Daniel Marcos | Dotcom Riches, Rebounding from Failures, and Partnering with your Mentors

John Corcoran  4:00  

Your parents encouraged this that they liked the idea of you starting business at eight.

Daniel Marcos  4:05  

Yeah. So my my family. In Mexico, most of my parents and courses are being entrepreneurs. So they already had the entrepreneurial bug. And when their kids out to be entrepreneurs, I was like, okay, go and do it. Instead of being watching TV for five hours a day, I was cleaning fishing tanks, five hours. Wow. That was better entertainment and learning.

John Corcoran  4:31  

And you started other businesses too. So you move on and you start t shirts,

Daniel Marcos  4:36  

I did stamps. We did everything between between my eight and my probably 16 or so I did like four or five things. I always was look was looking to make money. And and mostly be entertained be. I was really, I was really bored all the time, just being in the house, watching TV and all that. So I want to be outside. So whatever I could find that it will make To me, that’s what I want to do. And I like businesses. So I started to really young, doing everything that I could to make money and just have fun. And I lost money and all of them.

John Corcoran  5:09  

You lost money and all that.

Daniel Marcos  5:11  

When I was young. I mean all the things that I had. Wow.

John Corcoran  5:14  

Wow. Well, probably important lessons that you bring to today. Do you think that any of those lessons inform what you did once you became an adult?

Daniel Marcos  5:24  

Oh, yeah. Many. It’s, it’s, it’s interesting, because you think that you’re not learning. But you learned a lot, you learn a lot about discipline, and you learn a lot about marketing. And you know, if you don’t sell, nothing happens, so you’re not afraid of going and knocking doors. So there’s a lot of small things that make a big difference when you’re older. If you were able to develop those kinds of things when you were young

John Corcoran  5:49  

entrepreneurs in the family did they did you learn a lot from them?

Daniel Marcos  5:53  

So I quick story. My father worked in government all his life. My mom has some stores for some time with my father sisters. So in on Christmas, and they were selling gifts and stuffs on Christmas. I remember I worked every Christmas until like six or seven. Because there were still people buying things that we had to wrap stuff. But my mom had several stores for many, many years. Were very successful. But so we are immigrants from Mexico, Hong Kong from Palestina and most of the Arab world. So Mexico, we have a lot of immigration like the US. We had a lot of Jewish community. We have a lot of people from from the Arab world, but I am a like a fourth generation already Mexican. But all my family because they couldn’t get a job and they had no history in the country. They’ll have to become entrepreneurs. So all my uncle’s grandfather causes everyone was in trouble. And that’s the way was done back then. So all my uncle’s had restaurants, they had shot, they build, like clothing, construction, all kinds of things. So I remember I was in Christmas. One day after my mom soccer stores, were now in an uncle’s house, celebrating Christmas. And my father, two or three hours before going dinner Christmas Day. He said, Hey, I need to go back to Mexico City. And also what do you mean? I said, Well, my boss called me. So my father at that moment was working government, pretty high level executive in government in Mexico. And the President needed to do something urgent Something happened in the country. And my father was called on Christmas three hours before dinner. And I remember I was really mad because I saw my uncle’s having fun with their kids and, and my father was the only grown up was not there. And I said, What’s the difference? And my mom said, Well, your father has a boss and all your uncle’s, his own boss, their own their own business, and all that, what’s that? And that’s when she explained the difference. And and I saw that every time we were we were my all my cousins. My cost is always had more money than us. Like, like if they gave me $10 to do whatever they give him 15 or 20. Just my phone was a government employee. He didn’t make that much money. So that’s that was our budget. And they saw my uncle’s making much more money on their kids having more freedom, and they will spend more time together. So for me that was that was a definite moment to say, hey, you have to be an entrepreneur. You cannot be unemployed. Because you could be called on Christmas night to go to work and live in what do that

John Corcoran  8:34  

right right now we were talking beforehand. You’re a parent. I’m a father. And actually just yesterday I received in the mail. My business partner, Jeremy’s daughter started a little business where she was selling these dried mango fruits that I purchased. So I bought them to encourage her she was in a little Shark Tank style competition. And we just got our delivery last night. And I took him out. And I showed him to my eight year old Mason and he all excited about them. And he wanted to ask Giuliana and Jeremy’s daughter about starting this business. So I’m going to ask you, it sounds like you come from this family of entrepreneurs. What’s your philosophy towards passing down entrepreneurship? Is that something that can be taught or as you look to your children now? Do you feel that it’s either they’re born that way or not? What what’s your philosophy?

