The School of Greatness
Ryan Serhant Reveals The MINDSET Behind His Billion Dollar Empire
Mon, 4 Nov 2024
In this episode of the School of Greatness, I sat down with real estate mogul and Netflix star Ryan Serhant to explore the intersection of success, happiness, and purpose. From his humble beginnings as a hand model to building a revolutionary real estate empire and starring in the #1 show on Netflix, Ryan opens up about his relentless drive for excellence and his recent revelations about what truly matters in life. He shares raw insights about turning 40 and realizing he'd spent two decades chasing importance instead of happiness. This conversation dives deep into the mindset of billion-dollar success while examining the personal cost of endless ambition. Whether you're an entrepreneur, sales professional, or someone seeking to understand the delicate balance between achievement and fulfillment, this episode will challenge your perspective on what it means to live a truly successful life.Learn how to build an empire like Ryan's: Sellit.comCheck out Ryan's Netflix Series "Owning Manhattan" on Netflix!IN THIS EPISODE YOU WILL LEARN:How to differentiate between chasing importance versus pursuing genuine happinessThe strategic approach to scaling businesses 100X instead of settling for incremental growthWhy making luck "easy to find" through consistent hard work is the key to breakthrough successThe crucial difference between inherited wealth versus earned wealth mindsetsHow to build a company culture that encourages honest feedback and constructive disagreementThe power of focusing on what your customer needs rather than what you think they wantFor more information go to https://www.lewishowes.com/1689For more Greatness text PODCAST to +1 (614) 350-3960More SOG episodes we think you’ll love:Mark Matson – http://greatness.lnk.to/1675SCGlennda Baker – http://greatness.lnk.to/1651SCNoah Kagan – http://greatness.lnk.to/1572SC Get more from Lewis! Get my New York Times Bestselling book, Make Money Easy!Get The Greatness Mindset audiobook on SpotifyText Lewis AIYouTubeInstagramWebsiteTiktokFacebookX
Chapter 1: What drives Ryan Serhant's relentless ambition?
I subconsciously told myself, one day I'm going to figure out what my thing is. And once I do, everybody better watch the out because I am going to go so hard. I don't know what it's going to be. Once I figure out what I want and what I'm great at, I will never, ever, ever let it go.
Joining us right now is real estate broker, Ryan Serhant. Owning Manhattan star, Ryan Serhant. Are you ready to meet Ryan? The legendary Ryan Serhant. What about people who want to invest in real estate in 2025?
I think that what we'll see in 2025 is... Really? And I realized in that moment that I'd spent the last 20 years waking up every day to feel important instead of waking up every day to feel happy. People are no longer afraid of being failures. They're afraid of being embarrassed. Yes. So they won't try because they care about failing.
They then don't try because they don't want other people to know it didn't work out.
What other habits do billionaires have that have helped you level up your life and your business just by being around them? They've Ryan Serhant is here on the School of Greatness, very excited about being with you because you have continued the way, I think I started finding you back in 2008, kind of when I started. I think you were on Million Dollar Listing back in, what, 10, 11, 12?
When was that? When did you first start on that?
Our audition was in 2010. The show came out in 2012.
Yeah. So we kind of came up in the online marketing space doing different things around the same time. Yeah. And I watched your journey. And for me, it's really inspiring to see how consistently you've been in showing up for yourself and risking new ideas, trying new things and failing and trying new things and succeeding.
And I don't think people understand the level of commitment you have to your vision and your mission.
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Chapter 2: How does Ryan differentiate between importance and happiness?
We can do media, we can do TV shows, we can do whatever we want. And then that all leads down to profits, right?
So that we can keep the businesses going. But how do you know what product you love the most? Because you want to have a passion for sales. Yeah. But how do you know which product within real estate? Why real estate and which product? Now you have software, you have books, you have courses, you have like speaking about real estate, you have everything.
How do you know which product to choose when you're starting, but also now when you're scaling?
I think you have to make mistakes and give yourself a lot of room to make those mistakes. I think people are no longer afraid of being failures. They're afraid of being embarrassed. So they won't try because they care about failing. They then don't try because they don't want other people to know it didn't work out. And so,
As a good example, we started Serhant in 2020, in the depths of COVID in New York City.
You bought the building.
Everybody said, don't do it. So I said, I'm going to go start my own real estate firm, but I have an idea. I have an idea of how things are gonna be bought and sold in the future. I'm not gonna be able to do it by myself. It's gonna take me a second. I'm gonna start a sales training platform called sellit.com.
