He Built a Billion-Dollar Real Estate Company — Then Lost It All | Boaz Gilad

Boaz Gilad on Unmasking Success: From Actor to Billion-Dollar Real Estate—and Losing It All

Host Jän Simon welcomes Boaz Gilad—entrepreneur, performance strategist, founder of Zenith Clubhouse, and author of The Zenith Code—to discuss why success isn’t linear but a rollercoaster. Boaz shares his origin story from growing up in Israel, serving in the Israeli army, moving to New York with a suitcase to study acting, and unexpectedly pivoting into real estate after learning about building equity. He explains how he scaled quickly by specializing in housing for actors, survived 2008, and eventually took a New York real estate company public with over $1B in assets—before a hostile takeover left him losing everything. The conversation explores redefining success beyond money, the “life is a game” framework (timeline, rules, scoreboard), why high achievers plateau, and why discipline, coaching, and systems beat motivation and hype.

www.zenithclubhouse.com

Transcript

SPEAKER_02 0:23

I find a lot of young people with a very, I would say, an illusion around what it means to be successful. And they think that success is linear. Like you do X and then you climb to the next level, then you go to the next level, you get to the next level, right?

SPEAKER_01 0:41

But you and I know that successful level successful people who want to hell and both.

SPEAKER_03 0:51

Hey there, welcome back to Above and Beyond Reference Meets Elevation. I'm your host, John Simon, and this people are raising the bar, diving into the past and purpose of the finding moments of leadership. Am I thinking about the idea of real stories? Let's get into it. Right, today on Above and Beyond Rex Meets Elevation, I'm sitting down with Boaz Galad, an entrepreneur, performance strategist, founder of Zemith Clubhouse, and author of the Zenith Code. Boaz has lived for the kind of story a lot of people take. He built and took public a New York real estate company with more than a billion dollars in assets. And from the outside, that looks like the finish line. But what makes Boaz's story so interesting is what came after. He began studying why successful people still plateau, why talent and ambition are not always enough. Today, his work is focused on helping leaders, founders, athletes, and high performers turn success from something mysterious into something repeatable through clear thinking, disciplined action, and systems that actually hold up in real life. So in this episode, we're going to talk about what it really takes to win the games that matter in business, in leadership, and in life. Oaz? Welcome. Thank you. Sounds great. Well, I really appreciate it. I appreciate uh the chance to get to know you and understand your journey and and where you went. Let's uh let's talk really quick, kind of a a quick little fun story. I actually jumped into your website and it talks about life being a game and that you need to play it like a champion. So help me understand that mantra and and how you came up with that. Sure.

SPEAKER_02 2:41

So that's actually quite simple. You know, uh here here's what you want to consider. What first of all, let's what is a game, right? So a game is uh when you look at sport, you look at anything like that, has a particular amount of time, no game goes forever, right? Has a scoreboard and has rules. Three things. Very simple. Life is actually built of a million games. And you can look, look, being married is a game. Has rules, has a timeline. Now you might be 90 years being married, but it still has a timeline, right? It has a scoreboard. Scoreboard in this case might be a little subjective, which is am I happy, am I satisfied, am I fulfilled in my relationship, right? But it has its rules, and being single is a game too, and has its own rules and role regulation and all of them. So when I kind of looked at life, I said, just life is just a series of games, and we don't operate this way in many ways. And what I saw is that top performers ongoingly relate to life as a series of games. So I said, let's just create this, you know, kind of framework before we go in, and then we can just again and again just look at those three things, which is just to you know repeat it, timeline. Because everything comes to an end. Look, even we, you and I, will come to an end, you know? Timeline, scoreboard, and rules.

SPEAKER_03 4:01

Well, that's it's it's fascinating, and I look forward to jumping into that deeper. But before we'd really jump into that, before we jump into the Zenith Clubhouse, the Zenith Code, take us back. Who is Boaz before business, before real estate, before all your success? Talk to me about where you came from, what life looked like as a younger self.

SPEAKER_02 4:24

Sure. So just so you know, so I live in New York City. I'm 54 years old, so I've been here for 33 years. Okay. And I grew up, you can see by the name, I grew up in Israel. Okay. So I grew up in Israel and I lived in Israel till I was 21. I served in the Israeli army. And after the army, I came like any other person with a big dream in a suitcase. And I came to New York to school for school. And I have never thought that business or running a public company will be part of my future. I actually saw myself as a kid, as a teenager, I saw myself as an actor. Actually, it's funny, but I met my wife shooting a Pizza Hut commercial in New York City, exactly. So she was sitting next to me, we were both doing stuff. But that's a whole different conversation. So yeah, exactly. So I came to New York uh with a big dream, and I went to a really great school called Stella Adler Conservatory, and I was an actor until I was 29. So business and I studied philosophy in college. Business for me was something that was not. If you interviewed me when I was 20 years old, 23 years old, and say, hey boss, how do you think about business? I would say it's not for me. I'm not a I'm the creative type, I'm an actor, I weigh tables, I like to work hard, but I'm not a business person, you know, you know. So that that's kind of like my background, and you know, the rest is history. But that's and then as you mentioned in the beginning, I took on real estate, we can speak about it, how it came to be, but I kept on growing it more and more. Survived 2008, and I came out of it quite strong after that. One thing led to the other. I led uh my company to be big enough to go public and I raised public bonds and I remained a public company for almost seven years. And here's what you missed because you're so nice, I think, because you're from Arizona. What you forgot to mention that it completely blew up in my face. Oh, really? So it was not yes, it was not a good ending. It's like, you know, you hear you hear the introduction, you think, oh my gosh, like this guy. But actually, I had a hustle takeover over my company, and about now almost seven years ago now, I lost everything I had.

