Dragon's Gold: The Magic of Mindset

How Losing $35M Made Him a Better Dad: Eric Zwigart on Failing, and Rising Again

• Justin Mills • Season 1 • Episode 35

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Episode Summary:

What if the worst day of your life was the beginning of your real legacy?

Eric Zwigart built a $150M business, lost $35M, and came out the other side a better father, leader, and man. In this powerful episode of Dragon's Gold: The Magic of Mindset, Eric shares the crash that changed everything—and why he wouldn’t take it back.

Key Takeaways:

  • How $35M disappeared almost overnight
  • Why real estate became his safe haven
  • The faith that got him through the darkest moments
  • What it means to "build on the rock, not the sand"
  • How failure helped him become the dad he always wanted to be

Tools & Weapons Mentioned

  • The E-Myth by Michael E. Gerber - Understanding your role as technician, manager, or entrepreneur
  • Stay in Your Lane - Knowing what you do best and building a team around it
  • Rise Up Aspirations - His holding company mindset: rebirth and purpose
  • Faith & Family First - The anchors that helped him heal and rebuild
  • Build on Rock, Not Sand - Foundational thinking for business and life

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About Gold Dragon Investments:

At Gold Dragon Investments, our mission is to bring joy to others by helping them win the game of investing. Helping every client become the hero of their financial journey. We believe that wealth is a tool, but joy is the ultimate outcome.

Through meaningful partnerships, we strive to empower our investors to create freedom, and build lasting legacies of purpose, fulfillment, and wealth.

Join Us on the Adventure:

Ladies and gentlemen, welcome once again to another episode of Dragon's Gold, the magic mindset. Today we have the pleasure of having Eric Zwigart, founder and CEO of Rock Solid Asset Partners and Rock Solid Capital. Eric, welcome to the show, my friend. Thanks so much, Justin. Thanks for having me. I've been waiting for a long time to do it. You and I met quite a while back, and I wanted to be one of your first guests, so excited to be on. my friend, and excited to be on. my friend, and you have an incredible story to share. I know what you've done and achieved is so much more than what we just touched on. And really, let's take the listeners through it. Let's start with the origin story. Where did it begin for Eric Zwigart? So it began, well basically, know, I'm a little transplant from back east. I moved around a lot. parents were divorced and so moved around a little bit, but I graduated from school back east, a school called California University of Pennsylvania. And... Came out to work for my dad's oil company and and brought my my my then high school sweetheart and and call it sweetheart with me and and then you know went through some some trials and tribulations but moved out here with my dad and so got out to California and I learned the oil business and Real estate business and that's what he had been doing for a while. So Yeah, it's got out to California here and that's kind of where the origin of this the business and the entrepreneurship and And also kind of an ADHD journey, finding out that some of those things come together. So I'd love to talk about some of those. Absolutely, and we absolutely will. I'm curious, was there ever a point in that journey, in the beginning, did you know that you were destined for something more, something different as opposed to the status quo or everyday life? and phew, yuck. That's a hard question to answer because right now I was like, so I have two twins. They're about to be 11. I'd love to help them with this question because I didn't know, but I knew something was different about me because I didn't fit in any boxes. Really. I really did. You know, I went into the Marine Corps when I was 19 or 20 thinking I needed discipline. I've had ADHD and been on the spectrum and not known kind of sort of that thing of what Discipline and what I'm good at what turns out, know I'm good at thinking out of the box and patterns and all of these things that that are a little bit of awkwardness But also makes you really good at other things So, you know that was a journey in itself to kind of figure that out and really it's crazy but once I take you through this, know kind of story and hopefully go through the the Dragons journey here you know, we kind of get to a point where I revealed some of that and I didn't know it until recently but yeah, I didn't know about the ADHD and the spectrum stuff but grew a company from something really small to something pretty decent. Not massive but I had 150 employees. started by myself in a room by my, you know, one guy and took it to 150 employees and was doing 150 million a year in sales. So it's quite a journey. Yeah, that's huge. It absolutely is. And along that way, certainly you did run the gauntlet, right? The trials and tribulations, those moments. Can you share some of those moments and experiences with myself and the listeners? Sure, you know, kind of going along that journey. I in the spirit of a hero's journey, I mean, you got the origin, then you got, you know... uh... me going through it and learning as a young man and and then going through relationships i i'd move my high school sweetheart out but my dad kinda was like oh you know focus on business and you're too young to settle down and different things that kinda caused a rift and and that really cracked me a little bit because it cracked me away from you know someone that i love so much uh... and then it took me to be in focus on business and then something shifted in me where business became so much more to me than relationships and that all was a you know that happens and so I'm really good at business I'm really good at patterns and thinking out of the box and coming up with solutions and and sales and working and talking with people so I'm really good at those type of things and also you know realizing certain you'll see in certain cues and spectrum ADHD things I can do really well but you know relationships and emotional relationships work weren't as always my easiest thing. So going through that journey in that first part, you know, it got me really focused in the business and then put relationships and emotional type of things aside. you know, to this point, I mean, everything that happens to you was meant to happen is the way I look at it. Even, you know, we'll talk about it. But I, you know, that company we're talking about melted down. So you know, whatever happened was meant to happen. I'm here, I'm happy, I'm here with you, I'm here, you know, in a good spirit and no matter what is happening or what happened yesterday, I can't change, period. And so I move forward day, you know, looking forward in the future, trying to stay in the present. You look too far in the future, you get anxiety and cause you make up stories that don't, aren't real and usually that don't happen. And so you kind of try to stay in the present. You got to try to, you know, keep yourself grounded and try to get yourself into a mode of staying in the present and also not creating this scary picture for yourself to move forward because it just creates anxiety. It's awesome to have dreams, right? But don't create nightmares, right? Don't focus on things that haven't happened yet. I'm guilty of it. mean, it happens a lot, but you gotta pull yourself back and be like, you know what? I just gotta try to stay in the present. I gotta have faith. You know, I have a lot of faith and spirituality and that kind of reels you back. you know, I'm in, Firefights all the time now compared and even then I mean when you have a big huge company I was in constant firefights and battles just to have a different nature or maybe bigger or Whatever, but no matter what you're always going to have some trials and and Turbulence and stuff and it's the way you Eric, I want to ask you mentioned it and I hope I'm not prying to you. You mentioned by being so focused on business and having that be really the passion that you pursued, it affected you in other ways when it came to emotional connections