#33 - How to Become a Fulfillionaire w/ JP Newman

JP

Sure, well, you know, I joke and say I was far from an overnight success. I spent a lot of my early 20s. I think I had 21 jobs in my 20s. But what really stuck in my mid to late 20s was vice president of family entertainment at Sony Pictures. And I did that for five and a half years at Sony. And I really think of that as my MBA into business, working for a large corporation.

where they gave me a fairly entrepreneurial job. At the time, Sony wanted to compete with Disney and have an entire library of DVDs before they were streaming, DVDs like a family entertainment, and they didn't really know how to do it. And the truth is they wanted it, but they didn't want to really deal with it. They wanted to make Miramax kind of films. So they wanted to hire somebody to kind of like just build a...

Children's Family Library that would compete with Disney. And here I come and I came actually from the toy business. didn't, I mean, they shouldn't have picked me. mean, of all the qualified candidates, I was probably the least qualified candidate to pick. I came from like making a toy company. We were making toys based on movies like Mattel would do. Like we're making stuffed animals and posters and all kinds of stuff on Jurassic Park and Lion King, kind of wild stuff.

And when they interviewed me, I really didn't think I had a shot to like, what do I know about production and acquisition of children's titles? I did know lot about family entertainment, but I think really what they saw in me was a go-getter. And I think they also saw that they wouldn't have to babysit me. I think they didn't want to babysit anybody. I think they just wanted somebody with a lot of energy who maybe had some good street smarts. And also I did know a lot about

As far as films and family or attainment, I was just doing it from a different side of the business. But logically, pick somebody who's produced films. You wouldn't pick somebody from a toy company. But I do think that's where my whatever the word you want to use of who I am kind of came through entrepreneurial spirit within a large corporation. And, you know, when I was there, we built a like under my leadership, we built one hundred and fifty million dollar, you know, probably bigger than that action. I think how big it came to.

Maybe it was big, might've been like a $200 million business. were doing things like, Jeff, you'll know some of the titles. So the strategy was we would produce our own things and sell them on DVD. So we produced things like there was a book called Chopper of the Swan by E.B. White who produced Charlotte's Web, the same author of Charlotte's Web. And so we did that with Reese Witherspoon and a whole all-star cast. And I did like a direct to video that was actually in the movie theaters and what, Avio.

We were doing things called Swan Princess at the time, which was a pretty famous Disney-like thing. Mostly skewed towards girls, but kind of a Disney fairy tale series. We did all kinds of things. And then I would buy things. So we'd produce, I used to produce a lot of Christmas specials. Every year I'd produce Christmas specials, which was pretty fun. But we'd also acquire, so if you ever heard of like Bear in the Big Blue House? Or, yeah.

Jeff Albaum

Yeah, for sure.

JP

Ever heard of dragon tales? Like I feel like you might have or veggie tales. Like you probably grew up on some of the things. So we were doing like a lot of Jim Henson stuff. We were doing a lot of like just various kinds of things. So the library kind of became original production as well as like buying libraries and actually putting out television shows of things that were on for young, particularly in my role by this might be a little boring detail, but it's kind of fun when it comes to streaming or how you make money with kids, at least back then.

Jeff Albaum

Totally.

JP

Who buys DVDs at Walmart? Like who would actually buy it? And the answer is you're either buying like a action adventure for the whole family or you're buying something to keep your kid busy so you can get one hour of peace.

And so the kid you wanted to keep busy is probably eight years or nine years or eight or nine years or younger that you could actually bribe with movies. So my audience was a very young audience that I was building towards because those are the people who would spend $20 so they could rerun that this rerun that show and keep their kid busy in the car and keep their kid busy so they could get some peace. So my, my, my, my, my business at Sony was really

Jeff Albaum

Mm-hmm.

Okay.

JP

targeted to, to really like nine year old, nine year olds and younger. And it was super fun. It was really a great opportunity. A lot of the things you see in show business. In fact, there's a, there's a series out right now on HBO called the studio. you heard of it? It won, it won best comedy this year. And I highly recommend it to the audience. It's not Seth McFarlane, Seth, the comedian Seth, Seth Rogan.

Jeff Albaum

Mm-mm.

Rogan?

JP

So Seth Rogen stars in it. highly recommend it. And the funny thing is it's it's based on the time that I was actually a studio executive at Sony Pictures. So a lot of it's a comedy of how dysfunctional and neurotic and crazy the system really is. And I got to witness it firsthand. I think it's probably a little different today than it was back then. I was a little more wild and I saw some pretty crazy things and they flew me around the world and I got to do some pretty some pretty neat things.

Jeff Albaum

Okay.

wild. And so what eventually like why did you leave? What was the ending like? Because that's not what you do now.

JP

So one of the things, yeah, so I'll tell you, it's kind of a funny story, Jeff. So one of the things about a studio, I really, again, if you haven't seen the studio, just trust me, see the studio. And so one of the things about Hollywood, especially when I was there in the 2000s, is you're either someone's golden child or you're not someone's golden child. But if you're not a golden child, you're gonna get fired pretty quickly. So everyone's pretty neurotic, because everyone thinks they're on the verge of getting fired.

Jeff Albaum

Okay.

JP

And so it creates a lot of stress and anxiety naturally within the industry. And I was the golden child because I, it's not that I didn't give a shit. It's because I was honest and there was a lot of bad ideas that would go around the studio and people would look at me and apparently I didn't hide my expression well. If I thought it was a dumb idea, apparently I didn't hide it well enough that it was a dumb idea. So I'd be in a room of like 40 people around a conference room.

and there'd be some famous person there pitching an idea. I'm leaving the names out of it. You would laugh because you would know some of these people over there. And they'd be pitching ideas. I would just, they'd look at it and everybody would go on the table if the boss liked it. They'd never, that's a great idea. One of the pitches was the guy says, I want to make a children's movie about hummingbirds. And.

