From Homeless and on Drugs to Raising Over a Billion Dollars | John Fernando

0:00One of the stories that made me a millionaire, there was a guy out scrubbing a rock with a toothbrush when I first walked up and he'd been out there for like two days. I didn't know what he was doing but it sounded like he was talking to himself. So about 18 days goes by. He's out there from 7 a.m. to 11 p.m. every day. And so he sits by me at lunch and I said, what are you doing out there? And he goes, well I got in trouble for blusting. I said, how long do you have to be out there? He goes, I don't know. I go, they haven't told you? He was like, no. And so days go by. I'm playing devils advocate. I was like, dude, you need to get out of here. This is nuts. I mean, you're 45 days in and they don't, you don't know when this is going to end. So on day 52, the guy that let him off, which later both of them became two of my best friends. He walks over with like his toothbrushes, rock and hands up to him and that was like, I need you to run down to the women's home and get some sugar. And he didn't speed walk. He didn't jog. It was dead sprint. When he came back, I said, why'd you do that? That was like a figure of speech. He goes to laid obedience, his disobedience. And when he taught me that right there, that teaching, when I went into business after I'd left,

1:00I just was about delayed obedience is disobedience. So anything my boss told me, sort of seeing, I just did it. What's up, the Moore Show family. We're back with another incredible guest. This guest went from surfing couches, meaning broke bust and disgusted all the way to raising billions of dollars in just a short two years. Now, always these episodes are brought to you by the Moore Club. So if you want access to individuals like I have here, then you want to be a part of the Moore Club. Go to time for more.com. Make sure in the club so you can have access to guests like this. All right, I have John Fernando here with me. I'm super excited about this as you went from a extreme state of broke, busted and disgusted to in a short couple of years, raising billions of dollars. Well, it took a long, it took time to raise billions of dollars. But first of all, thanks for

2:01having me on the show. Yeah. Took two years after I was, well, was on drugs and kept surfing homeless. Two years after that is when I became a millionaire, but it took probably another 10, 11 years to raise my first billion. Yeah, I was going to say two years to raise a billion is, I'm not even sniffing a billion. I've done this for 20 years. Now, I want to get into this. Yeah, I mean, I've been in this game for about 20 years now. And I'm not, I don't think I'm sniffing a billion dollars in raised. So for you to be one extreme and kind of lost financially broken and even doing drugs to 10 years later, having a billion under belt, let's start with this. I think there's a lot of listeners and a lot of viewers that maybe aren't as extreme as your story. Yeah, but they're lost. They're trying to figure it out. They're trying to grow a business. They're trying to raise some capital. They're just trying. I want them to hear a little bit more of your story because I think they can grasp like anyone can do this, right? That's the idea. So talk to us a little bit about that background and

3:05what was the transition over into transition? Okay. Yeah, so I was on all sorts of drugs and on 9909, I went to a really like a Christian boot camp. And so they were extremely hard on me. And I started to learn little tidbits that they would teach me along the way. And so and pretty much one of the stories that made me a millionaire, there was a, and this will sound crazy to a lot of your viewers, but it was there was a guy out scrubbing a rock with a toothbrush when I first walked up. And he'd been out there for like two days. And so I didn't know what he is doing, but it sounded like he was talking to himself. And so about 18 days goes by. He's out there from 7 a.m. to 11 p.m. every day. And so he sits by me at lunch and I said, what are you doing out there? And he goes, well, I got in trouble for lusting. And I said, well, what are you, how long do you have to be out there? He goes, I don't know. I go, they haven't told you. He was like, no. And so

4:06days go by. And I mean, I'm playing devil's advocate. I was like, dude, you need to get out of here. This is nuts. I mean, you're 45 days in and they don't, you don't know when this is going to end. So on day 52, the guy that let him off, which later both of them became two of my best friends, he said, I need you to run, he walks over with like his toothbrushes, rock and hands up to him. And that was like, I need to run, you need to run down to the women's home and get some sugar. And he didn't speedwalk. He didn't jog. It was dead sprint. When he came back, I said, why'd you do that? That was like a figure of speech. He goes, Delaydo, Beatian says, disobedience. And when he taught me that right there, that teaching, I went into business after I'd left. I just was about Delaydo, Beatian says disobedience. So anything my boss told me, sort of seeing, I just did it. So when he learned that I would work that way, he ended up, I became the one of the top leasing agents for Chesapeake Energy in the Barnat Show. And so I was averaging 46 leases

5:10a month and the average person was doing eight. And so when we were a big project, come on, he asked me, even though I wasn't, I hadn't been with the company as long as other people. And I got upset about it. And I said, why did you pick me? And he goes, because I know whatever I tell you to do, it would get done. And so it was about a $2 billion project. And it's kind of hard to explain to anybody who's not been in the oil business. But it's called a trespass track. And so they don't have to drill two wells and they can just drill one. You have to get every house that goes through the trespass track. So it's called a rule seven. It's called a rule 20 rule, rule 31. So I did that in that project. And that when that when that all happened, when I went, I was sitting at the, when this all went down one day and how little bit of backstory after this, it, there, I was sitting there one day and it was just normal day and all of a sudden all the managers started getting their suits and things on. Before we dive in, I want to talk to you about LFS capital. If you're looking to build passive income through multifamily real estate, LFS gives you

6:14access to exclusive apartment investments that aren't available to the public. If you want to diversify beyond stocks and create real cash flow, visit lfscapital.com to learn more and to get on the investor list. I personally invest with LFS capital and they have been incredible to work with. Their team is top notch. I get passive cash flow distributions to my bank account every month. And I'm always in the loop with what's happening with the apartments I'm invested in. The best thing is I don't have to worry about managing tenants or dealing with repairs. The team of LFS handles absolutely everything and my income is 100% passive and that's just the way I like it. So if you want to build wealth and passive income without all the work and additional risk, visit lfscapital.com. Now let's get to the show. And they brought the Chesapeake team was coming in and so they never wore suits. So they, they come in and they're like, well we're not here to see you. We're here to see Bobby Fernando. Yeah. And so and I said, I thought I was going to get fired for something. I didn't know what it

