EP. 62 // From Airline Pilot to Multi-Billion Dollar Fund Manager w/ Ryan Tseko

On today’s show we have a very special guest: Executive Vice President of Cardone Capital, pilot, and real estate investor Ryan Tseko.

Have you ever dreamt about leaving the predictable routine and stepping into the world teeming with opportunities and challenges? Well, Ryan Tseko did just that. From flying a $40 million jet at 21 to becoming the right-hand man of real estate mogul Grant Cardone, Ryan's journey is nothing short of inspirational. He candidly talks about his transition from being a pilot to a successful real estate investor, and the realizations that led him to this path. Diving into the details of his journey, Ryan shares how he built a substantial real estate portfolio, starting from his first down payment of $140,000 for his home to owning a four-plex that cash-flowed $500-600 per month. In this episode, Ryan goes into employing creative financing, utilizing the cash-flow from his investments to clear his liabilities, and how he acquired 11 units by the age of 26.

Ryan's story emphasizes the power of perseverance and an unwavering determination to succeed, making it a must-listen for both budding and seasoned investors. But it's not just about the financial aspects. Ryan also talks about the significance of having a strong team, and the roles of accredited and non-accredited investors at Grant Cardone Capital. He strongly urges listeners to leverage the power of collective wisdom, asserting that it can propel you towards your goals faster than you think. So, sit back and soak in the insights as Ryan Tseko shares his journey and strategies in real estate investing.

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• Read the Episode Transcript

  Eric Panecki

  Guest

  00:00

  Three, two, one go All right. Teals and Dollars podcast. Baby, We got a good one for you today. We got a good one for you today. I'm really really excited for this. Today we have Parker Little, a little back story. We came on your podcast, which was me and John and it was. We had a great time.

  John Libretti

  Host

  00:27

  I had a great time, it was good. I had a great time, it was good, it was good. Miami, miami.

  Eric Panecki

  Guest

  00:31

  Anything in Miami, you know, is just a little bit better.

  John Libretti

  Host

  00:33

  It's just a little escalator. It's a little better. It's a little better. How did we meet? Oh, we met him through Dave Saveall from Bowery.

  Eric Panecki

  Guest

  00:38

  Yes, yeah.

  John Libretti

  Host

  00:40

  We went to the. we went to a cafe, something in Windwood prior to when we first met you, right, oh yeah Right, some car car coffee there.

  Parker Little

  Host

  00:48

  Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, i forget where we met. No, we went to the. There's a Mediterranean place there, doi Oh that was good.

  John Libretti

  Host

  00:55

  Right.

  Parker Little

  Host

  00:56

  Didn't we do that? Yeah, oh no.

  John Libretti

  Host

  00:57

  I had a meeting there and then I met you guys, sorry, i said it was some coffee shop with, like car, a bunch of sick porches in there.

  Parker Little

  Host

  01:03

  Yeah, I forget the name of it, but it's like a guitar place too.

  Eric Panecki

  Guest

  01:05

  Yeah, yeah, yeah.

  Parker Little

  Host

  01:06

  So I sell a bunch of guitars in there. I wish I could remember the stupid name.

  Eric Panecki

  Guest

  01:08

  Yeah, yeah, yeah, that place was awesome. So, parker, i mean dude, you I can't even really explain what you do because you do so much And and from the minute I met you, i was like this guy's, this guy's different.

  John Libretti

  Host

  01:19

  He's a savage, he's something else.

  Eric Panecki

  Guest

  01:21

  He's something else, and and so I think I'd be doing you a disjust doing your intro. but why? why don't you just kind of give everybody an overview of of who you are and what you do currently?

  Parker Little

  Host

  01:32

  That's difficult. I don't really have an answer either. I do whatever I can do to make money and be interested in what I'm doing. So basically I have a bunch of different companies. The main focus right now is my marketing business. my marketing agency is a digital marketing agency. We started that in 2010. My first paying client was a thousand bucks a month. started from zero, wow. You know, i've got guitar schools in Tokyo, yokohama, in Hong Kong, real estate stuff here and there, just kind of all over the place Looking at some new interesting stuff that you and I have talked about. you know, off air, that gets me a little excited. But my background is basically sales, and marketing is the easiest way to describe it. But now branching off into, you know, building companies, but with that in mind, because you know, my thought process is I might not know a lot about the thing, but I can sell the thing Right. So if you start there, it's a pretty good start. So that's the simplest way I could describe what I do.

  Eric Panecki

  Guest

  02:32

  I think So the best, the best, i think. Quote we were at a, at a. What was it lunch in the city? Yeah, restoration hardware, The rooftop. Yeah, That was the four of us. It was me, John and Dave and Anthony our guy Anthony and Parker, And Parker's talking about what he does, which, like you, just sold yourself so short because it's actually. It's actually.

  Parker Little

  Host

  02:55

  I didn't hype it up enough.

  John Libretti

  Host

  02:57

  It's actually insane what you do, i mean you're, it's like well you're in like five diff, like five totally different arenas, maybe even more, but like all very different things.

  Parker Little

  Host

  03:06

  Yeah, but, but it's to me, yeah, okay, yes, but also like to me, it's like it's all the same thing, just understanding business and understanding, Okay, what needs to happen in business. Like you know, you get both. Now, like when you build a business, there's only a few fundamentals that the concepts still apply.

  Eric Panecki

  Guest

  03:21

  Still applies.

  Parker Little

  Host

  03:23

  So my, my passion has always been not necessarily what the business about, it's just the action of doing that. I like the action of like if it weren't this. I'd be like a degenerate gambler or something. It's terrible.

  John Libretti

  Host

  03:35

  So at least this is productive.

  Eric Panecki

  Guest

  03:36

  I know where you were just about to go with that, so so so he's telling a story about, I mean, you're, you're a high school dropout, right? You dropped out of high school.

  03:43

  Yeah, dropped out, i was going into the 10th grade and I dropped out, okay. And so he's telling a story about how he built these businesses and highly successful business doing millions and millions of dollars a year, and you're in all these different verticals and you're everywhere and you're always going and and my partner, dave looks at me goes well, well, well, how did you, how did you do that? Just like how did you? first he said who are you? How did you do all that?

  John Libretti

  Host

  04:09

  And you look at him and you're like what which?

  Parker Little

  Host

  04:10

  way, Dave goes all of it.

  Eric Panecki

  Guest

  04:11

  I don't understand the question which is like I think my I mean he's Dave said it, but my thought rises like dude, where the hell are you Get the time Like what?

  Parker Little

  Host

  04:24

  Well, i think now. So I would say like I mean, there's so many buckets here And I have to preface this, anyone watching. I have severe, i'm pretty sure severe ADHD in all realms here. So business included, like you can tell me a business right now, pitch me. I'm like that's a fucking good idea, let's go do it. Like, and tomorrow I'm going to be texting, but hey, well, you want to do this, you're going to be like I was just kind of saying some offhand remark. I'm like no, let's do it, it's a problem. So, which is probably answers a lot of these questions.

  04:55

  But yeah, i just get really curious about stuff, man, and I I become obsessed. Is what really happens? I become obsessed. Like when I first started like marketing stuff, i didn't know anything about marketing. When I first started learning about real estate, i didn't knew nothing about real estate, but something about it piques my interest And then I just start. That's all I think about 24, seven And I just keep doing that until I learned more.

  05:17

  I meet people that are interested and they are having more experience. I learned from them and asked them questions And I'm just constantly gathering information to inform my next decision related to it and hopefully find an opportunity in that process. So you know there's a plenty of them that happen And I've talked to you about a couple, but you know there's plenty that happen. And like even I had a meeting last week with my partner in the guitar schools in Asia. We were talking about like Oh man, it'd be great if we could just target an international market in this way and that way. And I throw out this idea of just doing, like, virtual lessons. And he's like, yeah, but the problem is, you know all of our teachers are in, you know, this hemisphere you know, and I said, yeah, cool, but you went to Berkeley and you know a ton of guitar teachers, right?

  06:02

  Yeah, okay, so we'll call 50 of them and work out deals so we can subcontract it out and try to fulfill the service. Because give me something to sell. This is what I told him. I was like, give me something to go sell Yeah, so it's. It's just following threads of opportunity And like you run into a roadblock, okay, that might not work for whatever reasons to. It's not profitable, it's hard to fulfill, it's.

  06:22

  You know, i don't really think in terms of like, Okay, what is the? this new initiative or new business? I don't think in terms of like, okay, how much time will that cost me And will I get a good return from that time? No, i don't really think of that. I exhaust all options And I'm like Okay, this is a good or bad thing. And then, once it's operating, then it becomes a time management thing And for me, i'm very, very, very, very dialed in with my organization of my day, like to the minute tasks, like high priority items, low priority, whatever delegation, all that stuff is, at this stage, pretty dialed in. I've done it myself for a long, long long time Yeah.

  06:56

  But now it's like I understand pretty clearly what I'm really good at And I just want to focus my day around that. Now there's times that doesn't happen. You know. You guys know just as well as anyone else. You know it doesn't happen all the time. Sometimes you just get shit in your lap and you get a fucking deal.

  07:09

  Yeah happens Like I'll have a perfect, like literally last, maybe last Monday weeks right Together, recently, one of the Mondays recently. I'm like, okay, i'm pumped, get up in the morning above early, i'm ready to go. My day's locked in. Look at my color coded calendar with 47 things on it. I'm like, Okay, i feel good, i know what the day's about. And as soon as the day started, issue issue, issue, issue issue. And like, none of that got done, it's just completely scrapped. But that's just how it is. But I think for me I told you this early, i said you got to have a little self hate And for me I have a lot of self hate.

  07:47

  So at the end of the day, if I have like three things, i like those are critical items for one of the businesses or whatever. Right, speaking a little general here, because you know I can go specific if you want, but you know just say there's three items that you really need to get done. If by the end of the day I'm about to go to bed or I'm really tired because I'm beat, usually I'm like Oh, and I'll look. And if there's still some that one there, i get angry. I'm like Get off your ass, go do it. And like, even if I'm exhausted, i'm like I'll try to force my way through it. Maybe I can't do it, maybe we'll like I make the effort every single day. There's not a day that goes by that I'm like Yeah, i'm like you guys know me long enough now.

  08:25

  It's like I'm pretty much always just on.

  08:27

  Yeah there's no way. And like I said this recently, i think, on my podcast about this, but like it's really hard for me to turn it off, and I came home to work, from work when I was like 10 o'clock at night, 9, 30, whatever And my girlfriend's, like you know, she's done for the day, you know, she's, like you know, ready to fall asleep And I, something that day sparked my interest like the same, like a thread popped up that I wanted to pull on. So in my head, like if I'm not talking to you guys, you guys know how much I talk and how fast I talk right, it's a lot, for most people It's too much, but if there's a thread I'm pulling on my mind, i won't say anything, you'll know, because you're thinking about something I'm just thinking about.

  Eric Panecki

  Guest

  09:04

  the wheels are turning.

  Parker Little

  Host

  09:05

  Yeah wheels are turning, And so I was like that. And then I finally was like Hey, what do you think about?

  John Libretti

  Host

  09:11

  that.

  Parker Little

  Host

  09:11

  Just like going and she's like you're a lot right now, Can you just like?

  09:16

  oh yeah, yeah, 1045 at night, on whatever day, yeah. So yeah, I mean honestly, i just pull threads and then I stay really consistent and organize about my my shit and get it done. That's how I think of it. I don't really think bigger than that in terms of working toward something. You know, i might have a goal like Hey, i want to like easy goal right Sales. Like Hey, i want to X amount. That's a very easy one metric. But how do you get there? What does that look like? Okay, how consistent. Okay, you need to do X of these a day, whatever. Okay. So who on your team is going to do what? Here's your dialers, here's your email leaders, here's your follow-upers, whatever you, how you're restructuring it. And then it's just a numbers game and everything's a numbers game to me from that perspective. You know it's the power of, of compounding is a big deal in my mind. That's a that's the roundabout way to say it. Just just keep doing shit every day.

  Eric Panecki

  Guest

  10:06

  So I mean, look, let me just paint a picture here. So how many businesses are you currently involved in?

  Parker Little

  Host

  10:18

  I Mean like daily involved in or like are you actually you have?

  John Libretti

  Host

  10:23

  Interest and whatever Yeah whether you're running it day to day or you just have a ownership interest.

  Parker Little

  Host

  10:28

  Yeah, okay so, and we're defining as ongoing operations, not like entities.

  Eric Panecki

  Guest

  10:31

  Right Yeah, building not like a property that has its own.

  Parker Little

  Host

  10:37

  Yeah, okay, all right. so I think 18 or so.

  Eric Panecki

  Guest

  10:40

  Wow, yeah, okay, and though, do you this? maybe you don't know this off the top of your head. How much of revenue are all of those businesses doing? I don't know Collectively.

  Parker Little

  Host

  10:49

  Give me a good you have a range ballpark number on it all of them together.

  Eric Panecki

  Guest

  10:54

  Yeah. Hey, eight figures, eight figures eight figures a year, that's yeah very significant. Yeah, i mean, but some of them are higher margins of the mark right, you know, but still I mean that's, that's so I'm going somewhere with this right, so you're running 18.

  11:11

  You're part of yeah, i'm not involved daily with all of them and then so the next question is, like what Dave said How did you do all that? I Guess what I struggle with personally and this is this is out of my own need is I Love to be super regimented with my day, but it never goes according to my plan, so I'm always putting out fires. Tell, talk me through your, your, your planning process for your day, your tasks, your agenda and how you're getting so much done. And then also, what I hate is letting people down, which is like I can't make this meeting and something came up. I'm a bot and I hate that part of it.

  Parker Little

  Host

  11:50

  See, i don't think that way. I think no is the best thing in the world. Okay, i say no a lot of things, okay, but I would say that there's a balance for me, the balance of saying no to things that aren't critical in that moment But saying yes to things that have some serendipity to it, i guess is the best way to describe. Like there's people that I've met on Twitter that are I know they're doing things, but there's no like direct path to be like, oh, we're gonna work together. I don't, i don't really know, but I have a feeling, Yeah, the intuition you have, i'll say, okay, cool, let's go grab a beer or something, and that, you know, becomes a relationship and that turns into something. You guys know me, you guys are master Networkers, right, so you understand how that works.

  12:30

  But I think that's I Never neglect that the yes part, where I like I'll go do something with somebody that is new to my world, right, because that's it's interesting, right, and like great examples, like you guys in Miami, like Dave's and you know What up about, whatever, like I don't, i had no idea who you guys are, no idea what you did. Like he, i don't even know how he preferences. It maybe like hey, either lenders or something, that was it. Like there's no context. I'm okay, cool, no, and he said cars like you guys come like okay, fair, fair enough, i'm in the area, cool, let's do it. That was it right. And like, in terms of meeting people, that's a bucket for me because I always want to meet new people. You're always prior, that's a prior.

  13:08

  That's a priority for me because um, I Don't want to sound some corny asshole but like the net worth network thing.

  Eric Panecki

  Guest

  13:15

  Yeah cliche. No, it's true. No, it's very true. Cliche's exist for a reason. Yeah, it's not.

  John Libretti

  Host

  13:21

  You never know who you're gonna meet next and what what they're doing yeah, what? what part of what you're doing they could fit into, or maybe not. Maybe use them down the road, but you never know.

  Parker Little

  Host

  13:28

  But the interesting part to me is Now, at this point in my life I don't really think about like I'm gonna meet John and then I'm gonna.

