Skip to content Why Sales Skills Are Most Important Feb 19 · 34 min ...more
Why Sales Skills Are Most Important
February 19, 2026 · 34 min
Russell shares his insights on why sales skills are crucial in every aspect of life
Series Russell Gray Everywhere February 19, 2026 · 34 min · Russell Gray Everywhere
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The Art of Sales: Touching the Heart Before the Head 0:00 There. Very quickly before you get started, if you have any questions or comments after watching this, please email me at feedback at russell gray dot com. Now enjoy the show.0:09 Welcome to the mailbox money show. Excited to be here today. I have my good friend, Russell Gray, who has been a friend over the years. Just a super bright guy when it comes to financial strategy, which we talk about a0:19 bit on this show where things are headed. I always love to hear what he has to say. But this show is really about sales. It's about how do you sell yourself? How do you sell what's important to you? And more than that,0:29 how do you really get to the heart of really what is important to someone else? Because really good sales is not pushing your own ideas or simply saying, hey. I've got this and I need to give you this. It's figuring out0:39 what that person needs and trying to help them to get there. Great salespeople don't really sell in the traditional sense of a used car salesman. They sell in a way that they're getting into someone's heart and finding0:50 those inner motives and trying to help solve problems. And like I say, you know, I would pay a lot of money to have somebody help solve my problems. And so let's jump into this episode. I think you're gonna love it.0:59 Alright. Welcome to the Mailbox Money Show. My name is Bronson Hill. Excited to have you with us today. And we have my good friend, Russ Gray, with us in the house, and we're gonna talk about sales. We're gonna talk1:08 about why sales are important. Robert Kiyosaki, the author of Rich Dad Poor Dad, says that sales is the most important skill. If you don't know how to sell yourself, you don't wanna sell yourself in a job, in a business,1:18 in a relationship, you're gonna be very limited on your choices in life. And so it's become more and more widely acknowledged that sales skills really are the most important skills, particularly as things become more1:29 automated, as AI and the other things are involved, having soft skills to be able to really, as Russ would say, touch the heart before you try to touch the head or try to sell somebody something is really important. So1:41 I've been through a sales training twice. It's that good. I think you're gonna love this interview. Russ, how are you doing today? Welcome.1:47 Awesome. Doing great. Excited to be with you. Super proud of everything you've been able to accomplish in the lives that you're touching through the work that you do.1:54 Oh, thanks, man. Well, Russ, you've you've been a real support in me over the years. You've really helped me both on the syndication side and just the learning side. I think now I own a whole lot of precious metals2:04 thanks to you and I could borrow against that. There's all the strategies you taught me there. Yeah. Just so many things I've learned from you. So very grateful for you. Why don't you give a quick little before we jump2:13 into sales, and I know we're gonna talk about economics and other things as well. There's a a lot of things we can talk about because you're, you know, very widely read and have done a lot of things. But give you a2:21 little bit of background on you and and kinda how you got into the role that you're in and what you're doing.2:27 Yeah. I think, you know, people who've seen me for the last 20 years have always thought of me as a cohost of the Real Estate Guys radio show, and so I just stepped away from doing that. But, you know, you go back in the2:37 time capsule and roll the roll the decades back. You know, I I am a second generation Main Street capitalist. My father was a immigrant from the Philippines. His family escaping Japanese2:49 occupied, the Philippines in World War 2. And he earned a scholarship to Stanford University, ended up in Santa Clara County before it was Silicon Valley, and met my mother. And there,3:02 you know, I came along. And, he eventually started a high-tech company, took it public. And so there's a couple of things I learned from my dad who really didn't talk to me a lot, but I learned a lot just by watching3:13 him. He was, very active in politics. I never understood why, but later I discovered that his father was a resistance fighter, a guerrilla fighter, would hide up in the jungle and come down and attack the3:25 Japanese and then run back up. They were literally fighting for their freedom, in Japan. And my grandfather, my my dad is the, is the oldest of 5 children that were all born3:36 right during that period of time. So he left