 George Bruno and the 21 report were at the 21 convention the final event of the decade, and I'm having a conversation with Stefan Arneo. Welcome Thanks for having me George. Absolutely That was a great presentation. You just came off the stage. What is your impression of the audience and of the event so far? Love the event very high quality men Diverse group of guys. I was doing my own research watching. I think the top three videos that Anti-Semmion seems like you guys like talking about picking up chicks So I had to put some picking up girls in the Presentation and then and then I noticed that no one this year speaking so much about money So I brought the money and the real estate to the table a little bit I thought it was a good match to bring the money and the girls because without without women There's no reason to get money right right. I thought it was a good pairing Thank you. It was you know, how you pair wine with certain meals I feel that that your speech was a very good pairing and Talking to a lot of guys on the way up here to the studio Most of them really loved it. That's great. There was a visual too. I would see guys I'm like, so what did you think they go? They did this like their mind was blown kind of thing and I thought wow good That said it all. Well, you know, I had to cram either cram a 16-hour Hard times create strong men book into an hour And then I split up with the Oracle my new book the Oracle the Queen the Princess and the whore So I wanted to bring what is that? 20 30 hours of content into an hour. That's hard to do and and somehow I finish it right on the notes Yeah Fantastic. All right. Well rather than talking about the presentation Because that people will see that video right and digital is forever So people are gonna be watching that for the next five ten fifteen twenty years Let's talk about some other things. You're an author. You've written a lot of books Tell me about the first book you wrote and the most recent book great So my first book I wrote this one here money people deal and it was 2011 I went I was a struggling young entrepreneur So was that oh my gosh seven years ago? So I was my mid-twenties and I had some success I owned you know some buildings and I had some passive income and I was starting to flip houses and stuff And I went to this seminar and this guy said hey you gotta learn to write a book And I thought oh, I'm I have an English degree And you know, I'm thinking oh well I can write and sure why not so I end up buying this $3,000 how to write a book course and I went home and it sat on the shelf And I didn't do anything with it and then finally somehow I got fed up and I took I ended up writing a hundred and twenty blogs and 120 days and I took the top 30 blogs made into this book called money people deal and within the year I raised five million dollars of capital for my real estate deals That book launched my coaching company my education company, which is you know my passion now and then it sold over 20,000 copies and I'm from Canada Canadian bestsellers 3,000 copies. We've done 20,000 copies in Canada So it's been a real success to to build a platform off of a book like that Teach people how to raise money how to how to build a real estate portfolio my newest book It's the hard time series. So hard times create strong men is the first book in that series all about power and being a man The second book in the series is this one dead man walking It's all about darkness the third one's about demons and the last one's about ethics and women That's the Oracle the Queen the princess and the whore So I ended up with this hard times project never planned on writing about men But I found that the men were so screwed up so weak didn't have fathers And I just I just been doing this out of a labor of love and passion It's great to come here and talk to you guys because this is the perfect audience for the hard times project. Yeah, yeah as far as Recruiting men for learning you're you are a huge Proponent and a student yourself you invested a lot in yourself you continue to do so and you Ask men to do that for themselves. What can a man do by when he invests in himself with your product your training Yeah, what does he get out of it? What depends I mean at the at the lowest level guys just getting books You know a book or an audio book if you're a guy you don't have a lot of money a book or an audio Book's a great thing to open the mind, right? It's almost like an appetizer If guys want to get a little more serious, maybe they come to an event like 21 convention or one of my classes We do four classes a year. We teach how to get started with real estate investing I don't have a hard time class yet I might end up making one who knows and then at the top level we do very high service coaching and those those classes start or those Packages started 19,000 go to 73,000, but those classes I mean the starter ones is we literally walk you through getting your first deal done with on your own money real estate Deal so you make to spend 20, but you'll make 30 or 40 and then the top level I coach they're called platinum students and they do a dozen deals a year So somebody wants to be a full-time investor We can get you to that point and I've got some students who are taking home a million dollars a year So my top students are taking home that Other top students are making three four hundred grand, but they're doing work You know those guys are they take it's almost like a cake mix They take the cake mix home they add the water