IG Live | How to Build Wealth in Uncertain Times: Government Auctions, Gold Investing & Inner Peace

Speaker A: Welcome to Thankful Thursday. We're here in Kalamazoo. That's not Kilimanjaro. Kalamazoo, Michigan. I want to thank everybody at the Ziggler Auto Group. What a fantastic group of people that we're best to be a part of. And we also thank Crash Champions for having us uh, there. Thank you both Ziggler Auto Group and Crash Champions. It's been an amazing trip on our way to Chicago so if you're there and then San Diego. We'll be in Las Vegas for season 11 of Office Hours. Join us there.

Speaker B: VIP dinners, holding court meet, uh up.

Speaker A: All of those different things are available. If you want to come to the 200 cities, if you want to come to the All Star Game, Fanatics Fest, the MFC Miami with Messi. If you want to come to the UK for a private member, Private investor mastermind Tim Story, me, Jason J. Abraham, Ray diamond in Newport Beach. All you got to do is join our text community to be invited and informed. Area code 949 pin right below 298 2905. We're gonna get right to it. Greg Barry is here to share with us. CEO and founder of Munich Bid

Speaker B: Options and how uh, they grew from zero sellers and zero bidders to over 7, 500 government sellers and million buyers. There we go. Hey Greg, how are you?

Speaker C: Uh, good afternoon.

Speaker B: I'm grateful. Here on Thankful Thursday. You know things happen very slowly then all of a sudden and with is it municipal bid or municipid? Like municipality M. Yeah, I figured municipal. You uh, have seen uh, the exact same uh, types of uh, growth in the 20 years going from zero to hero. As I say. How did that growth occur? What were the numbers like? Did it take many years before you got a two sided marketplace that was of great value or how long did it take to grow such an enormous audience with millions of buyers and 7,500 different government sellers.

Speaker C: Yeah, it uh, you know, so I launched the company in 2006 and uh, you know it, we had zero sellers, zero buyers. And so on the seller side, you know, we just kind of had to have some early uh, success and results and we were fortunate enough to do so. We kind of took those results to the next neighboring municipality. And then uh, you know it started to grow out a little bit at a time from there, uh, and it took about, I would say about five years until it really got truly rocking and rolling to the point where uh, you know we started seeing you know, sort of um, sort of growth on its own. Um, where we started getting a lot more referrals from one agency referring us uh, to another and so forth. So yeah, it definitely was a slow, slow, slow go to start for sure.

Speaker B: Yeah, you gotta first get people to buy from you and then people to sell for you, uh, which takes a long time. Did you ever want to quit?

Speaker C: No, uh, there was never a time where I thought I would quit. Uh, when I started the company I thought maybe I would be doing it for about 5 years. Here we are 20 years in uh. I don't think I was expecting it to take as long as it did to really get going. Um, and now to this day I'm really surprised. But we continue to welcome, uh, over 500 governments every year to municipal. Still it's pretty wild.

Speaker B: What types of things are in the government surplus and uh, what are some of the more interesting things that are being sold?

Speaker C: Yeah, so a lot of the items that are sold are uh, items are. Pretty much all the items that are sold on Municipit are items that a government purchased, used, no longer need. So it's ah, you know, uh, vehicles such as old police cars, ambulances, fire trucks, uh, public works equipment like dump trucks and backhoes. We see a lot of that street, uh, graders, uh, and then it equipment. We also serve schools so we see a lot of cafeteria equipment, gym equipment. And so it, you know, it really does run the gamut as far as items. And then there are forfeited items, uh, from criminal investigations. So we will from time to time get you know, uh, jewelry or uh, you know, fancy sports cars and things like that. But for the most part, I would say 90% of the items sold on municipal are things governments use and now look no longer have a need for.

Speaker B: And what type of lessons have you learned along the way?

Speaker C: Oh, uh, so many, uh, it's been

Speaker B: really, it's been really dummy tax. I call it dummy tax in a municipal terms.

