2008: Make Extraordinary Wealth with Ordinary Businesses

**Farnoosh Torabi** (0:00)
Hey friends, if you've been sitting on a book idea and wondering could this actually become something, this is your moment. Join me in New York City on October 9th for Book to Brand. This is my intimate full-day immersive designed to help you turn your idea into a clear, compelling, pitch-ready book concept. You will meet the insiders, agents, publishers, and recent authors who can help bring your book to life. Spots are limited and early-bird tickets are on sale now. Head to booktobrand.co to reserve your spot. So Money, episode 1805, How to Build Financial Power Through Ownership, with Codie Sanchez, Founder and CEO of Contrarian Thinking.

**SPEAKER_2** (0:40)
You're listening to So Money with award-winning money guru, Farnoosh Torabi. Each day, get a 30-minute dose of financial inspiration from the world's top business minds, authors, influencers, and from Farnoosh herself.
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**Codie Sanchez** (1:06)
I think we are in an asset ownership race right now.
And those who in the future will have more financial resources and more freedom will be those who own things. And the reason why is because AI cannot take away ownership. And so if I own this house, we are going to, for the foreseeable future at least until we upload to Neuralink, we are going to need houses. We are going to need buildings. We are going to need services for said houses and buildings. And in the future, AI and robotics may take up a lot of our menial tasks. But if you actually own the entity itself, then AI is just something you integrate.

**Farnoosh Torabi** (1:44)
Welcome to So Money, everybody. I'm Farnoosh Torabi. What if the secret to extraordinary wealth isn't about betting on the next big thing, but buying something that's tried and true, like a plumbing business, a car wash, or a cleaning company? What if the future of entrepreneurship isn't on Wall Street or in Silicon Valley, but on Main Street? If only we knew how to seize it. That's where my guest today comes in. Codie Sanchez is here. She's the founder and CEO of Contrarian Thinking. It's a digital education platform and media company with over 6 million followers. She also runs Contrarian Thinking Capital. It's an investment firm that supports the ecosystem of Main Street entrepreneurship. We discuss her new book, Main Street Millionaire, where Codie lays out her bold argument that buying profitable, established cash flowing businesses is the most underrated path to building wealth. And that time to act is now because America is facing a generational handoff. Over 40 million Americans are hitting retirement age and baby boomers who currently own nearly two-thirds of small businesses with employees are poised to sell. Codie calls this a silver tsunami. And for those who know how to navigate it, it could mean once-in-a-generation opportunities. In our conversation, Codie opens up about her own unlikely journey from journalism to Wall Street to Main Street. We talk about how she made the leap, the psychological hurdles to entrepreneurship, and how she thinks about power, relationships and the future of work in an AI-driven world.
Codie Sanchez, welcome to So Money, my friend.

**Codie Sanchez** (3:21)
Thank you for having me.

**Farnoosh Torabi** (3:22)
Oh my gosh. I feel a kinship to you because you started your career in journalism.

**Codie Sanchez** (3:27)
I did.

**Farnoosh Torabi** (3:28)
You've also worked in finance, so we have similar patterns in some of the industries that we have pursued, and now you're helping millions of people think counter-intuitively about work and money and business. What was the moment when you were younger perhaps, when you were working in different industries, that you realized that you wanted to push towards a shift?

**Codie Sanchez** (3:51)
You know, have you ever had that moment where you realized that you are completely unemployable? You're like, oh yeah, I'm not capable of listening to a boss tell me what to do about things anymore, especially if they're not reasonable, like I'm out.
And so I had one of those moments where I was just like, God, I know this is what the business needs to do. I get that it's not like the right bureaucracy, and that I didn't kiss the ring and do all the things. But can I just tell you what we should actually do? And we could do it because it's a good idea on merit based on all of this other political nonsense. And it turns out the answer was no, absolutely not. It was like, no, if you have a climb the rung and done these specific things, then that's not really what your job. Go back to your job. And so that had to happen to me a few times before I finally thought, man, I'm going to try this thing called entrepreneurship by myself because I just can't handle the fact that some of the stuff is so inefficient. And I was at huge financial companies, so you know this too. But when you work at these bureaucracies, at some point you're like, you know what, this makes too much sense, so we should absolutely not do it here. That's going to be the rule. And I was like, I just couldn't handle it anymore. And I think that was the point at which I was like, all right, I got to go do my own thing because otherwise I'm just going to end up sort of slowly wasting away quietly in the corner and become sort of bitter and resentful. And I didn't want to do that.