let's come on, let's do it, I'm all for it. I mean, the quality of the leads will determine if they buy or they don't. Fair enough based on buying capacity. But your booking rate and your mindset.

Guest: 23:40

And I knew when my consultants would go out and I'd miss two in a row and I'd read their miss reports. I knew that if I didn't get them in and talk to them, they're going to keep missing, because this is a mindset thing. And the ones that were very, very good and understood that when they miss they could reset quick, the ones that would just miss, miss, miss, you could give them anything. They're missing because they didn't have that awareness or that belief. And if you look for a crap lead all the time, you're going to run into crap leads and crap leads and your mindset's not going to convert them. So it was always interesting doing that and, as I said, I ran some very, very successful teams from the ground up and opened a lot of states through same principles as I was taught.

Robby: 24:25

What's the biggest lesson you've learned, going from closing everything yourself to now? I need to share what I've learned. I need to share this knowledge, like for someone say, who would might be listening to this, who's tried to do that, who might be a really good closer themselves and they can't. What's the most?

Guest: 24:40

you can possibly close. If I gave you 10 leads, what's the most you can possibly close out of 10? 10.

Robby: 24:48

Cool.

Guest: 24:48

What's the most you can possibly close Out of 10. 10. Cool, that's pretty easy, yeah. Now if someone's nowhere near as good as you and he's a 70% closer, what would he close out of 10?

Robby: 24:55

7.

Guest: 24:55

7, yeah, you can only do 10,. Yeah, if I've got 20 leads and someone did 70% and 70, how many leads are they closing 14. What's the most one person can close at 100%? Yeah, most one person can close at 100%. Give me three people At 70%. They'll outperform me any day of the week. What if I can upskill them also? So when you look at just the sheer ability that more people performing less will outperform you and you're one person, I remember I did one thing and I'm all left brain. I analyze data.

Guest: 25:29

So my boss goes to me Chris, how can we get some more sales? And I'm reading the numbers and just studying the numbers and I go 80-20 rule 20% of your team does 80% of your sales. I knew my three, four reps. I said this is what we're going to do. We don't need half of the team because they're not performing anyway. I want you to double book these four people for six o'clock, 6.15 and 6.30, 8.15 and 8.30. We might miss a few leads because we can't do both, but I'm going to make sure that they go into two appointments each. Two appointments each. Two appointments each. Two appointments each. And I want to have backup appointments. We'll get Wendy on the phone If they go into their first appointment. Reschedule, reschedule, reschedule.

Guest: 26:06

I've got more sales with less people, because I ensured that we're sitting in front of people, because you're going to look at the conversions we're talking. I had four or five people. If you're only one person, you'll never scale, you'll never be able to make more money, and the hardest thing for someone to accept is they're not going to close like you. Sure, but two people will outperform you it. You Sure, but two people will outperform you. It's a sheer numbers game. But also, what's your plan moving forward? You can't be selling all your life on your own. You're not going to build a business, you're not going to scale the business, and you need to transfer your knowledge to somebody else as well. I always loved being on the tools, but also I loved training my team. They're making great money, I can see them learning. I can see them growing. So we used to have our missed reports and I used to practice their missed reports in front of everybody.

Guest: 26:55

So I wanted you to fill out why you think you missed and I want you to tell me why before I teach you why. And then I'm going to role play with you. So when I was new, I used to take a piggyback out with me. So a new person.

Robby: 27:07

Yeah.

Guest: 27:08

I used to say to them you're presenting first and I'm watching, then I'm going to analyze it and then you're going to watch me.

Guest: 27:14

And I always used that to teach them. So they might miss. And I'd walk out and I'll say what do you think? First of all, what could you have done better? You and I said this is what you could have done. Now watch me break the pact, watch how I ask questions, watch how I close, watch how it goes through the process, because after they've done it and I've told them on the way to the 830, I will actually display what I'm saying.

Guest: 27:37

So it was very, very different. So I guess the only way to scale is to build your team. And when you said before if you're good in sales or you're a good manager, when I got that role, if you're good in sales or you're a good manager, when I got that role, I was a gun salesman. I took that role for granted, which was not like me, but I did. I was making big bucks. I'd rock up late, go to lunch, come back. Then one of my managers put me in the room and gave me that word and I said I didn't even realize. I'm sorry. I said from now on, you'll never have that conversation with me again. I'll be your best department and the rest is history. But I took that position for granted because I thought I could sell. No one taught me how to lead people. When I went to ask my manager. You should have taught me. He goes I pay you the big bucks, figure it out. Because I thought I'm going to cruise along, it's going to be easy, but it was just me managing me. But when I need to manage big budgets, sell a lot of property, make a lot of money, it was very different. So, and the best way to learn is to make mistakes. The best way to learn is to reflect on what you could have done better. To be honest with yourself and I always say it's having a champion mentality on the victim. If you're always blaming everything else, that leaves.

Guest: 28:47

I used to say to people I can train anyone, but as soon as you start making excuse on the missed reports, at that point I can't train you anymore. So I'll train you as much as you want. And I used to say to them every Tuesday I train the whole team in front of everyone and then, if you wanted to, personally, come Robin me, train you personally. I want you to give me the missed reports and you book in a session with me. You tell me what you could have done different, and the person that went to that effort to do it was getting better and better. For the me, that was forcing people to train and coach them. I said if you miss and you make excuses at that point I can't train you. The results will work themselves out. Either you stay or you don't. But the ones that showed me initiative, the ones that showed me effort, were the ones I spent time with, and that was only through experience. At the start, you want to help everyone. I want to get better, but you haven't put no effort to try to get better. What's the last book you've read? Look at your missed reports. Give me something to work with. Yeah, you can't help someone who is going to blame anything else. Point the finger at the sun, the weather.

Guest: 30:05

It was something like out of a Boiler Room movie. I remember the main guy flew down wearing a Versace suit and his meeting was literally something out of a movie. Right, it was like Glenn Gary, glen Ross. He walks in with his Versace. It looked good. He goes all right, listen up guys. We're going to train you guys for two days, six hours each. We're going to train you guys for two days, six hours each. We're going to get you out there. Some of you will sink, some of you will swim. For ones that swim, well done For those who sink. You come back, you do one more day training for six hours. If it doesn't work, you're fucking fired and walks out of the room, just like that. Just like that.

