How I Went From Rock Bottom To Real Estate Rockstar! 😱 (TAREK EL MOUSSA INTERVIEW)

hi I'm Tarek el Moussa ten years ago I didn't have a dollar to my name today I've flipped 500 houses I have two worldwide TV shows and I'm obsessed with teaching people about real estate I'm one of the passionate few the interview with Omar today was honestly one of them my favorite interviews I've ever done he's super chill he has great questions and I understand why he is one of the passion a few because he's a believer in what he does and he loves this business world and he loves being an entrepreneur and he just loves sharing positive messages so I was very fortunate to be here today welcome to this episode of the passion a few podcasts today it's your host Omar here and today we get to sit down with the star of the hit HG TV show from flip or flop Tarek el Moussa and this powerful interview Tariq shares with us not only how he's build his massive success in real estate but also how he grew up from very humble beginnings didn't really know what he wanted to do in life but ultimately leave school get into real estate and nearly give up before finding success in it making $100,000 in only 90 days and seeing the power of it before ultimately once again losing it all during the 2007-2008 recession and having to start from scratch and it was at that point the tarik had to rebuild himself and what a few short years later wind up taking imperfect action by pitching a network television show about flipping homes before he had ever flipped a single property and believe it or not the production studio actually got the show greenlit which would ultimately become nine seasons as of right now of the hit HGTV Show flip or flop and ultimately would lead to his new show called flipping 101 with Tarek el Moussa so I want to encourage you guys to really sit back relax for this powerful interview with a man who overcame a very public divorce two cancer's but would stop at nothing to make his dreams a reality none other than the relentless inspiring and passion Tarek el Moussa enjoy thanks so much for be on the show today tart thanks for everybody absolutely man so I'm really honored to be here thank you for having us here in your beautiful home a lot of people have seen what you've done on television obviously in real estate but before we start let's get right into it where did you grow up what was your childhood like and what was young Tarek like before all this ambition began so you're talking about like 900 years ago exactly take a sec alright so I got into real estate at the age of 20 years old but before I got into real estate I lived and I grew up in a city called Buena Park California which is by Knott's Berry Farm my mom came from Belgium my dad came from the Middle East they were immigrants they moved to South Central Los Angeles from Europe yeah and then we moved to Lakewood and I lived in Lakewood until I was four years old moved it to Buena Park California when I was five years old and early childhood you know immigrant family and my dad was an engineer my mom was a schoolteacher and you know as a kid I was always that really really hyper kid that was always in trouble I couldn't sit still you know I was it got kicked out of all the classrooms and you know I just had a lot of energy what she does is like a BB 88 which by the way I think kids with a BB or ADHD or whatever you want to call it if it's properly channeled I think they can accomplish great things totally because it gives you the ability to hyper focus on things that you want but so growing up I kind of became the way I became from sports and from my dad when I was growing up I played every single sport possible and the sport that I played most was baseball and this is actually where I learned about hard work I remember being a 7 8 9 10 year old kid practicing baseball four or five six seven hours a day every single day so I literally had a full-time job practicing sports as a child and I just played sports throughout my entire life and it taught me how to compete it taught me how to win it taught me how to lose taught me about failing and it taught me about winning and literally taught me so many amazing things that I was able to take into the business world were you pretty good at that stuff as a kid or not really Riaan Apple I was pretty good at sports but in order to be the best at anything or at least in the top you have to practice it's like business right you have to do the same thing over and over and over and over and then eventually just comes naturally so I was a pretty good athlete but in order to be the best when you're playing in a division with great players or one of the best players it takes hard work totally yeah did you have ambitions to be a professional athlete at all or anything like that as a teenager um I did actually so I played a lot of baseball like I said and in high school I was freshman year I was pitching on varsity I start 88 miles an hour there's some college scouts out there kind of checking things out and unfortunately for me my shoulder went bad and I ended up suffering from nerve damage in my shoulder so my entire life was all about baseball and my whole future was gonna be baseball at least that's what I thought and literally overnight it was taken away from me because found out I couldn't throw anymore and that was at the age of 16 years old yeah so that was actually a pretty pretty sad moment in my life like I remember like all those years of hard work like everything I put into baseball and I finally made it to high school baseball and I was finally on varsity throwing my freshman year and it was all taken away from me yeah so that was the first time in my life I I faced a big loss I would call it because I dedicate so much of my life to baseball and I lost it and then I was just gone like that like that so then at that point what was your ambitions were you thinking about entrepreneurship at all was the seed for that there at all at that time did you want to be a millionaire at that timing what were your ambitions at that's so for me like I was always been ambitious like when I was like five six years old a star draw like pictures and sell them door-to-door for Nicholas I'm serious I used to do this stuff I used to like collect cans and save money as a kid I was always hustling I was always grinding like I was five six years old drawing pictures selling them door to door for Nicholas like I was always trying to make extra money to go buy things cuz to be honest like the biggest motivating factor for me when I was young is I love things right I used to love buying toys and playing video games getting dirt bikes like all these things so for me I used to get upset when there was something I wanted and my parents would tell me well we can't afford it and you know back then what do you mean you can't afford just buy it my friend has one of those I won't want this exactly so at an early age I learned that if you have money it gives you more options and I learned that if you have money you can do things that you want to do and if you have money you can buy things that you want to buy and it really hit me the first time I surrounded myself with a family that had money and they had a nice house they had a Mercedes and I remembered they took me to a sports game and we took a limo and I was I remember that night I was like wait a minute people have Mercedes and they drive in limos like I want to do that this is possible this is possible and I was like seven or eight years old so ever since I was seven or eight years old I knew I was gonna be successful like there was nothing that would stop me from being successful and then talk to me about after high school you graduate what happens what are you thinking about your career did you go to college where you have mindset wise at that time great question so one of the one of the first rock bottom's I guess our first like hard moments of my life was actually out of high school graduated high school I felt completely lost I was going to college at the time and I didn't understand college I didn't understand the degree you know I was trying to find parking at the University and I was trying to find pencils and scantrons and like it was too much yeah like it was just so stressful what was your major and uh well I never made it to my third and fourth year so I never made it that far