Speaker C: Totally. You know, patience is kind of one of those. So when I started municipal, I was on a town council, which is how I came up with the idea for municipal. So I saw how uh, we were having trouble selling items for a true market value. For example, uh, we were sitting on a town council meeting and we were selling a used police car. It sold for $300. The blue book value was 3,000. And literally the next agenda item were arguing over a thousand dollars. And I'm like, wait a second, we just gave away three grand. I saw, you know, I noticed that a lot of other governments were having the same issue and you know, it was a problem. You know, I'm kind of, I've been a lifelong entrepreneur and I felt like this problem really needed to be solved. So I set out to do it. Uh, but of course being on uh, a town council, you know, that was a great experience in itself. I was 25, uh, when I, when I ran in one. And uh, so from 25 to basically 30 I was on uh, the council. And yeah, just, just a ton of different experience with dealing, um, with the media, uh, you know, with residents and taxpayers, what their kind of demands are and then you know, taking a lot of those lessons into Municipid, which is my second company. I had an IT company prior, prior

Speaker B: to this and just to finish up, you know, we've done these lessons. Lessons keep on coming to you. Learn it. Things happen very slowly. Then all of a sud, now you're there. So when you get there, the most critical question is where do you go from here? So now you were looking at a five year exit. What has changed? Where are you going to go from here?

Speaker C: Yeah, I mean honestly I don't even feel like we're there. I feel, you know, we just celebrated our 20th anniversary and I, I truly feel like we're just getting started. Like we, we have so much great momentum uh, that you know, is continuing to build. Uh, and yeah, I don't think I would have expected that you know, 15 years ago or 20 years ago especially.

Speaker B: Awesome. Well if you want to get some great stuff at a great price that things that you municipalities utilize, go to Municipid at municipid on Instagram, municipid.com and ask personally. Greg Barry would be happy to help you. He's an extraordinary entrepreneur. CEO and founder meeting us a bid. Thanks for joining us. We'll have you on our other shows and hopefully we'll see you at the All Star Game or coming to Pennsylvania. Uh, so awesome invite, would love to see you.

Speaker C: Sounds good. Thank you so much for having me.

Speaker B: Have a great job. Greg. What a great entrepreneur. Typical, but atypical in its story. 20 year success, 20 year overnight success. How do you like that? Uh, anyways, we're rocking and rolling. We're here. I want to thank again our friends here in Kalamazoo, Michigan, the Ziggler Auto Group, as well as our friends that exist in our Louisville friends, uh, that were there from Chicago, the unbelievable Crash champions. We're on our way to Chicago right now. So we're going to be there or San Diego or Vegas. But also I mentioned the All Star Game for Beach Mastermind. Uh, we have the Fanatics Fest. We have the FC Miami. We have uh, UK and London and Mayfair. For a private member, just reach out to us. David Means, Beloved AT D. My first initial Meltzer, Mean Servant. We're uh, looking for our next friends here. We'll take a quick question, uh, that we have coming up. I want to thank everybody. What inspired you to start doing community meetups? Um, well, first, just to be productive, aligned with my mission of helping over a billion people be happy. So I put out there one time when I had an extra hour. Anybody that needs help, come, I'll help you. And two people showed up and it was such a rewarding, fulfilling and joyous occasion that I continue to do it in over 200 cities a year. And uh, we are to be doing meetups, holding courts, VIP dinners for charity. We, uh, have. Damon Samuelson is here, Founder, president and American Gold Exchange. If you haven't seen what gold's doing lately, you haven't been making any money. Uh, so we want to talk about, uh, what's going on with gold and connecting the dots. Uh, here he is, Dana Samuelson. Dana, thank you for joining us.

Speaker D: Hi David. Thanks for having me.

Speaker B: Exciting. And I've been approached on so many different aspects of gold and uh, I've been a, uh, consistent believer in gold and consistent over the years of gold and has extremely well recently. So let's start. You know why gold went on, you know, such a boom?

Speaker D: Well, we had a confluence of events last year that led to the biggest rally we've seen in the market in 30 years since, uh, actually 40 years, since the 70s. Um, President Trump's tariffs have a lot to do with it, uh, because he disrupted the global order through the tariffs and the uncertainty that they created. Uh, and last April he tariffed India, I'm sorry, He tariffed China 145% when he reduced tariffs on everyone else. And the Chinese went on a gold buying spree, uh, that drove the price up $500 to almost $4,000 an ounce. And then he did the same thing to India in, um, August, tariffing them 50% for buying Russian oil, supporting the war against Ukraine. And, uh, Indians went on a silver buying spree. And then we got into a fear of missing out rally where the market just got turbocharged. Now I've been in the markets for 46 years and for 45 of them you could say gold and people would go, what? And last year you could hardly go on any financial channel and not hear the word gold 60 times in 60 minutes. Uh, so, uh, you know, now we're in a corrective phase and the markets are settling back down, trying to find fair value, which I think is about 4,000 to 4,500 for gold and for silver, probably 60 to $65.

