Welcome to the daily grind podcast everybody. I'm your host Colin Morgan. Listen, are you tired not living a fulfilling life? Do you believe you deserve more?
Do you want more? Is it finally your time? If yes, then stick around. I welcome you to the daily grind In business whether you're starting out or you've done this for a while If you've listened to the show you have heard countless people over and over again talk about the importance of mentorship of learning from people who have come before you This is why I highly recommend my friend Eric Gilbert Williams.
Eric was interviewed on this podcast episode 429 which I would highly recommend you checking that episode out reason why I love Eric is listen This is no height no strings attached Eric is all about results Are you trying to make your first million? Do you feel like you're burning out? You have a sales problem are you stuck on recruiting and managing your team? Do you have a legal dispute angry customers?
You confused about accounting? These are all issues that come up Eric specializes in helping early stage founders entrepreneurs drive down stress and drive up profits You want the guy in your corner who's been there and done it before Eric built a number one fastest growing company? He ran it He sold it successfully and he wants to help you do the same Listen Eric has been generous enough to give you listeners three people He's leaving exactly three openings in a schedule right now and all you have to do to reach out say hi to Eric and get in touch with him Is email him directly at Eric at Eric Gilbert Williams calm? That's Eric with a C Eric at Eric Gilbert Williams calm or you can message him on LinkedIn his name is Eric Gilbert Williams All this stuff's gonna be in the show notes guys But listen he just puts his direct email out there to the listeners in the podcast how amazing is that?
There's no bullshit right to the point he wants to help you But only three listen everyone like I have been in touch with Eric you want to work with this guy because he's been through the muck He's come out the other side successfully listen He wants to help you he's willing to help you and he doesn't take your money if you're not happy with his help How amazing is that there's no reason why you shouldn't try this out? You can email again him again directly at Eric at Eric Gilbert Williams calm or message him on LinkedIn at Eric Gilbert Williams Listen he makes business mentoring simple. No hype just results. No strings attached all this stuff is in the show notes everyone Listen, he doesn't let you doesn't take your money unless he gets you results How amazing is that there's no reason for you guys not to check this out again Eric at Eric Gilbert Williams calm everyone check it out Now welcome to the daily grind podcast mr.
Rod cleef Rod. How are you today? Awesome brother? Thanks for having me on the show absolutely super excited you're here now Rod cleef is a multiple business owner and philanthropist who is passionate about real estate business and giving back as one of the country's top business real estate and peak Performance luminaries Rod has owned over 2,000 homes and apartment buildings and has built over 22 businesses in his 40 year business career Several which have been worth tens of millions of dollars awesome story Rod Could you let the people know a little bit more about who you are and how you help people?
Yeah, you know, I got tired just listening to that buddy I you know 40 years of pain and ups and downs and sideways and yeah, no You know, I immigrated this country when I was six years old I came in from Holland with my brother and my mother and we came across on a big ship And I remember my mom crying when she saw the Statue of Liberty. I was very cliche cliche story We ended up in Denver and didn't have a lot of money You know, I literally had to wear clothes from the goodwill and my poor brother had to wear my hand me down Some good will and you know And we we had expired red and drank powdered milk because that's literally all we could afford and I know people listening There's people listening that had a lot harder than that, but I I knew I wanted more and like any of your listeners that are entrepreneurs They want more You know, we have a drive and that drive started very young for me And you know, I got exposed to real estate Which is the first business that I got into through my mom my mom babysat kids So we'd have enough money to eat and she used that money to buy the house across the street from us and she bought it she bought it when I was 14 and When I was 17 she told me it got up in value $20,000 And that's when I knew I was gonna try real estate and got my broker's license When I was 18 and started selling real estate didn't make any really any real money my first or second year But then I met somebody that taught me about the psychology of success and mindset and confidence and I really killed it my third year and Started buying houses and I have like you said on the intro there I've owned over 2,000 houses I've owned multiple apartment communities in three states and and You know, and I have started yes I have started 22 businesses some of some have done very very well and some have been equally spectacular failures I call them seminars they've been equally spectacular seminars because they're always learning experiences, but yeah, so you