they add the eggs They put it in the oven and they get it if you buy the cake mix and you don't make the cake mix You're not gonna call it Betty Crocker Betty. What's up, you know, you got it put in the work. Sure. Sure Who was your biggest influence? Oh Man, I've had so many over the years, you know, I mentioned on stage that when I was 21 I was really struggling. I had divorced parents. So I had a weak dad. He never could measure up and I started Studying and and getting hungry and reading a lot. My mother taught me to reach you said read every day before bed That was just that was the deal. So I started reading and read I read Richard Porta by Robert Kiyosaki Changed my life and I had five grand of the bank. I'd saved up as a guitar teacher and I had five grand of the bank So I ended up spending on seminars I put myself ten thousand dollars in debt to go see Bill Bartman and he's one of the top entrepreneurs of all time He's on the same list as Henry Ford. I spent a week with Bill Bartman It was ten grand to go and I did not have the money to go at all staying at a five-star hotel I bought myself a lobster club sandwich at the at the restaurant because I wanted to taste what it was like to be rich I want to stay there. I remember I bought this lobster lobster club It was like a 17 dollar sandwich and I see Bill Bartman behind the stage eating a five dollar footlong for subway It gave me some context, right? Yes, it was billionaire. He's eating a ham sandwich from subway I'm eating this lobster club and I realized wow, you know the rich guys He's rich, but he's frugal too. So it was a that was a really great experience of Trump who loves McDonald's Yeah, and KFC he's eating KFC on his plane at McDonald's and you know, it's why not the Big Mac is a great burger You know, so why not? So it was a really great experience because what happened was years later when I actually had the money to Stay at that hotel. I went back and I stayed there and I actually belonged I could actually Afford it but back then I always says people I say go get a really expensive hotel room Some are 700 bucks a night 500 bucks a night and taste it taste that life and you go home and you got the taste in your mouth You're gonna work harder Reminds me when I was in Poland. I got upgraded to Business first class and it was just phenomenal just unlimited everything. I just had my own little concierge flight attendant Yeah, and I thought it was a random thing that I thought about it for a second I'm like there is a method to this madness Because it makes flying anything less suck. It does suck. Yeah, absolutely. You know what I said to my assistant So look I'm 33 now put me in first class business class I don't even care how much it costs now because I just don't want to be in the cattle car in the back Where everyone's farting all the time like put me put me in the first class and even hotels now I used to stay at the the Hojo the Howard Johnson shitty hotels and now I'm like give me the nice hotel I'll spend the money like I'm 30. I'm hurting a little bit. Let's get something. Yeah What's next for you? Oh Man George, that's a big question. Well, we're starting to license out the black card University for people who want to create their own coaching company. So we're starting to license that out I'm probably gonna do another two books this winter I'm going back to the jungle do another 40-day fast this winter what jungle Costa Rica So I'll be in Costa Rica not eating for 40 days just having water I'm probably gonna pump out another two books in the next six months And then I'm doing a media tour and a PR tour. I'm just promoting hard times and I've got to figure out What is next? I'm thinking maybe a private equity fund. Maybe a hard times class. I've been in this I got these stabilized. I had cancer last year. Yeah, and The doctors told me I've dead in two weeks and I went to the jungle and fasted. That was a big gamble and I ended up coming out on the other side, but it kind of Smashed my goals. It smashed my vision. It smashed a lot of things in the last year I've been kind of floating a little bit. I grew a beard. I grew my hair out I will cancel them on the front of this magazine, but I'm a jungle man now and I think there's Kind of like you said there's a method to the madness like there's a reason for all this to happen and I think part of it is Making me think bigger and getting me out of my little town of Winnipeg I think I'm gonna spend half my time in LA next year and half in Winnipeg. So I don't know man I'm in this like space. I'm doing a lot of spiritual work. I gotta clean clean this up. Yeah, I watched Grant Cardone grow to what he is today and it's amazing and it happened in The past five years wasn't the grant that he is now and a lot happened in five years an awful lot happened. So I Don't think he I think five years ago. I don't think he would have even imagined that What he is now? I don't even think that was on the on the blackboard. Yeah, well, and that's that's the thing I'm keeping myself open I got this diagram on the back of dead man walking and this is God channeling through man It makes his heart shape which is unconditional love and I'm kind of open to the channeling of that I know I'm gonna go on a 48 fast every year. I fast and I completely change everything So I'll come out of the jungle after listening To the universe God what I'm gonna call it and I'll probably have some brilliant ideas And I'll have a very clean body and you know, everything will be great But you