Hayden Leavitt| Commercial Airline Pilot

What does it take to become a commercial airline pilot at just 22 years old?

In this episode of Shaping Success Treasure Valley, I sit down with Hayden Leavitt, a commercial airline pilot, real estate professional, and former baseball player I had the privilege of coaching. Hayden shares the mindset, discipline, and work ethic that helped him go from taking flying lessons as a teenager to flying regional jets for a major airline.

We dive into:
✈️ Starting flight school at 16 years old
✈️ The journey to becoming a commercial airline pilot
✈️ Why teaching others made him a better pilot
✈️ Building a real estate business while flying full-time
✈️ Lessons learned from sports, failure, and perseverance
✈️ The importance of grit, delayed gratification, and consistency
✈️ How his parents shaped his mindset and work ethic
✈️ Why success is built through small daily investments—not overnight wins

Whether you're chasing a career in aviation, building a business, investing in real estate, or simply looking for motivation to keep pushing forward, Hayden's story is packed with practical wisdom and inspiration.

👇 Let us know in the comments:
What's one goal you're working toward that requires patience and consistency?

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Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:13

And now, here's your host of Shaping Success, West Takerslee. What's up, everyone? This is West Tankersleet, Shaping Success Treasure Valley. I got my headphones on because I got to hear Hayden talk. So go ahead and talk to the mic here, Hayden, real quick.

SPEAKER_02 0:30

What's up, guys?

SPEAKER_01 0:30

All right, we're good to go. You almost gotta swallow it when you look into it. But um this is Shaping Success Treasure Valley, another episode with one of my former. You're not you never you were never my student. This is the thing, like we never had you're my I coached you. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah. And um, you know, I was a teacher in Middleton for a long time, PE teacher, not a long time, two years. Um but I coached baseball both those years, and you were a freshman when I was the head freshman coach. Yep. And it was really cool having you on my team because I just there's just something about you. We had your dad Chait on here, I don't know, it's been almost a year now.

SPEAKER_02 1:03

And yeah, it was a little bit ago.

SPEAKER_01 1:04

Yeah. And so we talk, it's funny, like one thing that I always noticed about you is that your willingness to to bust your butt. And you I don't know that I've never not seen you smile. And it's kind of like a family thing because I feel like your dad's smiling all the time every time I talk to him, right? Your sister, your mom, like it's just like, is that like something that you guys just hey, we need to smile all the time, or what? How's that? What is that all about?

SPEAKER_02 1:28

I don't know. I just think like my parents have done such a good job, like always it was just it's always been positive at our house. Like, you know, they've had like a lot of ups and downs in their careers, and like, dude, like they just never let a moment be down in the house. Like in 08, like when the market crashed, like I remember like our parents like having conversations with us being like, hey, like Christmas might look a little different this year, birthdays might look a little different, but it never like never felt different. It was kind of scary to hear that. Then like when my dad transitioned to real estate, they were like, We don't know how this is gonna look. Like, dad's gonna quit his job, he's gonna start this, things might get a little tight. I mean, I get this just a little closer. Nope, you're good. Sorry. It's all good. You don't know what you're doing, so that I should have coached you a little better, but it's all good. No, it's all good. Yeah, so go ahead. And you know, they were always like preparing us for like what seemed like the worst, but no, they just looking back, like I kind of saw like the small changes, being like, Oh wow, like I can't believe they went through that, and like, but through like a kid's eyes, like we never saw it. Just so no, I wouldn't say it's something we necessarily talk about, it's just kind of how we were raised. Like, I'm just grateful if I'm being honest. Yeah, it also it helps to like knowing like where my parents come from, like their backgrounds and what they went through in their childhood, like where they are now. Like, I have zero reason to like not be grateful. It's crazy.

SPEAKER_01 2:49

I don't know much about your mom's background, but your dad and I talked quite a bit about yeah, you know, kind of like him kind of raising himself, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 2:57

No, which that's a crazy story. There was a part of it, I need to go back and listen to it, but there was a part where I I listened to the podcast, and I even called my dad, and I was like, dude, you never told me that. And he was like, crazy, right? Yeah, but yeah, no, he lived on his own basically from 14 or 15 all the way until like he was 18, 19 and moved out and started working. So yeah, he pretty much raised himself.

SPEAKER_01 3:20

It's crazy to think that like that's the way that that went. And I think I think he's about the same age as me, but I had my parents, right? You know, like you have Gen X was kind of a weird generation, and it's funny because I was listening to my 12-year-old the other day said I lived in the best generation because I'm Gen X, you know, like I'm like the very last year or whatever, and I'm like, are you serious? You do all this weird stuff, and you think that my generation was the best one. But like we didn't, you know, it was kind of that way. My parents were at home, but it was like my mom and dad were both working, and they were at work, we're at home all summer long, like right now. Uh-huh. We'd lived out on six acres out in Ontario, Oregon, and we were just like rolling around. Yeah. I got on my bike and I'd rode places that you would never think of. Yeah. We'd go down to the river to chuck rocks in the river. I mean, like, there was all these things that you would do that would be considered unsafe.

SPEAKER_02 4:06

Yeah. Right. Well, especially now. Yeah. It's a little crazy up there now.

unknown 4:09

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 4:10

Like it went way, hey, don't do this. You can't even go outside the front door without, you know, whatever.

SPEAKER_02 4:14

Uh-huh. Yeah. Dude, flying up in uh I flew out of that airport for a little bit, like building my hours and stuff. And like we'd have like homeless like run across the runway.

SPEAKER_01 4:23

In Ontario? Yeah. Wow.

SPEAKER_02 4:24

Yeah. Like it's not just across the freeway. Like, and we'd have to like make a root call where like, hey, someone's on the runway, like everybody circle. Like, management would have to go out and like get them out of there. Yeah. It only happened a couple of times, but yeah, we'd straight up have dudes like running across the runway. That's nuts. So it's probably way different up there from then. Yeah. You know.

SPEAKER_01 4:43

Well, you know, you you just brought up the flight thing, which this was another thing, and I think we kind of talked about it. I remember coaching you, and we were playing an Eagle, and your dad walked up and said, Hey, Hayden's gonna be not at practice tomorrow, if that's okay with you. Right. He's going flying. Yeah. I'm like, what?

SPEAKER_02 4:58

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 4:58

Not that I was like, hey, dude, that is really cool that he's doing that, but I'm like, what? Yeah. Because I what you're 15, I think. Maybe you had your driver's license. Yeah. Or you had just gotten it.

SPEAKER_02 5:07

So, like when I was introduced to flying, like my first time ever going up there and like checking it out, I was 15. And then like it took about a year to like get in school, and like it was long conversations with my parents too, because like I couldn't afford flight school at 15, right? Just being real, right? I couldn't. So my parents, like, all right, if you really want to do this, like we're gonna help you, but like you're gonna do it. Like, this isn't something we're just gonna try and it's gonna whittle away. Like, you're gonna be all in. So, yeah, I was freshman year. So I was like, Yeah, like 15 went up and tried it, and then 16, like right when COVID started was when I like officially enrolled and started like training.

SPEAKER_01 5:41

Okay, yeah, that kind of helped you out a little bit, right? Like that was one of those things where you didn't have to go to school.

SPEAKER_02 5:45

Yeah, I wish, I wish I'd have taken I mean, like, I don't know, I'm still I'm blessed to be where I am, but like I wish I'd have taken a little more serious because like I don't know, you're 16 and school's out. Right. You don't want to go study, no, right? Everyone's out doing their thing, right? So um it helped a little bit because like it got the ball rolling, right? And it kept me entertained too, because like you know, what was it, eight or nine months we went of no school or whatever that was. So it kept me entertained and it got me started.

