Anthony Simonie was almost never born — and after a business partner stole half his company while his newborn son nearly died, he rebuilt from zero using LinkedIn and hit $60K in 30 days in a brand new industry. In this episode, he breaks down why LinkedIn is the most underrated platform for business owners right now and how getting in the right rooms changed everything.
Episode 6: LinkedIn, Masterminds, and Building a Business That Lasts with Anthony Simonie
If you’ve only been treating LinkedIn like a digital resume, it’s time to rethink your approach. Save to Zero hosts Zach and Mike sit down with Anthony Simonie to break down why LinkedIn is still one of the best platforms to build trust, start real relationships, and create business opportunities.
Anthony’s story is huge. He was adopted by his grandparents, thought he’d go into professional baseball, then went into medical sales before eventually building a multi-million-dollar business from a “dirty” side hustle. When a business partnership blew up in a brutal way, he didn’t let it define him. Instead, he used his existing marketing skills to rebuild.
With no existing audience, Anthony tested LinkedIn with a new offer, no testimonials, and no name recognition. It ended up bringing him $60k in 30 days, and another $60k over the next 12 months.
We also chat with Anthony about masterminds: why some are a waste, why the right ones are priceless, and how investing in yourself keeps your business growing.
“I don’t think all masterminds are created equal. Most of them, in my humble opinion, are full of ego. I want to be part of masterminds where people care about other human beings and want to collaborate in meaningful ways. Where you can bless each other instead of, ‘what can I take from you?’”
“If you don’t continually invest in yourself, it’s my humble belief that you have a finite amount of time before you don’t have the advantage anymore. Your business will stop growing because you’ll stop growing as a person.”
“At some point, I feel like your biggest competitive advantage is going to be the fact that you can show people you’re real.”
“If you’re breathing and you’re here, you’re above ground, you’ve got an opportunity to make a change. You have to put some action into motion.”
Anthony Simonie is the Founder of Sherwood Marketing, also known as Found Money Partnerships, a growth company that helps entrepreneurs uncover hidden profits within their businesses without spending a dollar more on ads or complicated funnels.
From his home in the Hill Country of Austin, Texas, Anthony built a mission-driven life around two pillars: family and freedom. He is a passionate advocate for adoption and foster care, having been adopted himself and later adopting his two children, Myles and Daisy. His story is living proof that purpose and profit can coexist beautifully.
Professionally, Anthony created the LinkedIn Leverage Process, a proven system that helps professionals attract affluent, pre-sold prospects, raise capital, land strategic referrals, and convert overlooked contacts into loyal clients.
He’s helped countless business owners reclaim lost revenue, strengthen relationships, and build businesses that serve both their bank accounts and their lives. At his core, Anthony believes most entrepreneurs are sitting on a goldmine; they just need the right strategy and perspective to uncover it.
When he’s not helping others grow their income and impact, you’ll find him on a mountain bike trail with his kids, mentoring young riders, or celebrating “Gotcha Day,” the anniversary of the moment his family became complete. Because for Anthony, the best returns in life are measured not in dollars, but in legacy.
Find Anthony Simonie on LinkedIn
Find Anthony Simonie on Facebook
anthony@foundmoneypartnerships.com
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[00:00.1]
I want to be part of Masterminds, where people, they care about the other human beings, and they want to find ways to collaborate in meaningful ways where you can bless each other instead of, like, what can I take from you? And there's a lot of that goes on in masterminds. But I will say that when you find the right masterminds with good people, they're every bit worth what you pay to get into them.
[00:20.8]
Because in the right masterminds, people are vetted before they come in. Yes, 100%. Yeah. Big, time. Most people think saving money is the answer, but the truth is, saving only gets you to zero. Join Mike and Zach as they flip the script from saving to earning, from zero to unlimited potential.
[00:42.1]
Welcome to Save to Zero. All right, welcome, everybody, to episode six of the Save to Zero podcast. We're here with Anthony Simone, a LinkedIn marketing expert and, involved in various other real estate investments as well.
[01:00.9]
And, Anthony, thanks for coming on. Yeah. It's an honor to be here. I'm excited. Tell us a little bit about your journey through business. Did you always have, a business mindset? Did you grow up with it, or was it something that you had to figure out that's what you wanted to do or tell us that story?
[01:19.6]
Yeah, it's kind of wild when I look back on my life. I was adopted by my grandparents. And, thankfully, because I literally wouldn't. I wouldn't be here today if I wasn't adopted. Like, I was on the.
[01:35.5]
I was that close to, not being here, let's put it that way. And, while growing up with my grandparents, my grandmother had this, like, very entrepreneurial spirit. And I remember she had a craft business.
[01:52.7]
She's very skilled, and she's like an artist. And she made all these really cool crafts and ceramics and stuff like that. So I got to see her participate in all this. And I remember even going with her and helping to set up and break down at different trade shows and things like that she'd go and do.
[02:08.8]
And I didn't realize it at the time, but, I was learning from her without even realizing I was learning. And even some of the behaviors like her persistence. I mean, she was the kind of lady that. She's a little Italian lady, about five foot one maybe.
