Transcript

Andre Popa: Who's a badass? That's right. You're the badass. Welcome everyone to the weekly show where we will go deep into the human dynamic and what makes us all extremely special. We're breaking the stereotypical mold of the badass on a Harley with tattoos. We're re-branding the badass with any human being that's happy and free. One can have all the money, houses, the Harleys and tattoos, Lamborghinis, yet if they're not happy and free, what's the point? Let's push some buttons and start some shit. Welcome to the weekly show, Who's A Badass. 

I want to jump right into things today. Our guest is someone that I met quite a few years ago online, funny enough. Facebook says, "Oh, we recommend this friend, this person." They look to connect to you the concept of six degrees of separation, but obviously now, it's become five and four degrees of separation because of social media—who you know and what's happening out there. 

This human being is a complete badass. Let me tell you why: crazy entrepreneur. You know me, you guys know me, I love mindset. I'm all mindset. I mindset first because I believe that nothing happens in this world. This doesn't happen if it doesn't happen here first. We attract and we create whatever the fuck we believe, think, speak. That's the beautiful universe. This guy, this entrepreneur, this machine that you're about to meet today, every day is all about hustling, it's all about mindset, it's all about who we become, it's all about what you show up as. You get the results by the fruit of your showing up. 

Anyway, he's a world traveler, married to badass business partners. What's cool about this is that they traveled the world. Obviously, they've done a lot of traveling last couple of years during the shutdown. What's amazing is that during the last couple of years, not only their business has blown up because I've watched them have their Beverly Hills store, then there's another store and there's a San Diego store and there's a Valley store and there's this store in Palm Springs. They just keep growing their Bespoke business. We'll talk about what Bespoke means because a lot of people have no idea what the word even means. We'll go into that world. 

The most important thing that we're going to talk about today is what happens up here for these people for him and his wife. They work out twice a day. They love life. They're always eating out and drinking wine, having martinis, enjoying life, and working their asses off. More importantly, they know how to play hard. That's what I really, really love about them. I want to welcome to the Who's A Badass Show the one and only Mr. Art Lewin. 

Art Lewin: Thank you so much, Andre. I really appreciate you having me on the show. I'm looking forward to what's coming up. I don't know what's going to come out of your mouth. 

Andre Popa: I don't either. That's the beauty of all this. 

Art Lewin: I love it. 

Andre Popa: Yeah, we can start with just letting my audience and your audience, who's ever on here—who are you? Let's go back. Give them the stories of the street like where'd you come from, the beginning. 

Art Lewin: I'm going to go way back. I'm an immigrant. I'm from Chile. I came here when I was eight or nine years old, early 1970s. It took about seven-eight years for my entire family to get together to live in a one bedroom. It's what we call our studio, seven or eight of us in one room. My dad came here for the opportunity. As I got older, it took me 26-27 jobs to do what I do now, which I've been doing clothing for 33 years. I started in 1989. 

My last job was selling pagers door to door. I happened to knock on a custom tailor just like me 33 years ago. He liked my style. Thirty-three years later, we're the number one independently owned custom clothing in the country. We have seven locations throughout Southern California, and one in Arizona. I'm a real estate investor. I have e-commerce companies online so I do quite a bit. But this is my baby, the clothing is my baby. 

Andre Popa: The concept of Bespoke, what is the word Bespoke even mean? 

Art Lewin: Bespoke can mean a lot of different things, but it's an English term. It comes from England and it means be spoken for. Back 200 years ago, when the rich have to go to a tailor shop and say, "I want that cloth. I want to be spoken for." Bespoke means made from scratch just for you. 

Andre Popa: Wow! That's really cool. I've always known the concept of Bespoke. You can do bespoke in architecture and in different worlds, but I never really knew the answer. I know what it is, I just didn't know where it came from. 

Art Lewin: Yeah. 

Andre Popa: Amazing! So your brand today—Art Lewin Bespoke Suits? 

Art Lewin: Just Art Lewin Bespoke. 

Andre Popa: Bespoke, that's the brand. 