yeah but it was gonna be business or communications but I remember back then so here is the most stressful part for me in college I used to be like okay I need a degree I was like okay well get a business degree I'm like well what's like what does that do like okay the business degree I'm like what does that do they're like okay get a communications degree it's easier but what does that do looking back it turns out you just need a degree then you go do whatever you want right I wish some of the things they taught you in school or the things you can actually use in the real world true your taxes how to leverage assets how to refinance but that's why I'm working on so many different digital products right now that's gonna teach people actually how to build the life they've always wanted but for me like I wasn't a big fan of school and it was just really really tough for me and I went through too depressing years after high school until I got into real estate I was I was drinking a lot I was I was going out with my friends I was partying a lot and I was just in a really bad place self-sabotage yeah so sabotaging to be honest I know myself very well especially now if I'm not doing things that are improving my life or if I'm feeling unsuccessful or uninspired down uninspired complacent I become depressed welcome to the club No it's a real thing like if I don't feel like I'm making progress in life I completely shut down especially once you start having successes right because then you start tasting it and now you're addicted to the hi for lack of a better word you know you're just sort of you need it too cuz you've already fueled the fact that you know how to get there yeah yeah I mean if you can do once you can do it twice you can do it twice you can do it three times so it's a really random how I got into real estate so I was in high side just graduate high school I was in college and I was selling kitchen knives at the time you know Cutco of course yes I was selling I didn't believe it or not I was like top 20 in the nation like I just have this whole list of all these like the soccer moms and like all these different like women's groups and I'm just laying in knives all day and I was like 50% Commission never sale like $500 so like I was rich were you knocking door-to-door or you were just using your friends family just cold calling for referrals from referrals anything yeah and in what happened was back then in like 1904 when I was doing it like we didn't have like the tablets and the iPhones and all these things so I used to have a sales book and I'm like the most unorganized ATD guy in the world like to be honest with you and I lost my sales book and I put myself out of business because I you can't call a lead if you don't have any leads right right so it happened fast I was living in Cerritos California at the time and I was at a Washington Mutual Bank and I remember I just like a few days after I lost my sales book I'm looking in my account I have no idea what to do and I had just tried to get a job at IHOP and they all know you at this time I was almost 20 years old okay try to get a job at IHOP they told me I wasn't qualified I was like what do you mean I'm not qualified because they're serving eggs and bacon yeah so I'm at the ATM at this Washington Mutual and I'm like what do I do with my life and I I swear I look up to the right and there's a crooked sign it says wise old owl real estate school Wow that is how I got into real estate I swear I was standing there I looked to the right I looked at my account I look to the right look at my account and I was like I'm gonna go sell houses pulled my money out and I walked over and that's how I got into real estate no way so you just walked in there just walked in signed up for real estate that day that day that exact moment and you just said hey I want to become an agent how do I become an agent or what happened here so it but so one of the keys to success like when you have a thought you take action right wait totally power of imperfect action now anytime I've ever wanted to do something the second I come up with the idea I'm working on it like okay so I have a podcast to life by design I was talking with my good buddy Josh and I was like oh let's do the podcast level I was like let's do it within hours we had four TVs ordered we had microphones ordered we had lights ordered the logo banner done everything with the exact same day so you got a strike when it's hot exactly strike when the idea is hot and emotion strong that's it that's it so yeah I got into real so I went through these awful real estate courses at this real estate company I didn't afford them there so I got license at 20 how many how many takes did it take to get your license first try really well I started so hard for that test cuz I want something I want it and I will do whatever it takes to get it yeah and in that and that's and that's just how I am so and I hate studying I hated school but the reason I hate his study and the reason I hated school is because I didn't care about what I was learning because it didn't help me write and I didn't like studying because I didn't care about the information I was trying to learn right so for me real estate I was studying something that I wanted to know about which made it that much more exciting because it's interested interested me it like it runs my interest so my first six months in real estate were awful like I made no money I sold my truck I bought a 1985 baby blue Buick Park Avenue and I started selling houses and at the beginning I was selling condos in the city of like Ontario Riverside Rialto for like $50,000 yes your Commission checks like a thousand bucks mm nothing it was nothing I know direction I had no idea what to do and but still determine like oh I'm gonna become successful with this and we play at a high level well no so here's the thing I actually quit real estate so six months in the business and this is very important for people because everybody not everybody so many people work so hard towards their goals right and a lot of them quit when they're almost there true you whenever you think it's time to quit something that's what I say well that's when I say you need another six months when you think it's time to quit so I used to do this thing called up desk right where they used to have newspaper ads of homes for sale people would call in and they'd say hey I want to go see a house or whatever it is what No what he never called it but I would sit there every single day because I had no coaching I had no mentor I no training no one really told me what to do all I knew is that sometimes the phone would ring so I was sitting there one day and I finally looked at the secretary I had sold I think one house two houses and I was like I quit going back to school I was like I'm going to school which means I was like that's how like miserable and desperate I was because school for me was like the worst thing in the world and I was willing to walk out of real estate to go back to school so that day I left the real estate office I quit I go home I change 20 minutes later Carol the secretary calls me hey some people just walked into the office they want to go see a house or mine you gotta be kidding yeah Dan and Tina this were their names and I'm like all right one last chance I'm one last chance I get back and I get back in my car I change to get back my car go back to the office long story short that night I ended up putting together a 33 thousand dollar deal at 20 years old code in escrow putting the deal together okay I found these people they found a house this is a funny story they found a house they wanted to buy and they had to list their house so it was a double oh wow this was back in 2003 like every house for so had 30 offers on it so you always have to think outside the box so while everybody else was faxing the offer to the broker I was like I'm going to the guys office I knew no I didn't I knew nothing about real I knew nothing about nothing I was 20 years old so you're just reinventing yourself like JC Penney slacks with my white socks you know like that was a kid so I his office was Remax excellence in the city of Brea so I go to the front and I was like well I'm here to meet mr. John Batson and she looks at me and she's like okay you have an appointment I'm like no she's like so you just walked in and you