[02:26.3]
And so she was very, spicy. But she's so persistent. She's the kind of lady that if you told her she couldn't do something, she would do everything in her power to prove you wrong. And after seeing that for so long.
[02:43.3]
It's funny when I look back on it now because that's kind of how I am. And that persistence and the perseverance and watching her just go through, you know, ups and downs and challenges, it sort of indoctrinated me. And I didn't realize it at the time because, you know, it's like she did all these things.
[03:01.8]
She was a, she was like the youth, director at the church we went to. And so we had kids around our house all the time. And it was just like all these different things that I got to be exposed to. And you know, I kind of, I see that as a skill, right? It's like being around people and being able to talk to people and that kind of a thing.
[03:19.4]
So I was learning all these things. And you know, when I, when I, when I look back now, it's like those are the days that. The kind of the beginning days of my entrepreneurial spirit. Because what happened was as I grew up, I didn't really think about it much, but I got to a point where I just, I didn't know what I wanted to do because I thought I was going to play baseball professionally.
[03:40.3]
I was, I was, I was really good at baseball and, you know, made all the high school, all area teams and, and all that. It's funny because I was just looking through some memories the other day. My, my wife, she got me this, she took all my newspaper articles, you know, where they had me like, you know, talking about hitting home runs and all that stuff, and she had them laminated.
[03:57.8]
It was like one of the best gifts I ever got. That's cool. And you know, it was really meaningful to me. And and so I thought I was going to play professional baseball. So I didn't really think about what was going to be, you know, like plan B. Like people used to say that too. Even a counselor in my high school is like, what if you don't play baseball?
[04:15.5]
I'm like, I wanted to like, cuss them out because, like, who do you think you are?
[04:23.6]
But I'm like, you know, you don't know me. I'm Anthony Simone. I'm going to make it. And and while I did lead our team to the first state, tournament in the history of the school, we. I didn't go much further than college. I, played in college.
[04:40.6]
But I say all that to say that, you know, I didn't really know what I wanted to do. And so when it came time to get a real job, I was like, I don't know, what, what am I good at? So I went and got a sales job. And, and then as, as I was kind of growing up, I learned about this profession, pharmaceutical sales.
[04:59.5]
I was like, man, that's a pretty cool job. You know, you get to help people. And now granted, this was my first thought when I first got it. Like, I get to help people and make a good amount of money and be a legal drug dealer. I see where this is going. Yeah. Now we know where steroid, how steroids ended up in, baseball. Right.
[05:20.2]
It's your fault Roger Clemens is not the hall of Fame. Yeah. So all you die hard baseball fans. I'm so sorry. I just want to apologize to you. Yeah, it's. It's so crazy because, you know, you know, you just, you don't know what you don't know. And that was me.
[05:36.3]
And, and so I thought, you know, and by the way, I had to like, you know, I, I stopped going to college. I played for two years and I stopped, I was like, well, if I'm not going to play baseball, I don't, I don't think I want to go to school. You know, I'm just kind of tired of this stuff. And then I found out I couldn't even get an interview with the company unless I had a four year degree.
[05:57.2]
So I had to go back to school while I was working full time. And, and that was, that was a good experience for me because it was hard, you know. And, and so after, you know, after I, got my degree, I was able to get interviews with pharmaceutical companies, like, and I landed a job eventually.
[06:16.5]
And it was fun until I figured out that all the stuff I was peddling really didn't help anybody. And that was a wake up call for me because I was like, I'm here to help people and make money. And then as I'm learning and befriending doctors and they're kind of bringing me into the, like, what the reality of everything is.
[06:32.2]
I was like, man, this is, this doesn't feel so good. So I was like, well, You know what, maybe I'll just get a job selling medical devices. And so I went and got a job with Johnson and Johnson selling hernia mesh and sutures and all this stuff that I had to be in the OR with the doctors, with the surgeons. Wow.
[06:47.4]
To be able to be kind of like a sounding board if they had a question as. Wait a minute. While they were performing surgery. Yeah. Oh, that's cool. That's really cool. Yep. And you know what's crazy about that is when I got that job, my mom at the time was like, how do you even do that?
[07:06.4]
Because I grew up, when I saw blood, I'd get, like. I'd want to faint. Like, if I got my blood taken, I'd be like, oh, you know, I was one of those guys. You're a tough guy. So wait a minute, wait a minute, wait a minute, wait a minute. I'm a former baseball player, too, but I wasn't that good. So what you're telling me is you didn't slide into the bag, you just kind of tiptoed your way in because you know you're going to cut yourself up if you're sliding.
[07:26.3]
I mean. Yeah. Will you slide into second base and then pass out? Yeah, exactly. Exactly. Well, it wasn't so much that it was like, I could get hurt and injured and bleed, and that was fine. But something about, like, seeing that needle in my arm and take it just sent me over the edge.
[07:43.2]
Same with, like, really bloody stuff. Like, if I pull up on an accident, I'd be, oh, God. So I get this job and I go in and I'm like, seeing everything from open heart surgery to hernia, repair, where they're taking people's guts out and putting them on the side of the table while they go in and, you know, remove all this different stuff.