know I love talking about the psychology associated with success and as you know I have a podcast as well and that's one of the one of the key things we talk about as well as real estate, but Yeah, so that's that's how I got started Now I have some lessons along the way which I'm happy to share if you're if you're interested as to you know how to get past falling on your face which I've become very very good at You know, I let me let me let me let me share that you know I had in in 2006 My net worth went up $17 million while I slept that's how much my real estate went up that year And of course, you know, I did the math on that it's like $3,800 an hour on a 40 hour work week And you know my head was so big I could barely get it through the door I thought I was a real estate God well, you know when that happens, you know God or the universe or whatever you believe in I will give you a smackdown and that was 2008 for me and all of that net worth evaporated as well as a whole lot more And that was actually a $50 million seminar for me. Wow, and you know, I'm back now, but it was very very painful I thought I was set for life and you know That's one of the reasons I started my podcast because you know, I had 800 houses here in Florida I had multiple apartment communities and what was interesting is through the crash my single family properties Just couldn't hold it together But my multifamily did just fine and you know, that's why I'm a big proponent for your listeners that are having have any interest in real estate I especially long-term hold real estate for you to focus on multifamily instead of single family, but back to the mindset, you know, if I hadn't Really focused on what I wanted through all that, you know, it could you know, I could have not I could have not it's possible I may not have recovered from it because it was so devastating, you know, when you think you're set for life and You know, you really you know, everything's golden. You know, I live in you know, a eight million dollar house on the beach I had the exotic cars at everything the beautiful family all of that stuff and it all imploded, you know It's it's hard to recover if you don't know what it is you want and why you want it So you know, I can speak to that a little bit if you like I can tell you how how I've manifested what I want in my life And maybe the lad it allowed value to your listeners it probably well because mindset's just such an important piece of this whole entrepreneurship game You want me to chat about that?
Yeah, absolutely, Rod I mean it's such an amazing story being able to recover from $50 million loss and be able to have that mindset and have those behaviors to recover from that So yeah, sure that's right with everyone. I'm sure that's sure that's fascinating. Well, let me go back because it kind of starts really when I turned 18 I got my real estate brokers license and Back then I you know, I thought that to be able to sell real estate I needed a four-door car So I bought this Ford four-door Granada and it was ugly as ugly can be and you know I knew you know, I had a I had a broker that I worked with that had a Corvette He let me drive it and I was just thought that was the greatest thing I'd ever seen so I you know I was in my ugly four-door Granada And I actually taped a picture of a Corvette to the visor of that Granada now I'm gonna give you I'm gonna give you some examples about visualization and and and And the effect that it had on my life, but please understand that this this could if without this pre-friend This could be conceived as bragging, but that's not it at all It's just my story and it's all I can share with you So please please know that before I get into this but so so I got that Corvette and then back then and this will date me There was a TV show called Magnum PI and the actor's name was Tom Selick and in that show he drove a Ferrari 308 beautiful red Ferrari And I just thought then I thought that was the greatest thing ever and so I got a picture of that actual Ferrari out of a magazine this is way before the internet and clip that picture on the visor of my Corvette and sure enough a couple years later I had a maserati that looked pretty much just like that Ferrari certainly from the front end you couldn't tell them apart And and so the last story I'll share with you is I'm the guy that always wanted a Lamborghini I'm the guy that had the posters in his bedroom when he was growing up and back then it was a Lamborghini kuntosh You know the beautiful girls with the bikinis and all that that that was me and so and what was interesting is my son even kind of Got into this visualization He had about 30 models of exotic cars that he had in his bedroom when he was nine ten years old because I you know I told him that at some point I was thinking about getting a Lamborghini and he had a model of the exact same color and style that I Ended up getting and you know so guys Visualization really works and I give you some tips for how to do it But you know it if you know what it is you want and you focus on it and you focus on it is if you already have it with gratitude I can't tell you how powerful that process is but what I what I typically do those of you that want to become an entrepreneur Or already an entrepreneur and you want more but you want more you want that whatever your definition of success is I have