  13:37

  I could work a deal with him, i'm gonna make some money, i'm gonna. I don't really think about that at all. In fact, that's pretty much the last thing on my mind. When I meet somebody new, i'm usually thinking like I think value first a lot and not how can I provide value. And not even like a cheesy sense, because I feel like a lot of people have like Taking that phrase hostage a bit, yeah, and they're just like how can I provide value until they give me what?

  Eric Panecki

  Guest

  13:58

  I want.

  Parker Little

  Host

  13:58

  Yeah, yeah, you know you fuck, just give, no, just give. And like how that manifests in my life is like Connecting you with like the guy down 30 a and like talk, talk to him, he's interesting, you know he's doing cool projects. Like maybe that manifests some way for you, maybe not, whatever.

  14:15

  Like at least if you go there you know a guy who's doing interesting things you know, and that's how I think about it, and the phrase I use now is like becoming a super connector, and I know you guys know this power. But you know, if I can connect you, like tell me a problem you have, i can connect you somebody that can help you solve, yeah it, maybe I can help you. But if not, i know somebody that I got a guy right, and that ability I feel like unlocks a lot of doors, and not really in the sense of like if I do that for you, you get. I get something like not like that, not a tip for that, but more in the sense of reputational, like Go to go to Parker if you need something, because now you make yourself the guy you need something.

  Eric Panecki

  Guest

  14:53

  They're both you guys both. Yeah, I think you do a great job. He's amazing at it and I know you are too. You.

  Parker Little

  Host

  14:59

  I don't think I'm in his low. I think he does better than me actually really Yeah.

  15:02

  Yeah, i think I think you have it dialed in. Why do you think that I'm curious? Um, well, we've had conversations where you're willing to help me in certain instances, above and beyond what even a normal thing would be right, um, and it impressed me. It impressed me because it's it's unique, it's not something that most people do, and because now it's like look, we're in a world now where there's so much information, there's so much entertainment, there's so many people doing many things, like whether some are real and fake, like whatever. There's just there's a million things happening all at once, right, and you know, the equalizer is time. And if you tell me you're willing to spend an hour doing something with me for no benefit to you, i'm like, oh shit, okay, that's interesting, because why Maybe nothing for you? Maybe maybe you know, like I got people in my pocket, i can send you what? Okay, cool, whatever, but the still time is time.

  John Libretti

  Host

  15:59

  I know the exact conversation you're referring to. And like for me it's. it's kind of like I just know that if roles were switched, you do the exact same thing And I don't feel like that with a lot of people.

  Eric Panecki

  Guest

  16:10

  But if I do, if you pick up on it right even easier right, you know, john, you don't just do that for Parker, though, and that's that's.

  Parker Little

  Host

  16:18

  That's what you really pick up on. You know that Because it's like I'm no different than the next guy. You mean whatever like different personality, whatever, but like you're you're. Your willingness to say yes to that, like you said, tells me that you do it with more people than just one. Well, you know what Like it means you're generous with your time.

  Eric Panecki

  Guest

  16:37

  In that sense, i've become I don't want to say dependent, but it's like I need a guy for this And like I'm just like John probably has a guy and he always has a guy.

  John Libretti

  Host

  16:46

  Yeah, always has a guy.

  Eric Panecki

  Guest

  16:47

  Yeah, of course, but I could say that vice versa, like we do that back and forth a lot with the old two, but you like, like, we needed t-shirts this weekend And I was like you know, i'm like all right, well, i mean, we've ordered apparel for our company a million times. I'm like I should have somebody somewhere to go. And then we couldn't find somebody to get it done in the amount of time we needed, and immediately John had a guy that actually is in New York.

  Parker Little

  Host

  17:09

  Pulls up in a van and starts making the things I'm like. how do you?

  Eric Panecki

  Guest

  17:12

  have this guy Like always. It's just that it's always and, and like you two, both, i mean, you know, not barely. we met one time and you're already hooking me up with people.

  John Libretti

  Host

  17:23

  And.

  Eric Panecki

  Guest

  17:23

  I think I mean that's just such a such a valuable skill you have.

  Parker Little

  Host

  17:27

  Well, i don't know if it's a skill, i think it's a character thing, yeah.

  17:30

  I don't you know like everybody can. Like here's how you go into your phone book and grabs him in here, like that's the skill. Yeah, okay, that's not really a skill. In my head It's like how are you raised? You know, did your father do that? Like, maybe, if not maybe you, he didn't do it enough and you think I want to do it And that's how it formed your opinion. And you saw a mentor in your in life that did it And you're like that worked really well for them because the reputational benefit or whatever the thing is right, and you locked onto it Like that's awesome. Or you just like being the guy Yeah, i mean, honestly, it feels good.

  John Libretti

  Host

  18:00

  Like I would, like you said right, I was kind of just brought up like that, I was always like that, But really it was. It was our deals and dollars event that we threw like that's what. Really, I don't know like you would, Eric introduced me to the mentality called the good guy, The mentality called the go give her mentality which is exactly you know you know what it is And that's kind of like I don't know. correct me if I'm wrong. That was kind of like the preface of like our event.

  Eric Panecki

  Guest

  18:19

  That was the whole. that was like the whole preference Give, give with no expectation.

  John Libretti

  Host

  18:24

  Like how can we put all these high value people doing this, this and this That's all part of the real estate full circle transaction, whatever you want to call it in the same room in a fun, interactive environment to interact with one another And, you know, just expecting nothing from it? Right, Like here's, everybody try to make something work And I don't know. I think kind of just like I think I saw what the feedback was from that event and how many people were like appreciative and grateful and actually how many people like I had at least 510 people tell me oh, I got a deal from this person at your event or I had something actually come from the person that you put me in the room with.

  18:58

  And that actually kind of meant a lot to me.

  Parker Little

  Host

  19:00

  Yeah, You know, and it's still. It's like a roundabout where you're doing the same thing, but at scale a bit 100%, Which is really cool. I like the idea you guys have for that It was it was the go giver, right Give with that.

  Eric Panecki

  Guest

  19:11

  But also to be like the hub, right Like if we could be the hub with all these spokes out here, right, and everybody can come in to us first and then, like we can put them in the spot.

  Parker Little

  Host

  19:20

  Yeah, if you're the common denominator, people will come to you more often and you'll get leads. There's a bunch of business benefits.

  John Libretti

  Host

  19:25

  And this goes back to exactly what you're saying, right? Like I think everybody loves to be the man, like I don't want to be the man. To be the man, i like to be the person that everybody goes to for whatever, because it's going to open doors that you don't even know are there, whether it's something as stupid as somebody needing, like who texted us for a reservation at Carbone in Miami recently Like that's pretty crazy.

  19:45

  Or somebody that's looking for financing and depending on a deal right, maybe it's a deal that doesn't work for them, but maybe Eric will buy it Like it's always something you know, or you connect them with somebody else that wants to buy it or whatever, and then you've been looking for a dollar on it, but maybe it's going to open up the door to do more debt.

  19:59

  Or maybe it's going to open up some guy who you know wants to sell all his properties off market in Newark And I could put. you know, eric's king of Newark put him in with that.

  Parker Little

  Host

  20:06

  And what happens is that one guy like, say you do that for 100 people. One, two, three of those people are like hey, i'm going to keep doing this with you over and over, and over And then that relationship becomes something over time.

  John Libretti

  Host

  20:16

  What you do with 10 people how many people do those 10 people know? I said this once on a podcast. I was like you never know who knows who And I really try to like stay true to that. Like one day, just to shorten it up one day a kid messaged me on LinkedIn like a couple years ago, if I didn't answer that message on LinkedIn and talk to that kid, i would not have any business in Los Angeles Now. Like 30% of my probably a little less now, but like 30% of my pipeline is in LA All because I just answered a DM at midnight.

  Eric Panecki

  Guest

  20:42

  And not to mention next week. we're going to his office and he has somebody that wants to write us like a $7 million check to fund For one deal.

  John Libretti

  Host

  20:50

  And this kid is he's put me in touch with three or four clients. Those are the first three or four people that he put me in touch with in LA.

  Parker Little

  Host

  20:55

  They were all north of 70, 80 million net worth some of which are a couple hundred million, makes me think I need to go into the hundreds of LinkedIn unread messages. Yeah, right, yeah, there's so many.

  John Libretti

  Host

  21:06

  It's like you never it all goes to what we were saying, like you never know who knows who. So true, that's why you help, you know I try to like, within reason, help everybody, do you know. do what you can.

  Parker Little

  Host

  21:13

  Well, and the crazy part is like the world is much smaller than people think.

  Eric Panecki

  Guest

  21:16

  Yeah.

  Parker Little

  Host

  21:17

  Like you know, you're once or twice removed from pretty crazy people. Like I know people in Miami that have connections to a lot of well-known people and whatnot, And it's just it's weird to talk to them about it. It's like yeah, it's just normal guy, i'm like what?

  John Libretti

  Host

  21:29

  And even going to some of the events in Miami, it's just like, yeah, but when you probably were Ross walking by yourself, like, yeah, when you were happening, you're close with what's his name down there. I want to say Nios, but like you probably are rolling in the circles of pretty crazy fucking, it's interesting. Yeah, a lot of interesting people. Let me tell you It's, it's why?

  Parker Little

  Host

  21:45

  because like, and I'm not like, i'm definitely not one of those people that gets. I get you call it star struck. I don't have that because I kind of have this baseline, you know I. so I grew up I guess you don't know if you guys know this map, so I'll tell you a very quick story. but I grew up in a mobile home, you know, in Tallahassee, florida.

  22:05

  No way Yeah, There's 3,400,000 people in that town. Very, very blue collar. My dad had a body shop business, So collision center. He started when he was 21, had zero business experience when he started zero, And it was a big, big jump for him. You know, he worked in body shops as a kid and whatnot, But so he went out on his own. You know, by the time he was 30, he had three sons, a wife you know this mobile home and IRS debt and the business was failing and he's working 100 hours a week And it was like just very, very stressful for him, Right.

  22:42

  But I was raised in that environment of watching him just work his tail off every single day, And so that that's where I picked up on, like you can always work harder because the bar is there, Right. So I always had that And you know, he, I come to this mentality is like what hard work looks like is very, very, very hard work. So that's the preface now, Probably why I work really hard. Number one, because I always I might work hard and work harder than a lot of people, I think, but I never feel like I'm working hard enough. So it's tied to that, But also tied into this with you know celebrities and people that are well known Like I? don't? you know, I'm thinking like what you do is 10 times easier than what I've seen.

  23:30

  But you know, he says like I'm on that default plane and whether it's true or not is a different conversation.

  John Libretti

  Host

  23:34

  That was just the mindset you have.

  Parker Little

  Host

  23:36

  Yeah, so it's like, if somebody like is a basketball player, i'm like, oh, that's cool. But you know, like I build, tried building, like a bunch of businesses you know like have IRS debt like all these, you know have stresses that are real.

  23:47

  You're not going to sit here and like drool over this guy, but it's like it's interesting because and I don't watch sports, So it's like, even further, i don't really care, but like it's interesting to talk to somebody that's interested, like that is smart and really understands the business of basketball. That gets me engaged. Oh cool, all right, we'll tell me what your thoughts are on ticket sales or how the stadium set up or you know whatever. That's interesting to me. But like how you make money, you're just an employee, like I'm just that's how I think of it.

  John Libretti

  Host

  24:11

  you know, Yeah, So it's not not that interesting to me, but it's all.

  Parker Little

  Host

  24:15

  it's, at the same time, still strange to see somebody that you see on a screen, you know for a while, and then you see them in person. You're just like oh he's, you know, fatter than I thought you know like, or whatever.

  24:24

  Right, It's like that, But it's you know, as soon as that wears off, you're just like oh okay, It's weird, you know, but I feel like every day of Miami is a pretty weird day. It's one of the strangest cities I've ever ever been in, honestly, And I've been all around the world at this point I think Miami is just like.

  John Libretti

  Host

  24:42

  I mean, obviously it's fun, this and that, but I think it's so unique in the sense that every five feet you meet somebody that has a ton of money but nobody's going, nobody's, nobody seems to be working ever. Yeah, nobody seems to be working, that's for sure.

  Parker Little

  Host

  24:55

  It's the only fans capital of the world. So, some article recently I came out about that. But yeah, a lot of people there. I don't really know what a lot of people do there. It's kind of like that.

  John Libretti

  Host

  25:06

  That was kind of where I was going with that too. You don't really know.

  Eric Panecki

  Guest

  25:09

  I don't know who does what, if anything, if anything you know they could have just a bunch of scammers too, A lot of scammers, a lot of insolent.

  Parker Little

  Host

  25:15

  You know. A lot of people like money and YouTube make millions of dollars on YouTube And they're like yeah, i'm not an entrepreneur, you just make content, though That's. I mean, i guess you can call it a business, but I don't know.

  John Libretti

  Host

  25:28

  In my head again, my default is like sell copper piping to you know, do something like difficult, yeah, like real busy, yeah, yeah, yeah, like go through the steps of actually building the path. Yeah, have a thought process.

  Parker Little

  Host

  25:40

  Have failure like not just like you know, talk to your cell phone. You know what I mean There's a lot of that there. There's a lot of people, you know now it's changing through COVID. A lot of Miami has changed, you know. Citadel has moved down. Several other big financial institutions have opened offices there. A ton, a ton of development.

  Eric Panecki

  Guest

  26:03

  How'd you end up in Miami? I mean so your dad's. You're in what's the town of.

  Parker Little

  Host

  26:08

  Yeah, i grew up in Tallahassee, but I so I'm skipping over a big part of the story here.

  Eric Panecki

  Guest

  26:12

  So I, I'm just curious.

  Parker Little

  Host

  26:13

  Yeah, so I mean long story short. I moved for business, work purposes, employees are in Miami and things of that nature. Yeah, yeah, yeah. But the longer story is that I actually moved from Tallahassee to another city to another city. I just kept moving around And I worked at a. The only corporate job I ever had was at a company called Camping World, and Camping World is a national RV dealer network. It's a corporate business. I don't know how many dealers they have now 200 and something probably more now.

  Eric Panecki

  Guest

  26:45

  It's an RV dealership.

  Parker Little

  Host

  26:46

  Dealer ships right. So dealership has several departments sales, service, finance, retail parts. You know it's a dealership. Yeah, so I started there making $28,000 a year. When was that So? that was in 2010, 2011, $28,000 a year. I had already started doing some marketing on the side, which was where my business came from.

  Eric Panecki

  Guest

  27:09

  I feel like you didn't last long there.

  Parker Little

  Host

  27:11

  So I got fired three times from that company.

  John Libretti

  Host

  27:13

  So Three times? Yeah, three times. How'd you get back in two times?

  Parker Little

  Host

  27:16

  A lot of weasel.

  Eric Panecki

  Guest

  27:17

  The salesman dude Yeah, a lot of weasel in your way through.

  Parker Little

  Host

  27:19

  So I'll tell you. So, the first time I got laid off technically And I tried to do a college, i tried like a community college for like a semester or two And then I was like fuck this, this is insane, because schooling is just not for me. Number one I have major authority issues. Like telling me to do something, i decided to go fuck yourself, basically. Second is, i was just not engaged with anything Like. There was a couple within that small period of time when I went to community colleges. There was like a couple of interesting courses, like some humanities. Like that was interesting, i like history, but if it didn't, you know, once that wears off, i didn't see any value. Like I'm doing the math. Like this professor makes $60,000 a year, why is he teaching me anything?

  John Libretti

  Host

  28:04

  Right.

  Parker Little

  Host

  28:04

  You know. So I'm thinking like that, which is, you know, you can argue that's probably not the right way to think about college education, but I just didn't see the point.

  Eric Panecki

  Guest

  28:11

  Well, why is this guy who's never built a business teaching me business?