Speaker B: What impact does the fractionalization take now that people can leverage fractional ownership in a gold bar? In gold in general, uh, is it having a sustainable impact on gold?

Speaker D: Well, the tokenization of gold kind of violates the reason you want to have gold to start with, which is gold has no counterparty risk. Uh, when you hold gold, you hold a financial asset outside of the system, outside of the dollar, outside of the banking system. And gold has no counterparty risk because its value is not contingent upon another party to a transaction performing. Um, and when you've tokenized it, you introduce counterparty risk. So uh, as the price goes higher, it will come into play more. But that is just starting to really, to ramp up a bit. I'm also a rare coin dealer and we're starting to see million dollar plus rare coins be tokenized, uh, a bit, which I think is some more interesting, you know, uh, commodity.

Speaker B: All collectibles. Yes. I mean I'm in the sports business, so it's identical to the rare coin business or any other collectible business. What a fabulous opportunity for people to uh, be able to create liquidity as well as interest in these uh, extraordinary collectibles. I find it fascinating as well. Um, and for you, you've been involved in gold for how long?

Speaker D: I got in at the tail market of the last of the First Bull Market, 1980. So I'm in my 46th year. I got a little snow on the mountaintop, as I like to say.

Speaker B: Yeah, grass doesn't grow on a busy street, that's for sure. At least it gets worn down into grayness. And I'm 58 years old, so I, I get it. And I, you know, just, uh, spoke at the auto group a few hours ago and you know, they bring up, oh, you know, used to run the most notable sports agency in the world. They made the movie Jerry Maguire about, uh, his firm and half the kids in the auto group are looking at me like I've never heard of that movie, you know, and then they're super surprised that Tom Cruise was in it and M. Cuba, all the famous people, Renee Zellweger, etc and Cuba Gooding Jr. So.

Speaker D: So they weren't showing you, they weren't showing you the money.

Speaker B: I saw that coming. No. And I didn't have them at hello either. Uh, but more importantly, uh, to finish up, where do you think gold is going now? It's had such a great run. It is settling down. But in the long term because of the changes that occur, I really find that gold's a better investment than ever.

Speaker D: Yeah, the trend is your friend. And the longer term trend is higher. We're just in a corrective phase right now because we got a little far over our skis last year. Um, the real crux is the growing debt that the financial system has in it. The US government debt. We're going to hit 40 trillion any second now and go higher. Plus inflation, Rob's purchasing power, and gold's really a great way to hold a value that will help to compensate for that. Central banks have been buying gold like crazy since we weaponized the dollar. So these three factors are going to help to push gold higher. I think we'll see gold eventually break 5,000 into 6,000, maybe $7,000 range in the next couple of years. Uh, some big financial houses say we still could get to 6,300 this year, which might be a little aggressive now with the correction that we're in. But I do think uh, most years Gold averages about 8,9% a year Average price gain, uh, due to inflation and loss of purchasing power. So I think we'll probably revert to more normal gains once we get this correction over. After a 75% gain last year.

Speaker B: Yeah. What about silver?

Speaker D: Uh, silver is ah, a bit more sensitive to the uh, economic environment because it's used more and more heavily in um, industry. And silver is a byproduct of mining other metals. So when silver um, demand ramps up, there's not an easy way to produce more of it and there's not a lot of it available in supplies. Like central banks own a lot of gold that can be borrowed or leased if you need it. So silver, you know, could easily go over a hundred dollars an ounce. It's about $65 an ounce today. But uh, that would be in a pretty hot market. We did pierce that for a brief period of time in January this year. But, but the fundamentals for silver are really strong and I do think, but uh, it's more volatile, it has more price volatility uh, than gold does because it's a smaller market and it can be bullied a bit more. But I do think silver is eventually going to go over 100, probably closer to $120 an ounce in the next couple of years.

Speaker B: Uh, both are a Great way to provide stability, security, and diversify your portfolio in historic winner is gold and silver. And the trend is that it's going to be even a bigger winner than it's been on average. Uh, and it's a unique stable coin. The real stable coin is gold and silver. Founder and president at American Gold exchange. Go to americold.com to learn more. You can secure your future with gold and silver. Thank you so much, Dana. We invite you back to our other shows. We appreciate you.

Speaker D: Thanks, David. I'm a big fan. Thanks for having me.