SPEAKER_01 6:11

So did you have to wear a mask in the plane with your entire for a little bit, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 6:14

Yeah, for a little bit, yeah. Yeah, it wasn't comfortable, man. Yeah, yeah. You'd be like, Well, what'd you say? Yeah, like on top of having to say it in the headset or whatever as the propellers or yeah, it just yeah. So that only lasted for a little bit, but yeah, no, it was funny.

SPEAKER_01 6:30

Well, how old are you now? Are you 20? 22. 22, okay. Uh huh. I was talking to my friend Jay about this. I was like, Oh, I can't remember how old he is, but he flies. And then I was talking to Robert, who I do the other podcast with, and he's like, I don't know how old you have to be to be able to fly like solo.

SPEAKER_02 6:44

Uh solo, it's been a minute. So you can get your like private license at 16, like your recreational license. They might have pushed it to 17. It's been a minute since I've been out of like those regs, but then you can be like commercially certified at 18, so that's when you can start like making money. But you can't fly for the airlines until you're 21.

SPEAKER_01 7:02

So you just recently so like the plane that you're flying is there two pilot there's two pilots, right? Yeah, just pilot's co-pilot. Are you are you both?

SPEAKER_02 7:11

No, so I'm what they call a first officer right now, and then once I hit a thousand hours in the jet, that's when I can upgrade a captain. Okay. Yeah, so there has to kind of be like a captain there has to do that has like final say, 'cause like you can't have like two contradicting viewpoints, right? Because if like if I want to do one thing and the other guy wants to do another and no one really has the upper say, then how do you decide what to do? It's like nah, captain has final say, which usually we agree, like 99.9% of the time we're like, yeah, this is this is what we're gonna do, this is what's safe, right? Just because we've been through the same training, we have the same experience, right? We're flying the same jet, like we understand the systems, right? So it's usually not that big of a deal, but there kind of has to be like somebody who has a final set, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 7:52

Of course, right? Mm-hmm. So talk about like the process of getting those hours, so like how long, so now so we kind of jumped around here because you started out, you know, 15, 16 taking yearsons, and now uh, you know, what seven, eight years later, now you're now you're a commercial pilot.

SPEAKER_02 8:09

Yeah, yeah. So I think flying, like starting from training to get into the airlines took me about like six years, which is probably a little bit longer than normal. Um right now, it's kind of blowing up. It's it's crazy. Aviation's kind of like it used to be a secret, like in 20, 2021, around that time is when like pay started to go up for airline pilots, like significantly, like 200% like pay boosts is what the regional started doing. So then the secret kind of got out about how much you make as an airline pilot, and the lifestyle is cool, like being gone isn't fun. Like, there's I've had some hard nights, don't get me wrong. But um, yeah, the secret got out. But, anyways, yeah, I started flying when I was like 16 and I was in sports, football, baseball, yeah, doing all this stuff on top of like living on a mini farm, right? Yeah, pretty much. Yeah, we were on like eight acres, so always doing work on the property out there, and then I was still a kid, I wanted to have fun, right? Like I was out messing around with my friends, you know, just doing our thing. So it was hard to like realize what I was like working on, right? I was like, oh, this is like my future, right? But then like once senior year came around, I was getting time to like graduate and talking about college and jobs. I was like, oh shoot, like I've kind of already started. Like, I have an opportunity to like go fly jets like soon. Like, I want to get after this. So once I graduated, I was like, all right, like I'm gonna I'm jumping all in. I want to take this seriously because I I did in high school, like it was kind of crazy. I was waking up at 5, 5:30 in the mornings at 16 years old to go fly before school. Oh so I'd rip there from like 6 to 8 a.m. I'd be flying around and then I'd go straight to the high school and I'd go to school all day and then sports and homework, and then I just I wouldn't study for flying because that was like that was the last thing I wanted to do, right? After everything else I had done. So yeah, uh I flew well, like I got solid in the airplane. Just the books are super important though, and I didn't I didn't take the books seriously enough. So once I graduated, um, I got my private rating just a couple months after I graduated, and that's when I was like, Yeah, I want to do this, like this is cool. So then it just took me a year of training after that to get the rest of my ratings to like qualify me to go and like teach people to fly.

SPEAKER_00 10:19

Uh-huh.

SPEAKER_02 10:20

So then I got a job at the school there in Caldwell, Silverhawk, and um loved it. I freaking loved working. I just went back there last week to well.

SPEAKER_01 10:28

I say, you know, like if you know how to do something, the best way to be get better at it is to teach someone how to do it because you gotta show them how.

SPEAKER_02 10:34

That was the funny part, man, is like I would talk to people about flying, and let's see, I was 20 when I started like teaching people to fly, and they'd be like, You're teaching people to fly? I'm like, I know, like it seems a little wrong. Yeah, like I had a um, I had a I call him a student, but the dude was a Boise State professor, he was like in his 50s, and a super nice guy, and he came in to I taught him like multi-engine flying, and he walks into my office and he kind of like takes a step back. I'm like, What's up, man? Like, I'm Hayden, like I'm gonna be teaching you to fly. And he was like, Oh, he was like, he was like, dude, no disrespect, but he was like, How old are you? And I kind of laugh. I was like, I'm 20, and he's like, I have students at Boise State that are older than you, man. I was like, I know. I was like, they just don't know Hayden 11. I don't know about that, but I was like, I promise I know what I'm doing. He's like, No, no, no, I trust you. But yeah, the dynamic was super interesting, you know. And he had his he had his license before I was born. Like it's just like his private license, he was just learning to fly multi-engine. So yeah, it was it was a really cool um dynamic because he had experience that I didn't have, but I had experience that he didn't have. So yeah, I was learning stuff for him as I was teaching him, you know. So it was cool. I rarely, I don't think once ever did someone like not trust me or like disrespect me because of my age or anything like that, which was cool because I was worried about that. Yeah, you know, I didn't want some like 40-year-old to walk in and be like, oh, this this kid doesn't know what he's doing in the plane, right? But yeah, no, totally. That's absolutely the best way to learn is to teach because you get asked questions that you don't know, right? You know, and that parallels to everything. It's you know, and it helped like set me up with real estate too, because I remember like my first couple open houses, I was so nervous, and I would call my dad be like, dude, like what if they ask about this? And he's like, Well, then you're gonna find out the answer and you're gonna know for the next time. He was like, just like how it was when you're teaching.

SPEAKER_01 12:20

Yeah, that's the thing. It's like with anything that you do, if you're willing to do it, you're gonna be able to figure it out. Like, I mean, I know that this is basic like selling window coverings or whatever, but when someone asks me a question that I don't know, it's like I'd I'll tell them. I'll straight up say, Well, I'm not sure about that, but I'll find out for you.

SPEAKER_02 12:35

Oh, absolutely.

SPEAKER_01 12:36

And you can go figure it out and then you respond to it.

SPEAKER_02 12:38

Tell me back in an hour, you know, or like we'll talk tomorrow or whatever. Yeah, absolutely. And that's um, it's kind of funny how like I've transitioned like sidestep to like real estate, but like you know, I kind of like it whenever I get asked something that I don't know, because then it kind of just like adds to the list of things to study or review or look up or research, because then it's like, all right, cool, like just expanding my knowledge, right? Because I know very little compared to what I want to know about.

SPEAKER_01 13:03

Yeah, it's it's crazy because I think that there's two two sets of people in our lives. Like I never really wanted it to be this way, like I never wanted I'm always searching for more knowledge, right? Totally. And then there are some and there's nothing wrong with it, but there are some people who are like happy and satisfied with what they're doing, whatever that is, you know. Like I think that was my biggest thing with teaching is like I could sit here and I could do this over and over again and make very little money and never be challenged, and just you know, like not that teachers don't work hard, but it was it was one of those things where it's like I kind of felt like I mastered it, and the only way to go up was to go get an administration, and I'm not gonna work twice as hard to make nothing.