SPEAKER_08 6:32

Oh, goodness.

SPEAKER_02 6:33

So, you know, so very different. So as as as your audience know, you know, life is a roller coaster, and I've experienced the top and I've uh experienced the bottom. Hmm.

SPEAKER_03 6:44

I that's interesting because uh it it I would not have taken that from the surface, right? So when you when you were at the top, did you feel like you were successful, you'd hit it, you made it, you you did everything you ever wanted to do before the world crashed in on you, or were you kind of just scrambling and moving so fast forward without really looking around to take note of where you were?

SPEAKER_02 7:12

No, so you know, the the question is is I think you there's a more complex answer to what you asked because did I feel on top of the world? Yes, I did. I made a lot of money, I drove a really nice car, had a very good uh life lifestyle. You know, so from that perspective, and one looks at a poster or a video of my life, it looks from the outside like extremely, extremely handy successful. Well, I was very successful and I made a lot of money. But you asked, the bottom of your question was like, did you feel like you know this is like I'm at the top of the world? And I gotta tell you that that was not the experience. That even or maybe especially in the top, financially, I felt that there was something missing there, something that uh is not enough for me. Now, you know, it's easy to compensate for how you feel when you make good money. Like you you drive a nice Porsche, it it it it it eases it kind of eases the the landing, but I was not happy. I was working very hard, which I don't mind at all. I love working hard, but I working very hard, but full of frustration and lack of satisfaction and fulfillment. And again, because you take the family on vacations, because you have a really nice house, because you really have a nice car, you cover that lack of uh happiness with other things. And when my company blew up, I wasn't a crossroad. I could say I I you know, like the good thing about it is that even though I lost so much money of mine, investor, etc., I had a really good name. No one sued me. People realize it's like the economy and the the way the operation, the public, and the whole thing, right? So the morning after, literally, I had phone calls from people saying, I know you're not doing well, but we know who you are. Here's money, let's go back. Let's let's you know we know how much experience it is. And look, your ego called you to jump right on the horse and say, I'm gonna prove to anyone that I can do it, you know. And by the way, I caught myself that what's the drive behind taking kind of like jumping back on the horse was not satisfaction or fulfillment or joy or happiness, it was about proving to others and to myself, but mainly to others that I still have what it takes. And I would I was lucky enough to have people around me that are close very close and said just pause and I could listen to what I really want to do. And I was very clear that real estate development, not real estate, because I'm some somehow a little bit involved in real estate still, but real estate development is not something I want to do again. And that was a very tough uh poll.

SPEAKER_03 10:01

I I could imagine because I think about myself and I've been doing what I do, I've been in an insurance for 30 years, and there's been a number of times where I've thought I'd love to get out of this or what have you, but it's kind of what I know, right? It's what I do, and and uh it's become a routine, I guess, if you will. How how when you make that decision or when you make that uh realization that what you've done is not what you want to do, how do you make that pivot?

SPEAKER_02 10:28

That's you know, look, it's it's it's first that's not easy. So I have all the compassion. When I work with clients now as a as a performance coach, I have all the compassion for everything you just said. The fear, the concern, this is what I know what to do, I've mastered to some level, right? But here's two things. One, let's go back to said about the game. The game has a timeline. Look, there's 90 minutes, and then it's done. So consider that the game of life is gonna be done. And and not like a regular sport, you don't have a clock that you know how long it's gonna be. It might be in 50 years, it might be tonight on the drive home. Yeah. So one of the things that I get really clear about with people is do you really want to waste your time playing a game that you don't want to play? Because you're always gonna play a game, like I said earlier, you know, like you being married is a game, being single is a game, being a parent is a game, being a business owner is a game, like it's all games, right? But consider that either you inherited a game or you're playing a game that you no longer want to play. And because you're so good in that game, you keep on staying with it, but that's insane. So, yes, it takes courage, it takes challenge, it takes uh gut to go and change that. But first of all, why wouldn't you do that? You get one chance. That's the first thing. But the second thing is look, my first here here's what we do, and again, all I do is I I I work and develop top performers. And you know, I have um I have a sub stack I write once a week about clients of mine, about how top performers operate. And one of the things I wrote about is that uh top performers sometimes operate in kind of a weird way. And what do I mean by that? You know, think about it, you're working on your body, and you have you're very good with shoulders and upper body workouts, right? And you have very weak, you know, legs. And I come to you and you're my coach, you're my trainer, and I said, Look, look at my legs, look at my upper body. I'm very strong, I'm very big, and look, my weak my legs are weak. What will the trainer say? Okay, let's do some squats, let's do some workout, let's do some running, let's no work on your legs because that's the weakest part of your body, right? But here's what people do: they don't, they double down on what's already strong. So think about how ridiculous it is. Like we can make fun of ourselves, right? That you come to me and you say, I really want a strong body. We analyze and realize you have very str weak legs, and when I go back to you, I see you're doing push-ups and pull-ups.

unknown 13:20

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 13:21

Like, you're you're working on muscles already strong. So, no difference in career. Sometimes we are so concerned about or we get used to working on muscles that are already strong that we forget that the ability to work out is something that is in us, and it's time to work something weak. So if you're good at a business, that doesn't mean you have to stick with it just because you're good at it. Your job is actually to implement the muscles you develop as a business owner to other areas.