And then we're gonna have studios, which does real estate media, because it's just what we do and it's what we know. And there's going to be an undercurrent of tech enablement, okay, underneath everything. And I think it's gonna be one thing. And so what I started with was an app called Spaces.
that was basically studios in your pocket so that I could go to 10,000 real estate agents around the world and say, you get to go make your own property tours now, really easy. It'll edit itself. It'll cue itself. It'll capture itself. One click, you're done. You don't have to spend the $1,500 that it's gonna cost you to do a mini, all that stuff. I was the only one who used it. Wow.
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Chapter 3: What are the key habits of billionaires that Ryan adopts?
Because you surround yourself with yes people because you pay their bills and you will go bankrupt because they will yes you to their next job. And you got to surround yourself with people that are so passionate that they are willing to make you angry. and make you upset. And I definitely have those people now. Wow, really?
Yeah, it's not as much, it's not as comfortable as it used to be, but the business is so much better for it because I am not always right. In fact, most of the times I'm wrong, but I really wanna understand how we get to the why. And so- I've been able to scale now by surrounding myself with leaders who are 100% comfortable with saying no to themselves, to other people, to me.
We just count the nos till we get to the yes. And it makes for a massive business. Wow.
One thing I want to ask you about, I want to talk about kind of the billion dollar mindset that you have and how you've built that and developed it, how people can build a million or billion dollar mindset for themselves. I want to talk about real estate a little bit, investing in real estate today. You had a prediction at the beginning of 2024, five bold predictions of this year.
I'm not sure if you remember this. I'm going to share some of the quotes that you had from this. I'm making a lot of predictions. I know. I'm going to share some of the stuff you said from this. It was an article in February called Five Bold Predictions for the Real Estate Game in 2024. I'm curious if any of those things have come true. And also your predictions for 2025.
But first, before I dive into that stuff, I want to ask you, how is your heart?
So I went to the cardiologist yesterday. I know that's not your question, but it's funny you asked me that because I did go to the cardiologist yesterday. I mean, it's all connected. Got an EKG, did it. I turned 40 this summer. It was just like, just want to make sure I'm good. And the guy was like, you're good. I'm like, you sure? Are you sure? Why did you ask? Why did you ask? Are you sure?
I do that annual Ezra scan, so the annual body MRI, because I've known too many people now in their early 40s who are like, my back hurts. And then they have cancer and die. And I have too much going on to die. So I will do a preventative medicine plan instead of a reactive medicine plan. Yeah, smart. The same reason like I work out and I eat well, it's not for me today.
Actually it is the opposite for me today. The last thing I wanna do is wake up at 4.30 and go work out. That is awful. I do it so that Ryan at 70 can look back and say, Dude, thanks, man, because if you hadn't, imagine where I would be today, right? So I'm always thinking about future me because I've worked for that person.
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Chapter 4: How does Ryan define success beyond material wealth?
No one knows what polio is anymore, right? You have to Google it and it's in black and white. Right, right, right. So like that, he, that guy, my dad, My dad would save, he would do nothing for $5. It is insane to me. He paid me a penny a stick growing up to pick up sticks. And I understand why. And I'm sure I will have those tendencies with my own daughter. I'm like, hey, save up wifi bandwidth.
What if the Wi-Fi goes down? And she's gonna be like, dad, it's in my brain now. There's no Wi-Fi anymore. It's just high five.
Damn it, kids these days. That's gonna be me. Wow, so parents are giving their kids money to buy homes. So much money. Why would they give them money to buy homes? Are they putting their names on it or just saying, hey, this is your money?
Because the alternative is you pay your kid's rent or your kid lives with you. So you know what? I'm making an investment. You go pay the caring costs is what most parents are doing. You cover the common charges, the HOA fees, the real estate taxes. It's gonna be my apartment. I'm gonna own it and we'll see what happens. And there is, that's happening everywhere. Really?
Everywhere. But the parents are still owning it. Correct. They're not just saying, hey, just here's a million dollars or half a million dollars. Go buy a home and it's yours. No, because it's gift transfer.
It's gift tax. Interesting. So you've got to go. So the parent, you can go buy a house, you know, and... Your kid can use it. That's really what it is.
Wow. Yeah. That's fascinating, man. How has this impacted you guys in terms of selling homes? Dude, I'm dressed like a baby boomer right now.
I've got a brown jacket on. I've got like a tan shirt. I've got closed-toe shoes. I'm all about those baby boomers. Like, let's go find little Sally.
How has this impacted you guys in 2024? It seems like you guys are crushing it, though. We are. Even though less homes are being sold or less buildings are being sold. We're crushing it in part because we are –
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