SPEAKER_02 13:42

Yeah, no, absolutely. No, and yeah, it's it's it's interesting. It was it was cool. So yeah, I taught for about I was like two years for what I instructed, and then um getting into the airlines was it was a pretty interesting process, um, just because obviously there's only so many seats, there's only so many airplanes, so they can only take so many guys, right? So they kind of have to wait for like either a hiring wave or like a retirement wave. So I waited probably like a little over a year just to like get my spot in the airlines just to go in. So yeah, I was just I was blessed to have that opportunity out there, and I was still teaching as fine. Like, even after I hit all like my hours and my minimums and my requirements, like I continue to teach as I waited to go fly, and then just in January I left for training and now I'm full blown out there flying.

SPEAKER_01 14:30

So you think that like with what's going on, like so like baby boomers, right? They're all my dad's a baby boomer. Yeah, so one of the things that I noticed is like there's less doctors, right? Right. Is there gonna be less pilots? Because normally, like, and maybe I'm wrong, but historically I feel like a lot of them are former um like military, right? Airlines or whatever.

SPEAKER_02 14:51

Yeah, a lot of the like major pilots like United, Delta, those guys, a lot of guys transition from military directly to like the major airlines. Yeah, is a very common thing.

SPEAKER_01 15:01

So if these baby boomers are like aging out, are we gonna run out of pilots or is there just like a whole bunch of extra ones?

SPEAKER_02 15:06

We've got we've got plenty. Yeah, the market's super saturated right now. It's it's super interesting in like the aviation world. Like if you listen to any podcast, any interview about like aviation hiring, it's like, yeah, it's it's interesting. They've never seen it like this before. I mean, there's always been a market, you know. There's always been you know, hiring spikes where like they literally just want a warm body, they'll take anybody, but then there's been lows where you won't hear back from them for six months, you know. It was interesting when I was like applying and starting like my interview process. Um, there was like a website form that like people would talk about like their experience in their interview, and they would talk about like their ratings, their hours, their experience, and there were dudes with like a thousand more hours than me, military background, college degree, all these things, and they didn't get the job. And I'm like, oh shoot, dude. I was like, I'm 22 years old, no degree, and I just have the bare minimum, right?

SPEAKER_01 16:01

I think that there's something that plays into that though. Like my my thought process is the fact that they hire a 22-year-old and he's gonna be here for 40 years, yeah, or however long you want to keep doing it, right? You can do it for a long time, right?

SPEAKER_02 16:13

Yeah, mandatory retirement right now is 65. Now, do will I fly till I'm 65? No clue. We'll see.

SPEAKER_01 16:20

Well, you'll probably still fly, but at the level that you're gonna get to when you get to the to the top of what you're looking at. Yeah, absolutely.

SPEAKER_02 16:26

Which hopefully is like international stuff, is what I want to do. I want to fly the wide bodies one day. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 16:31

So yeah, so what size plane are you flying now? Because we talked a little bit about that.

SPEAKER_02 16:35

Yeah, so it's uh it's called the CRJ. It's like a 70 passenger jet. Um, there's a few different models, and the seats kind of vary, but yeah, it's about it's about 70 seats.

SPEAKER_01 16:44

So and you're on like a different plane every time, it's not always the same one, or how does it uh the models kind of vary?

SPEAKER_02 16:50

Um, like it's a it's a really interesting process, but out of Denver, they have two of the models, and one has about 50 seats and the other has about 70 seats. So it just kind of depends on company need, and I get my schedule every month, and yeah, I bounce from jet to jet.

SPEAKER_01 17:04

So it'll be a different one every time. It's not it's not the same. Like hey, this is you're you're on this plane.

SPEAKER_02 17:09

I wouldn't say every single time, like like tail number, like specific this jet, yeah, not every time, but like the same model. Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 17:17

So how about like the guy that you copilot with? Is that different every time too?

SPEAKER_02 17:22

Uh so it's like per trip. So like I was just on a four-day trip out of Chicago. I was with the same captain flight attendant all four days, but I leave for another trip on Thursday, and that'll be like another crew. Just one flight attendant?

SPEAKER_01 17:34

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 17:34

Uh-huh.

SPEAKER_01 17:35

That's how small it is. Yeah, yeah. I feel like I've been on this uh back in the day when we l when we when I was really young, 25 years ago, flying from Spokane to Boise. Yeah. We'd get on those twin prop planes that are like called Falk or something. Uh-huh. And uh it was like, you know, I'm I'm sixter, I'm a big dude. Yeah, yeah. And I'm sitting next to my wife who's pretty small, and I'm just like this, all uncomfortable. Yeah, I kind of feel like there was only one flight attendant on that one, too. Yeah. It's like we're gonna get the drink service up here for about two minutes and then we're gonna land.

SPEAKER_02 18:07

Uh-huh. Yeah, no, I've done some short flights like a month ago. I did a flight that was 14 minutes. Yeah. We just went up to like 8,000 feet. Pretty much just took off, flew for a little and just landed.

SPEAKER_01 18:16

Boise to twin or something.

SPEAKER_02 18:17

We were going from Denver to Colorado Springs. Okay. So literally just right down the road. I don't know why people don't just drive. How many, how many miles is that? Oh, I don't know. Maybe uh like right around 100, maybe a little less, maybe a little less, like maybe 80. Yeah, I'm not even sure, but not much. Like more fuel starting the freaking jet than probably. Yeah, if there's delays out of Denver, like we there's a chance you'd burn more fuel on the ground than in the flight for sure. Yeah. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 18:46

So I mean, obviously, like being a pilot is awesome, and you're you're doing good with that and you're busy all the time, but you're still doing real estate.

SPEAKER_02 18:53

Trying to. Definitely, um, definitely like nowhere near where I want to be with it. But it was kind of a sacrifice I knew I was gonna have to take for a little bit. And like I did it for the long run. Like, don't get me wrong, like I've made some deals, right? Like, I've pulled off some transactions and I've learned a lot. And with my dad starting the team, and like, you know, he's mainly the one running that. He started it. Yeah. But um, helping him out with that when I can, it'll uh it'll pay dividends in like five, ten years when I have like a way better schedule and I have more time at home because I can't sit at home for four days straight with nothing to do. Like you can only golf so much. Yeah, right. I was like, and like thinking long term, like I don't know, personally, like I think if you want to build wealth, like you need something outside of like your main career, like whether it's investments, stock market, real estate, whatever that is, right? Like you kind of need like some other kind of profession. I mean, like, unless you run a business or something like that, you know, like yourself, right? But um, yeah, so I want mine to be real estate because I hope that one day, whenever I'm you know done flying, whether that's retirement 65 or I'm just sick of being gone from home, I can leave and have something built that still pays me. So that was kind of my idea for getting into real estate. So I'm only home like 12 days a month right now, and um, it's tough to do like open houses on weekdays, right? Because everyone's working, like no one goes to an open house on a Wednesday evening, right? So when I'm home on the weekends, that's when I try and like really maximize it. But yeah, social media and like networking and talking to people is really the only way I can do it right now.

SPEAKER_01 20:26

So it's gonna take some time to build it to what I really want to do, but that's well you got a team, so I think that that's good because you know, if you're out of the area and you got a listing, your dad can help you with it or something. Oh, he already has.

