$5B Real Estate Mogul Reveals The Price of Success | Ep. 411 with Mauricio Umansky Founder and CEO of The Agency

Host: What has been the price of success for you?

Mauricio Umansky: I found Tracker from a paparazzi in my car. My kids, they were on reality television as a result of the choice that Kyle and I made, and they never had the choice to make that decision for them.

Host: At 16, he was delivering pizzas. Today, he's closed over 5 billion in sales, sold the Playboy Mansion, and built one of the most recognizable brands in luxury real estate. This is Mauricio Umansky. I mean, you're doing something really controversial right now that a lot of people might be hating on you for.

Mauricio Umansky: I don't read them and I don't look at them, and I don't give a. I really want to make an impact on the real estate industry, and I want to move it, and I'm willing to be very controversial on that. It's the national association of Realtors. It's the largest trade association in the country. They're, uh, protecting themselves. Not the real estate agents, not the realtors. The big lawsuit that cost the association of Realtors $5.3 billion. Today, we're at 3.6, 3.7 million. So 50%. There's so much change in real estate. There's so much chaos. And you're influential in an industry that's a chess move.

Host: Normally when we kick this off, we start going back in time because we got a lot of things we're going to talk about. I mean, you're doing something really controversial right now that a lot of people might be hating on you for around this new organization that you started, but there's also going to be people that will love you for it. We got this new fire, by the way. Hope you.

Mauricio Umansky: I mean, I just love the way it crackles, too. It's just so perfect. It's got the great noise and all that stuff. Yeah. Smells good, too.

Host: I feel like I need a cigar in here. I don't know why. I don't even smoke cigars. Um, you have an interesting story, and I was talking to you right when you came. We just had Daniel Libetzki on, also from Mexico, family from Europe moved to the US and he talked about how that impacted his life. So your story, though, you were in and out of the hospitals.

Mauricio Umansky: Yeah.

Host: How did that and growing up in Mexico, then moving to the US Impact your life?

Mauricio Umansky: I think it greatly impacted my life. You know, I grew up, um, you know, as immigrants from. From Eastern Europe. Uh, all my four grandparents are from different places of Eastern Europe. Mexican, Jews. You know, I was born, second generation, born in Mexico. Mexico City. I love Mexico City. We got the World cup coming up.

Host: I want to go to Mexico.

Mauricio Umansky: Everybody asked me if I'm going for USA or Mexico. And, uh, I think I'm going to go for Mexico first and usa.

Host: I don't think the USA is going to win, though. I don't know.

Mauricio Umansky: Well, just who you root for, right? I mean, Mexico has never won, um, a World cup, and, uh, either. But, uh, um, you know, did you know a funny fact? Uh, just a tangent real quickly. I think only six countries have won World Cups.

Host: Spain, Italy. Italy.

Mauricio Umansky: France.

Host: France.

Mauricio Umansky: England.

Host: England.

Mauricio Umansky: Germany.

Host: Germany.

Mauricio Umansky: Brazil.

Host: Okay.

Mauricio Umansky: I think that's it.

Host: I. I could see why. I don't know if the US could ever win. Do you think so?

Mauricio Umansky: I think the US will win one day for sure.

Host: Okay.

Mauricio Umansky: 20, 30, not now, but one day. 100.

Host: Seems like it's getting more popular here.

Mauricio Umansky: We're getting more popular. We've got great athletes. We just need to get more kids, you know, wanting to play soccer instead of football or basketball or anything like that. But we've got some of the best athletes in the world. I mean, look at Olympics. The USA wins the most, you know, gold medals out of anybody. So.

Host: Did you play soccer?

Mauricio Umansky: I love soccer.

Host: Did you play growing up?

Mauricio Umansky: I did.

Host: Like, professional.

Mauricio Umansky: No, not professionally. High school soccer. No. The only thing I did more serious in, uh, my life was snow skiing.

Host: Snow skiing?

Mauricio Umansky: Yeah.

Host: Okay.

Mauricio Umansky: Yeah. So I was a big slob, Giant, solemn racer.

Host: What area? What mountains?

Mauricio Umansky: Ah, I ski primarily out of Vail, Colorado.

Host: Okay.

Mauricio Umansky: And now, uh, I have a home in Aspen, and I love it. And, uh, you know, I skied out of Park City all the time, and in the summers, I used to go down to Chile.

Host: Wow.

Mauricio Umansky: Yeah.

Host: How's that? Is like Patagonia.

Mauricio Umansky: Yeah, it's pretty amazing. Las Lenas. It's amazing down there.

Host: Uh, one time, my dad, when I was younger, he went to Patagonia and he invited me and I said no, because I had a. I had a really crappy job at 16 years old.

Mauricio Umansky: What was the job?

