Building Success with Authentic Relationships: Insights from Anthony Simonie

Anthony Simonie, the visionary behind Found Money Partnerships, unlocks the secrets of thriving in real estate by forging meaningful human connections. With two decades of experience under his belt, Anthony shares how authentic relationships far outweigh gimmicky marketing tactics in ensuring long-term success. Alongside host Preston Zeller, they explore how the principles of resilience, learning from failures, and the enduring influence of good mentorship can usher in both personal satisfaction and financial gain, especially in a world increasingly dominated by technology and AI.

Hosted by Preston Zeller, Founder of Zellerhaus - a Venture Studio focused on developing and investing in mission-oriented and community-driven businesses.

Chapters

• 0:00 Building Relationships in Real Estate Success
• 9:37 Family Impact on Entrepreneurial Spirit
• 16:01 Life After High School and Baseball
• 23:08 Navigating Career Paths and Education
• 32:40 Career Journey to Property Preservation
• 42:41 Entrepreneurial Resilience and Determination
• 54:36 Successful Marketing Strategies in Business
• 1:02:58 Expanding Business Through Found Money Partnerships

Transcript

00:00 - Hope (Announcement)
Why do successful real estate investors focus on relationships, while struggling investors only chase the next marketing tactic? Anthony Simonie, founder of Found Money Partnerships, sits down with host Preston Zeller to discuss his experience in resilience through adversity and the power of authentic relationship building in business dollar deals. This is the Property Perspective where seasoned real estate pros reveal how they spot value, others miss and industry disruptors share the unconventional strategies reshaping real estate. Now here are your hosts. 

00:33 - Preston Zeller (Host)
Welcome everyone to Property Perspective. My name is Preston Zeller with Batch Service. I'm here with Anthony Simonie today FoundMoneyPartnerships, foundmoneypartnershipscom and I know you have other ventures as well. Welcome to the show, Anthony. I'm excited to talk to you, get to know you better. 

00:50 - Anthony Simonie (Guest)
Me too. It's really good to be here. It's an honor, actually, one of the things that you know. We haven't known each other for a long time, but in a short period of time we have gotten to know each other. Its's like you know how you meet somebody and it's like it feels like work to try to make that relationship kind of flow. 

01:07
Yeah, there's others that you just meet and it feels like you're kindred spirits and you have all these synergies and like immediately you're, you're um, you're willing to be kind of vulnerable and share your stories and that kind of stuff that's what I kind of have felt with you and I think, in my opinion, I think that's one of the reasons why you've probably reached the level of success that you've reached and why I've humbly been blessed to reach the levels of success that I've reached over the period of time that I've been kind of running at this business thing for the past almost a couple of decades now. 

01:40 - Preston Zeller (Host)
Well, no, I think you know we're kind of side note, but we're, especially as men, we're, you know, very stoic and it's just generation our parents came from. But man, you just, you know, I think you get more comfortable with yourself as you get older, you're more vulnerable and you're like everywhere, all human just going through stuff, and you know people love to just share the wins. Sometimes that's the epitome of social media. That's actually the point of the show in many ways is to be like, hey, um, we fail a lot in life and that's okay, you know, and hopefully we're learning from those things. I think you know, obviously, if you're just repeating year one of learning for your whole life, that's going to be kind of crappy. 

02:27 - Anthony Simonie (Guest)
That's going to be a little sucky, yeah right. 

02:30 - Preston Zeller (Host)
Yeah, there is that. It's funny, though, there's a book I read that was talking about people who go oh, I've been doing this for 30 years or whatever. It's like, yeah, but you've been doing the same year or two that whole time. It's like what's the quality of your years of experience, right, yeah, so we're? Um, I know we met through. Uh, we got to meet in tampa a few weeks ago, was that a few weeks ago? Something like that, yeah, yeah and uh, that was great to meet in person. Um, what are you doing now? Let's touch on that briefly before we kind of go back in time. 

03:08 - Anthony Simonie (Guest)
Yeah, so these days I've had this kind of long journey and lots of bumps in the road, lots of failures, like you talked about. It's like people only see the surface. They never see what goes on below the surface. We could dive more into that kind of stuff here in a bit, but all those things sort of led me to where I'm at today, on below the surface. And you know, we could dive more into that kind of stuff here in a bit, but all those things sort of led me to where I'm at today. And today what I'm most focused on is making an impact in other people's lives, because while I do love making a lot of money it's great it's not just about the money. And what I learned is one of my kind of hard lessons learned along the way of an entrepreneurship is that the money does come if you really do focus on the servitude and bringing value to others. And it took me a minute in the beginning to to learn that, because I was like I just want to make money and I don't want people to just like take my stuff and and use it and not pay me. And then, um, you know I had some really good mentors along the way, which, if you're not working with mentors, you're really kind of cutting yourself short, because I'll admit right now, I'll never know everything. I'll never be at my final destination until I am, and that's probably going to be my last breath, but I'm going to be learning and actively humbling myself until I get there, because I know there's always something I can learn from anybody, anybody and everybody. I don't care what level of business you're at, I don't care where you're at personally. If we're open-minded to be able to kind of be willing to allow us to, you know, to learn from each other, we could be, you know, just a lot better in my opinion. So, yeah, impact. Um, so I've got a lot of experience in marketing and building businesses and I've taken all these skills and helped a lot of people along the way in their companies. Lots of different niches, lots of different verticals. 

04:56
Basically, what I like to focus on is the relationship aspect, because, at the end of the day, no matter what you're doing with technology or AI, at the heart of every good business is relationships, and that's that human element that you just can't really emulate. Yeah, you can create avatars and all this kind of crazy stuff we could do today, which is fine. There's probably a place somewhere in your business for that. But if you're trying to replace your relationship building efforts with those things, rather than you being there or somebody on your behalf being there it's a real human it's going to be really difficult long term. And I think because people are so savvy now they're waking up to what AI is, what chatbots are. It's not new anymore. I mean, for goodness sakes, have you seen that commercial where people you got two, two guys on the phone and they're debating each other and each one of them is saying hey, Preston, prove to me that you're not AI and you're like Anthony. Well, prove to me that you're not AI. And it's like this, this debate. They want a human, they want a human. So I've essentially what I'm doing is I'm helping people in their businesses. I'm taking my skill sets. What are those skill sets? I mean email marketing, and it's not just email marketing for the sake of sending emails. It's like what gets people to move through their journey, to get them to do what you want them to do in an ethical way. Right, because you're bringing value and insight the entire way. 

06:19
I've got a lot of experience with LinkedIn. LinkedIn is like a really hot topic. It has been for now, probably the past five years, and so you know I've been. I've been leveraging that platform specifically for more than eight years, helping people to raise capital on the platform. Look for private, generate higher net worth, clientele, referral partnerships, strategic partnerships. I mean there's just so many different ways that we use that platform. And it's funny because when I say it's hot right now, to give you an example, the coaching world is freaking out. They're like there's all these changes on Facebook, all these changes on Instagram, and it's like everybody's got their eyes lights on LinkedIn. But they're like, well, how do I, how do I actually use it to? Do you know it to generate actual business? And so I've got people reaching out wanting me to speak at their events and come in and kind of teach people some of the stuff that we're doing. And I'm doing that for capital-raising audiences, syndicators. I'm doing it now. What's really interesting, Preston, is fixing flippers and wholesalers. 

07:22
There's this like traditional kind of um persona of who those people are it's kind of like the bros with the hats on sideways and make it well. This world we're living in now private lenders and people that are providing funding they want to know who you are. Right. They want to know, hey, who am I, who am I interacting with? And so now you think about LinkedIn being a professional platform. There's a movement and I'm helping some folks really get that movement out there to where it's like hey, let's make sure you show up professionally when somebody looks you up online before they give you money, cause they will. 

07:54 - Preston Zeller (Host)
Yeah, everyone's Googling your name to some degree, yeah. 

07:58 - Anthony Simonie (Guest)
You want to show up in the best light and your LinkedIn profile, even if you haven't logged in in the past seven years, it's going to show up on page one of Google, so that's for sure yeah. Working for you, against you, right now, so it's in your best interest to do something right. 

