1329 – Advisor Promotes The Flourishing Life to His Clients

Lenny Richardson is a Real Estate Advisor currently licensed in Northern VA. Lenny's overall mission in life is to promote the idea of “Eudaimonia”, which loosely translates to “The Flourishing Life” and involves optimal Health, Abundant Wealth, and fantastic Relationships.

• CEO Story: Lenny became an entrepreneur out of necessity in college life. After working in a gas station and Walmart. He found an opportunity in the real estate industry by being an advisor.
• Business Service: Assisting clients in finding their dream house.
• Secret Sauce: Trying to get people to understand ‘Eudaimonia' – 3 Pillars of a fulfilled life. 1. Health, 2. Wealth, 3. Relationships.
• CEO Hack: Have a planner, and use it effectively. An app, Pomodoro (productivity tool ) lets you manage your time and focus your 45min. On a specific task with no distractions.
• CEO Nugget:  Make a bigger habit to meet more people and network. Brand building.
• CEO Defined: Being a general, a leader to people around you but also to yourself. Controls their day, time, and future.

Website: www.lennyrichardson.online

Instagram: Leviticus

Facebook: lennyrichardsonrealtor

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00:20 – Intro

Do you want to learn effective ways to build relationships, generate sales, and grow your business from successful entrepreneurs, startups, and CEOs without listening to a long, long, long interview? If so, you've come to the right place. Gresham Harkless values your time and is ready to share with you precisely the information you're in search of. This is the I AM CEO Podcast.

00:41 – Gresham Harkless

Hello, Hello, Hello. This is Gresh from the I Am CEO podcast. I have a very special guest on the show today, Lenny Richardson of Lenny Richardson. Online. Lenny, it's great to have you on the show.

00:52 – Lenny Richardson

Thank you so much, Rush. It's great to be on the show. Thank you for having me on.

00:56 – Gresham Harkless

Yeah, super excited to have you on. And before we jump into the interview, I want to read a little bit more about Lenny so you can hear about some of the awesome things that he's doing. And Lenny is a real estate advisor currently licensed in Northern Virginia. Lenny's overall mission in life is to promote the idea of eudaimonia, which loosely translates to a flourishing life and involves optimal health, abundant wealth, and fantastic relationships. Lenny, super excited to have you on the show. Of course, I love learning new words, so thank you for that as well. Are you ready to speak to the I AM CEO community?

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01:29 – Lenny Richardson

Yeah, Absolutely.

01:31 – Gresham Harkless

Well, let's make it happen then. So to kind of kick everything off, I wanted to rewind the clock a little bit and hear a little bit more about how you guys started, what I call your CEO story.

01:38 – Lenny Richardson

Okay. So not to be, I guess, too long-winded, but I guess sort of where things kind of began, I used to go to school back at Penn State several years ago. Kind of went through, as many college students go through, the whole broke college student base. I would say for me it was a bit more extreme to the point where I was facing evictions multiple times. And at 1 point Penn State sort of kicked me out because of financial reasons. So I spent a lot of time kind of in libraries just trying to study, trying to figure out how to make money because At the time I was working at a gas station, movie theater, all over the place, Walmart.

And for those of you who have never worked at Walmart or a gas station, they don't pay particularly well. So yeah, but 1 thing led to another. Kind of while in the libraries and while studying, I eventually found real estate. I found out that a lot of people who made their wealth did so in real estate. And that was around the first time I'd heard the idea of entrepreneurship. And it seemed like something that made sense. So without getting too ranty or kind of getting too deep into it, the goal at that point was to get into real estate and to kind of get into the entrepreneur space, so to speak, basically as a solution to not being so broke as a college student. That's kind of how that came to be.

03:08 – Gresham Harkless

Yeah, that makes a lot of sense. And I think a lot of, you know, probably listeners can't remember those college days. But it sounds like you had a really strong work ethic about having those different jobs. And it doesn't sound like sometimes people don't have the work ethic and don't have that. And a lot of times there's nothing to fall back on when they're in those moments, but it sounds like you just needed that opportunity to be in that library, hear about real estate and kind of hit the ground running from there. Am I correct in saying that?

