How Live Challenges Created Predictable Cash Flow and $100M+ in Revenue with Pedro Adao – EP 271

Justin Donald: Well, Pedro, it's so good to have you here live. Always a pleasure having friends come into Austin, and we can hang out in a podcast studio, catch up, get to know each other better. So, welcome.

Pedro Adao: It's great to be here, and all work just God's timing is perfect.

Justin Donald: That's right.

Pedro Adao: I was coming in for some other event, and then we just got recently connected from a mutual friend and then was able to do a couple of other podcasts here. Austin is a happening place.

Justin Donald: It is.

Pedro Adao: I'm from California. A lot of our best entrepreneurs have left to come here.

Justin Donald: That's right. Yeah.

Pedro Adao: There are still a few good ones in California, but…

Justin Donald: We've absorbed many of them. Yeah. It's a really cool place, really cool city. And it's fun. Your timing, I was like we are going to try and record in a couple weeks because I have my big Lifestyle Investor live event and our Tribe of Investors live event. So, it's kind of my craziest week of the year, basically starting in two days. But I'm like, “Hey, if we have a chance to connect, we got to do it in person. It's way more fun.” But I just can't wait to get in front of our crew.

Pedro Adao: I appreciate you doing this. It's an honor to be on your podcast and even more so knowing how crazy. I do big events too, and I know the insanity that this week is so even more special to get to sit down and be a part of this with you.

Justin Donald: Well, it's nuts. You've probably experienced this, where you're bringing in hundreds of people, and you've got teams that run it. So, I'm thankful. My team is incredible. But, I mean, early days, I remember like the very first one I ever did, it was kind of just me. And I can't even imagine it now. I mean, our staff does so much work. They're so like far ahead.

Pedro Adao: Our first conference, we did all of it with my core team, our skeleton, like one or two employees from my financial services company, because when 100X launched, I didn't have a team. So, I just took my assistant from our financial business to kind of help us. Her and my wife put an event for 300 people with two people. We’re nuts. And then, at our third event, my wife actually cooked for 700 people.

Justin Donald: Oh, my goodness. What a saint.

Pedro Adao: Crazy. I mean, she had her little team helping her. And I mean, we just…

Justin Donald: Still, 700 people.

Pedro Adao: We can't. We never did it again. But the point was like she just felt like led that year. She's like, "We want to model what the kingdom looks like and hospitality, and what does it look like to be family.” We talk about family a lot, and in terms of like there's a lot of talk about culture and community, and yet from a kingdom perspective, the highest level of that is family.

Justin Donald: Yeah.

Pedro Adao: And so, how do you model family? She's like, "Oh, I'm going to cook with people.” And I'm like, "Babe, it's like 700 people.” And, bro, like she was kind of right for two weeks. So, after that, we're like, "Okay, we really need some more help.” So, I understand that these events change lives. They're transformational. So, they're very much worth doing. But if you're going to keep doing them, having a team is essential, or else it just gets to be just completely overwhelming.

Justin Donald: That’s right. I got to keep focused on what my core talents and abilities are. And it is certainly not event planning. I can tell you that straight up. Well, I love that the pressures and the details and all the things, even if you have a team doing it, it's a lot.

Pedro Adao: It's still, it's your company, it's your name. You still feel the weight of it.

Justin Donald: That's right. A hundred percent.

Pedro Adao: So, thanks for squeezing this in, man. It's going to be great. I think we're going to have some really great things to cover today and bring to your audience. I'm excited about it.

Justin Donald: I think so, too. Well, I figure we start off first, just kind of talking about what I think you're world-class at, what really all the experts think you're world-class at. And then I'd love to get into your story. But you have built a reputation, some businesses around kind of like the challenge-based business, which is really cool. And I kind of want to talk about this from like a cash flow standpoint because we do a lot with cash flow in our mastermind. And I want to talk about the challenges around, I guess, how do you create high leverage, low risk on the marketing standpoint. So, thinking about what you do, many entrepreneurs overcomplicate marketing straight up, right? I mean, that's first and foremost. But how does the challenge model create predictable cash flow for these entrepreneurs, while keeping overhead and risk at a low place?

Pedro Adao: Yeah. Okay. So, my challenge system basically was a series of little innovations. I wasn't trying to create a new marketing system. Really, what I was just doing was I'm a first principles thinker, but I never really saw myself as a first principles thinker, but I just follow biblical principles, right? The ultimate first principle is God, like God's ideas and ways of thinking about how the world should work, and God has ideas and philosophies, and principles behind everything He did. So, at the time, webinars were really popular, but like, I just didn't want to do a webinar. So, I'm much more of a talker, external processor. Let me just talk and share and teach. And so, just through a series of tweak this, tweak this, tweak this, I pretty much created like the modern-day challenge was my invention, kind of my innovation. Not trying to make something new but just ended up creating something new.

Justin Donald: Yeah. But you're also making something that plays to your strengths. It plays to your comfort. Because for me, like even webinars, I was like, “I don't want to do webinars. I have no interest in doing that, and like scripting it and recording it. Is it live? Is it recorded? And just having the precision of that.” So, I love that you've been able to roll with challenges where it's a little more free-flowing.

Pedro Adao: It's a ton more free-flowing. There's still a structure to them. There are still things that make them work. But like you, I mean, I’m friends with Jason Fladlien and some of the best webinar… Got Russell Brunson. So, I'm friends and collabs and worked with some of the best webinar guys on the planet. It just didn't play to my strengths, right? So, what I built played really to my strengths, and then it ended up just taking off like wildfire. I ended up like showing it to Dean Graziosi, and all the experts pretty much came to me and like, “Hey, bro, what are you doing?” And that's how I was able to just show them. It was so powerful. Then they wanted me to teach it to their students, and that's kind of how I got launched in 2020.

So, what challenges really do, you talked about overcomplicating things. The challenge allows you to kind of, to me, a challenge is the simplest way to remove the complexity behind what marketing is. I call it taste and see marketing, like just come like taste and see like Costco samples. Like, let's come hang out for three days or five days. The classic is the five-day challenge model. “Hey, come spend five days with me. Let me help you get a result. Let me show you what I can do for you. Let me prove to you I'm actually a true expert at what I'm talking about, and it'll be worth your time. I'll promise to give you an outcome, and if you want more, then I'll show you where to go deeper with me.”

So, in my doing it all live on Zoom, like there's nothing in the middle, man. There's no prerecorded. There's no like fancy production. It's you and them face-to-face on Zoom, and there's nothing in the middle. It's you talking directly and serving people directly to me. It's the most purest form of showing up and serving people. And, bro, if you got the goods, then just show people, right? Like, don't tell me, show me. The challenge is the ultimate like ‘show me’ marketing system. You're not hiding behind prerecorded vision. You're not hiding behind makeup and camera angles and lighting, and production. It's just you right there. Either you got it or you don't. And that's why. And people can fall in love with you, and it's live.

And so, like sometimes the dog starts barking, or the doorbell rings. And it's like when almost things happen that like sometimes the internet goes out, and I've had times where the power went out, how to get my phone, and you're like, "Oh my God, these are terrible.” But then people love it because they're like, "This is really real. Like, this is real. This is really him. He's rolling with all this stuff.” And so, the challenge is the simplest, easiest way to show up and serve people at scale, service to many leads to greatness, and you build know, like, and trust. You build know, like, and trust crazy fast with a challenge. I've had people that didn't know me from Adam, saw an ad, came to a challenge, and right away were like, "This is my guy,” and off we go.

And so, that's really, now of course, so if you're filling your challenge up with organic social media, YouTube, those are free leads, right? Not free, but you're not paying if you have an email list. So, where the only risk that comes into running a challenge, the only risk is if you paid ads. And paid ads sometimes are tricky. Sometimes they're not as tricky. Like, it is pretty rough for a while, and now I heard that the algorithm is kind of a little bit friendlier. So, like that's where the risk comes in is just if you don't know what you're doing on paid ads and you're going to spend a bunch of money on ads, and if you don't have a really dialed challenge, if you don't have a really dialed offer like, yeah, be careful. I mean, you can lose money on ads in a heartbeat.

