$6000 to $7M in 18 months: Conversation with Mark Nejmah

Transcription:

Keri Norley  00:02

Hello and welcome to the wealth Alchemist podcast. My name is Keri Norley, I am the host of the show. And today I have the pleasure of having Mark Nedjma on the call with me. He is actually a really interesting story I met Mark when I was at the Florida Bitcoin and blockchain conference in Tampa a few weeks ago, and a few weeks ago being what month in November, November, so whatever this podcast comes out, and when he starts telling me his story, I was like, Oh, my gosh, you have to come onto my show. So Mark is a roofer. And over his years, he has been in the roofing industry, but has been in and out of other businesses as well. And he was always had to come back to the roofing industry because of the ups and downs of the other businesses. And when I met him, he told me he had taken $6,000 and turn that into 7 million in 18 months. And I was like, May, I gotta hear the story. So he is now doing some I will say hobby businesses, which he wishes to turn into really amazing, phenomenal businesses that he gets to sell. One of them being newsweek.com. And he's in the current culture to help experience and help with legalized marijuana investing and crypto. And he also has has a new dating app. I love this concept of voice based dating app called Love appy. And up yours is a music and Content Collection app. And so I am super excited. Oh, yeah. And he's amazingly survived 300 attacks in this last little while and had to head on collisions, which are drivers. And so he's had a he's had an interesting life and an interesting mount of things that have happened. And so I'm really excited to have you on to hear a little bit about the story and how you shifted this around so quickly. And then, um, yeah, and then I'm gonna take you further into that. So welcome to the show, Mark. And if you want to, actually can you turn your video back on? There we go. Yep.

Mark Nejmah  02:01

Come on. Um, and the phone call was Come on.

Keri Norley  02:05

That's all right. I'm sorry. So let us in, let us say and tell us the things and tell us what happened. How in heaven's name, did you turn $6,000 into 7 million? That's a huge return in 18 months.

Mark Nejmah  02:18

Okay, why I have a strategy. And I, I have, I did an internship back when I was 2021, for Shearson Lehman. And my job at Shearson. Lehman, which I worked the whole summer for free, was to kind of observe the brokers, and then I got into some cold calling, which it shouldn't have had me doing. But you know, I would, I would talk to potential clients for them. And I just noticed that the brokers didn't know what the hell they were doing. You know, they were just kind of picking up on Squawk Box stocks, and just recommending them to people. So that was my only experience in the markets. I made friends with those brokers and I soon, probably within six or seven years, I became a millionaire as a roofer. So I had some money, and I gave them the money to invest for me, in some options, some stocks and so forth, we really never got anywhere, lost a lot of money. To me back then was a lot of money. And that was only my only prior experience with stocks, except when I was building my house after my first heart attack. I had to make some money, and I invested it and I lost $35,000 in one day, that was back in 2006. And I just decided I would never invest in the stock market again. But as life goes on, you know, the ups and downs of all the things I've done with inventions, and so forth. I found myself back in the roofing industry, after Hurricane Sandy, and was really kind of killing myself every day because I was older at that point. I guess I was 52. And I went about doing what I know how to do best, which is using roofing to make a living. But I came up with this concept of sustainable roofing. So people, people don't have to always replace the roof. I was able to with my expertise, fix everything that had to be done. And then I felt comfortable guaranteeing their work for five or 10 or 15 years. Because I knew what forensically the problem was. And as long as I fix those forensic problems, and it found in defects of workmanship, the materials themselves, were going to last a while. So anyway, long story short 2017 I get a thing in the mail saying I'm being audited. And they wanted all the money that I considered capital improvements that I didn't collect sales tax on which a lot I did wish were true repairs and weren't sustainable. But others, they wanted all that money. So they gave me an arbitrary assessment of $340,000. Now, at that time, I'm paying all three of my daughter's college loans that they had, and trying to keep up and really killing myself 18 hours a day, I didn't really know what to do. So I had $6,000 that I was going to put towards my daughter's grad school. And I had to do something. So I went back to the market. And I had done some research on a company called fuel cell technology. FCL was the symbol. So I took the 6000. And I bought the stock, I think it was selling for 40 cents at the time. And I put all the money into that. And I just waited, the stock started to move and went up to about $3. I think I sold out at like 280, I took that money, because I was always scanning the stocks. And I saw a company called AI bio IB IO. And I bio was selling at 14 cents at the time. So I bought 100,000 shares of AI bio spec speculating that the stock was going to go up because I saw it move up to like 4050 cents, I said, Something's going on with this. So I took that stock, and I held that. And that moved to like 280. So then I had 280,000. And I took that 280,000. And I got a little sloppy buying a bunch of stocks. But I was able to figure out what was going on with the market. I saw these gangs of people that would hype stocks. And you know, if you caught it early in the morning, you can ride it up for 20% or 30%. So by the time I was done with that, with four or five companies or six companies, over three or four months, now I had about 450,000. Then I started to see that there were legit companies that analysts would pick up on. So I saw oxygen, that was TGN. Selling for 29 cents, I truly only bought the stock, I bought a million shares of that stock, because Cantor Fitzgerald was the analyst. Now Cantor Fitzgerald was also the company that was in World Trade Center, and seems to be high integrity people. So I put my money in for a million chairs for that. And two of my friends had died at Cantor Fitzgerald from my high school, John grazioso, when Tim grazioso. And I said, this has got to be the right thing to do. Cantor Fitzgerald would not play any games. It's got to be good stock. I woke up one morning and the stock was $282.80. So I had a million shares. You know, $2.80, I sold the shares real quick because I didn't actually like what the company did. The company went from being an AI, an IQ or company, they had a drug that was supposed to help people that were going to go blind, prevent them from going blind. And they were in the COVID drug business. I said something funny here. Now, the CFO had been calling me every day, because they were trying to raise the number of shares. And since I was a very large shareholder, the CFO would call me and say mark, you know, we really need your votes and so forth. And I'm like, You know what? Cut the share that your shares that you're asking for? Enhance. If you do that, I'll vote yes. For the shares. I was trying to negotiate for other stockholders like me, that we're going to get diluted. I said, All right, I believe you. Well, he wouldn't do that. And then somehow, someway, they got some deal with an Indian company for CO vaccine. And I just said this is this funny. It doesn't doesn't make sense. So I sold that stock. And I took that money, and I paid off all my kids college loans. I paid off my ex wife's credit card debt. I bought a car because I had been driving a truck side five trucks, they will over 20 years old. And you know, then I started investing in more solid companies, I thought, so I had asked to 100,000 shares of BMG o from last summer, and I bought it for like 53 cents. And I decided to buy a million shares of that. So B NGO, went from 53 to 93. Then I bought I think I bought another 900 1000 shares, and then that stock went to $15. And so one time at one time had $15 million. But I did not sell. Because I was getting hammered. I paid a million dollars in taxes last year. And I was getting hammered by gains. So I moved to Florida to offset gains that I didn't want to have to pay for, for this year. And, you know, I started to be a little bit more strategic, but still taking high risk. So now, I have a position in synthetic biologics, because after my last heart attack, they thought that I had seen this, which is a very serious virus, I asked the doctor what medicine they can give me they didn't have any that doesn't exist. So while I was in the hospital, I did a search on companies trying to get approval for C diff. And I found synthetic biologics, which at the time was selling for 51 cents. So now the stock is pretty down, it's like down to 37. I own a half million shares, but I'm going to probably buy another half the chairs and just wait. Because they have they have $72,000,000.10 employees. And they're in phase three, with one drug and phase two and another drug. So I went down, I met I went to the shareholders meeting, they also wanted to have additional shares issued. But because I showed up at the shareholders meeting, I was like, No, I, you know, this can't be, you don't have enough votes. And three meetings, I went to the kept redoing them. And shareholders one, we did not get diluted. So they're sitting on $72 million. They're saying that they want to acquire another company. And that's how I play the game I play to play very large amount of shares. I go and I meet with the CEOs, I make sure they know who I am. I have a YouTube channel in which I'm very vocal, I give my opinion not my advice. And I'm having a time in my life. Now I went to the Bitcoin event because I noticed that there's so much fluctuation there. It's what I like, you know, so I'm willing to pay 35% Vig to the government tax to the government for short term gains on that. As long as it doesn't interrupt my long term gains, which is where I met with be in jail. Now, I've also noticed that no, a lot of the way hedge funds interact with the markets versus retailers. So I can pretty much tell I think, based on the way things trade, where they move the stock up, and then they want to short it back down. So they're making money on both sides of it. So I look at the volume, I look at everything I pay attention to how many more social media, people are bashing, how many positive I get to know and I put my number out on the internet. And I asked people to call me and I get calls from all over the world that are telling me, you know how they feel about a stock. So I get I get a gauge on what's going on. So that's my strategy. Most of it comes from, I don't know, the people that I've met in my life, and I've had some pretty complicated issues. You know, been fined by the federal government 200 $1,000 for an OSHA violation that never happened. I was a federal witness for a bribery case. And somebody asked me if I would give them money. I said, No. I'm not going to get into too much detail about that. But somebody asked me to say that a politician asked me for the money. In fact, some some guy asked me for the money. So I saw both sides of humanity, you know, where justice is? Where justice is supposed to be? It's not and where where people will do anything to get ahead. Yeah, so I relate. I relate all these things. When I invest now banjo has fallen tremendously and I'm still holding a million shares yet. So you know, it's pretty stressful when you see that you were you know this wealthy and those any that wealthy. But you know what, I think that market is like such a great opportunity. That it's just a great game. I mean, if you know people if you've been around, and that's and that's another thing. I think if you're street smart. I think if you haven't been in a cushy lifestyle, you have a much better chance of understanding what's happening in this particular time of the stock market. It's a it's a street game at this point. It's not necessarily your father's good old stock market. So anyway, let me stop talking.

