Beginner Mistakes

Full Transcript Below

Intro
Hi, my name is Rod Khleif, and I’m the host of “The Lifetime Cash Flow Through Real Estate Investing” podcast. And every week, I interview Multifamily Rock Stars and we talk about how they built incredible wealth for themselves and their families through multifamily properties. So hit the “Like” and “Subscribe” buttons to get notified every Monday when a new episode comes out. Let’s get to it.

Rod
Welcome to another edition of How to Build Lifetime Cash Flow Through Real Estate Investing. I’m Rod Khleif, and I am thrilled you’re here. And I know you’re going to get tremendous value from the two gentlemen I’m interviewing today. So I’ve got Cody Laughlin and Brian Alfaro with Blue Oak Capital on the line today. And we are going to have a lot of fun. They’re in over 840 doors, 847 at current count, I think, as General Partners and just killing it out there. And we’re going to dig into a lot of stuff. So welcome to the show, guys.

Cody
Rod, thank you for having us, man. It’s super exciting to be here. And it’s funny how things come full circle. We’ve been a big follower of yours, a fan of yours for some time. So I appreciate you having us.

Brian
Thanks, Rod.

Rod
That’s really kind of you to say. That’s really kind of you to say. I appreciate that. So why don’t you take a minute and just tell me a little bit of, you know, a high level, not too belabored, just a little description of your background? I don’t know where you came from, how you got into real estate, and Cody, if you want to start, and then Brian can bring it up. So tell us how you got– why you got in this business and maybe why you love this business and how it transitioned.

Cody
Yes, I appreciate that. So I actually found my introduction into real estate by accident. Very similar to many of your listeners, I found my way into real estate by becoming an accidental landlord back in 2010. Had a single-family home that we tried to sell, couldn’t sell it, and we were panicking because we had bought a second home at the time. We’re stuck with two mortgages and we were freaking out. My wife and I were broke at the time. We were like, we can’t do this. So anyway, put a resident in there and we said, we’ll figure it out, and thank God we did. Shortly thereafter, I discovered what I like to call the purple Bible, “Rich Dad Poor Dad”, book forever changed my outlook, both professionally and personally, and started pursuing real estate entrepreneurship. And I’ve done a bunch of different niches and strategies in the residential space. Wasn’t finding the economies of scale, wasn’t finding any real momentum, and so made the transition to multifamily in 2019. Thankful enough to meet great partners like Brian and our third partner, John Batey. And we formed Blue Oak Capital and have been off to the race since.

Rod
Love it. Okay, well, Brian, go ahead. Why don’t you go and then I’ll start with questions, actually.

Brian
Yeah, for sure. So again, I appreciate you having us on, Rod.

Rod
Yeah. This is unusual for me to have two people, so forgive me, I might screw up a couple of times here because I’m used to just going right back with questions. So I’ve got to give you guys each a chance. Sorry.

Brian
No, you’re good. You’re good. So my journey started in 2018. Mine was actually more intentional. I was looking around at the time. I was in my late 20s. My wife and I had just gotten married. We bought our first home, and I was looking around, trying to connect the dots about what’s the common denominator between all people that had found success, both financially and then in life. What was the common denominator? And it seemed to me that all of them were either building and or protecting their wealth, using real estate, in some sort of fashion. So I said, okay, well, this real estate thing seems like a pretty good idea. Everybody who’s made it in life and has it in their portfolio along with other things, right? So started studying really hard, reading every book I could find. Started listening to the podcast like yours, Rod. But I didn’t know what I didn’t know. So I had a very limiting mindset. I know you talk a lot about mindset and how important that is for anybody trying to get space. So I had that small-minded mindset. So I started small. I started buying single-family housing. Houses started doing, you know, small rentals. I was doing some wholesaling, get some flips, and kind of dip my toe in different avenues a lot like Cody. And very quickly realize after doing that for about a year and a half, and maybe a little longer, that it didn’t match my personality. I wanted to build a scalable business. I wanted to work with a team, and I want to buy bigger properties to get those economies of scale because I considered my time to be very valuable. And we talk a lot about ROI. I like to talk about ROE, return of effort. It’s just as much work to buy, you know, a ten-unit as it is to buy 50 or 100 units. So why not buy something bigger? I wanted to, you know, multiply my time. So late 2019, and early 2020, decided to really focus on multifamily. Started getting educated, started networking, and met our other partner, John. Eventually met Cody. They had just formed Blue Oak Capital and felt like I was a good fit for their team. Brought a good skill set to the table, and we all complement each other really well. Got along really well. So we were off to the races come early 2020, and here we are.