  Parker Little

  Host

  28:14

  Well, and I just knew I was, i'm gonna go into it, i'm gonna be a business person. It's all I've ever thought of my entire life. Like you know, i made money, was in third grade selling pencils and paper. I washed cars and sold other things while I was in high school, you know. You know, making money was just always in my DNA. Right Now I didn't really understand what that meant, and you know the complexities around it in the real world. You know, once you grow up, i just knew that's what I, that's who I wanted to be, right, the business person. That's all only thing I've ever, ever, ever wanted really. So I just knew over time that's where I wanted to go. But I also knew I didn't know, i felt like I didn't know enough to really do it at that time, and so I tried this, the college thing for a bit and I was like, okay, well, i need to get a real job. You know I need to go to work, right. So I went back to Camping World and got a job And then that was a little bit, a little better income doing marketing, still in a business development marketing position, did that well for a while and actually did some new things that they had never done. That succeeded And then got an attention of a general manager in Atlanta who I don't know how he found me.

  29:25

  Somebody connected him to me Cause in that business at the time, you know you have a bunch of different dealerships right All over the country And they're kind of independent of each other but they also have like this corporate structure right Like process implementation or whatever. So there's some of that, but at that time was still very like hey, you own a dealer, you're the GM in Charlotte and you're the GM in Atlanta. You guys run your stores different ways and manage things differently. Cool. Now I think it's more like here's your rule books, stick to the fucking rule book. So the reason I say that's important is because or it's important because he called me cause he saw what I was doing with at the time. I was doing Facebook ads. I was, you know, at this time is 2012 or whatever Just crushing with Facebook ads.

  Eric Panecki

  Guest

  30:15

  Direct the best time to do it.

  Parker Little

  Host

  30:16

  I crushed, crushed And you get to remember, on the side I'm still building ALH, my marketing business, so I'm still building that on the side, having clients, whatever. And I was talking to him and he's like, look, come do this at my store. I was like I named a number. I was like give me this number and I'll do it. And he said, sure, so the next week.

  30:35

  I mean I moved to Atlanta next week And then from there you know, there's a period of time there I'm just working, working, working, building up their internet sales department, building out the processes, blah, blah, blah. you know all that stuff.

  Eric Panecki

  Guest

  30:49

  But also the Learning at the same time.

  Parker Little

  Host

  30:52

  Well learning And I was kind of finagling my way in. What happened was so usually there's like a GM and then there's like a sales manager or a GSM, so when the GM is not there, that's the boss, basically. And what I started doing is finagling my way in to those conversations with those guys, cause I'm just like a middle manager, basically, at this point I finagled my way in to be like, whenever they're looking through, like their P&L and their AR and their payables, i'm like what is that What's?

  31:19

  this, What's this? So I'd sit in their office and just like poke it. They probably fucking hated me, cause I'm like asking them a million questions. I'm like what about that? Why is? why are we writing off this percentage every month? Why, you know when there's a new ticket, why, if it's 90 days old, why isn't it happening? I'm asking just question. That's a great tons of questions.

  Eric Panecki

  Guest

  31:38

  That's a great lesson. It was awesome. That's a great lesson, i mean just in general, for people listening. you know, be curious, right? Yeah?

  Parker Little

  Host

  31:45

  it was definitely, definitely curiosity. But again, like, my context was like I know I'm not going to be here forever. I know I want to go into business for myself. Completely, i need to understand some of this stuff. Like what is the rationale behind you know, it's like if I were in your business I didn't understand lending. I'd be like what's an LTV? Yeah Right. Like it's like what is that? Explain that to me. How does that work? Okay, what are what does terms mean? I don't understand.

  John Libretti

  Host

  32:08

  Tell me what do you?

  Parker Little

  Host

  32:09

  you know it's just asking questions Like imagine if you had an 18 year old kid in here who had nothing, no understanding of any of it. Okay, well, where do closing costs come from? What you know, like all the basic stuff, but to him it's new. That's all I was doing. I was asking a ton of information And then finally I kind of finagled my way into being like the GM.

  John Libretti

  Host

  32:27

  On Sunday I was like look, just let me do it.

  Parker Little

  Host

  32:28

  So. So what? now I'm desking deals And at the time what that is is like I don't know if you guys know the business model like a car dealership, but you know there's salespeople, there's a up, it's called up rotation Means, like if there's 10 of them. It's like you're up, somebody comes in, that's your up, you take them and go do your thing. Next person that come in it's you're up, you take them, go do your thing. So you're up.

  Eric Panecki

  Guest

  32:49

  It's like a round robin Round robin Right. Yep, yep, exactly For the for the foot traffic, but the lead is the people coming in.

  Parker Little

  Host

  32:54

  Foot traffic and E-lead traffic too.

  Eric Panecki

  Guest

  32:56

  By the way, there's round robin for that Makes sense.

  Parker Little

  Host

  32:59

  So basically, i would be the GM on Sunday. I eventually got to where I'm like the GM on Sunday. There's no pay benefit to that, by the way, but I did it only because now I have access to the system. So all the questions I'm asking the system they're using it was it's called IDS at the time. It's some old shit system that you're using, but I got access to this thing that I didn't really have full access to before, but they gave it to me because now I have to kind of be able to see like gross profit on every unit and da, da, da, like I have to see all that to be able to work deals, because I was there to help salespeople close deals.

  Eric Panecki

  Guest

  33:33

  So I'm like not necessarily, you need to know where you can bend and how far you can go. Right, yeah, exactly.

  Parker Little

  Host

  33:37

  So I know, okay, we have six grand in fat here on this deal And this guy's asking for five grand off go back in and close and met too often make it sound good Like you know, like that kind of thing Right. So through that process I was doing that a bunch, which was a very good learning experience And I always joke about that period of time as being very formative for me in terms of understanding how to run a pretty big business. You know they do on a hundred million dollars a year per store. You know give or take a couple million, 10 million or whatever. So I'm, you know, 21, 22, end up. You know, being part of the management in these stores And really like, even when they bought, they started doing a rollup because they're familiar with private equity rollups. They started doing that. They weren't calling it that, but they're buying mom and pops And during that transition, you know the regional people would go into these new stores and I would always like advocate hey, let me come with, i can help just whatever reason cause I want to go see up front, i want to see up close, see what's happening, so I could see, you know, standardization of processes, i could see all the benefit, what they're doing.

  34:38

  I could understand it really clearly And I would go in and say like okay, well, the GM that we bought basically when we bought the dealership, he's driving one of the inventory trucks home and he's got an inventory boats at Nez House And like what the fuck? what's going on? Why don't we sell that? Cause you would see the aged inventory and it's like 482 days old. Like what the fuck is going on with it.

  34:59

  So we would dig into the numbers. and now it's our understanding, like, okay, you know used versus new, versus aged, inventory versus you know newer, you know the Bank of America floating the floor, pan lending. I understood, like there's just a bunch of like little things you understand, plus starting to manage people and start understanding all the intricacies of that. It was a very good learning experience how to run a business And I say I always joke about how not to run a culture, because the culture is very And I think it's this way for a lot of big corporations. It's very like if I come to you and you're my direct manager right in that business, at that time, anyways, i would say, hey, i've got this great idea, let's try something new. it's an experiment. There's a little risk with it, though, and I wanna try this thing because I think you know I'll pitch you on the benefit, right. There's almost no incentive for you to say, hell, yeah, let's try it, let's try it. yeah, it's more like that's gonna get me in trouble if we fuck it up.

  Eric Panecki

  Guest

  35:57

  Yeah, you gotta be safe and keep your job Right.

  Parker Little

  Host

  35:59

  exactly so everyone's just looking out for their own job And there is a little bit of push here and there to make it better whatever, but it's usually most of the ideas that get implemented are some corporate person somewhere. It's like we're doing this now. It's not from the ground up, it's all status quo.

  Eric Panecki

  Guest

  36:13

  It's on the ground, Shit yeah, right, and I've always.

  Parker Little

  Host

  36:15

  I always took that to heart, because that just creates like this political bullshitty environment where people just kinda stab each other in the back and blah, blah, blah. Right, and I get it in my context like blue collar hate authority. I fucking hate it, just miserable, miserable. So there's this they're still with the company, so I won't mention exactly but there's this incident where we were at this show and there's a miscommunication. this person didn't tell me to do something and then got angry at me for not doing this thing. And then, but this person was not like a direct manager, she was in this middle management, regional position. So she told the GM or GSN, i forget whatever this guy to fire me, basically. So, and he did, but I knew exactly what it was. It was like, oh really, she told you like you just tell me, bro, like it's fine, but he was not man enough to do that.

  37:08

  So I was like okay fine, whatever So, but here's how I got fired. Here's the number two.

  Eric Panecki

  Guest

  37:14

  Nice.

  Parker Little

  Host

  37:16

  And what happened was that was on a Friday and the show we did was right before that. So it was on a Friday when that happened And by the time Monday came around, i already had a new, better paying position in a different dealership. And how that worked was I had met this GM of another dealership, like at that show we were talking about, and we were just kind of. He was kind of similar minded and he was like, yeah, these people are fucking nuts, like you know. Just this is insane here, right. So we jammed a bit and we just got along right And I called him as soon as it happened. I said, hey, bro, you'll never guess what happened. And he's like, oh no shit.

  37:53

  He's kind of a bro. I said, look, you got. I'd love to come up there and do whatever. I know you have X, y and Z. He's like come up, be the finance manager. I said, okay, cool, done. He's like, but I don't know how I'm gonna work that out. I said, don't worry about it, i'll transfer myself. He's like what I was like, i'll transfer myself.

  Eric Panecki

  Guest

  38:08

  Well, you logged in.

  Parker Little

  Host

  38:09

  No, no, no no.

  Eric Panecki

  Guest

  38:10

  I didn't do anything crazy.

  Parker Little

  Host

  38:11

  What I did is went up to the office manager, who was a very sweet lady, and I said listen, i know you have termination paperwork for that, but if you could just be a doll and hold that until Monday that would be great because I'm being transferred.

  38:29

  So I didn't technically get fired. It was transfer paperwork. So cause she sent it immediately up to him and he's like transferred, boom approved, transferred. So I didn't get fired completely. So on Monday, boom, i'm in that dealership. I moved all my shit. In the weekend, boom, i'm in Knoxville now And at the new dealership, same logo on bam, i'm here. Way better paying job everything.

  John Libretti

  Host

  38:52

  Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah.

  Parker Little

  Host

  38:54

  So now I'm learning finance how to finance RVs, which was what I wanted to do, and the finance of RVs is like it's in between a mortgage and an auto loan basically It's somewhere in the middle. So I got to learn a lot That makes sense.

  Eric Panecki

  Guest

  39:07

  It's a mobile home, it's a car. Yeah, essentially, yeah, so you have to.

  Parker Little

  Host

  39:10

  There's a lot of protections you have to do, but there's a lot of upselling and things you could do in finance that I couldn't do in the like. If you go into selling RV, right, if you come in and say, okay, you want to buy this RV, cool, it's 50 grand, right? You say, i don't know, i can do 45.

  39:22

  So, I'll do it for 48, whatever. Okay, bang, great. You go into finance office it's like hey, you need tire protection, you need paint protection, you need gap insurance, you need bang, bang, bang bang. There's products you can sell, right. You guys are familiar with the menu Selling menu, like in finance. Okay, so how it's like back then it was a piece of paper, laminated piece of paper, and imagine you know what good, better, best model is where it's like here's 1099, 20, 30, and this is all the extra things you get, right?

  39:52

  I had always thought it was a learning experience, just on that one thing, because I had always thought about products and like, all right, I'm going to sell you something that's 10 bucks and this is what you get. I always thought of it as like, okay, and then I need to tell you, hey, but you can give me 20 bucks, I'll give you even more. But you can give me 30 bucks, I'll give you even more. What it did is gave me a paradigm shift where I thought down from the best to worst. So now, because they trained me to, you know, to put this thing out and say, okay, with, like, the platinum package, you get bang, bang, bang, bang, bang, bang, bang, bang, bang, bang, all this stuff. Right, Because everything.

  Eric Panecki

  Guest

  40:30

  So you're starting there. You're starting high as opposed to starting low.

  Parker Little

  Host

  40:33

  Right, starting high and like that's the most expensive payment. Okay, so you're adding in tens of thousands of dollars worth of shit that don't really need.

  Eric Panecki

  Guest

  40:39

  And then they're like well, you're price anchoring, kind of right.

  Parker Little

  Host

  40:42

  Kind of, yeah, kind of. So you're, you know, setting their position, like, hey, it's high, okay, well, anything's better than that. And they're like all right, so that's better than bronze, the garbage one you don't want, right. So I would go down, say, and that's the phrasing, i've always loved this phrasing. So it's like, imagine there's 10 items, right, i say one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, 10, right. And I say, and then I say, and I put the pen there, say yeah, you sign whatever. And then they say, well, you know that's, you know that's a thousand dollars over the payment I can do. I was like, oh, okay, well, i totally understand.

  41:08

  Well, if you wanted to do the gold, you forfeit. it comes with all that, but you forfeit. And then I would take the three that they don't get and focus on those, which is interesting to me because I'm a sales guy, right. So I'm thinking about okay, so you forfeit these three options. And then I'd go into depth of those three, like, with this you get bang, bang, bang, bang, bang, bang, bang, bang, bang, bang, bang, bang, bang. And with this, you get da, da, da, da, da, da da. But if you select gold, you're really forfeiting these options. Do you want to do that? And I just shut the fuck up.

  41:38

  I could sit here for 82 minutes straight And then you work your way down. but my average became much higher because now they're not thinking about oh, i got to pay more to get more. It's I'm losing out on if I keep going further down. Nobody wants to be bronze right.

  John Libretti

  Host

  41:53

  So once you go down to that second option, it's garbage.

  Parker Little

  Host

  41:55

  You don't even want the RV anymore. Yeah, so that made me start appreciating word tracks and setting people up in different ways when in terms of sale process. So it taught me a ton And actually I'll tell you a quick story.

  42:10

  So, in my office in Knoxville I had a. One of the one of the products you sold was tire protection, so it's like, and roadside assistance, So it's like, if you're tired, blew out, we'll pay for it and we'll send roadside out, whatever right. It was like it was nothing, but I made money on that, every single one. I made money. I can make 10 grand, i can make 20 grand, whatever. All these products together. So it mattered to me, made it on my paycheck, so I did. I took a shredded tire, like a little tire, just completely blown out, hung it on the wall behind me And what I would do? the best ones and I'll share the story. So, basically, what would happen would be there'd be a guy and his wife. They would come in. You gotta remember they've been on the lot for hours. Okay, so they've been on a lot for hours And you know, somebody sold them on an RV, right, and they came in to buy an.

  42:58

  RV, but they sold them on the RV. They maybe don't like the fact that they just got sold, They're you know, but they're happy because we're like, okay, cool, we pick the thing we like and we want to travel, whatever all this bullshit, right, And I had the salespeople fill out like a prep sheet for me, right? Like, understand nothing about the RV, nothing, Just tell me their story. I want to know what they're about right Once they're, you know they have kids, you know, whatever right I want to know.

  43:22

  So when they get in there and every I would have them notate if they're, if the guy was like had an ego or his little agro, because I'm like that's perfect, perfect, awesome, because I always turn them against each other. So what happened? Well, i remember one time it happened and this guy came in and he's all you know, they real big dude huffing and puffing. He's like oh yeah, we don't have to buy anything in here. Blah, blah, blah, blah. Okay, yeah, i totally understand. But I disregarded him basically from the moment I met them and just talked to her.

  43:50

  Hey how are you? Oh, well, well, i like that purse Well you need some water.