Daniel Marcos  9:23  

So I have a daughter, she’s 14, and some that’s it’s eight, eight, when my daughter was around eight or nine, she was building all these crafts. And I remember taking her to markets. I was living in Austin, back then. And we we rented in Wimberley there was a market every Saturday, the first Saturday of every month, and I were at the booth two or three times, the booth cost was probably five or six times what you made on day, he didn’t matter. I want her to have the discipline to understand the building it and then having her accounting my my daughter has knows how to successful. She’s 14. And she she runs with Excel. I think that was really important. And then she realized, at the beginning, we used to pay all her material, and he just sold and make the money. And then they they one day I say Okay, great, now I’m going to start charging you for the material. And she was like, Why buy stuff, you have to do stuff. And then we do that. And then I have to pay taxes. Because on the fair, I have to be register and pay taxes. So I went did the tax return and I said hey, this is yours and give me the one as you’re like, Hi, how to be government. And like these kinds of very, very small things. It make a really big difference later. So So after the first business, she’s been looking to do other things. But she’s much more inquisitive of what to do, what’s the price, what’s the margin, she really understands that. So I think it’s extremely important that you help them do an eight, it probably cost me 1000 $1,000, for business for two or three years, compared to the location she got is nothing. But I think I think those kinds of things are very, very important when they’re young.

John Corcoran  11:09  

But it sounds like she expressed an interest in selling these products. So it sounds like it, at least a big part of it came from her but then you then also helped to develop and nurture that education in her.

Daniel Marcos  11:22  

So we tried to say Hey, be we want something you have to buy yourself. And sometimes they have some money, we give us a gift or the grand prize or whatever. And sometimes they say how can I get more money we have to work for it was like what we could do. So we help them invent ideas or do things. And they tried to do a couple of things. And they’ve seen it’s too difficult or too hard or whatever. So they we always encourage them to do it. And we know we’re going to it’s going to cost us more than whatever they’re going to make doesn’t matter. Right? As long as the understand. And I remember with my daughter taking her to the Ferris Are they the market and the market open at 8pm on a Saturday, so we have to leave the house like a tix and I have to wake her up like four or 530 or 7% sure like why, like, if we’re paying for the booth we’re going to be there since start until they close. Like I’m gonna spend my so we’re going to be there until you sell everything or the market closes. Yeah, you have to use whatever you spent. Yeah. And those are a lot of really really good things that they get done understand when their kids at school yes we significantly a project. Yeah, by the way we see Shark Tank on the Prophet all these these things. And they stop the products log on explain exactly what happened. What’s a gross margin? What’s the use of cost everything for them to understand them begin getting paid? Yeah,

John Corcoran  12:45  

yeah. Yeah, that’s that’s important. And I remember last night, I was showing my son Mason, he was like, Well, how much did you pay for those because he wanted to know how much he was making for the packages like, and I said was $25 for this package that I purchased. He’s like, so she made $25? I said no.

Unknown Speaker  13:05  

Yeah, exactly.

John Corcoran  13:06  

So you said your father was in government, your uncle’s were entrepreneurs. Do you remember learning from them as a kid? Did they teach you about the the aquarium and the T shirt business and all that.

Daniel Marcos  13:19  

So we were in summer, all the kids together over the grandkids, we used to go to my grandfather’s store, and help clean the store or do some marketing stuff, or going to an uncle that had a factory that the shirts that we used to go and play of the shirt factory. So I remember going to all these places, and really understanding what were they doing. As an example, when I was I think 12 or 13, my father was the president of like the Mexican central bank. And they have this program that you have to deliver mail between the buildings. And in the summer, they hire the keat. So the executives, so I have to work, I have to go bye bye on the ground. I remember when I was 12. I used to going Mexico City on my own on the underground for 45 minutes to get to downtown, and then go and deliver mail in all the buildings. And that was really important. And by the way, the first day I they gave me he was a bank. So they give you the most new bills. So I went to the cashier to get my first check. And they gave me all these new bills. I didn’t want to fold them because they were all new. So I put them on a folder and got out of them and looked like they got a little bit out and someone just told my first page, you can imagine how hard so so so I it was part of the family history to go to all the businesses and they allow you to go and play and all these kind of things for you to understand what was going on. And then my father became an entrepreneur some years later, and they working his business two or three times.

John Corcoran  14:57  

Yeah. I want to ask you about that. But first before we get to that, so around the year 2000. And I don’t know what the economy was like in Mexico, around 2000. I know in the US, at least, the peak of the whole.com. Boom was around I think they say march of 2000. April, April 2000. So you joined together with three friends you raised $200,000, you build an online trading business was Mexico’s first online trading business. And it was actually was acquired within six months. Tell us about that experience.

