Bobby Davidowitz: Building Wealth Beyond Money, From Bag Boy to CEO

WEBVTT
00:00:02.160 --> 00:00:07.919
Yes, we uh what uh as I pulled in, I I I struggled to find parking.
00:00:08.720 --> 00:00:09.279
Are we starting?
00:00:09.359 --> 00:00:10.400
Yeah, we're just gonna get right into it.
00:00:10.800 --> 00:00:11.599
We're just gonna get right into it.
00:00:11.759 --> 00:00:13.759
I was like, okay, this is more fun this way.
00:00:14.080 --> 00:00:20.000
Uh as I pulled in, and everyone's gonna see my mustache slowly melt over the course of this conversation.
00:00:20.800 --> 00:00:22.239
There's a lot of people here, man.
00:00:22.480 --> 00:00:22.960
Yeah, man.
00:00:23.359 --> 00:00:36.479
We got a, you know, we figured out a while back, especially in real estate, you know, that we uh we actually you don't own anything like as a broker or you know, as an organizational leader in real estate.
00:00:36.640 --> 00:00:37.439
You don't own anything.
00:00:37.600 --> 00:00:39.280
You literally only own influence.
00:00:39.439 --> 00:00:40.799
You know, that's that's all you can do.
00:00:40.880 --> 00:00:45.439
All you can do is add value because every single real estate agent is an independent contractor.
00:00:45.600 --> 00:00:47.359
They don't have to work for you and we don't pay them.
00:00:47.520 --> 00:00:48.079
Yeah, right?
00:00:48.240 --> 00:00:50.000
They make money when they close deals, right?
00:00:50.079 --> 00:00:59.039
So they expect to come to a place where they're getting something more than just being able to hang your license because there's a million of options where to hang your license.
00:00:59.200 --> 00:01:09.040
So um about 10 years, 10, 11 years ago, I came into a brokerage that my business partner owned, and um and he already had certain beliefs.
00:01:09.120 --> 00:01:11.519
I believe culture starts with a belief system.
00:01:11.840 --> 00:01:23.120
So we believe that you know we pay it forward, we don't cover our paper, we we share information, we help each other, um, and we're and we're very big in the personal growth.
00:01:23.280 --> 00:01:25.040
So we kind of had those as a foundation.
00:01:25.200 --> 00:01:28.879
And over the past 11 years, we just kept building and building and building.
00:01:28.959 --> 00:01:33.760
And uh what you're seeing now is actually we're in a big transition uh coming into a new building.
00:01:33.840 --> 00:01:36.159
That's why we're in this construction zone right now.
00:01:36.319 --> 00:01:49.280
But this was a vision that we had a long time ago to truly kind of control our own destiny and and create a space that wasn't didn't feel like an office that was more like this kind of, you know, we say we're a personal development company that happens to do real estate.
00:01:49.439 --> 00:01:55.519
You know, we're looking to build people, you know, and if we can build people, we know they're gonna build a great business and they're gonna become great real estate entrepreneurs.
00:01:55.760 --> 00:02:01.760
So, you know, uh probably about eight years ago, we stumbled across this EXP realty model.
00:02:01.840 --> 00:02:06.239
And the beautiful part about that model, it allowed us to scale culture, right?
00:02:06.400 --> 00:02:10.159
Because in a traditional brokerage model, it's very tough to scale, right?
00:02:10.240 --> 00:02:12.560
You know, you recruit, recruit, recruit, people leave, leave, leave.
00:02:12.639 --> 00:02:14.960
It's a revolving door type of model, right?
00:02:15.120 --> 00:02:18.000
And I always tell brokers, I was like, they leave you because they want to be you.
00:02:18.240 --> 00:02:23.599
You know, you they're they your best people want to take their business to the next level.
00:02:23.759 --> 00:02:29.759
And in a traditional brokerage model, that means you got to become a broker or you become a team leader and you're gonna do that somewhere else.
00:02:30.000 --> 00:02:35.199
So you spend all this time training these folks just for them to for your income to walk out the door.
00:02:35.439 --> 00:02:39.439
The cool thing about the exp Realty platform is that everybody's on the same plane, right?
00:02:39.520 --> 00:02:40.560
There's no different deal.
00:02:40.719 --> 00:02:43.520
I'm not actually a broker, I don't have to be, right?
00:02:43.599 --> 00:02:46.000
And every single agent has the same exact opportunity.
00:02:46.159 --> 00:02:50.719
If they want to build something like this, they can right now, today, by simply attracting people to the company.
00:02:51.039 --> 00:02:53.919
But they choose not to because of what the culture is like here.
00:02:54.159 --> 00:02:58.479
No, no, they they're building their own organizations within our culture, right?
00:02:58.639 --> 00:03:00.080
So that's part of that value add.
00:03:00.240 --> 00:03:11.840
Part of the value add is we're giving you a physical, you know, personal development space for you to be able to bring in people under you, your brokerage, but those people are also part of us, right?
00:03:11.919 --> 00:03:13.520
That's what a multi, it's a multi-level.
00:03:13.599 --> 00:03:14.240
Yeah, right.
00:03:14.400 --> 00:03:22.080
So for us, what we're doing is saying, hey, we're we're taking the risk of overhead, liability, all this stuff is a pure choice.
00:03:22.240 --> 00:03:24.319
Like exp reality doesn't pay for this.
00:03:24.719 --> 00:03:28.400
It's me and my business partner, Gil and our partner Veronica, that pay for this, right?
00:03:28.639 --> 00:03:40.719
But we're taking that chance because we feel like if we build community, we're gonna attract more and more agents, we're gonna be able to build a stronger and stronger culture, and we're gonna be giving them the resource to also bring people in, right?
00:03:40.800 --> 00:03:41.599
And that's the whole thing.
00:03:41.759 --> 00:03:42.800
The whole thing is to scale this.
00:03:42.879 --> 00:03:48.639
I mean, there's guys making a million dollars a month in residual income in this company, and they've done it all by inviting people to the company.
00:03:48.719 --> 00:03:51.120
And a lot of them don't even have office space, right?
00:03:51.199 --> 00:03:52.319
They don't have a local presence.
00:03:52.639 --> 00:03:55.360
You know, they live in Puerto Rico now for the tax advantages, you know what I mean?
00:03:55.599 --> 00:03:58.479
But they've got 20,000 people in their organization, right?
00:03:58.639 --> 00:04:03.199
They're a big chunk of the 90,000 agent company, but that's the whole point.
00:04:03.280 --> 00:04:05.120
I mean, if you're a business owner, what are you looking at?
00:04:05.439 --> 00:04:10.159
Essentially, if you're truly a business owner, what you really want to do is make money off the business and not be self-employed.
00:04:10.240 --> 00:04:14.479
You want to be the owner, yeah, and you want to be sleeping and money coming into your bank account.
00:04:14.560 --> 00:04:16.879
Well, this gives everybody the chance to do that here.
00:04:17.120 --> 00:04:17.439
Okay.
00:04:17.759 --> 00:04:20.480
Now, what was your first job though?
00:04:21.120 --> 00:04:21.839
First job.
00:04:22.000 --> 00:04:25.360
Um, I will I believe my first job was Publix.
00:04:25.600 --> 00:04:26.959
You know, a bagger?
00:04:27.279 --> 00:04:27.680
Bag boy?
00:04:27.839 --> 00:04:28.480
Bag boy.
00:04:28.639 --> 00:04:31.759
Uh, you know, I tend not to last very long at these jobs.
00:04:31.839 --> 00:04:35.600
Like I feel like three months is about my average on most most of those type of jobs.
00:04:35.680 --> 00:04:37.040
So uh never forget it.
00:04:37.120 --> 00:04:38.959
I was working at a Publix in Sanford, Florida.
00:04:39.040 --> 00:04:42.079
I don't know if you've ever been to Sanford, but uh Sanford's cool now.
00:04:42.240 --> 00:04:44.399
Um, it wasn't that cool back then.
00:04:44.560 --> 00:04:47.199
And um, so it was kind of a more ratchet Publix.
00:04:47.439 --> 00:04:49.040
It was like a ratchet publix.
00:04:49.439 --> 00:04:52.639
Um but yeah, man, that first job is bag boy.
00:04:52.720 --> 00:04:58.959
I just you know, I never had stood on my feet for that many hours straight, and like my knees were hurting and all this stuff.
00:04:59.040 --> 00:05:06.000
And I was like, man, this is-yeah, I was like, this is not what I thought it was gonna be.
00:05:06.160 --> 00:05:17.759
Plus, you know, listening because I was in a ratchet publix, like all my like coworkers were like had all these wild like stories, and all I thought to myself was like, I'm gonna end up like them.
00:05:19.600 --> 00:05:23.120
Like, I am like, I gotta get out of here as soon as possible.
00:05:23.360 --> 00:05:24.800
So that lasted about three months.
00:05:24.879 --> 00:05:26.720
Yeah, that was my first job.
00:05:27.839 --> 00:05:29.279
This what teenage years?
00:05:29.439 --> 00:05:31.360
Yeah, I would I think I would have been like 16.
00:05:31.439 --> 00:05:31.680
Okay.
00:05:31.759 --> 00:05:31.920
Yeah.
00:05:32.079 --> 00:05:35.519
So you really you're doing the job for gas money, go hang out with your friends.
00:05:35.759 --> 00:05:36.959
Yeah, uh, yeah, exactly.
00:05:37.120 --> 00:05:41.439
Gas money, hang out with friends, you know, maybe be able to get a car, a new car or something.
00:05:41.519 --> 00:05:44.879
But yeah, it wasn't, it was just what you thought you had to do.
00:05:45.199 --> 00:05:48.480
You know, like you're 16 now, you should make your own money and start making some money.
00:05:48.639 --> 00:05:52.319
I applied at Publix when I when I turned 16, uh, actually a little bit before that.
00:05:52.480 --> 00:05:55.680
And I got turned down and I didn't realize that they did that.
00:05:55.759 --> 00:06:00.399
I thought that was just a rite of passage for every high schooler to be a bag boy at Publix.
00:06:00.639 --> 00:06:03.839
Is there this high demand for this job that you can hire me?
00:06:04.079 --> 00:06:04.639
There must have been.
00:06:04.720 --> 00:06:07.199
I had a couple I became a lifeguard, which was pretty fun.
00:06:07.360 --> 00:06:07.759
That's cool.
00:06:07.920 --> 00:06:08.800
Yeah, wet and wild.
00:06:08.879 --> 00:06:09.920
Remember when they were still around?
00:06:10.160 --> 00:06:11.600
Went Wild used to be it.
00:06:11.759 --> 00:06:12.000
Yeah.
00:06:12.160 --> 00:06:20.399
We used to do, we when I played pop order football, we used to do our like end-of-the-year parties there, yeah, parties there, and it was like my favorite thing to do.
00:06:20.720 --> 00:06:24.000
Now, now all I think about is how many people have been in this pool.
00:06:24.079 --> 00:06:24.720
Yeah.
00:06:25.839 --> 00:06:28.240
Like back then it was like, yeah, lazy river.
00:06:28.480 --> 00:06:29.839
Like I'm swimming in urine.
00:06:29.920 --> 00:06:30.079
Yeah.
00:06:30.160 --> 00:06:31.040
That's what I'm thinking right now.
00:06:31.279 --> 00:06:36.319
I can tell you from working those parties, those buyouts, the things we would fish out of the lazy river.
00:06:36.480 --> 00:06:36.639
Oh.
00:06:37.040 --> 00:06:37.439
Yeah.
00:06:37.759 --> 00:06:42.720
But so when you were a bad boy of Publix, did you have a uh kind of a goal in mind?
00:06:42.800 --> 00:06:44.319
Like, did you know what you wanted to be then?
00:06:44.560 --> 00:06:45.120
No, man.
00:06:45.199 --> 00:06:47.680
I I really, I really had no direction.
00:06:47.759 --> 00:06:53.680
I I I always tell people that I I just kind of followed the path of like what I was supposed to do, right?
