The Titanium Vault hosted by RJ Bates III
RJ Bates III, affectionately referred to as the Viking Wizard by his students, started his real estate investing career in 2014 after attending a real estate education program that put him $65,000 in debt. RJ contracted his first deal he found on the MLS and wholesaled it for a $7,500 assignment fee. That was the end of his former life and the beginning of his venture into becoming a real estate investor. Since that moment, RJ has become an influential figurehead in the real estate investing industry. He has successfully purchased and sold over 2,000 properties all across the USA including wholesale deals, rehabs, rentals, owner finances and short term rentals. One of his passions is being the host of The Titanium Vault Podcast where he interviews the top real estate investors and finally, RJ has won back to back Closers Olympics earning him the reputation as the King Closer!
The Titanium Vault hosted by RJ Bates III
What's A Business Move You Made This Year That Surprised You? | Pardon The Disruption
Ever wonder how the NBA's in-season tournament format parallels our own surprising business decisions? The guys on the Pardon The Disruption panel have made some bold moves this year, including price hikes and re-branding, and are here to share how evolving with the changing tides has paid off in their respective sectors. Our banter extends to a heart-warming conversation about gratitude and thankfulness, and we also dive into a thought-provoking debate on Aaron Rodgers' speedy return from injury - is it sheer dedication or a symptom of a toxic work culture?
Just as Rodgers' return sparked debate, so does the topic of hiring family and friends. We share our diverse experiences - the good, the bad, and the ugly - stressing the importance of open communication and clear expectations if you decide to go down that road. We then switch gears to a recent incident involving a security guard and a fan, and how as business owners, we are faced with the challenge of responding to customer mistreatment.
Last but not least, we had quite a riveting discussion on Elon Musk's controversial actions and reputation. Is he a genius walking a fine line with madness, or is he merely exploiting the privilege to speak freely without consequences? As we explore this, we question if he's a true innovator or just a skilled corporate raider. Join us for this enlightening conversation, where we explore business, sports, gratitude, and more. It's a conversation you won't want to miss!
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What is going on everyone? Welcome to this week's Pardon the Disruption. We hope that you had an amazing Thanksgiving. It has already been rowdy behind the scenes starting out. We're excited. I'm Matthew Potter. I am your host, a short sale guy, hedge fund connection as well as co-founder of the family tree over at Real Broker. Hit me up if I can help you grow your business. For those that are just tuning in for the first time, we're going to give you a breakdown of how we do things around here. We have five pre-selected questions. Each one of our panelists will get 45 seconds to go ahead and answer and then two minutes to chop it up. After that, points are awarded based off of best argument or, honestly, whoever I'm feeling is giving me the least amount of crap today. So we'll see how that's going to go. All right, we're going to start off with intros, starting off Richmond, va's very own Chris Jefferson, cj. Say hi to people.
Chris Jefferson:I like that man. I might have to dub that into my intro man. I like that. Chris Jefferson Richmond VA. Happy to be here. As always, leon, it's good to see you again. Rj. Steve, I hope you guys got some sleep. Potter what up, looking forward to today Charged at university. You know the vibes man.
Matthew Potter:Awesome, awesome. Next up we have I just learned this information during our pre-game we have RJ Bates official Father Leon G Barnes. Don't forget the G.
Leon G. Barnes:That would be daddy.
Matthew Potter:Daddy, that's right, daddy.
Leon G. Barnes:What's up everyone? Leon G Barnes, We'd like to have fun on this show. Obviously, you can see right out of the gates. Good to see all my friends and you too, Steve. I'm looking forward to a great show today. Cj, looking crispy down there I see that face.
Chris Jefferson:Looking good, my friend.
Leon G. Barnes:Looking super crispy today.
Matthew Potter:Better watch out. That's at Mango Butter. We sent that down there for Speaking of Mango Butter coming to us from Dallas, fort Worth, texas. We have the one, the only. Rj Bates, this, that and the third. Introduce yourself.
RJ Bates III:What's up, guys? Rj Bates, the third here from Titanium Investments. I'm excited to be back after taking a week off for Thanksgiving. Hopefully you guys had a good holiday and just surprised that CJ upgraded his software so he could be crispy and then he shows up with all 27 inches of his forehead showing off. I thought he would have put a hat on. It's going to be an exciting PTD though.
Matthew Potter:Wow, we went there. You called it a forehead. You could have upgraded to five headband. I mean, you know, just saying I'll take it, man, I'll take it, I'll take it, that's right. Last, certainly not least, we have Mr Disruptor himself, steve Trang. Introduce yourself.
Steve Trang:Steve Trang. We will say disruptors, closemarsellscom. It was really refreshing to do a show last night. Rj put it together for the Al Nicoletti show. It was a lot of fun. I come to find out that Chris was not lying. He was telling us his internet is actually better at night. I don't understand it. I don't understand why he can't get better internet during the day. But yeah, he looked amazing. So when it's webinar time, chris's internet is crispy. Outside of that, I don't know exactly what he's doing.
Matthew Potter:Man, it's when you're on that share plan, you know you got everybody.
Chris Jefferson:Potter, you know how it goes, man.
Matthew Potter:You got to monitor the data usage.
Chris Jefferson:bro, you just stuck.
Steve Trang:It was beautiful last night. It was beautiful last night.
Matthew Potter:It was pretty clean and I will say it did not knock down the live stream on Facebook, so we appreciate that, cj. All right, we're going to go ahead and start off with question number one, with NBA fans seemingly pleased with the NBA's in season tournament format established this year, what's a business move you made this year that surprised you? Start us off, cj.
Chris Jefferson:I raised my prices. Historically, I always sold my products coaching services for pretty low prices. Coming into this year, we decided to drastically raise those prices. I'd say it's the best decision I've ever made. I think that people take it more serious. I think people see more value in things they pay more money for and it creates more intentionality when people come into the program to have them do what we're teaching. So definitely raising the price Something I didn't think I'd ever do what we charged now to get into the program, but it was definitely the best decision we've made so far this year.
Matthew Potter:There we go. It's a bold move and it's paying off. All right, Leon G Barnes, what about you?
Leon G. Barnes:First of all, I have to question the question because I'm not sure that NBA fans I include myself in that group are happy with the N-Season tournament or were fans of it.
Leon G. Barnes:I'm still a little confused and I think it would be much, much better if you brought in outside leagues into the team and made it a true N-Season tournament. That said, in my own personal business I would have, and Steve and I have had many conversations about property management and how much most of us hate property management. But I made a decision this year to bring in property management into my own personal business and I was not going to lie. I was afraid I was shaking my boots a little bit with that transition of taking that over. I had never, I think in four years I had always used an outside property management service and it's turned out to surprise me because it's been pretty smooth because of the employee that I have in that role. She's awesome and she's also given me the opportunity to look at it from another side, with a guy like Jimmy Breeland potentially turning into a business opportunity in the future. So yeah, it's been a big surprise and a blessing.
