Escaping the Drift with John Gafford
From Adversity to Triumph: Shawn Meaike’s Journey to Building a Billion-Dollar Insurance Empire
Tue, 10 Dec 2024
Join us as we welcome the extraordinary Shawn Meaike, a powerhouse in the insurance world who defied the odds to build a billion-dollar empire from the ground up. Shawn's story is a testament to resilience and ambition, molded by a childhood filled with challenges and the unwavering support of his single mother. From working with abused and neglected children to making strategic moves in real estate, Shawn shares how these pivotal experiences shaped his vision and fueled his drive for success. Our conversation takes a deep dive into the transformation of adversity into opportunity. Shawn opens up about the personal struggles and triumphs that informed his approach to business and life. We explore the pivotal role sports played as both a refuge and a developmental tool, and how his family's history in real estate influenced his career path. Shawn's journey is a rich tapestry of overcoming obstacles and seizing moments to carve out a prosperous and meaningful life. As the episode unfolds, Shawn imparts valuable insights on leveraging technology and social media to propel business growth, build personal brands, and create a culture of leadership. We tackle the intricacies of real estate management, the ethics of property management practices, and the art of scaling a successful insurance agency. Through engaging anecdotes and thought-provoking discussions, Shawn offers lessons on judging character, nurturing resilience, and mastering the art of communication, providing listeners with inspiration and practical takeaways for their own journeys. CHAPTERS (00:00) - Rags to Riches (05:14) - Overcoming Obstacles and Achieving Success (13:27) - Transforming Addictions Into Service (17:29) - Navigating Real Estate Development and Challenges (24:44) - Property Management and Insurance Business (30:31) - Building a Successful Insurance Agency (38:27) - Scaling Business Through Social Media Influence (42:26) - Building Remote Work Culture Without Offices (52:21) - Judging Character and Building Resilience (01:00:07) - Success Through Communication and Adaptation (01:05:26) - Engaging Audience for Escaping the Drift 💬 Did you enjoy this podcast episode? Tell us all about it in the comment section below! ☑️ If you liked this video, consider subscribing to Escaping The Drift with John Gafford ************* 💯 About John Gafford: After appearing on NBC's "The Apprentice", John relocated to the Las Vegas Valley and founded several successful companies in the real estate space. ➡️ The Gafford Group at Simply Vegas, top 1% of all REALTORS nationwide in terms of production. Simply Vegas, a 500 agent brokerage with billions in annual sales Clear Title, a 7-figure full-service title and escrow company. ➡️ Streamline Home Loans - An independent mortgage bank with more than 100 loan officers. The Simply Group, A national expansion vehicle partnering with large brokers across the country to vertically integrate their real estate brokerages. ************* ✅ Follow John Gafford on social media: Instagram ▶️ / thejohngafford Facebook ▶️ / gafford2 🎧 Stream The Escaping The Drift Podcast with John Gafford Episode here: Listen On Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/7cWN80gtZ4m4wl3DqQoJmK?si=2d60fd72329d44a9 Listen On Apple: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/escaping-the-drift-with-john-gafford/id1582927283 ************* #escapingthedrift #shawnmeaike #resilience #ambition #success #realestate #insurance #adversity #leadership #technology #socialmedia #propertymanagement #scalingbusiness #remotework #characterjudgment #communication #adaptation #personalgrowth #overcomingobstacles #familydynamics #sports #realestatedevelopment #propertymanagementpractices #leadgeneration #virtualmeetings #culture #competition #trust #psychology #education #marketing #experientiallearning
Chapter 1: What challenges did Shawn face in his early life?
see early on i was really excited about but i've got to a point like you know what if i do any of this shit i could be doing something to make money i have kids i have a family you're gonna pay me yeah but if i matter if i was looking at my life 360 app because i have my daughter in there keeping hers just like keeping sav safe in california she named it my son was eight and he i still have the same one he named that the that we're tracking each other and it said pay me motherfucker mike family
And now, Escaping the Drift, the show designed to get you from where you are to where you want to be. I'm John Gafford, and I have a knack for getting extraordinary achievers to drop their secrets to help you on a path to greatness. So stop drifting along, escape the drift, and it's time to start right now. Back again, back again for another episode. episode.