or relationships. Do you feel that that had an impact? And was there anything that you learned from that experience upon reflection? Yeah, absolutely. And that's I want to try to I helped my son and I can see some twins. So they both have some some Eric Z tendencies, but I want to kind of try to get them some some knowledge of of you know connecting with that emotional side of things connecting with the present and And also knowing that it's okay to be different You know, I was always afraid, you know and always had to do certain things because it what happens sometimes is, you know You don't want to be different and you know you are, so you start masking yourself. And so that's something that I'd love to help folks understand, or even just, you wouldn't believe how many people are in the groups that you and I met in, and the people we know out there. their ADHD and a lot of entrepreneurs are. mean, can, it's crazy, but there's a lot of driven people out there that have, it's not just the ADHD, it's the spectrum, you know, stuff that's a little bit different. Maybe it gives you a high drive over here, but you're just not as attentive over here or. Or, you know, for me, my attention can be shiny objects. You know, anybody pop in here and there and I can go every which way. And then you got 10 things that aren't done. So, yeah, that's, that's my part of going back to, I wish I had somebody that would have been said that, you know, it's okay. You know what? It's okay to be at a relationship level and put business a little bit aside. Instead, my dad kind of got me going that way and I sided with him and I guess that was the path I was meant to be in. And hopefully that I can give back to the others in certain ways that this path brought me forward to. I can help those that's less unfortunate. I can give some advice. Whereas I could have maybe went through that path and maybe I would have been happy that way or maybe I would have been happy sooner. I don't know. You can't. say knowing you, think that you would have had a good time anyway, brother, regardless of whatever it is, you had enjoyed the experience. And I love that. It's one of the things I absolutely love about you, right? That positivity and that can do attitude and no matter what you're in, whatever it is, we're going to do it well. We're going to have a good time while we do it. Right. And I think that kind of mentality, that kind of drive initiative, excitement, passion to push you. It's whether it's ADHD, whether it's on the spectrum, whatever that is, I think it's a gift. I think it's something that has helped you in your experiences. When we talk about these experiences, we don't go on this journey alone. We very commonly have what I call a fellowship that comes along with us, whether it be mentors that help us up or people that go along the journey with us, even others that we bring along. Who might you cite in your experience would you consider part of your fellowship? Well, you know, there's been quite a few. I've had one, you know, one constant has been my family and my brother. My dad was in there as a mentor, he was also, you know, a bit of an antagonist in some ways. But you know, a mentor certainly and a good person in his heart. so, you a lot of guidance there in business and, you know, trying to help out and was definitely there for me in life. And so my father, my brother, I have a partner that I've worked with, Kirk. He was actually in part of the first debacle when I into business. I actually left my father's company and got into business. And I partnered with him and we partnered with another individual who was a distributor. And then I connected them. And then this distributor kind of tainted him against me and it turned into a disaster. And so as a 30 year old, I left a hundred thousand, a hundred plus thousand dollar job, uh, to start a company and, then have my partners that were kind of like my dad's age and mentors and knew me as a kid. And they kind of went off and tried to take the company and it just was a debacle. So we parted ways and then that's where you know some one of those maybe maybe you're coming up to it but that's where one of those big challenges was I started a company I had to leap of faith and I did that oil company and and then those partners you know almost derailed me and just put me into a position was like you know fetus fetus position there you know going through a trial and I had to fight and and do all those things but then came out at the other end and then restarted that journey again. Eric, I have every intention of asking about a darkest hour, a moment that you thought you were going to throw in the towel or wanted to quit and curl up in the fetal position and quit. And ultimately, how did you not? How did you get through it? Now that said, I also want to just touch on The aspect of antagonist, you mentioned your father being part of the mentor and helping to, in his own way, support, but also being an antagonist and perhaps creating some friction, right? I'm curious, what are some of the things that you felt that he was antagonistic about? well so he was a guy who's in and one of the best for me but then there was a couple times where you know i i built our systems in the world company and i know i knew everything i built it all i built computer systems i did the accounting i you know i did all the sales i i did a lot of stuff to get us there and then at one moment i was starting to make too much money and he did something more where it was like tweak the system a little bit and said something and i just didn't go along with what What was real and I thought you know what just to have your father do that and going that way It really shifted things to me to hurt it hurt so bad That was at the point of being an employee of my dad's company So I thought it also shifted me maybe into an entrepreneurial mode. Maybe that was like, okay This can happen you at your own father's company. Then he sold it without telling me Didn't try to give it to me. He sold it to another company a really big company. It's called Emily out of the East Coast and he sold that oil company to them and then Amelie took it over and great family great Harry Barquette's amazing that the owner there of the family he's still there I think and in any event he you know he wanted to keep me and I said I might have other opportunities my other opportunity was to start a to start an oil company of my own so