Host: I think I was at, uh, like,

Mauricio Umansky: uh. Yeah, I was delivering pizzas at 16. Yeah.

Host: How is that when you look back to delivering pizza to now?

Mauricio Umansky: Now I deliver a lot of pizzas.

Host: More expensive pizzas. Yeah. Yeah.

Mauricio Umansky: You.

Host: You sold a really expensive pizza called the Playboy Mansion.

Mauricio Umansky: I, uh, did. Yeah.

Host: My wife and I went to the Playboy Mansion party one time. It was, like, one of the last parties. Sadly, Hugh could not come out because he was, like, sick at the time.

Mauricio Umansky: Yeah.

Host: But I was just thinking how Much history is in this place. But how did that come about?

Mauricio Umansky: Well, it was a great, I mean, it was such a great experience to sell that. I mean, I used to love showing that property. Um, how can you not, you know, I mean, it almost had multiple microclimates. You know, it had the rain, the forest in there. The sequoia, the red. The sequoias, not, uh, the sequoias, the red, um, what do they call them? The red tree. Uh, whatever they're called.

Host: The huge trees.

Mauricio Umansky: Yeah, they're huge trees. Um, you know, he had the, uh, the zoo in there. You got bamboo. I mean, it was just a 5 and a 5.4 acres right on the golf course there. Um, but all the history and all the stuff that went, you know, on down there was just so much fun. They've got this little room that still looked like this. Everything still looked like it was in the end of the seventies. The grotto.

Host: The grotto.

Mauricio Umansky: You know, the Scooby Doo room.

Host: Yep.

Mauricio Umansky: Uh, it looked like the back of Scooby Doo's, uh, uh, van. And um, I just loved showing that property. It was, it was the best. And I got a chance to have lunch, uh, one day at, uh, the Mansion with Hugh, you know, and as you know, or as everybody knows, you know, he was dying when, when, when we sold it. And one of the conditions of buying the property was that you had to let him have a life estate, live in the property until he passed. Um, so that was, you know, one of the complications doing it. But that was the first hundred million dollar sale in Los Angeles, which was kind of cool.

Host: So when you sell something like that, because I've seen the stuff that you sell, which by the way, before I get into the next question, what is our fascination with luxury real estate? Like, why do we like to watch shows about it? Like, why do we love it?

Mauricio Umansky: Yeah, that's a great question. I think it's, uh, it allows, you know, look, I mean, we've been watching, you know, it's the motivational level, right? We've been watching the, you know, Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous since I was a kid, right? Like, we've been watching, you know, why do we like to watch James Bond, right? Like, why do we like to watch Mission Impossible? Because it's these things that we get to see, right? So when, when, when it, it's, it's, it's, you know, when you have a, uh, luxury, uh, real estate, like, you're seeing such amazing beauty, um, and it gives you something to drive for. It gives you something that you, you know, you may want, right? Whether it's, uh, um, I mean, luxury yachts, right? Luxury boats, luxury real estate, mansions. Like, what, what, what. What are the rich and famous? How do they live? How do the celebrities live? What are they living in, you know, what are they doing different? And I think there's a great fascination over that.

Host: If you could have any luxury item, any luxury item, doesn't matter the cost, what would it be? But, uh, if you could only choose one.

Mauricio Umansky: Oh, man, that is a hard question. I mean, I'd have to pick one that you can't buy. Time, right. I think that that's the new luxury item. You know, longevity. I think that's what people are really into right now. You know, even in your homes, that way you're setting up your, you know, your centers, your wellness centers. Um, I mean, that's kind of the new, newest, amenity. It's all about longevity. It's all about time.

Host: How old do you want to live to.

Mauricio Umansky: If you could live as long as

Host: I'm healthy, let's say you could be healthy at any age. What would be?

Mauricio Umansky: I mean, I'll take anything. 120, healthy, 200. Sure. I don't want to die. I'm not scared of dying, though. Are you scared of dying?

Host: Uh, so my dad put a lot of fear in me about dying, to be honest with you. Yeah, he always. He told me he was dying every day since I known him, and he's, like, 80.

Mauricio Umansky: Okay.

Host: So he did put a lot of fear about dying. And then my wife, though, she's, like, very fearless. So she helped me get out of that. That rut of, like. I always was worried about it. Yeah, I know it's crazy. It sounds. But. But, yeah, when you love life, you don't want to. When do you think, though, when you look at success, when is enough enough? When you don't want to sell real estate, you don't want to have a brokerage. Is there a time you think where you're like, I just want to sit in front of the fire or sip margaritas and just chill?

