BigDeal

You've been telling yourself the same story. That you need more money to start. That you need the perfect plan before you move. That fear is the reason you're stuck. Here's the truth: the only thing holding you back is the belief that something outside of you has to change before you can begin.

Robert Herjavec went from arriving in America with nothing to building and selling companies worth hundreds of millions of dollars. He's one of the most recognizable faces on Shark Tank, and in this episode, he breaks down the exact mindset shifts that turned urgency into wealth, why most people quit before they compound, and the leadership mistake that quietly destroys great companies. From structuring earnouts with no money down to scaling a $400 million business without raising a dime, Robert reveals the frameworks that separate people who stay broke from people who build empires.

In this episode, you'll learn:

Why fear is what holds most people back and how the fear of hard work without guaranteed results is the real killer, not the work itself

The poverty versus wealth mindset: why working to make a living keeps you stuck and how shifting to building wealth changes everything

How Robert bought 13 businesses with no outside funding using earnouts, seller financing, and cash flow leverage, and why you don't need money in the bank to do deals

The biggest mistake founders make when pitching: asking people to listen instead of making them want to hear, and why humility and subconscious alignment close deals before you even open your mouth

How to value a company the right way: understanding industry multiples, EBITDA, and why people fail because they price based on what they need instead of what the business is worth

Stop waiting for permission. Stop waiting for certainty. The life you want is on the other side of the decision you're avoiding.

My new book, Own Or Be Owned, is all about building a business so good it doesn't need you. More profit, less pain. It's out September 18, grab your ticket to the launch event here: https://contrarianthinking.biz/oobo_bigdeal - cs
___________

(00:00:00) Introduction: Fear Is What Holds You Back, Not Lack of Money
(00:03:07) The 10-Year Grind: Running Until Your Legs Fall Off
(00:07:24) A Players vs B Players: How Long Do You Wallow in Misery?
(00:10:33) The Fast No Is a Gift: Stop Being a Maybe-er
(00:11:34) Your Bad Day Is Somebody's Dream: Perspective and Purity of Joy
(00:13:03) Become an Expert in Something: The 20s Are Your Foundation
(00:15:22) The Kylie Jenner Business Lesson: Don't Confuse Stuff with Vision
(00:18:55) How Rare Is a Billion Dollars? The SpaceX Millionaire Story
(00:21:25) You Can Get Rich Even If You Hate Rich People
(00:25:29) Democracy Is a Car Wash: Small Business Is the Right Message for America
(00:26:58) Urgency Gets You Out of Poverty, Patience Gets You to Wealth
(00:30:00) Fail Quickly: Test at 20% with Paying Customers, Not at 100% with Beta Users
(00:31:19) 10 Billion Dollars in Sales: Great Salespeople Sell Value, Not Product
(00:33:06) The Leverage Switch: When Sharks Start Selling the Pitcher
(00:36:05) The Three Numbers You Better Know: EBITDA, Multiples, and Industry Comps
(00:38:35) Scale Is a Two-Edged Sword: When Your Skill Becomes Your Weakness
(00:41:11) The Million, Ten Million, Hundred Million Business: What Changes at Each Level
(00:43:32) The World-Class CFO Hire: When Robert Stopped Being the Bottleneck
(00:46:05) Buying 13 Businesses with No Outside Funding: The Earnout Strategy
(00:49:14) Money Is Not Holding You Back, Your Lack of Knowledge Is
(00:49:59) The Baby Boomer Exit Crisis: Millions of Businesses with No Succession Plan
(00:52:55) Third-Party Verification: People Believe What Others Say About You
(00:54:03) I'm Really Proud I Built 400 Million with My Own Money
(00:55:58) The Equity Operator vs the Business Operator: Why Projections Are Bullshit
(00:58:18) When It's Self-Evident in Tech, It's Probably Too Late
(01:02:25) The Accelerator Stuck: How Precarious Is Life?
(01:06:03) We Are Not a Family, We Are a Team: The Benevolent Dictator
(01:07:40) Poverty Mindset vs Wealth Mindset: It's Great to Dream, Better to Pay Your Bills