[07:59.5]
And it was. It was wild, but it was a lot of fun. Like, you know, I really did feel like I was helping people and I was making really good money, comparatively. But the problem with that is that when you're in a sales job like that and you're dealing with hospitals, if your numbers aren't showing the way that your managers want them to show, then they start riding your butt all the time.
[08:24.1]
And what they'd done is they. I got promoted early on, and then they put me in this territory where the rep before me had let the competition come in and just basically take all the business. And so it was really hard, but I was. I had things moving, but it wasn't moving as fast as I wanted to.
[08:39.9]
And I started just feeling this dissension, right? I was like, I don't. I'm just. I don't want to do this anymore. And then, my. My. One of my buddies came to me one day. He's like, hey, if you ever get tired of your corporate thing, my brother and I are doing this little, little side gig.
[08:55.6]
He was a real estate agent doing a side gig with you know, cleaning out foreclosed properties. And I was like. At first, I was like, what? You want me to clean trash out of houses? You know? And so one day, I just had enough.
[09:12.0]
I had a manager ride with me, and he's like, man, you're doing a great job. I don't know why your numbers are. I said, well, because they're coming. You can't. When you deal with hospitals, they don't make decisions just like that. Right. It's a big, like, trying to turn the Titanic. And, so I. I called my friend up not too long after that.
[09:27.3]
I was like, hey, let's go have lunch. And he helped me get into this. This business where I was taking, you know, cleaning foreclosed properties out. And I did it on the side at first while I was doing this fancy, you know, medical, device job. And as soon as I got to the point where I knew that my business was going to replace, my income, I quit.
[09:48.5]
Anthony, can I ask you, how long ago did you do that? When did you start that? That was back in. Oh, my gosh. So I went out on my own in 2007. So during 2007 is when I decided to leave. What a great time to be clearing out foreclosed homes.
[10:05.8]
There was one or two foreclosed homes back 2008. I understand. Yeah, I'm too young to have lived through that, but I did read an article about it one time. You're absolutely correct. Just so you know, I was there. Okay. So. So that was good information that I had. Okay.
[10:22.9]
Yeah, it was good. Like, so from that, did you then go into purchasing, real estate, or did you keep your business, you know, cleaning out the foreclosed homes? Yeah, so, yeah, of course, I got involved in, like, single family investing and that kind of a thing.
[10:38.7]
And, But what was interesting is the. I took that business, and I started in Missouri, and I expanded it to Los Angeles, and then I also then expanded it to, Phoenix, Arizona. And so I had three different states that we were taking care of, and I put two of my brothers in charge, and one of them was Los Angeles, the other one was in Missouri.
[10:59.6]
And I lived in Phoenix at the time. And so it was a booming business. I took this thing, which most people were just, like, contractors, no offense to contractors. They were just, like, doing the work and whatever. I figured out how to run it, like a business, systems, operations, creating, you know, building relationships.
[11:15.8]
And so my buddy came back to me. He's like, hey, why don't we. Why don't we turn this into a coaching business? And he's like, I want to take you to this marketing event. And it ended up being a Dan Kennedy event. You know, Dan Kennedy is like an OG marketer, absolutely no bs.
[11:32.7]
I have a, couple of his books here. Yeah, so I was at this event. Yeah, it's back. It was, it was, it was wild because when I was hearing these people speak from stage, I thought to myself, like, they're making how much money doing what? Just teaching people what they do? I was like, I could do that.
[11:50.4]
And so we started this coaching business and. And, I was going to be the one that does everything right. But it was his idea, kind of. Right. And so we, we started this thing. In the first year, we made over $1 million. $1 million gross or net?
[12:07.9]
$1 million gross, but with 75% profit margin. Teaching people how to clean foreclosures. Yeah, and. And the thing about it was is that you mentioned, like, during that time, people were losing their businesses, their jobs, everything.
[12:23.7]
Like, you know, I had 10,000 people. When it's all said and done, 10,000 come through that program. You taught 10,000 people how to do foreclosure cleanouts? 10,000 people. That's amazing. Purchased my training. So how did you set that up?
[12:38.8]
I mean, did you have funnel set up? How did you get your training, in place for them so that it was systemized. So it was kind of a lot similar to what you see today, where we had a training portal. I had, you know, monthly support that they paid for, you know, like, just.
[12:56.8]
Just like a typical coaching program. But so essentially they would access their information inside of a membership site. I would advertise on Google to, to get people into the funnel, and I would sell them either on a webinar or a vsl.
[13:13.1]
And this is way back in the day, guys, right? This is like, before everybody knew about this stuff. I remember the first webinar I did, I made $5,000. And I was like, what? Interesting. So now I understand that if you can delve into this a little, if you're comfortable with it, the ftc, when it comes to, selling somebody a coaching program, how do you stay away from guaranteeing them any type of income?