Keri Norley  14:58

It's so interesting mark. I I think there's so much I want to say. Okay, so the first thing that I want to say that I'm fascinated with that I like about the strategy, and it's, you know, it's your strategy. And again, by the way, it's anyone who's listening, either one of us or financial advisors, do diligence, even with whatever mark is just rattled off, if you've just gone and written them all down, and you want to go research, whatever he's done, go do your own due diligence, do not trust us do not listen to us, as financial advisors, you are doing whatever you're going to do at your own risk, no matter what we say. That's number one. Number two, one of the things that I like hearing about what you said, and it's something that I have really found for myself as well, is buying big and like not, you know, like, so many times we talk about diversification. And my, there's a few things I want to add to this. My mentors, my mentor, Roscoe says, depending on how we do this, it can actually look like diversification. Because if we start to think like, and again, even with what you've done, you got really honed into, okay, I'm gonna buy into companies that like you got really clear about your strategy, I'm gonna buy into companies that I know something about, that I that I can go and connect with those people, that they're cheaper, they're cheaper shares that you can work wanting to grow, right, like, there's a lot that you actually had in your framework as to what you were looking for in your in your investments, you weren't going okay, I'm gonna put something in here. And I'm going to go over here, and I'm going to go and put some bonds over there. And then I'm going to go into some houses, and then I'm going to go over here and do it, right. And people think that diversification means I'm gonna go across all these different platforms. But the truth is that oftentimes, when we do that, we're not educated enough in all of the places that we're doing things. And so you actually, it's like spraying and praying and hoping for the best and you actually have no idea what you're doing. So that's number one of the things that I'm noticing that you did, which was really cool. Number two, one of the things that I've also learned is incredibly, you know, even for me in the crypto space was like, the places where we have put bets and that we went, I'm gonna say bets because, you know, they are really, when we start to get into volatile markets, we're putting money in and like you said, like, we hope that we hope that it goes up, right? That's the intention. We're doing our research, we're doing the things, but it might not. Right, some of the places like you've just said like you put it in instruct right, that that is the reality of life. And so when we go we put our money in the places like if you put in even now, if you put in into Bitcoin, and you go in and you put 1000 bucks on Bitcoin, you're not even getting, you know, you're getting a 16th of a coin, right? Right. So even if that doubles, even if bitcoin doubles, right now has to hit 120k to double. Right now you're making two grand, but like the chances of it going from 60k to 120k, for you to make your $1,000 is, is actually harder, right, it's going to take more time at this point, then put your money into a 50 cent crypto space thing, and see if you can get it up to $3 or $1. Right, then you've doubled whatever you've got there. And you can afford to buy into more. So you can afford that at that point. If I'm gonna put 1000 bucks in and get my 50 cent one, then I've got tons more of them. 500 of them versus a 16th of one, right. And so then we can see these huge gains. And we have seen them too for ourselves when we put it into crypto. And so there's a there's something to be said that you really do your research. And yeah, any hedge your bets on one thing or a couple things, like you've said, like you've listed off a few things that you've done. Versus like, Okay, put 100 bucks here, 100 bucks there. And, and there's some value to that, too, right? There's some value to that, too. I definitely have my little bits and bobs here and there. But that's not the cases. Right? Those are not the pieces that are going to all the sudden turn me over overnight into millionaires or six figures or, you know, like we had six figure win this year as well. And it was one of those same thing that it was like we bought in at a certain point. And then it 10 Next.

