 You can now follow me on all my social media platforms to find out who my latest guest will be and don't forget to click the subscribe button and the notifications bell so you are notified for when my next podcast goes live. But I was around gangsters, I was around drug dealers, I was around all of them and you know so for me I got very, very lucky. May of 2004 was probably the month where I knew I was going to be a millionaire for a fact because I was willing to do the work. So I was an hour late, maybe an hour and a half late because I was leaving Jordan Belfort's house from Wolf of Wall Street. So we got there and his wife is not happy with us because they were going to church that night. And we're at his house in his living room, we set up the set, he gets up there, he does the interview in his socks. Then I got on a call with Sammy DeBull Gravano who had just gotten out at the time. He was upset about the interview. So here's all I'll tell you, they best get this guy because if he comes out and he's free, oh my gosh. Can you imagine if he comes out and he's free what his first life is going to be like? It could break the record. Being offended is not a new thing. That's been around for a long time. Just nobody gave a shit back in the days. Everything is about you got to be careful. You cross the line. You're finding too much. You broke their feelings. You broke them. Oh, stop it already. Man, everything is about you hurt someone's feelings. My feelings are hurt every day. Does anybody care about it? No. Boom, we're on. And today's guest, we've got Patrick Bate David. Patrick, how are you, brother? It's great to be with you, man. I'm doing good. Yeah. Great to be with you all. So that big fan of your show, everything you've achieved through the years where you've came from to what you're doing now. I kind of try and replicate some of your interviews. I think what you do is one of the best interviews on the planet. I think the work that you've done over the years, the conversations that you've had, you've kind of left the blueprint for guys like myself to try and work towards that kind of heights that you got to. But first and foremost, how are you? I'm doing good, man. I'm doing really good. It's a good start to the day. Excited to do this interview with you, man. Yeah. Perfect. I always like to go back to the start with my guest, Pat. Kind of where you grew up and how it all began. Yeah. Born and raised in Iran. I lived there for 10 years. When the war broke out in Iran between them and Iraq, it was pretty ugly. My mom was concerned. We escaped July of 1989. We went to Germany. I lived at a refugee camp in Germany for a year and a half. Then I came to the States, LA, California, grew up here, then joined the army, got out of the army, wanted to be a bodybuilder. Instead, I went into financial services. I became a stockbroker with Morgan Stanley Dean Witter. Then I left them, eventually started my own insurance company and grew it from 66 agents to 40,000 agents. I just sold the company recently, less than a year ago. And then at the same time started a YouTube channel and then it grew into a media company and a consulting company. See back in the day, in the 80s, when the war was starting with Iran and Iraq, how difficult was that to live in those conditions? You know the best answer I get when I ask anyone where they're from? I'll ask you, so did you grow up here? No, I'm not from Miami. Where'd you grow up? Ohio. Till what age? 17. What city? Great. All right. So how was it growing up there? They'll say, it's the only thing I knew. It was great. For me, growing up in Iran, we would watch movies about U.S. James and we would think that was fake. We were like, there's no way a life like that exists because Iran was in such turmoil that you couldn't believe that kids could grow up with peace of mind and not having to worry about war and not being bombed on all this other stuff. So it was all I knew. And then eventually when we went to Germany and for the first time in my life I had pineapple and banana. I was 10 years old. I ate pineapple. I'm like, this is the greatest fruit in the world. I can't even believe this wasn't in Iran. We call pineapple ananas in Farsi. So I'm like, this is my favorite fruit officially. And then I had banana because those two fruits in Iran, those were rich man's fruits, anybody that ate it. That and Nutella. If you had Nutella, you were rolling in Iran. We considered you a rich man. Anyways, eventually we came here, but it was a unique experience living in Iran. How do you then separate from the life that you live now to back then? Can you appreciate life? Did you appreciate life more once good things started happening to you? Or is it hard to forget about the shit that you went through as a kid? I think one of the biggest gifts for business, for military, for leadership is the gift of paranoia. And the gift of paranoia we rarely talk about because, wow, you know, two paranoid skits. So this, this dad, you sure you want to talk about paranoia? Isn't it about peace of mind and fulfillment and all this other stuff? Yes. But do you follow sports? James, are you a sports guy? Are you a soccer guy? So over here. Okay. So think about if everybody on the team was a goalie, you probably wouldn't win the World Cup. Think about if everybody on the team was a midfielder and they're trying to play defense and they're trying to be, think about if your goalie was Messi's height, it's probably not a good goalie. You know, goalie's got to be tall, long, tough, strong attitude. Like you got to have a little bit of that, right? When you're building a great team, you need different dynamics. I think to win at the highest level in life, you need a side of you that's extremely optimistic that things the future looks bright, but you also need a side of you that's paranoid. One without the other is catastrophic in my opinion. I think the life that I lived in Iran and Germany, refugee camp that gave a touch of the paranoia, where there's always that concern of what if you lose this? What if this doesn't work out? What if we do this and then the enemy comes from here? And what if those guys try to take us out? But at the same time, you're playing offense. So I think it worked in our favor, in my favor, both in military and in the world of business. What was it like going to Germany? Like, did you feel like an outsider in a refugee camp? Was it lonely? Or was it quite family orientated with people from Iran there? Yeah, it's a good question. In Germany, you know, most people in Germany, they're not used to seeing people from Iran and they don't really think highly of guys in Iran, you know, people from Iran because you're the enemy. You're an outsider. When you think about Iran, there's a lot of different stereotypes that people from the Middle East get. And so that was common. But what I did learn being in Germany at the refugee camp, there was the staff family from Czech that were escaping. There was a Miodrag from Yugoslavia and Anna Maria and their daughter Anna Maria. And then there was the Polish family. And then there was all these different families from, there was the Afghani family. There was the Pakistani family. So I had to learn how to get along with people very quickly. I had to learn different dynamics of people's backgrounds. The locals who are from Erlangen or Nuremberg, they were not used to seeing people who look like me. So if I went to the swimming pool or if I went to school, you know, you would get some of the stereotypes. So rather than feeling sorry about, oh my God, they're discriminating, they're doing this. I'm like, I'm in your country. Like you allowed me to be in your, I'm just grateful to be in your country that you allowed me to have the freedom that you have. So I'm happy to be here. But it forced me to learn how to make friends quicker. And it forced me to get along with different dynamics, different people with different backgrounds. So very helpful. So your mom and dad, how big was that decision to leave Iran? Was that an easy decision? I know it's in a war zone and people are dying left, right and center. But was it as easy to leave anyway? Or was your dad thinking for his kids to, to just leave no matter what? It wasn't easy. I mean, they went through their second divorce together. My mom and dad, when they got married, my sister was born. Then they got divorced. Then they got remarried. And two years later, I was born. And then they got divorced again. When we went to Germany at the refugee camp. That's when my dad and my mom, they were done. So it wasn't easy for them. You know, you got to realize they speak Farsi, Armenian, Assyrian. My mom spoke a little bit of Turkish. So for them to go from their homeland to now Germany, they don't speak German. And then from there to come here, they don't speak English. It was tough on them. It was tough on me because for a period of 18, 19 months, I never spoke to my dad once on the phone. So my dad, there was not a father figure. I had to grow up fairly quickly. I don't know what it is to be a boy 10 to 14 years old. I had to be an older brother while my sister was six years older than me. Those natural instincts of a boy, knowing that what other men want from your mom and your sister are very natural. It's so weird. You don't have to give a boy a manual. A boy may not know what's going on. A boy may not know the full dynamics of sex and this and that, but a boy knows when a hungry man is looking at your mom and your sister. So I had to be super protective at a young age. And I remember one time, you know, we had a local man who was running a church who was in our house and I knew what his intentions were. And a different side of me came out. That was the first time where I'm like, okay, you are very capable of doing some bad things if somebody harms your family. And it was a great glimpse to know you went from a chill kid, loving all this stuff to boom. You're not going to cross the line with my family. And then my family in a weirdest way, my mom and my sister are like, okay, you know, this guy's understanding what's going on. But it was a great experience. By the way, till today, I'll go on Google Maps and I'll go to the refugee camp that I grew up in and I'll zoom in and I'll look at it. There was a military unit right next to our refugee camps. I would always go and look at the U.S. Army guys, do what they were doing with tanks and blown stuff up. It was awesome. Maybe that was part of the inspiration while I joined the Army. I don't know. But my memories from Germany, James, I got to tell you, phenomenal memories, like unbelievable memories of being in Germany. What was the plans after Germany then? How old were you, Patrick? When I came here, I was 12. So November 28, 1990, I had just turned 12 to five weeks prior to that. I'm October 1878, baby. So when we came here, we moved to Granada Hills and I lived in Glendale, California and it was great. Had a good time. But, you know, we had no idea what was going to happen to America in America. Obviously, as a kid, you're hoping your parents get back together. That didn't happen. They couldn't be in the same room. They never saw each other for 19 years. The next time they saw each other was two months prior to me getting married. When I asked them that, I said, you guys are not coming to my wedding. They said, what do you mean? I said, there's no