  43:53

  Hey, have a seat. You're like just catering to her right And like I'm talking like 30 minutes, i could tell he's getting frustrated So I just dragged longer and longer and longer just to get him riled up. So I'm doing this and she's she's loving it, right, she's getting attention and she's whatever, right? So I remember this couple Sam down my office and we're going through the pitch, you know whatever, and we get to the part of tire protection And the guy immediately was like no, i don't want to know. Now, it's too much, too expensive, right? I'm like, oh, okay, i said so. Let me paint a picture for you guys. So you're driving down I think it's I 40 up there.

  44:29

  I'm driving down I 40 and it's, it's storming out right, tarantula down, for you can barely see in front of you. You know you're slowing down, you're worried, you don't want to hide your plane trying to be careful of the ass trailer behind you. Right, you're going to do, and you feel, and you have to jerk off the road because your tire blew out. Oh no, right, i'm painting a picture.

  44:48

  And they're like you know they're on their fucking edge of the sea. I'm like, do this 40 times a day. Do it my sleep. Smoke a cigarette. I'm doing like oh so all right.

  44:56

  Getting there and, uh, you know they're leaning in and I'm I'm talking softer and softer because I want them to lean in, so they lean and lean. And then I say you pull over and you know you guys get out of the car. It's pouring rain, you're soaked, you know. You run out real quick. You see that one of your tires is completely shredded Right. And then I finally engaged with the guy and I say are you going to change that tire? And I get real loud. He says yeah, of course I'm going to change that tire. And then I go yes, i say I look at her, i say you're going to change that tire And she says no.

  45:30

  And then I say, okay, well, you definitely want to have the tire protection. So I but I had such a blast going through these techniques and like learning, like Oh, it's just, it's just you know positioning words to kind of get the end result.

  John Libretti

  Host

  45:45

  Yeah, what you're looking for, and it drives the bottom line.

  Parker Little

  Host

  45:47

  Word play, reverse psychology, all of it. Yeah, so that was like my first. like all the stuff before that was like, yeah, i was selling and like I was able to close stuff and whatever. But like that was the first time like, oh, this is a system that I can learn. Yeah, it got me really interested because before sales was like the sales I got to say all you know I was still. I was one of those people that you guys probably know. you know the new guy, right, who's like Oh God, i gotta make cold And then after that switch for me, right.

  Eric Panecki

  Guest

  46:12

  And then it's a game.

  Parker Little

  Host

  46:13

  Oh, it's a game And it's powerful. I was like Oh. I understand now. I love that.

  Eric Panecki

  Guest

  46:18

  So I got fired again.

  Parker Little

  Host

  46:21

  So I got fired again soon after that.

  Eric Panecki

  Guest

  46:23

  Well, i technically I guess I left but so so too many tire protection plays.

  Parker Little

  Host

  46:27

  No, no, what was very political there? They fired like all the management there because they bought this, a newer dealership. And then the regional guy was just kind of has headed up his ass. He talked to me and I was like I'm not fucking doing any of this, goodbye, and like I'm out of here like whatever Cause. I was working like a hundred hour weeks, 110 hour weeks. I had I pulled an RV around back, i was living in it, i'd walk.

  Eric Panecki

  Guest

  46:46

  Come on.

  Parker Little

  Host

  46:47

  Yeah, literally I pulled around back, plugged it in and then I would wake up early in the morning, really fucking early in the morning, walk in, turn the alarm off, flip the lights on, drink seven monsters and sit down at my computer all day long until everyone else left. I was last person there every day. Turn off the lights turn the alarm on, walk, walk to my stupid RV.

  47:06

  Everything like no days off, zero days off, just wow. And I just got burned out Like it was good money or whatever, but it's like this is what am I doing?

  Eric Panecki

  Guest

  47:14

  Why am I?

  Parker Little

  Host

  47:14

  building somebody else's shit business.

  Eric Panecki

  Guest

  47:16

  I was gonna say that.

  Parker Little

  Host

  47:17

  Yeah. So like this is in my head, i'm just getting toasted. So finally I left, took a few months off, basically just to like recalibrate my brain. Made some pretty bad decisions during that time period, but that was fun, fun stories. And then I was like, okay, i gotta get a job or something, right, like I gotta do something, i can't just sit around in my condo here. So my one of my employees from that dealership was like Hey man you know, i know you like sales.

  47:42

  Why don't you go try selling timeshare? I'm like, yeah, sure, whatever. So yeah, it's funny, but I did. I sent, i got connected with a guy, i did an interview. They hired me because they'll hire anyone, come to find out. But um went in and Basically the interesting part about that was they put me through a two week only sales training. So it was fortuitous timing for me because the grand scheme of things, like I didn't wanna be in that career, but the fact that they put me through training that was only for sales was awesome. Like they spent millions and millions of dollars on a sales program.

  48:22

  So like I'm talking, full booklets.

  48:24

  you have to fill out everything. you have to fill out like situation-based decision-making for just sales. And that was real interesting to me because I have two weeks of role-playing with people and like, okay, tell me, is he amiable? assertive, like understanding, like body language we were talking about that, like body language, understanding how to match that person, how to counteract certain things, how to ask a question. I was like, hey, john, what's your favorite color? What's your favorite? Blue, blue, okay, great. And then you forget about that question. it's in my head right, and later I'm trying to sell you something that's blue, right, and you're like I don't really know. I was like I'm a little confused, john, thought you liked blue.

  49:08

  I thought you liked. Remember earlier when you told me that you liked blue is your favorite color on the planet. What happened? What changed between now and then That makes you say you don't want blue now?

  John Libretti

  Host

  49:18

  Yeah, that's smart.

  Eric Panecki

  Guest

  49:19

  That's good. I don't understand.

  Parker Little

  Host

  49:21

  Are you confused? I'm confused, so right like it started teaching me more complex ways to do the same thing.

  49:29

  So, just getting better working on the craft And at the time I was like this job's fucking stupid. but looking back, those few pieces of sales knowledge have really impacted how I can do business now. Even training people how to sell, it's bar none. that training was fucking amazing And I took all their hits on the sit-still.

  49:51

  I did not steal for legal purposes. I borrowed some of their information when I left because they gave me a booklet that you fill out. It's like my writing's on there so I'm gonna take it with me. So even to this day I'll go reference some of that stuff, like it might be a little outdated but I'll go reference it. I'm like what was that word track that we used? I'll go look back and like, oh, that's super. It'll be like a way for me to create new ideas based around that. I'm not gonna use the same thing, but it's just something that will generate like, hey, why don't you try it this way? Because they did it this way and that did work. Okay, that's cool.

  50:21

  And I found out sales is a lot depending on the product. it's a lot about what the emotion is of that person And there's some industries you can't really do too much of that. but I always take that to heart because it's like what is the real motivation for this person to want the thing Right? if you're selling shoes to somebody, can you make that emotional? I think that's the question I always ask myself. It's like can you make this an emotional connection to the person?

  Eric Panecki

  Guest

  50:45

  Well, we deal with houses and properties. That's emotional. Yeah, yeah, 100%.

  Parker Little

  Host

  50:50

  What do you guys do that is so good at working out those deals in the sales process?

  Eric Panecki

  Guest

  50:57

  What do we do that's so good? I mean, for me it's look, i look at sales like it's like an equation, like it's what's the problem, how do I solve it? You really gotta identify what their actual problem is, because there's a lot of ways that we were talking about this. There's a lot of ways to skin the cat. We could be a cash deal, it could be. We could help them sell the property, we could list it. We could do a seller find it Like there's a lot of ways to skin the cat. But you gotta figure out how am I gonna solve their problem? And that's how I always looked at sales. I'm like more of it's more of a logic. You're saying emotion. I kinda look at it like a logic-based thing, but I think it's a little bit of both, right, i mean yeah.

  Parker Little

  Host

  51:37

  Yeah, for sure, because when they have emotion, that's high.

  Eric Panecki

  Guest

  51:44

  Okay, we're at 50 minutes. It's okay We'll wrap up in like five minutes, right.

  Parker Little

  Host

  51:49

  Oh yeah, sorry.

  Eric Panecki

  Guest

  51:50

  No, you can, we'll cut it out, it's fine. but whatever you just say, keep them. What was I saying? I was saying it's a little bit of both so you gotta be logic-almost.

  Parker Little

  Host

  51:56

  Oh, right, right. So the adage that I've always said is like when emotion is high, people buy Because, if you can, if because, like as an example, yeah, you say it's logic, but you just said it's. Remember earlier when you said it's emotion.

  John Libretti

  Host

  52:07

  Yeah, yeah, yeah.

  Parker Little

  Host

  52:08

  So because it is emotion, like if you call somebody, i don't know who your target is, but like if somebody is like, hey, i'm struggling, I gotta get out of this property, whatever, that's pretty fucking emotional, for sure, right. And if you come at it like, okay, totally understand, let me just say, yeah, that'll probably work, but your conversion rate on somebody that's like, hey, oh, i'm so sorry you're going through that.

  Eric Panecki

  Guest

  52:25

  Yeah.

  Parker Little

  Host

  52:27

  And you're that connection because, like I used to do this all the time, i still do it to I do if I'm talking to somebody in the South, i'll throw on a Southern accent, like immediately, without thinking about it, because it's just, it's second nature, right. And if I'm talking to like an older lady, i'll talk to her like my grandma, right, and I'm super sweet and soft and to the because like that's what they're looking for here. And if they're in a situation like that, like I'm gonna cater to that situation by being understanding. And if I'm talking to her it's like look, i bought a dollar. I could do with $60,000, like I'll give you $42,000, how's?

  John Libretti

  Host

  52:59

  that.

  Parker Little

  Host

  53:00

  Like you know, like like fuck off, like you know, like if you just match the energy. And they're looking for some comfort, like yeah. Yeah you give them the comfort, give them what they need that's it.

  Eric Panecki

  Guest

  53:08

  But you're also you know, wow, i'm sure that's really tough for you.

  Parker Little

  Host

  53:11

  Yeah, yeah.

  Eric Panecki

  Guest

  53:12

  How is that affecting your family? Put yourself in there, yeah, put yourself in their shoes and the conversion rate's correct.

  Parker Little

  Host

  53:17

  So like it sounds a little cold, but like if you look at it from a metric perspective, like if you can match people, just that one thing match people then add in asking for their clothes, yeah, And doing things like that, like your conversion rate goes through the roof. Oh yeah, on whatever you're doing.

  Eric Panecki

  Guest

  53:34

  I've been told in my office that I end up talking like whoever I'm talking to. Yeah, They can tell who I'm talking like. am I talking to like a Jewish guy?

  Parker Little

  Host

  53:40

  Yeah, yeah, like, and it's like I don't even, i don't even try to do it, i just do it by accident, and I mean, that's like that's really, that's mirroring right, like that's just. Yeah, it's all it is, And what it is is like if you're not trained to do that, but you're good, you'll pick up and it becomes just like a natural thing.

  John Libretti

  Host

  53:56

  So you don't even know this that you're doing No idea. Yeah, no clue, just pivot and auto-adjust.

  Parker Little

  Host

  54:01

  Yeah, literally, there's some video of me doing that cold call and I like I mean, like I was like hey, is this the one time I started talking to this Like, how are you doing, man? Like.

  John Libretti

  Host

  54:08

  I was like I didn't even know it.

  Parker Little

  Host

  54:10

  I was like I watched the thing. I'm like, oh my.

  Eric Panecki

  Guest

  54:11

  God, That's so funny, but yeah.

  Parker Little

  Host

  54:13

  I mean, look it, that's what it takes in sales, because you're like not to sound shitty about it, but you are trying to get a result. You are trying to manipulate to some extent not maliciously, you're trying to solve the problem, but it but people need to direction and you have to build the framework and direct them That if you don't know what you're doing, you're just going to, like, stumble over yourself, right, Until you get there.

  Eric Panecki

  Guest

  54:36

  So we're running up on time here, but I think I, I think I figured you out.

  Parker Little

  Host

  54:42

  Oh, tell me please. I think I figured you out. I'm like, what am I my therapist though?

  Eric Panecki

  Guest

  54:45

  Right, i'll write him a memo.

  Parker Little

  Host

  54:47

  Yeah, please.

  Eric Panecki

  Guest

  54:49

  No, I mean, we had a podcast that was all about focus.

  Parker Little

  Host

  54:51

  And we had.

  Eric Panecki

  Guest

  54:52

  we had somebody come on that that was you know, he's a young kid, he's killing it And he has a. he has a big goal in. everything that he does is centered towards that goal. Right, and I think that really works for him. Book I'm reading now talks about you know figuring out how to figure out one. what's your unique ability, what are you really good at Right, And then how to design your day or your life in a way where you're doing more of just that. Yeah, so I, you know you're good at a lot of things. It seems like you're really good at sales, obviously. It seems like you're good at building teams, building companies, putting right people in the right place. But what is? what do you think is your unique? What are you really good at, better than anybody else?

  Parker Little

  Host

  55:38

  That's tough. I mean it's going to sound corny, but I'm willing to go places other people aren't and essentially just never stop until I get it. If I have an objective I set out to do unless it's a I know it's a bullshit thing and I'm not really committed to it I'll drop it. But if it's something serious, i commit myself to it in very serious ways. I'm it's at my hill. To die on is how I think of it, cause, like I joke about it, i was like we're all going to die And like this is the thing I like doing, and it would be foolish of me to not capitalize on doing something I enjoy and can be good at it at certain times and do it half-assed. If I do it half-assed, i'm disappointing myself and people around me. That's how I think of it. So I think I'm a dog.

  56:33

  That won't let go of a bone The best way I can describe that.

  Eric Panecki

  Guest

  56:36

  Wow, i love it.

  John Libretti

  Host

  56:37

  I feel like Parker's exactly. I know for a fact Parker's exactly like us. Like in the sense of like what does Dana White say?

  Parker Little

  Host

  56:43

  bet on me like bet against me, watch me, like I fucking love it. He's like, tell me, tell me, i can't do it, like all right now I'm really going to do it. Yeah, i'm really going to do it. I'll drop everything tomorrow and I'm going to do that for the rest of my life. 100%, yeah, 100%.

  John Libretti

  Host

  56:54

  I love it.

  Parker Little

  Host

  56:54

  That's positive, hopefully.

  Eric Panecki

  Guest

  56:57

  We'll see. So if you're giving advice to someone that's, you know, on the fence, they want to. They're not sure if this game is for them. They want to be an entrepreneur. I mean, you were born an entrepreneur. It sounds like I personally believe that you're born an entrepreneur or you're not. Some people think you can learn it. I'm not sure.

  Parker Little

  Host

  57:14

  I don't think you can learn it but I think being born has a into. It has, like a natural, you know, gravitation towards or proclivity towards, like not wanting to listen to people. Listen to your own shit, pay for your own path Yeah, but if you're on the edge of becoming an entrepreneur, you know whether that depends on where you're at. Obviously, because it's a general statement, is tough. But if you're considering it, do your due diligence, do your due diligence And then if it's something that you're you know you feel strongly about and you think you have the skill to do it, do it and don't look back And put every ounce of energy you have into making it work for as long as you can. That's it. I love that. I love it. Burn the boats, baby. Burn the boats.

  57:58

  That's right, that's awesome. That's awesome.

  Eric Panecki

  Guest

  58:00

  Parker, you're the man I think we got to wrap this up. All right, we appreciate having you here. I think we got to do another one, because I don't even think we got.

  John Libretti

  Host

  58:06

  We definitely have this up Ranted, but Parker, where do?

  Parker Little

  Host

  58:12

  people find you bro, So let's see Instagram Parker D little LinkedIn, but don't message me there because I'll never see it.