08:12 - Preston Zeller (Host)
Yeah, uh, no, you know it's funny, I've been, uh, I've been, on LinkedIn since like 2008, I think, so quite a, quite a while, but I, you know I've I've gone through ebbs and flows of, um, you know, using it as a yeah, definitely a powerful tool. It's so different than excuse me real quick it's so different than facebook and instagram and all that kind of stuff, where that thrives a lot more on just, I don't know, vain takeaways or something. Yes, and LinkedIn's it's definitely a more particular audience. So, and just well, we're gonna get back into what you're doing today more, but I want to go back to kind of work up to who's Anthony, right? So I love to start with this question Just what did your parents do growing up as a career? And I don't know if they were both around, and then if you have siblings. So maybe talk about that too. 

09:18 - Anthony Simonie (Guest)
Yeah, man, good question. So I've got two brothers, two sisters and I've got other brothers and sisters I found out I had later on in life and we could get to that, oh, which was really shocking surprise siblings on multiple levels. It's pretty interesting. But yeah, so I was uh, uh, so my, so my dad, uh, he worked for the railroad and lots of traveling. Is it back? 

09:44 - Preston Zeller (Host)
in the east. 

09:46 - Anthony Simonie (Guest)
Kansas City, missouri, is where I was born and raised oh okay, so Midwest yeah. Yeah, so I lived there until I was about 30. And then I started. I started a bunch of family. I started moving around different places for different things, business expansion, stuff like that, promotions in my corporate days, all that good stuff, promotions in my corporate days, you know all that good stuff. But um, I was uh so so my parents had uh, um they they divorced. 

10:14
they divorced when I was young and my uh my mom had a new man in her life and we didn't get along so well, and so it got to a point where it was just like something had to, something had to give, and so I ended up my grandparents adopted me and my grandparents raised me all through, since I was probably eight years old. 

10:33
So this is really early on in your life, then, yeah, oh yeah yeah, and I was really angry and had all kinds of anger issues and stuff like that. But thank God my grandparents, they stepped up. I mean they were retired and it's like they could have just enjoyed their life and God love them. I mean, they're no longer here, sure yeah. 

10:52
But they stepped up and said we'll take Anthony. And they'd always say you know, anthony's like the son we never had because they had two daughters, and so they just took care of me. They took me to all my sporting events, practices, they, they paid for everything that I need, needed, and it was just a huge blessing and um, and so I grew up with with them and my grandmother, she was one of those types where she was like you know, tell me, I can't do something, and I'll show you that. She's a little Italian lady, probably about five foot two, and she had. She would dress you up and down and I don't care how big you were, like. 

11:31
I remember her. I'm not going to say what she said, but I remember her approaching this man that was in my mom's life, that was causing a lot of this stuff, and she was just one of those people you didn't you didn't mess with, because even though she was was small, she was mighty and she wouldn't she wouldn't, you know, overwhelm you by her strength, necessarily, but like she'd, she'd weaken you at the knees by the stuff that she could sure brute honesty yeah, yeah, so it was. 

12:02
It was uh. So she was very entrepreneurial and she was very, like, involved in the church, the catholic church. I ended up being an altar boy for a while and all this kind of thing, but I got to watch her be a leader, like she led the youth uh um organization there at the church and she put on, like, uh, youth events. We always had these, these, these, uh, these group members at our house. She was always like she was a professional hairstylist and she'd teach at a beauty school, so she, um, she would have homeless people come over and she would like do their hair and make them feel good and then like read some scripture to them and then send them on their way, right, it's always used to that kind of a an upbringing and but seeing her, like her entrepreneurial side where I remember I would help her break down and set up her craft shows, she'd go, we'd travel around these craft shows and she was pretty talented with her artwork and so I think that kind of instilled in me that entrepreneurial attitude as long, as well as like she's like the persistence of perseverance, right, it was like you're never giving up, just doing whatever you needed to do to get the thing done. It was just like there was no what if it doesn't work. It was like, how do I make it work? And so when I, so when I, when I saw that it, it bled into lots of areas of my life and I think I really needed it because I was angry, I didn't know why I was not with my brothers and sisters. I didn't understand that whole dynamic to the point where I had to go get some serious therapy for it at one. Pointings I was getting from my, from my grandparents, were I mean, god just knew I needed it, because I just I was, I was kind of lost and that sort of gave me a, a way to kind of, you know, put things in the right categories as I was, as I was experiencing them, and and it bled into my, my, my athletics, like I, I started, um, becoming very, um, gifted and kind of talented at athletics because I would outwork everybody, and so my natural talent wasn't like the highest right, it wasn't the best, but because of my work ethic I would practice and practice and practice and outwork people, and so I would just naturally develop and stay on the same playing field that then eventually surpass a lot of people. Um, you know, later on, when I got into high school and started, you know, getting a lot, winning a lot of awards and stuff like that, yeah, so it was. It was interesting because it was. 

14:37
Just when I look back now I'm like, wow, I was. It was a wild time, but it was like it's. It's almost like how people are always a lot of people anyway. They're like man. I wish that never would have happened to me and that kind of a thing. When I look back I'm going you know what? I know why it happened to me. There was a silver lining that I could have never even imagined that I would realize until I was much older and went through it. 

15:04 - Preston Zeller (Host)
A silver lining of your grandparents raising you. 

15:09 - Anthony Simonie (Guest)
Raising me. Yeah, because it wasn't just the, the fact that I had a home I roof over my head. It was like the, these lessons that I was learning from this amazing woman, this amazing man that would like give you the shirt off, as literally would give you the shirt off his back if, if you needed, needed it, even if he didn't have another one. 

15:29 - Preston Zeller (Host)
So you know dad's out of the picture, like entirely. 

15:33 - Anthony Simonie (Guest)
So he was. He was around, but traveling a lot for work. He worked for the railroad, yeah that's a notoriously roaming job Right. Yeah, and so I knew, I knew you know, so I knew my mom, I knew my dad, so, but I was separated and there still was this you know this weird awkward miss, right it was like I was kind of like the outsider and um but it was. 

16:01
It was great from the perspective of, like I said, building a foundation that I mean even my brothers and sisters. They don't have that grit and that same grit and like the stomach to take certain risks, Like I'm just, like I'm built way differently because of all of that, you know. Yeah, so we talk about silver lining. It's like that's hard to teach somebody, Like if you're looking to hire somebody, they either have some things or they don't, and some things you can't teach them. 

16:30 - Preston Zeller (Host)
That's so true. Yeah, one in, you know, I'm sure in the, in the, in the midst of it, like you kind of alluded to this. But you're going, why can't I just be with my parents? Why can't my parents be together? You know, I mean because you want a normal, homogenous upbringing. I mean, I think most people do, because you're like you are, you know, attached to your parents for life one way or another. You know, even if you're, you know, someone else raised you. 

17:00
It's a very strange thing psychologically. I mean, I'm incredibly blessed that my parents still are together, you know, raise me, but I, you know, you see that a lot where there's a lot of broken families, that's a sad thing. But you know, having a, you know, grandparent, grandparents that you know gave you those intangibles in a way, or instilled those intangibles. What's interesting, though, Anthony, is like you could have been a different person and just rejected all that anyways, which is a crazy thing. You see that in siblings, where it's like same parents and it's like they're all so different, my wife's one of nine, wow. So you just see this spectrum of very different kids in that regard. So let's go through like what did you do after high school, because that's where everyone's kind of. Unless you go to college I don't know if you did you're kind of out on your own. 

18:07 - Anthony Simonie (Guest)
Yeah, yeah. So I excelled with baseball and started making like first-team all-conference, first-team all-area, all that kind of stuff, and so my sights were set. I'm going to play pro ball Like that's my thing you know my sights were set. I'm going to play pro ball, like that's, that's my thing. And, um and when I graduated from high school, like I had, I'd done so much, I'd broken all the school records and all kinds of stuff, but I didn't have any no, anybody knocking on my door. 

