Goonies Unearthed: The House that Shaped an Era | Behman Zakeri

Behman: [00:00:00] And so it was, you know, every kid, and we were poor, we didn't have any money growing up. So it was my dream to be able to go home and show mom and dad that I got Boardwalk and Park Place, right? So when Goonies came out, it was kind of the same thing.

It was like, yeah, I'm a treasure, where all you have to do is find it and it's yours, right? You know, when you're that age, when you're eight, nine years old, You're learning about life. You don't know anything about life. And so these kids, and this movie, really exemplified the power of friendship, and family, and determination, and adventure, and all of that, together.

Matt: Welcome to Push To Be More with me, your host, Matt Edmundson. This is a show that talks about the stuff that makes life work, and dare I say it, makes life a little bit more interesting today.

And to help us do just that, I'm chatting with my very special guest, [00:01:00] Behman Zakeri, who actually owns a company called We Buy Gold LLC, but we're not going to talk about that. And if you're a Goonies fan, I want you to keep listening up. because I've got some interesting news for you. Uh, we're going to talk to Behman about where he's at to push through, what he does to recharge his batteries, uh, and what growth looks like.

Now, the transcript and, uh, notes, any links will be available on our website, pushtobemore. com. And whilst you're there, if you haven't done so already, sign up to the newsletter, because every week we email you the links. And the notes from the show automatically, they come straight to your inbox. Yes, they do.

Now this show, this episode, probably the episode I've been looking forward to more than any other recently. And that's not to disparage any of the guests, but you're going to have to work hard to keep up with this one. This show is brought to you by Aurion Media, which helps entrepreneurs and business leaders set up and run their own successful podcast.

Why on earth would you want to do that, you may ask? Well, I just simply think it's probably the best and most [00:02:00] effective marketing tool out there on the market at the moment. I appreciate that, maybe a bold claim, and I appreciate, uh, there's lots of questions you might have about podcasting, like why you would do it, what, what's the strategy, what's the technology.

Etc, etc. Well, that's where aurion Media comes into it. You see, I love to do what I'm about to do, which is have conversations with very interesting people. But I'm not a big fan of all that other stuff, if I'm honest with you. So aurion Media takes it off my plate. I get to do what I'm good at, and they brilliantly take care of the rest.

So if you're wondering if podcasting is a good marketing strategy for your business, do connect with them at aurionmedia. com. That's A U R I O N media dot com. Brace yourselves as we talk about our guest. Behman Zakeri is a serial entrepreneur, a dedicated collector who can't resist the irresistible charm of 80s pop culture.

I know how he feels. Now this entrepreneurial wizard launched [00:03:00] his first business at 16 and with three decades of experience under his belt has turned mentor, guiding the next generation of business mavens into an arch. Yes, he has. And when he's not ruling the business world, he is ruling the digital space with his YouTube and TikTok channels, serving up entrepreneurial wisdom with a side of 80s flair, living by his legendary mantra, mantra, never give up, or maybe goonies never say die.

Uh, so let's, Behman is a true goonie making waves in the entrepreneurial world. And so without further ado, let's welcome to the show, Behman. Behman, how are we doing, man? How you doing? Doing

Behman: great, brother. Doing even better than I'm on the show with you. I love this shirt. That thing's incredible.

Matt: Yeah. For those listening to the podcast, which I know like 99% of people do, what you're not gonna recognize is I have this tie dye shirt on, um, and on the top it says Goonies.

Now we're gonna get into why we're, we're talking a lot about the Goonies already. But this shirt, uh, can I [00:04:00] tell the story behind this shirt? This shirt was given to me by my beautiful friend over in Astoria, Oregon, called Katie, Katie Lamping, who does tie dye. She's a nurse, but she does these tie dye t shirts of a weekend at a market store.

And I had the immense privilege of being in Astoria recently, a couple weeks ago, and Katie gave me this shirt when I was over there as we were selling tie dyes. There was a bit of a Goonies thing going on that weekend with a new music video. And then on the Sunday night, um, my last few hours in Astoria, we drove up to the house where the Goonies movie was filmed.

And if you don't know what the Goonies movie is, where have you been? It's like the film of all films, one of my favourite films of all time. And that's where I met Behman, because you were coming out of the house just as we were coming up the drive,

Behman: right? Yep. Worked out perfect, huh?

Matt: But just explain to the audience what you made me do before I could go into the house and have

Behman: a look around. Well, [00:05:00] you know that there's one rule that I set the day my name was revealed into the world of the Goonies House.

No one gets inside the house without doing the Truffle Shuffle.

It's the rule.

Matt: It's the rule. And it was brilliant. I laughed so hard. Um, as me, Katie and Katrina are outside doing the Truffle Shuffle, uh, which is now on TikTok. I've put it on Instagram. It's all over the place and we'll put it in the video if you're watching the video of the podcast. Um, so yeah, so you are now the owner of The Goonies house where this movie was shot in the 80s, but you're the recent owner of this

Behman: house, right?

Yep. Um, you know, fortunate enough that Sandy Preston, the previous owner, [00:06:00] uh, you know, picked me to be the lucky one that she passed the torch on and, uh, felt that I would be a good ambassador, a good steward of the house. To the Goonies community, which is what I pledged to be and what I'm trying my best to do.

So, yeah, it's, uh, boy, it's only been a few months and it's already been a roller coaster ride, you know.

Matt: I know you were telling me a little bit about it, but let's, why did you, I guess, um, let's, let's start at the beginning. How did you hear about the Goonies house coming up for sale?

Behman: To be honest, it was all of my friends and family were texting me and tagging me on all forms of social media.

And the general consensus was, this is all you, go get it, you know, you better win this, this is your dream, you know, go get it, make it happen. Basically throwing all of my slogans in my face. And so I felt obviously challenged where I'm like, oh my gosh, if people are telling me make it happen and I live by that statement and never give up and all this stuff.

[00:07:00] So yeah, that's how I got made aware of it. Now, I had obviously met Sandy at the 30th anniversary in 2015. She gave my family and I a tour of the house and was cool enough to even invite us to spend the night. She's like, you guys are amazing. I'm like, no way. So then I asked her, I was like, are you ever going to sell this thing?