Guest: 30:39

All I thought in my head is I'll show you how long was. When you first started, I was 19. You couldn't do that today, could you? Absolutely not. I thought I'll show you Two people quit after this speech. There's something out of a movie and I thought that got me up. But what I learned is, although that worked for me, there could have been other people that don't respond to that. So my job as a good leader is to understand what motivates you, what makes you a better closer.

Guest: 31:08

I know the guy who wasn't that good and I was very, very arrogant when I was young. I was like that. That's why they responded to that. I remember a guy came up to me. He worked with me for many years. His name was Steve Hatzola. He's a beautiful man. I don't remember doing this, but he told me and it sounds like something I would have done. He goes to me and he asked me a question and my response to that question how many sales are you on this month? And he says like zero, and I said I'm on seven. I walked off on him. He goes do you remember doing that to me, chris? And I said no, but it sounds like something I would have done when I was younger.

Guest: 31:40

This guy turned out to be a very slow starter, became a gun, an became a gun, an amazing closer not through sales, through being likable, but it took him a long time to get to that. And I thought to myself if you can train people it's like I've got four kids If I parent them all the same, I won't bring the best out in each of them, will I? They're all different, right, it's like they've got eight different parents, my kids. They're very, very different. So you need to the same when you're coaching or mentoring someone and I've got different mentors and business coaches. If they only have one way, that might not be able to motivate you or inspire you to become better.

Robby: 32:18

Yeah, like if you're talking to a room you might connect with two, but you're going to miss the rest, correct?

Guest: 32:22

And back then the industry that I started, it was all sales. It was like that, but I loved it. I thrived in that environment.

George: 32:30

You just mentioned something then coaches and mentors. Do you think that's helped you a lot in your career?

Guest: 32:38

Without a shadow of a doubt, super important. I still-.

George: 32:41

Do you think it's almost a prerequisite really as a business owner if you want high levels of success? We're much the same. We've invested hundreds of thousands of dollars in in our coaching and mentoring and personal development stuff, and that's actually where we met and where we became friends and then business partners and a whole range of things. But yeah, because I see a lot of people go through the day-to-day grind for many years and, as you kind of said, have that level of arrogance and don't actually go out and get help and seek advice from advisors, from mentors, from coaches, because they can do it, because they might be really good practitioners, have the skills that they've got, they've got them where they are today, but they sets and unequivocally, the answer is yes you need good mentors.

Guest: 33:30

Although I was very, very good at sales and arrogant, I understood one thing I need good people around me. So I always had good mentors. I always had and people. You have mentors. You have teachers at school. Olympic athlete has coaches. Why wouldn't you have a coach for business? And, as hard as it is, jack Welch rates everyone ABC, but he looks at it as that's the level of team member staff, whatever from GE.

Guest: 33:57

Now that doesn't apply to a lot of people, but when you read books like Winning and you learn all this stuff, there's so many good takeaways you can take Now. For me, it was an essential part of my growth and I still today employ a ton of my money and investment. If you don't invest in yourself, why should someone else? And the best investment you're ever going to make the best return. If you speak to anyone, the first thing they're going to say to you is myself. Second thing they'll typically say is a business. Third will be shares, property, crypto, anything like that, but in order, it's investment in themselves.

Guest: 34:33

And they hang around people that are super successful, billionaires worth hundreds of millions, and they teach you a different way to think, they inspire you differently and if you're that arrogant to think you don't have a ton to learn, you look at people like and I love Stoicism, I love Socrates, I love reading, I love learning. All I know is nothing. And the oracle said this guy's the smartest man alive and that was his philosophy, because he wanted to learn and wanted to grow. And I guess that takes us back to when I was talking about sales. Although I was closing, I won Rookie of the Year, did 83 sales in my first year. I knew that I wanted to keep improving. Now, could I have become better at sales and closing? Sure, but I knew that I still wanted to keep learning and I was outworking and out training, I think, the whole team, because it was a passion, it wasn't a forced. Hey, chris, do you want to go do this course?

George: 35:26

Not a vibe, and that's probably what it is for a lot of people too, where they just come in and they want to do their hours and clock out, but that's fine too, absolutely so when people talk about that, I make no bones with that.

Guest: 35:38

I ask one thing be clear with what you want, be truthful with what you want. So be honest when you look in the mirror. Nothing's wrong with a nine to five going home and spending 10 hours with your wife, with your kids. Nothing You've won.

George: 35:51

As we say, whatever it is, if it makes you happy and that gives you fulfillment, that's what you want. You've won.

Guest: 35:55

That's great. I'm not happy for people to do that. When people say to me you're crazy or whatever it is, or they don't understand it, I'm saying look what's the thing you love the most? And they give me an example. I said I do that every day, times 10. So for me it's not really an effort. Now, some people that want to do their nine to five make half a million, a million and retire I'm all for that. I say well done, mate. That is awesome. That's not me, though. Like and I said this once too If you said to me's no way, that's a death sentence to me, yeah, but to other people they might think, yeah, good, right, but there's no wrong or right.

Robby: 36:35

That's what I say to people. What is what is that, though? Because we've we've mentioned this previously as well. It's and I'll put my hand up and say I'm super guilty of this and it's like you're driven and you're hungry and you start this new thing and you go, go, go, go, go, and then and I would say most people are guilty of this they they cruise, or go on idle.

Robby: 36:56

They back off the pedal. You know what I mean. Like they kind of foot's flat and you're going and you're going and it's like all of a sudden you have best month, best month, best month and you kind of go on cruise control.

Guest: 37:08

Happened to me once. So when I mentioned the sales, I remember I got out of the 11 months of the year we were selling. I got nine, first two seconds and I was so livid. You were first, first top salesman. Two I came second. I was so livid when I walked into that sales office my boss would make fun of me that I was second because he killed me.

George: 37:29

But I remember going back Called you number two for that month. Oh, like number two when.

Guest: 37:33

I'd have a missed report, I'd walk into the meeting and I'd always be first in the meeting because I'm always very punctual and he'd be holding my missed report like this and I'd want to kill him right. But going back to feeling comfortable, I had that feeling once. I think it was about 2.17. I'm walking to the office and I'll never forget this feeling. It was in the morning. I think it was about 2.33 in the morning. That's the time I used to go back. Then I'm walking to the office.

Robby: 38:01

You used to go into the office at 3 in the morning.

Guest: 38:02

I used to get up at 2.30. I'd be at office at 2.45 to 3 and I'd leave at 7pm. 5,. 6 days a week, Two days a week I'd drive early.