00:06:53.920 --> 00:06:58.639
Like I I was, you know, it's almost like I was just making sure that everybody was happy with what I was doing.
00:06:58.720 --> 00:07:06.319
And when you're where you're in school, you're just trying to, if I could get, if I get good grades, I'm playing sports, I'm doing all the things, then everybody's like, dude, you're doing great.
00:07:06.399 --> 00:07:07.120
You're doing a great job.
00:07:07.199 --> 00:07:07.680
Just keep it up.
00:07:07.759 --> 00:07:09.199
Just keep it up, keep it up, buddy.
00:07:09.439 --> 00:07:16.720
And so I never really thought about like, okay, after all this is done, like, where what am I gonna do?
00:07:16.959 --> 00:07:26.560
Actually, it wasn't until actually like my last semester of college that I started to really freak out because I had really been riding this wave.
00:07:26.639 --> 00:07:33.040
Um, because I was a good student, so everybody always, you know, so you go into high school, you're a great student, you're an athlete, everybody thinks you're doing great.
00:07:33.360 --> 00:07:35.199
Next logical step is college.
00:07:35.360 --> 00:07:41.439
Go to University of Florida, I'm going to a major school, you know, uh, I'm and I got straight A's in college.
00:07:41.600 --> 00:07:43.199
You know, I was a smart kid.
00:07:43.279 --> 00:07:45.519
I knew how to at least regurgitate information.
00:07:45.600 --> 00:07:46.879
I was really good at that.
00:07:47.199 --> 00:07:53.199
So uh so and and once again, what when people ask you what you do in college, you're like, oh, I go to university, or you what do you do?
00:07:53.600 --> 00:07:54.879
I'm on the University of Florida.
00:07:55.360 --> 00:07:56.079
That's awesome, man.
00:07:56.160 --> 00:07:56.720
Like, great.
00:07:56.879 --> 00:08:01.040
And then so it was really last semester that I was like, wait, this is about to be over.
00:08:01.279 --> 00:08:16.240
Like, there is no other logical step here besides like, I guess I have to get a job, but like my major, I wasn't gonna do anything that I mean, I was in sports management in business, but like I thought sports management was gonna be like being Jerry Maguire.
00:08:16.319 --> 00:08:23.600
Like when like to Jeremy, when Jerry Maguire came out, I was like, oh, yeah, I was like, oh, I'm gonna take the sports management because then maybe I'll be a sports agent.
00:08:23.839 --> 00:08:26.879
But like the the curriculum was nothing about that.
00:08:27.040 --> 00:08:34.799
It was actually a lot of anatomy, physiology, you know, like more like sports training versus sports like business.
00:08:34.960 --> 00:08:37.120
I thought it was like the business of sports, you know?
00:08:37.200 --> 00:08:37.519
Yeah.
00:08:37.679 --> 00:08:43.039
So yeah, I was I was pretty lost until until I came out of college and then I had a panic moment.
00:08:43.360 --> 00:08:45.279
I could I could see you as an agent though.
00:08:45.360 --> 00:08:47.600
I'm trying I'm thinking of uh what was that, ballers?
00:08:47.759 --> 00:08:48.480
Oh yeah, yeah, yeah.
00:08:50.159 --> 00:08:50.559
100%.
00:08:50.960 --> 00:09:07.200
I I wish I yes, I thought I'd thought this to myself because the only reason I picked sports management because I was really just like I was really flipping through the uh the majors in the book for the university, and I was like, dude, what do I actually like get excited about?
00:09:07.279 --> 00:09:13.200
And there was like, you know, I I did all the other subjects, but the only thing I was ever excited about really was sports, you know.
00:09:13.279 --> 00:09:18.720
Like I loved playing sports and being in that world, and and so I was like, dude, it makes uh this makes sense.
00:09:18.879 --> 00:09:19.840
Boom, let's do this.
00:09:20.000 --> 00:09:31.759
You know, there was just nobody, you know, I had great parents, but I I don't know that I had like, you know, a lot of mentorship, you know, when it came to to business and things like that.
00:09:31.840 --> 00:09:44.320
You know, I got the love, I got the support, but nobody was telling me about what was next or you know, putting me in different situations to kind of expose me to different things to guide to like really know like what would I do.
00:09:44.799 --> 00:09:47.440
Do you think that's why you get so excited about what you're building here?
00:09:48.480 --> 00:10:02.080
Um yeah, I mean, I I I really uh get a lot of energy from people, you know, and so like for me, this like real estate is actually one of the funniest, like okay, I'm very fun driven, right?
00:10:02.240 --> 00:10:07.200
Like, if I ain't having fun, I probably won't last in whatever I'm doing.
00:10:07.360 --> 00:10:08.799
Like if I really just dislike it.
00:10:08.879 --> 00:10:11.600
And then there's some people that I'm just gonna grind it out and push through.
00:10:11.679 --> 00:10:18.720
I'm like, you know, and and it's not always fun, but like I really need to be excited to do well.
00:10:18.960 --> 00:10:26.799
And so real estate is truly one of the most unique businesses in that realm because you attract a certain type of person, right?
00:10:26.879 --> 00:10:50.399
You know, you're basically attracting people who who don't want to be in the in the corporate world, that that that are finally stepping out and pay placing a bet on themselves and coming out into the industry, people who um who are usually great, you know, people who are great at real estate oftentimes come from bartending or hospitality or you know, or they were selling like insurance, which was like cool, and then they were making money but just didn't feel it.
00:10:50.559 --> 00:10:53.519
You come into real estate, now you're helping somebody get buy their first home.
00:10:53.600 --> 00:11:02.559
Now you now now you're getting good to go look at cool houses and and then and then real estate is heavily event driven, like there's a real estate event going on every single day of every week.
00:11:02.720 --> 00:11:11.519
Um, you know, and it's food and it's drinks and it's people and it's you know, it's almost like we we built um uh an industry around the party.
00:11:11.679 --> 00:11:12.000
Yeah.
00:11:12.559 --> 00:11:14.080
Yeah, you know, that's a great way to put it.
00:11:14.240 --> 00:11:22.799
Yeah, and so so I'm excited because I truly enjoy what we do, and now I'm in a position where I get to impact people, right?
00:11:22.879 --> 00:11:30.960
I get to, I get to not only educate them on real estate, investing, commercial real estate, all of it, but I also get to impact them spiritually.
00:11:31.039 --> 00:11:41.679
You know, you and I go to our business Bible study, and I re over the years, I think, I think what I realize is that um, and even my pastor says that you know, there's a big uh opening for business ministry, really.
00:11:41.840 --> 00:11:46.240
Like, it's not like you go to church and then it just that message stays in there.
00:11:46.480 --> 00:11:47.919
Like that message is here too.
00:11:48.000 --> 00:11:49.759
That that message is in business.
00:11:50.080 --> 00:11:52.639
Matter of fact, Bible is a business book.
00:11:52.799 --> 00:11:57.279
Like if you really, if you the business principles are in there, the investing principles are in there.
00:11:57.519 --> 00:12:04.000
Um, so now I'm looking at it more like okay, this could be one of the places where I make a lot of impact on people, right?
00:12:04.159 --> 00:12:08.320
And I've been able to, you know, I've been in it now technically 25, 26 years.
00:12:08.399 --> 00:12:16.879
I started, you know, uh in 2002 as a loan officer, but in real estate, uh like uh retail real estate since 2015.
00:12:17.200 --> 00:12:17.519
Okay.
00:12:17.840 --> 00:12:20.879
So you come out of college, panic moments, that's it.
00:12:21.200 --> 00:12:21.679
Panic.
00:12:22.240 --> 00:12:22.720
Panic.
00:12:23.440 --> 00:12:25.679
Did you just did you just start flailing?
00:12:25.840 --> 00:12:28.720
Just like start throwing stuff at the wall and see what's stuck, or well, yeah.
00:12:28.799 --> 00:12:31.600
You know, I was thinking about this earlier when you were saying like place bets on yourself.
00:12:31.679 --> 00:12:36.320
So, you know, I get out of college and I'm literally so a lot of things were happening at once.
00:12:36.559 --> 00:12:38.559
So I was graduating college.
00:12:39.279 --> 00:12:44.399
Literally the month before I left to go do my internship, which was my last semester of college, I meet a girl.
00:12:44.480 --> 00:12:46.399
Like, I I had never been in love with anybody.
00:12:46.480 --> 00:12:51.200
Like, this is I I've re I liked girls, messed around with girls before that.
00:12:51.360 --> 00:12:53.279
It was like nothing ever serious.
00:12:53.679 --> 00:13:01.679
Literally, the month before I leave Gainesville, this girl comes into my life, and I'm just like head over heels for this person.
00:13:02.000 --> 00:13:02.559
Smitten.
00:13:02.799 --> 00:13:03.600
Smitten.
00:13:04.159 --> 00:13:10.159
And um, to the point where like I used to be the guy that my boys are like, dude, Bobby's like, Bobby, you're never gonna say it, like, bro.
00:13:10.240 --> 00:13:12.559
You, you, you've never like You were that guy in the group.
00:13:12.720 --> 00:13:18.399
I stuck to I see yeah, I was that guy in the group, and now I meet this girl, and I'm suddenly like, all I want to do is be with her, right?
00:13:18.480 --> 00:13:22.639
And like a month later, uh, I was leaving, and I literally like sat her down.
00:13:22.720 --> 00:13:26.639
I was like, hey, you know, you know, I'm leaving, you know, Gainesville, whatever.
00:13:26.720 --> 00:13:27.919
And she's like, Well, what do you want to do?
00:13:28.080 --> 00:13:29.840
I was like, we're gonna make it work.
00:13:30.080 --> 00:13:33.039
Like, we're gonna do long distance, like I'll be up here every weekend.
00:13:33.200 --> 00:13:34.799
Like, it was that easy.
00:13:34.879 --> 00:13:38.720
I went from like being the guy that was super hardcore to being like, yeah, we're gonna make this.
00:13:38.960 --> 00:13:40.480
I'm gonna commit it long distance relationships.
00:13:41.759 --> 00:13:43.120
So that was happening.
00:13:43.440 --> 00:13:47.600
So there was a certain pull to come back to school.
00:13:47.840 --> 00:13:53.759
Okay, because I thought to myself, well, maybe I can just, you know, get my master's and something, you know.
00:13:53.919 --> 00:14:00.159
And um, I re and then I reached out to some professors that I had, and I was really just like hoping for a lifeline.
00:14:00.240 --> 00:14:06.000
And I think that this is where the placing the bet on yourself when when I realized like nobody's coming to save you.
00:14:06.399 --> 00:14:13.039
You know, I was talking to people and I was trying to figure it out and I was freaking out, but at the end of the day, nobody was coming to save me.
00:14:13.200 --> 00:14:15.840
I had to figure this thing out, like what I was gonna do.
00:14:16.080 --> 00:14:22.480
So um, in that process, I really thought about getting my master's, but I realized that it was a cop out.
00:14:22.559 --> 00:14:32.639
Like I was just scared, and and if I would have gone back to school, I would it would have just purely been because I didn't have the balls to figure out what I really wanted to do.
00:14:32.879 --> 00:14:36.960
So uh funny enough, I I wasn't working for a little bit.
00:14:37.039 --> 00:14:44.320
I was living with my mother, and the first job I had after college, after graduating with a 4.0, was being a barback at a club.
00:14:44.960 --> 00:14:46.399
Like that's the first thing that I did.
00:14:46.480 --> 00:14:50.879
And the other thing I had a big fear uh that I, you know, business to me sounded boring.
00:14:51.039 --> 00:14:53.519
Like no, like I said, nobody really taught me about business.
00:14:53.759 --> 00:15:02.799
All I knew is that my dad never talked about his job, and my mom never seemed excited about working, so it just seemed like this that sucks, right?