Because if you ever sell it, I would love to have the opportunity to buy it. She goes, yeah, you and a million other goonies, everybody wants to buy this house. I was like, all right, well, I'm serious. So if you ever want to do it, but she never reached out to me. She just kind of. You know, I did it organically through a broker and listed the house and I moved at 200 miles an hour.

I just, I wanted to know, am I the chosen one? Is this really a thing? You know, even if it was a one in a million shot, you remember like in Dumb and Dumber when Jim Carrey... He says, you know, what's a chance of a girl like me and a guy like you ended up together? And he's like, is it more like this? And she's like, more like one in a million.

And he's like, [00:08:00] yes, I had a chance, you know, and for me, it was the fact that I had even a one in a million to buy the goonies house was, was an incredible, you know, thing. And so, um, you know, I started moving fast, getting everything, all my ducks in a row and, and, uh, submitted a formal offer. And I lost. Like three nights of sleep.

And finally I, I said, Hey, I'd really like to know sooner than later. I mean, if it's going to be a no, that's fine. As long as there's a better person out there, if one of the cast members wants to buy the house, if Steven Spielberg wants to buy the house, I totally understand it. Let them buy the house. But if it's going to be me.

Don't torture me for like 30 minutes, you know. This is awful, you know. So anyway, luckily, they had decided, Sandy had decided that she wanted to have an answer. She wanted to make an answer, um, the Wednesday, the day before Thanksgiving. Thanksgiving Day holiday here in the United [00:09:00] States, which was on a Thursday.

And, um, I said that would be amazing, because if I have to go into Thanksgiving, it's going to be hard to focus on friends and family during the Thanksgiving holiday, not knowing and talking about possibilities. So, it ended up coming down between me and one other buyer. He's a big Hollywood Whig. He, he, uh, has done a lot in Hollywood.

He's a massive Goonies fan. And, um, you know, he even offered, uh, a lot more money than I did. And I was fortunate enough that she picked me and she was very adamant and she meant it, that she wanted it to go to the right person. So yeah, that's how I ended up with the house. And then. When it became real and we were under contract and then things moved forward and we finally closed on the house, I was like, holy smokes, this is a, this is a real responsibility.

And that's what I don't think people understand is it's not just any normal Hollywood home, right? It's not just like, oh, this scene was filmed in this house. This is the Goonies [00:10:00] house. This is the, that arguably is the number one, you know, movie house in the world in the last 40, 50 years and, and so understanding, you know, for, for me, the, the perception I have of this house, even though I'm on paper and the owner of the house is I don't feel like I'm quote unquote the house.

You might own something, right, physically, but in my opinion, it doesn't mean that it belongs to you. So the house belongs to the Goonies community. It doesn't belong to me. It's just as much your house as it is my house. It's that special, uh, place that we have in all our hearts. It's what makes you fly from the UK all the way to Astoria halfway across the world.

That's how special that house is, so it would be very selfish of anyone, including myself, to think that it's my house. It's not. It's a, it's a community house, and so we're going to do our best to make it become that [00:11:00] in some way, shape, or form by restoring it, to make it look like it did in the movie, which is in the works, uh, through a TV show.

And, uh, originally I was going to do it, but now it looks like we're getting a TV show. And then, you know, after that, how does the house get shared even more? How do people get access to the inside? How do tours happen if somebody wants to spend the night? So these are all things that at some point in time, if it was, you know, if it was, you know, my discretion, I think it, it, it deserves to be shown at the World's.

That's kind of where my mentality is. It's trying to figure out how to do the best thing for the, for the community. And as you know, we were very welcoming of people walking up the driveway, doing the truffle shuffle. Just, I always say, be respectful to neighbors, park a few blocks away and walk because the neighbors get mad.

Don't come up the driveway. Do not drive up the driveway. Do not do that. Yeah. It's actually a dangerous driveway. Um, and it does look the same as it did in the [00:12:00] movie. But then it's like, how do we go to the next level? You know, you got, you, you happened to be there when we were there and you caught us right as we were leaving.

So it was like, perfect. Um, but how do I make that experience for as many Goonies as possible? Um, and that's kind of what the challenge is. So we're just trying to figure out what that is. And every time we visit Astoria and we go back, we're excited because we don't live there full time. Although we have people that guard the house, watch the house, it's being recorded with tons of cameras and things like that.

It, it, it needs to just be open. It needs to be people need to know. And yeah, so it's going to take a community, whether or not the Facebook group, you know, they all want to figure out some way to make this happen. I thought about an idea and I don't know if this is legal or not, but what if like a, you know, how like a, a company goes public and they shares of a company, right?

Yeah. Did you do something similar with a house? [00:13:00] Is that even? That'd be really interesting. Yeah. So where you sell 10, 000 unique shares or 100, 000 shares or a million shares at some fractional price, say you sold a million shares at a couple dollars a piece, then each person is considered a shareholder or like an owner.

And then those people would be able to technically claim that it's their house too, so they could visit it, they could, and then how do you protect it, so people aren't fighting if this group shows up, and you know, there's all these, so you can see kind of where our, our, our minds are, you know, in spaces, is try and build bridges between two people.

to figure out how to share this thing. But in the meantime, we're just going to have fun with it and keep making videos for TikTok.

I mean, your guys Truffle Shuffle is hilarious. If your customers haven't seen it, go to my TikTok, Behman Zakeri. It's pretty simple. And I got a very, uh, unique name. And, uh, but once you find how to spell it, I'm just saying the same thing on every form of social media. Go to the [00:14:00] TikTok, and you have to watch Matt's...

Truffle Shuffle. It was with Kate, right, and her friend? Yeah, Katrina, that's right, yeah. Yeah, okay, so I'm trying to remember, I'm not the best with names, but it was, it was such a good time, and I'll tell you, it never gets old when somebody really wants in the house, and I'm like...