SPEAKER_02 20:36

Yeah, it's been pretty awesome. And we kind of we do that for each other, you know. My dad's like, dude, like go take care of the sign or like go take care of this paperwork, you know. I'm kind of vice versa. I'm like, dude, these people want to sell with us, like I'm in Chicago. Can you please go talk to these guys and lock this down for us? Which yeah, he just did that for me like a month ago. So yeah, it's it's really nice. It's a fun, it's a fun duo. Me and my dad love talking about it.

SPEAKER_01 20:58

Well, it's kind of a nice thing too, because your mom does mortgages, right? Oh, yeah. Uh-huh. So like you guys can get the market on it a whole scenario if possible.

SPEAKER_02 21:07

And what's really cool about that is having like my mom makes, you know, this sounds kind of bad, but it just makes me more knowledgeable because like someone wants to know about loans, and they just kind of assume that the realtor knows about like the loan industry or like what options are, which like I know an okay amount, and I'm sure there are other realtors that know a lot. Um, but sometimes I don't, and I'm like, hey, it was like let me call like my lender that I work with, and I can just call my mom and just be like, Hey, I have this scenario. Is this possible? What do you suggest? And my mom can just like really lay it out for us and be like, hey, this is what I would do. Yes, it's possible or nah, that's probably not gonna work. And then that saves like my client a ton of time because I'm not like BSing them, just trying to get them to apply, like, because I don't want to waste their time. Yeah, you know, like if they're not gonna be able to apply or it's not gonna work, like I'm not gonna sit here and try and drag them through the reads, you know, just to pull off. A deal, right? Like, that's not that's not my goal. My goal is to help them out.

SPEAKER_01 22:03

So well, and you're lucky that it's your mom too, because like no matter what, you're gonna have to have that connection with someone, right? Like a lot of realtors that I work with, they're like, Well, I have this lender, I have this window covering guy, I have this yard guy, I have like all those that you have all these connections that you have, but you can literally just like call mom.

SPEAKER_02 22:19

Oh, it'll be 10 o'clock at night. I'm like, mom, I got a loan question. Yeah, you know, it's perfect. Yeah, no, it's it's perfect, yeah. Cause I can get I can get the answers that I need pretty fairly quickly. Same with like my dad and our team in real estate too. Like we have so many people that work together, right? Um, it's still, you know, we're on the smaller side, like we're still building, of course, or my dad is still building, I should say. But no, it's it's awesome.

SPEAKER_01 22:41

It's well, it's funny that your dad is still building because he's been around for a long time. Like I remember when we bought the house. So we live in this house, right? But I lived in a house I could probably walk to in about five minutes over there before. Yeah, yeah. And when we were looking for our house in between this one and that one or whatever, your dad's signs were everywhere. Like it was just one of those deals. And uh, you know, I think at that point it was Purple Sage Estates, like they were just getting started, and his signs were all over that place. I remember seeing him, and I didn't know who he was, but you don't forget a name like your dad's like because Chade's kind of one of those things, like I always thought it was Chad, and it was just like a little on there. Oh, you're gonna make him mad. Yeah, no, I'm sorry. I didn't know, but you know, your your sister softball coach Dave Dwyer, yeah, he he straightened me out one day when I was coaching you. He's like, it's Chade, and I'm like, okay.

SPEAKER_02 23:25

Oh, really? Did he?

SPEAKER_01 23:26

He's like, Go Dave. Yeah, he got money.

SPEAKER_02 23:29

But like it's that's not a very common name anyway. No, no, it's not. I I don't think he yeah, because he gets called chat a lot, but at the same time, it's it's a little bit of a benefit to him because it's like, oh crap, that's Chate, not Chad. Like it's a way to remember him, right? As long as you're memorable, right? Yeah, exactly.

SPEAKER_01 23:44

Yeah, so I'd never I never called him called him that his Mr. Levitt, you know. Right.

SPEAKER_02 23:50

Of course. Yeah, but no, it's been super cool to see like what he's what he's built, you know, going from like zero business background, zero real estate background, zero investment background. Like he came from a family but they didn't talk about money, they didn't talk about any of that, right?

SPEAKER_01 24:04

And then Well, I mean he was having conversations when he was self-edile, he was like 15, you know. Uh-huh. Yeah. Brothers and sisters or whatever, whoever was around.

SPEAKER_02 24:11

Uh-huh. Yeah. And you know, my mom, she was she was crushing it from 18. She just wanted a better life for herself. So yeah, she moved out at 18. She bought a house. She was either 18 or 19 when she bought her first house. And she just started in the banking world and worked her way up and worked in every position she could until she got into doing mortgages and just crushed it with mortgages. So my mom was the one who was like, You need to start selling real estate, like you would do really good. And then his first year, he crushed, he crushed his first year. And then, you know, he's had ups and downs, as everyone does in that career. That's kind of the hard part about it, is you know, when the market's bad, there's still opportunity, you know, you can still go out and they're so hard. There's still people, yeah, it's got to work harder and you know, push for those leads a little bit more. But yeah, he's had great years and he's had tougher years, you know. I'm same with my mom. But yeah, it's been really cool to see what they've they've both built. We I gotta give my mom a lot of credit too. It's well, it's crazy.

SPEAKER_01 25:04

I think it's kind of one of those things that you see two different ways of this thing going, right? Like if your parents are successful and they're doing a good job and they're they're doing whatever, like your parents could say, All right, here's everything you want. Or they could say, Hey, you're gonna be part of this and you can work for it.

SPEAKER_02 25:20

Well, it's funny they say that. So, like when we first talked about this podcast, and you know, I kind of was like picking your brain, I was like, Well, what do you want to chat about? And you're like, Oh, like we'll just chat, man. Like, I want to talk about your drive, you know. And it's funny. I had um, who was it? I had a I had someone ask me, because you know, to get to the airlines and do all that, like I wouldn't say like I don't want to like boast or like brag, but like I'm young, right? Like there's there's a lot of young guys in the game. Like there are like when I went to training, there were a lot of us that were under 25. Like it's it's very impressive, you know, right. Um, for what guys have pushed. But to do that, it took a lot. Like at Silverhawk, like I was working 14 hour days pretty consistently for like well over a year to like because I I wanted the hours, I wanted to get in. You know, it's not the easiest waking up at six and not getting home till 10 and doing that a good majority of the week, right? And you gotta, you know, there were sacrifices, you know, and it wasn't easy, but I look at it as like I don't I don't have an excuse, right? Like I was blessed as a kid, you know, I was you know, I was given a lot of resources, right? I have zero excuses to do what my parents did times 10. You know, that's just how I look at it. Like I, you know, I'm pretty hard on myself about it. Like, if I don't multiply what my parents have done by times 10 by the time I'm their age, you know, then I'm gonna look at it as like a failure. Because from what my parents came from to what they've built now, right? It's yeah, they had excuses, you know, they came from difficult family scenarios. You know, my mom was surrounded by drug addicts growing up, she lived in trailer parks, you know. My dad lived alone, you know, he has he has a great mom, you know, and you know, sadly his dad passed when he was like 15. So it's not that my dad didn't have like you know a good family. He's great brothers, like his dynamic with his brothers are awesome, you know. Um, but yeah, you grow up with no parents in the household, you're bound to go down a bad track, you know, and all throughout high school, you know, my dad never drank in high school, you know, he was um very good and he never missed a day of school. I think he talked about that, like he never missed a day of school. And anyways, so when I look at their scenario, I'm like, all right, like they had excuses, you know, right? Just for them to like live in like a nice neighborhood with a good home, you know, like that would be like it for them.

