Gavin:  Hey, guys, welcome to the REI Network podcast with me Gavin Timms. Hey, guys, how you doing? Welcome back to the REI Network podcast with me, Gavin. Today, I have got another special guest joining me and this is unreal. This guy is young. He’s only 19 years old in the last six months. He’s gone from zero followers on social media to over nine hundred thousand OK, which is just insane. So he’s going to be talking to us about that is going to be talking to us about his mindset, his networking, what he’s been doing. So I am going to bring him over right now. Here he is. Leo, how are you, buddy?

Leo:  Fantastic. How are you?

Gavin: I ‘m good. I’m good. I appreciate you joining me. And we talked about doing this. Can you remember when we first met, we met in Key West, an event, the heroes coaching event. And we had this conversation. And you will. I have I’m going to do all these things in our industry, right? There’s a lot of talk. Everyone’s got all at once. Everyone likes to do a lot of talking and no action. And I was like, Hey, you know, when you do these things because I believe you’re going to do it. Let’s get on this podcast and let’s talk about it. And guess what? We met again in another event about a week ago, and I see your progress. I see your success over a short period of time, and it’s pretty amazing. So that’s why we’re here today. So tell us a little bit about you. You know what, what you’ve been going? How did you start? It was a background on Leo.

Leo:  Yeah, thank you again for having me on. This is awesome. And when we first met, the energy was there, and that’s how we had our talk. That’s why we we were able to connect so, heavily and reconnect again. So my name is Leo Valentino. I actually turn nineteen in two months, but I graduated high school a few months ago, about three months ago, and I started this whole entrepreneurship journey when I was really young. I started selling stuff on eBay when I was in first grade. So I started selling stuff to my room on eBay and then the next years are selling candies at school. Start selling these little toys, third grade, fourth grade, fifth grade. And then it was it was really when I started to create communities within this video game that I was playing, and I made my first thousand dollars from a community and I was like, Wow, I can. I can really do this at such a young age. So my mindset started to grow really fast when I was when I was really young, and it carried on to me when I started to work out when I was around 16 years old, and that really boosted my mindset as well, right? Being able to push my body, being able to push my mindset to the point of failure every single day it was it was really a breakthrough for me. So I’m doing everything I’m doing now because of the financial struggles that my family had, right? And when I was 16, I told myself, OK, I’m going to make all the money I could possibly make so my parents don’t have to struggle anymore, so I don’t have to struggle. So the people around me don’t have to ever struggle. So I looked up online like, how do I make money at 16? And I went into the world of side hustles into fire movement like financial independence, and then I found bigger pockets, so I looked up in my pockets. I researched all that stuff and learned real estate. Long story short, I met a bunch of people, a bunch of people in real estate. They taught me a little bit about what they knew. And I read how to win friends and influence people and use that for a whole year to build my networking skills. And I met a guy who I trained. I trained his son personal training. And he brought me over to Key West, where we met. At that event, everything started for me, absolutely.

Gavin:  So I think there’s a few takeaways here already, right? Having a strong why? Right? Why are you even doing this? Why are you trying to look on a journey at 16 years old? Because obviously you want to provide for your family in a way maybe that you didn’t have growing up, right? So having that strong why and what was amazing is the mindset. Okay, I see a lot of you in me when I was that young because there’s one thing that you can never take away from anyone. And that’s a mind, right? Having the having the self-belief and there was something about you when we met that you had a strong mindset where you wasn’t arrogant. And I always talk about this self-belief and arrogance are two different things. OK? Because most people that are arrogant and in the way that they act is because that’s what they want to be. They don’t actually believe it, right? But with you, I just felt that you were just humble, honest, and you had the mindset that I was like, This is the guy to watch, right? I don’t know. I still feel this. I believe that in several years to come. I have another interview, and it’s going to be amazing to see what we talked about today and what we’re going to be talking about because I see and invision you as an influence on big stages. You know, we talk about Gary V. Right? We talk about people like Tony Robbins and things like that. And I think you’re going to get them big stages. I generally believe that. And I just want to point that out to people. And the thing is, when you hit Key West and everything changed and we’re going to come on to that. Were you around the right people, right? You were networking with like minded people. Not one person in that venue was going to tell you that you couldn’t do something that you wanted to do. And I think that’s what people needed to take away is you’re only as good as the five closest people around you, right? Who are you surrounding yourself with? Are people bringing you up? Are they putting you down? I don’t need to analyze themselves, but anyway, I just wanted to point them things out. So you were in Key West? And then what happened?