19:00

Right, quite simple, right? Yeah, I think so good.

Mark Nejmah  19:03

I can interject. I mean, the most important thing is the people behind it. You know, when we went to the conference, I met a lot of people that had their old coin projects. Yep. It's all about them. How much the how much of the coin do they have? You know, this is gonna be the biggest made off. Example, you know, the coins, all coins are going to be the biggest metal for example, because these guys are creating computer projects. And they're claiming that yeah, we're putting out these coins. And we don't really know, you know, what's happening in terms of how much they hold how much they dump each time. And the even though they're on the exchanges, I think, you know, if the SEC were to do anything they should the person who created it must be listed. The people who hold the coins initially must be listed. And what are they doing with the coin? I mean, I see crypto as A real big solution to funding efforts towards the homeless towards funding startups towards just about funding anything, as long as the coins remain in circulation, and they can be cross traded. I personally, like crypto, the idea behind it, it's definitely a gamble at this point, you can make a lot of money and you can lose a lot of money, I did make a lot of money on jazz. So I bought jazz me at six cents. And, you know, the last roof I did, actually, couple months ago, or whatever month ago, I think I made, you know, $15,000, while I was working on the roof, making $2,000. And, you know, I just kind of took a little shot at it. So you can make money. But again, you have to put the quantity of dollars in, in order to get the kind of returns that you want. And you have to also realize that it's not a fair game, you know, what is Jasmeet? You know, what are they really providing? How much circulation? What can I buy with the coin? What if I'm stuck with the coin? What if, what if it drops, while people are executing and leaving, I think it's a very, very high risk for one reason, and that's the people that are involved, you know, it's not going to happen with Bitcoin, it's not gonna happen with ether. But a lot of these other all coins where you can really make a lot of money. That's where I think the theft is going to come in. And people people are going to get hurt. It's a game of musical chairs, you can play the game. But somebody eventually will get hurt, I think. And if the people have known tech, sorry to interrupt,

Keri Norley  21:36

he knows. Okay, I like what you're saying. And I think that there's truth, you know, it's like, it's an interesting thing, because this whole industry that could talk about all the scamming and stuff and, and I mean, I teach defi, because for me defies his long term game. It's not about coming into these high risk places. It's like, how can we balance a portfolio so that when we have these high risk things, it's like it but actually, I know, I'm not putting everything into like, I mean, you did it, and it worked out for you. But you've also done it, and it didn't work out for you. Right, right. And when we take all our cash and put it into high volatile risk places, and we're also saying I'm willing to lose it all, because it's highly possible that you could, and it's the thing that I love about defy is that we then create this, this foundation, so that we don't, you know, lose everything. And we have this consistently upward compounding interesting happening. And then from there, we play with volatiles and see what happens, right? It is, it is a game, it is a game and you have to look at it. But also, I think the thing to be said around the crypto space right now, and this is what I watch now. And I've seen so many people burned recently, that it's not crypto and I and I want to be really clear on this podcast because I've been thinking about this a lot. It's not crypto itself, that's bad. It's not crypto itself that scammy blockchain is one of the most amazing transparent things you will ever experience in your life, it will revolutionize this world. What is the problem is exactly what you said is people and people or people or people are people and it doesn't matter which frickin industry we're in, whether it's blockchain, roofing, stock markets, business, it does not matter. I mean, you could doesn't matter pick an industry, there are shitty people in all industries. And there are amazing people in all industries. And it's the person. And so when we start to look at projects, and this is what this is, what I guess, like, is kind of heartbreaking to watch is that most people don't understand how to do due diligence. They don't understand how to do research, they don't understand even to go look for who is this person? And why am I backing this? Why am I backing this coin versus Elon Musk tweeted, we should go and buy it. So you go off and buy it right? First, when you have no idea. And so those are the people who if you're listening, these are the people who if you do not understand it, like go learn it before you go and invest in it doesn't matter whether it's crypto, the stock market, the housing market, whatever place that you're investing in, like, understand the foundations, and understand who and why you're investing. And it's true, because there are some crypto coins, where and this is a big problem, where this is a quote, unquote, decentralized space, this is why people come into this space is It's decentralized, right? But if you start to look at these individual projects, I looked at one and someone was like, This is gonna be amazing. I'm like, the person holds over 50%, the founder, and instead of on coin market, like I didn't have to look very far, right, we're 50% of the shares of the coins. And I'm like, That's not decentralized. He can do whatever the fuck you want, you can now go and control everything about this, because he owns over 50% That is so far from the centralized, it'd be running the other way. But most people will not even bother to look or understand that concept. And so you're right like in that we have to understand each project that we invest into who we're investing into why the thing is in there in the first place. What's it for because this is another thing that people don't even get I don't think about crypto is that each one of the tokens should have a reason for existence. Like there is a utility for it. And and that's what makes me like I love the main points and the fact that I think it's I think there's something to me, that is on a human, socio socio sociological level, it is fun to watch humanity come together and say we're going to create value out of literally nothing, because that's what I mean appointments. Right? Right. And we are going to create value out of I mean, the value being the community and the fun, right? I mean, that is the value right there. But like, there is no reason there is no utility for these coins. And I think it's amazing to watch people come together and be like, right, we're gonna do it and like, see the coin go up and like, make some money on it. And that's fun. But there's no utility for it. And so when you start to look into the space, like you have to understand why you're investing in something in the purpose for that, to make sure that you are putting your best into something that's like legit, and hopefully, going to work.