7:17was. So they brought me back there and they're like, how do you do it? They go, how to do what? I said, how do you get 46 leases and everybody else? I said, well, I cheat. I said, how do you cheat? I said, I work, I work on seven days a week. Everybody else up here worked five. If they worked that. Because all they had to do is get eight leases not to get fired for the month. Yeah. Well, I just decided to just try to get as many as I could because I'd been in that ministry and I was selling bread on the corner for them. I mean, so when somebody's going to pay you to do it as opposed to doing it for free, it's quite that you feel real grateful. So it gave me great perspective where everybody else was entitled. And so they, I said, that's when they told me I was going to run the SWAT and they said, you know, once I once they told me, you know, I told them they're like, well, why do you work seven days a week and only get paid for five? I go, well, there's no one else in this in this building talking to you right now. Is there? And then they're like, wow. So they'll be when you're in this meeting. I was probably 30. I was probably 30. And so they sent,

8:22I got through the whole SWAT unit and we are down to it. I was only supposed to deliver 60%. We'd actually are going to deliver 100. And what is SWAT? So SWAT 3, you have to go by each individual house that the drill bit goes through and you have to get every house in that drill bit track because if you don't, somebody holds up and doesn't do it, they have to drill two wells, you know, wells are about 10 million dollars. So they got to drill both ways. So it was real important. They needed a 60%. I want to deliver 100. They thought I was nuts. And so I ended up getting down to the very last house. There was 167 of them. We had 166. And this guy goes, I want you to go to that house and just stay there until you can get it. Well, I was a direct order. So I just packed up my stuff with the toilet paper, this and that. He calls me out. He goes, you know, like three days later, or it was 42 hours later, he calls me up and said, hey, have you seen him? I was like, no, he hadn't come yet. He goes, he's coming at night. I said, you know, he's like, how do you know I go? I've been here for 42 hours. And he was like,

9:24what? And he's like, you've been there for 42 hours? I was like, yeah, do you tell me to do? So anyways, I stayed there for 73 or 74 hours at three o'clock in the morning. The guy finally shows up. I was so relieved that he showed up. So I went to his driveway and got him signed up, called the guy at three o'clock in the morning because he told me to call him if I ever got it. I did. He was like, dude, if you'll do that for $275 a day, please go start your own company and I will get, make sure you have work. So I later got that. He gave me 10 guys. Then I'm morphed and got another like 40 from another company called Gulfport. We went to 80 and then ended up, we were doing, we had about 162 guys within my first four months of starting that company. So I went from making $325 to $325 a day to about $27,000 a day within 120 days. That's how it began.

10:25There's so much time pack. So you go into this rehab center which is heavily Christian weighted. Oh yeah. Is that fair? Very, very, it's all free. Imagine 92 people in a 5,000 square foot house. That's what it's like. Oh yeah. I slept on the floor on an egg crate for my final 90 days being inside that house. So I'm going to remove the business for a sec. Go ahead. I think one of the things I've seen sitting in my seat and I've interviewed some really impressive people, you yourself, or one of them, everyone has some level of dark, jays, weeks, months, even years. But you can't see the light without the darkness. Yeah. You can't create what you became without going through the depths of hell. I actually believe that. Now not just because of my own stories, I've now had 13 years of interviewing individuals who have done some really impressive things, some more than others. But if you don't go through what you went through in your mid to late 20s,

11:28maybe even early 30s, I don't think you become the version of you you are today. Never would have. Never. You talked about entitlement, right? You talked about everyone else felt you know entitled. Everyone worked five days a week. Yeah. You took it upon yourself to work seven. Yeah. Because you knew the other side of that. You knew it wasn't always guaranteed. You knew that. I would say that one of the things that all drug addicts are, they have, they have a, there's some problem with the father. I've never been a drug addict. It's not a have a father problem. So, but I had a performance father. And when you're a performance person, you're highly competitive. And so you're, it's not even fair for somebody who's normal to go up against a performance, ADHD person. It's not, it's like because that person thinks when he fails that no one loves him. And other people are just normal with like, okay, I just didn't do well. I'll just write that the two mindsets can't be compared because one guy will kill to win. It's kind of like, yeah,

12:28then the normal kill themselves. I know. No, kill the will Smith quote. If you get on side of the treadmill next to me, two things are going to happen. You're going to eat our first or I'm going to die. That's it. And that's what you think about. Like, if I don't succeed, you think you're worthless. You don't think you're going to make it. And you just that mindset, which is not the healthiest in some situations. For sure. If I was a psychoanalyst, then I'd probably, you know, it's terrible in marriage. So I've had to really learn how to dial that down because I'm all about, I'm going to try to win at all costs, even if I'm wrong. So I've had to have a lot of therapy for that. But no, that was, but that's, that's the, when you have that, you're engaged that way your whole life. That's how you think about, that's how you detect sports. So you're really good at sports. And then you're really good at business once you learn how to make, you know, be healthy about it. So you said something I think is

13:28super imperative. The performance aspect. And you're not good enough unless you win. And you're not good enough. And everyone hates you. And that, that whole thing, I think it's more common than people realize. I think a lot of it is people don't go out and go attempt to do what you did for kind of that fear of if I fail, I'm not good enough and everyone's going to ridicule me and everyone's going to make fun of me. Did you for a set, were you able to mute that in your head? So did you just literally have a shoulder shrug? I don't give a fuck and I'm just going to go. No, I changed the fear. And the way I altered it was, you know, when you first are about to make the jump to, to be an entrepreneur, it's like the scariest job. Yeah. But once I had a mentor teach me that he goes, which is scarier making the jump to entrepreneurs or being 80 years old looking back saying, I wish I wish I could have done that. Well, wish I could have taken the swing. And once I changed my mindset to that, it was easy because I was like, I have nothing to lose. I mean, I don't have any possessions. And so it's like, let's just go take the job. Let's go do it.