Like it says in the opening, man, the show to get you from where you are to where you want to be in. Today, people in the studio, I'm talking again, man. Again, just baller after baller after baller rolling in here lately. This dude is has done something that I appreciate in a way that it's greater because I used to be in this business, man.
And this dude took it so far beyond anything that I would have even thought it was possible. It's crazy. He literally has built a billion dollar insurance company. It is a massive team of 37,000 salespeople. He is a key. I mean, the dude's a bestselling author and this guy's Mr. Everything. He's got his own unbelievable podcast. that blows up everywhere.
You've seen them everywhere, Fox News, everything else. Guys, we are so blessed to have in studio today, this is Sean Mike. Sean.
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Chapter 2: How did Shawn transform his struggles into success?
How you doing, man? How are you, buddy? Good, I appreciate that. That's quite an introduction. I feel even better about myself than I have before I walked in here.
See, I'm actually applying for the job. I want to be the warm-up dude when you go speak.
Tell you what.
I just want to get them hyped up like Flavor Flav.
You're already hired.
I could be the Flavor Flav to your Chuck D, right? Like I come out and jump around like a monkey and you drop the knowledge.
You're already hired, dude.
Yeah.
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Chapter 3: What role did sports play in Shawn's development?
I love that. So let's do, look, for those of you, if you don't know who Sean is, this dude is a beast in the insurance world. When I say beast, I'm talking about king of the jungle type stuff. But how did you get started? And like, well, you know, I don't want to go further back than that with you, dude, because I'm always a big interest of nature versus nurture.
So like, what's the background with you? Do you have like that terrible David Goggin story or just what made you, you do you think growing up?
Well, first of all, thanks for having me on, man. I appreciate it. I appreciate everything you do and everything right back at you, man. I see you everywhere. I've heard a lot about you and it's good to meet you in person. So thanks for having me. And I need to preface this with one of the reasons I want to come on a show is I like real people that tell real stories.
It's unfortunate with this whole nature versus nurture thing because so many people they fabricate their story. It's not a real story. Um, so I shoot you straight. Whenever I have to say it happened, if I say it didn't happen, it didn't happen. And it makes my life a lot easier. My mother raised me and my brother, my brother's two years younger than me.
Chapter 4: How did Shawn navigate real estate challenges?
Um, she got pregnant when she was 17, had my brother who died shortly after birth. I would have had another brother. I'd been the middle child and then had me at 19, my brother at 21, um, old man left. My mom raised us. My mom had a high school education. And my mother worked at a hospital plant product, kind of like wore a hair net, worked there. She was a bartender and did all kinds of odd jobs.
Give you an idea how hard my mom worked. I played baseball, basketball, football in high school.
football and baseball in college my mother's never seen me play any sport in her life not because she's not a great mother because she worked her freaking ass off so good so um mine was very much um i was very blessed with what i got to go through but my mother i will tell you people always ask me why do people have a low self-image everything that i've studied i went to college got an undergraduate degree in social work mastery in psychology because i wanted to play ball it's the only reason i went to play baseball and um
You know, people say to me, what causes low self-image? I said, lack of unconditional love. And my mother, for all the things I had going on in my life, all the stupid shit I did, all the drugs and alcohol I was involved in, all the times I got arrested for doing stupid shit, she loved me through it all. My mom told me she loved me every mother-effing day of my life.
Um, truthfully to this day, if I called her right now, that'd be the first thing she says. So she, um, she, she raised me, worked really hard. Um, you know, we lived in, you know, subsidized housing and I knew that's not where I wanted to be. Um, I knew at a very, very young age, you're talking about your kids. I knew at a very young age, I want to do a lot more.
I knew at a very young age, my brother had no desire to do anymore. And we lived in the exact same house, exact same circumstances. So I went to college, played baseball, got a degree, uh, And then got myself a job immediately working with abused, neglected children.
That was my deal. Well, real quick, I want to go a little bit deeper on what you just talked about. So, you know, having that mom that had to work all the time, right? You guys were kind of left to fend for yourselves. There was a lot of like, okay, dinner's on the table or figured out the can of spaghetti is whatever it is.