00:15:02.879 --> 00:15:14.720
And then like my dad used to go by Bob, and I'm like, dude, I'm gonna be some guy 40, 50 years old in a cubicle named Bob, like miserable, you know, like and so everything in my mind was not even thinking business world.
00:15:14.960 --> 00:15:20.960
Um, and then you know, I'm sure you got some questions after that, but um that's what happened after college.
00:15:21.039 --> 00:15:22.480
You're just trying to figure out what to do.
00:15:22.559 --> 00:15:30.000
And I feel like I've seen this too with like friends who like they didn't really know what they wanted to do, so they're like, Well, I'll just continue on this college ride for a while.
00:15:30.159 --> 00:15:36.000
Yes, and they go and get a master's and a PhD, and then they're like, Oh, I'm I'm sitting in a lab every day.
00:15:36.159 --> 00:15:37.039
I didn't want to do this.
00:15:37.200 --> 00:15:40.080
Yes, well, you they never deviated from that path.
00:15:40.320 --> 00:15:41.120
Right, right.
00:15:41.200 --> 00:15:46.559
And I'm actually listening to a listening to a book called Range, and it's talks specifically about that.
00:15:46.720 --> 00:15:54.399
How you know we tend to tell kids, you know, figure out what you want to do, specialize, you know, do that the earlier you can figure it out, the better.
00:15:54.639 --> 00:15:57.679
And they tend to have good results in the short term, right?
00:15:57.759 --> 00:15:58.879
Those those kids.
00:15:59.120 --> 00:16:07.039
But the kids that tried a bunch of things, yeah, and then specialized later because they found the thing, long game they win, right?
00:16:07.200 --> 00:16:09.519
So, you know, but nobody teaches you this, right?
00:16:09.600 --> 00:16:13.519
This is what I'm reading now at 47, you know, like that's what I'm reading now.
00:16:13.600 --> 00:16:15.120
But like, I feel a lot like that.
00:16:15.279 --> 00:16:29.679
Like I was, I I was trying, I tried some different things, and you know, um my buddy came, so my so I was living with my mother after college, and uh my buddy comes to me one day and says, Hey, listen, I'm live, I'm living with my dad, I need to get out of that house.
00:16:29.840 --> 00:16:32.480
You should probably move out of your mom, your mom's place.
00:16:32.799 --> 00:16:35.840
Um, he's like, uh, let's get an apartment together.
00:16:36.000 --> 00:16:40.399
You know, and we had a buddy that was a manager at an apartment complex in Maitland, so we were gonna get a discount.
00:16:40.480 --> 00:16:41.360
I was like, Yeah, cool.
00:16:41.440 --> 00:16:43.200
He goes, but but you gotta get a job.
00:16:43.360 --> 00:16:46.159
Yeah, like because we gotta pay for the apartment.
00:16:46.320 --> 00:16:47.279
I'm like, oh.
00:16:47.440 --> 00:16:49.759
I'm like, well, uh, I don't even know where to start.
00:16:49.919 --> 00:16:55.440
And he's like, Well, buddy Jason just got a job at this new club called Antigua that was opening up in downtown Orlando.
00:16:55.679 --> 00:16:56.240
Antigua.
00:16:56.399 --> 00:16:56.960
Antigua.
00:16:57.039 --> 00:16:57.519
You remember that?
00:16:57.600 --> 00:16:58.559
Oh man, that's old.
00:16:58.799 --> 00:17:00.320
That's old, that's old school, bro.
00:17:00.559 --> 00:17:01.759
You you know how old that is?
00:17:01.919 --> 00:17:05.279
Like, I actually was painting the place before it opened.
00:17:05.680 --> 00:17:08.799
Like, I was there at the very beginning of Antigua.
00:17:08.880 --> 00:17:10.079
Like, I was at the beginning.
00:17:10.319 --> 00:17:13.839
So I went in there and you know, went for a job interview to be a bar back.
00:17:14.240 --> 00:17:15.359
Which basically just show up.
00:17:15.839 --> 00:17:16.640
Are you sober?
00:17:16.799 --> 00:17:16.960
Right?
00:17:17.200 --> 00:17:18.319
Or at least sober at the moment.
00:17:18.480 --> 00:17:18.799
Yeah, yeah.
00:17:19.279 --> 00:17:19.920
Sober right now.
00:17:20.079 --> 00:17:22.400
It's okay if you drink on the job, we don't care.
00:17:22.559 --> 00:17:23.599
Just show up on time.
00:17:23.680 --> 00:17:24.000
Yeah.
00:17:24.160 --> 00:17:26.000
So ended up doing that.
00:17:26.160 --> 00:17:28.480
Uh worked there for a year.
00:17:28.880 --> 00:17:35.519
We were just close to a little bit over a year, but basically, you know, you can't stay if you have bigger goals, you just can't stay in a job.
00:17:35.599 --> 00:17:39.440
Like, I just knew, like, I did try to be like, will they make me a bartender?
00:17:39.599 --> 00:17:42.880
You know, uh, but they really were just hiring hot girls as bartenders.
00:17:42.960 --> 00:17:46.079
Like, if you weren't a hot girl, you weren't you weren't getting it the bartending job, right?
00:17:46.319 --> 00:17:49.519
And and I was like, okay, so I was bar back and I was like, you know what?
00:17:49.599 --> 00:17:51.039
I'm like not using my brain here.
00:17:51.119 --> 00:17:54.640
Like I'm literally just chucking bottles and trash cans and doing all that stuff.
00:17:54.720 --> 00:18:00.559
And um I'm like, I and I just set a marker like by my birthday, I'm gonna I'm gonna be out of here.
00:18:00.640 --> 00:18:02.640
One way or the other, I gotta figure something out.
00:18:02.960 --> 00:18:07.119
And by the grace of God, I met a guy who was opening up a branch of a mortgage company.
00:18:07.279 --> 00:18:12.559
Like literally during the during the time I said, God, I'm gonna I'm gonna I'm gonna figure it out like we're gonna figure this out.
00:18:12.640 --> 00:18:14.000
Yeah, like I'm getting out of here.
00:18:14.079 --> 00:18:15.599
Like I know I can't stay here.
00:18:15.839 --> 00:18:17.759
Um the opportunity came.
00:18:18.000 --> 00:18:19.279
Were you a believer then?
00:18:20.000 --> 00:18:21.200
Always been a believer.
00:18:21.359 --> 00:18:24.319
I think um just more lukewarm, you know.
00:18:24.400 --> 00:18:30.960
I you know, uh I grew up, you know, mom was a Bible reader, and and and we, you know, we went to church.
00:18:31.039 --> 00:18:32.799
We weren't like a crazy church family.
00:18:32.880 --> 00:18:37.119
Like, like my dad, if I said I don't want to go to church, my dad'd be like, cool, don't don't go.
00:18:37.359 --> 00:18:42.000
Like uh he wasn't he wasn't like a big you know pusher of that.
00:18:42.160 --> 00:18:44.240
Um we did go to church and stuff like that.
00:18:44.319 --> 00:18:46.720
And I would I would read the Bible as a young kid, you know.
00:18:46.799 --> 00:18:49.119
I I I enjoyed it actually.
00:18:49.359 --> 00:18:57.359
Um, but I got into the world, you know, like I got into the world, I got into all the stuff that I'm you know basically cleaning out of my spirit now, you know what I'm saying?
00:18:57.599 --> 00:19:01.759
Because, you know, there wasn't I didn't have a like a lot of direction in that sense.
00:19:01.839 --> 00:19:08.400
Like I was a good person and I believed in God, but I was still doing all these other things that were contrary to that.
00:19:08.640 --> 00:19:11.440
So I've been a believer uh in that sense.
00:19:11.599 --> 00:19:19.839
I always have faith that like God would always come through, but I'm really now like in the past like three, four years diving in.
00:19:20.079 --> 00:19:28.400
I feel like a lot of people either have like this moment where everything's falling apart, yeah, and that and then suddenly the right thing presents itself.
00:19:28.559 --> 00:19:28.880
Yep.
00:19:29.200 --> 00:19:33.200
Or there's a bunch of these like little nudges, and it's like just get back on track.
00:19:33.279 --> 00:19:35.599
Like just this is the route I need you to go, right?
00:19:35.680 --> 00:19:42.400
Like you you're talking specifically in the spiritual, like Yeah, I feel like people, you know, when they when they finally think really bad and then they come, they come to God.
00:19:42.559 --> 00:19:46.880
Yeah, or or there's these little nudges where it's like if you would you're you're almost there, little guy.
00:19:46.960 --> 00:19:48.720
Just you know, stay on the path, you know?
00:19:48.880 --> 00:19:49.039
Yep.
00:19:49.200 --> 00:19:56.960
And so I feel like this was one of those moments your your buddy trying to move out of his dad's house, yep, moves you in, and then hey, I've been doing this bar back thing, but hey, I'm not a hot girl.
00:19:57.119 --> 00:19:57.680
Sorry, right.
00:19:58.480 --> 00:19:59.119
Can't change that.
00:19:59.279 --> 00:19:59.440
Right.
00:19:59.599 --> 00:19:59.680
Right.
00:19:59.839 --> 00:20:04.079
And so then it's like, okay, well, hey, why don't you, I'm opening this office, why don't you come work with me?
00:20:04.319 --> 00:20:18.880
Yeah, it was basically it was basically that, you know, get you know, got a really answer to prayer, and and and and even prayers that I didn't know I really wanted because like I said, I didn't know anything about business and and I thought it was boring.
00:20:18.960 --> 00:20:21.279
So you know, I told you I'm very fun-driven.
00:20:21.440 --> 00:20:31.920
So home loans didn't sound no, no, so I was like, I was like, okay, so when I started in the mortgage business, I was like, this is actually kind of fun.
00:20:32.079 --> 00:20:33.839
There's a massive amount of variety.
00:20:33.920 --> 00:20:40.160
I'm using my brain, like there's numbers involved, but there's people involved, and it was a fun industry, you know.
00:20:40.240 --> 00:20:41.359
It was a it was the same thing.
00:20:41.519 --> 00:20:45.440
Like the real estate side is probably even more fun, but like the lending side, same.
00:20:45.519 --> 00:20:47.279
It's like we're in the same family, right?
00:20:47.440 --> 00:20:51.839
And so I was like, man, there's a lot of variety in this job, it keeps you on your toes.
00:20:51.920 --> 00:20:53.680
You learn something new with every deal.
00:20:53.839 --> 00:20:59.759
You you're you're working with people and you're helping them, you know, make one of the biggest purchases that most people ever make in their life.
00:21:00.000 --> 00:21:02.240
And I was like, it was the first time that it hit me.
00:21:02.400 --> 00:21:05.039
I was like, oh, okay, this is a this is a sport too.
00:21:05.680 --> 00:21:06.559
This is a sport.
00:21:06.799 --> 00:21:08.400
Like I'm it's a game, right?
00:21:08.480 --> 00:21:10.720
There's rules to the game, there's ways you win the game.
00:21:11.039 --> 00:21:13.920
Um, and and and I just and I started to enjoy it.
00:21:14.000 --> 00:21:18.400
And that that was a prayer answer because that that got me down the entrepreneurial path.
00:21:18.480 --> 00:21:22.240
And I realized, okay, actually, I I this is a game I can play, you know.
00:21:22.319 --> 00:21:25.759
But it was all by pure, you know, chance, God, right?
00:21:25.839 --> 00:21:27.200
You know, that's providing me the opportunity.
00:21:27.440 --> 00:21:28.799
Because you were a football player, right?
00:21:28.960 --> 00:21:29.519
Wide receiver?
00:21:29.680 --> 00:21:32.000
Wide receiver, did a little research.
00:21:32.240 --> 00:21:34.319
Yeah, little wide receiver, defensive back.
00:21:34.480 --> 00:21:37.119
Um, but but but that was a crazy story.
00:21:37.200 --> 00:21:39.359
That was a crazy put a bet story, too.
00:21:39.440 --> 00:21:44.240
So I was actually when I first started playing football, I was in fourth grade and I was a chunky kid, right?