that was the opportunity and that's what I did that was the leap of faith I think it's fantastic. And I think that's exactly what I was fishing for quite frankly is, is that aspect of that pain point, that resistance, that issue, that something that the straw that broke the camel's back, the point that it took something to catapult you and force you into wanting something different or more, right? The idea that because of that tweet, that modification for whatever his own personal reason or agenda, it struck a chord with you, not in a good way. And it lit that fire. And you already had the fire, the drive, the initiative, the passion that you were putting in, but you were doing it for someone else's company. Maybe you did it for the right reasons intentionally, but after realizing that if you wanted to do it for you, you would have to do that again for you. Then going off, creating your own company, going in and getting partners and having, being in partners with people, like you mentioned, your father's age that saw you growing as a child. And it makes me just think and reflect that in that idea of perspective and perception, they saw you as that boy, you now a grown man running your own business, making these big decisions. But the reality is, is that they still knew you and saw you as you were growing. Right. And so from that point in vision, oftentimes people will treat you in a way that they, the way that they perceive you, which may not be who you are now today, right. Or who you were. So it was the what do we need this guy for? You know, we got all the answers. He's given us all the answers. given us all the, he's given us all the vendors, the sales of this, what do we need him for? Let's cut out a salary and we'll do ourselves and we'll just do it. And that actually was a straw that broke the camel's back that took me to that next next level. So that's where it really propelled me. I crushed me. You want to talk about the fetal position that those having those partners do that. but I found a little bit of a mentor and a savior and a friend and another distributor and even him. mean, in work, you have these clashes and you find out these little things and you're like... you know, maybe that's not your price. You say that costs $100, but really costs 85. So you say it's costing 100, but it costs 85. Those little things happen in business. And when you find that out, you, continually find ways to be more of an entrepreneur because that's really what drives you. It's funny because just having this conversation, I'll pull and pull something out and entrepreneurs sometimes, or, or, or an entrepreneurial mind, you're always looking for ways to maybe do it yourself. You're not, mean, you or improve what you have. And so that might mean vendor relationships that might mean, you know, it doesn't mean you have to, you know, do everything yourself. But, you know, if, if I pay somebody to do X, but yet I figure out how you do X, and it's really easy to me, then I just go do X and that part is now absorbed into my business. And that that is something that you know happens over time So, you know people may find that happening and if you're in a company and you're an employee, but yet you think about How I'd like you know how I can do all this myself It's really you probably can and if you run someone's company for them Chances are you know, and I hate to say this but you know when usually you're working for somebody you're not gonna get rich doing it so there's other ways out there to Be an entrepreneur or do a side business or have, if you have that spirit, I wrote a little bit of book, you know, a chapter in a book and for with that. And if you have that spirit in you and you develop that, can grow and grow and grow and you can be on your own and have your own thing. Absolutely, you absolutely can. Well, I want to go back then, if you would please tell us more about this darkest hour, this moment. So. The darkest hour was when the partners lead me and then I come back and I win this, know, I essentially win the case because I won my lawyer's fees. So lawyer's fees over that period of time was like $250,000. So it was like a savings account. So I get this $250,000 back. Well, now I can propel my business with it. So then I was able then to go on my own and buy my own products and go directly and not have to worry about a distributor anymore. So now I can go to Shell. and Chevron and Castrol and all this. And I built a company all from scratch just from that level. Now I'm buying truckloads of oil and then I go into buildings and instead of renting I buy buildings, I make money on buildings and that gets me more and more to real estate and real estate really propels me to greater and greater heights. Funny, but that's right about when I got married was when I got that first warehouse and I think I bought it for... 2 million I sold it for 4 million in 18 months So I made 2 million dollars in 18 months off of a building and I just moved down the street and bought another building the same same size for another 2 million and did it again and but my my business was able to support the real estate which was able to really Put some fire on the on the funds and grow some wealth pretty quick. So I assume that You know those partners or people didn't understand how you know what I was doing or how much money I was doing but I was probably the largest case good distributor in the country in terms of automotive oils and Shell Chevron. I sold to all the 7-elevens and circle K's and all of those folks loves and then I've got into manufacturing so I manufacture all their oil and their products. So 7-eleven everything on the shelf right now you'll see it's private label that came from me and my team's ideas of getting them into private. level they weren't in that circle K loves pilot I mean we did them all so I had made those and they came from my facilities and continued to do that and then that's when the biggest big crashes happened and I lost it all So that's we get to that part of losing it all. You thought it was when I partners tried to leave, you know, it's when it's when you I lost everything and this has happened recently. So COVID came and I lost it all. I lost the oil company. I lost $35 million personally and it just was a disaster. And one thing that stuck with me is real estate. Never. I never lost a dime in real estate. And I'm a lot of common ground, but If you want to get into that, we'll