You Get Your Standards, Not Your Goals: Ed Mylett on Success, Faith, and Building $100M+ Businesses

Brandon Turner:
This is the BiggerPockets podcast show 433.

Ed Mylett:
I’m not saying that success won’t change you, I’m saying it probably will. And it probably will be for the better. And you don’t want to be the same dude in 10 years you are now, you want to be a different dude. And the more successful you become, the more likely you can become that Dude.

Intro:
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Brandon Turner:
What’s going on everyone, it’s Brandon Turner host of the BiggerPockets podcast here with my cohost, Mr. David Greene. David, welcome to the show, man. Are you as pumped up as I am after just finishing that interview. We just got done recording with our guests today and I’m like, “I think I’m trembling a little bit.” That was crazy.

David Greene:
I don’t even know how to put it into words how that guy makes you feel when you listen to him talk. I mean, the fact we get to bring this person to our audience has me pretty giddy with excitement.

Brandon Turner:
Yeah, so good. So our guest today is Ed Mylett. You’ve probably heard them before, if not be prepared for an amazing speaker. I mean, I have often heard that Ed Mylett is the… this is very commonly said, he’s the best speaker on the planet. I’ve heard that from numerous people. And I think you’ll see today why exactly people say that. Just phenomenal storyteller, phenomenally successful guy. And it’s interesting, David, I want to know… you guys are going to hear this in a second, but he is very open about how successful he is, but he’s very humble about that fact and what I mean by that, this guy is worth hundreds of millions of dollars and he has a jet and he has mansions and all this stuff. But that’s not where he gets his pride and what he brags about. What he brags about is other people. And Ed just this amazing guy who does real estate investing. We get into real estate later in today’s show. And before we interviewed him, we asked him like, “What do you do for real estate?”

Brandon Turner:
And he’s like, “I bought a hundred million dollars a real estate last year.” Well, that’s not right guys. Sorry, it was like 90, 97 million I think. And I was like, “Oh you’re…” Yeah, anyway.

David Greene:
What I noticed about Ed is I would say for the people who listened to our podcast, they probably have a little bit of an issue with you and I the same way that we would with Ed. So to the average listener, you and I seem very far ahead. So far ahead, they think, “How could I ever get there?” And they’re going to struggle with feelings of inadequacy or… Well, that’s Brandon and David, right? Guys I promise you, Ed is further ahead of Brandon and I at times up a hundred than you guys would be of us.

Brandon Turner:
So he makes this point. So I first watched a video that Ed Mylett did at a GoBundance event. So me and David are part of this GoBundance tribe, and he was as a guest speaker there last year. And I was not able to attend because I had a little baby at home, but he gave this speech and I watched it later, at least parts of it later on a video that they recorded, which by the way, we are going to play a piece of that after the interview with Ed, because we only had an hour to sit down with Ed, but I want you to hear the story. I’m going to play it at the end of today’s show. But another thing he said in that speech at GoBundance, he said, “You know what, you guys in this room, you’re all millionaires. You’re all doing really well right now. You’re all crushing it you feel really good about yourself. But if you’re feeling really good about yourself,” and I’m paraphrasing here, but he said, “If you’re feeling really good about yourself, it’s because you’re not comparing yourself to the right person.”

Brandon Turner:
He’s like, “You’re looking around at your teams and saying, wow, I’m pretty good compared to my assistant or to my manager in that part of my business.” He’s like, “You’re not comparing yourself to me.” And it almost sounds like an arrogant thing if it wasn’t backed up by just pure truth that this guy is the most successful person I know by far. So with all that said, we got to get to today’s show because you guys are going to be blown away. But before we get there, let’s get to today’s quick tip. Your quick tip is very simple today. Listen to the entire show, including the very end. After we say goodbye to Ed, I’m going to play you guys that clip from that event I saw him speak at because the story he tells about his son in golfing is phenomenal, and we didn’t get to it in the show.

Brandon Turner:
So I’m going to play it there. Also be warned, I don’t know if warning is the right word, we go into a direction on the show that we have never gone in really on the BiggerPockets podcast before. And that is, we spend a good, I don’t know, 10 or 15 minutes diving into the world of faith and spirituality with Ed. He’s a very spiritual guy, and so we go into that. So just know that’s coming. So if that’s not something that floats your boat, that’s fine. It’s a phenomenal interview even outside of that but yeah, we had a really deep conversation about that. And then later on another deep conversation about having your pants off or something. You’ll get to that later, David made one of his famous analogies that he’ll never leave down.

David Greene:
Yeah, off the cuff. I would say what I was getting at earlier is the Ed is so much further ahead than Brandon and I. That we can understand what it’s like for the newbies that are looking up to us. But he doesn’t make you feel like he’s better. He could say, you’re not comparing yourself to me, and there’s zero arrogance in that statement. So we were digging into Ed, how is it you’re this successful, but you don’t look down on other people. And that brought faith into the conversation and we ran it with that for a little [inaudible 00:05:07].

Brandon Turner:
Yeah, really just a cool show. All right. And without further ado, I think it’s time to get to the interview. David, anything you want to add before we let people hear this amazing interview with Ed Mylett?

David Greene:
I would say on this one, don’t listen to it while you got a million other things going on in the background because it’s just too powerful. Save this podcast, skip this one, listen to something else if you are busy, listen to this one when you have an hour of uninterrupted, unadulterated, pure focus time because you are in line for an amazing ride.

Brandon Turner:
Yeah, that’s amazing. All right, with that said, let’s get to the interview. All right Ed Mylett welcome to the show, man. This is a huge honor. I’ve been a big fan of yours for a long time.

Ed Mylett:
No, it’s great to be here and I’ve enjoyed our pre-conversation. So if it’s anywhere near as good live as it was before, it’s going to be awesome.

Brandon Turner:
Mylett, we’re good. Well let’s start up by giving our audience and understanding of who you are. Our audience are from the real estate investing space, which you obviously, we’re going to talk about real estate today because you are involved in that as well, but you’re also a big deal in a lot of different areas. People know your name. Why is that? What’s your background? What do you do?

Ed Mylett:
Well, first I’m a really average IQ average ordinary dude, grew up lower middle class. I’m really not anything, weird to say a lot, I’m not anything special, But I’m really not. I did have some success early in my life building a financial services business. And then in that business, I started speaking a lot and then people start saying, “Hey, you’re pretty good speaker.” And I ended up going to different companies and speaking, which led to consulting. And then I met Tony Robbins when I was young and so I started to learn. And Wayne Dyer and Tony Robbins kind of mentored me when I was a young man. And so I learned a lot about peak performance and the mind and the brain. And I became fascinated with that. And then that led to…. it’s really interesting life. Then it led to… I started living in nice neighborhoods.

Ed Mylett:
My neighbors were athletes and entertainers and well-known people then they wanted to be coached. Then that led into other businesses. So I’m an investor. So I’ve had a really rich, blessed life of everything from financial services to Rob Dyrdek and I are involved in a company called Outstanding Foods where we make vegan pork rinds, and real estate investing, and speaking and coaching. And so it’s been a very rich life. I enjoy most every single day because it’s so diverse. So they would might know me from one of those areas. I’m sure, probably.

Brandon Turner:
Yeah. That’s awesome. And you were a speaker at the… David and I are part of this organization called GoBundance and you were a speaker there. I think it was last year. And I wasn’t at that event because I had a little baby at the time, it just been born. But everyone just kept talking about how I missed out on being there. I should have been there it was phenomenal. So I did catch a clip that they recorded and we can go through the story later maybe, but it was a story about you and your son golfing and him struggling with the golf [inaudible 00:07:55]. Anyway, let’s hit that later, I really want to get it… I would love to hear that story again because it was fantastic. But let’s go back. When you say, I’m just curious, financial services, what did that mean? What was that, in the beginning?

Ed Mylett:
I built a team of people that sold life insurance and investments. And we sold that company or that company was sold I should say, more correctly, to a company called Aegon and Transamerica many, many years ago, a really big firm. I’m still involved with that organization. But what that did is it was sales, right? It was recruiting. I had to learn to communicate transfer energy, influence people, persuade people. And those skills have served me in negotiating real estate deals. Those skills have served me and public speaking. They’ve served me in strategic planning in different businesses. And so that was really a blessing for me. I have no background in finance, no background in sales. I come from a family too that’s very anti pushy. There’s no priority in my family whatsoever of financial success.

Ed Mylett:
Meaning it was never discussed, there was no dream, we never on a vacation. I didn’t went on a vacation as a kid. So I don’t come from wanting to be rich or any of those things. And even to this day in my own family, I think they’re proud of whatever success I’ve had, but they’re more like, “Are you a good man? Are you a good father? Are you a good dad?” They could care less that right now I’m… But turn the camera around, which I really can’t do. But I’m at a… This is a $25 million home. This is a third home, right? And if my mom and dad walked in here right now… my dad can’t because he just passed away, but my mom walked in here, she would say, “How do you afford the electricity in here?” Like, “What’s the air conditioning costs you?” That’s just where I’m from. And so it keeps you some degree of humility I think.