[13:38.5]
So that actually sticks. Did you ever have any issues? Because I know a lot of coaches have issues with that, where people come in, they're not qualified to run a business. Because, let's be honest, some people are meant to run businesses and some people are not. So my Question for you is for the people who are not qualified or not the right person weren't the right fit, how did you screen them out so that you didn't have an issue with somebody trying to sue you down the road where you charged them X and they didn't make any money, so of course it's your fault.
[14:08.8]
Yeah, you know, I didn't really think about that much back then, because it wasn't, it wasn't as big of a thing. It wasn't like under the, like a microscope like it is now. But also I just would prove my own income.
[14:26.2]
Like I would, I would use my own checks that I got from doing the work to show people what I was actually making. And when they saw that, you know, I would never tell them like, hey, look, you're going to make this amount of money. But I say, look, this is possible.
[14:42.7]
This is what I do and this is what I make. And so when I show them that, you know, my business was bringing in like $1.8 million cleaning out, you know, foreclosed properties, that's amazing. That's a big. But also, you got to remember during that point in time, people losing their jobs and businesses, they didn't really so much care about making all that kind of money.
[15:02.0]
They just wanted to replace their income. Sure. So that's one that was one of the drivers behind so many people that were looking for an, opportunity. It just so happened that I had an opportunity and had really great marketing skill sets to get that opportunity in front of those people so that they had and they could get involved with such a low barrier to entry.
[15:20.4]
So it wasn't like we weren't charging high ticket prices back then. So let me ask, foreclosure clean outs, I assume are not as big a business, although some feel that it's going to come up in the next 12 to 24 months. So what was your.
[15:36.3]
Are you still doing that? Or if not, where did you go from there? What are you doing now? Yeah, no. So that business fell apart and it's because my, my business partner at the time, he was my best friend. But I always say when I say best friend, I use quotes for him because, we were doing so well.
[15:56.0]
And here's what happened. The long and short of it is that he decided to franchise the same model and which, whatever, but it failed. So he was very disgruntled. And the only difference between that business and my business is that I wasn't in that business.
[16:16.4]
Okay, let me understand he was taking your systems and started his own business, franchising it to compete with what? You were a partner with him on through your training portal. Yeah, he was trying to double dip. Interesting. Well, and how did you win that?
[16:33.1]
How did you end the partnership? Well, what happened was the. I was sitting in my office one day in my home office, and my wife. I heard her screaming. She was holding my son. He wasn't breathing. He's turning blue.
[16:48.8]
And so, I could. I thought he had something in his throat because I pulled a banana out of his throat the day before, and I thought, oh, he's choking on something again. There was nothing in his throat. And so I had to give him cpr, and I couldn't get him to debris. And, that went on for a long time.
[17:05.0]
Like, I don't even know how many minutes. But I was. I thought we lost him at one point. And, then I heard this voice that told me, just turn him on aside one more time. It's the weirdest thing. I turned him on aside. He took a breath, and right at that time, EMS came in the door. They hooked him up to all these machines and took them.
[17:22.5]
And, you know, we went to hospital. So we were in hospital for a few days, and my business partner at the time drew up an amendment to our operating agreement. And what he told me was that the Secretary of State is forcing us to amend our agreement. And I had no clue what he was talking about, and I just.
[17:40.3]
I trusted him. So instead of just reading very closely through the document, signed it. And essentially, what it is, it took half of my half of the business away. So he ended up with 75%. You were at 25%. Right. So you can imagine, like, I was.
[17:58.4]
I was used to a certain quality of life, too. And so that was really hard for Jill and I. And plus, we're sitting. We're worried about our son. Like, is he going to be okay? Sure. In the long run. And so it was. It was like, you know, what an a hole, right? And it's like, you know, I always tell people, it's like you don't know who you're dealing with until a lot of money starts coming in, right?
[18:20.9]
And then you get to see, like, are you still the same person? Like, you still, you know, are you going to be greedy or are you going to still be that same person that you are? So what are you doing now? What. What. What's your professional. What focus are you on? Yeah. So when that fell apart, the, After I got through the Initial, like depression of it.
[18:39.5]
I, I kind of realized that, you know, it's kind of silly for me to be down in the dumps because I'd learned a skill set that grew up freaking multi million dollar business. Sure. From scratch. And that's amazing. So I was in a, a high level mastermind back then and it was called digital marketer war room.
[18:57.5]
And it was like the who's who of marketing companies, including that. Who was in there? Who was some of the big names? Oh man. Frank Kern, Ryan Dice Perry, Belcher. Wow. The founder of Belcher was in there. Beachbody, cmo. I mean there was like just a lot of high level people and Wow.
[19:17.1]
And so I made, I had a friend that came to me, heard what happened, and he started telling me about LinkedIn. And so as the story goes, I thought he was. Everybody thinks LinkedIn is a place to go post a resume or get a job. I thought he's trying to help me get a job. And so I was like, hey man, I'm not looking for a job, looking to start another business.
[19:34.4]
And so long story short, I, I started messing around with LinkedIn and I came up with a new offer in a, in a niche that nobody knew me and I didn't have any testimonials, none of that stuff that people tell you you gotta have. And it was just a good offer. It was my, it was, it was good messaging, and my, in my cell phone, like literally like doing calls on the phone.
