The Carnivore Entrepreneur Show

🎙️ Episode 11 – From Dyslexic Underdog to $100-Million Visionary: Shawn Johanson on Commercial Real-Estate, Mindset & Legacy

• Grant Hutchby • Season 1 • Episode 11

Share episode

What you’ll hear 🗣️
• Turning dyslexia into a “super-power” for rapid pattern-spotting & creative deal flow
• The step-by-step play that took a vacant 30 k sq ft office from $625K ➜ $3.1 M
• Why “perfect is the lowest standard” — and how progress-focused thinking saved Shawn from anxiety & burnout
• Daily rituals for meat-based energy, father–daughter connection and a rock-solid marriage 🥩❤️
• Using money as a tool (not an identity) to buy time, fuel generosity and chase a $100 M impact mission
• Actionable tips for winning investor trust, navigating high-rate markets and scaling with your spouse, not against them

Episode snapshot
Visionary ★ Mentor ★ Connector ★ Dyslexia Advocate — Shawn Johanson is the co-founder of Sona Investments, a multi-state commercial property firm dedicated to revitalising communities and transforming lives. Raised by a single mum, diagnosed with dyslexia only in adulthood and powered by Tony Robbins’ Platinum Partnership, Shawn now helps entrepreneurs shift limiting beliefs, build thriving businesses and champion the untapped genius of the dyslexic community. In this high-energy conversation he and Grant unpack the meat-muscles-mindset-money formula that fuels “Carnivore Entrepreneurs” and families alike.

Connect with Shawn click here - LinkedIn

High Impact Resources - grab them via the Episode Footer below.

🌐 Connect & Level-Up

🎁 Free Resource Vault

  • 🥩 Performance Plate Framework — Click Here
  • 🏋️‍♂️ One-&-Done Savage Set + 3 Cheat Sheets — Click Here
  • 🧠 Focus & Flow Journal — Click Here
  • 📈 12-Week Results Sprint Plan — Click Here
  • 📆 Weekly PowerSprint Planner — Click Here

Plug these tools into your routine, share the wins with a fellow Carnivore Entrepreneur, and keep building true wealth on your terms, with strength, energy & purpose.

Unknown:

I had never dealt with that in my life, ever before, which just made me feel even less masculine than than before, because I couldn't figure out how to fix it. I always tried to fix everything. Life isn't perfect. Perfect is the lowest standard, because you can never achieve it. So why am I trying to go for perfection? Why don't I just progress? And so progressing is is the big word that I use, and took perfection out of my vocabulary. I didn't do super well in school because I had dyslexia, which I just found out just a couple of years ago. And so school wasn't fun for me. I had a lot of friends, but if like, learning was a lot harder for me to be able to get through it. Money and happiness equal each other, and so I use that as my fuel to like I gotta be successful. I gotta figure this out so that I can help her, because she sacrificed so much for me, and I had to repay that for her. Everyone

KG SHORT STAY:

is running their race at their pace. They're not going to run the same race as you or at the same pace as you. Hi everyone, and welcome to the carnivore Entrepreneur Show. This is the third interview that I've done so far, and we have today with us, Sean. And I'm not going to take Sean's glory away from him. I'm going to let him introduce himself. So over to you, Sean, tell everyone who you are and what you do. My

Unknown:

name is Sean Johansen, and professionally, I do commercial real estate investing, and I am a father of two beautiful daughters and a husband of an amazing wife who is crushing it in her own ways. And so just feeling really blessed to be a part of this podcast. And thank you for having me on. Excellent well, thank you

KG SHORT STAY:

for coming on. It was really nice to have connected with you after we met at date with destiny, with Tony Robbins. What a life changing event that was. And it's really nice to see you know, the you've got another another half of you that is absolutely killing it, just like, just like I do. I feel like I'd be nowhere without without Kay, she pushes me, and she has her own, her own successes as well. So I asked this one question to all of my guests that are coming on the show, and that is the carnivore entrepreneur. Show is all about meat muscles, mindset and money. Just one, everyone that comes on the show to tell me what makes you qualified to be a carnivore entrepreneur?

Unknown:

Well, I like to eat lots of meat. Does that count?

KG SHORT STAY:

That definitely counts. That's number one.

Unknown:

I love me some meat. Some good steak muscles. I think muscles means a couple different things to me, to be honest. Number one is obviously physical muscles. It's important to be healthy and to be structurally fit so that when you end up being in your I'm 50 now, so I just turned 50. Oh, wow, looking good to 50, bud. Thank you. Appreciate that. But thinking about it, is I want to be in the best shape of my life, but by the time I turned 60, and that's one of the goals that I set at the last Tony Robbins event that I did, I'm like, if, if you've never heard of Joseph McClendon the third he's like, 72 year old gentleman who is just ripped, and I'm like, I want to look like that when I am 60, so that I can live to be comfortable in my 80s and my 90s. And so for me, it's muscles that way, and then it's also the muscle up here, and that kind of goes with the mindset. Part is you got to continue to keep educating yourself, whether it's your business, being a better dad, being a better husband, you should be constantly exercising your mental muscle to make sure that you don't fall behind. Because it's so great that if you get focused on one thing, and I think as entrepreneurs, we do that, we get focused on I got to be a better business person. I'm going to go to this seminar, I'm going to go to that seminar, and I'm going to read this book. But the one thing we always forget is, what about our our life, like, how do I be better? How do I be mentally better, and how do I be a better dad? How do I be a better husband? And if you're not spending at least 25% of your time reading books on how to be a better person, be a better husband and be a better dad. When you get to that pinnacle of success, whatever it is for you, you're going to be feeling pretty miserable. And I've have some friends that are miserable right now, and I can tell you my story later on, of how I was miserable after hitting the pinnacle of success. So mindset is that. It and then money, of course, one of the biggest things I've learned in the last two years is use money for what it is. It's a tool. It's a tool to buy back your time and to buy experiences with the people that you love. The mistake that I made is I put money as my self worth. So my net worth was my self worth, and that's why, one of the reasons why I was so miserable after I hit the pinnacles of success, because I just kept pushing it out, pushing it out. And I have to do this to be loved, to be liked, all these other things. And now I realise that, like, let's put money as a tool. I wouldn't try and flip a burger with a screwdriver. Why am I trying to make money by my happiness. That's not what it's for. It's to buy the time so that I can focus on these other things. So, yes, it's

KG SHORT STAY:

an enabler, so it allows you to do the things that you want to do with the people that you love most, right? And that that is the fundamental part of it, and also to like Tony Robbins does uses money to serve and help other people in a massive way. But yeah, on, on your point with with muscles. You know that the meat mindset, muscles and money part, it flows, but muscles is all about health, longevity, being strong, you know, because you don't want to get to your 80s and 90s, and be frail and sitting in a chair and not able to move and play with your grandkids, or even your great grandkids, right? But

Unknown:

I think that really ties into my story, too. Is before I went to my first Tony event, I weighed 240 pounds, and I was on a pathway of destruction and to dying and early death. And because of going to that first UPW that I went in 2015 it gave me the tools that I needed to get out of my head and think that I couldn't do these things because I didn't have time all the same BS stories that you tell yourself in your head of why you can't work out, why you can't lose weight. And I got over those, and I had a compelling why of what was painted in my pit or in my head after that event. And I couldn't fail because I was letting my family down by by dying earlier. And so that's what gave me the strength to be able to lose 70 pounds over the next five years and do it in a healthy way that I can maintain it for a lifetime, instead of doing these stupid fad diets that aren't going to work for you. So that's in a very important lesson to me is is take care of yourself, because great, you're going to make all this money, you're going to do all these things, and then you're going to die like you won't even be able to enjoy it. What's the point? Might

KG SHORT STAY:

as well enjoy the journey, right? Cool. So the last time we saw each other was Tony Robbins date with destiny at Palm Beach. What an awesome, awesome event. What has been the biggest change in your life or business since that

Unknown:

week? Wow, there's, there's been so many changes to be honest with you. But if I had to pick one, I would say it's really my mindset around being healthier for my brain, of like, get past the limiting beliefs that I had in my head, of that I wasn't good enough, I wasn't smart enough, I didn't go to college, and that was always one thing that I always felt like I had to be better than everybody else, because people looked down on me because of that. And what I realised is that was just something I put in my head is that just because I didn't go to college doesn't mean that I'm any less loved than anybody else, but in my head, I felt like I wasn't loved. So it was really just loving myself more and getting in touch with my feelings, because so long as time has been, men have been told that we're not allowed to talk about our feelings, that we have to push things down. And that's what I did for many, many years, and I got to a point where it got so bad that I had uncontrollable anxiety, and to a point that I actually passed out on a plane, and I had never dealt with that in my life ever before, which just made me feel even less masculine than than before, because I couldn't figure out how to fix it. I always tried to fix everything, and when I couldn't, that just drove me crazy. And so the important thing was learning that I don't have to fix everything, that life isn't perfect. Perfect is the lowest standard, because you can never achieve it. So why am I trying to go for perfection? Why don't I just progress? And so progressing is, is the big word that I use, and took perfection out of my vocabulary, and that has been one of the biggest tools, is just i. Working on my mental health and stop the limiting beliefs that I had before, to getting in my head. And it's still a journey. Today. I'm still progressing at it, but I'm so much happier than I was before. Yeah,

KG SHORT STAY:

I think Tony makes a big difference when he talks about you create the meaning in your life, and that's how you experience life, is the meaning that you give it. And while my learning wasn't exactly the same, it was very similar, in the sense of my happiness before David, Destiny was anchored on other people's happiness around me, right? So my limiting question, my limiting primary question, was, how can I make everyone around me happy? So when people weren't happy, I was unhappy. So I had that all had to be reframed. And I think since that has been reframed, the trajectory of my life has gone in a totally different in a totally different direction, and I think I'm giving better meaning to the things that are in front of me. So while I'm not exactly saying very similar, I think in terms of the breakthrough moments,

Unknown:

and I know you're the host, but I'm going to throw it back to you of changing that, because I know I'm a people pleaser. Also, how did that changed the people around you. You were trying to make them happy by doing all these things. In my experience, by changing that, I'm actually doing them even I'm actually helping them more. So I'm curious of your position on that, of, did you have the same reaction of like, I was trying so hard to make everybody happy and I wasn't doing it now that I'm reversing back and looking towards myself and making myself happy so then I can shine the light for other people, they seem to be happier. Is that the same for you?

KG SHORT STAY:

That's the amazing thing about it. I think people actually felt pressured to be happy when they were around me, because I so desperately wanted them to be happy, and because of that pressure, that made them worse. So the minute I removed that need, it made everyone so much more relaxed and free, which which makes people happier, you know, and that's the crazy thing, the minute that you focus on you and your meaning of a moment and making it an empowering meaning that will then transform not only yourself but everyone else around you. And you just have to accept that everyone is running their race at their pace? They're not going to run the same race as you or at the same pace as you. So I'm think I was anchoring my happiness in in the wrong place, if that makes sense. Yeah, love it

Unknown:

same, same journey here. Feel free

KG SHORT STAY:

to reverse it and ask questions along the way. This is a conversation, but, yeah, excellent. Thank you for that. So getting deep then and maybe reverse, reversing the clock a little bit, how did a guy raised by a single mom end up owning and revitalising a multi state commercial property company.

Unknown:

Yeah, it's been an amazing journey. You know, I've really done a lot of reflecting on that journey over the last couple of years and just kind of seeing what like sometimes I think back on it, like, how did I even get to this place? It was always a dream, but it always just seemed like such a far off dream. And so, yes, my mom was a single mom. I didn't have a dad growing up. I didn't even meet him till I was like 25 and so it was challenging at times. She worked two jobs to support us, and she had her own demons that she had to deal with during that time, and I saw that as my calling, that I needed to be successful so that I could help her in her later stages of life, or whenever I could get enough income, because I thought money was what was going to change her life, because I saw her struggling and unhappy at times and crying because we didn't know if we'd have Food or be able to pay rent. And so I equated that in my brain, of money and happiness equal each other. And so I use that as my fuel to like, I gotta be successful. I gotta figure this out so that I can help her, because she sacrificed so much for me, and I had to repay that for her. So that's really what drove me for so many years. And you know, I started off in fast food working fast food restaurants, because I didn't do super well in school because I had dyslexia, which I just found out just a couple of years ago. And so school wasn't fun for me. I had a lot of friends, but if, like. Learning was a lot harder for me to be able to get through it. So to me, I was like, Okay, how can I make this work? And my limiting beliefs were kicking in. I'm like, What can I do? Well, maybe I can own a restaurant. And then I'm like, that sucks. I don't want to work 70 hours a week to try and build this empire. And I'm like, that's just not for me. And luckily, I had certain people that came into my life at the right time. So I had a ex girlfriend that pushed me into trying to get a corporate job, even though my limiting beliefs that I wouldn't be able to do that because I was just working in fast food, even though I managed my own Pizza Hut store for like two years. Once I got into that job, I realised that those skills actually transferred over into the corporate world, like I was really good at managing people, and so I ended up working for GE Capital, doing loans for pools and room additions. And I this was back in 2005 ish, so the market was just going crazy. I saw all these values for houses going like people would buy it, and within, you know, six months that by the time it took it to get built, it was worth 60 or$80,000 more. I was like, wow, this is amazing. This could be a possibility for me to make those that money that I wanted to make. And so that's kind of where I caught the bug for real estate. And I had an amazing wife that wanted the same she owned her own business, but we were looking for alternatives, and she's like, Let's go buy our first rental property. So we bought our first rental property in Arizona. Totally bought it wrong. Went with trying to force appreciation, or not force appreciation, but trying to invest for watching it appreciate, which is totally the wrong way to do it. And of course, in 2007 we went from 60 or 80,000 in equity to 60 or 80,000 upside down in equity. Oh, negative equity. So that was a huge eye opener of like, okay, we need to get educated. And so we had read a book called Rich Dad, Poor Dad, from Robert Kiyosaki, I'm sure you and yeah, and a lot of your listeners have read that book. And at that time, he had a partnered with somebody was doing education. So we paid $24,000 on our credit card, which we didn't have the money to pay for it at that time, but took a leap of faith and learned how to do it the right way. So we started flipping houses, did some residential rentals, and then I met my current mentor, Scott shield from the commercial Academy, in 2010 at a symposium, and he just spoke in a way that just made it sound easy and calming. And so we went to his first event, and then he was putting this mastermind together that it was only a couple years old, and we joined that, and we've been a part of that group for now, for 15 years. And it, it really could we have done it on our own, of course, but it would have been much slower. We wouldn't have been as confident when you have somebody to mentor you who has 20 or 30 years of experience not only teaching but investing himself. It just, it grew exponentially. So that was kind of the story of how I got into commercial real estate.