03:34 – Lenny Richardson

Yeah, yeah. Yeah. Oddly enough, it's funny. I think at the time it was obnoxious because I would wake up early around 6 or 7, and catch a bus to go to Walmart. After all, it was far off of campus. I had to catch a bus to go there and not have a car at the time. And then you come back later on, then you have to change fast and eat quickly to get to your job as a gas station attendant. And then that was the entire day.

But I feel like in hindsight, it kind of built up a good habit. So I think at the moment it seemed terrible, but in hindsight, it's actually, I'm kind of very grateful because It's still kind of a habit to this day. I feel like I'm still maintaining it. So I'm appreciative of it.

04:20 – Gresham Harkless

Yeah, absolutely. You go through those challenges and those things that end up building you and creating that stronger resilience within you. I don't know if by Damon John, The Power of Broke, but he talks about a lot of those experiences, a lot of the things that aren't ideal allow us to be a lot more creative, build all those skills that you need, especially to succeed in entrepreneurship.

04:43 – Lenny Richardson

Yeah, that's 1 of the books I read while kind of, it was 2000, I think 2017 or 18, that book came out. That was 1 of the books, I think it was around that time. That was 1 of the books I read though, to kind of keep me motivated. Cause I remember I was like, ah, I'm pretty broke right now. I need some motivation.

05:00 – Gresham Harkless

How do I artist this?

05:04 – Lenny Richardson

Yeah. But yeah, yeah, yeah. I think sometimes things at the moment seem bad, but in hindsight, they could be more of a blessing than a curse, I would say.

05:15 – Gresham Harkless

Yeah, absolutely. I don't know if you've ever heard the Steve Jobs commencement speech where he was at Stanford and he talks about how you don't sometimes know why all the things are happening in life, but sometimes you can only align the dots by looking backward. And you say, OK, that less than ideal experience, maybe that helped me to learn these skills or learn that knowledge that can set me up to be even better, more set up for success in the future.

So I wanted to drill down a little bit more, hear a little bit more about what you're working on now, how you're serving your clients. Could you take us through a little bit more about that and what that looks like?

05:48 – Lenny Richardson

Yeah. I would say the main thing, as far as real estate goes, the main thing I've been trying to get clients to kind of, I think for most agents, it's sort of the idea of, you know, just help you buy and sell a house. For me, I look at it more from a long-term viewpoint. And my goal now is to kind of get people to understand the idea of investing in real estate. And I try to do it carefully because I know online there's a lot of things where it says, oh, earn passive income. I tell people, there's no, I don't believe in passive income because you have to put effort on the front end.

To my knowledge, at least I haven't seen a way that anything is truly passive. You need to put some effort in, but I try to get people to understand sort of the long-term game. And that kind of ties into the whole idea of eudaemonia as well. But my thing is you can buy the house, you can sell your house, but let's talk about buying houses so that way when you're 50s, 60s, especially for people my age who are in their 20s and 30s, when you're in your 50s and 60s and 70s, I don't want you to be that person who maybe you thought some money might be coming in, and it's not as much you thought it would be, or it doesn't come at.

So now you're still working, and if you like to work, that's fine. But if you don't like to work or at least do not work jobs you don't enjoy, it's good to have some kind of asset that's making you money or at the very least that you can leverage to kind of keep you more or less safe is sort of what I try to teach and help people with. So I think that's kind of where I differ from other agents.

07:23 – Gresham Harkless

That's why I love the work that you do. So I know you touched on that being, I think a part of your secret sauce. Do you think the eudaimonia is also part of your secret sauce as well too?

07:33 – Lenny Richardson

Yeah, absolutely. Yeah, the eudaimonia thing. So for anyone that I guess is listening or watching, not to get too long into it, but just a summary of what you know, Monia is It's essentially the fulfilled life, the flourishing life, and the 3 pillars that are involved in it. The first 1, and there's no specific order, but I do have an order I think is best. The first 1 is health. The second 1 is wealth or money. And the third 1 is relationships. With real estate, I try to tackle the wealth part. But I think all 3 you need to have to kind of have that great life.

So I feel like that's kind of truly what I'm trying to get people to understand is to kind of look for eudaimonia. Because some people aren't investors. Some people don't want to be. Some people don't want to be bothered with that. That's fine. But I still think it's good for them to find some way to de-link their time for their money. And then once you have that enough, You don't have to be super rich. I think that gets taught too much that everyone needs to be a millionaire. I don't think you need to do that. But once you have the money part taken care of, then you have to take care of your health.

Because if you don't have good health, then no amount of money matters, at least in my opinion. Kind of like the Steve Jobs thing, if you have, you know, I'm not, this is sad to say, but if you have like cancer or some disease that slowly or quickly drains your life, you can have a trillion dollars and it really doesn't matter If you know in a few days or a month, you won't be around. So health is extremely important. And then relationships, we're all social animals. You need to have good friends in place. And I feel like that's neglected a lot, especially as adults.

You kind of get out of college and everyone starts working so much and everyone forgets to socialize and enjoy life. So I think the unison of all 3 of those things is kind of what I'm truly trying to get across to people. Not so much just 1 individual pillar, but As a real estate advisor, the money part is extremely important because, without money, it's harder to be healthy. Without money, it's harder to do enjoyable things or have that time to spend with friends and family and things like that.

09:43 – Gresham Harkless

So that was perfect. I almost feel like it is for lack of a better term seems like it's kind of like the gateway to those other opportunities. But I was visualizing kind of like rungs of a stool where, you know, each of them is kind of codependent. But I love, you know, the focus on the financial piece because I think that that is something that, as you said, I think it opens up, it becomes that gateway to other things because they're all interdependent, but it's so important to make sure that you're taking care of that foundation, then you can grow from there.

So I appreciate that. And I wanted to switch gears a little bit. And I want to ask you for what I call a CEO hack. So this could be like an app, a book, or a habit that you have, but what's something that makes you more effective and efficient?

10:27 – Lenny Richardson

The first 1, again, sounds basic, is a planner and sort of a well-planned planner. I say that just because I usually I'll talk to people and they'll say, you know, I feel like I'm not getting that much done in my day. And I say to them, would you have a planner? And they're like, well, most will say, no, I don't use a planner. A few will say, I do have a planner. And I say, well, what do you put in the planner? And they say, Oh, I write different things I have to do. And I was like, well, that's you have the planner, but you're not using the planner effectively.

Cause you're just putting like 5 things in the planner to make yourself feel like you're accomplishing a goal. And I think for those people who do use a planner, there needs to be a more structured and organized approach to tackling your day. Like if you put, for example, in a planner, check emails, work out, or call 5 people. I don't know. Let's just say those 3 things are in the planner. It's like, well, even if you do all 3 of those things, you don't know, did you call the right people? Did you exercise aside? Did you email the right people? Did you email effectively?

Are you just checking pointless emails? Are you checking high-priority emails? So I would say that's kind of the first hack. Get a planner and then once you have the planner, use the planner effectively. Sounds very basic and simple, but I don't think a lot of people do it. And the second thing I think is more of an app. I like this app. I've been using it since college when I found out about it. It's called Pomodoro and you just work for 45 minutes. And then the Pomodoro app sort of has a little alarm. So 45 minutes you work, 15 minutes or 5 minutes, whatever you are allowed to kind of zone out, check your social media, do whatever.

Then once that 5 to 15 minutes is done, you go back to your 45 minutes of working. And I don't know, me personally, I feel like when I do that, you can get through 3 45 m45-minute signs. And I feel like you get just so much more productive than not using it. Because then I think the best thing about it is it creates almost urgency in aweirdlyght. It's kind of a weird cross-urgency and accountability because you know the timer is going and you don't want to waste that 45 minutes. And then it becomes more when you hear that timer. And if you didn't do anything, you feel like, ah, I just wasted easier.

12:34 – Gresham Harkless

Yeah. I love both of those hacks. I wanted to ask you now, you might've already session on this. I want to ask you for what I call a CEO nugget. So there's a little bit more of a word of wisdom or piece of advice. I like to say it might be something if you were to hop into a time machine, you would tell your younger business self.

12:49 – Lenny Richardson

Make a bigger habit to meet more people and network. You might have an opportunity where you're starting some kind of card trading business and maybe the people in your close vicinity, don't want to buy from you. They can't help you. They don't know anyone who can help you. But maybe you met some guy a while back, he sees your card trading business and he links you to somebody else or something like that. And it's an opportunity that you wouldn't have had had you not taken the time to just meet more people and put yourself out there.

And I would say the second part of that, I think that ties in is branding. And I think the reason why I say branding is just because of my personal belief, at least now, I think this has always been true, but I think especially now It's very true. I think we're kind of moving into more of an attention economy. And I think every industry will benefit a lot by having a unique brand that people can immediately, you know, you, you think of something and it ties you back to the individual within a niche, if that makes sense.

13:51 – Gresham Harkless

Yeah, I love those, Doug. And there's a lethal combination. And so now I wanted to ask you my absolute favorite question, which is the definition of what it means to be a CEO. And we're hoping to have different quote-unquote CEOs on their show. So Lenny, what does being a CEO mean to you?

14:03 – Lenny Richardson

Like being a general. And to me, being a general is being sort of a leader, not only an influential leader, not only to those around you, but to yourself most importantly. I think being a general to me is someone who just controls their day, controls their time, controls their future. And I sometimes feel like people don't do it that much or this, they sometimes call it ghosting a little bit. And I don't know if that sounds bad to say, but I feel like people ghost a lot.

They let things happen to them, but they're not happening to the world or other things I feel like that general mindset, that CEO mindset is more, I'm taking an active approach to put myself in the world rather than letting the world put itself on me. If I'm hoping that that makes sense, but sort of taking an active step into creating the lifestyle that you want or creating the business that you want or whatever it is that you wanna create. It's an active step towards doing it rather than a passive, I'll take it as it comes mindset.

15:13 – Gresham Harkless

Truly appreciate that definition, Lenny. And of course, I appreciate your time even more. So what I want to do now is pass you the mic, so to speak, just to see if there's anything additional that you can let our readers and listeners know. And of course, how best people could get hold of you, find out about all the awesome things that you're working on.

15:28 – Lenny Richardson

As far as if people want to reach out to me, the best place would be probably Instagram, honestly. It's Leviticus rich, Leviticus like the Bible, Lenny Richardson but that would be the best place for people to find me. I'm on Instagram, it's still more than I should. I need to value my time more on social media. But yeah, that would be the best place to reach out to me, I would say.

15:56 – Gresham Harkless

Awesome, awesome, awesome. Well, make it easier. We'll have the links and information that show notes as well too, so that everybody can follow up with you and connect with you. And I truly appreciate you for the work that you do. And of course, the time you took today. And I hope you have a phenomenal rest of the day.

16:10 – Lenny Richardson

You too. Thank you so much. I appreciate you having me on again. This is a great podcast and a great experience.

16:43 – Outro

Thank you for listening to the I AM CEO Podcast powered by Blue 16 Media. Please tune in next time and visit us at iamceo.co I AM CEO is not just a phrase, it's a community. Be sure to follow us on social media and subscribe to our podcast on iTunes Google Play and everywhere you listen to podcasts, SUBSCRIBE, and leave us a five-star rating grab CEO gear at www.ceogear.co. This has been the I AM CEO Podcast with Gresham Harkless. Thank you for listening.

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