973: Money Mindset Makeover – Stop Settling for Less with Ian Prukner

Aaron Amuchastegui  00:32

Real Estate Rockstars This is Aaron Amuchastegui. Hey, you guys are in for a treat today. This is gonna be a really, really fun episode. Today, I’m interviewing Ian Prukner and I want to be able to try to give you a bio of Ian, but I’m gonna let him try to do that I first met Ian at a mastermind in Michigan. He’s he was on stage, you know, teaching entrepreneurs how to grow their life. He just released a new book. Sometimes I see him on stage at church playing the guitar like leading worship and stuff like he’s a man of many talents between many different states. And but I do know that our conversation is going to be fired today, you guys are going to be glad you listened. And you’re going to find yourself wanting more. So, Ian, how’s it going? I’m doing awesome, buddy. I’m doing awesome. How are you? Aaron? Good to see you. Yeah, good to see you. I’m feeling really, really good today. I’ve been super excited to get to talk to you this week. So we can just share some of the fun stuff with people. We spend so much time on the show talking about real estate. And in this last year, I’ve talked to people a lot about being able to diversify and do other stuff with that money and also live a better life and live happier. And you know, with some of the stuff you’ve been putting out lately, I’m like, I need to get Ian on. So we can Yeah, it’s awesome. When you and I get to talk and we can record and other people can listen, it’s even better. If you were going to try to do a you know what, what’s your like, five minute intro to who you are like, so who is he? And and how did you get there? Oh, my

Ian Prukner  01:53

goodness. Well, again, I appreciate being on and hello to everybody out there in the real estate world. And, man, I mean, gosh, it’s just been a whirlwind the last 15 years, I feel like I’ve lived five lifetimes in one. And it’s been pretty incredible. So I am, I grew up in a town called Royal Oak Michigan. And my parents still live there saying 900 square foot house we grew up in. And I sort of did the prescribed pattern in life, you know, go to school, get good grades, you can get into a good college and then go get a good job. And I actually graduated with a degree in education I student taught and I I couldn’t do it. I said God bless teachers. But this is not what I can do with the rest of my life. And I found out that I was really psychologically unemployable. I just didn’t do well with people telling me where to be what I had to do. And so I was a musician. I played in punk rock bands, I taught music lessons growing up and through school and through college. And so I decided, well, maybe I’ll just be a professional musician. So I played the punk rock band we did all right, you know, probably never heard of it, but did okay. And then I actually ended up getting involved in a local church, very small, local church as a music director. And it was actually really, really cool. It was the ability if any of you know musicians, or our musicians, you know, like, if we can make enough money to survive playing music, we’re the happiest people on earth. You know, like that was, that was my life. And I had one problem, her name was Jessica, we got engaged, and she had very expensive tastes. And she didn’t like the musician, lifestyle, all that much so. So I really put a put the band musician stuff on the side. And I really focused on working on the church music side, we actually got hired in at a pretty big church at the time in Rochester Hills, Michigan, in a really affluent area. And I took over four of their teams playing music, and it wasn’t really a job. To me, it was more like a calling. It was something I love doing. I love playing music, I love people. And, you know, I was working, teaching music lessons on the side singing out people’s weddings and funerals on the side, because the church we were out before was sort of a smaller church. And so this is really our clue and towards this really big church. And we thought for sure, like, this is gonna be my ticket back to some sort of normalcy and schedule, you know, I’m sure I’ll make enough to be able to get rid of the other stuff. And so we sort of had a number in mind that we needed to be making. And they, they made us an offer, and it was 25%, short of that number. And they said, you know, we really feel like we want you here. We’re in the middle of the building project. And we’d like to get you to that number but we got to start you here. Our goal is to have you up there within a year. And so we prayed about we really felt led to go on that adventure. So she and I both started working for that church. We jumped in about six months and we were doing everything I was doing music and youth and kids and whatever else I could do. And I got a call to come into my boss’s office about six months into our tenure there right? And I thought for sure he’d seen all my hard work. All the different things we were doing, I thought for sure I was getting that raise, right that 25% jump inside pass my wife, she’s at the desk and as the office administrator are giving her like the thumbs up, I’m like, This Is it right? This is what we’ve been working for. And I don’t know if any of you’ve ever sat in a meeting where somebody is about to pull the rug out from under you. But the moment I walked in that door, Aaron, I knew something wasn’t good. And it was he could cut the atmosphere with a knife. And he sat me down. His name is Steven. And he said, again, I’m really sorry to tell you this. But the church’s finances are not in a good place. We’re behind in the building project. effective immediately. We’re cutting everybody’s pay 10%. I’m very, very sorry. But I wanted to tell you first because we made some promises to you. And so I’m going to try to give you some time off to make up for it. I’m like, Bro, I don’t need time off. I’m already working two other jobs because I’m so broke, right? Like, I don’t need the time off. I need the money. He’s like, I’m not sure if and when we’ll be able to make it up to you. I’m really, really sorry. And I left that meeting or I felt like I’ve been punched in the stomach. Right? So my radar went up for how do I make some extra money my plan was I was going to be a Night Manager at Rite Aid, and work three Midnight’s a wheat for $14.55. Now that’s how it’s gonna make up my my pay cut. And so here I am working three jobs about to start for newly married my wife’s love language is quality time for all of you married out there, you understand what it’s like to be violating your significant others. Number one love life, but it wasn’t good. And I was in sort of a really dark place. I was 22 years old and learning really quickly that the world was affair. And that the promises employers made to you really don’t mean much at the end of the day. And so that was back in 2006. And so 2006 in Detroit Metro, in the charitable giving arena, we started to feel the rumblings of that recession of Oh, 809. Right, Detroit was one of the hardest hit areas. But the first thing that went was charitable giving, so we were 18 months in front of that whole tidal wave. But we knew something was wrong. It’s I was gonna start working as a Night Manager at Rite Aid, right. And my same boss A month later, Aaron, he comes to me says, Yeah, are you still looking to make some extra money? I said, Steven, with all due respect, that is the dumbest question you’ve ever asked. You said, You’re right. You know what you pay me here. Of course, I’m looking to make extra money. And he says, there’s this guy that goes to the church, he does this thing. You could do it on the side, you’d probably be good at it, you should go talk to them. And at that point, Aaron, like, I didn’t care, anything sounded better than working nights at Rite Aid, you know, as a fourth job. And so I pulled this guide and known from Adam said, Hey, my name is Ian. I don’t know you. You know me. I sing on stage every, every Sunday at church. He said, come on by let me show you what I’m doing. I pulled up to this guy’s house. They’re here, this castle looking house on the lake. And I pulled up to his house. And I said no joke. I said, if he’s not selling drugs to kids on it, I don’t even care what it is. I’m in because because listen, most people are broken, skeptical. That’s a bad combination. I was broken open mind and really tired of being broke. And I was looking for a way out. Right? And so I got started in business part time with this mentor, right? And eight months later, I was making $100,000 in your tip, which to me was humongous money. My take home pay at the church was 18 $150 a month. Right? So so it’s like I was a major papers. I thought I died and went to heaven. And I just started working on myself started learning business started learning sales. And you know, a few years later, we were making million dollars a year and it was like it was unbelievable residual income we diversified out in the e commerce and in the real estate and in the intellectual property and all this sort of stuff. And it’s just been an unbelievable ride. You know, we homeschool our kids like you guys do. We’ve been homeschooling for seven years where the real homeschool. Oh geez. Right? Yeah. When when the pandemic hit, we were prepared. We are already ready. And we’ve been traveling the world and live in part time in Florida and part time in Michigan. And it’s just been an awesome adventure making a difference in the lives of a lot of people because what I found was Listen, there’s three sorts of places we can be in life financially. Okay, we can we can live in the land of not enough. And I know what that’s like. I can remember Aaron sorting and sifting through these big industrial freezer tubs out Meijer. That’s what we have in Michigan. I know now for you all to think like a big local grocery store. And I would sit through them at 1130 at night, because that’s what time all my jobs finally got done and my wife and I would go to the grocery store, and I’d be sifting through these big industrial freezers till my arm would turn bright pink and even purple sifting through the ravioli, the 347 dollar bags of ravioli to find The three per $5 bags of ravioli at the very bottom that people had to pick through, because I couldn’t afford the extra $2. So I remember what it’s like to live in that land of not enough. And it’s not fun. It’s like money. And it’s really the lack of money. Right? The lack of money consumes you, every decision you make, is being made out of a position of lack. You read the menu, when you go into the restaurant from right to left doesn’t even matter what you’re not reading it from left to right, see what you’d like, you’re figuring out what does it cost, right? Can we even go here, I know what that’s like, the second place you can live is in the land of just enough. And I think there’s so many people out there that live in that land. And the bills are paid most of the time on time, and things are okay. They’re not incredible. They’re not around the world. They’re not life changing. And you know, to me, it’s just so sad to watch people live their whole life, having settled for seven less than what they were capable. And then the third place you can live is the land of more than enough when you really can can do the things you feel like God’s called you to do. In your work, you got the money thing under control, you’re not worried about that anymore. And I’ve lived in all three, and I promise you the land of more than enough is the best of all three to be in. And, you know, so I started, I started learning the principles of money, how money works, but more importantly than how money works, how money works with us in our thinking, because true wealth really does begin in the mind, right. And it’s an incredible journey. It’s been an honor in my life, to be able to teach 1000s and 1000s of people how to go from that land, not enough, or the land of just enough to be able to move themself into Atlanta more than enough where they can really be parents they were meant to be they can make the difference they were meant to make. They can live like you talked about with some happiness and some fulfillment that just really gets pressed down sometimes when we’re in those places where we’re hand to mouth all the time. Yeah.