Rod
Love it, love it, love it. So just out of curiosity, what were your– each of your backgrounds? What did you do? Or maybe you still have a W-2. I don’t know if you do or not, but what are you still doing or what have you done in the past, just as it– just wants to see if there’s a tie-in at all.

Cody
Yeah, sure. I started my W-2 career in 2008 as a registered nurse. Both my wife and I are both registered nurses. I still maintain that W-2 today as a part-time position while we continue to grow Blue Oak Capital.

Rod
Nice.

Cody
But you asked me earlier like, hey, why do you love the space? And really, it was an opportunity for me to get out of trading time for money and really make that transition.

Rod
That’s beautiful. That’s beautiful. You know, I got to tell you, that speaks to your heart, brother. I mean, I’ve really experienced that recently. My daughter got diagnosed with 95% of her bone had leukemia, and she is now cancer-free. Thank God. She still has to have some major surgery, but she’s going to Moffat again in a week. She’s been there for months. And so I just see, you know, just how beautiful the spirit of people that take care of other people in those situations are. So I just want to salute you and thank you for that.

Cody
Thank you.

Rod
Brian, how about you?

Brian
Yes, I agree with you, Rod, with that. Cody does– can’t take that for granted. But for me, I have a business background. So I went to the University of Houston, got a business degree, and about five years ago, I started a small business with one of my partners. I’m actually in the coffee business. We have a specialty craft coffee shop. We have a couple of locations here on the west side of Houston. So I do that as well. And that’s not really a lot of similarities. Cody actually doesn’t drink coffee, but that’s okay.

Rod
Well, it actually is– but it’s a great framework for–you know when you’ve got your own business you’ve established systems, you’ve dealt with personnel. You know, these are things that you’re going to have to, you know, you do in this business as well. So let me ask you this. What roles does each of you play in the team? Because we know this is a team sport. So I’m just curious, you know, if you guys cross over a lot or if you’ve fallen into individual roles inside of your organization. Just curious about that.

Cody
Yeah, absolutely. So I’m the director of acquisitions and [inaudible] relations, and I handle all the deal sourcing, deal flow, and deal analysis.

Rod
Okay.

Cody
And, Brian.

Brian
Yeah. And I do investor relations and marketing, Rod. So we kind of stay in our lane. That’s our philosophy. As you know, there are a lot of hats to wear in this business.

Rod
Right.

Brian
And, you know, it doesn’t really work as you scale to try to be good at everything. You really want to find your subject matter experts in each field. So we’re trying to be those subject matter experts. We try to stay in our lane. Obviously, we help each other as much as needed, but those are our niches.

Rod
What about– was it John, the other guy?

Cody
Yeah.

Rod
What about him?

Cody
John is what we like to call our Chief Operating Officer. He’s kind of more behind-the-scenes, handling some, you know, day-to-day corporate, operational types of things for.

Rod
Who does the asset management?

Cody
Brian.

Rod
Brian.

Brian
It’s me.

Rod
Okay, fantastic. Well, you know, you started small, just like–well, both of you. Sounds like you started small and single-family. I’d love to ask that question. If you go back and tell your 18-year-old self, what might you do differently? Because I know what the answer is. It’s almost always go bigger, faster. Sometimes somebody throws me a curveball. But, you know, so you guys have heard that again here. But, you know, starting out, when you guys were starting out, talk about some setbacks. Sometimes you got your nose bloodied because everybody thinks it’s just so easy. And just going to all fall into place and, you know, raising money is a piece of cake. You know, getting through due diligence and all that piece of cake. Talk about, you know, any lessons learned from potential pitfalls that you had. You know, I call them seminars. You guys don’t call them seminars, but any seminar.

Brian
Cody has a great story. I won’t still his thunder. Go ahead, Cody.

