Business News and Other Sh!t

Besides having the same name, what do an Hermes Birkin bag and Helen Berkun have in common? They both have game in the world of influence.

SHOW HIGHLIGHTS:

1:21: Helen’s Cultural Background+ why is Ukraine always involved in US politics?

4:28: Helen Using Her Expertise in Fashion to Start a Business

9:29: Helen Starting her career

16:00: Helen getting into influencing

21:57: how does Helen use her platform to positively influence her follower’s life

32:40: Helen’s Background in Editorial Work

36:40: Turning Influencing into A Business

42:00: Hustler Mentality

47:05: Making it on Instagram

49:57: Where you can follow Helen!

#95: Recession is HERE! How to *Be Ready* with Recession Expert Jon Slain

SHOW HIGHLIGHTS:

1:00 "Deep Work" by Cal Newport - how Jon unplugs to actually "think" 

15:20 What Jon learned speaking to people from 2008 crisis that made out big

26:00 Why very few people on unemployment won't be going back to work anytime soon

43:00 VR headsets; VR conferences; VR personal training - lots is here to stay

49:50 Why Jon thinks we will NOT go back to normal as fast as China has

58:00 Jon's 20 question survey to check how well you're positioned for the next recession

Jon Slain - connect on social:

Former CPD undercover prostitute.

Make sure to also check out my main dude Vik Pandya (@vpcomedy and http://www.teamuscomedy.com/vik). This brother is killin it in the stand up scene - last year, his comedy album 'Friends With 401(k) Benefits' debuted #1 on iTunes & Top 10 on the Billboard Charts!

1:00 Adapt or die: finding new ways to be funny when stand-up is not an option   

09:30 Humor research and why we need comedy now, more than ever   

16:15 How to bring humor into the workplace   

19:30 Operation Angel: Karen’s time as an undercover “prostitute” for the Chicago PD   

40:30 Benefits of humor in the workplace    52:30 Humor as a coping mechanism   

1:00:00 How humor leads to critical innovation in business 

Connect with Amer and BNOS: Visit the BNOS Website: http://amerabdullah.com/ Like BNOS on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/businessnewsandothershit Follow BNOS on Twitter: https://twitter.com/theamerabdullah Follow BNOS on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/theamerabdullah Subscribe on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCUV4hDV5i4o0wHHydh6RcCA?view_as=subscriber

What happens when a right-wing Jewish Trump supporter and a left-leaning Palestinian Bernie fan get into the same restaurant back stockroom? Fireworks, baby! Episode 93 of Business News and Other Sh!t. What's up, y'all? We had Howard Weitzman. This dude is a big-time real estate dude here in Chicago. Yeah, we talked a lot of good businesses.

By the end of it, this dude walked us through one of his largest and wildest deals. He did a 320-unit building. It was an old freezer building that he converted into lofts, and he had to go through a whole lot of hoops, especially with the government, to make that happen.

But before we got to that, this dude was talking some crazy-ass shit. What was he saying? I brought up the whole Tree of Life Pittsburgh synagogue shooting. I was like, "Yo, how can you support Trump, dude?" And he was blaming the synagogue and saying they should have had security. I'm like, "Dude, you're crazy, man." We didn't disagree on everything though. A lot of Palestine/Israel stuff we disagree on, of course, but we did agree on work ethic and how his dad raised him and how my dad raised me. We did agree on how politics is full of a bunch of bullsh!t. And we did agree on real estate and how to make smart moves.

Ready for some fireworks? You're gonna enjoy this one. Then sit back, relax, and enjoy the episode y'all. Peace!

2:17 Bernie Sanders and President Trump

14:34 Leadership of the country affects behavior of public

22:51 Howard’s biggest deal & the work ethic he was raised with

30:22 Amer & Howard’s background

52:22 How being a Mason has helped Howard in real estate

58:22 Real estate lesson

1:00:20 Howard’s favorite real estate deal

Connect with Amer and BNOS: 

Visit the BNOS Website: http://amerabdullah.com/ 

Like BNOS on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/businessnewsandothershit 

Follow BNOS on Twitter: https://twitter.com/theamerabdullah 

Follow BNOS on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/theamerabdullah 

Subscribe on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCUV4hDV5i4o0wHHydh6RcCA?view_as=subscriber

Wazzup, wazzup listeners, episode 91, BNOS. We march towards 100 episodes. We had a top real-estate salesman, name’s James Sheehan (https://www.linkedin.com/in/jsheehanrealestate/). Good old Irish boy. This dude’s done 80 million dollars since he started in real estate, which was only seven years ago. So the dude is hittin’ it. Former grain trader, economics pro, so kind of a different real estate sales guy, he knows his sh!t.