  Eric Panecki

  Guest

  58:20

  I said,Eric Panecki

  Guest

  00:00

  Three, two, one go All right. Teals and Dollars podcast. Baby, We got a good one for you today. We got a good one for you today. I'm really really excited for this. Today we have Parker Little, a little back story. We came on your podcast, which was me and John and it was. We had a great time.

  John Libretti

  Host

  00:27

  I had a great time, it was good. I had a great time, it was good, it was good. Miami, miami.

  Eric Panecki

  Guest

  00:31

  Anything in Miami, you know, is just a little bit better.

  John Libretti

  Host

  00:33

  It's just a little escalator. It's a little better. It's a little better. How did we meet? Oh, we met him through Dave Saveall from Bowery.

  Eric Panecki

  Guest

  00:38

  Yes, yeah.

  John Libretti

  Host

  00:40

  We went to the. we went to a cafe, something in Windwood prior to when we first met you, right, oh yeah Right, some car car coffee there.

  Parker Little

  Host

  00:48

  Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, i forget where we met. No, we went to the. There's a Mediterranean place there, doi Oh that was good.

  John Libretti

  Host

  00:55

  Right.

  Parker Little

  Host

  00:56

  Didn't we do that? Yeah, oh no.

  John Libretti

  Host

  00:57

  I had a meeting there and then I met you guys, sorry, i said it was some coffee shop with, like car, a bunch of sick porches in there.

  Parker Little

  Host

  01:03

  Yeah, I forget the name of it, but it's like a guitar place too.

  Eric Panecki

  Guest

  01:05

  Yeah, yeah, yeah.

  Parker Little

  Host

  01:06

  So I sell a bunch of guitars in there. I wish I could remember the stupid name.

  Eric Panecki

  Guest

  01:08

  Yeah, yeah, yeah, that place was awesome. So, parker, i mean dude, you I can't even really explain what you do because you do so much And and from the minute I met you, i was like this guy's, this guy's different.

  John Libretti

  Host

  01:19

  He's a savage, he's something else.

  Eric Panecki

  Guest

  01:21

  He's something else, and and so I think I'd be doing you a disjust doing your intro. but why? why don't you just kind of give everybody an overview of of who you are and what you do currently?

  Parker Little

  Host

  01:32

  That's difficult. I don't really have an answer either. I do whatever I can do to make money and be interested in what I'm doing. So basically I have a bunch of different companies. The main focus right now is my marketing business. my marketing agency is a digital marketing agency. We started that in 2010. My first paying client was a thousand bucks a month. started from zero, wow. You know, i've got guitar schools in Tokyo, yokohama, in Hong Kong, real estate stuff here and there, just kind of all over the place Looking at some new interesting stuff that you and I have talked about. you know, off air, that gets me a little excited. But my background is basically sales, and marketing is the easiest way to describe it. But now branching off into, you know, building companies, but with that in mind, because you know, my thought process is I might not know a lot about the thing, but I can sell the thing Right. So if you start there, it's a pretty good start. So that's the simplest way I could describe what I do.

  Eric Panecki

  Guest

  02:32

  I think So the best, the best, i think. Quote we were at a, at a. What was it lunch in the city? Yeah, restoration hardware, The rooftop. Yeah, That was the four of us. It was me, John and Dave and Anthony our guy Anthony and Parker, And Parker's talking about what he does, which, like you, just sold yourself so short because it's actually. It's actually.

  Parker Little

  Host

  02:55

  I didn't hype it up enough.

  John Libretti

  Host

  02:57

  It's actually insane what you do, i mean you're, it's like well you're in like five diff, like five totally different arenas, maybe even more, but like all very different things.

  Parker Little

  Host

  03:06

  Yeah, but, but it's to me, yeah, okay, yes, but also like to me, it's like it's all the same thing, just understanding business and understanding, Okay, what needs to happen in business. Like you know, you get both. Now, like when you build a business, there's only a few fundamentals that the concepts still apply.

  Eric Panecki

  Guest

  03:21

  Still applies.

  Parker Little

  Host

  03:23

  So my, my passion has always been not necessarily what the business about, it's just the action of doing that. I like the action of like if it weren't this. I'd be like a degenerate gambler or something. It's terrible.

  John Libretti

  Host

  03:35

  So at least this is productive.

  Eric Panecki

  Guest

  03:36

  I know where you were just about to go with that, so so so he's telling a story about, I mean, you're, you're a high school dropout, right? You dropped out of high school.

  03:43

  Yeah, dropped out, i was going into the 10th grade and I dropped out, okay. And so he's telling a story about how he built these businesses and highly successful business doing millions and millions of dollars a year, and you're in all these different verticals and you're everywhere and you're always going and and my partner, dave looks at me goes well, well, well, how did you, how did you do that? Just like how did you? first he said who are you? How did you do all that?

  John Libretti

  Host

  04:09

  And you look at him and you're like what which?

  Parker Little

  Host

  04:10

  way, Dave goes all of it.

  Eric Panecki

  Guest

  04:11

  I don't understand the question which is like I think my I mean he's Dave said it, but my thought rises like dude, where the hell are you Get the time Like what?

  Parker Little

  Host

  04:24

  Well, i think now. So I would say like I mean, there's so many buckets here And I have to preface this, anyone watching. I have severe, i'm pretty sure severe ADHD in all realms here. So business included, like you can tell me a business right now, pitch me. I'm like that's a fucking good idea, let's go do it. Like, and tomorrow I'm going to be texting, but hey, well, you want to do this, you're going to be like I was just kind of saying some offhand remark. I'm like no, let's do it, it's a problem. So, which is probably answers a lot of these questions.

  04:55

  But yeah, i just get really curious about stuff, man, and I I become obsessed. Is what really happens? I become obsessed. Like when I first started like marketing stuff, i didn't know anything about marketing. When I first started learning about real estate, i didn't knew nothing about real estate, but something about it piques my interest And then I just start. That's all I think about 24, seven And I just keep doing that until I learned more.

  05:17

  I meet people that are interested and they are having more experience. I learned from them and asked them questions And I'm just constantly gathering information to inform my next decision related to it and hopefully find an opportunity in that process. So you know there's a plenty of them that happen And I've talked to you about a couple, but you know there's plenty that happen. And like even I had a meeting last week with my partner in the guitar schools in Asia. We were talking about like Oh man, it'd be great if we could just target an international market in this way and that way. And I throw out this idea of just doing, like, virtual lessons. And he's like, yeah, but the problem is, you know all of our teachers are in, you know, this hemisphere you know, and I said, yeah, cool, but you went to Berkeley and you know a ton of guitar teachers, right?

  06:02

  Yeah, okay, so we'll call 50 of them and work out deals so we can subcontract it out and try to fulfill the service. Because give me something to sell. This is what I told him. I was like, give me something to go sell Yeah, so it's. It's just following threads of opportunity And like you run into a roadblock, okay, that might not work for whatever reasons to. It's not profitable, it's hard to fulfill, it's.

  06:22

  You know, i don't really think in terms of like, Okay, what is the? this new initiative or new business? I don't think in terms of like, okay, how much time will that cost me And will I get a good return from that time? No, i don't really think of that. I exhaust all options And I'm like Okay, this is a good or bad thing. And then, once it's operating, then it becomes a time management thing And for me, i'm very, very, very, very dialed in with my organization of my day, like to the minute tasks, like high priority items, low priority, whatever delegation, all that stuff is, at this stage, pretty dialed in. I've done it myself for a long, long long time Yeah.

  06:56

  But now it's like I understand pretty clearly what I'm really good at And I just want to focus my day around that. Now there's times that doesn't happen. You know. You guys know just as well as anyone else. You know it doesn't happen all the time. Sometimes you just get shit in your lap and you get a fucking deal.

  07:09

  Yeah happens Like I'll have a perfect, like literally last, maybe last Monday weeks right Together, recently, one of the Mondays recently. I'm like, okay, i'm pumped, get up in the morning above early, i'm ready to go. My day's locked in. Look at my color coded calendar with 47 things on it. I'm like, Okay, i feel good, i know what the day's about. And as soon as the day started, issue issue, issue, issue issue. And like, none of that got done, it's just completely scrapped. But that's just how it is. But I think for me I told you this early, i said you got to have a little self hate And for me I have a lot of self hate.

  07:47

  So at the end of the day, if I have like three things, i like those are critical items for one of the businesses or whatever. Right, speaking a little general here, because you know I can go specific if you want, but you know just say there's three items that you really need to get done. If by the end of the day I'm about to go to bed or I'm really tired because I'm beat, usually I'm like Oh, and I'll look. And if there's still some that one there, i get angry. I'm like Get off your ass, go do it. And like, even if I'm exhausted, i'm like I'll try to force my way through it. Maybe I can't do it, maybe we'll like I make the effort every single day. There's not a day that goes by that I'm like Yeah, i'm like you guys know me long enough now.

  08:25

  It's like I'm pretty much always just on.

  08:27

  Yeah there's no way. And like I said this recently, i think, on my podcast about this, but like it's really hard for me to turn it off, and I came home to work, from work when I was like 10 o'clock at night, 9, 30, whatever And my girlfriend's, like you know, she's done for the day, you know, she's, like you know, ready to fall asleep And I, something that day sparked my interest like the same, like a thread popped up that I wanted to pull on. So in my head, like if I'm not talking to you guys, you guys know how much I talk and how fast I talk right, it's a lot, for most people It's too much, but if there's a thread I'm pulling on my mind, i won't say anything, you'll know, because you're thinking about something I'm just thinking about.

  Eric Panecki

  Guest

  09:04

  the wheels are turning.

  Parker Little

  Host

  09:05

  Yeah wheels are turning, And so I was like that. And then I finally was like Hey, what do you think about?

  John Libretti

  Host

  09:11

  that.

  Parker Little

  Host

  09:11

  Just like going and she's like you're a lot right now, Can you just like?

  09:16

  oh yeah, yeah, 1045 at night, on whatever day, yeah. So yeah, I mean honestly, i just pull threads and then I stay really consistent and organize about my my shit and get it done. That's how I think of it. I don't really think bigger than that in terms of working toward something. You know, i might have a goal like Hey, i want to like easy goal right Sales. Like Hey, i want to X amount. That's a very easy one metric. But how do you get there? What does that look like? Okay, how consistent. Okay, you need to do X of these a day, whatever. Okay. So who on your team is going to do what? Here's your dialers, here's your email leaders, here's your follow-upers, whatever you, how you're restructuring it. And then it's just a numbers game and everything's a numbers game to me from that perspective. You know it's the power of, of compounding is a big deal in my mind. That's a that's the roundabout way to say it. Just just keep doing shit every day.

  Eric Panecki

  Guest

  10:06

  So I mean, look, let me just paint a picture here. So how many businesses are you currently involved in?

  Parker Little

  Host

  10:18

  I Mean like daily involved in or like are you actually you have?

  John Libretti

  Host

  10:23

  Interest and whatever Yeah whether you're running it day to day or you just have a ownership interest.

  Parker Little

  Host

  10:28

  Yeah, okay so, and we're defining as ongoing operations, not like entities.

  Eric Panecki

  Guest

  10:31

  Right Yeah, building not like a property that has its own.

  Parker Little

  Host

  10:37

  Yeah, okay, all right. so I think 18 or so.

  Eric Panecki

  Guest

  10:40

  Wow, yeah, okay, and though, do you this? maybe you don't know this off the top of your head. How much of revenue are all of those businesses doing? I don't know Collectively.

  Parker Little

  Host

  10:49

  Give me a good you have a range ballpark number on it all of them together.

  Eric Panecki

  Guest

  10:54

  Yeah. Hey, eight figures, eight figures eight figures a year, that's yeah very significant. Yeah, i mean, but some of them are higher margins of the mark right, you know, but still I mean that's, that's so I'm going somewhere with this right, so you're running 18.

  11:11

  You're part of yeah, i'm not involved daily with all of them and then so the next question is, like what Dave said How did you do all that? I Guess what I struggle with personally and this is this is out of my own need is I Love to be super regimented with my day, but it never goes according to my plan, so I'm always putting out fires. Tell, talk me through your, your, your planning process for your day, your tasks, your agenda and how you're getting so much done. And then also, what I hate is letting people down, which is like I can't make this meeting and something came up. I'm a bot and I hate that part of it.

  Parker Little

  Host

  11:50

  See, i don't think that way. I think no is the best thing in the world. Okay, i say no a lot of things, okay, but I would say that there's a balance for me, the balance of saying no to things that aren't critical in that moment But saying yes to things that have some serendipity to it, i guess is the best way to describe. Like there's people that I've met on Twitter that are I know they're doing things, but there's no like direct path to be like, oh, we're gonna work together. I don't, i don't really know, but I have a feeling, Yeah, the intuition you have, i'll say, okay, cool, let's go grab a beer or something, and that, you know, becomes a relationship and that turns into something. You guys know me, you guys are master Networkers, right, so you understand how that works.

  12:30

  But I think that's I Never neglect that the yes part, where I like I'll go do something with somebody that is new to my world, right, because that's it's interesting, right, and like great examples, like you guys in Miami, like Dave's and you know What up about, whatever, like I don't, i had no idea who you guys are, no idea what you did. Like he, i don't even know how he preferences. It maybe like hey, either lenders or something, that was it. Like there's no context. I'm okay, cool, no, and he said cars like you guys come like okay, fair, fair enough, i'm in the area, cool, let's do it. That was it right. And like, in terms of meeting people, that's a bucket for me because I always want to meet new people. You're always prior, that's a prior.

  13:08

  That's a priority for me because um, I Don't want to sound some corny asshole but like the net worth network thing.

  Eric Panecki

  Guest

  13:15

  Yeah cliche. No, it's true. No, it's very true. Cliche's exist for a reason. Yeah, it's not.

  John Libretti

  Host

  13:21

  You never know who you're gonna meet next and what what they're doing yeah, what? what part of what you're doing they could fit into, or maybe not. Maybe use them down the road, but you never know.

  Parker Little

  Host

  13:28

  But the interesting part to me is Now, at this point in my life I don't really think about like I'm gonna meet John and then I'm gonna.

  13:37

  I could work a deal with him, i'm gonna make some money, i'm gonna. I don't really think about that at all. In fact, that's pretty much the last thing on my mind. When I meet somebody new, i'm usually thinking like I think value first a lot and not how can I provide value. And not even like a cheesy sense, because I feel like a lot of people have like Taking that phrase hostage a bit, yeah, and they're just like how can I provide value until they give me what?

  Eric Panecki

  Guest

  13:58

  I want.

  Parker Little

  Host

  13:58

  Yeah, yeah, you know you fuck, just give, no, just give. And like how that manifests in my life is like Connecting you with like the guy down 30 a and like talk, talk to him, he's interesting, you know he's doing cool projects. Like maybe that manifests some way for you, maybe not, whatever.

  14:15

  Like at least if you go there you know a guy who's doing interesting things you know, and that's how I think about it, and the phrase I use now is like becoming a super connector, and I know you guys know this power. But you know, if I can connect you, like tell me a problem you have, i can connect you somebody that can help you solve, yeah it, maybe I can help you. But if not, i know somebody that I got a guy right, and that ability I feel like unlocks a lot of doors, and not really in the sense of like if I do that for you, you get. I get something like not like that, not a tip for that, but more in the sense of reputational, like Go to go to Parker if you need something, because now you make yourself the guy you need something.

  Eric Panecki

  Guest

  14:53

  They're both you guys both. Yeah, I think you do a great job. He's amazing at it and I know you are too. You.

  Parker Little

  Host

  14:59

  I don't think I'm in his low. I think he does better than me actually really Yeah.