Mauricio Umansky: Well, you. Look, when is enough enough? I mean, enough is enough for. Depending on who you are, right? Um, and what you do. I mean, um, you know, $5 million, you. You know, liquid. You could be doing anything you want, right? Like, I mean, you could be great, you could be good. You could retire all of that stuff. But, um, I think that the most aspirational people and the most successful people are not doing it for the, for an amount. They're doing it because that's what they love to do, right? I work my butt off and I love, you know, I mean, you look at, you know, people. I'm not even putting myself into this category, but you know, the Elon Musk's of the world, Jeff Bezos of the world, like, I mean, you know, it's a chess game. They're in a deal, right? Like, this becomes, this becomes more. It becomes more than about making money, it becomes making moves. It becomes, you know, um, a way of living. It becomes a, you know, it's like, what's my favorite thing to do? Well, my favorite thing to like, thing to do is to play chess with my money, okay? With investments, with, you know, the industry that I'm in. Um, you know, you started off by mentioning that I started the American Real Estate Association. That's a chess move, okay? Um, and all of these things, that's the chess. And when you have that vision in your head and you have, you know, and you're moving stuff and you're moving, changing an industry, in my case, you know, real estate. You know, I really want to make an impact on the real estate industry and I want to move it and I want to change it and I'm willing to change it and I'm willing to be very controversial on that. You know, whether it's through American Real Estate association, whether it's through launching a national, uh, listing platform, um, you know, whether it's, you know, really creating, you know, uh, um, all of the firms to work together and to collaborate instead of working as, um, competitors, uh, um, you know, uh, all of these things that are happening right now, there's so much change in real estate. There's so much chaos. And when there's chaos and you're influential in an industry and you can actually help affect the industry, that's a lot of fun and that's a fun place to be. And so it's not about what's enough. It's about when am I bored, right? And right now I'm not bored at all. I'm really happy, right? So, um, I love waking up every morning. I mean, I woke up this morning, I was up at 4:30 in the morning. Um, I was ready to go. I mean, I had nobody to call. I, uh, I called Qatar. I had a, had a conversation with Qatar. Then I called a client of mine in, uh, in, in London. Um, you know, and then finally it was 7am and I could get the New York people up because they're not, you know, they don't get in the office at 9:00am um, they get in the office at 10. And um, yeah, and that's, you know, you just, you just get going.

Host: Are you a texter or do you like to phone call? Because I like to call people. Some people think it's weird because I'm like, I hate texting. Like, I want to have a. I want to wake up at five in the morning and have friends in Asia so I can call them.

Mauricio Umansky: I like both. Um, I like to. There are certain things that you can only get done on a conversation. I, um, love voice texting.

Host: Voice text, right.

Mauricio Umansky: Just sending a voice memo. M. Um, and then the text message to me is really more about. It's not about communicating. Um, it's just more about, just a straight like, message. Right. It's not, I'm not trying to negotiate a deal on text.

Host: Like, that's $130 million deal on text.

Mauricio Umansky: Um, that's a conversation.

Host: Right.

Mauricio Umansky: Um, but texting is really good for just bouncing back and forth. Quick. Yeah, quick bounce backs.

Host: So why is it so important right now to start this organization? And then at the same time, I just read some news that a lot of agents are quitting real estate because of the market.

Mauricio Umansky: The market's terrible. You know, you, we, we. But, but in. Everything bounces back and forth, right? I mean, we just had an amazing market going into 2020 and you know, covet, you know, post coven, the market was incredible. We were doing seven. You have to understand that real estate agents, we look at the real estate market differently than a real estate investor.

Host: Mhm.

Mauricio Umansky: Okay. Real estate investor looks at price, right? We know, where's my price? Am I. I lost money because my price went down. Did I lost m. Did I make money because my price went up? A real estate broker, real estate agent. We care about transaction volume. Okay? So, you know, 20, 22, 2021, we were averaging about. I'm going to round up 7 million transactions per year. We the country, not we, the agency. We, the country was averaging one day. I.1 day. Yeah, let me just, I'll just keep my little 20 share of that and I'm happy. Um, 7 million transactions per year. Um, today we're at 3.6, 3.7 million. So we're 50% when you think about that. Okay. So that's what the market has reduced. When that happens, there's multiple reasons people are getting out of the business. It's not as easy as all these television shows made it look. Okay.

Host: They make it look really easy.

Mauricio Umansky: They make it look really easy.

Host: Are they real or is it fake?

Mauricio Umansky: A little bit of both.

Host: Okay.

Mauricio Umansky: I mean, most of the transactions are real, but then they fake them to make them look for television. Okay, Right. Okay. So they kind of reenact it, if you will.

Host: Yeah.

Mauricio Umansky: Um, but it depends on the show most. You know, I can tell you our show buying Beverly Hills was really real. I mean, we had to make some stuff for, for makes, um, sense for television.

Host: Like a storyline.

Mauricio Umansky: Yeah, yeah, yeah. But it was, it was pretty real.

Host: Okay.