Mark Nejmah  25:45

Well, that's why I think me, look, crypto is not equivalent as an investment as stocks. And by the way, I like to mention, I don't think anybody should invest in OTC stocks, Pink Sheets, I think it should be limited to, you know, major exchanges, because the reporting requirements for NASDAQ or New York Stock Exchange are so much higher, you know, you can actually see what's going on or a company that can't really get away with things. OTC stocks, they don't have a reporting requirement or pink sheets. So in crypto, it's the same thing. I mean, there's no way anybody will ever tell me that buying crypto is better than buying a stock. Now think about this curry. How much? Could the stock market go up? If the capital that's in the crypto market actually shifted for good reason? To the stock market? It's a massive amount of money I heard today and vice versa. Right, I heard well, I don't think that's gonna I that would not be good for capitalism, if money left the equity market to, to move into crypto. I'm not against crypto, but I think it's a wild west right now. I mean, the the America, in my opinion, is very, very important to the world. In terms of a place to live, where there's an opportunity in terms of equity, creating jobs, which people say we're not going to need in the future, which I disagree, technology, so that investment is critical. If so much moves to crypto, that's going to hurt the stock market, it's going to hurt technology. It's kind of a you know, like, I'm a big fan of Cathy wood, the whole dichotomy of the cheese for Bitcoin, and decentralized, blockchain technology and so forth. And at the same time, she invests heavily in the market, she should really cover that subject as to why because let's let's, let's put it this way, the capital is needed to build companies in this country. And, you know, we saw what happened with Chinese companies that, you know, they kind of like exited and kind of left people high and dry. You know, America is very, very important to the, you know, a peaceful environment as well as opportunity around the world. And when we, when we have partners now, I'm maybe off on that, but crypto, I see as being part of the capitalist system, if it's managed properly. I mean, I think that, you know, if we only have nonprofits, for instance, I'll give you my daughter's example, if we only have nonprofits, that are pretty much government controlled, to treat the homeless, one of our biggest problems in the country. Right? Then we're always going to have a bureaucratic system that we can't solve the homeless problem. Right? So let's say we use crypto. And we circulated a coin, that was also partially given to people that provide those services. And then the value of that coin went up because of the circulation. That's the key for crypto was circulation, utility, people trading back and forth, then we can take away that control of the government taxing us and giving it to a nonprofit, the political politicization of that money going there. And then, you know, the bureaucracy and the inefficiency. And there's so many areas besides homeless, that, you know, we can really change the world if crypto was managed properly, and it doesn't have to only be Bitcoin. It just has to be utility that can be traded. So I don't want to take you in a different direction, but I believe in crypto for that. But I believe that any old coin investment, as I've made is high risk and gambling, which I'm willing to do to make money. But I wish that we could have some kind of standard requirement, even if not by the government, but by the crypto buyers association or something that says they're not on our list. We don't know who they are. We don't know how much they don't. And we don't know, maybe you can create that career. And we're not accepting that we don't put our stamp of approval on that crypto because we don't know where that money's gonna end up. And, you know, and it's I think it's important because we can't suck the money out of the equity trades. We can't do that. It's not good for for the company, the country. But if we had an organization like yours, didn't we meet someone actually from the Bitcoin Chamber of Commerce? I believe we bowled with her in. Oh, yeah. Linda, in Tampa, right. So, you know, we need something like that. Investors need something like that. And every one of these coins should make it a point that we know who they are. They've been fingerprinted. We know, you know, what the language is or program was written in. And we understand the utility of the point. One of the people we met last week, you know, I did my due diligence. And basically, I found I didn't feel comfortable I, they were just raising money to build buildings. That's not the purpose of crypto, the person purpose of crypto coin is to, you know, tokenize something that can be used in utility purposes. So I that's a big red flag if I had when I raised it. But so much can be so much good can be done, and so much bad can be done at the same time. Yeah, I'd

Keri Norley  31:34

say that about any industry, though.

31:36

Yeah, man.

Keri Norley  31:37

I mean, again, it comes back to the people, you know. And, and like part of me, and I hear what you're saying, like, I don't I don't look at crypto. As much as I have this idealistic belief of this, you know, the new wealth in this peaceful, abundant, infinite, joyfully, wonderful world that I do believe that we could exist in. Um, I've said it since like, the day that I start even looking into crypto. I don't know that. I don't even know that Kryptos the right thing is our next evolution. I know it is.

Mark Nejmah  32:12

Great, but we need regulation, even if it's right,

Keri Norley  32:15

I think. I think it's great. I think it could be amazing. I think it mean, like long term. I think it could be amazing, but I think there could be something else afterwards as well. I do. I don't think that even though I see. And I talk about this often, like the banking systems crumbling, and like it needing to shift and all these things. I see that that has to happen. But I don't actually see a world in which we don't have. You know, some sort of feel like some sort of,

Mark Nejmah  32:43

like, no free look this know what happened, what happened to me 2007. Another thing I did was I started a nonprofit foundation for job creation. And I went across the country. So 501 C three. And, you know, I'm living on two bucks a day, and I'm handpainted van, and blah, blah, blah, bans on the street, all that stuff. What happened in 2007 2010, so many people middle management being laid off. And banks getting bailed out. They could have easily paid every person's mortgage in this country, for what they gave the banks. I think crypto is sort of like what happens to banks when you screw people, right? So these kids that are out there trading crypto, they saw their parents lose their mind, lose their homes. So I mean, I understand why crypto is out there, we needed to do something about the banks. Now the banks are trying to get to get into crypto. But we have to be better than the bank's crypto, the crypto industry has to be better than the banks. And that means self regulating, you know, a person like you has a voice, working with other people that have voices, making sure they say, Oh, we don't know those people. Because you don't know how devastated families were, as I travel the country in 2010, with people, you know, couches tied to their, to their roof or their car. Or, you know, there's another guy Jimmy who was with me, we'd stopped in a rest area to sleep and find, you know, three or four families sharing some chopped meat to make hamburgers, that really happened in America. People lost everything. You know, there's an epidemic, you know, right now, in my hiking group of women who show up that are widows that are 50 years old, and widows, and you say to yourself, how can this happen? And it's probably happened from the amount of stress that people suffered, you know, back in, you know, back in the day 2010 And these young people, they experienced that so crypto has to survive as a way to bounce the bank. has to, but at the same time after going to that conference, and I hope to go to more conferences that you attend or elsewhere I don't think the government can do the best as good a job. As a group of private concerned citizens. We go in crypto, and I just hope something happens. Anyway.