know, I commend Grant. He's done a lot of work on himself And you know, I'm even gonna do some of the things he did I saw him speak in August in LA and I got to hear the real story the story. He tells off the camera. Yeah Real real big balls on that guy Yeah, he burned the ships no doubt about yes, he burned the ships. Yes, you know, there was no turning back Two or three weeks ago. I went to see Dan Pena at University of Pennsylvania. Yeah, they're interesting fellow Love them, you know much about him. You know what? I was hanging out with Jason Capitol in LA I don't know Jason. He's a student of Dan Pena and then Dan Locke I'm a friend of mine. Yeah student of Dan Pena and I've seen his clip where he says I got some vagina cream He's put it on your vaginas. Yeah, that's your bunch of pussy. Yeah You know, I like him because he tells it how it is and I aspire to be like Dan Pena one day I'll be that old man. Yeah, telling you to you know, reach down and tell me if you feel a pair of balls. Yeah it was interesting because We've seen this really tough Dan and then he went for about a good two hours at Penn and Then he says well, I guess I have to stop because my wife over there is giving me dirty looks and I'm like And that was refreshing it was like He went from Dan Pena to being a husband Right, and he wasn't being like, you know this wussy kind of guy. He was being a considerate man Right, and you know, he was reading the Oracle Absolutely Absolutely, and I thought that was really interesting. She's a good giving me dirty looks so I need to cut this short now So and I thought that was really neat and they stayed around and shook everyone's hand and that was kind of cool Uh Women let's talk about women All right, man, let's do it. Yeah the 21 convention started out I joke around as a You know, I say it was like a how to get laid seminar, which I think can be taught in like two hours get laid get paid live Forever, that's what we all want. That's it, right? That's it But a whole weekend three or four days talking about that. I just think it creates a one-sided man And we've evolved and now we have spiritual we have ethical we have moral speakers we have Socrates got up and spoke on how to change a diaper. I mean, wow, you know So many different things have happened and it's evolved What do you see as the future of men's events like this? Well, I think there's four parts. There's the physical There's mental spiritual emotional, right? So I like the fact that they're making it a little more well-rounded because picking up chicks and slaying pussy That gets you so far. I got eight girlfriends at one point I went into the PUA the pickup artistry and I was also a hardcore salesman and a traveling speaker Yeah, and a hardcore negotiator. I've books written on all that stuff Selling negotiating and a man can kill himself with that stuff like actually it's like it's as dangerous as heroin or alcohol Like super dangerous. So I actually that's actually part of how I got cancer was I fell in love with one of those eight girls She had a boyfriend the whole time didn't tell me about it. So for three years. I'm chasing this girl and I looked in the mirror I said I want to die cancer one week later If you want to die you will die and I'm convinced of that now is when you want to die You'll die when you want to live you'll live and that's Bar none like you'll just do it and so I think you know in hard times creates strong man I talk about what is a man in money sex religion politics, and I think that there is more Rounding out of men now, you know talking about those four topics Those are the hard topics that Stefan Mullin you will tap will tackle or you know even Jack Donovan He has some spicy stuff. Yes, I got lots of spicy stuff. We didn't go too spicy today I kept it kind of you know basic, but I think that What I love about what you guys are doing here is that the Conversations here are those father-to-son conversations that aren't happening anymore. I said on stage You know this this this convention shouldn't exist because the father taking the son out in the garage Yeah in the garage and we should have men's groups locally where I go to the Winnipeg Whatever and you go to the Florida whatever whatever the local thing is and the men we get together and that is that has been systematically destroyed in the last 50 years, right and so this is a very important thing now Here's the sad part is the guys got a fly it costs money guys are afraid of that But you do have the online platform So I'm glad the conversation is going towards these more difficult topics and I'm glad that I think society itself is starting to open up Like Ellen DeGeneres recently she had the George Bush thing her and George Bush was saying again And she said look we're having a discussion. I might not agree, but we're having a discussion. Thank God there's a discussion because Money sex religion politics people don't talk about those But what I'm finding right now in the marketplace is men and women are searching for meaning and Meaning has been lost because we took religion out Okay, we took the Judeo-Christian route out of society and then you know even some new religions like Scientology They're like they banish that that's the last religion you can be prejudiced towards on the whole face of the earth They took Scientology way they took Christianity way they took Islam away They took well Islam is cool right now, but they took everything away So there's no religions and now man is struggling to find meaning