Cody
Okay. Yeah. Rod, we’ve been through several seminars for sure. [inaudible] shouldn’t shut to the means that, you know, I think starting out, one of the biggest challenges was having a lack of focus, not really knowing what direction, you know, we wanted to go. And when you’re getting started with real estate investing, everything is focused on real estate. But what you don’t understand is if you really want to scale into having a sustainable business, you’re actually building a business. Right?

Rod
Sure.

Cody
You’re building the [inaudible] . And so, you know, one of–

Rod
Excuse me. Excuse me. One second. Hold that thought. You’re not just building your own business, but every apartment complex is its own business as well. So, you know, you’ve got a business plan just like you would for any business with the apartment complex as well. I’m sorry, I interrupted. I hope I didn’t throw you off too much.

Cody
No, you’re absolutely right. I mean, that’s correct. I mean, every aspect of what we do is revolve around building small businesses. Right? And operating small businesses and not understanding that when I first started, you know, 11, 12 years ago, I had no focus. I had no discipline. I had no strategy. I didn’t even know who I was as an investor. And so what I started doing is chasing shiny objects. And what that led me to do is chasing multiple different strategies without really developing any skill set in one niche. And so I spent a lot of time, a lot of effort, gaining no momentum and making some costly mistakes. You know, I got into some investments that didn’t really pan out. You know, got into some different verticals that really were dead ends from [inaudible]

Rod
Vertical in our business or other types of businesses?

Cody
So I got into some non real estate-related business ventures. And the biggest one, the biggest, hardest mistake I learned was buying into a fitness franchise. You know, I bought a multi-unit franchise, license to go open three franchise units across my market here in Texas. And I had no experience in raising capital, building a team, no experience in really what it takes to do due diligence on analyzing that type of business. And ultimately, long story short, I spent three years working on that. Lost about $120,000 and didn’t get a single unit open. And I had to walk away from that. And it was that moment– I love my wife to death, she sat me down and she’s like, listen, you got to get focused. You’ve got to figure your shit out. Sorry. And she’s like, but you got to figure it out and just stick in one lane and go be the best at it. But just quit. You’re into everything every other week. And it was that moment where I was really like, yeah, you’re absolutely right.

Rod
That’s good. She’s a keeper, Cody. She’s a keeper. Was that the one he was talking–did he shirk his– the real failure there, Brian? Did he pass the buck? Or was that the one you were–

Brian
That’s the one.

Rod
Oh, that was the one. Okay. I thought that wouldn’t be because it wasn’t multifamily. Well, listen–

Brian
Rod, he does have a good capital raising one, too.

Rod
Okay, well, let me just share something, because I want to hammer a couple of points home that you said, Cody because they’re really important. Number one is–you know, well, first of all, I built 27 businesses. Okay. Do you want to talk shiny penny? I take that to a whole other level. And several were tens of millions most spectacular flaming seminars. Okay. That $125,000. I mean, I’ve lost so much money on 23 of those businesses, it’ll blow your mind. But anyway, just to make you feel better. But, you know, focus is so freaking critical. The most successful people on the planet are the ones that are most focused. And I don’t know about you guys, but I’ll be sitting there watching freaking Netflix, and I’ll be scrolling through my phone on social media, which kills your focus. Right? You know, I get excited about my 13 million downloads, and, you know, I listen to two podcasts, Joe Rogan and Tim Ferriss. So I get both sides of the aisle on the political spectrum. And Tim Ferriss, you know, he interviews the best of the best in the world, right? The best athletes, Michael Phelps, best actors, you know, Arnold and Ed Norton, Hugh Jackman, Jamie Foxx, and billionaires like Ray Dalio. And I started to hear a pattern. They all freaking meditate. What is meditation enhanced, right? Your focus. So anyway, just wanted to mention that. So one more. Let’s beat you while you’re down. What was the capital raising one, Brian? Cody?

Cody
Brian likes to make sure that one gets out. Yeah. So, you know, I started multifamily in 2019 and at the time that I started, I started solo. Not intentionally. I just had no experience, no network, no nothing. So I started following guys like you, you know, Joe Fairless, and just kind of started putting the pieces together until I found, you know, the partnership with Brian and John. In 2019, shortly after making that transition, I found my way into a partnership for a general partnership opportunity in a deal in Oklahoma.

Rod
Like raising equity for or something?

Cody
Raising capital. That’s right.

