Chris –
All right. Well, I’m here with my man Vikram Deol. Did I say that right?

Vikram –
You nailed it, brother.

Chris –
All right. Because you nailed my last name on that. You nailed it. And so this is what’s cool about this. If I’m watching your content, right? Vikram, you’re actually sitting in Medellin, Colombia.

Vikram –
I’m in your country. I’m in your country. I literally I’m like, I’m in this country right now. I was like, I should have been treated a little bit more respectfully at the airport, but I’m going to let that one slide because you didn’t know I was here.

Chris –
Dude, this is so full circle that you’re actually in Medellin. And we’re having this show on the Chris Medellin show. So this is like, what are the chances? But you and I met at the NAHREP event, and we were sitting next to each other for a little bit, and then we just started kind of chopping it up.

Chris –
And then I realized that you’re a coach. And so for those of you that don’t know Vikram, he’s a formal coach who teaches agents and leaders. How to make money and find fulfillment in their lives. And I thought you would be perfect for the series, which is my breakthrough series, which is stories from diverse professionals. And you really fit that.

Chris –
And, you know, there’s a lot of diverse individuals, you and me, who have brows necessarily like to be pigeonholed in that. But, you know, the reason why it resonated with me is that you found so much success through really working hard. You know, you are born in a traditional Indian home. You’re a podcaster. Brill with Vikram Deal, you started your first bid.

Chris –
This is what’s cool. And one of the things I love because whenever I meet hustlers and people who are out there building businesses and entrepreneurs, it’s usually they started off in some sort of sales position. And you did that. I mean, you started selling.

Vikram –
Oh, not going to talk about the weed beforehand. Okay.

Chris –
No, we’re going to. Well, I saw that you gardened to make money and that you actually flipped some cars even before then. But I didn’t I didn’t want to get to that. Just. Yeah, but I mean, one of the coolest things is you were hustling cut knives. And so, you know, it almost goes hand in hand with the real estate business that you’re doing.

Chris –
But you realized that at a young age you were a recruiter, you were growing a business, and you understood what it took to be a young entrepreneur, a hustling, a product that was amazing. And then you realize that you were going to go into real estate and then did the same thing there. And so I’m super impressed with everything that you’ve done.

Chris –
But let’s there are a couple of things that I’ve been watching that really actually really grabbed me. And this is really what it’s about when you build a brand is that it’s not necessarily what you do for a living that interests me. What interested me is this biohacking that I watch, that I’m on and I want to talk about that today because I think, you know, extending your life cycle and doing the activities that are going to keep you alive and healthy is extremely important to our mindset, our well-being, all those things.

Chris –
And I’m watching you do it. And so, dude, first off, thank you so much for taking time while you’re traveling and Medellin and being here on this podcast. I know that there is somebody out there who’s going to listen to this and that’s going to be inspired by your story. So, man, tell me all about it. How did you really figure out this this is your ability to use your voice and use that confidence to go out and create relations, ships, and business with people.

Vikram –
That first off, man, I’ve never heard anybody read such a bland bio with so much pizzazz, so kudos to you. Whatever you’re drinking in that cup if it’s magic mushrooms, a little bit of LSD combo of both. That is actually part of biohacking, just so you know. Yes. So but whatever you do, man, I’m excited when you know, we’re sitting next to each other.

Vikram –
I heard you chatting it up with Megan and I’m like because she lives in Florida, I was like, So how do you know Chris? She’s like, Oh, we just literally met 5 minutes ago. I’m like, This is my boy right here. This is my yeah, I’m like, this. He gets it like he knows how to bring people out of their show.

Vikram –
Not that she needed help, but she’s a rock star. But it’s just like you had that jam. And so, you know, to get into the biohacking, is that where you want to start or where do you want me to start at?

Chris –
We’ll do that. I think the biggest thing I want to get into biohacking, but I think the first thing that resonates with me, is with you and it’s almost identical to what I noticed with you. There were some mysteries to you. You were. I was talking to Megan, but I’m watching you from the corner, of my head. I’m like, who is this dude?

Chris –
And you know how we are? Like, I’m you’re probably thinking, who’s this douche, right? Like I was like, you know, I’m thinking, like, who is this dude? I don’t know this, but there’s something about him. I’m. You’re rocking a nice watch. You got nice clothes. I’m like, why? What? What is this, dude? I got to figure them out.

Chris –
And then I heard you say something about coaching and I’m like, Boom because I wanted to be. I want to be in the coaching game. I’m already starting to develop, you know, this program. And so I was like, if I could be in the room with this dude who’s already ten steps ahead of me in this process, I need to learn from him.

Chris –
And so, you know, then we started talking and you were giving me advice on my Instagram and, you know, it was just that that’s what it’s about, right? You go to these events and you just start meeting cool people and you know, and so what I wanted to know about you is that it all starts with something in the way that you were brought up, gave you a level of confidence that you can use your voice to go out and build a business.

Chris –
And I want to start there. Where did that start with you?

Vikram –
Yeah, man. So I’ve always like I grew up in a household with a lot of people and a lot of big personalities, big voices. And there are three boys in my family. So my youngest brother’s ten years, my junior, my older brother and I are like, you know, nine. I have 15 months apart, right? So my parents didn’t waste any time between children with me and my older brother.

Vikram –
So it’s very competitive, very aggressive. Indian households are competitive in general. It’s like, why aren’t you being like so-and-so? Oh, so-and-so, such a good kid. I’m like, Mom, so-and-so is like a fucking loser. Like, let’s take a loser like, seriously, big deal. He got good grades like that, but pricks going to work for me at some point in my life.

Chris –
How old were you when you were thinking that real quickly?

Vikram –
Well, I used to tell my dad stuff at like four years old. If they gave me a shot, I would fire him.

Chris –
Interesting. Okay.

Vikram –
So I don’t know what it was, but I just was close to like, my grandparents on my mom’s side and my grandma on my dad’s side basically lived with us her whole life. So for like 40-plus years of her life, on and off, she was with us predominantly 95% of the time. And so my grandparents owned farms and my grandpa was just like, you know, I don’t know if he was a good businessman or not, but he was a hard ass.

Vikram –
Like he would talk shit to the workers and I might, dude, they’re going to like blurted the house down one day. Like, he would just. He would just so, like, crazy, right? And so maybe that and then my dad’s personality, you know, just it all just kind of rubbed off, right? Like my dad was a doctor back in the day.

Vikram –
He’s still a doctor, but a doctor back in the day was, like, really spectacular and special. Not like it is anymore. It was a very coveted role. Yeah. Now it’s just like, all right, it’s cool, but it’s not like the. The thing, you know? And so he was like a first generation, the 1980s, you know, stud. And I just, I don’t know, like, there something in me that just never liked listening to rules.

Vikram –
And my parents sent us to boarding school in India when I was in sixth grade and the first school that we went to and those deny it to the day that die. It was a total shithole. I’m talking like no running water stones the in the playground. And that school that we got pitched on, like the fliers and the school that we ended up with, it was like the real estate agent picture, you see, like, oh, well, she looks nice.

Vikram –
And then shows up and she’s like, Well, why? Like the total catfish move, right? Like I got catfish in sixth grade by my parents in a foreign country, bro. Like, that’s the ultimate catfish story. And I show up and the school sucks, and I’m like, No, Dad, we’re not going here. This is not like my spidey instinct, my gut, right?

Vikram –
Was like, bad, bad, bad. I’m not going to want to do anything here. But my older brother liked it because there is a bunch of there called golfers which are basically Americans who have come over to our culture. So they had the rollerblades, they had the Nikes, they had the Adidas, they had all the little shit.

Chris –
You’re watching this. That’s like your jam.

Vikram –
I could care less about that shit. Okay. I wanted to go to the school that was, like, clean, and had a nice yard. Everybody was dressed all preppy and nerdy, right? Like everybody had their own hot water tank. There’s air conditioning. I wanted to go to that ritzy school, bro. Like, I’m like caviar, pedicures. Wipe my ass, bitches. I am home, right?

Vikram –
Like, that’s what I thought I was going to do. And we end up in the other school where in the first week I was there, my cousins, my parents talked, and my aunts and uncles brought their cousins. Our cousins the first week they fly to India, pull all their kids out of school. And I watch them leave.

Vikram –
And they’re like and I’m like, Yo, what about me? Like, how can you guys leave us in this hellhole? Like, you guys are my family, and they left us there because they’re not our parents, right? So like at a young age, I saw some things that were inconsistent with what your mind is and what people tell you. And I realized, like, all right, you know, I didn’t realize it then, but it’s like you just got to fend for yourself, right?

Vikram –
So when you’re in that situation, you just start. You either sink or swim. And I was like, dude, our food had maggots in it. Like, my, my older brothers. I tuned it out, but our food was sick so we would get the little neighborhood kids from Nepal because we’re on the border of Nepal in India, they would come down, we would throw them money, they would throw us dumplings, and we throw them like Snickers bars or we would throw them like, you know, food, like rupees, and like we had no value of a rupee because like, $1 to them is like a ton of money.

Vikram –
But to us it’s nothing. So we throw my two bucks, and three bucks as a tip, and they would always come back and they knew our schedule. So sometimes we would leave the school gates and we’d have to run up the hillside and come back for a pee. So when we would run up, I would fall to like the back of the line and they would sneak me like little fried eggs and I would eat because our school is vegetarian and I’m like, I’m a carnivore, like a warrior.

Vikram –
Do I eat the cartilage off the bone and shit? Right. And they would sneak me food and I would eat it and I would throw them some cash. Right. It was so crazy. And if you got caught, you got the snot beat out of you like you got the snot beat out. So we got beat all the frickin time.

Vikram –
Like we got beat badly by these teachers.

Chris –
And it was near like a rush of, of energy that you were feeling because you knew you were circumventing the process by creating these, like, relationships with those individuals. Like, I know you weren’t the only one but was there a surge of energy that you’re like, I hacked how to get food and like, this is and I’m willing to risk the beating to do this.

Vikram –
I mean, I don’t think it was an energy surge as much as it was, just like, I’m fucking hungry. Like, I was just hungry. I like it, I was just hungry. Like, I wanted to like there’s Mac. There are worms and shit running through the bread. The bread had this like, is this Indian bread? I just like, well, what?

Chris –
It was more survival than it was anything else. Because you can’t eat that shit.

Vikram –
Yeah. Like I, you know, my business partner and mentor Sharon is a dumpster diver, right? He’s like, I dumpster-dived at 18. I’m like, motherfucker. I was. I was, like, pulling words out of my bread at six years old, you know, like, that’s the same. Like, it’s crazy, right? And, like, that gives you this insanity of survival.

Vikram –
And then from there, I was like, well, screw this. Like, I don’t really care about learning the language. Like, they took me to a foreign country and put me in a school where English was my first language. Clearly, that’s not important to them. So I called my teachers and I told them that I’d get them green cards if they let me sleep.

Vikram –
So I’d sit in the back of the class, put my head down, sleep teacher to be like, Hey, is everything okay? How’s everything? Like, pet the back of my, you know, shoulders after, you know, like after P.E. it’s like, cool these. Like, do you need anything? I’m like, you know, I’d love to get the fuck out of this school, but since I can’t know, I just want to sleep.

Vikram –
And I would that back then when you were in a foreign country, they would have these pre-stamped letters, right? So there are these blue letters that were prepackaged and they were pre-sealed. So you could ah, they had the glue on it so you could seal everything and it had postage on it. So our parents gave us like 100 of them and we could write them letters.

Vikram –
So we would write our parents hundreds of letters. Right? There’s no email, there is no phone, there is no cell phone, there is no texting. And I would give them the first paragraph to write and I’d give them a pencil and they’re like, Well, write independently. Not all my parents like a pencil. They’re, you know, weird like that. And then once they would give me the card, I would erase what they wrote.

Vikram –
And I just write the letter, my parents, and they’re like, well, what’s your you know, my dad’s sponsoring a couple of other people right now, but in due time, he’s going to write. So just hustle, right? And I realize like, you could get away with a lot of stuff if you’re willing to kind of bend reality, you know what I’m saying?

Vikram –
So that was like when I started my journey of using my natural-born talents to survive.

Chris –
Well, it’s an interesting thing because I mean, it’s I always say this, especially in this podcast, when you’re talking about breaking through and figuring out wealth, it’s amazing what happens to your being when your back is against a wall. And so, you know, some people might listen to this and say this dude was a manipulating, but then somebody else.

Chris –
Yeah, it was.

Vikram –
Hell, yeah. You go into sixth grade in a foreign country 25 years ago and you tell me you’re going to do the same shit. That’s me. That’s what I’m doing. Is your podcast? Go to the next one.

Chris –
That’s exactly it. That’s so that’s the reality of it. It’s like it becomes a survival mechanism and you figured it out while somebody else probably just accepted worms in their food every day. And you said you said I think he said your brother had tuned it out, but you weren’t willing to let that happen to you. Right.

Vikram –
He and I still like we still ate together, right? Like so he would beat my ass. And then if anybody else tried to mess with me, he would beat their asses. So, like, there was something that wasn’t right with the situation, but we, we, yeah, we basically, like, got this whole little crew that we would, you know, secretly just throw money around and it was just, you know, but we ate.

Vikram –
But he doesn’t remember it as I do. So his reality and that’s the interesting thing is that my reality is so different than his reality. But I’ve done a lot of therapy. I’ve done a lot of like work around why it was I was really bitter with my parents for a really long time and I didn’t know why.

Vikram –
And then I realized that it all stemmed from like a couple of childhood moments that I just didn’t think were the way that you should treat children. And, you know, I think a lot of people have childhood issues with parents trying to do their best to make their family run and operate the way they want it to.

Chris –
So what’s so, so important? So let I’m going to just skip a bunch of stuff that I want to talk about. I think I’m going to be me. And I think there are a lot of people who are not comfortable with really digging into their mental health when it comes to things like therapy. And you’re all in on this to the extent that you’re talking about it.

Chris –
But we all deal with certain trauma in our lives and with our families. And, you know, there are certain mechanisms that have impacted the relationship. What was a catalyst that got you to say, you know what, I think I need to do some work on an on me and hey, somebody to just sit with me and kind of figure out how to on why is this?

Vikram –
I mean when we were kids my parents are taken us to therapy and now mean I started using drugs at a young age like 14 years old. So we came back from India and I did an I did a year and a half of school, prison, I call it, because I had no friends. And then sophomore year I ran into this kid from way back in the day and he’s like, Oh, what’s that?

Vikram –
Vikram You know, I was like, Oh, so what’s going on? Bad kid, right? He had a whole bunch of trauma in his life that he’s now starting to unpack but just has a good, good heart. The smart kid does bad things, right? Not a bad kid. Just unguided. Yeah, we started smoking weed. We started selling weed. We started drinking. I mean, I almost crashed my dad’s car at 415 drunk one night after we shut down the pizza place.

Vikram –
Like I was six feet away from those metal mailboxes. And I was going like 85 in a residential neighborhood and the car just spun out. And then I ended up flipping that car with seven series BMW. I flipped that car off of a freeway a couple of months later, like I was an out-of-control kid. Right?

Vikram –
Like, I just didn’t give a flying f. I still don’t care about a lot of things, but I was just out of control. And, you know, I went through a divorce. I got a domestic violence charge for trashing my ex-girlfriend’s house. A few years later, after the divorce, I cheated on her. Right? I was in a spiral like I was making hundreds of thousands of dollars.

Vikram –
Our team looked on the outside. Right. The suit, the car that, you know, the perfect perfect life. And inside I was just unraveling at the seams. And I remember, Chris, that I was seeing one of my parent’s friends who have more money than, you know, they’re probably one of the top ten richest families I know, hundreds of millions, if not more money.

Vikram –
And I remember I go to their house. Right. And they had Bentleys in the garage and they had, you know, a 63 and blah, blah, blah. I remember going to their house one day and I looked at the house and the outside of the house was falling apart. Now, if I can $3 million house in Bakersfield in the nineties, little chunks of stucco, outdoor stairs, and eating work.

Vikram –
And I’m like, Why are you people so cheap? You Indians are so cheap? And then a few years later, I never forgot, I never forget the story. A few years later I was like, they sent their kid to rehab. Their son had a bunch of like I used to buy drugs off their kid. We would get really fucked up together.

Vikram –
And I remember one day talking to him and he goes, Yeah, you know, like, I’ve had a lot of challenges in life. The kid went to NYU or Yale or one of these, you know, smart kid schools, and I realized the parents were less concerned about the outside of their home. They were more concerned about the inside content. And I was like, Oh shit, they weren’t putting effort to make the house look great.

Vikram –
They understood, hey, my son crashed his car at 16 years old. He had this dope-ass Corvette that we just remodeled for him. He crashed it at 16 years old, drunk and high, and was in the hospital. Right. My other kid has a problem. What are we not doing right? To take care of our family? And they stopped doing a lot of other things and they started doing a lot of other things, too, to rebuild their family and their children and the things that they needed.

Vikram –
And I don’t think and the one thing that, I will give them credit to is I think they asked their friends for help on how to raise their kids. Like, we don’t know what we’re doing wrong. Our kids are out of control and they started asking for help. And my parents just can’t do that. I love my parents, but they can’t do that.

Vikram –
So, you know, after I end up in jail, you know, hundreds of thousands of dollars and in restitution, right? I’m alone getting it the last day that I was on work release, it’s not really jail. Jail, but it’s still you checking yourself in and out every day. The last day, right? I was driving an I had a Range Rover, but I parked it in my garage.

Vikram –
I rented a car for the month. Obviously, you don’t want to show up to jail in a Range Rover like it had to look need people like so you’re rich like fucking driving a Range Rover to jail, like checking yourself in and out every night, like, well, let’s fuck this guy’s life up a little bit. And so I was there like I had a group of four or five guys that we talked to every night, and I would share things that I had to get out of, like this rut and this negative mindset.

Vikram –
But the last day it’s 6:00 in the morning, Seattle Rain and I’m in this, you know, Chevy Cavalier, some piece of shit car and I’m alone. I’m alone. Like two weeks prior, this girl that I was dating, I was like, there’s this one guy that I fucking can’t stand out from your friends if I’m there, that’s cool.

Vikram –
We can deal with him. But if I’m not there, just don’t go out with him when I’m not around. So I’m going to check myself in at night after the day. And I was talking to her like, Hey, what are you up to? She’s like, Oh, it’s St Patrick’s Day. I’m going out with so-and-so and I’m like?

Vikram –
Like, out of all that, like, you got thousands of friends. I have two weeks left in this thing, right? I got 30. I got sentenced to 30 days. I had 18 days that I had to serve because of good behavior. And I served a weekend in jail like when I got arrested, I’m like, you don’t have the decency to like you tell me you love me, but you don’t have the decency to, like, not go out with this guy for two weeks.

Chris –
And this is what I want to put some context to this quickly. This is right before you’re about to walk in and shut your phone off right? You’re about to jail.

Vikram –
Yeah, I’m like 9 minutes away from jail.

Chris –
And all you have left is this thought of the one insecurity that you’ve asked about. Not to deal with, that you go with when you go into jail. You sleep with that all night long to worry about, right? I actually know that feeling of helplessness and like I just asked you to be cool, you know, just be cool and you had to deal with, so what happened?

Vikram –
So I was like, Fuck it, we’re done by I don’t like I’m hot, I’m rich, I’m my name’s on fucking Zillow and everybody knows who I am in town and I wear great looking suits. I can get females like my ex-girlfriend was 17 times better than you are. She would never do that same girl whose house I trashed because I obviously didn’t have the self-worth to keep somebody like that.

Vikram –
And I was mad and I was just like, You know what? I’m done with you, you know? Like, I kept we chatted for a little bit afterward, but it was just like there was nothing really left there because she was an alcoholic dealing with stuff so broke people and broke people. So she was finding her things. She needed what she needed.

Vikram –
But you go in there and you have to start thinking about your life. And I started reading the book by Jocko and I can’t remember the name of it. I’m sure you know it.

Chris –
I’m ownership.

Vikram –
I say. It’s like, why is my life the way that it is? Why am I doing the things that I am? And I realize, like, I’m not going to get, you know, Albert Einstein, the thinking that got you here isn’t the thinking going to get you to where you want to be? I saw other examples in my life of people that I know that had everything bro working towards them and now they’re 60, 70, 80 years old and they’re going to die alone.

Vikram –
They’re alcoholics, right? Their mom has to take care of them. And I’m like, I don’t want to be that guy. And I just had to start making choices. And I realized I needed help. I realized I needed therapy. I realized I needed to unpack a lot of things. I realized that I had an alcohol problem. I, I still have an alcohol problem.

Vikram –
I’ll always have an alcohol problem, you know, and it’s just like, I don’t want to be that guy that my billionaire uncle was like, God, Vikram, I had so much faith in you, too. I didn’t care if you were as rich as I was, but I just had so much faith you were going to change the fucking world.

Vikram –
And you did. But you made it worse. Like, Oh.

Chris –
That’s a kick in the gut, bro. I mean.

Vikram –
I’ve had conversations with him like he’s like, I can’t believe you went to jail. And this guy, I’m sitting in his like 27, fucking 35, $48 million house. And I was like, Can I just be honest with you? And he’s like, Yeah, what’s up? This is like a year and a half ago, I was like, I was in jail for domestic violence, for drinking.

Vikram –
He started fucking crying, bro. He had to turn his face because he had tears and he’s like, Why didn’t you tell me years ago? I was like, Because of the Indian culture. I know it’s hard for you to, like, step in. And he’s like, Yeah, I know. He’s like, but he’s like, you know, I’m always here for you.

Vikram –
He’s like, you know that no matter how busy I am, you’re one of my few that I will always pick up the phone for. This is I’ll send you text messages of things that make me proud and happy. Right. You don’t a billionaire doesn’t need anything like he’s got everything he wants. His family’s happy. He’s happy. He’s got money.

Vikram –
It’s little things. He sends me pictures of his kid’s hockey tournaments, right? That’s what makes him happy. And he’s like, you know, I don’t send those to all of the kids. I send them to you and a couple of others because I want you to know that there’s something in you and the way that we’ve connected over the years as well.

Vikram –
Right? Because he’s like, he’s a hustler, dude. I love it. But he’s like, I never knew you had so much pain in your life. And it hurts me and I, bro. And it’s just like, it’s overwhelming. But, like, if you don’t deal with it, here’s the crazy issue. If you don’t deal with your pain, your kids will deal with your pain.

Vikram –
And if they don’t deal with your pain, the second generation will deal with the pain. And if they don’t deal with the pain, the next you are solely responsible for stopping the generational trauma right now, if you choose to. And if you choose not to do so. Cool. But if you now know because you’re listening to this, you’re selfish and you’re not willing to do the work to help your kids, which means every time you say, I take a bullet for your kid, it’s fucking a lie.

Vikram –
Because you’re not. Because you’re not willing to go get a therapist because it hurts. So much. And let me tell you, it’s hard as f to do it, but don’t say you’re willing to do anything because the only thing they need for you to do is to heal yourself and you’re not willing to do it. So they don’t need you to take a bullet that they’re strong enough.

Vikram –
But if you say these things and you mean these things, then you’ll do it. Because that’s the truth. And I don’t have kids that call me dad and that I know. And so, like, you have a blessing and all you have to do is go and make yourself better and love yourself more.

Vikram –
And if you do that, bro, and you say you’re willing to take a bullet. No, you’re not. You’re a fucking talker. And talk is cheap.

Chris –
Dude. You, you know, a couple of things. You have this a lot of people don’t realize that you know, that do because they’re basing everything off of this story. What people don’t realize and you’re going to you’ve said a lot of things that might trigger people. I hope people what people don’t realize that you have seen success.

Chris –
You have had success at a very, very high level and chose to, you know, give it away or lose it or none of that. None of the success mattered because you had to deal with all these demons that have been growing inside of you since you were a kid. And you decided one day that you were going to address it and deal with it through therapy and through, you know, self-self-help and all these things.

Chris –
But what? But then what’s crazy, Vikram, is then there’s this been this transformation of you now helping people live their best life. How did you make that transition to say, now it’s time to give back? And I’ll tell you this much, man. When I was looking for a coach I think there are two types of people in the world, those people with coaches and people without coaches.

Chris –
And I’ve always been the person.

Chris –
And part of this was is I wanted to find somebody who who who had like a little bit of a similar background as me too, to, um, to coach me and, and for example, that lived the hardships that I lived through that didn’t grow up in a, you know, in a, in, like, you know, with money. And I couldn’t find it.

Chris –
I couldn’t find anybody in the industry that I was like, I want to be you. You’re just five steps ahead of me and I want to follow in your footsteps. And you have, you know, you are an individual who has lived and you’re in your for coming from you and I both come from cultures where what you just said is very shameful in that the way we live with shame, like, I mean, it is, it is embedded in our culture to do something wrong and feel ashamed for many, many years.

Chris –
A part of your therapy, it seems like, is that you’re talking about it and you’re putting it out into the world because there’s an end to this story that you’re changing. Talk to me about that, man. Have you gone from where you were to now? What were the steps you took? Because somebody out there is living your life right now and doesn’t know how to get out of it.

Vikram –
Everything’s a snapshot. It’s a snapshot, man. It’s a snapshot of who you were. So, you know, if you listen to the atomic habits or you read the book Atomic Habits, they talk about I don’t know what the dude’s name is, but brilliant man. He talks about how if you want to get the people into it, if you want to get drug addicts, rightly so.

Vikram –
People coming back from Vietnam hooked on all sorts of crazy drugs. They came back 90% success rate that they’re no longer using drugs. Why their environment changed. Disciplined people aren’t disciplined. They just take out the temptations. Right. So in my house and it’s why it’s hard for me to visit my family, but in my house, I don’t have alcohol and if I do, it’s buried so far in the back of the lower part of the shelf that I forget about it.

Vikram –
I only buy it if a female is coming over and there’s a date. Right. Or friends bring it over. Right. Otherwise, I don’t really buy alcohol because I know that if I have it around me enough, my environment is going to cause me to want to have it. So what do I have in my background? I have my bike.

Vikram –
I have my cold bath, I have my hyperbaric chamber, and I have the things that I know are going to give me longevity because if I feel good, strong, and healthy, I am not going to revert back to that weak little inner bitch that’s like a koan. Vic, come on, let’s go. Become fucking crazy victorious tonight and get fucked up and go pick up some chicks and they.

Chris –
Would kill Vikram. Do you deal with that when you’ve had success, or do you deal with that when you’re not feeling success? Or is it both of them? Or do you feel that temptation just all the time is just trying to take you, talking to you?

Vikram –
All the time? There’s that little there’s there. Right there, right here, right now. They’re always there like it’s always you suck. You’re a piece of shit. You’re a wannabe, you’re an imposter. You have $200,000 in debt. Still, you think you’re an entrepreneur, but you’re not. And then there’s this other guy that’s like, Yo, shut the fuck up, you motherfucker.

Vikram –
I will beat the fuck out of you. Do you know what I’ve done over here to make myself better? Do you know what I’ve done to make myself a human? That people want to be around and like and love and call up and be like, Yo, what’s up? I’m checking in on you. I haven’t seen you in a minute.

Vikram –
Like, why are you calling me? I did. I have an inferior inferiority complex that’s probably bigger than the fucking than anybody in the world. It’s like, I don’t think like when people start saying, hey, I want to be your friend. I just dip, bro.

Chris –
Because you think that there is a hidden agenda there.

Vikram –
Of course, a man like you, just nobody.

Chris –
Or you just don’t want to be close to anybody.

Vikram –
I’m scared, you know, like, I got this girl right now that fucking adores me, and I’m like, she just wanted my hyperbaric chamber because I’m traveling for four months. She’s got it now. Now what? Now she’s going to. Now, now she’s going to bail on me.

Chris –
Oh, oh, I understand that thought process and some variation.

Vikram –
And it’s up.

Chris –
It’s crazy, but. But I think that that’s what everybody does. Okay? Because this is what I love about you, everybody that I’ve had on the podcast and everybody that I’m going to talk to from this point, moving forward is going to tell me that that they’ve bypassed it. And they are they own their mind and they’re you know, and you are saying, look, and dealing with it right now.

Chris –
Right here, how do you manage through it? What are the things that you go through when you hang up here? You’re going to have another call after this. And then eventually you’re going to be by yourself and then you got to deal with your demons. How do you do that? What do you what is your go-to mechanism?

Vikram –
Go to sleep early.

Chris –
There you go.

Vikram –
Do hard shit. Right. I’ve graduated. I’ve graduated from things that people would never think they could do. People say I can never do the project. Right. What’s the project? It’s 75 hours of the most intense yelling brutalization from one man to another man that you could ever go through. And then, to make it even more fucked up, they give you feedback, and then to make it even more fucked up.

Vikram –
They have the peers that you’re suffering with, give you feedback, and you have to give them feedback and you’re like, You suck. Why? Because you’re an asshole. Well, I’ve heard that before, but why? And then they give you the reasons why, and you’re like, Oh, I can’t even say anything because you’re 100% right. And I quit the project the first time.

Vikram –
Like they pushed me to the limits and I quit. I gave up because I broke and I was like, What the fuck, man? Like, Holy shit, you know, a couple of grown-ass men yelling at you for 45 minutes and you broke after 50 hours, you fucking coward. And I looked every single one of them in the eyes and I said, I will be back.

Vikram –
And I came back and I finished, right? And I’m not where I want to be in my business right now. Like my business could be doing seven figures. We’re six figures, right? It’s cool. But like it doesn’t feel great because I incurred a lot of debt when I left real estate. You know, when you go from a seven-figure-a-year business to no income for two and a half years, and you invest 300,000 plus dollars and startup costs into a new business, you know, like sometimes that money that you had saved up runs out and I was too busy trying to impress women.

Vikram –
Then I was trying to buy and impress my bank account. So instead of buying property in Seattle, if I would have bought five like my ex-wife, I’d be worth $10 million. Now I’m sitting here with a negative net worth of 180 grand. But like this year, I was able to pay off $375,000. So far, maybe a little bit more.

Vikram –
But when you do hard shit, when you put yourself into a cold shower, when you put yourself into a cold bath, when you put yourself around people that are doing great, my grandma reads hands and she said, Oh, you’re going to have a divorce. Your thirties are going to be hard. This is what she told me when I was a kid.

Vikram –
She’s thirties are going to be hard. You’re going to go through a divorce, and going to be married twice, but your forties are your time. So when you hit 40, things are going to change for you like things are going to click, you’re going to get married, you’re going to find the love of your life as you know, and things are going to change.

Vikram –
And the minute I hit 40, man, I’m telling you everything started to feel better. But it’s because I went through and I started to clean up the holes in my life. And I’m not you know, I’m not alcohol-free. I’m free or but I still drink here and there, which I don’t love. But like you, you create habits, right?

Vikram –
Like, so what do you do? You do the hard shit. I go to the gym, you know, yesterday I went to the gym. My business partner, who’s here with, we did it like, let’s go, bro. He’s like, I had a long day. I just want a drink. I’m like, Bro, I had a long day. I just want to go fucking lift some weight, throw some shit around and fuck some shit up, right?

Vikram –
Because when put my shirt on and it fits me and it’s tight and it’s fucking like, you know, and I walk down the street in Columbia and it’s kind of scary because I don’t know where the hell I’m at, even though we’re a nice, safe area and somebody looks at me and I just kind of give them that look of like, you don’t want any of this.

Vikram –
They kind of look the other way because they’re like, Yo, predators, no predators. Yeah. So they’re one guy on one guy. They’re not going to come after me. They’re going to go after the other guy. And it took me years to look in the mirror and be like, Wow, you’re actually super fucking fit and strong. Like other people would say it.

Vikram –
I could when I cycle, I would be able to keep up with other people, but I never saw myself as a strong man, even though other people are like, Yo dude, you’re looking fucking good. You’re cut. Holy shit. Like, where the fuck did this guy come from? I always looked at myself as the six-year-old that got picked on and bullied and beat up and, pushed up against the walls and told, Hey, don’t look at my fucking girlfriend ever again, you little bitch, or I’ll knock you the fuck out.

Vikram –
And I was six and the guy that said that was five three and I was scared shitless, right? That’s the transformation that takes so much time for some people. And now it’s like, I’m not an alcoholic, so I’m not going to drink. Right? When people tell me, hey, have a drink, have a drink.

Vikram –
I did. I don’t drink. I don’t drink. And they’re like, But one drink won’t kill you. You’ve never seen one drink with me. One drink to me is like half a bottle of fucking gin. Yeah, that’s one drink. One drink is like three bottles of wine and stir, like, stuttering home and talking to homeless people. Like an idiot.

Vikram –
Like, that’s one drink, right? It’s not always like that, but that’s what one drink can be often. Yeah. Extreme ownership, right? Draco, own your shit, own who you are. God put you in this body because you needed to enhance your soul. So that when you go to the next stage in your evolution, you don’t have to go through this shit again.

Vikram –
Why would anybody want to go through this shit again? It’s fucking hard.

Chris –
So do you. How did you? Sorry to interrupt you, but how did you end up taking the leap from, you know, doing all I mean, you mega-successful, real, real. You know, in real estate, you were a mega-successful recruiter to every business that you’ve ever touched. And now you’re moving.

Vikram –
Business, whatever. They are definitely failures along the way.

Chris –
But yeah, but I mean, don’t we all feel like some level of failure in order to get to the wins? But sure, if you were to take a look, right, take a look at yourself. And it’s hard to do this, but if you take a step back and said, forget about all the things that you’ve done bad, but you look at all the things that you did good and all the accomplishments, it’s pretty fucking remarkable what you’ve accomplished.

Chris –
And so now you’re making the leap into helping people and helping them discover, you know, this. But what, what do you lead with that is so different from everyone else’s? This I don’t even know what to call it outside of the horrible truth of who you are. Right. At times. And so you’re saying I’m all the I’ve done all these things and you almost lead with it.

Chris –
And now it’s like, okay, but you know, I get that. But I still like you. You’re still a really good dude. And how can you help me grow my business? And then it’s like, Wow, now this dude’s going to come up and roll up his sleeves and be like, Now let me show you how to roll out, how to how to do it right.

Chris –
And that’s how you do that? I mean, what tell me about your coaching program and how you’ve leaped to that, and how you’ve seen some success with this as well? Let’s talk about that.

Vikram –
You know, bringing in the personal stuff is a little bit harder. It is not I haven’t incorporated it as much because it’s not relevant on a daily basis for what a lot of people are going through. But it is relevant for them to know that they have somebody in their corner who if they need something, they have access to me, right?

Vikram –
So like I do a group I do group coaching. It’s called the Real Estate Growth Academy and you know, what I tell all my clients is like, look, if you have something personal in your life going on, even though that’s not a business thing, it is. It’s affecting your business. So reach out to me and I know that not everybody is capable of sharing their inner darkest secrets on a public platform with 15 people that they sort of know and or don’t know, depending on how long they’ve been in the program.

Vikram –
For me, I said, just reach out to me privately. I’ve been in jail, and I’ve been divorced. You know, I have a whole slew of rap sheet type of shit. And the difference between you and me and other people is that I’ve been through that stuff and I’ve come out and I’ve never given up. And so if you’re facing some sort of mental hardship relationship type thing, right?

Vikram –
I’m not in a relationship, but I’ve done enough relationship therapy because I want to have a solid relationship I needed to realize what I was doing to sabotage relationships. Reach out, right? Like reach out like I’m not a marriage counselor, but I probably know a lot more than a lot of marriage counselors that have not had tough relationships or have not seen challenging relationships.

Vikram –
Right. Most Indians that I know are not in a happy relationships. They’re in we are just in a relationship. And so I don’t want that kind of relationship where I and my spouse are just together because we don’t know what else, you know, who’s going to bring home the bacon, who’s going to cook the bacon type of relationship.

Vikram –
Right? Like, I don’t want that in my life. And so, you know, it doesn’t always play out. But like one of the things I’m really big with my, my coaching is, is, you know, we do a lot of visualization exercises like at the beginning of our calls, five, ten, 15 minutes, we just spend a little bit of time in visualizing spending a little bit of time of tapping into source energy.

Vikram –
We spend a little time just doing meditation. Some of the guys don’t close their eyes. Some of the guys do. The guys that don’t, they’re journaling their writing, right? The ones that do, they’re getting to that other level the way that they’re comfortable doing it. Right. And however you do what you do, writing out your future right, and who you want to be, because business isn’t about who you are, it’s about who you have to become to be who you want to be.

Vikram –
Right? So like if you want to be a seven-figure entrepreneur. Cool. First off, is there a reason why seven figures are elusive to you? Is that because that’s the golden you know, golden mark that would make you feel good? If that’s the case, it’s not going to make you feel good because when you had a seven-figure a year, you’re gonna be like, All right, where’s the next deal that you like?

Vikram –
That was cool. We had $1,000,000. I don’t know what it’s like to hit $5 million. Haven’t done that yet. But I can tell you when we hit $1,000,000, we went right back to we didn’t stop. There was no cake, there were no balloons, there is no elephant, no fucking unicorns, no glitter, no fairy dust. It was like cool. What do we get to work on next?

Vikram –
Like Vick, we had $1,000,000 for the year. I’m like, I know you guys. Let’s why are we stopping, right? Like, it’s not the dollar amount. It’s who you became to hit that dollar amount. So if you want to hit that right, Grant Cardone says you got to be for X, the man or woman to get to where you want to go.

Vikram –
So like, you need to have your spiritual life in order. You need to have your physical life in order. You need to have your mental life in order, right? If you don’t eat and drink healthily, right? If you drink two Cokes a day, three monsters, and 400 calories of sugar, afford grams of sugar a day.

Vikram –
It’s your body telling you there’s something wrong. Well, if your guts are wrong. And here’s what most people don’t know, Chris, is that when we’re born, our gut is produced before our brain. It makes sense. We need nutrients. Wolf, mom wasn’t getting the right nutrients because she’s following this American diet, eating Monsanto’s fucking greatest food hits ever. And she’s got all these chemicals in her.

Vikram –
You’re using bleach everywhere because of COVID, but all those chemicals your body just can’t get rid of. There are so many chemicals in our environment. Your body can’t rid of it. Then, like right now I have a cough, and I have antibiotics. My dad’s a doctor. He’s like, Hey, take Zithromax, take this, take this, take this. I have antibiotics. I could take them.

Vikram –
I could suppress the fever, I could take them. I could have this cough gone in 36 hours instead of suffering for a week and having to take a nap. But if I do that, Chris, I don’t let my body strengthen. So when it comes to coaching, we can get to the other stuff. Most people have to get through like some of the real things which are some of the mental things, right?

Vikram –
Why are you every year hitting $120,000? Right. What if you’re not ahead of 120, you just hit 120 in Q1 and go party the rest of the year. Yeah. It’s not that you don’t have enough leads. It’s not that you don’t have enough skills. It’s not that you don’t have this your mind is telling you that you’re worth $120,000 and that’s what you place.

Vikram –
And so if we can start getting people to visualize who they need to become on a weekly basis, even if it’s just one time with me, and then they start saying, Hey, that felt good, I’m going to do that a couple more times. Now we can start to really hammer in the tactics, right? The Hey, say this, hey, say that, hey, do this, hey, do that.

Vikram –
Hey, wake up, be like this. But if you don’t feel like you’re the type of person who deserves that success, you’re not going to do the activities. Which is why most people don’t implement, because they’re like, Well, I’m not a $1,000,000 producer, so I’m not going to do the million dollar producer things. Let me get to 500, but they’re never going to get to 500 because they don’t do the things that you need to do because they don’t feel internally worthy, which they’re not going to come out and say, but that’s the gist behind it.

Vikram –
So if we can do some, you know, small meditation, some small incorporations, right? This is why I love doing group coaching because I get a lot more time in the saddle with my clients. I get to see my clients for two and a half to 3 hours a week. So if I spend 15 minutes with them meditating and walking them through a visualization or a meditation or a, you know, breathing exercise, it’s not a big deal because they’re not like, Oh my God.

Vikram –
Our time’s coming up to an end. Vick, We got to get I can’t believe we spent 20 minutes meditating. This is so stupid. I’m paying you thousands of dollars for meditation. You’re an idiot.

Chris –
But actually, I see this differently. And I don’t mean to interrupt you, but, you know, the real estate growth academy is Vikram’s academy that he is. Any coaching platform. But if I can go into a coaching platform where I’m truly coached on the tactical things that are going to help me break through to the next level. But then I’m getting all of this other, you know, advice from life perspective and health perspective and fitness perspective and getting your mind right, because no amount of coaching is really it all.

Chris –
There all has to be a foundation. And that foundation starts with what is going into my body, and how I’m dealing with stress. Right. And, you know, I picked up, you know, meditation over the last several months. And it’s been like a game changer for me because, you know, it all starts with how you’re managing your stress and how you’re managing your focus and how all these things can come into play.

Chris –
But if I go into coaching without that fundamental piece ahead of it, and I don’t think there are very many coaching platforms that will offer that, I think this is a really cool place to start. So, Vikram, how does somebody get in touch with you? Where do we find you?

Vikram –
Yeah, Instagram. And if you guys are watching this life, are watching this on YouTube, or on one of Chris’s amazing channels, just coach my name. Coach Vikram Deal is where you’ll find me awesome.

Chris –
I love it, man. Well, look, I can’t wait. Well, first off, why are you in Columbia right now?

Vikram –
Just because you know my goal? What am I goal was that if I’m going to leave real estate, I’m going to create a coaching platform and I’m going to go digital and I’m going to be a nomad for a while? And so as scary as it was packing up my life last week, I’m still kind of shaking about it.

Vikram –
This is just a goal where I could travel and work and be digitally awesome.

Chris –
And now I’m envious of it. And I think a lot of people are, because if you could build, you know, and live that laptop life and see the world and change lives while you’re doing it, all the more power to you, man. But I would say, guys, if you’re in real estate and in, in, in even in mortgage and you’re looking to break through the next level, talk to my man deGrom right here and look him up.

Chris –
Because not only does he have an amazing story, his truth is really what sells me on why I would ever want to partner with somebody because I don’t want to hear and just deal with somebody who’s flexing the entire time. I want to know somebody who’s real and is willing to lead with the truth of all of their things.

Chris –
Because I’ve met a lot of successful people that won’t share the pain that they’re dealing with. And if I’m going to get in a room with somebody, I want it to be somebody who’s real. So, Vikram, your story’s amazing, man. And I’m fighting with you, man. I’m rooting for you because we all have those demons that are creeping up, and I know you’ll continue to overcome them, but I do want to continue to connect with you and collaborate with you and be friends with you.

Chris –
So let’s keep this conversation going, brother.

Vikram –
I appreciate being on the show, man, and sorry for talking 97% of the time.

Chris –
You know, I am in awe, man. And, you know, a lot of times I love not really talking before this because I want to get that authentic conversation from you. And I feel like you and I were just chatting it up. So this is how I want it to be, man. This is as authentic as it comes. So thank you, brother, for being here today.

Vikram –
I appreciate. You guys have a good one. Thank you.

Chris –
Thank you, brother, for being on.