SPEAKER_03 14:25

Hmm. Okay. That absolutely makes sense. And I think that it it's interesting because using the analogy of the weightlifting, I I can very much relate to, you know, you see the guys that like they can bench press hundreds of pounds, and so that's what they do every time they go in the gym because it's it looks good, right? Uh talk to me about how did you build the real estate company and then how I mean it sounds like it had some to do with maybe the turn in the market with regards to some of that we'll call it an implosion of the business, but but how how did you get let's talk about how did you get into real estate first, and then what did what did it look like growing that business and how did you get it to the point where it was a public entity because that's that's a pretty impressive feat.

SPEAKER_02 15:21

Yeah, so so first of all, look like like I said in the beginning, I'm a business person by luck. Yes, I collected a degree later on, but like I said, my background has nothing to do with business, right? And my business, as many businesses, there's nothing special about what I'm saying, stuff came out of necessity. Like as quote-unquote, any successful actor in New York, I was waiting tables. And and uh my my girlfriend then, now my wife, uh, and I said, we kind of like sort of like look at our lives, and we said, look, when when I do a show, I'm very happy. Uh but in between we have to pay the bills and we have to pay the rent, therefore I'm gonna weigh tables. And I enjoyed waiting tables and I loved it, but still, it was not there was no future, there was no ability to build equity or anything like that. And I literally, like I remember I was exposed to a rich dad, poor dad. If you know I'm assuming everybody read it, and if not, you should, even though it's by now is an old book. But it's one of those classic kind of Bible of entrepreneurs, and and it kind of shifted the way of thinking because I don't I don't come from any money, I came from a different country, as I said earlier, without any money. And and I said, okay, why don't why don't we do something that's flexible? And literally that's how I started real estate. I started by understanding, and I actually my not not to pitch it because I don't I don't know if it's still in print, but my first book, uh, which I published with McGraw-Hill was about that understanding the market. There was a fundamental understanding of a market that I understood. And what was the market I dealt with? And that's I think the key to my real estate success was that I was an actor, and there's tens of thousands of actors in New York. So I said I'm gonna do uh housing for actors by actors. And I was the first landlord, or I don't know the first, but the first I know of, that tailored the buildings, the leases, the the everything for actors. Because why? Because I was so smart now, because I knew that market, yeah, because that came from that, right? So so I thought if you know that I will buy, I raised some money from friends, and you know, someone went to college with my wife, and and you know, like people I met, we had very, very little money, and I bought one property, and I thought I'm gonna buy another two-family or duplex, whatever you want to call it, uh, three years later. And one day maybe I'll have some equity. And I bought 18 buildings in the first two years. Oh my gosh. You know, and because one led to the other, led to the other, then people heard about it, and I just and that was unstoppable. And you know, I just I looked after a few months, I said, wow, I love what I'm doing. I'm really enjoying it. And I actually don't know, don't I don't enjoy going to auditions anymore. So I'm gonna stop, I'm gonna call my agent, I'm gonna say, look, I'm not going to auditions anymore. If I miss it, I'll go back. I'm not gonna make some big statements. And I never looked back. So so yes, the the the crisis of 2008 was nine years later, right? Eight years later, eight, nine years later. That was not what made me uh kind of like take it to the next level, but it was just about trial and error, and and it was I was self-taught. And that's one of the look one of the most I see my kids, I have three kids, everything at the tip of their fingers. I used to go to Barnes and Nobles and get a one-of-the-big cup of coffee and like you know, sit there and read every real estate book I could because I knew nothing about real estate. So, so how did I make it? I I think look learning and making mistakes and learning and making mistakes and keep on jumping on their horse as you're falling on your butt. And uh in 2008 bruised us badly, but I survived it, and then when came back, you know, the rest is history.

SPEAKER_03 19:00

Yeah. So so your work talks a lot about a high achievers plateauing. Not because they lack talent, but because they lack structure. What does that plateau usually look like in real life? I mean, when you're when you're going through the process of talking to people about the plateau, what does that typically look like?