SPEAKER_01 27:38

But like, you know, they strive for more and it's funny because you excuse you you call them excuses, and I think that there are so many excuses in life anymore. Like, yeah, that when I was teaching, that was one of the biggest things. Well, why didn't you dress down? Well, I forgot my clothes, why'd you forget your clothes? Well, I wasn't thinking about it. Like, there's that's a minor thing, but like when you create the excuse, you can just build this whole scenario of what you're doing, yep, or you can jump out of that pile of steam and crap and pull your boots up and go to work and take care of it. It doesn't matter. Like I when I graduated from high school, I did get I got a scholarship play football. I didn't want to go where it was, so I decided I'm not gonna go. Yeah. Right. And then I'm going up to U of I. And I tried walking on, like I could make all these excuses, like I wasn't big enough. I was I quit. Like there are things that had taught me that I never want to do that again, right? Because I feel like, and that's even like with this podcast is it's got like 474 episodes, and I don't have a sponsor, and I don't have, you know, like I'm doing this all on my own dime. You know, like right now, I could be working. Well, I didn't have an appointment this morning because I scheduled it off, but like I could be working, right? Yeah, um, and to me it's like there's gotta be time to do this.

SPEAKER_02 28:46

It's it's investments, yeah. You know, there's inputs and outputs, you know. Like that's my that's my favorite saying, Andy Frisella, two plus two equals four. Yeah, right. Like you're not gonna get something out of nothing, right? Like you gotta put the work in. And sometimes you gotta put a ton of work in and you won't see it. Like, that's probably been like my favorite lesson about real estate. It's like just a cool little story. Um, one of my very first open houses, a guy comes in, we shake hands, we start talking, and uh he ended up being an airline pilot, so we just kind of connected over that. It was just a small world moment. Long story short, um, I had my card and my dad's business card out when I was doing the open house, and he ends up taking my dad's for whatever reason. A year later, he finds a property and he calls my dad and he's like, Oh, like I'm want this house, yada yada. It was like a it was like a 1.3, 1.4 million dollar transaction. Long story short, my dad's like, hey, like, how'd you get my info? He's like, Oh, I met your son a year ago in this open house. And so my dad calls me and he goes, Dude, you're getting a check. I'm like, how? He's like, dude, a year ago you did this open house, met this guy. I was like, Oh, I remember him. And um, yeah, it was just kind of funny because in that moment, you know, walking away from an open house with only one lead or no leads. I've done open houses for three hours and no one walked through the door. Yeah, you just feel like you're waste your time, right? But then little did I know, a year later that would pay me out, you know, X amount of money. So it's kind of cool seeing, you know, the inputs, you know, finally having it out.

SPEAKER_01 30:13

Well, and that's what I like about this, is like they're historical, so they're all there, right? And the cool thing is is like someone may not hear what you just said today, but they're gonna hear it five years from now, maybe, right? Or whatever. They'll hear they'll hear it when they need to hear it. Yeah, and that's absolutely that guy needed you when he needed you. He didn't need you then, but he needed you now. So totally it's you get it, you get what you put out, and sales is one of those things where like you have two choices. You can kind of make that connection with them and try to figure out something that will make you memorable. And that's why I like doing this, is because what's gonna make you memorable, what's gonna make people want to call Hayden, you know, what's gonna make people want to call me. It's gonna be being relatable to that person totally in some way, and that guy will never forget that you were a pilot, and you know, that's that's where he made the connection. So it's yeah, putting that little seed in in their mind.

SPEAKER_02 30:59

Totally. Yeah, no, it's it's a cool world, and like I said, like there's a lot of real estate agents in the valley that crush and do a good job, you know. Just kind of how like I look at it is like I just want to be, I just want to be a part of the process. Like, whenever I have a client come through, you know, and they're like, I don't really know how this works, like I've never bought a house, I'm kind of nervous about it. I'm like, look, my job is like, I honestly like I only want to call you like once a week and just give you an update. Like, I don't really want you to know, like I want you to be informed, but like my job is to take care of the messes, like my calls, the texts, the appointments. Like, I'm supposed to deal with that. I want to hit you up once a week, be like, hey, sign these documents. This is what the process is, this is what's going on, you know, have a good week at work, right? I don't want to constantly be bothering you with this and that, and I don't want you to stress and worry, like that's my job to deal with it, right? So it's kind of funny. I just I don't want that, I don't want it to be a stressful process for them, right? Like that's my job. So if I can keep it as like least stressful as possible and deal with all the crap on the back end, right? Which I'm not saying it's like a mess on the back end, I'm not saying there's like sketchy stuff going down, but there's appointments and there's phone calls and there's annoying stuff to deal with, right? That like you don't want some random contractor, some you know, lender, somebody random just calling up my client and bothering them while them at you know they're at work. I'm like, no, like I'm gonna be your guy. I'm gonna everything's gonna come through me. You're not gonna have five different people talking to you at once, like I'm just gonna keep it simple for you.

SPEAKER_01 32:28

Yeah, so I think one of the things that I really admire about you when I was coaching you was the fact that there was a lot of talent around you, right? Oh, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 32:40

That was probably one of the toughest things that I was I was definitely an average athlete. I'm not afraid to say it.

SPEAKER_01 32:44

Yeah, but you know what again, like I said, like one of the coolest things about that though was even though you if you felt that way, you know, as a coach, you you put that kid in because that kid is working his butt off, right? And those kids who have all that talent is it's fun why like I was I was offensive lineman, right? Like one of the unsung heroes of the team, yeah, whatever. Like no one ever pays attention to what's going on unless it goes bad, right? Yep. And so my brother did the same thing. It's kind of that thing that you get as a coach, you're like going towards that because these kids are working their butt off, and then there's kids who are talented, but they don't work very hard. Yeah. What kept you driving in that situation? I mean, like the the grade below you was freaking stacked, and yeah, and then you're you know, you're on the freshman team, which we didn't have a freshman team, like it would have been if we didn't have the freshman team that year, yeah, you could have possibly been cut, right?

SPEAKER_02 33:36

Like it could have been Oh, I probably would have been, yeah, absolutely.

SPEAKER_01 33:38

But you still showed up every day. Like I'm telling you, I still remember every day you hustling, you smiling, you working no matter what. Like, I don't know that I ever saw you have this like defeated look on your face ever.

SPEAKER_02 33:49

Yeah, yeah. I don't I think what it was is like what it is. Yeah, we can say what it is, thanks. Like, I think what it is is like I just I always like just for myself, I always like I need something to go after, I need something to chase, right? So like that era of my life, it was baseball. Like it was it's a little bit sad, you know, to like think about because like I worked my you know, I worked my butt off. Like, you know, I was in looking back on it, I'm like, man, I was kind of hitting those cages for no reason. But at the end of the day, like it wasn't for no reason because like it it satisfied like my need to like go after something, right? Right. And I wanted to be positive, and it was cool, like throughout the years, like I kind of learned my role, right? Like I loved the leadership aspect, I loved to be like the positive on the team, right? Like, and I just love being around like the dudes, like at the end of the day, like I just loved it, right? I was nowhere near like the top player, like I was just being honest, I was rarely a starter, right? Like it was just it wasn't common for me to start. And like there was an age where I was pitching and I was okay, like I was good enough to like get on the bump here and there, but um, I don't know, I just I loved it, and like I don't I just don't have ask things. I just I don't right. That's just not in my nature, right? Like, I won't start something if I know I can't like go after at it, you know, 110%. And that was something like my parents kind of instilled in me too, right? Like, trust me, there are plenty of times I was considering quitting baseball, trust me. But my parents like, nope, like you're doing it, you know, like you said you would. And I think they also knew I'd regret it if I did, which I totally would have. But yeah, I just think it's a little bit of grit that I was just born with and that like my parents instilled me, and like I just didn't and it half-assed things, you know, like and I also knew I wasn't good enough to half-ass in and still get on the field, right? Like, I knew if I wanted to play, I had to bust my butt, like I knew it. And um, you know, just being honest, like I busted my butt for very little playing time, but I think that transition to later in the world, just being like, all right, like hard work pays off, like it does, right? Like it might not have paid off like I wanted it to. Like, I wanted to go play college baseball so bad, but then you know, senior year came around and I finally was like, okay, like probably not gonna happen, right? But here's this aviation world, like that I can go crushing in that. Like I know I'm good enough for that. And then sure enough, I think that's kind of what transitioned. And looking back, I think that's why I had the path I did in baseball, is because like it kind of taught me how to go after something and put the work in, and I just transitioned that work and that effort to something else, you know.