Art Lewin: I do Art Lewin Bespoke suits and I'm in a city that's for SEO and stuff, but it's Art Lewin Bespoke. 

Andre Popa: Got it. Beautiful. Let's go back. You said 33 years, you knocked on somebody's door and then—bam—here you are today, no business ever, starts off, banging, and rocking and rolling, making a million bucks a month. That's not necessarily how it happened for you. Let's go back. I want people to understand that where you are today with seven stores, number one in clothes, you're making suits and clothing for billionaires, and celebrities. You have a really badass roster. To get to where you are today, it's not like a drive-through where it's like, "Oh, 30 minutes, you got success." 

Art Lewin: No. 

Andre Popa: How did you start? What walls did you hit? How many times do you want to give up? Let's go there. 

Art Lewin: Let's do it. I started in my spare bedroom. I just had a baby and I started in her room, in the corner of the room and that's a tiny little desk, but I was a machine. You said later, I was a machine. Literally, I was a walking, talking, prospecting, selling machine. All I did was on the phones, or door knocking, or selling appointments. I didn't stop. Even though my timeline, I worked regular hours from 8:00 to 5:00. Most people that work 8:00 to 5:00 only work half a day, really, literally. I was just a machine, I kept prospecting.  Prospecting is the key to everything. My goal was to make 150 calls a day, 36,000 calls a year, and 35,500 would tell me no. 

I picked up 500 clients every year and it kept doubling and doubling and doubling. Those 500 clients, when the average client is spending $5,000 a sell, it adds up quickly. When it started adding up quickly, I started expanding my business, meaning, not only in clothing but I started digging into real estate and things like that, but that's taking me a long, long time. For the last 25 years, I buy at least one or two properties per year, and that's how you grow. 

Andre Popa: That's right. That's where the wealth really is. Obviously, you have a brand and you can flip the brand. I know you have about to say something, we'll come right back to it. Your point is, you made money in the Art Lewin Bespoke clothing and then stuck it in real estate, which has this long-term freaking wealth factor. 

Art Lewin: Exactly. 

Andre Popa: Bam! 

Art Lewin: That's what you're saying when I cut you off. 

Andre Popa: Yeah. Somebody told me when you said wealth, most of my clients are pretty well off. They're all millionaires or more. One of my top clients told me a long time ago, "Art, you're going to be rich, but you're not going to be wealthy." I didn't get it. I was 24 years old, I didn't get what the difference was. I thought I was being a millionaire. That means I'm set, but that's not it. Wealth comes from moneymaking. You're making money while you're sleeping. My tool is real estate. There are many other different tools. I also have investments, but the big money is in real estate. 

Andre Popa: Amen. Let's go back to how many calls a day? 

Art Lewin: One hundred fifty calls a day and mandatory, make four to six appointments per day. 

Andre Popa: Got it, 150 calls per day. This is back in the old days when you're still felt like – 

Art Lewin: Dialing for dollars. 

Andre Popa: Yeah. Was it like a smartphone where you push a button and you're making the call? 

Art Lewin: No. 

Andre Popa: Let's go back to the drive because most kids today – how old were you when you started? 

Art Lewin: I was 22. 

Andre Popa: Twenty-two. Most 22-year-olds today don't have that drive because their heads are stuck in fucking social media, their heads are stuck in movies and games—a different world. Where did your drive come from? Why did you decide at 22 like, "I'm going to make this thing happen?" 

Art Lewin: First of all, I grew up pretty poor in Chile and I wanted to be somebody. Do you know where I started? Great question, Andrea. When I was in high school, I started dating this girl, a pretty wealthy girl. That was the first time I drove in a Mercedes. That's the first time I went to eat at nice places. That's the first time I walked into a mansion, and that's the first time I went to Palm Springs. It was all with this one girl. That's where, I think, it kicked in. I said, "Hey, I could have this, too." Great question. 

Andre Popa: Amazing! Got it. You got a date. First of all, you came in very hungry, meaning that you had perspective, you grow up poor, and then you got a glimpse of what's on the other side of what's possible? 

Art Lewin: Exactly. 

Andre Popa: That triggered something for you to say, "I want that." 