that and came to the United States. And so he loves America, American liberty, capitalism, the opportunity for a kid like him from a3:48 background like his to grow up and create a big business and take it public, and he did all that. So I learned entrepreneurs and capitalism from him. As soon as I was old enough to get out of4:00 high school, I went right into business. I started a business. I bought a property, made a lot of mistakes. You know, sometimes you have a little bit too much success early, and it gets to your head. I learned a lot of4:12 hard life lessons. But then eventually became a father myself. We homeschooled our children, my late wife and I, in the eighties before that was a thing. And what happened is I got assigned the responsibility of teaching4:23 economics and civics, and I started boning up on it going to the conventions. Because back then, there was no Internet, you know, no YouTube. And I would buy this curriculum. I read these books, and all of a sudden, I4:34 realized my public school education was really lacking. And so I'm happy to say that, of the 5 children that my wife and I raised together, pretty much all of them are are entrepreneurs.4:46 And a core part of that, they learned and they didn't even realize it. But because I was always selling them, I was always using the sales techniques that I'd learned in business to convince them to make good4:58 choices and to sell them on behaving in the way I thought was most beneficial for them. They really actually became pretty good salespeople without even understanding, you know, what they were doing. I call it sales as a5:10 second language. And so then, you know, I've decided to create a mortgage company to get into financial education. I discovered in the mid nineties that our financial system was a5:22 little bit tyrannical. I read The Creature from Jekyll Island by our mutual friend, g Edward Griffin. It opened my eyes. I was 35 years old at the time, and I so what can I do? And I decided to get into5:34 financial education. I created a personal financial or personal mission statement to empower individual liberty through financial education. And so I went out and created5:45 a business model to do that, started looking for faculty, and that's why I ran into a guy named Robert Helms. And he and I began doing mentoring programs together, and then that led to TV show book. And I eventually5:56 became the cause to the radio show. We lost everything in 2008, which was painful. That wasn't because the economy was bad. It was because we weren't structured. We're only structured for sunshine. And so,6:08 took those lessons and became an avid student of macro trying to understand how it is the financial markets could fall apart and wipe away Main Street. I thought we were insulated. And so that shaped a lot of my thinking6:19 and a lot of the things that I've done, that I did in the real estate guys program. And then recently, I decided to step away from that to focus on some new things, and maybe we could talk about that too. But that that's6:29 that's the the the story of me, how I came to be here.6:33 Yeah. And, you know, the reason why this topic of sales is near and dear to my heart is that a lot of people think of sales, and we kinda think of, like, a used car salesman or we think of sales, like and even you talk6:44 about this, Russ, that no 1 everyone wants to buy, but no 1 wants to be sold to. And for me, you know, I was a youth pastor, and I was working with students and trying to change the world. And then I come into medical6:54 device sales. And I realized, you know, some of these things that Warren Buffett talks about or people talk about that people only work with people they like and trust and just really good salespeople are helping. Right?7:03 They're helping people to solve problems. And I have a lot of I know we all do, people that are in business or in life. If we have problems that we need help solving, if somebody can come along and and do it packaged in7:14 a way that I can receive it, we can have a conversation about it, and they can help me solve it, it's a super valuable problem to me. I'm willing to pay a lot of money to solve those problems. Right? And I know you are7:22 as well. And so that's where sales, you know, if it's if it's packaged the right way, I think it's 1 of the most valuable things. Some of the best salespeople a lot of people don't even know their salespeople. They're7:32 just going out and they're doing their thing and go, oh, I love that guy, whatever. And they're they're outselling. It has this totally different connotation than somebody who's kind of a sleazy salesperson or car7:40 salesman. So, I think 1 thing I really loved about your program, like I talked about, is you know, a lot of times we try to feature and benefit people. Right? We try to tell them that, oh, here's what you need, this,7:51 this, and this, and this, even after