woman is struggling to find meaning and That's where the hard time series is coming in is I'm talking about the power of darkness demons and ethics of humanity and It's it's freaky. It gives me chills because it's almost What a religion would be talking about but it's not a religion And it's the stuff that's in the Bible like this is actually I get guys saying this is the second best book out for the Bible Well, dude, it actually is like the Bible, but it's not you know, thou art Written in this middle English. It says fuck shit and piss. Yeah, it has naked girls Yeah, and it's funny church people like that the the religious community likes it But they don't like the rated our nature of it, but dude the Bible was rated R There's like incest and sodomy and killing and genocide and slave like all this dark stuff But I think that what's happened with the Christians or with the religious people is they only show the good side of Christianity They don't want to talk about the darkness And so what's cool about this is I like that we come here and we can talk about the darkness and the stuff that You know, maybe they don't want to talk about on the mainstream tv Or they don't want to talk about on youtube and they're getting shadow banned And I appreciate that you guys have security and guns and you know secret location That means when I went and they told me I never heard of this convention and Anthony told me that I was like fuck Yeah, I mean, you know, this is a bit of danger. Oh, yeah. Yeah Yeah, well, you were surrounded by more firepower than you can ever imagine Yeah, I mean it It was amazing. Yeah. Yeah, you know You've been surrounded by firepower since you walked in the door Oh, I love some of these, you know jack Donovan and uh, sifan moan. You showed up them I got them as sources in hard times and it's cool because I've been joked on sifan moan One summer I said to him, I said dude, I've been joining your stuff one summer. It's all I did Was just I just watched his stuff and I ate butter chicken in my apartment. Yeah, that was it and then you know jack Donovan I've been joked on his books too. And uh, he's Incredible guys. It's really cool. I'm one of their peers now. I'm on the stage with them, which is super cool Yeah, it's interesting. Isn't it when you go from reading someone's books to Sharing the stage with them. Oh Never would have imagined that but I also kind of felt this is that goes back to that belief of living or dying I remember I had the belief I want to be on sifan show. Well sifan was just on my podcast He has my book. I saw I saw the podcast. It was great. Awesome. Thank you Well, we got to talk about him which he never gets to talk about he's interviewing someone else And yeah, we've got to hear the truth of sifan moan you. Yeah, that was a good good broadcast. I loved it Yeah What is the pain in your life? What is the wound in your life? Well, I think I suffered from Things that other men have suffered from for the first part of my life. Well from all my teenage years I suffered from my parents divorce And I remember I was 17 and my mom was like, hey, I'm divorcing your dad And I actually feel like I caused that because what happened was I went to work with my dad and I came home And I complained about my dad. I said mom dad works like four hours a day And I don't understand what you're doing And we had this like Female bitch fest me and her I was a teenage boy. I didn't know what the fuck I was doing if I go back a time I'd slap myself And so my mom ended up divorcing my dad because he wasn't really working wasn't making money all this stuff and That divorce I remember I said it's okay. I'm 17 I'm an adult I can take it and that fucked me up hard man And I think at any age of divorce with your parents it ruins your archetypes So your perfect man your perfect woman no matter what age when you find out that's untrue It destabilizes you and then Another thing that really Shattered me was I was engaged to a girl when I was in my mid 20s. I loved her You know, I was her first kiss. I was her took her virginity I loved her loved her. Her dad had a lot of abuse in her And we got engaged bought her a house took her to disneyland disney world four trips He or did everything for this girl And I ended up It did the wheels fell off the bus and I never the broken heart and I became a merciless womanizer Horrible womanizer and I had eight girlfriends pendulum went in the other direction. Oh, I became I call it the dark night You know men are slaves warriors knights kings. I became the dark night. I had power. I had money I could travel I could fly in different girls on different days I'd have one leaving the back of the hotel I'd have a different one in the front and I became a very very bad man Then that manifested into cancer and then I'm here now. So I've I've been I said on stage I've been to the bottom in money almost bankrupt. I've been to the bottom In relationships, you know where you want to die. I've almost been dead three times in the last year So I'm running out of stuff to be afraid of George because like I've actually broken everything and fixed it all now So we're running out It reminds me of the movie one of my favorite movies of all time came out probably four or five years ago called La Grande Valenza the great beauty an Italian film about a man who he He created the social scene like social scenes in Rome would not exist if it wasn't for him And he turns 60 years old and he realized Wow, I mean he had rooftop parties and he was the man and