Mauricio Umansky: Um, and everything that happened there, every deal that happened there happened. We never faked a deal. I don't know if others have or haven't. I'm not even beginning to question that. There's a lot of turmoil going on with national association of Realtors. It all started with, you know, the, uh, the lawsuit, uh, the big lawsuit that, you know, cost the association of Realtors $5.3 billion. Um, you know, which was a lawsuit that, uh, had to do with, uh, commissions, um, and commission fixing and price fixing. And NAR did not do a good defending it and protecting us. And then they left all the big brokerage firms hanging high and dry, uh, when they created the settlement. Um, and so all the big brokerage firms, you know, had to pay a lot of money. We had to pay a lot of money. And we all got very upset with NAR for that. Um, they have not been good at protecting, uh, the real estate. It's the national association of Realtors and in my opinion, they don't protect the realtors, they protect themselves. Um, it's a company that has, is the largest trade association in the country. Larger than the bar, larger than the medic. Um, the doctors Association. It is the largest association, 1.3 million members. Um, and, uh, they have a for profit arm. They make a lot of money and, uh, they're protecting themselves. Not the real estate agents. Not the realtors, um, which, by the way, you know, whatever. Um, and so we. I really want to protect the real estate agent. I want to protect our industry. I want to get the industry back to, you know, an amazing industry. And I don't think we should. We need to have 1.3 million real estate agents in the country. I think that, you know, a. With AI and everything that's happening with AI like we could be way more efficient. Right. The more efficient I become, you know, I should be able to do. If I do, I, I do approximately 35 transactions a year still. Um, believe it or not, um, personally and With AI and the usage of all the tools and my efficiencies, I could probably do 50 to 55. Right. With the same amount of time. Mhm. Right. So if I'm a consumer out there and I want to give, you know, my, you know, if somebody calls me up and I can only handle 35, I'll pass them off to somebody else, I'll refer them. I can't handle more. Right. But if I can handle more, I'm going to take it on. That's going to eliminate somebody else's job. Right? So the crazy thing about smaller and

Host: smaller, the crazy thing about the AI is like the people building platforms with AI are 100% trying to replace the, the people. Right. I had an argument someone recently who's building something, I said, if, if you're telling me, what you're telling me is the further you go down this road, you are 100% trying to replace the human. They said no, I'm like, that's impossible. Like you are 100%. But obviously the people don't want that.

Mauricio Umansky: Right.

Host: So it's an interesting mix. Now you have the builders who are really trying to build platforms to replace humans and then obviously the humans don't want to be replaced. How do you see this going with, with uh, AI? I mean obviously Zillow, I'm sure, like that whole changed a lot of things, I imagine. But this is probably bigger.

Mauricio Umansky: There is such an, it's such an interesting thing because as a business owner I can tell you I need my efficiencies to get up. Okay. Um, and you know, when I ask the people that work for me are they using AI, they tell me yes. Right. But then I just did a survey, uh, to really find out, like, well, what does yes mean?

Host: Right.

Mauricio Umansky: Does that mean that you're, you know, Talking to your ChatGPT and just saying, hey, you know, help me out with such and such, or are you using AI to be more efficient? Right. And the problem is that you start hiring people to start implementing AI, but then they realize quickly that you're, they're being hired to replace their own job. Right? So then it's like, it's almost like a sabotage thing, right? Um, because it's like, well, wait a minute, I'm going to replace my own job? Like how does that happen? I think there's going to be new jobs that are created that are still require, um, people. Um, you know, the agentic AI is really interesting, which is going to be replacing a lot more people. That's that whole Robot, you know, situation, uh, that's going on. There's so many great AI stuff with that. But I personally think that um, we all need to incorporate AI into our businesses. And it's a, it's pretty simple. If you work for somebody and you're not using AI, you're going to get fired because you're less efficient than somebody else using AI. Um, so it's all about efficiency levels and you got to be the best at it and be the best at using it for your own efficiencies. Um, I don't see AI replacing us. Um, like the world's not going to be mad. Like we'd have to have a whole new economic system. Right. Like if all of a sudden we just, it's a, becomes a robotic world, right. Then it just, I guess then we just go to communism. I don't know.

Host: Let's say hypothetically, hypothetically we are all replaced by AI. Let's say there's a universal basic income. This is total hypothetical. You don't have to do what you're doing right now.

Mauricio Umansky: Super sci fi.

Host: This is super sci fi. Uh, you don't have to do. You could do anything to give you purpose throughout the day. What would it be? Anything. Money does not make it. It does not matter anymore. What would you do? I think I'd be a DJ by the way. But what would you do?

Mauricio Umansky: I like dj. I, I mean I probably would have a bunch of different habits and stuff. I love to hike. Okay. So explore. I probably would become a full on outdoors explorer. Yeah.

Host: Where in the world do you want to explore that you haven't explored yet?