  15:02

  Yeah, i think I think you have it dialed in. Why do you think that I'm curious? Um, well, we've had conversations where you're willing to help me in certain instances, above and beyond what even a normal thing would be right, um, and it impressed me. It impressed me because it's it's unique, it's not something that most people do, and because now it's like look, we're in a world now where there's so much information, there's so much entertainment, there's so many people doing many things, like whether some are real and fake, like whatever. There's just there's a million things happening all at once, right, and you know, the equalizer is time. And if you tell me you're willing to spend an hour doing something with me for no benefit to you, i'm like, oh shit, okay, that's interesting, because why Maybe nothing for you? Maybe maybe you know, like I got people in my pocket, i can send you what? Okay, cool, whatever, but the still time is time.

  John Libretti

  Host

  15:59

  I know the exact conversation you're referring to. And like for me it's. it's kind of like I just know that if roles were switched, you do the exact same thing And I don't feel like that with a lot of people.

  Eric Panecki

  Guest

  16:10

  But if I do, if you pick up on it right even easier right, you know, john, you don't just do that for Parker, though, and that's that's.

  Parker Little

  Host

  16:18

  That's what you really pick up on. You know that Because it's like I'm no different than the next guy. You mean whatever like different personality, whatever, but like you're you're. Your willingness to say yes to that, like you said, tells me that you do it with more people than just one. Well, you know what Like it means you're generous with your time.

  Eric Panecki

  Guest

  16:37

  In that sense, i've become I don't want to say dependent, but it's like I need a guy for this And like I'm just like John probably has a guy and he always has a guy.

  John Libretti

  Host

  16:46

  Yeah, always has a guy.

  Eric Panecki

  Guest

  16:47

  Yeah, of course, but I could say that vice versa, like we do that back and forth a lot with the old two, but you like, like, we needed t-shirts this weekend And I was like you know, i'm like all right, well, i mean, we've ordered apparel for our company a million times. I'm like I should have somebody somewhere to go. And then we couldn't find somebody to get it done in the amount of time we needed, and immediately John had a guy that actually is in New York.

  Parker Little

  Host

  17:09

  Pulls up in a van and starts making the things I'm like. how do you?

  Eric Panecki

  Guest

  17:12

  have this guy Like always. It's just that it's always and, and like you two, both, i mean, you know, not barely. we met one time and you're already hooking me up with people.

  John Libretti

  Host

  17:23

  And.

  Eric Panecki

  Guest

  17:23

  I think I mean that's just such a such a valuable skill you have.

  Parker Little

  Host

  17:27

  Well, i don't know if it's a skill, i think it's a character thing, yeah.

  17:30

  I don't you know like everybody can. Like here's how you go into your phone book and grabs him in here, like that's the skill. Yeah, okay, that's not really a skill. In my head It's like how are you raised? You know, did your father do that? Like, maybe, if not maybe you, he didn't do it enough and you think I want to do it And that's how it formed your opinion. And you saw a mentor in your in life that did it And you're like that worked really well for them because the reputational benefit or whatever the thing is right, and you locked onto it Like that's awesome. Or you just like being the guy Yeah, i mean, honestly, it feels good.

  John Libretti

  Host

  18:00

  Like I would, like you said right, I was kind of just brought up like that, I was always like that, But really it was. It was our deals and dollars event that we threw like that's what. Really, I don't know like you would, Eric introduced me to the mentality called the good guy, The mentality called the go give her mentality which is exactly you know you know what it is And that's kind of like I don't know. correct me if I'm wrong. That was kind of like the preface of like our event.

  Eric Panecki

  Guest

  18:19

  That was the whole. that was like the whole preference Give, give with no expectation.

  John Libretti

  Host

  18:24

  Like how can we put all these high value people doing this, this and this That's all part of the real estate full circle transaction, whatever you want to call it in the same room in a fun, interactive environment to interact with one another And, you know, just expecting nothing from it? Right, Like here's, everybody try to make something work And I don't know. I think kind of just like I think I saw what the feedback was from that event and how many people were like appreciative and grateful and actually how many people like I had at least 510 people tell me oh, I got a deal from this person at your event or I had something actually come from the person that you put me in the room with.

  18:58

  And that actually kind of meant a lot to me.

  Parker Little

  Host

  19:00

  Yeah, You know, and it's still. It's like a roundabout where you're doing the same thing, but at scale a bit 100%, Which is really cool. I like the idea you guys have for that It was it was the go giver, right Give with that.

  Eric Panecki

  Guest

  19:11

  But also to be like the hub, right Like if we could be the hub with all these spokes out here, right, and everybody can come in to us first and then, like we can put them in the spot.

  Parker Little

  Host

  19:20

  Yeah, if you're the common denominator, people will come to you more often and you'll get leads. There's a bunch of business benefits.

  John Libretti

  Host

  19:25

  And this goes back to exactly what you're saying, right? Like I think everybody loves to be the man, like I don't want to be the man. To be the man, i like to be the person that everybody goes to for whatever, because it's going to open doors that you don't even know are there, whether it's something as stupid as somebody needing, like who texted us for a reservation at Carbone in Miami recently Like that's pretty crazy.

  19:45

  Or somebody that's looking for financing and depending on a deal right, maybe it's a deal that doesn't work for them, but maybe Eric will buy it Like it's always something you know, or you connect them with somebody else that wants to buy it or whatever, and then you've been looking for a dollar on it, but maybe it's going to open up the door to do more debt.

  19:59

  Or maybe it's going to open up some guy who you know wants to sell all his properties off market in Newark And I could put. you know, eric's king of Newark put him in with that.

  Parker Little

  Host

  20:06

  And what happens is that one guy like, say you do that for 100 people. One, two, three of those people are like hey, i'm going to keep doing this with you over and over, and over And then that relationship becomes something over time.

  John Libretti

  Host

  20:16

  What you do with 10 people how many people do those 10 people know? I said this once on a podcast. I was like you never know who knows who And I really try to like stay true to that. Like one day, just to shorten it up one day a kid messaged me on LinkedIn like a couple years ago, if I didn't answer that message on LinkedIn and talk to that kid, i would not have any business in Los Angeles Now. Like 30% of my probably a little less now, but like 30% of my pipeline is in LA All because I just answered a DM at midnight.

  Eric Panecki

  Guest

  20:42

  And not to mention next week. we're going to his office and he has somebody that wants to write us like a $7 million check to fund For one deal.

  John Libretti

  Host

  20:50

  And this kid is he's put me in touch with three or four clients. Those are the first three or four people that he put me in touch with in LA.

  Parker Little

  Host

  20:55

  They were all north of 70, 80 million net worth some of which are a couple hundred million, makes me think I need to go into the hundreds of LinkedIn unread messages. Yeah, right, yeah, there's so many.

  John Libretti

  Host

  21:06

  It's like you never it all goes to what we were saying, like you never know who knows who. So true, that's why you help, you know I try to like, within reason, help everybody, do you know. do what you can.

  Parker Little

  Host

  21:13

  Well, and the crazy part is like the world is much smaller than people think.

  Eric Panecki

  Guest

  21:16

  Yeah.

  Parker Little

  Host

  21:17

  Like you know, you're once or twice removed from pretty crazy people. Like I know people in Miami that have connections to a lot of well-known people and whatnot, And it's just it's weird to talk to them about it. It's like yeah, it's just normal guy, i'm like what?

  John Libretti

  Host

  21:29

  And even going to some of the events in Miami, it's just like, yeah, but when you probably were Ross walking by yourself, like, yeah, when you were happening, you're close with what's his name down there. I want to say Nios, but like you probably are rolling in the circles of pretty crazy fucking, it's interesting. Yeah, a lot of interesting people. Let me tell you It's, it's why?

  Parker Little

  Host

  21:45

  because like, and I'm not like, i'm definitely not one of those people that gets. I get you call it star struck. I don't have that because I kind of have this baseline, you know I. so I grew up I guess you don't know if you guys know this map, so I'll tell you a very quick story. but I grew up in a mobile home, you know, in Tallahassee, florida.

  22:05

  No way Yeah, There's 3,400,000 people in that town. Very, very blue collar. My dad had a body shop business, So collision center. He started when he was 21, had zero business experience when he started zero, And it was a big, big jump for him. You know, he worked in body shops as a kid and whatnot, But so he went out on his own. You know, by the time he was 30, he had three sons, a wife you know this mobile home and IRS debt and the business was failing and he's working 100 hours a week And it was like just very, very stressful for him, Right.

  22:42

  But I was raised in that environment of watching him just work his tail off every single day, And so that that's where I picked up on, like you can always work harder because the bar is there, Right. So I always had that And you know, he, I come to this mentality is like what hard work looks like is very, very, very hard work. So that's the preface now, Probably why I work really hard. Number one, because I always I might work hard and work harder than a lot of people, I think, but I never feel like I'm working hard enough. So it's tied to that, But also tied into this with you know celebrities and people that are well known Like I? don't? you know, I'm thinking like what you do is 10 times easier than what I've seen.

  23:30

  But you know, he says like I'm on that default plane and whether it's true or not is a different conversation.

  John Libretti

  Host

  23:34

  That was just the mindset you have.

  Parker Little

  Host

  23:36

  Yeah, so it's like, if somebody like is a basketball player, i'm like, oh, that's cool. But you know, like I build, tried building, like a bunch of businesses you know like have IRS debt like all these, you know have stresses that are real.

  23:47

  You're not going to sit here and like drool over this guy, but it's like it's interesting because and I don't watch sports, So it's like, even further, i don't really care, but like it's interesting to talk to somebody that's interested, like that is smart and really understands the business of basketball. That gets me engaged. Oh cool, all right, we'll tell me what your thoughts are on ticket sales or how the stadium set up or you know whatever. That's interesting to me. But like how you make money, you're just an employee, like I'm just that's how I think of it.

  John Libretti

  Host

  24:11

  you know, Yeah, So it's not not that interesting to me, but it's all.

  Parker Little

  Host

  24:15

  it's, at the same time, still strange to see somebody that you see on a screen, you know for a while, and then you see them in person. You're just like oh he's, you know, fatter than I thought you know like, or whatever.

  24:24

  Right, It's like that, But it's you know, as soon as that wears off, you're just like oh okay, It's weird, you know, but I feel like every day of Miami is a pretty weird day. It's one of the strangest cities I've ever ever been in, honestly, And I've been all around the world at this point I think Miami is just like.

  John Libretti

  Host

  24:42

  I mean, obviously it's fun, this and that, but I think it's so unique in the sense that every five feet you meet somebody that has a ton of money but nobody's going, nobody's, nobody seems to be working ever. Yeah, nobody seems to be working, that's for sure.

  Parker Little

  Host

  24:55

  It's the only fans capital of the world. So, some article recently I came out about that. But yeah, a lot of people there. I don't really know what a lot of people do there. It's kind of like that.

  John Libretti

  Host

  25:06

  That was kind of where I was going with that too. You don't really know.

  Eric Panecki

  Guest

  25:09

  I don't know who does what, if anything, if anything you know they could have just a bunch of scammers too, A lot of scammers, a lot of insolent.

  Parker Little

  Host

  25:15

  You know. A lot of people like money and YouTube make millions of dollars on YouTube And they're like yeah, i'm not an entrepreneur, you just make content, though That's. I mean, i guess you can call it a business, but I don't know.

  John Libretti

  Host

  25:28

  In my head again, my default is like sell copper piping to you know, do something like difficult, yeah, like real busy, yeah, yeah, yeah, like go through the steps of actually building the path. Yeah, have a thought process.

  Parker Little

  Host

  25:40

  Have failure like not just like you know, talk to your cell phone. You know what I mean There's a lot of that there. There's a lot of people, you know now it's changing through COVID. A lot of Miami has changed, you know. Citadel has moved down. Several other big financial institutions have opened offices there. A ton, a ton of development.

  Eric Panecki

  Guest

  26:03

  How'd you end up in Miami? I mean so your dad's. You're in what's the town of.

  Parker Little

  Host

  26:08

  Yeah, i grew up in Tallahassee, but I so I'm skipping over a big part of the story here.

  Eric Panecki

  Guest

  26:12

  So I, I'm just curious.

  Parker Little

  Host

  26:13

  Yeah, so I mean long story short. I moved for business, work purposes, employees are in Miami and things of that nature. Yeah, yeah, yeah. But the longer story is that I actually moved from Tallahassee to another city to another city. I just kept moving around And I worked at a. The only corporate job I ever had was at a company called Camping World, and Camping World is a national RV dealer network. It's a corporate business. I don't know how many dealers they have now 200 and something probably more now.

  Eric Panecki

  Guest

  26:45

  It's an RV dealership.

  Parker Little

  Host

  26:46

  Dealer ships right. So dealership has several departments sales, service, finance, retail parts. You know it's a dealership. Yeah, so I started there making $28,000 a year. When was that So? that was in 2010, 2011, $28,000 a year. I had already started doing some marketing on the side, which was where my business came from.

  Eric Panecki

  Guest

  27:09

  I feel like you didn't last long there.

  Parker Little

  Host

  27:11

  So I got fired three times from that company.

  John Libretti

  Host

  27:13

  So Three times? Yeah, three times. How'd you get back in two times?

  Parker Little

  Host

  27:16

  A lot of weasel.

  Eric Panecki

  Guest

  27:17

  The salesman dude Yeah, a lot of weasel in your way through.

  Parker Little

  Host

  27:19

  So I'll tell you. So, the first time I got laid off technically And I tried to do a college, i tried like a community college for like a semester or two And then I was like fuck this, this is insane, because schooling is just not for me. Number one I have major authority issues. Like telling me to do something, i decided to go fuck yourself, basically. Second is, i was just not engaged with anything Like. There was a couple within that small period of time when I went to community colleges. There was like a couple of interesting courses, like some humanities. Like that was interesting, i like history, but if it didn't, you know, once that wears off, i didn't see any value. Like I'm doing the math. Like this professor makes $60,000 a year, why is he teaching me anything?

  John Libretti

  Host

  28:04

  Right.

  Parker Little

  Host

  28:04

  You know. So I'm thinking like that, which is, you know, you can argue that's probably not the right way to think about college education, but I just didn't see the point.

  Eric Panecki

  Guest

  28:11

  Well, why is this guy who's never built a business teaching me business?

  Parker Little

  Host

  28:14

  Well, and I just knew I was, i'm gonna go into it, i'm gonna be a business person. It's all I've ever thought of my entire life. Like you know, i made money, was in third grade selling pencils and paper. I washed cars and sold other things while I was in high school, you know. You know, making money was just always in my DNA. Right Now I didn't really understand what that meant, and you know the complexities around it in the real world. You know, once you grow up, i just knew that's what I, that's who I wanted to be, right, the business person. That's all only thing I've ever, ever, ever wanted really. So I just knew over time that's where I wanted to go. But I also knew I didn't know, i felt like I didn't know enough to really do it at that time, and so I tried this, the college thing for a bit and I was like, okay, well, i need to get a real job. You know I need to go to work, right. So I went back to Camping World and got a job And then that was a little bit, a little better income doing marketing, still in a business development marketing position, did that well for a while and actually did some new things that they had never done. That succeeded And then got an attention of a general manager in Atlanta who I don't know how he found me.

  29:25

  Somebody connected him to me Cause in that business at the time, you know you have a bunch of different dealerships right All over the country And they're kind of independent of each other but they also have like this corporate structure right Like process implementation or whatever. So there's some of that, but at that time was still very like hey, you own a dealer, you're the GM in Charlotte and you're the GM in Atlanta. You guys run your stores different ways and manage things differently. Cool. Now I think it's more like here's your rule books, stick to the fucking rule book. So the reason I say that's important is because or it's important because he called me cause he saw what I was doing with at the time. I was doing Facebook ads. I was, you know, at this time is 2012 or whatever Just crushing with Facebook ads.