George: 38:10

What time do you get to bed?

Robby: 38:12

So 3am to 7pm, yes, every day.

Guest: 38:15

So you're doing 16 hour days 16, 20 some days I'd go to bed maybe 10.30, 11.30. I wouldn't sleep much, so I used to. I write everything down. I'm so left brain, it's insane. Yeah, so I was doing a hundred work week, a hundred hour work weeks for a long time in my career.

Robby: 38:38

Now, I do, I'm semi. I say that I'm semi retired. I do 60, 70, and it's just part-time yeah.

Guest: 38:41

I'm part-time now, but I say I'm a retired businessman does 70, 80 hours a week now, but it's very easy. So I'm walking to the office. It's nice and quiet. I used to live at the Valencia. My office is at 420 St Kilda Road. It's a couple hundred meters and as I'm walking there I'm thinking you know, the business is doing well, you own a couple properties, got a very good passive income, you're doing okay, and that scared the crap out of me. Good passive income, you're doing okay, and that scared the crap out of me. My pace picked up about three, four, x and I almost ran to the office and I freaked out Like I never want to have that feeling ever.

George: 39:15

That's great again that you had that foresight to do that. So, cause we've we've both had this conversation many times and I felt I had that position, probably pre COVID, where we were so far sorry for context, you may not know I've got a construction company, so we build a lot of luxury homes and whatnot and we were just we were crushing it. We're winning jobs. Every week We'll there's a posting a new project up.

George: 39:34

I started to think my shit didn't stink. Yeah, you know everyone's praising me. You hear all the praise oh, wow, this is good on social media on oh, you got another job, oh, that's a nice car, there's some nice clothes. And then COVID came along and punched me in the face and we lost a ton of money, hugely stressful time, and that was the wake-up call for me. It made me show that there were holes in my bucket that needed to be plugged in or plugged up. And although we were still very good and systemized and got through that period, I still feel that it was contributed to the fact that I just got too comfortable at winning, that I lost the sight of that potential risk that could have happened.

Guest: 40:15

It was supposed to happen, but you look at it too. It's through that adversity, like I've had the thing I mentioned at the start with my son a couple of business partnerships that went sour, very, very sour, went through a divorce, cost me a packet. But through all those hard times you look back. A diamond is created through extreme pressure.

George: 40:36

Yeah.

Guest: 40:36

It was the best times of my life when it come to becoming a better leader, a better human being. So true, understanding different things to appreciate things differently. Now, for me, a big pillar of my work is my philanthropy work, because it's something that keeps me purposeful, keeps me jumping out of bed, and I think if you find something like that that inspires you, that's bigger than you. Giving back, I believe, is always bigger than you, because it says a lot more about your purpose than just making money. I know a lot of people that make money, but what do you do with that money? Are you a good member of the community? Are you helping people? Are you doing good things? That's what I think is cool. That's what I want to be doing. So even when I was sitting back on my balcony and thinking this is going to be a tough ride ahead of me, I sat back watching the sunset in St Kilda and thinking I'm all good. I've never been better than I am now.

Guest: 41:33

Through this time, I know that my appreciation is going to go up. As long as you can roll up your sleeves and work hard, which is never going to be an issue for me as long as I'm breathing, I'm all good. I mean, I started for minus 348 grand. How much worse, come back. Yeah, I mean I started for minus 348 grand. How much worse, come back, yeah, yeah. And when people say I started the business from zero.

George: 41:51

I said to them.

Guest: 41:52

I wish I had zero. Yeah, like that would have been, I would have taken that. If you told me, chris, you can start a new business, zero dollars, I'll take it.

George: 41:57

You know they remember my first beer, yeah, but it was good. I have one more. Four years ago, okay, you had kids quite young. You mentioned I've got four kids, four kids.

Guest: 42:20

So I have a 22-year-old son? Yep, I have a 12-year-old daughter, a nine-year-old daughter and an eight-year-old daughter. Okay.

George: 42:27

How have you prioritized your work and then also your family with that as well, and how have you? I don't like using the word balance. I don't think balance is something that needs to be strived for. I think it's a level of prioritizing what the most important thing is at any given time.

Guest: 42:48

I don't think there is such thing as balance. I don't understand the word. Personally, I think it's work-life choices. I made work-life choices. I know to build something great requires a lot of time. It requires a lot of sacrifice. So I did miss a lot of time, but two days of those two out of five days I'll be home at 7 am with two coffees. I'll take my kids to school. So I'm very, very lucky. Everything's very close by design. My school, their schools are close. My work is close, everything's close. I live close, so I take them to school. I'm home by seven.

Guest: 43:24

I'll read them a book, I spend an hour or two with them and it goes again Saturday. I'd go to work in the mornings. Sunday. I spend time with my kids. I still go on date nights every week. I'll travel with my wife.

Guest: 43:37

I always told her I'm not the kind of person that's going to give you a ton of time. I'm going to try to do my best to give you quality time and be present, and part of my marriage I wasn't present because I didn't have access to myself. I wasn't as aware as I am now. I studied a lot of books, done a lot of research and I'm an avid learner, so I read, I mind feed. So out of that time in the office in the morning I do my visualization what I'm grateful for and I'll mind feed one to four hours most days so I'll read a book or I listen to a book.

Guest: 44:09

So because I've got ADHD and I find it hard to focus, I found a way that I can focus, if anything, that I'm learning. If I'm with my mentor, I'd always be dressed to the tens and I'd go in and I'm just laser focused. If I'm not focused, I'm everywhere. So how am I going to learn? How am I going to pick up a book? I wasn't reading at school but when I left, now an avid learner. We're sitting here in July and I've completed 87 books this year. And how have I done that? I buy the hard copy, I buy the audio version, I get it read to me in my ears like these micro, and I'm reading the book at the same time. I do that for one to four hours a day.

George: 44:46

That's how I read it and that's how I read. I was saying that the other day. I'm very much the same where I can't focus to like I'll read and then I'll be thinking about something that I have to do.

Guest: 44:54

If you put it in your ear yeah, massive, and that's been a game changer for me and I love it and I enjoy it. How long have you been doing?

George: 45:01

that for.

Guest: 45:02

Years yeah.

George: 45:03

Because Alex Hormozy said that I don't know if you know him. I do know him. Yeah, we were. He said it on a podcast, I think.