Matt: You look like you enjoy playing that role, and in all the TikToks I've seen, you look like, I mean, you lean against the doorframe, just like you did in the movie, you fold your arms and you're in character straight away, right?

Behman: I hope Corey Feldman is going to be proud of me, that's all I want to hear him say. Solid job, my friend, you know, that's it.

Matt: Solid job. Well, listen, uh, I know I said this to you before, but you guys were super generous to us when we just turned up unannounced. Um, and I think we spent about two hours with you inside the house, just walking around, chatting away.

And, um, [00:15:00] And you're super generous with your time. And it was lovely to meet the family and uh, hear what you guys are doing with the house and just showed me around saying, Oh, we're going to do this. We're going to restore this front doorway here. We're going to put in a staircase there. And, um, what was fascinating, Behman, was, um, two nights ago, uh, we have, um, a friend of a very good friend of mine.

She's lovely. She's become like my adopted daughter. Um, she's from the Ukraine. And, um, she's part of the team that's going to edit this podcast. Um, she's just wonderful. And I was telling her about coming to Astoria, going up to the, you know, going to the cinema, watching the movie, watching the music video, which was launched, which was just brilliant.

And then going up to the house and having to look around the house. And she was like, what's the Goonies? And I'm like, are you serious? So she came back to the house that night. I'm like, right, 8. 30, I'm putting the Goonies on. So we had the big TV. We had the Goonies movie playing. Um, and I, I, I've watched it again, like the third time in the last few weeks.

And as, as the [00:16:00] movie was playing, I'm like, I stood in that room and that's where I did. And let me tell you about the attic.

It's unbelievable. And, um, Uh, just as a caveat, if you ever do shares in the, in the house, let me know. I would be, I would be interested in that. But, um, it was really magical. And just like you say, just standing in the house where they filmed this movie, which I think if you grew up in the 80s is, is one of those movies that actually had a profound impact on people, wasn't it?

And it's, it's become a bit of a cult classic for, for a reason. What was it about the movie that you found so special? Um,

Behman: to be honest, you know, at the age I was at, when I watched it, I was probably almost nine years old. So, eight, nine years old. And so, what was special was how much I could relate to it as a boy growing up in the 80s and watching, you know, the cast do this treasure hunt to go find one I really treasure.[00:17:00]

It was kind of every boy's dream. Like whether or not, I don't know if everybody remembers, but at least here in the United States, McDonald's used to have this monopoly game where every time you bought like a soda or a value meal like a hamburger, they would have these little things where you'd peel off and you'd try to match up.

And if, if you got Boardwalk and Park Place, they would give you a million dollars. And so it was, you know, every kid, and we were poor, we didn't have any money growing up. So it was my dream to be able to go home and show mom and dad that I got Boardwalk and Park Place, right? So when Goonies came out, it was kind of the same thing.

It was like, yeah, I'm a treasure, where all you have to do is find it and it's yours, right? You know, when you're that age, when you're eight, nine years old, You're learning about life. You don't know anything about life. And so these kids, and this movie, really exemplified the power of friendship, and family, and determination, and [00:18:00] adventure, and all of that, together.

So, After watching the movie, immediately I wanted to go find a treasure, and I had sold myself the imagination of an eight year old kid. I had sold myself that there was a buried treasure out there, and we all know that throughout the world, there's probably thousands of buried treasures. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

So it's not like just this Fake imaginary thing. And so we started impersonating and acting like we were goonies and that's, was a big part of us. And, and so the eighties and those movies kind of molded that and kind of taught us, you know, the whole stick together friendship and the, the most famous slogan, you know, not, Hey, you guys, but the most famous slogan at Goonies, um, never say die really means never give up.

And that's, and that's really, you know, that's, that's what I translated it to. I mean, you know, in my. In my life was when you live a normal life and you weren't given anything and you start from [00:19:00] nothing and you work your way towards the top of the mountain, there are going to be so many things that get thrown at you to knock you off the mountain and so many things to knock you off your path and to make you want to give up.

And there have been, I'm not kidding you, out of the, what, tens of thousands of days that I've lived on planet Earth, there have been hundreds of days that I've wanted to give up. And it was things like the movie Goonies, and things like that embedded in my DNA, in my heart and soul, it's who I am, that it's not you.

Like, I'd rather... You know, I don't want to say the word because Goonies never say die, but I'd rather be that than give up, right? I don't want to tap out. I don't want to say mercy. I don't want to say that this beat me. My rule of thumb is if somebody's already done it, then it can be done. And so we know people have found treasures, right?

It happens all the time. It's shipwreck treasures, people hiking in the hills. [00:20:00] There was a A couple, I believe in California, like eight to 10 years ago, that found these tin cans on their property. And there was all these old vintage coins and they ended up being worth like 10 million or some crazy number after they got traded.

And that was all Goonies all over again. And then you have this gentleman. Name Forrest Fenn, who was an older gentleman that decided to take a bunch of his artifacts and gold coins and treasures, put them in a treasure box and hide it. And then he wrote a poem and wrote a book about giving clues on how to find the treasure.

So as a Goonie, I'm like, Oh my gosh, this is, these treasure. And I believe it got found. But his name was Forrest Fenn. F E N N you can look it up if you haven't seen it, it's so intriguing. So I would like to someday be the next Forrest Fenn. I would like massive treasure someday, especially when I'm getting older.

If I live till I'm 80 years old, 85, 90 years old, you can't take it with you [00:21:00] when you go. Maybe I'll hide 10 buried treasures or something, you know, maps, Goonies maps and stuff. And, and so we're trying to integrate the movie and the love of the movie. to real life treasure hunting. Um, I know if one family found one treasure, it would change their life, right?

And you want it to get into the right hands. So anyway, I hope I answered your question. I know I talked for a long time, but that's

Matt: kind of... No, it's fascinating, isn't it? And this idea of, um, finding the buried treasure, if you can... You know, there's so many analogies that you could draw off that, isn't there?

I mean, there's actual treasure hunts, which we all love doing still, even as adults, we still love them. And I, I remember when the kids were growing up, we still did the Easter egg hunts, you know, and all those kind of things, because there's something quite, we all drew treasure maps, our kids all still draw treasure maps.