14:34And I had a thousand, we both started with a thousand bucks, me and a partner. And he, luckily, he knew about business. And I didn't know it. But I knew how to, I know how to make money, but he knew how to keep it. And so, so he was really valuable in my life teaching me how to do business because I didn't, didn't know anything about business at that point. Dude, this is, so, there's another thing you just talked about. You had your boss effectively, it sounds like, said, if you're willing to do this for $275 a day, you need to go start your own company. Yeah. I just made a post, I think yesterday, the day before where I literally said, the people who are beyond you, the people that have more success in you, more money than you, they're never the ones that ridicule you. They're never the ones that judge you. In fact, they're usually the ones that grab your hand and say, just keep going. Yeah. How, how meaningful was it for that guy to say, I could keep my MVP and he'll go crush it for me and get 100% of these homes all the time. Or I'm going to go lift you up on a pedestal, give you the confidence, give you the

15:36people because you deserve to go run your own business. It's huge. That was the main thing is most of the people, I switched the crowds. When I started hanging around people who are, and it's amazing, you still see it all the time, you go out to dinner with some people, they're sitting around talking about people, then you get the other guys. When I go, when I'm around guys like you or other people, they're talking about dreams, goals, and ambitions. That's all they're talking about. They don't talk about that gossiping. They're not talking about, well, I don't think I can make it. Purple shorts today. Yeah. Who does he think he is? By the way, I love your shorts, bro. Thank you so much. Yeah. I didn't know if I should work. That's another thing. You, men don't give each other compliments. Yeah. I love the glasses, bro. Like, I give compliments. If you look, my wife will be like, why did you say that to that guy? I'm like, because he looks good in that suit. Yeah. That's a good looking suit. I wish I let you balled and I wouldn't have to do my hair. I got a big head though. It's a walk around. It's pretty, I don't know. I mean, just to look at it. I see this fly. I see it. Doesn't look at one time. My wife would shoot me if I shaved it.

16:39Oh, God. But yeah, I'd say that that's when you start, you know, when I started, I got in early on the John Maxwell. They taught me that. That was my first exposure to leadership. Around 21 air futile laws leadership. I read Rich Dad Poor Dad and that's kind of started the cycle because my, you know, my mom and dad didn't teach me any about business. My mom was an entrepreneur, but I really didn't learn much from her. I learned a lot from my grandfather. He was CEO of Noble Energy and Chairman of the Board of the Noble, or, no, Chairman of the Board of Noble Energy and CEO of the Noble Foundation. So I learned from him. He's a no-clone hall fame. So I learned a lot of my business from him, but I would say predominantly, I learned all my business from my partner. And I just picked a really good partner. I knew him since that's always two. We're still partners to this day. No kidding. Yeah. I mean, I want everyone to understand how unique that is. I've gone through a handful of partners. And it's a marriage. And

17:41if you guys aren't aligned, it is very difficult. It is. Well, there's been some very, very difficult times. Of course. And we've owned probably nine companies together. We only own two right now together. So you've had seven either unwind or something. And listen, all that. That's not all puppy dogs rainbows. Even if you exited some of those companies great, but it's still, you're still going through it. I bought him out of some of them. And then the ones that we're still a part of, mostly, there were different funds that we did to buy minerals. And so those just ended because we switched to a different model. Yeah. By the price of oil kind of changes are the the structure of how we did it. And different partners were coming on. So, but we still own one that does. I mean, honestly, it only out in strip malls right now. So it's we flipped from minerals into buildings. I love that. Yeah. I mean, so funny enough, I've been asked to go key note down in Orange County to a tax strategist group. So the guy putting on the Carlton Dennis is putting on his

18:45event and his whole thing is tax strategy. I love the fact that you're an oil mineral is an annual real estate. I mean, I think there's that diversification in a general sense. I think you can't go wrong, right? One may be bigger than the other one year, one may be bigger than the other year. You exit, you do something else. It gives you opportunities. So I'm leaning more into that these days. Well, I leaned because my I was kind of shocked before. I really didn't know much about offsetting the taxes. And so that's been something new that we've been learning. So we did it by 1031. We used to do a whole bunch of those, but I didn't realize like that was part of the reason for just joining, um, border room. Yeah. In the first place because I needed to learn that. I tried all facets of bought, you know, the houses of the commercial buildings. And I wasn't really very good at it. Yeah. So I knew that I needed somebody to teach me. I knew how to buy the minerals. And I knew how to sell those. But I didn't know how to flip into something that it was actually a

19:47good investment. Yeah. So that was another learning experience for me. So it's been we've, um, we know we recently hired a tax strategist. We haven't we haven't, um, but most of the time I was paying these just really, really big tax bills. Yeah. And just thought that was just the way life was. Yeah. And thought till I sat down with a group of six people and none of them paid taxes. And I was like, how do you do that? Yeah. Like I need to know. So, um, they've been teaching me along the way. So I have a lot to learn with many things as far as that goes. I want to get back to your boss, I guess, effectively who kind of gave you that, um, permission, if you will, say go to your own thing, dude. Yeah. You're special. Yeah. You're your unicorn out here. Do you still talk to that guy today? See in your own with it all. Mm hmm. He's not. No. So it went from I got on his project. I was in Western Oklahoma and the Texas Panhandle working for Chesapeake. And then, um, company golf port called, um, and that is probably the call that really changed the life because

20:50and it went bad for at first. Um, it's kind of shocking that I got on this project and I had to be there. They called me on a Friday and they needed five guys in St. Clair'sville, Ohio by Monday morning. And I'm like, God, this is a big ass. Yeah. Like these guys have to pick up and move out there. Yeah. So anyway, I found a subbroker that could do it. And so he went out there and started around title and I, but the numbers were wrong. So he said there were seven year guys, seven year guys pulled about 80 books a day. Um, this, these guys were pulling like 20. So I knew there's problem. So I drove up here with the whole family. I mean, just like Gunacar, drove the St. Clair'sville, Ohio. I was like, I don't know how far it is, but it's a long way. Anyway, I walk in the courtroom house and I say, who's it? Who in here works for grasslands? So they come out there and I'm like, who are you? I'm like the owner. And they're, I said, why are y'all taking so long in this title? And they're like, we've never done this before. And I was like, uh-oh. So at that point, I knew we had built the client for seven year guys. And