You know I coach people and I have a coaching clients and I take them through a goal-setting workshop And if you'll humor me for a couple more minutes, I'll chat with you about that if you like let me talk about it All right, so I so what I do is I tell people Because again where you where your focus goes your energy flows You have to know what it is you want why you want it so what I tell people is to pick a time of the day when you have a ton of energy You know be it morning afternoon evening whenever that is for you and carve out an hour for this That's all it's gonna take and what's so sad is people will spend more time planning Christmas than they'll do designing their lives So if you're if you're an entrepreneur You must do this or if you're an aspiring entrepreneur You know you want to get out of the daily grind you want to start your own business This is the first step guys 80% of your success in anything is your psychology in your mindset And this is what you have to do to build that only 20% the real estate or the business knowledge You know that how to build a business how to how to ramp a business the culture the operations the marketing all that technical stuff is 20% of it 80% of it or even more is your mindset and your ability to push through your fear and take action So back to the goal-setting workshop what you do is you sit down high energy well hydrated and you write down everything You could ever possibly want in life I mean the big things the little things the houses the cars the boats the yachts the jets take the lid off your brain and Imagine that if you write it down You're going to get it which is not outside the realm of possibility The writing it down starts that process and what it does if you don't know is it triggers something in your brain called your reticular activating system So that it starts programming your brain to focus on things that will help you get what it is you want an example of The the reticular activating system is anytime you buy a new car You never really notice that car until you buy one and then you see it everywhere well that's your brain it filters out This RAS filters out all of these different things that are coming at you You know all the time and helps you focus on what's most important That's why goal-setting is so critical and those of you that are analytical do not keep your goals in your head You must write them down So anyway back to the exercise you write down everything you could ever want and big things little things take you know Just imagine you're gonna get it if you write it down and also write down what you want to learn You know I want to learn how to fly a helicopter write down who you want to help and I bought my parents a house and a car And you know who do you want to do things for write it down? You know who do you want to be do become what do you want to have everything?
Alright, so once you've got it all written down Then you have to put time limits on it because and it's got to be these goals have to be clear and measurable It can't be to lose some weight. It's got to be to lose 20 pounds by January 1st Yeah, specifically measurable once you've written them down You're gonna put a time limit by each goal and it's gonna be the number of years that you anticipate It'll take for you to achieve that goal one year three year five year ten year twenty years so write a number of h goal Remembering that as human beings we will overestimate what we can do in a year and massively underestimate what we're capable of capable of doing in five to ten years So write a number by each goal then once once you've done that circle your top four one your goals, okay? Pull them out of there write them on a separate sheet of paper now the next two things are the most important Okay, and this is where people stop they just write their goals They think that's all they have to do and it's about as effective as New Year's resolutions Which are which are forgotten by you know the middle of January So what you have to do the goal itself will never drive you and I know there's some of you listening right now They're like oh, this is all floofy woo woo stuff, but I'm I promise you this is the most important part of your success If you do nothing else but do this you are 80 percent of the way there So you've got your goals you've got your top four when your goals written down You must write a paragraph why each one of those goals is an absolute must so that I so I feel like a success So that you know my family is proud of me So you know using emotionally charged language and the goal itself will never drive you It's the why that goal is a must that's gonna drive you that's what's gonna get you out of bed early on a Saturday morning to go You know evaluate businesses or look at real estate or whatever it is whatever direction you want to go That's what's gonna keep you up late at night while you're after the kids are asleep or the spouses are sleeping You're still working. It's the why that's gonna drive you so write some compelling language why it's a must then take it one little step further Put some pain in there and I mean twist and I mean twist the knife because as human beings will do more to avoid pain than gain pleasure So put in there, you know so that I don't feel like a failure so I didn't fail I mean make it harsh guys because that's what's gonna drive you okay?
