Sobriety, Success & the Second Act with Jonathan R. Stein

On this episode of Canvas, I sit down with Jonathan Stein for a conversation that goes far beyond real estate.

From private equity to touring with a band, to becoming a powerhouse in luxury real estate, Jonathan opens up about reinvention, discipline, identity, addiction, and the realities of rebuilding yourself while operating at a high level.

This episode is about more than success.
It’s about evolution.
The masks we wear, the battles we fight privately, and who we become in the process.

A raw, honest, and unexpectedly powerful conversation.

Now streaming on Apple Podcasts, Spotify and iHeart

Transcript

SPEAKER_02 0:00

Hi, I'm Monica Novo. Welcome to Canvas, a podcast where every episode is a fresh canvas. We dive into stories that make you pause, conversations that open your perspective, and the ideas influencing art, lifestyle, entertainment, architecture, and the way we connect as humans. Together, we look beyond the surface into the moments, the places, and the people quietly shaping how the world moves and why we keep evolving. Some people follow a path, others rewrite it entirely. Today's guest is someone who lived multiple lives and made each one count. Today's guest is someone from the structured world of finance to the unpredictable of touring with a band and now operating at a high level in luxury real estate. Jonathan Stein didn't just pivot, he transformed. He's built a business that moves serious numbers. But what's more interesting is how he got there. Because behind the deals is the story of reinvention, discipline, and facing parts of yourself. Most people spend a life avoiding. This isn't just about real estate. This is about identity, control, temptation, and what it really takes to rebuild yourself on your own terms. Jonathan, welcome to Canvas.

SPEAKER_01 1:16

Thanks, Monica. Pleasure to be here.

SPEAKER_02 1:18

It's such a pleasure to have you as well. So, Jonathan, have you done a podcast before?

SPEAKER_01 1:24

I did my good friend and client, Michael Chernoby's podcast called Creatures of Habit, and it was a lot of fun. Maybe like three years ago. I love that. Yeah, it was fun. He's he's very good at it, as were you.

SPEAKER_02 1:36

Well, thank you. I met Michael a while ago when he first originally started. I think he partnered with uh Seymour's. Yeah. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 1:42

Yeah, it was one of his spots that he started.

SPEAKER_02 1:44

Do they have any of them still open?

SPEAKER_01 1:45

I think so. He's not really involved anymore. He he lives up spade and has Creatures of Habit, which is like this amazing overnight oats, and is just, you know, the most handsome, healthy guy in the world.

SPEAKER_02 1:56

So he's definitely had a transition in life for sure. He's got he definitely has a story for me without a doubt.

SPEAKER_03 2:03

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 2:03

So you were just telling me earlier, like you remember when we first met, and I'm thinking about when I first met you at Graph, when you just rolled up in your motorcycle and like tatted arms, and I was like, this guy's hot.

SPEAKER_01 2:15

Yeah, well, you showed a rental to me and my clients in the seaport maybe like eight years ago, and we just hit it off. It was just like from from the first moment, I just was always so super connected to you.

SPEAKER_02 2:27

That's so cool. Cause I was like, wow, you know, I didn't remember that. But then again, I'm a little old, so I my brain gets a little foggy sometimes. But but that's interesting. No, I remember when you first came to Grandma's U. Square when I first started doing the project. It was probably like about, I think it was just before COVID. Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 2:42

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 2:43

I was like, he's so hot. I remember telling my wife, I was like, oh my God, I met this amazing broker. He's from Brown Harris. He just rolled up on this bike and he just you reminded me of a very good friend of mine, Jason Sandlofer. Jason was actually my guest a couple episodes ago. Nice. And same thing, motorcycle, tall, six foot three, tatted up, and just really handsome and dynamic and personable. I mean, you know how I feel about you. Same.

SPEAKER_01 3:09

I I have the motorcycle in my apartment now. Oh my god. Do you don't ride it anymore? So I I do. I've got a bunch of bikes and I keep them at my place in Connecticut and ride on weekends because it's just it's just a different city to ride in now. There's potholes everywhere, there's so much construction. Everyone's just kind of texting and driving, so it feels super dangerous. And I had a guy on my team came by to drop something off recently, and he walked in and he was like, This is the greatest bachelor pad of all time.

SPEAKER_00 3:34

Is that Gavin?

SPEAKER_01 3:35

No, it was it was Henry. And I was thinking about it, I was like, you know what would make this an even better bachelor pad? Motorcycle in the living room. So I put it in the elevator, and I like brought in the service entrance and put it in the elevator. And my super came into my apartment to help me hang some art recently, and he walked in and he was like, What is that real? I was like, Yeah, I just kind of eyeballed it and put it in the elevator. Is that cool? He's like, I guess.

SPEAKER_02 3:58

Started in here, so a friend of mine had commercial space. They did the like all the Hudson News stores throughout the city, like all the NYC t-shirts and the Setura Liberty trinkets and stuff. They had a commercial loft space here on the second floor on 15th and 5th. And they owned, it was a co-op space. And you'd walk in and there was this beautifully bedazzled Vespa, a vintage Vespa. Nice. It was beautiful, it really was. So you'd walk in, and that's kind of like the first thing you see. I think one other client of mine had put a bike in his loft space.

SPEAKER_01 4:32

It's not that common, but No, it's it's definitely a conversation starter.

SPEAKER_02 4:36

It sure is. So, anyways, getting started, you've had an interesting life. I knew a little bit about it, but I didn't know as much as we're gonna get into this conversation. Nothing's nothing off the table?

SPEAKER_01 4:48

No, I'm whatever, whatever you want. I like your style.

SPEAKER_02 4:52

So some people know you went from finance to music to luxury real estate, completely three different worlds. They all kind of correlate to some degree. How did that happen? What was what were you searching for that you actually felt like, let me try this? No, let me try that, or let me go to this.

SPEAKER_01 5:10

I would love to say that I was being proactive with all of those changes, but it was more reactive than anything. So my resume in New York is like a patchwork world of non-sequiturs that have all led me here. Like it's just I've done I've done a lot of different things. My path, you know, the meme, like people think the path to success is a straight line, and it's really like the squiggly line. But I have a a really squiggly line. So I got clean 12 years ago, and I tried for four years, thanks, before that. And well, I just wanted to see in those four years how much shittier I could make my life. And I was very successful with that. So I I had a hodgepodge of different jobs, but you know, right before for the the the term before I got clean, I was working in real estate private equity, raising capital, primarily from family offices for our fund. Before that was raising capital for alternative assets, and was doing really well, got sober, we raised a new fund. I was looking down the field like 20 years in the future, thinking everything was gonna be great. And it's that great quote when you make plans, God laughs. You know, the fund imploded almost overnight. Really? It was it was uh, you know, sandbox issues with the principals. And too many cooks in the kitchen? Yeah, yeah, it was it was a lot. It was and it was sad because the guy that brought me on and gave me a second chance after I had lost so many opportunities because of, you know, drinking and drugs really believed in me a lot and he didn't he didn't have a fair shake of this. But, you know, I I learned a lot from that experience. And when I learned that my position was dissolved and they were just fire sailing everything, yeah, I didn't really know what to do. I I hadn't learned the life skills that I have now. Like it's it's a real funny and very common saying in the sober community. Like that day of school when we learned all the life skills, I was sick that day, and I wasn't there to learn any of these life skills. So I was I was figuring out what I was gonna do and how I was gonna pay my rent. My brother and I were living together at the time in this place in Brooklyn. And we were gonna buy the townhouse next door and renovate it, and ended up not being able to do that, obviously. Sure. I was on I was on the phone, I was texting my best friend Sarah in LA, and she and I went to college together. She's you know, she's more like a sister than a friend at this point. We've been friends for 25 years. Wow. And I was texting her at like three o'clock in the morning this one night, and I was like, I'm so fucked. Like, I don't know what to do, I don't have any money. You know, like I I put all our expenses for the fun on my personal card, like and I wasn't getting reimbursed. I was just totally smoked.