Brandon Turner:
My parents still tell me every time they get together, my dad will still say, “You know you could have been a lawyer son.” And I’m like, “I live in Maui, dad. I got the ocean right…” I’m like-

Ed Mylett:
Come on man.

Brandon Turner:
I’m like, “Come on dad.”

Ed Mylett:
[crosstalk 00:09:51] Is it interesting? I can tell you something funny, my first really big jet, I bought a big jet. It was hangared, no exaggeration, about a mile from my mom and dad’s house, one mile. They never saw it.

Brandon Turner:
Really?

Ed Mylett:
They’ve never flown on it. I go to Hawaii every year, bro. I invited my parents for 25 straight years. My dad’s like, “Why would I get on an airplane and fly to Hawaii when I could just hang out with you in the living room and chill?” And I’m like, “Because it’s freaking Hawaii, dad.” He’s like, “I love you. Just come over to the living room, watch some golf.” That’s my family. I cannot even express to you how simple it… it’s a good lesson here. And one of the lessons is I always thought eventually they’re just going to be blown away by me.

Ed Mylett:
And if that can’t be the reason… you should do things that you want to make your family proud of you. But if you’re really doing things to get this wow out of people that you love and care about, you may be disappointed. There’s got to be a deeper reason for you wanting to be successful than to impress people because they’re not impressed most of the time, they’re just not. It’s going to be very… I want to do that. I want people to be impressed with me. And I was going to say very shallow arrival when you get there and you realize they’re really not that impressed. And a lot of them are really jealous.

Brandon Turner:
I was going to say, they’re bored. I feel there an irritation. There’s this like rich people are obviously bad people, right? There’s this vibe that goes there. We have a high school where like the popular kids were obviously bad kids. That’s why they’re popular because they did bad things. We have this anger towards them. It’s kind of the way people are angry towards vegans. I felt the vegan effect. If you’re vegan, everyone’s like, “Oh.” I don’t say I’m vegan, but I’m close, right?

Ed Mylett:
[crosstalk 00:11:28] I could tell with how healthy you are.

Brandon Turner:
Thank you. Thank you. People make fun of me for it because it’s the vegan effect. Nobody likes to be… When you see somebody else doing really well with any area of their life, everybody else wants to judge them for that because it reflects badly on themselves.

Ed Mylett:
Okay, let me tell you how crazy that is, I’ve never talked about this on a podcast, but I’ve become pretty wealthy, right? But I was raised with that mindset. They must have got it through some ill-gotten means, right? There’s got to be a story there. And here’s the truth. I’m 50 years old in April, and mainly if I’m on a golf course where I live people were very wealthy, right? And even to this day, and I’m one of them, they kind of go through a little bit of a bigger barrier than someone who’s not rich to prove to me they’re a good person. If that makes any sense. Still to this day, “How’s this guy got… he’s got $400 million.” You got a higher hurdle to prove to me, you’re a good human than if you didn’t have any money. And that’s just my upbringing. It’s so straight but it’s really, really true.

David Greene:
Well, I think it’s important to acknowledge that that’s how humans are, because there’s a lot of people that would like to be wealthy, but won’t take action to be wealthy because in their own mind, they’re thinking only bad people become wealthy. And you’ve talked a lot. I’ve heard a lot of your content that talks about your financial thermostat. You’re never going to exceed what you think you’re worth. And when this stuff sits in the back of your head and you have this belief, that wealth is bad, you had to use people to get it, I would say that’s kind of a common theme in our country right now, this idea that rich people got it on the backs of others. And they had to step on other people. Whereas from the group we’re in GoBundance and from other people that we’ve met, I’m sure for you, you’re rubbing elbows with people that are very successful.

David Greene:
They’re often the most generous human beings you’ll ever find that help people help. They help people that won’t even help themselves, a lot of the time, right? But that’s not what it looks like on the other side of the curtain. So I would love it if you’d share with our audience a little bit of your philosophy on the ways we hold ourselves back from achieving our goals, which obviously one of them is going to be wealth.

Ed Mylett:
Yeah. Well boy, really good point, by the way, what you just said there. And it’s something that… Like I’m in personal development, right? So why am I even in this space? Just so it gives people some hopes because I really needed it to be a baseline functioning person. I had low self-esteem really low, lots of reasons. Alcoholic dad, I was small, whatever, right? But I had to get into these tools and tactics and techniques to just get baseline. But once I started to grow, I went, “Whoa, this is the key to going to all these other levels.” And so I’m a huge identity person. I just really believe you get out of your life, what you believe you’re worth, long-term. There’s short-term windows where you can kind of violate that principle. And so I do talk about this thermostat in your life, it’s your identity.

Ed Mylett:
It sets the thermostat of what you believe you’re worth. Like right now, if the desert, it’s relatively cool outside, right? It’s probably 45, 50 degrees today. It’s 72 in here. So the external conditions do not impact this room because there’s a thermostat on the wall that sets it at 72. In the summertime It’s 120 out here. It’s 120 outside, it’s 72 in here. That thermostat sets the setting. It’s not the external conditions. This is also true in our life. If you’re a 72 degree or financially, I can give you the worst possible financial conditions in COVID, you’ll find a way most of the time to get back to 72 degrees. But I could also give you the best opportunity, the best deals, the best access, the best thing in the world, that’s 150 degree, you’ll find a way to get 72 degrees out of it.

Ed Mylett:
And so if you don’t change that, by the way, that’s in your happiness, your fitness, your wellness, your wealth, your relationships, your faith… I’m a psychopath about my thermostat setting. And there’s lots of techniques and strategies. There’s the thing everyone always says, all right, who are the five people you hang around? It’s the most older said thing in self-help personal development in the world, but truly look at them.

Ed Mylett:
And if I asked you, seriously, can you name three things about them that you must have, that they have in your life that you don’t? And most people go, “No, not really,” But could you name three or four things about them You don’t want? “Yes.” So they’re the wrong people around you, but there’s other techniques, not just association, but short-term bursts. If you do short term crazy bursts of activity, you can trick your identity into believing that you’re at that level permanently.

Ed Mylett:
So most very successful people I know people say, well, they’re very consistent. True, but you know what, most of them have this very bizarre, short window bursts in their life that they can go… even at your guys’s case, unpack your entire life. You’re both extremely successful. You’re very consistent, but I’ll bet you there are two or three 90 day windows in your entire life that just unbelievable things happened in. Maybe the ramifications didn’t land till later, but a 90 day window. Two or three deals you did, two or three people you met in short burst windows of time changed your identity. Moments can change your identity. A podcast can change your identity. So I’m a nut about that one principle of winning. And then the second thing is not to go… I’m being long-winded here. The older I get, I know I get my standards, not my goals.

David Greene:
Explain that.

Ed Mylett:
You get ultimately what your standards are long-term. So I’m constantly evaluating my standard of how I conduct myself, how I think, who I’m around. Today I was seven minutes late for our show. That is a complete violation of who I am. I’m always early. That’s the first thing I did, right? Even on the [inaudible 00:16:49], I said, “I’m so sorry.” It’s unacceptable standard for me. And that will bother me just so you know, for a very long time, because it’s not about you guys, it’s about me. That’s not my standard to be late. So I’m a nut about standards. And I don’t think enough people evaluate that part, they’re just writing stuff down on paper they say they want, instead of getting in touch with their standards. Tom Brady has higher standards than the average NFL quarterback. Period, right? You meet a business person, their standards are different. You ever meet a world-class mother. It’s not her goals, it’s her standards is what she expects of herself from a mother with those children are just different, right? It’s our standards every time.

Brandon Turner:
That’s so good. That’s so good. It reminds me of something we’ve been talking about lately on the show we’ve mentioned a few times now is, I think some people have the standard that says it’s okay to lie to themselves. Now everyone listening goes, “No, I don’t say that.” But when you set an alarm in the morning at six o’clock and you hit the snooze button seven times, it’s like telling yourself you’re okay Setting a bar and then missing That bar. And you do that in everything. I was going to the gym today. I just wasn’t feeling really good. Every time you do that, you’re just lowering that standard, which then applies to every area of your life, whether it’s real estate-

Ed Mylett:
It ruins your self-confidence. The key thing of being self-confidence is that you keep the promises you make to yourself, period. And when I meet someone who’s not self-confident, I just know they’ve had a habit of breaking promises they’ve told themselves. And so what I do is I try to set the game up too. I try to make ones I’m going to keep. And that’s why that being late thing today, I know I’m belaboring the point, you have no idea what a violation that is to me of even seven minutes, seven seconds. And I’m pretty cognizant of keeping the promise. I’m a confident person, I would say at this point. And I must tell you that’s because I’ve kept promises I’ve made to myself for the most part.

