[piano intro] - Hello, I'm Nido Qubein.

Welcome to "Side by Side."

My guest struggled in school but went on to be the first in his family to graduate from college.

He went on to become a titan in the financial services industry.

He later created the popular TV reality show named "Undercover Billionaire."

Today, we'll meet Glenn Stearns, the entrepreneur and philanthropist who sees perceived failures as the silver lining of our lives.

- [Narrator] Funding for "Side by Side with Nido Qubein" is made possible by- - [Narrator] Coca-Cola Consolidated is honored to make and serve 300 brands and flavors locally, thanks to our teammates.

We are Coca-Cola Consolidated, your local bottler.

[upbeat music] - [Narrator] The Budd Group has been serving the southeast for over 60 years.

Specializing in janitorial, landscape, and facility solutions, our trusted staff delivers exceptional customer satisfaction.

Comprehensive facility support with the Budd Group.

- [Narrator] Truist.

We are here to help people, communities, and businesses thrive in North Carolina and beyond.

The commitment of our teammates makes the difference every day.

Truist.

Leaders in banking, unwavering in care.

[uplifting music] - Glenn, I've been so looking forward to chatting with you today.

Your life, your life has been extraordinary.

I mean, you grew up with such tough adversity, and in spite of it, you found abundance, and now you're spending your life going around the world helping other people to find abundance.

Give us a quick overview of your upbringing with your family and your schooling and your teenage years, if you will.

- Sure.

Well, it's great to be here, by the way.

I grew up on the outskirts of Washington, D.C. We had bars on the windows, you know, it was a little tough neighborhood, I guess you'd say.

And I had dyslexia, so I failed fourth grade, not a great year to fail, by the way.

- Yeah.

- Everyone knows, you know?

You don't know what you don't know.

And I ended up in eighth grade having a child.

So- - You had a child in eighth grade?

- 14 years old.

- Wow.

- And then, you know, I just kinda had some bumps in the road right after that, ended up with an intervention in 10th grade by my mom and the teachers.

I was outta control, and- - [Nido] You were a naughty boy.

- I was just, I think I was medicating, I was following my dad's footsteps because of all this kind of pain, you know, having a young baby, and it wasn't... Back in those, that was 1978, you know?

- Yes, yes.

- And so it was interesting.

But then I ended up, I went to college, and I kinda, I think at that point realized I needed to break the cycle, I wanted to get out of what had happened in my family before and before, and so I was the first to go to college and then kinda off from there.

- And you made it, you went to Towson University.

- [Glenn] Towson in Baltimore.

- And Towson, just a couple years ago, honored you with an honorary doctorate.

- They did.

- Yeah.

Life has twists and turns, but it can end up somewhere beautiful too.

How did you manage dyslexia in college?

- Well, I graduated with a 2.1, so I guess I didn't manage it too well.

[Nido laughing] - You barely got through.

- I did, and luckily they don't put that on your diploma, you know?

But it was really a lot of, I think more about learning about people, right?

I had to learn, I didn't have anyone paying for my college, I had to learn how to pay for college, I had to learn how to get in and through the system, and that really helped me, just the life skills itself, you know?

And so, while maybe I didn't do so great in chemistry, you know, I was able to talk to people and, again, that's a big difference, I think.

- What did you major in, economics?

- Economics.

- That's a hard major.

- I liked it, you know?

I was doing some pre-dental before that, and I realized, ah, this is not for me.

- Yes.

- I can't even get close.

So, but I enjoyed the macro look at money and how it all flowed, and so I leaned into that.

- Did you, your... You referred to your dad.

Was your dad a model for you?

Or was it a difficult relationship?

- You know, he was a...

He struggled, again, he was an alcoholic and drug addict, and he was not...

He was a good man, he just had his own demons from the past.

And we, you know, when my mother left him was the same year I went off to college.

So what I knew was a kind of a broken man.

But from that moment on, he ended up going into AA.

He spent 40 years helping other people through recovery and really changed his life.

- Yeah, you know, Glenn, you're an inspiration because so many people who would've had your journey would've turned perhaps not as well as you've turned.

You were inducted into the Horatio Alger Association for Distinguished Americans with some really incredible leaders in this nation.