SPEAKER_02 7:56

And so you never got any of the money back?

SPEAKER_01 7:59

Never. Never. So and there's there's still things that pop up in the press about these guys from time to time that they're still figuring it out, but you know, it's 12 years later. So I was I was texting with her, and it was three o'clock in the morning in New York, so it's like midnight in LA, and I'm texting with her, who's the lead singer of this band, Phantogram. I'm like, I don't know what to do, and I was just spiraling. She was like, I'll call you when I get home. Like, I'm out right now. And so she texted me like half hour later, and she was like, I was just at the party in the hills with Leonardo DiCaprio and all this. I was like, You didn't have to leave. And she was like, No, I want to like, I want to help you figure this out. She's like, We're about to go on tour all through Canada and the US and Mexico, and you should come with us. And I was like, To do what? Like to hang? I was like, I I need a job. She's like, No, no, no, come out and like work as a tour manager and like we'll we'll pay you. I was like, I don't know how to be a tour manager. I she's like, you worked in banking forever, like we've been friends for, you know, at that point, like 11 and 12 years. Come out on the road with us and do this job. And I was like, I don't, you know, I I gotta find a real job. You know, I gotta I gotta stay here and figure it out. And she's like, well, you don't really have any options right now.

SPEAKER_03 9:06

No.

SPEAKER_01 9:06

So why don't you come out, you know? Being an impediment to your own development, or she said something she didn't say like that, but something along the lines. Yeah, she was like, why don't you just come out on the road with us and hang out, you know, figure it out. So I left New York and I went to first North Carolina, and we went from North Carolina to DC and Baltimore, and I grew up around there, so it was it was cool to have that experience on a tour bus and like you know, playing with a band and being with a band that had, you know, sold out headline shows at every venue that we went to, like playing at the 930 club where I grew up going to concerts was a really cool experience. And after that, I came back to New York. I was still trying to figure it out. I was looking at other, you know, jobs at other funds.

SPEAKER_02 9:47

How long were you on the tour for?

SPEAKER_01 9:49

That was it was like a week. So it was very short. And then I came back and then their manager called, and he was like, you know, they're going out on a long tour, you know, North American tour, Canada, US, Mexico. Come on the road. They want you there. So I went on the road and we started in New York and we went to all through Canada, all the tour buses. It was that one was like four or five months, and then we were Canada, US, and then Mexico, and then back through the US again. Wow. And I was with them for like a year. And we were in Atlanta. They recorded an album with Big Boy from Outcast. So we were at Stan Cunha Studios in Atlanta for a while, living there. And then we were in LA for a bit, and they did this cool music festival where Kendrick Lamar headlined, and we got to hang out with him a lot while he was recording this album in Jimmy Iobine's studio.

SPEAKER_00 10:44

Kendrick Lamar.

SPEAKER_01 10:45

What was funny, I did I sold him an apartment uh three years ago, and he walked in to the apartment for the first time, and we kind of looked at each other. And he was he was just like, you know, and I was like, man, we have so many photos together on my phone. You come up as one of my people. And he was like, Yeah. And I was like, Oh, Josh and Sarah's friends. He's like, Oh yeah. So it was really cool. And after that, I came back to New York and and they were doing, you know, a more substantial tour.

SPEAKER_02 11:10

And did you learn how to be a tour manager?

SPEAKER_01 11:12

Yeah, I did. I learned how to like babysit my two best friends and and hang out with them. I mean, it was more or less I was just hanging out with my two friends while I figured out what was next. And they were very kind and generous, and we had a lot of fun together.

SPEAKER_02 11:26

And that's a beautiful thing.

SPEAKER_01 11:27

It was great. I mean, how often do you get to ride around on Nelly's old tour bus with your two best friends through all the time?

SPEAKER_02 11:34

That is how to come in action.

SPEAKER_01 11:35

It was it was pretty awesome. And, you know, it was an exercise in being newly sober and being on the road with a legitimate headlining rock band, which they made easier than I think it would have been otherwise, but it was still very difficult. But I learned a lot. How long by the time you went? It was like four months and it was very early. Yeah. So now when I think about that, I'm like, oh my God, like that could have gone either way. So I'm I'm really grateful that it I was able to hold hold it together. I was gonna say. Yeah. But no, it was cool. We had a ton of junk fu together on tour bus and watched a ton of movies. So it was it was a lot of fun. And then I came back and I worked at another fund and didn't have any skin in the game and was relearning Excel macros from like, you know, a while before. And a friend of mine suggested that I become a real estate agent. It felt kind of like a dig at first, you know, like you should be, yeah, you should be a real estate agent. And I was kind of like, why would I why would I want to do that? And she was like, Well, you're good with people and you know, sales. You have a great connection. Yeah, I had awesome connections. And so I started doing it. And in the beginning it was a lot of ego for me because I would sit down with friends that I was trying to turn into clients or get them to refer me people, and I would say, I'm a real estate agent now. And every What was the response? A lot of the times guys would be like, Man, like I guess I can send your your resume to my boss if you want, if you need help, like do you you know, finding a real job? And I'm like, no, no, no, like I want to do this. Like, this is it's interesting to me. Like, I like real estate, I like people, I like sales, and I like connections. And most of those people turn into clients. So I'm really grateful for that. I get to work.

SPEAKER_02 13:17

I'm sure the ones that offered to send your resume to their bosses are now like, all right, dude, yeah, you proved us wrong.

SPEAKER_01 13:23

Yeah, and it it took a long time to get to the point where they trusted me with their business. It took two years.

SPEAKER_02 13:28

It does take two years in the business. So it's hard it's hard, and I have to say, it's working with friends in a in a professional capacity is a little tricky because you know how they are, you know their dynamic, what makes them tick, what sets them off, what doesn't, what makes them happy. So you have to somehow learn how to navigate. I mean, I've had to do it, you do it, in being able to separate friendship from professionalism. And I've had this conversation already in the past, you know, in one of the previous episodes. It's not an easy thing to do because someone's always gonna get emotional.

SPEAKER_01 14:02

Not everyone can do it. No either. No. I had a conversation with a really good friend of mine. I'm helping her and her husband buy something right now, and we were talking this morning uptown, and she asked me about, you know, my experience working with other friends, because that's a lot of the clients that I have or are friends or friends of friends or people that become friends. And sometimes it goes really smoothly, and it's great situation for everyone involved. And sometimes people show you a side of them which you wish you could unsee. Yes. And and it's and it's sad, but I'm able to compartmentalize. It's just business, you know? Everyone's nothing personal. It's nothing personal, but also it's it's all fear-based. Everyone, you know, all bad behavior comes from a place of fear. I'm afraid I'm not gonna get what I want. I'm afraid someone's gonna take advantage of me, be dishonest, get over on me, and it makes people act in different ways. So a lot of what we do is talking people off a ledge. And uh, I mean, it's such a cliche saying.