get into the real. let's go. mean, yeah, yeah, let's, yeah, like put on my safety jacket and let's try to dive in. So, I'm cruising along, oil company's good, know, doing about 100 some million a year and then COVID hit and I thought, well, let's do some pivot things and let's be safe and then all of a sudden I saw an opportunity to do some hand sanitizer. I had the bottles, knew how to make, you know, we had the chemistry, we know how to make it, we knew how to do things. So I got into hand sanitizer and I got in in a big way because what I wanted to do was all these companies needed it and you know, the 7-elevens, the loves, the everybody needed it, but also it was being made everywhere. And I had these connections of a McLean and a Cormark and and I sold to all the grocery companies to Kroger's and Albertsons and all of them all of the anywhere you would see Inconvenience or grocery an automotive item on the shelf, which is a very small section usually by the way It's a small section, but almost all over the country came from my distribution So and you talking in? Pigly-wiggly Albertsons Kroger bonds Safeway Lucky's food for less love 7-Eleven, it all came through my distribution. I made a distribution network, an L type of network where coolant comes out of here, oil comes out of here, additives comes out of here, and it all flows up in these things. And then all the products distribute across the country out of that distributed network, which I built. I was you know I was able to do that tenfold within a you know, few years after having the partnership debacle so I get into hand sanitizer and COVID and then I think we made like ten million dollars in 90 days net was in the bank account there ten million like that's nice cash It felt good because it was always a company that had a low EBITDA because I always had these next level things that I was trying to do in order to increase the profitability through projects like blowing our own bottles and all of those things. Things that would make you, you could take your bottle price from 32 cents down to 16 cents by blowing it yourself. Well, if you're doing millions of bottles, it was a big number. And so stuff like that, that's what I like doing. So those were my things, but I also get bored with stuff and I get into stuff and then we get into projects. And then if they, if you don't follow through or have the team fall through, you know, then you'd have some execution issues. So that happens. COVID happens. get into, get into the hand sanitizer and then I'm thinking it's going to be a long-term thing. And then it just crashes. mean, school shut down, everything shuts down, no school for a year. I'm thinking you know kindergarten is gonna be pumping this stuff on their hands, and it's gonna be great Everyone in the convenience store is gonna have you know Hand pumps and you know getting this stuff out Walmart's giving away for 10 cents a bottle. Walmart's giving away that they hand sanitize over 10 cents a bottle. I've got a warehouse full of like, I think I had $3 million of Chinese bottles, high price because I had to like fly them in and do stuff to get them here. Cause everybody wanted it. And I'm like, just keep bringing the bottles. I got a warehouse full of bottles, just plastic bottles. And then I got, and then I had $6 million worth of package. Within 30 days, this is the cool part. I'll tell you a stat. Within 30 days of me thinking that I wanted to make hand sanitizer, I was producing 30,000 gallons a day within 30 days. That's pretty crazy. So I had a good team, I had a good marketing team, we were able to, but 30,000 gallons a day is five of those tanker trucks full of hand sanitizer that I was making that was going in bottles across. We were selling Napa, United States Postal Service. I've even seen, I saw a couple times on Congress was doing, know how Congress is on there? They their masks on and they're doing their stuff. My bottle's a hand sanitizer in front of all Congress. It was called Premier Hand Sanitizer and it was in front of them. like, that's my hand sanitizer. Meanwhile, my company's just destroyed because the market of hand sanitizer went down. So yeah, so everything's good and then Walmart drops a price everybody's you know stops going and buying it gets the market gets saturated and those bottles and that hand sanitizer gets stuck in our inventory You know, we do a couple consignment sales couple things to try and do you know think out of the box and get you know get some flow going and it just Implodes and so at that point it implodes and that is the feeling of almost someone dying. I mean You can't do nothing about it and it's just like dominoes and I brought somebody in that connected with the bank It just turned into a nightmare There was ways that I could have saved it and saved that company, but the attorneys and for whatever reason I got just it wasn't meant to be. And that's really the comeback is I wasn't a good dad. I wasn't a good father. I wasn't a good husband in those times of business because I wasn't paying attention. I wasn't around. And so, you know, that was the biggest thing of gaining that time of that meltdown. Who do you turn to? And I turned to, you know, my sons and my kids. and my wife and you know and went through that with them and then got so close to my kids my twins and they're my life they're what they're I realize that is my purpose and so no matter what saving that company or keeping that company wouldn't have changed the things that I am now I'm happy now I love my time with them I love my direction I'm in real estate I do real estate investments now It's something I've always done and I see the patterns and something I can do and I know how to scale certain things and I know how to run a business. also it taught me a lot to get here. But I also know that happiness isn't just growing this huge massive company and having a hundred and fifty million dollar company. And that's not it. You know, you can get anybody can get the happiness and the connectivity they need to have. But open yourselves up to what it really means. What is your purpose? Where were you meant to be? And mine's meant to be a good dad and a good father and try to raise those twins right. That's amazing, Eric. And what a way to learn that lesson, right? Even though you don't realize that's the direction. recommend losing $35 million to do it. Yeah, right. Now learn from this podcast and don't make that