You started your business and you built it to a very large size.

And now you are spending so much time trying to help others.

You've written a wonderful book, it's called "InteGRITy," with emphasis on- - The grit.

- Grit.

What is the overview focus of the book?

- Well, you know, I...

The book's really about a lot of my flaws, a lot of life's lessons when you go out.

I think a lot of young people see successful people and think, "Wow, it was handed to them," or "They were lucky," or "I could never do that."

So I really wanted to speak to people about that it doesn't matter where you start, right?

It matters how you finish.

And that the gifts of adversity, you know, they really can be a great fuel for how you end up, you know, looking at your life and saying, "I'm gonna do better than what people have given me credit for."

- What did you want the reader to get out of the book?

What is the one or two principles that you thought, "Boy, if I can get that across"?

- Yeah, I wanted people to see, again, that they can do anything that they want, that their dreams are not, you know, something that should just be left in the background, that they should go for it.

I think that was my biggest kinda emphasis for the book.

And then I think more, it was just that, you know, we shouldn't look backwards on our flaws, and we shouldn't sit and think, "Well, we've made a mistake," and that anything is possible at any time, you know, and it's never too late.

- Especially in America.

- Amen.

- Yes.

And then you, at what point did you start your first business?

- I was in, right after college, I drove out from Maryland to California.

Literally found myself sitting on a bench over the Pacific Ocean.

This is a beautiful, wonderful place.

I want this life.

I walked up to a man in his yard and I said, "How did you get this house?

I know I can do it.

What did you do?"

"Senor, I'm the gardener," he says to me.

[Nido laughs] And he said, "I think the man's in real estate."

- Yeah.

- So I went and I started as a loan officer.

Immediately, I stayed.

My friend went back to Maryland.

I stayed in California, did that for 10 months, and then started my own business, - Which was a- - Which was a mortgage brokerage operation.

- And what is a mortgage brokerage operation?

- We package loans, send them to lenders for, in my case, it was for residential loans, and package 'em, give them to a lender, and they fund the loan.

- And did you have offices across the country?

Or you start, obviously, with one place?

- Started with one, realizing at the time, because I didn't have those big aspirational dreams, that this is okay, you know, and I'm never gonna be that big.

And then I started looking around going, well, I could do audit, and I could do appraisal, and I could, and so I started opening these other companies.

I got into government contracting with HUD, and I became the largest HUD contractor for doing settlement services, title work.

Then I got into HUD again with audit and became their largest auditor.

And so as I did that for about 10 years, I got that confidence in the lending world.

And after 2007 and '08, which was not a very kind year, shall we say?

- Most disrupted economic time in the last nine years of America's history because the Great Recession, what happened?

- Well, everyone had fallen and we were in the same spot, only we had not been a big company in the mortgage world.

And so while everyone became distracted, all this great talent was left behind.

And I thought, this is the time- - People who were laid off and so on.

- So I opened five offices November '07 and five more in '08, with maybe 50 to 100 person in each office, and we just took off.

Everyone said, "Why would you open in the worst time?"

I said, "I'll never get this type of talent."

- The company actually grew?

- Oh, we grew.

- In the middle of the recession?

- '08 became our best year ever since 1989.

- [Nido] Really?

- Yeah.

- Even though there was not money available for lending.

- Again, life's about timing, isn't it?

- Yes.

- And in our case, we were small.

We didn't have the distraction of all the bad loans.

We had our share, but very small.

So we were really in more of a offensive mode of growth.

And so while people were leaving the industry, our market share just grew and grew.

So while there wasn't a lot of loans, it became a lot more for us because other people- - I see.

- Got out.

- It's intriguing, 'cause that's contrary to what most people would think, right?

- Right.

- And so, and eventually, how many offices across the country?

- 100 and something.

- How does one start an office?

I mean, you're in California, you start an office in whatever city, what do you do?

You send someone out there to find a physical place where you can have the office?

- No, I wouldn't do that.

I was more find the talent first, right?

So we would find people that really knew what they were doing, say, in, it didn't matter where, Florida or wherever, and say, "All right, let's build around you."

We've never built the "build it and they will come" model.

You know, we always found our talent first.