way the first time the two of you guys are going to see each other is going to be on my wedding. That's just not going to happen. If you want to come to my wedding, you guys got to come to my house and break bread. If you do that and I feel comfortable with you guys being okay, then you're invited to my wedding. Neither one of them agreed. Anyways, two weeks later, they called me back. They both agreed. They came to the house. The first time they faced off each other was 19 years after we left Iran. It was an awkward moment. It was an awesome moment. It was a funny moment. And then, you know, it goes from there. But yeah, the outcome of coming, we really didn't have an outcome of coming to the US except for being free. That's mad though that they went through war, escaped Iran, went to Germany, came to America. But yeah, how does that affect you as a kid, Patrick? Because I know single parents, kids, the high risk of becoming prostitutes. Prisoners, addicts, like, how does that affect you? And how did you end up staying on the road you stayed on to be the man that you are now? Because a lot of people can't handle rejection. They can't handle the family breakups, especially a kid who's come from a war zone, went to Germany, went to America. How did you stay in touch with, I would say your soul, but in touch with something to stay so mentally strong? It's such a good question you ask. And by the way, I ask myself that question sometimes. I would say my mom and dad, even though they got a divorce and I needed a father figure, I needed somebody to tell me, hey, what do I do with this guy that's bullying me? What do I do with this guy that I'm fine? What do I do with these guys that are saying this stuff about me? What do I do? Do I hit him? Do I do that? So I had to learn on my own. I didn't have somebody that was guiding me and there wasn't an uncle in the picture. But you know, my mom and dad taught us the right values. My dad taught me about hard work. So I was always a worker since I was a kid. I always knew I had to make money. So I learned at 10 years old how to make money and I wasn't going to start because I learned how to make money. And I was in Germany at the refugee camp when I was running a recycling business for a local pool. And I made enough money to buy brand new Super Nintendo with Mario Brothers from Kaufauf. Kaufauf is like a big store in Germany. But my mom put the fear of God in me and I was never a believer in God. And I was the guy that would get kicked out of Bible study and Bible school and Sunday school as a nine year old kid, eight year old kid. You guys are full of it. You believe if God exists, why are we getting bombed on? If God exists, why does so many people die? I was that kid. So finally the pastors like Diana, Gabriel, you guys cannot let your son in these classes anymore. He's not welcome. So I would go to church and they would say, don't worry about coming to class. I would just play outside by myself until the kids were out because I just didn't believe in God. But my mom would say, you listen, I may not see what you do. Whatever bad you do, 100% God sees everything you do. 100%. If you do drugs, don't worry about lying to me. He sees it. If you do this, if you do that. So my mom's tactic was the old school tactic of fear. Oh my God, she put the fear of God, the fear of everything on me. You know, as middle eastern, they're very superstitious. You know, they do weird things, you know, stuff like it's just not going to make sense to when I tell you this. But if somebody's Armenian or Syrian watching this, they're going to go, oh, my mom did that as well. If you chew gum after dark, you're chewing the devil's ear. If you bite your nails and you drop it in your house, your parents are going to fight. There's going to be how fight in the house. If you drop a fork, this person's going to come over. If you mean the stuff that bomb would say, you know, but as weird as it sounds, those things stuck as a kid because you're so naive. So when the first time I was offered to smoke weed from my friend who became the biggest drug dealer in Glendale and then eventually he died from taking too much Vicodin, I said no, not because I said no to him. I was afraid of drugs controlling me. You know, when the first time I was exposed to different hardcore drugs, I feared that something bad could happen to me, but I was around gangsters. I was around drug dealers. I was around all of them. And, you know, so for me, I got very, very lucky. There was a couple instances where the people I was with got arrested and I could have gotten arrested as well. So that's purely God's mercy. But yeah, there was a lot of mercy. There was a lot of grace. There was a lot of luck and there was a fear of God that got me to not do the biggest stupid decisions that I almost made. I was afraid of making them. Well, you're afraid to also let your mum down because you've probably seen her struggle after the divorce coming to America, where you're the man of the house. You should be profiting. For me personally, a man is someone who takes care of their family. For me, I was weak for many years, Patrick with drink, drugs and violence. And I had behind the mask of a clown. But now it's all about family. It's all about everything I do. It's got to be for yourself as well. Let's be honest, like we've got to do things for us, but the everything in life is now is about family. And that took me 39 years or 37 years, I would say, to kind of understand another understood life. But now life is family. They brought you onto this planet. It's not as easy as people think, but that is a beautiful fucking bit of madness at times. See, when you're going through that, then Patrick, everything you've went through trying to stay away from the bad things. What was your first ever job? My first job was in Germany. I would collect the beer bottles at a local pool and recycle them. But my first W-2 job, which is like, you know, tax code W-2, I was 14 years old. I was working at Haagen-Dazs ice cream. I was making Sundays, banana split ice cream, you know, any of that in Glendale Galleria was kind of funny because at 14 years old, you know, I was either 14 or 15 when Bill Clinton came there. He was campaigning. The first president I shook hands, I was 14 or 15, was Bill Clinton. He was campaigning in Glendale Galleria. And then my second job was at a place called Burger King, which I'm sure you know Burger King, the competitor of McDonald's. I worked there as a cook. And then my third job was Bob's big boy. And then I joined the army. What was your mindset like with work? Was it just a case of survival mode? Or did you have the vision that you had now? Oh, no way. I had no vision. I just knew I hated being broke. And I hated mennet. Mennet is a Persian word that people use guilt over you. Like, hey, remember that one time I gave you money? Remember that one time I did this? Never liked it. So I didn't want to take any money from my mom, zero, because I didn't want anyone for me to owe a favor to. I cannot stand owing favors as a kid because of how much guilt it brought. So I didn't want to ask you for money. I was the kid at 13 years old in Iran with another friend of mine, Adrian. We love baseball cards. And when our parents were asleep at 11 o'clock at night, we would take a shopping cart and go to all the trash bins in Glendale and collect two liter bottles and cans and go to Albertsons and recycle them. Make seven bucks a night, 10 bucks a night, 15 bucks a night. And we would split it, me and Adrian. That's one of the ways we would buy baseball cards because I love baseball cards back in the days. No, I worked because I hated owing people favor. I hated asking people for money. I hated being broke. I literally hated being broke. And I didn't like owing people money or favors. Couldn't stand it. I don't know why as a kid I couldn't stand that part. What was the decision to join the military, especially if you've seen the war zones and seen the destruction? Was that a hard decision or were you going there to learn? Listen, it's easy for me to say I did it because my father was a general or he was a colonel, so I'm kind of following his footsteps. No one in my family was ever in the military that I know what. I joined one because I wanted to get the hell away from everybody. I literally wanted to get away from everybody. And by the way, the way I did it was weird because this recruiter named Jesus Guerrera was recruiting me since I was 14 years old in ninth grade and 10th grade. And he would say, but David, you got to join the army. But David, you got to join the army. His recruiting station was right next to my high school. And I'm like, this, I'm not joining the army says your grades are not good, man. You got to go to the army. You're going to get girls. You're going to do this girl's love men in uniform. You're going to get away. You're going to travel. So finally one day I'm on my sister's place. I'm living with my sister and one night we're partying very hard. And I had a bunch of people downstairs in the jacuzzi. We're staying up drinking allowed. My sister's is about to be evicted kicked out of the apartment. And this is in Encino, California and wake up. I get outside to I just sold my truck, my Chevy S10 long bed. And my mom had left me her car before she went to back to Iran. And I go to get the Toyota Corolla. It's not there. Anyways, I walk around all over the place thinking I forgot where I parked the car because I was drunk. Nope. The car was not there was stolen. So I come upstairs. I call my dad. I said, dad, I want you to come and take me to Glendale. He says, why are you going to Glendale? I said, I'm joining the army. He came. He picked me up. We went to Glendale. I don't have a car. There was no Uber back then I'm broke. I have to call. So we go to Glendale. I sit at the recruiting station. I said, hey, Sue, the only way I will join the army today is if you ship me tomorrow. He says, that's impossible. I said, then I'm not joining. He said, it's going to take three months. I said, I'm not joining the army. I'm only interested if I go tomorrow. I'll never forget this conversation. My dad's like, relax, you're talking to the US government. My dad's a very square guy, fair, follow the rules, have good credit, all this stuff. I'm like, no, I'm going tomorrow. Anyways, eventually they got my orders. Two weeks later, I went to South Carolina for Jackson. I was in the army as a Hummer mechanic, and I got away from everything. And then truthfully, army changed my life. One of the best decisions I ever made in my life is going in the army. Those men in the army, drill sergeant Perthold, drill sergeant Green, handful of other sergeants I had that I can talk about. They changed this 18 year old's kids life with those two and a half years that I was in the military. Did you feel as if you had a family then because it was broken as a kid when you were in there, it was like a brotherhood? Yeah, I've always had a gang. I've always been part of a crew. I've always been part of a clique, always. I've always liked that. I've always been turned on by that of building a team. You get that in high school or junior high school, we had a crew. In high school, we had a crew. In the army, I had a crew. In the valleys, I had a crew. In running an insurance company, I had a crew. We always had the gang mentality of going up against