SPEAKER_01 36:23

It's funny because it your scenario was my scenario. Oh, really? It's the same exact thing, so that's why I think it's just awesome to hear you talk about it because you have two choices, right? You show up. Yeah, I was I was a first baseman, I had pigeonholed myself there. I could hit pretty decent. I was all right, but like my senior year, they basically just put me on the team because I had played the other three years, right? Yeah, and I was splitting time with someone on JV all the way. My my junior year I played on the JV team. I was splitting time with someone. They brought me up my senior year because I played the other three years. And I got lucky because I got to hit, like I got to be a DH every once in a while because the one guy, or well, not the one guy, there was like three guys on our team that would decide that they'd go drinking, and then they ended up suspended for like four or five games. And luckily I got to be the guy who got to play their position. Yeah, totally. But that was the thing. It was like you had two choices, right? You could you could go and sulk in the corner, and that's the guy that they're not gonna bring up, or you could go work your butt off. Yeah, but the thing is, is you said it is the lessons that you learned in that scenario uh-huh transfer over to other things. And so when you sit there and you look back on it, and I'll tell you this if you've never coached before, if you've never coached a baseball team and you have time, I don't think you're gonna have much time to do it, but like if you could go do it, uh-huh, you'll have a different understanding of that whole situation as well. Because when you're the coach, the decisions that you have to make are completely different than when you're a player.

SPEAKER_02 37:48

Totally. And you I could totally see it. Yeah, it's crazy. Yeah, I could totally see it, you know, and that was something um it was hard. Like, I didn't want like, you know, I had a couple falling outs with like a couple, I didn't say a couple, like one team and one coach I had a falling out with, and it was like, you know, I in the moment I felt a touch entitled to at least get a little bit of playing time just because like I worked my butt off. Right. And I remember like I would look him to the face, be like, bro, I work harder than anyone on this team. Like, I know I'm not great, you know, but like give me something, right? Looking back, like, yeah, if I'm not good and I don't deserve the playing time, then I don't deserve the playing time, right? Right. But in the moment it was just really hard to accept that as at 17 years old because I was like, dude, I'm here before everyone else, you know, like I'm in the cages more than anyone else. I might not be as good as them, but I was like, I'm working harder, but that's not how life works, you know. And what I think was like my turning point was like I remember I finally got old enough to start thinking about life and jobs and careers or whatever. And it was kind of funny, like whenever I got upset about like, you know, because like I loved pitching, I thought it was so much fun, and you know, I was in the bullpen all the time, you know, at like Swaggard's shop, you know, working out over there. And there were dudes who I knew I was hitting the bullpen more than them, and I knew I was hitting the gym more than them, but they were just naturally better than me. It was just kind of like a gift, right? And they obviously worked for it, but there were specific players and friends even that like internally I'd be frustrated because it's like, dude, I know I'm putting in more work than them. How are they still better than me? You know, and that was frustrating, but it was cool because then it finally transitioned to it's like, all right, you're you might be better than me at baseball, but I was like, bro, I'm gonna crush you in life though. Exactly. And that was kind of like, you know, I hope that's not too cocky to say, but like I think that's kind of what like kind of motivated me as like 17, 18 years old came around. I was like, all right, like baseball might not be my thing, but I was like, I know for a fact, like I'm gonna dominate you in life, right? Because like I know what needs to be put in. You know, I'm still learning, like I'm still very young. I've got a long ways to go to get to where I'm gonna be.

SPEAKER_01 39:58

The thing is, though, is like the foundation that you have, like it's something that will take you far. I hope just hang on to it, keep working it, keep going. You know, like I wish I knew some of the things that you know now when I was your age, because like I didn't really think of it that way, you know. Like I it's been like, you know, since I've been doing this podcast, like five or six years, I really just thought that all I was gonna do was work for someone my whole life, and I was never gonna be anything more than that, you know. And I got this opening up in my mind where like you find your value, right? Yeah. Like whether they they value you or not, you have value. Yeah. Someone's if you can't find who has that value for you, you can go find someone else. But if you're if you're pissed off all the time because of your situation, because you think, well, I'm not well, I'm not talented enough, like I can't beat this guy, then now I can just quit and I can go, you know. I almost I almost walked away my senior year, you know. But I sat my football coach was uh one of my football coaches was my baseball coach. He was a defensive line coach, and then my head football coach, you know, who was trying to get me a scholarship to go play football somewhere, he's like, You're not quitting. Yeah. I'm like, and my dad would have never let it happen. Yeah, I tried in the I tried in the fifth grade, I signed up for Optimus Football and I tried to quit the first day. Really? Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 41:10

I I had moments with sports that I knew how to quit right away. Yeah, I wrestled for a little bit and I hated it. Yeah, I hated it. And my mom was like, Nope, you're doing it. Yeah, but it you know, you learn something from it. Right. But yeah, no, I got mounds of respect for my friends and my family and everyone around me. But like at the end of the day, like life's a competition. Whether you want to look at it that way, there's only so much money, there's only so many investment opportunities, there's only so many business opportunities, and like, you know, I will always support and like love the dudes I'm around. But like in the very back of my mind, like deep down in my heart, like that's kind of what pushes me. It's like, I'm gonna crush all of them. I'm gonna beat you. Yeah, like no one, no one is going as far as I'm going, right? Because you need something to push you, right? And it's not, it doesn't come from a place of like I want to be better than people, it's just like I want as much as I can get out of this life, you know. Jesse Itzler, he's an entrepreneur and um an investor, and that's just what he talks about. He's like, you get one life, right? And then, you know, there's another guy, Ed Milette. He talks about how his like biggest fear is that he's gonna die and he's gonna go into heaven and you know, whatever your religious belief is. But he's afraid that he's gonna sit down and with God and God's gonna be like, Hey, like you did a good job, you know, I'm proud of you, A, B, and C. Um, but this is what you could have done. This is what you could have been, right? And then you look back and you're like, Oh, David Goggins the same way.

SPEAKER_01 42:33

He said the same exact thing. He's like, I I want to get up there and I want him to say that I did everything I could possibly do.

SPEAKER_02 42:38

Totally, yeah. And I kind of look at it the same way. Like, I'm terrified of like being in my deathbed and looking back and being like, I could have done this, I could have done this, could have done this, right? That's like my biggest fear. So I'm not saying everything is about purely like money and success and all that. Like it's not a big part of it, but it's not everything. But I think that's kind of what keeps me going, is like I know there's only so much out there and there's only so much opportunity, and like I'm gonna put in the work, and like my future family is gonna be the one that reaps the reward because that's what they deserve, right? Because that's what my parents gave me.

SPEAKER_01 43:10

Yeah, and the hard thing is is the hardest thing when you become a parent, you will see is making sure that you do the same thing that your parents did for you to try and help. Yeah, I mean, or you know, like you're always trying to hone it, right? We're trying always to make it better, but like giving your kid that thing instead of making them work for it is detrimental to whatever you do, and it is hard, trust me. It's hard. Like, when you think about like you having what you you know, the technology that we have now, like it's impossible. Like as a parent, my parents were like, Oh, we're gonna go fishing, we're gonna go outside, we're gonna hit baseballs, we're gonna do all this stuff. And then like as as a parent now, it's like, oh man, you're driving me crazy here. Take this. Yeah. You know, like you gotta find that way to keep it going.