SPEAKER_02 14:59

It's hard to do that with a friend because they expect you to do what they want, what they're asking of you to do. They expect you to be loyal to, and you are being loyal to them. But what about when you are representing them for a sale? Okay, they're they're you're selling their place. And they want you to like, it's gotta be my way or the highway. Fuck the other broker. I don't care what they think, the buyer's gotta pay this, the buyer's gotta do that. And you have to try to navigate and make them feel like this, I understand where you're coming from because your fiduciary responsibility is to your client. Sure. And they expect you to throw that out the window and just be like, nope, you know what? It's like it's me, it's me, it's me. And but you have to kind of play both ways. That's why we have dual agency, especially if you're representing, let's say, the the buyer on the other side. Okay. You have to do right by them, but you also have the obligation to your client.

SPEAKER_01 15:50

It's like when you were a kid and you played chess against yourself, you always want one side to win more. Exactly. Right? And the in the original client who your fiduciary is initially to them, most often than not, they're looking for you to, you know, if you're wavering. But uh I've been blessed that most of the friends I've worked for, when we have to have difficult conversations, they appreciate the pushback. I sold a friend's apartment in the village and we got a great offer on it, but it wasn't there. And he said, you know, I I'm not gonna take this. And I said, You are.

SPEAKER_02 16:31

Because it's emotional. It is especially when you're dealing with friends, it's very, very emotional.

SPEAKER_01 16:35

And when we closed, he was so grateful. He was like, Yeah, I I just I was so stressed about it. And and you know, you really handled that well. But also, like, people don't want us to be a pushover. Like, I look at you in our friendship that we've had now for for years and years. Yep. And I would never look at you and say, Monica's a pushover. I would say, like, Monica's like like a badass chick that's gonna, you know, hit hard when she needs to and push back if I'm, you know, kind of out of line. And your clients know that about you too, and they don't want you to be a pushover. They want you to push back when needed. And like, I've got this whole code of mine, and one of my criteria for myself is be honest even when uncomfortable to do so.

SPEAKER_02 17:15

Oh my god, I agree with you 100%. That but that is very hard in what we do. And again, it goes back to your friend or your client. They either accept it or they don't. And when they don't, the fine line between friendship and professionalism goes out the door. And it's it's it's a very it's tough.

SPEAKER_03 17:34

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 17:35

Especially when you're dealing with very that's what I say. I call them exposed nerves. Like people who their their personalities is like an exposed nerve. You just never know what's gonna happen or what when it's gonna when when it's gonna go.

SPEAKER_01 17:50

Well, we work with a lot of the same kinds of people too, like very smart, very successful, you know, people that are used to getting what they want because they're right. I did a deal uptown five years ago with a very prominent CEO that I met through his son. And we get all the way almost to the finish line, he starts dragging his feet on this one, this one item that was gonna blow up the deal. And I called him and I yelled at him on the phone. I just completely like lost my shit and I lost my cool. And I and I said, I've worked really hard on this deal, and you're fucking it up. And like, stop it. You're gonna lose this apartment. And it's 2021. So it was like you waver it all, and then it's done.

SPEAKER_02 18:30

2021 was a fire market. It's like it's like if you didn't want it, the next person's gonna take it. It was it was nonstop.

SPEAKER_01 18:37

So I I did what I what I had to do, and he called me after we signed contracts, and he goes, You have are now a very trusted advisor for my family, and I really appreciate you doing that. He goes, No one's ever talked to me like that. Yeah in my professional.

SPEAKER_02 18:52

Sometimes it goes well, sometimes it doesn't. I mean, you've been pretty fortunate. I've I've, you know, my wife definitely says she's heard me on the phone sometimes. I've fired clients. I'm like, I I just I do not need to work with someone who doesn't value the experience, the expertise, the not the advice that myself and my team are giving you. That you sell stocks, it's not that different from us, from what us selling real estate. You know what you have to go through. You could totally understand what we're going through. And some clients are just either disrespectful or think they know it all and try to push you over. And you're absolutely right, I am definitely not a pushover to a fault. Sometimes I've I've had to learn how to curb my temper.

SPEAKER_01 19:31

But you have a strong personality and people are drawn to that. I've always been drawn to you for that reason because there's no bullshit in you. But also, like when you push back on people and let them know how you deserve to be treated, you're telling the universe, don't send people like this my way anymore. Yes. I fired, I fired a client very early on. I was a big client that I did not have many of. And she would call me on Sunday night and yell, why haven't I, you know, sold her apartment? And uh I got advice from another agent. She goes, fire her. And this is a very big agent. And I was like, Yeah, but I don't have clients like you that are a dime a dozen that I can, you know, do this with and cover that hole in my business. And she goes, It's your way of telling the universe, please don't send people like this my way again. And I did, and I've been thankful that I've not had that again.

SPEAKER_02 20:17

Yeah, I think one of my most memorable fires, uh my wife remembers this, and a lot of people. I um I used to work with a lot of people in the music industry. I still do. And I got a call from Jay Z crew. They had this young producer that was up for a Grammy. He wanted to find something, and they wanted me to work with him. They they pre-warned me he's a little off the cuff, could be a little hot-headed, a little arrogant and pretentious and self-serving. And I said, Okay, sure, whatever. I've dealt with a lot of them. So I go, I meet with him, his mother comes, and it was Kanye West. I was like, nice to meet you, Mr. West. Heard a lot of nice things about you. Jay says great things about you, Biggs is like, you know, very big, et cetera, et cetera, and like all the people from Rock Nation. And I start taking him out. His mother, God bless her heart, Dondo was amazing. And we go out, we're looking at things, and he is just being a fucking asshole. Not even just to me, but the team, the other brokers, the people that were involved, his own like security, just his personality and temperament, the way he responded to people, the way he treated people, the way he demanded without any kind of kindness, was I was just like, and his mother kept apologizing, profusely apologizing for her son's actions. And it got to a point where I call up Biggs, because he was the one who was dealing with, and I said, I'm sorry, I'm not working with her anymore. You can try to find someone else. I'm not even gonna recommend anybody else to work with him because he's absolutely appalling. He's he is, I don't even know how this man he may be talented, he may be up for an for a Grammy. I don't care. But I don't want to work with him. I said, anyone else, I will do anything for you and Jay, but I am not going to work with this guy, so I'm done. And his mother was apologetic, please, like Monica. And I said, Donna, I absolutely respect you. I said, he is your son and you love him, he is your world. But at the end of the day, if he doesn't change his personality and his mentality towards people in life in general, he's gonna have a very rude awakening one day, needless to say. Where are we today? And God rest her soul, because she was such a wonderful woman. And she tried. She tried with him. I know that he really went through a lot of ups and downs when his mother passed away. But at the end of the day, I don't wish him any ill at all. God gives you what you give out. You know, karma's a bitch.

SPEAKER_03 22:45

Yeah, it really is.

SPEAKER_02 22:46

So being that you kind of landed into real estate and you had friends saying, Oh my god, let me help you with something else. At the level where you are now, the performance that you have displayed, I know since you left Brown Harris coming to Element, which how long have you been back down here?

SPEAKER_01 23:02

Three years. Three and a half, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 23:03

Okay. How much have you seen what you did in the beginning to where you are now? And what have you learned from this whole transition?

SPEAKER_01 23:13

You know, I really liked being at Brown Harris a lot, and Beth is still a really good friend. I love Beth. I sometimes when I'm in midtown, I'll just go to the office and just take the elevator up because they still let me in the office, and I'll just walk in to her office.

SPEAKER_02 23:26

Wait, they're steroid park in 40. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 23:31

So I'll if her door is closed, I'll write a post-it and just slide it under a door and just say hi. And we play tennis in in the park every Wednesday morning. Yeah. Yeah. We I mean we play on opposite courts, but we always see each other and say hey. And and they were really good to me. They helped me build a business early on when I didn't know what I was doing.

SPEAKER_02 23:48

Is that the first company you started with?

SPEAKER_01 23:50

I was at town. Oh I was at town for two years. And I left a month to the day before they imploded. So I went over to BHS, and when I met Bess for the first time, I sat in her office and I said, I'm gonna be one of your biggest agents. And she tells the story all the time. We did a podcast together and she talked about it, and I really remember it. But we had like a really honest conversation. I was just really drawn to her and I and I really respected her a lot. Her and Hull.

SPEAKER_02 24:14

I love Hall. I was I did a short I had a short stint at Brown Harris, very short stint. That Bess is this was a long time ago. This was like 2007. I think you could best was that.

SPEAKER_01 24:24

She was a I don't I think she was a Corkin. So yeah. So I joined BHS and I had an awesome career there. And you know, I started hitting like top ten rankings like pretty early on after about a year. And when I left, I was ranked top ten firm-wide. And you know, I've got Tats and Ride of Ducati, and they didn't have another guy like me there.

SPEAKER_02 24:44

So what made what I mean, that everything was going great, and that's what I have to say. I mean, if I would ever work with anybody I'd borrow, I mean, Pam would probably kill me if I said this, and so would you know Michael at this point. But Bess is definitely someone who you absolutely respect. She is a force. She is a total force. She is badassed.

SPEAKER_01 25:02

I think she's one of the most impressive people I've ever met in my whole life. And she has a big stage. She has w the the nicest, kindest disposition, and she's very she can be very firm, but she's very fair too, and she doesn't take shit from anyone, no matter who they are. And I just always really respected that about her. And I never thought I would leave. But I was sitting in my car in February of 2022, and the number that you've had call you, I'm sure, a few times rang that says, you know, no name. And I answered, and a voice said, Hey, Jonathan's Howard Lorber. And I was like, Hey, Howard, I guess you're not calling me about the list. And he goes, No, I'm definitely not. He goes, I keep hearing your name all the time, and and I think we should meet. And I said, All right, I'd love to meet with you, but I just want you to know I'm really happy where I am. And he laughed and he goes, I was hoping he'd say that. I'll see you soon, buddy, and hung up. And I was like, That was cool. And it was on speakerphone in my car, and and my guy, Manny, that's driven me now for five years. I was like, that was and he goes, I know who Howard is.

SPEAKER_02 26:04

Everybody knows everybody knows everybody. If if if someone says Howard Who, like, I'm sorry, what rock have you been living on?

SPEAKER_01 26:10

Yeah, exactly. And I didn't hear from him for a while, and I thought he forgot about me. And then Gina, his assistant, reached out and she goes, Mr. Lorberhouse, 30 minutes for you on this day. And I put on a suit and a tie, and I went and I sat still probably the most impressive office I've ever been in in New York. And he didn't bring up real estate once.

SPEAKER_02 26:32

That's what I love about Howard. I have to tell you, every time, and I think we had a really good dynamic, Howard and I, for so many years. But what I loved about Howard is you could sit and talk to him and it real estate would not come up once. You could talk about everything life, love, art, music, boats, anything, and not have to talk about real estate. It was one of the most refreshing things that you can encounter and experience with someone like Howard.

SPEAKER_01 27:01

Well, not knowing anything about him the first time we sat together, I kept waiting for him to say, so when are you coming over? When f when when when do you move over to Element? He never said it once. That 30 minutes that we had turned into an hour and a half. We talked about, you know, where I grew up, where he grew up, and you know, how he was involved in starting the Silver Shield Foundation for family members of police officers who were killed in the line of duty. We talked about his philanthropy, and we talked about shooting. We both love, you know, Dan Pheasant and Quail and wing shooting. And I had never really talked with someone of his stature in that setting before about, you know, something so personal. Yeah, exactly. And and we just we just had such a nice conversation, and I was the one that had to say, hey, I I have to go show a client. Like it's with real regret. I stopped. He goes, All right, well, let's talk again. And we didn't talk again for a while, and then I landed in Miami a couple months later for F1. There was the first one in Miami. And I remember I was still sitting on the plane after we landed, and I had a text that said, A little birdie told me you just landed in Miami. Let's meet for breakfast. And he said, It's Howard, by the way, in parentheses. And I said, All right, like you pick the spot. I I want to go where you go for breakfast. So we sat at this tie the next morning for like two hours and just caught up again. And it was the first time Howard.

SPEAKER_00 28:23

I miss him so much.

SPEAKER_01 28:24

And then you just saw him. I did. He said hi, it's almost in the podcast. But it was the first time that that he saw me without shirt sleeves on because I showed up in a polo and I was like, you know what? Like, I'm gonna get this out of the way. And I did. I showed up in a polo shirt and he goes, Fuck, you have a lot of tattoos. It was it was great. And I know I didn't feel like he was judgy at all, like he didn't care. He goes, I don't care. A lot of my people have tattoos. And we just had this awesome breakfast together where we talked, and he has become for me, and I tell Michael this a lot. Like, I feel like a lot of people think of Howard as as a father figure. And he's he Howard is is Michael and Brian's dad. Yeah. And Michael is is a very close friend of mine, and he's one of my best friends in the industry. And I think he does it better than pretty much anyone because he navigates that.

SPEAKER_02 29:16

He's also had an amazing mentor, his dad.

SPEAKER_01 29:19

But but his dad, everyone thinks that Howard just feeds Michael all these. No, no, no, no, no. I never I've always known that was never the case. Michael just meets these people and navigates the relationship in just such an expert way. I really like working with their team a lot. We've done a few deals together and I really consider them to be very close friends. And I just I don't I don't think of Howard as my dad. I think of everything I wanted my dad to be is what Howard is. But I I just love my time with him. And it was one of the proudest accomplishments of my life working for him.

SPEAKER_02 29:54

For I I have to say, I feel the same way. I don't look at Howard as a father figure. I've always looked at him as an equal, though it's very different. But he comes to you like an equal. He doesn't come to you as like I'm Howard Lauber.

SPEAKER_01 30:08

When he introduces me to people as his friend, it's like it's the best thing in the world. And I've gotten very lucky that we've gotten to spend a lot of time together over the years, and I miss I miss working with him. I do. Uh, but I mean he still answers my call first ranking.

SPEAKER_02 30:22

You need advice? You're like, uh Howard got emitted to chat, sure.

SPEAKER_01 30:26

And he knows I'm a crazy F1 fan, and so he got Ellen to sponsor the race, and we go together every year. And it's like one of my favorite times of the year watching F1 with Howard and just yelling at the track, watching it on the TV from the box that we sit at.

SPEAKER_02 30:42

I'll go next year to Miami. I haven't been to the one in Miami in a while. It's crazy that you haven't. I was asked to go this year, and I just honestly just could not fit it in my schedule. It was just impossible to do.

SPEAKER_01 30:51

Sunday is a very small crowd, yeah, and you would be very welcome.

SPEAKER_02 30:56

I mean, I've done Vegas, I've done Italy, I've done a few others. It's the best.

SPEAKER_01 31:00

So yeah, I got to hang with him, and then I get to hang with uh Michael Liebowitz when I was down there as well, who is our new chairman. Yes. And is just awesome.

SPEAKER_02 31:10

He's just I I you I love about I we I haven't talked about Michael a lot on the podcast. I will eventually hopefully have him on. But he is, I mean, he and I can talk and we talk but not it's like Howard, not real estate. It's about life. He's just a good dude. I love it.

SPEAKER_01 31:26

He's a very I I like talking to Michael about and seeing the world through his eyes because I know what he's built and how successful he is.

SPEAKER_02 31:36

And where he started.

SPEAKER_01 31:37

And where he started.

SPEAKER_02 31:38

A hundred percent.

SPEAKER_01 31:38

Which is great. And it makes me feel because I did not I did not come from this world at all. And I fight every day to be here. And we've talked a lot about that, and he really cares about our company. Yeah. And I care about our company too. I really do. The element name means something.

SPEAKER_02 31:54

You know, listen, I think everybody knows by now that I've always been a big advocate and spokesperson for the case.

SPEAKER_01 32:00

I can't imagine you anywhere else.

SPEAKER_02 32:02

Every change this company has gone through, it's and I shouldn't because I'm just a broker in this company, but it it emotionally affects me. And I just feel like we know change is good. We know things have to evolve, and that's perfectly fine. But like when Howard's leaving, Scott leaving, and there's been just a lot of back of the house changes. You think about like what what's what's happened to our company. Where's the soul? Like it was very different before Michael came. Like this was like a close-knit family. We had a camaraderie that no other company could ever match. And a lot of that went away a little bit. It has.

SPEAKER_01 32:42

It's now a little bit more Well, we've we've lost some people that were kind of on the fence anyways. Yeah. And, you know, we're rebuilding. That's what it feels like to me.

SPEAKER_02 32:50

It feels like that's what I like about Michael, because he is, I mean, I definitely think he and I have a lot of certain mindsets, both being Sagittarius, but the the fact of where he came from, how he's built his life, his business, his career, how he views things in a very different perspective, not as a typical CEO chairman of a real estate company. And that I respect and that I admire. He it's like I always say, I'm like, Michael, you're scrappy. You started out as like this scrappy guy, and you're still scrappy. You're just more refined. But yeah, I have a great admiration and respect for him for what he's doing. And I know that this company is going to continue to build and grow and be the number one firm again in New York. We definitely hold the number one place. We hold the number one place in luxury throughout most of the country. Boston, New York, Miami, Florida.

SPEAKER_01 33:40

Florida Jay Parker. Shout out to Jay Parker. Yeah. It's my dear.

SPEAKER_02 33:43

It's really, I mean, I think it's it's it's a true testament that when people come to us, it really is about luxury.

SPEAKER_03 33:50

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 33:50

We are that luxury brand. But let's go back a little bit, a little bit about where you're from. Let's go a little personal, family and stuff. I mean, I know you have a brother. You have two brothers?

SPEAKER_01 33:59

Just one.

SPEAKER_02 34:00

Just one brother.

SPEAKER_01 34:00

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 34:01

Give me a little bit about your backstory.

SPEAKER_01 34:02

I grew up on a farm in Maryland in a town of 170 people. And I had never met anyone that lived in New York. I always wanted to be here. I always dreamed about being a city kid when I was a kid. My best friend David was a 45-minute walk through the woods if I want to go to his house. He lived on another farm far away.

SPEAKER_00 34:20

Wow.

SPEAKER_01 34:20

And we had pigs and we had we had beef steers. And I grew up in a very, a very small town. So I did not I didn't know how I was ever going to make it to New York, but I knew I was going to figure it out. And I did. I figured it out. I came here and I knew two people somewhat well. And I've been here ever since, and I love it. And yeah, I I it was a very different way to grow up.

SPEAKER_02 34:45

I'm sure. So what I'm gonna ask. You've always been very outspoken about your sobriety. We just talked about it briefly. It's not an easy thing to do. Some people have a hard time speaking about like their past demons and being in a high-performing career that you are now, let's say from when you started in finance to music to real estate. What drove you to that? First question. You know, how did that control your life? Because it does, it eventually addiction, it consumes you. And how did it force you to confront how much control you'd ever had?

SPEAKER_01 35:21

That's a really good question. I have debilitating OCD and drinking and being high was the only time I was able to relinquish that kind of control and just feel like at ease in my own, you know, skin. I I felt like I never fit in anywhere. When I came to New York, I didn't I wasn't dishonest about where I came from, but I wasn't forthcoming with details because I didn't I didn't feel like I fit in here. And now to me, having told my, you know, story in its entirety so many times with clients and friends, I think it's an interesting story. You know? I I'm I'm grateful that I didn't I didn't go to the, you know, best prep school, I didn't go to the best college, like I figured it out and came here and made it and continue to to work hard to stay here every day and and try and, you know, leave my days a little better than I found them. And I definitely do not do that perfectly. And I I mess up a lot, you know, particularly pre-sobriety. And I still make mistakes now and I try to atone for that and make amends. But I'm I'm very cognizant that I'm able to be here and and I'm playing in extra innings on borrowed time right now. How bad did it get? It was it was bad at the end. And I hear a lot of people in sobriety say, I should be dead, you know, I I should have died years, you know. I I I can't believe I'm here right now. Like if I was meant to be dead, I would have been dead a long time ago. And I feel like I have two purposes in the world why I was spared that, you know, premature death. I feel like here to help people get sober that are struggling and don't know who to ask for help. And outspoken about my sobriety because of that. And I'm very blessed that I get a lot of people that reach out pretty consistently, sometimes every week, that need help. So friends of friends that don't know what they're doing. And I get to be for them the guy that I needed when I was in their shoes and didn't know who to turn to and was scared.

SPEAKER_02 37:27

And so you sponsor a lot of oh, I do a lot.

SPEAKER_01 37:30

A lot of I go to meetings every day? Not no, not every day. I hit a few a week, and you know, the program is is it's its own conversation, but it's it's you know, it's helped me and and that is what I'm grateful for. And and the the other reason that I feel, you know, I have purpose is to be there for the family members of people who I've loved and lost and and be their, you know, kind of light along the way. And I've been really blessed to be in the orbit of a lot of people who were not meant to be here for very long. And I have a lot of moms that I text on Mother's Day. So I'm very grateful for that.

SPEAKER_00 38:08

It's amazing.

SPEAKER_01 38:09

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 38:09

And it's it's addiction is It's a dreadful thing. It's so I've had friends who've battled addiction terribly, and some are here, some are not, as I'm sure you know. And it is a very difficult it's a very difficult demon to overcome.

SPEAKER_01 38:27

It really is. It's it's something that you know, I had 12 years last month of continuous sobriety, thank you. And, you know, I struggled for four years before that, and I perpetually counted days and tried to get clean and sober time and was not able to, you know, just ring the bell and tap out. And it gets easier over time and it gets better. And my dream life that I imagined when I was in early sobriety and early in real estate pales in comparison to the life that I have today. I wasn't even able to dream this big. I had this idea of this life that I wanted, and my life today is so amazing, and I'm so blessed that I'm able to do the things that I am and and have the people in my orbit that I am, and yeah, I just I feel really lucky.

SPEAKER_02 39:17

So that's a that it really is beautiful, Jonathan. And I always say there are people in this life that go through so many challenges and adversities and trials and tribulations, and they don't have the support or the love and the the family or the friends that are there. Sometimes it gets to the point where you go to a level with your addiction that people throw their hands up and say, I'm done. Like I can't do this anymore. I mean, you see so many people today, mental illness has an uh an effect with addiction. There's just a lot. But putting those two together, it's it's it's difficult. But it's I'm sure it was hard for your family. I'm sure it was hard for people that loved you.

SPEAKER_01 39:58

I I didn't have any support for my family when I got clean. I did it the best way that I could. You know, I figured it out and I found people to help me here in sobriety. And it was it was tough. You know, I had my my little brother with my like this North Star, and he was he was very helpful. But I did it for him in the beginning because I didn't think I deserved to do it for myself, and that changed over time. And he has always been very supportive of my sober journey. But I went on a date with a girl early on in New York, and she was like, Did you grow up in Tribeca? And I was like, What do you mean? And she goes, Yeah, you just feel like someone that grew up downtown, you're cool. And I was like, I did not grow up in Tribeca. I did not grow up in this world, and it was like the greatest compliment I had ever received. So yeah, I've I've lost a lot of friends along the way, both that I grew up with and and in New York. And I don't want to be a cautionary tale. I want to be the example that I want to see, and I want to help people have a better life because it is it is always worth it.

SPEAKER_02 40:59

Aaron Powell The Friends that you've lost, uh do you feel that being sober now are you able to make amends with them? Are they willing to hear you make amends?

SPEAKER_01 41:13

You know, the ones from early on I've made amends to most of those people, and you know, I have amends to people that I've I've heard in sobriety too, which is an even more difficult pill to swallow because it's like you should be better now. You should not be doing the same bullshit as before, but like we're all flawed people, and I can beat myself up about it as much as possible. But I just try to be better than the guy was yesterday. And sometimes it's easier, sometimes it's not. But yeah, I mean the ones that I've lost along the way that have that have passed either from overdose or or other causes surrounding that, like I I keep in my heart always, you know, and and we carry them with us.

SPEAKER_02 41:54

Always the remembrance.

SPEAKER_01 41:55

Yeah. It's a reminder. But it's also like some of them kept me sober with that. And their death doesn't have to be in vain. But it is it is difficult.

SPEAKER_02 42:06

It is.

SPEAKER_01 42:06

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 42:08

So I mean I think uh every day is a gift. I always say, thank God. Or whatever you believe in, whatever higher power, I just wake up, open my eyes, put my feet down, and I can just have another day.

SPEAKER_01 42:21

But it's so much more interesting thinking about there being something up there watching out for us or some kind of presence or energy. So m speak going back to Michael Chernow again. He and I, during the pandemic, every morning would FaceTime one another. He has a place in upstate New York, I have a place in the country in Connecticut. And we would FaceTime every morning for months and months, almost a year during the pandemic, and we would do Wim Hof breathing together. And then he would go jump in his pond there, and I would go jump in mine or a cold shower and we would do the plunge. And we had all of these amazing, like really deep conversations. And I remember I was having this real crisis of faith early on because like you know, I lost my entire slate of deals in six weeks. I just bought a house, just got married. I I I didn't have any business coming in, and I didn't know what I was gonna do. And I was having this kind of faith crisis, and I was talking to Michael in one of our morning calls, and I was like, What do you what do you believe? Like, what's your higher power? And he goes, Man, I've given this so much thought. I don't know what's out there. I know it's not me. And I look out the window like I do right now, and I see the leaves blowing in the breeze, and I can't do that. And that's what God is to me. And I thought it was the most insightful thing I've ever heard. It's really insightful. I do it like every day. I live on Gramercy Park and I do laps in the park in the morning, and I see the breeze blowing the leaves every morning. I'm like, man, that's that's something that I can't do. That's not me. It's something greater than me.

SPEAKER_02 43:51

It it's very true.

SPEAKER_01 43:52

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 43:53

So speaking about marriage. So you got married.

SPEAKER_01 43:57

I did.

SPEAKER_02 43:58

When did you been leaning a married?

SPEAKER_01 44:00

2019, right before the pandemic.

SPEAKER_02 44:02

Okay.

SPEAKER_01 44:03

So we got married and we are now divorced.

SPEAKER_02 44:07

Yeah, I I kind of knew there was a process that was happening, but I think it's gone public now.

SPEAKER_01 44:12

Yeah, it was in People magazine today.

SPEAKER_02 44:14

I mean, she did post it on Instagram, which I was a little surprised, but I was like, okay, I thought this was Yeah, you know.

SPEAKER_01 44:21

But you guys had a great relationship. You guys are still friends. She's like my best friend. And we share the two dogs together and we live in the same building still.

SPEAKER_02 44:29

Oh, that's a true testament. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 44:31

And I and I mean that bad, right?

SPEAKER_02 44:34

You cannot be most most ex-wives or ex-husbands want to run from their former spouses. Well, clearly you're not an asshole, and she still loves you, that you guys still live in the same building.

SPEAKER_01 44:44

I I wasn't I was an asshole. I was not perfect. No one is. Yeah, and that's that's kind of the thing. But we we have a very nice relationship today. And I'm very grateful for that. So yeah, we we get to co-parent the dogs together. Great Danes. Two great Danes.

SPEAKER_02 45:02

That's a very specific breed that the both of you would agree to get. Uh I mean, Great Danes are like they're gentle, docile giants.

SPEAKER_01 45:12

They're the best apartment dogs ever.

SPEAKER_02 45:15

They don't have a very long lifespan.

SPEAKER_01 45:17

No.

SPEAKER_02 45:18

They're giant.

SPEAKER_01 45:19

Getting them to walk a lap around Gramercy Park is a real issue because they pull back, they they just want to go home and sleep on the couch. In Connecticut, though, their personality changes and they rip around all day together like crazy too. Yeah. They're the best. They're beautiful. They are, you know, I I've never loved something in my whole life as much as I love those dogs. And particularly Deanny, the older one that I that I have, and Lena has Dagny, the puppy that we rescued. Deanny and I just like You're her person. Yeah. It's awesome. We just we just hang and she calms me down, and we just spend so much time together. Like, I love her so much. You can't see yourself without coming home and having this creature come to you and show you this unconditional love. I've told my operations manager, Tegan, when when that day comes, that's a minimum. Like, you're not going to see me for a few months.

SPEAKER_02 46:09

Yeah. I I always say that I have a 16-year-old Jack Russell and a three-year-old Golden Doodle, which most people you've known Rowie. Rowie came into my life very oddly, the story behind it. And I'll tell you the story because it's it's a it's a very interesting one. But pre-Rowie, I had Roxy. So we had two Jack Russell Terriers, go figure. A lot of energy, both females. But Roxy was my my everything. I was her person. I was, she was my like my I always felt that if a dog could be your soulmate, Roxy was my soulmate. A hundred percent. Even when Roxy passed, I mean she got sick, she got diagnosed with cushions, and we I searched the country for a surgeon who could perform an adrenolectomy, which is not a common surgery for dogs, especially small dogs, because essentially they're cutting you from your sternum all the way down to your abdomen. And for a small dog, that's kind of like butterflying a dog open. Big dog a little bit easier. Crazy. So I found this surgery. Oh, yeah. I could have bought a Porsche. But she came through the surgery, everything was fine. For some reason, she developed a giant blood clot in her aorta. So there was nothing we could do. Yeah. I mean, it is what it is. I was devastated. I because otherwise she was perfectly healthy. She passes. I tell my wife, I'm like, okay, we have tests, and we're just we're sticking with tests. We're not gonna, we're gonna leave it at that. And she's like, okay, fine. I fast forward meet these guys as clients, and they have these doodles and they live in Vegas. And one of the doodles, Dee Dee, beautiful dog. Like this dog just like gravitated to me, and there was just some kind of connection with this dog, fell in love with her. And I was like, I would never, like I've I've always been Jack Russell's or Schnauzers, like small little scrappy dogs. And he tells me, Well, I got them at Kathy's Doodles and Poodles in Vegas. And I'm like, okay. So I start following Kathy's Doodles and Poodles. And I started like getting a little more and more like I like these dogs, great personality, very like gentle but excitable. And I my wife's like, We're not buying another dog. We're not buying another dog. That's not happening. If we ever get another dog, we're going to rescue. I said, Okay, great. So Terry and Sean, who that those were his dogs with his husband, Michael, he they are like sending me stuff. And I'm looking, I sign up with these like doodle rescues, like in the on the East Coast, on the West Coast. And I applied without telling my wife to four different doodle puppies, older year-old two years, newborn puppies, everything. And I didn't get them. I'm like, how the hell do you get denied?

SPEAKER_03 48:49

So she had ego blow.

SPEAKER_02 48:50

Wait, I'm like, really? What the fuck?

SPEAKER_03 48:52

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 48:53

I have a easy schedule. I have a big apartment in Dumbo. I have a house on two acres that's completely closed off in the Hamptons. I mean, they travel with us, they go everywhere. Like it you couldn't have given a dog a better person to like have them and raise them. So, yes, ego blow. So I was like, fuck this shit. I'm sitting at dinner around my wife's birthday. It's a bunch of us having dinner. And I don't have notifications on my phone for anything except for my emails or news. I get this notification from Instagram. Kathy's Doodles and Poodles. And I'm like, and I see this puppy sitting on a bench, and I'm like, oh my God, this dog is beautiful. So I show it to Terry's daughter. I'm like, Gabby, you're anything? She's like, oh my God, she's great. Like, you gotta get her. And I'm like, oh, whatever. So I'm like, okay. Hi text Kathy. She's in Vegas. I'm in New York. Time Giffins Word Fine. And she tells me she's the last female, smallest one of the litter that she had. And I'm like, I'll take her. And my wife's like, Are you out of your fucking mind? And I'm like, and you've met Stacey. She's like, she's like, are you crazy? I wouldn't be on the bad side. She's like, she likes me. She's like, it's it's on you. I want nothing to do with the dog. I don't want any you are, it's your responsibility. I said, I'm fine. I will take full responsibility of the dog. I will take care of it. I had a nanny fly her to New York. Like I was gonna fly to Vegas and pick her up. And Kathy's like, I have a nanny, like we have an arrangement with the flights and get her over. Great. Now, pause that thought. I a year prior to that. I'm I'm very like I'm I'm I'm a social, kind, loving person, but I'm not a very emotional at heart type of person. No. My kids will tell you that, my family will tell you that. But I one night woke up in the middle of the night and I was bawling, crying, like just crying. And it was because I had this dream with Roxy. And in the dream, she is telling me, in her own way, to open up my heart, to like just I had so much love to give to another animal. Do not shut myself down to it. And this is what I and I remember this vividly. This is now four years later, because Roe's three. I'm like, my wife's like, what's wrong? I said, I just had a dream with Roxy, and that was it. But during that dream, there was a little word floating. Like, you know, like there's always something in the background. Yeah, there's something back there, and there's this word. And it always stayed with me. So at one point I was like, wow, if I ever have a dog, I'm gonna name this dog that word. Great. So fast forward. This dog is now coming. We're picking her up at JFK uh July 20th. We go, we're about to go, and I tell my wife one morning, I'm like, I know exactly what I'm gonna name the puppy. She goes, What? My mother-in-law was with us. This is during the summer. She goes, What? I said, I'm gonna name her Rowie. My wife looks at me and I just see tears welling up in her face, and I'm like, What's wrong with her? Like, it's not that bad. And she goes, You tell her mom what you're gonna name the puppy. And I said, Okay. So I'm like, hey mom, come here. You know, like I'm I I know what I'm gonna name the puppy. She goes, What are you gonna name the puppy? I said, I'm gonna name her Rowie. She goes, Oh my god, that's what my Gilly used to call me. I guess Roxy met Gilly. Gil was my wife's father, my mother-in-law's husband, who passed away 10 years before I got together with my wife. I never would have known that that was the nickname that my father-in-law said to my mother-in-law at all.

SPEAKER_03 52:35

So, in my heart, Roxy put Rowie in my life.

SPEAKER_01 52:43

It's crazy. I'm not gonna do it.

SPEAKER_02 52:46

I'm not gonna do it. And every time, and I don't tell that story often, and every time I say it, my wife literally has to turn away because she's our time.

SPEAKER_01 52:53

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 52:54

I would have never known.

SPEAKER_01 52:55

We don't deserve dogs.

SPEAKER_02 52:57

But they're but they are in our lives for a reason. And when they leave us, there's always a part of them that would be with us. And I look at Roe and I'm like, Roxy, are you in there? I'm like, is I it's mind-blowing. And this dog is an exceptional dog. Like everybody has said. I mean, even like John, because Dee Dee, the dog that I fell in love with, that was his, and Roe are sisters, the same father, which was another really weird thing. That Dee Dee came into my life and made me feel like I could love another dog and a doodle for that matter. It was, it's yeah, it's it's a crazy story.

SPEAKER_01 53:37

I've never had a pet that people will come up to you unsolicited on the street and say, Is she a great dang? And I'm like, Yeah, she's fast. And then they go, Yeah, they don't live long. And I always want to be like, Yeah, I I I didn't know that asshole. Thanks. Yeah, thanks for I I was a client once I met, I met her dad at a wedding, and he came up to me and he goes, You're the great dang guy. I was like, Yeah. He goes, Yeah, they they don't live very long, do they? Fuck off. They don't, no. Yeah, yeah. But she just turned six last week. And so now, like more than ever, every day with her is a gift. Because they like I'd be really happy with six.

SPEAKER_03 54:15

Wow.

SPEAKER_01 54:15

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 54:16

But she's good.

SPEAKER_01 54:17

She was a COVID puppy. And she and I got to spend every day together during COVID. I got her in June of that year. Lena, like always wanted a dog. And like out of left field, I started talking about Great Danes, and she was like, Where did this come from? And I was like, Well, you know, I've always wanted a great dance, and no, you know, like, and you know, finally we did research and she's found out how lazy they were. And she's like, Okay. Yeah, she was like, You can buy yourself one for your birthday. And so I did. I found her in Pennsylvania and we went and grabbed her, and yeah, rest is history. She's the best. She's the best.

SPEAKER_02 54:53

We have to get her and Roe in here more often so Rory can get her to play and definitely work.

SPEAKER_01 54:57

She comes to work all the time with me and she's like, I know.

SPEAKER_02 54:59

I try to bring Roe as much as I can. I mean, she tends to go everywhere with me.

SPEAKER_01 55:02

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 55:03

But she's very attached. They have like she doesn't have separation anxiety, but she definitely is like looks at me like, Mommy, where are you going? Yeah. Meanwhile, Tess could care less. Tess is like, bye. I don't I I really don't care anymore. But, anyways, let's jump back into something a little bit more exciting. So, if we sit down again in five years, which I'm sure one of the days it's gonna be before that.

SPEAKER_03 55:24

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 55:24

What would have happened? Not just your business, but internally. For you to feel like you've done something, that you've achieved something you never thought you would.

SPEAKER_01 55:36

I did not think I was gonna be alive at this point. So truly, like every day I view as a gift. If I'm still sober in five years and I plan to be, that will be a huge win. And how many people I've been able to help figure this out, that's that's a win for me. I'm I'm really involved in a charity that I'm on the associate board of called Headstrong Foundation, and it's paid mental health services for military events, particularly special forces operators. And you know, a lot of the guys that I grew up with joined the military because college, you know, for many it was not an option. Sure. So I've I've had three friends that I grew up with killed in Iraq and Afghanistan, and one of my best childhood friends now is serving as Lieutenant Colonel in the Air Force as a you know co-head of the strike eagles for the F-15s in uh in the Middle East. And I'm so proud of him, and he's I worry all the time. We had we had a um a phone call the other day. I was so emotional at the end of it because we hadn't talked in months because of everything that's going on. And I was just like, man, I'm so I'm so grateful we were able to catch up and chat today. Like, do you think we can talk again? And he kind of laughed because we send memes back and forth on Instagram like all fucking day. Like you can call me, like I'm walking around with my iPhone. You can call me whenever. So we we've talked a lot more and it's been great. But uh yeah, I'm I'm involved in that, and I'm the chairman of the FDNY foundation board, um, which is a foundation that was set up to aid, you know, we we did a lot for the family members of those killed on 9-11, the 343 firefighters and EMTs that were, you know, killed on September 11th, and then a lot of the first responders, firefighters, EMS that have succumbed to 9-11 related illnesses over the years, and it's it's many more than than that. So those two things are kind of my babies, but you know, a passion project that I really want to work on that when we were in Palm Beach for Aspire a couple years ago, we had this motivational speaker, you'll remember, and and he said, close your eyes. If money, he's like, everyone in this room is wildly successful. If money was not the focus anymore, if you if you had enough to live, like what would you do? And immediately it came to me. Great Danes, you know, dogs in general, but specifically great danes, are expensive. And the older they get, the more health problems they have. And so many people that own great danes abandon them at their vets when they get old and expensive. So I want to turn, I've got a big barn in Connecticut that when Lena and I bought the house, we were like, we're gonna turn this into the party barn, or it's gonna be a 14-car garage. Like, we had all these plans backed out for it. Now I'm gonna start something called Deanny's Dane, and I just want to have a senior Great Dane rescue, and I want to spend the rest of my life like caring for these noble creatures that people just can't do anymore.

SPEAKER_02 58:27

I love you. I love you. Like that is such an amazing, beautiful, selfless thing to want to do.

SPEAKER_01 58:34

And it's give it all I it's all I think about when I'm there. And I think about how much, how many thousands of dollars it's gonna cost me a day to feed these huge creatures. So it and honestly, it may sound silly, it motivates the hell out of me to like work harder. Because I like I really, I really want to do that. That's when I like you're never gonna retire. I'm never gonna retire. We're always gonna do this. We're always gonna do something that's an aspect confused. But I really want, you know, my twilight years to be spent just surrounded by Great Danes in Connecticut on my property.

SPEAKER_02 59:06

It's so funny you say that, because I mean, I uh two acres is not enough. But I I've always said to Stacey, I said I'd be happy to like sell everything that we have for a simple life and just be comfortable and have a farm, whether it's on the North Fork. I mean, before the North Before the North Fork, make it a week.

SPEAKER_01 59:27

But you couldn't, you'd be so I used to have a friend that I got sober with who would say, Man, I just want to give this up and move to Montana and work at Home Depot and go, you know, out in the mountain with my dogs to go camping on weekends. Don't you think that's great? I'm like, man, I'd be so fucking bored right away. Like, I need I need to be doing stuff all the time. Like that's one thing I love about our business, is my phone's just going off all the time. I'm busy. There's always a million things to do.

SPEAKER_02 59:53

Well, we're we're you and I absolutely are adrenaline junkies. Yeah. So that's that's definitely an addiction that is hard for me to give up. But I I do agree. Listen, I probably wouldn't last a week on a farm. I'd probably last a little longer than a week.

SPEAKER_01 1:00:08

But you'd find something like I'm talking about to to to fill your time and to feed your soul. Correct. And it would just it would consume you. And you would be, it would just be magnificent.

SPEAKER_02 1:00:18

I want like a ton of animals. I want I want a yard donkey, I want some goats, I want some little pigs, and you're gonna have them all. Like I want all that. But I would do it in I would do it in Italy. I mean, I would love to retire in Italy.

SPEAKER_01 1:00:30

That's kind of been like buy something for like a hundred thousand bucks and and renovate it. Well, they have those, you know, massive estates that are falling apart that they just want foreigners to come in and buy.

SPEAKER_02 1:00:39

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 1:00:39

You could do that.

SPEAKER_02 1:00:40

I know we looked into it.

SPEAKER_01 1:00:41

Yeah, I have to. Let's do one together. Done.

SPEAKER_02 1:00:45

Oh my god, can you imagine?

SPEAKER_01 1:00:46

We used to, I had a friend that we used to talk about doing a retirement castle and buying one of those with a group of friends, and like everyone puts in like CapEx to bring it up to current standards, and then you have it's run like a hotel, but just for you and your friends.

SPEAKER_02 1:00:59

Yeah, well, I'm I'm I'm I'm all for that. All right. Well, Jonathan, what makes this conversation compelling isn't just the success. It's the honesty behind it. Because the reality is reinvention sounds glamorous until you're the one doing the work. And what you've shown is that growth isn't just about building something outwardly impressive. It's about having the awareness to look inward, make changes, and keep evolving. Thank you for going there with me today. And to everyone listening, this is Canvas with Nova Collective, where we don't just talk about what people do. We get into who they had to become to do it. Until next time.

SPEAKER_00 1:01:38

Bye.

unknown 1:01:39

Bye.

SPEAKER_00 1:01:40

Thanks for spending time with us on Canvas. Don't forget to subscribe, download, and follow the podcast on all platforms so you don't miss what's coming up next. We'll be back with a new conversation and a fresh perspective.