same mistake. You know, the reality, Eric, is you and I both know no matter what, people are going to make their own mistakes and they have to. That's the easiest and or perhaps the greatest teacher. It's the way that we learn, right, is through that pain in those moments. And hopefully you can learn from someone else's experience and that can minimize or mitigate the amount. huge, that's huge, Justin. mean, honestly, any one of us, I mean, it's the hardest thing to do, to take someone's advice and actually listen to it and feel it. And if you can do it from your heart, you can't believe it. If you could do it, I'm not saying it's easy to do, because I haven't been able to do it all my life. And it's... It's always gonna be hard probably for all of us, but if you can really listen to their story and understand that you know what Success is in the eye of the beholder and what is really around you What is look at you if you change your mindset to blessings around you the blessings you have there's gonna be some things you miss some doors closed some doors open But you know at the end of the day You know you got it. You're blessed you know and count your blessings and have that good that good vibe and that good energy around you. That's one thing. And then also look at what other people have been through and try to get those pitfalls. Change yourself before you get into that. I wish I could have done that. That would have been wonderful. But like you said, pain causes changes. That's where it really comes from. Pain and suffering causes big changes or maybe a positive happy event. But the chances are when you're on a positive hap- roller coaster ride, you're not making much changes. It's the time you make change is when you fell off the tracks and you gotta get the coaster back on the tracks. That's when you make the change. Absolutely, pain plus reflection equals growth. If you take action, right? Like you have to actually reflect and then, and then, and then change. Right? Go. It doesn't matter if you think, that hurt. And I look back and yeah, I wish I'd learned that lesson and do the same thing over again. Right? Like don't keep repeating the same mistakes. And if you can learn from someone else's that make your life a little easier, then please do it. Right. That's, that's literally the idea behind this entire podcast is to share these stories so that perhaps we can help some people not make the same mistakes we did. Or maybe at least laugh and think, you know what? My story is not so hard, right? It's not as bad as I thought it was when I compare it. to $35 million lost. million outside start off the the the room sometimes like hey, you know who lost 5 million less 10 million You get a couple I had a couple go up to about 25 million, but I'm I'm seeing we lose 35 million and And then I had somebody contact me and back there on my team and they're like, you know, I lost 22 million and it was, you know, in a real estate thing. And people that had those 2008 crashes, you know, of real estate and things, you know, have had some heavy losses, but that's a pretty big one. And then to come back from it and, know, kind of rise up. And that's where we got to the rise up My C Corp that owns all the rest of the Corps is called Rise Up Aspirations. And that owns all my company. that's a that's a cool thing. And, and then Rock Solid is really based a lot on a little bit on faith. And that's what got me through those times of the fetal position times was, you know, turn into God and faith and spirituality. And that's another big thing that I'd love to have people understand is you know when you get really sick or don't feel good you know you got to turn to your faith and spirituality whatever that is or turn to something that's greater than you because they you can get help there and you can get solace and you're not alone in that aspect you're never alone if you have that connection in that spiritual faith and guidance Sometimes you feel alone, but that connectivity can bring you back. I absolutely agree. The about connectivity, connections, relationships. I'm actually curious, thinking to bring it back to something you mentioned earlier, being able to get those relationships, to be able to get your product on so many shelves across the nation, do you think that it was more of the hustle and grind of getting out and getting those reps to get in front of those people? Or was it, and or was it the relationships and connections that you made? and then the people they were able to connect you to. relationships and connections that you make and made. There's a way to relationship build through others, through yourself. And sometimes it may happen organically, but most of the time, if you're an entrepreneur, there's connections that you're piecing together. And so you want to get up here. But you may have to go around here to get there. I'm really good at, you there's more ways than one to skin a cat, you know. You know where you wanna go. So if you wanna start hanging out with the CEO of the company that you're gonna get to, because if you get to the CEO, what happens is you end up usually just trickling down to the rest of the organization. You know, when you get connectivity to certain folks that have the ability to just put you over someone else, before when you're trying to come down, you might get stopped at a buyer. That buyer doesn't want to talk to you. Well, then you play golf with the vice president that ends up having been your buddy. And then the next you know, that buyer has a meeting with you and it's on and oh yeah, oh, Eric can do this. Eric can do that. Oh, flows right through. So there's a lot of different ways in an organization or a corporation to do that. So definitely entertaining and knowing people was a big one. Brokers, people that already have relationships. that can introduce you to somebody and really it's solving things for those folks too. Solve problems for them. Make their lives better. Make your customers and your investors lives better. Find out, give them something that they can't get out there with. Give them a better product, improve. Let them know you're sincere, be transparent and then you'll be okay. Madge aggressive, Eric, I completely agree. And the idea about the power of relationship, right? Finding a way how to solve those problems, creating those relationships, creating those connections, just being a good human, right? It's better for everybody. But the