[19:57.0]
And in 30 days I collected $60,000. Six zero with $60,000 in recurring. And that was cool, right? Cause I was like, oh man, I'm onto something. But then the marketer in me said, man, you might have just got lucky.
[20:16.3]
And so I went out. So the next 30 days did the same thing. I ran the same plays just to see what happened. And it was identical. 60k, 60k and recurring. So let me understand. So now you're up to 120k recurring per month.
[20:33.8]
So not well recurring. But yes, it was like it was another 60k finite on the back end for this offer. Okay, I'm sorry, when you said recurring to me, that means that it's happening every month. Yeah. So yeah, to be clear, that wasn't the 60k was coming in every month. From there on out, it was 60k collected and then another 60k that was coming to me over the next 12 months from those deals.
[20:59.1]
So not 60k a month. So the whole point of that is that I knew I was on something like this is. This. There's a lot here. And people. Because I was connected, people were asking me how I was doing it. So I started helping people with LinkedIn and email and all that stuff. Webinars.
[21:19.1]
And that's what we do today. We do a whole lot of that and, help people to raise capital to get clients to have, you know, raise brand awareness, all that good stuff. What's interesting to me is this was a new industry for you, right? You built up these skills in something completely unrelated, and then, you know, you invested in yourself to get those skills, and then you were able to pretty much package them up, bring them into a new industry.
[21:45.3]
And I'm sure it took some time, and I'm sure it was work, but you had something, and you had something, you know, relatively quickly. You didn't have to start over. Yeah, yeah, it was, I remember when I had that first 10, $10,000 come in. I, like, I went to my wife, she was staying in the bed in the bathroom, and I just hugged her.
[22:02.8]
And, like, we were both, like, crying because we knew that, like, our life was going to be okay. We were going to be okay. And, that's cool. Yeah, it's. And, yeah, I mean, it's just such a. It's so wild when you. When you look back on those kinds of things that happen in your life. Because a lot of people, they.
[22:18.1]
They ask me, they're like, well, what would you change? And I'm like, I don't think I would change anything. It sucked really bad going through it. But, man, I, like, I wouldn't know you guys. Probably today, if I went through that whole life would not be nearly as whole if you didn't know Zach. I mean, Exactly. That's the point.
[22:34.4]
Definitely not Mike. I would be still down in the dumps. What am I gonna do with myself? I gotta ask you two things. You hit on two things that I want to cover. Dive, a little bit more into it, if it's okay with you. You said. And not a lot of people are aware of these, and I wasn't until 2017, hit on what value you see in masterminds, because I know when I tell people what I pay on a yearly basis for masterminds who don't go to them and don't understand them, their head, like, their head wants to spin around.
[23:07.6]
And, you spend what? Oh, yeah, with travel, this is what I spend. And I spend six figures a year on the masterminds that I'm in. But the value that I get from that is multiple times that. So I know you talked about being in that high level digital marketing mastermind, and I know of another mastermind that you're in because we're in it together.
[23:29.5]
What are your thoughts about a mastermind? Is this something that you waste money on? Do you see value in it? What kind of roi? I mean, what are you looking at? What do you think? Yeah, I think that, first off, I'll say that I don't think all masterminds are created equal. I agree. I've been a part of a lot of them and most of them, in my humble opinion, are comprised of a lot of people that are very egotistical and they kind of bang their chest and they talk about how great they are.
[23:58.0]
That's fine if that's your thing. For me, I want to be part of masterminds where people, they care about the other human beings and they want to find ways to collaborate in meaningful ways where you can bless each other instead of like, what can I take from you? And there's a lot of that goes on in masterminds.
[24:16.2]
But I will say that when you find the right masterminds with good people, they're every bit as worth, every bit worth what you pay to get into them. Because in the right masterminds, people are vetted before they come in. Yes, 100%. Yeah. Big time.
[24:32.3]
Well, let me ask you this. This is something I have found, although certainly it doesn't, to use an analogy that you'll understand, you don't bat a thousand on it. But, the more, you pay for a mastermind, the better the quality of the other members in the mastermind.
[24:51.5]
And that what you're paying for is two things for those who don't show up, you don't want them in there anyway, so you're paying not to have them in there, and you're paying to be around high level people. Yeah. What are your thoughts about that? What have you found?
[25:07.9]
Yeah, I, I, I think the same way I align with that thought. And, and along with that, there's a lot of people that they're so tight with their money that they're almost hurting themselves. It's like, yeah, you know, it's like your podcast is all about, like, save to zero.
[25:25.5]
It's like, why are you stepping over dollars to pick up dimes? Yes. Right. That's essentially what it is. Why would you want to try to do everything yourself to save some money when you could literally go and be in a group of people that maybe one of those people can save you years of frustration, hundreds of thousands of dollars of actual hard costs that it might take to grow your business and probably a loss of life in the process because you're so damn stressed out.
[25:50.9]
Right. So I'm a huge fan of getting the right mentors, being in the right groups, and fricking investing in yourself. If you don't invest in yourself and you don't continuously invest in yourself, it's my humble belief that you are going to, you have a finite amount of time before you are.