Speaker B: We'll have you back. Thank you. Awesome. It's nice. You know who holds the gold. That's what I say. All right. Uh, that's right, whoever has the power. Let's bring our last friend on here for today's thankful Thursday. Evelyn has been waiting patiently in the green room. Uh, we're blessed to have Evelyn here with us. Evelyn Elpie. Uh, Afia. There she is. Hi, Evelyn.

Speaker E: Hi, how are you?

Speaker B: I am super excited and I love, love, I repeat, love the title of your book. I get shit for having my book named don't do.

Speaker E: I love yours. Thank you.

Speaker B: I finally learned how to sell a book, but Mindless as fuck. The no BS Survival Guide to Inner Peace and Outer Power. Um, this is awesome. A, uh, self help book that is more gangster related. I love it. Give me some ideas. What inspired you to create this unbelievable, unbelievable, uh, guy that really would relate to people today without the woo woo bullshit behind it.

Speaker E: Exactly. So I'm a chef, first of all. I have a potty mouth. I teach meditation. I've, I've studied in India, I've lived in ashrams. But I'm a chef. And you know, and sometimes chefs are notorious for being dicks. I mean, really, we have no choice. But about a decade ago, I had this profound spiritual, um, I would call it an awakening. And no one in my community knew what had happened. And they come from very traditional, right. I had a very traditional Christian background. And so I went to the East, I moved to Greece. And I really wanted to understand

Speaker D: how

Speaker E: I now viewed reality myself, my soul, my purpose. And so I went exploring. I shut down my catering company, I went all over. And then I had to come back to the kitchen. And, you know, it's all love and light when you're on an ashra. But when you have a dinner party that goes from four people sit down to 20 in an hour. Gratitude, you know, oh, I'm so grateful for this. Money kind of goes out the window. So for Me, I needed to understand the mechanics of the practices, why they work. Not necessarily because I wanted to be a better person to start, but how can I use this as medicine to help my nervous system? Uh, and that's the whole point. Gratitude helps balance the nervous system. It steps down my fight or flight. It allows me, as a side effect, to not be a, uh, horrible person. But that was the point of the book. It was, it's all lovely when you're on vacation, but we have real jobs. I work five days a week. I worked, I cooked all day today, since I was in the kitchen all morning, I rushed over here, threw some makeup on. And the point is, but I understand that I need to do a short breath practice so I can calm my nervous system, reduce the cortisol. And the book came about kind of like, I didn't even intend to write this as a book. It was a lot of side eye, a lot of eye rolls while journeying through Asia, watching a lot of westerners chase enlightenment. And I'm from the Caribbean, I'm a Caribbean American. Watching people walk, bare feet and cow dung like this makes no sense. Being in an ashram where I couldn't get liquor. So I literally had to bribe a priest to get me to a place I could buy wine because I was about to have a meltdown in the heat. And for me it's like, but the practices work. And I don't come after the practices in the book. The book is part memoir. It's very raw, it's very irreverent, but it has a lot of science backed tools. And the word, when people look at the word mindless, I get this a lot. Why did you name your book Mindless? I'm like, it doesn't mean dumb, you idiots. It doesn't mean brainless. But I study the brain a lot. I'm a bit of an autodidact. I love research. And the brain is always scanning for patterns. And 99% of the times when we use the word full that we add to the end of mind. And to make up the word mindful, 99% of the time the brain is registering, that is getting the signal at, uh, capacity. Except this one time, we expect the brain to go, oh, wait, it means to empty the brain doesn't work like that. So I think most of us are not bad at meditation. We're just using a word that's signaling to our nervous system and giving it the wrong instructions. So mindless means less noise, less racing thoughts, less chaos, and just more space to Be present, to be calm and to make decisions that can help us, uh, stay stable in our lives, to be kinder. Not because. So, for example, even for. I love your book, by the way. I love your book. I cannot believe I just discovered it because I thought, I think we're saying the same thing, but I'm saying it with a chef's potty mouth. And you're the nice guy. You know, I'm a nice.

Speaker B: Thank you.