Keri Norley  35:20

Interesting. Interesting. Okay, I have some other questions for you. Go ahead. i My biggest my biggest, one of my biggest questions for you. So you took this $6,000 And you turned it into 7 million?

35:32

Correct. And I'm

Keri Norley  35:35

and this is after many ups and downs, like you said, like you've had seven figure businesses and only seven. I think, first of all, I want to say, before I even ask this question, one of the things that I noticed a lot and part of my part of the reason for my work, so I do a lot of work with helping people hold on to money and shift their money, beliefs and mindset and all this stuff, right? Energy, right. And it's never ceases to amaze me, the amount of people that I hear that are seven figure business owners who have nothing to show for it, who are on $2 a day, you know, trying to figure out how to frickin make the ends meet. And I'm like, never ceases to amaze me how many people are like this.

36:06

And, like, life happens. Life happens totally.

Keri Norley  36:12

And, and I just say that, because so many people put it onto like a pedestal like, oh, I have to have more money. And if I have to have more, you know, and if you have a seven figure business, you have an eight figure business, if you have a multi six figure business, then somehow your life is like magically abundant and wealthy. And the amount of people that I hear that it's not or like the end of the year, they've had a seven figure their first seven figure year and they're like, I mean, they lived a good life. But at the end of the year, they're like, I literally, like still, I'm chasing my tail to pay my bills, what the heck is going on? And so I just want to bring attention to that for people because it happens a lot. You know, like, as we grow, it doesn't mean that all of a sudden our money shit changes, right? Well, money stuff is your money stuff with us. And we just have more money to deal with. And we have more money to like lose and gain, really. And so this is the question that I have is you had all these ups and downs, you've had all this stuff go on with your life, and you've been chasing your tail for the most part. Even with a successful business.

Mark Nejmah  37:05

Yeah. So what shifted? Okay, so, so let me explain. So my first business was very successful. You know, we were a premier contractor, we did a lot, but I'm a non union guy. And the unions hated me. So they weren't and we could get any job, millions of dollars. You know, we've did five and a half acre roofs, you know, one roof, you know, one big flat roof, five and a half acre. It's just a multimillion dollar job. But, you know, there was a fox in the henhouse. I got ripped off for about $700,000 by an employee and his wife, and you know, these things happen. So what do you do? You know, I had to wonder that, at 28 years old, in 1988, I had a $200,000 unsecured line of credit, that's how much the Bank Trust me. I called the bank. And I said, hey, something's wrong. Money is going leaving my business. You got to take the money back, we got to liquidate. And I did and I paid everybody and, you know, blah, blah, blah. And at that, and then at that point, I had been buying things at auction. I created one of the first internet auctions, and I worked in Seattle. And, you know, that's another story that Craig Roxon quest, but I, I've been a lifelong risk taker with my ideas. I don't think I would do in any different way. You know, I, I created that created the nonprofit credible option quest, auction quests, you know, let's just say I did broadcast for a major auction company, I met a person that created the auction, so to speak, in Washington, DC, you know, I was there at the beginning, but they were smarter than I was. And you have to just accept that, and they had more access to capital, and I had no experience raise capital, and I wasn't from the computer industry. So you take your chances. You focus on the love in your life, your daughters, and you try to be the best man, best woman you can be, I suppose. And, you know, you just keep going, but you got to take the risk. I don't think I would do it any other different any other way differently. I don't think I could be sitting here was such a lovely person talking about, you know, risk and reward and so forth. If I didn't take those chances. Now, you know, as you know, always going back to roofing was sort of like a saving grace. Wow, I was gifted with this skill and tremendous amount of strength to you know, get through a 16 hour day and be able to do the physical work that would then allow me to think about the next idea. You know, I think that if you're going to be a risk taker, you're going to be like me, you better be prepared to not focus on just keeping your money, but keeping your, your, the value of your life high. For me, coming up with, you know, the first internet auction, as a roofer was a big deal. You know what, you know what, what came from that is a lot of, you know, not a lot of knowledge about people, right. And I can go into so much more detail, but I won't. And then to go through life after being a millionaire and then be broken, you know, lose your big mansion and, and, you know, try to keep your kids in private school. And basically, I lived with no hot water for a year, I didn't have to take cold showers while my kids were in private school because I got divorced at that point, you do what you have to do. But I have to say I always knew that I kind of ended up where I am now. You know, at the most recent invention I had was called mag kinetics. I got hit twice that on by drunk drivers, I told you I took that money out invested in the stock called beacon power VCO. When I bought a ton of shares and 47 cents, with the $15,000, I got the stock went to $5. By the time I was able to get out, it was down to like $2 automate a lot of money. I then took that money. And I started building a house. Right? So I take the risk on building the house with my own hands, which I did. I had to borrow money from some guy, you know, maybe a little funny, and pay them back and so forth. And after I built that house, I had money left 35,000 left, I put in work I lost, right. I bought a company that still exists now. I think it's a I think it's like $150. But I bought it back then for like $1.50. Right. So I sold the stock because I think it dropped to like 60 cents, if I held on to it. You know, where would I be now? Right? Everybody said that? Where would I be now? We're going to be now. Right? But while I was building that house, a buddy of mine called me and said, hey, you know, you kind of like the crazy jeans. What do you have that you're working on? Now? I said, Well, I got hit by a drunk driver, I kind of think that there's a lot of energy in the road. So I created a technology called mag kinetics, which kind of captures the road as a as a river and converts that flow of mass, right? Through magnetic attraction to drive a rotor. Right? I go to Dubai, with that invention. I'm in the patent office. I go to Dubai, I find an investor via knocking door to door when I get back to I get interviewed in Dubai by the golf news end up on the front page of golf news. Americans tries to harness the power of the roads, blah, blah, blah, I get back, I have no investor guy calls me up from Dubai. I'm going to invest $200,000. Right. So then he pulled out for another reason I'm not going to go into not related to me, but one of the people working for me, he didn't like them. And then you stuck with this brand new house that you built. You think you're going to be a millionaire. You think you're going to solve the energy problem, which by the way the technology works. And you end up sitting in front of the television, listening to Rick Santelli, scream that, oh, people put extra bathrooms on their house. And that's why we had the financial crisis. And then you say, That's bullshit. And you start a 501 C three, and you're on the road, spending $2 A day at McDonald's to eat. So, you know what, I want to change that in my life, but I want to not be the person I am now talking to, you know, if you're not that type of person, and if you're the type of person that you know, makes $150,000 a year and wants to hold on to their investment that's fine. But I'm not that person. I'm the person that tries to do bigger things as a little guy, you know as a little man as a nobody in the world. I want to try my best I want to be an example for people that that you know, say no way not that guy. I want to be that guy because I want to prove to people that they can really do anything if they're willing to pay the price. You know if they're willing to to sleep in a van when it's nice outside you know and I think that I think that's a that's that's really an important part of my life. I I would tell everybody all my greatest father on Earth Where's fall on Earth? My oldest daughter sat me down, since you're not great as well. And you're, you're, you're not, you know, we had a big house and we lost it. You built a beach house, and you lost it. And you're always on an adventure. You know, this is ridiculous. I got up my son, I appreciate that, Lindsey, I'd like to hear your feedback. I said, you're gonna have a child, and it's gonna be exactly like me. And she just did have a child. But you know, you know, all my kids have had a great life. I did my job. And I think I, I think I'm happy with my life. And I don't need to be worried about the millions I had when I was 30. With the big house, or the beach house, I think people that I've run across like you curry in my hiking group everywhere has been a great, that's where the greatest value has been, you know, in that, and I can't change who I am. And I'm not going to change who I am. Of course, you know, I think that I think maybe if I had done to a financial advisor, when I was 30, and I had a lot of money, maybe, maybe I would have been kind of like, you know, where those fancy shoes and going dolphin, which I hate. I don't want to be that guy, I want to be the guy that comes up with the next invention, or the next voice that helps people. It's beautiful. That's what I want to do. I mean, I think that probably the best investors that could ever be are in the hood. They know the score. They know the score, if they can just invest, I don't think you should give people money to invest. I think they should take their nickels and dimes and start investing. But they know more about the market than anybody. Because the market is the best and worst of people every month. And they know about it. They know about the best horse and I would love to get back on the road for job creation, just teaching people, you know, kind of like just to, to, to invest based on what they know. As opposed to trying to find out what everybody else knows. Yeah, but no.