[26:08.5]
You don't have an advantage anymore. Right. Your business will stop growing because you'll stop growing as a person. Yeah. And you know, we're only here for a little while on this, this earth. So it's my opinion that you want to live it to the fullest, that you can be the best, that you can be the best version of yourself and make an impact on this world as much as you possibly can.
[26:30.5]
And the only way you're going to do that is to expand, you know, and build upon who you are and to put yourself in the right rooms with the right mentors. And that a lot of times it's going to cost you and not cost you, but you're going to have to invest. And usually with that investment, as you guys know, when you're willing to invest in yourself, you get better results, first of all, because you're going to pay attention.
[26:51.1]
And second of all, you're going to be in rooms that are going to have people there that are going to be higher quality, higher caliber, many of which could probably open their Rolodex for you. And one contact can make a world of difference in your business and your life. You know, and it's funny, you're 100% right, everything you said.
[27:10.5]
I think part of it also is we as humans can only have so many thoughts in a day. The same as we can only jog so far or do so many push ups. You have a limit and you can only have so many thoughts in a day. If you go to a mastermind, it's not uncommon for me to have somebody be doing something.
[27:30.3]
I'm like, why didn't I think of that? What a great idea. Because you can't think of everything. Think about it. Apple Computers, Tesla, whatever the company is, they have a board of directors. And the board of directors many times are, from different industries.
[27:47.2]
They're not necessarily in that specific industry because you cross pollinate and ideas that you never thought would exist in Your industry you'd never thought of suddenly come about and you're like, whoa, I never thought of that. You can use that for that.
[28:02.8]
Well wait, we can use it in our industry for this and you can have this earth shattering moment in your head and maybe actually actual where you say, whoa, I never thought of that. It happens to me, a master. I'm like, man, I wish I had thought of that.
[28:18.4]
And then I have to step back and say, okay, I can't have every thought that's out there. So you, know, yeah, I think the different industries is the big, big advantage. Like yeah, there's definitely value if you're a real estate wholesaler to be in a bunch of, with a bunch of other wholesalers, you'll learn strategies and ideas, but you get way more out of it.
[28:38.1]
When you're in all kinds of different industries. You can find something that somebody that does hotels or you know, who knows what and get a much more well rounded perspective in different ideas and all kinds of stuff. Absolutely.
[28:53.3]
I know that when I had my second company was in restoration, work, what happened was we would go in and you want to dry a structure and when you get a big commercial building that's wet, you at one time, what they use is these moisture meters and you go and have to touch the wal.
[29:08.7]
Well, you can imagine a large structure that's going to take days, theoretically. So what happened was my understanding of how it came into the industry was thermal cameras. And what would happen is somebody saw a firefighter using it to determine if a wall was hot.
[29:27.0]
And that's how they would determine if the fire was potentially behind the wall, if they had a hot spot. Well, when you have a wet building, the wall gets cold because it wicks heat away. So what you're looking for is cold spots in the wall. And it made an inspection of a wet property much faster and much more efficient.
[29:47.3]
So yeah, the idea. Zach, you bring up an excellent point. Having different industries that exchange information, it can be revolutionary. Yeah. And you know, it's also good for those people that have if you're going to masterminds, I notice this for a lot of people, they, they'll go to some event and somebody will be sharing something and they'll go, I don't think that would work in my, my, my business.
[30:10.0]
Right. And instead of saying that to yourself, you need to ask yourself like, how can I make that work in my business? Because usually if you ask yourself that question, you can figure out a spot for a Lot of different strategies, ideas like you're talking about, Mike, with, you know, with this. This thing with the moisture.
[30:25.6]
It's like somebody asked the right question, right? And. Or we're in the right room, or both. Yeah. And that's how those things develop. So the other thing that I want to circle back to, which I find, is very interesting, because people have a different perspective.
[30:42.5]
The same as you just said, you know, that's not going to work. But how can I make it work? When you had your former business partner do what he did, he hosed you, and you had to, get back up, and you have to man up and you have to feed your family.
[30:59.1]
I find it interesting that some people are going to say, well, woe is me, and they're going to end up in that downward spiral, and they never get out of it. Whereas, you just figured it out, and you fed your family, you made the 10,000, and you and your wife were hugging and you cried, and you knew that, okay, we're going to make it, and you went out and you did that.
[31:19.8]
So what do you think it is in your past, or what is it that goes through your brain when you get yourself kicked to the ground, that you. Obviously, you got to get through it emotionally. You did mention something about a period there where you were depressed or bummed out. What do you think it was that made you just, you know, get it done and move?
[31:38.7]
Yeah, that's a really. That's a really good question. You know, I. I was like, okay, a couple things. One was, if it's just me, maybe.
[31:54.3]
Maybe it's a different situation, but I had people relying on me. I had a new son, new. A new baby son. I had my wife, and. And I couldn't let him down. Like, I had to do something, and I had to get my stuff together, right? And the other thing that, that helps me all the time, anytime, because I'm human, right?