Daniel Marcos  15:30  

So let me go back two years. So I graduated from college two years before. And during college, I worked for a brokerage house. So I was I was a trader at a brokerage house. My last three years of college in Mexico college is four and a half years. So I I studied for a year and a half. And then I wanted to do another business. My father said no, I go and get a job. So I went and got a job in a brokerage house that made my brother helped me get and I worked there for three years. So when I finished my my work at the brokerage house, or my when they graduate college, we have three years trading stocks, and they used to trade stocks in New York and Mexico market. So I had a lot of trading experience in those three years. Okay. And when I finish, I got a job in Hong Kong. I lived in Hong Kong working for the Mexican consulate in Hong Kong. Someone needs to work for my father before in, in when my father used to be the president, the bank. Now he was the ambassador of Mexico in Hong Kong. So through my father got a connection and went and worked there for a couple years. And while I was there, I was reading all these magazines. I been reading business magazine since I was probably 1415. And I remember being in Hong Kong and seeing all these kids making billions of dollars back in the internet.

John Corcoran  16:46  

Yeah. This, by the way is the exact same time I was working in the White House and reading the same thing we graduated. We graduated from college the same year 98.

Daniel Marcos  16:56  

I graduated 96. Yes. And

John Corcoran  16:58  

all my friends went the San Francisco Bay, are they all working

Daniel Marcos  17:03  

to the white? Believe

John Corcoran  17:03  

it or not? I was at the White House. And I was jealous because I was reading about all these crazy columns that were happening at the time.

Daniel Marcos  17:10  

That’s correct. I was reading all those magazines the same in Hong Kong. And I said I need to go back and do the same. Yeah. So I went to the US. And when I went to eat trade and all these, the top four or five brokerage house, online brokers in the US, so hey, let me open your operations in Mexico. And everyone said, hey, you’re a kid, nice kid, you do have a lot of like, want to do things all that’s great. But Mexican market, even though Mexico like the 13th biggest country in the world, when the economy 14 or 15. The stock market is like number 40. In the world, our stock market is very undeveloped, compared to the US and other countries. So they say the Mexican market is probably 40 in our list, so we won’t do it now. It’s gonna take us 10 more years. So I tried to bring one of these rock stars to Mexico, I couldn’t do it. So I came back and said, Okay, what can I do with my resources and my my knowledge, so whenever he wants to come into Mexico to have to acquire. So that was precisely what I thought. And I said, whenever the first player international paywalls to come to the country, I’m going to be the best acquisition for them. So I said, they’re going to be two things. First, a team to run the operations, like run the website and all that. And they need to have potential clients, people that are used to buy and sell stocks online and see news narrative. So I build like a Yahoo Finance, that you have games online, and you could buy and sell stock and be able to like trade but paper trade, because I couldn’t have a brokerage license. In the US just just give you an idea. Mexico has there’s 14 or 15 countries in the world. I think today, there’s like 16 or 17 banks in the whole country. Back then there were like four or five banks in our country, there were six or seven brokerage houses in the whole country. So for you to get a brokerage house, it was like you had be 60 and used to be a precedent or another back, right, it was not easy to get a brokerage license. So I said whenever he comes over and give a brokerage license, they’re going to need a team, and they’re going to need a group of clients. So I’m going to do that. So I raised 200,000, with some friends, and begin finance as well. That’s the first company. We started back the real thing after college, and six months into it. I got a call from Argentina guy. He was doing exactly like me in Argentina. Yuri raised a million dollars from Chase. And he bought him a brokerage house in Venezuela and wine in Chile. And then he went to New York, to get your next round of financing, and went to JP Morgan and said, Hey, JP Morgan, I want to be the leader in Latin America, be Sarah doing, give me money to be the last summer. And they said hey, we love the idea. But there’s a problem. You could not be the leader in Latin America. If you’re not Mexico, Brazil. If you understand that America, Mexico, Brazil are really big compared to any other country. Just to give you an idea of numbers, Mexico oil company in the 2000s Pemex. Pemex had revenue, more revenue than Argentina, or y and para para wire something combined. So Mexico all company was bigger than the three or four countries in South America. So if you didn’t have Mexico, Brazil, we had nothing. So they say, Hey, want to give you money want to give you like $15 million to to be the leader in Latin America. But you have to have Mexico and Brazil open and you need to have something important. So he went back to Argentina and said, What do I do? And everyone said, one by the biggest one Brazil, the biggest one Mexico. So he went to Mexico, and I was the only one with a website up and games and all these kinds of things. So he called me and said, Hey, I need to have an operation in Mexico. on money. I’m going to do it with you or against you. You choose. And I was like, what’s a price and the guys come towards you, Tina, let’s negotiate. So I flew that night to Argentina. And the next day we had a deal. And week or week after he did the same thing with a guy in Brazil. The week after that, the three of us flew to New York. We went to JP Morgan said, Argentina, Mexico, Brazil, you will 50 meter. And we did a really, really big round, we raised $53 million. We had Chase, Goldman, JP, Microsoft, Intel Kairos limb invested from Mexico, we had the best VCs are partners you could ever have, including Santander and then eight months later, sometime they are acquired all of it for a much, much bigger amount. Well, they work for sat on their as their country manager for like two and a half years more.