Keri Norley  47:28

Okay. So I love hearing that. And it's so beautiful. And basically what I'm taking away from all of what you've said is, first of all, be you unapologetically because we're all going to do this differently. And I love that you said that because one person is going to do a completely different than you and somebody is risk tolerance is definitely not as high as yours. And I'm going to say this like out loud, because just because you're hearing Mark say this about themselves, like this is his risk tolerance, like he loves risk and he can handle not having the money. Like he knows what it's like to have it. He knows what it's like to not have it. And that's okay for him. That's not okay for everybody. And that's okay, you do not have to put yourself in that position, if that's how you feel. And that's how you want to go for it, then do it. Second of all, I'm hearing never freakin give up. Just go after all of your dreams. And I love because I know I've had definitely my own stuff around how much you're willing to invest into your dreams or how far down the hole Are you willing to go? All that kind of stuff. And really basically what I have come to the conclusion over the last few years is go all in all in whatever it takes for you're all in go all in, in the unapologetic nice of you. Right not in go all in because somebody said so the goal is

Mark Nejmah  48:39

weight, your heart weight. Everything I've done though, I've had one vision, right. So split posts, visualize the vision I've had, is 123 by three doors, right? I never ever, ever did anything. Thinking that I couldn't give them more. If I did that. It wasn't about me. It was always about them and what I could do as a father, so I'm sorry, interruption. That's okay.

Keri Norley  49:09

Um, but you did it by doing these things by going all in and being unapologetically you so that you can give everybody a better life. I get it. Like I'm the same with my kids. Like I want to give them the best life. I don't really, right. Yeah. Um, okay, so these are the amazing things. Now my question for you, which you kind of danced around what shift shifted in his last 18 months from all of these ups and downs that you've had to being able to create what you've been able to create with such ease without having all the heartache without having all the

Mark Nejmah  49:46

I think it was the conditions in the market. The market was wild, it still wild. You know, people are trying to prognosticate the next crash. They want it to crash. We had a Presidential election. We have a general attitude of younger people that think that they're smarter than everybody. So they're in the market. You know, trying to be like, the best of the best of the best. I think YouTube and, and Yahoo boards and stock twits and stuff. I think they have a major impact on the markets. There's some really smart YouTubers. Yeah, you have crypto people, you know, driving the crypto market, we have big personalities Cathy wood, Elon Musk. Some of the other you know, Jamie Dimon, you know, CNBC, you know, you have some outside the box thinkers. But most of all, I think the young people today because of what they saw in 2010, the pain within society and the family. That's why they're risk takers. They're not going to let that happen again, and crypto is being driven by that. So is the market. No, Kathy, what Cathy wood is 65 years old. Maybe she weighs 80 pounds. You saw her? I mean, she's tiny. Right?

51:11

So taking names, and taking names.