And it's that, there's something about it, um, that is quite magical. And to be honest with you, I, you know, with my business, I could [00:22:00] say... I, I sort of had a map, followed it along, had an adventure, and I seem to be finding these treasure things as I, as I go along, and, um, it's, it's quite funny. But I, as you were talking, Behman, I did think, actually, you own a gold company, right?

Your company is called We Buy Gold.

Behman: Yeah, we sell, we buy and sell gold, jewelry, coins, and like I had told another news station that my business is, so I have four businesses that have payroll, right, employees and locations. Right. Right. Four different businesses. One of them is We Buy Gold, and it's here in the Kansas City area, which is a one of the major cities here in the United States.

And at one point, we had 14 locations. We've downsized since, but um, you know, subconsciously, all the businesses I have were related to the movie Goonies. It's, it's like, it's, um, like my first business, which I still have, is, it was a baseball card shop. And if you [00:23:00] remember when they were, Oh,

Matt: that's that, yeah, yeah.

He finds it, doesn't he? On the, on the guy that, yeah,

Behman: baseball card in Chester Copperpot's wallet. That's right. Yeah. Card shop since the early 1990s, uh, since 1993. And, uh, what's interesting about that, of course, we've morphed into Pokemon cards now, so we're a big Pokemon card retailer, and Magic the Gathering, right, and all these other games.

But, subconsciously, I got in the baseball card business. My next business was the gold business. I mean, effectively, if you look at, okay, here's what, here's what's funny. One Eyed Willie's treasure is a treasure chest, right? It's, effectively, what is the logo? of my card business called Collector's Cash.

What's my logo? What's my

Matt: company logo? Oh, no, don't tell me it's a treasure box.

Behman: It's a treasure chest. It's a treasure chest. And when I was doing it, I wasn't thinking necessarily, it just, you know, the word cash, the way it's spelled is not spelled like money cash. It's C [00:24:00] A C H E. It's spelled like cache, but it's pronounced cash.

And it, you know, if you, I don't know if you know what that means, um, it's a, it's kind of like a place of hidden valuables, like a, you know, and so I, when I was trying to think of what logo do I make for collector's cash, I said, it has to be a treasure chest. And so subconsciously it took me years to find an artist.

And, or, I forgot, it just took forever to find, I found the one. And so that's that. Then my next business is We Buy Gold. Then the next one is an escape room. So I have escape rooms. What are they trying to do from the Fratelli book? They're like, you can't make this stuff up, you know? And, uh, and the next one is so crazy because I don't know if this is a thing in the UK, but, um, we, the, the, the last business is an axe throwing business.

Right, like darts, but yeah, and so people are like, well, how does that relate to the movie? And I said, well, [00:25:00] you know, when they trip the wires in the tunnel and. They trip a booty, I mean booby trap, right? Yeah. And the ropes start moving, right? And all that. Well, what cuts the ropes? Oh, yeah.

Matt: So we

Behman: exit, yeah.

You know, it's their axes, their axes. And so it's, it's just weird. And then I'm also in the real estate business. So it makes total sense to buy the Goonies house, right? I didn't plan all this. I wish I could say I was a genius and I was smart enough to have planned this whole thing. This is God's plan, so I'm doing God's work right now, you know, so I'm literally, what's next in store for me, it's like, you can't make this up.

That's

Matt: fascinating. So you're, you set up four, uh, companies, four businesses with payroll. Okay, let me go back to the card one. Have you ever had into your store the card that they found in the Goonies? I don't know if that was a genuine baseball card, I don't know anything about baseball cards, but was that a genuine baseball card and have you [00:26:00] had that since?

Behman: Yes, so it is a genuine baseball card. If I remember, it's like a 1970 Topps, Lou Gehrig card. God, if it's 69 or 71, please forgive me. I should know this. But it is a genuine card. Yes, I do have one because a good Goonies friend of mine actually sent me one. Yes, and I've had them, I'm sure, throughout the years, because we bought 1950s, you know, 2000s and on.

We've bought collections of cards, so I'm sure I've had it, but I've never paid attention to it, um, but it is a legitimate card. But what's interesting about the timing of that, so let's just assume it's a 1970 card. Well, the kids are in the tunnel, we'll call it 1985. And I'm like, so did Chester Copperpot, like at what year?

I'm trying to place it because when, when they read the newspaper article and they say missing man goes missing while in pursuit of [00:27:00] treasure, I need to look again on the date on that. Oh, find out. Yeah. And I think, gosh, I don't remember the exact date, but I'm wondering if that was a movie flub or they messed up with like years.

Yeah,

but I need to look because I don't know why my memory thinks That the newspaper article was before the baseball card, right, before 1970? If it was, then that wouldn't make any sense. But, you know, they also did the octopus scene, right? Where at the end, data, they're like, what was the most dangerous part or whatever?

You know. It's the scariest part. He's just like, oh, it was the octopus. Well, they cut the octopus scene. So if you watch the movie, you're like, what octopus? Like, what are you talking about? But it was the deleted scene. So yeah.

Matt: Yeah. No fair. Yeah. And one of the things that I loved actually about when we're at the house, you were showing me all these.

Uh, things like the calendar on the wall, the little treasure chest in the corner, the painting. [00:28:00] So the community has been sending you stuff, hasn't it? Since you've bought this, since word got out that you bought the house, people have been sending things in. Is that still happening? Yeah,

Behman: so, and we had to put that on pause for now because of the TV show, that we would like to integrate that with the TV show, but...

There's a Facebook group, if you're a big Goonie and you're not in this and you're on Facebook, well actually if you're not on Facebook you need to join Facebook, but it's called the Goonies 35th Anniversary, um, and it used to be the Goonies 30th and then they updated the name and I'm sure it'll be the Goonies 40th when the 40th comes around the corner here, um, but this group has approximately 15, 000 huge Goonie fans.