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Chapter 5: What are the key elements of property management?
And yeah,
I D is you've got to just have a tremendous amount of resilience growing up in that. And I find that interesting that your resilience has got to be very high, but you said your brothers wasn't correct. So what do you think was the disconnect there?
I'd like to give you a much better answer other than if you choose to be unsuccessful, you're going to be unsuccessful. If you choose to be cowardly, you're going to be cowardly. If you choose to cry and mope and whine. I got a faith, dude. There's nowhere in that book anywhere that says to be a coward. be a punk, be a complainer, like nowhere. I've read it. Like I read it a lot.
And while I don't understand all of it all the time, it doesn't say that anywhere. So I think that was the path my brother chose, you know? So I chose to not be what bothered me the most as a kid, to be honest with you, John, by far the most was the way people looked at me.
looked at me based on what we didn't have and i always knew it because i was listen i was in ap classes in high school i hated my ap classes because i hated the people in my class and i'm like none of you all play ball at all i don't have anything in common but i realized i really didn't love myself enough and i felt uncomfortable around them because they were they had good clothes
they're from good homes and i just didn't fit in so i was like let me get out of these classes but i knew i wanted something different and i knew that my brother didn't and i knew i wanted my mother would always tell me it's like people i said well how'd you why'd you want to be an entrepreneur my father who wasn't around was a business owner my father did not work hard my father made good money i mean he lived his life that was his life um and
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Chapter 6: What strategies did Shawn use to build a successful insurance agency?
later in life i've come to build a relationship with them because after not talking to somebody for 10 plus years you realize like bro is it hurting you or hurting them like what does it matter so i reach out them all man we have you know we have the relationship but we have but i built a lot of resilience too but i never thought of it that way like i knew that my mother dated guys and when they would come to the house and i would be 14 15 years old and they'd be like where's your mom
She's upstairs. She needs to hurry up. I'm like, bro, I will fuck you up. Yeah. Like, I will fucking smack the shit out of you. You talk like that about my mom again. Yeah. Like, and look at me and ask me if you're fucking... Like, I was really angry, kid. I'm probably still angry, to be very honest with you. So...
I mean, obviously angry at this situation.
Very. Very. Defensive, protective.
Well, it's just interesting because, you know, you said around the AP classes, like, you didn't fit in, you feel with those people, but yet, deep down, you're aspiring to be those people. 100%. So it's kind of in a weird way. It's a stretch a little bit, but it's kind of almost like the obstacles away, like that modern stoicism take from like Ryan Holiday.
I mean, hey, listen, what's the biggest struggle we deal with with our kids? They're never going to know those struggles, unfortunately. Fortunately, but unfortunately. Your kids are never going to know, nor are mine.
And that's why it's also interesting that for so many in those poverty-stricken countries, parts of the country sports is, is the way out. It was the only way out of the gateway. But on the flip side of that now is, is, is a, your kids never knew that struggle. So I'm sure you utilize sports the same way we do in our household as manufactured diversity.
A hundred percent. And I think, I think for me, you know, it's funny that, you know, you building this real estate monster and all things you've done. My mother got a real estate license when I was probably 10 and, And it was the first thing she'd ever done outside of a job. And I remember my mom, you're talking about 1982. Yeah. But I can remember the dress she was wearing.
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Chapter 7: How can social media influence business growth?
I can remember being excited. I remember hearing the terminology open house. I didn't know, like I had to ask my mom and I was very inquisitive. And I had a neighbor who I don't know if she's still alive, but boy, she was a bitch. And she like would come over and try to beat us up. And she was a brutal, brutal lady.
And I remember my mother got a license and she looked at my mom and she said, Carrie, you know that you're never going to be successful at this right in front of us in our little apartment. And my mother was very passive. That's why I think I've also got to watch people treat her. verbally the way they were never going to treat me. And my mother quit, gave up her real estate three months into it.