He goes on for about three, always got about three. I think hummingbirds would be really interesting. They flitter, they fly fast. I just think we can make this great story about hummingbirds. And everyone's like, great idea. Let's make a film about hummingbirds. That's just great. And I probably, had, I had about the best look on my face of like, that is the dumbest thing I've ever heard. And so, so the boss in the room of 40 people looks at me and goes, JP, what's your problem? Like, you don't look excited about this. And I just go.

I think it's the dumbest idea I've ever heard. And I probably shouldn't have said that. That was actually my problem was I was way too honest. was like, as an entrepreneur, it's good to be honest. When you work for a big corporation, it's not always good to be so honest. So to answer your question of what happened was I was Wonder Kid for a while, but then the post of Wonder Kid changed who was in charge of it.

And the guy who was in charge of it, like when I, when, my guy was in charge, I was wondering kid, a new guy came in and in charge of all the family entertainment. And he didn't like me as much because when in the past, I'd also tell him that some of his ideas were dumb or I didn't like them. And he didn't want anyone who just didn't completely agree with them. What he really wanted someone was he wanted a yes, man. And I don't think I've always been the best. Yes, man. And, um, so they, but I was on contract, so they were kind of forced to keep me.

Jeff Albaum

Okay.

Hmm.

Yeah.

JP

Cause I was already on a contract. So I'd go to my office every day with nothing to do for like a year. had an assistant, I had a balcony, they'd fly me places, but I pretty much was like, what do they call that in politics? When you're a lane, I was pretty much the lame duck. I had nothing to do. So I voluntarily quit. here's the irony, Jeff, that you'll find super funny. So I quit cause I was bored. was like, I can't, I mean, they were paying me well, but like I'd come in at 11 and leave at three and.

Jeff Albaum

is

JP

drink coffee and walk around the movie studio. I don't know, I didn't have much to do. I was like 30 or 31 years old. I'd been there for five and a half years. And I was trying to get another job at the time. It was pretty hard to get a job in animation. It was just the beginning of the animation revolution. And...

Jeff Albaum

And how old were you at this time? what was the, how many years had you been there?

Okay. Okay.

JP

So I decided to go off on my own and I started my own production company called Big Wheel Entertainment because I'm a mountain biker, so Big Wheel seemed cool. Plus it's making fun of Hollywood. I'm a big wheel, Big Wheel Entertainment. And I was lucky enough to get a couple things done, but my big project that I got, which I was super excited about, is I got the rights to make a film, very famous kids film called Where the Red Fern Grows. Have you ever heard of that film before? Yeah, so I'm the producer of that one. If you look at it, like way back.

Jeff Albaum

Yeah, of course.

JP

So, so I get Redford and Gross. I got Dave Matthews. You know who Dave Matthews is, right? Yeah. So I got Dave Matthews, like starring in it. I got Disney. I got Disney to back me on this one. And, I was the executive producer, which is a super big deal. I got Alison Krauss. Alison Krauss was doing the music to it. Like all star cast. If you haven't seen, if you don't know the book, it's kind of like old Yeller from Disney. It's a boy and his dog.

Jeff Albaum

Yeah, yeah.

Yeah.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

JP

Coming of age story, the dog dies in the end, everybody cries. The goal is to get everyone to cry, right? That's kind of like, if you haven't seen the movie, go see it. It's a great film. So the bunny, I had to go out and get the money to get the film made. Ironically, after I learned in Hollywood, this is a good Hollywood secret. Everyone says, yes, they're gonna give you the money. But if the check doesn't come or the lawyer doesn't call you within 24 hours, it's just another liar in Hollywood.

Jeff Albaum

Yeah.

JP

So I had to learn that. And so I had to kiss a lot of frogs. But finally I meet this guy and here's the irony. He's a guy who made his money in real estate in Texas. He lived in Houston. So he had all this money in real estate coming from Texas and he's going to be my guy. So he finances this film. But really what he wanted to do is meet Dave Matthews. Like he didn't care. He made a lot of money in real estate in Texas and wants to meet Dave Matthews. And as soon as he...

Jeff Albaum

Okay.

JP

meets Dave Matthews and meets the Disney executives and he calls himself executive producer. Then he doesn't want me to be executive producer because he wants to go to the south of France telling people he's an executive producer. And finally, after like the film gets made, you can still see it's out there on streaming. But he says to me, know, JP, I don't want two executive producers. I want that title. I want to make you assistant director. I'm like, but that's not my job. I just got the entire film made. got...

put the whole thing together. It's like, I don't really care. I'm just not gonna follow my contract with you and you can sue me. I'm rich. You're 31 and you have no money. I'm rich. We can fight. I'll outweigh you. I'll exhaust you. And ironically, that was the end of my film career because by the time I got paid and paid my lawyers, I got about a third of what I was owed and I actually had to get a lower title.

And it was enough to get me out of the film business. Ironically, I got out of the film business. And the irony is I got into real estate in Texas. I moved to Austin and changed careers in a real estate. So it took it took a real estate guy from Texas to screw me to get me into real estate in Texas and switch careers.

Jeff Albaum

Holy smokes. That's insane.

JP

Pretty insane story, right?

Jeff Albaum

So do you remember like the day that you knew that that decision was happening? So like you were probably, I would imagine it was a long drawn out process, lawyers were involved, et cetera. What was the day like where you like, you came home and you were like, that's it. Like I'm getting a third of what I thought I was, the career that I thought like it's done. And like, when did you mentally decide to mentally check out?