Matthew Potter:There we go. That's a bold move, property management. Kudos to you on that one. All right, RJ, what kind of bold moves are you making?
RJ Bates III:You know. On Leon's point there with the NBA in-season tournament, I liked it. I thought it was fun. I really liked the unique course that they brought. So from another fans perspective, I did like it, leon. As far as business goes, a couple of things. I did not come into this year thinking I was going to do another 50 deals, 50 states, 50 days challenge. That was a great move for us as a business. It put me back in the seat as a player and, coming from that, really refined our processes, so much so that then joining the family mastermind, coming out of that, after three years, we changed our entire education program from the titanium crucible to the Closer's Formula and it's been a great journey for us. We see the need of people needing to learn how to close deals virtually across the country. There's so much that goes into it. It's not just about closing, it's about comping and underwriting and understanding the different markets across the country and we've been able to reach so many more people because of that. And all of that was a complete shock to me.
Matthew Potter:There we go. No surprise that RJ is a fan of this in-season tournament, considering the fact he is basketball's number one hockey fan. So we got that going for us All, right, Steve. What about you?
Steve Trang:The biggest surprise for me was that we all committed as an organization to be a sales training first and foremost for 2024. I went to the ClickFunnels event because Chris tricked me into going, and while I was there I saw an ocean of opportunity. We do really well on the real estate side and as great as we do on the real estate side, I see this whole marketing world and how much help they need. The people that really thrive in the marketing world have a different skill set than people that run real estate businesses and they need sales training way more than the people that buy houses. So I see a huge opportunity there, and so I think the biggest surprise was that we as an organization pivoted harder to sales and close more. Salescom is going to be huge in 24.
RJ Bates III:On that note, steve, with you bringing up that the marketing world needs sales, the real estate investing, education world needs better marketing, and CJ talks about this all the time, about how he considers he identifies now as the internet marketer.
Chris Jefferson:Yeah, this guy's crazy.
RJ Bates III:I swear to God that's a quote of yours. I mean that's how.
Matthew Potter:That's how I identify, bro. It comes, that mature rating.
RJ Bates III:This world does need it, though. I mean, I just brought on someone for for marketing for our education and he essentially went through our entire industry and kind of laughed and said the real estate investing education world is kind of in archaic time. So it's funny that you feel like the marketing world struggles on sales and they feel like we struggle on the marketing side.
Steve Trang:I mean CJ has been screaming this from the mountaintops like he. Every time someone says wholesale off the MLS. I think Chris rolls in his grave Right, like I think it's just like I think it just drives him absolutely bonkers. So yeah, I think that the marketing side is because who's doing it well right, those new reach, who's running pace and jimmy's campaigns, chris, I think that's the whole list. I think that's the whole list.
Chris Jefferson:No, I mean, I'll comment on that real quick. I think that Steve's point is accurate and I think RJ's point is accurate. When it comes to coaches, influencers in the real estate space, what's happened is in 2020, it wasn't that common for somebody to be shooting real shooting, educational content, things of that nature. When COVID happened, everybody got a ring light and a camera and became a content person. When it came to this industry, and what's been missed in that is that there's actual marketing required to make it a business and a lot of people are just shooting videos, shooting content, throwing it up and thinking that's going to create a business and it just unfortunately doesn't necessarily.
Steve Trang:I can't wait until Leon gets a ring light and starts dancing and pointing like. Like Sam, I am looking forward to that day.
Leon G. Barnes:Man, I you got to get me really drunk and I don't really drink like that.
Steve Trang:So that'd be the best. That would be the biggest surprise for 2023.
RJ Bates III:Anyone else during Leon's answer realized that if Leon ever wore a cowboy hat and when he said that had me shaking in my boots he would be woody from toy store.
Leon G. Barnes:Hey, was anybody surprised that the hockey guys that his favorite thing about professional basketball was the way the courts were painted. Anybody else surprised by that? It was cool.
Steve Trang:The ones I hate. So I actually enjoy I actually enjoy the N-Season tournament. The one thing I hate about the N-Season tournament is the courts. That's probably the thing I hate the most about it. I actually like that.
Leon G. Barnes:They've differentiated. That is help fans understand that it's a N-Season tournament game. But I'm always looking at where could they have made this better and this is their first year, so I know that they want to hear. You know, I've got a bat phone into the New York offices.
Leon G. Barnes:And the first thing that I would say is you take the top two teams from the biggest leagues Euroleague, nba and you figure out a way to put those top two or three teams in that tournament and do it no different than European soccer does Now. Now you're working with something that has legs. Yeah no one cares about the other countries.
Steve Trang:No one cares about the other countries.
Leon G. Barnes:Sure.
Matthew Potter:Be, easy over there.
Leon G. Barnes:Where's the best players in NBA coming from right now?
Steve Trang:And they're staying in the NBA because they're not good over there.
Leon G. Barnes:Right, but think if you could have seen Luca at 17 in that tournament versus LeBron at 17.
Steve Trang:Hey, did you see that Luca pass? Did you see that Luca pass through LeBron's legs? Chris, that was an incredible pass.
Chris Jefferson:Nice I didn't see that I didn't see that. I gotta look for that.
Steve Trang:Oh, check it out. On Bleacher Report.
Leon G. Barnes:Meaghan for sure.
Matthew Potter:Outstanding. All right, I'm going to take this one to the chat, and RJ is starting off with his VAs today, voting feverishly. Point to RJ Bates, the third.
Leon G. Barnes:So we're going back old school voting apparently. Yeah, baby.
Matthew Potter:No A, I'm just bringing it back to something familiar for you guys.
Steve Trang:Bring the whistle back.
Chris Jefferson:Yeah, there we go Bring the whistle back.
Matthew Potter:All right. Negative points for Steve. Per usual, here we go. All right. Question number two for today what are you thankful for this year? Here we go. There better be some good answers here. All right, Start us off RJ.
RJ Bates III:Let's go with all the people closest to me in my life, including each one of you guys on this panel. You guys have actually become friends of mine Different points of time that I've had conversations with each of you about different things going on, just in life business. The beginning of this year was hard for me. I was in a rut with everything that went on with the TV show and just everything like that. It was mentally exhausting for me. I didn't think it would be or it was, and then outside of that, just other people in this industry that I quite frankly didn't have any sort of relationship with previously but because of opportunities that have come, I've established more friendships with and opportunities that have grown. So really for me, just this year, when I look back, it'll be all of the people that came into my life that have laid a foundation for what the future looks like moving forward.
Matthew Potter:Wow, love that. When's the Hallmark special coming out? Let's go PTD on Hallmark Channel. All right, steve, what about you?
Steve Trang:I'm going to say a lot of the same thing. When we started PTD a year and a half two years ago, we were just expecting this to kind of be like some goofy show let's see this last, see how it goes. Whatever, they all created incredible bonds. I think I've developed stronger friendships with everyone, except for Jimmy I think Jimmy is just an outcast, so just leave him over here but everyone else created better friendships with. I'll give you I'll get something else too, and this might be kind of weird, but like I was, I want to say, about 10 seconds away from getting T-Bone right Like someone ran a red light the other day and it's like you know, like your life flashes before your eyes, right.