21:52these guys were brand new, which was unethical. But what I didn't know in business, I told my partner, I was like, we got to tell these guys, he said, Bobby, they, they, they have to fire us. They're, they're publicly traded. Right. And so I said, well, I don't care if we're going to get fired. We're going to get fired. I said, so, but I got to tell him. So I called the headland man, senior land man's name was Bill Ishide. I said, Bill, uh, here's what happened. He was, Bobby just, I want you to take everything you just told me and act like you never happened. Never happened. And I was like, no, no, I don't, I don't think what you, you're, I'm, your time try to be really honest here. Look, he's like, Bobby, they have to fire you. And I like really like you. And I said, well, will you just go in and do it anyway? So we had to go to the, it was a board meeting that day. So we were like, waited on like pins and needles and he gets out of that room. And, um, about four hours later, I said, uh, I see the phone that light up and I'm like, here we go. And so he goes, I go, well, did they, did they fire you, did they fire me? He goes, you know, I did exactly what you told me to do. And he goes, mostly all the boardroom board one of the fire, except for one. And then one of them was a preacher

22:57that was asked to be on their board's name is Craig Rochelle. He owns life church. Um, it's from Oklahoma. And he's thought that it was such high character that I told him that, that he called, he was like, let's keep him. And I, he was like, this is the best part. The best part is, he wants you to add 40 more. So I added 40 more. Wow. Right. Two weeks later, another group lied to him and they gave me their 40. So now I've got 85. That's how it all began. That gives me shivers because all you did was the right thing. Yep. You didn't do anything impressive. Yeah. This is so hard for people to understand these days. Just do the next right thing. Another post I just made this post like a week ago, there's a movie frozen. My kids are so young. So I'm still in Disney world, right? And on the secondary main character, Elsa, she goes through this moment of like, what do I do? And she starts singing the song about doing the next right thing. It's so hard these days for business owners, men to just do the right thing. Yeah. But when you do that,

24:02more often than not, results like you just experience happen. I tell myself that all time. I said, if you can just deliver on your word in today's time and age, you're above 99% of everybody. All day. How old your son? He's 19. Love that. So I said, don't, and that's the biggest thing for me. This is how I judge a person. I don't care about anything. I don't care how much money they make. I don't care how much money they have. I don't care if they have $10 billion. If they're word, if they're word, if they're name, isn't more valuable than the deal. I don't do business. If they ever don't call and don't like, if they're late, they apologize. But if they ever they do things where you can tell that the money is more valuable than the name, I don't do business. So I believe in this thing and I'm talking a lot about people's identity. Yeah. The saver has now been connected to the identity as a saver. The identity of a rich person or wealthy person is now connected to that. And when you get connected to being a rich person,

25:05you've raised $2 billion north of $2 billion. You probably don't even know the exact number. And you look like a very normal human being. You're not in here with all the brand names. You're not in here with, you wear a nice watch, but you're not in here with the $250,000. Could you afford it? Damn sure you could. I wouldn't even know what the buy for $2,000, $250,000. I'm being nervous about it. Oh, 100%. But my point to that is the identity part of this. So when you talk about someone caring more about their deal, then their name is because their name is attached and their identity is attached to being rich, to being the deal guy, to having these big wins. And that is a hard thing to unwind the later you on getting life. Yeah. I'd say that we have asked questions that tells us their identity right off. I said, you know, if you're going to ask, I'm going to ask them one question. This is probably my biggest qualifying question. Who would you say you are? And somebody who's like, if you asked that Tim Tibo, it's going to be, it's going to be man of God. I love my wife. I love my kid. It's going to be in critical order. But when you ask somebody who's

26:09out of whack, they're going to talk about their business first. That's exactly what somebody that's insecure is going to talk about their businesses, their identity. So that question is so simple, but it tells me their identity just like that. Funny you said that. So I wrote down the three things at top of mind without you asking that. This weekend, father, husband, friend, it was that easy for me to realize like in priority. Now, I don't know whether I get judged because I'm not a husband, then a father, but right now my kids are so little that like it's literally all I think about because these little kids. I'm just enjoying the daylights out of them. They're only young. You have a 19, you know, everyone says the same thing. They're that old for such a fucking small time. It's crazy how small that time is. So it's, you know, so I literally in order, father, husband, father, husband, friend, and that's who my identity now funny enough, I'm a business owner and I run multiple businesses and I'm a leader and I have employees, but I don't even put that into my definition right now because it's not really what I'm about. That's what I do. Yeah, no, my

27:12identity. I call it the pillars. So you have either five, six or seven pillars of things that are strategically in line. So, you know, and all these things if they're they have to be attended too daily, but they're always in order. So I and I try to I think you can watch a person's habits in the morning. So I make my habits just like I'm like four o'clock in the morning, I'm going to be out of bed for sure, probably sometimes between three thirty and then I'm going to get up and first thing I'm going to do is pray and then the second thing I'm going to go work and I meet almost the entire all the pillars before I walk out the door. So God first my wife's second, the kids third, fourth would be you know, I've got health with I put health with God because if you're dead, it didn't really matter anyways. And so and then right after that is you know, business and ministry and so helping people as part was what ministry is for me. So those five things and I try to do them daily because when I experience what inside that home, I pretty much have just lived for me which which leads to depression and all the same thing. And once I learned to live and

28:16what and help other people, I love watching them elevate like you're people that work with you, people you see all the time when you get to see them when the light bulb comes on like this is how you do it. You need to build a big community and we haven't even talked about what you do, which is crazy. You're just geeking out on life. But you need to build a community man because you just have that heart and you have the like making impact on people. You're not being selfish. You just said if you do everything with what's in what's in the home, you're living for selfish purposes. That's it. Yeah. But you have so much to offer the world right and I'm so happy that you're here. But I do want to let people know what you do. That's right. I mean raising billions of dollars and again, you and I were joking off camera. It's like grant his raise to billion. Are you north of two billion? Are you around that number? Where do you think you are? I'm north of two billion. But no one knows. We raised two billions just this year alone. Yeah, no one knows who I am. But that's some of my neighbors don't know.