SPEAKER_02 43:51

Totally. It's sad to see. It's kind of funny. It's interesting, like in my generation, because like I have friends who are parents now, you know, I have friends who are having kids and stuff, we're just at that age. But um it's interesting how many people my age are being like, I'm not giving my kid a phone. My kid's not gonna have social media till this age or ever or whatever, just because we've kind of seen like what it does to like the youth, right? Like you know, it's so sad. That's all you see in grocery stores now. You just see kids like in their faces and their iPads, right? And you see kids scrolling social media. It's like, bro, the kid's like nine years old, he does not need to be seeing the stuff that's on there. Like that's legit gonna ruin his brain, right? Because everything's about instant gratification or instant satisfaction now. That's that's all everyone wants. They want it now, right? And if you instill that to a nine-year-old, that that's scary. Oh man, the worst thing is it's terrifying because like you know, people can't even sit down and watch a movie now. Yeah, like they're you know, like they can't they can't stay focused long enough to watch a movie. And like, you know, I don't know, some people just don't enjoy movies, and not hating on you if you can't watch a movie, but I'm just saying, like, you know, I don't think enough people could even like go to a park and sit on a bench for 20 minutes. Take it in the most, yeah. I I don't think people do that, right? There's just there always needs to be this distraction, and like I was listening to um uh it was an athlete or a coach or somebody, and um he challenged you to like go work out like without music. Yeah, that'd be hard, exactly, right? But it shouldn't be, yeah. Of course, I listen to music when I work out because like it's hard not to, but it shouldn't be at the end of the day, right? Because you're there to work on you're trying to build muscle, right? You don't need something in a shutter.

SPEAKER_01 45:25

Because it used to be like when I would go to the gym when I was a kid, it was like they're playing the radio. Totally, right? Yeah, you're like, oh, there's something like that. I don't have a headphones because I couldn't I didn't want to carry around a disc man while I'm doing squats, you know.

SPEAKER_02 45:35

Uh-huh. Yeah, and it's just funny. Like, I would probably do it too, just being honest. But think about how many people, if you left the house to go to the gym, you get to the gym, realize you don't have your headphones, would probably drive back home to get their headphones. Right. I need that motivation. Yeah, exactly. Right. And I would probably do the same, you know. There's some days where I'd probably look at it as like a test. It's like, all right, I'm gonna freaking, I'm gonna go work out while I listen to the stupid radio in the background, right? And it's a little more of a mental test. You would probably be more focused too. You know, you'd probably get the workout done faster because you're like, this sucks. I want I want this to be over with, right? Let's get this done. Yeah. So, anyways, yeah, I think the uh I think about this all the time. The instant satisfaction, it's it's a little scary right now. And yeah, you see all these fake entrepreneur business owners, 20-year-olds driving Lambos and blah blah blah blah. I hate it.

SPEAKER_01 46:21

Driving someone else's Lambo. Totally, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 46:24

It's and it's sad too. I actually I almost posted something. Um, I don't know why I didn't, but I almost posted a video about how we need to be careful about like what we see and what we believe on social media, because you know, if someone in their late 20s or early 30s is starting a business and you know, there's some 22-year-old out there with a leased-out Lambo, right, out there acting like he's made it in life, right? For one, that's like just not positive to the 30-year-old out there trying to build his business because he feels like he's behind, but then there's some 19-year-old out there who feels like he needs to own a Lambo at 22.

SPEAKER_00 47:00

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 47:00

Right. And it's it's sad, you know, and that's not it's not how it is, right? You listen to any real entrepreneur, you know, multimillionaire, like it it takes time, right? And all of them are okay with it, and all of them say like it should take time, you know. Like all of them talk about it's like, yeah, I wasn't a millionaire till I was 40, or I wasn't a billionaire till I was 50, you know, like it takes time, and that's okay. You know, don't get me wrong, I want as much wealth and as much as I can do as quickly as possible, but I also realize that like it takes time and it takes investments and inputs to one day I know the output will come. When is that? I don't know. You know it's gonna happen, but with that mentality, it's gonna happen. Yeah, I think it's all perspective, like it's already happened. Like I'm I'm blessed to be at the airlines, right? I'm blessed to have my home, you know, I'm blessed to have my truck. Like, you know, like it's small little small little wins, right? To which one day I'll look at big picture and be like, wow, like hopefully one day I can be like, hey, I've I've done it, you know. I'm still gonna work and strive for more, but it's funny.

SPEAKER_01 48:00

I was thinking about I I was watching uh, I don't know if you've ever heard of Chad Wright, but he's a former Navy SEAL. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 48:05

Uh-huh.

SPEAKER_01 48:05

And he was on Lewis Howes one time and he was talking about running these ultra marathons. They're crazy. I'm never gonna run that much. That's nuts. But I think of a lot of things that I do sometimes when it's like this is getting tough and this is where it's at. But he's talking about running through the hills on this hundred-mile marathon, right? Up and down, all this stuff, and he's like, if all I can do is get to the next tree. Yep. If all I can do is get to the next tree, and if you can just use another freaking doing that over and over again, yeah, you're gonna get there.

SPEAKER_02 48:30

Uh-huh. Well, and what's cool is like what I love about like it's funny you mentioned running. Um, I ran a marathon with my buddy uh about a year ago. Uh-huh. And um, I just I want to do it. Like, I wrote it down. Like as a family, we write down our goals every year, and then at the end of the year we kind of review them. And I wrote down run a marathon. And it was like September, and I hadn't done it yet. So I called the buddy. I have a buddy, his name's Drew. He's ran like five, he's a stud. And I was like, dude, I was like, I need to run a marathon, but I was like, I don't want to do it by myself. He was like, Let's do it. So we didn't sign up for a race, like we like ran like a half marathon at like the local like half marathon deal, right? And then we just went and ran our own second half. But what's funny is like what I took from like that marathon was like, I don't remember like the finish was great, don't get me wrong. Like hitting you know the 26 miles, you're like, oh, holy crap, I did it. But what I remember is at mile, I was at like mile 19. I was broken, dude. Like I did not prepare for this like I should have, right? Right, like there, there's there was preparation in my eyes. I thought I prepared, but I I didn't as nearly as seriously as I should have. But I called my dad at like mile 19, and I was like, dude, like I know I'm gonna finish, but I don't know how I'm gonna finish this thing. And he was like, bro, he's do another mile. He's like, You've done 19 of them, you know, like just one more. You're gonna hit 20, and then you're gonna do another. Now you're at 21. Yeah, and that was like legit, like, yeah, it's just true for every walk of life, right? But like when I look back at like that race or that run or whatever you want to call it, I remember that moment of being at like mile 19, mile 20 when it hurt and it sucked. Like I teared up, you know, like lower back, your shoulders, your hips. It's a Saturday morning. I'm like, why am I doing this? Yeah, I'm like, dude, all my buddies are tomorrow recovering. Yeah, totally, dude. It was like my buddies are all out eating right now or doing whatever. I was like, why am why am I doing this to myself? You know, but it's um it's just about those moments of like adversity and like pushing yourself through because when you do something really, really tough like that, then you're faced with another form of adversity. You're like, oh, I can get through this. Like I did that, I can get through this, right? Like that was physical pain. Like that sucked. Like I had to push my body to go through this. I can push through this financial situation, I can push through this deal, I can push through this training, you know. So I think it's super important to like force yourself to go and do tough things, you know, every great once in a while, or even just once a year, you know, to kind of prove to yourself. You're like, yeah, I've got some grit. I can go do something, you know. And that's how you build grit, it's how you keep it, you know. You gotta go do hard things. So building a business, you know, starting a podcast, you know, staying consistent in the podcast, you know. It's probably not super easy, you know, being 400 episodes in. Like, that's a lot of time. It is, it's it is, but it's super respectable and admirable, you know? It's really cool. But I'm sure you've learned a lot of lessons along the way.