___________

MORE FROM BIGDEAL
🎥 YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@podcastbigdeal
📸 Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/bigdeal.podcast
📽️ TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@big.deal.pod

MORE FROM CODIE SANCHEZ
🎥 YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@codiesanchezct
📸 Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/codiesanchez
📽️ TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@realcodiesanchez

OTHER THINGS WE DO
🌐 Our community: https://contrarianthinking.typeform.com/to/WBztXXID
📰 Free newsletter: https://contrarianthinking.biz/3XWLlZp
📚 Biz buying course: https://contrarianthinking.biz/3NhjGgN
🏠 Resibrands: https://resibrands.com/
💰 CT Capital: https://contrarianthinking.biz/4eRyGOk
🏦 Main St Hold Co: https://contrarianthinking.biz/3YfGa8u
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

You've been chasing the next thing. The next idea, the next strategy, the next opportunity that finally feels exciting enough to stick with. Here's the truth: the reason you're not rich yet isn't because you haven't found the right thing. It's because you keep quitting the last thing before it compounds.

Most people don't fail because they pick wrong. They fail because they reset the clock every time Tuesday starts looking like Monday. They mistake boredom for a signal to move when boredom is actually the price of admission. The people who build real wealth aren't the ones who never get bored. They're the ones who don't let boredom make their decisions.

In this episode, you'll learn:

Why almost nobody gets rich doing something exciting and how sticking with something boring is the actual difficulty that separates winners from everyone else

The Replit story: how Amjad spent eight years looking stupid, laid off half his company, and kept going until AI showed up and turned his business into a $9 billion company

Why Steve Jobs spent years grinding on NeXT, a company that flopped by every measure, and how that failure became the foundation for Apple's comeback

The BORED framework: Better information, Opportunity changed, Results changed, Exhausted, or Destination, and how to tell if you're making a smart pivot or just resetting your compounding clock

Why you're not bored, you're finally becoming competent, and how confusing competence for boredom is the single biggest reason people quit right before they win

___________

(00:00:00) Introduction: The Boring Truth About Getting Rich Nobody Wants to Hear
(00:00:36) The Compounding Clock: Why Tuesday Looking Like Monday Is Actually Winning
(00:01:50) The Replit Story: Eight Years of Looking Stupid Before Becoming a Billionaire
(00:03:08) Steve Jobs and Next: When Your Biggest Failure Becomes Your Foundation
(00:04:39) Early Stage Is Guessing: Why Forecasts Don't Matter and Grit Does
(00:05:15) The SpaceX Principle: Less Than 10 Percent Odds and Launching Anyway
(00:06:13) You're Not Bored, You're Finally Becoming Competent
(00:07:34) Cliff Asness and AQR: Surviving When Everyone Said Your Strategy Was Dead
(00:08:46) The BORED Test: How to Know If You Should Pivot or Stay
(00:09:12) Don't Let Boredom Make Your Decisions: Where All the Money Actually Is

___________

MORE FROM BIGDEAL
🎥 YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@podcastbigdeal
📸 Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/bigdeal.podcast
📽️ TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@big.deal.pod

MORE FROM CODIE SANCHEZ
🎥 YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@codiesanchezct
📸 Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/codiesanchez
📽️ TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@realcodiesanchez

OTHER THINGS WE DO
🌐 Our community: https://contrarianthinking.typeform.com/to/WBztXXID
📰 Free newsletter: https://contrarianthinking.biz/3XWLlZp
📚 Biz buying course: https://contrarianthinking.biz/3NhjGgN
🏠 Resibrands: https://resibrands.com/
💰 CT Capital: https://contrarianthinking.biz/4eRyGOk
🏦 Main St Hold Co: https://contrarianthinking.biz/3YfGa8u
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

You've been staring at AI like it's a magic trick you'll never understand. You've watched everyone else claim they're 10x more productive while you're still Googling how to write a better prompt. Here's the truth: AI isn't going to replace you because it's smarter. It's going to replace you because someone else learned how to use it and you didn't.