JP

was slow for me because I kind of felt like, coming from a highly creative career, like, you know, I was, I was sitting there meeting, you know, the movie stars and I was, you know, I was the guy like you'd pitch to. So like, was the guy you'd pitch ideas to. So I had a highly creative job and the thought of going into real estate and like as a real estate syndicator investor.

and being a numbers guy, once I've been a highly creative Hollywood guy and all the movie studios and sitting there and writing songs with some of the famous songwriters and Hollywood and doing some pretty wild stuff. was really seemed really depressing. It felt like felt like maybe I had sold out if I was to do it. But at the time, I also met the girl of my dreams and I dreamed of financial freedom and realized that this path, this path has taken me as far as it was going to take me. And so what I did at first is I

I try to produce a couple other films while I was there. And my dad was kind of out of his real estate career. was like, he was retiring, but he mentored me for two years. So I was like, just to pay, I had to keep the lights on and pay for my shitty car and my shitty apartment. So like.

The films weren't doing it for me. I needed to make some money. So I was doing like little real estate deals. was like fixing flipping houses. I I got my broker's license and I was brokering small retail deals just to like pay the bills. And I realized this was in LA. And then I realized that, you know, it was a very hard thing, but I realized that the money was coming from real estate, not Hollywood.

Jeff Albaum

And this was in LA.

JP

And it was getting bigger every year, not like crazy big, but bigger. in Hollywood, I felt I had so little control over my fate or my success. It was so much in the hands of Nickelodeon or Sony or Disney that would always tell me they loved my projects. But when that lawyer doesn't call.

You know the story. And so I was spending lots of time and money producing some really fun stories. You know, but it wasn't translating to success. And so it became obvious to me that I wanted to marry this girl. I wanted to have kids and I didn't want to be living in a shitty apartment and driving a piece of shit car. And so that really became like it was a very practical decision.

Jeff Albaum

Hmm.

Mm-hmm.

JP

And then moving to Austin was the final piece because I realized that people still saw me. It was interesting. Like people either saw me as the movie executive and that is now in a real estate. So it's like, realized in LA, you have your fake friends and your real friends and you won't know until you're out of a movie studio or out of the business who your real friends and your fake friends are. And

Jeff Albaum

Mm-hmm.

Yeah.

JP

So a lot of friends dropped me because I couldn't help them anymore. was no longer in a movie studio. I wasn't a vice president. I, they, I, you know, like I couldn't help them and they dropped me. The other half stuck with me and a lot of them are still my friends to this day. And then there was like the middle, the clueless ones are like, so what are you doing now in real estate? Are you, are you selling houses? And I'm like, no, I'm in commercial estate. I'm trying to, I have a dream. want to do apartments and I want to do this. And you want to sell my house? No, I don't want to sell your house.

so, yeah.

Jeff Albaum

Okay, wait, wait, so just a pause for a second. So you had this amazingly creative career. You had started your own production company. You're like, okay, this isn't really working. Your dad was in real estate. I think that was the key that I was missing. So he was mentoring you. Okay. And so you're like, I'm getting this. I'm slowly getting better. I'm doing deals and this is making more money than my movies are. So then at what point did you decide to go, all right, I'm all in on real estate? And then I wanna talk about

JP

Yeah, my dad was in real estate, so he was mentoring me on how to do it.

Right.

Jeff Albaum

how you picked Austin.

JP

Yeah, I think that it took me almost a year and a half of this hybrid model to go fully into real estate. I started making money. Honestly, it's like, know, Jeff, you're in that phase with a newborn. mean, I had big visions. I found the girl in my dreams and I had big dreams of kids. And I think at that time, actually, she had just gotten pregnant with our

Jeff Albaum

Okay.

JP

first kid who you know now is now 20 and at University of Miami. Go Canes, go Canes. Wait, Canes, not Dexons. I get it, the U. Canes, go Canes. I gotta keep my kids straight. So a lot of it was driven really by necessity. I'll tell you, was a very heavy thing because I felt like a sellout. I felt like, my God, how did I give up a creative career for this boring real estate career?

Jeff Albaum

Mm-hmm.

JP

I'm a real estate finance guy. Like I've sold out and it really, it really took me a long time to find my mojo and to find my creativity in what could be a boring business or what could seem like a very boring business. And it took some, it took me five to seven years probably of creating some more and more success. And part of moving to Austin was

Jeff Albaum

Mm-hmm.

JP

Two things. One, I thought Austin would do well. I had a hunch that it be a good real estate market and my hunch turned out right. But also I kind of wanted to erase the identity of JP Newman, the Hollywood guy. Like I didn't want to be known anymore. I didn't want to be looked at with that story behind me. So moving to Austin, not knowing anybody was a way to start clean. like fresh life, new wife, about to have our first kid and knowing nobody.

and moving to Austin for a fresh start. I was just a real estate guy. Which was kind of scary. It's like leaving everything behind that you knew. No, really to fall back on. Yeah. But it was necessary. It was kind of like an identity. You go through these phases of life, I think, you know, of these identity changes. When you get married, I think it's a big moment of an identity change. think fatherhood is a big moment for an identity change.

Jeff Albaum

Mm-hmm.

Dude, that sounds terrifying.

JP

I can tell you having my kids both out for college, which just happened about three months ago, is an identity change. You kind of have these major pivot points in your life. And you can be scared of them or resist the change or you can embrace the change. And I think that one of the things I've learned through my life is that

by having the courage to embrace the change has been, for me, has worked out. Even though there's not always proof at first that it's gonna work out, long-term looking back, I feel like it's really worked out really well.

Jeff Albaum

And you said that there was like kind of this five to seven year period of like, I don't know the fifth awards you used, it was like, you're kind of, it's tough. wasn't like you got to Austin and things became easier, right? Like you were grinding for a long time, right?

JP

I was hot. Right, right. Just grinding to pay the bills, grinding to keep the diapers on the kids tension at home over money, you know, because I was watching every penny and. And yeah, so there's just moments of just just building a career. You know, tension on that. can tell you one thing that was such a game changer, by buying a house at the time at Austin House that I could afford.