Justin Donald: For those people that have, I mean, so this is what I'm assuming you would say to do is for people that have some sort of a list, have some sort of a following, try some of these first before even running paid ads, right? Get it all dialed in. Figure it out. See if you even like doing it. See how it works for your business, and then it's kind of like fix the little things that aren't working or that could be improved here or there. And then once you get that dialed, then maybe start running some ads.

Pedro Adao: I would recommend, if you can, just a small ad budget and just do retargeting ads. Like retarget your list, retarget your social, because I mean, retargeting is usually really good ROI. They already know you. You're just like, “Hey, like I'm doing this challenge next week. You want to come?” So, if they're on their email list, I mean, email open rates are down. Email deliverability is a problem. So, sometimes it's easier to just pay Meta to show them something versus having them to actually open an email. But retargeting is cheap. But, yeah, I mean, we've done almost $60 million in revenue since 2020. And all of that came from either a live challenge, all of it came directly from a live challenge, or a live challenge that fed into a three-day event.

Justin Donald: It's incredible. 60 million.

Pedro Adao: I don't think I've ever made a dollar or anything prerecorded, which is kind of stupid, right? Because you would think by now it's been, and I've been doing this for like seven years.

Justin Donald: Well, it's incredible that you have that. But actually, then it does beg the question of, "Should I be putting out some produced content?”

Pedro Adao: Of course, I should. Of course I should, right? Of course I should. I'm behind…

Justin Donald: Have some sort of a video library.

Pedro Adao: Of course, right? And then VSLs and on evergreens, of course. And yet, like we're doing better than most.

Justin Donald: Yeah. You've done better.

Pedro Adao: This has changed the industry, like challenges were not even a thing until like this sounds a little bit like I'm having myself up. This is just the truth. I mean, the fact is like challenges were not even remotely this popular until in 2020. I really kind of paved the way.

Justin Donald: Was it COVID-based that really kind of kicked it off? Or did you have this idea already?

Pedro Adao: It wasn’t COVID. I was doing challenges in 2018.

Justin Donald: Okay. So, you've been doing them for a long time.

Pedro Adao: COVID just like, obviously…

Justin Donald: It just amplified it.

Pedro Adao: COVID just helped a lot of us because people were stuck at home, but, yeah, I didn't develop it because of COVID. I already had the system developed before COVID, which is so true of like…

Justin Donald: Added fuel to the flame.

Pedro Adao: You know how that is, bro, like preparation. I say that private preparation happens before public celebration.

Justin Donald: Yeah.

Pedro Adao: So, I was just like over here by myself doing my own. I was in my little faith-based niche doing some stuff, doing some cool things, innovating, and not even knowing how innovative my stuff was. It was working for me. I never thought in a million years, a guy like Dean Graziosi, some of the biggest OGs in internet marketing, Daymond John. He would be calling me like, “Hey, dude, show me what you're doing.” And I'm like, "That's weird.” And it was cool to help and give back to people. I've helped huge ministry leaders learn what I do. I've taken ministries that were struggling financially or making not as much impact, and now they run my challenge model in a nonprofit setting. They're selling more books, raising more money for missions, and helping people.

And so, the challenge model, it could be used for profit, nonprofit. It's really just a great way, it creates massive engagement. You're not just passive. There's so much passive listening. We're doing a YouTube thing now, right? People on YouTube mostly passively listening. They're not sitting down, taking notes. They should, but they're not, right? And so, the challenge is just like really kind of live, we're here. It's a little bit kind of it has a lot more of intentionality to it, and a lot of engagement too, a lot of engagement, a lot of interaction. And that's a challenge. There's an assignment, there's an outcome. I'll give you homework every day.

So, it's just really a cool kind of way to really focus some time together, promise folks an outcome, and like I said, show up and serve at scale. That's the key theme that when you show up and serve at scale, you add tons of value, you’re going to grow, you're going to get referrals, you're going to build a brand. People will want to stay with you and spend time with you.

Justin Donald: So, let's simplify this even more. So, I've got to imagine a ton of people listening to this or watching this right now have heard of challenges. Maybe some people have done challenges. I bet there are people that don't even know what a challenge is. So, let's just take we have a lot of entrepreneurs that tune in each week. And so, if we have someone with a lifestyle business, or maybe they're in scale mode, whatever it is, some entrepreneur wants to put a challenge into play in their business. What would that look like? Like, how could they go from zero to in 30 days rolling out a challenge?

Pedro Adao: I mean, you don't need 30 days.

Justin Donald: Okay. Even better.

Pedro Adao: Yeah. So, what I would say is what's crazy about challenges is like it's the smartest thing to do if you're like playing brand new. Want to make your first dollar online? You should run a challenge. If you're into like 1 to 3 million, challenges. If you're 3 million to 10 and beyond, challenges. Literally, it doesn't matter what size of the business you have, this framework works and makes sense at every size of the business. What is a challenge? The challenge is essentially, in our case, they're virtual, but obviously, in some cases, they're in person. Like, a lot of these fitness studios do like these six-week weight loss challenges, right? Hormozi got famous with this like 20-pound weight loss challenge, “Pay this, lose weight, and it’s free.” That's a challenge.

So, if you're like an offline, like physical type of world, I think, I mean, Domino's Pizza. Domino's Pizza was trash. It's better now, right? What happened with Domino's? They made an incredible offer. It's faster, it's free. 20 minutes or it's free. That's a challenge. We're challenging ourselves to have a hot pizza delivered to your door in 20 minutes, and if we don't make it, it's free. That's a challenge. So, I would challenge… No, I’m just kidding. I would encourage anyone to think like, “I'm a plumber, I'm a roofer, and this doesn’t apply to me.” There are ways to apply this concept because it's really about just setting kind of like a goal, setting an outcome, and then like seeing if you can hit it.

But essentially a challenge is, I think, it's their best live. I don't ever recommend prerecording these things or trying to evergreen it. If you want to evergreen something, evergreen a VSL. Evergreen a webinar. Don't waste this. Don't like diminish this. This is a powerful thing, you know? Like, do it live because I'm telling you the results are going to be like 3X, 5X, so much better. But it's a live, can be virtual or in person, but usually a virtual event that's over a series of days. It could be at least three days, could be five days. I'm doing my upcoming 31-Day Wisdom Challenge.

Justin Donald: Yeah. We got to get into that.

Pedro Adao: For January, where I'm going to be live for 31 days in a row.

Justin Donald: And this is your big challenge.

Pedro Adao: This is the biggest thing I do all year. We take the entire month of January, and again, we have a faith-based audience. And the hook is brilliant. It was a God idea. And I felt like God said, "Son, invite my people to read Proverbs with you.” And I took that just little instruction into what's become the 31-day challenge. We have served well over a quarter million people and over a hundred nations.

Justin Donald: Wow. It's incredible.

Pedro Adao: This has added thousands of members to what we do. I mean, tens of millions of dollars of revenue, and simply challenge people to say, “Hey, give God the first month of the year, just like honor God with an hour a day of the first month of your year. Honor God by seeking his wisdom. And if you give God the first of something, he blesses the rest of it.” And so, January 1st, every single day we read a chapter of Proverbs a day and I bring on an awesome, like faith-based, like leader, could be from the marketplace. You're going to come on during this year.

Justin Donald: Yeah. I can't wait.

Pedro Adao: I have people that are just people who are succeeding at a high level in different realms of society and culture. So, you're coming from more business investing, entrepreneurship. I've got people coming that are ministry leaders. I've had John Maxwell on before. I've had people like Jon Gordon and Joel Osteen. I've had people like Christine Caine and Dr. Caroline Leaf. So, I have like ministry leaders, governmental leaders, business leaders, political people, Hollywood actors and actresses. So, I want people to see that the wisdom of God is like the biblical principles. The wisdom of God is not just like spirituality. Spirituality should be practical. And if you actually build your life on these principles, your life can go places you never even imagined. That's been my testimony. And so, that's a 31-day challenge, which I don't recommend that off the bat, I'd say.