Steve Trang:So it was me, emily in the backseat and then Vivian and Amelia in the car. So it was me and my three girls. Like I am thankful for, like you know, sometimes you just got to be thankful when you know bad things don't happen and just watching someone just fly through a red light intersection right before I got to it is like you know, you can only think of, you know, horrible thoughts. So I'm incredibly thankful really to be here and be here with all you guys.
Matthew Potter:Damn, we're going to go into the feelings bag on this one. All right, cj, what about you? You got to take it up a notch, let's go.
Chris Jefferson:Yeah, man, yeah, I think those are all great points really For me. I'm really thankful for, like opportunities to fail. You know I'm constantly in my life just trying to seek out failure in different ways and in growing a business you know we kind of talked about this I mentioned this a little bit last night like failure is just a part of that and so I'm constantly trying to seek it out and I'm thankful that we can find it, absorb it, make adjustments, make changes and keep fighting and climbing, you know, to the levels that we're trying to get things to in different ways. And some people you know, when I think about that like some people can't say that, like some people, one failure, one, you know, one thing going the wrong way can just wipe you out. It could just completely crush your business. So I'm thankful to be able to absorb things and keep going.
Matthew Potter:There we go All right. Next up, leon. What about you? What are you thankful for this year?
Leon G. Barnes:Man I am. I'm blown away. I thought RJ was actually going to shed a tear. It would have been a first in his life.
Leon G. Barnes:I think I'm very thankful for a lot of the things. Obviously, we're all thankful to be alive. You know, to be alive at this time, you know, with all of the resources we have available to us, you know, as human beings, it's an unbelievable time to be alive. And I'm going to go along the lines of what you know RJ and Steve said in regards to family and friends.
Leon G. Barnes:I count my friends, including all of you guys, as family, and I'm so thankful that the people that I surround myself with, I don't have anyone that tears me down. Those people don't necessarily stay around long, because I'm someone that's always, you know, trying to build others up and I require the same from others. The word can't, doesn't, it's not in our vocabulary, and I think that we talk a lot about being in the community. Regardless of what community you're in, surround yourself with people that empower you and that, when you're having those bad days, can give you that little bit of a bump that you need, Because, honestly, all of us are pretty successful on this on the show, but, you know, as humans, there are days that we have bad days as well, and surrounding yourself, and I'm thankful that I have a community that is always, always helping me continue to excel instead of building me up instead of down.
Steve Trang:Yeah, and that's just to add on top of that what Leon said I love the opportunity to tear RJ down. I'm really thankful for that. So last night RJ was upset because I was saying he was a closer, not a cleaner, like he's been screaming from the mountains. I was like he's a closer. So I was like, yeah, he's not a cleaner. And he kept this look right here. He kept giving this look on Facebook. I don't know why it's like you're not a cleaner, you're a closer, like what. I don't understand.
RJ Bates III:On that note, steve, I was going to say here we go. You talked about, you know, avoiding that car wreck. Last Tuesday I had a live on my YouTube channel scheduled with Carlos Reyes, and I ordered lunch. Right like an hour before first bite I took of the shrimp which is what I ordered for lunch got stuck in my esophagus and I was literally choking in the front yard of our office for 45 minutes straight. And it was one of those moments where, like I was actually frightened at different points of time, where I'm like, dude, am I about that? I have to go to the hospital. I've done it one other time in my life on a piece of steak, and it was just so scary that eventually it fixed itself and I just carried on with my day. But it was one of those things of, like man, you never know when your time's going to get called. So being thankful for every single moment that we have is just something that we take for granted.
Leon G. Barnes:I'm going to tell you, rj, what I tell my 11 year old son slow down, chew your food, man, you can't just cut it into smaller bites.
Chris Jefferson:I did, I did, I did, I did, I did, I did, it was right.
Leon G. Barnes:Slow down.
Steve Trang:Viking bites. Yeah, I don't know, I can't imagine the funeral Like man, like what happened. What got RJ? A shrimp, a shrimp.
Leon G. Barnes:Not even a shrimp. Long John's over.
Steve Trang:Long John's over Long John's over Long.
Leon G. Barnes:John's over Long.
Chris Jefferson:John's over Long John's over Long. John's over Long.
Matthew Potter:John's over Long John's over Long John's Two 2. 1. 22.
RJ Bates III:2., 22., 2., 22., 1., 2., 2, 2., 2., 2., 2., 2., 2. Sing 2., 1., 2., 3. Yeah, it's the Einelepoie. It's a project that I've been in, I've been doing and modeling.
Leon G. Barnes:I've made other projects for years and for years I've been doing and labeling.
RJ Bates III:That is your go to man, can we, can we also give the one that we wish would go away? Sure Turkey, bro. Turkey sucks. I don't understand why. It's just no.
Steve Trang:This is the pictures.
Chris Jefferson:Turkey on my plate this year, man. Mac and cheese. Man, you got to have right mac and cheese 100% can't be everybody's cheese, though.
Chris Jefferson:No, no, no, it can't be. It can't be RJ's mac and cheese, bro. It just can't. It just can't. That's gonna be the, that's gonna be the. Ain't what we eat over here, man. That crash, brother. You know we don't do all that stuff over here. Yo shout out to Salt and Pepper and Seasoning, for sure, but what I? What I will say now. Shout out to Seasoning for sure, man, but what I? But Potato Souffle too, man, with the roasted marshmallows on top. If you don't know, get in touch with somebody.
Leon G. Barnes:That's it. That's the one.
Chris Jefferson:And what will put you on a game.
Leon G. Barnes:That's the one. Sweet potatoes with marshmallows broiled on the top. That's. That's the go to.
Chris Jefferson:Yes, sir.
Matthew Potter:Steve doesn't have one, I'll say that could be question number six.
Steve Trang:I think Matt's lost control of the show If we got to answer this question. Soup, I mean, for me it's just pumpkin pie. I don't care about anything else, I just need my pumpkin pie.
Leon G. Barnes:I mean that could have been a worse answer. Pumpkin pie is a good one.
Matthew Potter:I don't think there's a lot of answers that are worse than that, though let's be honest, leon.
Leon G. Barnes:I know man pumpkin pie is pretty good.
Chris Jefferson:I don't know, it's kind of there with turkey man.
Matthew Potter:Man, I'm gonna have to invite all y'all to our house.
Steve Trang:Everything I said about party disruption and being thankful for you guys like this. Delete that from the episode. We're getting a new group of people that like pumpkin pie. That's gonna be interview.
Matthew Potter:We need RJ to edit that.
Leon G. Barnes:We're not fans of Thanksgiving. If you don't like turkey and pumpkin pie, come on. You guys are heartless.