Aaron Amuchastegui  12:03

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13:36

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Aaron Amuchastegui  13:37

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Aaron Amuchastegui  13:54

Yet real estate Rockstar listeners, this is why I wanted to bring Ian on here. You know from just those first few minutes of that chat, I get to take on so many notes and the things we’re gonna talk about. I know it’s gonna be so much fun today. And I know there’s so many things out there that are resonating with all of you guys, it was so many people. Some of you have gone through that, you know, I remember when we have kuleana was a waitress at night at the casino and we would do the handoff for the kids. It’s like you talk about these different levels of money. And yet the money is only a part of what he talks about with business and running that. I mean, we I love sharing, we need to share that part with you. So that way you’ll know you want to listen but so much of what Ian’s talking to out there is telling people how to just get the right attitude in life and how to go after life and how to think about money. be talking about living in the lack of money plays which everyone’s done. And then the second one you talked about was living in just enough where you have enough money to pay your bills. I almost think that’s the worst place to be period because it’s the people make just enough they’re afraid to take a risk afraid to go bigger afraid to go somewhere else, when you’re not making enough, it’s very clear on what the goal is. I want to be able to not struggle so much to eat. And then when you’re making just enough where your bills are covered, but you’re not getting all the extra stuff, I remember talking to an employee once and saying, Hey, what’s your goal? What’s your, like, bucket list goal for your family. And he’s like, I’d really like to take my son on his dirt bike, and we’ll go ride at this course, one week. And it was like, that’s your bucket list one some day goal, like a two hour event that will cost you $30. And so it’s understanding like that just enough. What do you think about it? Do you think just enough is the worst? Do you think that’s where it’s toughest to change out of?