we hear everything they need. But for you, you had this this you called it you have to touch the heart before you can touch the head. Can you talk about that process of how you get to8:01 the heart when you're talking with somebody?8:03 Yeah. The the core of the training that I received and eventually refined and modified, which is an amalgamation of what I learned from IBM, Xerox, Tom Hopkins, and various8:15 people that I worked with as I was out in both corporate America and also across the kitchen table. I've been involved in selling life insurance and investments, mortgages,8:27 corporate sales, business to business selling. I've created a lot of strategic alliances. But fundamental to everything is a human beings on the other side of that equation. And that human being has both a brain and a8:39 heart, and those 2 act together to make decisions that people actually act on. Anybody that's ever fallen in love knows that that's not necessarily a logical decision. What happens is you feel something8:51 emotionally, and then your brain rationalizes what you've already decided to do. And the thing that gives you power to move is emotion. I like that word motion and emotion because all emotion comes from9:02 emotion. If I wanna get somebody to move from the status quo wherever they are today, whatever they're doing today into whatever product or service that I'm offering them, if I and they both sincerely believe it will9:14 help them advance towards their goals, which presupposes I've taken the time to discover what those are, then I'm gonna need to touch their heart. I'm gonna need to get them emotional. So the 3 step sales process is to,9:24 number 1, set the table. You don't just get to waltz into a relationship and have somebody, you know, go open kimono and you get to touch their heart. Most people get abused. You know, most people have been abused.9:35 They've been hurt. They've been taken advantage of. They've been lied to. They've been manipulated. And so if you try and touch the heart before you've really earned the right, then you're going to meet a lot of9:43 resistance. And the brain's job is really to protect the heart. So you gotta get the heart on your side before you engage the brain. And so setting the table is just getting in a position like a doctor. You go to a9:55 doctor. And if if you were to see your doctor outside of his office with no, MD, no lab coat, no degree, no,10:08 stethoscope, none of the paraphernalia. And he asked you to drop your drawers so he could examine you, you know, you wouldn't go there. Right? You're like, well, who who are you? But when he said when he's got the proper10:20 positioning, when you go in there and you're in pain and they're properly positioned as somebody that you sincerely believe can help them, you will get become very vulnerable and very exposed. So step number 1 is to set10:30 the table. Number 2 is that once you've earned the right to go in there, you begin to ask people questions strategically and get them talking to discover how they feel about their current situation. And on my catch all10:42 is, hey. On a scale of 1 to 10, how do you feel about whatever? You know, your house, your car, your your portfolio, whatever it is. And they're gonna give you a number. Whatever it is that makes it higher than a10:54 0 is stuff they like. And so, please tell me about that. What do you like best, and how's that working for you? And then the other part of it is the gap, whatever it is that makes it less than a 10. And, you know, if you11:05 can if you can match or improve on the stuff that they already like and then bridge that gap, if you believe when they you have the information, you can help them. You have a chance to move forward, but they're not gonna11:17 move until you you go through a process that I call really upsetting the status quo. And that is is when you understand not just what they want and how they feel about it, but why it's important to them. It's like 2 or 311:29 layers deep. Somebody says, well, you know, I don't feel like my portfolio is doing very good. I'm unhappy. Okay. So if your portfolio did better, you'd be happy. Yeah. Why? Well, because, you know, I need to have11:41 more money. Why? Well, because, you know, I gotta take care of my sick father, and I really have this thing that's important to me. And right now, I'm working 80 hours a week.11:52 And so tell me what it would be like for you if you were able to make all the money that you needed and have plenty of time to take care of your father? Well, that would be wonderful. That would be amazing. Now they're12:03 feeling it. Yeah. Right? Now they're feeling it. And then, of course, if nothing changes, then they're gonna get back on the same treadmill that they're trying to escape. And if you can help them rearrange their life to12:15 get what they want, you understand emotionally why they want it. Your odds of getting them