Matthew Potter:Yeah, I don't know the right side of my screen over here. I'm gonna have to control all. Delete them, restart them over here. My man's to shout out the seasoning, just for the shout out to seasoning. I'm gonna throw the points to CJ on that Salt and pepper and the season we're gonna get into question number three. Now I'm interested to see what you guys got to say about this one. Is Aaron Rodgers returning too fast? An example of toxic work and culture. Start us off, cj.
Chris Jefferson:No, I think Zach Wilson is. Your quarterback is a toxic work culture, man. I think that you know, aaron, when this, when Aaron Rodgers went down in the first game this season, this team became completely deflated. You've got Garrett Wilson, who's a complete stud at wide out, who hasn't had any opportunity to showcase himself this year. I think the team is going to rally behind Aaron coming back. I don't know that it makes sense for him, but if I'm Aaron Rodgers, probably the thought I would think maybe is this is probably his last shot and he probably wants to go out playing and I can't ever knock anybody for that. I think it's going to rally the locker room. I don't think they've got playoff chances still, if I'm not mistaken, but I think it'll be good for team morale in the long term. Going into the off season, that means a lot to there we go.
Matthew Potter:All right, One vote for not toxic. All right, Leon. What about you?
Leon G. Barnes:Yeah, I agree. I think it's the complete opposite. He if you watch Hard Knocks he was you know the culture that he set in working with the young players. They were on the up and up until two plays into the season and I also think this is greatness. And this can be related back to business. When you have, you know, high level performers within your organization, they're just different, they're cut from a different cloth and you have to rally behind them. You have to treat them a little bit differently. That's Jimmy Johnson used to say I'm going to treat you all fair, but not equal. I think A A Ron is just he's a, he's a hall of famer. That's what he is. And this is him saying I'm going to prove that you know he's big on natural medicine versus you know big pharma, which, by the way, he works for Johnson and Johnson is who owns the Jets. But this is A Ron being A Ron and the hall of famer, just saying I'm going to make it back. So I think it's the complete opposite of toxic.
Matthew Potter:There we go and inspirational, if you will. All right, RJ, what about you?
RJ Bates III:What the kind of snowflake question is this? This question definitely was written by Steve Train. That's all I'm saying, 100% right here Proved right here. Steve Train voted for Joe Biden this question. Joe Biden is Steve Train's president because of this question right here.
Steve Trang:You back off of Biden. He said nothing wrong.
RJ Bates III:It's not a toxic work culture. No, this is a sign of the man cares about his team and his teammates and his legacy, and he worked his ass off to get back to be the leader that he was meant to be for this organization, the reason why he is a part of the New York Jets. I don't think there's anything toxic about this whatsoever. I think it's inspirational. Like someone else said your turn Snowflake. Yes, of course it is toxic work culture. Of course, it is All right To.
Steve Trang:Steve. So no, it's not an example of toxic work culture, but what it is an example of is all these guys are working too hard. So we actually talked about this last night on Al's show. The rest of us, we go too hard. We don't know how to slow down, we don't know how to take it easy, we don't know what to do with ourselves when the thing we care most about isn't available to us. Whether you're on vacation or you're doing something else, you just want to get back to work, and I think that's what this is an example of. This is an example of being, I say, workaholic, but not with negative connotation, but that's just kind of how we are. We're wired to keep going, going and going. We don't know how to slow down. Rj, for you, this is what a cleaner looks like, someone that's going to do what they have to do to get the job done. So I think he's been a role model specifically for RJ, to inspire him. Let's see.
Leon G. Barnes:My question why are you?
RJ Bates III:thinking that this is because he works too hard. Why else your season's over?
Steve Trang:Why are you risking yourself the reasons to come back from an Achilles injury when your season's over? There's no benefit. There's no upside. Your team sucks. There is man At the end of the day every night.
Chris Jefferson:we all got to go to sleep regardless of everything else in our lives, regardless of our children, family, significant others, everything and we got to settle up with ourself on where we feel like we're at, on what we set out to do. What I see is somebody that's like to come back from an Achilles tear within 18 weeks is like. I mean, I think it's unheard of. If I'm not mistaken, I don't know somebody else that's come back that fast from this. The fastest is Terrell Suggs. Yeah, you're right, terrell Suggs did come back like crazy. I think he went to the same doctor as Terrell Suggs, if I'm not mistaken, but I think he's just proving to himself who he believes that he is, and I think there's something to be said for that. Well, if you look back at the history, before what.
Leon G. Barnes:But if you look back at the history, two things. Number one he was an underdog coming out. He was, you know, passed over by his hometown team in San Francisco 49ers and they picked Alex Smith with the number one overall picks. So he had all automatically had a chip on his shoulder and he went to a team with a Hall of Fame quarterback where he had to sit for years. Right Then, when he left that organization, what's the biggest thing? They questioned. They questioned his, his, him being a part of the team and wanting he's talking about. They were talking about retirement and all these things.
Leon G. Barnes:So, as a Hall of Fame level talent, again I'm going back to business. This is something that he wants to prove this, not to anyone other than himself. Now, with that comes quieting all the doubters, right, but this is about him wanting to, to be a part of him wanting to to prove something especially remember if you've ever heard him on any of the podcast with McAfee he talks about a lot about natural healing remedies and things of that nature, and so this is. This is another shot against vaccinations and things like that that he was big against. So there's a lot of different factors of why he's doing this, not just one.
Steve Trang:So my point is that it ceases over. However, a counterpoint, matt. Do you remember the house we went to when I was on crutches? Yeah, yeah, you remember why I was on crutches.
Matthew Potter:Achilles.
Steve Trang:I tore my Achilles tendon right so I was covering for my Achilles injury. So I get a call from a lead and she's like, hey, I want to sell my house. I was like, ah, shoot, well, I need to go. But I am literally defenseless Right, I'm on crutches, I can't even walk. Call Potter, hey, you want to go with me on this appointment, just in case anything crazy happens? We bought the house right, it was a great deal, but going to a house with a Achilles tendon that was recently put together, that was fun.
RJ Bates III:Hold on, let me get this straight. Mr Snowflake said that he was defenseless. Like you, brought a bodyguard with you.
Steve Trang:You see, Matt, he looks a lot tougher than it can happen on crutches.
Chris Jefferson:Last night you got like a black belt and jujitsu or something.
Leon G. Barnes:You have a weapon, you have crutches.
Steve Trang:Okay, all right. One dog jumps on you on crutches. How are you guys doing?
RJ Bates III:All two grams of respect I had for you.
Steve Trang:Okay, so when I talk about the reason not to come back, is that it's really easy to re rupture the Achilles when it's been reattached. Of course, right. That's the reason why I say that.
Matthew Potter:And that's the reason why I had a bodyguard with me. Steve's got the PTSD. He's got the PTSD. It's still fresh in his mind. I remember that.
Steve Trang:That was one of those deals I wish we had more often. Hey, I want to sell my house for 25% of market value. Can you come over?
Leon G. Barnes:Yes, this whole question was written so Steve could tell us about the time that he tore his Achilles. That's what the question was about.