Don't even know if she ever made a sale. I don't think she ever made a sale. And I remember like feeling so happy for her and then realizing like, dude, she's never going to try anything ever again. Never. And so I actually got my real estate license when I was like 21 and I got it because of that. Like I really wasn't like, I didn't have a plan. I was a social worker.
I was like, dude, everybody's getting a real estate license, meaning like five guys I knew. But I'm like, why not get it? And then I started buying and selling property when I was 21, land developing, multifamily homes. And I, you know, built a pretty good real estate portfolio, which I sold later. But yeah, man, growing up, it really drove me.
Was your mom an absolutist like that? Because like, dude, my wife's mother is like an absolutist. Yeah. got drunk and threw up when she was 21, never touched alcohol again, got married, got divorced. I never dated anybody else ever again. Like, like just checking off the box. And I've always thought like, Oh my God, that what a terrible way to go through life.
I think my mother, um, she had a really, really tough upbringing, you know? And honestly, in fairness, so did my old man. And I think when you look back on it, you know, I had a guy tell me one day that every son and father go through three phases. First, your son idolizes you. Then he demonizes you. Then he humanizes you. And, man, I thought about my son. I mean, I coached all his sports.
I was with him every minute of every day. You know, the idolization. And what's weird is I started – you start thinking a lot when you get older, and you're like, you know what, man? My old man was – he was an ass. But guess what, bro? There are things that happened to him he didn't do to me. So as much as I want to demonize him, I realized he's a human being, bro. So he's just a human.
How much joy do you take in the fact that you broke that cycle?
Oh, I take it, dude. I take a ton of joy in it. I think for me, you know, I've been, I've been sober 24 years. Um, I love to drink. I love cocaine a lot more. I love, I love smoking crack a lot. Oh God. Oh yeah. I'm being, you know, if it didn't involve a needle, I did it.
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Chapter 8: What lessons does Shawn share about resilience and communication?
You know, and I think everybody in my family, so that was one of the first ones I broke. I graduated from college and all that. And I just, you know, wanted to be, you know, I wanted to, To your point, I wanted to be like those people on some level, but I wanted to have the same chances they had. And I had to convince myself that I could.
And when I got into real estate, I started getting around people. And, you know, I did really well. And I worked at like Remax and William Ravis. That's a big New England one. And I did really well. And I was like working my job. And I'm like, dude, I'm like number one agent. And I don't even work here full time. Like y'all don't work.
So I was like, this is such an awesome industry because y'all don't do anything. The people in my office, I'm like, you just hang out. Like this is easy. It's easy to beat you guys. And then I was like, I get to compete again. Like I thought I'd be playing baseball until I was 35 years old getting paid to do it. And I'm like, dude, I get to compete again. And that's what got my juices flowing.
So I realized I love to compete. I want to prove people wrong. I obviously developed a lot of resilience growing up. And also that hasn't left me. I see a lot of folks that go make enough money to live on. Dude, money. I have plenty of money. I'm not trying to be like, I've been very blessed. Sometimes I'm like, dude, this makes no sense. It makes no sense. You want to go eat?
Yeah, let's take a yacht to a restaurant. It's dumb. Let's fly a private jet. It's really stupid, and it's surreal, but it's never made me want to slow down. Ever. Like you've never been like, no, I don't feel like doing that today. Like I want to be moving all day long every day because I want to make a difference. I'm going to do things that give me a purpose.
Okay. So weird question. Do you think that that it's like you mentioned having issues with alcohol and drugs, whatever, and earlier in your life, many moons ago. Yeah. That level, because I find some people that I know that have issues with that, right? Some people are addicted to those things because there's a hole in them. They're trying to fill a hole up, right?
And then some people are just addicted to it because it's fast and it's fun. Do you find that maybe your addiction level to that stuff is carried over and just changed the addiction into now service?
I think my addictive personality never left me. I think I was predisposed to addiction. Everybody on both sides of my family was. There were certainly holes in our lives that I think I wanted to fill. But the first time I drank, I loved it. I loved everything. I was probably 10. First time I smoked weed, I was maybe 12. I loved it. First time I did coke, I was maybe 14. I loved it.
I loved the way it made me feel. I loved that I could escape life. And it wasn't until the love for me
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