Ed Mylett:
Quite honestly, if not to be very deep, but if you’re a person of faith, even if you’re not, but if you understand faith, why do we have such faith if you’re, let’s say a Christian, because we believe there’s a promise Jesus made to us that if we accept him as our savior, we abide by these commandments, we get to go to heaven. There’s kind of an internal contract here. We believe the promise you’ve made, and that to the extent that you believe that, is to the extent that your faith is deep, that you have confidence in your faith. So take anything in your life is to the extent that you believe the promise will be kept. That is linked to your confidence in every single area of your life. And so you better have one of those relationships with yourself or you’re going to have a very difficult existence on this earth.

David Greene:
I would say to further that point, a big reason why you see a lot of people that are successful, have a measure of faith, whether it’s Christianity or something else is, when you believe the promise that you just said, you now have inherent value in yourself because you’re valuable to an important person, which by proxy raises your financial thermostat.

Ed Mylett:
Very good.

David Greene:
It is not okay that I live this low standard because now I’m a somebody. I’ve been adopted into this family, right? My father is a King of… There’s some measure of importance that’S bestowed on you-

Ed Mylett:
Whoa, David.

David Greene:
… which raises the thermostat, right?

Ed Mylett:
Very good.

David Greene:
And I noticed that’s the component of faith that changes people’s lives. When they’re like, I feel different. You could really break that down into saying they had their thermostat raised. Now they’re operating at a higher level, which meant their standard got pulled up and boom, their life looks different. But to the people who don’t understand it, it’s just, I don’t get it. They found something, right? But you can sort of reverse engineer and understand this is what’s going on.

David Greene:
And what I love about what you’re saying Ed is, you’re sharing these principles that anybody could follow. It doesn’t have to be a mystery, how to be successful, how to be healthy, how to hit your goals. There is a path to take. And for those that want to walk it they can, and that’s one of the reasons we want to get you on the show. Because I listened to a lot of your stuff. Another thing I noticed about you is you’re not afraid to say that you’re successful and wealthy because there’s not an arrogance in it. There’s not an I am better than you because I’m successful in wealth. You’re just stating a fact.And what I know about you, and the fact that your reputation is that you are a very generous man-

Ed Mylett:
Thank you.

David Greene:
… you’ve sort of given yourself permission to be successful because it’s going to flow into you and then into others. So you’re not afraid like, “Man, if I get this awesome car, I’m going to think I’m something else. I’m going to think I’m better than other people.” And when you have that component in your life, which I think I’m still struggling with to a degree, you’re afraid of success because you know it’s going to change you. Or you know it’s going to show other people, the character flaws you have. But when your goal is to help other people serve other people, you’re perfectly fine with great stuff flowing through you because it’s going to flow right back out to you. Is that basically accurate with what you found is that your life has progressed?

Ed Mylett:
Yeah. I’m going to answer you on that. You’re being really vulnerable and transparent. When I was younger, I struggled with that. I think it did… There’ve been different times in my life where I’m like, “I’m pretty good.” When I was younger and inevitably life, God, how everyone looked at it sort of slapped me back into place and gave me some humility, number one, Number two, I’ve had some health issues in my life that I’m not real public about that have given me perspective on what really matters. And I feel like this man, life is short, it’s one game we’re running around this place, right? I’m willing to take risks. I’m willing to be myself. I’m willing… And my dad just passed away about four weeks ago. I was with him when he passed away. I was talking to my about my sister.

Ed Mylett:
This was our first New Year’s and Christmas without my dad. And I was talking with my sister about this last night. I said, “You know, Michelle, one thing that occurs to you when you’re… this sounds so stupid. But when your dad dies in front of you or when a family member dies, you’re going to die. I’m going to die.” And you know what? When my dad, this may sound really creepy, but you know what My dad didn’t have to think about when he was passing away, what the electric bill was that month, getting his car washed what he was worried about because it ends. So the things we stack on ourselves that we worry about, that we fear. It’s all going to end. So why not live freely? Why carry these emotions and burdens and feelings and thoughts around that don’t serve us when it’s going to end anyway.

Ed Mylett:
You are eventually not going to worry, not going to fear, not going to worry what anybody thinks about you because you will not be here. So why not accept that as a truth and begin to live that way right now? Why carry with you thoughts, people, burdens, emotions that don’t serve you when it’s going to end? We dilute ourselves. I’m going to be like this forever. No, you’re not. There’s an end to it. So why not love it now? And so things that maybe would bother me or that wouldn’t… I was afraid to be successful. I was afraid it would change me. Here’s the truth, it probably does change you. Here’s the thing, hopefully for the better, hopefully become more generous, more connected to your faith, more giving. And to your point earlier, most of the most successful people I know, I’m blown away by their generosity, their kindness, their willingness to give their peace. So, I’m not saying that success won’t change you, I’m saying it probably will. And it probably will be for the better.

David Greene:
That’s cool man.

Ed Mylett:
And you don’t want to be the same dude in 10 years you are now. You want to be a different dude. And the more successful you become, the more likely you can become that Dude. The thing you’re afraid of is you’re going to be a worse dude. And I’m telling you that’s counterintuitive. I don’t believe you can accumulate more and more wealth and more and more influence, and simultaneously be a worst person. I don’t think they go together. So that fear is completely nonsensical even though we all have it. The truth is in order to get those things, you have to be a better person. So yeah it’ll change you and you want it to, we’re going deep here today.

Brandon Turner:
Yeah. Well let me expand on that a little bit. And I know this something we don’t talk about on the show, but being that both David and I are Christian guys and you are as well. And people know that and they reach out… probably the most common question I get. And I’m guessing you get it as well, is well how do you… and by the way, I think this is rooted in what I talked about earlier the vegan effect of people judging you, but how do you reconcile being wealthy with spirituality and your faith? Because the two shouldn’t… Money is the root of all evil, right, is the-

Ed Mylett:
The eye of a needle.

Brandon Turner:
Yeah, exactly. Yeah, the camel going through that. So how do you reconcile that? And I have my own answers. I’m sure David has his own, but how do you reconcile the faith with with what wealth?

Ed Mylett:
So one, I believe that if you are a Christian, the Lord would like his people favored. He’d like his children with the best educations and the safest neighborhoods protected growing, expanding his kingdom. That’s number one. I don’t believe there’s any correlation between having a lot of money and not having a lot of money and your depth of faith. I do understand when I think the Bible meant was what does come with a lot of money, is temptation, is access that you may not have otherwise two things that you need to be guarded against. And I think that those things matter. However, I’m a living example of my own life, and I’m not going to talk about all those things are, of being able to return the blessing to other people, to magnify that blessing. Because here’s the [inaudible 00:25:43] I would never walk into a church.

Ed Mylett:
I would just never do that. I’m talking about prior to being a person of faith, I would just never. I wanted to leave church every Sunday when I was growing up, like dad, “Let’s go, let’s go play some football,” right? I’m a sinner saved by the grace of God. I have a bad temper. I can be honoree. I can be short. I can be abrupt. I have all of these things that aren’t great about me, but I am a person of faith, which gives me some grace and that grace has helped me become successful. So I link my success ironically to my faith. Not the other way around.

Brandon Turner:
Yeah. That’s really good. David I’m asking you the same question real quick. How do you answer that question when people bring up… And I want people to know this applies to whether you’re a Christian or whether you’re another faith or even no faith.

Ed Mylett:
Of course. It’s the same thing, but how do you reconcile these things?

David Greene:
I would say that what I don’t like about the stigma of wealth is that we treat wealth differently than success in any area of life. You don’t hear people that are really fit, getting criticized and said, you must be a terribly egotistical human being if you want a six pack. What a terrible thing to say that you want. Imagine all the people that don’t have six packs and how you’re gonna make them feel. It does typically make you feel not as good about yourself when you see somebody who’s fit and then you have the choice, whether you want to let that drive you to go get fit or let it drive you to say something negative about them. But I think money’s different because it’s so easy to take it from one person and give to another. I’ve said this before. I could not take Ed’s biceps and give them to somebody else without them having to work for it. But if I could, I promise you there would be a movement to do that.

David Greene:
There would be an entire philosophy based around why should that person have bigger arms than this person? It’s not fair. Just because they were raised around a privileged gym, where they were able to work out. We would take it from someone to give it to another. With money you can do that very, very easily. So you get this whole philosophical belief system based around justifying, doing that, because frankly you want what that person has. And you didn’t want to have to go through the work. Like building wealth there’s a science to it. Just like getting in shape, right? Like Brandon, we say this all the time, getting a six pack is not a mystery. It’s not like, I don’t know how to get it. I’m not committed to doing it. I don’t want it bad enough. So that’s why I don’t have one.

Brandon Turner:
I don’t have the standards.

David Greene:
That’s exactly right. If I could have one, if I adjusted my eating standards in my workout standard, it is that simple. A six-pack just a reflection of standards that you have. That’s great. And that’s why I think that there’s a stigma against wealthy people because it helps justify taking their wealth and giving it to someone that doesn’t have it. But if we did this in every other area of life it be horrified. If we went to very attractive people and said, it is not fair that you get to date all the other attractive people, you have to date these ugly people because it’s not fair that that’s their only option, people would say that’s horrible. You’re violating that person’s autonomy. You can’t force them to do it. But when it’s let’s take that person’s wealth and give it to somebody else, well, of course they’re privileged that why should they get to have it?

