Join host Steven Pesavento and his guest Shawn Thomas as they delve into Shawn's remarkable journey from a small town in Alaska to a successful millionaire entrepreneur. In this episode, they explore the importance of proximity, the power of self-awareness, and the keys to finding contentment in a world driven by achievement. Discover how Shawn transitioned from a young musician chasing fame to a savvy business owner, and how he used his financial success to create a unique organization to help small business owners reach their goals. Get ready for an inspiring and insightful conversation that will leave you with valuable takeaways to apply in your own life.
Key Takeaways
Resources Mentioned
Interested in connecting with other like-minded individuals? Then join our VonFinch Private Capital Network. Learn more at http://www.vonfinch.com/invest.
About our Guest:
Shawn Thomas is a serial entrepreneur, investor, and the creator of "Ask a Millionaire." With a journey that started as a young musician aspiring for fame, Shawn transitioned into the business world, eventually achieving financial success. He leverages his experience to help other entrepreneurs and small business owners through Accelerators Organization, a unique support network for those striving to reach their goals.
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00;00;00;08 - 00;00;08;13
Steven Pesavento
Welcome back to the name Your numbers show presented by the investor mindset. I'm Steven Passive pento and today I've got Sean Thomas in the studio. How you doing today, Sean?
00;00;08;16 - 00;00;10;12
Shawn Thomas
Fantastic. Thanks, man.
00;00;10;14 - 00;00;31;05
Steven Pesavento
Yeah. I'm excited to get into your story a little bit, Sean, because, you know, you build businesses, you had success, you had failure, you had assets, and now you're living that life, investing, making moves, making community connections. So I think that's going to be really exciting to talk about. Before we get into where you're at today. Let's talk a little bit about going back.
00;00;31;13 - 00;00;46;15
Steven Pesavento
Early days. What was one of the first things you named, one of the first targets you set that was moving you further away from kind of that traditional model of, I have a job, I earn a paycheck and put you on that path towards creating a good life.
00;00;46;18 - 00;00;51;17
Shawn Thomas
I wanted to be a professional singer and become rich and famous and get on MTV.
00;00;51;20 - 00;01;01;17
Steven Pesavento
The music life and what what was happening in that world. Like what? What were you doing and what did you take away from that?
00;01;01;19 - 00;01;21;21
Shawn Thomas
Well, I grew up in a small town in Alaska, and MTV came out 53 years old. So showing my age there. But MTV came out and Dance Party, USA and all these shows around music and Madonna and Michael Jackson and George Michael and what have you. And I just I don't know why. I just got enthralled and I said, I want to be in that world.
00;01;21;21 - 00;01;36;02
Shawn Thomas
And when I was in high school, a couple of my friends and I that were on the basketball team, we were choosing our electives. And there was this line filled with a lot of really cute girls. And we said, We need to be in that line. So I went over to the line and said, What is this line for?
00;01;36;02 - 00;01;48;07
Shawn Thomas
And they said, Choir. And I had never sang a lick in my entire life, but I was like, Yeah, we're going to be I think we're taking this class. So we got in that class and I immediately fell in love with it. And then when MTV came out, I said, You know what? That's what I want to do.
00;01;48;11 - 00;01;52;09
Shawn Thomas
I want to get on MTV. And that's what my first passion was.
00;01;52;11 - 00;02;08;16
Steven Pesavento
It's interesting because you think like going the music industry route that you're going to make a ton of money. But I have a lot of friends in the industry, and unless you make it into that top tier, the very, very top people, it's not really that lucrative. Well, what was it for you?
00;02;08;19 - 00;02;27;08
Shawn Thomas
Well, I didn't want to be a professional singer necessarily to get rich at that moment. You know, when I was young, I didn't understand and Rich really didn't understand to stand anything around money because I didn't grow up with a lot of money. It was more about just that I wanted to be famous, you know. So I just tagged the rich and famous in their.
00;02;27;11 - 00;02;52;05
Shawn Thomas
So I really wasn't getting into it for the money. You know, I moved down to Southern California. So the first learning lesson I kind of learned just about anything is to go where the opportunity is. And I knew I wasn't going to get there. Living in a small town in Alaska. And I didn't realize that moment how big of a deal that is in pursuing and trying to achieve success, because I do mentor a lot of different people from different walks of life in small towns.
00;02;52;05 - 00;03;12;15
Shawn Thomas
And when I hit them with that, well, maybe you need to move. They you really see how bad people really want to pursue something in their life. And so I didn't realize at the time it was a big deal was until later on that I really realized that it was a big deal to just pack up my bags and move to Southern California to pursue a dream of becoming a recording contract artist.
00;03;12;18 - 00;03;28;19
Shawn Thomas
And unlike a lot of people that you hear on social media, Steve and I didn't have a lot of naysayers at all. You can't do it and try to talk you out of it and you know, that's too much risk. I never had people like that in my life growing up. My parents were always very supportive. They just said, Hey, we're here if you need me.