doors that open because of those connections and because of those relationships and because you can solve the problem, make someone else's life better, it's amazing the power that comes from that. You talked about running a company with 150 employees. You think about how many of those people were relying upon you to provide for their families, right? What a massive responsibility that comes with and not one that's taken lightly, right? Eric, I want to ask in regards to this journey that you've gone on, we call this Dragon's Gold. The accolades or awards or even just the mindset that you've acquired through your time and on your journey. What would you share as Dragon's Gold in your journey? Dragon's gold is that is essentially that you need to be adaptable. So you need to adapt and you need to overcome challenges because no matter where you go, you're going to have them in life, in life and in business and in entrepreneurship. So you got to adapt and overcome. can't be rigid. You have to look and move and change. And now more than ever, seeing as things are moving forward, you got AI and you got to you're gonna see some changes that are gonna blow your mind and it's gonna be some are gonna be good some are gonna be bad but you got to be able to adapt and overcome and so especially with technology it's it's very fast moving stuff and this isn't you know this isn't back in the day of the 40s and 50s and 60s of you know mechanical things and they last for 10 20 30 years and trends last for 30 years you're gonna be lucky that things last for two or three starting now That's probably my dragon's goal. So Eric, we talk about the Hall of Heroes, with a massive plaque of Eric Zwigart. It could say anything you want. What would you want it to say to future generations? say that plaque I think comes from from something that that is that you know it's kind of based on what we're talking about now you know that rise up aspiration so Rock solid itself comes from Matthew, I think 724 to 29, which is, know, basically don't, don't build on the sand, build on the rock. So, you know, it's real easy to, to, to move as fast as you want to, but, or as fast as you think you can. But sometimes, uh, you know, being at 50 years old now, You know basically come into the point where it's like you look back and you want to run so fast you want to run Down the hill, but you really should walk and if you build on a rock as opposed to sand That's what's gonna save you in those times of what I'm talking about. I You know, I've seen a couple other mentors and folks I've looked at, you know, talk about the 10,000 steps to get to one, to one step. So focus on those little 10,000 steps to get there, but repeat them, keep repeating them, keep repeating what's good, keep taking out what's bad. But as you get to the top, you look back and you've, you've taken that giant leap. And so it's those little steps that equal up to the big one, as opposed to just always trying to take the giant leap, kind of can put you on that, that. sales or I don't want to say sales but that sand they put you on the sand now I want to build on a rock not as on a sand mound anymore so that's what rocks all in capital is about I love that. And so then just for clarity, if that plaque did say anything, what would you want it to say? I'd wanted to say, know what? Success is in the eye of the beholder and try your best to build on the rock, not on the sand. I love it. I love it. Perfect. Thank you, brother. So you talked a little about books earlier, writing a chapter in a book about spirit. So we call these tools and weapons, things that you've used that have helped you, whether it be books or functions or anything, a resource that you've used to help you along in your journey. Is there anything you'd share with the listeners that would be helpful to them? So for me, one of the things was, and as an entrepreneur, and in general, it's called a book called E-Myth. It was called Entrepreneurial Myth, and it breaks down people into three categories, a technician, a manager, and an entrepreneurial spirit. So each person in each job, as you go through your organization, you have those. You start out as all three. But depending on you, who you are, depends on how far you go. Because you might just be the manager type person, but you started a business, but you couldn't get that far. If you don't have enough entrepreneurial spirit, you won't get as far. If you don't have enough managerial spirit, you can't manage the people, you won't get as far. If you can't do the jobs that you learned how to do in the first place, and it starts you out with a bacon, I think it's a bakery or a donut shop. you know that's what it kind of says like you know this girl Linda she came in just baking good doughnuts and she starts to doughnuts well the next thing you know she's up at 4 a.m. every morning baking the doughnuts and now her job and her passion that she loved has turned into a nightmare because she's constantly baking donuts, getting vendors, getting sugar, getting this, and it constantly weighs you down. And unless you raise up out of that, it teaches you some organizational skills. And so the entrepreneurial myth was a good one. It's called E-Myth. That's what I based my chat. did a book with Jack Canfield, the chicken soup for the soul guy. And that was my chapter was based on that essentially building that and I call it stay in your lane. Learn who you are in that general mindset and then stay in your lane. If you're a manager, then be a good manager. If you're an entrepreneur. be a good entrepreneur, but learn your skills. And I have a hard time doing that just because I'm Spectrum-y. I get all over the place. But I love to, when I'm doing the things I love and I'm good at, I'm really good at it. And the more I build up a team around me that can help take some of those things off me and let me do the things I'm good at, then that's when we start scaling and flying. Absolutely, That's where the, being able to find what's your 20%, right? The 80-20 rule. What is the 20 % that fills your bucket that you're passionate about, that you're good at and really enjoy, that you're great at and really enjoy, right? Focus on doing more of that. And then the things that you're not great at or don't enjoy, find other people who it's their passion and they're excited to do it, right? Because when you're being authentic to yourself and you're leaning in on that, it's the highest