And we just became well known then after '08 for having a company with great reputation, our culture was fantastic, people had been with us.

Well, right now, my assistant's been with me 28 years, my receptionist has been with me 25 years, so a lot of longevity in our company, which I think is the bigger success of a company, is how you treat your people and how they respond back, right?

And so as that grew, other people said, "I wanna be a part of that."

And so then that momentum started to really tick off.

- And then somewhere along the way, you developed a major health challenge.

- I did.

It was right about the time, the irony of my life, I had, when I got to be the number one wholesale lender in the country, I attracted a lot of people that wanted to buy us, so a lot of the Wall Street firms, and the minute I kinda sold my business to Wall Street, I still owned a minority interest- - Yes.

- I, you know, the day you go to celebrate it is the day I don't feel good.

And then, next thing- - Wow, literally physically didn't feel good.

- Physically.

And so- - You sold it at a good price.

- Right.

- You felt good about that.

But then you had something happen.

- Not feeling good, right.

And I was, ended up finding out I had cancer and it was in my base of tongue.

And they told me at first, it's, you know, "This is curable.

I mean, you have about a 50% chance."

I said, "That's a coin toss."

- Yes.

- Curable, you know, you hear things the way, you know.

- Sure.

- And it ended up being a lot higher, luckily.

And I got through it, sort of.

It came back, but I got through it.

- Came back several years later.

- It did.

And I was, at that point, you know, I thought I was through the woods, and you should always respect cancer, okay?

'Cause I said, "Look, can we get this scan done?

I've got my friends down in Costa Rica.

I need to get on the plane and get, you know, can you read me the results?"

I've learned not to do that again, right?

And I got down to Costa Rica, and literally they call me, "Can you come back up?"

- Mm.

- And I thought, oh no.

- Yeah, for a guy as driven as you, that's a tough thing.

- Yeah.

- Sort of stop things and- - It was probably the best thing that ever happened to me in my life.

Because to your point, being driven, you drive and you think, you know, you wanna keep conquering mountains and growing.

And that stopped me in my tracks.

- Mm.

- It made me realize family, that was what was important to me.

And so we took the family, I took my wife and children, I took my ex-wife, who's a teacher, brought her along.

We went on a boat, went around the world for a year and a half and just sat and had breakfast, lunch, and dinner with my kids every day.

- Yeah.

- There's nothing better than that.

- Took a recess to reassess.

So, in spite of all these difficulties, then many people watching us probably have seen you on "Undercover Billionaire."

Why is it called that?

How did that show come to be?

And what did you do in that show?

- We had been, I had someone from my company refer my wife and I for a TV show about 20 years ago.

- And your wife, Mindy, was being in television and that was familiar territory for her.

- She knew it very well.

- Very, very, very well, very smart, very talented lady.

- She, very.

She's made for television.

But someone had called us and said, "Hey, do you wanna do this reality show?"

And so we ended up doing it.

That was 20 years ago, and I won.

So for years, they kept calling me, "Wanna do another show?"

- Now, that was "Gilligan's Island"?

- "Gilligan's Island."

- You were on "Gilligan's Island."

- We were.

- You and Mindy.

- We were.

- What were you doing?

- Well, we were, they wanted a real skipper, a real professor, a real, and they wanted a real millionaire and his wife.

- Mm.

- And then we didn't know the premise 'cause that was kinda hidden from us, but it was sort of a, you know, they ended up having two skippers, two professors, and we had to get down to one, and then it was like a "Survivor," a vote-off, and- - And you won.

- I won.

And my wife came in second.

- And you did something with the money, if I recall?

- Well, I didn't do it for the money.

I gave that to charity- - Yes.

- And matched it.

We really wanted to help some people.

I thought this would be fun to see how we do.

- Now, was "Gilligan's Island" filmed on an island or inside of a studio?

- No, it's filmed south of Cancun and in the jungles down there, but they could have access to trucks and everything.

- I see.

- It looked like an island.

- Yeah, yeah.

- Yeah.

- So then after that came another show.

- So people kept calling, and I kept saying, you know, "I appreciate it, I'm a business guy, I'm not a TV guy.