00:21:44.319 --> 00:21:46.160
And they have weight limits in Pop Warner.
00:21:46.319 --> 00:21:48.480
So when I I'm very familiar, yeah.
00:21:49.839 --> 00:21:50.640
I've been there.
00:21:50.799 --> 00:21:54.000
Um I remember having to cut make cut just a couple pounds just so I wouldn't get it.
00:21:54.079 --> 00:21:59.759
Yeah, well, in fourth grade I had to cut ten pounds, and if you know how much kids weigh in fourth grade, that was a big chunk of my.
00:22:00.240 --> 00:22:04.400
Weight and so I really that's actually how I got in the health stuff.
00:22:04.480 --> 00:22:09.119
Like I literally told my mom in fourth grade, yeah, because my mom had to start cooking healthier.
00:22:09.519 --> 00:22:11.359
She like I had an I had a goal.
00:22:11.440 --> 00:22:14.720
I needed to lose 10 pounds in order to they wouldn't let me play.
00:22:14.799 --> 00:22:17.599
I literally missed half the season because I was still overweight.
00:22:17.680 --> 00:22:22.000
Like I just couldn't make, I mean, uh, you know, 10 pounds was a lot, like we were little, you know, whatever.
00:22:22.319 --> 00:22:24.799
So uh where do they put the chunky kids?
00:22:24.880 --> 00:22:28.720
Like, so my goal, my dream, you know, I'm playing in sandlot, I was crushing, right?
00:22:28.880 --> 00:22:33.279
And so in Sandlot, you're either quarterback or receiver, like you're playing all the fun positions, you know.
00:22:33.759 --> 00:22:38.960
Um, and so I wanted to play like running back, receiver, whatever, but where do they put the chunky kids when they play football?
00:22:39.119 --> 00:22:41.599
On the line, on the line, on the offensive line.
00:22:41.839 --> 00:22:44.880
And so I was like, oh, this is great.
00:22:45.039 --> 00:22:50.559
So, like, so I get to move these people out of the way so the people there can score touchdowns and get all the glory.
00:22:50.640 --> 00:22:52.000
Like, that's my job now.
00:22:52.160 --> 00:22:54.400
Um and I gotta wear the stretchy pants and look like this.
00:22:54.559 --> 00:22:55.519
Yeah, and look like this.
00:22:55.680 --> 00:22:59.839
And uh, yeah, and and and it was um it was a challenge at first.
00:22:59.920 --> 00:23:02.880
I was really like unhappy with the position.
00:23:03.119 --> 00:23:10.720
Um, and I thought about quitting, especially the first time I got hit uh hard, and I was like, oh, this is a different than San Lot.
00:23:10.880 --> 00:23:13.519
Um, you know, but I'm very glad I stuck with it.
00:23:13.599 --> 00:23:19.519
I think I really just enjoyed being a part of something, like being a part of this club and this group of people.
00:23:19.680 --> 00:23:28.480
And um, and I it was it was something that I'm glad I stuck with, but I ended up playing offensive line for four years, even after I lost the weight.
00:23:28.559 --> 00:23:29.599
So I became a skinny kid.
00:23:29.680 --> 00:23:34.720
Like by the time I was in sixth grade, like you wouldn't look at me and think offensive lineman.
00:23:34.880 --> 00:23:38.079
And I would beg the coaches to let me play something different.
00:23:38.160 --> 00:23:39.920
Like, hey man, like look at me.
00:23:40.079 --> 00:23:41.759
Like, I'm I got a six pack now.
00:23:41.839 --> 00:23:46.480
Like, I'm like, I am not, you know, I'm not a super tall guy, I'm not fat anymore.
00:23:46.559 --> 00:23:50.480
Like, they're like, Yeah, but you're the best offensive lineman we got now.
00:23:50.799 --> 00:23:58.480
And I'm like, dang, so they would let me play a couple of little different things here and there, maybe some defense once in a while, just to kind of try to keep me happy.
00:23:58.880 --> 00:24:05.599
Um but when I transitioned from uh from middle school to high school, I knew I would never play offensive line in high school.
00:24:05.680 --> 00:24:13.920
Like, once you made that transition from eighth grade to ninth grade, and I was going to high school football, like I said, I was what five, six, 145 pounds.
00:24:14.160 --> 00:24:16.079
Like, I'm not playing offensive line.
00:24:16.480 --> 00:24:20.319
So I literally, the coach first day comes in, he's like, What position you play, son?
00:24:20.400 --> 00:24:22.319
And I was like, running back.
00:24:22.640 --> 00:24:24.880
And he's like, Well, we got too many of those.
00:24:24.960 --> 00:24:25.680
How about receiver?
00:24:25.759 --> 00:24:26.720
I'm like, fine.
00:24:27.279 --> 00:24:31.920
Sign me up, sign me up, and ended up becoming uh all conference revive receiver.
00:24:32.400 --> 00:24:32.799
Wow.
00:24:33.039 --> 00:24:41.839
Yeah, it was like, and and it was it was it was just like literally went from like hating my position to changing my position to becoming a receiver.
00:24:42.240 --> 00:24:48.400
The varsity team, the varsity team in high school was had their worst season ever that year.
00:24:49.039 --> 00:24:53.519
So they brought up 11 freshmen from the freshman team to varsity.
00:24:54.000 --> 00:24:55.599
Like we skipped JV.
00:24:55.759 --> 00:25:05.599
We actually went up there for the last four games or like last few games of their season, and I was one of the 11 players chosen as a wide receiver to go to go uh to the thing.
00:25:05.680 --> 00:25:07.519
That's all happened in a one-year span.
00:25:08.079 --> 00:25:09.039
Jeez, man.
00:25:09.279 --> 00:25:12.960
And just just literally just because you're like, no, that's what I do.
00:25:13.119 --> 00:25:17.519
Yeah, even though you had yeah, you probably played the position before, but I played on the street.
00:25:17.759 --> 00:25:18.240
You know what I mean?
00:25:18.319 --> 00:25:20.400
Like, listen, I knew how to run, I knew how to do all these different things.
00:25:20.480 --> 00:25:21.839
I'm just and I knew how to catch a ball.
00:25:21.920 --> 00:25:22.720
Like, that's what I'm saying.
00:25:22.799 --> 00:25:27.119
Like, I felt like inside I was always like like an offensive type of player.
00:25:27.279 --> 00:25:30.880
Like, I that's what I when in when I played Sandlaw, like I was pretty good, you know.
00:25:31.039 --> 00:25:36.960
But like, you know, full contact sports, totally, you know, when it's full contact, it was a totally different ball game.
00:25:37.119 --> 00:25:37.359
Yeah.
00:25:37.599 --> 00:25:39.039
So you get into mortgage lending.
00:25:39.200 --> 00:25:39.440
Yep.
00:25:39.599 --> 00:25:40.880
That's early 2000s, right?
00:25:40.960 --> 00:25:42.559
So that's pre-financial.
00:25:43.039 --> 00:25:44.079
Pre-financial crisis.
00:25:44.319 --> 00:25:48.559
I've heard some stories, and we'll I don't know what the statute of limitations are, so we don't have to go there.
00:25:48.640 --> 00:25:52.559
But I've heard some stories from other friends who are MLOs about some of the things that would happen.
00:25:52.720 --> 00:25:52.880
Yeah.
00:25:53.119 --> 00:26:04.400
And how you would like, I had a friend of mine who was an MLO, and you know, they would open up financial reports in Microsoft Paint and just to I was like, oh, there you go.
00:26:04.640 --> 00:26:18.400
You know, so so I would say that I was on the um more um uh conscientious side of like I I didn't do stuff like that per se.
00:26:18.559 --> 00:26:23.599
There was one incident that I got in trouble for doing something, but it was because I was trying to help a friend.
00:26:23.759 --> 00:26:26.319
Like it wasn't like that was what I did.
00:26:26.559 --> 00:26:30.240
Matter of fact, I didn't get in trouble because they knew that's not who I was.
00:26:30.319 --> 00:26:34.400
Yeah, it was it was like something complete, like it was something stupid.
00:26:34.480 --> 00:26:38.720
Like it was a you know, when you re-pull a credit report, sometimes you lose points.
00:26:38.880 --> 00:26:51.759
And literally these people were like two points above the right marker, and they had and then because just because they re-pulled it, it dropped them to like two points under the marker, which kick would kick them out of the loan, right?
00:26:52.000 --> 00:26:56.799
So um that's all I'll say about that, what happened there, but but I didn't get in trouble for that.
00:26:56.880 --> 00:27:02.960
But but but honestly, what was crazy was is that everything was incentivizing people to do that.
00:27:03.599 --> 00:27:09.440
The whole this is why the whole system crashed, because you know, people were getting pushed to do more loans.
00:27:09.680 --> 00:27:13.839
They were doing 100% loans, no money down, stated income loans.
00:27:13.920 --> 00:27:16.079
You just literally like just tell me what you make.
00:27:16.480 --> 00:27:20.000
And you might be like 5,000, and you'd be like, that's not gonna cover it.
00:27:20.079 --> 00:27:21.200
How about 10,000 a month?
00:27:21.359 --> 00:27:22.640
Just say you're in sales.
00:27:22.799 --> 00:27:24.240
I mean, it was like that.
00:27:24.480 --> 00:27:28.960
Like, it was like that, and it was that easy to get uh a deal passed through.
00:27:29.039 --> 00:27:32.400
And the and the lenders wanted, they they were they were making a ton of money.
00:27:32.480 --> 00:27:42.079
Yeah, they were selling these these mortgages off, they're making a ton of money, so they're incentivizing their underwriters to be lenient, they're incentivizing us with these products.
00:27:42.240 --> 00:27:43.279
There was over 100%.
00:27:43.680 --> 00:27:47.680
I I remember like picking up flyers that said 125% loan.
00:27:48.720 --> 00:27:51.680
I'm like, and back then, you know, that was all I knew.
00:27:51.759 --> 00:27:54.720
So I was like, oh man, this is great this way the game works.
00:27:54.799 --> 00:28:01.920
Yeah, and and and and to be quite honest, I benefited from it in the sense of like I got to buy my first house with no money down because like I knew how to do it.
00:28:02.000 --> 00:28:05.759
Like I was doing it for other people, and like so at 23 years old, I was able to buy my first house.
00:28:05.839 --> 00:28:07.119
I'm like, no money down, whatever.
00:28:07.200 --> 00:28:09.119
I was like, it was wild back then, bro.
00:28:09.279 --> 00:28:13.519
It was so wild, but yeah, there's definitely some people doing really shady stuff.
00:28:13.680 --> 00:28:17.759
I would be the guy, like, I would really talk people out of dumb things.
00:28:18.000 --> 00:28:24.799
Like, I I I wouldn't want to do a loan and put you in a bad position unless you truly insisted this is what you wanted to do, you know.
00:28:24.880 --> 00:28:27.359
And that happened a couple times where I was like, bro, what are you doing, man?
00:28:27.440 --> 00:28:41.440
I'm like, you you know, people everybody became an investor back then because everybody was making so much money, and there were some people making some bad decisions, and I would tell them, I would be like, Listen, man, I'd love to do this loan for you, but like, that's not a good idea, George.
00:28:41.519 --> 00:28:43.119
Like, it's just not, yeah.
00:28:43.359 --> 00:28:46.319
But then they would be like, no, but I definitely want to do it.
00:28:46.400 --> 00:28:46.880
I'm gonna do it.
00:28:47.440 --> 00:28:51.039
And then I'd be like, Well, you're gonna go to somebody else and get the loan.
00:28:51.200 --> 00:28:56.960
So I'll do the loan for you, but I already told you, like, you're, you know, you're you're overpaying for this thing.
00:28:57.119 --> 00:28:59.440
Yeah, you know, it's already gained 60 grand in equity.
00:28:59.519 --> 00:29:01.440
How much more in three months?