Mark Nejmah  51:15

Right? So so so here's the thing. And by the way, I always on my videos, I always have hashtag pray for Cathy wood, because I love her. I think she's doing great things for the world. But here's the hero of young people, she's 65 years old. Right? She's a hero of young people, because she's got an aura of youth. And people believe in her. And she's sending a message out that says, we're going to change this world. But we're not going to change the world through handouts, we're gonna change the world through investing. And, and I think that young people say, Yes, I am not going to be like my father and my mother, and suffer through, you know, the drudgery of what they went through, I'm going to be independent. And I'm going to make sure money is not controlled by the government, again, the bank bailouts, I think, I think the youth of today is has a bigger voice than Elizabeth Warren, regarding the banks without saying anything about the banks. They deserve to be punished. They hurt a lot of people. So crypto and decentralization, and I hear this dow What does dow by the way do do

Keri Norley  52:23

is a decentralized autonomous organization. So it's now basically, by buying in to buy buying tokens into an organization, you have a verge. And so the more the beautiful thing about this is, the more decentralized it is, the more people that are involved, the more decentralized it becomes. And ultimately, it's like, we get to create the rules. So you come into this community and you say, Okay, this is how we want to invest. These are the rules we're going to create. And everybody you have like a 24 or 48 hour period, you can put a vote up, and everybody anonymously, because it's on the blockchain just gets to go and put their votes in. And then that's what it is, and the blockchain calculates it. And then we all get to have like, we get to grow the organization, through all the people within it. And I know so it's interesting, because you have to look into this to like Dows. It's a bit like what you were saying with tokens, I mean, with the coins, that you have to look at how many people are in the dowel, right. And I know my my mentor, actually, as of tonight, today, barn barn burned, you guys will hear about this after today. But sink Dow, which is my mentors, Dow actually is launching today, which is very exciting. And one of the things that I have to say this, and this comes back to looking at the people behind the project, he was doing a seed fundraising this year. And, and last year, at some point of this last year, he had somebody who wanted to put in some significant amount of millions of dollars. And he actually turned it away, because he said if you if you give me that many millions of dollars, which whatever it was a significant amount, you will hold too much share. It's not it wasn't a 50% share, but he'll hold too much of this, that'd be decentralized enough. And I was like, takes a shit ton of balls, to be honest, when you're launching a project to turn away millions of dollars, because you're like, that actually goes against the principle of what we're doing. And that's why I stand behind things like this. And that's why you have to know who is in these places who's running it because then ultimately, once the DAO goes live, they actually hand over their baby like they've been building this for ages but now becomes ours. It becomes the people who we've invested into. And they have as much they have as much say as whatever the shares amount have in it, as I have to say is how many of my shares I'm not having it. And and then you can continue to like so people who even if you only have a small amount of shares, you can buy in and have your vote. And so that's basically what a Dow is. And so I think it'd be a very interesting thing to see what happens Because the more people who create them, like we can have, like you said, you can have communities that are built around so many different concepts. Right? And then we get to govern ourselves as to how the community runs. And we do it by up

55:12

on the blockchain. Right. But

Mark Nejmah  55:13

so you want to have as many votes as possible, as many

Keri Norley  55:15

of those as possible. Right. So, so more people, the better the more decentralized, it becomes.

Mark Nejmah  55:20

Right. So, yeah, I mean, that's, that's really the key. You know, I did look through the 60s, you know, peace, love and happiness. So, you know, they had a different idea back there, and they kind of all sold out for, you know, for a different lifestyle. You know, they're all ended up wealthy, even though they were saying they can live on the streets. Let's see how this I mean, I hope I live long enough to see what happens with Downs. You will, it's it's hard to figure out whether or not I mean, people tend to want to cheat. That's all there is to it. There's a lot of cheaters out there. I think the organizational structure of the doubt, should be as good as the American Constitution. Because I could see things really doing going awry. It's gonna be interesting. I mean, I'm not a socialist. I'm not, I'm not I don't believe in socialism for one reason. And that's because people are human. And people always want more than the next one than each other. And you have to let that happen, and balance it through a free market. So let's see what happens with the Dow, I just hope that this doesn't blow up. Because if it does blow up, it can hurt the economy worse than the bank's hurt economy worse. And, you know, that's my concern is, you know, and then people start getting arrested and accused, and people get away with things. But inevitably, when people start getting hurt, you know, when young people can be hurt, too. Yeah.

Keri Norley  57:00

You know, what, it's gonna be an interesting, it's gonna be an interesting ride over these next few years to see what happens as this market becomes more and more institutionalized. And as it becomes more

57:15

what's the word regularized, regulated, utilized,

Keri Norley  57:19

taken on board adopted, adopted adoption, more and more adoption happens?

Mark Nejmah  57:24

You almost need a, you almost need a dowel. That's not the government that regulates the doubts, and the crypto, you need some validation because that, that, you know, a constitutional structure something that's going to regulate the otherwise it's all gonna be government. That's what's gonna happen.

Keri Norley  57:46

I don't know. We'll see. I don't be very interesting to watch. We're very interested. You're not

Mark Nejmah  57:49

You're an honest, you're an honest person. But, you know,

57:55

people just

Keri Norley  57:58

i 100%. There, that's like, that's what we've been saying this whole time. Like, you have to know the people, right? Yeah. Um, okay, I know, we have to wrap this. I'm laughing, by the way. So I'm just gonna guess because he worded the question too. Again. I'm gonna get, I'm gonna guess I'm gonna guess the actually. So what I asked you was, what was the internal shift? I still love the conversation. Don't internal shift. Okay, in terms of internal shift, because I still love this conversation. Everything about it has been amazing. Doesn't matter how random it's been the internal shift. So was there a shift for you within your mind, your thoughts, your energy that you were like, Alright, I'm doing something different this time. And this is going to work intended, because you didn't set it like the last time you'd invest in the market. It didn't. And now all of a sudden, it's like,

Mark Nejmah  58:44

Well, I think that wisdom, I'm smarter, I'm smarter, right? When you survive three heart attacks, and two head on collisions, and you've had the ups and downs and you've seen people try to hurt you and, and so forth, you become savvy. So I don't think that it's that simple. I tell people exactly what I do. I hope that they learn from me and then you know, take with their own knowledge. I'm a C student. I'm not an A student, or a B student. I never have been, but I have been a lacrosse goalie and they're known to be either geniuses or crazy. Most of them, you know, my kids call me a crazy genius. And my friends call me a crazy goalie, you know, so i think i think i I've learned enough not to just trust everybody. But most of all, trust yourself. There's two brains. We have two brains. One here and one in your gut. Go with your gut. If you go with your gut, and and then you're not as hard on yourself, you too. Oh, my God, I think I lost $100,000 on one investment. Just this past year. I just heck with it. Just blew it off. I got the money. I'm gonna Let's say elsewhere. And you know, you have to take risk and you better be prepared that you're going to get your teeth kicked in. That doesn't mean you were wrong, it just means that the cards went against you this time. So by the way, I don't gamble, I don't go to Atlantic City or Las Vegas to gamble, I strictly play the stock Mark, I don't play the lottery. None of that. And if I really gave you a tour of where I am now, where I sleep is not far from here. It's within feet. I don't spend money. I don't spend money when I go out to a conference or anything, I'll spend money. And I do like nice things. But it's so nice need simple I mean, I, you know, what, if I ever get a hot girlfriend, or have a really great life, we're gonna go do everything. But for right now, it's just me playing it cool. You know, we're just, just gonna, I'm not going to spend a lot of money.