want the owner of the company I'm like oh he's the owner of the company she looks at me like I'm crazy so apparently he was a huge guy like big shot I didn't know and I just walked in I was ahead can I meet this guy and I was like here's all I need is one minute of his time I have an offer for his house so he's the owner of the company but he was also the listing agent he was also the owner of the house that my clients wanted to buy oh wow okay yeah so I went to the office and he took the meeting with me he looked at the offer within one minute he goes I have a deal for you I'm like okay well what's your deal I will take your offer and I already have a buyer for their house but you can have the Commission on it but you have to do one thing I'm like I'm like inside of my coat I'm 20 years old I'm like no I'll do anything he's like shake my hand right now start working for me tomorrow Wow he got me it was a good thing he got me though so so you end up gonna work for him yeah I'm like $33,000 I'm like it would let me what do you want me to wear a pinata run up and down the street I'll do anything you want doesn't matter so the very next day I started working for him and and that that very next that very next week I was in my I went I was still in college at the time so I was I was at Cal State Fullerton it was a Monday night class I worked real estate all day and I was sitting there from 7:00 to 10:00 p.m. at night and a class was it was something about the science of rocks in Canada like something like I cared nothing about I had a really long day and I remember having some anxiety being in this huge stadium classroom and I was thinking I'm about to make 30-something thousand in real estate and I'm sitting here losing it so I I told myself that night you got to make a decision 100% real estate 100% college so we talked about going all-in all the time and when I say all-in I'm talking about all-in so I decided to go forward with real estate obviously and in order to really commit to that I left my backpack my books my calculator my pencils my scanner on every single thing I had for school I left in that classroom the reason I left it is because there was no going back there was no backup plan that was it it was either real estate or I'm John so I got a question for you because that's that's pretty ballsy but what was it that was feeling you at the time were you like inspired by personal development stuff biographies were you like reading stories I mean what was feeding you to live by these sort of like unconventional prophetic type ways you know what I mean I had a burning desire to prove to the world that I could accomplish great things because I had a pretty hard time growing up because a lot of energy a lot of anxiety a lot of ATD and my whole life people were always telling me I couldn't do things and I just I had this just this burning desire to prove the world wrong and I still do to this day I still say I'm just getting started like this is just the beginning eight just the beginning flipping one one is just the beginning I'm 38 years old like I am just getting started dude I love that so you walk out of the class now what happens I walk out of the class I go full-bore real estate in that same week I hear the these new these realtors talking in this new office that I'm mad about stupid people are or paying this guy to coach them on how to sell houses and I'm like wait a minute I remember listening I'm like wait a minute you could pay someone that'll tell you what to do so you can make money you're getting remember house I didn't I didn't know about business I didn't know about coaching or some so man yeah I was the idiot that was like listening I went and signed up for coaching so check this out I was 20 years old I was living in my mom's garage that $30,000 check hadn't even come yet that's totally poor and I signed up for coaching and I went after something called expired listings what an expired listing is it's a house that's on the market for sale with the realtor the realtor doesn't sell it the contract ends then new agents can go try to get that listing right within 90 days I worked 12 to 16 hour days six days a week cold calling all day long didn't see daylight cold calling within 90 days and made a hundred and twenty thousand dollars in commissions on my 21st birthday I moved out of my mom's garage and I bought a million dollar home in the city of Orange California so people life can change fast it can change really really fast it doesn't take ten years to make life-changing money it takes ten years to make millions upon millions of dollars yes but if you want to change your life if you want to go to zero to two three four five hundred thousand dollars people have the ability to do that and 60 90 120 days if they commit was your goal to make X amount of money or what's your goal just to work two hours I mean how did you go said take me take me inside your mind at that time just because I know there's people listening around the world they're like oh I want to do that it's but talk to me about the framework of your mental what was it exactly so that someone could go replicate or emulate their own way of doing that right so everybody has to figure out what works best for them so when I was making these cold calls all day my goal wasn't to get listing appointments my goal wasn't to make money my goal wasn't amount phone calls my only goal was contacts the rule was I had to talk to 50 people a day hmm that's it so you made it a metric you could control you didn't make it a close a deal you didn't make it this you made it something you can control fail or succeed because that metric makes sure the other numbers secure them exactly and it's worth the 50 contacts the rest falls into place yeah but if you focus on the deals and the appointments and not the contacts all of a sudden you're not making the contacts you're not getting deals and then you become depressed was it a coach that that taught you this yes I love it and how much was coaching at that time you remember Oh back then I was $1,000 a month which was all my credit cards I had no money so you gotta get they're talking about like gambling on yourself and always I think back then I was I'm not kidding I had no money 1985 Buick Park Avenue I couldn't afford $400 a month to rent my mom of bedroom for my mom so I lived in the garage for free and I'm paying $1,000 for coaching what did your parents think especially since they probably come from the old school mindset you're broke livin in their thing working a hundred percent commission left college and I are paying a thousand dollars for coaching so they're my you're nuts right well my mom's like you're totally crazy this is not gonna work my dad's like you can do it go get it well I go get it my dad has always been my biggest fan he's always made me believe in myself he's always told me that I can accomplish great things I love that and it's very very important to have good support groups and that's why it's important out of like podcasts and YouTube shows on all these different media outlets where we have the ability to provide information and give back and actually help people because years ago people didn't have the the access to knowledge they have today like there wasn't a time where you can watch an episode with some great names that have done some great things that can give you real valuable lessons that you can implement in your own life and we were talking about earlier about success so the reason and I remember I got my first listing appointment calling that first week it was the highest priced expired listing in the entire city of Orange I was one point six million dollar house in the second I got that first deal the reason I made $120,000 in 90 days is because I became obsessed I couldn't stop thinking about the next deal so it just happened so fast but then there's a learning process right so now I'm young emerita I'm ton of money in a short period of time how many escrows was it if you don't mighty remember I think it was like nine babe really in 90 days 90 days which a newer agent in California 20 years old like this doesn't happen you're talking about a million dollar problem still doesn't happen for that it doesn't average agent sells to three homes a year yeah Ana did this in a 90-day period that's insane and you know there's a lot of learning a lot of learning