Leo:  So Key West happens, and I’m around all these amazing people in the industry and I get to learn all about what they’re doing about mindset. The whole event was pretty much mindset, right? It’s 98 percent mindset. And I got to hang around some people who are now some of my closest friends, right? Some people that I’m working with now, some people aren’t spending time with on a week to week basis. You know where I’m calling them up. But these are people that I looked up to maybe a year ago or maybe two years ago where I found them on Instagram, where I found them on social media and I watched their content and I was like, I wish I could meet these people one day. And I like what you said about the like, you’re the average of the five people you hang around because it’s so true. And what I did is I heard that I don’t know who who created that term. Maybe like Jim Brown, but I stopped hanging out with all of my high school friends, not because I didn’t like them, but because I knew that in order for me to grow, I need to be around a new environment of people who want growth. Yeah, so I completely left so. So after Key West, I graduated high school and a month later, I moved out here to Scottsdale, Arizona, because I know there’s a lot of real estate investors here that a lot of people in the game are here. So I came out here to work with one of my coaches, Corey Geary, and the only people I hung around with are people in the space that I’m trying. I was trying to get into, but also people that believed in me and understood the mindset of a winner and the mindset that I was trying to tap into. So surrounding myself around these people really carved in the the mentality of a winner and the mentality of being humble because everyone around me is so humble, everyone around me so levelheaded. And there’s no cockiness. There’s no arrogance. So I kind of got into that. Just like when you’re if your parents are some type of way, you kind of grow into that. The people around me were super, super levelheaded. So from there, after Key West, I built a connection with Ricardo.

Gavin:  Yeah I know Ricardo well, great guy.

Leo:  He flew me out to Houston to go to his event. So I use the same mentality, the same tactics of how to win friends and influence people and connected with everyone in the room and built a lot of great connections there. And then from there, I was brought to Arizona for another event for the All In event, and I did the same thing connected with everyone, made sure everyone knew who Leo Valentino was. And at that third event already, people were taking pictures with me and they knew me from my social media, which will tap into into into our next conversation.

Gavin:  Yep, and I seen you. This is the crazy thing is that I’ve seen you in Key West. I seen you in the All In event. Alright. I seen you at the family reunion last week. I seen you in Arizona for Pace and Jamil’s launch, right? So literally the five events. And Ricardo, the only reason wasn’t that his is because I already had something double booked. Well, that’s what this thing is like, right? When you’re around these like minded people, everyone become, they become friends that you are now a new level. So I just wanted to point that out that out of them, five things I was at four of them with you, right? So anyway, continue. Sorry.

Leo:  Yeah. And I was scared for a minute because I was told like, Oh, there’s people who just go to events and they never really get anything done. And I was like, I don’t want to be one of those people. I keep showing up to these events. What have I done? I haven’t. I haven’t really done a whole lot yet. I’ve only got my first deal, blah blah blah. And I just keep going, keep traveling, traveling. And I remember I took a break from traveling and just sat down and hustled here in Arizona, and it was pretty much one of the hardest points because I was so lost, so confused with everything, and I felt so alone, as well as my first time away from my mom, my dad, my sister, my girlfriend back at home and I felt super lost. So I told myself, OK, I’m going to go back to San Francisco, where I’m from for two days and just to take a break and gain some clarity. So I take my car. I’m driving. I go to. L.A. first to visit my sister and then I head over to San Francisco in the middle of my drive in Bakersfield, which is about four hours from home. My engine blows up, so I pull over to the side and I’m just like, OK, this is a sign. I don’t know what it is. This is a sign. So I stayed really positive. I had my speaker and I had golf clubs. So I turn the speaker on, played some of my favorite music. I listen to very happy music because it always keeps me in a good mood. But I played the music and I grabbed my golf clubs and I just start golfing on the side of the road.