29:16Because it's not because you need to go flexes because you have something to offer. That's the value. You've done something that is so unique and so special that if I can empower you and help you do that, it's needed. But talk to us about what you raised your money for. So you're in oil, you're in land, minerals. The first few funds. So I didn't know how to do all that. Obviously when you're coming from my background, I had to see your idea how to do it. So I hired Paul Martin Alley, which is John Maxwell's right hand man, first to teach me what to talk. And I started learning about the words that they were going to use and he gave me this list of everything. So I tried, I probably tried like 10 and I didn't succeed. Then we got a small deal with a private equity group but I didn't like private equity because they kind of put your thumb on your head. So then all of a sudden and I probably only raised like 200 million so far. This took all the way from like probably 2015 to 2020 just to get to that point. I got a call from

30:27a bunch of Harvard guys. They're like four or five of them. They wanted to do a weird project. I didn't even know what it was. And so it was a, it's where you plug gas wells and it creates a carbon credit because you're taking methane out of the air. So you take the well back two years. It creates a, and you look at what the decline curve on those last two years were and then you forecast it out for like 10 years. That creates a carbon credit. So I was my job. I was by far the dumbest on this group. I mean these guys were all past math 55 at Harvard. You've got guys that are like goodwill hunting smart. Now they couldn't sell anything. They were terrible sales but they were very, very sharp. They did math problems that I was like, that's really neat. We ended up raising a billion with them. I helped them because they didn't know anything about oil. Yeah. And so we ended up getting the problem was when we raised that first billion.

31:27It had to be passed by Congress. So we wrote the first protocol for a methane carbon credit. And it was done with right. We partnered with Rice University to do that. I was going to say like, are you sitting there writing this or like this stuff is complex. I'm only on there to teach them on my perspective on how to do the oil part. I had zero on any equation that they did. I was like I have zero idea with that beans. So I had my helmet crayons on the entire time. So we raised that together. It wasn't like I did that myself. So later on, but I learned a lot. I had to go around to all the CEOs in the nation. And I really didn't know at that point if I was had the capacity to sit in a room with these guys. Because I put somebody who's a CEO of a publicly traded company really on a pedestal. And you know kind of my hero growing up was Aubrey McClendon. Because he was huge. He was one of the biggest

32:28gas companies in the world. He's an Oklahoma City. Super nice guy. So he did some deals with my grandfather. So I went this last few years when I got out of that fund. We decided to do another partner approach me to do premium finance. And so he said, well, we pretty think it was going to take a billion dollars to do and over the course of five years. So I called five family offices. All of them call me back. So I do the reason I have that access is I saw a lot of mineral deals to family offices. I was just going to say next question was how do you even have five family offices in your office? Sure. So they so all family offices usually have a mineral arm. And so and they all want to have I buy minerals. So when an oil wells about to produce, they'll have to do these filing. So it's that goes spacing pooling, increased density, multi unit, permit. And then they do a they drill.

33:33And then there's the thing called a duck, which is drilled and uncompleted well. That means they drilled the well bore, but they haven't perforated and send down chemicals. That's called completing. So we buy right before it gets to those stages and sometimes on those stages. And so then we take you can take the a lot of times I can move the effective date. So you guys are used to execution date well effective date and all gas. If a well has been produced for two years and your mother had it in test date, which means she didn't have a will. That's called refutable. So if refutables is going to be held in suspense, well, if I take that effective date and move it back two years, I capture all of it. So that's the difference. It would be like you capturing all the money from rent rolls for the last two years. If it was held in suspense, we can do that in oil. They get a better price for that, but because we tell them we're up front and tell them hey, there's this money in suspense. And for you to get it out, you've got to probate the state that it won't go through. We'll just buy it out and we'll just buy it out and do it. So we'll give you a higher number. Yeah. So anyways, how you go and sell that to different family

34:35offices around the country. And I've been doing a long time. So it's usually a quick call. But last last week, I picked up the phone and seven minutes later, I got full ass. I called one group. And so I on the billion dollar raise, I went to a guy that I'd done oil deals and I said, here's how it is. And most of the time I had to move my pitch, what changed in the pitch was, like most of these guys, like it's the reason it's hard to do oil as your exposure rates are high. I mean, it doesn't even matter if you do it. They're always higher than some of these deals that I'm getting them into. Once I learned that the exposure rate was when I found deals that the exposure rate was less than 2%, but it could still make abundantly more than at least four per four or five percent for the investor going into seven or eight percent with almost zero risk. They've got something. So that's so that's so exposure rate defined that for everyone because one to two percent of exposure rate sounds like a very small number. So that means like one out of some

35:38we predict on all premium finance and premium finance just for people who don't know if you have a million dollar insurance policy that has to be paid up front, we would pay 80% of it in seven days. You'd pay 20 and then you'd pay me 10 payments throughout at around 14% interest and so we would fund it that quick. So when the exposure rate so when we predict that we have a a guy on our team has been doing this for 30 years, we predicted about somewhere between one out of 40 and one out of 50 you're going to fail. So that's my exposure rate. So when we were looking at how much of these how many of these actually fail, we knew by the numbers and then we validated that by using AI to see how much it failed into the line with what said. I want to bring some really quick perspective to the listener viewer one out of 50. I come I broke my teeth and for over well over a decade I flipped homes. There's no world where you flip 50 homes, you know, lose money on something. So when you say that and investors get all like, I don't know, there's too much exposure right here to me is

36:42mind boggling. Yeah. Because in almost every sector, you're going to have a way more in your words exposure rate, whether or stuff, you're not going to hit every stock you invest in, right? You're not going to hit every flip you flip. I just feel like that number is still ridiculously low. But in your industry, that's like the threshold of like. So when when I started learning about exposure and I'm telling you, I mean, 50 so loaded. Yeah, it was from the guy sitting in this seat. Yeah, investors like, well, I don't want to lose my money. I get a lot. But like, yeah, once I started learning about exposure and being around people, that's what they talked about. That was kind of a, you know, probably 10 years ago I started like people started saying, you know, my exposure and this and that. So I started really dialing in. So are the way I built the oil company. I mean, we've done honestly, probably 32, 3400 deals. And I think my last count, we've lost money on less than 10. And so that's so we know the numbers really, really well. I do not ever go, we only buy