John Corcoran  21:53  

Well. So what was that experience like after you start this with the four come with the with your three friends? Did they all stick through the acquisition stick around you guys all

Daniel Marcos  22:03  

through acquisition, but then they became like the CEO of pot, Taiwan and the celebration of something there. And just give you an idea. My marketing budget. My first year was like $8,000 for the whole year. That was my whole marketing budget. Yeah. My first year of operation, they asked me to spend a million dollars. She’s so my friend, as an example, that was my head of marketing. He was my partner and friend that I still love today. We know each other very well. We know our kids, we traveled together. He was working with $1,000 a year and then the next year, he had spent $8 million have no idea how to spend a million dollars. Correct. So he left and then another partner was in charge of Finance. That guy was a mess. And we we kicked him out. Now the business sort of before I have to kind of fire let go to in the first year of operation. Because I will see you and I say guys, I love you to death. You might partners, right. But I’m the CEO of a company, we always have a company. Now my role is to have the best person for the salary and you’re not the best. Right? So I had to do it two times. And it’s been one of the hardest things I’ve ever done.

John Corcoran  23:15  

firing your friends.

Daniel Marcos  23:16  

Yeah, yeah. And one of them, I don’t like at all. One of them, I still have a really good relationship with him. He was he was my roommate in college. We still know each other very well. We travel with kids, we have a great time. And if I had to come to him and say, Hey, I need you to go. It’s like I don’t want to find you. But you need to go.

John Corcoran  23:36  

And so and this was around the time that you also discovered Vern harness and his work you enrolled in the burns MIT correct course. Yeah. So tell us about what that program is. And

Daniel Marcos  23:48  

so I begin running the operation. So when we sold to pata when we were eight people, the six months or whatever was, but I went from eight to like 15. And then in the next six months, I got to around 85 or 90 employees. Wow. And I was 26. Wow. So I had no idea what I was doing. I was really having a hard time being a CEO. I’m really running a company. So one of my employees came to me and said, Hey, I see your struggle, sometimes. My husband is part of these network entrepreneurs. Do you want to get an introduction? There’s all these entrepreneurs and they tell me that they help each other. Do you want to be part of that? And I was like, yeah, that was it. And she invited me to dinner and EO event. I loved it. I joined. I say guys, I’m growing really really fast. I was on the magazine’s in Mexico when the cover, you will see 26 year old kid that had sold his company sometime there. And we were the biggest or the second biggest internet company know Latin America, we had probably 200 employees altogether, Operation nine countries will open three banks. So it was it was something really, really big. So I was in the cover of the magazine’s Mexico of entrepreneur, the Mexican kid. And so I went to USC guys, I’m really struggling, I had no idea what I’m doing. And they said you have to go to this program called birthing of giants. And I applied, got accepted went to where they go giants. And they met Varun there and I was like, wow, like this guy knows his way. And I, I didn’t hire him because he was part of a program. But I call him and I went to take his workshops. And I was very, very, I was a big follower of her. And since then, it just changed my life. He just show me what it was to be a CEO. No one really teaches you how to be a CEO. And you need Let me tell the story. I’ll be quick. So when when the four friends agreed that we’re going to do the business together, right? So we got to a fan and agree how much money what each one was going to invest. And what we’re going to do, and we’re going to get money and clients always kind of things. I mean, at the end of friends that hey, let’s give each other a job position, right? We have to agree who’s gonna do what perfect. So we got my left said, Hey, I worked for NH a couple of years. So I’ll be CTO, sorry, CFO, and I’ll run the product perfect. And the guy in front of me said, Hey, I went to college, and I studied electrical engineering. So I know something about computers, I’ll be the CTO perfect. And the guy to my right, that he might follow us to organize concerts, and I help them sell the concert. So I’ll be the head of sales and marketing. Great. And they look at me and said, What are you gonna do? And I was like, Yeah, all the positions are filled, right? I like, okay, I’ll be the CEO. Their own was like, why? No, one has to be ahead of the company. What else taking decisions? And they look at each other. Like, this guy’s crazy. But okay. So yeah, I went back to my home and said, that I’m a CEO, what do I have to do? And that was it. So so no one really trains you and set you up to be a CEO. Right. Right. So So for me, that was a really, really big learning space. Yeah. And I was thirsty for understanding what was going on? Yeah, by the way, you see, there’s a little books behind me. I became an avid reader, because I think I’ve read one book in my life before two business books before. And then I realize all the questions all the pros that I was having all the opportunities. So when we had gone through that, and they have written the mythology or a book about it. Yeah. So my role became understanding we which which one the best book for the problem I was having. And I became an avid reader. I think I probably read a book a week, almost for last 20 years. Wow, that’s amazing.