KG SHORT STAY:

That's awesome, man. So I it's one of my further questions, but I think I'm going to skip to it now, which is around the the dyslexia you mentioned about that, and it seems like you've turned it into a bit of a superpower. So what, I guess, what specific mental habits turn that, that obstacle into an advantage? Do you think? Yeah,

Unknown:

and I think dyslexia is such a it's very prominent. One in five kids have dyslexia, but only 20% get diagnosed. And so I was, I'm one of those 80% that never got diagnosed. And but my daughter had it a couple of years ago, or has it, and so we it took us two years to figure out what she had, and in that process, it really made me realise that I had that. And so my form of dyslexia, because there's multiple forms of it, is comprehension. I have to read things two or three times to really understand it, but if you show it to me, I can pick it up like that, and it's super quick. I'm very quick at picking things up. And so I really had to use that to adapt. It's kind of like, I equate it to somebody who becomes blind or whatever you use all your other senses, and so as a dyslexic kid, you use your strengths, which usually you have a lot of of other strengths, to be able to get by. So I skated by by just having people show it to me, or, you know, reading it two or three times to be able to do it. I. Always the slowest to get done with tests, because I had to read everything a couple of times to understand it, but I always did well in school. But I think more than just the dyslexia, it was more of the stigma around it, that I felt that I was stupid because I couldn't read as fast as other people. I couldn't spell as as well as other people, and that's one of the missions that I have, is I don't want kids to think that they're stupid anymore because of this, because it's totally false. They're just not being taught the way that they need to be taught. The dyslexic brain learns a different way, and it's okay. We all learn different ways. And so for me, I think that's the superpower, is the adoption and using our other strengths to be able to succeed. But even better, if I can get them the right education, they don't have to ever even think that they're stupid because of something that their brain. It'll just be you just learn just like every other kid does. You won't even know that you have dyslexia, because it's just being taught that way, this way. And so that's kind of my goal. My goal is to get to 80% diagnosis over the next, you know, lifetime, or however long it takes me to be able to make a difference for these kids, because I don't want them feeling like I did, and even see some of the stuff that my daughter had to go through to be able to feel I don't. I hate to word use the word normal, because that's the wrong word, because we all are normal, but I don't want kids to feel that way. And another alarming stats is 47% of inmates have dyslexia. Wow. So that's a huge problem that I think can be solved fairly easily. But then you have, on this other side, over 50% of employees at NASA have dyslexia also. So there's like this fork in the road that I think kids get to if you don't have the right teachers or people that are going to help you down the road, and maybe you have some circumstances that just aren't conducive to feeling loved, you maybe go the route of crime. And if you have a drive like I did that, I used it to drive me to get it, but I could have easily went the other way because I lived in a poor neighbourhood, and I could have gotten in with drugs and other people, but luckily, I had an amazing mom that that taught me love and everything else. And so I know that this is a solvable thing, and I don't want to call it a problem, because it's not a problem. It's the problem is, is that people aren't teaching the way that some people learn?

KG SHORT STAY:

Yeah, and that's that's where the whole education system is flawed, isn't it? They teach in one way and one way only. So if you don't conform to that way or don't learn in that way, you're considered stupid, right? And then people think, or kids think that they're that they're stupid. But actually, you know, I've always thought, what is what is normal? We're all we're all individual, so we're all different to each other. So there really isn't a normal as such. Your normal is who you are and and that's what it really, you know, should be seen as. So I think it's a really good point. And a lot, there are a lot of successful dyslexic people out there. I think they're some of the most successful. You know, Albert Einstein was dyslexic, Richard Branson's dyslexic, so literally, some of the most successful people out there. So, you know, I think it's like you say, it is a superpower. It's something that you can turn on its head, but you have to understand how it is you learn so that you can project yourself through life, how you want to, how you want to do it. So you mentioned about mission. I was looking online, and it's, is this right? Is is your mission transforming lives through real estate and giving back? Is that correct or Okay, cool. So that's what I picked up, transforming lives through real estate and giving back. What does that phrase mean to you right now? Yeah,

Unknown:

so I've always thought about that. I've always wanted to give back to people. I love helping people. And so it's like, maybe some of the limiting beliefs that I had before was, what is one guy going to do? What can I do? You know, I'm just this one, you know, kid from the east side of Saint Paul that you know, barely graduated high school. What a How can I make a difference? And as I've been through this journey, more and more, I've realised that I don't have to do this alone. I can use the people that are around me, that are. Are amazing and have so many different talents. And it goes back to the education part of like, you don't have to do this alone. Dyslexic kids don't have to do it alone. We use each other strengths to form a bond, to be an incredible force. And it's like building a house, right? If you just put one wall up and then try and put a roof on it, it's going to collapse. But if you put four, you know, walls up and then put the roof on, you're going to be supported. So I need to find those three other people, or whatever, however many people, to help me make this mission. So for me, what I think of from a real estate standpoint is, how can I use my knowledge that I've learned and all the mistakes that I've learned to be able to help others give them those tools that they need to be able to feel successful, and not even from a standpoint of teaching them commercial real estate, but also teaching them the mindset part, because I don't want these young kids learning about entrepreneurship and learning the same old thing that everybody learns of, grind, grind, grind. Get up at 530 in the morning, work 15 hours and then ignore your family and you're divorced at 40. I mean, that's not a fun life. I want you to build, build, build, but I also want you to be building your relationships, because that's really what makes you happy, if you think back, and this is an exercise I just did recently that really brought it all together for me, was what are the happiest times in your life? If you really think about those times, think of those times you're with your friends and you're drinking something, and you laugh so hard that that it came out of your nose, or your stomach hurt so bad because you were laughing with your kids, or, you know, just had an amazing moment with your wife. These are the moments that you live for and that make you happy, not the things that you're gonna buy with your money. And I'm not saying there's anything wrong with buying nice things, but it's not going to bring you happiness. It's the experiences. It's if you're going to buy that fancy car, it's you and your buddy love cars, and you're going to go out and bond over it and do it. It's not the actual car. It's the time that you're going to have with other people, bonding over that experience, because it's something you love, and so that's how I believe that I can give back from that standpoint. And and my wife and I have made audacious goal this last year of we want to make our investors and our partners $100 million and we also want to give$100 million to charity, and so we want to do that through partnering with people on the real estate side and figuring out how to either bring investors in or to partner with people to help bring them up and to help them to realise to give back to others. And then we'll use any profits and stuff to be able to go and give back to amazing causes that can change the world and and we've thought about that a lot because there's so many charities that are amazing out there, a lot of them haven't made any headway. And so it's like, how do we really make an impact? And to me, it's, it's going back to what you've talked about, the meat, the mindset, like, how do we teach those four, you know, principles of meat, muscle, mindset and money to as many people so that they can succeed and be happy? That's where you make change.