Keri Norley  1:00:53

I think it's something that a lot of people and I love how you I will, we'll finish it up here at a time. But I love how you actually I love rounding it here. Because I think a lot of people make the assumption that just because you have a lot of money, you have to all of a sudden, like, you know, and I watch it and it becomes very I'd say it becomes very flashy on the internet or on social media is now I guess people make more money. And then all of a sudden, they have to have the designer handbags, and shoes and the best watches and then the cars and all these things. And I'm like, I don't know, my favorite store to still shop at sometimes this target. My mom's favorite store is still Walmart and you know, places like that we still go to Costco like you don't like though, I think when we start to look at at wealth, like and, and true wealth, like it doesn't mean that you have to be flashy, like it's actually also about what you don't spend on things that you don't actually care about. And I think a lot of people do it because they think other people care. And it doesn't matter. Like you get to go be whoever you want to be however you want to be spent how much you want to spend. And like I start to look at, you know, sometimes we're like, I'm going to go and have the dentist at this place. And I'm like, I just think about if I took that $300 that you just spend to have the glitzy thing that you now have, which made no difference in the world to me, I could take that $3 and turn it to 1000 in the next day. So why would I do that? Like? Yeah, I mean, some things and some things we do love and luxuriate in and I will spend all the money in the world for that. But it's like, we have to look at like, what are our values? And does it really actually matter to me?

Mark Nejmah  1:02:23

I think I will get a nice place but not yet. You know, I have a condo in Florida, I just happen to be up here clearing this place out. I'm in Jersey right now. But you know, I you know, it's all about business. I have a granddaughter now, Amalia, and I got my kids, I still want to help my ex wife more, you know, I'm gonna buy a property this year, you know, helping people out and then I'll help myself. I'm very fortunate just even survived the last heart attack. So I'm happy and I'm happy and pleased and honored to be on your podcast. You're You're really a nice person to just accept me at the conference and say, Hey, buddy, I'm gonna. I've got a podcast. Yeah.

Keri Norley  1:03:12

Thank you for being here. Mark. It's been amazing. I have loved this conversation with you. Is there anything that you would like to wrap this with

1:03:19

any last statements?

Mark Nejmah  1:03:23

Hashtag pray for Cathy wood. She's, she's really she's really changing the world with her. And

Keri Norley  1:03:31

by the way, if you don't know who Cathy wood is go check her out. It's ca th i He would Cathy wood. And what's the ark? A rk is her business.

Mark Nejmah  1:03:40

Yeah, Ark, Ark, Ark, a or G or whatever. I don't really follow what she invested in. I just kind of like listening to how's he says, that's her investments. Sometimes she makes investments based on her religious beliefs. And that to me, is pretty interesting.

1:03:58

I did not

Mark Nejmah  1:04:01

Yeah, she she says that sometimes she's guided by the Holy Spirit. And, you know, I'm not a big religious guy. But after the things that America has been through, again, going back to the financial crisis, to have a person that speaks like that is a big is a big change. So yeah, so anyway, that's that's the only thing I want to say and thank you so much.

Keri Norley  1:04:24

My Thanksgiving. My pleasure. Thank you for being here. How can people find you so Mark?

Mark Nejmah  1:04:30

A, they can reach out to me through my email address real roofers@gmail.com Or they can go on my YouTube channel or my website Newsweek calm, which I made which I might sell off through a Dow you know, I'll probably sell it off to Adele because I you know, I, I don't really have a passion for that because it doesn't make money. But it could All right media people. I don't know, I'll be in Tampa a lot involved with the crypto industry, trying to drive it through the ideas that I have, trying to be a little persuasive. Now I got the bucks to throw around, you know, so.

Keri Norley  1:05:16

And what's your YouTube channel?

Mark Nejmah  1:05:18

newsweek.com lead.com?

Keri Norley  1:05:21

Yeah, I love it. By the way, we're speaking to Mark who doesn't actually like to have weed who's got a Newsweek company? So let's just also talk about that, right? Like, it's so funny how, how we can just get into things that it just because it doesn't, you know, it can be amazing. Like the the right things fall into our laps for the right times. And the right reasons,

Mark Nejmah  1:05:37

weed is great for some people. But as again, speaking of my friends, they said, Dude, you're a wild man, don't drink, don't do we don't do anything. We don't know what will happen if you do. And also, you know, Newsweek is a pro and con publication for for marijuana against marijuana addicts, that, you know, if you're an alcoholic, you probably shouldn't get into weed. You have an addictive personality, you got to drop it. I had a guy working for me here, Danny who I loved. But I caught him, you know, kind of dropping off the wagon, so to speak, and he was a heroin addict. And he can't do anything. You know, sober, been sober. And I think the news, we'd want to really talk about sober just as much as we want to talk about psychedelics and marijuana as being helpful. Yeah, no, I don't want to I don't want to see people dying, because they couldn't control themselves. And I'm not saying that marijuana is a gateway drug. But if you're susceptible to addiction, then cool, you know, take it easy. Don't do it. You know, there's exercise. There's other options that maybe will help you. Besides, besides that, but it's a good thing. People that are anxious, it works for a lot. But people that are susceptible to addiction, mg, no way. So newsweek.com We're 100% for everything. I love it. Thank you.

Keri Norley  1:07:14

Thank you. Thank you so much, Mark. It's been an absolute pleasure. And for our listeners, if you have liked the show, please do share it. There was so much value in this and understanding the way that Mark is thinking and the way that he has invested and the way that he has shown offers life. Such an amazing conversation. Please do share it across the media as tag us. Reach out to us with anything that you have learned or taken away. We always both of us love hearing from the listeners. Thank you so much, Mark. Have a wonderful day and see you all next week. Good night.