John Corcoran  27:39  

I do want to get to that, because I think that relates to the work you’re doing now with growth Institute. But before I get to that I do want to ask about, you had a business failure. So this was the the crash of the financial markets in 2008. You start a business shortly before that, and unfortunately, horrible timing. Tell us about what happened there.

Daniel Marcos  28:01  

So after I do battle on workforce, I’ve been there. I leave that leave some time there on April of 2002. And I wanted to go to business school. When I was in Babylon. I was getting calls from all these Mexican people that was studying in Harvard and MIT and Stanford. And they had to do an internship. So they were calling me and asked me to do internships. So I had these, I hire the what time I had to MIT kids, three Harvard and one Stanford working for me right here. And that was 26. I’m this guy’s had all these jargon and language that I have a really uncomfortable. Yeah. They, I think I felt the understood business way better than me. And I said, No, I have to do an MBA myself. So when they finish, I said, What to do an MBA. This was April. And you can apply to MBA in April, you have to apply in October, November to go the next summer. So I told my wife, hey, April, I have a year and a half or so to go to college to my MBA, we have some money on the bank. Why don’t we travel? And my wife said, like, if we could rent the house, let’s so that we put the house on the market. Next day, we got a client renting the house, and he was an executive from Nestle. And they paid us in dollars. So we said we have money, let’s get out. And we have no kids. So we traveled the world for 16 months. While I did my my, my G math and TOEFL and all the exams taught me and I got accepted in Babson. And in May 2004, I started 2003 I started in Babson, my MBA, I did the fast track, they have like a 15 month program. I do that. And after that I wanted to prove myself in the US. So in Mexico, Mexico, it’s it’s a big country, but the economic market, our community is very, very small. You’re not everyone and between my family and my parents and all that. I knew a lot of people, I see Mexico, I could get to whoever I want in two weeks just to relationships, the business community is very, very small. And they say I want to be able to prove myself as entrepreneur without having that. So I went to Austin, bought a house and started a business. And back then I don’t know you remember homeownership was really, really big. Canvas. nettles was the head of hot and the mixture of hot and he was Hispanics who was trying to race, Hispanic homeownership. And we had all these mortgage, crazy. And they were trying to get mortgages to whoever has a breath or was like, right, right. So I opened a company to give mortgages to undocumented Hispanics. And that was giving 50 $60 a month, I got a line of credit, through a friend in San Francisco with Goldman Sachs, so Goldman gave a friend of mine $500 million line of credit, to give mortgages, one documented Hispanics. So my friend was in California, he gave me a license to do it in Texas. And I was giving loans to a pretty decent rate back then was like eight or 9%. For someone who’s undocumented. He was a great rate. Yeah, so we’re giving a lot of loans in Texas. And then one day, I got a call from my friend and said, Hey, I just got a call from Goldman. No more. I don’t know. What do you mean, no more. No more. I have 120 employees, I have four offices. No more. She’s not even not even one more nothing. That we were the subprime or subprime. We got shut down immediately had to fire everyone. It was pretty painful. It was really, really painful. I lost all my capital, all the money up my investors.

Anyway, he was tough, he was really tough.

John Corcoran  31:46  

So what are the lessons you take away from that experience.

Daniel Marcos  31:52  

So take harder decisions faster.

I knew I had to fire people, I didn’t want to fire them because I felt bad for

I

John Corcoran  32:02  

delayed

Daniel Marcos  32:04  

until I had to until I could not pay them anymore. Like

John Corcoran  32:07  

weeks and weeks, months and

Daniel Marcos  32:09  

months, well, then I be understood, and they really liked the business.

John Corcoran  32:16  

Didn’t like the business.

Daniel Marcos  32:17  

So this is something

it’s horrible when I say it, but it’s a reality. So I was doing internet businesses before, right? So I was with the most entrepreneurial, young kids Bright Minds know that right? And then they go to work in the mortgage industry in Texas. And the mortgage industry or the real estate industry usually have the least qualified people in the world. It’s just, if you cannot get a job anywhere else, you become a realtor or you become mortgage loan officer. It’s sad to say, but the standard of quality on most of the executives of the mortgage business, and the real estate business very low. It was horrible for me. I it was not a challenging environment, I enjoy going to work and having fun. I have some really great employees that I loved. But 80% of the industry was horrible to deal with. They forced documents and they were trying to do deal from the side. It was not nice. I don’t like I want to go back to a bat. Yeah, they were the brightest people in the community. And he was three was really, really hard. I was having a hard time with that. But because he had already raised money, I felt I had to take it to completion just because my investors,

John Corcoran  33:33  

right. In fact, would you knowing you know, now would you have cut it without an earlier much earlier

Daniel Marcos  33:40  

much earlier, I would have never even started the business, you would have

John Corcoran  33:43  

looked more personally what you like and didn’t like.