Justin Donald: You said five days to begin.

Pedro Adao: A three-to-five-day challenge is what most people do.

Justin Donald: And 31. So, you're talking about January 1st through January 31st every single day. At what time?

Pedro Adao: 8:00 AM to 9:00 AM Pacific. Me welcoming you reading a chapter of Proverbs. We'll break it down, and I'll be joined by an incredible guest. I've got Erwin McManus coming for the first time this year. I've been joined by people like Bill Johnson, the Beveres, John Bevere have been on before.

Justin Donald: Oh, yeah. I love them.

Pedro Adao: I mean, literally like this is like nothing but legends.

Justin Donald: Yep. I've had Erwin on the podcast.

Pedro Adao: Yeah. So, I'm just like, I mean, and they’re like, "Well, Pedro, how'd you meet all these people?” “Well, I've served a lot of them behind the scenes. I've helped a lot of people make millions of dollars or reach millions of people through my model.” And then people know people. And so, like I'm honored that I can give back to some of these great people I believe in.

Justin Donald: Yeah. Well, and a lot of these people are at a point where they're even giving back to you. It's like you've helped me, you've helped me grow and scale. Of course, I'm going to pour to you and your ecosystem of amazing humans.

Pedro Adao: Eric Thomas is, I think he's coming back this year too. We've had Lisa Nichols. And what a lot of people don't know is a lot of times you guys don't know, you see these people and because they don't talk about their faith all the time, because you're a Christian doesn't mean you should always be talking about Jesus all the time, right? No. Like, sometimes it's not, and oftentimes it's always much better just live a principled life, live out your values. And so, like you don't have to have a lot of… A lot of my guests don't have a Christian faith-forward brand or business.

Justin Donald: But they are.

Pedro Adao: But privately, that's who they are, and that's why they're successful. And so, they come on my challenge with this 31-day challenge, and they can now share, and you're like, "Oh my God, I had no idea that person had that backstory.” And so, a lot of people love coming on. I think you're going to really enjoy that.

Justin Donald: I can't wait.

Pedro Adao: Because you'll share more of that part of your life than maybe you do on your own stuff, because people don't really come to you for that, right? They're coming to you for, I mean, investing advice and guidance. And yet, like this is a part of who you are. And I think you're going to love kind of getting a chance to share more of that.

Justin Donald: I can't wait. And I've got to imagine you kind of help crack people open, asking different questions or setting it up in a certain way, where it gives them the ability to really get vulnerable and real.

Pedro Adao: Yeah, I definitely kind of ask some questions, but honestly, dude, I think people come on, and they just feel the Holy Spirit, man. This is a God idea. This wasn't my idea. It's by far the best hook I have. It's the best thing. From a revenue impact, from all the KPIs, this thing is the biggest and best thing we do all year. And it was a good idea. And so, like when you're actually doing business with God, and you and God are like working together in a partnership, it's kind of funny because like we have a little bit of pride, a little bit of ego, and I think I'm a good marketer. And it's like all my best ideas were not mine. So, here I am, like this expert marketer, and yet all my best ideas came as like just a download.

Like, I just had an impression. And I didn't hear God audibly. I just had this impression, this name, a challenge name, an idea that wasn't there before. And I wasn't trying to think about it. It's like, boop, it just came like as a download. I choose to give that credit to God because I'm like, that wasn't me thinking now like, "Oh no, Pedro, that's your subconscious.” Fine, whatever. Anyhow, so I think you're going to love it, man. And, yeah, I'm not trying to get people to cry. I'm not trying to like, "Oh, let me…” I just ask questions, but really, dude, this is our seventh year doing this. I've seen it, and we felt, I mean, you'll feel God's presence when you join this challenge. Like, even if you're not like super spiritual, you should come anyways. I mean, the Proverbs is a book from the Old Testament. Like King Solomon was the wealthiest, wisest, and the richest man that ever lived.

Justin Donald: Yep. I think that's important for people to know that have never read it or don't know much about it. Like, it is a book full of wisdom. It is chock-full of wisdom.

Pedro Adao: Written by… This is like imagine if Elon Musk just wrote like 31 chapters of all of his wisdom. He might be the first trillionaire. Probably will be, right?

Justin Donald: Oh yeah. Most likely.

Pedro Adao: Most likely. But like Elon's just rich. Solomon like was the king, right? He governed a nation.

Justin Donald: And technically, nations by proxy, too.

Pedro Adao: Exactly like his influence was insane.

Justin Donald: People would travel to him, other kings to seek his advisory.

Pedro Adao: And pay crazy money. I mean, that's a whole different concept, but like, why would you bring money to the richest guy in the world? Like, there's a whole principle I have there. That's a deeper convo. I'm happy to go there if you want. But the point is like if someone at that level wrote stuff down and God chose to have it be part of the Bible, why are we not reading it? It's like, "Oh, that's outdated.” No, it's not. This is ancient wisdom. This is your first principles. And so, I'm telling you like that gold that is in here, and wisdom is not just knowledge. Wisdom is actually spiritual. Like, there's a spirit of wisdom. And so, as we go through this, we're going to read words on a page. And you're like, "Oh, I'm just getting knowledge. I'm learning principles.”

Well, you can if you only want that. But if you actually say you actually come to this and you're like, “God, I'm willing to receive all you have from me,” and you actually receive wisdom as a spirit, then you can actually, like, you can actually receive spiritually.

Justin Donald: It's one of the spiritual gifts.

Pedro Adao: It's a spiritual gift, spirit of wisdom. And maybe you're watching this, and maybe you're not a believer, maybe you're not a Christian. Like, I would tell you, you are welcome to join us. Like, this is not just for Christians. Like, I do this for, as best I can tell, like, we're all God's kids. He created every single one of us. Whether you acknowledge God or not, that doesn't change how you got here. I know you may think you were an accident. I don't think you're an accident. I don't believe we just got some slime came out of the ocean and just miraculously just all of this showed up. I think it takes more faith to be an atheist than to actually be a Christian.

Justin Donald: I agree with that.

Pedro Adao: Like, it takes more faith to believe that out of slime or whatever they say these days, that all of this, I mean, if you study the human body, if you study like any part of our body, our eye, if you study the brain, like you just think all of this just came from chaos. Like, come on, dude. I don't have that much faith. So, anyhow, but if you are an atheist, God bless you. I love you. You're welcome. If you're Jewish, you're welcome. If you're Muslim, you're welcome. If you're agnostic, you're welcome. Come. This transcends religion denominations. Come, you're welcome here. Please feel welcome to join us, because you'll encounter the spirit of wisdom, and again, just I'd say put it to the test. Come taste and see. Come check it out. It's free. It's 31DayWisdomChallenge.com. It's absolutely free.

Justin Donald: And I'm just excited not to come and speak, like I'm excited to participate in all 31 days. Like, it's exciting for me to have learned about this, and it's on my calendar. Like, I can't wait.

Pedro Adao: I can't wait for you to do it too, because obviously, dude, like what you've accomplished at like, we obviously got connected recently, and I'd heard about you, I've heard about your name come up a few times. Man, as you were talking and like, man, like what you've done and what you've accomplished at your age is not accident. There are tons of wisdom. There are principles there. You don't just show up at your age in life doing what you have done. It's super unusual. And so, for someone like you who's already, I know you're already walking in high levels of wisdom, at least specifically like in the areas of wealth investing. Like, I'm excited to have you go through this and then just see like all the level-ups that kind of come from there because the wise people that are already wise, you know what they seek?

Justin Donald: More wisdom.

Pedro Adao: That's it.

Justin Donald: For sure. I mean, that is one constant prayer that I have.

Pedro Adao: But think about that. People that are already wise, already rich, already deca-decamillionaires, and what are…? Like, “Lord, please give me more wisdom.” And yet there are people that are broke, struggling, like making really terrible decisions. The people that need wisdom the most are often the ones that aren't even asking for it.