Geoff Woods is the author of The AI Driven Leader and has spent years teaching normal people how to use AI to solve real problems, not just write better emails. He's worked with venture backed companies, public corporations, and CEOs racing toward exits, and in this episode, he's breaking down the exact framework that turns AI from a glorified search engine into a strategic thought partner that makes you think better, work faster, and solve problems you didn't even know you had.

In this episode, you'll learn:

The CRIT framework: Context, Role, Interview, Task, and why this four step process is the difference between AI slop and superhuman output

Why asking AI questions is the worst way to use it and how making AI interview you instead unlocks insights you'd never think to share

The 80/20 rule of AI: why most people waste time automating tasks that don't matter and how to identify the 20% that drives 80% of your results

Why cognitive decline is the greatest risk with AI that nobody's talking about and how to use it in a way that makes your brain stronger, not weaker

The AI board: how to build custom personas of Steve Jobs, Warren Buffett, and your future self to advise you every single day

Stop treating AI like a shortcut. Start treating it like a thought partner. The people who master this won't just work faster. They'll think differently.

Thanks to SoFi for sponsoring this episode! Looking for funding to help grow your business? Get started at SoFi.com/Codie. #SoFiPartner #ad
___________

(00:00:00) Introduction: AI as a Thought Partner, Not Just an Assistant
(00:01:14) The 300 Million Dollar Board Meeting: How AI Transformed a Hostile Relationship
(00:06:30) The CRIT Framework: Context, Role, Interview, Task
(00:11:20) The Saving Face Consortium: How AI Saved a Manufacturing Company from Bankruptcy
(00:15:38) The Three Skills You Must Master to Harness AI Without Being Replaced
(00:18:14) Speech to Text and Advanced AI Hacks: Playing AI Against Itself
(00:22:29) The Sticky Note Trigger: How to Actually Change Your Behavior with AI
(00:25:07) Agentic AI: The 18th Domino You Should Not Start With
(00:29:05) The 80-20 Framework: Identifying What Actually Matters in Your Business
(00:31:49) The Death of Entry-Level Work and What Skills Will Survive AI
(00:34:34) Daycare Employees Versus Department Chairs: Own Your Job or Lose It
(00:37:14) The AI Leadership Culture: Training People to Prioritize Without You
(00:41:21) The Steve Jobs Manifesto: Using AI for World-Class Creative Output
(00:43:28) Creating Your AI Writing Persona: The 20 to 50 Email Upload Method
(00:47:13) Building Your AI Board: Steve Jobs, Warren Buffett, and Your Future Self
(00:51:10) The Greatest Risk Nobody Talks About: Cognitive Decline and Mental Atrophy
(01:00:49) Voice of Customer Agents and Real-Time Sales Coaching That Actually Works
(01:03:37) The 30-Day CRIT Challenge: One Thing to Do Right Now to Transform Your Life

___________

MORE FROM BIGDEAL
🎥 YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@podcastbigdeal
📸 Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/bigdeal.podcast
📽️ TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@big.deal.pod

MORE FROM CODIE SANCHEZ
🎥 YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@codiesanchezct
📸 Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/codiesanchez
📽️ TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@realcodiesanchez

OTHER THINGS WE DO
🌐 Our community: https://contrarianthinking.typeform.com/to/WBztXXID
📰 Free newsletter: https://contrarianthinking.biz/3XWLlZp
📚 Biz buying course: https://contrarianthinking.biz/3NhjGgN
🏠 Resibrands: https://resibrands.com/
💰 CT Capital: https://contrarianthinking.biz/4eRyGOk
🏦 Main St Hold Co: https://contrarianthinking.biz/3YfGa8u
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The Amazon Kindle Scribe feels just like writing on paper and helps keep pages of notes organized and easy to read. Get yours here https://amzn.to/4peFOKQ

What’s the #1 money habit that separates winners from losers? What stops the thousand small cuts you're making every single day that you refuse to see?
Caleb Hammer has reviewed thousands of financial disasters on his show Financial Audit, and he's breaking down the tactics that separates people who build wealth from people who stay stuck forever. From collections to car loans to OnlyFans subscriptions, he's seen it all. And in this episode, he's pulling back the curtain on what actually works, what's killing your future, and why most people would rather look rich than be rich.