Rod
Got it. Let me say something to that. I’m sure you did. But you cannot just raise money for a deal, guys. Those of you listening, you can’t just go in and raise money. A lot of sponsors shirk that. You’ve got to play a role in the due diligence, asset management, investor relations, and other things in the deal. So just know that you cannot just go and raise money for a deal. And there are people that don’t know that. And I even see big operators, huge operators in your market, actually, that will bring in co-sponsors and it’s very, very dangerous because we’re heading into a recession. You guys know this and we’ll talk about that in a minute. But there’s no question you know, that the soup is about to hit the fan. It is. The Fed’s going to raise the rates five more times. You know, Jamie Dimon, head of Chase, just said it’s going to be a hurricane. I mean, stuff’s coming. Okay. And the SEC is going to make examples out of people. They’re complaint-driven. Again, I’m sure you played a bigger role in that deal than just raising money. But I want to, you know, add value to all the, you know, thousands of listeners here because they’re complaint-driven and some deals are going to go south. I promise you. I mean, when I say there’s an opportunity, it could be the greatest opportunity in our lifetime coming right now. In ’08, ’09, I was hiding under a rock because I dabbed my ass handed to me, but, you know, I got crushed by that wave. I’m surfing this wave, okay. And there’s going to be an incredible opportunity. And so just be careful that you, you know, don’t sidestep that because there’ll be some examples made. It happens every time. It happened in ’09 and ’10, there’ll be some examples. So anyway, you got into that deal. You helped with it. What went wrong, though?

Cody
Yeah. So I was starting out in my very first opportunity, raising capital, and I was so excited to go tell my close network what it is I was doing and, you know, this great opportunity we had in front of them. And I was so eager at the time, I had about, I think, $300,000 of [inaudible], and it was a small race. So that was going to be my contribution.

Rod
Okay.

Cody
And I was so excited like, yes, here it is. I’m in the game, right?

Rod
Right.

Cody
And by the end of that deal, converted $0, not a single penny. And I think that’s probably familiar with a lot of capital raisers. That happens. A lot of first raises. But it was such a devastating moment for me because I was like, that was the first real kick in the gut to really make me question, hey, do I have what it takes in this business?

Rod
So why do you think it happened, buddy? Why do you think it happened that nobody came through?

Cody
Well, first it started with me. Number one, I wasn’t sophisticated enough to go articulate the business and how these private placement investment opportunities work. Right?

Rod
Right.

Cody
So I was doing a lot of education on the fly while I was educating myself. So that was failure number one. Failure number two is I was talking to my close network of friends and people that I worked with that had an interest in real estate but never had experience investing in real estate. Right? So again, I was introducing this concept of syndication for the first time. But the more that I talked about it, the more confused they were getting. And so ultimately it was like, hey, I don’t feel comfortable with this. I don’t know if it’s the right thing for me. I’m going to sit back and wait. Right?

Rod
Yeah.

Cody
That were the two biggest things that I would say I could contribute to that. But the third, I think really [inaudible]

Rod
Well, hold on. Hold on. What was the lesson you got from that?

Cody
The lesson I got is to take your time, number one. And to your point about like, you know, the exposure that a lot of people are going to be facing is you get into the space, you go to the networking groups, you go to the gurus and you hear all the big flashy numbers and all the success, and you get this fear of missing out. I’ve got to get in and I’ve got to go find that deal tomorrow. But you don’t know what you don’t know. And to your point, Rod, you’re raising millions of dollars and you’re transacting multimillion-dollar deals, there is a very high-risk exposure if you’re not doing this business correctly.

Rod
That’s right.

Cody
So I think people need to take their time and give it the year to two years it takes to really educate yourself on how this business works before just trying to jump right in.

Rod
Yeah. And partner with people that have done it to get started. Okay. That’s the biggest piece there. You did it on your own. I mean, most people will align with somebody who’s done it before, so they, you know, prevent some of these mistakes. I mean, I salute you for going off and doing that. But, you know, and again, you know, there will be SEC attorneys that will be sending emails or advertising, hey, did you get screwed on your syndication? Come see me and they’ll be litigating. And I mean, it’s coming. That’s just the way it works. And I hate to be the bearer of that, but again, there’s an incredible opportunity coming, guys in this business, and I’m super excited. So let me ask you this. Were there any aha moments in this journey of yours, Brian, I’m going to let you answer because it’s been mostly Cody so far. Any like epiphanies as you got into this?