Daniel Marcos  33:46  

So there’s one thing that I knew before every wealthy individual that I know, they made their money in real estate, or their multiply their money in real estate. That’s it. I knew I had to understand real estate. And by the way, as a learning lesson, their understanding real estate, he was hugely important. You can imagine how much I use it today, and how it how good has been for me today. So understanding stock market first. And then understanding the real estate market is the two biggest asset asset class in the world. So you if you want to do business, you have to understand the stock market. And you have to understand the real estate market. So as a learning experience was amazing. I just I hated my job. I it was depressing to work there. Yeah. It was. So that was the hard part for me.

John Corcoran  34:35  

After this business fails. you lick your wounds, you join your father’s business who has since become an entrepreneur,

Daniel Marcos  34:44  

what was that? So my father used to work in government as his head. His last job was the CFO of Pemex that makes you an old company. And when he left, you saw all the problems international companies were having dealing with FedEx. So he left me held a consulting company, to to help international firms deal with the Mexican government for oil and infrastructure. And he had a lot of friends in the World Bank and all these kinds of institutions. So he build up an entity for that. So when my business go down, I needed a salary to pay for my daughter’s school and to pay for rent. So I call my father so he can give me a job, I really need some, some stable income. So my dad said, Come on, come back. So I went back to Mexico. And I don’t know you remember, the US was in really, really bad shape. So for a Mexican guy to get a work visa in the US, I’m going to work it was really hard. So I said, I’m going to go back, went back, got a job with my father. And when I was going back, very calm, very hurt through a friend that I had gone under, and called me said How are you? And I begin? I was really, really sad. I cry on the call. I probably BB for like half hour. And at the end he said, Are you done? And I was like what you’ve been complaining? I know like, Yeah, why? Okay, well, they’re going to do now. And I was like, I’m gonna go back to Mexico and get a job. I said, No way. Stay here, let’s let’s let’s do some coaching. Be a coach with me. And I said, No way. I said I first I don’t trust myself to be an entrepreneur. I cannot coach other entrepreneurs, until I read that stable income 20 to go back,

John Corcoran  36:23  

how does that make you feel that he has confidence enough and you immediately after your business failure that he wants you to become a coach.

Daniel Marcos  36:31  

So I had I had two calls, I got three calls that made a big difference. First was my father. My father wrote me a letter giving him giving me some perspective of life. And you can imagine what what that was. And then I got to non family members. One was Ryan said, become a coach with me. And I was floored because I admire Vernon, he’s been a huge mentor to me. And he was calling me to partner with me and wanting me to, to teach you stuff in the US and Mexico. And then I got another call from a friend that he was used to be a friend of mine in high school, that he was the head of Google for Latin America. So he called me and said, I’m looking for a country pioneer or country manager for Google in Mexico. Would you like to be that? So I said, Yeah, it was a salary. And yeah, it was a really good salary. So I started the process, to get hired in Google to be the head of Google in Mexico. And that’s what caused me to be a coach. So I begin coaching with the press with Google took three or four months in being in the process. And it’s crazy. So I went back to work for my father. On the weekends, I was doing consulting and coaching. Six months after I was making more money coaching, than with my father’s job. On the whole week, coaching if you if you know how to coach and you really help people fix problems, you make

John Corcoran  37:57  

your okay personally with code like you felt confident enough. It sounds like maybe the confidence that that that Vern had in, you helped you have enough confidence to coach. So

Daniel Marcos  38:08  

that helped a lot. Then I went to training. By the way, I didn’t have money to even pay for my plane ticket. We were trained on being so versatile, we’ll send you a plane ticket, I’ll give you the training for free. I want you to be a coach. So you have to imagine, for me seeing burn, the American guy that wrote books, and he was inviting me was was really, really big. And then I did a workshop. And people were like, Wow, this is amazing. And they were like, what, and that was my first workshop and people were blown away. And I told Dr. Byrne even today, I said, Well, thank you, you. You make me look cool and great in front of anyone. Two hours just with a with a lecture. Yeah, I just repeat these lights. I content. That’s amazing. The contents amazing. So so so even at the beginning, after the first workshop, I did one up I think call some friends and I put like 18 or 20 people on the workshop. I think I charged him like two or $300 for a two day workshop. It was nothing I was just learning and trying to build it. I got a contract to coach on one way for $50,000 after the first workshop, so so I was blown away. And the confidence goes back really fast. Really, really fast here. And I realized I’ve learned a lot. So on the first company, I was 26. I was on the board of this international company operation nine countries. 1200 employees, like we built three banks and six brokerage houses. In two years. He was crazy what we learned there, we had we raised like $70 million all together. So it was it was a it was a big, big learning there. And then I did another one financed by Goldman Sachs, and it was a disaster in the US fire people. You learn a lot in the day to day. So whenever I was using that, with my clients, people were like my Hello, this is great. And I help them fix things very fast. And and they were very grateful. And they pay me a lot of money. And they will say, wow, this is also great. So your coffee is comes back really relaxed.