In this episode, you'll learn:

Why 40% of Americans can't afford a $400 emergency and how not having an emergency fund starts the debt snowball that destroys everything

The 50/30/20 rule: 50% needs, 30% fun, 20% investing, and why people think Caleb is stingy when he's actually telling you to spend a crazy amount on fun once you cut the BS

The real difference between people who change and people who don't: action words versus future words, and why I'm gonna means nothing if the documents show you aren't doing it now

___________

(00:00:00) Introduction: Budgeting Is the Snowball That Starts Every Financial Disaster
(00:00:52) The Red Flags: Collections, Repos, and the Death by a Thousand Cuts
(00:06:14) The OnlyFans Economy: Loneliness, Parasocial Relationships, and Paying Indian Telemarketers
(00:08:00) The Average American Is Broke: 40% Can't Handle a 400 Dollar Emergency
(00:10:54) Budget or Die: The One Non-Negotiable Rule That Changes Everything
(00:12:01) The 28 Dollar Lunch Debate: Avocado Toast, Death by a Thousand Cuts, and Owning Your Choices
(00:13:45) Housing, College, and Health Care: The Three Things Actually Screwing Gen Z
(00:19:38) The Car Trap: Why Americans Justify 1000 Dollar Payments for Grocery Runs
(00:23:27) Dave Ramsey Is Wrong: The 1000 Dollar Emergency Fund and the 6% Withdrawal Myth
(00:26:33) Bill Gates Doesn't Know the Price of Rice-A-Roni: The Disconnect of Wealth
(00:27:45) The 100K Investment Blueprint: Target Date Funds, Index Funds, and Killing High-Interest Debt First
(00:29:19) Pokemon Cards, Tulip Mania, and NFTs: Why Speculation Always Ends the Same Way
(00:30:58) The Dumbest Investments: Gold Mines in Uganda, CDs, and Risk-Averse Spending Addicts
(00:34:21) The SpaceX IPO: Trillion Dollar Valuation, NASDAQ Rule Changes, and Betting on Elon
(00:37:43) Caleb's Origin Story: From Negative 90K in Debt to 250K Net Worth in Six Years
(00:41:34) The Five-Step Blueprint: Budget, Find Your Market Fit, Kill Debt, Emergency Fund, Invest 20%
(00:42:58) The 50-30-20 Rule: 30% on Fun Is Not Stingy, It's Generous as Hell
(00:48:05) War Stories: The Streamer Who Made Two Cents a Month and Still Wouldn't Quit
(00:50:49) The Car Defense: Why People Fight to the Bone Over a 40K Net Gain
(00:51:31) Breaking Someone's Frame: The Kids Argument and the N-Word Incident
(00:54:36) The Action Test: I'm Gonna Versus I Am—How to Tell If Someone Will Actually Change
(00:55:28) 28,000 Dollars in Debt Paid Off in 12 Months: The Financial Audit Success Rate
(00:56:29) The Anchor Problem: When One Partner Drags the Other Down Financially
(00:57:24) Couples Therapy, Prenups, and When to Walk Away from Financial Disaster
(00:58:07) Underrated Purchases and Mint Chocolate Chip: The Flavor That Tastes Like Mouthwash
(01:00:59) The Money Rule Caleb Struggles to Follow: Spend More and Take a Vacation
(01:02:01) Hammer Elite: 110,000 Subscribers and Building a Premium Content Empire
(01:02:54) Political Audits: Governors, Senators, and Why Newsom Said No
(01:04:27) The Federal Debt Crisis: Pentagon Audits, Social Security Cuts, and the 25% Haircut in Five Years
(01:04:57) Centrist Economics, Right-Wing Coded Jokes, and Why Both Parties Suck at Spending
(01:09:27) The Final Word: Every Day You Wake Up, You Choose to Be a Retard or Not—Choose Wisely