Justin Donald: Right. I agree with that completely.

Pedro Adao: And the people that are like rolling in wisdom and like life is amazing, they're living in the promise and the blessing of wisdom, their prayer like, “God, give me more wisdom. Give me more wisdom. Not more stuff, more wisdom.” And this is why God honored Solomon's prayer as a teenager. As a teenager, God comes to Solomon at night in a dream. And it's like, "What do you want?” It's like genie and a lamp. Now, he didn't rub a lamp. This is not biblical. He didn't rub the lamp. God's not a genie. But it's as if like God is talking to Solomon. He is like, "Ask me anything you want.” And Solomon asked for, he says, "Give me wisdom,” because he was a king at like a teenager.

Justin Donald: So crazy.

Pedro Adao: He's like, "Give me wisdom. Why? So that I may serve and rule over the people well.” He asked for wisdom, not for himself. He asked for wisdom because he was a young boy, and now he's the king. He's the ruler of Israel. And he is like, "Please give me wisdom. So, I could be a great king, not to feed my pride or my ego, but so I can serve your people well.” And God said, "Because you ask for wisdom and because you ask for wisdom for the best possible motive and reasons to take care and serve my people,” the thing that God loves most is people. Anytime God can trust you to be a blessing to his people, God can promote you. And so, God said, "Because you asked for wisdom, I'll give you wealth. I'll give you long life. I'll give you all this other stuff.”

Justin Donald: Yeah. It's a beautiful story, and I like that you're directing people to it the first month out of the year. Now, how on earth did you get to become the challenge expert, the challenge master? Because early in your career, this was not the case. And in fact, early in your career, you had a pretty rough outcome with some investments. And I feel like there's a lot of wisdom that you gleaned in that situation. I'd love to talk about kind of what got you to this challenge. So, like, what's the story between you as a young adult and you now as the foremost expert in this space?

Pedro Adao: Yeah. So, the Challenge Guy happened because, like I said, I kind of start to kind of work a little backwards, like that happened because God tricked me. I was a financial planner living in obscurity in Vacaville, California. I had an office. I was running retirement seminars. I had written a book called Retired and Free, and I'm just doing retirement education events in my local city. I was doing great. I mean, we had built a seven-figure business, but I'm just a guy in a small town in Northern California who's running a seven figure, which is nice, but not changing the world, right? And so, I learned online marketing, and I became a kingdom entrepreneur with that business. And then I really felt like God tricked me into launching 100X, our kingdom entrepreneurship movement.

I had a friend of mine kind of challenged me to like, “Hey, you should talk about this stuff, and you should do a class.” And then I came on a podcast a long time ago, someone else's podcast. I think I interviewed about my faith in business and kingdom entrepreneurship. And I had never spoken about it before. And so, he is asking me questions, and I'm just like dropping all this gold. The guy was speechless. He's like, "Dude, this is incredible. Like, who told you this?” I'm like, "Dude, this is what I've learned. This is what God showed me.” And so, he is like, you know, on these podcasts they go, “Hey, where do people go to find out more about you?” I'm like, “Nowhere. I have nowhere. I'm not an internet guy. I don't have anything. I'm a financial planner.”

So, that's kind of how 100X launched. And then the challenge model I just developed is to grow that business. I mean, you know this. Sometimes a business will give birth to other businesses. So, 100X, so my financial planning business, I had to learn digital marketing. That digital, and I became a kingdom entrepreneur. So, I became a kingdom entrepreneur. I rebuilt my entire business on biblical principles, put them into practice, exploded my business, had my first seven-figure year. I also learned digital marketing. So, then God had me launch a business called 100X, which is what? Kingdom entrepreneurship and digital marketing. I grew that business with free masterclasses, which became my challenge model, and all of a sudden then that gave birth to a whole new business, my challenge marketing business.

And that's the one that went boom, because now I can teach challenges to anybody. I'm not in a little teeny tiny faith-based niche. And the biggest names in online marketing promoted me to their lists, like Dean Graziosi, right here in Austin, Ryan Deiss, Roland Frasier, DigitalMarketer, Jeff Walker, Eben Pagan, Anik Singal, Jason Fladlien, Joe Polish. Talking about, like…

Justin Donald: For those of you that are not familiar, these are household names in digital marketing.

Pedro Adao: These are legends of online marketing, and they're all emailing their lists saying, "This is the new guy. This is the guy that's got the new thing. This is the newest thing. It's the hottest thing.” Dude, so I got an email, like you mentioned Daymond John. So, I get an email from this guy, and he's like, “Hey, I work with Daymond John. We've been thinking about doing a challenge for a little bit. Clearly, you're the expert. Can we talk about hiring you?” I almost didn't reply. I thought it was complete spam.

Justin Donald: Oh, my goodness, sakes.

Pedro Adao: So, I'm like, well, I'm like, just in case this is real. So, I reply back. The guy calls me. And I'm like, "Dude, how did you even hear about me?” And he's like, "Oh, I got an email from Ryan, Ryan Deiss. I'm on DigitalMarketer's email list.” They're like, "If Ryan says you're the expert, then you're the guy to talk to.”

Justin Donald: And I love Ryan. Yeah, because people take everything he says. I mean, the guy has built such a great reputation.

Pedro Adao: He's right here in Austin, too. You know what’s crazy about Ryan? He doesn't even know this. So, even the whole Challenge Guy thing.

Justin Donald: Yeah.

Pedro Adao: Okay. This is a crazy story. I never met Ryan. So, we were in Vegas at the…

Justin Donald: We should get together with him.

Pedro Adao: No, I met Ryan now.

Justin Donald: Oh, okay. So, back then. Alright. I'm like, we'll go hang out.

Pedro Adao: I'm still going to hang out right now. But like back then, I didn't know who he was. I'm telling you, like no one knew who I was, bro. I was in a teeny, first of all, I had no online presence when I was a financial planner. Then I had my little 100X kingdom entrepreneurship, my little faith-based business doing about maybe a million bucks or less. I was not like a household name in the online space. But a friend, a mutual friend, booked this for breakfast to kind of connect. So, then I'm at this breakfast at the Wynn, and he's like, "Oh, and tell me about it.” So, I'm like, "Oh, he is Pedro and blah blah.” You know, like people ask you what you do, and you kind of just sometimes just say all the stupidest, wrongest thing, and you're blabbing on, and you're going on and on.

Justin Donald: The opposite of an elevator pitch.

Pedro Adao: The opposite of what you're supposed to do. And I was doing that. I'm like, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. And I'm probably a minute in, and Ryan goes, "Oh, you're the challenge guy.”

Justin Donald: He summed it up just like that.

Pedro Adao: And then I was like, stupid, yes, like…

Justin Donald: That’s it.

Pedro Adao: I’m like, I’ve been taught by my blah, blah, blah, blah, blah for a minute. I created, said like, I’m the challenge guy. I invented the modern-day challenge. So, Ryan doesn’t even know this, but Ryan…

Justin Donald: He created that title or that…

Pedro Adao: This is, I don’t know, how deep you want to get on this, but like kings can anoint other kings and appoint other kings. So, without knowing, I’m not even sure what Ryan’s faith background is. I don’t think he’s a Christian. Maybe he is. I don’t even know. It doesn’t matter. He doesn’t even know this, but Ryan as our marketer, is a king, high level of influence in the online marketing space without even knowing it, but spiritually, what happened, it was like he was making me a king, says you’re the challenge guy. And I took it, I received it. That became Pedro “The Challenge Guy” Adao. Even though today, right now, that’s not like really how I’m trying to be known, right, because God has shifted my assignment. However, I was like, okay, that’s so like being able to just let people know who you are that quickly and I ran with it. It took me far. I got to help a lot of people. I played a pretty big role in Russell Brunson’s kind of ClickFunnels community for a while, but…

Justin Donald: The Inner Circle.