David Greene:
So when I hear the argument that wealthy people are bad, in my mind I just run it through. What I believe that if we said attractive people are bad or nice people are bad. If you’re really funny, is that also bad because you’re very likable? Obviously I don’t judge people for being funny. So I try to let it just pass through me when I hear that argument, I don’t buy into it. And I would encourage everyone listening to do the same thing. When you hear arguments like that, stop for a minute and ask yourself, how does it benefit me or someone else to believe that? Is there some element of my own greed or laziness or slot that it makes that appealing and would it work in other situations? So basically, I mean, I don’t really talk about that very often, but that’s my thought process.

Ed Mylett:
That’s good.

Brandon Turner:
All right.

Ed Mylett:
That’s good.

Brandon Turner:
That’s good. I’ll throw one last point then I want to get into real estate. When people ask me the wealth question, here’s what I always say. If you’re listening to a podcast, it means you probably have an iPhone or you have a Google phone, or you have a computer, right, you have a car, you are already wealthier than the most wealthy pharisee in Jesus’ time. So I always just say let’s take out the judgment from that question because that’s where a lot of the questions is based in it’s like, “Well, how could you be so wealthy?”

Brandon Turner:
If you’re in America, you are already wealthy. You are already at the point where you are being warned in multiple faiths about the danger of wealth, you are already there. So let’s all know we’re all wealthy. And so-

Ed Mylett:
Great point.

Brandon Turner:
… take the eye out of-

Ed Mylett:
Those are great points.

David Greene:
Thank you.

Brandon Turner:
Thanks. All right. So let’s talk about wealth building, right? We asked you before the show started, we said, “Ed, what’s your real estate thing?” You’re like, “You know, about a hundred million dollars real estate recently?” What the heck is that? Let’s talk about that. What’s real estate to you?

Ed Mylett:
It’s not normal that I do that much by the way. I wish it were but it’s not. So just in all transparency, that was a significant year for me. Real estate has always been my passion, meaning I got into personal development originally because I went to a Robert Allen, how to buy real estate, no money down seminar, which led me into Carleton sheets and all these other guys. And I made my first deal when I was in college. I bought a house on a lease option, and I’ve always been fascinated with the real estate business. So what I decided to do was to create other businesses that could be sort of my funding source to do deals. I’m not your typical real estate investor, where I’m comfortable with loads and loads of debt by which if I were, I’d be wealthier. I’m a little bit debt adverse. And I’m saying that because I could be better. I think some of my upbringing still rings in there like, “We’re going to go broke,” and all that stuff.

Ed Mylett:
But real estate to me has been my passion all my life. It still is. I like making deals. I like negotiating deals. I like creative deals. I’m sort of known as a creative person when I do them. I’ve made money most of the time, although I’ve done two deals this year that I lost significant amount of money on, which is not normal for me, but I’m into the art of the deal. I like cash flow properties. I also like flipping things. People say, I just do multiunit. Okay that’s cool that you specialize there. I just do good deals. So if I can find a duplex that I can flip, I’ll buy it. I’m going to ask her right now on a $250,000 duplex, I’m going to [inaudible 00:31:42] 60 grand.

Brandon Turner:
That’s cool.

Ed Mylett:
I sold it before I bought it. It’s a little dainty deal. You go, “Why would you bother with that?” Because I brought my son into the deal and I want to teach them how to do a deal. I’m also buying a $25 million ocean front home right now, that I’m not going to keep. It’s not for me. So I’m doing all different deals. And I don’t recommend that. If someone says I’m going to specialize in multiunit, become an expert in that, or residential or rehabs or whatever.

Ed Mylett:
I just love real estate. That’s the least known thing about me is that I love making deals, I’m always looking at deals and I’ve found what I have done that’s been critical to me is I have surrounded myself again with people who are winners in that space. I bounce my ideas. I do my deals with them. I have them reevaluate them with me. And I spent the whole weekend doing it, this weekend as a matter of fact. I love doing that and I hope I do more and more of it. I just wish I was a little bit more risk tolerant than I have been all my career. That’s my negative is risk tolerance.

Brandon Turner:
Interesting.

David Greene:
I’ve the same issue. I was thinking about it when I was driving in for this podcast today. Just how I was wrestling in my own head with the fact that I would be much further ahead, but everything I look at is… I was thinking in my mind, I’m a defensive investor.

Ed Mylett:
So am I?

David Greene:
I’m always playing to not lose. And if you’re taking action, you’re still moving the ball down the field. I could be worse at the same time, but there are times where I know there’s a very small chance this won’t work. And I still won’t do it just because of that small chance. Because like you I’m thinking, “Well, I don’t want to lose what I’ve already got.”

Ed Mylett:
You know the other reason why, and this is not a bad thing, bro. Let’s talk about this for a minute. I told you about the… I’ve done about 92 million in deals this year. And a friend of mine was reading that back to me this weekend, well pitching me to buy a deal and the guy’s got two buyers and the pitch was I’m the more real buyer, because I’ve done so many deals this year. So it wasn’t him bragging about me, it was more like selling the seller on me. And I have a lot more friends who used to be rich than currently are, way more. And I tell young investors this all the time, listen to me again, I have far more friends who used to be rich that no longer are than are currently rich. And the reason is they started to do deals that were outside their risk tolerance, that they could stomach, that they understood just to be doing better and different deals.

Ed Mylett:
And so, yeah, I could be a little bit wealthier than I am, but I am also wealthy because I’ve not had monster losses on things. And so I want to lose a little of that as I get older because now it’s to the point where like, I really don’t… I can lose out on deals. And so I don’t think that’s necessarily a negative thing and people that are listening to this that are real estate people, don’t give that part of you up because I’m older than most of you. And I do have a lot of friends who used to do very well in real estate and that one cycle, they just didn’t come back from. And we may be entering that cycle again.

Brandon Turner:
Yeah.

David Greene:
Yeah, that’s true. I mean that, there’s a huge component of it like you’re saying that when everything is coming easy, it’s easy to think it’s always going to be coming easy. And I got started in investing right at the last crash. 2009 is when I bought my first deal. So I watched my career, was built on the mistakes of people that had come five years before me. So I know that colored a lot of how I’m looking at it. But what I was thinking of is I was thinking about how we often talk about at boxer like Floyd Mayweather or a UFC fighter. Floyd Mayweather has the best record of anybody in boxing, but I don’t hear a ton of people that love him or make the argument that he’s the best fighter ever, because it looks like he dodged fights he might lose. He only took a fight he knew he could win.

David Greene:
And the same with a lot of UFC fighters. And I tend to respect the guys that take a fight that they know that they’re not guaranteed to win it. They could lose. It doesn’t affect how I look at their skill and fighting. If you lost to a guy earlier in your career, who’s better than you or you find a guy bigger than you, I lose zero respect. I lost no respect for Michael Jordan when he came back to the wizards, like everyone said. I gained respect that this guy’s willing to go in there at a clear disadvantage because of his age and still compete. I liked seeing that. So what I was thinking with myself is, am I dodging fights that I don’t know I can win because those losses often have a much bigger impact on my life than the wins. But it doesn’t-

Ed Mylett:
The question is this, like I work with a fighter named Mikey Garcia. A lot of you guys would know who he is. He was undefeated. He took a fight with a guy named Errol Spence and the guy is way bigger, shouldn’t have probably fought him, but I respected him, he did it. He lost 11 of the 12 rounds, but he got to fight again. In real estate, if you’re going to take that loss, it better not be where you can’t fight again.

David Greene:
That’s what I was thinking. You can’t-

Ed Mylett:
So there’s a difference.

David Greene:
Traumatic brain injury in that loss.

Ed Mylett:
Right. Exactly. So I’ve always been able to fight again, I guess is my point. And I just love the business. I believe it’s the funnest way to get wealthy. I love what you guys do in it. That’s how I found you guys. That’s how I knew who you guys were. I love people that teach people to do it, discuss it, and make it more real. I’m a product. Someone like you guys intrigued me a hundred million years ago and got me to believe that I could be in the real estate space and put deals together. And they were right. I really learned how to do deals. So I love this space and I’m thrilled that there are guys like you that still… I know you’re doing this show and the other one and all that but I love that they’re different episodes. I love that you bring this to people’s attention because every age… I have a friend of mine who’s 68 years old who’s doing his first deals now. And then my son’s 18 and we just did our first deal together. I love that part of the business.

Brandon Turner:
That’s so good. That’s so good. How many kids do you have?

Ed Mylett:
I have two. I have a 19 year old boy today, it’s his birthday-

Brandon Turner:
Nice.

Ed Mylett:
… and a 17 year old daughter.

Brandon Turner:
Oh very cool. So obviously over the last 19 years, you’ve built a lot of your success and your name today while having that family about life. So how do you balance the family, the work, the ambition with the, “I just want to spend time with the family.” How do you balance that? Because that’s something that I’m really into.