after that because you know my ego got big I mean there's money I'm million dollar house I made it I got me the best in the world yeah you know well I got a question too cuz you know if anybody's in real estate they're now crazy an escrow can be especially when you start how stressed were you during those nine escrows I wasn't stressed at all really you're talking to it you're talking about a 20 year old kid with no money whether a hundred twenty thousand came or a ninety two thousand came I didn't care yeah I just wanted more deals so my obsession was make the contacts and get more deals so you weren't stressed out about the home inspection the nothing you just figure that'll take care of itself next next deal next deal next deal here's here's one thing that I do that's different than a lot of people a lot of people focus on ways to save money they'll literally spend a large portion of their time figuring out ways to save money and spend less money I'm opposite I never worried about saving or spending I always focus on earning earning because if I'm earning more money I don't need to focus on saving because the earning covers that exactly yeah so I always focus on earning never saving but whenever talked about and we're talking about saving obviously I'm an investor which is different than saving like a lot of people will be out there and they say well I'm not gonna do that because it's too expensive I'm like no I'm gonna do that that's very expensive I'm gonna go make more money yeah exactly now let me ask you this before we move on from this topic what's your best advice to real estate agents and what do you think is the difference obviously with all your experience on real estate between agents that end up having a successful long term career versus agents that just fall off very simple it's all about quitting you know I say it all the time if you if you never quit you never fail and I think what people don't realize is they see other people successful at it and then they try it and then they fail and they think oh it's just not for me what they don't realize is that successful person that they're following and watching failed over and over and over and you're sitting across from me right now I was a guy that quit real estate I was a guy that failed at real estate and now I trained people around the world on real estate think about that think about how life-changing that is power of time yeah yeah so it's just it's just staying consistent just never quitting and another thing is like people tell me new like Realtors ask me all the time like you know how do I do this I'm like well you got to talk to 3040 people day and they're like okay and then I make a deal once you talk to 10,000 people if you haven't made it you can quit so a lot of people will talk to 20 people and quit 40 people and quit maybe 90 people in quit I'm talking like 10,000 people and here's the truth by the time you talk to 10,000 people you will be so good on that phone you will be so confident you will be making a ton of money yeah no matter what now let me ask you this when you made you said 190 grand 120 120 grand you're 21 years old you got a million-dollar house did comfort kick in where you thought didn't start working as hard you started getting comfortable or did the hunger stay cuz I'm sure inevitably you dealt with that right the comfort of success right so I I made the mistake of well one I had a big ego very true yeah yeah it is great for television yeah no I've had my ego checked in my life multiple times and every time it happens it's the best thing that happened to ya true so at that point my life I was young big ego made all this money big fancy office I was a hot-shit 120 well that was like in 90 days and it kept coming so I was like oh man I'm so now I'm gonna have a team so what I did is I hired like five or six other agents to work under me and this is all within your first year yeah there's all them first year and then then they started calling so then it would I what I realized was I was like what they're all calling and then I also realized that I wasn't getting that deals and the appointments anymore and then I realized because they didn't have the tenacity that I had they didn't have the aggressiveness that I had hunger yeah the hunger that I had so it was actually ended up hurting me although I still made a lot of money so that was a valuable lesson that I learned pretty young and refundable and then at what point do you get into flipping you're doing this for many years before you get into flipping or right so yeah so I was selling real estate from the age of 20 made quite a bit of money until the age of 25 2007 came around 2008 came around completely wiped me out my income went from you know three four hundred thousand dollars a year to almost nothing and at the time I was 25 years old and I think my back then I think my monthly fixed bills were like seventeen thousand dollars which back then that was like a lot of money to me right and I was like losing it I couldn't make any money I went for months working every single day including Sundays couldn't make a dollar had to sell my million dollar house how to sell my fancy cars and I ended up going ten steps back in life and moving into a two-bedroom apartment with a roommate and it was like seven hundred bucks a month and remember being in this apartment there was no parking there was a laundry mat and I was like what happened to my life what happened to my house five hundred bravas weapon to my million dollar house what happened to my motorcycle my boat my toys yeah everything was gone and you're like what 20 26 years old so that was a very difficult period of my life 26 and 27 was very very tough period in my life and then what happened was the short sales and things started coming around and I started seeing investors enter the market real investors so early on in real estate everybody was an investor oh yeah I bought a house and I and I made of X amount of dollars but people were just buying houses the market went up and they were selling them so they weren't real house Clippers back then right speculative and then I saw real investors coming in and I was starting to look at numbers I'm like wait a minute I don't want to find these deals so I went to every single person I knew right by the way after going totally broke we gotta flip houses look at this business plan I had a business plan ever ever he looked at me like I was a psychopath they literally looked at me like I was a crazy person they're like laughing like you want me to give you like half a million dollars I'm like yeah they're like no every single person said no and were you bricks thinking like man is this investment actually gonna work or you're pretty confident in the deals no no I was even presenting deals back then I was just presenting the plan and like everybody said no you're crazy we're not giving you did you'd like see what's happening the world is crumbling the economy's thinking you're 26 years old you're poor like ya know and every single person I said no to me you know what I thought in my head you just you just screwed up every single rain I told him that you just made a huge mistake you just made a huge mistake and I finally found someone that was dumb enough to work with me his name's Pete the best who's now my business partner and all my real estate deals and he's like I'll do it with you I was like wait a minute what do you mean he's like yeah I'll flip a house with you he's like how much money you got I was like a knight and this was three years after the crash so I saved up a little bit of money so I had like thirty thousand sure and then I and I was like I'll bargains all my credit cards so I literally took my life savings and I drained every single credit card I had and I took the money and we went and bought our first property at the auction in Santa Ana California what's funny about that is we paid 115 thousand dollars for this condo and the max I was willing to pay for this condo was one hundred and fifteen thousand dollars Wow so we're temper so it was like one hundred twelve thousand hundred thirteen thousand hundred fourteen thousand I was like a hundred fifteen thousand I was waiting for him to go back hundred sixteen he never came back and it was like going once going twice and I could feel my heart jumping I'm sweating I'm like oh my god I just buy