Ian Prukner  15:35

Yeah, 100%, right, because because when you’re in the land of just enough, you can finally breathe in. For most people, that’s all they’ve ever aspired to, is, I remember and then just enough is two words just and enough, right. And the word just, I think is a bad word in our life, we need to eradicate it, because it is a it is a topography of mediocrity, it’s, it’s a descriptor, and if I just have this by, and I would think that like, if I can just make $40,000 a year, I’d be okay, then we get to this just enough place and we finally settle in, right, we settle in, we think like, I don’t have to run anymore, I finally can take a breath. But if we’re not careful, we’ll settle in a place where we were supposed to just be passing through. And that’s what I think a lot of us forget the land of just enough. It’s not a permanent residency. For us. It is a place of rest and refreshment from the grind. And then we go back to the land of more than enough, which is really where you live your purpose. See, one of the things that I try to help these people have so many hang ups about money, it’s one of the things coming out of the church world, I would just see so many incredible people whose destiny was crippled by by poor thinking and limiting beliefs around money, right? And what happens is understand this in America, or any sort of remotely free economy, haha, practically any sort of remotely free economy, if you’re not stealing money, okay? If you’re not stealing money, you earned that money. In a value trade. Somebody Aaron said, I want your goods, I want your product, I want your service. I want your time. I want your expertise. I want your ideas more than I want this money. Would you trade that to me? Would you trade that to me. And so so money really is the byproduct of serving other people and solving other people’s problems, right. That’s ultimately what money is. And so when we have just enough money, what that really means is we’re serving just enough people for our own needs to be okay, we’re making just a big enough difference in the lives of others that our needs are met. The problem with that thinking is there’s a whole world that needs you. There’s something special inside of every person watching this, that literally you and only you have been designed and placed on this planet for a purpose, and a reason. And money is not the goal. It’s the outcome. It’s the byproduct of serving people with that gift with that knowledge with that skill set with your ideas. And so I think that that land of just enough is very tempting, it’s really tempting to settle down and serve only ourselves, right in the land of just enough. And this can be tough for some people to hear. But it really is a place of selfishness where it says I’m good, but I don’t care about the rest of y’all out there. I’m okay, y’all figure it out for yourself. And what I’ve found about people who live in the land of more than enough is money was really not their aim. Their aim was making a difference. Their aim was growing a business there, their goal was delivering a service to a lot of people that would help them and the money was just the Certificate of Merit to prove that those transactions occurred, you know, and it really allows them to live out a bigger purpose that’s beyond

Aaron Amuchastegui  18:54

them. And we say so much of the same thing in real estate, right? When when you guys are out serving your clients, if you’re aiming to serve if you’re aiming to provide value, the Money Follows like sometimes it is about asking somebody, Hey, will you give me the listing or Hey, can I be your agent, but other times it’s just provide value, provide value provide value, and then they want you to be their agent, they want you to help with that. You know, we did a we had a episode last month where we kind of talked about with you one of the things you said is the lack of money consumes you in the time when when people are struggling. So if people are struggling the end, they’re living in the land of not enough. The lack of money consumes you lack of money makes people make bad decisions. It’s harder to keep up with our morals with our values and everything else. When we’re struggling when there’s you know, when people I’ve had employees steal from me, right and it’s like, you know, you have they have the opportunity to and they do and part of that it’s just a human condition of when you’re living in not enough it makes it much easier to say like, what would I do to have enough What would I do to eat what would I do to feed my kid and so it’s

Ian Prukner  19:57

like that Robin Hood story in some ways, right? Like you will take from this person and give to that person and, you know, and yeah, ultimately, right like whether you have a lot or you have a little that doesn’t change right and wrong. The the ends do not justify the means, right? But that is, in our society. We’re not taught that right? We’re number one. But number two, you’re exactly right. It’s when you have a lack, you are much more likely to blur those lines to try to meet that need, then you are when you have a surplus of those things just doesn’t mean there are not people who have lots of money who get it, you who get it by circumstances that are not maybe the best, right? There’s for sure those people, but in my experience, those people are few and far between. and their fortunes don’t last when their fortunes are built on a castle made of sand. Eventually the waves come they always come. And if it’s not built on a solid foundation is going to wash away. You. Yeah, yeah, we

Aaron Amuchastegui  20:58

talked we’ve talked about like run your life, like you run a business, like have a savings account, have some backup have, you know plan, the way for when things like COVID craziness happens or something totally outside of our control? It’s like because if not, if we don’t have the savings, if we don’t have the finances in place, then we might not be making the right decisions for things. So I was I remember being pretty fresh out of school, and I had this great job, I was getting paid a lot of money in that job, but I really wanted to be an entrepreneur, and my wife, I was like, hey, Colleen, I’m gonna quit my job. And we’re gonna go do this, we’re gonna go buy some lots and build some houses. And the answer from her was no, absolutely not. That sounds terrifying. Like, I don’t want you to go work with your dad and do that. And and really, and and we were young. And it’s not even saying she had any right or wrong. It’s a normal thing to say, No, you’ve got a job. You’re not supposed to become an entrepreneur, you’re not supposed to take a risk right now, that scares me take the normal job and do it. And I think there’s a lot of people I know, you talked to a lot of people that are like, hey, I’ve got this great job. I don’t know if I want to become an entrepreneur. I know that commission based sales is awesome, but I’m afraid to leave my job. There’s even real estate, there’s real estate agents that are listening that are doing real estate part time right now. Because it’s safe to have this other job. And maybe they’ll do some deals. What do you tell people that are on the fence between? It’s kind of like being in that, you know, just enough section? It’s kind of that job security part? There’s a mindset shift when you go from working for a paycheck to working for yourself and betting on yourself?