Pedro Adao: To your point– well, just even that whole community, right? But to your point is I had a massive crash and burn 14 years ago. And I’ve been in the real estate industry. When I say background, I was a real estate broker, I was a real estate appraiser, commercial appraiser, residential appraiser. I flipped over 150 houses with my wife. We were buying trustee sale auction properties. And so…

Justin Donald: Back during that heyday, 2008 to 2012.

Pedro Adao: Yeah, it was crazy. It was crazy. We were buying, but then…

Justin Donald: We buy them at the…

Pedro Adao: At the steps.

Justin Donald: Yes.

Pedro Adao: At the steps. It’s crazy. That’s like the wild, wild west, man, right there, but…

Justin Donald: By the way, for those of you that haven’t been following, this is when all the institutional minds started scooping up the single-family homes.

Pedro Adao: We were there first before.

Justin Donald: Yeah, the small guys were there.

Pedro Adao: 2008, housing collapses.

Justin Donald: Paving the way, right? Because back then, just for record so everyone knows, SFR didn’t exist. There was no asset class. So, it’s single-family rentals.

Pedro Adao: SFR as an investment grade, it did not exist, right, because you can’t scale. Wall Street didn’t care about houses, right? And then, global financial crisis, housing meltdown, and now banks are auctioning off properties, after closure auctions, and…

Justin Donald: Pennies on the dollar, because they can’t own them.

Pedro Adao: Yeah, the banks can’t own them. They probably should have.

Justin Donald: They should have, but they didn’t have the operational ability to hold and manage.

Pedro Adao: They should have just figured it out because all those houses in the Bay Area around there, but then they all were back within like a few years. And that’s why Wall Street– and so, like, anyhow, but like, so we’re there buying houses for 75k. In the good to early days, it’s like 75 grand, you put in 10 grand into it, and we’re selling for like 140, 150. And the margins just kept getting squeezed as more people came up, and then Wall Street showed up. And that’s when we were all cooked.

Justin Donald: Yep. By the way, these guys would show up, the Wall Street, like Blackstone for example, invitation homes, their single-family home rental arm would show up with backpacks just full of cashier’s checks. And literally, backpacks full, but then they just would write them, boom right there, buy as many homes as they can. Literally buying hundreds or thousands of homes in a single auction. Just crazy.

Pedro Adao: All across in different counties. Yeah, strategic counties.

Justin Donald: They’ve had people in all these different cities at the same time.

Pedro Adao: Strategic counties all across America. They ruined it for the rest of us because now they’re paying what we thought was stupid money. They were willing to pay fair market value. So, I mean…

Justin Donald: They were bidding at us.

Pedro Adao: But truth be told, like, they…

Justin Donald: They’re outbidding us.

Pedro Adao: But they played the better game. We were all a bunch of small fish.

Justin Donald: They played the volume game.

Pedro Adao: And they were like, we can go raise capital. We probably got money from the banks at, like, we’re 0%. I can’t raise money at 0%. I was paying mine. It was like 18. They go raise at zero. They do not raise, they go to the bank, here’s gazillions of dollars at 0% or 0.1. They can afford to pay full market value. They’re buying homes on the MLS. They’re buying homes out in the MLS.

Justin Donald: It is so crazy.

Pedro Adao: I mean, we can never do that and make money, right?

Justin Donald: Right. No way.

Pedro Adao: I think, I maybe bought one off the MLS and still flipped the main money and the rest were all, I’m paying cash at the auction, right? And then these guys are coming, they’re paying full price. So, we’re basically like, we’re cooked, and then I got back to my financial roots. But my point, and that’s actually how I got into the other thing that I did where I ended up losing all of my money was because I got squeezed out of this, and now I’m like, oh, my God, what’s the next thing? I have this capital I’ve raised, my margin being squeezed, and then I went and did something I had no business doing. I went and bought not performing notes. I went and thought like, here I am, a local market expert, a hard asset guy, I got crews, construction crews. I know how to flip houses.

Justin Donald: Yeah, you’re an industry expert on that niche.

Pedro Adao: I’m dialed, bro. I’m dialed, I’m dialed.

Justin Donald: You know it, yeah.

Pedro Adao: No one can compete with me or very few. And Wall Street was able to compete because they weren’t flippers. If they tried to flip, they would’ve got crushed. But they’re buy/hold. They’re buy/hold, right? And so, what happens is now, I got like, my margins are getting squeezed. I’ve got my capital. I got some friends and family capital. And now, I got to find another model. And sure as– I have this thing I say, that’s like when God wants to bless you, he’ll send a person into your life, like a new person. Like God wants to promote you, bless you, like take you someplace higher, you’ll have a new person come into your life. But when the devil wants to destroy you, he also does send a person. And the wisdom is knowing who sent this new person into my life. And so, sure enough, I meet some guys that I knew from the past, like, hey, we’re doing this thing. It’s in Dallas, and these guys have a hookup with GMAC and let’s go buy notes. Money’s crazy. We’re like 11 cents on the dollar. And I’m like, okay, that sounds great. I’m like, I’m going to be rich, right? It’s like, if I could buy $100,000 mortgage for $11,000, I’m like, how can this go wrong? Oh, well, let me tell you.

Justin Donald: There’s a lot of ways.

Pedro Adao: Now, I got, like, now I went from being a hard asset guy, flipping homes in my backyard. Now, I’m a loan servicer. I own paper. I own the debt. I own a mortgage. Never zero background in debt, debt servicing being a national portfolio. I got stuff. I own stuff in places I’ve never even heard of, like states I barely even– I’m like, that’s a state. What? And then it got hammered, it got destroyed. Took me out. Lost everything. Lost my money. Lost some money from friends and family. I was broke, busted. I never fell before. I found myself deeply depressed, wanting to die, begging God to like, please don’t let me wake up. I had life insurance. I was like, the life insurance will pay off, pay ourselves back, pay off our friends and family. My wife can keep the houses and she’ll remarry and find someone to help to raise our kids. Like, I really thought, Justin, I honestly believed…

Justin Donald: That’s the bottom of the barrel.

Pedro Adao: I honestly believed I was done. At 35, I’m done. I’m never recovered from this. I have nothing left to offer this world. And I was convinced that that’s the point. I’m literally, for like 18 months, I’m like, God, please don’t let me wake up. And what’s crazy is like, look at the impact, the things that God’s done through my life since, like the life I experience now is I’ve never, I would’ve, if you said…

Justin Donald: You couldn’t even dream it.

Pedro Adao: If you said, Pedro, dream your wildest dream, it wouldn’t have been being friends with Joel Osteen and working with the biggest legends in our space. It wouldn’t be living in the house I live in now. I wouldn’t have dreamt even half that big. So, my current reality is better than I ever would’ve dreamed. And I literally thought I was done. And I’m begging God to take me out. So, when I tell people all the time that like, you have no idea what you’re capable of, I’m not trying to be some inspirational guru. I’m not trying to be Tony Robbins. I’m just telling you facts, bro. You have no idea what you’re capable of because I know I didn’t, I was trying to throw myself in the trash. And they’re like, we’ve changed so many people’s lives. Like, what God has done through our life, my wife and I and our business, what we do, it’s insane. And we’re just getting started in so many ways. I just turned 51, like I’m ready to go. I’m excited. I had a couple years, I was a little bit burnt out. Now I just feel refreshed. I’m ready to go again and…

Justin Donald: On mission, man, you are. It’s so cool.

Pedro Adao: But dude, I’m just telling you, man, so maybe you’re watching this and you’re kind of like, maybe you’re in a down place. Maybe you made some mistakes. I mean, you’re investing, I mean, we talked. You just had a little bit of a deal goes sideways on you.

Justin Donald: You cannot be an investor and not have deals go bad. You just can’t. And I love that people can hear your story because I think when you lose money and when something goes really bad or reputationally, you take a big hit, it is devastating, especially the first time you experience it. It’s like…

Pedro Adao: It’s death, it feels like death.

Justin Donald: Yeah. It is a horrible feeling. It’s like you made the worst decision of your life. And look what you’re…

Pedro Adao: How could I have done this?