So put some pain in there on the wise once you've got the wise down There's one more step and it relates to what I was just talking about get pictures of your goals go on google You guys have incredible resource that we didn't have when I was young go on google and find pictures that resonate with you throw them on a flash drive Go to Walgreens or CVS have them blown up. It's so inexpensive You can get a practically a poster sized picture for like eight to ten bucks and put them somewhere you're gonna see them I'll give you an example of how powerful this is this is an additional example Yeah, I'm a dinosaur Digitally I use a paper planner used to be called a daytime or now it's called a Franklin Covey planner And it's you know, I write my that's how I plan my day half for decades Yeah, well there you go In the back of this thing I've got pictures that have been in here for almost 20 years, okay And there the first few pictures of pictures of my children when they were young They're my gratitude pictures because everything guys comes from a place of gratitude So you got your gratitude then I've got the houses that I've wanted on the beach and elsewhere that I've gotten I've got the watches, you know, I've got 100,000 a couple hundred thousand dollars with the watches again things that don't matter to me anymore You know the Lamborghini the whole the Rolls Royce all things that I got because I had pictures So don't underestimate the power of this guys very very important. I want to give you one last example I always wanted to live on the beach and again remember this is not me bragging This is all I can do share my story and so hopefully this will inspire some of you But I always wanted a house on the beach. I lived in Denver There's no beach in Denver and I got head pictures of palm trees, you know, my dad worked for the airline So I got to go to Hawaii a couple of times I just love the beach well anyway after 20 years I got my house on the beach I built this incredible, you know eight million dollar 10,000 square foot house on the beach I'd beach on one side and I had covered boat lifts on the backside in spectacular home And I want to share a little lesson here because it relates to goals.
That's really really important So I finished this house is magnificent I'm I'm floating in the pool one night by myself and and this pool was I mean it was in magazines It was so cool the light would change colors. I'd lighting in there. There's a waterfall from the second floor into the pool I mean just spectacular trees that I'd bought that real expensive that went out over the pool But anyway, I'm floating in this pool looking up at this thing and I should have been really proud Um that I'd accomplished this goal, but I was depressed and I couldn't understand why I was depressed And when I looked back on it later, I figured out what it was it was two things One never achieve a big goal without having other goals lined up like the good book says without a vision the people perish You need a vision for the future. Okay, so if you were about to achieve a big goal Make sure you've goal set, you know, I do it every year a couple times a year, you know And come up with new goals make sure you've got a vision for the future So that was one thing that was one reason I was depressed Luckily I encountered Tony Robbins then I went to one of his events because I started reading books and I came across one of his and Signed up for his event and since then, you know I've spent 16 years following him around the planet and working with him a little bit and and just just Studying his technology the man's brilliant.
Let me do a shout out to him if you guys ever have an opportunity to see him You're crazy not to but what I learned from him was he fed people for the holidays every year And and and so guys I know you all you're listening to call and show here you want to be a success But I'm going to tell you success is empty without fulfillment and I didn't know it at the time So that year when I was depressed it was like 2000 I went out with my brother and we fed five families for Thanksgiving And we got big boxes of food big boxes of food we delivered them We found families through a church that were really in tough shape and the third family changed my life And I went up to the door with this box of food. We had a frozen turkey. We had the pan We had everything she needed so lady came out she saw the food she started crying and then her five kids all came out They started crying and I started crying and I was hooked so guys Well, let me just let me go on to say that since then these last 17 years Well, the next year I fed 50 families the year after that I fed 100 year after that 200 You're after I doubled it every year 400 800 1600 and that was 2007 1600 then the market crashed And I paid for it all the way up to that point but then then I couldn't do any more I formed a foundation But I'm I'm blessed to say we have fed 50,000 children over the last 17 years For the holidays and we've also done thousands of backpacks filled with school supplies In fact, we just did three weeks ago We did 1600 backpacks here in Sarasota for local areas You know kids that didn't have basic school supplies And we've also done thousands of teddy bears for officers to keep in their cars when they encounter a child that's experienced a traumatic event It's been my greatest joy, but guys the message here is it's fulfillment because there's a big difference between achievement and fulfillment You have to be happy and the and the biggest way to have fulfillment is to give back Now you don't have to do anything on the magnitude of the scale that I just described I hope you do But even if you just decide to add value by smiling at everybody you meet today or you know Buying somebody a cup of coffee behind you in line at Starbucks or whatever it is There's so many ways you can give back they don't even cost money But you have to incorporate that in your life because it's not just about success And you know, so I hope you get that message I hope you know and I hope the goal setting the visualization adds value to you guys because I promise you it works I mean, you know, I when I'm doing my goal setting workshop I talk about people that have used it for example Jim Carrey, you know, Carrey He wrote himself a check for $10 million when he didn't have a pot to pee in and he cashed that check I don't know how many years later it was for dumb and dumber I mean he looked at it You know, he'd sit and look at it and visualize himself having it that stuff works guys, you know, like Roy Disney was at the opening of ePCOT Walt Disney had already passed away then and a reporter came up to Roy Disney and said, you know, it's a shame Walt didn't get to see this and Roy looked at him and looked at him and said the only reason you were seeing this is because Walt Visualized this, you know before he passed so visualization is very very powerful and It's it's more important than the mechanical information, you know, this goal setting in the psychology of taking action pushing through fear You know, so that you know, if you're gonna be an entrepreneur And you're gonna go out there and make it in business. You're gonna get knocked down.