SPEAKER_02 19:23

Yes, so so there's there's two I would say two elements of plateau that are very different, but let's talk about uh both of them. One is there's an area of your life where you are top of four, and then an area of your life when you're really not, and it drags you down. I'll give you an example. One I think my first client uh runs uh a huge successful logistic company in the Midwest. And if a very wealthy guy, everybody loves him, you know, balance sheet off the chart, great, employees are admiring him. Incredible, right? One of those success stories. Uh really humble, great guy. And when I spoke to him for the first time, he said to me, and not even as a coach, we met before I I uh he was my first client, and I he said to me, I'm such a loser. And I was looking at him, I was like, What are you talking about? Like in my mind, what is he talking about, right? And he said to me, It was the moment of being open, he said, I'm 300 pounds, I don't sleep at night, and I feel like shit. Forgive, I don't know if I'm allowed to curse, but you know, but here we are. Yeah. So uh and I was like, wow, and I was I was fascinated by how one person, the same person, can be a top performer in one area of your life, and then when we're implementing the muscles, let's call it muscles, that he uses at work, why is it that he cannot implement them in his fitness and health? And it was more of a question than an answer. I didn't have the answer yet. But I wanted to unmystify, I wanted to ful take apart that myth of what it takes to be successful. Because from a logical perspective, you should take the same tools as you use in your business and implement your health and fitness. And you know that it's not the case, you know many people. So that's one plateau, right? One plateau is like when it's like this, like this concrete wall between one success of yours, or one I would call top performing. And by the way, you know, I meet many people because I lead so many workshops, and they say, Well, I'm not really a top performer. I guarantee that if I speak with anyone, they are a top performer somewhere. Whether as a parent or uh a significant other or a business person or athlete, there's one area of your life when you are just an inspiration for others around you. And it seems easy to you and it doesn't seem easy to them. So one plateau is like when you don't know how to kind of spill over the magic into the next bucket. The other plateau is where exactly what you pointed to earlier when you kind of talked about your business a little bit, uh, where you hit a particular level of success and your your toolbox is empty. So you are you ran out of and you're honest enough with yourself to say, look, I've done well, I've got to wherever I got. But either I want more, which is fine, you don't have to, but if you want more, you ran out, you no longer have the vocabulary to work on the next level, right? Or you said, look, it's it's I'm losing my I'm losing my momentum here. I hit this thing and it's I'm losing my groove. I'm losing my ability to grow. And by the way, this is never a status quo. What do I mean by that? Like, no, status quo is something that humans invented. In the universe, the the the entire universe either shrinks or expands. There's look at planets, trees, humans. Everything it either shrinks or expands, right? So consider that you're never stuck in one place. You're either shrinking or expanding. So when people come to me and be like, look, I'm shrinking.

SPEAKER_06 23:09

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 23:13

How how do you then help somebody get over that hurdle? Because I can I can imagine that that is a very defeating space to be in where it becomes very unmotivating to want to move forward in whatever it is. And and I think, you know, whether I think some people might might see it as as a laziness where, okay, now you're not working as hard because for whatever reason. But how do you help people move past that space?

SPEAKER_02 23:51

Yeah, so I I can't. Yeah. And the reason why I can't is because it has to come from you. I will, and and I'm I'm gonna answer, so I'm not trying to ignore the question far away from it. But I can only help you to decise of how badly you want it. I can make you want it. So, first of all, there's you know, there's so much compassion in the work we're doing. So if look, if you're happy or satisfied with where you are, I'm not here to push you forward. Right? Yeah if you have a business, you go, it's like, look, I'm getting my bills, I'm getting my few weeks, uh, a year vacation, I'm happy. Uh first of all, don't don't waste your money with me. But also, I'm not the right, I'm a performance coach. I mean I'm elevating performance, right? So one is I can't really help you if you're not there, right? But people do have a drive or an interest or hunger for the next level because they some they see something better for them, bigger than them, more for them. And the moment they see it, then the confrontation happens because a lot of us get inspired, right? We get really excited and get inspired, but then we're like, oh my gosh, but I don't know what it takes, or oh, it's gonna take so much work. What other conversations, or people say, oh, well, you know, the economy, it's a bad time to do it. You know, yeah, like they either look for exterior reasons or interior reasons to explain something. And that is when I jump in. That's when actually we walk through the process, and the biggest thing is we get really clear about what's important to you and about are you willing to do the work. Because a lot of a lot of people, they live in Laaland in fantasy. Look, you want the six-pack, but you're not really willing to do the work.

SPEAKER_03 25:46

Oh, but I think about it all the time.

SPEAKER_02 25:47

Yeah, exactly. No, this is so great what you just said, because that's exactly what people do, right? And I just want you to be happy. Look, if you if you're sitting on the beach and you have a one-pack and you're happy, I'm I'm happy for you. You know, but if you have a six-pack and you're happy with a six-pack, I'm one I'm happy for you too, because it's two different games. You remember we spoke about a game, it's two different games, and there's no one better than the other. But the problem is exactly what you pointed to, which is you sit there and have a one-pack, like a beer belly, right thinking about the six pack, as if thinking about it will make the six packs appear. Right, right. And that's I think the most confronting conversation. The confronting confronting conversation is actually, are you willing to do the work it will take to have that six pack? And if you're willing to do the work, first of all, let's get it very clear about the work that needs to be done. And actually, sometimes, many times, it's actually not as as hard as you think it is.

SPEAKER_06 27:21

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 27:22

But when you're ready to do the work, are you willing to do it? And therefore, let's go and let's get create the infrastructure and the guidelines and the guard guardrails and all that stuff that you need to be successful.

SPEAKER_03 27:36

Do you think it's more important for somebody to be motivated or have the discipline?

SPEAKER_02 27:41

Yeah, I think that's a really great question because I hear that question or version of it very often when I speak with people, and I can't tell you how dismissive I am about motivation. I think motivation is actually a curse. And what do I mean by that? Look, we do need motivation, and motivation is important, but I think someone figured out a while ago in like self-help books that motivation sells very well. And then we became a culture of motivation. And so we have uh shorts and reels on social media, and we have books, and we have lectures, and we have all things about motivation. And motivation is lovely as long as you understand what it is, and what it is, it's a sugar, it's sugar rush. You know, you take you're tired, you take a cup of coffee, or you grab some chocolate, and you have a little kind of burst of energy. It's not sustainable. Inspiration is the same thing. It's you get this like boost of like, I'm gonna do it, I'm gonna make it happen, and then it just you go back to the couch.