Justin Donald: Yes. And you beat yourself up. I mean, first, you blame other people and then you kind of beat yourself up.

Pedro Adao: Yeah, first, you blame them. Then eventually, you kind of realize that’s stupid. Then you forgive them. But you know why I stayed on the couch, I stayed depressed for probably an extra two years?

Justin Donald: Because you didn’t forgive yourself.

Pedro Adao: Couldn’t forgive myself because I did this. I should have known better. I made a mistake and I didn’t think God was willing to forgive me for things that were my fault, which is so stupid. Like, that’s not even what the Bible says, right? And I didn’t deserve another chance. This is my fault. And dude, that’s not what the book says. That’s not how this works. So, finally, I was able to like– I’m like, okay, I have to move on. I have a wife, I have kids. I’ve been asking God to kill me for 18 months. He hasn’t done it yet. I’m not going to kill myself. I was just too scared, but I was in pain. Like, I was just too scared, bro. Like, I’m chicken. I’ve never been in a fight in my life. I’m not a violent guy. I’m scared of heights.

Justin Donald: Thank God for that.

Pedro Adao: Like, I was just too scared. I’m like, I’m too scared to do this. I don’t know what’s going to happen. I believe in God, but I don’t know if I kill myself, what’s going to happen? I was just too scared. And I was like, well, I’m not going to kill myself. I’m too chicken. God’s not going to kill me. Dude, I got to live. I got to start over. And so, it took me so long to forgive myself. And the whole time, I think God’s waiting for me. It’s like, okay, son, you made a mistake. Who cares? Let’s go. It’s just money.

Justin Donald: Move on. Yeah, by the way, that’s it. It’s just money.

Pedro Adao: It’s just money.

Justin Donald: Too many people have too much of their identity wrapped up in it. So, it becomes such an idol, such a thing that’s coveted or ego’s tied up in it that it is more painful than what it actually should be. It could just be a learning lesson, but when ego’s wrapped in it…

Pedro Adao: It’s more than ego. Here’s what God told me. Here’s what I realized. I’ve learned this since. I honestly believe that money, and I can back this up with scripture and few parables, but I believe that God’s desire for us is to first learn and mature and develop ourselves, develop our character by practicing with money, because the deal, as you know, think about all the deals you’ve done, the people you’ve worked with, and how they’ve all refined you, how you’ve, oh, I’ve made a mistake there. Why? Ah, I was too trusting. Why? Oh, because I was desperate and I wanted the deal too bad. And I had FOMO and I got insecure and I bought that building because that guy had a building and I was trying to compete with him. And then I got hammered. And so, like, all of a sudden, I believe the trading of money, business, entrepreneurship, real estate, it could be a career, but I believe that working with money is a perfect mirror. And if you allow God to reveal to you all of the junk in your heart, all of your insecurities, all of your fears, all of these impurities that are in you, money will reveal those to you.

Justin Donald: Yeah. It’s a great magnifier.

Pedro Adao: And then what happens is, so that means you might lose money, you might screw somebody over and you might get screwed over and you’re like, oh, my God, look at what’s happening. Look. And then you got to learn and then be like, why did I do that? Why did I let that be done to me? And then finally, God’s like, okay, great. You are practicing with money. And now, you have wisdom. You’ve proven yourself wise with money. And now, I can trust you with true riches, which is his people and his power. I thought my life was over because I lost money. God’s like, dude, I don’t care about money. I can replace money. I can’t replace you, Pedro.

Justin Donald: Yeah. Oh, that’s beautiful.

Pedro Adao: So, he’s like, yeah, I don’t– like we shouldn’t be reckless with money. We shouldn’t be reckless and be, oh, it’s just money. No, no, no, hold on a second, it’s not just money. Somebody worked for that. I work. We need to respect capital.

Justin Donald: But big mistakes are going to happen.

Pedro Adao: But mistakes are going to happen. And even when you’re will– dude, I mean…

Justin Donald: Some of the best lessons you’re ever going to learn are going to come from those mistakes. That one stuff’s going great.

Pedro Adao: Have you ever lost money in a deal?

Justin Donald: I certainly have.

Pedro Adao: Did you do it on purpose?

Justin Donald: No.

Pedro Adao: Do you go into the deal, I can’t wait to lose money in this deal?

Justin Donald: No. In fact, it’s funny because…

Pedro Adao: No one does that. No one goes here, oh, my God, like, I’m so excited because…

Justin Donald: To lose money.

Pedro Adao: Who puts money into a deal? No, they’re going to lose money. Nobody in the history of history has ever done this, and yet we’ve all lost money.

Justin Donald: Yeah. Well, and it’s even worse. Like, I have read all of Warren Buffett’s stuff or most of Warren Buffett’s stuff, and it’s like one of his biggest lessons is don’t risk what you need for what you want, yet I have done that before and I’ve lost it. But I don’t do it anymore.

Pedro Adao: I teach that because we still have a financial planning company and we still help a lot of people planning for retirement. And I’ll tell you right now and when this video, if this airs in, hopefully, the next week or two.

Justin Donald: Yeah, it will.

Pedro Adao: As this video is airing, what’s happening in our economy? We’re at all-time stock market highs. Main Street is suffering. I think we’re already in a recession. I think that we’re already in a recession. We’re at all-time highs in the S&P because five companies are crushing it. The rest are basically flat or down. And you got people that have all of their life savings, their whole 401(k), all IRA, their entire life savings is in the market at these all-time record highs and they’re maybe in their 60s, they’re going to retire soon, maybe retire– you think their advisor’s calling them? You think anybody’s calling them and say, hey, market’s frothy? We got to be careful. Maybe you should pull– no. How is that coming?

Justin Donald: On top of that, most of these people who are retiring don’t even know that the wealthiest people in the world only have about 20% to 25% of their net worth in the stock market in the first place. But most of these people have all of their net worth or most of their net worth in it.

Pedro Adao: If they have more, it’s because they can afford to lose it all. Or they have people that are actively managing it, right, where they’re actively managing it. The biggest lie of my industry is, a little off topic, but not really. I mean, it’s like the biggest lie of our industry of wealth management and services is when a typical person hires a financial advisor, what they think that person does is not what that person does.

Justin Donald: Yeah. I agree with that.

Pedro Adao: They think that person has 15 screens.

Justin Donald: They’re trading all day.

Pedro Adao: Looking at the markets. What’s gold doing? What’s the yen doing?

Justin Donald: They built their algorithms.

Pedro Adao: Trading. Dude, they don’t even know how to do any of that.

Justin Donald: No.

Pedro Adao: They’re salespeople.

Justin Donald: Yeah. By the way, if they knew how to do that, they’d be working for Citadel and all these other companies, right?

Pedro Adao: Yeah. And train their own accounts. These are glorified salespeople who passed a pretty hard test, but they’re salespeople. They’re there to sell you. They’re there to hopefully serve you. And how they serve you is by trying to keep you calm when the money’s going up and down.

Justin Donald: Yeah, really about 1% are fiduciary.

Pedro Adao: They’re there to babysit you. Dude, fiduciary is a joke.

Justin Donald: Yeah, agreed.

Pedro Adao: Listen, bro, the stuff I have seen, the work I’ve seen come through my office of people who are under the care of a fiduciary proves to me, I know from experience, that means nothing. That means nothing.

Justin Donald: Well, it’s just crazy to me that 98%...

Pedro Adao: All these people have fiduciaries and they’re…

Justin Donald: Don’t have to do something for their clients.

Pedro Adao: Yeah, exactly. But all of these people that come through our office, well, meaning they have advisors. Any 20, any stocks, 20%, months, and we’re at all-time record highs, these people are drawing income from their or about to retire, I’m like, okay.

Justin Donald: One crash, and you cannot get that back if you’re at retirement age.

Pedro Adao: Bro, mine’s taking six years to recover.

Justin Donald: Yep. I mean, and that might be generous. It might be a lot longer than that.