37:49in like three or four counties. And we are dialed in on those numbers. Plus, I already know what the guys are going to pay at the end of the rainbow. So I know exactly how to buy it. And we don't get I think all money's made on the purchase just like everyone else. But when I went to go start raising money for this premium finance, I didn't know what premium finance was. My partner told me all about it. And I was like, I think I could raise this. It didn't have much of exposure rate. And I started researching it, took me about nine months. And then I brought it in front of five groups. I called five phone numbers that day out of the five phone numbers. Three of them called back. The first one said he took about a week for them that I had to go and show them and presentation and this and that took a week. First guy called back and said, I'll do it. I can go up to a billion. And so I so I started calling the other ones back. Two of them came in with 500 million. But the guy in the first position, I called him back. I said, Hey, these other groups went 500 million. He was

38:50like, I won't do it if they're in. So just go ahead and tell them to we'll have to back them out. So I backed the other two groups at 500 million out. And so that's how that. So now I'm actually raising $500 million for another, which is most, it's a real estate fund. So we're going to shift either the primary investor or one other investor into those roles. So I haven't engaged them yet. I engaged, I briefly gave one of them a 30,000 foot view. But we're probably going to raise that and then next month. And when you go after so for those out there raising money, yeah, whether it's fixed in flips, oil, land, 500 million for you. How many calls does that take? Who do you go after? Family office only. You're not going after the accredited investor who has a hundred grand ready to invest that to too small. Well, you put yourself in liability. So when you got some, well, even though they're accredited, if I put a an accredited person in oil deal, that is because he's accredited, but he's ignorant to the fact that he doesn't know what he's

39:53investing in. You're going to get sued. And so if you fail, now if you go, I so I look at the groups that actually know something about this stuff. And then I go after go to them. Because they're educated. Because you limit your your risk as the owner and the operator. Are you considered the operator as well? No, on the well right now, but we're about to make a change on that. So I'm bringing in people who will that are way better than me. Yeah. And then I'll just pretty much raise capital for different things. So in all my years of business, I've finally, after getting my teeth kicked in enough, realized control versus ownership is everything. Yeah. What you're either transitioning into or you're already there, I will forever only control apartments. I will only control the assets. I am done owning and I'm done saying I'm the operator. Our friend Jerry Stadham, very clear to me, Justin Colby, you are not the operator, right? And it's a tough pill to

40:56swallow when you've operated your whole life. But God, he has given me a blessing that I didn't. And literally it was like a throwaway comment. We have the board of directors meetings where it's just like the 10 of us, which we're the rest of whatever. And you know, Stadham's like, oh, Colby, you know, throwaway and I go, I'm gonna hold that for a second, right? And it's changed my trajectory of the last few years. I mean, it's literally like, oh, yeah, fuck operating. Now, I don't want to take away from someone who's in that world. No. But I will tell you, if you can move closer to where you are, John, or where I'm at now, control of it and going and raising capital and controlling that or being a money manager versus finding the deal, analyzing the deal, operating the deal, firing, hiring. Oh my God. Oh, you know, I, that was the biggest learn I've probably had at a long time is, you know, there's three, there's the consumer, there's the investor or the operator and then there's the banker. And once I learned that I was in the wrong seat, that was, and there's,

41:57you know, a book that I read that was recommended was the banker's code. Yeah. And it was great book. That's not talked enough, by the way. Yo, now, yeah, it's a, and you don't think of it that way, because if you think when you're an entrepreneur and investor, you really think you're in the greatest position ever. Of course. They're giving me 6% on this loan. Yeah. I'm taking them to the bank on this deal. So, and so once you once you really think about the bank's position and they just never lose, it's control. Yeah. So it was, and once I got out of that, it's hard when you're insecure like I was to not want to be in like the operation control aspect. But to know that you're in a better controlling fact, you know, step just moving up here with less headache. You know, it's funny. And I'll speak to myself and maybe you're going to empathize. It was big for my ego to say I own, I own seven businesses. I own 150, you know, property. I own I own me, me, me, ego, ego,

42:58ego. But then when you just raise capital, you control to some extent that that ego is like walking around saying, Oh, I control. It's not nearly as cool. You don't have that same, but you realize, Oh my God, it's just so much better. Yeah. And if you remove the ego side of that whole thing, like so I go around like I just gave a speech this weekend to a group of whole life policy insurance individuals. Okay. So my speech track these days after all the stuff I've seen 23 years of being a business owner is a lot more about you need to become most people think they want to be an entrepreneur or they want to make a lot of money because they want financial freedom and they want time. I usually disagree with them. Okay. And even you might be like, what? Yeah. People should do what we do. They should be focused on making money for one reason and one reason only happiness. Okay. Money doesn't make happiness. But what does create happiness is when

44:01your father becomes ill and needs to be able to pay for his bills. What does create happiness is when your, you know, niece is graduating high school and you can have the entire family over to your house and pay for everything. Oh yeah. And it's the time with those people is being able to step in when your dad needs some finances. That creates happiness. That identity or that contentment with yourself is totally different. And saying, I own that. I own that. I own that. You're relevant. No, sure. Oh yeah. You know, we, I see my, my, my assistant is, is a, is a prime example of that. So she's, she's from small, small town America. Yeah. And I kind of, I picked her off at a bank. And they just, she was doing all my wires. Yeah. And we're doing, like, you already know all my money. You know, just, it was great for me. And she was making very small amount of money. And I was like, I'll double it. I'll pay for your lunches, pay for your gas and I'll get you a massage once a

45:04month. Yeah. Those, those are like her tips. She was like, when do I start? Yeah. And she's been, she's great. But she, she's motivating too, because we brought her into that world. And she was like, I didn't know anything like this existed. And so now she's grown so much. And that's, that's watching the whole team, you know, like EOS and getting on to things like that nature and watch, watching everybody grow together has, is probably one of the, the best moments to get to watch. Because I used to be so insecure that I couldn't go leave the business. You know, I'd work 18 hours a day, drink six red bulls, but then I started to get a fib. Oh my god. And so I was like, do you drink any coffee or anything now? Or that I haven't had any, I had, I've had a little bit to like two coffees in the last probably 60 days. Okay. So as I just said, I've got six shots. But I did have one this morning. So I'll stay at Ben's house. So you had a fancy machine. I was like, what if that's any good? So, um, but no, that's, that's, that's watching them grow. And,

46:06you know, as far as like their lid go up as far as law of lid. Yeah. Um, and then become part of the dream. Like you're forecasting this to pull, that's the coolest thing ever. Like you, you know, this, you're, you're, you're writing it down on a sheet of paper and you're like, can I do this? And then you start to see it. And then they start to see it. And then when that passion goes to them and you're like, and they start to talk like you and they believe that's when that's when it goes. That's when it's awesome. It's, uh, I will say everything from the cars to the house to like there, everything I've created, it was a thought. Like I would like, this is what I want to go get. Yeah. And if you just kind of keep that close to your mind, close your heart and then write it up and, and you know, whether you put up the board's not like, it's all possible if you actually know what you're walking towards. A lot of people don't know what they're walking towards. Like, I don't know. I just want to make a lot of money. You're like, how the fuck are you just going to? Oh, I told my grandfather. I was like, grandpa, if I could just make $3,000 a month, I'd made it.