to move towards you are great. And then all you have to do now that the hardest place the order to the brain12:27 because they want it, is explain to the brain why it's a good decision. And if it is a good decision, you should be able to do that. But all the action is really in that hard conversation.12:36 Yeah. And, you know, it's I mean, there's so many steps there that are awesome, and that's why, you know, you have some sales training that you do with people that you're really expanding out this message. And it it12:44 really comes down to values. Right? You know, why do I wanna spend time with my sick father? Well, because I I love my dad. You know, he was there for me and, you know, and this and it starts like you said, it brings up12:52 emotion. And so I remember you you did this, our mutual friend, Saka Jain. I'm sure he wouldn't mind if I shared this. He was at, you know, 3 or 4 years ago, and you started asking some of these probing questions inFinancial Strategy and Market Insights 13:02 front of the whole group, you know, a hundred people or 200 people. And you're asking these questions and really going deeper and deeper and deeper. And it got to this place where it was really raw for him. And it was13:11 like, this is just something almost like there was a mode visible emotion present. And it was like, well, this is why I feel like I'm here on earth is to do this. And I just think that's a place that when we can do that13:22 for people, it whether we are able to give them a solution to that or we just get them to that place, we've really helped them to uncover their why and their value. Because people,13:34 they're not even aware that, like, that's that's a value. They said, well, I value my loved 1. I value this because they gave to me. I wanna give back. I wanna give to the children in this area because of this reason.13:44 And it's like when we live from that place of the heart, I feel like I feel like we're more alive. And I think for you, Russ, what I know about you, you're a very cognitive person. You're a very rational person. You and13:53 I read a lot of books. But, you know, being able to touch the heart, I think, is incredibly powerful. What what application do you see this having for somebody who maybe maybe they're not a CEO or they're not somebody14:04 who is in sales, like, in a job? Like, what what benefits would they have in their life that this could help them in other ways in their relationships or just in other ways interacting with other people?14:16 Well, fundamentally, the process of selling is aligning your, offering. And if you're offering yourself, if you're offering your time, in14:28 other words, if it's a relationship, a marriage, or you're parenting a child, or you're creating a strategic business relationships or whatever, if there's another human being in your life, they have a heart and you have14:38 a heart. And the more aligned your hearts are, the more likely you will be able to stay in the relationship and drive towards whatever your mutual goals are. And so it's very, very fundamental. So if you're a human14:50 being and you interact with other human beings and they're a part of your future and you want more alignment, having great sales skills to number 1, draw yourself out. Right? You can't15:02 you can't align with someone or make good decisions about what you should do in your life if you aren't clear about what you want. And a lot of people think I know what I want. But, you know, there's a lot of15:14 people that don't. There's a lot of people that have spent their whole life being conditioned to do what they're told, to do their duty, to be a people pleaser, to please the boss, to fit in, to get along. It it you15:25 know, entrepreneurs tend to be a little bit maverick. They tend to be a little bit strong headed. They seem tend to be a little bit clear about what they want. But there's lots of people out there that aren't like that.15:35 And when you are trying to get things done through those people and you take them at face value and they don't know who they are and they don't really know what they want, well, somewhere down the road, they're gonna15:44 figure that out. And that's where marriages fall apart. That's where great employees quit. That's where partnerships fall apart. It takes a lot of work. And then sometimes you can't escape that. Right? People grow apart15:53 and what they wanted in the beginning has changed. Right? We evolve and sometimes we evolve apart. So there's part of that. But a lot of times, it's just because you're not continuing to tune up and realign your heart.16:04 So if relationships are important to you, sales ultimately and sales skills, is the art and science of understanding your own heart, understanding somebody16:16 else's heart, and then taking and determining what common ground you have to work towards a common vision. Right? They're they're gonna always be