18:37
This is back in 1994, man you know to kind of age me out a little bit. And you know, back then it wasn't like you didn't have this exposure. You have now so, and our coach wasn't a really great advocate for us. 

18:53 - Preston Zeller (Host)
So you weren't getting on the radar of these scouts from colleges and stuff like that. 

18:59 - Anthony Simonie (Guest)
Very, you know. To give you an idea, I had a buddy that played at a rival school. That he was. My numbers were, you know, a little bit better than his. We'll just put it that way. 

19:10 - Preston Zeller (Host)
You were a better player, Anthony. Let's just say it. 

19:14 - Anthony Simonie (Guest)
And he went on to play pro. But his parents, they had money and they bought him and they got him an agent and somebody to advocate for him Sure yeah. 

19:23
So it was a very it's just a lot different and you know, it's like one of those things where it's like I just realized it is what it is and I kind of was heartbroken after that and I took a break. I did get. I led my team to state championship tournament my senior year, which is the first time they'd ever went to that tournament and never been back since, which is wild, wow. 

19:47 - Preston Zeller (Host)
What position did you play? 

19:49 - Anthony Simonie (Guest)
I was a utility player. I played third, second, short, and so I was always. There was no time I wasn't in playing. 

19:57 - Preston Zeller (Host)
Yeah, so that's, I played baseball myself younger. I didn't take it super far, but got to get a little experience there, but yeah but yeah, it's pretty cool to be that diverse of a player, though, in that game. 

20:10 - Anthony Simonie (Guest)
Yeah, when I just figured you know what, I just thought you know I could specialize in one, or I could just be like make it easy for coaches to keep me in. 

20:18 - Preston Zeller (Host)
It's like, yeah, I was like I was probably thinking like that. 

20:22 - Anthony Simonie (Guest)
I'm like, well, you know what, just get good at all these positions and it doesn't matter what they need to do, if they need somebody to pitch or whatever. Whatever, like I can go and play and so I. So that did me well, and so I took when I was at the state tournament. I was going to tell you is that I had a guy approach me from Central Methodist, it's right down by Mizzou, it's in Missouri, and he offered me something on the spot and he's like I can't give you full tuition, but I can give you XYZ, and third base is yours, because he saw me playing third base and I had made some good plays and I had a really good tournament. We didn't win. 

20:59
but we had a couple of really good games and he's like it's yours and stupid me. I was like, yeah, you know, I don't know. 

21:10 - Preston Zeller (Host)
And I was like I wasn't, it wasn't good enough. 

21:14 - Anthony Simonie (Guest)
Well, first of all I was like, do I really want, to like, live three hours from where I? You know where I grew up? 

21:21
I didn't all these things were happening to me at that time, so, anyway, I let it pass me by, and I did not go straight to college. What I ended up doing, though, is I went to walk on in a junior college where they had a really good baseball team, and I ended up getting two years of my college paid for, so I played some college ball with some really competitive people in that league. So I played some college ball. Some really competitive people in that league that were a lot of the teams were. They were like the kind of teams where they'd have people that were going pro. 

21:53
They'd have them down, kind of preparing to go. 

21:55 - Preston Zeller (Host)
So it was a really good experience, like a feeder team or whatever. 

21:57 - Anthony Simonie (Guest)
Absolutely. It was a great experience because I got to play against some of those guys that are super talented. But I played two years and nothing ever came of it. I had fun, but then it was like, okay, what am I going to do with my life? Okay, I'm probably not going to play baseball. 

22:15 - Preston Zeller (Host)
So what now? So you're like 20 at this point. You know it's funny, real quick. I've never known much in the way of professional baseball players, but the ones I've met. The common thread is that it's there's a lot of debauchery in that world. Oh yeah, because they're on the, they're on the road all the time, right? So many baseball games which you know from what I know about you, it's probably a good thing to have been. 

22:45 - Anthony Simonie (Guest)
Oh, you know, it's probably like God was looking out for me. He's like you know what. I love that you want to do this, but there's another pathway for you. The seasons are so long and even some of the most well-meaning, you know players God love them they just they end up being, they fall. You know what I mean? 

23:05 - Preston Zeller (Host)
Yeah you get sucked into the antics. I mean, I wanted to be a professional touring musician for a long time. That was my thing was I was performing music and I look at the music industry now I'm like God save me from that. Then I was working in the entertainment industry. I'm like God save me from that. There's all these things that you think are good ideas in your head and just knowing myself I'm like, yeah, that's would have been bad, you know. 

23:34 - Anthony Simonie (Guest)
Oh yeah, yeah, Because you're not quite like. It's not like we had the wisdom we have now. 

23:39 - Preston Zeller (Host)
Yeah, sure. 

23:39 - Anthony Simonie (Guest)
Sure yeah, things are much different. So sure, things are much different. 

23:44 - Preston Zeller (Host)
So, okay, you're like 20, right, 20, 21,. You get out of playing college ball and it's basically it in terms of baseball. Right Now you're. What do you do career-wise? What did you start getting into? 

24:03 - Anthony Simonie (Guest)
Yeah, so I had a cousin that worked for this big company that sold copy machines, copiers and printers. The company's name was Icon. And it stood for I Know One Name in copiers and printers way back in the day. But he helped me get an outside sales job there and that's one of those jobs where the first day you're on they send you out to do 100 cold calls and you kind of figure out just how crappy that kind of a at that age you're like I don't know about this, I don't know about this and not everybody is wanting to buy a copier and a printer right now. 

24:41
They usually have one and it's like it's a rough game. 

24:44 - Preston Zeller (Host)
So you weren't even doing leases, you were just selling them. 

24:48 - Anthony Simonie (Guest)
So yeah, there's, I'll be. They had, they had those kinds of contracts where you could do that. But you know it was, they, were they were. 

24:57 - Preston Zeller (Host)
They were the big ones you see in the offices, you know where. It's like, yeah, yeah, well, a lot of those people rent them. That's why I asked. It's like, yeah, maybe that wasn't as much of a thing back then. 

25:03 - Anthony Simonie (Guest)
I don't know, I don't think. Yeah, I don't remember it being. It was more of like, you know, sell the thing or get them in a, get them in a lease, right, because then they're stuck with you for a certain period of time. 

25:13 - Preston Zeller (Host)
What are these things? $10,000?. 

25:15 - Anthony Simonie (Guest)
Man, they can. Yeah, 10 to 50 grand, it just depends, man. You know, it's funny that you brought that up. I hadn't thought about that for a while, adjusted for inflation. 

25:28
It's like 50 to 100 grand. Oh yeah, it's nuts. But it's. Yeah, it was. That was one of those jobs where I was just trying to figure out what I want to do. He was doing really well and I was like, hey, you know what, if I could go make a couple hundred grand like he, he's making a year and it's all good and cause that's kind of the yeah, I mean, like you were saying sort of the money driven aspect which I think most people are at a really young age. 

25:55 - Preston Zeller (Host)
I don't know, maybe Gen Z or Gen Alpha will change that, but you're just like. I would like to have flexibility and money, because I've been living on my parents' flexibility and money, whatever that was for so long. So how long were you in the copier printer world before you jumped ship? 

26:17 - Anthony Simonie (Guest)
Well, officially I was there for about a year, but I think I originally checked out mentally from there about six months into it. 

26:27 - Preston Zeller (Host)
So it was just something to tied you over in the beginning. I showed up in the office. 

26:31 - Anthony Simonie (Guest)
You had to be there in the morning and then you had to come check in in the afternoon. So I'd be like going in the morning, check in, I'd go hang out with my girlfriend for a few hours and I'd go back and check in. Oh man, but I was like you know what? This is going nowhere. You know what am I going to do? 

26:48
And I thought, you know, I know somebody that was in pharmaceutical sales and I was like that might be a really great thing for me to do, that could be really lucrative. And I was like, but I don't have a four year degree, I only have a two year degree. And so, um, as I started researching it and everything, I found out that they wanted a four-year degree. They wanted all this really fantastic outside sales experience, which I had some Excel experience. It wasn't outstanding with a copier company, but what I ended up doing is I went back to school full time at Baker University. It was like one of those remote sort of well, not remote, but it was like, yeah, it was remote, it was off the campus, like I had to go to the satellite school, yeah, satellite campus. 