47:08Right. And I was, you know, but then once I got to leadership and they told me to write it down and here's your vision. Here's your goals. How you do this and you start really looking. You know, most people don't write it down. They just, they think about it, but they don't put it on a piece of paper. And so, um, and who it, Zick Ziggler was the one who taught me that. So I just started reading about these guys and I was enthralled. You know, I was enthralled by how many revelations that I'd have just by being at the gym, listening to Zick Ziggler, listening to John Maxwell, going into or listening to Tony Robbins, listening to all of them. So I've, um, spent my wife get sick of it because I come in. I start the seam shower when I get home from the gym and second thing comes on is either the leadership podcast, Christian teaching or whatever it is, but something's going to be playing that I'm going to learn. And she had, unfortunately, she sits right there and has to learn with me. That's right. So, well, that's good. Now, as we're kind of wrapping up, I want everyone to understand you've done some great stuff in business. Was it always pretty all the way through that,

48:09you know, that run I lost, uh, I lost, uh, I lost, uh, I lost three best friends alone. So it was, uh, and I'm, I didn't had to do it. I'm guessing fights over money. It had to do with, um, well, different things. I mean, like this, I'm going through one right now. That one had to do with it just, well, he didn't have the amount of money that I thought he had. So he wouldn't sign loan papers. So that ended quick. Um, the other one that was just that we just, he wanted to go buy a different something. So he wanted to go buy minerals that, or call PDP minerals that are already producing. And I wanted to buy before. Um, and then the other guy, is that a reason and a friendship? I don't know. It was, that one, I still talked to him. Now, the other one was probably a best friend. So, uh, he was, I was best man in his wedding, a best man of mine. What happened on that one was, um, I introduced him to the buying arm.

49:12So he had minerals that he was going to buy with his investor. And then we're going to send it over to this group, which had big time dollars, billions, billions upon billions. And, but I was having to work in Ohio at this point. And he was a one man show and he asked to be a partner. So we could, we could, he would, because I'd made, I'd kind of gone done really well for myself when he came on. And he ended up, uh, becoming Inca Hoots with this investor. And so ended up cutting me out. He didn't know much about business. And I could have sued him because he was like, I never sound the operating agreement. I go, we get a bank account. And like we've been doing business as I can sue you for this. But I just felt like God told me that just did not see. And he ended up making an exorbitant amount of money off that relationship, but it ended ours. And what it told me was, is that the money was more valuable. Yeah. Then, than the name. That's right. And that's where I learned that or the relationship. Right. And that's the identity thing. Yep. Um, have you gone through financial challenges along the way? Or is there days that you're like, how the fuck am I going to pay this

50:14month's mortgage? Or whatever those exact like, have you, have you had to experience that along the, you know, at the age of 30, you started raising a lot of money. Yeah. Bring us along this journey. Like was it just like, dude, I walked around and I have the minus touch and I'm just raising billions of dollars for last decade. It was, it was, no, it was very, when it got to, uh, so I, I was probably off drugs for six years, break my ankle, probably in 2016 or 2017. And I tell the doctor, I was like, I'm, I'm, I'm addict. Don't give me anything. And he was like, what would give him this? And whatever it was, and I don't remember what that was, but the wheels start turning. So I got back on oxy cotton and for about three years and when them went COVID hit. So I had all my money and oil, all the oil was shut down and no one was paying the rent. So that was problem. A little problem. So I had zero cash. I had a lot of paper net worth. Sure. But zero, my cash was depleting. Yeah. Very fast. And I wasn't in the right mindset. Um, I was trying to come

51:17off. I had to end up going back to a rehab to get off of that. But it was a, it was a crash and burn moment. Then when I got out of rehab, I get my lawyer calls and said, you've been sued. And he took all the money out of my, uh, business bank account. So I had zero dollars left. You're lawyer, did my lord, my lord, I got sued while I was in rehab. But who took the money out of your bank account? They got it. So they did it siphon on it. So they had a, they sued me and he was like, they are going to take the rest of this money. I can't remember what they could do that before they even win the judgment. They really won the judgment. I was, you rehabsy didn't even know you're getting. Yeah. He took care of it. Wait, let me know. I was getting sued, but I thought we'd win, but we didn't. So, so what I remember, my first call walking out of rehab was that. And so it was, you're saying I have no money. So, I had, I had a little bit of money in my other account, but it wasn't much. So it was like back on the grind. So I had assets I could sell, but they were going to be at a much discounted price

52:19of what a bottom form, which really steams. But I had a few things that I could sell. So I had buildings, so, but they weren't producing a lot of income. So I could have refining. I was, but I was in a pinch. There for a little, especially since everything was shut down, I couldn't get to it. Yeah. So it was a major problem. So that was the, that put me in a bind, but we, wife and I fought through that. And it was, it was tough. But then when we started getting on the other side, how long, how long did that take two, three years? Oh, like a year. No, it took about five years, ten years. Hmm, to get back on. No, it took about two about. Once I, you know, I just started doing exactly what you knew what I needed. That's right. I went back to just selling minerals. I shortened, you know, my team went from like 130 people to like seven all in a like a two month period. So they were cutting all the land services because of the oil prices. It was when that oil price went sub, sub zero. And so that cut that hurt. And then no one was