individual. I was married for 41 years to my first wife until16:28 she passed away, and now I'm in a great relationship with a wonderful woman who was married for 36 years before her husband passed away. And we both know that no 2 people are 100 percent aligned.16:40 But if you've got a lot of common ground and a lot of alignment and you know how to tune it up along the way, you can you can survive almost anything. And I I've I've had success in that both in business, had very,16:52 very long term relationships, and also my personal life. So that to me, that that sales skills. And I'm very, very happy by dumb luck. I got this wonderful training early in life and have been able to use it all my life.17:04 Yeah. That's great. And I think it's couple things I wanna say about that is that, you know, Chris Voss, who wrote the book, Never Split the Difference, got to have lunch with him actually at Limitless, which I'll see17:13 you at Limitless, next month. I know we're both speaking there. You know, his some of his he would say, you know, negotiating is not just, hey, for a hostage or FBI or it's, you know, it's it's when you cross the street.17:25 It's when you're talking with your spouse. It's when you see somebody, you open the door for somebody. Like, these are all negotiations. Then it's just like these things are actually much more applicable. It's kind of17:34 how we present it. Well, I highly recommend your sales program. I've been through it a couple times. Really, really helpful. It's 1 of the best that I've seen. And I know it's coming up and you have some ongoing training17:43 as well. So we'll talk about how people can reach out for that. I wanted to, touch base on some other things as well because you I've always respected your strategy, your financial approach, the way that you do things.17:54 I've learned a lot from you. You've been a friend and mentor over the years in a lot of those ways. But, let's talk a little bit about what's happening right now. Obviously, we've got, you know, the presidential stuff18:05 happening where we're gonna wait and see how that's gonna go. It looks like it's gonna be not to be too political. It looks like it's gonna be all Trump because I don't know if maybe he's gonna be able to challenge him.18:13 But, but let's talk a little bit about just some of the things that are happening in investing, particularly with real estate. Interest rates are higher, so that's affected real estate, it's affected other assets. What18:23 are you seeing? I mean, I guess we'll just kind of start with that. Like, what do you see happening in the market? Do you think rates will continue to stay higher because inflation has been persistent and may actually be18:33 much higher than what's reported? Or, I mean, what are some of the opportunities that you're seeing out there that are looking attractive?18:39 So, I think that understanding the price of money and how money is priced or really what we'd call currency. I mean, we think of it as money, but it's not really money. It's currency dollars, US dollar. And when18:51 you understand how that is priced, where interest rates come from, then you can begin to try to understand what might happen and why. The Fed actually doesn't set interest rates. The19:03 Federal Reserve, picks a target, a range, a very tight range, and they say, we think that the economy price of money should be in about this range. And then they have the ability to print money out19:15 of thin air and purchase government debt, which is where interest rates are set. And I can go into greater detail to explain that, but it's the price of the bond versus how much interest19:27 it throws off. And when the price of the bond goes up, meaning people are bidding on it, bidding it up like a stock or a house, and the rent or the income doesn't change, that means the19:39 yield goes down. So it's like cap rates on apartment buildings, if you're familiar with that. Right? If you bid up the same income higher and higher, the cap rate goes lower and lower, which is great when you're a19:50 seller. It's bad when you're a buyer. And so it's the same thing in in the financial markets. And so when you understand the people who are buying those bonds, they come from 2 places They're either private people who20:01 are using existing money to purchase it, or it's coming from the Federal Reserve that's printing the money out of thin air, which is expanding the amount of money that's out there. The money gets into circulation when20:11 the government spends it. So the Fed controls what's called monetary policy, and they set this target interest rate, and they make decisions about selling bonds or buying bonds in the market, either constricting20:23 or, expanding the the money supply and affecting how much is available, to the private sector. The other 1 is is fiscal20:35 policy, which is really emanates from Congress, but usually you get an administration