00:29:01.599 --> 00:29:04.319
How much more do you plan to get in the next six?
00:29:04.480 --> 00:29:06.319
Like, you know, it's wild, wild stuff happening.
00:29:06.559 --> 00:29:10.720
You got that same conversation in 2020, 2021 with homes and equity.
00:29:10.799 --> 00:29:11.440
It's insane.
00:29:11.680 --> 00:29:13.839
So, but I mean there's a piece of integrity there, right?
00:29:13.920 --> 00:29:18.079
So you obviously had something that you you weren't willing to give that up, right?
00:29:18.240 --> 00:29:30.480
Well, I'm willing to play the game and I'm willing to play within the bounds and the rule book that I'm given, but at the same time, there's you're looking at these plays, if you will, if we're making this sports analogy, you're like, I just don't, I don't feel good about that.
00:29:30.720 --> 00:29:31.039
Right.
00:29:31.279 --> 00:29:34.160
Yeah, you don't, you know, and and I think that's important.
00:29:34.319 --> 00:29:37.920
I think it I think you want to have integrity in business.
00:29:38.079 --> 00:29:52.160
Um, you know, I just I did a I do an investor event, I did one last night, I interviewed this guy, uh Felipe with Northwestern Mutual, and I work with him, but I was with another financial advisor prior to meeting with him, and I and I met him at an event, really liked him, kind of like you met you.
00:29:52.240 --> 00:29:53.759
I was like, Oh, I like this guy.
00:29:53.920 --> 00:29:59.039
And um we started talking, and he's like, Well, let's do a discovery, like let me see what you got going on.
00:29:59.119 --> 00:30:05.039
And I showed him like the portfolio that my other financial advisor put me in, and he's like, That's pretty good.
00:30:05.200 --> 00:30:07.200
Like, I I would do something very similar for you.
00:30:07.279 --> 00:30:10.079
So you don't you don't have to move that over to me or anything like that, you know.
00:30:10.160 --> 00:30:11.519
Like, yeah, like keep it where you have it.
00:30:11.599 --> 00:30:14.640
You know, he's like, let's just, you know, let's do some future business together.
00:30:14.799 --> 00:30:23.599
And just him saying like that, you know, instead of just trying to sell me on something and just telling me the truth, like, hey man, he's actually doing pretty good for you.
00:30:23.759 --> 00:30:25.359
Like, that's what I kind of disrupt.
00:30:25.599 --> 00:30:27.759
I might do a couple of things different, but that's really good.
00:30:27.839 --> 00:30:28.559
You can stay there.
00:30:28.720 --> 00:30:29.920
And then I was like, oh, okay.
00:30:30.079 --> 00:30:32.880
And then I ended up, I'm like, well, I'll just start a life insurance policy with you.
00:30:32.960 --> 00:30:34.240
Like, I let me start something with you.
00:30:34.319 --> 00:30:34.720
Yeah.
00:30:34.960 --> 00:30:38.079
And, you know, like a year or two late, I switched everything over to him.
00:30:38.240 --> 00:30:38.720
You know what I mean?
00:30:38.960 --> 00:30:40.640
But it was because of that integrity that he had.
00:30:40.880 --> 00:30:43.759
People want to work with people that we we've had this conversation over breakfast.
00:30:43.920 --> 00:30:46.960
People want to work with people that they like, no, most importantly, trust.
00:30:47.119 --> 00:30:47.440
Yep.
00:30:47.599 --> 00:30:47.839
Right.
00:30:48.000 --> 00:30:53.759
And and you know, we've had the conversation, but I don't want to do deals with people that I just I don't want to work with.
00:30:53.839 --> 00:30:54.000
Right.
00:30:54.160 --> 00:30:54.400
Right.
00:30:54.640 --> 00:30:59.440
If every single day the world's on fire and it's burning down, I I don't I don't want that.
00:30:59.519 --> 00:31:00.400
I don't need that in my life.
00:31:00.559 --> 00:31:09.920
Yeah, and the older you get, the more t the more the tighter your box gets, you know, like your buy box is like it's like wait, I because time becomes such a more valuable asset, you know.
00:31:10.079 --> 00:31:21.279
And so if you're spending your time stressing out because this person's like an a-hole or they're you know, they're not listening to you and this deal's wild, and you know, it's just like it's just not worth it.
00:31:21.440 --> 00:31:23.599
Yeah, like somebody else can do the deal, it's fine.
00:31:23.680 --> 00:31:31.440
Like, I I I have faith that I'll make just as much more money or even more working with people I actually like and that I actually like to work with.
00:31:31.759 --> 00:31:36.400
So I know there's gonna be some people who would be very upset with me if I didn't go back for a second.
00:31:36.559 --> 00:31:38.240
Yeah, your long distance relationship.
00:31:38.319 --> 00:31:38.799
I can't leave that.
00:31:38.960 --> 00:31:39.839
I can't leave that thread.
00:31:40.079 --> 00:31:41.759
We're gonna go back to the the market crash.
00:31:42.079 --> 00:31:43.920
I can't leave that thread un unpulled there.
00:31:44.079 --> 00:31:44.400
Yeah.
00:31:44.559 --> 00:31:47.759
Well, so the significance of that, right?
00:31:47.920 --> 00:31:51.200
The you you turn on the dime to a committed man.
00:31:51.599 --> 00:31:53.440
You know, you know, it was really important.
00:31:53.519 --> 00:32:00.480
I I think it was a very important thing to just learn that I could feel that kind of feeling.
00:32:00.640 --> 00:32:00.960
Okay.
00:32:01.119 --> 00:32:02.960
Because I had never really felt it like that.
00:32:03.119 --> 00:32:03.759
You know what I'm saying?
00:32:03.839 --> 00:32:12.240
Like, you know, because you know, in high school, people are like, oh, I'm in love with this girl, I'm in love with this guy, and it's like everybody's like, and then and then they break up and then they're in love with somebody else, like the week later.
00:32:12.319 --> 00:32:13.440
Like, I'm like, how do you guys?
00:32:13.680 --> 00:32:16.400
I'm like, maybe I I lacked this gene.
00:32:16.559 --> 00:32:16.799
Yeah.
00:32:16.960 --> 00:32:20.079
Like I don't feel the same things people feel, you know.
00:32:20.240 --> 00:32:24.720
Uh but that relationship, I was like, oh I get it now.
00:32:24.960 --> 00:32:25.839
I get it.
00:32:25.920 --> 00:32:28.160
I'm like, this is a different vibe, you know.
00:32:28.240 --> 00:32:32.640
So that was a very important, I think, inflection point for me, uh, relationship-wise.
00:32:32.720 --> 00:32:35.440
But it also taught me that I was willing to pivot, right?
00:32:35.519 --> 00:32:41.839
Like, it wasn't I was never uh so hardcore that I didn't think I could be in a relationship.
00:32:42.000 --> 00:32:45.440
I was just kind of like, nothing is exciting me enough.
00:32:45.759 --> 00:32:48.079
Yeah, you hadn't felt that spark, right?
00:32:48.720 --> 00:32:48.880
Right.
00:32:48.960 --> 00:32:50.160
So that was that was big.
00:32:50.319 --> 00:32:52.880
Um and it wasn't like it lasted forever either.
00:32:52.960 --> 00:33:04.720
You know, it was it was um, you know, we we um you know, I used to say that we we dated for six months and she broke up with that I broke up with her and then we dated for another six months and then she broke up with me.
00:33:05.039 --> 00:33:12.000
But technically she broke up with me twice, like because the reason I broke up with her the first time was because something had happened where she literally ghosted me for like three days.
00:33:12.079 --> 00:33:28.720
Like, you know, we used to talk every single day, and like I said, it was long distance, and then she just disappeared for like three days, and then when I asked her what was up, like I could just hear something in her voice, and and it was like there was no good explanation for what, and I was like, Oh, I don't know what happened, but I think I gotta get out of this thing.
00:33:29.039 --> 00:33:29.839
You know what I'm saying?
00:33:30.079 --> 00:33:38.960
But I used to tell myself that I broke, I was like, no, actually, she did it twice because it was her actions that caused me to say, Okay, I'm not gonna do that.
00:33:39.119 --> 00:33:48.480
But obviously, she came, you know, she came back a few days later, apologized, whatever, and I was in love with the girl, so I was like, I think I'll give you an you know, I'm definitely willing to give you a second chance because I've never felt this before.
00:33:48.640 --> 00:33:50.240
And then a year later she broke it off.
00:33:50.319 --> 00:33:52.000
So and we're still actually still friends.
00:33:52.079 --> 00:33:54.319
We're we're she's right downstairs.
00:33:55.519 --> 00:33:56.640
She works for me now.
00:33:56.880 --> 00:33:58.400
Um no, no, no, no.
00:33:58.559 --> 00:34:04.960
She uh she was Puerto Rican and uh she went back to Puerto Rico for years, she got married, she had some kids and stuff like that.
00:34:05.039 --> 00:34:17.920
But we um we reconnected actually last year, like we had connected like one or tw once or twice in the 25 years, you know, in between, um, but never really stayed in touch.
00:34:18.079 --> 00:34:24.719
And then she reached out to me last year when I was heading to Puerto Rico and she's like, Oh, I see that you're going to Puerto Rico, I'm gonna be down here, blah, blah, blah.
00:34:24.880 --> 00:34:25.440
And it was cool.
00:34:25.519 --> 00:34:29.519
So, and and and honestly, still super cool part, like fun to hang out with.
00:34:29.599 --> 00:34:42.719
Like, yeah, it was the same, we you know, we we have great conversations, she's a fun person, we have a good time together, all that stuff, but you know, 25 years have passed, and there's a lot of baggage there, so it is what it is.
00:34:42.880 --> 00:34:46.800
I had to I had to ask because you brought it up, and I'm like, there's a there's a lesson learned here.
00:34:47.039 --> 00:34:47.360
100%.
00:34:48.400 --> 00:34:48.639
Okay.
00:34:48.800 --> 00:34:50.480
So when do you get into real estate?
00:34:50.960 --> 00:34:52.719
Like true, like true real estate.
00:34:53.599 --> 00:34:57.280
So so obviously I consider lending real estate.
00:34:57.440 --> 00:34:59.519
So, you know, I'm I'm financing real estate.
00:34:59.679 --> 00:35:05.760
So I I started mortgages, I start to uh to do some investments on my own.
00:35:05.840 --> 00:35:11.920
You know, I had uh had um at that time they were doing a lot of uh apartment to condo conversions downtown.
00:35:12.000 --> 00:35:14.000
Um this post-financial crisis?
00:35:14.400 --> 00:35:14.800
This is before.
00:35:14.880 --> 00:35:15.039
Okay.
00:35:15.199 --> 00:35:15.760
This is before.
00:35:15.840 --> 00:35:16.800
So this is leading up to it.
00:35:16.960 --> 00:35:21.039
This is from like 2002 to 2006 that that everything was going down.
00:35:21.360 --> 00:35:24.000
So you're starting to make some actual financial bets in your life, right?
00:35:24.159 --> 00:35:25.519
Because you'd been making good money.
00:35:25.599 --> 00:35:34.480
Obviously, you've had great commissions, I'm sure, from being a loan originator, and now you're starting to put some of that equity or that that that uh reward to work for you.
00:35:34.719 --> 00:35:41.039
And that's part of what I love about real estate and financing because it's such an important piece of the investment game and the wealth building game.
00:35:41.119 --> 00:35:42.800
And I just happen to be that I'm in the industry.
00:35:42.880 --> 00:35:45.199
Like I like I like we preach it here.
00:35:45.280 --> 00:35:47.920
Like, if you're in real estate, you're not buying real estate, like what are you doing?
00:35:48.000 --> 00:35:49.840
Like you understand this better than most people.
00:35:50.239 --> 00:35:54.719
Well, have you ever seen those TikToks where the guys going around like, hey, I see you're driving this Ferrari, what do you do for work?