Guest: 45:18

How long ago? Probably at least a couple of years now, post COVID oh yeah, look, I've been doing this methodology, for I did a post about this, maybe five years ago.

George: 45:23

Yeah, Aside from the being able to concentrate, you actually retain a lot more. I do, anyway, retain a lot more information. What's visual and audio? Yeah, and audio. You're doing both. So when you do both you retain it.

Guest: 45:34

If you want to really learn something, you write it down. If you want to understand it fully, you teach it. So if you're listening to a book, and you write it down. So for me, learning words is important. So if I don't understand a word, I'll pause and then I'll put the word in the thesaurus or I'll use other words with it so I can put it in my head. You write down some notes, but if you want to understand the book or any methodology, you teach it, Because if you teach it, you get a different understanding of it. And for me, I also think that's what helped my sales as well. I was obsessed in selling, but I loved teaching.

Guest: 46:13

So, I was learning all day, Even when I wasn't on the tools. I was on the tools because why did you miss today? What was your challenge? What could you have done better? And I really enjoyed that process and I enjoyed seeing people become better and better and better and getting them to change their mindset that if you don't book this client, you've done them with this service. I don't want to walk in and say, hey, Chris was a great bloke, but see you later, Chris.

Guest: 46:34

I don't want to walk in and say, hey, chris was a great bloke, but see you later, chris. I don't care what they say about Chris. I want them to say Chris got me to come from A to B and I paid off my mortgage. Chris made me buy two, three, four, five properties. That's the Chris I want. Yeah, I don't need friends or people to say Chris is a good bloke. I've got enough people that do that. I've got a great support. I'm there for a specific reason, that's to get people from A to B. Yeah, excellent.

Robby: 46:58

That's a whole different way of looking at it, isn't it? I got about 30 different ways. I want to take this conversation. Why 3 am? I'm curious. What would you do from 3 to 7?

Guest: 47:09

You know the 5 am club here.

Robby: 47:10

Yeah.

Guest: 47:11

So I thought, if it's 5, I've got to be earlier. Yeah, so then I started a brand. I called it CC245 because I was up by 245, but I never needed the alarm because I was always up before then. So I didn't want to wake my wife and kids up. So I'd always put my suit downstairs with all my stuff beforehand. I'd roll out of bed, wash my face, tracksuit on, suit gone. I'd be in the office within 10 minutes. Flat. I lived in South Yarra. My office is in St Kilda Road. Seven o'clock I'd walk into the bathroom, put my three-piece on. I felt like Batman, and then I come out. I'm ready to go. So from three to seven, what I did would be all visualization, all gratefulness and all just focusing on what I want to achieve.

George: 47:53

So nothing to do with work in that period of time, of what I want to achieve, so nothing to do with work in that period of time.

Guest: 47:57

If I did half to one hour's work, so maybe it's all sharpening my axe, seeing what I want to do and people go. What do you do at that early? And I think a very long time ago, my videographer goes come and record. I go, if you want. So he came the earliest he's ever been up in his life, mike, and he's like whatever, but Mauricio shout out to Mauricio that did that. But now I get up at five I'm sleeping more than I've ever slept and I like to experiment with all different things and I say to people I'm the exact same person I was all my life. I'm kind, I'm giving, I listen, I'm compassionate, but every six months I've evolved. I'm a different person.

Guest: 48:38

I might be getting up at three o'clock reading a ton of books. I'm doing this differently. I'm always trying to experiment what works for me. So when people follow idols and they go, I want to do that because he's doing that. That might not work for you. Take what you want from that person. You try what's going to work for you because if it works for you you can stick to it. You're going to get better results and you're going to enjoy it. So for me, I don't. And I'll give you an example. Everyone knows about cold showers. I started taking cold showers every morning and I got to a point where it just it wasn't a cold shower and it didn't have an impact on me. So after I've done three months now, I'm back to warm and then I go back to cold again instant. So as soon as I'm used to something cold turkey and I start something else, because I just want to experiment with something. I just want to keep evolving as a person.

Robby: 49:26

Keep yourself on your toes as well.

Guest: 49:27

Yeah, and I think that's the ADHD part or it's the entrepreneurial part, it's whatever it may be, but it keeps my mind not bored.

Robby: 49:41

Yeah, I love that.

Guest: 49:42

So you spent three hours in the morning just focusing on Visualizing, reading my goals, writing things down. A lot of things already happen when you visualize them. And they say visualization is important, but without action it's just visualization. It's good to get it out there, but what action are you going to take? And I always say the smallest action is more powerful than the greatest thought. Visualize it, make sure that you've seen it, that it's going to happen, and then you've got to work. You've got to put the hard work in.

Guest: 50:09

Now. I know a lot of successful people like you two gentlemen, I'm sure you are, and you know a lot of people and I'm sure you are, and you know a lot of people. I don't know one of them that hasn't put in all the hard work. Now, the ones that really enjoy it, the ones that really love what they do, they stand out a mile away, no matter if you're successful, if you're doing it and it's a grind and you can't stand it, is it worth it? Yeah, it kind of defeats the purpose. I wouldn't see that as success. Now, obviously, having four kids and having a couple failed relationships there was always a cost. So if I'm spending a lot of time here, there was always something that we had to give and looking back, I probably could have been more cognizant of that fact. Would I have done it different? That's the question. Probably not.

Robby: 50:54

You're obviously very proud of and rightly so of what you've been able to achieve.

Guest: 50:58

It's not that, it's not the achievement. It's what I've learned, who I've become and how much I've pushed myself. Now, maybe I could have done things a little bit better, but you know what I always say to people If that's you and that's a happy version of you, I'll never try to change you.

George: 51:25

I don't know that anyone can't change me, but I'll never try to change you either, because it's just not the way I'm wired, aside from the business success that you've had and everything that you do for those of you listening and not watching on YouTube. You're dressed to a T. You look in good shape. You're 45, you said Yep. How important is your health to you? You're in your mid-life, as we say, almost a halfway point, but how important is your health Because you do look fit. Thank you, you're looking good. It's the lighting.

Guest: 51:55

Yeah, that's it. It's the neon sign, that's all it is. I saw Robbie at the gym, funny enough. Across each other. I go in and out of love with fitness and I wish I could give you a different answer.

George: 52:01

Yeah.

Guest: 52:02

So I'm super fit and I'm out of shape. So the last time I was in very, very good shape was 35. So that was 10 years ago and about six months ago I thought I better get back into shape. My kids are young, but I didn't want to go to the gym for an hour. Then you've got to shower. It's two hours out of my day.