Chris Jefferson:I'm just imagining Steve pulling up to somebody's house on crutches. He probably got like. He probably went old school like bandage over the shoe, you know, over the clothing.
Steve Trang:This is a curtschilling incident where I showed up with a bloody sock.
RJ Bates III:Remember he had to turn out of the car like this, set his legs out on the street and then grab Potter hands.
Leon G. Barnes:No, no, no, no, hey, come on, come on.
Matthew Potter:No, I had his wife drive him there.
Steve Trang:I met no, stop it. I met Potter at the house. Oh man, yeah, shut up. That's the workaholic component I'm talking about. I think this is a sign that we don't know how to stop. We don't know when to slow down. I should have just handed off that lead to someone else.
Chris Jefferson:I would have been out there on crutches too, but I'm a lunatic.
Leon G. Barnes:I would just, in this particular case, last point here, I would just argue that that's his job. His job right now is to rehab, to get back. He just happens to be doing it a little faster than usual, but that's his job. He's not doing anything extraordinary, he's trying to get back to get on the court and he's on the field and he's being paid for it handsomely.
Matthew Potter:Last time I called in.
RJ Bates III:I would have closed it plus three more before Steven got to the house, because I know how to call All right On that round.
Matthew Potter:I don't know if everybody saw it, but, leon, can you give me the crutch? Shuffle the Steve crutch. There we go. That right, there is your winner.
Leon G. Barnes:That's your winner. Right there. He said what would I do if the dog jumped on me? You got two crutches. Get the dog off you man.
Steve Trang:You guys have way stronger senses of balance than I do.
Matthew Potter:I don't know. Steve definitely is. He's stable as a tree, consistent as a tree. Now, these days it must be his forked friendship with Mr Viking over there. All right, before we get into question number four, quick word from one of our sponsors. Steve and the folks at Sales Disruptors are extending their Epic Black Friday sale until this weekend. For $17, you can sign up for Steve's community. That's over $10,000 worth of value from his courses, coaching, calls, resources, the whole works all at that low price. So pretty much your first month is 80% off and you're getting all of this. So go to salesdisruptorscom, slash Black Friday and take advantage now. All right, question number four gentlemen, oh, this one, this one should be great. Should you hire family members or close personal friends to work for your business? Start us off, leon.
Leon G. Barnes:Yes, you should, with one caveat you should if you put them through the exact same hiring process that you would put a normal employee through. Betting them properly will allow you to understand if you are hiring them for the right seat, wrong seat, I don't care if they're a family member or not, isn't going to work. So if you put them through the exact same hiring process, I've seen it work at a super high level. We have tons of members within the collective genius that have brothers and sisters and husbands and wives that are working together, very family oriented businesses that thrive. But if I've seen it go awry, it's typically because they go. I'm going to hire my brother because he's my brother and he's unemployed and I'm going to put him in acquisitions when he has no business in acquisitions. So the answer is yes, with the caveat of putting them through a normal hiring process.
Matthew Potter:Beautiful. Treat them exactly the same, no different. That's the way it should be. All right, rj. What about you?
RJ Bates III:Maybe you should hire whoever's the best person for the job. So if it's a family member or a close friend and they're the most qualified candidate for the job, then yes, you should hire them. I don't think you should intentionally try to only hire, or go out specifically to hire a family member and close friend, just to hire a family member, or create a position for a family member and close friend. I think it should be. The business need is there. You are hiring and, like Leon said, put them through the process. If they are the best candidate, then yes, you should hire them.
Matthew Potter:All right, all right, Steve. What about you? You hiring family and friends.
Steve Trang:Well, it hasn't worked yet. Now I can say I've done it correctly. So, bringing in my wife, that didn't work because she's in charge at home, so you can't hold her accountable at the office because you're going to hear about it at home. And then with my dad, I thought he'd be an excellent realtor. That didn't work out. So we learned a lesson and we had my brother go through the entire process, like Leon suggested. We did the PI, we did the screening call, we did the interviews and all this and that that didn't work either. So I'm sure there's a good answer. I'm sure there's a way to make it work. I have not figured that out. So for me I'm not saying I'll never do it again, but probably not doing it again.
Matthew Potter:So what we've learned is Trang Holdings is just Steve Trang Holdings. That's what. That is right there. All right, cj. What about you? What are your thoughts?
Chris Jefferson:No, trang Holdings sounds crazy. I like that. No, I mean, I don't know, man, I don't think so personally. If they're the right person for the job, I mean I agree with what Leon and RJ said, but I mean I enjoy peace and peace of mind, and there's already enough to worry about. I think that's an additional layer of expectations and feelings and emotions you got to deal with on things like that. So I mean, if they're the best fit, then yeah, I mean it does make sense, but they've got to really be a great fit. You know it's not like we're trying to. You know it's not like RJ right, like it's not like you wear a size four shoe and you're trying to squeeze your foot into a three, you know, and trying to make it work. Shout out to the people with small feet, man. Shout out to them what?
Leon G. Barnes:Shout out to RJ man.
Chris Jefferson:Shout out to RJ and the kids session at Foot Locker. Man, but it's got to be, it's got to make sense and it's got to make a lot of sense. You know, I mean you want to see somebody at home and you got to see them all day too. I don't know, man, that could get stressful.
Steve Trang:It's got like the. What they talk about in Saifah, right, george Costanza, is like you got the girlfriend world, you got the friend world, and never shall the two meet. I like George Costanza man, it's a great show right there.
Leon G. Barnes:I think what's good to add to what I said earlier. There's another layer there that you have to have some robust dialogue. You have to have some upfront conversations about the way. It's just no different than when I'm coaching my son in basketball. It's like, hey, I'm going to be harder on you because I'm coaching you, because that's the standard that people have to know, that I'm not giving you unfair treatment, right. So you have to have that dialogue up front and your family member or your friend is not okay with that, then again, then it's probably not the right fit.
Leon G. Barnes:I have seen it go both ways. Steve's right. It is not easy. I have had situations where I have a rock star employee that comes to me and says, hey, my husband would be great at this role, and I simply say, look, if that person up front, if your husband is as great as he says he is, he'll be here for a very long time. But if he doesn't work out, we end up hiring him. He doesn't work out, didn't just know that I'm not losing you because he can't get the job done. So if you're willing to go through that, then we can have that conversation. So you've got to have some different level conversations to set proper expectations up front when hiring friends and family.
Steve Trang:But, leon, think about like we've had conversations about this right, like you guys can be the best of friends, and then we partner up and after the partnership ends, it's just not the same. Yeah, never the same, never the same, never the same. I mean, couldn't the same thing happen after you fire?
Leon G. Barnes:Yes, that's why you have that conversation up front.
RJ Bates III:But partnership is different than hiring. This is saying would you hire?
Steve Trang:I think that's totally different. I'm just it's totally different. I get that. I'm just asking do you run the risk of the similar outcome?