the bullies. I don't know why that was very natural to me because our family was bullied by other families who would kind of push their weight with degrees because they were smarter than my dad or they had better fans here did. So that always rubbed me the wrong way. I like going up against bullies. I don't know why. It's something I love going up against bullies that they think they're better than you. So in the military, we 100% had the family. I mean, guys that I'm staying still in contact with till today. And that was a 97 till today. We'll tell stories and reminisce about the days of being an army. But I tell you, just visualize five guys who would walk around. If you looked at one of our peers the wrong way, you had a problem with all five of us. We were that tight with each other. It was a very unique crew that we had, but yeah, it was a family environment and I loved it. What happened after the military? Yeah, I got out of the military. I wanted to be in Mistro Olympia. You know, I got an offer to be a cop in Fort Lauderdale. I turned it down. I wanted to go to LA. So one of my friends said, why don't you go into Hollywood? I think you can be like an actor. You can do comedy. You can do this. I'm like, okay, I'll think about that. So I wanted to be like the next Middle Eastern Arnold, be Mistro Olympia, you know, going to Hollywood, could be a governor, Mary Kennedy. And then that wasn't part of the plans. You know, I went to my first Mistro Olympia just to see what it was like. I had a lot of fun. We partied hardcore, but I realized how much stuff I had to put on my body and I didn't want to do it because it was hardcore stuff for nonstop. And I'm like, yeah, that's not what that's not going to happen. And then at the same time, I'm too tall to be a bodybuilder. I was six, four and a half. So six, four and a half. Your muscles are long to win Mistro Olympia. You got to be five, eight, five, nine, five, 10, maybe five, 11. But I had to carry 400 pounds off season with my frame. That's a lot of pressure on my heart. My dad had 13 heart attacks. I know I have some of that symptoms that may come to me from my dad's side. So I had to keep my body light and my dad's five, eight. So he doesn't carry a lot of weight. I'm tall. I got his brother's height. So yeah, I went there and then one day I meet this girl named Jean Vierre, which till today I can't wait to, you know, I've always tell her name. So she reaches out. So I want to talk to this girl cause she was an advisor for Morgan Stanley Dean with her, with all the Laker players. So she said, Hey, you need to be a broker and be a securities broker. We met at Venice Beach and she, her and I started dating for about six months. And then eventually I started working at Morgan Stanley Dean with her because of a resume I sent. And I put a joke. I sent a hundred different resumes to a hundred different places. Back then it was facts. We didn't have monster or jobs.com. And I got a bunch of calls. They laughed at my jokes. 15 of them gave me job offers. 15 of them gave me interviews. Three of them gave me job offers. And a day before 9 11 in 2001, I started off with Morgan Stanley Dean with a Glendale. And that's where my financial career started. And I've been in it since 01, which is now what 22 years. What was it like joining that industry back then? It seems to everything seems to have changed now. Everything seems a bit weird now. But back then it seemed a bit more hustle and bustle. It was proper hustlers back then. Do you see the big difference from today to 20 or years ago? Listen, the hustle's been around forever. I mean, you're not going to make it as a broker if you don't hustle at all. You're just not going to make it. If you don't network, you don't hustle. Even we had a guy in our classes. His name was Ted Williams. He was the family of the Ted Williams. I don't know if you know baseball. Ted Williams is one of the greatest baseball players of all time. If not the best, some will say, so he came with a name. So if he called clients as I got Ted Williams' grandson. Oh my God. It was easy for him to get $5 million, $10 million here. Invest this much money for us. I came with a name, Patrick Bedavit. Nobody knows the last name Bedavit. But if you're a hustler, you're going to do fine in the financial industry. If you have a name, you'll have a better start. But if you don't hustle, you're eventually not going to make it. It is a very hard industry to be a part of. I got started the day before 9-11. Everybody was happy day two. Our headquarters was in New York with 3,600 employees and World Trade Center got hit. So I'm supposed to be in New York for training. They changed my schedule and I go to San Francisco, Mark Hopkins Hotel for training. So it was a very much of a strange, havoc, chaotic start. But I love numbers. I mean, I literally love numbers. I love anything with stats, anything with numbers, anything with data. I just love that. So for me, I got into an industry that is the number one industry with data analytics, statistics, return, all this stuff. I love the business. I just knew I just had to find my way where to go with it. So a lot of times when you get into the financial industry, you go in, you're like, okay, I'm going to do stocks. I'm going to do bonds. I'm going to do 401k retirement. I'm going to do insurance. I'm going to do loans. I'm going to do real estate. I'm going to do this. There's so many options of where to go. I chose insurance and annuities. And that was my niche. And yeah, I stayed in it for 20 years, 20 plus years. How was it when you were selling insurance after 9-11? Because I seen that video of you when you said you had a beard and people were rejecting you. But you seem as if even just speaking to you in the last 20 minutes, you seem as if you work better under pressure. Work better when people turn their back like, how was that for you? And that situation where you think you've got a great job. You're trying as hard as you can to then be getting rejected because of your skin colour or having a beard. Did you feel that then? I mean, look, right now, I'm judging you. You're judging me. This is the first interaction you and I are having. You've seen some of my content on what I've done and I've seen some of your stuff. I think you did a Tate interview. You've done a couple of that. You've done some work because you don't have a small channel. Your channel is 500,000 subscribers. Some will run there. You've got a big channel yourself and you're kicking ass. You're a great interview. You wouldn't have that many subscribers. There's a lot of people have a hard time getting to 100,000. You had a half a million. But here's the part with, you know, when you're getting into an industry like that and you're getting discrimination. Right now, if I listen to your accent, what kind of an accent do you have? Scottish accent. Okay. All right. Where do I go to? I went to Braveheart. I went to William Wallace. I went to the speed he gave. I went to, you know, that speech that he gives the emotional speech in a movie. I'm judging you. You're listening to me. I have an accent to you. You're trying to say this guy sounds like he's from New York. He's from this. He's wearing a black shirt. Maybe he looks like he is one of the mob guys he interviews. We're all constantly being judged. I think too many people are a little soft to be expecting people to not judge you. They're going to judge you. I look Middle Eastern. Having a beard didn't help out for being a financial advisor. I'm already from Iran. I have big features, big ears, big nose. I look like a mirror and add a beard to it. Everyone's going to judge you. So I had to sit there and a guy asked me a question and I'll never forget a guy named Fernando. It's like, hey, Pat, can I ask you questions? He says, yes. He says, you know how much you curse? I said, how much do I curse? He says, let me just repeat the last sentence you gave in your last sentence. You dropped the F bomb three times as an adjective. I said, no, I didn't. And he says, let me repeat it to you. Here's what you said. You just said that. And he says, every day, I will tell you, I spent 10 hours a day working with you at ballast. Fernando would say this. He would say, you probably dropped the F bomb 500 times. I said, no, I don't. He says, I'm telling you, count it tomorrow. He says, look, I don't know if you know this. Do you think all the customers you're talking to, like you drop an F bomb? I said, I don't think people have a problem with this. He says, really? Yeah. I said, okay. Let's talk to a hardcore Christian. They like it if you drop F bombs. No. What percentage of the customers you sit with, do you think are Christians? I don't know. He says, let's say 20%. Let's say 10% of them are serious. You just lost 10% of your customers. Let's talk about another. Let's talk other religions that people are coming here that they take their faith very seriously and they don't like people cursing because their parents and they want their kids not to curse. You think you lose some of those customers? And I'm sitting there saying, this guy's got a point. This is okay. You get along with the street guys. Okay. You get along with the porn industry because our headquarters, the office we were at 80% of all the porn worldwide was shot in Chatsport, California. So most of our customers were from the porn industry. We were the only one with an outdoor gym. Trust me. Afterwards, these porn stars always had parties with the outdoor pool. It was a wild time that we had at this one club. So he says, you get along with certain niches, but you don't get along with everybody. Clean up your language. I didn't like it. Who the hell are you to talk to me like that? But I gave it a test for a week. And then I noticed my closing ratio went up. Interesting. Very cool. So beard. One guy says, why do you wear a beard? He says, you realize you're already six, four and a half. You're tall. You're scary. You're muscular. You're Middle Eastern. And you want to add beard to it. And you're loud. And you're animated. You're scared to crap out of people. Shave the beard. I'm like, okay, I shaved the beard. Like, okay, customers felt a little bit more pleasant. You know, so for me, I'll give you an idea. Like we were talking yesterday. I asked the question. I said in 22 years of working, how many direct reports of mine have been with me for more than a year who smoked cigarettes? And one of my guys says, Pat, one. I said, yeah, and what happened to that one? He says, he eventually quit smoking. What happened when he quit smoking? We had an exit. You got a few million dollars. We became financially free. He said, exactly. I don't do business with people who smoke cigarettes. I don't. If I walk into your office, you smoke cigarettes. And I pick up your pen. Okay. It just happened last week. I pick up your pen and I write something on the floor, on the paper. And then I walk out. I go like this. I'm not coming back into your office again. Cause my hand smells like cigarettes now. I'm not doing it. People around me know Pat doesn't like cigarettes, eating onions during business hours. The hell you doing eating onions during business hours if you're in the sales business? If I walk around our office here and somebody smells onions, I take it and I take it outside and I say, trash that onion. We don't need onions in the office. Somebody