Guest: 52:19

I prefer to read, but I think it's the most important thing because if you're healthy, you're wealthy, yeah, and you need a good body because it will generate a good mind, it will create and cultivate a good mind to make good decisions. But more importantly, I wanted to be a young father. I've got little kids that their energy levels are insane, especially my little one who's eight. She never stops. So I think it's very, very important.

Guest: 52:47

So when I see people that have really run a successful business, that are in shape and they also have a great relationship, I always say well done. You really understand how to water what's important, because people say the grass is greener on the other side, but everyone said the grass is greener where you water it. If you think health is important, your actions need to align with being healthy. If a relationship is important. You need to make sure to do all those things, and there's no chance I'm giving relationship advice because my track record doesn't definitely not good in that regard, but when it comes to wealth as well, it's the same. But I you learn from it as well.

George: 53:18

Like each, it's okay. So you've said you've had some failed relationships, but then the next one. There's things that you've learned from the past. One that will help you, One would hope I've been engaged once and married?

Guest: 53:29

no, engaged three times and married once? Yeah, but four is my lucky number. So I was thinking maybe Go again. No, I'm a hopeless romanticist, so maybe I will go again and I'd let people go. Would you like to have more kids? I said I'll have as many as I can. I love kids, but it's like anything it creates. You need time, you need space. So, when they mean space, you need headspace to train, you need it to work, and there's no wrong or right. I mean, I know people that are super wealthy, that are out of shape. I know people that are super wealthy and in shape.

George: 54:00

I see that and I feel like they're losing. We speak on stages and we coach and mentor people, and I think it was one of our very first events. I was probably close to 10 kilos heavier than I am now, and not that I was obese or fat or anything, but I saw that I was out of shape and I felt that I was contradicting myself by being on stage and telling everyone you need to be a high performer, you need to do this, you need to do this, you need to do this, when I wasn't a high performer in that aspect of my life, but you just said it there.

Guest: 54:25

Were you talking about fitness on stage, not specifically?

George: 54:28

fitness. No, I was talking about a whole range of things like looking, mind, body, soul, all that sort of stuff.

Guest: 54:34

You're still well-versed in other things. Oh, absolutely so if you're up there and I'll be honest with you if you're up there and you're preaching fitness and you're out of shape, I'm thinking you're a tosser. Yeah Well, not you, anyone, Of course, Of course.

George: 54:52

When I looked for a PT because this journey happened, a couple sick of saying I used to.

Guest: 54:55

How old are?

George: 54:55

you boys, I'm 41. Just turned 41.

Guest: 54:58

I'm 34. You know, one of my national managers said to me if someone says I used to or this, and then I talk about their heyday, they're not going to get it back. The best is yet to come. That's right. It's my favorite saying no-transcript.

George: 55:23

And I said, all right, you're going to be my PT. And yeah, we started training together. I lost all this weight, got all this muscle again and, as you said, because my mind was healthy, my body was healthy, I started performing better at work as well. And then that just transponded in all aspects of my life and you said, oh, I've got young kids too. I wanted to be a young dad, I wanted to be a young grandfather. The choice of me being fit and able and willing to play with my grandkids one day is going to be because of the choices I make today not when I'm 80.

Guest: 55:54

And every hour, whatever time you spend in the gym, there's going to be less time in the doctors when you get older, without a doubt. But for me I have two very, very fit brothers, one I told you is a pro fighter.

Guest: 56:06

They're in ridiculous shape yeah, great shape but they love it. For me to look you in the eyes and say I love going to the gym I'm starting to fall in love with it a little bit again now, but it would never replace learning. It would never replace my work With them. It's part of their lifestyle. It's very, very different, like when I was playing snooker and doing other sports, if you really enjoy that.

Guest: 56:31

But you can go back and I know when Anthony Robbins used to talk about it, if you can put a different cassette plate in your mind and trick your mind that if you're healthier you'll perform better or be a better father, you can slowly convert or change your neuropathways to change that CD, that disc, whatever you want to call it into. This is the reason I'm doing it. And then you fall in love with something. Slowly, the better you get, the more fit you are, the better you are with your kids. You start making sharper decisions. You start to think I don't want to drink a bottle of wine anymore because the recovery is too much. Or that glass of wine, I'm not going to be able to sleep as well. These are things that in my 20s I never thought that.

Guest: 57:11

I just whatever, let's go Now. As you're getting older, you're making more cognizant decisions, I guess.

Robby: 57:17

Yeah, your perspective changes, it does.

Guest: 57:20

As you get older it does. And you see I've got a 22-year-old son. I look at him and go my God, that's gone so quick. You can conceptualize time much more different when you see it in your own kids 22 years and I think, gee, that's gone so quick. Yeah, it's just different.

Robby: 57:35

That's fascinating. I've never heard anyone describe it like that. Like you conceptualize time differently when you see it in your own children.

Guest: 57:40

You do, and you've heard the story. You know time goes a lot faster when you get older. Yeah, do you know why? That is Because I questioned it, because I question everything.

Robby: 57:48

I've heard the theory of you know, when you live a year and you're 10 years old, that's 10% of your life, 100%, and then it represents a smaller percentage.

Guest: 57:57

So the reason you feel it's quicker because it is quicker.

Robby: 58:00

Yeah.

Guest: 58:00

So 10% if you're 10, if you're 20, it's 5% yeah.

Robby: 58:04

All of a sudden, and so on and so on.

Guest: 58:05

So when they say life's going faster the relativity of time it actually is.

Robby: 58:10

In comparison to your perspective.

Guest: 58:11

Because I had to ask it Bigger timeline. I wanted to know because I go I've heard that all the time I go. I wonder why that is Started researching it. Of course Einstein popped up. It's mentioned the percentages and once you conceptualize something like that, you go. That makes perfect sense.

Robby: 58:26

And the scariest part about that is there is no way that it slows down.

Guest: 58:30

Well, that's one thing we can't get back. So have fun, do what you're going to do, make mistakes, learn from them and keep punching.

Guest: 58:36

Yeah, that's no one's perfect.

Guest: 58:39

I don't worry about things too much. I think I read a lot of books on stoicism and the way they. They don't worry about anything, they only worry about how they can control what's happening, how they respond to events. No event's good, no event's bad, it just is what it is. How do I respond to it? You can't worry about? Oh, it doesn't matter.