KG SHORT STAY:

Yeah, and, and, you know, you mentioned something about grinding, like being being free is is not grinding every single day. It's not, it's not a badge of honour that the fact that you work 100 hours a week, you know, because, like I say, you're leaving relationships on the table. And, you know, I, I felt that firsthand. You know, things will suffer when you put too much focus on one area. So the carnivore entrepreneur is all about, you know, healthy body, healthy, mind, healthy bank account. And if you've got all three of those, and you put equal focus on all three. It promotes health, wealth and relationships. And that's the whole point. Is you have to have all three to be able to have true wealth. And that's and that's everything that I'm trying to do. And I think that's where, you know, I'm trying to be bring people onto this show that that think in the same way. And this, this, this helps that mission as well, because it gets the message out there. And actually, we can all work together in our own way to help people achieve what we're we're mastering at the moment. And, you know, I'm not. Are in the best place in every single area, but I know that I'm working on every single area, and every single area is moving forward, and that's why I feel that I'm exactly where I'm supposed to be. And that's that's the trick is when you know you're exactly where you're supposed to be and you don't want to be anywhere else, that's when you know you've, you've, you're on the right path. I think Cool, great, awesome, awesome answer. So let's move on to the three areas, the body, the mind and the bank account. So let's start with the body. Walk us through your like, non negotiable daily routine for staying energised throughout the day, not just for your business, but for your your family and your friends and stuff as well. Yeah,

Unknown:

I mean, it starts in the morning. You know, I do bring my daughters to school in the morning, which is amazing. I get to do that every day and spend 25 minutes with them in the car. And then I come home, and it's my hour of power, is what I call it, that I stole that from Tony Robbins, but that I go out and I do at least two or three mile walk. And as I'm walking, I'm either one listening to an amazing audio book on, you know, something that's making me better, usually from a psychological way of, how can I build my mind up, or how can I be a better dad? How can I be a better husband? Sometimes it's business books, but I try to keep that time just for just for my mind and getting better. And I also do, like, a lot of breathing exercises on the way. Tony teaches a really good one in his Hour of Power. And you can look it up on YouTube. It's on there, but you do breathing first, then you do grateful statements, and then you envision what you want the day or the week to look like. And it's been amazing to start the day that way, because you're breathing first of all. And so many of us like Tony talks about we shallow breathe because we're always so stressed and everything, and sort of like, you know, barely breathing, but you got to get in there and get those breaths in and that exactly. And so you do that. And then what I've been doing lately, on the gratitude part, is I start with myself, then I work my way to my wife and my kids and then my family, and then whoever pops into my head of who I'm grateful for that day, I'll stop after I'm done with the grateful statement, and I'll pull my phone out as I'm walking I just do a quick 22nd 32nd video of texting that person I was thinking about and telling them how grateful I am for them. And it's been such a blessing for me, because I could just text them, I could call them, but a lot of times in the morning they're busy, they're trying to get their kids off and and it just doesn't work out, I might miss them, and then I don't have that same energy. But when I'm thinking about them and being like, man, like I'm just so grateful for grant, like he's got such an amazing mission to help so many people, and we align so much that I want to send him a quick video, and so it's just easy, and then I've gotten so many blessings back of just people texting me like I really needed that today, and that just lights my soul up. Of knowing that I could impact somebody else with just coming with a positive attitude and and then going to the visualisation part has been huge too, because there's sometimes that I know things are might be challenging that day or that week, and I can visualise how I want it. It's almost like scripting and practising a script in a play of how it's going to work. And when I'm prepared to be able to go into that situation, I act a lot different than it trying to do it off the cuff. And so that's kind of my morning routine. And then I will also throw in some weight lifting and and some meditation, not always the meditation. I'm not great at that yet, but I'm progressing at it.

KG SHORT STAY:

Cool, nice. Sounds like you've got a really good setup to the day, and then stuff throughout the day, just to keep you, keep you energised. What so have you been experimenting with your diet at all? What's your what's your nutrition, and your diet like on a day to day basis? Do you focus on that?

Unknown:

Yeah. So I just finally did the first time I did Life Mastery from Tony Robbins and sweet Wow, yeah, yeah. So it was amazing to do. It wasn't, wasn't as hard as I thought it was going to be. I was a little nervous about it, but it was kind of a detox kind of a thing. And so I've pulled some some good things out of there. Obviously, my diet has been fairly good, because I've been able to keep off my weight. But I wouldn't say it was like, super great. And so what I kind of took away from there was he talks about, if we can eat 70% live vegetables and water, rich vegetables and fruits. I. A day that will be so much healthier, so you don't have to give up carbs and proteins and all those other things. But if you just eat those 70% you're going to be so much healthier. And so that's my takeaway from that, is I'm going to at least do that three times a week, of making sure that each meal, that when I look at my plate, I have 70% of that, and then the other 30% would be meat, and then potentially some carbs. I try to stay away from carbs, but I also, I also want to live. And the other thing I pulled away is that even Tony Robbins, being this amazing person, takes what he calls zag days. And so he allows himself one zag day, or you call it a cheat day a week, or a cheat meal a week, and then he also gives himself an extra one a month. So I thought that was amazing, and that way you're not like living this miserable lifestyle. If you want to have popcorn at the movie, you go do it. We

KG SHORT STAY:

are human. And the one thing that I mentioned in the book that I've just my first book that I've published, is part of the Thank you, the whole part of the nutrition framework. Call it performance plate, and it's about eating whole foods, you know, and you you balance it how you want. I know the carnival entrepreneurs suggest only meat. It's about having, you know, Whole Foods, essentially, with with enough protein to build strength. And that's where, where the carnival comes from. But I've got in there about this 8020 rule, and it's about being 80% on it, you know, healthy stuff the way that you want it to be all the time. Then 20% plan to, you know, eat some stuff and do some stuff that you enjoy. If you like, to have a beer, have a beer, but plan to do it. Don't go and get stupidly drunk, because you're so sick of being honest on this diet. You know, you got to plan these 20% to allow yourself to have the things that you enjoy. If you enjoy a pizza or a donut, have it. Just know that you're having it. Enjoy it for what it is, and then get back on whatever it is you're doing before. In

Unknown:

my experience, I don't maybe you can tell me if it's any different from you, but when you're living a healthier lifestyle and eating good like, a lot of times those things that you used to like aren't as appetising. And a lot of times I'll be like, that wasn't really worth my calories. And then the next time, I don't really eat it because it was like, I'd rather have something amazing. You know, if I'm going to cheat, I want to do that. And I think it's such a huge difference, too, if you're if you need to lose 70 pounds like I did, I had to make take massive action. I I had to be more strict than it was. But there was times in there that I failed. We all fail. But what I did differently than in the past, of all the fad diets I did was that I didn't quit. I came back and I got back on the horse the next day and didn't beat myself up over it. I said, Okay, you know, I failed. That's fine. What did I learn from it? Move on to the next day, and I just kept going. And I think that's the biggest secret is, first of all, for weight loss, that I've learned, find what foods you like that are healthy, and figure out as many combinations of those as possible, so it doesn't get old, but build a lifestyle of how you're going to eat instead of fad diets, because the fad diets are only good for so long.