may be watching the same. This guy's a freaking crazy guy. What's he talking about? You can call me a crazy guy you want, but drop an F bombs with customers. You're going to offend a percentage smelling bad. You're going to offend a percentage having a beard and you haven't yet made it into marketplace where you're a name. You're coming up. It's not going to help you. If you look like me, it may help you. If you got a baby face and you look like you're 17 years old, maybe it'll help you cause you look like you're 28. Smoking cigarettes not going to help you. Any of this stuff is not going to help you. So it's an image business. You're dealing with millionaires. You're dealing with people with money. You need to be presentable. You need to be able to talk different topics. Some of them want to talk sports. Some of them want to talk politics. Some of them want to talk business. Some of them want to talk finance. Some of them want to talk world affairs, you know, and you have to be able to handle those types of conversations. So yeah, that was a, at a guy, I'll tell you the story. I'm at Mark Hopkins Hotel San Francisco. This guy named Glenn Hopkins. I'll give a shout out. I'll never forget this guy. He was working on either Superman, Spider-Man or Batman. One of those three projects making 400 grand a year in the 90s. It's very good money. And it's married to a wife that's a Hollywood celebrity. You wouldn't know who his wife was. She's been in very big movies. And one day we're in San Francisco at a coffee shop. He says, I'm going to teach you something that is going to change your life. I said, really? He said, yes. He's 43 at the time. I'm 21. Okay. We're sitting at the coffee shop and he says, let's play a game. I said, what's that? He says, every time somebody's at the cash register, they're about to buy something. I want you to guess what their net worth is. I said, what? I said, I want you to guess what their net worth is and what kind of money they make. I said, great. First guy comes in. I'm like, so he says, what do you think this guy's worth? I said, well, this guy's broke. He says, really? I said, that guy's totally broke. Look at what he's wearing. Look at those flip flops, those shitty shorts. He said, that guy's broke. He says, yes. I said, okay. You see that watch? He says, yes. He said, that's a Patek Philippe watch. That's a $100,000 watch. Those flip flops are 800 bucks. The shorts, $1,100. That shirt looks like nothing. It's $1,200. That's what he's wearing right there. That guy's got money. And he's 70 years old. He's probably wore 10 million plus because he's, if living here, homes down the street that he walked you from, they're $20 million homes. I'm like, oh my God, I was way off. Next guy comes in. Three-piece suits, nice shoes, blinks. I'm like, dude, this guy's making a lot of money. He says, that guy's broke. I said, what do you mean that guy's broke? He says, look at the bottom of his shoe. The tag is still there. There's three tags on it. He bought it on a discount for $39. That suit is a $99 suit from three-day suit broker. That's a fake watch he's wearing. He's broke, barely making 60 grand a year. I'm like, this is... So then I said, moving forward, you tell me. So we sat there for two or three hours. He says, this person's this. That person is this. This person... And then he would say, let me prove it to you. He would walk up and talk to them. How are you doing? So I like the shoes you got. I like your watch. It's a nice watch. If we're going to have a watch like that, you understand watches. I understand watches. Yes. What business are you in? Oh, I'm retired. What business were you in? Motion picture. What did you do? I was part of the startup. We sold it for... And he looks at me winks. He says, you see? And then he started... By the way, he ended up becoming one of the biggest brokers managing a lot of money because he understood optics, what people look like. There is a very big edge on the way you present yourself. When you're newer going into business, when you have money and everybody knows your name, you still need to have it, but it doesn't matter as much. Elon Musk can come in in a tank top and a Speedo. You're not going to care, okay? Jeff Bezos come in with spandex Lululemon pants and no shirt on. You're still going to do business with this guy because it's Jeff Bezos, Elon Musk. At that point, the market doesn't care. When you're coming up, your image matters a lot. What makes a good salesman? What's the key ingredient? Questions, interested, curiosity, not forcing a product, being a consultative approach where the typical car salesman, aggressive, saying stuff that, hey, I will only offer to you, this is only for you, I'm going to take care of you, all that bullshit stuff people say, it's a waste of time. Consultative is coming from a place of, let's see if we're fit. I don't even know if we're going to be a fit. There's an ideal customer that we work with, hopefully we can do business together, but tell me what's important to you? What are your goals? What would you like to do? What would you like to accomplish? How's your experience been with the current advisor you're working with? How's your experience been with the current realtor you're working with? What did you like about it? What did you not like about it? What would you like to see change? If we had a relationship together, what would your expectation be of me? Here's my expectation of you as a client, but what would yours be of me? My expectation is if we're going to go look at home so I'd like you to have a pre-approval letter from the bank, and if we work together, I need two days a week. I want to know what your timeframe is for buying a house, but what is your expectation of me? It's having that consultative relationship, managing expectations, being a good listener, and at first I used to think it was product knowledge, like you have to know everything about your product. You have to know stuff about your product, but product knowledge nowadays is not what it used to be 30 years ago because today, product knowledge, I can ask Siri any questions. I can have a team of experts who understand every product. I can go back and have a conversation with them. The resources we have today is a different level than the resources we had 30 years ago. I would say consultative questions, caring, understanding, managing expectations, being a good listener, those will help you a lot in the world of sales. What was it like getting your first big paycheck, especially coming from running out of jobs, Burger King, going to the military, to then working in the sales? What was that feeling like? Everybody's kind of level of success is different. Everybody that defines the world differently, success, money, but when did you feel as if it was a big paycheck and you realized that you were doing something positive with your life? Yeah, I'd never forget that it was a family. Her name was Gina or Gohar, a great lady. She was very good to me, very respectful. She had her daughters, had a beautiful home in Sherman Oaks, and I went to her house one night and I sold her a bunch of policies. Then she invited her family. Then she invited her uncle, George, who came in, and George and I just talked to each other two weeks ago. And this was 20 years ago, by the way. I'm talking about 2004. I'll tell you an exact month. April of 2004 is when this was. And I go to their place. We're talking, we're doing this. I roll over a bunch of news. Anyways, it's one o'clock in the morning. I'm eating gata. Gata is like a pastry, Armenian pastry, phenomenal. She was so good to me, respectful, took care of me, treated me like family. But I walked out at that night and I said, I think I just made $15,000 or something like that. I've never made that kind of money before in my life. And I'm in a Ford Focus. I'm broke. I go to my office. I still don't believe this is going to be real until the money has to count. Anyways, May 29th of 2004, I'm about to go visit family in Las Vegas. It's Saturday afternoon. It's three o'clock. I go on the website to check my direct deposits. It shows a $10,000 check in May of 2004. I made $18,495. First time ever I made that kind of money. I couldn't believe the money I made. I went to Vegas. I came back. I said, if I can make this kind of money doing this, I'm going to be a millionaire. May of 2004 was probably the month where I knew I was going to be a millionaire for a fact because I was willing to do the work. Life changing. What happened with that money? Obviously that year was the first time where I actually bought a gift for my sister. My sister and her husband got married. They never went on their honeymoon. So that Christmas, I never bought a gift for my sister because I just was broke. I didn't even give $20 or $10. I barely had any money. That Christmas, I bought them a one-week cruise to Mazatlant for them to go on their honeymoon. And I gave it to her on her birthday in Christmas because she's born on December 21st. I gave it to her on Christmas Day. And seeing them celebrate crying emotional was a priceless moment. So yeah, for me, it was April. It was May of 2004. Life changing. How come you remember everybody's name? It seemed to be significant parts of your life where you remember these names where you feel as if they've been part of your journey, who kind of gave you a helping hand when no one else would. Why is it so important to you these names that you mentioned through the years? I think we like to take credit a lot for everything we do. And I'm a guy where if there's one thing that we have here culturally, I remember one time a girl I was working when she was my boss, she sat, she had a strategy session with us. And I came up with one of the best ideas. And a month later, we're at a convention and the chairman of the company goes up and says, you know, let me tell you guys, this is what makes great leadership. The other day, this person's name gave us these ideas and it was unbelievable how they spent all this time coming up with their ideas themselves. And then she got up on stage, took full credit of the idea. The people who were in the room with me looked at me and they're like, dude, that's your idea. And I said, man, that feels like shit. Guess what, moving forward, whoever comes up with the idea, do your best to give them the credit. Remember everything, but do your best to give credit to the idea of those that really, you know, help to get to the next level. And I like relationships. My number one product in the world is people. I'm fascinated by people. I'm interested in people's stories. You know, a lot of times when I sit, I'm doing, you know, a person's supposed to be interviewing me. I'm trying to learn more about them than they're trying to learn about me. I'm curious about people. I'm watching all the books behind. I'm watching a painting to see what that's all about. You keep signaling somebody with your hands. I don't know if your family's in the picture. Kids are running around. I don't know where you're in. I'm curious naturally about people. And when you're naturally curious about people, you're going to remember more about them. If you're not, you're going to remember more about yourself. And quite frankly, you already know everything about yourself. What else do you want to learn about yourself? You already know everything about yourself more than