Jeff Albaum

Mm-hmm.

JP

and moving to a market that I could afford that was a lot less than LA, it took so much pressure off of me to have to pay for a mortgage that was already beyond me. And because I bought a house that I could afford, it was almost the same as apartment rent at that point, it like a nice apartment.

Jeff Albaum

Hmm

JP

It gave me an opportunity to take risk and to start a company. And it gave me enough breathing room to create success. So those five to seven years, it worked because I wasn't financially burdened with $8,000 rent. know, it was like, so I created, I created a good container to give myself the time I needed. Enough time. It's always takes longer. Always, always. I find it generally takes longer than you think.

Jeff Albaum

Yeah.

JP

I have an expression. read it from a book years ago and overnight success takes at least three years. Maybe five. And that's been my experience too.

Jeff Albaum

Mm-hmm.

Yeah.

And so what was, let's focus on that for a minute. like your first couple of years, you're grinding, it's hard, it's tense, you have a newborn, you're newly married. Why did you decide to keep going? Were there bits and pieces of like, this is kind of working, or like, I can kind of see lights at the end of the tunnel. Were there little nuggets? What kept you going during those times?

JP

Yeah, I think two things. think I'm a numbers guy, Jeff. I can obsess over numbers. We have some lineage to Albert Einstein on my dad's side. I think I have maybe one tenth of 1 % of Einstein's. I love numbers and deals. And my dad does too, by the It's pretty funny. And so

I could see that year after year my income was going up. Like it wasn't flat. Like it wasn't like crazy. It wasn't parabolic. It wasn't like I was doubling my income. But let's say every year I was making 10 to 15 % more than the year before. And these weren't crazy numbers. These were just like just paying the bills kind of numbers, right? Like living well at a certain point, you know, my kids in nursery school, my wife gets to shop at Whole Foods, you know, like nothing's like everything's cool. Like I got it. You know, I got it. And then

Jeff Albaum

Mm-hmm.

Mm-hmm.

Mm-hmm.

Mm-hmm.

JP

Every year I just got more comfortable. I think that really, I mean, I think you know the stuff. It's like, you get to this point where you you love your life, you love your wife and you love your kids so much. You kind of go all in. You kind of, not everybody does, but I know for me as a father and as a husband, it was like, I wanted to be all in on that. Like I didn't want to be half in. like having some self sacrifice at the time, whether it totally interested me or.

Jeff Albaum

Mm-hmm.

JP

I suddenly was working a lot of hours. I was grinding. I was grinding really hard, but it was, I was grinding, but it was worth it because I'd come home to my wife and my kids and I loved what I had at home. And that's such an important piece of it. You know, in fulfilling or Jeff, I talk about there's four dimensions to wealth. There's money, which is your prosperity, but there's the four P's of wealth and the four P's of wealth. They're your purpose wealth. What's your connection to,

Jeff Albaum

Mm-hmm.

JP

a higher purpose or your legacy. There's your people wealth, which is what is your connection not only to yourself, what is your connection to your your wife, your kids, your community? Like that's people wealth. Not you get so much fulfillment from people wealth. Then there's play wealth. What is your connection to joy and aliveness? What what turns you on?

Jeff Albaum

Mm-hmm.

JP

Is it racing cars, jogging? it like going on crazy trips? Like, are you, are you really churning that? And the last one is presence wealth, which is different than time wealth. Are you spending your days stressed out running like a chicken, reacting to your iPhone or are you living a, having some more moments in your life?

Jeff Albaum

Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.

JP

you know, waking up peacefully, living your life in presence and going to sleep with some peace. And are you working towards a practice, any spiritual practice or whatever practice you need, breath work, you name it, that's bringing you more towards that kind of what I call presence wealth. And I think what I'm describing to you really at that time was my people wealth. don't think I had a name for it, but it's like love for my family.

Jeff Albaum

Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.

Mm-hmm.

JP

was driving me. like, it didn't really matter how much time I grinded. It really didn't matter what it was going to take because it was worth it. And generally, I think in life, when you're working for a cause that's bigger than yourself is where you find the juice. Like where you find happiness in life, where you find fulfillment in life is when it gets to be bigger than yourself.

Jeff Albaum

So.

So JP, let me ask you a question on that time. like you're spending all this time and I know you're saying like he loves your family. So it felt great to come back, but was there ever a party that you're like, damn, I'm missing stuff because I'm grinding so much to build this future for them. Like how did you think about balancing all your responsibilities? Cause like you have this drive, you're obviously an extremely driven, successful person. like, I'm sure when you're like, you like when you're at home, were you thinking about work? And when you were at work, were you thinking about at home?

JP

sometimes, sometimes I'll tell you Jeff, this is how I kind of see it. think a lot of people don't get this right when it comes to time. I think when you tell people on stage or if you read on Instagram, you know, you're working too much, you're working too many hours. Like there's a lot of guilt and shame in that. And I think there's actually, I think there's different times in life where there's nothing wrong with grinding. What I found, you know, now that I'm on the other end of this, that

Jeff Albaum

Mm-hmm.

Mm-hmm.

JP

I think people think like the more time you spend with your kids, the better. And I would argue it's not the more time that you spend with your family, it's better. It's the more time in presence with your family. That's better. The more time you spend honoring your commitments. If you tell your kid or your wife, you're going to be at the soccer game or you're going to, this is important. You show up, but you don't just show up. You show up in your present. You're not on your phone texting.

Jeff Albaum

Mm-hmm.

Mm-hmm.

Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.

JP

You're not doing something. You're like, even to this day, I try not always perfect, but if I'm on date night with my wife, it's date night with my wife. I'm not making calls. I'm not checking texts. I'm not doing in between. I'm like, it's presence. So I would argue that presence is more important than time.