Ian Prukner  22:28

Yeah, yeah. 100%. And let’s talk about the mindset shift, because I think this is set up the rest of the conversation really well. So one of the things I always tell people is you need a mindset shift before you’re going to see an income shift. Okay? And that ultimately, what we think about we bring them out, right? So I wrote this book, you’re talking about it. And in that book, I talked about an idea called t bar, and T bar is an acronym, and T bar is happening in your life there is happening in my life, it’s happening in everybody’s life, I’m listening right now, one of the things I love about it, you don’t need to learn it, you’re already using it, you just need to be aware of it. And what t bar stands for force, thoughts, beliefs, actions result. Ultimately, what we think about long enough, works its way from our conscious thought process into a subconscious belief system, or belief systems ultimately dictate and determine the actions we take or don’t take, right. And those actions that we take or don’t take are ultimately most responsible for the results we have. So every result we have right now whether that’s the quality of our health, our spiritual well being the the status of our family, relationships, or even our financial condition. Those are all byproducts of the thinking, the belief system, and the actions that we took to create them. They’re literally the perfect outcome of how we think, what we believe and what we do. And so ultimately, if we want to change our outcomes, we’ve got to change the way we think, and we’ve got to change our beliefs, then most people don’t do that most people try to change their action. So let’s talk about the real estate agent who’s part time not sure if they should go full time or not, right, that actions being dictated by a belief system, probably a belief system around money, right? That maybe money’s hard to make, doesn’t grow on trees. I’m not sure if I’m good enough to do this, you know, maybe a lack of clarity about where money comes from. There’s any number of subconscious underlying beliefs that cause people to take the actions that they’re taking. We’ve got to look at our belief systems and understand what they’re creating in our lives. And this is where most most people want to go to a seminar here. Here in New out, they can get a new phrase that they can say that’ll change everything. The problem is Wherever we go, there we are. If we don’t change our thinking and belief systems, ultimately what we do and what we get won’t change much. Does that make sense? And so I think that it’s really, really important that we understand something those beliefs around money and how they color everything in our in our lives, right because there’s a lot of people watching right now they’re in the land of not enough they’re struggling in their career, they’re struggling in their business that is a byproduct of some poor thinking and poor beliefs around money and what it takes to create money. Okay, there are some people here that live in Atlanta, just enough their bills are paid, and they’re doing well. But if you want to level up, you’ve got to change the way you think about money in your belief systems. Because how you believe now has got you what you out. Now, you won’t change what you have now until you change what you believe now. And then there are people who are scaling up who are making a really, really big difference. They’re helping a ton of clients, they’re making a lot of difference in a lot of people’s lives. And those people think differently as well. So we got to study the thought process and the belief systems of the high achievers in our space. Because then the actions and the results are, they’re automatic, they’re automated, they’re the byproduct of what created them

Aaron Amuchastegui  25:59

loves a T bar. And you know, and I love telling people about joining masterminds, about getting coaches about going to seminars, like learning from other people. You know, one of the other things I think I hear a lot from people is they say, I’m not meant to be an entrepreneur, like I’m not. And sometimes it’s like, maybe I don’t want as much risk as you are, you know, I can’t do that I can’t be an entrepreneur, I can’t handle the stress of being entrepreneur. That to me sounds like another one of the things you would if you were coaching somebody on that you would say, let’s look at that belief. And let’s talk to people that are entrepreneurs and see how they got over that.

Ian Prukner  26:33

Yeah, yeah. So that’s just a belief system. It’s the belief system of I can’t, versus I could write because the truth is, there’s very few things you can’t do, if you wanted to do them badly enough. But the but many people do believe they can’t, they can’t. And so when I believe I can’t, I don’t and won’t, I won’t look for ways to fix my problem, okay. And I don’t see it as being a fruitful endeavor to try to learn these things. Because I believe that’s just who I am and how I am. And I can’t change that. That’s the belief system of camp, the belief system of Qantas, I can learn anything over time, because that’s all I’ve done my entire life. When I was a baby, I couldn’t walk. But I learned and then I couldn’t talk. But I learned that as well. I couldn’t do math or write, I couldn’t ride a bike or drive a car. I couldn’t succeed romantically in relationships. I couldn’t learn this job, or that our whole life is full of things we couldn’t do until we did. Yeah, I. And so I would say that there’s far more evidence to back up the belief system that I can if I want to, versus the belief system of I can’t because the truth is, there’s very few things we couldn’t do. And most people don’t, they’re not drawing a distinction between can’t and chose not to. Right. And I think when we did when we define and can draw that distinction, we can become very, very powerful. Because there’s some people watching right now, they think I can’t make a million dollars a year in real estate, but that’s false. There’s many, many, many people who do that, that play the same game as you in your town, right in your town in your area. Even with your same brokers, our people can probably do that. They’ve got the same opportunity, right? But if we think we can’t, why bother studying, why bother getting the coach, why bother with the mastermind? I’m doomed. Anyways, success is outside my control has nothing to do with me, improving my skill, set work ethic and clarity. It’s just happening around me. And when we believe that our belief dictates our action, think of it like this for most of human history, people believed the world was flat. And so nobody decided that it was a good idea to try to sail around the world, because they believed they would fall off the edge of the world. That was their belief, right? And then one day, there was a guy who said, No, I don’t think that’s right. I think the world is round, and I could probably sail all round. So all his buddies thought he was an idiot. They’re waving, goodbye, like, we’ll see you when you fall off the earth, right. But their belief caused an inaction, we’re not going to bother trying his belief cause an opposite action. But we always act on our belief. We follow for most of human history, people believe we couldn’t fly. And so nobody decided to study the laws of gravity, thrust and lift, right for about 4900 years of recorded human history. And then a couple of guys decided, hey, we think this could happen. It was a belief. And so they studied, they plan. They tried, they invested, they failed and tried again, their belief dictated their actions. Does that make sense? Aaron? So there’s so many people here that like they know what to do. They know how to do it. They just can’t get themselves to find that next year and let it rip. And people always kind of coach What do I do? Like I know, I know. I can do this. I just can’t get myself to do it. What’s happening to our thoughts. I know I can This belief some or subconsciously, that disagrees with that. And it blocks us from taking the action, we get the belief in alignment with the thinking, and the action and the result. That Have you ever seen that like these overnight successes, they’re struggling for 20 years, and then boom, in the 21st year is like the biggest thing on earth, what happened? alignment, finally, how they got their conscious in their subconscious belief system lined up, and everything just falls into place when that happens.