Mauricio Umansky: Great question. Um, there's a bunch of Alaska I want to explore. Um, the Antarctica I want to get to.

Host: Oh, that looks amazing.

Mauricio Umansky: Looks amazing. I've not gotten there yet.

Host: I uh, think people go from like Chile. Right. Or somewhere around there. Okay. Um, heard that's the roughest waters in the world.

Mauricio Umansky: Yeah. Ah, that pass I think it's called.

Host: I've heard it's like either it's calm and it's still rough or it's like everyone's come. Yeah, that's right here.

Mauricio Umansky: Yeah. Um, but I'd love to explore that. Love to explore Norway. Oh, um, you know, the fjords and all of that kind of thing. There's a lot of Africa that you know, I was going to go on. I was going to, I was supposed to go in September on a trip to go explore the gorillas in, in the Congo.

Host: Oh wow.

Mauricio Umansky: Um, but there's been a Little bit too many, uh, too much news with, you know, I think. Is it the Ebola? Ebola, yeah.

Host: Okay. Yeah. Yep.

Mauricio Umansky: So I canceled that trip because it's all right in the.

Host: Right in the Congo. Yeah.

Mauricio Umansky: Yeah.

Host: That would be an amazing trip.

Mauricio Umansky: The epicenter.

Host: I'm like, all right, well, we'll do

Mauricio Umansky: that another time next year.

Host: That'd be an amazing trip.

Mauricio Umansky: Like I said, I'm not afraid of dying, but I'm not putting myself in

Host: a situation I definitely don't want to die.

Mauricio Umansky: For me.

Host: No. I think I just. Henta virus. I'm like, no. I think we're all, like. I think we're all traumatized, but we haven't really faced the trauma since COVID I feel like that anytime you hear anything, it's like a trigger.

Mauricio Umansky: I agree.

Host: By the way, do you like saunas?

Mauricio Umansky: I love saunas.

Host: So I was in Norway. They have a floating sauna where you go into the sauna and then you jump into the water because the water is freezing.

Mauricio Umansky: Yeah.

Host: Do you do anything like that? I. I see. You're obviously in great shape. Do you have any sort of, uh. How are you going to live to 120? Healthy

Mauricio Umansky: mobility, um, staying strong, bone mass. Um, okay. You know, and then whatever science is out there to help us.

Host: Is there anything that you're using or doing right now that you're, like, really excited about?

Mauricio Umansky: Not really. I started to play around a little bit with the peptides now for the first time. I mean, I'm about to turn 56 years old in a couple of weeks, and, uh, just now started to play with the peptides.

Host: Okay.

Mauricio Umansky: Um, you know, I take care of my skin, which is super important to me. I think that's important just to look good. I'm not sure that, you know, and then, you know, strength and mobility to me is. Is what keeps you good. Like, I mean, um. Um. I mean, I broke, you know, rib six, uh, weeks ago. Oh, shoot. That's all good.

Host: I heard that takes a while to heal.

Mauricio Umansky: Yeah, it's almost good. I broke my clavicle a year ago.

Host: What were you doing, like, soccer?

Mauricio Umansky: Well, the. The clavicle I broke, um, in playing skiing. I tried to do a little jump that was more than a little jump, but I missed it.

Host: That's why I don't ski.

Mauricio Umansky: Um, I love that. It's my favorite thing to do. And the. The, um. The ribs I broke in a fight club situation.

Host: Fight club. Um. Okay.

Mauricio Umansky: I took a punch to the ribs.

Host: Nice. Yeah. How was the other person better?

Mauricio Umansky: Uh, Than me. Okay. It was a big man.

Host: Really?

Mauricio Umansky: It was a big man. Six foot nine, 265 pounds. I'm, I'm not quite six one and I'm only, yeah, I was 65 pounds. Underdogs and I was, uh, a nine inch underdog.

Host: I mean, that's like taking, taking a bite out. Like Jake Paul, right? Like he fights people much bigger. So I, I appreciate it. Right. It's like you're, you're, you're going for the, you're not going for the title match, you're just going for the, the, I think they call it the badass belt.

Mauricio Umansky: Exactly.

Host: The badass belt. I've lost every fight I've been in, to be honest with you. You?

Mauricio Umansky: Yeah.

Host: Even when I tried to do martial arts, I got kicked in the face because I dropped. And I'm like, I'm not m. I'm not built for this.

Mauricio Umansky: You know, it takes a, It's a

Host: special, uh, thing in my head. You know, I am. I've asked this question to other people who've been on the show. There's. It's a two part question, but I'll ask the first part. What has been the price of success for you? Because every per. We've had, like you said, billionaires, crazy successful people like yourself, and it seems like there's always a certain price of success because people like you, people like us, we, it's like we can't stop. But unfortunately, it can come at a price. What has that been for you?