00;03;28;21 - 00;03;48;09
Shawn Thomas
And you got you got your room. If you ever do need to move back home, you can go for it. My parents are really supportive that way, but I didn't really get into the financial part at that time. I moved to Southern California when I was 18. Fast forward three years. I got out. Three years later, I did get a record deal on Warner Brothers Records and a boy band called End Motion, which nobody would ever hear of.
00;03;48;09 - 00;04;07;13
Shawn Thomas
But we travel with Ringling Brothers and Barnum Bailey Circus for a year, and we got on MTV. We played Madison Square Garden and all the major arenas got in the teen magazines. Man, it was frigging insane. Amazing. At 21 years old to be traveling the country that way and living like a rock star. But in all of that, we maybe made about 100 grand.
00;04;07;13 - 00;04;16;22
Shawn Thomas
But, you know, to me that was millions of dollars at that time. It wasn't even a total, like I said about the money. It was about just the lifestyle. So at that.
00;04;16;25 - 00;04;44;18
Steven Pesavento
Point it was like, what an accomplishment, though, to make as a young person, you're going after your dream. You see that it's possible. I think one thing really, really powerful to underline and what you mention is the importance of proximity being in that community. A lot of people are unwilling to go and make those hard decisions to leave the place where they're comfortable, to leave the certainty of the town that they live in, because they're saying to themselves, Hey, we're on this online Internet world, I don't need to be there.
00;04;44;25 - 00;05;08;03
Steven Pesavento
But that's false. I mean, it's possible for you to make it. But the the the from a from an opportunity standpoint by getting into the community, by having proximity to record labels and managers and and other artists who are doing it, you're around these people and that helps you grow and become that identity of that person who is actually going to go and have that success.
00;05;08;05 - 00;05;31;24
Shawn Thomas
Yeah, exactly. There's everything is about the who, you know, is very, very important. And like I said, when I was younger, I didn't realize all of these natural learning lessons that I was getting. I was just following my dreams. I didn't really appreciate it and understand it until later in and tell you it's very different today than than it was back when I was 18.
00;05;31;25 - 00;05;42;05
Shawn Thomas
You know, because I might have taken a different route back. You know, back then if social media had been around and what have you. So but yeah, the power of the community is very important.
00;05;42;07 - 00;06;03;11
Steven Pesavento
But even, you know, I see these tech talkers, I see these YouTubers, I see people in real estate, I see people in every single niche. There's a certain area of the country or there is these pockets where lots of those types of deals or opportunities are coming together. And when you can get into proximity, where you can get into community, you really start to see motion happening.
00;06;03;11 - 00;06;19;17
Steven Pesavento
I know for me personally, one of the first things that I did when I made the move out of tech into real estate was I went to a meet up and I found a mentor and I found someone who I could learn from. At the time, I didn't believe in spending money, so I traded my time for those lessons.
00;06;19;20 - 00;06;41;01
Steven Pesavento
But it was not until I actually joined a mastermind. I paid money to be in a community, to be in a network, to be in an association that I was surrounded by all these people who are doing the thing and having the success. I wanted to have. That actually led me to being in that position to believe that it was possible to borrow their belief and then actually go and prove to myself that I can do it.
00;06;41;07 - 00;06;47;12
Steven Pesavento
And I know that that that's critical no matter what part of the economy you're trying to work at.
00;06;47;15 - 00;07;14;15
Shawn Thomas
Yeah, you know, that's a tough one because, you know, I didn't really belong to any communities like that when I was growing. But to the same point, you know, we've all heard that term R&D and most of us think of that's research and development. But one of the things that I got really good at and I still use in my life today is I just call a rip off and duplicate.
00;07;14;18 - 00;07;37;21
Shawn Thomas
I take a look at what somebody successful is doing and I just do that. So whether it was getting on Instagram and creating an Instagram channel or business or anything that it might be, I just look at who does it, who doesn't really well and just copy what they're doing, especially if they're really successful. They probably have money and they probably have a team and they have all these things.
00;07;37;26 - 00;07;56;16
Shawn Thomas
So they've spent the tens, if not hundreds of thousands of dollars putting together the website or the social media or whatever it is, and you get that. You get to just copy what they did. And so that's kind of what I did when I was younger, and I've kind of carried that through, is I just always try to do what successful people do.
00;07;56;18 - 00;07;57;09
Steven Pesavento
Yeah.
00;07;57;12 - 00;08;07;16
Shawn Thomas
Well, it's been I do talk about all those things. You know, they talk about, hey, go to Masterminds network, get to know people, you know, all of that's kind of kind of in that equation.
00;08;07;19 - 00;08;31;22
Steven Pesavento
Yeah, well, it's just about getting around other people because it's like we're going to fast forward here and spoiler alert, you had an exit, $20 million. Actually, you walked away with a $9 million, seven, 8 million. You're in a position where you've made it, you've succeeded. But that business idea, that business idea came because of proximity. It came because you were working on something else before where you saw an opportunity.