house was the first one I ever bought yeah anyways one in there we ended up doing the entire deal start to finish 90 days or less that no no start to finish 60 days and and it made $34,000 on that first deal which back then after losing everything was like 34 million dollars the day I sold that first flip I made a commitment to stop selling real estate and only flip houses so again I went all-in although I only had one house but it gets even more interesting while I was flipping that first house I had that crazy idea to get a TV show so really on the first house the first house people so know this so it's not like you had plenty of experience football no oh it gets way better I had no experience really even knew what the hell you were doing I had no idea what I was doing not barely like I had the whole video I painted the baseboards to the wall I burned my feet with acid i electrocuted myself I did everything wrong your deal with the investor was that you would actually renovate like you would take care of everything I'd use puts up the Capitol I do everything you do the Capitol split the profits God which now the deals different obviously sure but back then that was the so Wow so here's actually how I got the show I'll tell you the story let's do it we are at a real estate convention in Las Vegas and I was sitting in the very back of this convention because that's what you did I wasn't a big shot I was in a ball or all the ballers were in the front row my friend who was the vice president of a real estate company sat in the front row two seats opened up because one of his managers got sick so he text me he's like hey I got two seats in the front you guys want to come up I was like to the front and I'm so hungover oh man I'm hurting we're in Vegas but like that's an opportunity you can't pass you got to take advantage of opportunities so I was all right let's do it so I go to the front of this 5,000 person you know conference and this like world-class speakers up there speaking and all of a sudden like I feel myself getting dizzy and like I don't feel so good I got no sleep the night before I gambled all night and the convention was early and a guy runs across the stage and he gives me Advil I was so embarrassed like everybody like oh they can tell they could tell that you were yeah yeah yeah and and then what happened at the break all these guys and girls that were in the front row of this convention they're all seven figure earners they all come up to me and my ex at the time because they're like who are you guys they had never seen us before in order to be in the front you have to be somebody right we were nobodies but we were dressed sharp we were young we look good so we ended up building relationships one of the guys I talked to his name was Brady Sandell he's a realtor in Palm Springs California and he's like oh I got a local TV show and when I go to the grocery store and stuff people know me like I have to hide I'm like that I was like so you make money he's like yeah I sell houses I was like TV money TV money and it hit me I was like if I can get us on TV I can figure out a way to make money how old are you at this time this is when I was this was 2010 so I was 28 it and you only had like 30 grand in the back yeah yeah and so and the inspiration strikes you you don't let it go no there exactly so the next day yeah come back from Vegas ten o'clock at night and I never like tilt never told my ex this idea about TV yeah 10 o'clock at night I lived in San Clemente California and she's walking up the stairs she has one leg up the stair she looks over the right and she's like so are you coming to bed it's like 10 o'clock and I was like no I'm gonna guess the TV show and I'm serious when I say things she looks at me she goes you're crazy I'm going to bed I ended up setting the first email to a production come called pied town productions who now produces flip or flop holy and so I sent this email out the very next day I wake up and Python productions responded I'm like wait a minute like a real Hollywood production coming they reached out so how did you so real quick so did you pitch him on a flipping show yeah it's literally sent an email they had at Abbott said casting and I was like I want to flip houses on TV this is what we look like yeah let me know what to do and literally after you doing one flip only like I mean no not like the first week of buying the flip I didn't like I was starting the work of the first you hadn't even successfully flipped in no no no I haven't flipped a house yet I'm trying to get a house flipping TV show yeah so why not talk about imperfect action yeah roll the dice yeah so I was like so I was like alright so there's like send me a home video so I called my buddy who's like good with like computers and Technology who actually invited me to the front row his name is Brad Pearson and I was like hey I got a shoot like home video of me flipping this condo do you have a camera I can borrow he's like yeah I just don't break it by the way of course I broke it so that oh you a camera I really did break it so I made this home video had my buddy edit it I still have the home video to this day oh my god I made a 20 something minute I sent it to the production company the very same day they call us we love it we need to do a 2-day professional shoot with you guys when are you free and I'm like oh this is actually happening okay so we did the two day professional shoot and they pitched it out to all the networks HGTV Bravo everybody and it was crickets ghost town fro and I gave up on the idea so like 10 months go by I get a call I was golfing up black golden golf course indoor Belinda I'm on like the 15th hole I get a call they're like you're not gonna believe this I'm like I was like because I saw the production going like hey what's going on like what's up HGTV wants to do a pilot holy I'm like no way like I was like real TV like TV TV they're like yeah so I did the the pilot in summer of 11 and normally how it works you do the pilot and then six or eight months later they get it out there they'll air it a few times if it does well you go to series and then but the likelihood of pilots going to series very very low shot the pilot sent them the pilot that exact same week they sent a contract they wanted they wanted to do 13 episodes of flip or flop for season one but it gets better so the pilot episode was the third house I had ever flipped in my life yeah and an HGTV isn't saying like what experience you have what's your credibility I don't give a about any of that we were there yeah well so I had flipped three houses in twelve months I get this contract to flip thirteen houses and ten months and on TV how in the world am I gonna flip thirteen houses in ten months I have no idea what I'm doing so what did I do sign the contract it's like sure I'll figure it out the exact I literally told myself I was willing to do whatever it take to figure it out and I did we did the thirteen episodes the first season and since then the show has just taken a life of its own it's become the biggest house flipping TV show in the history of house flipping real estate TV shows that's incredibly it was pretty wild yeah but I remember well yeah shot the home video first flip ever shot the pilot third flip ever went to series no idea how I was gonna find houses yeah and here's actually how I found the house II that's amazing a lot of people don't know this yeah so back then I had to buy houses for the TV show they had to be vacant they had to be local which limited what I could buy right so I used to work all day until like nine o'clock at night you should come home have dinner into like 9:30 and then I used to leave every single night around 10:00 p.m. till 4:00 a.m. every night and drive all of Southern California all the properties that were going to the auction the next day that's eight nine ten a.m. the reason I did that is because I can only buy vacant properties because I had ten months so I didn't have time to evict people yeah yeah so every single night 10 p.m. to 4:00 a.m. I was on the road back up at and woke up every single day at like 7:00 a.m. I'm back to work like it was where you knock on the door you know so I used to drive by the houses in the middle of the night I'd look for overgrown lawn I'd look for cars in the driveway and a lot of times you can tell if someone's been