This dude’s advice to us is: "if you’re gonna buy, wait until right before the election." Because he thinks real estate markets are gonna take a little bit of a dip around that time. Everyone gettin’ afraid and skittish ahead of time. So he goes into detail around that, listen in to make sure you understand why he’s making that prediction.

This dude’s also a Certified Negotiation Expert, C-N-E. That’s right, if you get into a hostage situation, call James Sheehan, your Irish negotiation expert. This dude is a pro, he gave us a whole bunch of tips when it comes to negotiating whether it's in a real estate deal, or any other kind of deal. So sit back, relax, enjoy the episode, and learn about real estate with James.

Peace!

1:20 Network for its own sake

5:33 Why to buy right before the election

13:22 Talk to people who’ve been there, done that

17:03 The fightin’ Irish - get schooled on race and real estate

19:25 Property flipping 101

32:32 How a day job can actually help you succeed at your side hustle

40:48 Crash course in Real Estate negotiations

47:55 Chicago Real Estate predictions

Connect with Amer and BNOS:

Visit the BNOS Website: http://amerabdullah.com/

Like BNOS on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/businessnewsandothershit

Follow BNOS on Twitter: https://twitter.com/theamerabdullah

Follow BNOS on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/theamerabdullah

Subscribe on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCUV4hDV5i4o0wHHydh6RcCA?view_as=subscriber

We had Diarmuid Horan (https://www.lifelonglifestyles.com/) on today. This dude is an Irish gangster. Not literally, but he is a professional hurler. It’s a sport in Ireland that’s a cross between field hockey and lacrosse. He’s a diet and lifestyle professional. So the guy knows his stuff. One of the calmest -- no, THE calmest guy we’ve ever had on. And also has amazing eye contact. And he still owns a coffee roaster called Sputnik Coffee. So he goes into the entrepreneurial story of how they literally went to Ohio, bought a coffee roaster, brought it over, and so on. But then he was starting to burn out, so he went back to the diet and lifestyle world, and his whole thing now is mentoring other people and coaching them on not burning out. Being able to manage stress and take on more and more pressure in life and thrive at it. Imagine the most difficult time in your life, but you’re still smiling. This dude’s a coach at that. It’s amazing.

So sit back, relax, and enjoy Diarmuid. Peace!

4:00 Making mindfulness meditation part of your routine

13:09 Sports as emotional outlet

23:32 Hurling into entrepreneurship

27:00 Sputnik Coffee: a roaster with just one blend

32:30 The story of Sputnik

46:45 The transition back to health and wellness

58:48 Better to have a coach than a guru

1:08:15 The lifestyle big 4: diet, exercise, stress management, and sleep

Connect with Amer and BNOS:

Visit the BNOS Website: http://amerabdullah.com/

Like BNOS on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/businessnewsandothershit

Follow BNOS on Twitter: https://twitter.com/theamerabdullah

Follow BNOS on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/theamerabdullah

Subscribe on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCUV4hDV5i4o0wHHydh6RcCA?view_as=subscriber

What’s up y’all? Episode number eighty-nine. We doin’ it baby: Business News, Other Shit. Thank you all for listening in. We had a couple guys on today besides our bad boy John Dolder, we had Quinton James, and Dan Baker, comedian and fellow improv teammate.

Quinton James (https://www.truementors.com/), this dude grew up in the wild, wild hundreds. And if you’re not from Chicago, let me tell you about the wild, wild hundreds. They are pretty wild. So this dude is kind of a wonderful story of coming up from a difficult background from where he grew up and now runs his own organization called True Mentors. This dude believes and explains how your network is your net worth. For real. He sets up mentors with mentees. Quinton James dropped some serious bombs on us. He distinguished between stress vs. pressure. It was super interesting and how stress is really driven by a negative mindset, while pressure’s actually a good thing, and you can use a positive mindset to really benefit from pressure. That was cool, make sure you tune in and listen to that.