00;08;31;28 - 00;08;49;03
Steven Pesavento
And a lot of people are trying to hustle. They're trying to do something, but they're doing it in this little box and you got to get out because you got to meet people. So tell us about that business. And then I really want to dive into what that exit felt like because I know it can be exciting, but I bet it was also scary on what happens next.
00;08;49;06 - 00;09;21;07
Shawn Thomas
Yeah, So the way I started the business was very interesting in that the business was hotel business, center, computer systems, internet kiosks, lobby pieces, whatever it might be. And I was coming off what I call my decade of desperation, which I was literally broke and repossessions, bankruptcies, the whole typical, you know, stories of many entrepreneurs. And I was just coming off of that and I was down to like literally my last $500.
00;09;21;07 - 00;09;37;06
Shawn Thomas
My parents were sending me a couple hundred dollars, it seemed like almost every day so that I could pick, you know, keep the lights on and not have my house get foreclosed. But I started that business literally with $500. Now, I wouldn't say that I started that business with 500. It's kind of a you know, it's a weird way to look at it.
00;09;37;06 - 00;09;53;01
Shawn Thomas
Literally, I had $500, but I had a lot of industry experience. I had sales skills. I knew the you know, knew what I was doing when I did it. I didn't I just didn't go, Hey, how do I start a business with $500 and not have any experience, whether it's in the product or the industry or anything. So there's that.
00;09;53;02 - 00;09;56;08
Steven Pesavento
Well, you had earned equity by going out and doing these things.
00;09;56;08 - 00;09;56;28
Shawn Thomas
Exactly.
00;09;56;28 - 00;09;57;29
Steven Pesavento
And failing.
00;09;58;01 - 00;10;20;14
Shawn Thomas
Yes. The knowledge was an equity. I am with that. Exactly. So I started with one hotel at a time, putting a computer in the lobby, seeing that it worked proved out the concept. I think that that's one things. The one thing that a lot of entrepreneurs don't do is they get analysis paralysis and try to get so prepared to launch that they never even launch.
00;10;20;16 - 00;10;36;14
Shawn Thomas
So I was the exact opposite. I just literally put a computer in a hotel and I said, Well, let's just see if this works. And it worked. And then I did a couple more and a couple more and a couple more, and we ended up having that business for ten years, 11 years and having to exit like you talked about.
00;10;36;14 - 00;10;50;09
Shawn Thomas
And a lot a lot happened in between. But it was literally just going out there and always just saying, I'm going to fill the need in the marketplace. And it and I actually recognized the need. I thought, hey, hotels need this. And I just proved out the concept.
00;10;50;11 - 00;11;24;29
Steven Pesavento
Well, this is such a reminder to all the people who are listening, who are building a business or those people who are looking to begin investing and creating that recurring revenue in their life that is going to pay for the kind of life they want to create, is that, you know, there's a bunch of challenges that we're not going to get into today that you experienced, but it's through each of those opportunities that gives you new knowledge, that gives you confidence, that gives you the opportunity to step through a new door and then you exit with millions of dollars, which what I'm curious about is after building a business, it becomes your identity becomes the
00;11;24;29 - 00;11;45;21
Steven Pesavento
thing that you're focused on, becomes the things you know how to do. And really it is where you're putting all of your time. So at that moment that you made that sale, I'm assuming, and you can tell me if this is true, I'm assuming it was both exciting to get that check and to exit. And I bet it was terrifying to try to figure out what's next.
00;11;45;24 - 00;11;47;18
Steven Pesavento
Was it?
00;11;47;20 - 00;12;16;03
Shawn Thomas
Yes and no. Definitely exciting and not terrifying at all. And what I mean is, is, you know, every business exit is different. Ours happened to be that I exited the company in 2011 as the CEO and our current CEO at the time. And my business, my other business, an equal business partner who was the president, they were tasked with getting the company sold and I took off as the CEO.
00;12;16;03 - 00;12;38;17
Shawn Thomas
We had some major problems at that. At the ownership level. We had just closed a huge global contract with a major hotel chain that set the company up for sale. And because of the personality conflict issues, how much money we were all making, I made the decision to say, You know what, You guys go ahead and sell the company.
00;12;38;17 - 00;13;00;11
Shawn Thomas
I'm here as a partner, but I'm going to take off and I'm moving to Southern California. I'm going to live at the beach for the next few years and I'm going to I'm going to work on myself and position myself for this exit win. And that was like October of 2011. We didn't close on the transaction until December 13th, 2013.
00;13;00;14 - 00;13;27;07
Shawn Thomas
And so by the time you know, that wire transfer for 7.8 million hit my my account, I had already worked on overcoming what's called Founder's syndrome, which is that where you attach yourself to a company and you think, can the company survive without me? I started this company. I grew it. The customers know me, the team knows me, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah.
00;13;27;09 - 00;13;50;08
Shawn Thomas
You start to realize and going through that transition that a lot of that is ego and pride. And ultimately, if you did the right job for the company as a CEO, then you should be able to leave and the company should be able to survive and thrive without you. And I did that and I focused on the positives of the deal as opposed to the negative zone that I could have gone into.