00:35:54.960 --> 00:35:56.719
Uh nine times out of ten, they're in real estate.
00:35:56.880 --> 00:35:58.159
In real estate, some way, shape, or form.
00:35:58.320 --> 00:35:58.400
Right.
00:35:58.480 --> 00:36:07.679
Or that they're in software, they built some sort of tech startup, but a majority of the time, a big bulk of their And even if they're not in it, part of their portfolio is real estate.
00:36:07.760 --> 00:36:09.679
Like they understand that this is an important thing.
00:36:09.920 --> 00:36:14.000
So um I started to figure out, okay, well, I understand the money part.
00:36:14.079 --> 00:36:15.679
That's how I bought my first home.
00:36:15.840 --> 00:36:24.960
I I'm starting to understand this investment thing because I'm seeing these apartment Nicondo conversions and like whenever it same thing happens in a new construction community.
00:36:25.039 --> 00:36:28.480
You know, if you ever if you ever if you ever bought new construction, no, never bought new construction.
00:36:28.880 --> 00:36:30.719
Every new construction community works the same.
00:36:30.880 --> 00:36:32.559
Like, let's say there's 300 homes.
00:36:33.039 --> 00:36:37.039
Well, the first ones start at this price, once they sell five of them, the price goes up.
00:36:37.199 --> 00:36:41.280
Once they sell five more, the price goes up, and and it keeps going, right?
00:36:41.440 --> 00:36:46.559
So if you're the first one in, you almost have built-in equity.
00:36:46.639 --> 00:36:46.880
Yeah.
00:36:47.360 --> 00:36:51.199
If you're in phase one of a project, and that's what these apartment to condo conversions were.
00:36:51.280 --> 00:36:56.239
What I was I had knew a girl that worked for back then it was called Caldwell Bank or Condo Store.
00:36:56.320 --> 00:36:59.440
They were like a specific group that was specifically for condos.
00:36:59.840 --> 00:37:05.840
And I knew a girl that worked for them, and so she would tell me in advance, we're about to, we're about to go to this building.
00:37:06.000 --> 00:37:09.039
And in advance, I would be like, I want to be the first deposit.
00:37:09.599 --> 00:37:18.960
By the time they sold out the building, my unit was already 30, 40, 50, 60, sometimes 100 grand over what I had paid for it.
00:37:19.199 --> 00:37:20.719
So that was like my first thing.
00:37:20.800 --> 00:37:25.039
So I was in real estate investing at that time, but in 2006, I got my license.
00:37:25.119 --> 00:37:27.599
I was watching all these realtors make more money than me.
00:37:27.760 --> 00:37:33.039
So and you know, because I because in in mortgages, you maybe make one to two percent.
00:37:33.440 --> 00:37:34.719
Uh you make one to two percent.
00:37:34.960 --> 00:37:36.480
Sorry guys, we're in a construction zone.
00:37:36.800 --> 00:37:45.039
Um, you know, we make one to two percent maybe on on um on the loan amount, they're making three percent on the purchase price.
00:37:45.280 --> 00:37:46.960
And I was like, wait a minute.
00:37:47.199 --> 00:37:49.440
You hear that a lot from people who've made the jump.
00:37:49.679 --> 00:37:50.239
Yeah, yeah.
00:37:50.320 --> 00:37:52.000
I was like, okay, the math ain't mathing.
00:37:52.480 --> 00:37:56.320
And I'm like, and a lot of people back then, especially before the crash, would do both.
00:37:56.400 --> 00:38:00.079
So I could actually do the real estate deal for you and also finance you.
00:38:00.159 --> 00:38:06.559
And you could still do that now, but they put a lot more regulations in place after the market crash for kind of that double dip, you know.
00:38:07.119 --> 00:38:10.159
Um, so I got my license in 06, really just for me.
00:38:10.239 --> 00:38:14.719
I would maybe do a deal or two a year for friend, but I it it it wasn't like what I was trying to do.
00:38:14.880 --> 00:38:18.400
It was really 2014 when I when I got in.
00:38:18.480 --> 00:38:20.800
Um, I had gone through a lot of different stages.
00:38:20.880 --> 00:38:22.960
I had tried to get an entertainment company off the ground.
00:38:23.039 --> 00:38:29.039
I I had uh I had filed bankruptcy at age 29, like I had gone through a lot of different things.
00:38:29.199 --> 00:38:34.639
Um and I was working for my buddy's uh PR agency, making good money again.
00:38:35.039 --> 00:38:39.440
But most people, you know, like everybody, when you're not progressing, like I'm like, okay, well, what's next though?
00:38:39.599 --> 00:38:42.559
Like I I could do this, but this is not like a lifelong thing.
00:38:42.639 --> 00:38:44.000
Like, is there another position for me?
00:38:44.079 --> 00:38:47.119
When I realized it wasn't another position, I was like, okay, I gotta find what's next.
00:38:47.199 --> 00:38:49.199
And the next thing I choose needs to be it.
00:38:49.360 --> 00:38:51.360
And literally, I waited six months.
00:38:51.519 --> 00:38:53.039
I did I didn't do anything for six months.
00:38:53.119 --> 00:38:55.440
I had saved money, so I was just like, dude, I'm not gonna push this.
00:38:55.519 --> 00:38:58.239
I'm gonna let God truly like I gotta feel it.
00:38:58.400 --> 00:38:59.440
Like, this is the route.
00:38:59.519 --> 00:39:05.119
And got a call from a buddy, said he was starting a wholesaling company, which is just basically flipping contracts on real estate.
00:39:05.280 --> 00:39:07.280
Um, and he's like, Would you want to do this with me?
00:39:07.360 --> 00:39:09.199
And I'm like, dude, I think I've been waiting for this call.
00:39:09.360 --> 00:39:10.880
Like, real estate makes a lot of sense.
00:39:10.960 --> 00:39:12.400
I'm like, I already got my license.
00:39:12.800 --> 00:39:17.119
I was like, uh, I'm like, I can control my time, control my destiny.
00:39:17.280 --> 00:39:19.679
Uh it's a wealth-building type of industry.
00:39:19.840 --> 00:39:27.840
So I started with the wholesaling, figured out that was a bit grimier like game, and it was cool, but like probably not where I wanted to stay.
00:39:27.920 --> 00:39:32.320
But what I figured out was that I could turn a lot of these uh wholesale deals into listings.
00:39:32.559 --> 00:39:37.760
And when I figured that out, it got me on the track to find a realtor who would help partner with me.
00:39:37.920 --> 00:39:40.639
And in that process, I found the realtor.
00:39:40.719 --> 00:39:42.239
She's in this building right now, actually.
00:39:42.400 --> 00:39:43.360
Uh, she's still with us.
00:39:43.440 --> 00:39:45.199
This is last this is 11 years ago.
00:39:45.440 --> 00:39:47.119
And um, and I found her.
00:39:47.199 --> 00:39:52.719
I went to do a deal with her, and she told me when I I met her at her office, and she told me you need to meet my broker.
00:39:52.800 --> 00:39:54.239
And I was like, I don't need to meet any broker.
00:39:54.320 --> 00:39:57.519
I'm like, I just just listen, I just want 25% from the deals I'm sending you.
00:39:57.679 --> 00:39:58.639
Like, yeah, we don't need to.
00:39:58.719 --> 00:40:01.039
Um I had my hanging my license with a friend of mine.
00:40:01.199 --> 00:40:03.679
Just she's like, No, I think you really need to meet my broker.
00:40:03.760 --> 00:40:06.320
I'm like, all right, well, um maybe one day, but let's do this.
00:40:06.559 --> 00:40:09.360
But I got such a great vibe talking about culture.
00:40:09.679 --> 00:40:10.960
The culture was already good.
00:40:11.119 --> 00:40:19.119
I think it's great now, but it was good enough then that I literally walked out and I was driving home and I'm like, I think I'm gonna hang my license here.
00:40:19.360 --> 00:40:20.960
Like it feels good in this place.
00:40:21.199 --> 00:40:22.159
Like I love the people.
00:40:22.239 --> 00:40:27.280
I just felt warm in this place, like the people I met, the lady at the front, the the vibe.
00:40:27.519 --> 00:40:29.679
And that's how I got into real estate.
00:40:29.760 --> 00:40:34.559
And then I hung my license with with them, and the broker that she was talking about is my current business partner.
00:40:35.280 --> 00:40:36.000
Look at that.
00:40:36.239 --> 00:40:37.440
Just just the way God works.
00:40:37.840 --> 00:40:38.320
Just look at that.
00:40:38.559 --> 00:40:39.039
Look at that, man.
00:40:39.119 --> 00:40:39.519
It was wild.
00:40:39.679 --> 00:40:40.079
It's wild.
00:40:40.320 --> 00:40:47.920
It's wild, like it's just gonna, it's like you're following this like rabbit hole and you don't know exactly where it goes, but you're just making these moves, you know?
00:40:48.159 --> 00:40:48.400
Yeah.
00:40:48.559 --> 00:40:51.760
Well, you're just you're taking a step of there's there's a step of faith there, right?
00:40:51.920 --> 00:40:57.360
I'm at the end of the sidewalk, the piece that's paved, and I'm just like, I guess we'll take another step.
00:40:57.679 --> 00:40:58.800
I'm not gonna go all the way back.
00:40:58.960 --> 00:41:05.360
Yeah, I'm gonna take another step and just see is this, is there's is there more sidewalk underneath this darkness here, or is this the clip?
00:41:05.440 --> 00:41:05.840
I don't know.
00:41:05.920 --> 00:41:06.880
But I'm I'm taking another step.
00:41:07.360 --> 00:41:16.400
God nudges you, you know, like you know, and you got to follow the nudges, you know, like you might not, he doesn't always give you the entire plan, you know, because there's he wants you to have faith in the plan, right?
00:41:16.480 --> 00:41:20.400
Yeah, and oftentimes, you know, well, 100% of the time, his plan's better.
00:41:20.480 --> 00:41:20.960
Yeah, right.
00:41:21.039 --> 00:41:26.880
So you've got all these visions of what it's supposed to look like, but he's like, wait, wait, see what I do, right?
00:41:27.039 --> 00:41:32.320
So yeah, I was just kind of following these little steps and you know, kept progressing from there.
00:41:32.639 --> 00:41:45.519
I can't remember if I shared this with you, but when I met with my broker when I was joining the business uh brokerage, Fitzgibbon Alexander, I sat down with Matt and uh over the course of the next couple of hours, he told me every reason why I shouldn't become a business broker.
00:41:45.760 --> 00:41:49.280
Just, I mean, he just rattled off all the reasons why I shouldn't do it.
00:41:49.440 --> 00:41:52.079
And then at the end, I was like, well then why should I?
00:41:52.239 --> 00:41:54.400
He goes, freedom of time and you control your destiny.
00:41:54.559 --> 00:41:56.559
And I was like, why don't you lead with that?
00:41:58.239 --> 00:42:03.760
To his point, you know, to his credit, he was making sure that there was no disillusionment of what was gonna come, right?
00:42:03.920 --> 00:42:09.360
Yeah, he's like, you could go and become a real estate agent and you probably have up your first listing in a couple months, right?
00:42:09.440 --> 00:42:11.119
It probably sooner, you get a really good place.
00:42:11.280 --> 00:42:15.199
He goes, You might go without a paycheck for a year as a business broker, right?
00:42:15.760 --> 00:42:20.079
And when he led about that the very end, I was like, sign me up, let's go.
00:42:20.320 --> 00:42:20.800
That's amazing.
00:42:20.960 --> 00:42:23.199
And there's so many reasons I got nudged in that direction.
00:42:23.360 --> 00:42:26.159
That's uh a podcast, I'll have my wife interview me one day or something like that.
00:42:26.320 --> 00:42:32.480
Yeah, but it's important to set expectations like that because then once somebody gets disappointed, they won't stick with it.
00:42:32.639 --> 00:42:34.400
You know, we do the same thing here with real estate.