Aaron Amuchastegui  30:29

Yeah, like the big thing that people can push for how to get that belief aligned with the thinking. And I’ve been so often the people saying, I know that I’m, I know, I’m supposed to make this phone call, but I but I won’t. But then you’re but you’re saying deep down, there’s a subconscious that saying, I’m gonna fail, I’m not good at it, I’m not gonna be comfortable with it, get that thinking aligned with now you got to make that phone call. And the more that you take, I love that you said, life is full of things that we couldn’t do. Like everything that we are doing in life, and that we’re good at is an example of something we couldn’t do. We did not know how to do it wasn’t on our skill set. So Life is full of things that we couldn’t do. And you know, the only way we get through it is we learn we learn to walk, we learn to do different things. I also really liked when you said, you know, for the diminishing beliefs, where somebody says, I can’t make $100,000 a month in real estate. And then your quick answer to that is somebody is, somebody is in your town, somebody is in your office, maybe somebody is in your brokerage, there are people doing it, there are people doing it that are your age, there are people doing it that started last year, there are people doing it that on their 10th year they got big. So regardless of the story of where you are in your life, and your career, people reinvent themselves at 3040 5060 years old, you know, people some sometimes they have their first year and they do great sometimes I feel I was too young, I was too old. There’s, there are so many examples. And that’s what we delivered. Everybody on this podcast is we interviewed so many diverse people, that you get that listeners, you can go back and find somebody on the podcast has the same exact story of you and their breakout moment where their belief aligned with their thinking was at the same spot you’re at in your life today, the same age the same turning point a year in six months in five years in, you know, wherever it is one of the things you said early on in this chat, and then I want to hear so much about the biggest things that you’re teaching right now is, as an employee, there’s a time when you and you said hey, can I get that raise? And he said, Sorry, I’m actually giving you a pay cut. I know I promised you a raise, and you did more than you were supposed to. But I’m not going to deliver that. And you said one of the things that you learned at that time was employers don’t always keep their promises for like lack of a better description of that. COVID hits march of 2020. And people are and the world goes crazy. And people are laid off and people lose their jobs. And sometimes like the wrong people they think are getting laid off. There’s all sorts of weird stuff going on. And I believe that was the time that you’re that. I mean, you’re you’ve been doing great for a while but I believe you had a you blew up even more. You know, April, May, June last year, because people started reaching out to you and saying, hey, maybe I don’t maybe this job security thing isn’t all it’s cracked up to be? Maybe I’m ready to start being my own boss. What was it? Like, you know, for you for you guys? You know, March through May, June last year? Was there anything slowed down? What was your mindset? Like?

Ian Prukner  33:20

Ya know? Yeah, so I’m a firm believer, remember, belief system, okay. There is an opportunity inside of every crisis, okay. I’m just a firm believer. And so when I saw that coming out is so interesting. And one of my guys is really sort of this like, nerdy tech guy. And he does a lot of our programming and stuff for one of our businesses. And in one of our group chats he’s writing about he writes this super wide, like a biography, right in this group chat about this COVID-19. And the world’s gonna shut down. And you should have seen my reply to him. I said, What on earth is this, nothing is gonna shut down. I don’t even know what this guy is saying, you know, I mean, I’m like, what, cuz I just didn’t know anything. It was that was in January, in January. So this guy saw what was coming in, he predicted it. Well, you six weeks later, I’m on a conference call with my guys. And I’m like, Look, I don’t know what’s about to happen. It’s about to get crazy. But here’s what I do know, here’s what I do know if we will focus right now. And we will look for the opportunity that’s going to come in and whatever’s coming. There’s a big opportunity there. If we will stay focused and not panic, but look for the piece of that, that little something shining, that we can latch on to and run, we’re gonna be in a really, really good spot. So one of our businesses and finances primarily a face to face business, we ran these big giant trainings in person all over the place. I mean, it was we were basically in these regional hubs all over the country. And we saw that the shutdown was coming. And we said, well, we’re not going to be able to run these big trainings. What do we do? Then we thought, Well, what if we can’t get out to people? What do we do? And so our guys, our tech guys have started building our platform, we will move everything online, immediately. And man, the day that things shut down 24 hours later, we took a pretty sizable entity, 1000s of people 1000s of people working in food on a dime, turn that thing online. And then what happened was everybody started shutting down, getting laid off. And here we are working from home on line around your own schedule in an essential industry. And it was like, every person in the country was saying, How do I work online from home in an essential industry? And that’s

Aaron Amuchastegui  35:42

what we built wherever I want.

Ian Prukner  35:44

Yeah. And that’s, will they literally didn’t exist four weeks earlier. It didn’t exist. We have done not one single piece of business online in that business. 14 years. And then in 30 days, the entire organization shifted. And we caught that front end. And we triple last year, that business triple has been around 15 years.

Aaron Amuchastegui  36:09

Yeah, they’ve been around for 50. Last year tripled.

Ian Prukner  36:12

Yeah, wasn’t one of my little business. I mean, we were doing 27 million a year in that business. Right. Okay. And not Yeah, that was Whoo. Okay. And so the the other thing that I saw, right, you talked about the social media, is I’m like, Alright, if everybody’s going to have to work online and be shut in this screen time people already live in their life on a four inch screen. Okay, that’s gonna double and I need to invest time, effort, energy resources, in growing my presence there majorly, majorly. And so we just went full scale assault on that, right. And, and that was unbelievably important, too. Because as everybody moved online, and was spending more time, that’s where we went, we went where the people were. And so it was just again, it all was a belief, I watch people in my same industry, become obsolete dinosaurs, in the same period of time, we triple because they were reacting to this scary thing. They were reacting to it. Okay, and we were proactive with it. And if we missed, we missed, but I understood that there was a moment we needed to act on, and we got in front of it. And it was a really, really good thing.