00;13;50;08 - 00;14;17;13
Shawn Thomas
And it was an emotional journey for that two years. But so by the time it got done, it wasn't terrifying that I sold or we sold. And you know, I was moving on financially. When you build a $20 million company, whether it's yourself or, you know, one or two other partners, by the time you sell for that amount, you've already made a lot of money and you know, when I say a lot, you know, that's subjective.
00;14;17;13 - 00;14;39;07
Shawn Thomas
But you've made millions, you know, at least in the last probably 2 to 3 years of owning a company that size, you've probably made millions. So you've already bought the things you want to buy. You've already traveled, you've already you're already living kind of the lifestyle that you want to live. So the check that you get doesn't really have an impact on your life.
00;14;39;09 - 00;15;19;04
Shawn Thomas
You know, you know, as as you live and breathe every day, it's just kind of a nice little accolade. So it wasn't terrifying to me. It was. And I tell you, it was exciting to say that I got it. But yeah, what was more exciting is that the deal got done, you know, for anybody that ever does go down the path of trying to exit a company, especially one of that size, it is a very complex and complicated and emotional negotiation because you're dealing with sharks out there and vultures of the private equity world that their whole job is to screw you out of every dollar they can while acting like they're your best friend.
00;15;19;07 - 00;15;35;02
Shawn Thomas
So it's a very complex world selling a company of that size. And I was fortunate that I didn't have to be in the mix of it because I had my partners handling the negotiation and then they were just calling me and saying, Hey, it is is this good for you? And I was like, Yeah, it's good for me.
00;15;35;04 - 00;15;37;25
Shawn Thomas
Well, I was already working on the emotional side of it.
00;15;37;28 - 00;15;57;00
Steven Pesavento
Well, it sounds like you you did the work. You had those two years of time to kind of let go. You were already burnt out. Not on the business per say maybe, but definitely on the partnership and the problems that you dealt with in that partnership. But you had that time and space to come to terms that you're no longer the guy who's running the company.
00;15;57;00 - 00;16;15;20
Steven Pesavento
You put somebody else in there. You got to go through that experience of detaching and creating a new identity and then stepping out. But the reason why I would feel like there might be some fear is, you know, what's next? What's that next chapter, right? And what did you end up doing after that? You exited, you made it.
00;16;15;20 - 00;16;26;17
Steven Pesavento
You already had millions of dollars. You were financially sat. What did you do and how did you spend your time? Once you no longer were the guy once you were running that company?
00;16;26;19 - 00;16;53;10
Shawn Thomas
Yeah. And I you know, I'll touch on that. The fear thing, it definitely wasn't fearful to me, you know. You know, if anything, after I did what I did when I was 18 and moved to California and got a record deal, I don't think that I've had a day of fear since then, because when you have that huge of a win when you're young, it's really difficult to say to yourself, whatever you set your mind to, you're not going to achieve.
00;16;53;10 - 00;17;28;06
Shawn Thomas
So I got really lucky and blessed to have a big win when I was young because as set up my my mindset for overcoming challenges and living a fear based mindset, I was never. And also, like I was saying, when you've made millions, you know, in your business, you don't really have much to be fearful of because you've already got money, you've already got the knowledge and the the skill set to know that even if you lost everything, you know how to build it because you did.
00;17;28;06 - 00;17;42;03
Shawn Thomas
Yeah. You don't want to like no one in their right mind says, you know, if I lost everything I could do, we don't really want to lose everything, but we could. You know, once you get to a certain age and a certain comfort level, you do go, Hey, I don't really want to go back. I could, but I don't want to.
00;17;42;05 - 00;18;01;08
Shawn Thomas
So I wasn't fearing for what I was going to do next. But after we got that check, the wire, I took some more time off, bought it, bought a few more, you know, nice things, and traveled the world a little bit. And I got on Instagram and I created this moniker called Ask a Millionaire on Instagram, which is still around today.
00;18;01;11 - 00;18;23;07
Shawn Thomas
And it was something I always loved Instagram, because like you, I cook, drink, travel, come dogs. And you know, I'm a visual person, so I've always, always been drawn to Instagram specifically out of all the social media platforms. And I started coming across these accounts on Instagram. This was back in 2015, so this was a long time ago.
00;18;23;07 - 00;18;58;21
Shawn Thomas
But these accounts that were posting these pictures of gold watches and stacks of cash and yachts and private planes and all these means and stuff, I'm like, who the heck is running these accounts? Because I run in those circles and none of us live that kind of life as millionaires. Like, who are these people? So I started digging in a little because I was I was interested and in curious, and I found out that the majority of are just little kids and, you know, from even from other countries that just wanted to live that that millionaire lifestyle right there inspired by it.
00;18;58;25 - 00;19;17;00
Shawn Thomas
You know, it was kind of like their little vision board, if you will. But I did come across one guy who is one of the biggest and he had a legit business and was a millionaire. And he's like, Shawn, if you want to get into this, I can teach you how to do this. It's super fun and you can actually make money doing this.