that proposes a budget and Congress either says yes or no. So and we haven't had a20:46 balanced budget. There's no balanced budget amendment. So they they deficit spend like crazy, and that's been a big, big problem, and and will eventually have an impact because, you know,20:58 you were on the investor summit probably 2, 3 years ago when I was pointing out that the the the debt service on the, outstanding debt for the United States had gone over half a billion dollars a year. They21:11 it's over a trillion dollars a year. So it's just it's already doubled. And at some point, anybody that is putting the majority of their revenue into paying interest, that starts to become what I21:22 call, a black hole. You read the reach the event horizon, and it just sucks everything into it. The only way to prevent that is to jack up interest rates. So when the government spends too much money, it creates21:34 inflation. That's what we've experienced. There's 2 ways to deal with it, constrict the money supply, which would be to raise interest rates and limit the credit market, tighten the money supply, supply, if you will, or21:46 increase production. So I think when people look at, say, for example, you mentioned Trump and, you know, the idea that that he could come back in, it's we don't have to guess about what he thinks about or how21:58 he operates. We know. We we have 4 years of watching. He attacks the components of cost. He goes after energy and what lower energy costs. He goes after interest rates. He badgers the Federal Reserve to lower interest22:08 rates. He is not afraid to use debt, but he uses it like a real estate investor. He tries to use it productively. He is not afraid to spend money like tax breaks, but he does it strategically on things that22:20 will increase production. So I think when you hear a lot of mainstream economists and talking heads talk about what's going on financially, they only ever focus on the demand side and22:32 they just assume supply side is static. And when you shut down an entire economy like we did in COVID and the supply side went way down at the same time you're sending out stimi checks, which is22:44 increasing purchasing power. You don't have to be a rocket scientist to figure out what the results gonna be. Prices are gonna go up. Well, the reverse is true. The reverse is true. So, if you're able to really22:56 stimulate production, then you can spend and you can use debt, but it's productive. So that's a different than having a business person in charge, and I'm not stumping for Trump. I'm23:07 just understanding the way the guy thinks, and I understand the way the other people think. And, you know, if I had to pick the 1 that who's thinking I think makes more sense in the real world, it would be the people who23:18 believe in stimulating production rather than crushing demand. I mean, I'm a consumer. I don't wanna have my purchasing power shrunk. I wanted expanded. I want more stuff. The only way to have more stuff for less is to23:30 really increase production. So those are the kind of policies I'm looking for. If if we get policies that create inflation, the answer is going to be pressure, upward23:41 pressure on interest rates. And until we have clarity on whether we're going to get an increase in supply, then I think the more productivity, I think that we should23:53 expect interest rates to be stubbornly difficult compared to where we've been. If we, in fact, get a lot of production, and we may be able to get some lower interest rates24:05 because inflation will be muted even though we're spending a lot of money and even though there's a lot of economic activity. So that's what I'm looking for. We'll see what happens.24:15 Well, it is it's it's like game theory or complexity theory. There's so many different you know, I think, Jim Rickards talks about this too. Right? There's just so many different inputs. You change 1 thing here, and it's24:24 like I describe, you know, finances. It's like a board game where the rules and the system are changing all the time. So, you're constantly keeping up with what's happening. And will this year and this happens here? And24:34 if you can just think 2 or 3 steps ahead and get ahead of it, sometimes you can, so, you know, for us, we were looking right now for the first time in a couple of years, we're getting back into apartment buildings where,24:43 you know, we're seeing stuff discounted 20 to 30 percent of where it was because for a while, sellers could hold on. There was things they could hold on because of their debt, but now it's like these things they can't24:54 refinance. There's there's some distress in the market. And so, it allows for, some opportunities that are there. And then, we think, you know, there's no we've really slowed down, especially the last couple of years25:02 building more. And so, you know, Ken McElroy, our friend, talks a lot about this where