You're gonna get your nose bloodied It's inevitable. It's just gonna happen and when it does it's so it's our natural tendency to focus on what's wrong But the only way you're gonna get past it like I didn't oh wait when I lost it all Was to focus on what you want. I mean, I'm back now. I mean I'm better than I was before but it was because I focused on what I wanted Not what I didn't want so and you hope that added some value.
Yeah, that's that's so inspiring It's so motivational to be able to you know have a fulfilling life and be able to give back and I'm a big proponent believer in visualization as well I mean I have a vision board just like you said up beside my bed Which is all the things that I want and I'm gonna start incorporating the things that you had said writing down Why what it is that I want what if I didn't get it? What would the repercussions be and I think that's super important? So that's uh, that's an amazing message That's awesome. No, that's that's great.
It's funny. You know, I just uh john aseroth the guy in the secret that had the vision boards with his son and stuff He's gonna he's gonna be on my show here in a couple weeks. Yeah. Yeah, it's really a treat because uh, you know He's he inspired millions of people to do vision boards and uh, and so that's kind of cool that you brought that up But uh, but yeah and guys, you know, if um, let me just say this I'll offer this to your listeners You know my my my business right now my focus right now is multifamily real estate investing So if you've got any interest those you listening any interest in real estate whatsoever I've got a free book and it's crazy for you not to take it because it's 200 pages It's like a total textbook for multifamily investing no fluff And you can just get it by texting the word rod to 41411 and we'll give you a free copy So I'll give that to you listeners gonna go on amazon here probably in a couple weeks for 2495 But your listeners can have it for free So just text rod to 41411 and again if you've got any interest in real estate check out my podcast lifetime cash flow through real estate investing And what's even if you don't have an interest in real estate?
You should check it out because I do a clip every week I do a clip on the you know I interview an expert you know, I have a people that just have a duplex People that have 45,000 units on there, but I also do a clip that's only five to eight minutes But I promise you you'll enjoy it's about the psychology of success and take in action It's about you know this goal setting we talked about visualization taking 100 percent responsibility working through your fears You know on and on and on things that are that are really more important To get you to take action and then to get you back up when you get knocked down So you know check it out absolutely and thank you for all of that rod That's some amazing information. I'm sure a lot of people are gonna pick you up on that book offer Sure. Yeah, my pleasure. My pleasure, buddy.
Yeah. Well, thank you so much for coming on I will share all the links on how to connect with rod best I'll also share the link for his free book offer take advantage of that I'm telling you I've listened to his podcast listen to a bunch of his stuff rod rod's mindset on on life in general is absolutely amazing and inspiring Just thanks brother. Honestly, it's a lot of stuff You can take away from it and as you can see by this interview success is driven by passion hunger and visualization Everyone has to overcome obstacles even rod 50 million dollar loss Everyone has a story start building yours today again. Thank you so much Rod for coming on the show.
My pleasure brother and and I love what you're doing here and You're adding a ton of value. I can tell this is going to be a huge hit podcast. I appreciate it Rod Thank you so much great having you on here until next time everyone call them Oregon signing off and always remember keep on grinding