Mauricio Umansky: Uh, two. Two things. Number, um, one is a lot of my success has come because of reality television. I've used reality television in order to grow the agency, to grow my brand, to grow the company, to grow all of that stuff. The price of that has been losing privacy. And that's a huge price to pay. Um, you know, having a. I mean, I found a tracker, uh, from a paparazzi in my car. I'm like, how do they keep finding me? I went through my whole car, I found a tracker. I got like, okay, now I know they're finding me, right? Um, the, uh, you know, whenever you're at a restaurant, everybody with the cell phone is a paparazzi nowadays, right? And, uh, um, that cost of privacy is a huge sacrifice. A huge sacrifice. That's number one. Number two, when I started, uh, working, I had no money, I didn't have anything, and I had to work my butt off. And I've always been the hardest worker. You know, I'm the first one in the office, the last one to leave, um, my friendships, my friends, ah, was a huge sacrifice. You know, you only have 24 hours in the day, right. You need six to eight of those for sleeping. Right. Uh, depending on who you are. But you should sleep at least six, um, and then, you know, you need a few hours for yourself and for your family. And I have four daughters, four gorgeous daughters. I sacrificed my friends, um, and it was a huge sacrifice.

Host: Talking about the reality tv, knowing what you know now about that sacrifice. But at the same time, it's also what you're. To me, it sounds like it's also led you to, you know, a higher level of success, starting from literally zero. Would you do that same path again?

Mauricio Umansky: You know, I think about that all the time. And, um, I don't know. Um, there are days when I wake up and I say, yeah, I would do it all over again. And then there are other days, you know, that when I wake up and I'm like, it would have just been so nice to just, you know, be me, um, and not, you know, be judged and looked at and you know. But there's been a lot of benefits that have come from it. Um, I've gotten a chance to experience a lot of things. Not only success and money, but just different experiences, uh, that I've done in my life, uh, because of television. I change my answer on that every single day. And I think about it all the time. Um, I'll tell you what's hard and what drives me a little bit crazy is the fact that my kids, that I didn't give them that choice, they were on reality television as a result of the choice that Kyle and I made.

Host: Mhm.

Mauricio Umansky: And they never had the choice to make that decision for them. And that hurts me a little bit. Um, they're good kids and they're in good shape. I'm afraid of like, they're old, they're good. My youngest is graduating high school tomorrow.

Host: Congratulations.

Mauricio Umansky: Thank you. I'm super excited about that. Um, but it does hurt me that I didn't give them the choice. It was forced on them.

Host: If they had the choice, do you think they would, like, they would want the fame?

Mauricio Umansky: Um, I think I have four daughters and I'm gonna say that, um, two of them like it and two of them don't. I'm gonna go 50, 50 again. Look at this. It's ah, we keep getting that 50, 50 mark today. Yes.

Host: Uh, I, if somebody says like one bad. If I get one bad comment, it breaks me down. And my wife always yells at me, she's like, why do you care so much? I'm like, I don't know. I'm not sure why I care. Yeah, but I mean, I'm like very small. Like two people know me, like my wife knows me and then one other person knows me. That's.

Mauricio Umansky: So if it's one bad comment, it's coming from one of them.

Host: It could be 100% depending on know how she sees me in that day. Yeah.

Mauricio Umansky: Yeah.

Host: But for you, how do you handle that? Like you're saying you. Anywhere you go, you could be walking around. I mean, a tracker in your. Like that would drive me insane. How do you handle these comments? And do you think it's because there's a misconception about you?

Mauricio Umansky: Well, first of all, the way I handle the comments is, um, it's simple. It's. I, uh, I don't read them and I don't look at them and I don't give a. Um. Okay.

Host: That's that simple. I don't read them, I don't look at them, I don't give a. Okay. I'm gonna live by that.

Mauricio Umansky: It's very simple.

Host: Thank you.

Mauricio Umansky: The end of story, right? Um, yeah. I haven't looked at one comment in 20 years. I've not read my comments on anything in forever. Articles. Don't read the comments. Don't give it. Like I said, I don't give a.

Host: Okay. I've read some great comments about you.

Mauricio Umansky: Good.

Host: Just because you have. I'll read them for you.

Mauricio Umansky: Thank you.

Host: I'll filter and they've all. I read some great ones too, by the way.

Mauricio Umansky: Good.

Host: Um, so what is next for you? Right? You had the reality show over 5 billion in volume. You're opening up this organization. Where do you take the agency? Are you expanding to more countries, more places, more offices?

Mauricio Umansky: I want the agency to be a global brand and a global name. We're currently in 16 countries. I want to see us. You know, we still have a lot of expansion in Europe where we just opened up Italy. I'm super excited about that. Wow.

Host: Why Italy?