Ed Mylett:
Biggest struggle in my life. Biggest struggle of my entire life is that the guilt of when I’m… So [inaudible 00:37:31] I don’t think you can balance it number one, I think you’re out of balance. It’s a matter of recalibrating all the time. I did a poor job of it when my children were young and I know this is over seven. Here’s what I just finally concluded. Here’s what I do. I’m present where I am. So I used to be… I’d be with my kids and I’m on my phone doing deals and looking at stuff. And so the worst thing in the world happened to me one time, my daughter walked into the room, “Daddy.” And then she walked in, she put a dress on, I looked down at my phone and looked away from her. Just you know how you do that? And what that said to her was who’s ever in this phone is more important than you.

Ed Mylett:
I didn’t need to say a word. And I watched her face change and she turned around and walked out of the room before I looked back up. And I went, “That’s it.” So a couple of things I do that are strategies, when I come home, my phone stays in the car for an hour because I can’t trust myself. So literally when I come home, my phone stays in my car for one hour. I do not have it in my possession. I walk in, I’m present. My kids don’t want me to be there for eight or nine hours present. They get sick of me too. They need me to be there right away, when I come home, bring energy, dad’s home, boom. Be there. That’s it every single age. They don’t need eight or nine hours. And quite frankly, many men aren’t wired to be eight or nine straight hours with a child. They need a break for 15 minutes.

Ed Mylett:
I have buddies of mine that go into the bathroom and to be taking a poop so they can get away from their family and kids for 30 minutes. And so if you have that innately in you, I know it’s all the dudes are laughing right there like, “I actually do that.” So just get some alone time, right? Some men are wired like, “I can go 29 straight hours with my kids. No break whatsoever.” I’m that dude, I need a little bit of a break just to… I may [inaudible 00:39:02] sounds cold, but I need a little bit of a break. So I’ve learned me. I’m present with my today. When we’re done with this, I have one other call I’m taking the rest of the day off. I’m playing golf with my son. It’s his birthday. I’m a present father, but I’m gone a lot. And so I just try to bring my energy…

Ed Mylett:
Here’s the mistake I made. I was one energized dude on a podcast, or a speech, or in public, and then I’d come home and there was nothing to give my family even when I was there. I was a little grumpy, little quiet, little distracted, little bit aloof almost even with my own family. And my dad actually said to me, he was, “How about you be that dude in here and every once in a while, be a little bit tired and aloof in public?” And I’m like, “You’re right.” And so I just give them my best energy. I’m the leader of the family. I’m supposed to bring the game, the energy, the pizzazz, the juice. And I do a really good job of it knowing that I’m going to be out of balance all of the time. The other thing is you don’t give yourself enough credit that your kids are duplicating.

Ed Mylett:
The reason I’m a hard worker is I watched my old man work his ass off. He was gone at five and came back when it was dark out every single day. And my kids have seen someone work their tail off. The second thing is I happened to have a wife who I met in kindergarten. Who’s my complete polar opposite. She’s got no ambition, no drive, no goals, nothing written down whatsoever, but incredibly high standards as to what she wants to be as a mother. So it comes very natural to her. So she’s let me be who I am most of the time. So that’s how it’s worked.

Brandon Turner:
That’s exactly my relationship with my wife, Heather. I can’t get her on the show. We’re 400 episodes in now. And I can’t get my wife-

Ed Mylett:
Neither.

Brandon Turner:
Yeah, she’s like, “I don’t want to do that show. I don’t want to be known.” I don’t know if it’s [crosstalk 00:40:37] you could follow.

Ed Mylett:
I can’t put her on Instagram. I can’t tag her in anything. And I used to think, man, for the men they say, “Yeah, we cool, man.” What if someone who’s like a running mate? We drive each other crazy. I got enough juice and ambition and drive for 700 people. I need someone who’s my opposite. Who just like, “It’s going to be okay.” Like, “Can we just enjoy tonight?” So that’s what I have too. Same thing.

David Greene:
Well, that’s what I was thinking of as you were talking, is that there’s different ways we expel energy. I think all three of us here are sprinters. I go into it with everything I have. I picked that up, playing sports. I got two and a half minutes before the next time out in a basketball game. I need to be exhausted when I hit that point. But when you’re exhausted, you don’t have a lot to offer. You need to go just rest. And you need to pair yourself with a marathon person. It sounds like your wife, she knows like, “Okay, I’m doing this, and I’m doing this. I can’t be caught without energy,” which allows you Ed, to go out there and swing for the knockout. And then when you’re recovering, they’re going in. Brandon and Heather, I watch them, they’re the same way. Heather is like, never misses a thing. Brandon’s out there doing a million things at and then just…

Ed Mylett:
Very true. She’s a marathoner and I’m a sprinter. And by the way, not to be really corny, but I do catch her with her pants down a lot. And let me tell you what-

David Greene:
I know as soon as I said that.

Ed Mylett:
No, no. No, no. [inaudible 00:41:52] You know when you said it, but I’m going to go there. People have asked me like, “What’s the key to a marriage. One of the keys.” Because I’ve had a long one. Yeah, you got to be best friends, right? But I don’t want to live with one of you two who could be my best friend.

David Greene:
I know exactly what you’re saying.

Ed Mylett:
These are important things that are never talked about on podcasts. Your wife’s got to be your best friend. Make sure you have open lines of communication. Yeah, make sure you catch each other with your pants down to enough. And there’s a lot of people listening right now going, “You know what man, that is one of our problems in our marriage. We’ve got the kids. We’re busy. Things are changed. It’s not like it was before. I’m expending all this energy outside. She’s doing what she’s doing.” You better have time for that stuff to have a rich marriage in life that’ll continue to push you to be successful elsewhere. That is not a small thing. What we just talked about is a huge thing for me in my relationship, because we don’t have a perfect relationship. I’ve known her 40 years. You just run out of stuff to talk about.

David Greene:
You guys met in kindergarten, right?

Ed Mylett:
Yeah. More than 40 years. 45 years.

Brandon Turner:
Yeah, wow.

Ed Mylett:
So this is an important part of it.

David Greene:
So the point of you being a generous man, Ed thank you for saving me for using a terrible analogy when I was talking about… I owe you one brother, go ahead, Brandon.

Ed Mylett:
You don’t catch her with her pants down very often. Bro you’d be surprised.

Brandon Turner:
That’s funny, man. All right. Well we got to start wrapping this thing up because I know we got to get out of here. And Ed has been fantastic. We have four final questions we’d like to ask everybody at the end of our show. It’s time for our famous four. This is the part of the show where we ask the same four questions to every guest every week. So Ed the first question that we ask is what’s your… We asked, what’s your favorite real estate related book. Now you’re not necessarily like the real estate guest that we went to bring on. Do have a real estate book? If not, I have an alternate question we ask people when they don’t do real estate.

Ed Mylett:
Yeah. I liked The art of the deal, even though he didn’t write. I do. I like The art of the deal. So I liked it because I love the art of the deal. I love putting the deal together. I think, not to be long-winded but to be great at real estate, you have to have a passion for putting the deals together. Not just the math, not just the numbers, but some passion to put a deal together. And so I’m a big believer in that and the ability to negotiate. So that’d be one.

David Greene:
Awesome. All right. Do you have a favorite business book?

Ed Mylett:
Max Out Your Life by Ed Mylett.

Brandon Turner:
Mm-hmm (affirmative). Ed, why have I not read that book yet?

Ed Mylett:
Are you crazy?

Brandon Turner:
I’m going to pick it up today. [inaudible 00:44:21]

Ed Mylett:
Okay. Actually, I’ll give you one that you’ve not heard of everybody. I just re-read the E-Myth by Michael Gerber. It’s a tremendous business book-

Brandon Turner:
So good.

Ed Mylett:
… that’s just undervalued. E-Myth, Michael Gerber.

Brandon Turner:
Yeah, so good.

David Greene:
All right. When you’re not making tons of content, crushing it in sports, building up a big empire of wealth and real estate. What are some of your hobbies?

Ed Mylett:
Well, I do work out, but I’m a big comedy club guy. If you know a lot of the clients that I work with, a lot of them are comedians. I’ve had them on my show. I love the laugh, man. I love brilliant people. I’m a comedy club addict before COVID. I just adore brilliant people who can get up and walk to a microphone and create laughter in a room. And because I’m a public speaker, I study their nuances, their intricacies, the way they deliver their message. I love comedy.

Brandon Turner:
Who are some of your favorites?

Ed Mylett:
Sebastian Maniscalco, who’s been on my show, who’s one of my best friends. There’s a guy that just passed away. No one’s ever heard of named Kevin Meaney, who is just a very different standup. Whitney Cummings who’s been on my show I think is brilliant. I think Kevin Hart’s very, very funny. Probably my favorite guy though, is Dave Chappelle. I just think he’s brilliant. And I love people that make you think that are different. I’ve seen Norm Macdonald probably 30 times. I just love the quirky weird dudes. Just a bunch. Many of these guys went… Frank Caliendo is an impressionist.