RJ Bates III:Yeah, I think so. I mean, listen, we hired Cassie's mom to work for us. She worked for us for several years and then she decided to go a different career path. It didn't work out bad, because she's not with us any longer. We've also hired friends, especially when we were new entrepreneurs. I think this is more of one of those questions about life. I'm new as an entrepreneur and I have someone willing to work for me. That's rare, especially in a new company. This is where you get those family and friends. I think that's where you have to be careful that you're just hiring because it's a warm body to fill a seat and it's not necessarily the right fit. Those are the mistakes that we made early on, where it was just anybody that was willing to work for us, we were willing to take.
Leon G. Barnes:A great example of what you're talking about there, rj. At our select level, people that are doing four or five deals a month are looking to get to double that. A lot of them start out with like a retired father mother that is doing letters and direct mail and things like that. They know it's a temporary thing and they've had again those conversations of, hey, I'm going to handle this for the first two years of the business. Again, you've had that conversation up front and set expectations. It's crucial that you do that.
Matthew Potter:There we go All right on this round. Gonna go ahead and award points to CJ and Steve on this one, actually For pretty much splitting the same answer. Rj, don't make that face, dude, or you know it ain't gonna happen. I swear to God, I will send some long John Silver's to you and it'll be there before the.
Leon G. Barnes:You better calm down.
Matthew Potter:Cassie, give me the address for Uber eats.
RJ Bates III:I agree with strat day. The only reason why you gave a point right now is cuz he likes people that are vaccinated. He'll only hire you if you're back well.
Steve Trang:Get out of here. Strang's no longer on the show. Yeah, he's up the bench. He got cut. He doesn't know yet, but he got cut.
Matthew Potter:He's gonna go back to the CBS network at 1 am Games. That's where he's gonna be.
Steve Trang:They go to the commentary at the Fresno State game. Get out of here.
Leon G. Barnes:He's trying to rush for 25 yards.
Matthew Potter:He's trying to blast through. All right, real quick. Before we get to our next question, another word from another one of our sponsors. This episode of pardon, the disruption is sponsored by the family tree of real broker. If you are looking to make a change in your real estate business, check out the real family tree. Calm and schedule your Collaboration. Call with us. We will help you grow your real estate business. All right, next up we have, let's see Would what our next question will be. We have question number five. Over the weekend, nardo wicks security guard beat up a fan trying to take a picture with the artist. How should you react as a business owner if someone in your organization Mistreats a customer? Start us off CJ.
Chris Jefferson:Somebody your business mistreats a customer, you fire them immediately. I think that and I've experienced this recently right, I think sometimes people forget when they're in a service-based business and how important customer services how important is when you interact with your customers. And and oftentimes what happens is sometimes we get so caught up in who we are or what we're doing or what we've accomplished over time that we we forget that we we offer services to clients In many ways. And if this guy's a musician right I think RJ came up with this question this guy's a musician, right? You know, the somebody who's buying his music, somebody who's supporting them coming to his concert, and that's a customer, right, he's in a service-based business in a way where, yes, he's an artist and being creative, but people are paying him for something and interacting with people as a part of that. So, yeah, I think you fire them ace up. Yes, this was RJ's question and originally had jellyware oh.
Chris Jefferson:That's crazy. I just caught that man. Let's tap him up. Cassie, I did with hockey face-taps, man hockey stick take face test.
RJ Bates III:Next up Leon, she burns.
Chris Jefferson:What are your thoughts?
Matthew Potter:Well, first of all, I'm happy that I know who this is, because, had it not, happened here in in Tampa.
Leon G. Barnes:That's where this incident happened. I would not know who that artist was, so this tells me I'm getting old. I have the same answer as CJ, with one exception. We had the video of this incident. Bodyguard beat the kid up pretty, pretty bad and the artist came up with this question. He's been beating the kid up pretty, pretty bad and the artist came out and apologized and is doing all kinds of things, obviously for the fan and his family and trying to you know, offset a lawsuit, but in that particular case we had all the facts.
Leon G. Barnes:I have to have all the facts. If I have vetted and I have a team member that's been with me For a significant amount of time and I trust that individual before I terminate I have to make sure that I have all the facts. Is there a court at call that are their witnesses to the event? Because I know the saying that the customer is always right, but we also know in certain situations customers can be In the wrong. So I just want all the facts. I want to make sure that I vet the situation first and if there was an incident that broke core values, then you terminate immediately after you know the facts.
Matthew Potter:There we go, the in-depth dive per use by leon.
Leon G. Barnes:We appreciate it information man to make decisions.
Matthew Potter:Hey, you're always the most informed on the panel. That we know for a fact. All right, rj, what about you? I know you you're chomping over here. You're ready to answer what you got?
RJ Bates III:Yeah, I think this is an interesting question because it says mistreats a customer and, as someone that was a manager and customer service for eight plus years, there's a lot of different variations of mistreating a customer. Right, it could be A miscommunication. Hey, they said something the wrong way, they offended somebody by saying something. This is where having like an employee handbook and having like an actual HR process on how you handle these situations, some situations are going to be hey, we're writing you up for this, or this is your one warning on doing this. If it's something to the degree of, hey, it's potentially, you know, threatening to the future of the business, like obviously Laying hands on someone, then yes, it should be fired. But I think you know, as a business owner, you need to make preparations on the different levels Of how things can be escalated. Not everything should lead to immediate termination just because someone was quote-unquote mistreated.
Matthew Potter:Could you imagine RJ is the head of HR.
Chris Jefferson:Yeah, I was just thinking about RJ as a customer service like manager. Could you imagine him being the guy that's got to take the escalated call and you got a problem? It's hello this is RJ.
Matthew Potter:What's your component? Yeah, no, you're wrong.
RJ Bates III:No, I have been jelly roll and apparently has small feet.
Chris Jefferson:Somebody DM me on IG and say you're stuffing your boots, man, but in tissue in your boots.
Matthew Potter:Yo all right, Steve. What are your thoughts?
Steve Trang:So I think it really comes down to the magnitude of the situation. Right, I think RJ and Leon gave some really thoughtful answers. You got to figure out and investigate what exactly are we talking about here and, generally speaking, I will default to the side of my team member. Right, I will see. I'll give them the benefit of the doubt. So I don't figure out exactly what's going on, because If a client is upset but our guys didn't do anything wrong, I'm going to leave with my guy. If the client Got extremely disrespectful and says some things that cross the line, I'm going to have a learning opportunity conversation with my team member. If is a situation like apparently alleged in this video, not only are we going to fire the guy, we're going to have security escort him out.
Steve Trang:So it really depends on the magnitude. But, all in all, if you look at like the top companies that that operate they lean on the side of, it's not the customer is always right. Right, we treat our team members well. We treat our team members respectfully, knowing that that will translate to treating customers well. Right, but this whole thing of the customer is always right. I don't know exactly when that started, but that's not. That's not the reality. We want them to feel right, but they are definitely not always right.