Art Lewin: I'm one of seven siblings and I'm different. My brothers call me weird, but I'd rather mean my kind of weird and their kind of weird. 

Andre Popa: Yeah, I can imagine. 

Art Lewin: I'm very, very driven. As you know, my passion for what I do is way up there. Today, we'd make really big sales because of my passion. People know that I'll deliver. 

Andre Popa: Yeah. You want to talk about passion. Watching you for the last few years, you are 100% passionate. I don't believe that you can achieve what you've achieved without passion. Again, just go into doing what you do. I'm just going to go for the money. There's no way. 

Before we get to the passion because again, I believe the passion is, for you, what drives you, what created all of this. I want to go back to the hardship of 150 calls a day, what 22-year-olds today are not willing to do. What did you run into? You're banging out these calls, a lot of people telling you no, why is it okay to be told though? Why is it okay to be hung up on? 

Art Lewin: Because being trained by some of the best sales trainers in the world at that time, they told me, "Keep pushing." They told me after a no, a yes is going to come. That's what I believed. When I was trained by these guys, they said, "Keep doing it, keep dialing, keep dialing, keep door knocking" because it is going to come. I got trained by some of the best guys in the world teaching me that and it worked. I never gave up ever, ever, ever. I had no choice but to make it happen because I had no other income. I had just gotten married. I had just gotten a baby, and bought my first little house so I had to make it happen. No choice. 

Andre Popa: How many times do you want to give up? 

Art Lewin: Back then, for a while, it was monthly. When the bills come, it was monthly. I went through two bankruptcies. I went through two divorces. I've gone through IRS audits. I've gone through it all. I've never ever, ever given up. I just kept pushing. I haven't had that feeling in—I don't know—15, maybe 20 years, but at the beginning, sure it was there. Sure. 

When you get nos day after day after day after day, sometimes weeks after weeks, you're like, "Man, is this really for me?" I call it a U-turn When you're up here, you're like, "Yeah, let's go! Let's go! Let's do this!" Then you get knocked out, you get beat up, you're at the bottom of the U. You're like whatever you want to do. Some people commit suicide. Some people just completely give up, but they forget that you have to come back up. 

Andre Popa: That's right. 

Art Lewin: Then I've always thought and I teach that, too, to myself and people here. 

Art Lewin: Every single book, everything I read is about psychology, about mindset about success, including my clients, everything. We're all the same. We're all the same at that level. We're all the same. I talked to many of my clients about their mindset and I'm like, "Don't be a fucking pussy, just do it." They'll say, "No, there are a lot of pussies out there." Sorry about that, guys. I know it's not. 

Andre Popa: Don't apologize on my show. We're good. 

Art Lewin: All right. We're good. Don't be a wimp. Don't be a fucking pussy. Just do what needs to get done. As you know, Andre, most people won't do what needs to get done. They just want to get. Why? 

Andre Popa: Why not? Why don't they do what it takes? What's the difference? 

Art Lewin: It's just like anything else. It's just like you're a prime athlete. You got prime athletes, the 2 percenters or 1 percenters are way better than everybody else. Why? Because they practice more. I practice every single day. I made the phone calls. I practice my presentation. I practice my phone skills. I practice how to door knock. Everything that I had to do I practice. Now, I want to be the best at it. That's what makes the difference. 

Andre Popa: Practice makes perfect? 

Art Lewin: Not perfect, but practice makes dollars. 

Andre Popa: That's good. "Practice makes dollars," love it. As we go back to Kobe Bryant, when we go back to some of the greats out there, all they did is they would show up and do more work than the other guys, and that brought them the results. 

Art Lewin: That's the other keyword, you just said it—show up. My morning today started at 8:00. I got home last night at 8:00. You think I want to show up this morning? No, but I had to. 

Andre Popa: Well, did you have to, or did you choose to meeting – you have employees? 

Art Lewin: Yes, I chose to. 

Andre Popa: Bingo because you can easily. I have employees. I can delegate. Choosing to show up, choosing to do what's hard is what makes us different. Tell me about working out twice a day. Why do you guys exercise twice a day? 