If you really wanna do a show, take me anywhere in this country with no money, with no contacts, and let me see if I can rebuild a business."

- You're saying that to the- - [Glenn] I'm saying that to the producers- - Yes.

- 'Cause they kept calling.

And I said, you know, "I'm tired of everyone saying this country is not the land of opportunity."

I said, "You wanna see?

Let's see if I can do it."

And so they call me back, "If you're serious, Discovery will take you up on that."

I said, "Okay."

But that's kind of that old saying of the dog that catches the car, right?

- Yes, yes.

- Like, now what?

I didn't thought it through, you know?

And it was a lot tougher than I thought.

- And so that's where "Undercover Billionaire" came from.

- It is.

- And what city were you in and what did you do?

- I was in Erie, Pennsylvania.

- Why Erie, Pennsylvania?

- Well, one, I'd never been, that was one of the things.

- You picked the city?

- No, I didn't.

They did.

They asked me where I'd been and I showed 'em all over, but I'd never been up there.

It was a city that had been, at one time, it was flourishing, it was great.

And now it's been on its knees after, I think it was GE had left and it was a big railroad town.

And so they were kind of a broken city in themselves.

And so I went up there and they dropped me off.

And I remember getting, I flew in on my plane, I get off, and they've given me a beat-up pickup truck, $100, and a cell phone with no names in it.

And there's 20 people with cameras, and I said, "Where do I go now?"

They go, "Go, you've got 90 days."

I'm like, "Go where?"

You know, I hadn't thought past that.

- Yeah, yeah.

- It's crazy.

- So what did you do?

I mean, that's an intriguing story.

You're in Erie, Pennsylvania.

Where did you sleep?

- The first day or two, I slept in the truck.

- In the beat-up truck?

- Oh, it was freezing.

Then, I found a app out there called Couchsurfing.

And I went, I found, and it didn't make the show, but I spent probably 10, 15 days sleeping on people's couches, had a wonderful time.

People I'd never met before, just sitting- - This is crazy!

- Yeah, they didn't even film that part.

- I mean, you are very successful, you had a big company, and you've placed yourself in somewhat of an unsafe situation.

- I loved it.

Just, it makes you feel alive, you know?

And that's what cancer taught me.

'Cause people, when you get older, you start to kinda tense up and you don't wanna lose what you had.

I've built this my whole life, right?

And what I learned from cancer was the times when I thought I was fighting for my life in business, right, I'm like, in 2007 and '08, going up against all the Wall Street guys, I used to think, I would never wanna live that.

Cancer, what I would do to live that again, right, just to feel alive.

So, that's what happened to me.

I said, why not challenge myself?

Why not see if I can do it?

- And did Mindy just let you go to Erie and- - She is such a supportive wife.

- And you were by yourself, she didn't go with you?

- I was.

No, she came and visit when she could, once or twice out of the 90 days.

But it was really a FaceTime at night, you know, after everybody had gone to bed.

And she said, "Go and try and see if you can make a dream happen."

- So you took $100.

What did you do with the $100?

- Well, I had learned something very valuable from my son.

At one time, I was at a wedding and he was surrounded by people.

And I said, "What are you doing, son?"

He says, "I'm selling rocks."

I said, "Selling rocks?"

He goes, "Yeah, drunk people will buy anything, Dad."

[Nido laughs] So, it was St. Patty's Day, and I had $49 left, so I went and I bought a bunch of green stuff, you know, and I went into the bars in Erie and I sold it, and I went back and I would kept getting more and more stuff, and I ended up with about- - To make more money, to generate more capital.

- About a thousand dollars.

That's right.

- And then you took the capital and you- - Then I bought a car.

And then I flipped the car and bought another car.

- I see.

- So I would go to the wholesalers and grab a car and clean it up.

- So you didn't immediately tried, ultimately you built a business- - Built a business.

- So you didn't immediately say, "I wanna build a business."

You did it in steps as you grew your capital.

- Well, you know, I had to first find shelter, so I got enough money to get an apartment.

- [Nido] Get outta that darn truck.

- Right, exactly.

And then I was able to parlay that, what was left, into flipping the cars and a house and then get enough money.

And then we opened a restaurant, and it's still there today.