Guest: 58:59

And I used to say that when I was training my team they'd come in to see me and they'd go what? Pause, smile. They'd smile Before you say anything, whatever the problem is no problem, we're going to fix it Just by smiling. It releases endorphins, it puts them in a different frame of mind, telling them it's going to be fine, pause, and we can always problem solve it. And just those little things, getting the team in that frame of mind and saying no, whatever it is, it's all good, we'll fix it and they'll walk out. It wasn't that bad. I go. You usually stress more in anticipation to an event than the actual event and I've learned that through I guess everyone has through their life. You're stressing about something and you do it and you go. Wasn't that bad. I remember the first time I jumped in the cold bath and they go don't even count it, mate, just jump in, I jump straight in. Whatever, if you think about it and dwell on it, it's never that bad.

Robby: 59:49

It doesn't get warmer the longer you wait.

Guest: 59:50

Just give it a crack. What's going to happen.

Robby: 59:51

The psychological torture is worse, but it always is yeah.

Guest: 59:54

And it was in a Stoic book that I read that you always I think Seneca said it. It was Seneca or Socrates, I'm pretty sure it was Seneca you always. If it wasn't them, it was Marcus Aurelius. You always stress in anticipation of the event more than the actual event. So if you can remove that, you only. Why would you suffer for something twice? Just do it once, yeah. Just do it If it happens. Yeah. But you learn that slowly.

Robby: 1:00:17

Yeah, that takes mental strength, but everything's learnable.

Guest: 1:00:23

Any knowledge that you want is already here. You just got to find it. What?

Robby: 1:00:27

would you say, is the greatest, maybe habit or trait or skill that you've learned, that's helped you on your journey to date.

Guest: 1:00:34

Just never stop growing. Have good people around you, just put a smile on your face. It's always going to be okay. How bad is it? You're here, you're healthy. Can't change the past, just keep moving. So for me it's just an attitude of gratitude. I've just always had that, you know.

George: 1:00:50

Yeah, absolutely. You mentioned that you coach your team. Do you do other coaching for other people as well? Say outside of this, say, would you go and do an event and coach people to whatever? Learn about sales or business or anything like that?

Guest: 1:01:06

And I train my team and I've been asked many times to would you coach me? And offered a lot of money. Yeah Said my heart's running in itself. So I say no. Do I do it for free, for friends and mentor them? Sure, all the time I speak on stage. So March I got invited to go to Bali by IGA so I did a speech there on giving back to the community for philanthropy. In September I've been invited to go to Cyprus. There's an Inspire conference with 4,000 people and 100 speakers from around the world Cyprus. So they looked me up on LinkedIn so they invited me to go over there. So I do a lot of those things.

Guest: 1:01:40

I've spoken in America, so I enjoy that stuff. You meet great people. It is nerve-wracking, which is what I love. If there's a position, an opportunity for me to get really embarrassed or fail, that's my favorite position to be in, because I know I'm going to learn from that and I'll always come back. Been because I know I'm going to learn from that and I'll always come back. So I do a lot of speaking on stage now. I also spoke at the Sofitel this year and I've been on the 9th of August if anyone's listening, there's Australasian Summit. There's from nine to five. There's about nine speakers. I'm one of the speakers there. They're going to be talking about business, real estate, wealth creation. I'm speaking on the 9th there as well. So I'm doing more and more of those gigs. People ask me I do a lot of podcasts because I enjoy it. I have my own podcast which is currently in its seventh season. It's good getting to know people.

George: 1:02:28

And what's your podcast called for those listening. They can check it out. It's called Relentless Life, on your Terms. Awesome, love it that. Awesome, love it that's really good.

Robby: 1:02:36

I mean, we've been doing this now.

George: 1:02:37

What episode are we up to now?

Robby: 1:02:38

This will be 91.

Guest: 1:02:40

That's amazing. Robbie was sharing. You're very close to that big 100.

George: 1:02:43

It's a big milestone, it's a massive we haven't done seasons per se, so we've done it literally week on week. We haven't missed a week yet.

Guest: 1:02:51

Yeah, we haven't missed a week since launching. But also, Robbie shared a really good concept that you do guests and no guests as well.

George: 1:02:57

Yeah yeah, a lot of our chats are just us.

Guest: 1:02:59

I do a lot of. Every time I go to a podcast, I always try to take one or two things away from that. And I remember once one of my friends has a very good podcast called Real Estate Renovators, and then Rex Asfariabi, and he booked it. He's got a beautiful penthouse and he he has it there and he does four or five episodes back to back. It's a bit easier when you live there and you can change clothes. So as soon as I saw that I go, you know what I'm going to do. I've got three podcasts tomorrow, one after the other. You know I thought that's a really good idea. Good emails go out, good messages that go out Every podcast that I'm on. I try to take something away from them and I try to share some of the things that I've learned, because there's some really good podcasts out there and all of them do unique things. And when you said to me you do guests and no guests, I thought that's a really good idea.

Robby: 1:03:46

Yeah, I think it, um, it takes the pressure off in the sense of sometimes, like we might do six episodes in a row and it's just me and him, and then we'll get someone on, and then we might have three weeks in a row where we've got guests, um, and we just sort of mix it up because we want to. We want to get good people on and we want to get people on who can add value to everyone that takes the time out to listen, cause there's there's thousands of podcasts.

Guest: 1:04:06

You know what I mean. Everyone's got a podcast now, but it's, like you said, a lot of people that have podcasts. You can also share talent, you know. Like, if I've got five good guests that will match, will be good here, I'll pass them over, and likewise I've always got all of mine through networking. So I'm a member of C that you meet amazing people, and the beauty of it is you're listening to so many great stories, so many great journeys, so many great lessons that you unpack from that and it opens a lot of good friendships as well, you know.

Robby: 1:04:49

Yeah it opens a door definitely for a lot of things to happen. Favorite book. Look, that depends on the genre. A lot of things happen. Favorite book.

Guest: 1:04:57

Look, that depends on the genre. Yeah, favorite book this year, you said you read 87, was it?

Robby: 1:05:03

I'm on my 87th 87th. That's phenomenal, by the way, Like we're in July.

Guest: 1:05:11

Yeah, look, that's Favorite book I've read this year. Look, stoicism's my favorite, principles. I read Changing World Order by Ray Dalio. I love that. Principles is a great book and, yeah, changing World.