00:42:34.480 --> 00:42:39.039
I tell people, like, this is not a job, this is not a career, this is real estate entrepreneurship.
00:42:39.199 --> 00:42:45.119
Meaning you're starting a business and you're not gonna talk to any entrepreneur or business owner who won't tell you that it's gonna be a heavy lift.
00:42:45.360 --> 00:42:51.440
Matter of fact, you're gonna do more work to get this thing off the ground than you would at any job or anything like that.
00:42:51.679 --> 00:42:54.320
All you have to have faith is it's gonna be worth it.
00:42:54.559 --> 00:42:54.880
Right?
00:42:55.039 --> 00:42:56.000
It's gonna be worth it.
00:42:56.079 --> 00:42:58.559
Like if you stick with it, you're gonna get to the other side.
00:42:58.719 --> 00:43:07.360
But don't come in here thinking because you saw, you know, your homeboy or homegirl on Instagram, like they're selling on like go look up their numbers.
00:43:07.599 --> 00:43:09.360
Let's see how much they're actually closing.
00:43:09.599 --> 00:43:10.239
It's not that easy.
00:43:10.400 --> 00:43:10.639
Yeah.
00:43:10.800 --> 00:43:11.679
You know, right?
00:43:11.840 --> 00:43:12.000
Yeah.
00:43:12.239 --> 00:43:14.159
When did you start seeing yourself as an entrepreneur?
00:43:14.320 --> 00:43:15.119
Or do you see yourself?
00:43:15.280 --> 00:43:18.320
I mean, obviously you see yourself as an entrepreneur because you're setting that expectation.
00:43:18.639 --> 00:43:22.880
Yeah, you know, I think we throw that term around pretty loosely, you know.
00:43:22.960 --> 00:43:28.960
Uh and and I I honestly, like, I don't necessarily even think that way of myself.
00:43:29.039 --> 00:43:31.679
I I just feel like I'm following a path.
00:43:32.000 --> 00:43:38.559
Um, but everything I've done is pretty much entrepreneurship in some way, shape, or form in the past 25 years, right?
00:43:38.639 --> 00:43:45.920
Like being a mortgage, you know, me and a uh loan officer, mortgage broker is just, you know, you're 100% commissioned, so you essentially have your own business, right?
00:43:46.159 --> 00:43:51.679
Uh then I opened up a mortgage company, so I had my own mortgage company from 03 to 07 until the market crashed.
00:43:51.760 --> 00:43:55.119
So I was not, but I never at that point thought like I'm an entrepreneur.
00:43:55.199 --> 00:43:59.440
I just thought like this is just the next logical progression of what I'm doing.
00:43:59.519 --> 00:44:04.559
And And uh so I don't walk around thinking like, you know, I'm this or that, you know what I'm saying?
00:44:04.639 --> 00:44:08.559
I'm just kind of like, um, and and and maybe I'm not even a good entrepreneur, you know.
00:44:08.639 --> 00:44:10.079
That's I think that to myself sometimes.
00:44:10.159 --> 00:44:10.719
I'm like, you know what?
00:44:11.199 --> 00:44:12.559
Am I even a good entrepreneur?
00:44:12.719 --> 00:44:16.159
Like, because I'm like, maybe I'm a better intrapreneur.
00:44:16.320 --> 00:44:21.199
Like, maybe I'm better working within a system than creating the system.
00:44:21.679 --> 00:44:22.480
Honest question.
00:44:22.639 --> 00:44:24.960
Have you watched a single episode of this?
00:44:26.000 --> 00:44:26.639
Of this podcast?
00:44:26.880 --> 00:44:27.519
You gotta be honest.
00:44:27.760 --> 00:44:28.000
No.
00:44:28.639 --> 00:44:32.880
Entrepreneur versus entrepreneur has come up on every single episode.
00:44:33.199 --> 00:44:33.840
Really?
00:44:34.159 --> 00:44:37.599
Almost almost every single episode, that topic has come up.
00:44:37.760 --> 00:44:38.639
That's weird.
00:44:38.880 --> 00:44:51.840
And I think it's because none of the people I've interviewed, both the the episodes that have been shown and the ones that are pre-recorded, I don't think anyone really sees themselves that way, but they also don't take themselves too seriously.
00:44:52.000 --> 00:44:52.320
Right.
00:44:52.559 --> 00:44:55.679
And I think they're just, hey, I I just want to be bigger and better.
00:44:55.760 --> 00:44:57.119
I want to be 1% better every day.
00:44:57.440 --> 00:44:59.119
Which I get from you from top conversations.
00:44:59.199 --> 00:45:04.239
You haven't used that phrase with me, but you just seem to be like, all right, it's where I'm at now, and I I I want to be better tomorrow.
00:45:04.320 --> 00:45:06.719
So I'm gonna, whatever that next logical step is.
00:45:06.880 --> 00:45:07.280
Yeah.
00:45:07.519 --> 00:45:08.800
I think that's entrepreneurship.
00:45:09.039 --> 00:45:11.280
Yeah, it it probably it is.
00:45:11.440 --> 00:45:16.639
It is entrepreneurship, but but I didn't the term entrepreneur wasn't really a term even growing up.
00:45:16.800 --> 00:45:27.039
Like that wasn't used, and it and it, but I like that it exists now because I think that that there's a lot of people that feel that they like, like I think it has a lot to do with me, like managing people.
00:45:27.119 --> 00:45:41.760
Like I feel like my business partner is way better at managing people and organizations because he's he's worked for corporate America and he's done all those different things where like I'm more of a free spirit in a sense, like I don't actually enjoy telling people what to do.
00:45:42.000 --> 00:45:43.519
I just don't, you know what I mean?
00:45:43.599 --> 00:45:49.760
Like I like being my own boss, but I don't necessarily get excited about managing people, right?
00:45:49.920 --> 00:45:52.400
Yeah, because I don't like to be told what to do.
00:45:52.800 --> 00:45:55.039
So like why would I tell other people, right?
00:45:55.119 --> 00:45:56.559
But but obviously I do, right?
00:45:56.639 --> 00:46:04.400
I I we have employees and and and uh but I think of myself more of like a coach, you know, than necessarily like I'm a manager or whatever the case may be.
00:46:04.480 --> 00:46:20.880
I'm like, dude, that you know, like obviously we're running a business, we gotta do stuff, but I think that sometimes that's why I feel like there's some people that want to like own this massive corporation, and all I think about is headaches and liability when they talk about like like if you told me like Bobby you could have a 30,000 employee organization and and be a multi billionaire, I was like, you can have that.
00:46:21.039 --> 00:46:30.159
Yeah, like I uh as long as I'm made enough money, like what I what I really want is to be a full-time investor, so I don't have you know, I get the least amount of liability and the least amount of adult daycare.
00:46:30.239 --> 00:46:34.880
Yeah, like if I if I can pull those things off, I won, you know?
00:46:35.199 --> 00:46:38.960
Well, they say in every good business you have a visionary and you have an operator, yeah, right?
00:46:39.119 --> 00:46:46.159
So you have the person who's driving the ship and then the person who's the jet or the driving the plane, flying the plane, and the person who's the jet fuel, right?
00:46:46.239 --> 00:47:02.480
And so it almost sounds like in your dynamic with your business partners that you're not necessarily the the the chief visionary, but like that that culture piece I think rolls into that visionary and you enjoy that piece, whereas your sounds like your business partner enjoys the operations and the the moving of things around.
00:47:02.719 --> 00:47:07.519
Yeah, I I I you know I think we both we're both a hybrid, you know.
00:47:07.679 --> 00:47:14.880
He he definitely is visionary, like he sees things in the future a lot of times that I I can't see.
00:47:15.039 --> 00:47:23.440
Um I'm very more people the people's champ, and I see things in the human realm that he probably doesn't see sometimes, right?
00:47:23.519 --> 00:47:26.239
Because he's you know a hard, you know, deep personality, right?
00:47:26.320 --> 00:47:32.480
So he's just he's just this and that, and uh, and and you know, and my job is to kind of he balances me out and I balance him out.
00:47:32.639 --> 00:47:43.440
Like, hey man, like I understand that on paper that sounds good, but there's human collateral damage to that, which means that it's gonna be a long-term loss, you know, if this happens.
00:47:43.599 --> 00:47:53.440
So let's let's figure out how to make it in a way that that still gets the job done, but we also take account, let's say, people's feelings, yeah, right, and things like that.
00:47:53.679 --> 00:47:55.679
So I think we're a little bit of both, you know.
00:47:55.760 --> 00:48:02.639
I I definitely we we definitely do both, you know, we do visionary and operational stuff, and I don't know if that's the way at all.
00:48:02.800 --> 00:48:12.480
Like eventually we I'd love to just have like a pure operations person, you know, a pure marketing person, and then just have me and Gil kind of just you know steer the ship.
00:48:12.639 --> 00:48:13.280
Yeah.
00:48:13.760 --> 00:48:16.320
So now we're kind of fast forwarding here.
00:48:16.559 --> 00:48:23.840
So this building, you talked about it in the the beginning, but downstairs I saw, I don't know, 30, 40 people sitting down there right now.
00:48:24.079 --> 00:48:27.760
But the goal is that this building is packed to the gills.
00:48:27.920 --> 00:48:28.559
Packed, yeah.
00:48:28.800 --> 00:48:30.079
260, is that what you see?
00:48:30.320 --> 00:48:36.159
Yeah, so we we've got about we've got two about 260 people that are are members of our culture.
00:48:36.400 --> 00:48:36.719
Okay.
00:48:36.800 --> 00:48:38.159
Um they're already here.
00:48:38.320 --> 00:48:38.559
Oh yeah.
00:48:38.880 --> 00:48:39.360
They're already here.
00:48:39.440 --> 00:48:41.760
We're in we're you hear construction in the back.
00:48:41.840 --> 00:48:48.159
Like this is literally like we soft opened a week and a half ago because there's some people that really want to want it to be inside the office.
00:48:48.320 --> 00:48:52.079
Now, 260 people never show up at the same time, right?
00:48:52.239 --> 00:48:58.239
So it's the way I wait the way you gotta look at it is that to truly grow this big, it's kind of like a gym membership, right?
00:48:58.480 --> 00:49:03.440
Like there's thousands of people that are signed up to Crunch Fitness, but only a fraction of people show up to the gym.
00:49:03.519 --> 00:49:04.320
Yeah, right.
00:49:04.960 --> 00:49:06.079
That's kind of how it is.
00:49:06.159 --> 00:49:10.480
There's some people that do like to work from home or maybe a little bit farther away from the office and things like that.
00:49:10.639 --> 00:49:15.519
Um, but the reason people really love joining us is because of the energy.
00:49:15.599 --> 00:49:17.440
People want to be around other growers.
00:49:17.599 --> 00:49:26.320
You know, you become who you're around, and we are heavily personal, I mean, and and we we stay heavily training, coaching, personal development heavy.
00:49:26.400 --> 00:49:29.360
Like we're gonna take 100 people to Tony Robbins, unleash the power within.
00:49:29.519 --> 00:49:34.400
We're we're doing a real estate mastermind called Build That Sea on a cru on a cruise ship in in June.
00:49:34.559 --> 00:49:37.760
We do classes every Tuesday, every Thursday, every second Wednesday.
00:49:37.840 --> 00:49:40.159
We have a major rally every every single month.
00:49:40.239 --> 00:49:42.480
Every other month we do a three-day boot camp.
00:49:42.639 --> 00:49:46.880
Like activity, coaching, training, level growth.
00:49:47.199 --> 00:49:51.039
Earlier before this podcast, we were doing something called the coaches and council meeting.
00:49:51.119 --> 00:49:57.760
So we have coaches, like we we uh like indirectly have built basically a speaker's bureau.
00:49:57.920 --> 00:50:04.960
Like, I've got people here that have spoken all over the country that I would put on any stage and they like I go to conferences and I was like, Oh, I got people in my office better than this.