[32:17.0]
I have different emotions and depending on. I'm not the same every day. Right. There's days when my best looks different than, you know, today than it did yesterday. And. But the key is doing your best, and only, you know, if you do your best. And one of the things that helps me is that I kind of alluded to this, early on in this.
[32:36.6]
This conversation. But I'm pretty transparent with what's happened in my life, and I like to share that with people, because when you become vulnerable, you can all you can. There's somebody out there that needs to hear those kinds of things, and it can help literally pull them out of the mud.
[32:54.2]
And for me, when I said that, I almost wasn't here. It's because my mom, my birth mom got pregnant out of wedlock, and my birth father gave her money to have me aborted. Oh.
[33:09.5]
And she was in the parking lot at the hospital when she heard a voice that said, don't do it, mom. Don't do it. And she decided to give birth to me. And when I think about how I was almost not here.
[33:27.9]
It's like I. It's like, what am I doing? Like, why am I wasting my time, like, feeling bad about this situation. Like, I have an opportunity. Don't, waste it. You know what I mean? So, yeah.
[33:43.5]
And not to get, like. Not to get too real with you guys, but, I mean, that's just cool. Do it. That is the. That's the type of thing, like, when you think about how bad things are for you, there's always somebody that has it worse. Always. But if you're breathing and you're here, you're above ground, you've got an opportunity to make a change.
[34:00.0]
And it's up to you to make that change. You have to put some action into motion so you can make that change. And for me, it's even sometimes when I don't feel like going to work out. Like, sometimes I hate the thought of, like, going to workout. Like, oh, my gosh, I don't feel like going riding my bike for 10 miles up and down massive, steep trails.
[34:15.6]
But you know what? I forced myself to do it because I'm like, you know what? There's a good chance I shouldn't even be here right now. Like, I'm lucky to be here. Do something with it. Sure. Right. Sure. And you think about somebody who's, quadriplegic, paraplegic, and they're not able to work out the way that you work out.
[34:35.1]
And they would give anything to be able to do what you can do, or any of us can do. And then we choose not to do it. And like, what are you crazy? Go use your legs, you lunatic. Go use your arms. It is. I mean, you can. There's videos abound where you can see people with one leg doing CrossFit. And it's like.
[34:51.8]
Or one leg winning wrestling. There's a movie about a true story. It's like, you. It's up to you, right? You don't have to let that situation define you. Right? And it's like, so it's hard sometimes, right? Because Sometimes when you're going through stuff, it seems like it's the end of the world, but somehow you got to pull yourself out of that and get back at it. Absolutely.
[35:15.2]
I couldn't agree more. Interesting. So you're talking about LinkedIn and, you know, marketing and all that. Like, where opportunities are you seeing? Like, I know. Exactly. A lot of people think LinkedIn is, oh, you're looking for a job or, you know, you post your resume.
[35:30.8]
But where is that headed, do you think? And what opportunities might people have that they could use in their business? Well, I think a lot of people are sleeping on the platform. They. They just. We are so in, like, bombarded with AI and all this different stuff that's going on.
[35:46.9]
People, business owners that are smart are forgetting about what makes a good business, and that's relationships. Right. And I think it's cool, the AI stuff, but I'm also. I see where it's going. I mean, at some point, I feel like your biggest competitive advantage is going to be the fact that you can show people that you're real.
[36:06.3]
Absolutely right. So, I mean, even Gary Vee talks about, like, he thinks that there's going to be businesses that pop up that are going to do extremely well, that just come and take a walk with you. You're going to pay somebody to come take a walk with you. Because we're an actual human. It's like, we got to be careful. Right.
[36:23.9]
Because at the end of the day, it's like, I think you leverage technology where it makes sense, but you don't let it. You don't leverage it so much that it takes the human out of it, and that's what we thrive on. Yeah. Think of how bad customer service is now because you have to talk to a bot, and it's hard to get to a human being.
[36:40.8]
I mean, one time, Lufthansa Airlines lost my luggage. That's it. You can't get through to anybody. You have to leave a voicemail or you send an email. You never hear back. And that's it. Customer service is gone, and it's getting worse.
[36:56.2]
They either outsource it to a foreign country and that has its own challenges, or they have you going through this bot and you can't get to a human being. It makes me want to pull my hair out. Yeah, yeah. And you see people all the time, they say, oh, you can automate your.
[37:11.6]
This and your business with AI and lead generation and all this completely with AI. And, you know, the quality is not as good. It's Just, it's just worrisome to me at some point, you know, it's like, you know, there's so many people in this world that they're not like us, that are, they're not like enthusiastic about like changing the world.
[37:30.0]
They just want to have a decent job and take care of their family. You know what, that's fine. But those are the jobs that are going away in like droves right now. And those are for some of us, some of those people are our customers. Right? Yep. So it's like there's, there's a, there's a massive, you know, impact that, that it can have.
[37:47.7]
But I would say, like, for now, when it comes to LinkedIn, because you asked about LinkedIn, it's like there's, it, I don't think there's a better place to build your brand and to show people that you're serious as a professional. And this goes for, I don't care if you're a wholesaler, if you have a, some sort of like boutique shop in a shopping mall, like, people are looking you up.