Jeff Albaum

Mm-hmm.

Mm-hmm.

So I don't know if I ever told you this, but when I first moved to Austin, you were extremely generous with your time as you are today, and you invited me to your office. And we had this amazing con, do you remember this? We had this amazing conversation. It was so cool. Like it was, I don't know, just like the cool, I forget, had, we scheduled like maybe 30 minutes. We talked for like an hour and a half in your office. It was awesome. And I remember thinking at the time, like,

JP

Hmm.

No, tell me.

Jeff Albaum

Everything you said was amazing, but one of the coolest things that stuck out to me was you didn't look at your phone once. The whole time. And like, you're a busy guy. You have stuff going on. There's a lot of things that could be drawing your attention. And I remember thinking like, holy smokes, like my phone was buzzing. And I'm like, okay, whatever that is, way less important. If JP's not talking you, like there is 0 % chance I could pull mine out. So I just remember being super impressed by that and like feeling very,

JP

Hmm. Yeah.

Yeah, yeah.

Yeah.

Thank you.

Jeff Albaum

Like it was like, like I felt like the most important person in the world at that time.

JP

It's great. And I really try to do that. think that's, get, I get a lot of feedback about that. really, sometimes it's bad because sometimes people can misread it. Like everyone, sometimes I have people think how many best friends do you have? And I think that that gets confused. It's, it's, it's not that I have a thousand best friends. It's just that I try my best to be present with what's in front of me as from a place of choice. And so I'm, I say no to a lot of things too. I'm just like,

Jeff Albaum

Mm-hmm.

JP

you know, I try not to say yes to everybody because that also keeps you out of presence wealth with your family and then your sucker. You only have, we all only have the same amount of time in a day. So you want to use it wisely. But like, if I said yes to you, if I said yes to you, let's get to know each other better than why not give you my full presence, right?

Jeff Albaum

Mm-hmm.

Mm hmm. For sure. For sure. So OK. So let's let's let's.

JP

Don't you hate when you're talking to somebody and you know, they're like only like 25 % there, like you're at a meal or like you're at a lunch or you're at a meeting and you kind of tell they're kind of like listening to you they're on their phone or on their, they're on their screen at the same time typing away. Doesn't that just not feel great?

Jeff Albaum

Yeah, it's the worst. like, think, so to get a little personal, like the worst part for me is when I realized that about myself. Like, if I'm on my phone and like it's been a lot, like this year I'm really trying to make it a priority, like no phone around the baby. Like if I'm with the baby, like just no phone, it doesn't matter. And it's hard, it's really hard. And so I'm like, okay, I need this. If it's hard, I need it, right? So I wanna ask like a practical question. So a lot of people listen to this, they're,

JP

Yeah.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Jeff Albaum

You know, they're my age, they have young families, they're building businesses, they're building careers. It feels like a lot of polls for attention and a lot going on. What's your advice to people who are trying to be the best at everything they can? How can people be the best parents, the best founders, the best entrepreneur? people who want to maximize everything without giving up things that are important to them.

JP

Yeah, I don't know that you can maximize everything. I don't know if I even like the word how to be the best because that implies everything else is less than the best. And I think that, I think what's a better kind of mindset is what are the things that are most important to me? I call it the why that makes you cry.

Jeff Albaum

Hmm.

Mm-hmm.

JP

So once you know, the five things that actually matter to you, and I use my framework of the four dimensions of wealth within your, like, what is your purpose? Who are your people that you actually give a shit about? you know, what, what turns, what lights you up? Are you, do you love to write, you know, like, are you doing those things? And I think.

If you can keep out a lot of extraneous things, because everything's competing for our attention these days. Chat GPT wants your attention. Instagram wants your attention and they're driven to capture. I mean, literally the world is driven and paid to capture your attention. Right? Like all these funnels, they're trying to get you to serotonin drip so that you'll stay as long as possible so they can say you Coca-Cola. And so, so once you really get clear, think for a lot of people, they're not really clear on.

Jeff Albaum

Right.

JP

Like you just said, I run the baby. I don't want to have a phone. like your baby is a not, is a, is a non-negotiable, but maybe, but maybe there's three or four friends that you kind of want. Like you feel bad. Like you like them. They're not a 10, but like you feel guilty. Like they want to go to coffee with you. Everybody wants to do coffee. So I'm going to coffee with this person, even though I don't really don't think I can help them that much, but you know, I feel kind of bad. They keep reaching out to me like,

Jeff Albaum

Mm-hmm.

Mm-hmm.

JP

I think that's the extraneous stuff that if you can get good at starting to really, and I think there's a way to cut it out without being rude, but just being honest. And I think that will free up so much time. And so I think that when you really are, you're really kind of like, know what you want. You're not trying to be the best at it, but you give that your full attention. I think that's how you win at that game of...

juggling, parenthood, career, and marriage. And they all, I had someone ask me the other day, Jephyll Preet, I was on a ski slope last week and I had a young guy ask me, he's 23, JP, I don't understand, in your four dimensions of wealth, like I got three going good, but one's going bad right now. Like I'm just horrible in this, like my, like, you know, in this case, like my marriage is going bad. I'm having, you know, and he's like, I don't know. He's like, I just don't get how I'm ever going to get to like,

this perfect spot. I said, cause you're not, cause you're not going to get to the perfect spot. Like there's always going to be something. So like when your marriage is up, maybe when your kids are sick or maybe, yeah, you know, your, your, you know, your marriage is great, but your business is down. You kind of figure out that person canceled the sale. So it's not about trying to get it perfect or even being the best at it. I kind of see it as a breathing organism and say, once you know,

Jeff Albaum

Mm-hmm.