living at the house or not like if you see 500 pieces of mail on the porch nobody's living there yeah so that's what I did that's why I figured it out but the best thing that happened I put myself in a position to where I couldn't fail yeah you and that's about going on and the reason I was successful in real estate when I left schools because I put myself in a position where there's no backup plan yeah do or die that's it's do or die so what happened for me is I worked so hard trying to get those 13 houses I actually learned every single thing you can know about finding houses to flip and my first year I did three deals second year 818 thirty or forty six and then I got into 60s and then 88 the year I had cancer I quadrupled my company dude that's insane now actually I wanted you man really quick for people interested in flipping homes what are at our cabooses top tips to flipping home well the most important part I would say is you should probably get educated it's kind of important to know what you're doing right and and that's really it you got to get educated and you got to follow a system and you have to be tenacious and you have to just go out there and work your ass off and it's not rocket science like I make this analogy all the time I I say this it is more difficult to spend four years at UCLA or USC than it is to invest four years of your life learning real estate because I guarantee if someone actually spent four years studying learning real estate they would be more successful than they've ever thought they'd be financially for you - right the difference is people are okay with going to college because they know at the end I'm gonna get a degree so if I if I'm miserable for these four years I get that degree or if I bust my ass for four years I get that degree guarantee guarantee in the business world you don't get the guaranteeing because there's no guarantee people quit who played safe that's the back-up plan there's there's there's a there's the easy way out there's like they have an excuse now talk to me about this I know I saw this interview as a wonderful interview did where you talked about the fact that you pursued success so long and then you got it and I think you said in 2016 you broke your first eight figures or ten million dollars and you said you know the first time you broke ten million dollars in a year and personal income and you said that that was the worst year of your life it was the absolute worst most depressing year of my life so talk to me about what that year in particular taught you about what's important in life and just a balance because I'm sure that was a reality check for sure so share with the audience you know so in-depth for me like there was like a lot of personal emotional and like health and medical issues I was dealing with you know two different cancers and like different hormone injections like I was doing so much like I just lost my way but that's why I talk about it all the time like money will not make you happy like not having money will make you miserable we all know that yeah but having money won't make you happy and one of the things that I really think about today and even to this day like I am going all the time but and I have it's stressful days I have anxious days but I have to remind myself that every single thing I'm doing like this podcast right now this was a choice I don't have to be doing this right so it's really important to remember why you're doing what you're doing that's what I think I love that now I talked to me about the fact that I know there was a fan of the show who called in and actually reported about the the lump on her neck yeah and it actually ended up being what stage two our believe stage two thyroid cancer so it was Stage three thyroid cancer stage three yeah I've gone to my doctor a few times and they're like oh it's nothing it's allergies it's a fatty mass takes no spray like all this crap I was like yeah whatever you know I was young so I didn't pay any attention to it and I knew something was wrong like I could feel it I was always clearing my throat I liked it was like harder to like breathe I don't know weird stuff going on yeah and a nurse was watching my show out of Texas and she emailed the production come he's like hey he needs to go check out his thyroid it's not looking right they send me the email in the second I got that email talked about taking action right yeah but it doesn't matter what it is in life the second I got the email is like something's wrong so I call the different doctor when it made the appointment they did altra sound and biopsy came back atypical which means it could or couldn't be cancer they didn't really know so I went in for exploratory surgery and I was supposed to be under the knife for like half hour 45 minutes and then I ended up being a five hour surgery I have full-blown stage 3 cancer that spread to my lymph nodes and when I woke up I remember waking up just looking up in this bed like complete out of it with my extras like bawling and the first words that came out of my mouth I've cancer Dona she goes yeah and that's how I found out I had cancer waking up to my knee on that cancer yeah after all this success so you're probably your head like holy talk about up and down emotions in the relationship and all this whole thyroid cancer it was tough and then because my doctor misdiagnosed me I went through old medical records and then I found any regular testable exam for a year before so I was like oh I'll go get it checked out whatever it's fine so I was actually a Kaiser and Irvine and I was talking to my thyroid cancer doctor and there was a last-minute opening for an ultrasound in the same building the same day the same time I'm gonna go over there like your whole life is just winging it it's just know everything is going everything yeah but there's a plan there's a plan behind the madness but it's yeah so I go in to do the ultrasound and there is this guys from Huntington Beach so we're just talking shooting the and you know we're just just talking this is normal small talk and then all of a sudden he got quiet I remember thinking hmm this isn't good yeah that's like our dude what's going on he's like what do you mean I was like what you're not talking you're being really quiet right now what's up he's like oh like what do you see he's like oh I'm not a doctor I'm like oh I know you're not a doctor I'm like help me out you're like yeah I was like he's like I can't tell you anything give me something give me something yeah he's like are you in pain I'm like no what are you talking about y'all still confused yeah cuz like he already knew I had cancer I had no idea what was going on and he's like well if you're in pain he looked at me really seriously you should go to the emergency room down the hall I was like I'm like yeah I'm in pain twenty minutes later I found out I had testicular cancer yeah holy cow so that's like that's when I really really like here you are making millions of dollars like so focused on that and then this slams yeah yeah that is I like where I really broke down excited to know much about cancer I was 31 years old next thing I know within a few we could I have two cancers and I remember thinking I'm gonna die that's the first thing I thought I was like this is it I'm gonna die and I wasn't worried about me the first thing I thought about that was my kid cuz that was my daughter and man those were really tough times and I remember when I found out I had the cancer production called me they're like you know we under and the show's over I'm like what do you mean the show I don't know if you know this if you watch flip or flop I filmed flip or flop throughout both my cancers and both my treatments I had 60 pound weight swings on TV I was really sick and I and I shot I shot the show while I was sick and the year I was sick I had the two surgeries I quadrupled the business and we created the biggest hit TV show and you guys have done now at over 100 times oh yeah and you guys are going into season eight at the time of this recording right season eight is on the air right now HGTV every Thursday night at 9 p.m. and I know you also have a new show coming out yeah the new show super cool flipping 101 and flipping 101 it's pretty much says what it is it's college for house flipping right I was talking about that and pretty much I work with rookie