Art Lewin: Well, as you know, we love to travel. We love to travel and like to keep in shape. I'm 13-14 years older than my wife. We just like to keep in shape, either we do hardcore, weight and abs in the morning and then do cardio in the afternoon, but we switch it up. Half of the time is twice a day while the other half is not because we just can't. Sometimes it doesn't fit the schedule, but we try to do it each time we wake up, at least three to five times a week. 

Andre Popa: Yeah, got it. When I see your posts, you're either eating at a fancy restaurant, drinking martinis or tequila, you're at the gym, or you're dressing some celebrity, or you're traveling like yesterday as you're in Mazatlán and now you're back in LA. Amazing. 

Art Lewin: It wasn't like that all the time. I've been traveling since 2004. This is when I started my travel in 2004. Yeah, I traveled prior to that, but maybe once a year, maybe every other year. In 2004, I stepped it up a little bit when I was traveling at the beginning of every other month. Prior to COVID, I was traveling every month. During COVID, we went to Mexico because that's the only country in the world that could allow us in. Traveling is part of the deal. We just put Europe. You're from Portugal? 

Andre Popa: Romania. 

Art Lewin: Romania. Sorry. Romania. We're going to go to Italy. 

Andre Popa: Eastern Bloc. 

Art Lewin: Got it. 

Andre Popa: Communism. Anyway – 

Art Lewin: Sorry anyways. 

Andre Popa: Got it. You guys are going to Europe? 

Art Lewin: We're going to go to Italy, Greece, Portugal, Turkey—Istanbul. 

Andre Popa: Nice. Beautiful. Been there, done them all. Amazing. You'll love it, great countries, great food. I'm going to create value for anybody listening here, whether it's live or in the future. If somebody was to say, "Hey, Art, can you coach me on this or on this?" This is going to lead us to passion in a minute. Fuck! What do I do? How do I start a business? 

Art Lewin: I always tell people, in any business, you have to have a formula. Every business has a formula. Every business, whether it's yours, whether it's mine, whether you're a doctor, whether you're an attorney, you have to have a formula. Today, I have many attorney clients who pay for advertising. They have to figure out where that advertising dollar goes. You have a formula for that. I have a formula for our business. You have to be accountable. 

There are good ten things that I could talk about right now that you need in order to be successful. The other one, you have to have IPA, which means income-producing activities during the day only. No fucking around. I'm not going to go wash my car today. You have to have IPA, income-producing activities throughout the day. 

Andre Popa: That's good. 

Art Lewin: Don't go to the dry cleaners. Don't go to this. Thanks that you could delegate. Take valuable time out of your schedule. If it's important, meaning, it's going to turn a dollar, do it. If it's not, delegate it. Only income-producing activities, that's really, really important to me because when I was first starting up, the only shit that I did was phone calls, sales, and door knock. That's it. I don't care about anything else. I went through a divorce. I lost a family. I lost friends because I was so focused, I wanted that goal so bad, and that I didn't care what happened around me. I want to close those deals  

Andre Popa: Yeah. Let me ask you this: why did you want it so bad? Were you looking to prove something to someone? 

Art Lewin: I think I want to prove to myself and my parents that I could do it. 

Andre Popa: Okay, got it. Are you looking to prove it from a place of like, "Ah, fuck! I'm showing you" or proving it from a place of "I want to help everybody?" 

Art Lewin: That I want to help everybody. Coming from other countries as immigrants, when somebody makes it here, you send back money. You help your family out there and that's what I've done all these years. I help my grandmother and my aunts. One of my aunts, I gave a facelift. My cousin, I got his teeth fixed. I gave him braces. That shit's not cheap, it's expensive, but I'm able to do that stuff now for them. 

When I go there, I'll take out my immediate, let's say, 30 relatives to a nice fancy dinner because over there, they can't do it. They could only go to McDonald's. When I take them to a dinner, they're like, "Wow!" I want to do it for my family. For me, not to show off, but to be able to help. 

Andre Popa: Yeah. Because that is heart driven, not ego driven—money, money for me, Lamborghini—but it's heart driven, "I want to help," that's transitioning to passion. What does that mean? What is the concept of passion, to be passionate about something? What's that mean for you? 