SPEAKER_01 51:14

Oh, yeah. You know, that's it. I think that the biggest thing is, isn't and that's what I I love to see it because you know you're so young and you've already figured that out. Like, you don't have it all figured out. I was about to say, I would have said I have it figured out, but I just you've figured out a path of what you need to do.

SPEAKER_02 51:27

Totally, yeah. And like, is that path flying? Is it business? Is it real estate? I like I got no clue, right? Like, I think I have an idea, like I have a perfect image of what I want like me at 45 to look like or me at 55 to look like, but being honest, it's probably gonna be it might be a little bit like it, but probably not yeah, exactly like it's like everything changes over time, dude. Totally, yeah. And I just you know, I just hope at the end of the day, like I can look back and be like, dude, whatever my path was, like I busted my butt at it, right? And like I went after it. And McConaughey has a pretty cool little quote where like um he was doing an interview and he was like, if you want to do something, go do it. Yeah, he was like, because at the end of the day, if it worked out or didn't, you can look back and be like, hey, I went all in and it paid out and it worked, or I went all in and that wasn't it. So I'm gonna go on to the next thing, right? Because if you just kind of like dip your toe in, right? Like, uh, it kind of works, kinda not really, you know. You're you're never gonna find out that way, right? So yeah. And no one, I'm not trying to be mean, but like no one respects somebody who half asses something.

SPEAKER_01 52:30

Yeah, I think that's what that quote said, right? He's like, Don't don't do it half ass or something like that.

SPEAKER_02 52:34

It was kind of Oh, it was his it was his dad. Yeah, yeah, because when he called his dad that he didn't want to be a lawyer and he wanted to go act, he was like, All right, don't half ass it, right? And um, yeah, that was kind of like his tale that his dad was like accepting of it. So, but yeah, that's where that comes from. So yeah, it's pretty cool.

SPEAKER_01 52:50

Well, I you know, flying is not really anywhere where anyone can find you, but uh the the real estate, if someone wants to use you as a real estate or where can they find you? Yeah, what can they do?

SPEAKER_02 53:00

Just Instagram, Hayden Levitt. Um, it's probably the best way to reach out. Um yeah, it's kind of funny. I have a decent amount of leads come out of social media. It's it's pretty cool. I've had quite a few people reach out, quite a young people too. And like, you know, like I said, I'm not spending as much time in the real estate world as I would like to, just because, you know, I'm working on the career and I'm right, you know, I gotta pay my dues to get to where I want to be. But um, if I could like look back, like my impact is like I want like the younger generation to start buying homes. Yeah, I want it because like I hate the trap that we're going into of like renting till you're 35 and 40, right?

SPEAKER_01 53:34

Well, it's tough here in Idaho too, because there's so many like affording a house, like literally a mile over there 12 years ago, 117,000. Yep, same exact size house or pretty close to the same size house, 440. Totally. That's insane.

SPEAKER_02 53:50

It is, yeah, it is insane, and it's scary, you know. Um, kind of a funny little moment. Um, my mom, she teaches out at the real estate school once a month. She goes out and talks about mortgages. And I went in and I watched her one day, and um she kind of gets to the end of her spiel, and this like uh lady raises her hand and she was kind of younger and she was like how do we afford to buy homes these days? And my mom was like, You go to Starbucks? She was like, Yeah. She was like, How many times a week? She was like, Oh, probably three or four. She was like, All right, that's probably thirty, forty dollars a week in Starbucks, right? And she was like, Yeah. She was like, over the course of a year, if you stop buying Starbucks, how much money would you have saved up? She was like, A lot. And she was like, How many other aspects of your life do you think you could save money like that? And she was like, a lot. And she was like, there you go. All about those priorities. Uh-huh, exactly. So don't get me wrong, it's a tough market out there. It's not easy. It's not easy, but it's very, very doable. Um, you know, I have a really good friend. She just bought a house at 22, you know, and um I have another Caden Recla. He's in the construction world and he just got his first internship. He has a goal to buy a house in the next two years, right? And it's just about priorities, save money. It's very doable, you know. Like, it's not that hard. I hate saying this, but you can save up 15 grand for a down payment. You can. It might take you a few years, but you can do it. Yeah. Right. You can find a side hustle, you can go flip things, you know, just honestly, 10% of your income, you know, whatever it is, like it's doable. So I think it's just more of a mindset thing, you know. Like Robert Kiyosaki and his book, Bridge That Poor Dad, he kind of talks about how he doesn't say I can't afford it, how can I afford it?

SPEAKER_01 55:33

Right.

SPEAKER_02 55:34

Right.

SPEAKER_01 55:34

What do I got to do to get there?

SPEAKER_02 55:35

Totally. Yeah. You might have to give up coffee for a year. Make your own damn coffee. Yeah, make it at home. You know, it's not that hard. You know, Keurig's, you know, 80 bucks for a Keurig. You know, you're gonna spend 80 bucks in Starbucks in two weeks, right? So yeah, I think um I kind of that's my perspective on it. You know, it's it's a very hard-headed, kind of rude perspective. You know, it's like, oh, stop going out because I buy food, I buy Starbucks, I do, right? But um, it's just all in moderation, you know. So that's that and it to go back to it. So that's my goal is I want I want the younger generation to start buying homes. I want them to stop feeding into like the new right now satisfaction, you know, the fast food and all that, what was just we're wasting money away on, you know. I want them to start focusing on futures in their homes, and it's just so cool what um what buying a house will do for you younger. Because it just kind of it kind of starts you. You're like, oh shoot, I've got a priority now, you know, and it kind of like sets in place. You're like, all right, I've got bills, I got utilities, which it's not fun, it's not easy, but then it kind of sets you up. Like, all right, if I can take care of a house and if I can plan to pay a mortgage, I think I can start investing a little, even if it's fifty bucks a month, right? I can start setting aside fifty bucks a month to invest, and then two years later it's a hundred bucks a month, and it just starts going from there, right? So that's kind of my goals. I I love helping younger like Chad. I've talked to him about buying a home, you know. Like I think him and Ruby just being married, like um, that's kind of down the road for them. But uh it's cool talking to the younger generation about it. So that's my goal.

SPEAKER_01 57:10

Well, man, I'm excited to I appreciate you being here and I'm super excited to see you grow because I think it's like seeing you grow from this 15-year-old kid to where you are right now. It's it's a vast difference. I mean, I could tell from the beginning that that was the kind of kid you were, so it's good to see it actually me be right about something, you know.

SPEAKER_02 57:29

No, thank you. I appreciate it. Yeah, no, I'm grateful to be on here. It's cool to see what you've done with the podcast, and you know you you're still pushing at it, and you know, your first sponsorship will come. Yeah, it'll get there. You know, yeah, it'll get there, but no, I'm excited for you, man. You've got a lot of avenues that you're building, and it's it's cool to see. Yeah, it's really cool to see. So yeah, I'm excited for you. Awesome, man. Uh-huh.

SPEAKER_01 57:49

All right, everyone. Well, this has been another episode of Shaping Success Treasure Valley. I appreciate you guys hanging out with me in Hayden. If you want to check out Two Nobodies You Know Nothing, that is live every Monday at seven o'clock Eastern Time. You can check me and Jay out on One Drink Wednesday, seven o'clock Pacific Standard Time, every Wednesday on IG. Until next time, I challenge you to find the shape of your success. And then try to end it.