In the group. And so a good friend of mine, Deepak, who's in Austin, Texas, I, you might have met him. He was there that same, yeah, I did. Yeah, I did. Yeah. Yeah. So Deepak very computer literate, right? And stuff. And I asked him, I said, can you handle the spreadsheet? So he created a shared Google spreadsheet and we listed every [00:29:00] single prop that we could think of and find and locate in the movie.

Um, and we listed it and we wanted to give the community, the Goonies, an opportunity to kind of be involved, rather than it just be us. You know, people do want to be involved. I know if I didn't own the house and this was up there, I would want to send something to the house, right? And so we thought of this unique idea, and you've been in the house, so you know, when you go up the stairs.

There's a huge wall on the left that's got nothing on it, so we said, why don't we utilize that wall, and why don't we memorialize anybody who gives a gift to the house. They would get their name on, on the, on a plaque. with what they gave, maybe, or something, and then their location. So it would be like, Matt Edmundson, you know, London, I'm not saying you're in London, but London, England, or something like that.

And it would say, like, David's statue, assuming you gave us the David statue, right? And that way, as a goonie, you can say that your name [00:30:00] rests inside a goonie's house, you know? And so does the prop that you send. And so we try to think of a fun way That the community could be involved with the house, and we're going to continue to do this kind of stuff.

Um, obviously, I'm a full time entrepreneur. I mean, I have mortgages. I have bills to pay. I'm not this retired guy with a billion dollars doing nothing. Um, so I have to actually work every single day. And it was like, what my passion project is obviously Goonies and... And I love other 80s films like Back to the Future and things like that.

So it's, uh, how do I make time for family, friends, goonies, right, and all that stuff.

Matt: Yeah, no, it's an interesting thing, because I mean, I don't come across many people, um, Behman, who run four companies. Um, and then go and buy something as significant as the Goonies House. Um, why, how come you, how did you end up doing four companies rather than just doing say We Buy Gold and just building [00:31:00] that company?

What, what is it about you that kind of has to keep doing something new and different?

Behman: Well, I, I, I'm like most humans on planet Earth where it's hard to get satisfied, right, with life. We always like to accomplish more. It's always more, more, more. What, what new goal can I set and accomplish? Because once you accomplish a goal, after the dust settles and you celebrate it, you become complacent.

It becomes normal. And then you're like, well, what's next? Right? And I think it's just human nature. It's not you. It's not me. It's not the next person. We always want more as humans. Uh, we want to grow our spirits. We want more things, right? And so my first business, which was the trading card business, we talked about the baseball cards, the Pokemon cards, collector's cash I've had for about 30 years, the reason that I decided to go and start We Buy Gold after was for diversification.

I, you know, in the card business. It's such an uncertain business. They keep releasing new [00:32:00] cards, and you never know, are these cards going to be profitable? Am I going to be able to make money? Is this a sustainable business? The majority of the people in the card business have gone out of business. Like over 90 percent of the people have closed their stores down.

So it's a, it's a very tough grind to last for years, decades alone. I mean, I've completed my third decade, I'll be starting my fourth decade here soon. And so the thought was, how do I, how do I... Protect my downside, you know, my risk, right? And so I wanted a business that I felt when the economy wasn't the greatest.

What business benefits from that? And that is gold, precious metal, right? You always see gold and silver prices go up when the economy goes to crap and there's a depression and there's all this stuff. And then they settle down when there's a great economy. It always happens. It seems like it, at least. So that was the thought there was, how do I protect my downside if this business fails?

[00:33:00] What's my buffer, right? What can protect that? So then once we started that business, we overexpanded, which was a mistake. I had a lot of people telling me not to do it, but we opened too many stores too quick. Um, so like I said, we had 14 locations, and then we downsized and we got stable. We didn't go out of business, luckily, but we were very close to going out of business, but we didn't.

Um, it was again, the never say die, the never give up mentality. I have this relentless mentality, and if you're going through this in life, Listen to me, I, I've already said this on the podcast, not only did I come from nothing, but I suffer the same ups and downs in life as you do, the next person does. I feel them even where I'm at today.

There's always ups and downs. It just gets slightly easier as you start paying debt off and you start wanting less out of life, like less material things, and it gets easier. But you still suffered. So if you're listening to me and you're going through [00:34:00] tough times right now, never give up. You only lose when you get knocked down and you don't get up.

That's the only time you lose. But you only have to win the overall war. You don't have to win every battle. In fact, one of my mentors told me, you know, I'm a baseball fan, and in baseball there's nine innings. And one of my mentors, also a huge baseball fan, he said, listen, the game of life is like a baseball game.

You don't have to win every inning, you just have to win the game. So you may really do poorly today and tomorrow, but the next week you do great, right? And you just need to have more wins than losses and have that never say die mentality, that never give up mentality and keep pushing through. So then after we got those two businesses, both of those businesses were...

Tangible goods. So meaning we buy physical goods like cards or gold coins or whatever, and then we have to ship them or sell them or whatever. I said, maybe I should get a business that [00:35:00] doesn't have any inventory, like an entertainment business, and then I opened up some escape rooms. I think that was seven or eight years ago.

And I love the business. In our spare time, we would go try these escape rooms and see what they're all about. We had fun. I said, well, we know, we know that ABC is a business, so let's just open one. Yeah, and we had just bought a building that housed one of our gold companies, and the basement was not being used, so we said, let's put our escape rooms down in the basement, and we made it happen.

So, and then, you know, of course, why not, you know, my friends get into the axe throwing business, and I know nothing about it, but why not just add another business while we're at it, so we get into axe throwing. That's the reason, um, it was more for, to answer your question, it was more, To just, you know, add layers, um, protection.

I think that if you've got like, if you've got one job and that's all you do, the best thing you can do is start a side hustle, a side [00:36:00] business. And so you work at your, in the United States, we call it a 9 to 5 job, 9 a. m. to 5 p. m., right? So you work 40 hours a week. Well, the good news is there's a lot more than 40 hours in a week.