- Yeah.

Well, congratulations, Glenn.

That's an inspiring story.

Inspiration of that story stems from the fact that you could've just gone in the corner and said, "Woe is me."

- Well, you know- - And have a pity party.

You didn't.

- I tell you, Nido, what is the most interesting thing, and it's what I'm most proud of, it's not this show.

I'm not, you know, I didn't wanna even name it "Undercover Billionaire," by the way.

I thought that's too much pressure on something that wasn't important.

It's important about inspiring people to believe they can do anything they want, right?

But when I was in the middle of the show, now, we had had Richard Branson and John Elway film.

They cut them off of it, but they said, "I would never wanna go and start over."

Why would, you know, I'm thinking, "Why would they say that?"

Well, when I was in the middle of the show, I finally realized, with 100% certainty, I was not gonna make it.

And now with that in my mind, and the fact that not only are my friends gonna see me fail, but the world's gonna see me fail, and bigger than that, my children, so I'm saying, "I'm gonna quit, you should quit, just stop, and they'll never be able to finish this show."

And I think in life, we do that a lot where we start to listen to this little devil on our shoulder.

And the reality is, you need to stick with it.

You don't give up.

You surround yourself with good people.

You have integrity.

And I didn't give up, and it worked out very well, which I didn't even see a way out, right?

But that's what I'm most proud of, is when you just, 'cause it's a little microcosm of real life, you know, of all of us, we need to just really persevere.

- So in the 90 days in Erie, Pennsylvania, where it was very cold, did you have any moment where you said, "The heck with this, I'm going back home."

- Well, you know, I don't, I have an issue eating from my cancer.

I don't eat.

- You don't eat.

- I don't eat or I don't drink.

I have to eat through a tube.

- I see.

- And so I tried to eat on the show, and I ended up, it shows in there that I went to the hospital for a couple hours.

It's actually about five days.

But we didn't wanna make it about health.

I didn't want that focus to come off of being intentional about trying to, you know, make a dream come true and not having people feel sorry for you, it wasn't about that.

And so, yeah, I had gone into the hospital for five days, had aspiration pneumonia, and that wasn't fun.

- You are the epitome of a person who has inner strength, who has what most of us would call calamities in life, adversity in life, difficult moments in life.

In spite of it, you found another way to think, and therefore another way to live, and that is such an inspiration to so many.

What is it you want your six children to learn from you?

- Well, I think that every time we run into an issue, if we believe that there's a wonderful lesson that comes out of that, then we will not focus on the negative aspect.

And if you can stay positive and you can find the gift that comes out of pain, then you will go on to live a very happy life, I think, something that you'll feel fulfilled, right?

And at the end of the day, that's what it's all about, right?

Not how much money we have, not the things we have, but about how we feel that we've made a difference.

And so, if I can teach my children that pain, adversity, these can be gifts, that then they can go on and live happy lives and grateful lives and lives that they feel they've made a difference in other people, that's what it's all about.

- Well, the fact that you have arrived at that conclusion in your life, and the fact that you have propagated that vision and live it every day, is, my friend, I gotta tell you, you make it sound so easy and so livable and so wonderful.

It's hard.

I'm listening to you and going, "I don't know that I can do all that," but I just want you to know I admire you.

You're an inspiration to so many people.

And Glenn Stearns, I wanna thank you for being with me on "Side by Side" today.

- Thank you.

Enjoyed being here.

[uplifting music] [uplifting music continues] [uplifting music fades] - [Narrator] Funding for "Side by Side with Nido Qubein" is made possible by- - [Narrator] Coca-Cola Consolidated is honored to make and serve 300 brands and flavors locally, thanks to our teammates.

We are Coca-Cola Consolidated, your local bottler.

[upbeat music] - [Announcer 2] The Budd Group has been serving the southeast for over 60 years.

Specializing in janitorial, landscape, and facility solutions, our trusted staff delivers exceptional customer satisfaction.

Comprehensive facility support with the Budd Group.

- [Narrator] Truist.

We are here to help people, communities, and businesses thrive in North Carolina and beyond.

The commitment of our teammates makes the difference every day.

Truist.

Leaders in banking, unwavering in care.