Robby: 1:05:22

Order is the second one which is fantastic.

Guest: 1:05:25

I love everything in that genre, you know sales-wise. The last one I just read was Dare to Lead. I do a lot of leadership books, so that's a very, very good book to read.

Robby: 1:05:35

Dare to Lead by Brené Brown. Yeah, that was the one I've just finished. It's a great book. Yeah, she's phenomenal. All right, in closing, is there anything else you'd like to add?

George: 1:05:48

Who do you think's the greatest salesman? Say, let's make this a little bit more broad, let's not make it someone you know, so a person or someone that you've worked with. Who do you think is one of the best salesmen out there? That would be well known.

Guest: 1:06:07

That's such a loaded question. That could be so many people.

George: 1:06:10

Well, who do you resonate with then? Who do you like? Who do you like? Yeah, I see why you're doing that.

Guest: 1:06:17

I understand my style is a very, very high-end closer. So if you look, have you ever seen the movie Gary Glen Ross?

Guest: 1:06:24

No I haven't actually Al Pacino, ed Harris, alec Baldwin, jack Lemons. You're in sales. You have to watch this movie. So there's a scene. It's an abusive scene. It's a sales environment. It's an abusive scene. It's a sales environment. It's exactly any boardroom you've been to You'll find the guy whinging Al Pacino's the gun. His name's Roma, he just closes. So my son, he's called Alec from this Alec Baldwin character in this.

Guest: 1:06:49

The amount of seminars I've been to and seen this clip is insane. So going back to your question, because I don't want to avoid it, like you, look at you got Jordan Belford. The way he closes is very good. You got Grant Cardone. There's so many good people. Females are great closers as well because of the way they ask questions.

Guest: 1:07:09

I learn from everyone. But I remember I said to my ex-boss I wasn't as good as listening. Back then I said I want to be the best salesperson on the planet and he goes you need to listen more. I said what was that? But I did used to speak a lot. I never used. I just used to plow in and just close. Now, as I'm older, I'm getting more refined.

Guest: 1:07:28

Robert Kiyosaki is very, very good. Rich Dad Porter is one of the first books I read that really shaped me. Rich Kid, smart Kid, sales Dogs by Blair Singer, which is part of that series, is a very, very good book as well. What was that one sorry Sales Dogs by Blair Singer. It's part of the Rich Dad Poor Dad. It talks about people being different dogs. You're a golden retriever, you're a bulldog, you're a mongrel, and that different sales traits. It's kind of like an older version of surrounded by idiots. You're a red character, you're green, you're orange, you're blue. Just different character traits, because if you understand what they are, you know how to approach them, how to ask questions, how to close them. Yeah, I don't know. I couldn't give you one person, there's so many. Can I ask you that same question? Who would you say?

George: 1:08:16

Yeah, look, I we recently went and saw Grant Cardone 10X. Yeah, went to the 10X. I went to it oh 2019, just before COVID happened, went to his conference then and then we went to it again there, and then we saw Alex Ormosi there too. I find that he's very in your face, very pushy, very. This is how you got to do the sales. You've got to close, you've got to do all that sort of stuff, and whilst there was part of that that I resonated with, there was also part of it that I didn't, because when I, when we went to the event, there was literally people. They're like the clipboard mafia, they're chasing you down. Can I sit with you? Can we do this? Can we do this? And they're relentless with the sale. Um, very in your face. Yeah, very much so.

Guest: 1:08:58

Without offending anyone. It's very American. Oh, without a doubt Very much, very wankery.

George: 1:09:03

Yeah, without a doubt, but they love it there too, though I think it works there. I don't know if it works here, though.

Guest: 1:09:08

I went to a and I don't mean to offend anyone and I'm appalling you in advance, I went to a 7,000-person seminar.

Guest: 1:09:19

Anthony Robbins and I love Anthony Robbins, by the way, I've done Date with Destiny, I've done quite a lot of his course. I've still got CDs of his, you know. So I think he's an absolute legend. He's a pioneer, he's great. His books are great as well, Big fan.

Guest: 1:09:38

But at one point he got people to get up and they were looking at each other and absolutely baffled and I'm thinking, wow, you're like sheep and you're screaming at each other. I don't need someone to scream at me to motivate me. I'm not saying it doesn't work, but I don't need that level of hype. And is it hype? Is it effective? Is it working in the real world? What's going on? I was just so shocked. Now I've got amazing content and I love it, but I feel a lot of people and it's a generalization, but especially from America have that really loud. I like to go in close, do my job be effective, be efficient, without screaming at people? Now, I love tonality, I love using my hands. I'm ethnic, I guess I was born that way but I'm not screaming at someone that I know or yelling and pointing at them like this, which I think so rude.

George: 1:10:31

and you own me and I'm looking in that room and I'm just like, wow, this is insane so true, like I, I felt the same way with a lot of his teachings as well, particularly with tony, but then we've seen it at other events that we've gone to, and every training Gets me every time, yeah, and we look at it and we're like I don't know whatever.

Guest: 1:10:48

But it's insane, Like does it work? Sure, Do you sell? Sure, but for me, when they're looking at me and asking me to, no, thank you. And they're looking at the front and they're pointing and doing this, and I'm actually amazed that people are just full on screaming and the hype is real because you feel it. But you know, it's like I said before, it's horses for courses.

Guest: 1:11:13

You can learn from everyone if you go in there open-minded. Don't use that though. Use what is going to resonate with you. But I know Grant Cardone is a great salesman. He's very, very good at closing. But if you put yourself in a position of power, if you put yourself in a strong position where someone wants to or has to negotiate with you, it becomes a lot easier because you can stack the deck in your face. Yeah, absolutely, and I think that's a big and of course he's got to get to that point. He's got to be very good. He's got to sell to get there. But when you get there, I think it changes. When I was 19, 20, has got to sell to get there, but when you get there, I think it changes, Like when I was 19, 20 and I had to sell real estate to people.

George: 1:11:53

The hell, do you?

Guest: 1:11:54

know You're 19, 20. So I had to come up with a story quick and the story had to be true. Do you know the story I was using? I was talking about my migrant parents. I've seen my father work all his life. This is what happened when he didn't buy real estate. This is what happened when he did, and I could relate. When I bought one property, it got easier. By the time I had eight properties and I was 23, going to houses. I could use my own example. Yeah, that's right, because I wasn't talking to many people that had more than eight properties and I'm 23 and it wasn't given. I made it, I built it.