27:38
Yeah, so I had to do that. But my plan was you know what I'll finish my degree, I took a, I left that copy of job and I went and got a job at um selling bedroom match, uh, bedroom furniture and mattresses at this place called mattress warehouse. It was no longer in business now, but it was a big. 

27:54 - Preston Zeller (Host)
I think they got bought by. Um. Well, what's um? The place that has a mattress store in every corner? 

28:01 - Anthony Simonie (Guest)
Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. But yeah, it was like it was one of those things where I was. So I was like you know what, I'm determined I'm gonna do this. And as I was working at this place, um, I was like you know, I got to get some more sales experience outside sales and I found this company called centos, which you may have heard centos, you know the uniform uniform, yeah so this was for the first aid and safety division and they required a four-year degree and I was like what the I'm going to do it anyway, that whole four-year degree requirement is so stupid Because all it proved to the employer was that you could stick around and do something long enough, like it was just a predicator. 

28:43 - Preston Zeller (Host)
Not a predicator, a predictable measuring tool of they're not going to leave us in six months. That's my take on it, I mean for a non. 

28:52 - Anthony Simonie (Guest)
They'll follow my instructions. They will start the task. They'll complete the task. And then they'll come back for more instructions and they'll be a good little boy, a good little girl. 

29:01 - Preston Zeller (Host)
I really feel like it was a giant ruse. I mean I have my thoughts on the education system as a girl, I really feel like it was a giant ruse. I mean I have my thoughts on the education system as a whole. I think it's designed to. 

29:09 - Anthony Simonie (Guest)
That's a whole other issue, right? That's a whole other episode for us to discuss. 

29:15 - Preston Zeller (Host)
Yeah, with the bells and the work schedule it's just designed to create. It's actually designed to turn out. Factory workers is what it is. Yeah. But anyways yeah that's a whole other topic. 

29:27
Okay, so all these sales jobs are requiring four-year degrees, which is kind of like it seems antithetical to this salesperson mindset, because salespeople have to be like mini entrepreneurs, right, yeah, or intrapreneurs, whatever it is, but you have to go sell your style your way, find how you jive with people, get them to trust you in a you know know, hopefully, in a, um, you know genuine way, and yeah, and get them to buy stuff. For me, like, none of that is. Those are all soft skills, not classroom skills. It's just so bizarre to me. Okay, now I'm ranting, but it's like that book, right, you can't learn. 

30:11 - Anthony Simonie (Guest)
You can't learn to ride a bike at a seminar, right, that's, it's a. It's a fantastic book if nobody's read that read it. That's the name of the book. Yeah, you can't learn to ride a bike at a seminar. Right, that's, it's a. It's a fantastic book. 

30:17 - Preston Zeller (Host)
If nobody's read that read if you're, that's the name of the book yeah, you can't learn to ride a bike at a seminar. I thought that was your catchphrase I was like dang I wish, I thought I wish it was right, but yeah that's it. 

30:30 - Anthony Simonie (Guest)
It's like you. You got to get out there, you got to do the thing. Yeah, you're not going to learn that in a by reading a book or getting that's so true, yeah theory only gets you. 

30:39 - Preston Zeller (Host)
I think actually this is another kind of side note. I'm just full of other, like all these different topics today, but, um, I think that's actually kind of a problem with the internet right now is there's so much theory you can learn? 

30:54
like I went to go, uh, create a, made a sourdough starter. I'm going to start making sourdough bread right, this is like a year and a half ago and I quickly got so overwhelmed with everyone's take on sourdough bread and it just became really annoying. I'm like, if I don't stop this, I'm going to get analysis, paralysis, and I'm not that kind of person, but it's just. I think anyone. If you just overload your brain with information on how to do something, it makes it harder to get started. That I. That's been my experience. 

31:28 - Anthony Simonie (Guest)
But I would agree with that, Preston, because it's you get to a point. I think we're in that kind of an environment right now. So much so people are just. They don't know what to do, so they do nothing. 

31:39 - Preston Zeller (Host)
And then, you're afraid to fail. 

31:41 - Anthony Simonie (Guest)
I don't know Right. It's like what if it fails? You know it's like. And as soon as they start to do something, there's another shiny object over here for sure, and it's like they they any headway and things don't always work right out the gate. It's like sometimes you got to hit a couple of singles doubles and you'll take the home runs when they come, cause they don't happen all the time. 

32:00 - Preston Zeller (Host)
Right, yeah, you would use a baseball analogy. I'm just kidding. 

32:06 - Anthony Simonie (Guest)
But it's funny, you go back like the persistence of like. I just want to say this because, when we go back to the four year degree thing, anybody that maybe I don't know who your listeners are exactly, but maybe some of them are going through some of that, yeah, where they're like man, I'd love to do this, but I need a four-year degree. Let me tell you what I did. Yeah, I applied at this company centos. And look them up they're they're well known oh yeah, they're still. 

32:29 - Preston Zeller (Host)
They're bigger, much bigger today, and they were in the 90s or whenever you're working. 

32:33 - Anthony Simonie (Guest)
They only hire four-year degree graduates, or at least they did when I was going through it, and they were known for that. So I was able to get myself an interview. I talked my way into an interview and in the interview that topic came up and we had, we had this interview and it went really, really well like why should we hire you? 

32:53 - Preston Zeller (Host)
because you don't have a four-year degree? 

32:55 - Anthony Simonie (Guest)
and it was like you know what Um it actually was. It was like it got to the point where this guy says his name was Steve Dennis. Never forget him, cause he's a. He's a wild man. I got so many stories about him coming to me during the month going Simone. 

33:07
I need. 

33:20
I need another $5 off. But he, um, it's crazy because he's like man. He's like I would love to hire you. He's like I really would. He's like you have everything that I'm looking for, but he's like we have a company rule that we can't. You have to have a college degree. And I said, well, guess what, Steve, I'm actually working on that right now and I will be finished in this date. So, and I said, how about this? I said, how about you draw up a contract? And you and you, um, you put in this contract that this employment is, it's uh, it hinges on me making president's club the first year that I'm here. 

33:53 - Preston Zeller (Host)
Oh, I said I'm willing to do that and if I don't, I'll leave and you have nothing to lose so you're going to go and work your butt off and make them a bunch of money and if not, they can fire you. 

34:04 - Anthony Simonie (Guest)
Basically so he looks at me and he's like you have some, you have some big balls. 

34:12 - Preston Zeller (Host)
You have some big balls no other way to say that and he's like you know I can't do that, but he's like some big balls. 

34:16
That's what he said. 

34:16 - Anthony Simonie (Guest)
You have some big balls, there's no other way to say that yeah yeah right, and he's like you know I can't do that, but he's like you know what. I'm going to take a chance on you. Yeah, and I got the job. And you know what? Not only did I make President's Club in the first year, I made it in the shortest period of time that anybody's ever made it in eight months. In eight months, I qualified. 

34:36 - Preston Zeller (Host)
That's so cool and, I think, completely inspiring for people listening, because you just knew you wanted something and you set a big goal for yourself and even if you had not hit it and you did but even if you had not hit it you presumably would have worked your butt off to get there, which I have to think that even if you didn't hit it but maybe got close, but you were like working your tail off to do it, they probably still would have been like you know this guy's working really hard. Why would we pass that up? You? 

35:11 - Anthony Simonie (Guest)
know it's like by then it's it's like I knew I was like, once I'm in here it's like I know I'm gonna establish some level of success that's gonna at least be that of my peers so and and I. And then I also knew like by the time they, you know I'll have a four-year degree, so it's like yeah you just gotta be creative right. 

35:31
You gotta think, and I think that's in in this world we live in now we have to remember to like, always challenge ourself to, to continue to creatively think right, because there's so many things that just take that away from us. With AI and you can just go search for something, kids can go write a paper now without having to. 