flippers and I kind of show them the way and make sure they get in and out of projects without getting their asses kicked that's kind of what I do I love that man it's so awesome it's a lot of fun and here's why it's fun like when they first approached me about the show I was like so I'm gonna go in there I'm gonna tell people what to do they're gonna do it they're gonna flip it they're gonna make money and that gives me boring so what I found out during the pilot is nobody listens to me at all like I'm telling like these rookie flippers like you should do this this this like yeah perfect come back the next day completely different why did you change it oh what we thought it was better I'm like oh so you knew better than me what we think so okay it was great TV shows a lot of fun and and here's and even with that you know like I was I was the underdog I'm flipping 101 you know I don't think many people believed in it and I think it came out so great i shocked a lot of people with it and I and I think the show itself is a really good show and we got picked up for 14 episodes which doesn't happen initially they called me they said they wanted five and then that was a big deal it was tough to get one and then they said they wanted five and then it went to six and then eight and ten then 13 then 14 so it's a it's a full 14 episode order of flipping 101 do that's insane how do you stay balanced when you're working this much cuz you got a lot going on right yeah quite a bit going on how do I stay balanced you know I just keep really good people around me you know I'm always with Heather or I'm with Josh or I'm with my kids or I'm with my and I think it's really important to surround yourself with people that believe in you now what is it about Heather in particular that caught your eye cuz I love what you guys got going on on social media it's so awesome everybody's talking no she just did that thing to me you know like she walked by she did that thing that Butterball's like yeah it's the first time in many decades since I had a woman walk by and do that thing to me as I call it so and yes she did that thing I asked her out she said of course I'm just kidding so apparently I asked her out a few years ago but she had a boyfriend at the time yeah I found that out she's over there watching me yeah you look so cute by the way there's that determination right whatever iteration oh right when I saw her I told her story right when I saw her I'm like okay oh I said one compares she's like like what I'm like no no like I'm not like no I'm being funny is like let's go to Paris she's like you're serious I'm like yeah I'm very serious let's go to Paris by the way we're going to Paris in a few weeks yeah I told you were going to Paris Wow ended up making it happen yeah oh and by the way the first date I have no idea why she ever called me back like I get hot really easily it's like 68 degrees in here and I can feel myself sweating so our first date was in the like the heat wave of summer yeah and I'm like a reading anxious guy I'm already naturally hot yeah say 100 degrees outside I have no idea why I did this on our first date I decided to wear a sweater after dinner I spent in the restroom trying to cool off because it was so hot I was like we're sitting at dinner and I'm just I can feel the sweat like coming down my forehead down my nose and she's like are you okay I looked at I said no not at all I think I'm having a panic attack yeah it's very hot in here she's like you are wearing a sweater I said I'm well aware of that if it wasn't so hot I would look good that's awesome now talk a little bit about I know a lot of people ask you about this but obviously working with an axe is not an easy thing it's tricky says who but talk to me about what that was like to actually do that country showing up to said it was I would have to say hands-down the absolute worst experience of my life like I would have rather done through cancer again I'm serious yeah so you have to show up to set and be civil and be on camera and be smiley and yeah camera was off I was crying like a little baby but you know it was it was a really rough period of my life in just every single day you know wake up sad depressed crying whatever I was dealing with I just had to remind myself that things will get better time fixes a lot of things you just got to survive the hard times and people like when they're going through the hard times you forget about the good times you got to survive the hard times if you want to enjoy the good times and you have to learn from the hard times if you want to keep enjoying the good times and you also talked about two one time that it was about focusing on the greater good the fact that you know you could choose to not do the show right I mean it was HGTV kind of situation like that or everyone wanted you to keep doing the show cuz things were going so well I mean we could have done anything we wanted I did yeah right but I mean at the time like I like I wasn't me like I still haven't watched season six and seven because it brings back the worst memories of my life still like I came and watch myself on TV during that period because I can see the sadness and the my eyes I can see the depression in my body language like it was it's a real I went through but looking back like I wouldn't change it because I wouldn't be the guy I am today without that true and as difficult and as painful as that was it made me so much stronger than I ever would have been what advice do you have for people watching us right now who might be going through a breakup of their own or challenge of their own based on what you learned and obviously you had a very public situations that just exasperates it everywhere you go people are talking about it the pressure TV you got millions of people knowing about it people prying into your business so you obviously felt this at a high high level what advice you have for people around the world that are going through their own breakup their own challenges that you could impart to them right so one thing that really really helped me as simple as it is is the word fair so during that process of divorce for a long time all these things were happening I was like that's not fair like that's not right like that's not fair and finally one day I was driving and I actually said it out loud I said life's not fair and the second I realized that life's not fair and I can't control other people that was the beginning of my Rico that was the beginning of like tark 2.0 so do it so yeah I did hear someone just come here honey so would your daddy we're almost done this is Omar from the passionate few say hi might like the handshake she's gonna be six nine seven okay that's nine going on nineteen alright honey so he's asked me a few more questions and then we're all done okay and then we're gonna go date night okay you want me to finish out the interview you can go start looking for your stuff okay okay what's one question you want me to ask your dad anything he has to answer run it by me first just a simple question how about an easy question when you told the story were you screamed to an entire hotel daddy farted should I just ask him questions asked me a couple more questions why does my dad I don't part of the time oh so oh so we're talking about advice to people around the world about you know they might be going through their own challenges or relationships on the par or whatever it is what advice do you have for people around the world is it time is it taking the time self-reflect so people ask me all the time while they're going through it how do you how do you get out of it how do you feel better here's the truth when you're going through it there is nothing you can do but deal with the pain and the suffering there's no fix there's no magic pill like when you're going through a traumatic event you just have to just have to understand and believe that it's gonna get better but why you're going through it you just have to learn to handle the paint and that and that's my best advice and you got to focus on the future and focus on yourself and remember why you do what you do and figure out whatever it Radek experience is changing your life what caused that experience to happen and how can you not make those same mistakes twice like life is nothing but a series of lessons right yeah I love that and then also to the