KG SHORT STAY:

Oh, exactly. And what is crazy is people consider eating whole foods a diet, right? That's what we should be eating. Like, you know, my my son the other day said to me, can't you just buy normal food? And all I had was Whole Foods in the house. He wanted, you know, packet stuff, things that go in the microwave, you know. And while I will get them stuff like that, on occasion, in general, we just eat shiny Whole Foods. But he was getting sick of it. But that's the thing. People think McDonald's and microwave meals and this process stuff on the shelves is normal, but when in theory, it is, if you consider normal what generally everyone eats. That's why Whole Foods is considered dieting, when actually it's something that we should all be eating.

Unknown:

It's silly. So

KG SHORT STAY:

on that. Then your kids. I mean, how do you promote healthy eating with the family? Yeah,

Unknown:

that's probably been my biggest challenge. You know, it's the same thing is, they go to school, you know, their friends have stuff. They trade, you know, of things. So even if I try to institute it, but for me, I don't, especially having girls, you know, I don't want to create a problem with them from a mental standpoint, by. Really beating at home. So it's really about, I don't even talk about weight or diets or anything like that, because it's really not about dieting or weight. It's about healthy living. And I just talk about how you get energy from doing the right things, like working out and exercising and doing these things. And so it's really just trying to be on the same page as my wife and just talking about healthy eating and healthy lifestyles. And they see us doing it. That's the biggest thing. Is if you're out eating donuts and pizza and all these other things, of course, that's what they're going to do. And so it, it is challenging, especially with having girls that are close to teenage years, but I think we've done a pretty good job of instituting it. And you know, just recently, one of my daughters came up to me and and started asking me more questions about how to eat healthier. And so obviously me talking about it long enough gave them permission to be able to ask for that, and so I feel like I'm doing the right thing, but, you know, at the end of the day, it's up to them to be able to do it and to make the decisions. And I just read a amazing book called parenting with love and logic, and it really changed my thoughts around parenting. I used to just give them all the answers, because I wanted to give them the tools that I learned, like, hey, I can shortcut it for you. But in reading the book, it was like, I'm also then stealing their chance to fail and to learn from that failure and how to do it, that basically they just come to dad every time. So I've changed my whole mindset around parenting of now it's choices. Give them choices. You can either do this or you can do that, this or that. And it's just really, really opened up my eyes. So if you haven't read it, it's great book. Yeah, no,

KG SHORT STAY:

thank you for that. And something just came to mind is with with my kids, I try and lead by example, not instruction. And it's quite interesting. The the youngest, he's 11, and he came up to me at my shirt off, and he was like, Dad, how'd you get how'd you get your muscles like that? When can I get my muscles like that. And then I got out my salmon and my avocado, my eggs, and like, this is what I eat. This is how I get my muscles. And then he started eating it and stuff. So that's the thing. Is, if you're doing it and they can see the results that you're getting, they'll want to do what you're doing, because, you know they want, they want the same things. They want to know how to get it. But if you tell them, you know, you got to do this, you got to do that, they're not going to listen to you, you know. So lead by example, not instruction. So, yeah, cool, man. So that's, that's it for the body. Let's move on to the mind. So we touched a little bit on Tony Robbins and the general journey that you've been on since date with destiny. Now, when you're at date with destiny, you signed up to the Platinum Partnership. So that's probably a good place to start when it comes to mindsets, Tony is gets into people's minds. So what's the Platinum Partnership been like?

Unknown:

Man, it's been life changing. You know, Tony talks so much about, if you're really want to improve at something, you have to really get in there and blinking on the word that he uses, or whatever when you, when you, you know, just get in it and you like going to a different country. If you want to learn another language, what's the best way to learn another language? Plop yourself into Mexico for two months, and then you have to learn my day immersion, right? Yes, immersion. That's the thing that I was thinking of. So what better way of when I wanted to change my mindset of immersing myself in Tony Robbins events? So I did a whole year of basically every event that he did. I did that year. I think I did eight or nine events in a year's time. So although it was a huge commitment from time and everything, honestly, the ROI that I got from it was off the charts of just learning so many different things and really just clicking on what is now that I'm 50, what is the rest of my life look like? What do I want to do? Do I want to keep doing the real estate thing? Do I want to do something else? And I think the biggest takeaway is, besides all the mental things that I've been able to to change in my head was that I really enjoy helping people, and I think everybody kind of enjoys that that's where you get your love and your connection from people. But it was really switching before my top needs, that I that I needed was certainty. And significance. And so I needed to feel safe, I needed to feel significant, like people love me and I that's although you need those things, as Tony talks about, it doesn't need to be first. If you put those first, it actually is kind of destructive, and that's what it was for me in my life. And so I've moved those down in the list, and now I've brought contribution and love and connection up so like this today, connecting with Grant again after almost it's been over a year now, is amazing that I can connect with such an amazing human being that is on the same path as me, and just really taking that in where life before I didn't take those moments in, I would see it as transactional, and that's a terrible way to look at friendships. And not that I was trying to get anything from my friends and whatnot, but I was always trying to be like, okay, they do this. I gotta do this. I gotta be up here. They gotta be, you know? And it's like finding comparison, yeah, and competing with them. And it's like, well, no, what if I just work together? And so I think that's the amazing thing. Is like, when I'm in the room with somebody, I tell myself when I'm talking to them now is, what can I What can I receive from them, from a standpoint of not money, but like, love and connection and well, how can I give that back to them? And usually, if you're giving it, you're going to get it in return. So that's what I try and do, is Grant How can I support you today? That's my favourite line. How can I support you? Because it, it puts it back on them. Most people don't ask that. And, you know, they might say, well, actually, I'm really struggling today, you know, blah, blah, blah. And so I think that was my biggest thing, is that I really enjoy helping people out and doing it in a healthy way. And that's what Tony teaches, is, how do you ask better questions? How do you become a better listener Before, I used to try and fix people that doesn't work.

KG SHORT STAY:

Yeah, yeah, no, definitely. And are you? Are you going to continue on with Platinum Partnership?