35:50 - Preston Zeller (Host)
I fear for them because without being able to have those creative thinking skills, skills like it's, it's gonna be hard like you gotta intentionally put yourself in those situations now yeah, yeah, be willing to challenge your brain and try something new and just go all right. If this doesn't work, I'll go on to the next thing. And you know that's you having, well, there's a whole muscle of doing hard things you don't want to do, which that kind of speaks to what you're talking about. That's actually like you know. On a personal note, I'll do certain workouts and I've been doing like more endurance races this year and some people are like, why would you put yourself through that? 

36:36
I'm like this is really hard and you know it's. It's not something I instinctively go. Yeah, like I could sit there for, uh, you know the hour that I'd work out in the day and two hours it might take to do the race. But then I could do that race and be like, oh, I did something really hard and was able to push through that thing in the back of your head that says stop doing it because it's easier to not do it. Yeah. 

37:05
And I think you know everyone has to figure out how to like fight that voice. Anyways, so you, how long were you at Centos? 

37:15 - Anthony Simonie (Guest)
So I stayed there for a couple years and what happened was I decided to go into pharmaceutical sales. So I was like I want a better job Okay. And so as soon as I had my resume and I was top 10 every month for an entire year or an entire couple years I was at Centos. It's very easy to go in an interview. They're like why should we hire you? And I just say, well, I could tell you all this great stuff about me, or I could just show you what I've done. 

37:43
I just put a book out there and my face is a top ten on all these things. I mean, at that point it's like, yeah, I had my ego kind of working for me, but in that business it was driven by egos. That business it was driven by egos like these hiring managers. They were either looking for really attractive, like cheerleader type, you know, reps, or they were looking for people that like they come in and it's a big egos and they're like they can get it done yeah, you gotta have a lot of confidence. 

38:09
Yeah, and so I got, I got, I got in um, not on my first. I mean it took me a little bit because of that I I remember one time I threw the book down Preston and I still have it. 

38:20 - Preston Zeller (Host)
I saw this big you had the, you had the literal, the literal. I thought you were saying this like metaphorically Okay, you got a brag book. Okay. Yeah, For real, it's called the uh the briefcase method. I don't know if you've ever heard of that. 

38:32 - Anthony Simonie (Guest)
Yeah, yeah, so I. So I opened it up and there was this picture of me and I wasn't married at the time, but I was with Jill, my wife, and we were on a President's Club trip and we were in St John, the Virgin Islands, and there was a group picture and I showed this hiring manager this picture and him and his counterpart were going, oh, oh, he's like, oh, look at that girl. She's like, she's really hot. You know, it wasn't, they weren't stupid enough to say that about my wife, but they were talking about this other, this wife of this other person, and the way that they were oohing and aahing. I was going I knew for sure. Right then. And there I was, like I'm not working with these a-holes, right. 

39:14 - Preston Zeller (Host)
I'm like there's no way I could? 

39:16 - Anthony Simonie (Guest)
there's no way I can hang out with these guys, and if I'm going, to work hard with somebody. 

39:19 - Preston Zeller (Host)
I got to know that we have some standards Too piggy yeah. 

39:24 - Anthony Simonie (Guest)
Just it was. It was, it almost was like I. I felt so uncomfortable, I felt bad for them, even though like it was just me and them and she wasn't there. I had just a picture. But I was like this is really just, it's gross yeah yeah. So I but I did get into the industry with another company and the same thing happened there. I was just like I wasn't satisfied. It was like that whole positive discontent. 

39:50
It was like. 

39:51
I just need to make more money and I'd be happy. And so I went and made more money and it just wasn't fulfilling and went to it. Then I went to medical device sales for Johnson and Johnson and I was like same thing. I was like he got to a point. I was like I'm just not. I don't feel like I'm making an impact, I'm not happy, something's missing. And so I left that job to get into, uh, what people know as property preservation. That's where you take care of foreclosed properties and clean them up. 

40:19 - Preston Zeller (Host)
Oh, does that mean you're the like trustee or? 

40:23 - Anthony Simonie (Guest)
no, just uh, so we would go in, so we were contractors, we go in and we would, you know, we would get all the debris out, remove, like you know, cause, you know, people leave their houses sometimes. When they were especially back in oh eight and oh nine, when this was, I mean, it was like a mess and there were so many foreclosures that, um, you know, I, I, I built a big business out of that, expanded from Missouri to, uh, california, to Arizona. 

40:48 - Preston Zeller (Host)
And okay, wait, let's, let's rewind a sec. So you jumped, okay, so you got into medical sales for Johnson Johnson. What years were you, johnson Johnson? 

40:59 - Anthony Simonie (Guest)
So Johnson Johnson. I was there until I think 2007. I think 2006,. 2007 was Johnson Johnson. And then how? 

41:08 - Preston Zeller (Host)
long at the other place. Before that, the other pharmaceutical. 

41:11 - Anthony Simonie (Guest)
A couple years. Okay, so you kind of hopped around to different pharmaceutical companies and whatnot, but so it sounds like early 2000 was your sort, like the mattresses and bedroom furnitures Centos, then the pharmaceutical, then the medical device, and then I left the medical device knowing that I was like I just I think it was that whole entrepreneur thing right, it was like I wanted to, I had experienced it early on in life and I'm like, I'm just not feeling it. 

41:52
And so when I left, I really it was like I felt alive. I felt like I was alive again. 

42:00 - Preston Zeller (Host)
So okay, you leave the medical device sales stuff. How did you get into the property preservation side of it, Like what event sort of led to that? 

42:12 - Anthony Simonie (Guest)
Yeah, that's a really good question because it ties into everything else. 

42:16 - Preston Zeller (Host)
Okay, yeah, it's a really good question because it ties into everything else. Okay, okay yeah. 

42:19 - Anthony Simonie (Guest)
Let's hear it. So I had a good buddy at the time who was doing this property preservation work and he'd he'd he'd heard me complain about my job on occasion, and so he told me he's like, if you ever want to learn about what we're doing, you know we're making about a thousand bucks a day doing it. I'll kind of show you the ropes. And so one day I kind of got fed up because I was, I was working this. They put me in this territory and it was the rep before. So what happened was I was, I got promoted in this company. They moved me to Houston and I didn't like Houston because it was so hot. So the moment I got an opportunity to move back to kansas city, I did. 

42:59
And when I went back to kansas city they put me in a, in a territory where the rep had let the competition just pillage everything. And so I came in and I I was working deals, but they, they didn't, they didn't think it was happening fast enough. And uh, they just kept riding me, riding me. They come ride with me and they're like I don't know what's going on, like you're doing everything right and I'm like I told you the deals are being worked. It's like yeah. Finally I was like all right, I'm done, man. And I said I call, call my friends like hey, let's talk about this thing, okay. So we went to lunch and I was like hurt enough. And I was like all right, I'm, I'm in, and so I decided to start that business. While I was working full time at Johnson Johnson, while I built that business up because I wasn't going to just leave, I was making good money. But as soon as I got how did he get in? 

43:46 - Preston Zeller (Host)
like without too much rabbit trail, but like he just so he comes along and he tells you about this property preservation kind of business. 

43:55 - Anthony Simonie (Guest)
He was a real estate agent, so he's into real estate and kind of knew all about it and I didn't know anything about it. I was like you're doing what? 

44:05 - Preston Zeller (Host)
So that is such a common thread is like in the real estate world. It's just like you know some guy in real estate it's like, hey, come do this thing with me, and most people are like what. 

44:19 - Anthony Simonie (Guest)
Yeah man say it's like, hey, come do this thing with me. And most people are like what? Yeah, man, it was. It was. There was this moment where I kind of questioned like wait a minute, am I really gonna leave this fancy job to go clean trash out of houses, right, and I was like, hmm, but then I'm glad I decided that I didn't really care. I didn't care, right. I was like you know what? I'm going to have my own business, I'm going to make something of this. And what happened was I took it very seriously and instead of operating like a lot of the other people did that were in this business, I treat it like a business where I was building relationships with the work providers. 