00:50:05.440 --> 00:50:06.000
You know what I mean?
00:50:06.159 --> 00:50:10.159
Like because we give them stages to get on, we expect you to lead.
00:50:10.320 --> 00:50:18.880
Like, that's the what culture like our culture is like you're not coming here just to be an agent, you're not coming here to be an entrepreneur.
00:50:19.199 --> 00:50:22.639
We want you to become a leader, and we want you to become a leader that creates leaders.
00:50:22.960 --> 00:50:25.199
Like, this is who we are.
00:50:25.360 --> 00:50:26.719
Like, is this what you want?
00:50:27.119 --> 00:50:32.559
And we tend to attract that person because that's that's what we tell them we want, and that's what we get.
00:50:32.800 --> 00:50:35.840
So um so yeah, so there's 260 now.
00:50:35.920 --> 00:50:40.880
The goal is to get the 500 to a thousand agents, you know, signed up out of out of this uh office.
00:50:41.119 --> 00:50:49.920
Um, and then we've actually become kind of a um uh like a flagship for so EXP Realty was built as a virtual company.
00:50:50.000 --> 00:51:01.840
Yeah, um, we were one of the first ones to decide that we were gonna keep our office space, that we were gonna that we were gonna try to run this like a hybrid, just like a regular brokerage, because we couldn't see ourselves being 100% virtual.
00:51:02.079 --> 00:51:05.840
And we started that, you know, eight years ago, but it was a struggle.
00:51:06.239 --> 00:51:17.840
Through that struggle, we were able to build a system to uh be able to fund places like this, and really for us first, but I needed EXP's help to do it, and they helped me do it.
00:51:18.159 --> 00:51:25.440
So we ended up creating the system that has now been rolled out company-wide, uh, which is called the Culture Center Program.
00:51:25.760 --> 00:51:33.199
And the culture center program allows somebody who wants to have a space and wants to build community and wants this kind of energy and all that kind of stuff to be able to fund it.
00:51:33.519 --> 00:51:36.719
And there's a just it the actual system is just boring.
00:51:36.800 --> 00:51:41.360
It's really just a way of collecting a transaction fee or what we call a culture fee from each transaction.
00:51:41.599 --> 00:51:48.400
But because everybody is independent at EXP, like they have their own back-end system, we were having a problem tracking and collecting.
00:51:49.039 --> 00:51:50.960
And that will that's what was killing us.
00:51:51.440 --> 00:52:02.639
Like I I can't, you know, there's too many people dependent on figuring out who closed what when, did they charge the thing, did the title company cut the check?
00:52:02.880 --> 00:52:05.440
Like it was a problem.
00:52:06.320 --> 00:52:08.559
Now the system's directly with EXP.
00:52:08.719 --> 00:52:13.119
EXP is the one that actually knows every transaction that goes through the brokerage.
00:52:13.360 --> 00:52:23.039
So they have a whole department now that has our roster and they know when a deal closes, they take that transaction fee just like they take their transaction fees, and then they pay us directly.
00:52:23.519 --> 00:52:25.440
And that's the culture center program.
00:52:26.079 --> 00:52:28.639
We teach everybody else how to actually build the culture, right?
00:52:28.719 --> 00:52:31.840
But the culture center program is really just a logistic logistics.
00:52:31.920 --> 00:52:32.079
Yeah.
00:52:32.320 --> 00:52:39.920
Like, how do we make sure you guys can collect this so you can know what kind of space you can afford so you can and and what kind of budget you can have?
00:52:40.159 --> 00:52:42.559
So it's it's it's been a wild ride, man.
00:52:42.639 --> 00:52:51.599
And like I said, you're at you're at like the beginning of our like the flagship culture center and the entire nation.
00:52:52.079 --> 00:52:53.920
Like, literally, you're sitting in it.
00:52:54.159 --> 00:52:57.920
The guy who doesn't classify himself as an entrepreneur.
00:52:59.519 --> 00:53:02.159
You're gonna be an entrepreneur, you're gonna be a leader.
00:53:02.320 --> 00:53:07.199
Yeah, hey, I just took this massive, there's 90,000 agents at EXP.
00:53:07.280 --> 00:53:10.159
Yeah, this massive company, right?
00:53:10.480 --> 00:53:13.920
And we built something that they didn't have that they're now implementing elsewhere.
00:53:14.159 --> 00:53:23.519
I don't see myself as a you know, uh that's that's something that I've tried to like I'm actually I'm actually bad at is a humility thing.
00:53:25.360 --> 00:53:29.920
Is it is it is it it is it's it I actually You're a team player.
00:53:30.239 --> 00:53:32.559
I I love humility and I I like being humble.
00:53:32.639 --> 00:53:40.639
I think I actually like I've been working on this, like don't I don't give enough credit to the things that I do.
00:53:41.039 --> 00:53:50.800
It's almost like I'm a really tough coach on myself, and and I always tell people I'm like I'm not easily impressed, which is a blessing and a curse, because I'm not impressed with myself either.
00:53:51.039 --> 00:53:58.719
And it doesn't allow me sometimes to really see like like from the outside looking in, you're like, oh my gosh, like that's that's have you been reading my diary?
00:54:00.480 --> 00:54:00.960
I don't know.
00:54:01.039 --> 00:54:02.400
Is that is that what you've been going through?
00:54:03.440 --> 00:54:04.559
It's tough, you know.
00:54:04.639 --> 00:54:24.159
It's like you know, I just I don't know why it's been so tough for me to be like like I'm like I just recently I realized that like because you know it's like you're always chasing something and you're always trying to get to this next level, and you and then you know there's people around you that are you know, there's agents in this office that make more money than me, hands down, you know what I'm saying?
00:54:24.239 --> 00:54:27.039
And you're watching this happen before your face, but I'm the entrepreneur, right?
00:54:27.119 --> 00:54:30.000
I'm the owner, but you're making more money than me, right?
00:54:30.079 --> 00:54:32.159
So it can really mess with your psyche.
00:54:32.239 --> 00:54:35.280
Yeah, like like am I a good entrepreneur?
00:54:35.440 --> 00:54:36.159
Am I failing?
00:54:36.320 --> 00:54:37.599
Like, am I failing at this?
00:54:37.760 --> 00:54:39.440
Like, is this like whatever?
00:54:39.679 --> 00:54:46.159
Um, but what I but what I realize is funny because I teach a lot about investing, and I realized that you know, wealth is many things, right?
00:54:46.239 --> 00:54:49.599
You know, people think of wealth as money, and that's the only measure that they use.
00:54:49.840 --> 00:54:59.360
But there's relationship wealth, there's emotional wealth, there's spiritual wealth, um, you know, uh physical wealth, there's all these other wealths out there.
00:54:59.519 --> 00:55:04.719
If you truly want to live a great life, so what I realized lately was I'm extremely wealthy.
00:55:04.880 --> 00:55:19.920
Like I might, this guy might have a lot more money than him, but if I want his money, I gotta take his life, and I don't want his life because his wife hates him and his kids don't talk to him, and he's and he's completely overweight and out of shape, and I don't know if he's gonna make it another 10 years.
00:55:20.159 --> 00:55:22.639
So the reality is, do I want that kind of wealth?
00:55:22.719 --> 00:55:23.599
No, I actually don't.
00:55:23.679 --> 00:55:29.440
I can continue to work on the money part and build that up, but I really gotta thank God for the wealth that I got.
00:55:29.599 --> 00:55:30.159
Yeah, right?
00:55:30.320 --> 00:55:41.199
I'm sitting here for you, 47 years old, I feel good, you know, I'm healthy, I've got incredible friends like you, and meeting them all the time now that I'm like diving deeper and deeper into faith.
00:55:41.280 --> 00:55:46.239
I'm getting all these awesome faith-based, you know, friends and business partners like PJ.
00:55:46.639 --> 00:55:56.480
Like, my life is rich, you know, like it's rich, but it takes a lot to kind of like because society will tell you that these are the things that only things that matter.
00:55:56.719 --> 00:56:21.519
And um, so yeah, like just now I'm starting to understand that, like, okay, you know, actually, I've been in this for a long time, and like literally one of my mantras this year was just like be him, be this, be this person that you've always thought you could be, that that God thinks you can be, that other people from the outside looking in are telling you you are, instead of like kind of saying, like, no, that's no, I'm not there yet.
00:56:21.599 --> 00:56:22.239
I'm not there yet.
00:56:22.320 --> 00:56:26.239
I'm like, I'm like, dude, just step into it, like just be this guy.
00:56:26.400 --> 00:56:31.519
And and so maybe you write that in your own diary, because that's what that's what we all need to do, you know.
00:56:32.159 --> 00:56:36.559
Dude, I there's nothing I can say to to wrap this up because that was amazing.
00:56:36.719 --> 00:56:40.880
All I can say is that the space you're building here is impressive.
00:56:41.119 --> 00:56:47.280
You can feel the energy when you walk in downstairs, and I think that's a testament to you and your business partner and what you guys have been building.
00:56:47.440 --> 00:56:48.639
And I appreciate you.
00:56:48.719 --> 00:57:01.039
Uh, I joined you know the Citrus Club and started going to the business Bible study on Thursday mornings, and first morning or second time you sat down next to me and introduced yourself, and we got breakfast, and it's like it's exactly what I'm here for, right?
00:57:01.119 --> 00:57:03.119
To meet like-minded individuals who are trying to build something.
00:57:03.360 --> 00:57:04.239
Well, you have great energy, man.
00:57:04.320 --> 00:57:17.760
And like, and I I've done and I've told you that a lot of times before, and but people were watching, it's like, you know, that's one of your superpowers is energy, you know, and and everybody has the ability to walk into a room and raise the energy level and elevate spirits and elevate minds, you know what I mean?
00:57:17.920 --> 00:57:29.519
And so when we sat down, what I noticed initially from you was one, you you you smile, you know, like you you you radiate happiness and joy, but you also contributed to the Bible study.
00:57:29.599 --> 00:57:40.639
Like when there was time, you know, you would because you know, a lot of people come and they're a little bit shyer about like, you know, because we discuss, you know, we ask questions and discuss the Bible verse and stuff like that, and we go around the table and see who wants to speak.
00:57:40.719 --> 00:57:43.280
And a lot of times for weeks, people will say nothing.
00:57:43.440 --> 00:57:43.679
Yeah.
00:57:43.840 --> 00:57:50.239
They just, you know, getting, but you were like one of the, you know, you you hopped right in and then started giving some really insightful stuff.
00:57:50.320 --> 00:57:52.559
And I was like, I like this dude.
00:57:52.719 --> 00:57:55.119
Like this this dude, I'm glad this dude joined the Bible study.
00:57:55.360 --> 00:57:56.000
Like, this guy's cool.
00:57:56.159 --> 00:58:07.039
Well, you know what I appreciate is when someone, when someone says something and like they tell a personal story, and you and I will be like, Yeah, we we we keep it like hard.
00:58:07.199 --> 00:58:08.880
Like that was a little personal, right?
00:58:08.960 --> 00:58:11.760
Or like I I love when uh this just past week.
00:58:11.840 --> 00:58:16.800
I'm blinking our name, but uh someone asked, Does anyone want to uh to read for us?
00:58:16.880 --> 00:58:22.960
And she raised her hand, and I was like, We're not those kind of people here, like you don't have to raise your hand, you could you could just say um I'm I'll do it.
00:58:24.159 --> 00:58:24.559
Right.
00:58:24.719 --> 00:58:26.639
So I appreciate that sense of humor, man.
00:58:26.719 --> 00:58:27.599
But I appreciate your time, man.
00:58:27.760 --> 00:58:27.840
Yes.
00:58:28.320 --> 00:58:31.760
Uh you got a lot of people downstairs looking looking for your direction.
00:58:32.000 --> 00:58:34.639
Yeah, no, but this is this is way more fun.
00:58:35.360 --> 00:58:36.480
I appreciate it.
00:58:36.719 --> 00:58:37.119
Thank you.