Hmm

JP

your four Ps, your things that matter to you most of your organism. It's going to expand and contract. You're going to have times when it's like everything's actually just working. Gosh, Robin's great. My kids are great. My kids great. Kind of making money. The podcast is going great. Everything's my health is great. And, you should enjoy that ride. Like enjoy that. It's like a way that you're surfing. Like, wow, I caught the wave. Isn't that just amazing? Right. And, and there's going to be times you'll be like, fuck.

Like my kids annoying me. I'm just, I wake up and I'm annoyed and businesses sucks. And I hate the last guest on my podcast at JP like on and on, right? Like, and, and there's gonna be moments like that too. And I think it's like getting better at regulating your nervous system to not try for perfection, but to really just like, okay, that sucked.

Jeff Albaum

Hmm.

JP

And it's that resilience, you have that resilience, Jeff and you, I it's something I recognized about you early. But I think it's the resilience, the prioritization of what's actually important to you and knowing what's important to you together combined is really what gets you to the next level of what the question you asked me about as far as like, how do you juggle that? Well, it's with humility and focus.

Jeff Albaum

Hmm.

Hmm. So, so knowing what you know now, what would you have changed during this time, if anything, like if you could go back and do it again, and then I want to get to to fulfill an air and like, talk more about and like go deep in the the in in 40 wealth.

JP

Sure.

Okay, well, you know, it's so easy to say, but I think it's kind of true, but I don't know if we can do it as humans or not. Like, what if you absolutely knew, Jeff, that like in 10 or 15 years from now, that whatever your dream is, whether it's a, have a dollar amount or your kids are going to grow up or your marriage is going to go on, what if I could guarantee you today that whatever your dream is, is a done deal.

How much less worrying could you have? Like how much could you worry less, try harder, have less sleepless nights, less fear, less just spinning? If you just knew it was all gonna work out perfectly. And I think that I spent so much of my 20s worrying about stuff that in the end really didn't matter.

And then I had no control over and looked sometimes as if it was like the plane was going to crash into the barn. Just looked horrible in all areas, not just one. And, you know, I was at Burning Man a few months ago and one of the biggest moments I had at Burning Man was I had been a 23 year break. I'd been to Burning Man 23 years earlier and I went back for the first time.

And my biggest like emotional realization is that my life actually for me has turned out more fulfilling than the kid from 23 years ago could have ever dreamed of. Like it was better than the dream.

And I started crying. just started crying. was like 6 a.m. I was just weeping in gratitude. I think the tears were tears of joy and recognition that like, wow, I got the girl and it's better than I thought. And probably some tears of sorrow if I was really thinking about it for how much time I wasted.

worrying about shit that I couldn't control. didn't really matter in the end. How much time did I burn? You know, in states that if, if, so if someone would just would have had guaranteed me that JP, you're going to get your dream. You can worry about the last like it's coming. I think that would have been a game changer. And I don't know if people can do that or not. I don't know if.

Jeff Albaum

Mm-hmm.

JP

You know, I talk about this in Judaism, this idea that, you know, it's not only being, you know, satisfied with your lot in life, but continue to be grateful for your lot in life. mean, you know, this, Jeff, this is like some good stuff. And so it's easier. It's definitely easier said than done. But if you could just like, think about that, like, huh, I am blessed. I have these dreams. I'm willing to work for them. And.

however it works out, probably be better than my dream. And then if it happens, it's super, that's super fun. And if it doesn't happen, I guess a lot of it is to interpretation of if it happened or if it doesn't happen is how you interpret it between your brain anyways.

Jeff Albaum

Hmm.

Right.

Right. Well, I'm sure your dreams change as you evolve and mature and grow.

JP

I thought I was going to be a studio chairman and produce animation. And I never thought I was going to live in Texas slinging real estate. That was not part of the plan in my 20s.

Jeff Albaum

So, okay, you have this career, a very successful career in real estate, and actually, I almost want to not skip over that, but I feel like of all the things we can talk about, that's not what I want to focus on, because I think you're much more of a special person, even if you take the real estate away. But anyone who wants to learn more, you're very successful real estate investor, and you've become very successful financially, and so you're entering this really exciting new phase that I want to hear more about. So talk to us about...

JP

Okay.

Sure.

Jeff Albaum

Forty Well talked to us about fulfilling an heir. Like where did that come from? How did you get inspired to do that? And how's it going?

JP

Yeah. Yeah. So, you know, having, a lot of investors in my career with thrive FP is, you know, we do, we do apartment buildings. I've done about 20,000 apartment buildings. think it's like $2 million, $2 billion of real estate value. So I've seen a lot of real estate, touched a lot of real estate, not that I've done 2 billion, but about $2 billion of value of the real estate to be specific. And so I've, I've touched a lot of real estate. It just means I've been around for a minute or two and,

I think it would always amaze me working with investors. And, even as I started making my own money is I found it took me a long time to find fulfillment around money. found like there's something I call the net worth trap. So you think about it, you spend your youth, you spend your twenties and thirties building a career to make money. And then for a lot of people, if you really don't have a framework around your money, like why you're making or how much is enough, all of a sudden you start to make money.

And you're like, oh, should I don't want to lose it? What do I do to not lose this money? So you've, you've used all that fear and anxiety about having enough. And now you've just transferred it to the other side of the balance sheet of like defense. So you go from offense to defense, but you haven't changed the emotional state around the money. Right? So you're still, you're still in lack, fear, and scarcity because you have a lot of reasons why is because no one ever teaches us financial literacy.

Not only how to keep money. So there's, there's the basics. Like how do you keep the money? How do you invest the money? Like a lot of people tend to do really stupid shit by over risking money because they don't even know. And that's a whole other topic we could talk about, but on the mindset side, most people's mindset really sucks around money because no one's ever taught us. So

Jeff Albaum

Mm-hmm.

Mm-hmm.