John Corcoran  40:13  

Right now I know we’re running short on time. But I do want to ask about growth Institute. So your mentor and friend Vern who picks you up, when you’re knocked down eventually becomes your business partner, and you start growth Institute, which is really returning you to your roots of an internet business. Tell us about what growth Institute is. So

Daniel Marcos  40:32  

I became a coach and I begin coaching I like so when they finish their mortgage company. I was over a million dollars in debt. Wow, I have no assets. So with a job that I had, I couldn’t pay me $10 I couldn’t even pay the interest of a million dollars. So when they begin doing coaching, I’ve been getting a lot of money. So it took me four years to pay the million dollars in debt with with the interest he painted with culture paid off. For years.

John Corcoran  41:01  

Well, a lot of people would have just declared bankruptcy.

Daniel Marcos  41:05  

I’m not in my family structure. Indeed. I have credit cards and I have contracts with with rent and everything. And then from Mexico, Google back to Mexico. Don’t care about my grades corn and get destroyed. I could let so I called my father and uncle and said they have all this debt. Can you lend me money so I could pay everyone and then I’ll pay you because getting calls from credit cards, everything with the big interest rates. So I got my father and uncle to lend me money. I paid everyone. I need to be four years to pay my uncle, my father. And after four years I covering this event. Thank you very much. I love being a coach had four great years. My coffee is is back. I paid all my debt. I’m out. And verint said, What do you mean? You’re doing great. I know that. Yeah. But I traveled 200 indeed. The last year I also coach. I slept away from home traveling 250 nights. Wow. I was the head for Latin America time. I have clients in almost every country, Latin America. And every week was going to one or two countries in Latin America. Yeah. I did a million miles like in four years. Wow. So I, it was a lot. And I had my second son, then. So I told her, Hey, I’m done. I’m out. I’m gonna say why. And they say I’m a troubadour, I need to go back and do another acid, grow it and sell it that that’s interpret normal thing, right? And then I think I’m going to be a coach the rest of my life because I love it, and it’s great economically. But I need to go back and be in trouble. So he said, at the beginning, he was not happy. By the way, he was really mad. And he raised his voice, there is my voice and save. And I love you to death. I’m never going to be disrespectful. But I You don’t owe me this one. I’m gonna do it. I’m gonna do this. And that’s it. Right? Yeah. And and then when we hang up, and we had a discussion, I think he caught me some hours later. So Daniel, you’re right. I’m sorry for that. I want to be partnered with you. What are you going to do? I want to do this online application exit perfect. Come to Barcelona, let’s negotiate. I want to be your partner. Here’s the time. So I flew to Barcelona, see at his house like five or six days. And we wrote the business plan for growth Institute. And then we started doing it. And that was the idea really building an asset. We all know that. But let me give you the the wife of gravity. So

like, if you want to hire me to coach you to do scaling up. I’m going to be between 60,200 $50,000 a year. If you really want me to get involved and do your part Elise and culture and all that. Not a lot of companies could do that. I said very, why don’t we get your content and put it in a format and price that makes sense for more companies. And, and we put a program, it’s a scaling up master business course we call it a three month course. We give you everything we teach you whenever we coach you, but we do it in a group. And people take videos with her like nine or 10 hours with videos, then you have eight group coaching calls. And then they have to one on one coaching calls. And then you have five masterminds like a forum from you. You have a like a forum, five sessions, a forum, how to implement scaling up and help with each other. It’s a very, very in depth three month process. And we said it like for 2500 lives. It’s a gift for the value that that we provide. So we started doing scaling up and be doing great. And then we went with Brad smart with top grading and bought his writer make an agreement with him. And then Salima from singularity. And then jack daily. And then like, we have 110 thought leaders today that we build a classroom program together with them. And we promote and sell his content online through the growth east. And it’s been amazing. We have trained in six years 40,000 executives from 10,000 different companies instead 64 countries of the world. So we’re super proud of the growth and the impact. I yeah, it’s crazy. I been walking in places. And people come to me and said like Daniel, like I took your class. And it’s amazing to me that somebody invited me to have dinner with their families. The last one that happened. I was in England, I was in London two months ago. And they had a business meeting with this investor. So I was getting through the business meeting. And this girl comes out of a meeting room with a book from saline, and comes with me running and hugs me that was like, why, you know, like, I took this class with you. And I was like, Oh, that’s so she gave me a book to sign up. Like, I didn’t write the book. And you’re like, No, no, you you’re the owner of the company through the class. So, so it’s amazing. I been to all these events and dinners and stuff. And what is it like? What’s your name? I said, Daniel Marcos. And I was like, you’re the guys that get all the emails from all the workshop with verint and everything. So it’s been amazing. It’s been a great experience. Yeah, having a lot of fun. And who better to be your mentor, that Vernon Saleem and Brad Martin jack Dalian. Like, whenever I have a problem of sales, I go jack, Jack’s my partner in the growth Institute, we have pros, we run with him. So I see his videos, and I call him and he helped me and solve problems. So how cool is that? And then the impact we have been able to do with the company’s he’s just amazing. Just as an example, the last class we run, we had a student from Iran. And she tried to pay many many times know Craig cash from Iran could run in the US merchant account. So we try to get the money in many ways. We couldn’t get the wire transfer from her bank. It was a mess. So she got to pay one of our suppliers in Canada and then the supplier send the money to us to the US cheese. But it’s it’s it’s incredible. I love it.