00;19;17;02 - 00;19;48;28
Shawn Thomas
You know, people will pay you to advertise them on your account. And he started teaching me all about Instagram. So I started basically just like my other business. I was waking up in the morning, laying in bed on vacation, basically in Manhattan Beach, California, and I'd pull up Instagram and I'd have all these DMS of people asking me questions, and I just answer the question and I would do that all freaking day 12, 14 hours a day, and started growing this, this Instagram account.
00;19;49;00 - 00;20;11;12
Shawn Thomas
And then and then after about two years, I started investing in some companies as a, as an angel investor. And finally I started to get the bite that I wanted to start something new. And so I said, Do I buy another cup? Do I buy a company? Do I start another company? And I started talking to a couple of my mentors and coaches and I said, they said, why don't you just, you know, find something within this?
00;20;11;12 - 00;20;39;11
Shawn Thomas
Ask a millionaire account? And so I dug deep into it with with a couple of people that are kind of advisors, and they said the void in the marketplace is there's no official organization for small business owners, like the bigger organizations, like Entrepreneurs Organization invested in YPO. All those big organizations were myself and the other successful, financially successful people belong.
00;20;39;14 - 00;20;57;15
Shawn Thomas
You have to have a business doing $1,000,000. Well, you know, and I know that most business owners don't ever get to a million. So what do all those people do that are doing under a million? So I said, I'm going to create that organization. So I created Accelerators organization, and I thought through it.
00;20;57;18 - 00;21;17;03
Steven Pesavento
Before we get into the details of that, what I'm really curious about for myself, and I know a lot of other people who are high achievers feel this What I can tell, especially in you describing the exit and describing getting to that point you made millions as you're at this point. But the big word that I'm circling right in front of me is content.
00;21;17;06 - 00;21;42;27
Steven Pesavento
You've found a way to be content. You found a way to say, I have enough. I've made it to that point. And this really dawned on me. I went to a Y during the pandemic. I sold my house. I went out and I was living. I found a back door, rented an Airbnb there with a bunch of great friends, but the owner of that Airbnb and he was grossing hundreds of thousands of dollars a year doing this thing, retired.
00;21;43;04 - 00;21;57;04
Steven Pesavento
But he brought up to me, he's like, You're a hustler, you're going after it, you're building businesses. I can tell you want to do big things. But he's like, What's your number? What's enough? And it really dawned on me. I was like, Well, every time I create a number, I just I don't even enjoy the celebration of it.
00;21;57;04 - 00;22;15;22
Steven Pesavento
I just move on to the next thing. And so what I'm curious for you is, what is it? How do you recommend someone like myself or the listener go about finding that way to being content, to saying, I've have enough, I've done it, I'm there.
00;22;15;25 - 00;22;44;06
Shawn Thomas
Lots of therapy and lots of coaching. It's so so I was I was talking with one of my clients today or yesterday, and I said one of the things that we have to learn as entrepreneurs in life and this goes for anything and is going to answer part of your question is you have to develop if you want to maintain your sanity, you have to develop a strong sense of awareness.
00;22;44;08 - 00;23;07;13
Shawn Thomas
If you know that certain things are going to happen that prepares you emotionally, that when they do, you don't freak out because the entrepreneurial journey or any pursuit of real success, whether it's on the playing field financially, relationships, you have to be self aware that there's going to be highs, there's going to be lows. You good times in, there's going to be bad times.
00;23;07;13 - 00;23;25;15
Shawn Thomas
You have to prepare yourself that that's going to happen. And so knowing that I did have a number one side kind of started to think about a number. I didn't come out like I said, I didn't come from money, so I never imagined the number. I just wanted to be rich. What does that mean? Right.
00;23;25;17 - 00;23;26;12
Steven Pesavento
Yeah.
00;23;26;14 - 00;23;54;13
Shawn Thomas
So, yes, I'm definitely after after I got that wire transfer from that moment on, I have a 100% content piece. Happy? I don't, I have not had the drive and the same feeling that I had before that that I need to go conquer the world financially. I've got enough. I don't live an extravagant lifestyle, so that's never really appealed to me.
00;23;54;13 - 00;23;55;29
Shawn Thomas
I do. What is it? The spectrum?
00;23;56;00 - 00;24;03;16
Steven Pesavento
What is it? What is it that you believe that allows you to feel like, okay, I'm good here.
00;24;03;18 - 00;24;05;10
Shawn Thomas
Peace gives you peace.
00;24;05;12 - 00;24;06;00
Steven Pesavento
Yeah.
00;24;06;02 - 00;24;27;08
Shawn Thomas
It gives you peace to say, I don't have to worry about, you know, I live on I'll give an example. I live on six acres. It's not a lot, but it's six acres here in South Nashville. Anything and I mean anything. My girlfriend and I joke about this. Anything that goes wrong in this house, it's 2500 bucks. And it doesn't matter what it is, it's going to be 2500 bucks.