  Eric Panecki

  Guest

  30:15

  Direct the best time to do it.

  Parker Little

  Host

  30:16

  I crushed, crushed And you get to remember, on the side I'm still building ALH, my marketing business, so I'm still building that on the side, having clients, whatever. And I was talking to him and he's like, look, come do this at my store. I was like I named a number. I was like give me this number and I'll do it. And he said, sure, so the next week.

  30:35

  I mean I moved to Atlanta next week And then from there you know, there's a period of time there I'm just working, working, working, building up their internet sales department, building out the processes, blah, blah, blah. you know all that stuff.

  Eric Panecki

  Guest

  30:49

  But also the Learning at the same time.

  Parker Little

  Host

  30:52

  Well learning And I was kind of finagling my way in. What happened was so usually there's like a GM and then there's like a sales manager or a GSM, so when the GM is not there, that's the boss, basically. And what I started doing is finagling my way in to those conversations with those guys, cause I'm just like a middle manager, basically, at this point I finagled my way in to be like, whenever they're looking through, like their P&L and their AR and their payables, i'm like what is that What's?

  31:19

  this, What's this? So I'd sit in their office and just like poke it. They probably fucking hated me, cause I'm like asking them a million questions. I'm like what about that? Why is? why are we writing off this percentage every month? Why, you know when there's a new ticket, why, if it's 90 days old, why isn't it happening? I'm asking just question. That's a great tons of questions.

  Eric Panecki

  Guest

  31:38

  That's a great lesson. It was awesome. That's a great lesson, i mean just in general, for people listening. you know, be curious, right? Yeah?

  Parker Little

  Host

  31:45

  it was definitely, definitely curiosity. But again, like, my context was like I know I'm not going to be here forever. I know I want to go into business for myself. Completely, i need to understand some of this stuff. Like what is the rationale behind you know, it's like if I were in your business I didn't understand lending. I'd be like what's an LTV? Yeah Right. Like it's like what is that? Explain that to me. How does that work? Okay, what are what does terms mean? I don't understand.

  John Libretti

  Host

  32:08

  Tell me what do you?

  Parker Little

  Host

  32:09

  you know it's just asking questions Like imagine if you had an 18 year old kid in here who had nothing, no understanding of any of it. Okay, well, where do closing costs come from? What you know, like all the basic stuff, but to him it's new. That's all I was doing. I was asking a ton of information And then finally I kind of finagled my way into being like the GM.

  John Libretti

  Host

  32:27

  On Sunday I was like look, just let me do it.

  Parker Little

  Host

  32:28

  So. So what? now I'm desking deals And at the time what that is is like I don't know if you guys know the business model like a car dealership, but you know there's salespeople, there's a up, it's called up rotation Means, like if there's 10 of them. It's like you're up, somebody comes in, that's your up, you take them and go do your thing. Next person that come in it's you're up, you take them, go do your thing. So you're up.

  Eric Panecki

  Guest

  32:49

  It's like a round robin Round robin Right. Yep, yep, exactly For the for the foot traffic, but the lead is the people coming in.

  Parker Little

  Host

  32:54

  Foot traffic and E-lead traffic too.

  Eric Panecki

  Guest

  32:56

  By the way, there's round robin for that Makes sense.

  Parker Little

  Host

  32:59

  So basically, i would be the GM on Sunday. I eventually got to where I'm like the GM on Sunday. There's no pay benefit to that, by the way, but I did it only because now I have access to the system. So all the questions I'm asking the system they're using it was it's called IDS at the time. It's some old shit system that you're using, but I got access to this thing that I didn't really have full access to before, but they gave it to me because now I have to kind of be able to see like gross profit on every unit and da, da, da, like I have to see all that to be able to work deals, because I was there to help salespeople close deals.

  Eric Panecki

  Guest

  33:33

  So I'm like not necessarily, you need to know where you can bend and how far you can go. Right, yeah, exactly.

  Parker Little

  Host

  33:37

  So I know, okay, we have six grand in fat here on this deal And this guy's asking for five grand off go back in and close and met too often make it sound good Like you know, like that kind of thing Right. So through that process I was doing that a bunch, which was a very good learning experience And I always joke about that period of time as being very formative for me in terms of understanding how to run a pretty big business. You know they do on a hundred million dollars a year per store. You know give or take a couple million, 10 million or whatever. So I'm, you know, 21, 22, end up. You know, being part of the management in these stores And really like, even when they bought, they started doing a rollup because they're familiar with private equity rollups. They started doing that. They weren't calling it that, but they're buying mom and pops And during that transition, you know the regional people would go into these new stores and I would always like advocate hey, let me come with, i can help just whatever reason cause I want to go see up front, i want to see up close, see what's happening, so I could see, you know, standardization of processes, i could see all the benefit, what they're doing.

  34:38

  I could understand it really clearly And I would go in and say like okay, well, the GM that we bought basically when we bought the dealership, he's driving one of the inventory trucks home and he's got an inventory boats at Nez House And like what the fuck? what's going on? Why don't we sell that? Cause you would see the aged inventory and it's like 482 days old. Like what the fuck is going on with it.

  34:59

  So we would dig into the numbers. and now it's our understanding, like, okay, you know used versus new, versus aged, inventory versus you know newer, you know the Bank of America floating the floor, pan lending. I understood, like there's just a bunch of like little things you understand, plus starting to manage people and start understanding all the intricacies of that. It was a very good learning experience how to run a business And I say I always joke about how not to run a culture, because the culture is very And I think it's this way for a lot of big corporations. It's very like if I come to you and you're my direct manager right in that business, at that time, anyways, i would say, hey, i've got this great idea, let's try something new. it's an experiment. There's a little risk with it, though, and I wanna try this thing because I think you know I'll pitch you on the benefit, right. There's almost no incentive for you to say, hell, yeah, let's try it, let's try it. yeah, it's more like that's gonna get me in trouble if we fuck it up.

  Eric Panecki

  Guest

  35:57

  Yeah, you gotta be safe and keep your job Right.

  Parker Little

  Host

  35:59

  exactly so everyone's just looking out for their own job And there is a little bit of push here and there to make it better whatever, but it's usually most of the ideas that get implemented are some corporate person somewhere. It's like we're doing this now. It's not from the ground up, it's all status quo.

  Eric Panecki

  Guest

  36:13

  It's on the ground, Shit yeah, right, and I've always.

  Parker Little

  Host

  36:15

  I always took that to heart, because that just creates like this political bullshitty environment where people just kinda stab each other in the back and blah, blah, blah. Right, and I get it in my context like blue collar hate authority. I fucking hate it, just miserable, miserable. So there's this they're still with the company, so I won't mention exactly but there's this incident where we were at this show and there's a miscommunication. this person didn't tell me to do something and then got angry at me for not doing this thing. And then, but this person was not like a direct manager, she was in this middle management, regional position. So she told the GM or GSN, i forget whatever this guy to fire me, basically. So, and he did, but I knew exactly what it was. It was like, oh really, she told you like you just tell me, bro, like it's fine, but he was not man enough to do that.

  37:08

  So I was like okay fine, whatever So, but here's how I got fired. Here's the number two.

  Eric Panecki

  Guest

  37:14

  Nice.

  Parker Little

  Host

  37:16

  And what happened was that was on a Friday and the show we did was right before that. So it was on a Friday when that happened And by the time Monday came around, i already had a new, better paying position in a different dealership. And how that worked was I had met this GM of another dealership, like at that show we were talking about, and we were just kind of. He was kind of similar minded and he was like, yeah, these people are fucking nuts, like you know. Just this is insane here, right. So we jammed a bit and we just got along right And I called him as soon as it happened. I said, hey, bro, you'll never guess what happened. And he's like, oh no shit.

  37:53

  He's kind of a bro. I said, look, you got. I'd love to come up there and do whatever. I know you have X, y and Z. He's like come up, be the finance manager. I said, okay, cool, done. He's like, but I don't know how I'm gonna work that out. I said, don't worry about it, i'll transfer myself. He's like what I was like, i'll transfer myself.

  Eric Panecki

  Guest

  38:08

  Well, you logged in.

  Parker Little

  Host

  38:09

  No, no, no no.

  Eric Panecki

  Guest

  38:10

  I didn't do anything crazy.

  Parker Little

  Host

  38:11

  What I did is went up to the office manager, who was a very sweet lady, and I said listen, i know you have termination paperwork for that, but if you could just be a doll and hold that until Monday that would be great because I'm being transferred.

  38:29

  So I didn't technically get fired. It was transfer paperwork. So cause she sent it immediately up to him and he's like transferred, boom approved, transferred. So I didn't get fired completely. So on Monday, boom, i'm in that dealership. I moved all my shit. In the weekend, boom, i'm in Knoxville now And at the new dealership, same logo on bam, i'm here. Way better paying job everything.

  John Libretti

  Host

  38:52

  Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah.

  Parker Little

  Host

  38:54

  So now I'm learning finance how to finance RVs, which was what I wanted to do, and the finance of RVs is like it's in between a mortgage and an auto loan basically It's somewhere in the middle. So I got to learn a lot That makes sense.

  Eric Panecki

  Guest

  39:07

  It's a mobile home, it's a car. Yeah, essentially, yeah, so you have to.

  Parker Little

  Host

  39:10

  There's a lot of protections you have to do, but there's a lot of upselling and things you could do in finance that I couldn't do in the like. If you go into selling RV, right, if you come in and say, okay, you want to buy this RV, cool, it's 50 grand, right? You say, i don't know, i can do 45.

  39:22

  So, I'll do it for 48, whatever. Okay, bang, great. You go into finance office it's like hey, you need tire protection, you need paint protection, you need gap insurance, you need bang, bang, bang bang. There's products you can sell, right. You guys are familiar with the menu Selling menu, like in finance. Okay, so how it's like back then it was a piece of paper, laminated piece of paper, and imagine you know what good, better, best model is where it's like here's 1099, 20, 30, and this is all the extra things you get, right?

  39:52

  I had always thought it was a learning experience, just on that one thing, because I had always thought about products and like, all right, I'm going to sell you something that's 10 bucks and this is what you get. I always thought of it as like, okay, and then I need to tell you, hey, but you can give me 20 bucks, I'll give you even more. But you can give me 30 bucks, I'll give you even more. What it did is gave me a paradigm shift where I thought down from the best to worst. So now, because they trained me to, you know, to put this thing out and say, okay, with, like, the platinum package, you get bang, bang, bang, bang, bang, bang, bang, bang, bang, bang, all this stuff. Right, Because everything.

  Eric Panecki

  Guest

  40:30

  So you're starting there. You're starting high as opposed to starting low.

  Parker Little

  Host

  40:33

  Right, starting high and like that's the most expensive payment. Okay, so you're adding in tens of thousands of dollars worth of shit that don't really need.

  Eric Panecki

  Guest

  40:39

  And then they're like well, you're price anchoring, kind of right.

  Parker Little

  Host

  40:42

  Kind of, yeah, kind of. So you're, you know, setting their position, like, hey, it's high, okay, well, anything's better than that. And they're like all right, so that's better than bronze, the garbage one you don't want, right. So I would go down, say, and that's the phrasing, i've always loved this phrasing. So it's like, imagine there's 10 items, right, i say one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, 10, right. And I say, and then I say, and I put the pen there, say yeah, you sign whatever. And then they say, well, you know that's, you know that's a thousand dollars over the payment I can do. I was like, oh, okay, well, i totally understand.

  41:08

  Well, if you wanted to do the gold, you forfeit. it comes with all that, but you forfeit. And then I would take the three that they don't get and focus on those, which is interesting to me because I'm a sales guy, right. So I'm thinking about okay, so you forfeit these three options. And then I'd go into depth of those three, like, with this you get bang, bang, bang, bang, bang, bang, bang, bang, bang, bang, bang, bang, bang. And with this, you get da, da, da, da, da, da da. But if you select gold, you're really forfeiting these options. Do you want to do that? And I just shut the fuck up.

  41:38

  I could sit here for 82 minutes straight And then you work your way down. but my average became much higher because now they're not thinking about oh, i got to pay more to get more. It's I'm losing out on if I keep going further down. Nobody wants to be bronze right.

  John Libretti

  Host

  41:53

  So once you go down to that second option, it's garbage.

  Parker Little

  Host

  41:55

  You don't even want the RV anymore. Yeah, so that made me start appreciating word tracks and setting people up in different ways when in terms of sale process. So it taught me a ton And actually I'll tell you a quick story.

  42:10

  So, in my office in Knoxville I had a. One of the one of the products you sold was tire protection, so it's like, and roadside assistance, So it's like, if you're tired, blew out, we'll pay for it and we'll send roadside out, whatever right. It was like it was nothing, but I made money on that, every single one. I made money. I can make 10 grand, i can make 20 grand, whatever. All these products together. So it mattered to me, made it on my paycheck, so I did. I took a shredded tire, like a little tire, just completely blown out, hung it on the wall behind me And what I would do? the best ones and I'll share the story. So, basically, what would happen would be there'd be a guy and his wife. They would come in. You gotta remember they've been on the lot for hours. Okay, so they've been on a lot for hours And you know, somebody sold them on an RV, right, and they came in to buy an.

  42:58

  RV, but they sold them on the RV. They maybe don't like the fact that they just got sold, They're you know, but they're happy because we're like, okay, cool, we pick the thing we like and we want to travel, whatever all this bullshit, right, And I had the salespeople fill out like a prep sheet for me, right? Like, understand nothing about the RV, nothing, Just tell me their story. I want to know what they're about right Once they're, you know they have kids, you know, whatever right I want to know.

  43:22

  So when they get in there and every I would have them notate if they're, if the guy was like had an ego or his little agro, because I'm like that's perfect, perfect, awesome, because I always turn them against each other. So what happened? Well, i remember one time it happened and this guy came in and he's all you know, they real big dude huffing and puffing. He's like oh yeah, we don't have to buy anything in here. Blah, blah, blah, blah. Okay, yeah, i totally understand. But I disregarded him basically from the moment I met them and just talked to her.

  43:50

  Hey how are you? Oh, well, well, i like that purse Well you need some water.

  43:53

  Hey, have a seat. You're like just catering to her right And like I'm talking like 30 minutes, i could tell he's getting frustrated So I just dragged longer and longer and longer just to get him riled up. So I'm doing this and she's she's loving it, right, she's getting attention and she's whatever, right? So I remember this couple Sam down my office and we're going through the pitch, you know whatever, and we get to the part of tire protection And the guy immediately was like no, i don't want to know. Now, it's too much, too expensive, right? I'm like, oh, okay, i said so. Let me paint a picture for you guys. So you're driving down I think it's I 40 up there.

  44:29

  I'm driving down I 40 and it's, it's storming out right, tarantula down, for you can barely see in front of you. You know you're slowing down, you're worried, you don't want to hide your plane trying to be careful of the ass trailer behind you. Right, you're going to do, and you feel, and you have to jerk off the road because your tire blew out. Oh no, right, i'm painting a picture.

  44:48

  And they're like you know they're on their fucking edge of the sea. I'm like, do this 40 times a day. Do it my sleep. Smoke a cigarette. I'm doing like oh so all right.

  44:56

  Getting there and, uh, you know they're leaning in and I'm I'm talking softer and softer because I want them to lean in, so they lean and lean. And then I say you pull over and you know you guys get out of the car. It's pouring rain, you're soaked, you know. You run out real quick. You see that one of your tires is completely shredded Right. And then I finally engaged with the guy and I say are you going to change that tire? And I get real loud. He says yeah, of course I'm going to change that tire. And then I go yes, i say I look at her, i say you're going to change that tire And she says no.