RJ Bates III:My theory on the customer is always right. Is this started in the customer service industry restaurants, bars, things like that and the theory was we're not going to have high level employees and we're pretty, you know, low cost on whatever our food is, our beverages. Is customers always right? So if they complain, just give it to them. That way, the low Quality employee we have, we're not trusting you to think on your feet. Just give it to the customer, move on. That's my theory.
Steve Trang:Did the head of. Hr just cause employees low quality. Is that what I just heard?
Chris Jefferson:I don't actually think it's a matter of the the customer always being right. But just the context of the video, right, you got a kid who's walking up on an artist that he just, it seems like, paid to see, all right, and he's trying to solicit or get an autograph. I think we've, we've all been there, I mean, as excited, as you know, rj gets talking about random hockey people. You know that he bumps into Uh, you know, I think you got a picture with one of them. It's like that's, that's normal, right, like people are going to do that, like if you're, if you're known, if you're famous, you know enough. Anybody's ever walked up and wanted to get a picture with RJ or not. But it when people know who you are and want to get a picture, you know that comes with it.
Chris Jefferson:Right, the people that are employed by you, they should. Your bodyguards that are there to protect you, they should have awareness of what that looks like. They should be aware of how to analyze If this person's a threat or not. In the video I saw I only watched it once but the kid wasn't walking up like he was some sort of threat in any, any shape or form. So it's not. I'm not making the point that the customer is always right. I'm making the point that in in in business, when we're we're offering services to people, uh, we, we should be aware of customer expectations and we should be aware if we're meeting those expectations or not.
Steve Trang:Well.
Leon G. Barnes:I did uh.
Steve Trang:I did take a picture with RJ and Tampa and Cassie tried to hug me like I was. I wasn't sure that was mistreatment. I was very concerned for my safety.
Leon G. Barnes:To go back to add to what you said, steve um, on Trusting Um, our employees. Uh, I can tell you from experience, when you have put people through a vetting process and you really trust that they are high level and they're going to do the job the right way, there's no better way to build culture, the right culture, when employees know you, as an owner or An executive within the company, always have their back first. That doesn't mean they didn't do anything wrong, but when you have their back they will run through brick walls for you and generally, to RJ's point, they won't make bad decisions unless you have been provoked by something that a customer said that was, you know honestly, more than likely in the wrong.
Matthew Potter:All right, that was a good round there. We're going to go ahead and give it to Mr Size. Four is over there. Mr RJ Bates, this, that and the third.
Leon G. Barnes:Little fella.
Matthew Potter:The size threes this, that and the size threes he don't even make size threes, not a big Cute.
Steve Trang:How do you know RJ? How do you know?
Matthew Potter:Oh man, this is great. All right, hey, we're coming, we're coming down. We have question number six. I'm excited for this one. This one's a tiebreaker. Who knows, maybe I pull out the five pointer out of the bag. I don't know. Yet we're going to see how this goes. Let's just incite chaos. As a business owner, how do you feel about Elon's remark to all the corporations that stop posting on X and they stop spending advertising money, essentially telling them he can't be blackmailed with money? Start us off, rj.
RJ Bates III:It's funny because you started this by saying let's have chaos in this. This kind of reminds me of that scene in the dark night with Joker when he lights all the money on fire. He's like I'm an agent of chaos. Elon Musk is doing right now. He's like you cannot buy me. I listen, the guy's at the point right now where he's going to do whatever he wants to do and it seems like he's constantly. I mean on this show. It's like once a month we have an Elon Musk question. It's like Elon Musk and the NBA are fighting for the most frequently asked questions on part of the disruption. He finds a way to keep his name in the news even when nothing really that important is happening in his world. I think it's just kind of a marketing ploy where he's like okay, take your money, you can't buy me, I'll just make my own little advertisement by being an agent of chaos.
Matthew Potter:There we go. Size four answers everybody. Size four answers. All right, steve, what about you?
Steve Trang:So I don't think this is the right decision. I don't think this is the right best for the shareholders, but I love it, right, like I would love to be at a point where I can light $44 billion on fire, or whatever his investment is in the Twitter, because that's what he's doing. The value of the company is directly tied to the amount of revenue you bring in, and the revenue in from Twitter comes from the advertisements, right? So I love that he's a bastion for free speech. I love that he can speak his mind. I love everything he's doing, but I don't think he's being a very what's the word? A fiduciary to his shareholders. I don't think he's taking care of the people that he's supposed to take care of. In that regard, he's got a bigger purpose. I love what he's doing. I just can't say that's really the right thing.
Matthew Potter:Uh-oh, I think Elon is finally falling out of favor for Steve.
Steve Trang:I think his main crush is over on him, not. Matt Crouch is still there.
Matthew Potter:There we go. Fantastic Steve's reaffirming his love. All right, CJ, what about you?
Chris Jefferson:I mean, you know guys seem a little unhinged at the moment. I mean, let's be realistic. I know Steve's a fan Uh, I was once a big Elon guy as well, but I don't know that he's been doing very much of anything, as of late, this made a lot of sense, uh, it's just not being seen Uh to make that statement at his level. You know he's got FU money right, so he can. He's entitled to do that. He could do that. I like that about it. You know, being able to say what you want when you want, I get that.
Chris Jefferson:But uh, that's that's not his role. That's not what he should be doing. You know he's got to answer to shareholders. That's the way he set up his business. He didn't decide to keep it private. You know that's the job that he's got. That's the position that he's in. I think he's completely tanked Twitter, uh, in the last 12 months. I guess you would call it X now, um, and I think I think by the end of 2024, all the Elon supporters are going to be out of straws de gras, but telling us how much of a genius he still is, uh, because it's not. Maybe that he's not, but he's just not operating it anymore, and I think at some point that's got to be said.
Matthew Potter:There we go. Harsh reality. All right, Leon, what are your thoughts?
Leon G. Barnes:I think one day Elon is going to have a press conference and he's going to unveil, he's going to pull off a mask and underneath that mask is going to be Kanye. Yeah, look at a graph of Kanye and Elon, of their stock. You put them right side by side at the beginning of their careers and they were both labeled geniuses and had some hits out of the gates, like Kanye's first couple of albums were fire, right. Elon has had to, could do no wrong, um, and people start labeling you a genius and it's almost like that genius turns into mad scientist. Um, I don't actually. You know, I don't.
Leon G. Barnes:I'm not that smart, I'm not that intelligent, I don't speak genius, um. I know there's a method there. I'm not sure it's the right one, um, but you know, when you have that type of money and that type of intelligence, I think sometimes you try things, um, and in today's culture, he knows that even making a statement like that is going to lose certain investors or, excuse me, certain investors, but also certain advertisers for X. But but he's probably also going to attract other people with free speech. You know agendas, right. He's probably going to lose some and gain some. I can't say that it's sane. Uh, but he it's. It's hard to explain, other than everything's to me. His stock continues to go down, can't explain, so I had.