person that makes you who you become in the process so talk to me now on what drives Tarek el Moussa obviously what drove II before was success obviously now I'm sure that's you know new levels of success or part of it rise me today I like obviously honestly I want to make my kids proud to be honest with ya that's one of the biggest things I want to I want them to know that their dad did great things and I want them to know that their dad helped a lot of people around the world and it's really important for me to share my story and share my message because I've gone through a lot of hard times in my life and I've and I've dealt so many struggles and I know what it feels like to be at rock bottom and I also know which most people don't know what it feels like to be on the top so I want people to understand and I want them to know that doesn't matter how bad it is it can always get better I love that and then two more questions are you second that yeah she seconds that motion I have two more questions for your wrap up was the journey to success as intimidating as you thought it would I mean what are some misconceptions like if the Tarek el Moussa who was 21 22 or even at the time 26 27 broke trying to figure it out you know to now earning millions of dollars helping people around the world you know very successful what you do known around the world you know hit show on TV I'm sure the young target would be flipping out that you're living this dream what I guess my question is what about the road to success is different than you anticipated what was easier what was harder or some misconceptions being on this side of the fence to somebody who might be the young version of you aspiring for these great levels of success here's one thing about me I have never listened to anybody else meaning people would tell me you're too young to sell real estate you're too you don't know how to flip houses you didn't go to college like I could care less what anyone said throughout my entire life and I and I never compete with other people I never compare myself to other people I always compete with myself and and people say like what does that mean when I set a goal I'm competing against myself to prove to myself that I can accomplish that goal I don't care about anybody else and that's really important on the road to success because they're gonna be so many haters out there there are gonna be so many people telling you you can't do it there'd be so many people out there telling you it's not for you incredible people too right I'm sure you've had powerful people networks television telling you know know where you start doubting yourself and you got to like get that belief up right absolutely at the end of the day people have the ability to accomplish anything they want so it's all about blocking out the noise and who cares what everybody else thinks who cares what everybody else says as long as you believe it you'll do it powerful now my last question is if you could give someone out there who's looking for answers right maybe they're broke lost depressed but they're aspiring to be one of the passionate few if you will right succeed in their own right whether it's millions of dollars in their nature or maybe it's to be a teacher maybe it's to be this right but they're sort of frustrated between a rock and a hard place maybe they're not the support at home maybe they're not the money maybe they're getting older I'm sure at this at this stage you've seen and rubbed elbows some of the most successful people on the planet yes what advice would you give for somebody out there at any age looking for answers looking to make their life work is it coaching is it taking imperfect action as it trusting the voice inside what would tar como says best 60 seconds piece of wisdom be someone out there looking for answers to make their life work figure out what you want to do commit to doing it and the most important part is figuring out why you want to do it so if you don't have a strong why you're not going to do it like my why is I wanted to prove to the world that I can do great things my why today is I wanted to make my kids proud so you have to find your why and it's so cliche cuz so many people talk about that but if you don't know why you're waking up at 5:00 a.m. and why you're working 16-hour days you're not gonna do it but if you know why you're working 16-hour days and why you're waking up at 5:00 a.m. you're gonna do it was there a point where you lost your wife yeah there was what wondering while I was sick I had a few year period where I lost my wife and I found that why and I will never lose that why and that and that's it like life is a series of ups and downs there is not one successful person on this planet that went like this yeah it doesn't happen goes like this that's what makes it slow it goes it goes like this I have the roller coaster yeah and then at the end of every interview we play a game called first things first yeah the way the game works is I'm just gonna rifle off ten words or phrases you just tell me the first word or phrase that comes to mind related to it the weak sense all right just tell me the first word a phrase that comes to my on the rifle mouth sure well just listen to Daddy we'll play off the only rule is that you can't repeat yourself twice so you can't say the same thing twice let's do it ready flip or flop TV show your ambition as a kid what do you live in Josh look if someone dared me to so your your ambition as a kid okay so just one-word answers word or phrase oh well let's start from the top okay flip the flop my TV show your ambition as a kid maíam what does that mean she's gonna have her own show I love it oh she's good but your ambition when you were younger I guess was it like red hot was it was it motivated by a chip on your shoulder I'm curious what was it the fuelling year oh you know I tell people all the time I'm the most confident insecure guy you're gonna meet now like that's like for me growing up I had a lot of insecurities and one of the things that drove me was to prove everybody I could do things that they thought I couldn't do but we were talking about one-word answer this is a hard game over word or phrase word or phrase let's try it again your first real estate transaction confusing failure many times rejection over and over biggest insecurity currently I don't know how big feet your first 10 million dollar-a-year life-changing why you love teaching people around the world how to do what you've done inspiring your legacy family money fun your y family oh I said family can't repeat yourself twice what is it why why mm-hmm change and the last one you ready passion it whew passion life thank you so much for being on the show today Atari things work guys make sure to check out oh nice to meet you too guys make sure to check out Tareq and all the new stuff yes coming out in the description below as well as check out flip or flop and flipping 101 until next time thank you guys for being one of the passions if you guys enjoyed that video be sure to hit that subscribe button right now because every week eating is a very best in person the dominant content interviews and insights help inspire you to take your life in your dreams and make them a reality and also if you don't know how to book dream guests same way I have you can check the link below for my top 3 secrets so if you have a podcast or a show or whatever is you want to collaborate with them you can click that link below I'll give you those top three secrets to help you get in touch with anybody and also don't forget the passionate view is available on media platforms as well so you can subscribe to the podcast and until next time thank you for being one of the passionate to you [Music] [Music] you

Channel: OMAR ELATTAR & THE PASSIONATE FEW

Views: 276,979

Keywords: flip or flop, flip or flop divorce, tarek el moussa, tarek el moussa new girlfriend, tarek el moussa cancer, tarek el moussa divorce, tarek el moussa interview, christina el moussa, the passionate few, omar elattar, the passionate few interview, omar elattar interview, Flipping 101, real estate investor, Christina Anstead, flipping houses, life by design tarek, HGTV, flip or flop breakup, flip or flop interview, tony robbins, rock bottom, real estate, omar the rockstar

Id: _ytpFFNNucQ

Length: 62min 38sec (3758 seconds)

Published: Mon Oct 21 2019