John Corcoran  47:02  

That’s fine. That’s great. I know we’re short on time here so I will wrap things up last question. You know, let’s pretend we’re an awards banquet much like the Oscars, the Emmys and you Daniel receiving an award for lifetime achievement for everything you’ve done up to this point. And we mentioned a lot of different people throughout this interview which is in wonderful so far. But who do you think Who do you acknowledge

Daniel Marcos  47:24  

so first my parents they’ve been a great school for me and supported every crazy idea and dumb thing that I’ve done they supported everything. And now that I’m a father and I am me their situation now realize how we sacrifice a date for that. Then Burn burn has been by far my biggest mentor in business. He’s been a great influence, a great mentor. And then very has introduced me to all these other community. Salim has been amazing. EO and white Bo, is just your member of Yo, yo, under what that is. I couldn’t be more thankful to a group of your. And I’ve been a member for 19 years. I rarely go to a forum and really good. But I still pay your time. And people say like why know they? They given me so much value for so many years. I just cannot say no thing part being part of that.

Unknown Speaker  48:18  

Yeah, that’s a great community. I’d love to do it. Yeah,

Daniel Marcos  48:22  

they were 14,000 interpreters from all over the world. like eight or 9 million average revenue. Yeah. And I use your everywhere where I go in the world. I email staff are the president of the chapters today. I’m from Mexico, I live in Toronto. I’m here for a week, I would love to meet entrepreneurs. And they invite you Hey, come to my sailboat capital, my summer house, come to dinner, which I love that. So So for me, you and YPO have been extremely important in my development, apart from all these mentors that I mentioned. And there’s a mentor I cannot mention his name. About when I was raising money for for Todd Allen, he destroyed my business. And he said, I don’t like this and this and gave me like three or four things he didn’t like. And and I left the meeting saying this old guy sprays he has no idea what he’s doing. And then what he told me was wrong begin happening. All the problems that he told me I was going to have I been having

John Corcoran  49:22  

since you when you went ahead in spite of his advice,

Daniel Marcos  49:26  

I believe he said, Lisa, old guy has no idea who he is. And he has no idea of internet. And then everything he complained about my business begin happened. So one day I called him and said, Hey, can you get coaching? And the guy said, like, I don’t know, you remember I destroyed you? And I said, Yeah, but that’s precisely why everything you said it’s becoming true. You’re the only one that we’re not blinded by the internet thing. And you really understood the business, please help me. And the guy said, Come so whenever he knows I’m calling him is because I’m in trouble. So he asked me, he said, whenever you’re in trouble, give me a call. I’ll be happy to help you solve it. I probably have caught him every time the every two years or three years. In the last 20 years, so probably six or seven times. He’s a very wealthy individual.

John Corcoran  50:15  

I’m curious why why you don’t want to acknowledge him is that he just wants to be anonymous.

Daniel Marcos  50:19  

Yeah. He’s from Mexico. He probably wouldn’t even know it. But no one even Mexico NoSQL. The name this case. He’s a very low profile guy. How did you connect with him? My partner, when he went on vacation with his parents, he was in the same hotel and they became friends. And one day he said, Hey, I know this guy, that no one knows who he is. But he’s a billionaire. And I know him because we met at the pool with the kids. I know his kids. And I’m like, okay, okay. That’s great. So, I’ve got him six or seven times, and yes, saved by business

John Corcoran  50:56  

many times. That’s great. I know where I know, we’re out of time here. Anyone else you want to mention before I cut you off at growth Institute. com is the website. Okay, good. Good. Comes the website anywhere else people should learn about you.

Daniel Marcos  51:08  

I have a blog in Spanish. So no, on the podcast in Spanish, all my articles are in growth Institute. We have a blog with a lot of great articles. And if you really want to become an expert on scaling companies, come we have every class and thing you need to be an expert and scalar mid market company.

John Corcoran  51:24  

Yeah, it’s an amazing resource. So check it out growth Institute. com Daniel. It’s been a number of years and coming and you didn’t disappoint. Thanks so much.