Speaker E: I'm a nice person. But my book starts, you're a potty mouth. I have a potty mop. And the introduction of my book starts with, people are awful. You know, but the point is, it's that, uh, I tell people I forgive because a, I want to remove all of that stuck energy and blockages in my fascia, in my organs, in my muscles, and I want to untag myself from somebody else's bs and so I forgive for my health. And it just so happens the beautiful side effect is it makes you a better human, it makes you more tolerant, it makes you more open. So the book really just meets everyone where they are. It's just, I mean, I wrote it for myself because I was sick of the mindfulness industrial complex trying to make everything perfect and woo woo. It does have a lot of. It has some things that are woo woo on purpose. But uh, the foundation of it is science. The foundation of it are the universal principles like polarity, where you can meet yourself, where you are, have a glass of wine. I call wine my liquid meditation. Jesus turned white water into wine for a reason. And so for whoever, if somebody picks up the book, I think if they have a job, if they have an ex, if they have bills and they're still looking for solutions that work, I think the book will help them and they will laugh through the whole faith.

Speaker B: Yeah, it's a different take to Michael Singer. That's uh, for sure.

Speaker E: Yeah.

Speaker B: Tether our wisdom, soul surrendering. Uh, I love it. And it has a great, uh, raw essence to it, which is a frequency that will resonate with a lot of people because of the reality of the rawness and even the, the language. I do a lot of work with Jack Canfield and he always says the most intelligent people have potty mouths. So don't be ashamed or ashamed.

Speaker E: I embrace it. And I also study language is my happy place. So we have such a mismatch of language and English is such a dumbed down language. And coming from the Caribbean, I kind of like, I curse kind of, um, on purpose. First of all, it releases so much stuck energy for me. But also it's kind of like, you know what? This is such a hodgepodge language. I have a huge dictionary of slang. That's one of my favorite books. And I mean, it's like, you know, it's my piece, it makes me happy, it adds spice to my language, to what I, to my everyday conversations. But it's not for everyone. And that's okay. Get another book. It's not for everyone.

Speaker B: It's so beautiful, right? And I'd rather, uh, have things that resonate and truly amplify me than trying to worry about what other people think of me as. You know, and we share so many of the same philosophies. Everybody uses a different frequency.

Speaker E: I sent your book to some of my friends going, oh my God, this book is so good. And um, I love the title. I was like, okay, this, we were separated at birth. This book.

Speaker B: Yes, sir, you just gotta love that

Speaker E: you work with entrepreneurs. I have worked for a lot of my career with like high performing, like top facing public profiles and people that work that are leaders in their industry. And you know, it's like I have to be myself, otherwise I couldn't sustain a career. I've been a private chef for almost 30 years for those people and being able to be me and honest about my humanity. And I think that's for all of us. We're so, we're in a world right now where to be human. People usually say, oh, I'm just being human. And I'd say to them, no, think about that for a second. That is one of the most powerful superpowers and that to be fully human, a full spectrum human, means embracing all aspects, all of the polarities, meeting yourself exactly where you are and understanding the physics and the science of your emotions and express yourself without hurting yourself and others. But be honest, because with AI here and all the, apparently the aliens that are supposedly coming, if we don't start embracing our humanity and understanding it is a superpower, I don't think we'll make it.

Speaker B: Uh, well, technology to me has always been something that makes humans more human. And I've stuck to that.

Speaker E: And I love technology too.

Speaker B: Yeah. My intention on the coincidences I desire. So you and I share that. Well, I need to leave for airplane. Promise me you'll come on my other shows down in Florida. We'll be in a little south of you, but uh, down in Miami for Miami FC game with Messi. Uh, but we're going to invite you, not obligate you to a whole bunch of fun things because my community of millions needs more of Evelyn. Evelyn Alfea. Thank you so much. Go buy the book. It'll blow you away. Mindless as. Thank you so much. I love the new BS side of you.

Speaker E: Looking forward to seeing you again. Bye.

Speaker B: You're invited. You're invited. Thank you. She's amazing. What a great energy and soul. So we got to jump on an airplane right here in Kalamazoo on the way to Chicago, then San Diego. Come and meet us. We'll be in Vegas at the Wynn in the lobby, VIP dinner for charity, meetups, holding courts, interviews, season 11 of Office Hours. Then we'll be in Newport beach with Tim Story, Jay Abraham, and, uh, Marie Diamond. Come see us. Just come to the all star game. Come to the, um, fanatics. Press stuff that we're doing. Come to London, uh, uh, with a private member group. Come see us davidmouser.com or join our text community. Stay informed. Stay invited. 949-298-2905 Remember, most importantly, be more interested and interesting. Be kind, um, to yourself and do good deeds. We'll see you tomorrow. Be thankful on every Thursday.