And don’t forget, we tape from the stockroom of Cedars (http://www.eatcedars.com/), the restaurant I own. Come check us out y’all! Valentine’s Day’s coming up. Thursday, Friday we’re gonna have our new menu. You gotta check us out on Valentine’s Day. And then the all star weekend for hoops, we have the all star game in Chicago coming up next week. We’re gonna do a Kobe day here on Saturday and Sunday, Kobe Bryant and Gigi Bryant, may God rest their souls. Free dessert for your table. Roll through, wear your Kobe jersey or Kobe gear, and you get free dessert for your table.

Sit back, relax, tune in and enjoy the episode. Peace!

3:50 Growing up entrepreneurial in Chicago

9:00 Quinton’s journey

19:57 Digital advertising comes of age (content is still king)

24:20 True Mentors

25:53 Mentorship Vs. Coaching

35:20 Stress vs. pressure & the true nature of leadership

37:58 Visionary vs leader vs quack

40:35 High risk = high reward

42:30 Servitude is leadership

43:50 The True Mentors model: buy-in from both sides

53:00 Risk tolerance goes down as your responsibility goes up

1:04:06 Passion vs. Excitement

1:13:15 Quinton’s Secret to Work/Life Balance

Connect with Amer and BNOS:

Visit the BNOS Website: http://amerabdullah.com/

Like BNOS on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/businessnewsandothershit

Follow BNOS on Twitter: https://twitter.com/theamerabdullah

Follow BNOS on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/theamerabdullah

Subscribe on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCUV4hDV5i4o0wHHydh6RcCA?view_as=subscriber

We had Danielle Pierce on this episode. She is a real estate wealth strategist. Check her out: http://daniellepierce.com/. We taped again from my new restaurant, Cedar's. Come on by -- we’ve got some cool stuff, like Middle Eastern fried chicken and Middle Eastern fish and chips. You're going to love it. Say "What's up!" if you see me as well! Danielle Pierce -- she's cool. You don't need to be a real estate broker to make money in real estate. There are other ways, and she broke down for us how to make money by becoming a repair and maintenance person for foreclosed properties. She basically works from her computer, anywhere she wants to, by hiring contractors to go fix houses for banks that have foreclosed on houses. She also talked about making money through tax liens, and how she basically will buy properties on the cheap for $1,000 or $2,000, and then later on, sell them for double or triple, if not even more.  The hardest part about all of this? Dealing with contractors. She's figured out some tricks and secrets after doing this for almost 10 years.  She was super cool and super smart. She's based out of Texas now, but she is a coach for wealth strategy when it comes to real estate. She's going to walk you step-by-step through an eight-week course she runs so you can make money by managing contractors for repair maintenance on foreclosed houses. And she can coach you on being a tax lien investor, where you can simply use $1,000-$3,000 to buy a property that has been delinquent on its taxes and the government now owns. And man, she has some crazy stories about contractors and tax liens!  You're going to learn a ton about how she does this and how you can do it too!  So sit back, relax, and enjoy the episode. Peace. 1:15 Amer’s background in investment banking 2:15 Danielle’s background in accounting & move to entrepreneurship 8:15 What it means to be a real estate wealth strategist (without selling anything) 9:20 Repairs & maintenance on foreclosed properties 10:58 Best coaching success story 13:39 Time investment to repair properties 15:42 Setting up LLC 17:11 Getting insurance for their business & applying to get work 19:19 Leaving corporate world because too high-strung & worried about rules 22:14 Comfort of staying in an 8-5 job for 20 years 24:07 Cost on insurance for their business 24:45 Connecting people to companies to get jobs & how to fill out applications 25:27 90-day average to get first job 26:11 What first contracts are like (story about frozen house) 29:10 Deciding how much to charge 33:09 How the couple made $248,000 in a year 34:31 Typical profit margin 35:34 Contractors are one of the hardest parts 38:27 Cauliflower couscous tangent 40:53 Using Indeed to find new contractors 42:16 How to learn more about Danielle and her services 44:24 Tax lien investing 49:30 Best tax lien from someone Danielle coached 52:00 Wrap up/summary starts - Danielle’s 8-week coaching program overview and cost Connect with Amer and BNOS: Visit the BNOS Website: http://amerabdullah.com/ Follow BNOS on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/theamerabdullah Subscribe on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCUV4hDV5i4o0wHHydh6RcCA?view_as=subscriber Follow BNOS on Twitter: https://twitter.com/theamerabdullah