JP

We talk about like, what is your mindset around money? What's your, what's your grandfather tell you? What did your parents tell you about money? Like Jeff, for you, what are your operating principles that you learned about money? Like my grandfather told me money doesn't grow on trees. So for me, it was like, eat all your food on your plate. Money doesn't grow on trees, which really means like it's, it's scarcity. Like, like there's not enough of it. Money doesn't grow on trees. Finish your food. Finish this. Don't be a, don't, don't waste this. Don't waste.

Jeff Albaum

Yeah.

Yeah.

JP

There's only so much of it. That was my money story. What was your money story?

Jeff Albaum

Very similar, like money doesn't grow on trees. But I think at the same time, think something I'm really grateful for for my parents is that they did a really good job instilling the value of a dollar. like we all, though I'm the youngest of three brothers, we all had jobs from basically as young as I can remember. Like we lived in Canada at the time. So when I was 15, I went out and got a job and it was awesome. So like, wait, I can make money. This is sweet. You know, like my dad would teach us about interest rates by we played Monopoly. He would offer us loans. And so like

JP

Yeah.

It's great.

Jeff Albaum

I think it was a very unique perspective, but it was still very much like, yeah, money doesn't grow on trees, know, value of a dollar, like we need to work hard and like be driven and see a lot of emphasis on like saving and investing.

JP

So would you say it was the value of a dollar?

Jeff Albaum

The value of a dollar, yeah, yeah, I think so. And then also like compounding, so like understanding how interest works and how compounding works. so like.

JP

Okay.

Yeah. By the way, those are skills. What I'm actually leaning towards is actually mindset. Like what, what is your operating principle on money? More, more than the skills or the tactics. It's more like, you know, money's the root of all evil. money. No, I'm saying, I'm saying, but it could have been like, money is for good. Like with money, we can give more money to charity. Like it doesn't have to all be bad. It's just for a lot of people between your friends, your family and your church or your temple.

Jeff Albaum

No, we didn't have that. But it-

Right.

JP

There's a lot of negativity around money that money somehow creates misery or that money creates unhappiness. it's hard, like can you really have a lot of money and really be happy? Not many people can do it. Like you're gonna crash the plane. You're gonna become a cocaine addict. You're gonna leave your wife. You're gonna do something stupid if you make a lot of money. You're gonna go to Vegas and gamble it all. You're gonna do some stupid things. Yeah, I'm in a podcast. You cool? Sorry about that. So, so.

Jeff Albaum

Mm-hmm.

Sure. Sure.

Right, right.

Right.

JP

So, so the idea is if most of us are kind of in that, I'll call it scarcity or just you can't have it all. Let's just call it. can't have it all. So fulfilling is all about what if you can't have it all. And that's been my journey of what if you can have it all and you can be fulfilled and what does even having it all even mean? And, that's a lot of my journey. It's been like, cause I started making money.

Jeff Albaum

Sure.

JP

And I went right into the net worth trap. I started getting more fearful. Did I have enough? Would I lose it? Would I change? like I wasn't, I didn't trust myself around money because I never had it. So all of a sudden I, now I had it and no one taught me how to have a relationship with money and what the relationship should be. So fulfilling there is really a lot about what should your relationship be around with money to create a fulfilling relationship with money.

Jeff Albaum

Hmm. Dude, I love that. It's amazing.

JP

Thanks.

Jeff Albaum

Have you thought like, I know you said we're talking about with 4D wealth, this was like you were doing this, but you didn't know that you were doing it. And so now this is like, you're putting it into a box and putting a, kind of putting a container around it. Is it similar with Fulfillian Air?

JP

Yes. So I realized this after my 20 years of working with investors, managing my own money and how to, how to really figure out how I can find fulfillment. How to, how, how could I find safety? Cause guess what happens in the world? Just like I said, you can't have it all at once. Well, shit happens. Black swans happen. So right now real estate is on fire. It's horrible. It's I've seen values go down. There's stress. So

Like your worth, your net worth, unless you're just like a doctor or something. But for most people, it's not that it's not just, it's not this line that goes straight up, especially if you're an entrepreneur, you have a good year, there's a setback, maybe you're lucky you have a sale, maybe you don't. So you kind of get a lot of this like volatility. So how do you, how do you stay present, sane and fulfilled when the world is showing you volatility and

Jeff Albaum

Mm-hmm.

Mm-hmm.

JP

That's kind of my sense of my journey and a lot of volatility. Being an entrepreneur, there's years that are just insane. There's years that just are not insane with a lot of pressure. And I think having the mindset and the framework of fulfilling, which I created is just my own experience and action. And quite frankly, I'm trying to help people your age find, it took me a bunch of years to get to this point of

both in tactics and strategy and financial planning, like actually, what's my tax strategy? What's my asset protection strategy? What's my investment strategy? Like what are all these strategies that work to protect me and my family that I can continue growing in this volatile curve? And that's really what Fulfilliener is. It's the birth of that for me.

Jeff Albaum

That's amazing. And so what does it look like in the future? Like what are you building and where do you hope to be in a year?

JP

So my podcast, which was called Investing On Purpose, I just renamed it Fulfilliener and I interviewed Fulfilliener. So it's really, both, it's a show for people who want to be inspired by other people who have found fulfillment with money, but also what tactics did they use within the four dimensions of wealth? Like how'd they do? What was the mindset? What were the tricks they used to find fulfillment? So for entrepreneurs or people...

who are on that path of making money, but want to make sure they find fulfillment. That's what my podcast is about. And now for, for, for entrepreneurs who have made it to a certain point, let's say they, they made a few million or they've gotten so far with their company, but they're still not feeling safe. They were still in the net worth trap. They would come to my workshop. And I did these two day workshops here in Austin called fulfilling our weekend. And I keep it to 25 people. They're pretty intimate and they're transformational.

Jeff Albaum

Hmm.