SPEAKER_06 28:44

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 28:45

And again, nothing wrong about it. By the way, I meet a lot of people in seminars, especially when I'm guesting, like a one of those weekend work, you know, like one of those conferences, right? People who are addicted to inspiration, that they go from one seminar to the other, they want book after book, they walk into your room, their house, and they're full of books about inspiration. And how many of them they work? Very little. And by the way, their businesses were built on that. Gyms. Gym overregistered in January, right? Because it's New Year's solution. Yeah, they know they have a capacity of 500 people, the register of 700 or 8,000 people, knowing that by March, maybe 50% are gonna show up. By June, it's gonna be empty, and the circle starts again. And by the way, that's why gyms don't let you sign for one month. Because they know that inspiration is gonna be short-lived by design. So they're like, I'm not gonna get you money for a month because in February you're gonna wake up, it's gonna be cold outside, not where you are in Arizona, but you work. There's nothing inspiring about going to the gym in February, you know, and it's hard work, so therefore, I'm going to like sign a whole year from you and take money from you, knowing that you're not gonna show up. So, going back to what you asked, discipline is a fundamental part of what we need. Yeah. And in my job is to develop your disciplines. Because some people naturally are born with discipline abilities. Your childhood, your you know, your upbrising the way you're raised, you know, upbringing, and the way you saw your parents working or the culture you grew up in, that's it, that's natural, right? But a lot of us don't.

SPEAKER_03 30:26

Do you do you feel taking that a little bit further, motivation, discipline and I'm gonna say processes and procedures, kind of rolling it into a business thought process and and maybe a little bit creating habits, which would be the discipline aspect of it, I guess. What do you see some of the behaviors of successful business owners and entrepreneurs that you've worked with you know that that they have those beliefs, feelings, or actions, or are there limiting ones that you see kind of regularly in those individuals that that it's like, you know, hey, if you could tweak this slight slight changes that that could make you know better, more successful, however you want to look at that.

SPEAKER_02 31:18

Yeah, so there's quite a few that show up across the board with successful people. And when I say success, is whatever success means to you, right? It can be health and fitness, it can be business, it can be anything like that. One of them, as we just covered, was discipline. The other one is practice and lack of giving any way to uh to inspiration. If you look, there's nothing inspiring about going to the gym. I I I really doubt maybe once in a while, but who cares? Go, you know, show up, lift weights, that's it. I don't care how you feel about it. Yeah. Because what in your mind is two things. One is the results. So when summer comes and you're gonna be in a swimsuit, you're gonna look really good and you're gonna feel great about yourself, okay? And second thing is, and I think it's a thousand percent more important, is you know yourself as a top performer. This is the best, most satisfying, delicious experience is you experience yourself as a top performer. You're like, no one can mess with me, right? Yeah, but here's the other thing that at the same time I see with clients who are successful is knowing you don't know. Understanding that you are limited with however you're good at. I mean, look, there's a reason why all successful people have coaches. It's generally it's the middle that doesn't have coaches. Gotcha. You know, it's because like people on the bottom deal with a lot of issues that can't even get them to like what's possible, how can I imagine a great life, right? Yeah, people on the top, NBA players, sports, business, politicians, anyone you can imagine. You choose, whoever your audience chooses their inspiration, someone they look up to, they will look at them and say, Yeah, this person has a coach. I guarantee you. I really have never met, I'm sure there are, but I've never met someone who is crazy successful without a coach. You might not know about him or her, but anyone will have a coach. Yeah, because they understand that they don't know everything. Because they understand that even on the level that they're playing on, there's a new thing that can be provided for them. There's a new angle that can be shown to them. Because the coach sees things differently, because they expert in a particular thing, they understand something different than the experience of being in it, right? So, one of the things I love about top performers is that you don't know everything and willing willing to put aside your ego for the sake of expertise. So if you really want to master something, you have to put your ego aside. Because if you think that you know everything, then why would I listen to you? You don't, you know, I I know everything. But that's that's exactly the key to mediocracy.

SPEAKER_05 34:13

Hmm.

SPEAKER_03 34:14

Yeah, right. Holding yourself in spot because you think you are better than or no more than everybody else.

SPEAKER_02 34:22

Yes, and by the way, even if you're the best, you're best for a very short period of time. No one is best forever.

SPEAKER_06 34:31

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 34:32

So look, you know, I thought about I read that LeBron James spends uh over a million dollars on his body a year. Wow. Trainers, massage therapies, all things. A million dollars, right? Okay, it's nothing for him. But now the guy's not the best player anymore because he's older.

SPEAKER_06 34:49

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 34:49

So even when he was the best player in the NBA, if you think he was the best player, there's no doubt maybe he's number one, number two, number three, it doesn't matter. But look, we know he was like a uh you know an Uberman of NBA, right? He understands that it's not forever.

SPEAKER_06 35:03

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 35:04

So even if you experience the peak, the zenith, it's a moment.

SPEAKER_06 35:08

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 35:09

So that's why like zenith is a state of mind, it's not a place to be because it's gonna go away.

SPEAKER_03 35:16

You you talk quite a bit about success and and what that is. Has your version of success changed from where you were previously in your real estate, we'll call it your real estate life, versus where you are now today? I mean, it's has as your view of what that is, has it changed or is it the same?