vibration, right? You're the most productive. and you enjoy it the most. And that's definitely a win-win situation. Well, and speaking of that, what is the next, right? We talk about how things change. What is the next quest for Eric Zwigart? So next quest is really scaling that model and getting my territories and getting my SOPs and everything down so that I can scale across the country the fix and flip and wholesale model of single family real estate. What we do is we essentially have a geographic territory and then we teach an entrepreneur whether it's a real estate broker or. Someone that's fix and flipping already, but we give them our tools that we've developed and then we give them capital so that they can put the down payment down and the construction budget Basically, you know and they and they are they bought in as a territory and so that's kind of the next journey that we want to take You know, we want to continue to refine the corporate territory and obviously make profit where we're at and that takes investors coming in and raising funds and and bringing them in into our vision and then rolling that out across the country so as my investors continue to get taken care of well and getting those high interest returns I think they'll be rock-solid at moving it across the country as well I love it, I love it. Great wordplay there, perfect. Well, my friend, I do have one question left for you and it is my favorite question to ask. If you could be any mythical creature, what would you be and why? So what I'd be honestly Justin is I would be the Phoenix because I really want to rise out of the ashes. I want to be known as something different and morphed into something different coming out of those ashes and being that firebird that flies out here. You know everybody thinks you're down and you're burnt and you're toast but the Phoenix it rises out of the ashes so my corporations called Rise Up Aspirations my other corps are rock solid you know to build on the rock and not the sand so the Phoenix is that that mythical creature and literally it's in some of my logos company logos so that's the mythical creature. Awesome, I love it. And you talk about rising, you talk about rising up. Think about. what you've had to do to rise up through the experiences that you've had, right? To come back from such an emotionally... Don't try to get me to cry, because you're getting there. eh So not not my intention, but just truly thinking about like how inspirational it is literally rising up from the ashes right having everything that you Expected everything you've built everything you've put together all the time the effort the energy The the love that you've poured into the passion that you've poured into that to watch that crumble Despite all your best efforts to see the opportunity to potentially make some shifts and do the legalities and red tape or other pieces that come about to be, to have those hopes dashed on the rocks. Like that's enough to crush someone. Right. And, and in a situation like that, to take the lesson that you did in regards to being more present with your family, right. Creating and, and investing your time in the relationship with your twins, right. To come out of that, talking about rising up. like a phoenix rising from the ashes to come back and have such a lesson learned from that kind of an experience and then not to quit yet to then come back and to fight even harder for the company now that you're building actively. The people that you're going to help along the way, the lessons you've learned through those trials and now how you can build it back better and stronger. in a different niche, sure, but still yet your business nonetheless with efficiencies built in, but doing it all while still present with your family so you can share those moments with them too. That's the legacy. It is it is and I'm Wow, I love I love you for saying that and mentioning that I mean that sums up a lot because It was hard. I mean it was so hard and I couldn't even imagine telling you it's not just like losing a loved one in a death. It's not I can't describe the things you go through, to lose everything and then you're married. Well, then you have to, you know, I have to sell everything and bankruptcy and everything's just gone. And you just like, whoa, how do I do this? And then to be an ADHD or spectrum and be like, what do you do now? Like, do you go on, you work for a corporation? That's fear and terror to me for me to work in a corporation. is a fear factor to the nth degree because I don't want to work for somebody because I'm not meant to be in a box, you know, and if you put me in a box, almost makes me get anxiety just thinking about it. So that is huge. So you have to just grind and you have to get down to nothing. in two or three instances to get to the place I'm at, I did some trucking and I was under trailers putting wire. in and and you know under trailer sweaty and just I couldn't tell you the things I've been through in the last three or four years before getting back to real estate and getting back into grinding. But yeah, that grind I was doing trucking and it was hard. Those are hard industries and I thought it was going to be good. thought, okay, well, it's great with COVID, but then that flipped too and that blows up. And then I get into truck brokering because that was like the lead in and then that blows up. But all the while still building my real estate, which is really nothing it's never let me down real estate just has it I've never lost a dime in real estate so that's where I figured my niche wasn't to stay there I love it. love it. Find what works and do more of it, right? Awesome. Eric, thank you so much for joining us today my friend, and sharing some of your story. Really appreciate it, buddy. Thanks, I appreciate it Justin. I love being on here and thank you so much. It's been a pleasure and you got a good thing going. I'm excited to watch it. Thank you, my friend. Well, make sure you share it with friends. Like, subscribe, ring that bell. Right? So, my friends, thank you for joining us once again on our quest to inspire, educate, and empower you to turn your dreams into reality, one mindset shift at a time. We'll see you next time.

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Justin Mills

Host
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Aaron Iler

Producer
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Eric Zwigart

Guest