anybody else. So I'm a very curious person when it comes down to people. Yeah, it was my dog. He was liking my toes. I knew it. I knew it. It was either a dog. All these books are from guests. All my guests through the years. And the painting from a woman. I'd done a homeless documentary where I slept on the streets for seven days. And the woman painted it. So I kind of, I bought it from an auction. And yeah, it's kind of like little memories. And I've never read all the books, but it's just, it feels good, man, being part of something and doing something constructively positive while for many years my life was in negatives. See when you started making money, Patrick was a, you become a different person because people say money changes you can in a way, but if you're a good person, you make money, you're a better person. If you, you've not got money, people are shitty people and they make money and they become even shittier. Did you change once you started becoming more powerful and more successful? Did you change for the better or did you slip at any stage? Yeah, so it's a good question. So for me, I had a call with one of my friends yesterday. He's gone through tough times. He is, last two years, he's been gone through strong panic attacks and he's lost his wife, lost his kids, everybody's left and we're the same age. We went to high school together from seventh grade on. I'm talking to him yesterday. We're on the phone and then the conversation is like, hey man, you've done all this stuff. You made all this money. You and I haven't spoken for over 15 years. You sound the same. You're talking to me like you're a normal, regular guy. I said, well, I've seen a lot. I've experienced a lot but I'm still Patrick by David. However, let me tell you where it has changed, James. And you have to change. There's areas that you have to change. The first time, my wife and I are in Monaco this last, it's June 27th and we sold the company. And so the account, I've made millions. I've made 10 millions but I've never made hundreds of millions. This was the first time we made nine figures plus, plus. So it's kind of like, and the money hits the account. And we're sitting there and we're at this, some coffee shop, whatever. I don't even drink coffee but we're there at this coffee shop. And we're talking. We're crying. We're reminiscing all the memories, things we've done. How many times would our first baby was born? She did the payroll while she was just, had the baby a day before that she did it by herself. How we didn't take any money for a couple of years. How we almost lost everything. The lawsuits, we just reminisce and we're talking. We're chattering. We're chatting and it's an emotional moment. But I said, hey babe, I got to tell you something. She says, what? I said, things are about to change. She says, what do you mean? I said, you're officially a target. People now know you have real money. We've had money for a while but this is different level money. So we're going to have a target. We're going to have enemies. We're going to have people that are not going to be happy. We're going to have some people that quit who if they would have been around, they would have had some exits. They would have made more money. They would have had some real stuff but they're not happy. You think they're celebrating? They're not celebrating. NV is going to be there and we have to be very careful on how to manage NV today. We can either make it more or we can temper it down where even some of the people out there, you know how to get them to stay calmer. We can't be too showy, offy. Look at this. Look at that. Look at this. It's not going to be, it's not us anyways. I said, but you have to be aware of that. Then I have the meeting with our kids. I told my kids what not to do and they're going to school. What not to brag about. What not to do this. Very simple conversation. You never judge. You never do this. You never do that. This is not a normal life. You're living on a resort but this is not normal for everybody so you have to work on them being humble. So I can't stand spoiled kids and if my kids at all show any signs of it, it's a rough day for them. If they have a Nazi and I'm going to give them Papau but they're going to have a rough day if they're behaving spoiled. So you do have to change because some of it is you're naive when you're coming up in the business world and some of the people that loved you some of them now hate you. Some of the people that said James, you're going to blow up. Now they're not happy for you. What is that all about? I didn't experience that before. So, you know, that doesn't mean you change your values and principles. That doesn't mean you go become an asshole. That doesn't mean you go become all that. It's not what I'm saying but you cannot be naive thinking you can act the same way you did while you were making 15 bucks an hour. You cannot. People are going to use guilt against you. People are going to make you feel guilty constantly and you have to stay strong. You have to stay humble. You have to stay firm. You have to stay compassionate but also understand that you work very hard for this money and if you want to do good things with this money you can help more people's lives the right way not just giving money to all the other people. I read a book 18 years ago by Jim Stovall, a man who was blind and deaf. He wrote a book called The Ultimate Gift. When I read this book, I bought a thousand copies and I gave it to everybody around me. Everyone around me has probably read this book or has been recommended the book. Jim Stovall, it's like 90 pages, 100 pages. It's a story of a guy who goes to work for a man and the man dies and when he dies he leaves him everything and the guy who leaves him everything, the land ends up having oil. This man ends up becoming a billionaire. He dies. He's worth $2.3 billion and he produces 13 videotapes with his lawyer and that day comes where all his family shows up because he died, they're gonna be like, he's gonna give him everything and the lawyer sitting there saying, well listen, the man who died, he's got a video he wants to talk to you guys. So he plays a video in front of all the family members, his wife and her two boyfriends, his daughter and her two boyfriends, two husbands, his son, his nephew, all these guys and the video starts. If you're watching this video, it's because my lawyer is playing this video because I've died. Some of you are here because you're hoping to see who's gonna get the real estate portfolio, who's gonna get the company, who's gonna get the stock portfolio, who's gonna get this, who's gonna get this and he goes through the whole thing and he says, honey to his wife, I've spoiled you, I've ruined you because I said yes to everything. He says, you can get the stock portfolio but my stockbroker and lawyer have more say than you do. You don't get to tell him what to do. You just get the money and they're gonna pay you dividends, whatever he tells him. My son, you're gonna get the real estate portfolio but you don't have any decision to make. The real estate broker that I've worked with me for 30 years, he has more say than you and he says all this stuff. The last person that stays like his nephew or his grandson or something like that and he says to you, I have nothing to give you. I don't have cars, I don't have money but for you have the ultimate gift and the nephew gets upset, he says you're not right now because you were expecting to get something from me. He says you're the only one that I've not fully spoiled. The only person here that has a shot at having a good life is you. If you want the ultimate gift, you're gonna receive it in 12 months. Every month you have to come to the lawyer who's gonna play a tape for you and there's gonna be a challenge. You do that, at the end, you're gonna get a bigger gift than any of these other guys. It's such an emotional story when you read it because ever since I read that book I have thought about how am I gonna raise my kids? Because I knew I'm gonna work hard to have money one day. How are you gonna raise your kids for them not to be spoiled? How are you gonna raise your kids for them not to be these spoiled brat kids that think they're better than everybody? It's a lot of work. But if your plan is intentional and if you do naturally understand that certain dynamics change, relationships change, the market changes and I wasn't expecting to be a manager, I just knew I was gonna have money. And now, accidentally there's eyeballs with the influence. I typically have always been the low-key guy. You never know who I dated. And then all of a sudden you saw me with a girl under like, do you know Pat's dating that girl? I didn't like people know my business. But with social media, you don't have a choice because if you're not out there telling your business other people will tell your business. And they may even lie about your business so it's better off to be out there saying here's who I am, here's what I stand for, you may like it, you may not like it but you actually know who I am now. Choose and decide whether you want to do something with me or not. So it is a lot of work but if you're intentional about it you can hopefully manage it properly to give yourself a shot at living a fulfilled life without being taken advantage of constantly. How good is it to have a good woman in your corner Patrick? How important is it because I see now a lot of feminine energy and masculine and having wives being big ballers. For me personally, I'm old school morals, it's to have the family life. I'll go and provide and protect with my kids raised in the house, good missies, dogs, like that's what I want. I believe in that life, I believe it's healthier. I believe I'm a stronger man with a good strong woman there. It's fucking hard, I'm going to be honest with you, it's painful at times relationships, like they ain't easy. It's not all sailing into the sunset, like it's fucking painful but good communication I believe is key. But how important is it for a man at your college to have a good woman by his side? Yeah, listen, everything you said I agree with, you're right, it's very important. Marriage is the hardest thing I've ever done and I always say this and I say to my wife, when we got married there's 450, 500 people at our wedding and I'm giving a speech at the end. And I'm like here's a couple of things I want to do with everybody here, family, I look at all my family members mine and hers to manage expectations with all of you. I said number one, do not come to me or my wife, specifically my wife. Don't ask my wife if she's pregnant, it's none of your business, don't put that pressure on us. If we're pregnant we'll tell you, you'll hear from us, don't ask us, okay? So I said if you ask us you won't see a lot of us because that's none of your business. Number two I said I don't know how long we'll be married we're going to take it one year at a time we're convinced we can be married at least for one year. So I don't know if we're going to be married for 20 years, 30 years, 40 years, you don't put that pressure on us. We're going to put the pressure of trying to see if we can stay married for one year, we think we can. We're going on our 14th year, we've been married for 13 years. We have four beautiful kids, she's very good to me. Her and I knew each other for five and a half years. I