SPEAKER_02 35:37

No, it's it look, it's it's a hundred in my case actually it's 180 degrees. It's completely different, right? So when I was at the peak of my public company and running a large real estate company, success success for me was you know, if you kind of measure the successes, how many assets I had, how many money how much money I had. That that the that was the key to success. Yes, I had small successes, is my employees happy, is my investors happy, etc. etc. But it boiled down to how much money do I have? Right? Money right now is not a sign of my success. Is money still important for me? Of course it is. You know, I'm not some you know, like hippie, like money. No, money is important. I live in New York, I love good life, right? Yeah, right. But but it's not a sign of success for me. So for in my case, it's just it's satisfaction, it's being proud of what I do, is being fulfilled. And and by the way, to go back to the beginning of the conversation, when you if you interviewed me in the mid-20s, success will be for me to be on a Broadway show or doing a TV spot or booking a movie. Success, the the target moves all the time. So so one success is it's it's almost insane, insane to say, I think someone says, no, no, I have one goal, one goal only. If they if you interview them five or ten or twenty years later and they still have the same goal, it's kind of I would say sad. Because they're not the same person, they're not the same age, they don't have the same wisdom or you know or drive. Not good or bad, there's no judgment in what I'm saying, but yes, I understand some people say, you know, he's like he's 17, he's like, I'm gonna get MVP. Okay? Fine, no problem. But the moment when either you don't get it or you do get it, you realize, okay, now what? Or you know, thrive it. But if you want to be MVP and you're 43, that's kind of ridiculous, right?

SPEAKER_03 37:30

Because you're not going to at the at this point, give it up. Exactly, exactly.

SPEAKER_02 37:36

And what a waste of time. You wasted 15 years trying to get something in your what a waste of time.

SPEAKER_03 37:41

Right, right. Talk to me about Zenith Clubhouse and what what that is. Uh, from my understanding, the the idea is helping people exceed their perceived limits. So talk to me about what you do and what the Zenith Clubhouse is.

SPEAKER_02 37:56

Yes, so uh just you know, Zenith Club is kind of like the the company that holds the different things we offer. So what I do is I do one-on-one coaching uh with executives and things. I have a lot of workshops that I run. Uh, we do from keynotes where I go to, I just you know came back from Kansas and did like a keynote to insurance company, uh, all the way to workshops with companies that want to kick kind of like create new energy and uh they maybe are third generation business and they need someone to come and get them back excited about business. Some technology is coming, AI or something comes their way, they don't really know how to deal with it, and they want to change their mind. I'm not an AI expert, right? But I can speak about what it will take to be a top performer in a changing market, right? All the way to the uh the Zenith Club House program, which is a three-month program where basically we say to you, look, I'm gonna change your life in three months. I guarantee it, literally guarantee. Like, here's your money back if you don't experience it. Uh and and because we see it's working. And by the way, and by the way, uh we fire people from the program also because it's a very intense program. So sometimes, you know, there's a conversation we had before. It's kind of like uh, you know, like CrossFit. It's some people love it and are obsessed by it. Some people it's too much for them, right? So I'm not saying we are as intense as CrossFit, but sometimes I see someone after a week and I say, Why are you wasting your money with me? You're really not committed. You're saying you're committed to that six pack, but you're not doing the work. So I'm I'm not what don't don't wait. Here's your money, don't don't waste your money. Go, go have go have a beer and enjoy it. Like, I don't want you to suffer that really. Like, there's no judgment here. Um so so that's Zenith Clubhouse is basically just for me. Why did I call it Clubhouse? I call it Clubhouse because uh, you know, I I said to you in the beginning, after my real estate uh collapse, I was really curious and I started to kind of shop around to all those ideas. I was teaching at the NYU and you know, I gave lectures and everything, but I was like, I I want to figure out and then I met this, then I met this person I told you about earlier, and I got I got really curious about what it takes to be a top performer. So I started to create those pilots conversations with very successful people I know and say what's common, that woman who ran five Iron Men, and that guy who runs a billion-dollar company, and that person who opened a chain of coffee shops, and what commons, even though you look at them and they're different ages and genders and all that stuff, right? What common to all of them? And that was Zenith Club as coming. Like, let's go to a club where people are top performers or want to tap into the top performance ability.

SPEAKER_03 40:33

Yeah. How do you how does that work? I mean, if if I mean I'm a business owner, let's say I come to you and I'm and I'm a small business, but I want I'm kind of stuck at a plateau where I'm stuck at a uh a ceiling, so to speak, and I know where I want to go, but I'm not sure how to get there or what to do. Do you work through that as a business coach? Yes, is it is it more individual motivational stuff, or what do you do?

SPEAKER_02 41:01

Yeah, yes, thank you. So it's actually there's two options, right? One is we have to have a conversation and saying, are you willing to change, transform, alter your company? And I'm not saying change the business, but one of the things we work a lot with is the team around you. So consider that one of the reasons you're not going to the next level is because the people around you are not set to win, also. Going back to the sport analysis and success analysis we kind of talked about earlier, yeah, there's an entire team around you. Even if you're a tennis player, a single tennis player, it's not like you're just playing a sport that has a team, right? There are coaches and trainers and massage therapists and chefs and everything around you that make sure you win, right? So one of the things is like, okay, so do you want to transform you with the team around you? So let's tailor a program for your business only, or you is the leader of the company or CEO dealing with something personal. Like you need to first of all get the engine going and then you're gonna bring the rest of the team with you, right? So if it's you personally, I'm just gonna add you to one of our three-month programs. You know, it's tailored and I'm available and my coaches are available, and all that stuff, right? But if it's about when we have a conversation, you say, you know what, actually, now there's two challenges. One is you're you're lacking tools. That's the good news, by the way. That you actually admit that I'm like I'm lacking tools on the next level. And again, nothing wrong with what you have. Like, look, when I I read a very successful company, and then I had that dream in to take it public, and I had to send my entire accounting department home, and they were wonderful, they're hardworking and good and committed. I took care of them, but I had to send them home. Why? Because they're not sufficient to be a financial team for a public company. Public reporting is a whole new level. I had to bring a CFO that was three, four hundred percent more expensive, literally four times more expensive than the controller I had before that, right? But that's the game I wanted to play, right? So if you so one of the things, let's get clear about the game you want to play. If you want to play, look, if you wanna play basketball on the weekend with your buddies, that's one level of a game.