Mauricio Umansky: Sardinia for a spot. Luxury. Luxury locations. Sardinia. I mean, we need to hit all of Europe eventually. So, you know, Italy was just the next. The way we look at the way we open up is by. Is based on people. It's people first and then location. Right. So we look for the right people. Like for example, I'd love to open in London. I've been trying to open in London for 10 years. I just haven't found the right partner there yet. Um, and Believe me, there's tons of them. I just haven't found the right partner for me yet. Um, so, you know, the second we do, we will open London. I mean, that has to.

Host: What excites you about London?

Mauricio Umansky: Well, it's a financial capital of the world, right? I mean, you've got. You have certain financial capitals that you kind of need to be in today. You need to be in Dubai, you need to be in London. Uh, you need to be in New York, you know, Hong Kong. Um, I mean, there's just, you know, Singapore, whatever. There's just certain financial capitals, right, that are global. Um, and so I think that, you know, that's what the excitement part of it is. I mean, London is. Is a Mecca for, you know, finance and for people, you know, from all over the Middle east going there right now. Um, and, um, you know, you just need to be in London. Um, but right now in Europe, you know, we're in Spain and Portugal and Italy and, uh, Amsterdam. So we've got a lot of growth there. We just opened our first office in the Middle east in Saudi Arabia.

Host: Wow.

Mauricio Umansky: So I'm excited.

Host: There.

Mauricio Umansky: A lot of growth opportunities there. We've got some growth, you know, into Dubai and Qatar. I'm in the middle of that conversation I had this morning. Yep. Uh, closed. Closed, baby. Close it.

Host: Abc.

Mauricio Umansky: That's it.

Host: What's the first thing that you sold in life? In life, yeah. So, like, pizza. Pizza, yeah. Okay. If you could sell a pizza to me right now. No, um, you remember, sell this pen.

Mauricio Umansky: That's great. Yeah.

Host: They should have switched it to Sell me this pizza.

Mauricio Umansky: Sell me this pizza. I love it.

Host: That's it. Sell me this pizza.

Mauricio Umansky: Sell me this pizza.

Host: Well, okay.

Mauricio Umansky: You know, we're gonna starve you to death for the next, you know, six hours done.

Host: So I already bought it. What kind of pizza do you like to make? Or, uh, what is your favorite pizza to eat?

Mauricio Umansky: It's simple. It's. It's pepperoni and jalapeno.

Host: Pepperoni and jalapeno?

Mauricio Umansky: Yeah.

Host: Spicy.

Mauricio Umansky: Spicy. I'm a spicy guy.

Host: If you eat at, like, a Thai restaurant, what's your level? If the five being the spicy.

Mauricio Umansky: I like spicy five.

Host: Wow. Okay. We went to India. I had a hard time.

Mauricio Umansky: They like spices in India.

Host: I was like, negative spice. Sure.

Mauricio Umansky: Yeah.

Host: So I literally ate bread and. And desserts for a week.

Mauricio Umansky: They like spices in India. That must have been a fun trip. I've never been there.

Host: Yeah. Bangalore.

Mauricio Umansky: Yeah.

Host: Wild. It's like the tech capital of India.

Mauricio Umansky: Interesting.

Host: Highly recommend.

Mauricio Umansky: I gotta check that out. I was just in Malaysia a couple of weeks ago.

Host: How's Malaysia?

Mauricio Umansky: It was all right. It was cool.

Host: Yeah?

Mauricio Umansky: Yeah.

Host: Better than you like it. Uh, different than Singapore, I guess.

Mauricio Umansky: And, um. It was very different. Yeah. Very humid, very similar climate. Singapore.

Host: Oh, yeah. You were in Southeast Asia. I was also in Southeast Asia, but I was in the Philippines.

Mauricio Umansky: Gotcha.

Host: Which. Very hot.

Mauricio Umansky: Also hot, right?

Host: Extremely hot.

Mauricio Umansky: Yeah.

Host: Go to Manila and let me know. We. We have some real estate in the Philippines. Oh, I love that on the beach.

Mauricio Umansky: I hear the front beaches are beautiful.

Host: The best beaches in the world.

Mauricio Umansky: Yeah.

Host: Yeah.

Mauricio Umansky: I need to visit that too. They need so many places to visit in this world.

Host: I know. Final question is this. My wife and I wrote a book called Unlimited Possibilities. What it means is unlimited possibilities. Breaking through a barrier that you did not think was possible. What was an unlimited possibility moment for you? So that moment that you broke through a barrier that you didn't think was possible.