Gavin:  As you do, as you do.

Leo:  And I stayed because I stayed very positive. I think this is a good lesson which I’ll go into. I didn’t even care about the car at the point I called the tow truck or I called a buddy who called a tow truck for me because I don’t have AAA. They towed it away to a shop. It basically told me, Your engine’s busted, you’re probably going to have to pay 7000 bucks. And I was I was already so positive in a loop of positivity. I was like, OK, that’s fine. I don’t have 7000 bucks, but I will figure it out. So I took a $50 train back home and went to my girlfriend’s house. And the next day I go to my mom and it hits me like, Damn, I don’t have a car like, damn, I don’t have $7000 either. And I’m in my mom’s arms, I’m telling her like, Oh, nothing’s going my way, you know, like, I’m tired. I like, What am I doing? And the doubts starts coming back, you know?

Leo:  And my mom just goes like, Hey, you got to understand that everything happens for a reason and not everything’s going to be built overnight, right?

Gavin:  Yeah.

Leo:  And it’s kind of funny because that night or that day, I posted a TikTok about motivating. It was a motivational TikTok because when I feel bad or I when I feel doubtful, I like to share positivity out because it helps out. So I did that, and that night I checked my phone and that video was at 200,000 views.

Gavin:  Wow.

Leo:  And mind you, my average viewer was like 100, 200, maybe 300 at most, and at three hundred I thought I was famous. Oh 300 people saw my vide, that’s crazy. Yeah, but it hit 200000 views that night. So I went to sleep, and the next morning. I was at a million views and 20000 followers.

Gavin:  Wow.

Leo:  So I went from 100 to 20000 that same night and I go back to my mom and this funny part I go was like, Hey, look, what happened overnight? You were right about one thing, but [laughs], I thought that was really cool.

Gavin:  And then from that, obviously you then just..let’s commence that… So I want to pick up on something else, though here that may help you as well is that you all surrounding yourself again with the right people. You go to these events and we’re all in our own right, successful in what we do, and success is always levels to it and success is whatever you interpret it to be. Okay, so you call ever look at someone else and go, Well, I want to be like that or not, because you’re on your own journey, right? But you also understand that we’ve all been in the business a long time. And you’re seen as kind of not the peak, but we’re up there. We’re always trying to level and you’re coming in. So we’ve all been that. We’ve all been in the grind, right? So you’re not the only one that is there. We’ve I sat there for 10-12 hours a day, pounding the phone with sellers, with no deals, no deals, no deals, no deals. No one sees that right. I talk about it now. It’s a lot easier to find a deal. But back then, I mean, and I had people coming home in the household going, Oh, when are you going to go and when are you going to go and get a job? Like, I thought you were going to do this and I thought you were doing a deal right now. You have to re channel that right into the positive way. The negativity that I had was the one that fueled me to to get this, and I want you to feel that, you know, getting that traction. You’re still in year one, right? I mean, we’re talking six, seven months. I mean, this is not in where you’re like a thousand times ahead in six seven months than what I was, right? So you want to keep going. And I understand I mean, I left. It wasn’t 19, but twenty three. I moved to another country, Not to another state, another country I left England came out to the United States. That’s why I say I can resonate with you, the move with you. So you just got to, you know, just stay in there and do you be you do your thing as well. Again, just wanted to point that out for people listening to us. If people are going to be in the same headspace that you were in, so jump back in so you wake up, you got 20000 followers, then what happens?

Leo:  So I’m just kind of pondering it, looking at all the comments and all the comments are basically saying, like this helped me so much. This made my day. This was all I needed. This came at the perfect time and I checked my DMs and I have I have two or three people saying I didn’t commit suicide because I saw your video.

Gavin:  Wow.

Leo:  And that was the shift for me. Like, OK, I can really make a huge difference in the world, just by posting videos, just by sharing my message out there. So that day I made three more, so I made three more of those videos. I put them up. The next one I put up hit 600000 views, and the next one I put up hit a million that same day. But it went from a million to two million to three million four or five six seven eight nine 10..to 40 million views, which is which is one of the top probably 100, 200 viewed videos on Tik Tok now and that set me up for success on Tik Tok because I went probably from zero to 100000 then to 200000 to 300000 even faster. And now it just kept cycling. I kept redoing the same type of content, making the same motivational content with the intent to inspire. And now I’m almost at a million followers and it’s just been an incredible ride because now I’m able to teach people how, how I do the same thing, teach people in my sphere of the network that I built. For example, the real estate influencers, I’m able to teach them how to put their message out there. So that’s that, that’s where it’s at right now.