SPEAKER_08 43:28

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 43:28

If you want to play for the NBA or D1, if you're a college kid, that's a different level of play. None of that is better than the other. I'm not telling you you should be an NBA player, but you gotta get clear. And if you gotta get clear, do we need to get to work and tailor a program for your company, whether it's for a few days or for a few months, or do we just get you going and get you tap into a top performance element of your life?

SPEAKER_03 43:54

Do you do uh like a like an in-take interview with with individuals to determine whether or not they would be a good fit? I mean, you've said that you've had clients you've had to just say, hey, obviously you're not bought into this, and I and I can see somebody having the motivation out of the front, but not the discipline to be able to take it further.

SPEAKER_02 44:15

So yes, yes. I want look, I am I love what I do, I love making money for it, and I'm not here to make money. Yeah. Therefore, I do not want to take your money if it's not a fit. Yeah. It's there's no point. Look, there's no point of it. I I don't need it. Again, even if I need the money, like I one of the things I took on when I left real estate is I have a very high level of integrity for myself. And I must interview you, and I must see that you're fit to the program, and I'm a fit for you. You might not not like me.

SPEAKER_06 44:50

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 44:50

So I why why would I like why would I waste your time and my frustration to and look, I have clients who I work with for a while and they're on call with me. They call me when they need something, or I have like an agreement with them, and I am ruthless with them, but very compassionate. Ruthless. If you could listen, if you listen to those calls and you will not be able to, you're like, holy smokes, how he talks to me. And it comes from pure love. Because I've been working with them for a while, and I know that right now they're in a funk, or they are determined. With some blind spot, and as their coach, I can pull them out of that blind spot.

SPEAKER_03 46:14

Gotcha.

SPEAKER_02 46:15

Look, what what when I when I coach, what do I really do? Think about it. All I do is, and not to dis discredit myself, but really but what do I do? I add, think about you drive a semi-trailer. All I do is I'm adding more mirrors around you. So you know, if you drive like the old time when people used to use mirrors and not just cameras, right? There was like there was a blind spot. You move to the left lane and you hit a car because you're driving this huge semi-trailer, and there wasn't the sensors there to beep when you can move to the lane, and you thought there was no one there. You wouldn't move to the left lane if you knew that there was a tiny car driving there. That would be stupid or crazy, right? Yeah. It was a blind spot. Here I am. I show up with a bag of mirrors basically, and installing six more mirrors and sensors around your semi-trailer. And now you can drive better, faster, more efficient with no accidents because I installed those six sensors and cameras and mirrors. That's what a great coach does.

SPEAKER_03 47:15

Yeah. Well, I I I I can tell you, I mean, just just speaking to you from a passion perspective, I can I can sense the passion, and I can I I love the fact that you speak a language for me that that is very dear to me, and I talk to people all the time and I say, Look, I'm not the right agent for everybody. I'll answer your questions, I'll tell you what I think. At the end of the day, if you don't like me, go someplace else, because you can find somebody else. You know, like but so I I appreciate that that you're willing to walk away from business, you know, and not sugarcoat it for people to keep them around and be able to say, look, obviously it's not the right fit. You're not gonna you're not going to get the outcome if you don't put the input.

SPEAKER_02 48:02

So yes, the there's two. One is I'm not selling you, the product is you. So if I don't sell you the right uh product, you will be disappointed. The second thing is you have you have a choice. We all have a choice in life. I choose, and it seems like you're the same. I choose to come from generosity, not from scarcity. I'm not the uh used car dealer dealer that if I don't sell you something, you know, then you're gone forever. And by the way, that world is disappearing.

unknown 48:37

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 48:37

With transparency and internet. You remember that the old like when we were kids, something that we used to go to like a with our dad to get a car, and the guy, like, you know, like whatever he puts some you know, margarine on the engine so it doesn't make noise, so he can just sell it to somebody. Well, those stories about then they don't exist anymore. Yeah, yeah. Because now you go online and you look on Google and you're like, they have three stars, I'm not gonna walk into this dealership, right? So actually the world of scarcity and grabbing someone for one shot is disappearing anyway. And beyond that, why if you were to do like again, going back to the conversation about a game, you have one shot. Yeah, why wouldn't you play a game you're proud of?

SPEAKER_03 49:18

For sure. For for those out there that feel like they have more and they're stuck in their spot, how would they find you? How would they start that conversation with you to see if if working with you would be the right fit?