Pedro Adao: Could be a lot longer, right? So, I’m just saying like, I think that fiduciary thing is, I just wanted to kind of…

Justin Donald: No, that’s good.

Pedro Adao: Because I think…

Justin Donald: So, it might be closer to like…

Pedro Adao: Because you’re mostly like a real estate guy. You do very little with traditional financial stuff, which is smart, right? And that’s why you’ve– there’s no way you’d be where you are and just indexing in the S&P, right? I don’t think you’re even really aware of how bad it is for conventional people.

Justin Donald: Oh, sure, I don’t. I’m sure, you’re inside and out…

Pedro Adao: They’re getting conventional advice. They’re getting conventional advice. It’s 60/40. It’s all the basic typical stuff. And really, the job of Wall Street is to keep you fully invested. When is your invest…

Justin Donald: Have you putting more money in.

Pedro Adao: That’s it.

Justin Donald: By the way, even the CIO, so I had a chance to see the CIO of BlackRock and he spoke and he even said the 60/40 split is dead. And with his own money, he doesn’t do that. He is much more allocated, like family offices with about 50% to 60% in alternative investments. This is the CIO of the largest wealth manager in the world, $13 trillion.

Pedro Adao: He said that where? In some private…

Justin Donald: He said in a private event.

Pedro Adao: Private event. They’ll never say it publicly.

Justin Donald: That’s right.

Pedro Adao: Right, exactly. So, the part is like the masses who are following all the classic traditional advice, dollar cost average, buy the index funds, all that stuff, don’t realize that that’s not ever going to work unless you started when you were 25 years old, or maybe 30.

Justin Donald: And it has to be the right wave even during that time.

Pedro Adao: And it’s not 10%, you’re not going to– unless you were putting away 20% to 25% for 25 years, then you probably have enough. And so, really, to me, I see is people think that their person is watching the markets and it’s going to give them a call before the crash.

Justin Donald: Well, not true.

Pedro Adao: Is that what happened in 2008?

Justin Donald: Nope. None of them. No one knows.

Pedro Adao: So, my big message in how we serve clients with our financial practices, dude, you got to take back control. It’s your life. It’s your money.

Justin Donald: Yeah. And just look at the P/E ratios right now.

Pedro Adao: We’ll be a guide. We’ll help you as a guide. But we’re not here to tell you what to do. Unless if you ask our input, we’ll give you input. But I’d much rather educate our clients about here’s what’s happening, here’s what this works, here’s your options.

Justin Donald: And P/E ratios are at near all-time highs. What is it? It’s like, someone should be educating that. I love that you’re doing that.

Pedro Adao: It’s so crazy. I mean, we’re doing it for our clients and we’re doing the best we can to get the word out. And again, I’m not saying sell all, go to cash. I’m just saying, dude, what is your plan? What is your plan? At what point do you make a shift? If you’re down 10%, is it 20? Like, people don’t even have an idea of what to do.

Justin Donald: They don’t have the plan. And they’re…

Pedro Adao: So, then it starts falling, now, like, oh, I’m just going to wait for it to go back up. And then now they’re buried in a 40% loss.

Justin Donald: And it’s also the difference of like, am I trying to maximize all my dollars? Which a lot of people, it’s like the vast majority, they’re trying to maximize versus like, when is it time to take chips off the table that you just can’t lose, that you can live on, that should everything go wrong? It’s like that needs to be part of the plan. So, I know we probably need to…

Pedro Adao: No, I think we’re okay.

Justin Donald: We need to wrap up soon. I know you– this has been awesome though.

Pedro Adao: And the other thing too for a lot of people is they think their safe money is safer than it is.

Justin Donald: Yeah. Oh, that’s the truth. That is so the truth.

Pedro Adao: Things are a lot more correlated than people realize because back in the day, remember back in the day?

Justin Donald: And people think bonds are fail proof, and we’ve learned that they’re not.

Pedro Adao: Okay. Back in the day, when we were all told, oh, when stocks go down, bonds go up.

Justin Donald: Bonds go up, except now, they go the same direction.

Pedro Adao: You said it, man.

Justin Donald: And we had the worst, if you look at the performance on a 60/40 allocation stocks to bonds, in the last couple of years, we’ve had two of the worst performing years, two of the top three, I believe, worst performing years. One of them being the single worst year in the last 100 years, century, on a 60/40. What is touted as the safest portfolio allocation having the worst performance in a century’s history.

Pedro Adao: So, Pedro, what are you saying? I’m saying is the era of blind faith and trust is over. I don’t care what’s on the building. Like, by Pedro, I’m a client of Blanky Blank. Bro, B of A had to get bailed out. Goldman had to get bailed out. Like, some of the most prestigious names in 2008 would’ve been gone.

Justin Donald: That’s right. They’re only here because they had the right connection.

Pedro Adao: And you think they’re not doing it now.

Justin Donald: Or it’s too risky to let them go.

Pedro Adao: Yeah. Or too big to fail. They were not too big to fail. The checks they’re paying off…

Justin Donald: They were scratching backs.

Pedro Adao: No. The checks were too big to pass up for politicians, right? And again, I’m not a conspiracy theorist, I just– reality like, in America, we have lobbying. It’s legal. It’s legal to just pay people insane fees or give them jobs after their career.

Justin Donald: Consulting contracts.

Pedro Adao: Consulting, oh, here’s a quarter million for a speech. Dude, ain’t no one’s speech with a quarter million dollars. I can tell you that right now. And so, like, I just want to advocate for like, guys, literally, you need to advocate for yourself. Biblically, you’re supposed to be a good steward of your wealth. When people give you capital, it’s not like, hey, Justin, you steward my capital. No, they are a good steward of their capital. They see you have wisdom and you’ve done a great job, so now they’re partnering with you, right? So, you provide a service to them and you’re helping them be a good steward.

But I can tell you who worst investors are. Your worst investors people that just give you money and just give you money and put all their hope and faith in you and this is my guy, this is amazing, you’re going to do all, and then they have these expectations. And then anytime a deal has a little hiccup or doesn’t go perfectly as planned, you’re the devil, you screw them over, and you don’t want a message like that.

Justin Donald: No way.

Pedro Adao: Right? So, you’re like, hey, guys, I’m here to help you. I’ve got a great track record here, but you never want to be that for someone. We should never let people think that we’re somehow absolving them of their own responsibility, do their own due diligence, and to be a steward of their own capital. One day, we’re all going to be face to face with God and we’re going to have to give an account for our own lives. How do we steward our time, our gifts, and our money? And you cannot outsource that to anybody. They can be guides, they can help you. But at the end of the day, we need to be responsible, take ownership, make great decisions. It doesn’t mean you got to do it all yourself, but find people that will actually tell you what’s up, be honest, be transparent, have more of an educative consulting approach, not just hit a button, have some robot allocate you and now you’re in some– like you’re all mashed up with a bunch of everybody else. And I just think, man, like most people are just very, very trusting and have never looked at how much risks they’re taking, how many fees they’re paying.

Justin Donald: They don’t know the risks, yeah. Don’t know the fees, that’s for sure. And don’t even recognize that there are ways to get preferred terms the way that we do. And just for clarity’s sake, I just want everyone watching, listening to know that I actually don’t raise money. I don’t actually invest people’s money. I don’t advise, I don’t do any of that. But I’d love to educate. I love to teach. I love giving people access to things I’m investing my money in. And so, one of the coolest things about what we’ve built is that there’s no way that I can make money on someone else’s money. That’s the thing I can’t stand about Wall Street, in general.

Pedro Adao: I thought, I mean, you have an amazing track record, bro.

Justin Donald: Thank you.

Pedro Adao: So, I mean, you know this, you could easily be raising capital.

Justin Donald: I for sure could, yeah.

Pedro Adao: I mean, and a great track record.

Justin Donald: And really, I mean, it’s great to have had some loser deals so that you understand that and you can learn from it, but track record-wise, I’ve lost very few from a percentage standpoint. But the moment, if I were to ever be able to make money on someone else’s money now, I all of a sudden have a bias, and I don’t want that bias. I just don’t, like, it’s– so I want to be the opposite of Wall Street. I want to be the opposite of financial services. I know that– by the way, it’s abnormal that I don’t make a carry, it’s abnormal that I don’t make something somewhere in there.