Gavin:  So here’s but here’s a good thing, right? You started on a journey of being real estate investor, right? And I’m not saying you’re not doing that anymore, but you’ve now carved a path that you didn’t even know and shaped in a certain way. And again, without going back, I have the same stories that you set up on a vision of this and then all of a sudden something else happens. An opportunity comes and you take it with both hands. Now you’re finding your purpose of impact. I watched some of your stuff is great. It’s fantastic because I understand the point of mindset. I used to be a golf pro. You talked about golf. What is it? What was the difference? What’s the difference between me and the rest of me and all the people? Why are they better? Because a lot of the time, yes, technically they’re better, obviously. But it’s between here. So the difference between being Tiger Woods and just being on tour. What is the difference between being a winner, being the best, being a, you know, LeBron James, being Tiger, being Tom Brady, what is the difference? They can all do it all back and still throw the ball. They can still find the man. What can they do it in the last throw of the game when all the pressure’s on, because that’s when the mindset kicks in to actually be the best. So I think that’s great. So since you’ve done that, obviously now, so what is your routine now? Are you still doing the real estate or are you really just focusing on the influence and on the mindset and again, helping all the people do that?

Leo:  So right now, I’m focused on the branding side. So here’s something that I think will help some people is when I was in the wholesale business, when I was doing the wholesaling business, I came to a point where whenever I stepped into the office, I would get a really stabbing gut feeling. I don’t know, like right next to my stomach. And I asked myself, like, what is this? And I stepped out and I felt better. You know, I talked to some friends, I talked to some mentors, and every time I step back in or I got a I got a call from a seller, the stabbing feeling would come back and I called a one of my main mentors and he told me, like, that’s something you just have to push through. It’s a barrier that, it’s a lesson that if you don’t solve now, it’ll come back to you later. So I triedto really get through it. And it was this one conversation that made me made me realize what I wanted to do or to make that shift. And it was my coach and another person I really look up to. They both had ulcers and I looked up what an ulcer is and it was the same exact spot that I was having the pain. And it’s basically when that thing like pops because of stress. I was like, Nope, nope, not doing that. It’s the two people I really looked up to. I wanted to be in their space about six months ago when I started out. Then I ask myself because I’ve been around them and they’re good friends. Am I now? Like, Do I want to be in the same position as they are. As a CEO of a high volume wholesaling business? And the answer was no. So that’s when I made this shift to go full on personal branding, influence motivational speaking and trying to find out the path within this aspect going towards a Tony Robbins route as well.

Gavin:  Yeah, no, absolutely. But it’s good. At least you found out, right? I mean, our industry’s tough and it ain’t for everybody. You know what we do acquiring properties, right? You have a lot of conversations. You’re having tough conversations, you renegotiate you, you’re dealing with people’s problems and all of them things. But you don’t know until you do it. And if it’s not for you and you find a different path, then great. And obviously what you’re doing and people resonate with you and you know, they listen to your message and you’ve been able to. Again, it’s pretty incredible. You know, one video has taken you that first twenty thousand overnight is now multiplied and multiplied, multiplied to do great. And I’m not on TikTok, so I don’t know TikTok, but I know YouTube. And I know and it’s difficult. It’s difficult. You have to just be consistent. You have to show up. I mean, we were out the other day and I was watching ya. I was I was at this event with the other day and you’ve got your phone out and you’re TikToking and you’re videoing and you’re getting pictures and doing all this. And I look at that and go, I can’t do that. That’s not me. I’m not. I’m not. That isn’t mean. I’ve had someone following me, maybe, but I mean, you are hustling. You’re doing it yourself. And it was impressive to watch what I learn from that and go, Yeah, I want an influence, yes, I want to be out there, but I have to be me right now, it’s not me, to be walking around and taking pictures of food. And then doing this and doing different angles in the stuff that you were doing, I just couldn’t do it. It’s just not my personality. Does that make sense?