53:24buying me. I couldn't buy any minerals at that point because everybody didn't know if minerals were going to be thinking. Yeah. So after the prices went back up and then I also pulled out of the Permian, which is down by Midland, it's like a sword fight out there. So I moved back into Oklahoma, just started slow, just really just concentrated on. Did you give back to the hustle, making a call, showing up in the meetings, doing the things that you're like, this is the grind, but this is what is going to happen here. So the put started building the team back together and then it started to to make money again. So it's like, it took a minute. So it took probably about a year and a half. And it was a, it was a tough crunch. But I'd been there before. So I already had that t-shirt. So I knew how to say you already wore that scar. So you know, exactly. You know, when you've been those situation, if you've never been in that situation, you've always had my life. It feels like life is ending. Yeah. And honestly, feels like I'm a fail. It goes back to that like I'm a fail. I totally fucked it up. I'm no good at this. Yeah. I should just go get a job at Starbucks,

54:26right? Like all that because I come from failure to, right? Like I don't walk around for 23 years, just having the minus touch. The first one or maybe even second time you go, fuck, maybe I suck. It's just, oh yeah. You do ask yourself, was it a fluke? Yeah. It's like, that's the first thing that they're like, well, I shouldn't, this must be a fluke. I think I don't know if I can do this again because now I don't have the partners. And I'm like, you know, we had the sauce together, but do I have this on my own? And I knew I had a lot of shortcomings, especially organizational sides. And so could I operate inside these strengths anymore? Because I'm going to have to do some things that aren't that are not my strengths. And so, but after, you know, I had people buy into the vision, I had people call back and we started doing it. And it was tough. So I was hitting the phones just like 120 calls. Here I come. And so I sat and I didn't even have an office. I just sat inside my house. And a good friend of mine, unfortunately, one of the most

55:33talented guys I've ever met. He was doing the same thing and he was 10 times better. I mean, I couldn't figure out how you're so good. You're so organized. He was doing so many deals. I just like, Kelly, so I said, hey, can I fly out to your house and watch you work? I just want to sit behind you and watch how you do this. And so I flew out there and his name was Toby Martinez. He worked in the Permian, but he had this organizational system. And so I was like, man, I'm out here at the studio organizational system. I'm just going to be straight up. And he's like, I don't care. He's like, take it. Yeah. He's like, this I do it. That's so great. So, um, unfortunately, he went in for one of those where you can't breathe on your nose. Oh, yeah. And he's never come out of that. And I mean, never come out of it. Like he's like a vegetable. Yeah, he's in a nursing home now. And he was extremely successful. I'm talking to him today. He just was trying to fix a deviated September. He went to fix a deviated septum. I talked to him the day he was going in there. And he never came out of that. And he's still alive. But he's living

56:39in a nursing home out and it's either in Houston or Albuquerque. And so I mean, just comments like that you just like life so short. Yeah. What's it all about? I mean, he was so talented. I mean, he's sitting there and giving me free information for for nothing. And so, um, no, I still talked to his two partners today. I mean, every once in a while, we aren't in the same area anymore, but I talked to him a few times. But yeah, it's unfortunate because I learned so much from it. I picked up little oil and gas is more bailed than the new world. Like you can find anything on real estate. You just asked the question, but an oil and gas, they're just really bailed. They're not going to work. They're not going to work. They're not going to work. I mean, literally the definition of a good old boy network. It is. So let's bring up the fun lay in man the show. Yeah. How much of this is just, you know, HBO or how much of that is like. So he's definitely wouldn't be considered a land man. Some of the scenes he is, but he's mostly a company man, a company man. A land man never goes out to a well. Okay. So a land man mostly sits inside of a vault called the county clerks vault of all the land records and never goes to the actual. So there's

57:43five things right away leasing title, curative and due diligence. That's the five things. Landman dick. And so that doesn't mean that we ever go out to we have nothing to do out there. It would just be like us viewing a well, but we really would know what you don't do. You do not the tactician of now the part where he's in a chair strapped and he has a gun to his head. I've never had been in a chair strapped down, but I've had many guns put, you know, faced at me while I'm trying, especially in the Barnett shell, because when you would go into the Hispanic district, they have a fence around their yard. Well, you have to jump over that fence to get to their front door. And they know when somebody rings that door, they haven't been invited. That's right. So I'm most met with double barrel shotguns and you get in some weird beauty documents because you're going in some desolate areas that it's you and them. So, you know, that's a it's but the so there are some of that, but most of the time nowadays when I first started, they had to go to the courthouse. Most of it's digitized now. Yeah. So we can just, you know, you can sit on your couch and run title and which

58:48is what about some of the scenes with them? I'm thinking the the head guy that died, Demi Morris has been. Yeah. He's also great in the other show friends and neighbors. Yeah. If you've ever watched that, but that level like I like those boardroom meetings and I'm some of this. I've never been that I've never been that big. I have friends that have made it to that that level. You know, the one Andy Garcia is the world who are yeah, like that would be like your Cody Campbell level. He's he's been a guy that I've known and watched from the beginning and he's probably four years younger than me. I mean, he's he's that level. He's one of the few that have gotten that level. He's probably done. I don't know. He's probably done 19 to $23 billion. Maybe more than that now and stales. He owns double ego. His name's well, Texas Techfield's name Cody Campbell Field. And so and he's I think he's 43 or something like that. So he's probably the biggest guy

59:53that and and it couldn't happen to a better guy. Yeah. He's extremely humble and if he walked into this room, he could walk into any room and you would never think that he was the guy. He would just he'd be quiet. He wouldn't be wearing anything fancy. He'd wear blue jeans. He'd walk in here with blue jeans. And so that's I really liked that about him. He's a good guy and he's done a lot for me. I love that. John Fernando everybody linked in where else can we go find you? Where would you like Facebook? Facebook? John from Instagram and Instagram. This has been great. We could go on and on. We probably will probably have a number two of these. Okay. What you do is incredible. Thank you for coming on. Thank you for being the guy that you are. Get with John. If you're interested in any of this, if you're interested in oil, minerals, real estate and understanding a little bit more, make sure to get with him. Get with the team and just understand more because there's opportunities everywhere. Cool. Yeah. If this was pretty cool and you think there's a couple people that need to hear from John, make sure you share this with two your friends.