there's just the supply of apartments. It's just not there. So, things like I think with, you know, there's we know there's always25:13 gonna be a demand for real estate. We know with other things like precious metals, which you're a big fan of and me as well, where, you know, they create the more currency they create, the more it will push pressure on25:22 these things. And particularly, if you can use, you know, debt to buy stuff. It's awesome. So do you, I know you we talk pretty big picture general, but do you have any specific sectors or25:34 specific things that over the next 6 to 12 months you're like, I'm kinda watching this because I think this could be a good thing to focus on. No specific advice, but just, hey. Here's something I'm looking at.25:44 You know, I for since 2008 when and I've never been a big stock market fan since I watched the stock market take my father out in 19 87. I've always been leery of25:56 it. Dabbled in it, did some day trading and things during the dot com boom and then ultimate bust scared me. I realized I was playing with fire and that no matter how smart you were, no matter26:08 how diligent you were, what computer program you bought, you were really betting on so many things over which you had no control. And there were so many insiders and people that had information you didn't have.26:20 It was really dangerous. I'm not saying people out there don't do it and don't do it successfully. I I just felt like for me, it was way too far out on the risk curve. After 2008, what I realized26:32 is that equity is very fickle. So, what I used to think was important, you know, when investing 1 0 1, buy low, sell high, I think a lot of26:44 people think that's investing 1 0 1, but really it isn't. What you really should be investing in is in the productivity of others. So I I call it, the acronym is b l26:56 s h t. So you can pronounce it anywhere you want, but it's buy low, sell high trading and then versus who, which is per productivity of27:08 others. And so what I realized in 2008 when I was being wiped out because I was investing kind of buy low, sell high or buy low refinance high that the guy who27:20 was winning in the very same market I was losing in was investing in the productivity of others, which is income. Later, I spoke at the New Orleans investment conference when Robert Kiyosaki was writing his book, Second27:31 Chance. And I pulled up charts that I got from the Federal Reserve, St. Louis website. And I just contrasted the bubble in housing versus rents in housing. And you could see very27:43 clearly the bubble shaping. And of course, in hindsight, it's obvious as could be. But when you were in it, you kept extrapolating forward. Hey. 2004 was a great year. 2005 is gonna be better. It was.27:55 2005 was a great year. 2006 is gonna be better. You know, 2007 comes along and it's like, it's flattening out a little bit. Yeah. But, you know, look at the overall trend is just a little correction, you know, and28:06 also in 2008 comes in the bottom falls out. But meanwhile, the rents were very, very stable. And in fact, because when when the equity players got cleared out, and people lost their homes, they became renters that28:18 actually put stabilizing upward pressure on rents at the same time prices were coming down. And and, of course, as you just alluded to earlier, same thing's been going on a little bit in the multifamily28:30 space because as cap rates fell and people had to go further out on the risk curve with their capital stacks, short term lending, adjustable loans, bridge loans, all the things that have blown up a little bit when the28:41 interest rates came up too quickly and didn't didn't subside, people got bled out. And what the Fed was really doing is they had instituted through their 0 interest policy, a whole lot of excesses in the market, and they28:53 were just squeezing the excesses out. Well, if you happen to be out there on that bleeding edge, you know, that you were part of that group that the the receding prosperity took29:05 out. And if you're further in the risk curve, then you realize that you have staying power. And so you really focus on cash flow. So to me, cash flow is real.29:17 Gold is real. Oil is real. I think if you're investing in things that are real and not real estate is not real in and of itself because the29:29 price of real estate is very fake because it's grown out of the paper markets. It comes from the credit markets. And, you know, I I try to explain to people all the time. Kiyosaki is the master. He's been doing it for29:40 years, really emphasizing the importance of cash flow. Same thing with stocks. If you're gonna invest in stocks, just purchase a stream of dividend income at a rate that makes sense to you. And don't worry about what the29:52 share price is. It doesn't matter. But just what is the company's history of producing dividends? And is when you purchase