Pedro Adao: It’s for your audience, let me say it for you. And not only is that abnormal, like I’ve almost never seen it, right? Like, this is the model, right? The person, someone like Justin goes, underwrites, finds a great deal. They’re the GP. There’s LPs. There’s an override. There’s fees. Like, this is the model. This is literally Wall Street private equity. You’ve got big names in our space that raise capital and they’re making an override. And here’s the problem with that structure, as even if you are like the most holiest person, highest integrity, like Honest Abe, you cannot ignore the fact that there is inherent conflict of interest to place capital.

Justin Donald: That’s right.

Pedro Adao: Because money in the bank, you don’t get paid an override, you don’t get act fees, don’t get management fees. So, there is an inherent conflict of interest when you are making the bulk of your money from other people’s money. And that’s the industry.

Justin Donald: That is the industry.

Pedro Adao: That is the entire industry.

Justin Donald: How it’s built, and that’s probably something different.

Pedro Adao: TICs, real estate.

Justin Donald: Yeah. It drives me crazy. And I also don’t want the temptation. I don’t want the temptation to be like, oh, I can actually make a little more if I were to show this deal. I don’t want that. I think that that pollutes what we’ve built, and I think the reason that our renewal rates in our masterminds are so high is because that bias doesn’t exist. I only make money because I invest my own money in everything you do.

Pedro Adao: You’re just sharing your deal flow with your members.

Justin Donald: That’s right. That’s right.

Pedro Adao: I don’t know of any model like that, just to be– I’m not like super in this space, but I’ve been around and I’ve seen a lot of deals and a lot of PPMs and a lot of stuff. I’m not aware of really anyone that I’ve met that has this model and that’s why you’ve done so well. You’re blessed. And you found it. And that’s wisdom, Justin. That’s wisdom on your part to say, hey, I don’t want to have this temptation, but I still want to have a great career. How can I find a way to still have a great career, make money, but make money in a different way where I’m better aligned with the people I’m serving? And you found a way to do that. That is wisdom. And that is the fruit of what I call– that’s kingdom entrepreneurship. How can I come up with an innovative, it’s always innovative, but yet like it’s innovative because no one’s done it, but it’s innovative just following ancient principles, right? Which is, how can I truly serve people at the highest level? How can I put people way ahead of me? How can I mitigate any possibility that a conflict can show up? And you created an amazing business for yourself doing that. And that’s why you probably have the business that you have, you guys probably have the referrals you do, and you probably have the stick rate that you do. And yeah, man, that’s awesome. I did not know that. Like, I know we talked about that, but I just assume you do deals that you raise capital because that’s what everybody else does, right? That’s just like, so…

Justin Donald: My friends that raise money think I’m crazy.

Pedro Adao: I apologize for lumping you in and making that assumption.

Justin Donald: Oh, no. No worries at all.

Pedro Adao: I’m glad you clarified that for everybody, but…

Justin Donald: Well, this has been awesome. I just love having you in town, love your energy, love everything you bring. I feel like this was a podcast episode chock full of wisdom. So, thank you so much. I guess, one last thing from you, where can people learn more about you and the Wisdom Challenge? I know you mentioned it earlier. Mention it again.

Pedro Adao: Yeah. So, it kicks off on January 1st, 31DayWisdomChallenge.com. There’ll also be a link in the show, right? You want to go and grab that link. You can just use the link that’s in the description. That way I can track and know how many folks came from this podcast because you’re following Justin. It’s always good to have those numbers and do like, start your year off the best way possible, start your year off, prioritizing the wisdom of God. This will change your life. This is going to be the year, I think, where we all thought COVID was as crazy as it got. And then guess what? It just keeps getting crazier. Okay? I think 2026 is going to be absolutely crazy in terms of what we’re going to see politically, economically. I’m not sure if how much you talk about the dollar on this, but I don’t…

Justin Donald: You’re talking about it.

Pedro Adao: The dollar is…

Justin Donald: We talk about a ton inside the mastermind.

Pedro Adao: Yeah, the dollar is not looking strong. This next year, with AI, AI is probably going to obliterate 10 more industries. We’re like AI just is like, okay, this whole industry is no longer needed. It’s gone.

Justin Donald: It’s going to be fascinating. By the way, I throw so many charts, so much data at these points. Like, what’s happening with the USD? What’s happening with reserve currency status? What’s happening with other currencies? What’s happening with Bitcoin? What’s happening with the institutional players? What are they doing? What are the single-family offices doing? What are the multifamily offices doing? It’s like so much data, so much content, and it’s around this. So, it’s like, how can you be a few steps ahead of what’s going on?

Pedro Adao: Yeah. And I’m telling you like, this is not just for the rich, like these shifts are going to hit and I’ve already begun about to hit main Street. This will affect you. And so, what do you do? You just stay years in fearful of fear. Oh, come back, Jesus. Just come, like, this is what drives me think about religious Christians, right? Instead of just like thinking and getting wisdom and preparing for how to prosper in chaos and just like, oh, just come now, Jesus, right, like, no dude, that’s not the plan. That’s how this works, right? And so, every time there’s chaos and crisis, there’s a massive opportunity. Not just for the rich, for the wise.

Justin Donald: Yeah, for everyone.

Pedro Adao: For the wise, get wisdom, prepare, posture yourself to get ready. I think, I’m not trying to make predictions. I’m not trying to be negative. I’m not trying to scare people. I just, when I look at all this stuff that’s going on, 2026 could be a year of massive stock market correction. So, we’re so due. We’ve seen basically, the market’s been vertical since 2009. Like, that’s never happened in the history of the stock market where we have a, what? A 16-year bull run. Come on.

Justin Donald: It’s a long bull run.

Pedro Adao: It’s 7x since where it was below. The amount of currency we’ve printed, the money we’ve printed, the debt…

Justin Donald: And only more is going to happen. 2026, we will print more money. Mark my words.

Pedro Adao: 100%. Not just because you or me, like legit, like the biggest experts in this space, this is all they do. Not one of them is dissenting. Like, we’re going to see money printing next year, which means every dollar we have is worth less. And so, if the paper you’re holding is being attacked, and it has been, and AI is coming for a lot of the jobs, don’t be afraid, but don’t bury your head in the sand, and get wisdom because there’s a way for you to prosper in this. But it’s not by being afraid. It’s by actually, really, like see kingdom and the wisdom of God. So, 31DayWisdomChallenge.com, it’s absolutely free. Now, once you’ve joined for free, I’m going to go ahead and give you the opportunity to upgrade to our Wisdom Plus Experience. Got this really awesome journal that allows you to kind of put all of your notes in. It has all 31 chapters, plus you get some Q&A live session with us.

Justin Donald: Nice.

Pedro Adao: So, if you’re going to come, come for free, but check out that plus experience.

Justin Donald: That’s awesome.

Pedro Adao: And bro, I’m excited to have you. I can’t wait for us to kind of go. Let me be reversed. I’ll be asking you questions.

Justin Donald: That’s right. We’re going to have a good time.

Pedro Adao: And we’re going to have a great time. We’re going to help a lot of people. We’re believing, we’re planning on over a quarter a million people this year.

Justin Donald: Wow.

Pedro Adao: And thanks for your help in getting the word out. But we’d love to see you in the Wisdom Challenge running live, January 1^st.

Justin Donald: This is cool. Well, appreciate you being here. I love ending every episode with a question for our audience. So, I’m going to ask you this, if you’re watching, if you’re listening, what is one step you can take today to move towards financial freedom and move towards the life that you desire on your terms, so not a life by default, like most people, but a life by design? What’s one thing that you can take today from Pedro and apply to your life to move in the right direction? And hopefully, that one thing is joining the Wisdom Challenge, January 1^st, in the next 31 days. Thanks, and we’ll catch you next week.