Art Lewin: To me, it means you have to love. You have to really, really love what you do because if you don't, it's going to show. I would say 60-70% of my clients tell me, they will tell me, "Art, I bought from you not because of your knowledge, but because of your passion." They could feel it. I really love what I do. I love making somebody look great in one of my suits or shirts. I like to see their face in the big mirror over there. When they put it on, they're like, "Wow!" 

Imagine going to a Ferrari car dealership, jumping in a Ferrari, you drive off. What's going to happen? You're going to be like this. You're like, "Wow! This is nice!" I've told this to many people over my career that I sell a feeling. Yes, I sell a product, but I want to sell that feeling. That feeling, to me, is worth it all. Love what you do. 

Andre Popa: Who's the biggest celebrity or person of high net worth that got you – I'll put it this way just really quickly. Grant Cardone, I follow, I've met him and the guy could interview and he could be around anybody. I've seen them nervous one time in his whole life and it was when he interviewed Trump. Who got you nervous? 

Art Lewin: Growing up, I used to look at Playboy. Anyways, when I met Hugh Hefner in 2000 –  when I met him, I was introduced to him to make him clothing, that's what he got me nervous. 

Andre Popa: Really? 

Art Lewin: Yeah, he got me nervous. I don't know. To me, at that time, I'm going back 22 years when I met him, and I dressed him all the way until he passed away about four, five years ago. The other person that got me nervous was, not because I was intimidated—I don't know if I should say this, but I'm going to say it anyway. 

Andre Popa: Say it. 

Art Lewin: It's David Miscavige. He runs Scientology. He's 5' 5". For whatever reason it was, he got me nervous. 

Andre Popa: Really? Was that a presence, an energy, or was it, for you, a precondition thing like, "Holy shit! It's this motherfucker." 

Art Lewin: That, too, but I didn't want to get recruited. He did this show me a tour, but I said, "Oh, man." That got me a little nervous. I've been around this so long that I could go head to head really with any millionaire, billionaire, politician, celebrity. There have been some weird celebrities out there that it was weird at first then it got better. 

Bill Maher – you know Bill Maher? 

Andre Popa: Oh, yeah. 

Art Lewin: The nighttime host? 

Andre Popa: Yeah. 

Art Lewin: He was a little weird at the beginning. He would not look at me. When I asked him a question, he'll look at his secretary. His secretary will tell me the answer, but I'm 4 feet away from him. It's weird. That was weird. It's been weird things. 

I've had another, some crazy—I can't tell you the name—but I go meet him at his house. He's on top of his bed naked with a bottle of Jack Daniels, this much coke, cocaine, and he says, "We are things naked." I said, "Man, you need to get out of that bed." He was with a sword. He was as thin as a kite. That was weird. I was dressing him to go meet him. I can't tell you who it is. I've been in a few situations. 

Andre Popa: Amazing! You love what you do because you create a feeling when you dress someone. You're creating an experience, a lifestyle experience for these people. 

Art Lewin: That's the best part that I love—seeing the end result. Because in the beginning, Andre, they're only looking at a piece of fabric, not too exciting. They're excited about the process. They're excited about the end result. I have a huge mirror. When I put them in front of that huge mirror, I love seeing their faces with a smile saying, "Wow! This shirt looks amazing on me," or whatever they tell me. I like hearing that end result. 

Andre Popa: I love that. Anybody looking to, or anybody that's just literally running a business, starting a business, anybody struggling out there, you said income-producing activities, IPA—IPA is also a beer so you guys connect up here—when you struggle, when you have the hard days, what do you remind yourself of here to say, "No, no, no, fuck the noise, blinders on, I'm sticking to the goal?" 

Art Lewin: Yeah, exactly, get back to the basics. Today's a little bit different because I have a staff that helps me do a lot of stuff that I used to do. Today's a little bit different. But it's still, if I have a bad day or I have a bad week, I always remember that I know the formula already. That formula is what makes me sleep good at night. I stick to what I know and I just get back to it. That's really what it comes down to. Just keep pushing, keep driven, and keep motivated because as you know, it's very hard to get off course. 