that stream of income, is it likely to continue? And is it a decent investment?30:04 And if you get an equity pop, you get an equity pop. And if you don't, you don't, but that's not really what you're buying. So to me, that that's where you wanna live. If you do end up with some air, what I call fake30:14 equity on your balance sheet, which is real estate is fantastic for creating that, then do yourself a favor. And every once in a while, take some risk off the table by converting that equity, that fake equity into real30:25 equity, which is what I would consider to be precious metals on your balance sheet. And, you know, I've been teaching that since 20 18. And I think people that heard that teaching and did the things that I was talking30:36 about are done well. It's no secret that gold and silver, but gold in particular has had a pretty good 20 24. And you didn't have to be a rocket scientist to see it coming if you just understood30:48 fundamentally what was going on. People would say, oh, when interest rates go up, gold's not gonna do well, but that's not what happened because that's not that's not what it was about. It it was about it was about30:57 trying to find some safety, from a bond market that was imploding because of rising interest rates.31:03 Yeah. No. It's great. I love and I I did that 20 18, 20 19, 20 20. Bought a lot of metals, and I've done very well with that. So I'm grateful for that, Russell. And I I wanna say this on first of all, you can talk about31:15 a lot of things. We could be here for a long time talking about a lot of great things, and I would get a lot out of it. And I feel like our audience does too. But, you know, when you talk about you you mentioned this31:23 before from take going from cash or from dollars to asset to cash flow. That's what it is. Right? It's basically taking money off of taking taking this currency, which isn't money. Your money and currency actually31:34 different or what actually stores value, buying something that cash flows, and then getting assets that you can have liquidity. You can have an inflation hedge. It's all built in. Gold and silver provide that which is31:43 huge. And there's other things as well. So we could talk a lot more about that. But I just want to say, Russ, I really appreciate you being here today. Gotten so much out of your sales training, out of just the different31:52 things that you've innovated and, of course, you as a financial thinker. So really grateful to have you today. Why don't you tell people how they can follow you, particularly with your sales training coming up as well as32:02 some of the ongoing training you're doing? How can people reach out and connect with you?32:06 So I think I think the easiest way to keep tracking me right now is just to send an email to follow at russell gray dot com, r u s s e l l g r a y, russell gray dot com. And, then wherever I32:18 end up, whatever I'm doing, you know, as you know, I stepped away from co hosting the real estate guys radio show. I haven't launched my new channel yet. It's gonna be called Main Street Capitalist. It's gonna be very32:27 focused on, helping people earn big, invest smart, and live free. Those are my 3 tags. I had a chance to guest host Robert Kiyosaki's radio show a few weeks back and kind of soft launched the32:39 Main street capitalist brand, interviewed a young lady who, had a shift in, thinking based on going from being a political science major and having never worked in the real world to becoming32:51 an entrepreneur and realizing all the things that she believed in before she'd ever lived in the real world, made her life a lot more difficult in the real world. And and so it's a really interesting transformation. So33:02 if you get a chance to look that episode up, you might take a look at it. And then, of course, I'm a partner with Ken McElroy, George Gammon, Jason Hartman, Robert Helms, and Collective Inner Circle. It's our high end33:13 mastermind. We're gonna be talking about that at Limitless Expo, Taral Yarbrough and Kenny McElroy's big, big event that you're gonna be at coming up at the end of August. So that'd be a great place to come find me, say33:24 hello, hear more about Collective Inner Circle and and some of the other projects that I'm involved in.33:29 Awesome. Thanks so much, Russ. Appreciate it. Look forward to connecting with you soon. We'll see you at Limitless and at some of your sales strength coming up here.33:35 Thanks, Bronson. Well, hope you enjoyed that. If you have a show and would like me as a guest, please send me an invite. I try to accept as many interview requests as I can, and hopefully, I can accept yours. Meanwhile,33:46 send your questions or comments to feedback at russell gray dot com. Thank you.In this video 0:00 The Art of Sales: Touching the Heart Before the Head12:54 Financial Strategy and Market Insights
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