The way that I got ahead, like I did, at my age, was I worked 70... 75 and even 80 plus hours a week for most of my life. And although people might say, Oh, that sucks that this, I said, well, I enjoyed doing it for the most part I did. That was kind of enjoyable. So you don't have to work 70, 80, 90 hours a week.

You could work 50, 55, 60. And it's like the whole penny a day doubler. It's like, I have this thing, and I'm not the one that invented this, but if you take a penny a day, one cent in the United States, which is the lowest denomination of money, which buys you nothing, and you double it for 30 days, you'd be surprised how much money that becomes worth if you double it for 30 days.

And I've always, I always tell people, would you rather have a million dollars right now or a [00:37:00] penny a day doubled for 30 days? And most people say a million dollars, but it's the wrong answer. And so what that shows you is the power of compound, compounding. And so, yeah, so if you can compound your income and you have your day job and your day job pays for the basic necessities of life.

And then at the end of the month, you have a few hundred euros, dollars, whatever left over. Okay, great. You can go buy a gift or go by yourself, go out to dinner at an expensive restaurant. What if you could earn, you know, another thousand dollars or a thousand euros per month on the side, just doing a hobby that you love.

Just, you could be a person that likes to knit and make, you know, sweaters. You know, you could be like me and you could buy and sell baseball cards on the side. You could do, you could be a person that likes to just fix cars and you just charge people on the side to fix cars. Whatever your expertise is.

Add that to your income, and then as the months go, the years go, and a [00:38:00] decade goes... Wow, you're going to say, oh my gosh, why didn't I do this earlier? And that's the key, at least for me, as somebody that came from nothing. These people that are trust fund babies that they inherit millions of dollars, a family member passes, that's not exactly a way to get wealthier, to get ahead in life.

You have got to sacrifice and unfortunately, you're going to have to sacrifice spending some time with family and friends to get there. Yeah, yeah,

Matt: no, absolutely. Well, as you're talking, actually, I'm thinking of Katie who made this tie dye t shirt. She's a nurse by trade, right? And so, um, at the weekend, she's down selling her tie dye t shirts and she's killing it, man.

She's doing super well. And so, um, I'm really pleased for her, you know, that's, that's

Behman: going well. That's the exact philosophy I'm talking about. Yeah, yeah. Anything she makes off of the t shirt business, she gets to keep. Yeah,

Matt: totally. And, uh, and reinvest, you know, and actually that, that hustle came from her parents.

When you talk to her parents, you know, they were always hustling and it's, um, [00:39:00] it's always quite interesting. I was telling my son the other day that, um, we were going to be chatting. And Josh is 22 years old now. Um, and he was telling me he wasn't that interested that you own the Goonies house. He was more interested in your card trading because he's a big Magic of the Gathering, um, and a big D& D guy.

And I, I have to be honest with you, Behman, when I was like, I don't even know what Magic of the Gathering is. And then he told me how much some of these cards go for. And you're like, Oh my goodness. I said, you need to talk to Behman because that's what he does and he's like,

Behman: well, okay. And that's literally what, when I, that's the business I'm in and yeah, magic, the gathering cards.

Now there are some worth six and seven figures. There have, some of the really rare ones have broken a million dollar mark. And, and, uh, there are, there are cards worth six figures, you know, hundreds of thousands of dollars. So it's, um, Collectibles are now a true asset class, you know, people have collected fine art for [00:40:00] centuries and I've heard of paintings going for 80 million or even higher and you know, at auction and you're like, why would somebody pay 80 million for, you know, a Van Gogh or, or some painting where like, it looks like the artist just painted a bunch of red on a canvas

why would you pay 80 million for that? And so collectibles have become. Effectively, in a sense, a miniature version of artwork. And so these Pokemon cards, these Magic the Gathering cards, these baseball cards, they're all basically representations of small pieces of artwork. And the reason they're worth so much, there's a fundamental root reason that these bring the money that people don't understand.

And you know what that is? Well, I assume

Matt: it's nostalgia in some kind of

Behman: form. Yeah, so you're in the right department. It's, it's the memory, it's the connection to that memory that they had when they went to the grocery store with their [00:41:00] father. And he bought him a pack of cards and they opened it up and he got this card.

He was so excited. It was his favorite player in baseball or his favorite garbage pail kid or his favorite Pokemon card. And they remember, and some people, unfortunately they say they lost their parents, right, or lost one of their parents. And so that's their connection to that memory, to that history.

And there's nothing more powerful than our hearts. And so when you're touching people's hearts through collectibles, that's the real driver. I mean, obviously supply and demand, right? If a card is much more rare than the next card and, you know, or it's more desired for different reasons because it's...

usable in a, in a, in a tournament format or, you know, whatever, it's the best baseball player of all time. And it's limited. Sure. It's going to go for more, but the real reason people want it, um, is for that memory.

Matt: So do you, do you find yourself when stuff comes in the store? Um, Looking at stuff, I'm not selling that.

I'm keeping that. Is your house just full of stuff that you [00:42:00] probably should have sold at some point?

Behman: I will say that in the early days, I had a lot of that, way more than I do now. I'm not very attached to trading cards or things, um, as I used to be. You know, as you evolve as a human over time, you start realizing that time on earth is very limited.

And it's not really the things, the physical things that we have in this world that matter. But more again, it's the lasting memories that we've left on others, the lasting impressions that we've left on others. So, you know, my goal in life went from accumulating stuff, right? When you're a kid, you want to have a mansion and you want to have a bunch of fancy cars and a big boat and all this stuff.

My goals in life are not those things, although those things will probably show up within time

My goals are how many people's lives can I positively impact? How many people can I positively show, um, the right path as far as like in mentorship through [00:43:00] business, how to get successful in business? Like that to me means way more because in the end. We've all been to these, you know, gloom and doom funerals where you're sitting there and, and, and you're, and you're crying because you lost a loved one, but think to yourself in the very end, what mattered to that person?

What mattered about that person? And the truth is, and the answer is, The lasting memories that they left on you and all the others that are sitting there crying, the memories is what matters. So, the more time we can focus on the non tangible things and about becoming better humans and helping better the lives of others, then that's what we need to be doing.