JP

And so I think in this year, we're going to do more workshops. We're actually going have the first Fulfilliener trips. We're going to do some private skiing. We're going to do some private wake surfing. We're going to experiment with that a little bit. We're going to probably have some fireside chats and,

continue building the community that way, where ultimately you really, like really taking someone not just as feeling like a fulfilling or giving you ongoing support and tactics, but then being with a community of fulfilling errors of other people who are living their best lives. And, know, this, secret, can kind of tell you're getting to be a fulfilling error or that you feel safer on money as you become a better philanthropist. As you learn.

As you learn that giving is as enjoyable and satisfying as receiving is when you really know you're a Fulfillianer. And so really my goal is to curate a community of Fulfillianers that are not just investing together, but giving together. And that's really the basis for Fulfillianer.

Jeff Albaum

Mm-hmm.

I loved your episode with Mendy about giving and that was wild. It was really, really wild.

JP

Yeah.

One of my favorite episodes, I keep thinking about that episode. Actually, I've thought about it maybe every day since I've shot it. I just think about little things that came from that episode.

Jeff Albaum

Mm-hmm.

Yeah, the give till it hurts is, it's been, it's been present for me a lot lately. When you think about like, are there people in your lives that you look to as mentors for like, who are your fulfillers? Other than the ones that you've interviewed, but like, are there people you look up to and have relationships with?

JP

Yeah, good.

Yeah.

100 % 100 % I'd say I probably got 10 people in my life that are my mentors in different areas. Some of our mentors in business, some are mentors in spirituality, some are mentors in but yeah I'd say my closest friends are fulfill owners and I'm blessed that's part of people wealth so yeah.

Jeff Albaum

Mm-hmm When you're when you're seeking out a mentor if someone is Like I like what you said that you have mentors in specific categories almost right, but if someone is not Holistically like you want to be but they're really good at one thing Well, will you kind of filter their advice or will you kind of like okay take what you know? You're really good at and then the rest I'm gonna leave to the side Or does someone need to be holistically someone that you want to be like in order to take advice?

JP

Mm.

No, they can be a specialist. They can be a specialist and that works. It actually sometimes works better. Sometimes some of the people who are really like almost on the spectrum are your smartest people to ask because they're so damn smart and so focused and so so dialed in on a category that it could be just the right person. So I say that with great respect. There's nothing to with people on the spectrum.

Jeff Albaum

Okay.

Mm-hmm.

Right.

Right.

JP

This is actually a compliment. Whether, I know I say that, I'm literally like people who just obsess over a certain topic and they become like a total specialist on that topic. think that's interesting sometimes. I love well-rounded people, but sometimes just meeting those people who are just brilliant in a certain subject is super fun to go down that rabbit hole with.

Jeff Albaum

Yeah.

For sure.

Mm-hmm. Well, JP, I feel like I could talk to you for hours and hours, but I want to start kind of wrapping things up here. Before we go, I wanted to ask, like, what types of stuff are you, what type of content are you consuming? Do you read books? Do you listen to podcasts? Do you follow people? Like, who are, what kind of content do you consume?

JP

Yeah.

Yeah. So I'm really careful what I put between my ears and eyes these days, because I think the world could be very overwhelming. And I think there's a lot of pessimism in the world and a lot of dystopian futures. And I really try to filter myself even with movies. I just don't want to watch zombie apocalypse movies because I think everything

Jeff Albaum

Mm-hmm.

Mm-hmm.

JP

actually does go into it sets a filter with it. You may just think it's entertainment. I actually think that the soul is multiple dimensional. think it's really important, know, know, trash in trash out or quality and quality out kind of thing. I say with that being said, I tend to read a lot of books that, know, are spiritually uplifting. I just read this week, The Lattice, which was a great book, short book by our friend, Brent Hurt.

Jeff Albaum

Mm-hmm.

JP

which kind of explores spiritual traditions with quantum mechanics. Super fun book. Yeah, some light reading. I really enjoyed that one. And I'm a nerd. And I just saw a great movie this week. And again, a lot of movies that like, was a movie where the story to me had a lot of, it was infused with spirituality, optimism, comedy.

Jeff Albaum

Hmm.

JP

and it's called Is This Thing On? It's in the movie theaters right now with Judd Apatow and Laura Dern and Bradley Cooper.

Jeff Albaum

Okay.

JP

And it's funny. It's about a couple trying to survive their marriage. And it's so real and very sweet and hard and relatable. They did a phenomenal job writing that. really into scripts. As a person who's been pitched 10,000 different ideas, I'm very into story and concept. And I just watched Stranger Things, the final season of Stranger Things. And I was really disappointed. I mean, it's a great series, but I feel like they landed the plane.

Maybe it's too hard to take a 10 year series on the plane. Well, but I feel like they just had so many holes in their storylines. That was just painful for such a quality, such a quality thing like strange for things. But, so yeah, that's, that's kind of a, I read quite a bit. do a on the podcast side. I really still like Tony Robbins was my mentor when I was 20 years old. I'd say he's still my mentor. I still think he's the absolute best even on topics like fulfilling error. really,

He really inspires me. Peter Diamantes, another great, he just interviewed Elon Musk and Tony Robbins. so Peter Diamantes, which is the Moonshot podcast, kind of like how technology will create more abundance for us all, not the zombie apocalypse. So I enjoy things like that.

Jeff Albaum

Mm-hmm.

It's amazing. Well, JP, thank you so much for coming on. I really appreciate you and your time and your mentorship. It means a lot. So thank you.

JP

You're welcome. You're welcome. Jeff. Great. Great. Great. Chatter with you. I definitely, you said you wanted to dig in things that aren't usually talking about. I think you did a pretty good job.

Jeff Albaum

Thank you. I appreciate that. That's the that's what we gotta do here. All right. Bye everybody.

JP

Okay, thank you.