How's it goin', Hard Knocks Community? 💰 

Welcome back to the School of Hard Knocks newsletter, where in this edition, we are catching up with a multiple nine-figure entrepreneur who shared the secrets behind his massive growth and success in real estate, waste management, and insurance in our most recent YouTube video.

Today’s Schedule

• From Broke to $3 Billion: How Shawn Meaike Banked Billions in Sales from Multiple Industries over the Years.

• From the Hard Knocks Library: The Richest Man in Babylon by George S. Clason

• In Case You Missed It: Learn business with a view. We just dropped our first ever interview on a private jet.

Let's get to it!🔥

From Broke to $3 Billion

Shawn Meaike is a multiple nine-figure entrepreneur based out of South Florida, he's done over $3 billion in sales across different industries, and did almost $800 million last year alone.

These are some impressive numbers, but the journey was by no means easy for Shawn..

Shawn was born and raised in Connecticut by a single mom who worked three jobs. He went to college as a business major, but he was mostly in it to play baseball. Shawn says he hated college because the people who were teaching him business weren't in business themselves. 

Shawn craved to be in a field of study where people were actually living what they taught, so he switched majors and graduated with a degree in social work.

Post grad, Shawn got a job working in child protective services, but also obtained his real estate license at age 23. Soon after, he realized that sales came easy to him and he knew he was going to dominate.

While still at his full time job, Shawn dedicated up to 14 hours a week on his real estate career and things took off. He made about $80,000 at his day job, but his real estate deals were earning him hundreds of thousands of dollars. He then went all-in.

Over time, Shawn went on to own a large portfolio of multifamily properties. A pro at the game, his apartment buildings had super-low vacancy rates and low delinquent rents. It's no surprise that he was eventually approached by a buyer. 

Shawn was contacted by an investor out of Asia who made him an offer he couldn't refuse. Now, it was on to his next ventures: waste management and insurance. 

After spending three years building his waste management company and six years into his first insurance business, he sold those businesses for hundreds of millions of dollars.

What's Shawn's secret? He went all-in on things he knew people needed. 

There's a lot of creative, innovative people out there, but there's also a ton of money to be made in the necessities of life. People are always going to need homes, insurance, and their trash taken out! 

Today, Shawn's focused on building a life insurance company, Family First Life. He's also a keynote speaker, media personality, and host of the Punch Me In the Face Podcast.

Shawn blew our community away with his wisdom, insights, and advice for new entrepreneurs. Here are four of the biggest takeaways from our conversation:

Time Is of the Essence

We only have so many hours in a day, and it's what you do with those hours that determines your success. Shawn believes that the time you spend outside of work should be spent on only the most crucial aspects of life. 

If you're trying to build a business while also playing a lot of golf and hanging with your girlfriend, you have to pick golf or the girlfriend. Until you're where you want to be in your business, you'll have to make some sacrifices. Eliminate what doesn't make you money now so you can set yourself up for the best possible future.

Playing the Long Game

Shawn built his empire by reinvesting whatever he made back into his businesses. Getting good at sales allowed him to basically print money and scale. Shawn told us the story of how the early investors of Home Depot wanted to get paid out right away instead of using the money to grow, which turned out to be a big mistake.

Once success starts rolling in, it's tempting to take that money and run, but having the discipline to reinvest is how you get to nine figures. Shawn also advises entrepreneurs to be patient and be in it for the long haul. You'll have multiple opportunities come your way, but it's OK to wait for the right ones.  

A Test of Character

The only way to get to the next level is by investing in people. Shawn had a ton of advice about recruiting and building the perfect teams. If you want to build a successful company you need to surround yourself with great people. Because of the people around him, he was able to scale faster than the competition, even when the competition had more employees. 

When you're interviewing people, ask personal questions to uncover their vision and see if they're someone you want in your organization. Shawn also loves to role play different on-the-job scenarios to see how they react. This serves as a test of character, allowing you to weed out anyone who isn't sharp enough for the role. 

You're Number One

Having ultimate confidence in yourself is an absolute must. Much of Shawn's success is due to his mindset that he's the top guy in his industry. He shared a story of how if you want to become a realtor for waterfront properties, your approach should be to act like the #1 expert in waterfront properties.

What makes you an expert? You have to decide you are one. 

If you don't see yourself as a businessman and you don't see yourself as good as everybody else, if not better, you won't get ahead. The confidence in owning who you want to become will ultimately help you get there and increase your perception as an expert in others. Invest in yourself, take risks, and build up the confidence you need to reach your goals.

Connect with Shawn here: https://www.instagram.com/shawnmeaike/?hl=en

If you enjoyed learning from Shawn, our community was able to learn directly from him on a live call. If you want to learn from 7, 8, and 9 figure entrepreneurs like Shawn, and watch our full interview with him, sign up for the Hard Knocks Community: School of Mentors! 

Words of Wisdom

From the Hard Knocks Library

In Case You Missed It

We sat down with Shawn Meaike for over 1 hour on his private jet to talk about all things business. If you are enjoyed reading about Shawn in our newsletter and want to see more content with him or if you are looking to pursue entrepreneurship or just learn about scaling and building a business then this is the perfect video for you.

Let Us Hear From You

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