saw her in other relationships she saw me in other relationships. Finally we were single together at the same time and it was a two week window that we were both single and at the time I was talking to other girls because I was exercising this one book called 101 questions to ask before you get engaged and I gave that book to every girl I was talking to it wasn't like I was being promiscuous this is a season where I was not being promiscuous I was more like now I want a wife I'm ready to have a wife I want kids the fulfilled life is a life with kids I read a Jewish proverb one time that said a man should do three things have a son plant a tree and write a book everything is about doing things that outlive you and if you do it right with the right person too many times men if we sit down we want everything to be perfect her background her past her ethnicity her religion her denomination you know her this or that you're not going to find the perfect person but you got to do your best to see what common values you have my mom and dad were both Christians but my mom was a communist my dad was an imperialist that's not going to work out one believes rich people are horrible people the other one believes lazy people are poor so imagine being married to each other you hate each other's philosophies catastrophic you got to think about things that you have in common specifically values and principles but if you marry right it's going to be hard it's going to be challenging but if you do your part as a man to lead and she supports you it's going to give you the highest chance of maximizing your potential in life fair play congratulations on the 13 years and the four beautiful kids that we ever worried that it could have ended up like your own mom and dad's relationship because you're already flying high in life but that then becomes a strain where you've seen the destruction it can cause around you what do you mean people that wait too long to get married yeah with you and your wife like to get into a relationship decide you wanted a wife that was ever at the back of your mind it could have ended up like your own mom and dad with the breakup and you seen how painful and destruction the destruction it can cause in a relationship yeah because it's as if you're making money and doing well in life were you ever scared about being married and and the way it could have ended up like your mom and dad yeah but that's why there's a prenuptial agreement that's why there's an actual agreement that's why there's lawyers that's why you should write all those things down that's why you know when my wife and I when she would call me and she would say hey you know my mom needs this my sister needs this my family needs this this person died we need to pay the cemetery we need to pay this and in one day I caught myself getting annoyed and I said I want to have a meeting with you we sat down she says what's that I said I'm annoyed with you and I don't want to be annoyed with you just what do you mean I don't like you asking me for money so but you're my husband I get that I don't want to do that anymore I don't want you to ask me for money on anything you're going to do for your family and I don't want you to feel guilty about spending money for your family so moving forward we're going to have three different accounts what's that to say what I do with that money your accounts that I don't get to tell you what to do with that money our accounts only things we do is things that both of us are a part of our kids our house our home our travel so she says I'd love that I said great so we set it up well with the moment I set that up and we went to a mall in Vegas she goes to the Louis Vuitton and she she says what how do you what do you think about that purse said I like it it's nice how about the other blue purse I like it too just can I see those two purses the guy brings it up I'm like I don't buy two purses I'm thinking so I'm standing I'm like okay so what are you doing I'm going to buy both cool so there's that five second pause she takes out her card from her account and buys the two purses and I said it's beautiful I'm happy for you she says I'm happy as well because I bought what I wanted I said there's no argument here it's your money so for me your job as a leader of the household is try to and the wife is try to anticipate future problems and create systems or agreements on how to handle those future problems so if you don't the reason why you end up getting a divorce or marriage not working out is because of unnecessary bullshit that you could have prepared and anticipated and talked about and I don't think people do that enough I think people get married just because of sex is great or because she's beautiful or because he's handsome or he's rich or whatever you know it's just oh let's get married it's it's there's the emotional side you need there needs to be magic between you and your spouse 100% but you're going to spend the longer you're with the person and you're having kids or you buy house the more you realize there's a business component to it as well not telling you the whole thing is a business but you need stuff in place so yes that fear was in place but once you have an upshot agreement that fear is not in place because everybody's agreed on the terms how much sacrifices into your life to be the level you're at with family interviewed a man a couple of weeks ago called Alfie Best he's a billionaire he used to be a traveler he left school at 11 years old had his son and Alfie on together both really great men but Alfie they were just talking about when they grew up that Alfie wasn't in his life as much as he would like to be but to be at that caliber again it's there's got to be enormous amount of sacrifice that did you have that in your end where you missed family time to keep raising the bar yeah a good question so I think there's seasons and at the beginning stage of building a company I had to travel six months out of the year and to me I understood that I'm going to miss some of the stuff at the beginning stages of the kids but what age I didn't want to miss I didn't miss so it was a strategic way I come home if you're a year old two years old three years old I can wrestle with you I can do stuff with you but the usage I have to help you or the relationship to have a conversation I'm not effective at that moment when you get to the five six seven eight and on I need to be around for that so I understood the concept of having to work hard during certain periods and the business the way I build the life is I build the life in a way where my kids and my family is involved the value team and company we're running right now or the insurance company value team is turning into a big consulting firm good-sized consulting firm a media company if my kids want to come here learn how to edit they can if my kids want to come here shoot a video they can if my kids want to be youtubers they can if my kids want to go and learn about finance we have an investment group that we're raising capital for companies startup companies if they want to be part of technology coding they can you know if they want to go do shows comedy they can we I wanted to create a a platform an environment where is a net to keep the entire family close that's very important to me there's a family in our neighborhood that is a billionaire family and they have three homes they bought one of them for 12 one of them for five one of them for five 12 is one of the brothers okay he's got four kids married to a doctor he's also a kid he's also a doctor he's a CEO the five is the younger brother who's also a doctor married a doctor and have four kids and then there's a parents the founders of the company they live right next to each other they go to the same schools they hang out with each other every day they have certain values and principles their state planning was done by a very reputable state planning company that has done it for many many billionaire families the state planning company manages 32 families total state $13 billion and they created a structure on how to keep the family close to each other long term so there are ways to do it but people very rarely think about that stuff they're so caught up in the day to day stuff they don't think about how to keep the family close 20 years later my goal is for these guys to be close to each other 20 years later and yes the sacrifices are part of it but more of it James is about you being intentional would have an envision of what your family is going to look like one day and that takes attention to details and preparation see going one should become successful like what was the idea behind the podcast that for me is there's two podcasts at the forefront it's you and Joe Rogan that both unbelievable podcast both unbelievable guests both unbelievable winter viewers that top of the game like what was the idea behind it if you've already got the money but putting yourself at the forefront for be then scrutinized and negative comments that you didn't need it but what was the idea behind that you know your second person that's asking them this week and for me I do believe that everybody has a different job I do believe there's a calling that certain people have to do if you know how to deal with bullies in a way that others don't should you sit on the sidelines and not use those abilities God's given you is that the right thing to do I think that's a coward I don't want I'm not a coward so I'm a leader so for me I feel my style of talking to certain people that have imposed their beliefs that maybe are not beneficial to a certain community I want to have that conversation I want to sit down have those talks and at the same time I'm seeing what's going on with media I'm seeing what's going on with different media platforms where a lot of people are silence you can't talk to certain people God forbid they say something that's different than yours yeah I'm not okay with that that's why I escaped Iran that's why I'm in America that's why I'm driven by freedom so it is a big risk I would have a lot more peaceful life if I didn't do it life would be very much different but also at the same time I think this is more than just a job to make money I think we have to we got work to do in the next 40 years and I feel we're going to be a big part of it so I see more as a responsibility crusader cause a mission than I see it as oh my God look at the billions of views we've got on online that's natural that's going to happen if we do a good job and by the way when I first started creating content I gave it two years I said I don't know if there's an audience for what I talk about I have an accent I talk funny I tell stories I have certain style on what I do I don't know if people are going to like my style let's go for two years and see what happens two years and I'm like okay there's a little bit of interest then we adjusted it then we went to 100,000 subs then we went to half a million subs and I'm like I think there's a real idea here then I took three months off at 500,000 subs which everybody said never do that you will lose your audience your algorithms are going to be all jacked up when you come back what do you think you're doing this is great Pat's going to fall behind this is the time to catch up nah I watched the movie the amount of a count of monocrystal yeah you sometimes have to disappear and I