44:51
I was finding new ways to become more profitable, and so what I had done is I had now created this whole process and documented it to where I knew I can go to any city that I wanted and do this thing and do very well. And so that's how I expanded it. And then that same friend came to me and he's like hey, come to this marketing event with me. So I went to this Dan Kennedy event with him. 

45:14
And as soon as I didn't know Danny kenny, I was like who is this guy? And I I see all these people getting on stage and they're like, yeah, I'm making all this money teaching people how to do this and that and this I was like, I was like dang, that sounds like fun. 

45:27
And he's like why don't we do this together? And you know, since you've, you know you could, you could be the face and everything because you'd made this business so successful. And I was like all right, cool. So we went into business together, started this info product company and it took off. I mean, I had to learn all this stuff. 

45:45
I had to learn how to write copy and do webinars and email marketing and buying traffic, all of that stuff I had to learn. But I was like you know what, I don't care, I'll figure it out. I had to learn. But I was like you know what, I don't care, I'll figure it out. And um, and so this, this business, it. I work really hard and I get this thing to take off and it's going really well. And at the same time, this guy tries to franchise the opportunity and spends a whole bunch of money doing it and then it flops, and so, um, he was a little bit disgruntled about that and whatever. But, um, so, long story short, it was like, okay, this business is going really well. Um, I'm sitting in my office. 

46:32
One day in there I lived in arizona at the time- so we lived there for about seven years at one in phoenix or east of phoenix in gold canyon oh yeah, uh-huh yeah, so we're right there by the superstition mountain, right in our backyard, and it's not too far from me actually, oh really okay I'm in northeast mesa, so oh well, you know exactly where it's 

46:51
I mean, I mean every day I get up and it's like I go sit in the spa and I look at the mountain. Yeah, superstition is beautiful. We do, oh, man. 

47:00
Yeah, there's lots of. We spend a lot of time out there hiking, but actually we were going to move back there before we decided to move to Austin. So we love it, but yeah. So I was sitting in my office one day and I heard my wife scream and I was like what the? It kind of freaked me out and I ran out there and she's holding my son, who was about 16 months old at the time and he was blue Like he wasn't breathing and she's like oh my God, I don't know what happened, I don't know what to do. 

47:30
He's not breathing and he's having a seizure, so he's having a seizure, so he's having a seizure, and so I just like, reactively, grab him and I just started doing CPR. And so I'm working on him and I'm just going you know, come on, buddy, come on, you know it's all right. And I'm like talking to him, just trying to get him to hear me and come out of it, and I just nothing's working. And at one point I'm like I didn't know how many, how much time has passed by, but my wife's on the phone with EMS and she's crying and screaming and and I'm trying to like do this my thing over here. And then all of a sudden I hear this voice and it said Anthony, turn them on the side one more time. 

48:11
I did exactly that, and he took a breath. 

48:14 - Preston Zeller (Host)
Yeah. 

48:19 - Anthony Simonie (Guest)
And I exactly that, and he took a breath, yeah, and I was like, oh my gosh, I was like thank god, wow. But then I was like is he gonna be okay? Because I hadn't been breathing for a long time. And the ems showed up right then and put him on the, you know, the uh stretcher or whatever you call it, oxygen, yeah hooked him up to oxygen, all these monitors, and got and got him in an ambulance and took off. 

48:38
And so we went to the hospital and the guy I was in business with at the time lived right down the street and I asked him if he let my dog out and he's like, yeah, sure, so I give him the code he goes in and lets her out and come to find out. Um so, so later on I found out he went to my office and saw a new business I mapped out on the whiteboard and he got pissed off about it and thought I was gonna like take all the resources that I had built and do you know this whole thing? So, long story short, he can't. He uh, he told me that the Secretary of State was requiring us to amend our operating agreement and I didn't think anything of it. I was like, okay, whatever, I trust you, my son's not doing so well right now. I'm just like I'm focused on that and essentially what happened was I signed this document and it gave him half of my half of the business. 

49:38 - Preston Zeller (Host)
Oh geez. He totally snaked you. 

49:43 - Anthony Simonie (Guest)
So that was like one of the hardest. It was crazy and I definitely had trouble with that for a while and I decided I just couldn't be part of it anymore because it's just there's no, there's no way to overcome that. And um, so once I kind of got through the initial depression and all that, um, I kind of realized that I kind of heard this voice again. And it's weird for me to say that, but it's like I've had these times where something just told me like, do this thing. I heard this voice say get up, stop being a wuss. You have all these skill sets that you have just built and acquired. Go and do something else. And so I was like you know what? I'm going to start another business and I was part of this mastermind. 

50:34
You might have heard of it Digital Marketer War Room. It's not around anymore, but it was like if you could get in, you'd want to be in it. I made a friend and he came to me. He's like, hey, he kind of heard what was going on. He's like we're doing this cool thing on LinkedIn and you should check it out. At first I thought he was trying to help me get a job. 

50:58
I was like I don't think I want another job. You're like I don't want another job. 

51:03 - Preston Zeller (Host)
What year is this, by the way, that your business partner just screws you over? 

51:08 - Anthony Simonie (Guest)
basically, so this is like we're getting into. That was why I was in. I think that was around 2010. Okay 2010, right around there. 

51:19 - Preston Zeller (Host)
And that was with the business that were. You guys were taking care of the foreclosed properties. 

51:24 - Anthony Simonie (Guest)
It wasn't the actual service of it. It was teaching people how to do that. 

51:29 - Preston Zeller (Host)
Oh, yeah, that was the info marketing. It was the coaching. 

51:32 - Anthony Simonie (Guest)
Yeah, it was a coaching business that I ran built up, did all the marketing, selling everything. I built the whole thing up from scratch. But it was like he introduced me to it. He was knowledgeable and we were really good friends. I think the biggest heartbreak of all that was the feeling of betrayal. 

51:58
It's like here's the money and it was like but the betrayal is like man. I thought we were friends and we hung out a lot. We went to eat dinners together and being around each other's families. This is really hard. That's so crazy, isn't that? 

52:14 - Preston Zeller (Host)
nutty that people can just flip on a dime like that. 

52:18 - Anthony Simonie (Guest)
I think money really can change some people. You know how you hear people say money just intensifies. Whoever, you are right Truly. 

52:27 - Preston Zeller (Host)
Yeah or times of distress. Yeah, that's true, I mean anyone can be happy and cheery when things are going great, but when things get hard and you see people's like, true colors come out oh yeah, yeah, man, it's, it is, it's uh, and you know it's like again. 

52:44 - Anthony Simonie (Guest)
It's one of those things where it's like people ask me all the time like you know, what would you change if you go back and change it? You know, and I'm like I don't think I change anything, just because if you change one thing, you change everything and for all I know, like I don't know, who knows what would happen if it. 

53:00 - Preston Zeller (Host)
Yeah, then, then you'd be God knowing everything, and you're not. So like it's such a silly question to me, cause I'm like I don't know. You know it's just, but it's it's, it's pointless cause you can't change it right now. So we learned it is. 

53:21 - Anthony Simonie (Guest)
It's almost like sometimes some of us have to get kind of kicked in the face a little harder to for sure, I've been there, you know I've been there. 

53:29 - Preston Zeller (Host)
It's funny I see that I forgot you have kids. I did too, okay, yeah. So yeah it's. I mean, when you watch, watch your own kids and raise your own kids, you're just like man. That one there gets it, the other one not so much or they don't get it at the same times. 

53:46 - Anthony Simonie (Guest)
Why can't you guys be on the same page, the same wavelength, at the same time? 

53:50 - Preston Zeller (Host)
yeah. No, there's so many things there we were like. Sometimes I feel like I'm getting pranked by my kids. Well, is that a real question? 

53:57 - Anthony Simonie (Guest)
um, I'm always looking for the hidden camera, yeah, for sure you know. So it's like yeah am I so? 