Brandon Turner:
So good.

David Greene:
Yeah, he is.

Brandon Turner:
So good.

Ed Mylett:
Frank is absolutely hilarious. And it’s the funnest thing in the world to get voice notes from a dear friend like that because it’s never him. Good morning it’s Morgan Freeman. I get birthday wishes from Al Pacino and John Maden. And so that’s a thing, man. Those are brilliant artists. Literally brilliant artists. Ray Romano’s a neighbor of mine. Ray is brilliant. I love his type of comedy. Seinfeld, I think is stand. I didn’t like the show but I do like Jerry’s stand up. They’re just all… there’s so many. They’re brilliant people.

Brandon Turner:
That’s what it is. I don’t think people understand the brilliance that goes into an amazing comedian. It’s not just like they’re funny people they’re-

Ed Mylett:
No. And to know them, there’s the art of the deal. So I love to watch them start to work on a bit a year and a half before they actually refine it on stage. Like, “Hey, I got this thing I’m working on about tricycles and bananas.” And then they work it out over a year and negotiate it and then try it in front of the audience and the risk that you’re willing to take when you’re a comedian and you’re doing new material, I relate to this as a speaker, brand new stuff. You’re like, “That didn’t work.” So it’s an art of the deal. It’s not that far removed from being successful at other things.

David Greene:
That’s awesome. Frank Caliendo is the Bo Jackson of comedians. Remember when we were watching Bo, but we didn’t quite know how amazing of a person we were watching until later we look back and we’re like, “What was that guy doing?” How did he do all of that?”

Ed Mylett:
I’ll give you a one Frank Caliendo anecdote. I go to see him for the first time. He knows I’m going to be there. He comes out, and by the way, only half the audience probably knows who I am, right? The other half are like, “Who’s he doing? He did the first 10 minutes of the show as me.

David Greene:
No way.

Ed Mylett:
You talk of all the guts that takes? Half these people at least have no idea who I am. He’s coming out, “Mr [inaudible 00:47:29],” and he does this whole… And he wouldn’t stop it for like 10 minutes. And I’m like, “Frank, this is not killing.

Brandon Turner:
That’s funny.

Ed Mylett:
I think people have no clue who the hell you’re talking about. He did not care he was going to do that show is me.

David Greene:
Funny.

Ed Mylett:
So that was pretty awesome.

David Greene:
That’s so funny.

Brandon Turner:
All right last question from me. What do you think separates successful people? If you had to narrow it down to one thing, successful people from those who give up or they fail or they never get started?

Ed Mylett:
Their will to win can’t be bought. So I have this thing that I’ve been talking about a lot lately that your will to win can’t be for sale. For most people, here’s the truth. Because I almost got there. With enough failure, enough rejection, or even enough success, their will to continue to win, can be purchased for a price. With enough pain, enough suffering, or even enough success, you’ve seen this too, they just relent. And they go, “Yeah, it’s enough.” Or, “It wasn’t for me.” Or, “Didn’t quite work out.” No, you sold your family, man. You sold your dream. You sold your destiny. You sold your will to win. You cashed in the chips. You cashed them in. For most people, enough failure they’ll relent eventually. Or then you’ve seen this other guys, “I got enough money now, I got enough this.” Their reasons were that they relent their will to win.

Ed Mylett:
For me, and I know you’ve heard me talk about this before, but it’s a deep seated thing with me. I believe I’m going to die someday. We’ve talked about faith. I believe God created me to be a particular dude. I believe he introduces you to the dude you could have been. I think he literally says, “Hey ed, here is the dude you could have been that you were born to be, the experiences, the memories, the places, the contribution, the different, the feelings, the emotions, the family, the friends, all of it. Here’s who you could’ve been.” And to me, that’s why I’m here today. I’m chasing that guy. I want to be him. That’s who I’m capable of being. Heaven, is you die and you meet that person, you’re identical twins. Hell is you meet this person you could’ve been and you’re complete strangers. And you live in eternity knowing you didn’t become the man you could have been when you were here or the woman.

Ed Mylett:
And so for me, I’m chasing that guy. So my will cannot be bought because I’m ultimately chasing that dude. It’s not a dollar amount, or a podcast, or an amount of downloads, or who loves me or doesn’t love me, I’m chasing that guy God made me to be ultimately, and I’m a miles away, miles away. Thing I admire about my dad, I’ll tell you last for your audience. My dad had been sober 34 years. It’ll be 35 years this April. My dad had lung issues. So my dad was literally ventilator, respirator. Before they took my dad away to the hospital The last time, my dad’s whole life was about helping other people get sober. And he did this anonymously in AA. I never met any of these people. Although it is service, I learned about them.

Ed Mylett:
Convicts getting up, entertainers, “Ed Mylett change my…” My dad had the same name as me. It’s pretty emotional to hear. As my dad’s being pulled away, no joke guys, my dad’s being pulled away in the ambulance with oxygen on. He cannot breathe. I mean, watching your father struggle to breathe like three breaths a minute, four breaths a minute, it’s pretty emotional. My dad’s phone keeps ringing and he’s got it in his hand on the stretcher that he’s on there pulling away, my dad grabs the phone, pulls the oxygen out and he takes a call from man who was struggling to go back to drinking again, who he was sponsoring. And I’ve never said this ever. My dad stopped the two men driving the ambulance and said, “Please stop.” And I watched him. And he talked to this man like that for 30 minutes and saved him, put the oxygen back in. And four days later, my dad died.

Brandon Turner:
Wow.

Ed Mylett:
But what I admire about my father is my dad was still chasing that dude up until the very end, because it wasn’t about… it was who he was. It was who he was capable of being. It was one more person he could help. I’m not that good a man. I’m not even close to that, but I admire and love my dad so much because he could never articulate it like I just said, will to win and chasing that dude. He was just constantly being the man he was capable of becoming up until his literally his last breaths, no joke. And so for me, that’s the example that… I get really emotional about that. But that’s the example that I want to set when I’m saying I’m chasing a dude. You are not going to buy my will to win. That ain’t who I am. And I hope people listening to this or watching it, you can’t be bought either with success or failure.

Brandon Turner:
Wow, thank you. Thank you.

David Greene:
Thanks for sharing that. That was very powerful.

Ed Mylett:
My honor.

David Greene:
Ed for people that want to know more about you, where’s the best place for them to find out?

Ed Mylett:
Edmylett.com. M-Y-L-E-T-T or Instagram Ed Mylett. All my stuff, YouTube, whatever you want.

Brandon Turner:
All right man. Well thank you so much. This has been phenomenal. And yeah, this is one of those episodes I’m going to listen to several times. So thank you.

Ed Mylett:
Honored. I’m so impressed with both of you, by the way. Sincerely. So thank you. And you know, I’ve got to jump on this other thing, but it’s been my honor. If I can do it again, let me know how I can help.

Brandon Turner:
Awesome, man. We’ll do, thank you.

David Greene:
Thanks Ed. And happy birthday Max, go beat your dad at golf.

Ed Mylett:
I’ll tell him he said that.

David Greene:
All right. Take care.

Brandon Turner:
All right. And that was our talk with our talk with Ed Mylett. Man, I’ve been looking forward to that interview for quite some time. And man, Ed totally delivered. I just love his way of storytelling, his way of explaining things, his way of seeing the world for what it is and what it isn’t. Just really, really good stuff. David, what’d you get out of today’s show.

David Greene:
It’s such a powerful mindset that he’s got. I mean, that’s what we all really need. And I’ll tell you what I thought was really cool is that he got started in real estate. His whole journey started by going to an event where they were teaching to buy real estate with no and low money down. And now he’s created an entire empire built on basically the principles of Brandon Turner’s book. So thank you, Brandon.

Brandon Turner:
Well, it’s pretty much me that made Ed successful. I mean, we all know that. So wow. What a great show. I’m just still buzzing from this interview.

David Greene:
I would think the most important thing we talked about, well, there was a lot of them, but in my opinion would be the standards concept.

Brandon Turner:
Yeah so good.

David Greene:
Don’t set goals, set standards.

Brandon Turner:
Set standards.

David Greene:
I mean, that is brilliant. We’ve kind of touched on that maybe in the last couple months, just if you want to raise your success rate standards, but when Ed Mylett is telling you, the only thing that separates a successful person from a not successful person is their standard. It’s pretty powerful.

Brandon Turner:
Yeah, that’s so good.

David Greene:
So like Brandon, I’ll give you this, you tell people analyze a hundred years. Now you know when you’re doing that, you’re helping them get over their fear of making a bad decision. You’re helping build up their excellence. But what you are really doing is forcing them to develop a standard of analyzing a hundred deals before they even write an offer. And the things you pick up in the process of analyzing a hundred deals will raise your standards in other areas of real estate, wealth building, time management, leverage, recognizing patterns, and whatever you’re trying to do. It does a ton for you. And that’s what I’d say going into 2021, what I’m most passionate about myself and in others is let’s just attack where we have low standards and raise those and let success come to us.