___________

MORE FROM BIGDEAL
🎥 YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@podcastbigdeal
📸 Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/bigdeal.podcast
📽️ TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@big.deal.pod

MORE FROM CODIE SANCHEZ
🎥 YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@codiesanchezct
📸 Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/codiesanchez
📽️ TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@realcodiesanchez

OTHER THINGS WE DO
🌐 Our community: https://contrarianthinking.typeform.com/to/WBztXXID
📰 Free newsletter: https://contrarianthinking.biz/3XWLlZp
📚 Biz buying course: https://contrarianthinking.biz/3NhjGgN
🏠 Resibrands: https://resibrands.com/
💰 CT Capital: https://contrarianthinking.biz/4eRyGOk
🏦 Main St Hold Co: https://contrarianthinking.biz/3YfGa8u
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

You've been waiting for access. Waiting for someone to notice. Waiting for permission to enter the rooms where real wealth gets built. Here's the truth: the 1% didn't get there by being the smartest. They got there by knowing how to speak the language, earn trust before they needed it, and stay grounded when everyone else started lying to them.

This episode breaks down the exact framework for breaking into circles you don't belong in yet, staying there once you're invited, and becoming the person everyone wants to keep around. Because networking advice for broke people doesn't work when you're trying to reach people who already have everything. The game changes. And if you don't know the new rules, you'll get one shot and never get called back.

In this episode, you'll learn:

Why most people go negative on the first call and never get a second one, and how the relationship balance equation decides who gets re-invited and who gets ghosted

How trust is built on someone's worst day, not their best, and why showing up during the fire without asking for anything after is how you earn loyalty that lasts decades

Why success makes people worse at reading the truth and how to engineer channels where disagreement is rewarded instead of punished

The mum effect: how every layer of your organization softens bad news until reality becomes unrecognizable, and why asking what's missing is more important than asking how'd we do

The REAL framework: Respect their time, Earn trust, Ask for truth, Live in reality, and how mastering these four moves makes you impossible to ignore and irreplaceable once you're in

Stop waiting for the door to open. Start becoming the person they can't afford to leave outside.
___________

(00:00:00) Introduction: Nobody in the 1% Got There by Being the Smartest First
(00:00:28) Respect Their Time: Why Broke Person Networking Advice Stops Working
(00:01:59) The Relationship Balance Formula: Deposits Minus Withdrawals
(00:03:02) Never Make an Introduction Without Permission: Double Opt-In or Die
(00:04:40) Earn Trust on Their Worst Day, Not Their Best
(00:07:43) Give to Get: The Growth Kit and Why Customers Need Value First
(00:08:52) Ask for Truth: Success Quietly Makes Honesty Impossible
(00:10:54) The Emperor Maximilian Story: How Paranoia and Flattery Destroy Empires
(00:12:12) Spot the Leader Surrounded by Sycophants and Become the Counterpoint
(00:13:34) Live in Reality: Uncovering the Stack of Compounding Lies
(00:16:59) The Pulse System: Track Your Numbers Against Projection in Real Time
(00:17:25) Sun Tzu's Spies: Real Knowledge Only Comes From Eyes on the Ground
(00:19:04) Eyes to Eyes: Go See For Yourself, Nobody Read Your Slack
(00:19:44) The REAL Framework: Respect, Earn, Ask, Live

___________

MORE FROM BIGDEAL
🎥 YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@podcastbigdeal
📸 Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/bigdeal.podcast
📽️ TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@big.deal.pod

MORE FROM CODIE SANCHEZ
🎥 YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@codiesanchezct
📸 Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/codiesanchez
📽️ TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@realcodiesanchez

OTHER THINGS WE DO
🌐 Our community: https://contrarianthinking.typeform.com/to/WBztXXID
📰 Free newsletter: https://contrarianthinking.biz/3XWLlZp
📚 Biz buying course: https://contrarianthinking.biz/3NhjGgN
🏠 Resibrands: https://resibrands.com/
💰 CT Capital: https://contrarianthinking.biz/4eRyGOk
🏦 Main St Hold Co: https://contrarianthinking.biz/3YfGa8u
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices