How to Have It All: Secrets to Balancing Life, Family, and Career With Kofi Nartey

What does it mean to truly have it all? In this episode of Not Nice, Clever, we sit down with the powerhouse Kofi Narte to unpack his holistic approach to success—what he calls being a "full mogul." 💼✨

From mastering the balance between personal growth, family life, and professional achievements to navigating the high-stakes world of luxury real estate, Kofi shares insights you won’t want to miss.

In this episode we dive into:
🔥 Transitioning from extrovert to introvert (and why it matters)
🔥 The real secret to realizing your potential and leveraging big opportunities
🔥 Setting boundaries in friendships and embracing tough criticism
🔥 Building a thriving marriage while managing the hustle
🔥 Launching his Shopify store, ModiSwag, and stepping into coaching programs

Whether you’re scaling your business, navigating family dynamics, or simply chasing your next big dream, this episode is packed with actionable insights and inspiring moments to fuel your journey.

About Kofi:
A leading authority on luxury real estate, Kofi Nartey is the go-to broker for celebrities, prominent sports figures, and affluent clientele around the globe. The leader of GLOBL Real Estate and Development, a private real estate firm with billions of dollars in sales, Kofi has over 20 years of experience representing elite buyers and sellers of distinguished properties. He regularly appears on national television and in print media outlets, including The Wall Street Journal, Los Angeles Times, Chicago Tribune, CBS, CNBC, NBC Sports Bloomberg, Fox Business News, ESPN, CNN Money, and The Insider. He was also a featured agent on HGTV’s “Selling LA” and has made numerous appearances on “Million Dollar Listing.” Kofi uses his exposure to the benefit of his clients and agents, bringing greater visibility to Globl's listings and greater access to properties for buyers.

📣 Follow Kofi on:
Instagram
GLOBL Red Website
MotiSwag Shop

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• Kat Torre

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Chapters

• 0:00 The Pursuit of Full Mogul Life
• 10:06 Transitioning from Extrovert to Introvert
• 20:04 Defining Success: Realizing Potential
• 28:10 Embracing Haters and Controversy
• 29:37 Building a Strong Marriage
• 30:06 Leveraging Opportunities in Real Estate
• 34:43 Launching a Shopify Store
• 39:55 Family Dynamics and Personal Growth
• 40:22 Exciting New Ventures and Coaching Programs

Transcript

For me, being a business person, the idea of being full mobile was being all in on being the best version of yourself across all aspects of yourself.

The last thing that you want in life is to be an amazing business person, but you've lost your spouse in the process. You're a great dad, but your health is bad because you're not taking care of yourself. All of those things matter and you can't let any one thing red-line. If you really care about your kids, you want to be around for a long time, so you actually have to take care of yourself.

I love Elon Musk, for example, but he's a terrible dad by all measures. Like, look at that. That's not full mogul. Everyone can look to somebody else and say, they've had an easier route until you know their route. I also have no problem shutting BS down. If nobody hates you, nobody loves you. I'm the guy that if you make a stupid comment on my social media, I will delete the comment. If you make another one, I will block you. Like, I don't have time for that energy.

You don't even hear the other noise because you don't let that in your environment. And that's just so important to be able to be strong enough to shut it down.

Hi, I'm Kat, marketer turned brand storyteller. And I'm Candice, educator turned entrepreneur. And you're listening to Not Nice, Clever. As CEOs and leaders, it's your job to always have the answers. But sometimes you need a little help. Leverage, if you will. We get it. This is the place for you. So wherever you're listening, 530 AM Club at the gym, on your way to your next meeting or putting out today's fire, let's get into it.

We are pleased to introduce you to Kofi Narte, athlete turned full mogul entrepreneur. He's the leader of the global real estate and development division at real with over 20 years of experience from sports and entertainment to now real estate. Also on top of just being an incredible husband and father and inspirational leader. He also recently launched an incredible Shopify shop that we will talk about toward the end of the episode.

But without further ado, we are gonna introduce you to Kofi. Thank you so much for spending time with us here today. We are really excited to introduce you to the Clever Crew here at Not Nice Clever. And for those who are listening in, we obviously ask some really fun questions. We love to dig, we love to get to know the real real and share that with our community. But, and it was so funny Clever Crew, we almost started.

talking on the podcast before we hit record. And the question I want to lead off with, I think it'd be interesting is Kofi, because you have such an interesting story, interesting background. We'll get all into that. But would you describe yourself as an introvert or an extrovert? Actually, I'm in transition. We did not expect that. You know, I didn't either.

You know, I haven't been asked that question in a while, but I realized that I'm in a transitional phase from being more extroverted to being less extroverted and more introverted. And what is happening, I think, is I spent most of my life just being very extroverted. think it's, I've always described myself as a people person. And as you go through life, you know, I still love people, but people are tiring. tell you, people will wear you out.

Right. in addition to that, I I've reached a place where I don't love surface level conversations. I just don't. and most networking and most events and most sidelines at the soccer games, it's, very surface level. And so the, the faster I can get to a deeper level conversation, the happier I am. But because that doesn't happen too often, I'm fine. Kind of staying in my own lane. love.

presenting. I love sharing from stage. love a real conversation, but networking for networking sake, I'll pass. I'll go in and out. I used to love just hanging out like, yeah, I'll pass. Kofi, this is so funny that you're talking about this today because we are in LA at podcast movement evolutions podcast conference right now. And it's the first time that Kat and I have ever been in a room full of podcasters.

And what I realized is that podcasters are introverts who don't like surface level conversations, which is why we freaking have podcasts. Right. Because we invite people like you on our podcasts and we don't talk surface level. We, our first question goes deep. And so does everyone else in the podcast space, which is so different because, know, I spend a lot of time in the real estate space. You're in the real estate space and those conferences are

very different than the podcast conference because it's just quieter and there's just a little bit more time and space between conversations because the introverts don't know how to start the conversations. Right. Right. And so it's been a really unique space to be in. So I think it's so interesting that you also have a podcast that we'll talk about today. There we go. There we go. Love it. Love it. No, I at least get to use my extroverted skills when I need to because I still have them.

If I need to spark a conversation, I can. But just know it's not gonna be surface level for long. If we are gonna talk about anything, let's just go there. Let's make it interesting. And I like asking questions as well, like you guys do. And when you ask the right questions, and sometimes even when you stay on the question, it gets very interesting and you get to learn something about people and you get to learn sometimes something about yourself just based on their experience. Sometimes people will answer your question and they'll say something.

And they'll glance over something that's like, wait a minute. That's a very, that little segment. We're not, we're not letting that slide though. We're going to stay right there for a minute. Cause that's super interesting. And so continuing along the theme of following the question, you have a podcast called full mogul and we love making up our own language. We love having our own inside jokes with a clever crew. And we love it when folks that we interview also kind of have their own like.

terminology. So can you share with us what was the origin of that term? Where did it come from? I want to get to like the heart of that. Well, I have to give you the real story since I just said surface level doesn't work, right? I've given the version. I think the last 10 times I've answered the question, I've given the short version. I'll give you the full story and it's, only takes 30 seconds longer. I was having a conversation with one of my buddies, entrepreneur. He's a

lawyer, just super smart Harvard grad, and he was venturing out to do his own thing and realizing how much work was involved. And he had to learn coding and all these new skills and he was pouring himself into it. And we were just talking about the grind of business and entrepreneurship and how you do have to roll up your sleeves and learn different things, but you have to do it. You just have to put in the work. And we were talking about Poc, Tupac, and we talked about the fact that Tupac

released so much music in his short lifetime and he had so much music that never made it to like the radio. Like I had 10 Tupac albums that never got released. Like he was prodigious and just producing, producing, producing. And so we had this thing where you have to go full Pac. Like if you're in a moment of launching something or doing something, it's like full Pac. It's like all in on all aspects of what you're doing. And then eventually it became like full mogul. For me, you know, being a business person,

The idea of being full mogul was being all in on being the best version of yourself across all aspects of yourself, right? Because the last thing that you want in life is to be an amazing business person, but you've lost your spouse in the process. You're a great dad, but your health is bad because you're not taking care of yourself. All of those things matter and you can't let any one thing red line. If you really care about your kids, you want to be around for a long time, so you actually have to take care of yourself.

You know, I love Elon Musk, for example, but he's a terrible dad by all measures. Like, look at that. That's, that's not full mogul. He's amazing in business and there are things to learn from him, but that's not really what we're looking at. So that's the, that's the full, full origin story of full mogul. I love it. It's something that we say here at not nice, clever where, or even just Candice and I have said, even before we started the podcast together, like.

Who are you as a human? all your past lives, what you're doing right now, all the different hats, all the different worlds, the different identities. What's the like through line, right? And are you being the best version of that in all areas? Not that you just like magically become a different person when you wear one hat and you take it off and you put on the other. And I, I love the contrarian opinion where like, if you want to be a good dad, you've got to be a good.

man first, right? A good human, right? Healthy so that you can be there for your kids long term. So important. You know, there are several ways that I've expressed this over the last handful of years even. I went and I spoke to the Kansas City Chiefs last year. They brought me in. I've been speaking to the NFL players for about seven, eight years now. I had a shot with the Raiders when I finished playing football at Berkeley and so forth. But it's interesting over the last few years, we've transitioned from less real estate to more life.

Right. And it's always a little bit of life because you have to know what you're doing or why you're doing it to even want to invest your time in real estate investment or a broadcasting career or whatever you're going to do in addition to football. But with the chiefs, they said, forget about the real estate. We want all of your life stuff and excellence and why it's important to be excellent and iterate. And, you know, because we just want a Super Bowl, but we want to get back to the Super Bowl and we want the guys to realize you have to do things differently to get back to where you were. So I did this whole talk on that. And one of the things I told them was that

The full man beats the half man. Like the full man beats the half man. And what I, what I explained was that if you develop other aspects of yourself, those nuances that you learn from the different aspects of yourself will make their way into every aspect of yourself, making you more dynamic and making you better. Right. So you can't neglect those pieces. Kofi, are you telling me that you speaking to the Kansas city chiefs is the reason?

that they beat my San Francisco 49ers in the Super Bowl early? Is that what you're telling me? I knew you were smart, clever, and smart 100%. That's what I'm telling you. can still be friends. Candice, can still have Kofi. She's going to be on this topic for a long time. Thank you for that. Thank you for that. I will be hearing about this for while. I told the Niners, bring me in. I told them. You see what happened? Niners, this is your chance if you're listening.

I'm getting Kyle on the phone right now. secret weapon. That's it. That's it. So I would like to talk to you a little bit about how you, I guess I should preface this by saying that athletes are some of my favorite clients. I love working with athletes as a brand strategist because they're coachable. They understand that to get the success, there's a lot of failures that happen first and they understand the process.

And what I'm wanting to know from you is how do you define success now? Is it different than maybe you defined it previously in your career? Is it different than how you defined it as an athlete? Yeah, it's a good question. And just kind of going backwards for just a hot second. So Kat, I did grow up as a 49ers fan. Right? I played wide receiver. so I was a Jerry Rice fan. I played wide receiver. yep.

And Jerry exactly right and I had a chance to train with him too when I was at Cal so that was like super cool we had Steve Mariucci was our coach for a year and then he went to the Niners and he brought a seniors in to train with them so that was epic seeing you know one of the best to ever do it at that level was amazing but then the Raiders gave me a shot so I so I'll tell you got 15 second funny story I gotta share so I had a 49ers shirt on on draft day because I was like

Okay, I had had a chance to train with them. They were watching me. You know, I had trained with the Cleveland Browns, but I'm like, I don't want to go to Cleveland. It's too cold. Whatever. But then the Raiders called. yeah. And thank God though, they didn't have like, Zoom back then. Cause I would have been on video with a Raiders, with a 49er shirt when the Raiders were calling me. like my family's there and I'm taking off this shirt. Cause like, would you like to come to the Raiders? I'm like, yeah, I'm taking off this shirt.

That is hilarious. love that. Opportunities given. success, you know, and what success means for me, for me, success is realizing potential. It's realizing potential. That is to me, the ultimate measure of success. Because when you look at what you can achieve, what you can achieve is based on like your resources, your skills, your effort, you know, the hard work, your opportunities or what have you. And as you increase those things,

your potential actually increases. It's just like you listen to an amazing podcast. Now you have more information so you can do more. You go to a great school, you go to a great training, you meet an amazing business partner. Now your potential increases. So your goal in life is to bridge the gap between where you are and where your potential says you can be. And so the closer you can get to that, that's where success happens. That's where you're living in your gifts, you're living in your experience, you're, you know, I have a lot of these kofi-isms in my life philosophies. We love them. We want to hear them.

I'll give you one. We have a responsibility during our lifetime to realize all of our God-given gifts and share them with the Responsibility during our lifetime to realize all of our God-given gifts and share them with the world. And so as we're realizing our potential and we're sharing those gifts, we're sharing from our gifts. And if you're sharing from your gifts, you don't run out. And that's where you feel aligned with what you're doing, right? The misalignment is when it's not aligned with your gifts. It's not aligned with your passions. It doesn't mean you're going to enjoy every aspect of what you're doing. if you have the...

of what you're doing aligns with those things. You're gonna be happier, you're gonna be more successful, and you'll feel it you'll see it. Something that you said within that was, you know, as your network grows, as your opportunities grow, speak to the person who's listening right now who's saying, yeah, this is easy for Kofi because he was on million dollar listing.

did all the you know he had these opportunities so it's easy for him to talk about this. What do you say to that person? Can I curse? please yes you know who we are yeah. I would call bullshit. would call bullshit so fast. Everyone can look to somebody else and say they've had an easier route until you know their route like if you understand their route right I laugh because I know all the guys and the women from them on those shows and I've no.

I knew 90 % of them before they went on the show. The only people that I didn't know were like the ones in New York and then they had these spinoffs in think Miami or something like that. But I remember I did a panel with Madison Hildebrand who was on Million Dollar Listing. I did a talk for Remax's luxury division and he spoke as well and he told the story that his first episode of Million Dollar Listing was his first ever real estate deal. I'm like, that's good fortune. Not me who had to grind with no

No resources, no mentorship, right? And I say these things because there's always a way, like you don't create your own hurdles and you don't create your own challenges, but you have to solve them, right? It's like they say, it's not your problem, but it's your responsibility, right? You have to figure it out. I had to figure it out. My mentors for the first eight years of my career were books and Google. Like I didn't have somebody to turn to. I didn't have...

you know, family sending me referrals, right? I've been in real estate for 21 years. My parents have never referred me anybody in 21 years. When I went to the agency, I'll tell you a funny story. When I went to the agency, I was up for rookie of the year when I was my first year there. And I had done maybe 25 deals or something like that. The guy I lost to did two deals. And he beat me because he sold like 70 something million, I think it was $78 million in real estate.

76 of it was his dad's house. 71 deal. Okay. We gotta have different measures. What reality is this? So yes, there are there are my advantages are my advantages because I've turned them into advantages. And I would say the biggest advantage that that I have or just one advantage that I have is that I will always try to find a solution. I

I will figure it out, you know? And I'll share with you guys, know, that I just launched a Shopify store. Hopefully we'll talk about that. But it took me five years to stop and figure it out, but I figured it out. Like I didn't have anyone to help me with that kind of thing, you know? But it does take that moment of, I going to sit here and doubt myself or sit here and have a pity party or sit here and look at the excuses? Or I'm going to say, how do I figure this out?

How do I find the resources I need? How do I Google? How do I YouTube? How do I find a partner that can help me, mentorship or coaching that can help me get to where I want to be? Yep. I love that. You've been in real estate for 21 years and your family has never referred to any deals. I call that out because I love it when we find things in common with like the guests that we invite on here. And just as my network grows, like

I share with Candace, like my parents are not on social media. They don't really understand how I leverage digital to build my brand and my business. And they still have not yet listened to our podcast and we are 150 plus episodes in. And it was something that I struggled with at first. And I would talk about it with my partner, Will and Candace and, you know, just accepting that that is not going to change or if it changes, that's great, but focusing on what I can control.

Um, and focusing on how do you, you know, solve the obstacles or challenges that come my way instead of just being a victim to it and finding a way to be a Victor over it. Yeah. No, totally. Totally. I did this private dinner, um, with my good buddy, Arjun Arjun when we did the private thing. Yeah. Yeah. Were you guys at the dinner? The night before? Oh, that's how we first met you. Okay. Yeah. Okay. So, so

Do you remember, I was just gonna share the quick story with Ryan Serhant, because Ryan Serhant and I kinda did a little talk that night, and he was telling the story of, at this point, I don't think TV matters as much, and I was like, bro, you've been on TV for the last 10 years, it doesn't matter for you, because you've had a show for 10 years, and as a matter of fact, you're recording a new show for Netflix as we speak, so let's be real about the advantages.

And I've experienced it. Like you mentioned, Candice, I've been on million dollar listing, but I've been on cameos. Like I never was a cast member. And so I've been on where it was like a real scene where I'm talking or engaging with the clients or engaging with the cast members, not just in the background. But those 30 second to one minute cameos are always game changers for me, you know, because it's national exposure and international exposure. And, you know, as my good buddy, Sharon says,

Fame is the most efficient business model. So my phone always rings when I do those cameos. And there's just not a lot of people that look like me on the luxury real estate shows and luxury real estate in general. So I stand out in those 30 seconds, right? So it's a huge advantage to get television exposure and media exposure. Now the good thing is we can create a lot of that ourselves through social media, not always at that scale, but there are some huge advantages to that for sure. I know, I think I had said that

Because I remember when you spoke up at the dinner and you said that I was like, again, contrary in opinions. We love it here at Not Nice Clever. There are so many people that have been on like Million Dollar Sing in the spin-offs. There's so many people that have been on reality TV and have had the opportunity to springboard from that platform and leverage the exposure, but they just don't do it. They waste that opportunity. I would say, how do you look at leveraging? Like if somebody does

is able to get that 30 second cameo or 50 second on whatever platform it may be. What's your approach in making the most of it? How do you turn it into opportunity and business beyond that, that like on air time, so to speak. Yeah. I, I suck at it. I, if I'm being totally honest, I do, I do. And, and I kick myself for it. And this is, this is one area that I need to do better. If I'm being totally honest.

I've seen agents in our industry who have had that 20 second appearance on million dollar listing. 20 seconds of, you know, welcome to the listing or hi. That's all they said on the show. You go to their Instagram, it's part of their bio as seen on million dollar listing. You go to their website, it's as seen on million dollar listing. Here I've been on seven episodes. I've toured with Josh and I've shown multi-million dollar states.

Might be eight episodes now. I've been on Selling Sunset, like this coming Selling Sunset season, I'm gonna be on the very first episode of the season, I'm gonna be on a later episode of the season. I don't leverage those things nearly enough. And I think what I need to do a better job of is, and I guess this is what I would tell someone, is turning it into both short form content, right? Do the little snippets, turn it into reels, use it in real time once you can share what's aired. Also due to the Throwback Thursday, Flashback Friday,

tether it to the exposure and the advantages it gives your clients. So I haven't done a great job of utilizing it on social media, but I utilize it in conversation a lot, right? So at this point, like the last time I was on, I filmed Selling Sunset, I mean, I can tell you this because I'm not gonna tell you the details, but I filmed two weeks ago, okay? I filmed two weeks ago because I filmed with them multiple times before and I forced the relationships. So now can call them and say, hey, you guys wanna film this?

and they'll say yes or they'll say no. That's how I've leveraged it. And when I go to my clients, letting them know that I have that access and I have that exposure, they're actually real relationships. I've known Jason Oppenheimer for, I don't know, 15 years. And you know, the Altmans and all them. I know all of them. And now I know the show producers. So it's a good advantage there. But I do think that sometimes people over leverage it, right? They over leverage even less.

And I say that because I under leverage having a lot more that I could leverage. Just need to do a better job. Kofi, I want to know what you say to, I'm assuming this is happening in your family or maybe it's just mine and everyone else that I work with. does the, does he think he is ever come up in your family? Who does he think he is? You're doing all these, these things. Who does he think he is?

Is that thing? No, it doesn't come up directly, but how it comes up is my kids make fun of me like nobody's business. So I have a 15 year old daughter and my son is going to be 12 this year. And even the two of them in tandem, just love making fun of me. I used to do a morning mantra as part of my daily affirmations.

I am Kofi Natalia Nartso, I'm a strong husband, father, full mother, millionaire, man of God, blah, blah, blah. I would say this. And then after about three months, my kids will be walking around and I am Kofi Natalia Nartso. That was like the who do you think you are moment, right? Yep, that's it. You're like, this beautiful life you're living, that's because of Exactly, exactly. But fortunately, my household is very supportive. My wife is very supportive. I'm thinking back to like,

Maybe when this all first started for you, like friends back home kind of thing, is that a theme that you've heard? Not really. really. Okay, cool. We love that for you. Yeah, no, I also, haven't, I've been fortunate. You know, I think the people that I've known for a while who are real friends are real friends. Right. And then I also have no problem

like shutting BS down. So for example, I'm the guy that if you make a stupid comment on my social media, I will delete the comment. If you have another one, I will block you. Like I don't have time for that energy. I just don't, you know, and I'm not here for it. You know, so I'm here for controversy. I'm here for challenging me. I'm here for, you know, even having a moment because people are people and people have moments, but I'm here to be for just the hate for hate sake.

I even am okay with hate that is based out of jealousy or based out of not understanding. I'll give you grace. Not understanding. I think that's But if you double down on the hate, yeah, then I'll pass. I'll pass. And that was one of our goals. Like my wife and I, talked about it about three years ago that we need to bring out the haters. too many people actually like us. We don't have enough haters. That means that we're not

doing something right. Yeah, something right. Look at everyone who's successful. have a lot of haters. We don't have enough haters. That's not that's why we're not being successful. And so now we're getting some haters and I'm like, babe, this is exactly what this is. It's a sign. Yeah. I love this conversation because I think that so many people shy away from from those conversations and have a difficult time.

creating boundaries around it. And it sounds like you've created some great boundaries and you're committed to surrounding yourself with people who actually support you and where you're going. And you don't even hear the other noise because you don't let that in your environment. And that's just so important to be able to be strong enough to shut it down. Yeah. Yeah. And I advise people to, you know, I advise people to do it all the time. It's like, pick it, pick an email list to unsubscribe from.

pick somebody to drop from your social media network, pick somebody. You'll be surprised how your life just feels better. Because some people can just tweak your vibration in ways and your energy in ways that they don't deserve that access to you. They just don't. They don't. And because we're human, and I suffer from it as well, is no matter how strong I am, because I feed myself with so much positive information that I'm able to deal with a lot, right?

But there's still that, the goal's been from being impacted by a full day to being impacted by an hour to being impacted by a minute to not even having to be impacted, but you're always gonna, even if it's a few seconds, that person doesn't deserve a few seconds of my time. So bye. If their intent is to bring me harm or upset me or hate, I'll pass, I'll pass. Hard pass.

Love that one of the the sessions that I sat in on during this week at the podcast evolutions was actually a Keynote by Sonny who is a marketing creator actually he's based in LA Kofi I think you would actually really like him, but we can I will connect you with him after this He's just a really incredible person. He has an interesting story and one of his slides I remember saying is if nobody hates you nobody loves you And I saw that I was like, and you know

Sometimes like you said, there's there's situations where you treat it like the zoo. You don't feed the animals, right? You just let it let it be but if they're If they're challenging you if they have a contrary opinion you engage in constructive helpful debate, right? I love that opportunity Yeah, and that's that's I absolutely love it I actually want to go back you were talking about like sitting down with your wife and setting goals for wanting to

you know, just realize your fullest potential individually together. know, Candice, you know, her and her husband, Dom talk about this a lot. My partner, Will and I as well, because we're great individually and better and going farther together. So I would just love to pick your brain because you, how long have you been married with your wife? Wow. What is this? 2024. So it'll be 18 years.

We're trying to get you in trouble on this one. If we need to this part out, we will. Is it 18? It'll be 18 years this December. Yeah. So I'm four years in and I just would love to know, you know, how do you guys approach goal setting, those conversations? How do you ensure that as you are growing in your career and her and hers, how do you ensure that you continue to grow together so you guys are on the same page but still realizing your full mogul selves as well?

Yeah, gosh, a few things about that. I'm gonna give some unrelated to the specific question, marriage advice first, because I feel like you even have to make it through marriage to then be able to put your heads together to grow and build together, right? And for us, the early parts of marriage, my wife is crazy dynamic as well. I have a cool story in history, but my wife, we met.

because she played in the Women's World Cup in 2003. So highest level soccer player, she was doing her masters at Columbia in New York. finished with a PhD. casual masters while playing in the... Wait, we need her on the podcast. Yeah. Oh, you do. Can we next? Yeah. Okay. Perfect. First Ivy League woman to play in a Women's World Cup period for any country. She played for Ghana. So her dad's from Ghana, like my dad's from Ghana, and she grew up here in the US.

PhD in public health, she was a college professor for seven years. I mean, just crazy, crazy, crazy dynamic. But it also takes a strong personality to even have that level of success. And when you bring together strong people who are successful people and driven people, it's a lot of adjustment. So my marriage advice to couples in general is to ask yourself this question during or after any debate or argument. And the question is, am I going to leave this person over this?

And the answer is almost always 99.999 % no. Unless they've cheated on you, unless they've done something that is almost irreversible. Usually it's just a personality difference or learning each other or you decided to push their buttons that day or they decided to push your buttons that day or what have you. And the more you can abbreviate the time that you're gonna be upset at your partner, the better you're gonna be in the relationship. Because early on it might have been a week and then a day. Like I said, these things, the human part, it just gets shorter.

You don't stop experiencing certain things, but the time that it impacts you gets shorter. So that's first part. Second part is now, okay, we figured that out. How do we come together for success? Well, we have board meetings with ourselves. Like we will block time to either do a dinner or do a lunch, or sometimes it's just like a Sunday evening where we say, okay, let's look at our lives. We do a lot of walk-in talks and I've told her jokingly, like, these need to be podcasts. Cause we talk about so much interesting stuff that...

It helps us stay aligned with what we're looking to do and what we're working and building towards. If she listens to a podcast and she thinks it's great, she'll text it to me, vice versa. If I order a book and I'm like, this is a good book, I'll order her a copy. So now we're also fueling ourselves with some of the same ammunition. These things help us stay on the same page. They help us understand each other better. And they help us through.

the challenges of striving towards success. When you know what you're working towards, it's easier to deal with some of the challenges, the delays and the things that impact that journey. But that's what I would suggest. Block the time to actually talk about it. Yeah. Making a safe space to talk about it. Be able to be flexible. If your partner has a shift in where they want to go with life, hear them out. It might just be a moment and they just need to be heard or it might be something real and you have to dive into it.

having those times where you know you're going to be talking about these things is a game changer. I love that. And I would also be an advocate and very much a loyal listener if you do in fact decide to launch a podcast like that, Walk and Talks, where you can just kind of you know, be a fly on the wall. I love that. My partner's a chef, so I think our equivalent would be wine and dine because his love languages food and good wine. But that's great. Thank you for that advice there.

Yeah, for sure. So Kofi, one of the things that you mentioned was your Shopify store. Yes. And this is five years plus in the making. So tell us about it. Why are you excited about it? Definitely. Definitely. So as you can probably tell, even just from my energy, like, you know, part business person, but part like life philosopher and motivator. I get excited about

sharing information that I think will help other people unlock and unleash their potential. So like that's my secret weapon is that. You if I talk to somebody long enough, I'm going to have some unsolicited advice for them on what they can do better, how they can do it better. And, you know, it's funny because my wife teases me and she says, did they ask your opinion on that? I'm like, well, no, but I feel like I needed to share. needed to tell them what they could do. And I think I do that because I've always wanted more unsolicited advice. know, I'm a- That's interesting.

I'm a high D personality, I'm an alpha personality, I'm 6'2", I'm in decent shape. People think I have my shit together, but I need a lot of freaking help. I need people to tell me. You know? I need people to just tell me, like, hey, if you did this this way, it'd be better. Or I noticed this about you, but you might wanna think about it this way or tweet this. Tell me, like if I say something on a podcast, tell me. If I'm on social media, tell me. I am not sensitive, I welcome it, I love it, I appreciate it.

So I think that's why I give a lot of unsolicited advice. So now I forgot the question. was your question? the Shopify store. So I would wear some, I would get like a t-shirt made with one of my sayings, right? And I would wear that or I'd wear it when I worked out or wear it at a conference. Like for example, I have a bracelet on now. Like if people are watching the video, they can see focus and finish. Focus and finish has been my mantra for 14 years.

It was a message to self, which is why I wear it in a way that I can read it, not for other people to read externally, but for me to read. I can look at it to read it, to remind myself as an entrepreneur, don't have shiny object syndrome, focus on the small steps to lead to your big goals, focus on this before announcing it, focus on this before starting the next thing, blah, blah, blah. So I started wearing a t-shirt. I had a couple t-shirts made and people would always ask me for them. Even with the full mogul thing, I had a sweatshirt made that said full mogul. People started asking me for it. So I was like, I just need to be able to sell these things.

But I didn't have time to figure it out. And then we had a weekend where we didn't have any soccer games. So both of our kids play soccer. Now our daughter's starting high school. Well, naturally, right? It runs in the family. Runs in the family. Runs in the family. And my daughter's a beast, too. She, as a freshman, set the 200 meter record for her school. We just had to throw that out there. course. Proud dad. Proud dad moment. playing clubs, soccer, and everything. And she blew me a kiss while running the race. I mean, I.

My heart almost melted. Her coach was pissed. my gosh. Yes. That's everything. Start trends with your kids. It keeps you connected to them. Before heavy sports match, we do what's called a punch kiss. So we do that, right? She did that in the final 40 meters of the race. I didn't notice because I was filming it then I watched the film. It was like my phone was kicking off onion fumes. I was like, no, no, no.

So I finally had a weekend though where we didn't have any soccer. I didn't have any open houses. I didn't have any showings. I didn't have any soccer. And I was like, I'm going to figure this out this weekend. And I'm always perplexed how people have full weekends and don't crush it in life. like, if I had every weekend and didn't have For real, I think about that too. I'm like, have a full 48 and like, what do you with it? So the first day I spent about nine hours and the next day I spent about eight hours and figured it out.

you know, and it would have been faster, but I had to literally figure it out. was Googling articles to figure it out. I was watching YouTube videos and I was like, okay, well, how do I find a print on demand? And then how do I incorporate the print on demand service into the Shopify account? But I figured it out. And then over the next few days, you know, I create the products and so forth. And I wanted to create not just my own sayings, but like sayings that come out of these kinds of conversations and anything that's motivational.

And I motivational swag and motivational signs. And you know, I have an acronym for fail that's find all important lessons. And then I came up with another one last year. Right. Do you have swag for that yet? Because I would buy that t-shirt or hoodie because I live in hoodies when I'm working from home. Done. Love that. Because I don't have the fail acronym on a hoodie, but I will next week now that we've had this conversation. number one. Here we go. Listen, I told my wife that if somebody gives me an idea for a hoodie, they get the first hoodie for you. So you got one.

You're going to get the first fail hoodie. will call you to find out your size and the color that you want. By next week, it'll be in the mail. my goodness. Thank get the ideas, you get the first product. So I created all these products that reflect these sayings and it's called ModiSwag. So motivational swag, modiswag.com. And we're super excited about it. I have full moguls, kind of like a little bit more skewed towards males, but we have Shillionaire, which is like the female version.

Right? There's nothing like, you know, women entrepreneurs and in my opinion, you know, there's another level that gets unlocked when female entrepreneurs pursue things in those same ways. Cause they just have women in my opinion, just have, they have extra senses. They have extra abilities that we just don't have. And so the shillionaire is like the female version of that is the highest and the best pursuit of yourself across all aspects of yourself and those additional things that women have.

So we have a Shillionaire line and it's been fun to see people get into it by the coffee mug, the focus of finish or the signs for their houses or offices or even just the t-shirts for working out. Shillionaire fails so many goodness. I love it. I love it. We're definitely going to drop the link to the Shopify inside the show notes. So grab your swag there. Grab your Modi swag. Congratulations on getting that off the ground. know that.

It's a big endeavor and you did it. And so it's out there. I'm so excited for you. Is there anything that we haven't talked about yet, Kofi, that you want to talk about before we move on to our last segment? Okay, so I would say two things. One, I'm super excited because, you know, I have my team, Global Real Estate and Development. We partnered with Real, but I'm helping them launch Real's luxury division, which is going to launch this year. So I'm super excited about that because there's so many agents around the country who are doing luxury business, but

Now in this ecosystem of collaboration, we'll be able to really connect, bring more value to each other, bring more value to our clients. So, Rose Luxury Division is something I'm super excited about. And then also the coaching programs that I'm launching. I launched earlier this year a co-list coaching program to help agents with their first or next big luxury listing. Anywhere in the country, it's a way to mentor you through it, help you with the conversations with your clients, help you land the listing, market the listing, sell the listing, and build your luxury brand.

in your market. So pumped about that. And we're getting ready to launch an eight week coaching program with just 12 agents. we're gonna have 12 at a time, kind of like a cohort. You know, when I did my MBA, we had Pepperdine, we had a cohort and it was kind of nice getting to know the other people in your cohort and learning together. So getting ready to launch that. But just excited about those things. See how you casually dropped MBA Pepperdine like it's no big deal. Okay, yeah. Casual, I like it.

All right. We're super excited for you. Congratulations on all your success. That coaching program sounds like exactly what is needed in the space where people get someone who's been there before and done it before and a small community of people who are going to support each other along the way. I feel like that is what is missing in the space. Honestly, there's a lot of programs out there, but like to actually be in a cohort and be there for each other. That's amazing. Yeah, definitely.

Definitely. All right. So this is what we call our rapid fire section. And in the rapid fire section, I just ask you a few questions and just, you know, there's no right answer. Just top of your head and we move on. OK. Childhood nickname.

gosh, do I have to be truthful here? Yeah, we said at the beginning we're going to be truthful here. Okay, when I was in like middle school, I started like freestyling and rapping and my friends called me Kid Nifty because my initials were K-N. So Kid Nifty was like... Nifty, my gosh, if I bring that back am I in trouble?

I kind of like it. Yes, you are 100%. 100%. That was my one of my childhood nicknames. Well, when you said middle school, it brought me back to middle school. And in seventh grade, this is this is not fun for me. But people called me Mufasa because I had curly hair and I didn't know how to manage it. And it was just it wasn't right. OK, it was very wrong. But Mufasa was it. So now, you know, never said that before. OK.

Next one. If what is your go to lazy dinner? Oh, too lazy. I mean, Uber eats. mean, I don't know. But what is the order? What is the what is the order? Probably what we like the most like Chinese food, like some good Chinese food. I love I love good Chinese food. Yeah. So yeah, that'd be my go to lazy dinner. If it's just me, like kids are fed, wife fed, I'll do a protein shake and be dead.

I don't know if you're going to a take on this hot talk. I'm sorry. Talkies or hot Cheetos. Talkies for sure. Me too. Yes. That's the right answer. Okay. How about your best non curse word? One word insult.

Hmm can't be a curse word, but it's gotta be insulting That's a good one curse word Yeah insult We've heard like basic Yeah, that's a good one, you know referring to somebody as simple that's kind of you know, that is one that we use quite a bit I don't know if we have a

I say we, because we do talk about these things at home if we have a go-to, but we do have this saying that, you know, we won't insult you. We'll just shame you with your own reality. Right. And that's what. Yeah. That'd be my answer. Okay. Okay. What makes you nervous?

I would say public speaking, but it's a false nervousness, right? I love speaking in public. I don't get nervous any of the days leading up to it, but literally the three minutes or two minutes right before I go on stage, my heart is beating through my chest. And then two minutes after I start calm again. That's, that's kind of it.

Not too many other things make me nervous because the things that do, just attack them quickly. Right. Where I don't, I don't, I tell my, I tell my agents and when I coach agents, I tell them, okay, I'm back. Okay. We're good. I was going to say, I tell my agents and even when I'm coaching agents or teaching to deliver bad news quickly, but with the solution, because if you sit on bad news, it's weighing on you more than anything else. Also, you don't want your clients to hear it from somebody else.

But even for that things that are a challenge, just attack it quickly. So it doesn't mount this doubt inside of you and this nervousness inside of you. You let that build up and it will. Yep. What was the last thing you bought online? Modi swag. Obviously that's the only right answer. Yep. I like to get to the airport about two minutes before I board. That's my thing. Kat is a two hour before boarding time kind of girl.

Where are you on that? Two hours for sure. I don't like being late. And my wife is two minutes. we have to drag her along. one. That's me and Dom. Yeah. I show up to client appointments and just park down the street and just I just like to be relaxed. Like I don't like that sense of rushing and rushing and rushing. So I get to the airport early. I have no problem. Plus, I mean, like you guys, we're just super busy and there's always something I can do with that time.

So it's not wasted time. So Kat is obsessed with Marvel and she has her own idea of what her superpower would be. But what would your superpower be if you were a superhero?

That's a good question as well. think flying has always been something I wanted to be able to do.

But also, I've always wanted to be able to speak every language. I've always thought that would be cool where I could go anywhere in the world and talk to anybody in the world. That would be amazing. That would be amazing to me. That's awesome. I love that. Yeah, actually, I think when we had Giselle Ugardi on the podcast, she said the same thing. The ability to speak language. mean, communication is everything. So I love that answer.

So tell people, Kofi, where can everyone find you? So my personal website is just my first and last name, com. So kofinarte.com. On Instagram is probably my favorite social. It's at Kofi underscore celebrity, but it's celebrity with an S-E-L-L-E-B-R-I-T-Y. Because I wrote a book called Celebrity, How to Build a Successful Sports and Entertainment-Based Business. So you can find me there.

And then my company website is globalred.com. G-L-O-B-L-R-E-D.com, no A. So those are probably the easiest ways to find me. Social DM me, I will hit you back for sure. That's awesome. We're going to drop all those links for you right in the show notes, so check it out there. And if you haven't already, the five star review. Thank you so much, Kofi, for your time.

Thanks for joining us on Not Nice, Clever. Remember to follow Not Nice, Clever wherever you listen to audio. And if you haven't already, drop that five star review. Share your takeaways. Tell us your story. We love to hear it. Signing off, you're not so nice, but so clever besties that mean business. See you soon.