Aaron Amuchastegui  37:33

You know, for for people listening out there right now. The world is continuing to get better and weirder and better and worse, depending on where you are in everything. The looking for the opportunity in a time of crisis has people have talked a lot this year about well, there’s these people done so much better during COVID. But these people have done so much worse. But even agents, right, some real estate agents have had their best years ever, and then some of that none. But in times of crisis, when you start to look for the opportunity, rather than the putting your head in the sand, there will be more opportunities in our lifetime in the next 10 1520 years where a crisis is going to occur in all sorts of different industries. And if people can look at that, and be looking for the opportunity instead and say, what’s the niche? What are we going to do better? Sometimes we can get ahead of it. But the people that even a month into COVID made the shift and made the changes you were gonna make was a big difference of Ian’s got more than a quarter million people that follow him online. You know, the and he, you’re such a giver, like every day you’re doing some form of a live or something. And it is very, like it’s never self serving. It’s always like, you know, inspirational talks with people. How are we going to rock our day? How are we going to do this? My most confusing thing is I see with this huge thing of donuts almost every day. And I wonder how you can actually stay healthy with your pile of donuts every day. Twice a week. It’s twice a week. All right, well, maybe I just keep right I’m like how’s this guy eating the doughnuts right now like I know he’s on his peloton, but come on here. So super fun. So if you guys haven’t like go find Ian on social media because there’s so much stuff going on there. But now I want to talk big. The reason I really want you on is I saw that you you have a lot of different like courses, classes, things that you’re teaching and nearly all the stuff you teach is free you know you’ve got just like all the people online that you’re talking to all the time or I’ll jump on your lives if you’ve got like 10,000 people joining our wives did a homeschool thing together this summer as we were traveling around just to try people are asking for for help and you’re like let’s provide some value out there. But this new thing you’re working on you’ve pretty much like you’ve coached all sorts of people but this is like your life’s work in a in a masterclass is my outside looking in opinion. What is it really? And what’s what’s the first lesson you’re teaching with that?

Ian Prukner  39:48

Yeah, yeah. So so it really is a life’s work and it is a byproduct, right like, like, you know, I was on a clubhouse the other day and they were talking about coaches and trainers out over I see myself as a coach and try, I’m a business person. And what I found is over time, people come to me and say, how did you do this? How did you do that? Can you help me with this. And so over time, I took what I knew. And when I built that I systematize it, put it on online platforms and said, Hey, if you really want like the nuts and bolts of this stuff, you can get it here. And so, so what I’ve come out, it’s actually not out yet. It’s coming out on on May 15. Now that might be after people watch this. But it’s called the money mindset makeup. It’s called the money mindset makeover. And what I found there in 15 years of business in dealing with literally 10s of 1000s of people who want to change their lives financially, who are good people who are honest and hardworking, and just watching some who explode in 10 times their income, 20 times their income, I have some people that work with me, they’re making 15 times what they were making before we were working together. And then I watched people who just can’t break through, they’re just stuck where they are they no matter what they do, they can’t seem to figure it out. And so what I found was true wealth starts in the mind, right. And if we’re not thinking right about money, we’re not going to get right with money. And so over the years, I just I saw so many people who are limited by limited believing around money with false assumptions around money, people who had a had a dislike of of money, they felt that a negative relationship with it, right. And if you have a negative relationship with money, you will never have a positive experience with it. And so over time, I just I saw this, I learned how to identify it, help people get processes and plans to fix that. And what I saw was over and over and over again, the people who are willing to look at their belief systems around them, challenge them, and create better belief systems around money, all of them over time, started having radically better results financially in their life. And it brought them a lot of financial stability, a lot of peace, a lot of options that they didn’t have before. And so I put together this this class, it’s 40 lessons, 40 lessons in the art of creating abundance, because it really is an art. And I’m going to show you one of them that I think is so important in everybody watching right now, I want you to, to think and maybe if you’re in a safe place, you’re not driving and you can write something on your phone or on a piece of paper, I want you to write down two numbers, or the first number that I want you to write down is the number that you made last year, what did you earn last year in your business? I want you to write that number down whatever that number is. Okay. And my next question for you is this in three years, in three years, what would you love to be earning in your business three years from now? So I want you to write that number down, take a second just write it down. Now if you can’t, if you can’t come back to it later. But if you can do it now go ahead and do it. Now. What you’ll learn about me is Listen, I’m a big believer in that knowledge means nothing. Knowledge is not power, it’s useless. Applied knowledge is power. So write that down. What did you make 12 in the last 12 months? And what do you want to be making? Three years from now? Okay, I have a question for you. Why isn’t that number you wrote down 10 times larger than the number you wrote? And the answer to that question, Aaron, is because that’s all you believe you’re capable of. And so if your number was I made 100,000. Last year, I’d like to make 300,000 in the next three years. The problem with that belief system error is we’re going to look for $300,000 worthy deals, we’re going to build $300,000 worthy relationships, we will invest in ourselves, like a $300,000 person invest in themselves, we’ll treat our time. That way, we’ll treat our bodies that way, or relationships that way, we will read books that people who make 300,000 will read and the problem is we’ll miss out on the $3 million relationships and the $3 million books and the $3 million ideas because we’re not thinking they’re worth thinking here. I have a cup here, here. This is a cup of water, okay? And I want you all to look at this water and notice something and it’s not hackable, doesn’t matter whether you see it half full, half empty, it’s not going okay, but watch what happens if I tip this water class this way. Then what happens that water

Aaron Amuchastegui  44:26

the lid starts leaning like it stays level it looks like it’s you’re going to dump it out,

Ian Prukner  44:30

it flattens out right, it leans back on if I if I tip it the other way, what happens again,

Aaron Amuchastegui  44:35

that flattens out there too.