Mauricio Umansky: God, that's a great question. I can think of that from multiple facets, you know, whether it's just, you know, mentally. Self. You know, self. Um, me as a human. Right. Um. Or business wise. Right. Um, there's lots of barriers that, you know, that you break through in your life that make you who you are. Um, I would say reason. You know, I'll take it. I'll take a little more an intellectual approach on that versus just a straight up business approach, because I think I've done some incredible barriers in business. But, uh, recently I started journaling, which I never did that before. And I can tell you that one of the things that I always had a hard time m with is really understanding my emotions and understanding my feelings, and I had a hard time expressing them.

Host: Okay.

Mauricio Umansky: Um, and recently, through journaling, through journaling, um, I have learned how to start expressing my emotions, how to start expressing my feelings. Um, and I think that's a great breakthrough that has made me a much better man.

Host: I love that. I think that's. I think as I've gotten older, I've come to realize, like, emotions and, like, it's so important. I think as a man, when we're younger, it's like machismo. Like, we can't express our emotions, but then we realize, like, it's really important.

Mauricio Umansky: It's really important. Yeah.

Host: What. Maybe it makes us even more of a man.

Mauricio Umansky: I think it does, for sure. Well, it also makes you even. Even if it's for yourself to understand yourself a little bit better and to be able to improve as yourself to self improve yourself. Um, you know, the other thing that I've learned how to do, you know, is recently is how to be, um, how to be alone.

Host: Wow.

Mauricio Umansky: And that's a very interesting thing. I've never, you know, again with the shows, with reality, with, you know, having 4,000 people that work for me, etc, etc. I've never, you know, four kids, um, a wife, you know, I mean, I've never been alone. Um, and learning to be alone has been fantastic.

Host: Was it hard?

Mauricio Umansky: Yeah. But when I'm talking about alone, you know, when you go to a restaurant, you sit and you eat alone.

Host: Yeah.

Mauricio Umansky: And you look around, people eating alone, they're always on their phone. Yeah. Like, that's not being alone.

Host: Yeah. You're still connected.

Mauricio Umansky: You're connected.

Host: Yeah.

Mauricio Umansky: Like when I'm talking about being alone, like, I'm talking about like not reading is also not being alone.

Host: No silent, just silence.

Mauricio Umansky: Like being in your thoughts, being by yourself. Like, you know, making yourself laugh, telling yourself jokes, making yourself cry, telling yourself, you know, like all of these things. That's what, that's what being alone is really all about. Um, being creative, being, you know, how to, how to, you know, how to think about improving your business. How do you think about where you want to go? How do you think about, you know, what that next, you know, innovation is where, where is that creativity? That, to me is what happens when you're alone and you can actually do something like that. Right. When you're, when you're not in your own thoughts and you're distracted by whether it's a book, uh, a person, uh, your phone, you're not alone.

Host: I think it was Steve Jobs that would go. He'd go for like weeks in some house alone.

Mauricio Umansky: It's the best thing. I just spent seven days. I just spent seven days in the nature, um, in. In the jungle. Um, without, uh. And I. My phone stayed in the hotel in the, uh, in the, uh. I didn't even have it. Forget about not having, Forget about not having reception.

Host: Yeah. No phone.

Mauricio Umansky: It stayed home free. It stayed in the safe.

Host: Yeah.

Mauricio Umansky: Right. In the hotel, in the safe. Um, I kept the room.

Host: Yeah.

Mauricio Umansky: Even though I wasn't using it. I didn't know when I was going to leave. I'm like, if I ever need to get the out, I'm getting out. Um, but the phone stayed back.

Host: Wow. I think we all need that.

Mauricio Umansky: We all need.

Host: We're way too connected. It's too much. We're too plugged in. We're too connected. It's it's impacting our mental health, our mind. Like, it's. I don't know if social media will in the end be the worst thing for society and humanity or the best thing. I'm not sure yet. I'm still. I'm still 50, 50 right now, but I think. I think we're seeing younger generations now disconnecting or. Or finding a way to now disconnect from technology, which I think is great. I. I hope that everyone does. I love the journaling, but thank you so much, by the way, for joining us today. It wasn't too controversial?

Mauricio Umansky: No, we stayed away from controversy. I was.

Host: Something controversial. I can ask.

Mauricio Umansky: I don't know.

Host: We'll figure it out. But thank you.

Mauricio Umansky: I mean, Spencer Pratt, Karen Bass.

Host: Oh, wow.

Mauricio Umansky: That's controversial.

Host: That's contra. Who's gonna win?

Mauricio Umansky: Well, I mean, I don't know. There's a lot of controversy about, uh, whether the votes are even being counted properly. Right.

Host: Wow.

Mauricio Umansky: I don't know.

Host: Are they?

Mauricio Umansky: I have no idea. I wish I knew.

Host: I don't know either.

Mauricio Umansky: It's definitely a conspiracy, uh, though where, you know, so who knows? There you go.

Host: We got something in.

Mauricio Umansky: We got some controversy.

Host: Thank you so much for joining.

Mauricio Umansky: Thank you.