it was about his Uh come to Jesus moment and he had a friend who uh, he was with a buddy who Didn't have two nickels to rub together and and the man Said well, I got to go now. Um, you know, and we're gonna We're gonna watch tv me my wife. We're just gonna watch our favorite show on tv And then this man who was the life of Rome you just see his face sink because he just wanted to Vege on the couch and watch a show With a woman that he loved But he had a hundred women People chasing him everywhere, but he envied his simple friend Who just wanted a sandwich And to sit with the woman that he loved and it was just If you get a chance to watch the movie, uh, it's profound Someone like you will extract so much out of this dude I mean I watch this other movie phantom thread. You ever see that one? Yes. Yeah phantom thread. I'm watching that Lewis Yeah, I'm watching the movie with my mom at her house. This is when I had cancer So I just had my colon cut out and I got a freaking poop bag hanging from me And I'm watching this with my mom and my mom loved that because she could just ward over me Yeah, we're watching the phantom thread And I'm looking at this and this is a rich guy. He's got a castle in england He's making the dresses for the richest women. He's got all these people working for him. He's a rock star And I think he has his like ex-wife working for him and she's sitting at the table and she like You know, she's like don't put that there He's got his little whore that he got from like the diner or whatever And I'm watching this and I'm like goddamn like I'm watching my myself like this Master of this one thing And he can't just get the basics of life like the guy's a rock star But he's like, you know, it's like a savant like he plays the most beautiful piano But pisses his pants when he's playing the piano because he can't do the basics. I'm like, oh my god. I'm feeling this guy right now Wow That was that was a very profound move. I'm surprised that it didn't go further than it did It's a tough time. I mean it's It was a great film like it was a film not a movie Yeah, right, you know people are watching the avengers or the fucking fifth Spider-man make like over and I watch spider-man start out for the fifth time He's black now and disabled, you know every type of spider-man, but phantom thread man. That was that was a good move. Yeah What advice would you give to someone who's got the Doritos encrusted fingertips? and living either in the mom's basement or in a Flop house somewhere some little rack hole of an apartment And he has a little spark of desire But doesn't really believe in himself and he's sitting right there actually right there in that camera. He's right inside there Talk to that man. Give him some hope In the steppin way Well, I mean it sounds so serving but I tell him to read hard times create strong men and I get testimonials every day from men who go wow I've been banging my girlfriend for eight years. I'm finally going to marry her after reading hard times. Wow I couldn't get a job Now I'm on my purpose. So you know that book I would say get hard times create strong men start investing in yourself You know, if you're living at mom's house move out at all costs, it'll wake you up I mean, that's what that's what you need bro is a wake-up moment And hard times create strong men is that hard dad talk that you probably haven't gotten a while or ever got it So get started with a hard talk and let's go slaying Your personal darkness climbing to the top of the mountain We talked about that today a conversation with steppin arneo. Thank you sir. Thanks, George. Appreciate you What was your experience so far with the 21 convention? Oh, I was dead. I was dead professional all across the board really good energy with a lot of people and uh I just like because it's very positive positive direction This uh, George, this is this has been a first class event. It's fantastic. You guys run a really tight ship I've been to a lot of conventions over the course of my business career and I can tell When things are well run and when things aren't and this is a very well run operation. I was very impressed It's pretty incredible to see where anthony's brought it Especially from last year which is my first year here and to see the the upgrades he's made it's been incredible I've got my notebook and with every speaker. I've written down about two or three lines Under each of the speakers of just just the key prime stuff that I got that's good. That's great It's very surreal man. I'm really enjoying it. I'm happy to live in such an era Where is such a thing like this is possible? I have never seen a group of guys like this a group of 200 men were focused Squared away and working on their values just never met a bigger group of wonderful guys It's kind of neat because I've been to a fair amount of conventions in my day But you never see one where the guys like uh here you can just see ed latimore talking to tanner about boxing Yeah, you just sit down and then you tell your boxing experiences. Everybody's kind of pinging off each other Yeah, it has been fantastic And it's been four days of guys all on the same page working in the same direction fascinating meaning some of the people Hearing their stories. Yeah, you got people traveling from other parts of the world to come here just to see some of the speakers That's amazing. The thing is impressed me. Everybody here is very serious. Yeah, they're taking it. You know close to their heart What a great convention. Thanks, george