54:05
so I didn't mention this, but like, so I, you know I was adopted, my, my two kids are adopted and we cool, we did. We did that by choice, just because you know it's like it was a huge blessing for me. Yeah, step up. So we're like you know it's like it was a huge blessing for me to have somebody step up. So we're like you know what and and we've we've never been like tested to see if we can have biological children or not. But we were just like this is, this is kind of on our heart. We don't, we don't do this. 

54:27 - Preston Zeller (Host)
So yeah, for sure. So that's how, that's the direction we went, but so you uh, so you got out of that, You're going. What is your next venture after that? 

54:38 - Anthony Simonie (Guest)
So what happened was? I started messing around with this platform, LinkedIn. 

54:43 - Preston Zeller (Host)
Oh yeah, Okay, LinkedIn. 

54:45 - Anthony Simonie (Guest)
And I'm like, okay, well, let me see if I can just use some of my own kind of like direct marketing skills and stuff like that. And I was using some of the stuff this other guy was doing too and I came up with a new offer and it was you know, I was not known in this niche at all and um had no testimonials, any fancy marketing or any of that stuff right, sorry. 

55:07 - Preston Zeller (Host)
New offer in the like the space where you're taking care of the homes no, no, it was brand it was. 

55:12 - Anthony Simonie (Guest)
it was completely different. It's essentially what it was. Taking your expert this, now it's popular, but back then it was like kind of fresh to people, whereas like OK, so you're an attorney, but you're also a real estate investor, do you want to teach other attorneys how to successfully invest in real estate? 

55:28
Got it OK, so I was taking all my marketing skills, all my everything that I learned very successfully and applied and helping other people do it for a very high ticket price and equity in the business. So I was and it went really well. So the first 30 days I think I collected it was like $60,000 in cash collected, $60,000 recurring and then a piece of the business. And then so that happened and I was like, you know, I understand marketing, so I know that sometimes we get lucky and I was like, oh, maybe that was just like a farce Right. And so I just went out and did the same thing, same sort of strategy, the following month and I got the same results. 

56:12 - Preston Zeller (Host)
And I knew it was duplicatable, yeah. 

56:13 - Anthony Simonie (Guest)
So I was like I can, I can do this over and over now. And then other people were just asking me like, how are you leveraging? Yeah, what are you doing? And I started helping people do that and so, um, that's where it all kind of started, where I was like, I'm just gonna, I'm going to use all my skillsets, I'm gonna stay on top of things, I'm going to figure things out, I'm going to help people do this. And now you know, it's that's what I do. I mean, I look for the whole found money partnerships. It's like we look for where you're missing the money. It's like there could be something going on in your business that you're missing with email or sales or, you know, maybe you're missing front end opportunity with LinkedIn, you know that's what we look for, because it's not a one-size-fits-all for everybody, and I think that's where a lot of different service providers they get caught is they're trying to fit a round pig through a square hole or the opposite of. 

57:03
However, you say that where it's like it doesn't work that way and so it's just it's got to know you're different than me. 

57:15
Um, we all have a different need. 

57:16
You know, even if it looks the same, there's a difference. If that makes sense. 

57:23 - Preston Zeller (Host)
Yeah, well, it sounds like you've really embraced this notion. I've, you know, I've repeated this at different times on different shows, but it's, you know, information or knowledge that you take for granted is totally new to somebody else. So, you know, using that kind of headspace to go help other people, like I was just actually at an exec roundtable at Google's headquarters in LA and it was an AI roundtable and you know, there are elements of it that were interesting, but also some of it that felt very softball to me, because I'm like deep in a lot of stuff with AI right now, and so at my round table I was like bringing up different things and, uh, different methodologies, and then we were out networking. I was bringing those things up. It people are like, what, what are you doing? And I'm like, yeah, I thought this was more well known. But you know, it's just interesting, like if you can realize that like you have and go help people and just find that audience that needs your knowledge, that they're willing to pay for it. Yeah. 

58:39 - Anthony Simonie (Guest)
Yeah, because it is. It's like I'll say this I said it earlier during our chat here but it's like I think there are just too many people missing or sleeping on having a good mentor, and that mentor could look different. It could be somebody that does something for you, or or just somebody that guides you Right. But if you're not willing to, um, to be open, for somebody to show you, everybody looks for like free, free, free, free, free. That's great, but something I'll share with everybody here that I know you're aware of that I was taught by a mentor many years ago is that there's this concept of writing small checks in order to cash big checks. You write the small check, the smaller check, to the mentor, to the person that's going to help you get there faster so that you can, there, then again cash the big checks you're looking to cash. 

59:34 - Preston Zeller (Host)
Yeah, that's a great point. You know, I think people miss out on the fact that, um, you know we're, we need money as a as a resource. It's a tool and unfortunately, if you don't have that put up, you don't have skin in the game. You just don't value things as much. I mean, I think just psychologically, that's what I mean, if you're honest. 

59:58 - Anthony Simonie (Guest)
Right, there's a lot there's. I've been there too where I'm like oh you know what, if I got a free, I would still put as much effort into it. But that's bs, because, if I'm honest, I know if there's pain associated with it, which is the pain comes from, like there's money coming out of my pocket that I worked hard for and now it's going over to you. Yeah, I'm going to pay a lot more attention to it, right? 

01:00:20 - Preston Zeller (Host)
Well, it's why I forget which fitness company Probably a lot of them at this point, but one in particular. The guy built his gym model around it being so cheap that people would forget they're paying for it oh, yeah, yeah right and so I mean so I got a friend. 

01:00:40 - Anthony Simonie (Guest)
I've got a friend that owns a whole bunch of planet fitnesses and that's the I think it might be that that's the model it's like you know what they're not gonna worry about 10 bucks. It's like I might want to use it sometime. 10 bucks not enough for me to worry about. You could? 

01:00:51 - Preston Zeller (Host)
yeah, oh go work out as much as you want and you could sign up like three times the capacity of the gym or probably more than that, because you know it's always going to be partially full. 

01:01:04 - Anthony Simonie (Guest)
And you know people aren't going to cancel, because it's like they think they might want to use it and it's like do I want to go through the process of canceling and then re-enrolling, or just like leave it there? It's like yeah. 

01:01:16 - Preston Zeller (Host)
I mean psychology, right, I mean, and contrast that with I'm paying $100, $200, $300 or I'm at Equinox. Actually I just saw this article the other day Equinox has like $20,000 suites or something. People laughed at Equinox when it came out and now they're like actually have just more and more expensive things in there and yeah well, you know they've. They've hit an audience. I'm sure people take their market? 

01:01:43 - Anthony Simonie (Guest)
Yeah, there's a market. It's like you don't, the people that don't understand it is not the market Right. 

01:01:48 - Preston Zeller (Host)
Yeah, I, I worked for um. I worked for a like legit billionaire family, billionaire family early in my career and I worked for them for about a year and one of the most fascinating sort of social things I got out of that was seeing how they shop for things, shop for services, products, and a lot of it was referral-based based and it was how expensive are they? And we'd literally be between maybe two or three referrals and they're like the, the all else being equal. Tiebreaker was who was the most expensive. Let's go with them. 

01:02:28 - Anthony Simonie (Guest)
Wow so it's like it's all like you know, they understand. It's like you get most of the time you get what you pay for, right Type of thing. Yeah, it's like it's all like they understand. It's like you get most of the time you get what you pay for, right, that type of thing, yeah and they're like well, we're not going to take a risk on. 

01:02:37 - Preston Zeller (Host)
I mean, obviously, if they're charging more money, they've got to be really good. I mean, it doesn't always that logic doesn't always pull through, right, right. But and it wasn't like oh, I want to go pay $50 for a gallon of milk, or something like that. 

01:02:51 - Anthony Simonie (Guest)
Well, that's where it's like it's, all things being equal then right. 

01:02:57 - Preston Zeller (Host)
Yeah, then correct. And the power of personal reference. I think Joe Rogan mostly books his podcasts by people who he trusts say, hey, you should interview this guy. 

01:03:12 - Hope (Announcement)
Like they have a form. 