Leo:  Right, and it’s a deep dive within yourself and asking yourself, Is this something I want to do? Is it something I vibe with? Is this something I align with? And with wholesaling, I truly didn’t align with that, and I felt so out of alignment, right? I listen to a podcast where it says, If you feel this, the feeling that I had going into the office and you feel the energy taking away from you, then it’s not meantfor you. But for example, with personal branding and helping people brand themselves or on the other side, motivating being able to motivate millions of people, that gives me energy. And that just shows that that’s what you’re meant to do.

Gavin:  Absolutely. Absolutely. And I love that. So where are you now? Are you going to be staying in Phoenix? Are you going to be in Scottsdale? Are you going back home to San Fran? What’s the vibe?

Leo:  Yeah, right now that’s up in the air. I’m in Arizona now. I’m going to go back to San Francisco for a bit, and then I might move in with some of my entrepreneur friends and just get a house and make content together there. It’s up in the air. I like traveling, I like being spontaneous, being everywhere. So I mean, I don’t have kids. I don’t have… I like it so I don’t need to be in one place.

Gavin:  Yeah, you’re in no rush there. So is this going to be happening in California, though? Are you thinking like in L.A., you move? I mean, we just hung out with a load of YouTubers. Right? And I think most of them are living in Cal, living in L.A. and they’ve got, you know, four or five million followers on different platforms, some more than that…10 million. Is that something that you’re thinking of, L.A. or not?

Leo:  It’s a possibility. My sister’s out there, but it’s super up in the air. We might go to Vegas and rent a house there because I meet with three of my buddies every single morning at five a.m. So I’m thinking about having us and a house. Just just have that be home base for a little bit. Bring my dog over there, you know?

Gavin:  Yeah, awesome.  Well, good. Well, good. So anyone watching, as we wrap this up, anyone watching us or listening to to you while something from a mindset, what would be something someone struggling tomorrow, whether it be life, whether it be real estate? What would you tell them?

Leo:  The main thing I tell people who need help with with their mindset is to really get clear on where you are right now and get clear on where you want to go. Kind of like putting in a GPS like your Apple Maps or Google Maps can’t tell you where to go if, one it that doesn’t know your location, but two, doesn’t know your destination of where you’re trying to go. You need to get really clear on those two things point A and point B. So you can get a clear path on on what direction you’re going. So that’s what I would tell people and really focus in on your self development. Even if you think you are completely developed, your mind’s developed. There is always more growth and it’s always constant and never ending improvement. So just focus on your self development and know where you are and where you’re going.

Gavin:  Well, I love that. So Leo, where can people follow you? Where can they search if they want to look you up? Where can they do that?

Leo:  You can find me on Instagram. It’s going to be at Coach.Chun, Coach.Chun, and then TikTok is my name, LeoValentino444

Gavin:  LeoValentino444. Awesome. Well, guys, check out Leo on the platforms. See what he’s up to see, what he’s doing. And this is a great opportunity as well to, you know, maybe if you’re listening to this and you’re not in this, you know, you’re not in the position where you might be in a good mindset, maybe have a solid door. Family members, friends, this is the person that they need to start following. Especially, he does resonate with younger people, which is huge because they’re the ones that need to get in the right frame of mind, right to be able to achieve great things as well as older people. So make sure you know that you’re that you’re saying, Hey, you should check this guy out because you will. He is legit and he does get you in a positive, positive mood for the day, which is what it’s all about. So Leo, anything else, anything else you want to share?

Leo:  No, just Thank you for having me on. We always, these type of conversations give us energy, and I try to make a habit every day to make a conversation like this every single day because it gives me so, so much energy.

Gavin:  Yeah, I love it. I appreciate you bud. well, good luck with everything. If you need anything from me now where I’m at and we’ll do a follow up with you in another few months, kind of see where, where you’ve landed, what you’re doing, and we’ll kind of follow your journey. All right.

Leo:  Absolutely. Thanks for having me.

Gavin:  Appreciate you. Thank you. Bye bye.