[38:11.0]
And LinkedIn is a platform that people trust. You know, it's, there's a stat out there that says 73% of buyers would more likely consider a brand if the salesperson reached out via LinkedIn.
[38:26.3]
So what that tells you is that they, there's a lot of inherent trust built into the platform. And so if you can borrow some of that trust pulled onto your side of the table, which is what we do for our clientele, you're gonna win. Like, you do the right thing and you operate on the platform and you're there to build relationships and take people through a cool process, deliver value and insight.
[38:47.3]
You're gonna be able to do some cool stuff. Excellent. So you think that LinkedIn is gonna be one of the platforms that's gonna exist. Do you see any competitors to it? Because I know that everyone thought Google would be around forever, but right now ChatGPT is kicking its butt as far as its growth.
[39:05.3]
So what are your thoughts about LinkedIn? Is there, being a long term thing or do you see something else out there lurking that could take its place? It's hard to say, but I think, you know, LinkedIn is just, it's a, it's a stable brand, it's a stable platform and it feels and looks a lot different than the other social media platforms.
[39:26.6]
People think differently when they're on the platform. You know, AI. So one of the things that a lot of people don't know when you just mentioned Google and ChatGPT, well, as, there's gonna be something called the AI citation, right? So it's like kind of like search engine optimization where people search Google and they get, you know, whatever they get for search terms.
[39:50.7]
LinkedIn is going to be one of those places, one of the pillars for AI to draw from, from, to get those, AI citations moving forward. So, so LinkedIn is going to be important for quite a while, at minimum.
[40:06.3]
And more and more people are going to start learning about this whole AI citation thing, because that's where people are going to go to search. And you want to make sure you own the different phrases and keywords and things like that. LinkedIn is going to be one of the things. And another one is Reddit. So LinkedIn and Reddit as it stands right now.
[40:24.8]
So I don't see, in fact, I mean that's kind of like, so we're always asking what else? So for our clients we're like, now, okay, now we're going to help start guiding content that works with that, so that long term there's a huge benefit. And the other part of your question, would there be a competitor?
[40:44.2]
I would say if there is, that's great because, I think it'll keep LinkedIn more true to allowing us to do the things that we do now on the platform to be able to. So I think it'll make it even better. And then I'll probably learn what if it's a good platform like LinkedIn, I'll learn it and I'll just bake it into what we do. Excellent, point.
[41:04.3]
So along those lines, are you baking in Reddit at all? Not yet, but could be in the near future. I, wouldn't rule it out. Okay, cool. All right, man. Zach, you. Any more questions? Are we good, bud?
[41:20.9]
Just last question is, with all these things changing with LinkedIn and you just mentioned Reddit, what do you do to keep up with all this stuff? And you're continuously investing in yourself and building new skills. How do you stay on top of this? It's not like LinkedIn's gonna invite you to their office and tell you how the algorithm works, right?
[41:38.2]
So, what do you do? Well, that's the beautiful thing, going back to being in the right room with the right people and having the right relationships and connections, because it's like, like I've got an insider at LinkedIn that's a, connection of mine. So I, I get to learn some of that stuff that is kind of Confidential to the public ahead of time.
[41:58.5]
How does that happen? You just got to be willing to build relationships. You got to get out there, you got to get in the right rooms. You got to pay for some of this stuff. Like, if you're not willing to invest in yourself to learn from other people. Like, to your point, Zach, it's like, I don't know everything, and I'll never know everything.
[42:13.7]
But if I'm in the right rooms, I see somebody doing something that's either on LinkedIn and it's working, or to your point, Mike, I see somebody share something that's working on another platform, and I go, oh, maybe that will work over on LinkedIn, or how could I adjust that to make it work?
[42:30.0]
So it's also asking your question. The question to yourself always, what else? And what else? Gotcha. Okay, well, Anthony, this was a lot of fun. I appreciate you coming on, and sharing all this information about your background and LinkedIn and what it is that you're working on right now.
[42:50.0]
I really enjoyed when you talked about you got, sorry, you got your butt kicked. I'm not happy you got your butt kicked, but you got back up and you did it, and I think that's a very commendable thing. And not a lot of people can do that, so that's really cool. So if people want to get ahold of you, how can they get ahold of you? Yeah, so what.
[43:08.3]
What I think I'll do is, if it's okay with you guys, is maybe just as a way to deliver value to your audience. If they're interestaed in learning how to optimize their LinkedIn profile, just give you guys a, like a link to a guide. They can go download it and they could use it to optimize their LinkedIn profile.
[43:24.2]
And it also has. I'll give you my contact information. They can reach out to anthonyoundmoneypartnerships, dot com and, you know, those are the main ways. Hit me on, LinkedIn, of course, on Facebook as well. So, yeah, I'd love to hear some from some people, and hopefully that guide will bless some folks and give them some good guidance moving forward.
[43:47.1]
We appreciate that. Make sure that we put the link in the show notes. Awesome. Awesome. All right, man, thank you so much. I appreciate your time. Yeah, thank you for having me. Is great.