disappear and I went back and said what are we going to be doing this for I'm not trying to be a motivational speaker I don't even like being motivational speakers I'm a strategy guy I see myself as a leader so we had a talk if we are going to come back we're only coming back because we're going to build one of the biggest media companies ever and the vision was clear we talked about it we're good and when we came back we just crossed 4 million subs this week and it's no longer about YouTube it's bigger than that we have a big vision we're recruiting the right people God willing more talent is going to show up here but I see it more as a responsibility and I have to tell you James I'm having a time of my life right now competing if I'm not competing in a space I'm not good to society I am more beneficial to society if I'm in a market place where there's a real enemy and I can compete and I feel we have a real enemy who was your first ever guest Patrick? who was my first ever person I interviewed first person I interviewed it was probably F. Lee Bailey I don't know if you know F. Lee Bailey he's one of the greatest lawyers of all time you know Patty Hearst case or you know the O. J. Simpson case F. Lee Bailey is the godfather of lawyers like heavy heavyweight guy not physically heavyweight as in toughness feared, strong F. Lee Bailey was the first one it's unbelievable how well you've grown but the guests some of your guests I've had on as well the Michael Fransese one was the game changer that was unbelievable man there was someone in that depth speaking and the way the conversation was led that was the first interview I'd ever watched of yours a few of the boys shared that in WhatsApp I don't know how the fuck is this guy it was unbelievable man just two men just having a conversation it kind of changed the interview game around the world like interviews are usually kind of structured and pressure and debates but this was just like a friendly chat and his story was unbelievable they do feel the presence of the Michael Fransese interview when you're done it because when I do interviews you don't really feel it and then they go out and people go that was amazing did you know how big that was going to be at that time so I was an hour late maybe an hour and a half late because I was leaving Jordan Belfort's house from Wolf of Wall Street so we got there and his wife is not happy with us because they were going to church that night and we're at his house in his living room we set up the set he gets up there the interview in his socks if you read the commentary everybody was like look at the way he wore socks and he was sending a message to Patrick that I'm in charge I'm this but then Worldstar shared it the day it came out it was on the cover of their website Worldstar and the next thing you know everybody started sharing it on you know different platforms reacting to it talking about it then I got on a call with Samuel de Bolgarvano who had just gotten out at the time he said about the interview then Philly and Eddie contacted me then we spoke to Frank Calada who's no longer with us then all these mobsters started calling and I was like okay this was bigger than we thought but when we first did the interview and we left I thought it was going to be a special one that I think it was going to bring as many eyeballs as it did of course not but I knew it was going to be a special interview just not you know whatever the number is today 17 million views 16 million I don't know what the numbers are that's unbelievable it's unbelievable what YouTube can actually do with the traffic that goes towards it not just today but five years ago that mainstream TV ain't even pulling in those numbers did you feel that as well that that vision from two years ago three years ago how big you are going to get it like did you realise how many like your videos have been viewed billions and billions of times like there's only eight billion people on the planet like that just shows you how many people are watching again and again and again like when did you feel as if it's coming into existence the man who's already not completed life but you says three things is have a son was it plant a tree did you say plant a tree right look have a son yeah and you done those three like when were you at sorry I'm jumping off course here but when were you at your happiest with it when you became a multi-millionaire or when your podcast kind of became so big like was that a different sort of happiness or was it the same so the happiest it's not even close as kid it's not even close like there's a leader's bulletin on there so it's separated all the way at the top but if I have to only target those two I I don't know if I can compare it to I think one gave me breathing room to push my weight around because I had a guy call me from Hollywood I'll never forget this call he said hey Pat I I have some political feelings thoughts and I'm a supporter of Trump at the time he calls me this is 2016 or something like that he says but if I tell people in Hollywood that I like this guy's ideas I'm ousted what should I do I said how much money you got in the bank he said I said do you have a few money he says I don't I said how much you got less than a million I said how much money you think you can make the next couple years he says it's going to take me toward three years but I think I'm going to have a few money I said you're in a space Hollywood you know you can't talk you know it yourself he says no I know I said unless if your name is Clint Eastwood you know or Mark Wahlberg or some of these other guys they don't care but look what they did to Mel Gibson look what they did to Vince Vaughn look what they did to some of these guys you may want to slow your roll go make your money first he says good point three years later he makes his money you know so he's worth 15 million bucks whatever it is then he started becoming vocal and really talking and pushing his weight around the reason why the podcast got better is because I had my wife scored away with her retirement permanently she scored away my kids are done financially I got them set up I'm done financially I'm in a place where I'm protected and so now I have real money and if they decide to target me or push me around they could do it they could make my life a living hell but I have the backing to be able to speak my mind the way I do today versus I couldn't fully do it six years ago that I can ever since I launched when I launched PBD podcast I kind of knew say whatever you want about me at this point I got money okay I'm good to go so that part of it was intentional because of the space I was I'm in the insurance space and the insurance industry is filled with a lot of people politically that disagree with me so I had to be a little bit more intentional and careful with the sequencing of decisions I was making that's very smart because I haven't interviewed many people like yourself who've been cancelled we've had quite a lot of guests on who've been on each other's show we've had Dorian Yates who I love to bits inspirational man David Dyke old Dave Courtney but the biggest one would be Andrew Tate I'm friends with Andrew Tate personally great guy everything I've always had his back from everything that's happening to him no evidence and I see a lot of people turning their back don't get me wrong if I'm wrong I'll be the first to admit okay I apologise I got it wrong but I've been in his presence on a few occasions I can understand the energies and how people function and the way they act and listening he's a strong character but I would rather have Andrew Tate at the forefront than some people who's talking absolute shit online that how did your relationship with Andrew start so Andrew DM'd me one day and he says I love your work and he was following my content four years ago three years ago and he hadn't yet blown up and then he messaged me we started communicating and then all of a sudden he was blown up at this point you know he was you know like all over the place I'm like this guy is an incredible communicator and storyteller wow I like what this guy has to say and then he got cancelled the moment he got cancelled at that point him and I and his brother were in communication regularly we're regularly talking you know communicating through text and DM's and we got on and we decided let's do something I'm gonna come to Spain because he can't come here we went to Madrid we did the interview to get out of the cigar lounge and then it went live and obviously that thing's done wonders 12 million plus views not including all the other short clips total it's probably got a few hundred million views online with tiktok, instagram, twitter, facebook all over the place but you know here's the thing that most people have a hard time with most of us have a hard time with almost anybody that does something big they're a complicated personality they're a complicated individual Churchill was a very complicated man but it took a Churchill to go up against Hitler he was like what are you talking about Pat go read Churchill's history that is a very weird man Chamberlain hated Churchill they don't like Churchill there were people that couldn't stand him because he would always call everybody's shit but when he came down to war Chamberlain had to go back Churchill to go do his part and he did Trump is a complicated personality John F. Kennedy complicated personality when you go and read his story and who he was and what he did Thomas Jefferson complicated personality Andrew Jackson complicated personality a musk complicated personality Ted Turner so many names and Andrew Tate is complicated personality is upbringing how he was raised by the father by the dynamics of the father how he pushed them how he challenged them what they went through what they saw became fighters and going from there to becoming who they are in their belief system and philosophies ideology so I'm surprised when people are surprised like what do you expect somebody that's not afraid of authority what do you think causes somebody to not be afraid of authority and be able to call them out what is that a byproduct of a rough life what do you think makes a great comedian a very hard life if there's one thing comedians have in common they lived such a hard life that to cope with tough times was humor some people cope with hard times with drugs some people cope through hard times with alcohol some people deal with hard times through fighting and beating people up some people fight through tough times through humor that's why Chevin Hart had an interesting life Dave Chappelle, George Carlin you go look at their stories it's weird they didn't live an easy life right so for someone to be that confident and a true believer to push the envelope the way he has you think you're going to go to a college to get a degree to be that tough? No you think you're going to go take a course on you to me to become that tough? No you think there is a hundred of the best YouTube videos to watch on how to be mentally tough to become mentally tough you're out of your mind the only way to be mentally tough and emotionally tough is through a shitty hard life that's the best way to be mentally tough someone in your life had to be very hard or tough on you a coach that kicked your ass regularly a teacher a dad a mom and uncle and all the brother somebody a rough