Andre Popa: Yeah, I think it's easy to get off course, it's hard to get back on. Is that your point? 

Art Lewin: Yeah. 

Andre Popa: Yeah, that's a really phenomenal point and I see that out there with all of my clients in the coaching world. People don't know the basics. They don't understand that "Hey, I got to where I'm at because I was very good at a few things." Nobody gets here because they did everything, that's fucking impossible as you said very well. 

First of all, I think what you're saying is figure out what you're really, really good at, figure out what love to do, and then stick to those no matter fucking what every single day, rain, shine, thunder, hale. 

Art Lewin: Fever. 

Andre Popa: Fever. 

Art Lewin: Talking about rain, shine, I had a fever one day. It was pouring rain here in downtown and I still made it happen. I had to take 10 minutes before each appointment, dry myself off, and I had a fever, but I had to make it happen. I had no choice. I had to make it happen. Yes, that's an awesome point. Obviously, you have to love what you do. 

Andre Popa: Amen. If you had one last comment to leave people with from where you started 20-30 years ago to where you are today, how would you wrap it all up just to give people some hope? 

Art Lewin: My whole background has been in sales. I run my company so I'm very sales driven. Everything fixes itself out after it goes. When you're customer base driven, it's different. What I would say is you have to be different. You have to be doing something that's different than everybody else. There are thousands of real estate guys here—thousands, but there are a couple of them that are different. I learned this from a long time ago. I was being trained by a guy named Mike Glickman. He was the top real estate agent. At that time, he was 30 years old. He was worth $100 million. 

You know what he did? Every Halloween, he passed up pumpkins. I was a kid. He recruited me from high school, but I was a kid. I kept an eye out. I said, "Hey, this fucker's different. He's passing out pumpkins as a real estate agent, but guess what? One time, his net worth—$100 million." He did something different. If you do something different, go the extra step. Send a postcard saying thank you. Nobody does that anymore. 

Andre Popa: That's right. 

Art Lewin: When was the last time somebody thanked you with a little postcard in handwriting? No, it doesn't happen anymore. Do something different. 

Andre Popa: I love that. Find out who you are. Find out what you're really good at. Find out your passions. Stay committed every day. Put the blinders on, and then find a way to be different and stand out. You got some phenomenal points because today, more and more in the social media world, you scroll, it's like, "All the same fucking shit every day." It's like, "Shut the fuck up." Your point is—and when you guys see Art's posts, you'll see my point—it's always about get off your ass, do something bigger, go harder. It's always motivational. That makes you get people's attention because it's different. It's not like, "Oh, I had a burger" if you're actually producing value for your audience. It's totally, totally about that. 

Art Lewin: My motto is "No excuses, just results" with a dollar sign at the end. Just "No excuses, just results" because that's really what it is. Where I came from nothing to doing what I have now, I owe it all to me. I created it. I'm self-made. 

Andre Popa: Amen. 

Art Lewin: "No excuses, just results." 

Andre Popa: I love that. I know you're on a time schedule, so I'll wrap with this. What you said earlier is to stay very focused during the day, to focus on the basics: don't go to the dry cleaners, don't go to the gas station, don't go wash your car, don't do the piddly shit that you think, "Oh, I got to do that" to find a mental escape from the day being hard or that Dale's thing not happening, delegate and stay focused on your shit. I really, really love that. I just look back on my journey over my 40 years of entrepreneurship. There are so many opportunities for all like, "I got to go to the store. I got to go to Costco right now." 

Art Lewin: Or "Let me go have a 90-minute lunch with my buddies." No, no, no. Especially at the beginning, no. Today, times are different, but at the beginning—I'm just saying this to the beginners, whoever's listening out there—just stick to the program. Stick to what your coaches or your managers' are telling you because some of those big companies know exactly what's going on, but you have to stick to it. 

Andre Popa: Amen. How important is it to have coaches and mentors if you go back from the beginning? Did you do have coaches and mentors outside of this real estate? 