Steve Trang:I had the opportunity to be an event where one of Elon's right-hand guys was speaking and talking about some of the stories and I really think Elon really hasn't changed. The difference is now he has a larger magnifying glass on him right. He's been crazy for a long time. It's just now a lot more visible. So again like listen to some of the stories, it's just maddening to see how he makes some of these decisions, because he makes bold decisions with some pretty significant risk. And then the other thing too is that I look at this as an aspirational thing. I look forward to the day where I can't be canceled. There are things I can't say today. I can't because I have payroll. I got people, I got to pay. I got people that depend on me. I love that Elon's in that realm of Dei Chapelle and some of these other guys where they can speak their mind freely. I'm envious. Envious of that.
Chris Jefferson:I think that Elon Musk has been misidentified right. In my purview, my perspective, I think he's one of the greatest corporate raiders of all time, in the sense of like Elon is not an inventor, he hasn't invented things, he's leveraged position and capital, and I think that's the real story of Elon Musk. I think somewhere down the line, we acted like he invented the Tesla technology. We acted like he invented the PayPal technology, the open AI technology. Elon Musk has done an incredible job of leveraging, being a coder and getting in position. He got a huge, huge payday off of PayPal and, instead of blowing it like most of his counterparts and enjoying the rest of his life, he started taking over early businesses that had great tech, and we're seeing the results of that, and so now he's isolated himself into a position where he's the star, he's the shiny object, and I think we're starting to finally see that he's not the genius that we thought he was.
Steve Trang:I would say I would still say that he's a genius, but I think one of the things that, if there's anything to look back, he's been great at betting, right Like he did an excellent job again with PayPal, with open AI, with Tesla, with SpaceX, right Like he's been really good at betting, and moving things.
Leon G. Barnes:Well, here's one thing we do know all geniuses throughout history have been what Misunderstood, and he's no different.
RJ Bates III:Sometimes you're also just a misunderstanding. Yeah, I mean he's kind of crazy though. So I mean you can say you know he's a genius and he's misunderstood. But I mean sometimes he just says these and it's like hey, you, you should have done that, and sometimes you cut off your ear.
Leon G. Barnes:I mean, that's, that's what happens with genius, right we? I can't. I don't know the question to the question. I can't necessarily explain why he did that. Doesn't make sense to me at all, but I'm sure, being a genius, he has a method of why, to his madness.
Chris Jefferson:Leon with the Van Gogh reference man, I like the guy seeing you man.
Steve Trang:I know he was there for art.
Chris Jefferson:No no, no, I'm just saying like, if you actually know about Van Gogh I don't I don't know if you're there yet, rj, but Like the actual, you know, like he was a guy who went, who went crazy, I, he was a guy who went mad and it showed in his art like his genius showed through.
Steve Trang:I just making one of those faces, yet you better, you better check. Make sure you're not on this naughty list.
Chris Jefferson:When I looked at all of his posters that he got like on like from five below right, yeah.
Steve Trang:Look, confirm that for me Leon doesn't have that serial killer. Look, right now you study serial killers.
RJ Bates III:CJ gave a really good answer on this last one, so he's probably gonna win. But I do want to point something out, and this is my last ditch effort to try to point. Okay, cj talked so much this episode, but we're all so proud of you, buddy. You didn't say one time anything about marketing or affordable housing Congratulations, it's the first time I'm barred in the disruption. You didn't bring up affordable housing.
Leon G. Barnes:I did wait. What we did learn is that he needs to start. We need to start doing this show after 8 pm. Remember the old days, since after 8 pm you got for free.
Chris Jefferson:That's the plan I got. You got to catch me after 9 pm.
Matthew Potter:They don't have fiber and Richmond just quite yet. I guess. All right, that that was good. Not gonna lie, everybody had a great answer. I love that RJ is coming in with affordable housing Reference there at the end. Like you know, you made it really hard for me, rj, to allow you to win this week, you know. So, that being said, we're gonna give the point to RJ just because he got the last dig in there. That being said, you know it was a good show. It was a good show today. It was a. It was a good show, as always. Everybody came with their a game. Love the. The evil mask comment there. Leon of Kanye, that's legit. Right there. All right, it has been a lot of fun. I'm gonna go ahead and do outros. We will start with a Champion. This week, rj beats this that in the third. Go ahead and start out.
RJ Bates III:Yeah, great episode. Guys had a lot of fun, except for you, cj, don't. On a divert serious note, we do have one of our our family members here Missing in action. In fact, we haven't seen them in months. I'm Eric Brewer. If anybody knows where he is, can you please call 817 710 8689 and let us know where Eric Brewer is, because none of us have seen him in months. So what was the last time Eric was on a part of the disruption?
Matthew Potter:It's, it's been, it's been a hot minute it has. I don't know if we do milk cartons in York, pennsylvania. Somebody needs to do some recon on that for us so that we can, so we can find out, find our buddy there.
Steve Trang:Listen, let's focus on the matter at hand.
Matthew Potter:Yo, alright, steve, say bye to the people.
Steve Trang:Man, great show fun, as always, appreciate everyone's Comments and then, if you guys are looking to, if you have some extra size for boots or some extra long John Silver's, just send them over to the titanium I don't even know what he calls it over there. Wow but check it out. Let's help RJ as best we can. So thank you all. Fun week, as always.
Matthew Potter:Somebody needs to send him one of those. What is it? That anti choking device? You know he just pulled out his back pocket. There we go. That's what. That's what we need. Alright, cj, say bye to the people.
Chris Jefferson:Bye to the people. Much love. Always a good time with you guys. Men had a good time. These great questions today, I think a lot of great responses across the board. 7 pm Tonight. Eastern Tom start flipping deal com. Make sure you tune in.
Matthew Potter:Yo, my wife just said free turkeys, velveeta and pumpkin pie for anyone that can locate Eric. All right, leon, say bye to the people.
Leon G. Barnes:I love that CJ doesn't do ever doesn't do a webinar before 5 pm. He's got Free hours after a.
Leon G. Barnes:No, no, no thankful, as always follow week following Thanksgiving, to be with each of you and everyone that's watching. I did have proof of life. Usually you prove proof of life with a newspaper. That's how they did it back in the old days. But I will say the shout out to York. I sent this. I do have proof of life because I sent this to Eric on Sunday. Do you guys know that the Fed Chairman, jerome Powell, was in York, pa, this past week Looking at inflation and talking to business owners in York? So who knew York? First capital the US and apparently right now the, the hub for the federal government to look at inflation. So shout out to York and and EB. And and last but not least, I'm gonna start ending these shows with my favorite line of Of the show in today's favorite line by far easily is shout out to seasoning. Shout out to seasoning. From here on out we're gonna wear it. Everything's giving good being when you.
Matthew Potter:Yeah, now I gotta lie, Love that. Uh, we are gonna let us know that. Pals in York, pennsylvania, trying to learn how to do no vacations from our buddy, that's great the government could use. He's gonna novate the White House no big deal, but yeah, it was a pleasure Hosting today. Always good to get back after a holiday. See my four and three friends up there, you know. We hope that all of you enjoyed being here as well. We will see you again next week. Thanks for tuning in with us.