And so my newfound goal, because I was selected to be the steward of this Goonies house, My newfound goal is to try to impact the world, this entire planet, positively, through the Love of the Goonies movie and through that house. [00:44:00] And I think that I can figure out how to do that.

Matt: I think you can, but no, I'm really excited to see where it goes, you know, and I'm, I'm, I'm intrigued, you know, with like the TV deal and some of the plans that you've got for the house and where it's all going.

Um, it's, um. It's fascinating, isn't it? So, what do you do, Behman, to sort of... Recharge your batteries. How do you, how do you sort of keep your tank

Behman: full? Yeah, that's tough because for a long time I was so past what we call burnout, right, where you work too much, you just keep going, and I got in a zone where I just continued to work and nothing else mattered.

How do I recharge myself? It's pretty simple. I get home, And whether I turn my phone off or not, isn't always the solution, but it's how do I turn Behman's mind off? Because my mind is just nonstop thinking, how do I solve this problem? How do I make this situation right? [00:45:00] What's the next thing we're going to work on, right?

And sometimes when I'm trying to go to bed, I can't sleep because I'm, my mind's racing on. So I have to distract myself and it's honestly usually through watching some show, watching a movie that I'm very consumed about, right? Watching Goonies again or something that takes my mind off of life or simply turning my phone off and, you know, going somewhere, going on a, you know, out to dinner with friends or family or something like that.

But I'll tell you the key, like physically, is I have become obsessed. with taking care of my body the best that I can, because I know that in order to be the best version of me, for myself, my family, my friends, my employees, the community, the Goonies community, the world, in order to be the best version of me, I have to feel the best, look the best, right?

And so my diet is extremely strict for the most part. Everybody cheats and has [00:46:00] some sugar here and there. I have a very strict diet. You know, I wake up every morning, I take vitamins and I've researched all different brands of vitamins. So I think I've found the ones that work for me the best. So I'm a vitamins person.

We juice every morning. Sometimes we might have bone broth or something to kind of get the body jump started for protein. And we try to eat as organic. As healthy as we can, and not eat frankenfoods, we try to stay away from processed foods, and so if I feed my body the best nutrients, I nourish my body the best it can be, I sleep eight hours a day, sometimes it's only seven, sometimes it's nine, but I get a good night's sleep.

I learned through trial and error that the earlier you go to bed, the best you'll rest. So, if you go to bed at your local time, let's say 10pm at night, Or even earlier, you're going to feel so much better the next morning than if you stayed up until 2, 3, 4 in the morning, which I used to do for a long time.

I used to play a lot of poker. A lot of people don't know that [00:47:00] about me, but for a lot of the rest of my life, I played semi professional poker and, uh, I play at the World Series, you know, every other year or so. It's, uh, that was, uh, the exact opposite and a very unhealthy lifestyle, right? That's about as unhealthy as you can go.

So after living through that and seeing, okay, in the later years, we're, we're middle aged here. So going into the second half of our life, our lives, what do I got to do to, to be the best version? So how do I recharge? I, I nourish my body with the best vitamins, nutrients, vegetables, meats, things like that as I can, nuts and seeds.

And then I try to get a good night's rest. And I exercise. I exercise almost every day. If I'm not actually working out, I sit in the sauna, and I'll sit in the sauna four to seven days a week, depending on the week. Um, and then I cold, I take cold showers, which people talk about cold plunging. I've done that, and at some point, when it becomes, A cold plunge scenario becomes more accessible.

I'll do that, but I take freezing cold showers. And [00:48:00] let me tell you something, the Goonies house has the coldest water in the world. So when I'm there, oh my gosh, it's gotta be just a tad above freezing. That's probably, it is the most freezing water. But, uh, you know, I'll take a cold shower for five to seven, eight minutes.

And, uh, if you suffer from anxiety, which I've, I've had anxiety like for the most of my life. One of the hacks that I've figured out just from trial and error for me, it works for me, is cold showers. But then in order to take a cold shower, here's the funny part. You have to actually do breathing exercises.

And so I follow Wim Hof's breathing, um, which he does, he's the master, they call him the Iceman. So I follow Wim Hof breathing to get prepped, because you don't, by the way, it's dangerous to just hold plunge and take a shower, just do this, you have to prep for it, you know, so. But yeah, that's, that's kind of what resets me and gets me going and then, uh, I, I do my best to get, [00:49:00] then, then my mind's ready.

Then I'm reset and like I can do this podcast and I can go endlessly because my body's just freaking charged and ready to go.

Matt: Fantastic, fantastic. Behman, I'm gonna do the question box. Okay. The question box is where I just, we have a box full of random questions. I'm gonna flick through these questions.

You're gonna tell me to stop and wherever you say stop, that's the question that we're gonna ask next.

Behman: Okay, stop. Okay.

Matt: So, interesting question. Can you describe your own taste in interiors and design?

Behman: That's such a random question. Yeah, it is. Well, I'm not an interior designer. Um, I would say that, you know, my wife is much better at that than me.

Um, I know that there's a real thing, feng shui is a real thing, if you, uh, when you design, like, uh, the inside of a house. When you walk in the front door, based [00:50:00] off the design, you get a feel. So I'm not very versed in that department. Probably better to cut to another card. Talk to the wife. Talk to the wife would be the short answer there.

I

Matt: think if I was going to answer this question. Uh, can you describe your own taste in interiors and design? My interior taste depends on the building that I am in. And so if you took something like the Gunners house and did this modern Swedish kind of look and feel to it, it just wouldn't, it wouldn't make sense.

to me in that sort of context. But in Sweden, that makes sense. And so I don't think I have a specific taste, other than it has to make sense. I live in a Victorian house, it was built in 1840. And, and so all the bits of furniture that I've, because I, I like joinery, I've got a bit of a woodshop thing going on, and I, my woodshop.