00;24;27;10 - 00;24;49;00
Shawn Thomas
Now, that was more than my rent payment back in the day, you know, But it seems like every week there's a 20 $500 bill due for something. Right. And so every piece is saying, I never have to worry about just paying bills, having a medical emergency. My dog's having to go to the vet and it costing $1,000 because something happened to them.
00;24;49;02 - 00;25;13;14
Shawn Thomas
There's peace in that. And knowing that you've got the financial backing to not have to worry. And there's also peace that comes from, like I said, knowing that you made it happen and you did it. And if something, God forbid, did happen, you know that you have what it takes inside to start it over again. And that just gives you this really strong sense of peace.
00;25;13;16 - 00;25;31;19
Shawn Thomas
Now, I'd be remiss to say that God's like the number one thing in my life, so that gives me the most peace. But we're not. This isn't a religious podcast. This is a financial podcast, but that gives me my ultimate peace. But financially, it's it is. I am not out there trying to conquer the world financially anymore. I am not going.
00;25;31;19 - 00;25;52;28
Shawn Thomas
I want a ten X, you know, my life. I am completely happy with my life as it is today. Financially, I still like making money. I still like business. I like to earn. I'm a salesperson, you know, entrepreneur. So I like doing that stuff, but it's no longer about that. That's not the mission.
00;25;53;00 - 00;26;15;01
Steven Pesavento
But I think the big the big lesson that I've been learning and developing for myself and I'm hearing from you is really it was this shift, right? The ten X mentality. The idea of more and more and more is great. When you need some motivation, you start from nothing and you're going to go create something. But at a certain point, you have to shift from what got you here to what's going to get you to that next level of fulfillment of happiness.
00;26;15;01 - 00;26;16;19
Steven Pesavento
And that's an identity change.
00;26;16;22 - 00;26;31;11
Shawn Thomas
Yeah, let me tell you guys I forgot some. I'm sorry to interrupt you, Stephen, but if I forget I'm a squirrel. I'll forget to tell you this. So there's a guy and you've probably heard of This guy's name is Dan Sullivan, and he runs a company called Strategic Coach out of Canada. And I went through the strategic coach program.
00;26;31;13 - 00;26;49;16
Shawn Thomas
So to answer your question about living with a number, right, I took his coach and one of the things in this guy is his coaching program. It's been years since I've done it, but it was one of the best and I still recommend his book. But he wrote a book called The Gap, and there's a story about the Gap and it's exactly about what you're asking, which is what?
00;26;49;16 - 00;27;10;20
Shawn Thomas
I never feel satisfied when I hit my goal. You know, it's always changing. And he has this analogy that if you just imagine yourself in a bowl and you say, I'm going to dock and we're going to just settle in when we get to where the sun and the skyline meets, it meets the water, that's where we're going to stop.
00;27;10;22 - 00;27;38;12
Shawn Thomas
And you start to realize you can never get there because it always keeps going out in front of you. And there's this gap that if you live your life always saying that when I get there, that's when I'll be happy. You're never going to get there. And so I am a firm believer in one of the core principles of the seven habits of highly Successful People, which is to start with the end in mind.
00;27;38;14 - 00;27;54;17
Shawn Thomas
And when you're in your journey in your twenties, you might only be able to think two years in advance. You don't get to think 20 years advance. You might say, like I did, man, if I could start and grow a business and sell it for $5 million on the happiest person ever, well, just focus on that first and then evaluate.
00;27;54;19 - 00;28;17;16
Shawn Thomas
And if you don't at some point get some good therapists and some good people in your life that keep you from spiraling downward, if you will, on that quest for, you know, a never ending financial success story. You can live your life full of anxiety and unhappiness. And so that's where I found my peace was I had good people around me and said, hey, when is enough?
00;28;17;16 - 00;28;26;12
Shawn Thomas
Enough? And Dan was a big part of that. I never met him. He wasn't my coach, but the coach that was in strategic coach was like, Shawn, you got to know when enough is enough.
00;28;26;14 - 00;28;55;20
Steven Pesavento
They've got an incredible program gap. The gain in the Gap, phenomenal book. It's so powerful to make that shift because it is very useful to focus on maximizing, on trying to get everything when you've got very little to work with. But if you're staying in a maximizers mindset versus satisfied as are being being content, being happy with what you have, looking at what's great about it, you can never actually be happy.
00;28;55;20 - 00;29;15;28
Steven Pesavento
And the problem is there's a lot of people out there who are very, very famous and they're very motivational. When you're in that, I have nothing, I need to create something mindset. But if you stay in that you could be a billionaire and be unhappy. And you see that from a lot of people for you. Once you exited that business, how has investing played a role?
00;29;15;28 - 00;29;34;01
Steven Pesavento
I know you're an angel investor. I know you obviously are sitting on money. I can't imagine it sitting in a bank account just just kind of hanging out there. What have you done to either grow the money, keep the money, or be able to kind of pay your bills off of the cash flow?
00;29;34;04 - 00;29;54;26
Shawn Thomas
Oh, you know, that's a tough one because I have not had my first big exit as an angel investor. One of the things that my wealth manager told me was like, Sean, you're going to invest in somewhere between seven and nine deals and literally you're praying that one of them is the unicorn that makes you the big exit.