01:03:13 - Anthony Simonie (Guest)
You can go submit, but I don't know how many people actually go on the show yeah, you're not getting on there unless you have, like you're like, a certain degree of separation. 

01:03:23 - Preston Zeller (Host)
Yeah, exactly, yeah like one you know um. So anyways, um, okay, let's uh, let's talk about anything else you want to talk about with found money. I mean, I know, you know we are at a real estate centric um mastermind. I mean, are you doing a lot in the real estate space or is it just kind of all over the place? 

01:03:49 - Anthony Simonie (Guest)
Yeah, so there's a lot in the real estate space, um, but there's also, there's also markets outside of that. Really Sure. What I've done is I've figured out a way to use not only the foundational principles of what builds a good business, what makes good marketing, what makes good salesmanship, that kind of stuff, but it's all about relationship, and so what I've done is this process can be adjusted to fit almost anybody's offer. The key and when I talk about anybody's offer, I'm talking about, like, let's say, linkedin. For example, if somebody says, anthony, will my offer work on LinkedIn? The first thing I ask is is it a $27 widget? 

01:04:30
OK no, it's not. It has the ability to be a lifetime. You know significant lifetime customer value. Okay, so Great, now are they on the platform. Then I go and I do a little bit of research and say, okay, yeah, there's a good, there's a decent audience here. Now, once I've done that research, I'm like, yeah, we can adjust this to make it work. 

01:04:52
So it doesn't matter. 

01:04:53
if you're trying to raise capital and raise capital looks different for different people right, that could be going after private lenders that are already private lending. Maybe you're looking for relationships with asset managers. Maybe you're looking for relationships with asset managers Maybe you're looking for? Maybe you're a syndicator looking for co-GPs. Maybe you're looking for more LPs that maybe they don't even know how that process works. Right, Because there's a lot of people on LinkedIn that are that have money and they want to be in real estate, but they're not quite sure what that means. 

01:05:18
So it's like you go out and you find them taking through process and you end up with more LPs. Right, it's like you're just applying a process that's proven to work in the way that we do it. I mean, it's adjusted depending on what your offer is and who you're trying to serve. On the other side of things, it's like, if you think about somebody that's got an email list, you think about somebody that has a sales team, somebody who's spending a bunch of money on marketing. If you look at any business, I can promise you that probably 95% plus there's a ton of untapped opportunity. And I'll give you an example. 

01:05:54
One of the processes that we have that we put into place for companies is we'll look and see okay, how many people is your sales team closing? Right, and they you're like even the best are only closing like maybe 30. So what's happening to the 70? Right, they're getting more the same, same, same, same same. Okay, that's great. But how about we apply a different angle? We run a process where we go and tap more sales out of that group before they go somewhere else and buy from somebody else. Because here's the thing, Preston, you know this Somebody clicks on an ad for whatever your thing is. They go onto your list, but guess where they also go? They go into the auctioned pool of people, where now they're going to see all your competitors' ads too. 

01:06:39
So, you don't own that person. They're on other people's lists. So what we do is we create a different way to approach them person. They're on other people's lists, so what we do is we create a different way to approach them and like one of those ways is through email and even getting them to raise their hand even close through email. 

01:06:52
With this process, with this one process I'm talking about, that doesn't interfere with your sales team, doesn't interfere with what you're already doing, but brings more money to the bottom line so that you can recapture some of that money you spent on the front end. And so there's different things that we do, and that's why it's like found money partnerships. What does that mean? It's about finding where the highest leverage opportunity is. That could be LinkedIn, it could be something you wrote in the email, it could be something else that you're doing, and we just look for those opportunities. We don't do everything, but we're really good at a handful of things that most people are not usually doing, um to the fullest capacity or potential in their business. Yeah. 

01:07:33 - Preston Zeller (Host)
Awesome, and where are you hoping to take this? What are your goals? 

01:07:39 - Anthony Simonie (Guest)
Um, tell me a little bit more about this word, this uh, yeah, sorry vague question. 

01:07:47 - Preston Zeller (Host)
So found money partnerships, or maybe not even that, you know. If you have like different personal goals, um, but you know what is the three, five year outlook for you look like. I mean, is it that you want to expand into other verticals or is AI a part of this at all? You know how. How do you foresee found money partnerships evolving and growing over the next several years? 

01:08:15 - Anthony Simonie (Guest)
Yeah, you know the. The truth of that is, um, I don't know, really I know. What I do know, though, is I want to serve and make an impact for as many people as I can. Sometimes that means working together with somebody, sometimes that means just having a conversation with them and giving them some sort of guidance, if I have some knowledge to help them. But to kind of fit your question and to not make anybody feel like I skirted the question, I will say this One of the things that I have now decided to bring back out to the market is so what we do a lot of right now is a lot of done for you. Let's talk about LinkedIn right now, for example because this might be appealing to your audience. 

01:09:03
We do a lot of done for you, but we are typically full, like we're typically at capacity. Sometimes we have a waiting list for that, but the other thing that we do is we will go in and install our process into a company as well, and that's another thing that we do. But this I want to say I want to pause here and not call it new, because it's something I've done very successfully before right is teach people how to do it for themselves or for if they've got a team member or somebody that can help them deploy the strategy. So what I'm doing is I'm I'm bringing back out the community where people can join the community. 

01:09:42
They can get personal coaching, support. They get access to all the strategies that we do for our, done for you people, but they they've got to deploy it on their own, with our guidance in a group setting and in that group we're going to talk about link. 

01:09:55
Well, it's already existing, but we're going to be growing it, um, and looking for strategic partners to help grow that. That it makes sense for their audience, but essentially it's a way to make a huge impact in people's lives, because I've seen a huge need for this strategy over the past 12 to 18 months. I want to bring it to people so they don't go and sign up for somebody's thing and they get burnt or waste their money. I'm going to show them everything that we do successfully every day, and it's going to be LinkedIn. It's going to be like well's going to be like well. 

01:10:25
Now, what do you do for email? We're going to give them all the email best practices. We're going to just make sure that they have everything they need to to run. It's almost like a, if I dare say, almost like a, like a, like a fractional, cmo-ish style group where we're giving you this stuff and giving you our best strategies on anything that we know that, uh, that can help you in in your business to get more business and to be more efficient in your business. So it's going to be found money. 

01:10:54
Uh, it's going to be, you know, found money, uh, uh, community and so it's not going to be titled linkedin community or anything like that, it's just yeah, found money, but it's going to be an opportunity for people like even wholesalers and fix and flippers. Like I said, they're coming into an age of real estate investing where they need to show up more powerfully online to have a better business. 

01:11:16 - Preston Zeller (Host)
Personal validation Absolutely Cool, anything. You haven't said Any final thoughts. 

01:11:27 - Anthony Simonie (Guest)
Well, man, I don't, you're somebody I feel like I could talk to, for I know we could do this a long time If I could sort of leave somebody with just like an inspiration to just stay. The course is just like don't let those stuff that's like created to sort of bring it to kind of distract us from from being the best that we could be. Somehow we got to get back to you know. 

01:12:13
Hey, you know what we're human beings and how can we be, you know, helpful for each other? And not only that, but let's, let's kind of put the blinders on and focus on what we're trying to do and not give up, not let those negative things pull us away, because that's the only way you're going to get through. It's only going to get worse with the distractions. So, whether it's Preston like, hitch yourself to Preston, hitch yourself to somebody that can help you with guiding you along that path and doing more of the right things, taking more of the right actions. So yeah. Yeah. 

01:12:48 - Preston Zeller (Host)
Good words. Uh well, thanks, Anthony. Where can people find you? What's the best, uh, social outlet or website? 

01:12:54 - Anthony Simonie (Guest)
Yeah, you can look me up on LinkedIn or um. You can go to my website, anthony simonecom. There's a way to contact me there. My email is anthony at anthony simonecom, so you can. You can reach me there too. Yeah, yeah, man, I'm happy to you know, to deliver value wherever I can. 

01:13:13 - Hope (Announcement)
Awesome. Thanks for listening to today's podcast. Please make sure to subscribe on your favorite service to get notified every time a new episode is released.