community a rough upbringing an industry that was a cutthroat industry so yeah I think they're super necessary I had a call with their lawyer last week Tina and I we had a lengthy conversation it was the longest interview they did and they shared a lot of the she shared a lot of the insight had a very good conversation yesterday with their PR firm to see what's going on internally with visits and what does he have, what does he not have so yeah it's going to be interesting here's all I'll tell you they best get this guy because if he comes out and he's free oh my gosh can you imagine if he comes out and he's free what his first life is going to be like it could break the record I think a hundred million views it'll be a hundred million views on YouTube he needs another one of those it'll be the talk of the world on how many people it'll be banned in countries it'll be feared because if you go after a person like this you better have proof to arrest them or get them you don't go through somebody like this because they become a big figure and their message becomes bigger specifically to the people that didn't listen to it before or hated it they're going to say why are you trying to silence this guy you don't think Andrew's going to come out telling the story it's going to be interesting dynamics but obviously listen none of us know 100% what he's done none of us know I'm not the government I'm not working for agencies I'm not with the cops I don't know the intel if there is something there is something but if they can't find anything it's going to be a very hard season for those that try to silence this guy yeah because anybody who gets cancelled the kind that they're forgotten about he got bigger he got bigger he'll be even bigger when he comes out that's again if he comes out because then he is far too influential and there's people who's been killed off basically for less he is far too big to be out there he is far too big to be spreading a message he will be like a fucking god if he's out and that's the scary thing does he get out are they trying to break him now it's just scary how far they can go if at all what do you think the outcome will be Patrick from the information that you have and how big he is what do you think the outcome will be with Andrew too well the laws in Romania they can extend the detention six times for 30 days which is 180 days so that's the known on what can happen which means the six times that they do that for 30 days that's going to go for another 90 days so if we're right now March 1st today assume April, May, June June is still going to be in unless if something happens they let him out this Monday two days ago they had a decision to release him or kind of revisit what's going on to get some home house arrest because of his lungs they said no and not only that I think the other two girls also were asked to go back into prison again I think I don't know if they're 100% confirmed that but that's kind of where it's at right now but eventually the government has to stop saying allegedly and saying here's what they're convicted with and then the job of the lawyers really start till then you know the lawyer that he has they're not even letting her go see him face to face she's not seeing them face to face and when she gets on a call with them it's recorded always so imagine you're the lawyer of somebody that you're defending and any conversation you're having with them the calls are being recorded what can you talk to your client about like I said right there the lawyer can't talk to the client without it being recorded and can't even go their face to face to see them she's called the embassy of Romania to say hey can you help me out here to go talk to this guy because he's also got a US citizenship nope we're not doing nothing I mean it's very problematic and by the way since April of last year they could arrest the Tates with allegedly whatever they were talking because they've been investigating this for a while since the vice did their story but they decided to do it two days after he called that Greta Thunberg kind of weird you could have done it for seven, eight months but you waited eight months to do it why now all of a sudden you could have rated it as always because the pizza was never about the pizza what made you all of a sudden want it how come you didn't do it in September why not in August why not in June why not in July these are the questions why the people that support that he's if you had something in April arrest him in April why did you wait so long so no one knows really what is going to be happening here but you know if they can't find anything he comes out and the court continues he can't fully talk but if he comes out and there's nothing and he can't talk he definitely cannot stay in Romania he became a Muslim so he's out the safest place he's going to feel a country that supports being Muslim so he has to go live in Dubai he has to drop everything in Romania go live in Dubai and somewhere like you can't stay in Romania there's no way if you're the lawyer of Tate you're recommending him staying in Romania not coming to the states not staying in Romania where would you go Dubai, Singapore only a couple places you can go to to feel safe he's probably safer in Russia than he's in Romania so I don't know what's really going to be happening I don't know what information I'm getting we are in talks we're getting updates regularly but there's nothing right now to be said where it's positive or negative the only thing is they're holding strong these are two tough mentally and emotionally brothers that they see each other every day they're not in the same cell I believe but they do see each other every day that's good that they're around each other because they strengthen each other and that's what they're doing to them right now so time will tell what's really going on there why do you think we're living such a soft and generation Patrick where people get offended by what people say what do you think it is that's changed so much we've always been offended by what people have said but nobody did anything about it now somebody is listening to those people that are crying about somebody saying something that offended them it's kind of like this imagine if you and I are brothers and our dad doesn't take shit from us he's a tough dad and our parents are married for 15 years you're 14 I'm 12 I'm just making up numbers here so every time you and I bitched or complained or we were friends that's like toughen up toughen up then our mom and dad get a divorce and mom marries a guy who's a pansy he's a softy so mom naturally by being married to our father she's also toughened up a little bit okay now we're living with this new guy and he says Mary you don't talk to James like that he's just a 14 year old boy and then you're like yeah mom do you understand what I'm saying like now all of a sudden because of the way this new guy is raising us we're now becoming little you know what where it's like because somebody's allowing us to be soft so yeah we've been offended since day one people have been offended for a long time I'm sure Adam was offended when Eva with the apple being offended is not a new thing that's been around for a long time just nobody gave a shit back in the days now everything is about you gotta be careful oh stop it already man everything is about you hurt someone's feelings my feelings are hurt every day does anybody care about it no it's natural we have to toughen up a little bit now don't get me wrong that doesn't mean we get to say everything and anything there's some protocols to it as well you have to be respectful but the only reason cancel culture is here today is because the people of power are canceling people and they're listening to the people that are complaining this is the first time ever the best way to paint a picture of what these complainers look like is the following so think about it this way imagine you're fighting a guy you and I and we're on a street and there's a street here to the right but we can't see who's back there but we're talking to this guy and he goes like this say something James say something I call my gang there's 60 people around the corner with the street they're gonna come and kick your ass James and Patrick touch me I dare you and you and I are like how many people does he have over there 60 people over there from XYZ gang you know who they are they'll destroy you and you and I are like hey James let's just walk away man this guy if he's got those 60 we're gonna get destroyed let's just walk away and you and I back up and we silence there is no 60 people there you just lie to you these complainers have convinced the government and people in politics and people in media that there are tens of millions that think what they think they don't they're just louder social media has convinced people that there are more people like them no complainers are the best recruiters they're the best convincers they're the best manipulators and the world is falling for them majority the world pay their bills they want to be good fathers, they want to be good husbands they want to be good wives, they want to be good mothers they want to be good teachers but these guys are injecting this victimhood mentality and people are subscribing to it it's a sad situation so just before we finish up brother for anybody that's watching that's maybe in the struggle Patrick and life right now what advice would you have for them listen man future looks bright whatever you're going through right now this is a weird season financially war, you got Ukraine, you got Russia you got finances, you got market, you got stocks all the stuff that's going on right now one thing I always tell my guys is when you're winning you're not as good as you think you are relax, humble yourself a little bit when you're losing you're not as bad as you think you are relax, go back and remember when you were winning you can go back to winning again neither one of them is telling the truth you're not as great as you think you are you're not as bad as you think you are you're right about in the middle is where you are and the more you can stay there everything is going to work itself out this is a market right now to increase your skill sets this is a market to recreate yourself this is an economy for you to use to come out in the next 3, 6, 12 months where people don't recognize you maybe you pick up a new skill set you don't know how to sell, you don't know how to negotiate you don't know how to create content or you don't know how to code your skills during this economy it's going to favor you Listen brother, for coming on the day and telling your story I've thoroughly enjoyed that do you have tickets out for people to do for the UK tour? where can people get the links and stuff and buy tickets? we're hosting an event called the vault it's the big one that we do that's going to be in Miami that I'm hosting but the one in Scotland that I'm speaking in I don't know the details once it's finalized Patrick, listen for coming on today thoroughly enjoyed that thank you, God bless you keep fucking great work that you're doing it's unbelievable and I look forward to seeing you when you come to Scotland I appreciate you man, you're great interviewer and I'm sure you know that, thank you thank you my brother, likewise God bless you mate, cheers Patrick take care brother