00;29;54;29 - 00;30;23;07
Shawn Thomas
I feel like I'm invested in one that is going to be that. That's going to be a bigger payday than the 11 hour, 11 years of work I did, but it hasn't paid off yet. I have invested in some hard money loan type investments that that put out really good cash flow, like a 15% cash flow. I have had two small three x exits, but all of the other investments are still growing.
00;30;23;09 - 00;30;40;09
Shawn Thomas
There's some more between the three and five year range, so we're hoping some of them in the next 2 to 3 years will start to pop. And that was one of the things. And then of course, I have, you know, interest just coming off, just regular investments. I'm a pretty safe guy. So like tax free municipal bonds, things like that.
00;30;40;12 - 00;31;08;29
Shawn Thomas
Jokingly, the easiest million dollars that I've ever made in my entire life was in this house. Mm. I bought it in 2016 for $1.6 million. And it's literally worth, you know, three plus million today. And it was like, well that was the easiest million dollars that I've made in my entire life, right? And so I'm not a real estate guy like you, Stephen, But it was my first experience.
00;31;08;29 - 00;31;31;24
Shawn Thomas
I did do some hard money lending in real estate to some real estate guys. Yeah, I was on the investor side, the bank side, and then I got involved in one deal and had had a nice little exit for our house out men and beach. But this was the easiest million that I've ever made. And so when I started eight oh, four years ago, it was not this huge company or anything like that.
00;31;31;24 - 00;31;51;14
Shawn Thomas
And I don't have aspirations for it to be a $50 million company. But, you know, it's it's been a great cash flowing business. I do a lot of like mastermind type of events here on my property so I don't have to rent a hotel. And so we'll do 6 to 8 events here at my property here in Nashville.
00;31;51;14 - 00;32;03;24
Shawn Thomas
And it pays my mortgage, it pays my castle, it does everything it's needed to just just support the quality of life that I've got. So they don't have to touch my investments. And, you know, just having some fun.
00;32;03;27 - 00;32;26;04
Steven Pesavento
I think it's a really good example, right? Because you're in a place where you've got 10 million bucks, maybe more, just based on your accent. You've got some money. Your that money could grow dramatically when invested in the right way, but it's really important to understand that for you, angel investing, you understand businesses. You wanted to get involved in businesses.
00;32;26;04 - 00;32;59;03
Steven Pesavento
You're going to take a small investment. I've invested in a number of very small, very small investments in some, you know, high growth startups. From an angel perspective. And the hope is that, you know, when space sells that, that'll be worth, you know, ten or 20 acts or this or that one. But that's the difference, right? Because for you, you found a way to use the operating businesses to pay for your life because you know how to do that.
00;32;59;03 - 00;33;18;04
Steven Pesavento
Other people, they may want to go the route of real estate or investing in funds or syndications or hard money loans. But the key is you found something that your comfortable with and you're using that knowledge and skills and expertise to continue to run your life without necessarily dipping into the wealth that you've created.
00;33;18;06 - 00;33;47;07
Shawn Thomas
Yeah, I've always I have made more money and accumulated more wealth when I am in control of the investment. Then angel investing real estate, hard money loaning I so I've always said if I need to make money, I want to build wealth, then it's going to be in a business of which I manage. Now, that's not to say that the investment that I am in, that could be a 30, 40, $50 million payout.
00;33;47;10 - 00;34;08;02
Shawn Thomas
Yeah. Isn't going to be great and changes my mind about that. But I'll also say on the flip side, I've had my, my losses. I mean I invested in an a guy that I knew for, you know, five, ten years and it was a fast $100,000 I've lost in my entire life other than when I was stupid and got into a little day trading thinking I could do that for a little bit.
00;34;08;04 - 00;34;27;15
Shawn Thomas
You, you know, So you just have to be careful as an investor, You know, you're going to have your wins, you're going to have your losses. But the best investment I've ever made is in any business that I have some sort of ownership, some sort of control in kind of like, you know, Marcus Lemonis is like whenever he does a deal as an investor, he says, I want to have control of the money.
00;34;27;21 - 00;34;36;04
Shawn Thomas
The ones where I have had more risk and said, Hey, here's just a check for 100 grand. Those are the ones I usually don't do as well on.
00;34;36;06 - 00;34;56;18
Steven Pesavento
Well, and that's just because, you know, probably a number of things, but it comes down to picking the right operator, having the knowledge about the opportunity. And then if you pick the right operator in your passive and you're not I mean, angel investing is extremely high risk, right? Unless you have some unique advantage, it's a 10 to 1 ratio for the best fund managers out there.
00;34;56;18 - 00;35;23;18
Steven Pesavento
But if you have a unique advantage, you can reduce that real estate. You're not going to make a ten tax return. You might make a2x or a3x, but it's going to take some time. There's going to be some cash flow. It's a little bit of a trade off, but the risk is way lower. Yes. Again, if you invest with the wrong operator, if you invest with somebody who is slick and and they say the right thing, but they don't really have the experience, they don't have the team, they're not doing the right things, you can lose money.