Ian Prukner  44:37

Now so in science, this is a an idea called equilibrium. And equilibrium is the place where an object feels most naturally at rest. And in water space. Water is at equilibrium flat to the earth. So even if I move it, the water which is inanimate, doesn’t have any feelings doesn’t have a brain, it just moves to go back to where it is. It feels like it should be, you follow this? Well, people have financial equilibriums we have a belief system about where we think we can and should be. Okay. And as the world moves around us, we will readjust. Let me illustrate this to you. There’s probably a lot of people on here, who at some point, have lost a job, have their income interrupted, lost a job, etc. And so what happened to their equilibrium? Is it got shaken, it got moved. And so what did they do in response, there’s probably very few people watching your podcast that are still living under the bridge, having never recovered from that loss of a job. I mean, they, they went back to school, they got a new degree, they started in a new field, they moved to a new place, they they started in their own business, they did something to fight and scratch and claw back to their equilibrium, the place they believe they belong. Let’s say that was 80,000 a year, you take somebody who’s 80,000, they will move heaven and earth to get back to that 80,000, including pulling their kids out of school going somewhere totally new and starting over, right? Yes, sir. Okay, that is a wonderful survival mechanism that is built into us. It is a horrible, thriving mechanism. If we don’t understand that is happening. Here’s what I mean. If you are an $80,000 equilibrium person, in your thinking, and your belief sets are 80, grand, 80, grand, 80 grand, when we find ourselves at 30 grand, we bring ourselves right back to 80. The problem is, if we’re at 8080, and now we find ourselves in a multi million dollar opportunity there and what will we do, we will self sabotage our way all the way back down to what 8080 because that’s who we are. It’s where we belong. It’s what we deserve. At least that’s what our beliefs tell us. And that’s what’s happening to a lot of the people that are watching this right now. You have people in your office and your brokerage, they’re making 10 times that you’re making that aren’t as good as you are. You are, you’re more skilled, you’re probably, you know, a better person, okay? And yet, they’re way out earning. And the reason is you’re taking that million dollar opportunity, and you’re whittling it all the way back down to that number that you believe about yourself. Because our beliefs always create our actions, like Christopher Columbus or the Wright brothers that we talked about, right? And so listen, do you want to make way, way, way more money? Okay, how do you do it, you got to change your equilibrium, when you raise the level in this cup, okay? When you raise the level in that cup, everything around you raises, if you can move that from an $80,000 your belief system to an $800,000 your belief system, you will treat your time That way you treat your relationships, that way, you will invest in yourself accordingly. And those things will create the outcome of that belief system. And so no matter where you are, no matter where they are, and this is for you and for me, right? Like we’re both doing pretty good by most people’s standards. Okay, but if we want to do better, we got to raise our equilibrium, we got to take what we think we’re worth what we believe we should be doing. And we’ve got to raise that. How do you do it? That’s the big okay. Yeah, that makes sense to me. How, how do I do it? Then that’s what the courses, the courses 40 of these ideas, and exactly how to how do I implement this? So that it’s not just oh, I learned about it? How do I actually do it? Let me give you a couple of ideas. Okay. The first thing you need to do if you want to raise your equilibrium is you’ve got to get around some people who can pour into that number, right? Some people who are playing at a level that are a lot fuller than you and you just take some of that when they’re when their blast tips a little bit and that water pops out beside you better be catching that thing like crazy, right? And you get around people and you’ve heard the power of association, okay? This is why the power of association is important. Because ultimately, their equilibrium levels are rubbing off on you, you’re getting what they’re out. The second thing that I would tell you to do is supersize it, upgrade your life by one experience every time so most people aren’t. They live in the same neighborhood their whole life, they go to the same job, they’re around the same people. It’s no wonder why their life never gets different because everything around them is always the same. So you’ve got to be willing to put yourself in positions that are unusual and or uncomfortable relative to your current financial status. Right. And so if your coupon clipper upgrade to first class next time and everything inside of using go I can’t hear like wicked which you start melting right because of the extra Okay, but what happens is your experience level raises and you say, huh, that was pretty nice. I’d like to do that again. I remember when I first started making real money, I started going to the Capitol grill and that was like, you know, when you go to you ever eat at the Capitol grill? You guys are probably like, super, like, healthy eaters and stuff. And probably, well, no,

Aaron Amuchastegui  50:21

but I only cuz I haven’t spent enough time out where you’re at. But I know those moments. Yeah,

Ian Prukner  50:27

yeah. So so you know, we went there. And you know what they asked you when you come to the Capitol grilling, you don’t look like you belong there. As soon as you sit down, they say, are you celebrating anything today? Because that’s where people go to celebrate big deals, right? Yeah. Yeah. It’s like, what are your is it must be an anniversary or birthday? Because you probably wouldn’t come here otherwise, right? Yeah.

Aaron Amuchastegui  50:47

You’re not eating here every week?