Brandon Turner:
Yeah. An example of that would be like, “Hey, my goal is to lose 20 pounds. My standard is I want to be somebody who works out every day.” That was actually something I said a year ago. I said, “I want to be somebody who works out every single day, or just about every single day.” I don’t want to be crazy, right? So then I set a goal of working out 300 times last year, which I hit. But I don’t care about the 300 if I got 299 or 298. I mean, the standard is I don’t miss my goal, that’s another standard. But the number’s not as important. What I’m trying to develop is to be somebody who is somebody who works out. That’s a standard. I work out regularly.

Brandon Turner:
This year I’m shifting my standard. A couple of things I’m working towards. Number one is really being a person who just takes care of their body about what they eat. And I don’t have a really great phrase for that yet. And I’m going to come up with something good. But again, I’m not going to go straight vegan. I don’t want to be a straight vegan. I like meat, occasionally. But I want to be somebody who like just… Think of Ed, if you guys knew what Ed looked like, if you’re listening to this, you don’t know what he looks like. The guy is like a chiseled Greek God, I don’t know. The guy’s just built and works out. You can clearly see and eats super healthy.

Brandon Turner:
I don’t see him just sitting around eating like three [inaudible 00:55:26] of nachos, because he’s at the movies. That’s just what he does. It wouldn’t even occur to him. He mentioned the word identity earlier, and that’s kind of where I want my identity. I want my standard to be somebody who just doesn’t reach for the chocolate, who doesn’t reach for the sugar. My standard is I just drink water, a lot of it. And eat really nutritious food, mostly plants. And so that sounds like a really good standard. Another standard that I’m working toward is to be someone like… and maybe you could call it a goal, but I don’t think so. I think that this is where he getting that standard. Remember how he tells a story about the kid? When his daughter comes in the room and he looks down at his phone.

Brandon Turner:
So I have done this exact thing, where I don’t even mean to it’s just like… Rosie will be talking to me and I will look down, and I see the same thing. She’s like, “Dad.” She’ll even say, “Dad, dad, dad, can I talk to you?” So what I’m working on this year and I’ve been working at, the person I’m becoming is somebody my kids don’t see me out with my phone ever. That’s kind of my new rule is like, my kids do not see me with a phone. I can be on the phone if I’m in the bathroom, fine. I’ll scroll my Instagram or whatever. But if I’m in the room with my kid, I don’t want them ever see me touching my phone unless I’m getting GPS directions in the car. That’s just a standard that I want to set for myself because I don’t want to ever again, see my daughter or my son take second place to that phone. So again, another standard that I’m working on, what about you?

David Greene:
I love how intentional you are about that. That’s just something I keep telling you that I see you doing and really excelling at is you say, “Okay, I see an area where I need to raise a standard.” Let’s say it’s working out, and I want everyone else to understand what Brandon’s doing because this will work for anyone. Then you say, “What would stop me for working out? Well, first off my willpower, I don’t really love working out.” Brandon, would you admit you’re not really a workout.

Brandon Turner:
Correct, I hate the gym. I hate running.

David Greene:
Yes. It was not your identity as a young person to work out. Working out is much easier for me, eating what good is very hard, I would say for me. But I grew up playing sports. So working out is normal. You say, “All right, my willpower will let me down.” And you’ve literally said when I say, “Hey, let’s go lift weights.” You’re like, “I got to drive. It’s like 12 minutes there. And I got to drive 12 minutes back. I might hit a red light. Then I got to shower. I don’t want to do it.” That’s all it takes to break your will. So you say, “I’m going to have them come to me because I don’t like letting people down. And I don’t like disappointing them. So if my personal trainer shows up at my place. I’m going to work out.”

David Greene:
It’s so simple and so brilliant. Now you’re getting workouts in, and I see you applying that same principle to everything else. “Okay, here’s the area where I’d like results. Here’s the standard that I’d have to improve. Here’s the thing I will do to make sure that I don’t cheat myself out of it.” And that three-step process. I’m watching your life change. You’re getting to become your own version of a tan chiseled version of Groot from Guardians of the Galaxy. And it’s very impressive. Now I’m feeling the heat from you to be honest, because you’re in my top five people I spend time with to raise my own standards, which is exactly what Ed talked about in the show today.

Brandon Turner:
Well, thank you for that. It’s interesting how this stuff applies to our life. Everything Ed’s saying, a guy worth hundreds of millions of dollars or whatever. I don’t know his exact net worth. It’s huge. But how this stuff applies, whether you’re talking about trying to buy your first duplex, you’re trying to lose 10 pounds. You’re trying to improve your marriage with your spouse. The same concepts apply across the board. So go back and listen to this episode again, if you feel like you maybe need another pickup in the future, pick me up in the future, or you just want to just really dig into what he’s saying.

Brandon Turner:
Because this stuff, if you apply this, this stuff he talked about today will make you successful. Now, before we get out of here today, Like I said, I want to play that clip from the GoBundance, I think it was winter event last year. I think it was where it was from last January, I believe. Because yeah, I did, while they’re two months old so I couldn’t get there. So go listen now. We’re going to play that right now for you and enjoy.

Ed Mylett:
This is me and my son. My son’s a golfer, was a golfer, but I was a baseball player, pretty good baseball player. And we ended up moving back to the same hometown. My wife and I met when we were five and four years old. And we grew up on the same street. And then ultimately I moved back to that same town, my mom and dad, her mom and dad, all three of my sisters, all her sisters, eight of them all live in this town. So my son started to play sports. It was the same little league field I played on and my daughter’s very coordinated. She’s me. My son, probably there should be a DNA test, right? He’s much bigger. He’s not coordinated. In fact to this day, he is so uncoordinated. I do not know if my son is left or right-handed.

Ed Mylett:
So when he would play baseball, he went left either righty, left either righty. This poor kid has done more of these on fly balls and got hit in the face. He can not catch a freaking ball to save his life. And it was just getting bad in sports and I wouldn’t push him, but I didn’t coach. I don’t want to be compared. I don’t have any of you relate to this. And my son played sports. Then we moved to the desert. And when I moved to Palm Desert area, a lot of professional golfers live out there. I’m like, “Max should pick up golf.” Again, We went left to right, left to right. We couldn’t figure it out. Finally, I just made sports all about fun. So for years, my son golfed. This is at a golf tournament at the Madison club we were at and my son is this kid.

Ed Mylett:
I’m a goofy guy. And my son kind of had used clubs and I was his golf coach with no lessons. And just ragtag, you can’t tell, but it’s hats on crooked and just a terrible player. An so we would play in these tournaments every week and I loved it because I would caddy. And I thought, because I’m a busy guy, I get the five hours with my boy and we’d have year after year of these beautiful times together. And I was like, I’d tell him before every tournament, “Hey, whether you win or lose, daddy loves you the same, right? If you win by 10 shots… He goes, “I know dad, if I lose by 10, you love me just the same.” And he would take me up on it and lose by 10 shots.

Ed Mylett:
Every week, week after week, my son would finish last, last, last, second to last, last, last, and there’s nothing wrong with it. We were having a good time. It really was bonding and he’s such a sweet boy. He’d top one into a Lake and the other kid had a good drive, “Good drive Ian, that was awesome.” Because he’s got all this stuff I teach, right? He was sincerely happy if you’d birdie and he’d get a 12, right? And I’ve already cursed twice, forgive my language. It’s just for this use of this story, okay? So we’d done that for years and every week I’d caddy, I’m out there in Adidas and I’m a big dude at the time and tank top on and my tattoos and we’re playing against pro golfers.

Ed Mylett:
They’re matching clothes. The dads dressed to the nines. This guy you just saw on TV last week and I’m just encouraging my kid. These other dads are really stern. So finally it was a life-changing day for my son. And I share this with you because maybe it’ll be for you as a dad, a businessman, whatever. We’d play nine holes. And I get emotional, I tell you this, but we’d play nine and my son was down by 12 shots in last place. And at that tournament, there was a tee box over there. They would get the kids lunch. Well, this day the lunches were way over there. And the tee box is like several hundred yards away. And one of the dads who I didn’t like, who I won’t say his name, we’ll call him Dick, which is actually his name, Very fitting.

Ed Mylett:
Mr. Dressed up and he’s won some professional tournaments and his kid was a beast and my kid’s ragtag. And anyway, at the turn, he says, “Hey, guys? Why don’t you guys go to the tee box? Have Max go grab your sandwiches. He’s not in this thing anyways. Max, go get their sandwiches.” And Max goes, “Okay.” I said, “Stop.” I said, no, can I curse one time?

Audience:
Yeah.

Ed Mylett:
Or not.

Audience:
Yeah.

Speaker 6:
We’ll be upset if you didn’t.