SPEAKER_02 49:35

So So, first of all, thank you for asking. And I'm always available. I took one of the things I took on is to respond to any person. I met sometimes you know, I go through months when I meet thousands of people, right? And there's not one person who doesn't send me a message on LinkedIn or on social media that I don't respond to. So I want to make sure that I get back to you. Will I give you everything you're looking for? I'm not sure because either we're not a fit or it's costs more than what you thought. But if you want to reach out, you have a question, you want to have a short conversation. I took on being available because I want to make an impact. Because my game, by the way, spoke about games, my game is when I put my head on the pillow and I'm no longer here after that, whether it's again in 50 years or tomorrow morning, I want to know I was fully used.

SPEAKER_06 50:22

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 50:22

So so therefore, I'm always available. So the best most people find me either word of mouth but or they go to my website, boazguilad.com, or clubhouse.com, or literally, like LinkedIn. They will send me a message. This woman, I just I'm doing an event in Italy. She reached out to me on LinkedIn. She said, I'm working with this international company, and I'll be really looking for like, would you talk to us? And I talked to them, I said, Here's what I offer. Will it fit for you? And we're not sure they come back, like whatever. I'm always available. And and the good and the bad for me, it's good, but the good news is that we're all available with social media today and and and phones and everything.

unknown 50:57

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 50:57

I appreciate that. I appreciate that. I appreciate you coming on and sharing your story. Is there anything that we should know about Boaz or about Zenith that that I haven't asked you that you'd care to share with us?

SPEAKER_02 51:10

That's you know, here's something I do and I do for myself, and I'm telling you that not to brag about it at all, which I will, but actually as an invitation for your uh for your listeners. And I write a weekly Substack uh article. Okay. And it's not like I have a million followers, I have a few dozens. How do I do that? I do that because first of all, I'm fascinated by what it means to tell what what it takes to be a top performer, but also because it was my weakest thing. So I am, you'll tell me, but I think I'm a good speaker, you know. I'm I you know I get great feedback about the coaching, I'm successful perspective. But one of you know, someone who's been, you know, I'm a foreigner, I didn't grow up here, and English is a second language for me, and all that stuff. Uh writing was not easy. I'm dysleptic to make it even worse, right? So nothing, nothing about writing was comfortable, easy for me. And I took on being a writer. So I started practice and I read, I'm gonna write Substack for myself, not for others. And then it's another picking up. So as an invitation to your to your uh listeners, please read the articles, give me feedback, tell them, come back to me, say I strongly agree with what you said, or this is BS, and I don't agree with anything you said. Yeah, yeah. You know, like let's have a dialogue about what it actually takes. You know, I say often, and I'm not saying it in a modest way, I don't know the answer. I know to ask very powerful questions. I don't know what top performers need to be top performers all the time. But I do know the questions and practices that work with all those people I work with. So in that article weekly, I kind of struggle and share and put a spotlight on elements of top performance, and that's something I would love to be able to kind of give me feedback about.

SPEAKER_03 53:04

And is that on your website? It's uh it's actually on Substack. So it is on Substack okay.

SPEAKER_02 53:09

Yeah, exactly. So just find Boaz Gilad on Substack and you know and that's the way it is.

SPEAKER_03 53:14

Yeah, I'm gonna I'm gonna have to go out and and search that out. So um, and then you had mentioned that you have you have a podcast as well. I do, I believe. Yeah, yeah. What's the name of what's your podcast called?

SPEAKER_02 53:24

Yeah, so it's called Unmask. Um and here's why I created I don't do it as often as you do. But here's what uh what why we created We create a podcast because as I was meeting with people, and especially young people, you know, I I teach in universities often, and I have a course in the s in the fall in at NYU also. I find a lot of young people with a very, I would say, an illusion around what it means to be successful. And they think that success is linear, like you do X and then you climb to the next level, then you go to the next level, you get to the next level, right? But you and I know that success is like a roller coaster. And they're very successful people who went through hell and back, lost everything, including myself, lost everything I had. And uh and each part of the roller coaster is connected to the other. So you know how you go, let's let's just assume you go to a roller coaster for the first time in your life, you've never been to one. You know, you sit on it and in the beginning, you're like, oh, that's kind of boring here. I'm just climbing very, very slowly up, right? But if you gotta get to the top to scream as you're on the way down and then go up again and collect momentum. So the reason I created the podcast is because I want to unmask success. So I brought very successful people, and I keep on bringing every time I meet someone who's very successful, I say to them, hey, come into an jazz musician to you know major politicians to business people. Uh and I want to remove that myth of what does it take to be successful? I love that. Because it's really a dance, it's one step forward, two step back, three step forward, half step back. You know, and that's something that exactly, it's a dance. And as we dance with someone, especially if you're learning to dance, you're gonna step on someone's toe. Exactly.

SPEAKER_03 55:12

Stop the bloody nose. Exactly. You know what I mean? Exactly. Elbow someone exactly, pack up the brusted ribs. Yeah, it's you know, the the the the high is the highs are high and the lows are extremely low.

SPEAKER_02 55:26

So and it's never as high as you think, and it's never as low as you think. That's one other thing I learned. Yeah, you know.

SPEAKER_03 55:31

When when you're in the low, it can suck really bad. I just tell people, I said, you just gotta take a step. Just focus on one thing, just one thing today. Whatever you can control, take that step, move forward. So I love that. I love that. I'm gonna I will check check out your podcast as well. So I appreciate it. Well, hey, Boaz, I really appreciate you coming on and sharing a bit about yourself and and showing sharing about Zenith. I'll definitely uh get that linked out when we get the podcast out. But I I really appreciate it. Thank you.

SPEAKER_00 55:58

Thank you, thank you so much. Boas below, and I went above and beyond.