And all the furniture we make, all the furniture we buy has to be Victorian in look and feel. If I tried to do something contemporary in that house, it would just feel a bit odd. Do you know what I [00:51:00] mean? And so, um, I think that's probably how I would answer the question. Uh, in terms of interior design, then, um, What are you most looking forward to about restoring the Goonies house, you know, you're talking to this TV company, you're going to do this restoration thing, what's the bit you're most looking forward to seeing sort of back as it was in the movie?

I

Behman: think the thing I'm looking forward to the most is if they hook this up like I think they're going to, if they set this up, is meeting the original tasks. And having them do the walkthrough of the house and explaining, wow, I remember when this happened and telling stories that none of us Goonies know.

So imagine when they were filming. You saw the living room. The camera lens makes it look bigger than it really is. It's not that big. So, you know, could you imagine if Jeff Cohen, if like Chunk was like, yeah, before I dropped the [00:52:00] statue, they did this, this, and this to me, or they gave me a noogie on my head, or, you know, they...

Just hearing the stories, but it really would be meeting the cast and hearing all those epic stories that we've never heard before. Watching their expressions as they walk through it, because for most of those actors, that was the start of their major careers, right?

Matt: But there's quite a few famous actors, isn't there, that have come out of this movie?

When I was watching it the other night with Josh, my son, I'm like, do you recognize him? No. And you show him a picture of that person now, and he's like, oh my goodness. Yeah, it's crazy, isn't it? Because you've got, uh, the, the, I can't remember the chap's name that played, um, Mikey that went on for Lord of the

Behman: Rings.

Yeah, Sean Astin is Sam! Yeah. He's Sam in Lord of the Rings. He's like a major character and, and if you didn't know him from Goonies, you would say, oh, he's Sam from Lord of the Rings. Yeah, I mean, and he was Rudy, but he's really Mikey in Goonies and Sam in Lord of the Rings. Um, but [00:53:00] these actors, you know, Corey Feldman had a illustrious career, right?

Yeah. He was in a lot of movies, and even Key Huy Quan, even though he wasn't, Like didn't have a ton of childhood roles other than, you know, Indiana Jones and Goonies. Yeah, he did have this recent, you know, movie that he did that took him to the next level. So the four, the four main Goonies, um, you know, and I'm not including Jeff Cohen, Chunk, because Jeff self proclaimed that that was the start and end of his acting career.

Yeah, he wanted out, didn't he? Yeah, yeah. Yeah, so if you take Jeff Cohen out, he nailed Chunk to a T. Like nobody could have played that part any better. But the other four guys, their careers were amazing. And then, uh, you know, Kerry Green and Martha Plimpton, I think have also had roles in other stuff as well, but Goonies was the starting point.

So back to it, it's just going to be hopefully getting the opportunity to be standing physically with them in the house. And watching their expressions, listening to the stories, [00:54:00] and yeah, just being there.

Matt: That'd be amazing. That'd be amazing. Well, listen, Behman, it's been great to talk to you, man, and thanks for coming on the show.

If people want to reach out to you, if they want to connect with you, if they want to find out more about the Goonies House, what's the best way to do that? Through

Behman: social media. My handle's the same on all of them, Behman Zakeri. You can, if you want to put the spelling for it when you list the podcast. B E H M A N, last name Z A K E R I.

That's my social media on, on everything on YouTube, TikTok, Instagram, Twitter, all that. And then we also have created some Goonies House handles on Twitter and Instagram. Some of them are Goonies Home and some of them are Goonies House. And the way that you know that they're mine is it'll have my name listed in the bio.

And that's, that's uh, that's the way it works. So yeah, and I do my best to respond to All the messages and responses, I'll be honest, I'm consistently behind because I was overwhelmed from the time that my name was [00:55:00] disclosed to the world. I got like 3, 000 Facebook friend requests in like the first couple of weeks, so it was insane, you know.

Matt: Yeah, because you were on like the Kelly Clarkson show I saw.

Behman: I did get on Kelly Clarkson and I had to actually hire a PR firm. for a few months to represent me because I was so overwhelmed with the amount of wow, reaching out the media and all that stuff. So if you do send me a DM or a message, I do my best to respond to everyone.

I mean, there's some that are so off the wall that I don't even, I get confused, right? I can't answer. I just, uh, sometimes no answer is the best answer, but if it's a normal request or normal, whatever. I do my best to respond and sometimes I'm a week behind, but yeah, that's the best way.

Matt: Fantastic, fantastic.

Well, we will of course link to Behman's info in the show notes as well, which you can get along for free along with the transcript at pushtobemore. com. And of course, if you sign up to the newsletter, they will be coming to your inbox and make sure you connect with Behman on social [00:56:00] media. Watch the TikTok of me doing the truffle shuffle because you know what, it'll make you laugh if nothing else.

Behman, listen man, thanks for coming on the show. It's been great to connect again. Uh, thanks for being so generous with your time around the Goonies House. I absolutely loved it. I've loved the conversation. I love what you're doing with the house, man. You're an absolute legend and it's a real privilege to be able to talk to you today.

Behman: Thank you brother, much appreciated and as they always say, Goonies never say die, never give up.

Matt: Goonies never say die, it's so true, absolutely. What an absolute legend. A huge thanks again to Behman for joining me today. Also a big shout out to today's show sponsor, aurion Media. If you're wondering if podcasting is a good marketing strategy for your business, do connect with them.

at aurionmedia. com. That's A U R I O N M E D I A dot com. And be sure to follow Push To Be More wherever you get your podcasts from because we've got some more great conversations lined up and I don't want you to miss any of them. [00:57:00] And in case no one has told you yet today, you are awesome. Created awesome.

Yes, you are. It's just a burden. You have to bear it. Behman has to bear it. I have to bear it. You've gotta bear it as well. Push to Be More is produced by aurion Media. You can find our entire archive of episodes on your favorite podcast app. The team that makes this show possible is Sadaf Beynon, Estella Robin and Tanya Hutsuliak.

Our theme music is by Josh Edmundson, as I mentioned. If you'd like to read the transcript or show notes, head to the website, push to be more.com. That's it from me. That's it from Bowman. Thank you so much. for joining us. Have a fantastic week, wherever you are in the world. I'll see you next time. Bye for now.