Ed Mylett:
Okay. I said, “What the fuck did you just say yo my son?” I said, “Don’t you ever fucking talk to my son like that again? You understand me? You never talked to my son like that again.” And I was the nice dad. I said, “I’ll tell you what, we’ll go get the sandwiches.” And I’m shaking. And little Max was there. And I got down like this. Max is eight, 10 years old. I said, “Come here.” I said, “Max, come here.” I said, “We’re going to fucking win today. That’s it. That’s it. You understand me?” And I’m holding him. He was scared the hell out of me. He goes, “Dad, you love me when…” I go, “Not today. No one talks to our family like that. You hear me? We’re going to win Max. You’ve got a great swing.”

Ed Mylett:
All of a sudden, all this stuff I teach, I never did. “You’ve got a beautiful swing. We could kick these guys’ ass Max. We’re going to do this. Here’s what we’re going to do.” I’d never did this. I said, “I pick the club. You don’t get to pick the club. Daddy’s going to tell you exactly what club to hit.” Look at my hand right now. Look at it, I’m serious. I said, “Daddy’s going to pick the club. Okay? And you don’t practice swing. You just do your thing. You take that beautiful swing of yours. We’re going to fucking win today Max.” My son had never heard me curse. Just so you know, my wife’s father is a pastor so is her brother. He never heard these words before. I said, “We’re going to win.”

Ed Mylett:
And I’m touching him and I said, “I’ll go get the sandwiches. You walk up to the tee box.” And I said, “You grab a three iron.” He goes, “Dad, it’s a drive.” I just got dizzy. I’m so fired up, seriously. I said, “You hit that three iron down there.” Because I know if it’s a driver it’s going to go into another damn house. We’re down 12 shots man with nine to go. 28 kids in this tournament. And I go grab the sandwiches and I watch him walking with his little golf bag like Max always walked. And I come and get him, and I’m watching them from a distance. I see this three iron perfect [inaudible 01:04:39] right down the middle. And I get up there and he kind of hands me the club, “Here you go, dad.” And I go, “We’re going to win, Max. We’re going to win.” [inaudible 01:04:48] he goes, “I felt good dad.”

Ed Mylett:
We get to the middle of the fairway. I get an eight iron and I go, “Max, hit this eight iron, no practice swings hit this thing 10 feet lift to the pin. Let’s get this thing to…” I’d never talked to him like that. Now we’re talking about winning. I can’t even finish this story. I’m so out of breath. This is not to play to you. I’m dead serious, man. So he hits this eight iron about 20 feet left of the pin. He kind of twirls the club back at me. In the hand I’m carrying his bag. Now he’s kind of walking down the fairway like this. I’d never seen my son walk like that before. This is becoming a different young man. We get to the green. Normally Max just walks up, putts. I said, “Hey, read the putt, buddy. Read the putt.” And he’s kind of looking on both sides of the putt. Has no idea what he’s actually looking at.

Ed Mylett:
No idea. Just kind of giving it one of these. He gets up, takes the putter back. God’s so good by the way, takes the putter… Drain a birdie. Yeah birdie. Never made a birdie before. “How’s that feel?” He goes, “That felt good dad.” The other guy’s like, “It’s just a birdie dude. It’s one home.” I go, “That’s amazing.” They never do that with their kid. They never celebrate. It’s all business. So we get to the next hole. It’s a par five. This is how good God is. Max bombs a driver down the middle. They all hit their drives. It’s a late on a par five. They all lay up. We got to go. We’re down 11 now. I go, “Hit the three-wood on the green buddy.” He’s like, “Dad, it’s 220.” He’s 10 years old. I go, “Smash this three-wood pal.” And he gets over, comes back, hits a beautiful three-word. I’m going, “Jesus, please, if you’ve ever given me anything, all the sinning, just set it aside for one minute. Give me one man.”

Ed Mylett:
And this thing’s in the air. And there’s this brick wall with rock on it. And we’re so far away. “Please God, please.” And it hits. And it goes [inaudible 01:06:40] on the wall. My heart sinks. Straight up in the air from where we are. This is true story. I swear to you. [inaudible 01:06:47] And somehow it had gone forward onto the green rolls forward, into the cup for a deuce, for a two on a par five. Yeah. “Can you believe this buddy.” He’s like, “It went in, I’m freaking [inaudible 01:07:02].” I’m taking pictures and I want to [inaudible 01:07:06] like, “What the going on with Max? What happened on the sandwich break?” Fast forward 17th hole, he’s down a shot.

Audience:
Wow.

Ed Mylett:
He’s down damn a shot. He’s in second place. Dick’s son’s in first the other kid’s in third, gets over to hall. I said, “Now,” I said, “Max, there’s another eight arm.” I said, “Hit that eight arm. Eight feet left to the hole. Put up the tide.” He goes, “Okay, dad.” Hits it about eight feet left of the hole. Now every single par, Max is really reading it. “What do you think dad? 12 feet, left or right?” I’m like, “Yes. Sounds good, dude.” Makes another birdie. We’re even going into 18. My son is now even. Shoulders are back, walking strong, 18 hits his drive down the middle, all three boys due. And he’s still down one, forgive me. He’s down one on 18, he was down two on 17. Now he’s down one on 18. No he’s not, he’s even. There’s a lake in front of the whole. Max is the longer of the three balls.

Ed Mylett:
I hear Dick say to his son, I won’t say the son’s name, “Hey don’t hit it in the lake.” I said, “Max, he’s commanded in the lake.” You don’t tell someone what not to do, man. Sure enough he dunks it in the lake. I said, “Max, eight iron again.” It was another eight iron. “Just hit this thing 10 feet left of the hole, man. Let’s get the hell out of here.” He goes, “Okay dad.” He hits it about 15 feet left of the hole. This little boy was a great player. He gets up chips it to about an inch, taps in. So here’s the deal. Max has a putt. If he two putts, they tie and go to a playoff. If he one putts, they win.

Ed Mylett:
Now Mr. MaxOut, stupid me over here, is telling him what to do all day. We get to the green and I kind of do a little bit of what the other dad says. I go, “Hey max, this thing’s downhill. Don’t get it too far past the hole. We two putt, we get out of here.” My little boy, who’s never said anything like this to my life. He goes, “Dad, I’m going to make it.” I said, “Well, knock this sucker in. Let’s get the hell out of here with a victory buddy.” He goes, “All right, dad.” Sure enough walks over the putt, gives it this bullshit look, like he always does. Gets over that thing, takes the putter back. That thing was halfway to the hole and he’s walking it in the cup. Bam, drains it, pulls it out. “Yeah dad.” There’s no one there, but you’d have thought we’d won the masters.

Ed Mylett:
Now let me show you something. Let me just show you this. That’s my son warming up that day on the range, but I didn’t tell you another thing. You know tiger wears red on Sunday. Max had a blue shirt in his golf bag. So when he got the sandwiches, I said, “I want you to switch shirts, put your blue shirt on. That’s going to be your winning shirt today buddy,” just to change his identity. So he changed to the blue shirt. This is him winning the medal that day. That’s my little guy. Look at that face. Now watch this. I’m not bragging because he’s still… we don’t know if he’s left or right-handed. He won 17 straight tournaments after that day. That’s him shooting 64, winning. That’s me and him last two weeks ago in Cabo. I told you, there’s a genetic difference. And that’s him, son and his full ride golf scholarship last week. He’s going to play college golf.

Ed Mylett:
Why do I tell you that? What’s the lesson there? My son stopped playing golf and decided to win at golf. He got intentional about winning. So I’m telling you, you got to get intentional about winning in your life. You got to get intentional with your family about winning. Maybe you’re doing really well compared to what, compared to who. What if you ran for a week with me? What if you ran for the week with guys I run with? You got to get intentional about winning. What changed my son’s life was deciding he was going to compete to win and not just play, not just frivolously go through the motions of the exercise of golfing, but intending to win. There’s a power to intending to win, to getting clear about what you want and lasering in on it. And then the momentum of getting that going as good as you are now, I’m a totally different man than I was 10 years ago because I’ve got life momentum.

Ed Mylett:
I’m stacking win, on top of win, on top of win. So when I lose that’s the aberration. It’s like now when he misses a putt, he literally says, “That’s not me.” Whereas before it was automatic, it wasn’t him to make one. You got to get intentional about winning where the aberration is when you lose. You got to get a little bit more intentional. A little bit more focused, a little bit more serious about your whole damn life. If you get anything out of what I’ve said here today, that there is a level you can go higher at, this is the level. The level is getting really damn serious about winning. In every area, winning in fun, winning in family. But you know what I’m talking about, dialing that focus in a little more lasered to winning. That’s the only thing that changed his life. He still isn’t coordinated. He just is a winner now. He flat wins. That’s his identity. And so now he’s going to go compete at a different level. So that’s my story.

Speaker 6:
Awesome.

David Greene:
All right. Hope you guys enjoyed that speech, and hope you enjoyed our interview with Ed Mylett. I hope that you incorporate a lot of what he’s talking about into 2021 to make it the best year you’ve ever had. Brandon and I are going to get out of here and we will see you guys next week. This is David Greene for Brandon, the halfway vegan Turner signing off.

Outro:
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