Art Lewin: I did. I hired back then the sales guy, Tom Hopkins. Zig Ziglar—I went to his boot camp. I went to Brian Tracy's boot camp. Gosh, I'm going years ago. Who's that tall guy? 

Andre Popa: Tony Robbins. 

Art Lewin: Yeah, Tony Robbins. I went to Fiji, I spent five Gs. I had to beg for those five Gs to go walk on that fire shit. I did all that. I invested almost $100,000 on myself because I dropped out of school. I knew I needed a backup plan. That's what kept me on track. My mindset was doing that from the beginning, way the beginning. 

Andre Popa: Funny enough that we came full circle to this because I think of everything that we just talked about, this was gold because there's not one of us that gets to any huge success without help. You went out there. You invested 100 grand. I'm probably half a million bucks into self-development because I come from communism and fucked-up shit so I haven't been recreating 'create me,' but we're saying the same thing, meaning, get fucking help, get coaches, get mentors. I even tell people it's like, "Well, I don't have money to get a coach." Barter. Find what you're good at. Find what that coach needs. Trade. Find a way to get help. 

Art Lewin: I did that. 

Andre Popa: Not that good? 

Art Lewin: No, not every time I had $5,000 when I was a kid. No. Talking about that, too, also, Andre, networking is super, super important. It's super important—networking. Invest in whatever business you run. Invest a little bit of money. The reason I eat at fine restaurants, Andre, is because when I go dressed like this – and during lunch, I rarely sit at a table, sit at a bar in a fancy place and always, always people look at me and say, "Hey, where did you get that coat from? Where did you get that suit from," or whatever it is, but if you're starting off, networking and invest in what we call those morning networking events – 

Andre Popa: Got to be or not. 

Art Lewin: Yeah, there you go. There are plenty of those up there. I invested in 1999 in a private club you call the City Club. It was a lot of money for me, but I was killing it. I was the only clothing guy there. I was having lunch and rubbing elbows with these guys that could afford what I do. Find a place where people afford what you do and network—super important. 

Andre Popa: Super important, that's a phenomenal, phenomenal fact. I think we can talk for a few hours because we come from pain, from shit, from nothing and we were self-made. What you're saying is, a lot of people today go fishing in the wrong pond. They want to catch fucking sea bass, but they're going in the salmon section. It's like you need sea bass for your business to grow, but you're fishing in a shrimp aquarium. What you're saying is, number one, network, but really understand your audience. Are you preaching to the right audience? 

Art Lewin: True. That's what it is. I don't go to McDonald's just to eat there. When I go eat at fancy places, it's to do some business and network, pick up a client. I go to Mastro's, go have a $100 steak. I do that purposely because—especially about ten years ago—I was in advertising as much. Today, we advertise more online, but back then I was networking my ass off. 

Andre Popa: Incredible. 

Art Lewin: That's really, really important. 

Andre Popa: It's like where we are at this resort in Cabo here. We just came out for leisure time, for vacation because it's one of the more costly—I don't use the word expensive—more costly places in Cabo. We just want to find shit, a nice shit, et cetera, but you're automatically with the same people that can afford that. The networking, you're having a drink, you're having a dinner, you're in the pool, and you're meeting people, and guess what? Everybody here owns some fucking business, and guess what? Everybody that's in business wants to do what? They want to scale their business, grow their business, they're stuck, they have issues, marriage. For me, as a coach and what we do, same thing. It becomes networking automatically because of what you do, because of what you love. 

Art Lewin: True. 

Andre Popa: I get what you're saying. It's fucking brilliant. 

Art Lewin: Thank you, man. Thank you. 

Andre Popa: Thank you all for tuning in. Thank you for listening. Remember, the goal here is for you to gain information that can change your life, that can set you up for a better tomorrow on your way to becoming a badass. Remember, a badass is simply somebody that is free and happy. If you’re not happy and free on the inside, we’re empty. You know what to do. Click all the Love buttons, Subscribe button. Leave a comment. Leave a beautiful review because, of course, you’re in love with this information, and of course, it is changing your life. Share this with someone. Please get this information out there. Love you, guys. See you in the next episode.