00;35;23;20 - 00;35;32;17
Steven Pesavento
The opportunity to lose in real estate is much lower than in a business, but the upside is doesn't have the same multiplier effect. So it's a trade off, right?
00;35;32;20 - 00;35;48;06
Shawn Thomas
It's like you said, it's in anything that you do, you've got to get with people that know what they're doing. And if you don't, you know, that's where I can be the most dangerous. So when you get into investing, when I got into some investing where I lost a couple of deals, it was just because ego and pride, I didn't know what I was doing.
00;35;48;06 - 00;36;14;28
Shawn Thomas
I was I was never trained to be an investor. I was trained to operate a business. And so, you know, that's why I'm really careful in anybody getting into investing these days. I'm like, just make sure you get with the right people, do your homework, walk before you crawl, because there's a lot of there. There are. And social media has made it so easy to get duped by people who act like that, who, like you said, they're slick and they're slick talkers.
00;36;15;00 - 00;36;21;06
Shawn Thomas
So it's just good that there's guys like you out there that really know what you're doing. And you guys are, you know, not those guys.
00;36;21;08 - 00;36;45;14
Steven Pesavento
Yeah, we have a very long focus. We give way more way than most operators, but I know once you invest with us, it's like, you know, once once you get a little taste, you're going to be hooked. You'll be with us for ten or 20, 30 years. You'll get all your friends involved and we'll get the payoff in alignment with you versus trying to make the money quick and get out and run off to some other business.
00;36;45;16 - 00;37;02;12
Steven Pesavento
There's so much more I honestly want to talk about. Shawn, we're going to have to have you back for another episode before I get into my last question. Tell folks where they can get in touch with you. Follow along or learn more about the business and the accelerator program that you have.
00;37;02;15 - 00;37;31;21
Shawn Thomas
So for fun, an Instagram meme with a little bit of learning that ask a millionaire on Instagram for my business, for a professional organization, Startup Entrepreneurs, it's accelerators organization, which is at accelerators org and accelerators, org dot com. And then there's a YouTube channel as well. We've got about 400 hours of content of entrepreneurs like you and me answering questions on our YouTube channel.
00;37;31;23 - 00;37;45;09
Shawn Thomas
It's hundreds of hours of just great Q&A type content. So if you just need if you're a small business owner and you're like, I've got questions, I promise you that somebody has asked that question and one of our mentors has answered it on our YouTube channel.
00;37;45;11 - 00;37;58;15
Steven Pesavento
Yeah, couldn't be a better way to learn and grow other than following amazing people, getting in community, getting surrounded by others are doing the same thing. So I couldn't recommend enough going out there and getting in and building community.
00;37;58;15 - 00;38;24;09
Shawn Thomas
So yeah, you don't know. I'll say I'm sorry. You do not want to be a small business owner and not be in a professional organization of some sort. Just like you got into something. I got into stuff. The biggest mistake I see people doing is not building the relationships and being in an organization. They just think that they're going to learn everything self-study on YouTube and podcasts and what have you.
00;38;24;11 - 00;38;49;00
Shawn Thomas
All of those things are fantastic, but there is nothing that's going to bring you more value than the relationships, because I think I heard this on one of your things that people love to make introductions to other successful people. And when you join an organization that's filled with guys like you and guys that are successful, it's you. The power is to build to say, Hey, Steven, do you know somebody that can help me with this?
00;38;49;07 - 00;39;08;09
Shawn Thomas
And you're like, Dude, I've interviewed 400 successful entrepreneurs, got somebody in my network who does what you need help with. Absolutely. Let me make an introduction. You can't do that on YouTube. You can't do that listening to something or reading something. So if you're not if you're a small business owner or even a big business owner, you're not in an organization.
00;39;08;11 - 00;39;11;17
Shawn Thomas
That's my biggest piece of advice. Get in one.
00;39;11;19 - 00;39;30;05
Steven Pesavento
And so for the listeners, as we wrap up or looking to get to that point of financial freedom, to start taking that action and making those moves, yet they feel stuck in place, They're fearful, they don't know. They know what to do, but they're not doing it. What advice do you have for those folks?
00;39;30;08 - 00;39;57;01
Shawn Thomas
Be self-aware. Know that you're not alone. If you feel like you're alone on an island and nobody understands you, it's because you chose to live on that island. Move, move to an island filled with people just like you, who understand all the anxieties and the stress and emotions that you're going through, that you can share your stories with, Get support from, Join an organization.
00;39;57;05 - 00;40;08;14
Shawn Thomas
You are not alone no matter how much you feel like it. There are a lot of you and me and Steven and everybody out there that love to support each other. You don't have to be alone.
00;40;08;17 - 00;40;21;09
Steven Pesavento
Amazing. So good. And thanks for joining us, Shawn. And thank you for all for listening. Another great episode. Take some time to reflect and think. How can you apply what you heard today in your own life? We'll see you on the next episode.