Unknown:

Yep, so I signed up for my second year. One of the biggest reasons is he has a relationship course that he does every other year, and it's about four or 500 people that go. So it's very intimate, and I've heard it's just amazing. And I just want to make sure that I bring my relationship to the next level. You know, we're already working towards it, of of stepping it up and and putting Janet first in my life, but this is, I believe, is going to just bring us to the next level. And it's really taught me even more too of how to understand the feminine energy, how to the feminine. You know, as guys, we don't understand women most of the time, but when he breaks it down from a psychological standpoint of why women do the things as you do, and why men do the things we do, it starts to make sense. And then those creatures that we're married to, those amazing creatures, they actually start to make sense. And when they make sense, we don't feel lost, and we can actually plant the right seeds to be able to grow our relationship even better. Yeah,

KG SHORT STAY:

and again, I've been on a very similar journey since, since day with destiny. I think you actually came up and gave me some feedback during the during the course. But my, my superpower has always been energy, like I can channel this immense energy inside of me and bring it every single time, right? And I've had it since I was young, and I've all and that's why my career has been quite successful in comparison to maybe the people around me. And the one thing that I haven't had, and I've managed to get over the last six months, and it is totally transformed my relationships, especially with Kay, is a control and a calmness that I've managed to get which has allowed me to control that energy and to be calm in moments where I might not have been calm, either overly excited or overly frustrated, because the problem with bounds of energy is you can overpower people. And it's understanding, understanding that I can calm down and have it under control, which has totally transformed the relationships in my life. And that's what this has been born from, because it's actually allowed me to find me, if that makes sense. I

Unknown:

don't know if I've said it before, but I'm sure you feel the same way. But I think people go through life of they put their job first, then they put their kids second, and. Then maybe their wife is third or fourth, and then we wonder why they're divorced. Yeah, yeah. And it's so much easier to get love from those other places and to get what you need, you actually have to work at being a good partner. And so I challenge all those men out there and women to put your spouse first, because that's really what's going to bring the most happiness. You don't want to your kids are 18 and out of the house, and then you don't even know who you're living with anymore. You're like, Oh, hi. Who are you?

KG SHORT STAY:

Yeah, because I bet a lot of wives out there are just waiting for their their partners or their husbands to turn up, to be present and to be with them. You know, it's not about their body being there, it's about their mind being there with them. And I think women have like a sixth sense to all of that, definitely, and I've been divorced and that that taught me a lot. No, that person probably wasn't right for me, and it was Tony that turned me around. I didn't go to his events at the time, but again, it was 2015, I found, I found Tony, and got into his YouTube videos quite intensely, and it made me because he said something, change who you are first before you change your relationship. And I changed who I was, and it actually pushed me further away from the relationship, which made me feel like it was right, but I was the type of person that didn't bring myself to the relationship, which probably would have either made us separate quicker or brought us closer together. So definitely a big, big lesson. And yeah, up here is where it all starts. So, yeah, great, but awesome stuff for the mind so on that then relationships. Do you have any specific rituals that you and Janet do to protect and fuel your personal growth with each other? Yes,

Unknown:

definitely. One of the things that we do, not only for ourselves but with our kids, is we do date days. So we make sure we schedule those on the calendar. So at the beginning of the month, we always look at our calendars, and we at least do one date day, if not two. But then we also, because we have two daughters, we rotate with them. So I will do date day with one and she does they day with the other one on the same day, and then vice versa, so that we can have that one on one time. Because I'm sure, as you know, as a parent, sometimes it it's they have different dynamics when they're together. And so that's one of the big things that we do. And then at the beginning of the week, the same question I told you, or whatever, is, how can I support you this week? What? What can I do to support you? And you know, sometimes it's like, oh, I have this meeting, this meeting, this meeting. Can you pick up the kids this day, or can you bring them here? And, like, Sure. And I think that's one of the biggest thing is, I'm I am working on trying to be that same man that I was when she met me, that I would have did anything for her. You know, think about that Johnny talks

KG SHORT STAY:

about that, doesn't he, yeah, acts like you're in the first six months

Unknown:

Exactly. And that's what I'm trying to get back to, is act like that, like what can I do for you to make you happy this week? Because I know that if I make her happy, I'm going to be so much happier. It's when we try and compete against each other. That's what I was doing before I went to date with destiny. Is I saw my wife as competition because she is such an amazing person and has an amazing career and all those things that I was like, Well, I gotta as the man. I have to, I have to compete against her and be higher. I gotta earn more than her. I gotta do this and so that I can be the man. And it's like, no, I can just be a great partner. It doesn't matter who makes the most money? It's like, how can I get the currency of being a great husband and all that other stuff comes into line, and when we work together, we make more money, we make better kids, we make a better life for other people. And we can do so many different things, like you and I today. We can impact so many more people together than I can on my own. Absolutely,

KG SHORT STAY:

absolutely interesting. You say that, Kay and I have a ritual. We do do date nights and stuff like that, which is great. We have this ritual. And I read it somewhere that whenever one of us leaves the house and we leave each other, we have to give each other a six second kiss. And the reason why it's six seconds is the minute you go over four or five seconds, it releases oxytocin in your brain and makes the connection a lot stronger. So that's one of our one of one of our rituals. And on your point around it's. Like being happy for them, for what they achieve, rather than trying to be bigger or better than them. We joined a peer group about a year ago, similar time to when we went with date with destiny, and there's, there's like 10,000 people in in this group, and we're part of a group of 100 people. And Kay over the whole year, they have awards ceremony at the end, lots of different things, but the one that everyone wants is the is called the property Entrepreneur of the Year award. And we were both in the final five, and Kay won, and I was more excited that she won than me like and I think because I wanted that for her so badly, that, again, makes our relationship better. Like, they actually took a photo of me celebrating when she won, and it she they said grant. Grant was more excited about you winning than him, um, because I was literally jumping out of my seat. So, you know, I think that's really important, is to support the success of those around you more than you even support your own, because then you'll be more successful at the same time 100% but yeah, great. So awesome. That was the mind. Now let's finish off with the bank account. So this is on to more of the money side, the nitty gritty. So takers, I want to talk about your first big commercial turnaround. There was a 30,000 square foot office that you more than quadrupled in value. What was, you know, the How did you how did you do that? What was the key steps that you took to

Unknown:

doing that big deal. I think it goes back to the mentorship again. You know, we had just joined the commercial Academy and but we were super excited to get our first deal. But we weren't really thinking office building. We were thinking apartment buildings. You know, just kind of fit. We already doing residential. Might as well go into apartments. It just seems like natural progression, and but my wife's business was doing really well, and it was growing. We were operating out of a single family home, and it was bursting at the seams. I mean, we had so many cars there, and even to a point where we had one of our employees in a walk in closet, which was interesting to be able to do. And so it was just getting to a point where we needed to move. And the city, actually, here in the US came and said, You can't run a business out of this residential, so you got to go. So it was a a must. And we had a big enough why of why we needed to make it work. So we went out and we were looking for a place to move to. So we found these two office condos. And here in the United States, office condos are not they're kind of like the bottom of the barrel of office and but we thought it would work for us. We had 3000 square feet, or two 3000 square foot ones that we're gonna buy. I think they were like, 200 250,000 each. And we're like, oh, this is great. So we brought it to our first meeting that we after we joined, and we're like, we found an awesome deal. We're getting commercial real estate. And then he's like, he's like, that's a not the right way to go, Sean and Janet. And he's like, this is your opportunity to either insert yourself into a building where there's a vacancy that you can make, you know, bring in the income and let them pay off your mortgage for you, or buy something and then put tenants around you to be able to bring cash flow in. And so we changed our whole focus. We were disappointed, but understood what he said, and it made sense, and we found this amazing 30,000 square foot office, billion, which just happened to be actually right next to where Janet and I met Jen and I met playing volleyball at a bar, a local bar. And so it was just crazy how it worked. It was foreclosed on for like two years, so it was vacant completely. And when we looked at it, it was a they it was on the market for 1.1 million. And we went to go look at it. And then in between the next showing the bank that owned it, the person who was managing it didn't pay for the heat that month, so it got shut off. And in Minnesota in the middle of winter, it gets really cold, and so one of the pipes froze and burst, and there was about three feet of water on the main level. Well for us, that wasn't a big deal. We were gonna tear everything out anyways. And so we went in and looked at it, and we ended up they they lowered the price because of the damage, down to, I think it was like around 900,000 we ended up buying it at 625,000 Wow. And so it was a huge discount. It was enough that we could still afford it with just her being in there, because we the rest of it was vacant, but it was enough that we could and then we. Ended up, over the next couple of years, putting other tenants in there. And I think at the end, with my wife paying her fair share of the of rent to ourselves, but we were paying it to ourselves instead of somebody else. I think we were cash flowing around 200 grand a year for I think we kept that one for about 11 or 12 years, and then we sold it. And it was worth about 3.1 million, I believe, was the sale somewhere around there, give or take, a couple 1000. We probably had about 1.5 million into it, in improvements. And so, you know, at the end of the day, we got a bunch of cash flow. My wife was able to run her business there for 11 years, basically, kind of rent free, and we made money. So, I mean, it all worked out. And I think that's one of the biggest things of getting into real estate. If you own a business, it's such an amazing avenue to be able to own the own, own, your own place. And I think a lot of people think, well, I can't afford it, or this own, this big thing, I'm just going to buy that office condo or just one thing, but it's like, no, actually, you can't afford not to go buy something else and just insert yourself. And a lot of times, banks love to finance owner operators. So think about that, if you're an owner operator, maybe, maybe buy something that the tenants can pay you, and you can always hire a property management company. If you don't know how to run it, hire a property management company. They'll, they'll manage the whole thing for you, and you don't have to worry about

KG SHORT STAY:

it. Excellent. Wow, inspiring. So, yeah, lots of great stuff going across the pond. So you work with investment investors, right? So, I we work with a lot of clients and investors in our business. How do you build trust with your investors to give you their money? Essentially, it's

Unknown:

a great question. You know, I always say that I believe when you are pitching an investment to somebody, I would say it's 80 or 90% you 20 or 10% the actual deal. They want to know that you're going to push it to the to the end. And I think that's a few ways. It's obviously being a good person, right? You know, like we talk about with our kids, showing them the example of, like, here's what we do. We do things ethically. We do things this way. Now, if you don't have the time to build a track record, because that's what it takes, a lot of times, you can always partner with somebody who has that, that ability. So like, if you and I grant, if I'm just starting out and you've already built that credibility, I can say, hey, Grant, I want to be your boots on the ground. I want to try and do this. I will do all this work for you, and I'm attaching to you to help build my credibility. Now, the next time I go out, I can say, hey, I did this deal with Grant. You know, it's like building a referral network, and so I think that's a big part of it. And then when you're doing the deal, one of the things that is non negotiable for me is I tell them about the good, the bad, the ugly, because most investors are so scared to tell their investors if something's going wrong, but you're actually doing yourself a disservice if you're not, and you're doing your investors a disservice by not telling them everything, and you can get yourself in trouble for it if something really goes wrong, but I'm telling them, giving them updates, you know, usually at a minimum, every quarter, sometimes every month, like when COVID was going on, I was giving updates every two weeks because nobody knew what was going on. And I'm proud to say that we didn't lose one tenant throughout that whole time. We were able to work with a lot of our tenants and our banks to be able to give them relief, to get them through that hard time and but it wasn't just me. It was I was going out as soon as COVID was happening. I was talking with my mentor. I joined some other group of other tenant or landlords that we were networking together and saying, What are you using? What are you doing? What are you doing? You can't just bury your head in the sand, and it wouldn't have been it wouldn't have did my investors justice if I would have buried my my head in the sand and just gave up. I had to do do the right thing for them, and even though we weren't making money at that time, I was telling them every time, here's what we're doing. We're helping this person, this person, this person. They're going to have a three month deferral, but we've talked to our bank, the bank is only going to make us pay interest only payments, so we're break even, so we're not going to lose any money, but we're not we're not gaining anything either, and it's just going to be for this three months. But we also, in working with the tenant, we were able to get an extension out of them for that grace period. So they wanted to be there still. Maybe they only had two years left on their lease, and we went back and said, hey, we'll give you this three month. Free rent, but give us two more years on your lease, or give us a fresh five year lease. So it was a win, win for everybody. And I think that's the biggest thing for for investors, is just be honest and be a good person, and they can see that. They can feel it.

KG SHORT STAY:

Yeah, I think that we've we've had a few situations where it's a things that have happened have affected our clients, and what's always worked in our favour is not delaying talking about it with them and actually having an honest conversation about not what the problem is, but what we believe is the best solution, and then discussing with them the best way to move forward for them and their investment. But if you just come to people with problems and no solutions, then they look at you like, what am I going to solve your problems? This is, this is your problem, not mine. But if you come to them with solutions, you work on it together. And I think that's, that's the important thing is don't delay the conversation and come to people with solutions rather than problems. But, yeah, great, great advice. And the last thing I have wanted to ask you this on the bank account side of things, not just for our UK audience, but also, you know, for anyone from the US that will listen to this as well, with interest rates quite high at the moment. In 2025 How do you think the real estate market where you are in the US, I'm presuming, down the east coast? How do you think that's going to pan out over the next 12 to 24 months?

Unknown:

You know, it's always a loaded question, because I don't know what the government's going to do to step into to save things, but we're already seeing cracks. I moved to Florida three years ago, and obviously Florida was red hot after COVID happened, and we're really seeing a lot of cracks just in the residential market right now, where things that, you know, we barely had any inventory now, we have tonnes of inventory. People are price reducing, and this just kind of happened over the last three or four months. So we're really seeing some cracks there. As for commercial real estate, you know, there's, there's a lot of loans that are in default. I don't know the banks have a certain amount of time to be able to bring them out to market. So sometimes they do something called pretend, extend and pretend. So they extend out the loans to give them a break and pretend that it's not in trouble. And so I think there's been a lot of that so that they don't lose confidence in their investors and everything else that the bank has going on. But we've thought, or at least our mentors told us, Scott several times of that the market is about to change, but right when we think it's going to change and hit this downturn, because in real estate. If you look at over time before all of the quantitative easing and everything else that we've done and spent a tonne of money, which is a whole nother conversation, but you can see it goes up, it goes down. It goes up, it goes down. Same with the stock market. It's up and down, up and down, but it always comes back up. But we haven't really let it go down in a long time because of all those inflated or low interest rates that we did, we kept throwing money at it, and so that's something that we've been kind of waiting for. And what's important to have the right mentor. Because our mentor told us, before all the interest rates went up, he's like, look, I think something's going to happen with the interest rates so soon. So if you have an asset that you want to keep long term, go get long term financing and lock in at a low rate. And if there's something that you don't want in your portfolio, sell it now. And so we took that advice and we sold probably 40% of our portfolio and got out of it, which was great. And then, you know, we refinanced everything else and got in at that low interest rate. And so I think that's what's important, is to follow the right people. If you don't have a mentor, you know, follow the right person on social media or whatever it is, but you got to figure out who those people are. There's a lot of scammers out there. I bought a lot of courses that didn't turn out what they should be, so do your due diligence on it. But at the end of the day, it's being educated, figuring out what it is. Go to multiple sources. I don't always just believe what my mentor says. I go try and find out what Tony's talking about. I try and find out what Ray Dalio is talking about. I follow all these people to try and make my own opinion. And I think that's where people make mistakes sometimes, is they get so one side focus, like I'm only going to go to grant because grant is the only one that knows. And. It's like, even if I am the expert, I want other people to go out and find other people, because there's stuff I'm missing. I'm not in the news every single day. And so what I think is going to happen is, I think there is going to be somewhat of a downturn, but it's all really dependent on if the government steps in and starts printing money again, which we can't afford. Yes, I'd love to hear what, what's going on in your market, you know place of what you think, and because I don't, I don't hear a lot about the UK. Isn't part of what we're hearing here. We're hearing more about Canada and China. So I'd love to hear what's going on in your market?

KG SHORT STAY:

Yeah, well, I mean, again, it's all this uncertainty at the moment. And I think the cool thing about uncertainty is, while we don't know what's going to happen with interest rates and property prices, what that does do, what uncertainty does do is it stops people from investing. And when we've got the majority of people investing, one of the things that Warren Buffet says is, what everyone everyone else is doing do the opposite. And what we're finding is with this uncertainty, comes better deals. And actually, if you're getting better deals with a higher interest rate, the result is the same than getting a more expensive deal at a low interest rate. You know, you end up paying the same amount. It's just balanced in the other way. So that's what we're finding. We're finding just this whole uncertainty is bringing out better deals. Pete, there are people wanting to get out. There's a lot of regulation coming in the UK. They're changing our contracts and how we do tenants and the things that we have to comply with. So it's stopping people from entering the market, and it's making people leave the market. And it's the people that are scared that end up losing out, and the people that are confident and professional, like us that end up winning because we know how to make it work, because we see a different opportunity. We we repurpose a property in a different way. And I think that's that's the thing that we're finding over here, is same as you. We don't know where it's going to go, but the uncertainty is bringing out better deals.

Unknown:

Yeah, and I think that brings up the amazing point of what i The biggest thing I've ever learned from my mentor is we buy for to force appreciation, not to hope. For appreciation, hope is not a strategy. So yes, if you buy based on forcing appreciation, even if you get caught in a downturn, you've created a spread. But the people that are buying things at the top of the market, like I did with that rental property, and lost so much, it's because you're speculating that it's going to go up. And so if I can give anybody any advice? You know, it's that of like, buy something to force the appreciation buy it. It has to have some defect to be able to do it. Maybe it's just mismanaged. You know, it doesn't have to look ugly, but sometimes it is. It looks ugly, and you just make it look prettier and then and manage it the right way.

KG SHORT STAY:

Yeah, yeah, absolutely, absolutely. Okay, cool. So we're sort of coming to the end now. I've got some concluding questions, few quick fire stuff just to just to finish off. So I've got a backup question, in case you don't want to answer this one, or can't think of anything because it's quite a deep one, but it could be quick. If you could send every entrepreneur dad listening to this one text message each morning. What would it say?

Unknown:

Oh, entrepreneur dad, I would say, listen more to your children.

KG SHORT STAY:

Awesome. I was going to say in my head, I was going to say, show up more for your children and your family and your loved ones. But, yeah, no, that's brilliant. Love it. Okay, perfect. What have you got? What's what's your big goal this year, the next 12 months, what are you and Janet going after

Unknown:

the big goal this year? We have so many audacious goals for 10 year deals. So one year goals would be really just trying to build out our teams. Now we read Dan Martel's book. Buyback time. Yeah, or who not? How is another good one? But how do we build a better team? So we're not trading our time for more money. We want to now get the right people in. So our our goal for the next year is to really build that team. So that we can be owners instead of operators.

KG SHORT STAY:

Excellent. I love that. Yeah, working on the business as opposed to in it. Right? Cool. So fast forward to your 90th birthday. What do you hope that your daughters say about you when you're 90. I

Unknown:

just think that, I hope that they say that dad was an amazing listener, and not was because I'm still planning on being alive. I shouldn't talk that way. Is a that's the power of language. But yes, that he is an amazing listener, and that he loved me and that I feel loved and needed, I think that's the biggest thing is kids need. Is they need to feel needed and they need to feel loved. That's all you need to give them. All the other crap that we think that we need to give them is just crap. Awesome. Favourite book, favourite book. I love. The one that I just read was really good, but I would probably say never split the difference is probably my favourite book. Oh,

KG SHORT STAY:

cool, not have that one. Excellent. Okay, and then last but not least, how would you like people to get in contact with you that want to get in contact?

Unknown:

Well, this is something that's very new to me, of getting people to contact me, but I think the best way is Find me on LinkedIn. It's Sean Johansson. You can see the spelling there. Otherwise, Instagram is just my last name, then my first name, and then I've also started a YouTube channel, which I don't have a lot on there yet, but it's called shine the light two, the number two day, that's kind of my saying this last year, is if I can shine my light and show People my change and the tools that I've used to be able to make a positive change in myself, that I can make so many more changes in people around me, and hopefully people I don't even see that I'm making changes, because if I can make generational changes in other people's families, their grandkids are going to be so much Different than I am. So that's my goal. Is, how can I change as many lives by the time that I die? And the only way that I can think of do it is just live the change and and try and light people up. Wow, what a

KG SHORT STAY:

way to end the end the interview. So thank you very much, Sean for for joining me today. This has been one of the longest interviews I've done so far, but it's been very deep and and certainly, certainly enlightening. It's really nice to see your journey over the last, sort of just over 12 months, and saw you last and I can certainly see a difference in you 100% so thank you for joining any final thoughts before we finish off.

Unknown:

No, I just like to say, you know, thank you to you for having me on. I feel blessed to have met so many amazing people, and you're one of them that I know you're out there trying to do good too. And for all the listeners, I would just say, don't, don't worry about all those things that you used to worry about. If you just take care of yourself and your mental side, you can't help anybody else if you can't help yourself. So maybe even one of the biggest lessons I did is look in the mirror and tell yourself that you're proud of yourself. When's the last time you did that?

KG SHORT STAY:

Awesome. Thank you very much, Sean, and I hope to speak to you soon. Thanks, Grant. If this episode resonated with you, share it with someone who needs to hear it. You are a carnivore entrepreneur. Live life how it was supposed to be lived on your terms, with strength, energy and purpose. I'll see you on the next episode. You.