Ian Prukner  50:48

Yeah, yeah. And I sat there, I said that food was real good. And I like this environment. And you could just tell like the people at the bar were movers and shakers, all that I said, just I want to have a goal that I come to capital grow once a month, just because and so that experience I never went there. I always would have been been okay at Ponderosa. But I took my Ponderosa and I supersize that I said, that sure would be nice to do. And all of a sudden, I’m thinking a little bit bigger. And because I’m thinking a little bit bigger, I got to produce a little bit bigger to get there. Right. And so it’s so funny, I was out at Capitol. Well, if you’re with one of my friends on the key, and he has a locker in Orlando, and in Sarasota. So he doesn’t just go capital grille, he has a locker at Capital where they keep things for him. He just walks in, everybody knows him, right? It’s like that. He goes there two, three times a week. And he just orders the same thing every time. The point being is, you know, you start there and you go there, you supersize your experience, and you teach yourself, listen, hunger is a discipline. Hunger is a discipline, and you got to teach yourself to stay hungry. So you got to get around some people that raise that equilibrium level. Okay, you got you got to supersize your experience a little bit. Okay, the third thing I would tell you to do to raise that equilibrium is Dream on paper. Okay, spend five minutes and just write down a day in your dream life five years from now, it as much detail as you can, where you live in? What’s your experience? Like? Who are you with? What are you doing? What do you drive? And what sort of trips Do you like to take? Here’s the key. Everybody has vision boards, right? Okay. But vision boards are fantasy, until you start putting some dollars behind to assign the dollars to that place that you live in that car, you drive in that vacation that you want to take, and your mother in law you retire, and the private school that you want your kids to go to, and the personal chef that was cooking your breakfast, and that did that whatever that is, and put that on paper and look out what that life costs, and what are you doing, you’re raising your level of money, awareness, and desire. money will go where it’s not wanted, and many people stuck in just enough they say things like, Why don’t need that much to be happy. Okay, well, money doesn’t buy you happiness anyway. So it was never intended to buy you happiness, right? So if you aren’t happy or sad, because you might as well get as much as you can. Because money buys things like tacos and trips and other fun things. Right? Okay. Yeah, donuts? Exactly. So. So we’ll change our equilibrium. Everything else in our life will follow suit. People ask me, you know, what do I do? That’s the wrong question. Okay, the right, the right question is, what do I believe in? Are those beliefs serving me? And if they’re not, how do I upgrade them to a belief system that does serve me? Because here’s the key, right? People say, well, focusing on money is selfish wrong. Remember what we talked about, the only way you’re getting money is serving people, right? If you have a lot of money, you’ve helped a lot of people in some way. So a lot of people said, I’d rather give you my money, get your service your product than that, right. And so it actually isn’t selfish at all. By definition, it helps us become self less in order to serve people with our time are failing, and our energy.

Aaron Amuchastegui  54:15

Man, there is so much stuff in there for listeners, if you just start doing if you just work on those three things that Ian just talked about, you’re gonna start to be off to the races. I know a bunch of people wrote down the number of what they want to be worth in a few years, and then you ask them why it wasn’t more. And then all these beliefs again, you talked about before all these beliefs again, of well, I couldn’t have said this much. Or I would I wouldn’t be humble if I said that much. Or, or I don’t need enough or money’s evil and you’ve been able to say like no, it’s, it’s a it is how it sometimes it’s about how we keep score, how the world keeps score, and then it gives us other things in the world. Well, I’m excited to see what else you have in there, like even like I’m gonna redo some of those exercises that you’re talking about there because it’s such a great way for people to remember, you raise your equilibrium, have a goal. And then also backing in like, What’s your dream life? Well, the that life may be more expensive than you thought it would be. It may be less expensive than you thought it would be. But backing into that life and saying, here’s my dream life, here’s how much it’s gonna cost me. And then the the idea of who you hang out with, is who you get to become, you know, you know, there’s so many people so many of the most successful people in the world we’ll talk about you are, who you hang out with you are who your friends are. So whether that’s coaches, or masterminds, or just friendships, people that you choose to hang out with the you know, they’re going to be the ones that are filling up your glass and making you better. I got to listen to a billionaire speak this week, and he was answering questions with us. And the stuff that his brain was saying, was obvious that he is hanging out with people that have completely different conversations. And it’s always about, can we change the world? And also, there was no like, That’s impossible. Like that’s impossible doesn’t even work in that vocabulary. And I was like, man, I need to hear guys like that more often. Like, no, we can change the world. And nothing is impossible, because all of them are doing that. So yeah, we’re out of time for this. The I know your time is valuable, but I know that our listeners want to hear more about you. Where should they come find you? If they want to know more about any of the stuff that you’re doing?

Ian Prukner  56:25

Yeah, absolutely. So the number one place to find me is on Instagram at Ian Bruckner. Be careful, there’s about five to 10 people who catfished me at any given time.

Aaron Amuchastegui  56:34

Yeah, there’s a lot of fake in progress. And a lot of people in front of one that actually has a quarter million followers. Yeah, go

Ian Prukner  56:39

go look for the one that has the most followers and the most posts. That’s me. That’s the real me. And I don’t run seven different accounts to try to give you give me your credit card. So you can you’ll get the Nairobi and princes wealth that I inherited to give to you, you know, just got to give me your credit card. Yeah, so follow me on Instagram at Ian Prevnar. And then for those of you who are ready to go from, from the dream board to the dream life, right, like you’re ready to stop thinking about it, start actually manifesting it making it happen. And you feel like hey, you know what, maybe I’ve been stuck for a while been making good money, but not great money, not change the world money, and I’m ready to go to that next level. Let me promise you it starts in your mind if you can change how you think. You can change what you get. If you’re interested in getting that course. Okay? Do not just go buy it out there. In fact, you feel free to go buy it out there. But if you DM me the word money, okay, if you DM me the word money to my Instagram, I will send you a personal discounted link. It is 50% off but it sits out there for okay. So if you go by it out there, God bless you. Thank you so much. But if you want to pay out price for it, send me a DM I’ll have one of my admins reach back out to you through that account and and get you a private link. And then listen, I’m excited. I know we’re gonna spend a little bit of time together this summer is going to be a lot of fun. Yeah, appreciate you and your leadership and your willingness to do a podcast like this, because there’s so many people in this industry in particular, in the real estate industry, everybody’s sort of like a lone ranger out there. And you know, you’re giving people so much value, so much wisdom, you’re exposing them to some different ideas that will challenge them. And if it doesn’t challenge us, it doesn’t change us. And change is ultimately what we’re after. Because we did not come this far and stay the same. We didn’t work this hard on ourselves to stay the same, right? We’re all in a journey to get better and to become more and when when we get better. Things get better. Right. It’s one of my taglines, I always love to tell when we get better. Things get better when we invest in us that investment pays off in major returns out there, not just for us, but for the world that gets served by our skills and our talents, our gifts. So thanks so much for your time. I appreciate you and your friendship.

Aaron Amuchastegui  58:55

I appreciate you too. I cannot wait to get the families together, we get to go hang out up at the ranch. I’m so glad you finished with when we get better things get better that your tagline that is one of my favorite tag lines that you do when I get to catch on with some of the stuff you’re doing every morning. And thanks for joining us Real Estate Rockstars Thanks for listening.