  45:30

  And then I say, okay, well, you definitely want to have the tire protection. So I but I had such a blast going through these techniques and like learning, like Oh, it's just, it's just you know positioning words to kind of get the end result.

  John Libretti

  Host

  45:45

  Yeah, what you're looking for, and it drives the bottom line.

  Parker Little

  Host

  45:47

  Word play, reverse psychology, all of it. Yeah, so that was like my first. like all the stuff before that was like, yeah, i was selling and like I was able to close stuff and whatever. But like that was the first time like, oh, this is a system that I can learn. Yeah, it got me really interested because before sales was like the sales I got to say all you know I was still. I was one of those people that you guys probably know. you know the new guy, right, who's like Oh God, i gotta make cold And then after that switch for me, right.

  Eric Panecki

  Guest

  46:12

  And then it's a game.

  Parker Little

  Host

  46:13

  Oh, it's a game And it's powerful. I was like Oh. I understand now. I love that.

  Eric Panecki

  Guest

  46:18

  So I got fired again.

  Parker Little

  Host

  46:21

  So I got fired again soon after that.

  Eric Panecki

  Guest

  46:23

  Well, i technically I guess I left but so so too many tire protection plays.

  Parker Little

  Host

  46:27

  No, no, what was very political there? They fired like all the management there because they bought this, a newer dealership. And then the regional guy was just kind of has headed up his ass. He talked to me and I was like I'm not fucking doing any of this, goodbye, and like I'm out of here like whatever Cause. I was working like a hundred hour weeks, 110 hour weeks. I had I pulled an RV around back, i was living in it, i'd walk.

  Eric Panecki

  Guest

  46:46

  Come on.

  Parker Little

  Host

  46:47

  Yeah, literally I pulled around back, plugged it in and then I would wake up early in the morning, really fucking early in the morning, walk in, turn the alarm off, flip the lights on, drink seven monsters and sit down at my computer all day long until everyone else left. I was last person there every day. Turn off the lights turn the alarm on, walk, walk to my stupid RV.

  47:06

  Everything like no days off, zero days off, just wow. And I just got burned out Like it was good money or whatever, but it's like this is what am I doing?

  Eric Panecki

  Guest

  47:14

  Why am I?

  Parker Little

  Host

  47:14

  building somebody else's shit business.

  Eric Panecki

  Guest

  47:16

  I was gonna say that.

  Parker Little

  Host

  47:17

  Yeah. So like this is in my head, i'm just getting toasted. So finally I left, took a few months off, basically just to like recalibrate my brain. Made some pretty bad decisions during that time period, but that was fun, fun stories. And then I was like, okay, i gotta get a job or something, right, like I gotta do something, i can't just sit around in my condo here. So my one of my employees from that dealership was like Hey man you know, i know you like sales.

  47:42

  Why don't you go try selling timeshare? I'm like, yeah, sure, whatever. So yeah, it's funny, but I did. I sent, i got connected with a guy, i did an interview. They hired me because they'll hire anyone, come to find out. But um went in and Basically the interesting part about that was they put me through a two week only sales training. So it was fortuitous timing for me because the grand scheme of things, like I didn't wanna be in that career, but the fact that they put me through training that was only for sales was awesome. Like they spent millions and millions of dollars on a sales program.

  48:22

  So like I'm talking, full booklets.

  48:24

  you have to fill out everything. you have to fill out like situation-based decision-making for just sales. And that was real interesting to me because I have two weeks of role-playing with people and like, okay, tell me, is he amiable? assertive, like understanding, like body language we were talking about that, like body language, understanding how to match that person, how to counteract certain things, how to ask a question. I was like, hey, john, what's your favorite color? What's your favorite? Blue, blue, okay, great. And then you forget about that question. it's in my head right, and later I'm trying to sell you something that's blue, right, and you're like I don't really know. I was like I'm a little confused, john, thought you liked blue.

  49:08

  I thought you liked. Remember earlier when you told me that you liked blue is your favorite color on the planet. What happened? What changed between now and then That makes you say you don't want blue now?

  John Libretti

  Host

  49:18

  Yeah, that's smart.

  Eric Panecki

  Guest

  49:19

  That's good. I don't understand.

  Parker Little

  Host

  49:21

  Are you confused? I'm confused, so right like it started teaching me more complex ways to do the same thing.

  49:29

  So, just getting better working on the craft And at the time I was like this job's fucking stupid. but looking back, those few pieces of sales knowledge have really impacted how I can do business now. Even training people how to sell, it's bar none. that training was fucking amazing And I took all their hits on the sit-still.

  49:51

  I did not steal for legal purposes. I borrowed some of their information when I left because they gave me a booklet that you fill out. It's like my writing's on there so I'm gonna take it with me. So even to this day I'll go reference some of that stuff, like it might be a little outdated but I'll go reference it. I'm like what was that word track that we used? I'll go look back and like, oh, that's super. It'll be like a way for me to create new ideas based around that. I'm not gonna use the same thing, but it's just something that will generate like, hey, why don't you try it this way? Because they did it this way and that did work. Okay, that's cool.

  50:21

  And I found out sales is a lot depending on the product. it's a lot about what the emotion is of that person And there's some industries you can't really do too much of that. but I always take that to heart because it's like what is the real motivation for this person to want the thing Right? if you're selling shoes to somebody, can you make that emotional? I think that's the question I always ask myself. It's like can you make this an emotional connection to the person?

  Eric Panecki

  Guest

  50:45

  Well, we deal with houses and properties. That's emotional. Yeah, yeah, 100%.

  Parker Little

  Host

  50:50

  What do you guys do that is so good at working out those deals in the sales process?

  Eric Panecki

  Guest

  50:57

  What do we do that's so good? I mean, for me it's look, i look at sales like it's like an equation, like it's what's the problem, how do I solve it? You really gotta identify what their actual problem is, because there's a lot of ways that we were talking about this. There's a lot of ways to skin the cat. We could be a cash deal, it could be. We could help them sell the property, we could list it. We could do a seller find it Like there's a lot of ways to skin the cat. But you gotta figure out how am I gonna solve their problem? And that's how I always looked at sales. I'm like more of it's more of a logic. You're saying emotion. I kinda look at it like a logic-based thing, but I think it's a little bit of both, right, i mean yeah.

  Parker Little

  Host

  51:37

  Yeah, for sure, because when they have emotion, that's high.

  Eric Panecki

  Guest

  51:44

  Okay, we're at 50 minutes. It's okay We'll wrap up in like five minutes, right.

  Parker Little

  Host

  51:49

  Oh yeah, sorry.

  Eric Panecki

  Guest

  51:50

  No, you can, we'll cut it out, it's fine. but whatever you just say, keep them. What was I saying? I was saying it's a little bit of both so you gotta be logic-almost.

  Parker Little

  Host

  51:56

  Oh, right, right. So the adage that I've always said is like when emotion is high, people buy Because, if you can, if because, like as an example, yeah, you say it's logic, but you just said it's. Remember earlier when you said it's emotion.

  John Libretti

  Host

  52:07

  Yeah, yeah, yeah.

  Parker Little

  Host

  52:08

  So because it is emotion, like if you call somebody, i don't know who your target is, but like if somebody is like, hey, i'm struggling, I gotta get out of this property, whatever, that's pretty fucking emotional, for sure, right. And if you come at it like, okay, totally understand, let me just say, yeah, that'll probably work, but your conversion rate on somebody that's like, hey, oh, i'm so sorry you're going through that.

  Eric Panecki

  Guest

  52:25

  Yeah.

  Parker Little

  Host

  52:27

  And you're that connection because, like I used to do this all the time, i still do it to I do if I'm talking to somebody in the South, i'll throw on a Southern accent, like immediately, without thinking about it, because it's just, it's second nature, right. And if I'm talking to like an older lady, i'll talk to her like my grandma, right, and I'm super sweet and soft and to the because like that's what they're looking for here. And if they're in a situation like that, like I'm gonna cater to that situation by being understanding. And if I'm talking to her it's like look, i bought a dollar. I could do with $60,000, like I'll give you $42,000, how's?

  John Libretti

  Host

  52:59

  that.

  Parker Little

  Host

  53:00

  Like you know, like like fuck off, like you know, like if you just match the energy. And they're looking for some comfort, like yeah. Yeah you give them the comfort, give them what they need that's it.

  Eric Panecki

  Guest

  53:08

  But you're also you know, wow, i'm sure that's really tough for you.

  Parker Little

  Host

  53:11

  Yeah, yeah.

  Eric Panecki

  Guest

  53:12

  How is that affecting your family? Put yourself in there, yeah, put yourself in their shoes and the conversion rate's correct.

  Parker Little

  Host

  53:17

  So like it sounds a little cold, but like if you look at it from a metric perspective, like if you can match people, just that one thing match people then add in asking for their clothes, yeah, And doing things like that, like your conversion rate goes through the roof. Oh yeah, on whatever you're doing.

  Eric Panecki

  Guest

  53:34

  I've been told in my office that I end up talking like whoever I'm talking to. Yeah, They can tell who I'm talking like. am I talking to like a Jewish guy?

  Parker Little

  Host

  53:40

  Yeah, yeah, like, and it's like I don't even, i don't even try to do it, i just do it by accident, and I mean, that's like that's really, that's mirroring right, like that's just. Yeah, it's all it is, And what it is is like if you're not trained to do that, but you're good, you'll pick up and it becomes just like a natural thing.

  John Libretti

  Host

  53:56

  So you don't even know this that you're doing No idea. Yeah, no clue, just pivot and auto-adjust.

  Parker Little

  Host

  54:01

  Yeah, literally, there's some video of me doing that cold call and I like I mean, like I was like hey, is this the one time I started talking to this Like, how are you doing, man? Like.

  John Libretti

  Host

  54:08

  I was like I didn't even know it.

  Parker Little

  Host

  54:10

  I was like I watched the thing. I'm like, oh my.

  Eric Panecki

  Guest

  54:11

  God, That's so funny, but yeah.

  Parker Little

  Host

  54:13

  I mean, look it, that's what it takes in sales, because you're like not to sound shitty about it, but you are trying to get a result. You are trying to manipulate to some extent not maliciously, you're trying to solve the problem, but it but people need to direction and you have to build the framework and direct them That if you don't know what you're doing, you're just going to, like, stumble over yourself, right, Until you get there.

  Eric Panecki

  Guest

  54:36

  So we're running up on time here, but I think I, I think I figured you out.

  Parker Little

  Host

  54:42

  Oh, tell me please. I think I figured you out. I'm like, what am I my therapist though?

  Eric Panecki

  Guest

  54:45

  Right, i'll write him a memo.

  Parker Little

  Host

  54:47

  Yeah, please.

  Eric Panecki

  Guest

  54:49

  No, I mean, we had a podcast that was all about focus.

  Parker Little

  Host

  54:51

  And we had.

  Eric Panecki

  Guest

  54:52

  we had somebody come on that that was you know, he's a young kid, he's killing it And he has a. he has a big goal in. everything that he does is centered towards that goal. Right, and I think that really works for him. Book I'm reading now talks about you know figuring out how to figure out one. what's your unique ability, what are you really good at Right, And then how to design your day or your life in a way where you're doing more of just that. Yeah, so I, you know you're good at a lot of things. It seems like you're really good at sales, obviously. It seems like you're good at building teams, building companies, putting right people in the right place. But what is? what do you think is your unique? What are you really good at, better than anybody else?

  Parker Little

  Host

  55:38

  That's tough. I mean it's going to sound corny, but I'm willing to go places other people aren't and essentially just never stop until I get it. If I have an objective I set out to do unless it's a I know it's a bullshit thing and I'm not really committed to it I'll drop it. But if it's something serious, i commit myself to it in very serious ways. I'm it's at my hill. To die on is how I think of it, cause, like I joke about it, i was like we're all going to die And like this is the thing I like doing, and it would be foolish of me to not capitalize on doing something I enjoy and can be good at it at certain times and do it half-assed. If I do it half-assed, i'm disappointing myself and people around me. That's how I think of it. So I think I'm a dog.

  56:33

  That won't let go of a bone The best way I can describe that.

  Eric Panecki

  Guest

  56:36

  Wow, i love it.

  John Libretti

  Host

  56:37

  I feel like Parker's exactly. I know for a fact Parker's exactly like us. Like in the sense of like what does Dana White say?

  Parker Little

  Host

  56:43

  bet on me like bet against me, watch me, like I fucking love it. He's like, tell me, tell me, i can't do it, like all right now I'm really going to do it. Yeah, i'm really going to do it. I'll drop everything tomorrow and I'm going to do that for the rest of my life. 100%, yeah, 100%.

  John Libretti

  Host

  56:54

  I love it.

  Parker Little

  Host

  56:54

  That's positive, hopefully.

  Eric Panecki

  Guest

  56:57

  We'll see. So if you're giving advice to someone that's, you know, on the fence, they want to. They're not sure if this game is for them. They want to be an entrepreneur. I mean, you were born an entrepreneur. It sounds like I personally believe that you're born an entrepreneur or you're not. Some people think you can learn it. I'm not sure.

  Parker Little

  Host

  57:14

  I don't think you can learn it but I think being born has a into. It has, like a natural, you know, gravitation towards or proclivity towards, like not wanting to listen to people. Listen to your own shit, pay for your own path Yeah, but if you're on the edge of becoming an entrepreneur, you know whether that depends on where you're at. Obviously, because it's a general statement, is tough. But if you're considering it, do your due diligence, do your due diligence And then if it's something that you're you know you feel strongly about and you think you have the skill to do it, do it and don't look back And put every ounce of energy you have into making it work for as long as you can. That's it. I love that. I love it. Burn the boats, baby. Burn the boats.

  57:58

  That's right, that's awesome. That's awesome.

  Eric Panecki

  Guest

  58:00

  Parker, you're the man I think we got to wrap this up. All right, we appreciate having you here. I think we got to do another one, because I don't even think we got.

  John Libretti

  Host

  58:06

  We definitely have this up Ranted, but Parker, where do?

  Parker Little

  Host

  58:12

  people find you bro, So let's see Instagram Parker D little LinkedIn, but don't message me there because I'll never see it.

  Eric Panecki

  Guest

  58:20

  I said, john, i'm like message John, Who did it back? Notorious for answering. Yeah. No, that's awesome bro. We'll get you back on for sure. This was amazing.

  John Libretti

  Host

  58:29

  And we appreciate it. Thank you guys. Thank you guys.

  john, i'm like message John, Who did it back? Notorious for answering. Yeah. No, that's awesome bro. We'll get you back on for sure. This was amazing.

  John Libretti

  Host

  58:29

  And we appreciate it. Thank you guys. Thank you guys.

RELEVANT LINKS

Cardone Capital Official Website

ABOUT RYAN TSEKO

Ryan Tseko has over nine years of institutional real estate investment experience and currently serves as Cardone Capital’s Executive Vice President focusing on acquisitions and capital relationships. Ryan has been with Cardone Capital since its inception and was instrumental in constructing the investment and fundraising procedures currently in place.

During his tenure with Cardone Capital, he has completed 30 real estate acquisitions with a transaction value of over $3 billion and secured debt financing of over $1.9 billion.

Additionally, he has been actively involved in launching each of the Manager’s investment vehicles which collectively have raised over $1.1B of equity capital via crowdfunding.

Prior to joining Cardone Capital, Ryan was a commercial airline pilot for 10 years.  He holds a B.S. in Aviation and Airway Management from Utah Valley State University.