Guest: 1:12:17

And age doesn't determine ability. You know, I had a and I share this story with you because I thought what a great answer.

Guest: 1:12:23

I asked this kid who came in. He was in broking for a year and a half. I was looking for a senior position gun broker. He was closing like 80 to 100 million. Now I knew what I would have said if I asked myself this question I go, I want someone with experience. You've only been doing this for a year and a half. And he looked at me, boom and snapped and answered straight away and I go. That's the exact answer I would have given he goes. How many brokers in a year and a half done? 80 million. How many loans have I settled? I've got like six years experience.

Robby: 1:12:52

And I said boom.

Guest: 1:12:54

That's the exact answer that I would have answered, but I wanted to see if he can think on his feet. He's done more deals than someone been there for years, but I wanted to see how quick he'll look at me.

Robby: 1:13:07

He look at me.

George: 1:13:09

He paused barely batted an eyelid and hit me with it and I go to him. That is a great answer, man. That is a great answer. It is.

Guest: 1:13:13

And some look, some people will look at that as arrogance, but it's ability, but it's true. Yeah, exactly that's. But for me, give me someone that there's a fine line and I heard um Ronaldo talk about it between arrogance and confidence. To become great or to be great like the people I mentioned, ronaldo, you need to be a little bit crazy, you need to be a little bit arrogant, and that arrogant will come from a ridiculous and obscene work ethic that will outwork anyone. When you do that, that good, I think you can be arrogant personally, sorry.

George: 1:13:40

No, without a doubt.

Guest: 1:13:41

As long as you do it in a respectful and kind manner, not like I did when I was younger to Steve and he still remembered that story and when he told me I said it's really sorry, do you remember that I go? No, but it sounds like something I would have done at that age. No doubt about it.

Robby: 1:13:55

That's a good memory. Okay, I want to be respectful of your time, so this will be the last question. Yep, if knock on wood tomorrow, you lost it all. You lost everything, everything you've built up, but you've kept, obviously, your skill set, your experience. What would be the first thing you'd go and do to go build it all?

Guest: 1:14:10

back Sales, Sales. Get back on the market. What do you need? Start selling. I mean, I've rebuilt it once and the divorce set me back many, many, many, many years, but when I was sitting there looking at it I thought it doesn't matter, you can roll up your sleeves and get it done. What's the worst that can happen? If you can sell, you'll never go hungry. If you can sell and market. They're the two best abilities or the best professions in the world. Any pluck, put them anywhere, they'll be fine.

Robby: 1:14:39

Sales cures all. I think Mark Cuban says.

Guest: 1:14:42

Indeed.

Robby: 1:14:43

All right, perfect man, I want to thank you for taking the time to come down and have this chat with us, uh, and I also want to commend you on something most people at your kind of caliber. So I reached out to you on linkedin. I've been following you for quite some time. I was like hey, I'd love to have you on the podcast if you're open to it. You replied promptly, we exchanged details and then I think you did something that most people wouldn't do and you called me after I'd given you my phone number and you said hey, robbie, it's Chris and I was, you can ask him. I walked into his office right after and I was like hey, this guy called me, man, like, and I thought like that's, that is humility, that it's like a level of kindness that I think we need so much more of so much more.

Robby: 1:15:29

You know what I mean. Especially, you talk the whole sales Like. I know people who excel at sales and they won't even look. That'd be like you've got to come to me, like do you know who I am? That's the attitude they would have. I might have been, in the past, the 18-year-old, the 19-year-old you, but you didn't have that anymore and and I just want to commend you on that that was uh. I literally walked into his office, startled and I was like can you believe this? Like I made a commitment for me.

Guest: 1:15:57

Whether it's a me doing you a favor, whether it's a complaint or a new lead, I made a commitment. I'm going to see it through. I was on another gentleman's podcast and he said to me same sort of thing like with the Steve story he goes, chris, do you remember? I reached out to you seven years ago and you responded straight away I go, not really man. And then he goes. And then you're here on my podcast. I said oh yeah.

Guest: 1:16:17

And he, ironically, was a friend of a friend. So I've had many stories like that. But you know what it comes down. We're all the same. It's a human to human. You want to be on the podcast, happy to do it. I gave you my commitment. I want to get it done. Now it's out of my head, I'll move to the next one. But I'm pick up the phone man. For me, it's always whether I'm worth $1, 10 billion. Oh no, that will be always the same. Yeah, it's, I've enjoyed the chat.

Robby: 1:16:43

Really, really appreciate it. If anyone wants to follow your journey, where can they?

Guest: 1:16:47

follow you Anywhere, like LinkedIn. I'm on all the time. Linkedin, instagram. We post very, very regularly, four or five times a week. My team posts on my behalf all my content and Chris at Reventon, so I'd love to have a chat to anyone get a copy of my book. 100% of the money goes to charity. Book's available on Amazon.

George: 1:17:07

Just on that. Just on that. Do you want to give a plug out, a shout out to your charities? You said you're into your philanthropy as well. Which charities are you involved with, or is it one that you do yourself?

Guest: 1:17:17

I've been for the last 8 years. I've been an ambassador for Vinny's St Vincent de Paul's. I do the 171 years. St Vincent de Paul's has been going 50 years of soup and it's been going 20 years of the sleep out 15 in Victoria. So it's very serendipitous 20 year, my anniversary, 20 year them. Eight years I've been doing it. I've raised $1,218,882 and we're the highest all-time fundraisers. I can only do that with my team and that's something I'm very, very proud of. Every year I do the sleep out, so I've done eight. I just finished. I think it was the 19th of June. We slept at the South Melbourne car park rooftop. It was freezing, but it was very, very good. We raised 400,000 this year alone. So no one's ever done that in one campaign. And, yeah, if there's anything to take away, do something kind for someone, do some charity whether it's mine or someone else's just do something.

George: 1:18:09

It's very, it's always good to do, yeah absolutely yeah, thank you, mate, amazing Thank you, I cannot wait to have um to keep following your journey, that's for sure, and also to one day have you back here and see how much more you've grown and come along the way, along the way Whenever you want. Thank you boys, thank you very much.

Robby: 1:18:25

Pleasure, loved it.

Guest: 1:18:26

Thank you, gentlemen.

George: 1:18:26

All right.

Guest: 1:18:28

Thanks everyone. Well, good, how long was that that? Was an hour it was an hour, yeah, over an hour.