Brian
Yeah. I think the first AHA moment I had was that I was thinking too small. And if regular people like, we all start from zero, right? We all start with zero units. Some of us have more liquidity or net worth than others. But at the end of the day, to the brokers, we’re all pretty equal when you don’t have a real estate portfolio, right? You don’t have that track record, you don’t have that credibility.

Rod
Right.

Brian
So my first aha moment was starting– when I started to get into the space and I started to network I realized one, I was thinking too small. You know, when I was getting into multifamily, I was buying single-family houses I was thinking like, I’ll go buy like eight-unit or ten-unit. Not that there’s anything wrong with that.

Rod
Right.

Brian
But there are economies of scale in this business that you have to leverage if you really want to grow. And then the second thing, besides thinking too small was realizing that anybody can do this as long as you’re putting the right team around you and you have the right systems and processes in place and you’re educated. Those are the two things that really, you know, once I’ve figured that out, the sky was the limit.

Rod
Yeah. And I would tell you, any business is nothing but people and systems. You get the systems down and we’re constantly trying to refine our systems. I just had a call with my team regarding our merchant account. Some systems we need to implement there. So you’re absolutely right. And I tell you guys, most people start this business, they’ll come to like my boot camp. They’ll meet operators and they’ll align with an operator to do their first deal or two. They don’t get married. They date, you know. Don’t get married right out of the gate. Say, so let’s do a deal or two together, see how it works, see how we work together, and see if we want to continue. But that’s how everybody starts. You know, they use the we word. You know, we own 1000 doors. And even though if you haven’t done it, you know, even got a, you know what in yet, you use the we word. And that’s how everybody does this, to build instant credibility when they’re talking to brokers. And you know, you guys, like I said, are very impressive that you did it without that, initially. But, you know, so let me ask you this. You know, I have a lot of aspiring real estate operators. They want to do this. They haven’t taken action because, you know, a lot of them are analytical and they have to check off every little box before they take action. And, you know, what words of wisdom would you share with one of these aspiring investors that knows they want more out of life? They know they need to make a move. What would you say to them, Brian? Okay, Cody, you go first. Go ahead.

Cody
Sorry, Brian. I was going to say, first off, you can’t be afraid of failure. And, you know, I think it’s so easy to go back in your comfort zone and just say, okay, I’m going to make sure every box is checked and I’m ready. But what you don’t realize is that you miss out on so many good opportunities while you’re waiting to be ready. And you’re never really going to fully be ready to get in that moment. So I would tell you, you know, you can’t be afraid of failure. You got to eventually put yourself out there, take action, and you’re going to make mistakes. I mean, you’re going to get kicked in the teeth, as you said, but you’ve got to be willing to take it on the chin. Because I know going back to my example, the capital raising story, at the time, it sucked. It was the worst feeling I ever had. But looking back now, I’m so thankful that I went through that because it only helped to better our business and improve our systems after that.

Rod
That’s how it works. I mean, you know, those setbacks are feedback and you need them. I mean, that’s–I wouldn’t be where I’m at today if I hadn’t had my nose bloodied dozens of times. But Brian, how about you, brother?

Brian
Yeah. I would say to anybody who is aspiring to be on space on the active side, you definitely have to learn to get out of your own way. Cody and I can definitely attest to, you know, how many opportunities that at the time. You know, you can talk yourself out of deals. And I think what’s really important to understand for everybody and I learned this when I was in the single-family space. I would not buy a house and then watch it for 12 months and see it appreciate by $50,000 after a little bit of cosmetic work is we’re always looking for the perfect deal. We’re looking for every box to be checked. But the reality is these deals are planned in pencil, non in Sharpie, not in pen. And you have to be adaptable. Right. We haven’t talked about what’s going on, but you’ve got a rising material market, you’ve got rising labor markets, you’ve got interest rates going up. You’ve got all these variables sort of working against you at times. So when you go into these business plans, you have to stress test them. You have to be flexible. There is no such thing as a perfect deal. But at a certain point, when you align with experience sponsors or you have the experience yourself, you start gaining confidence and you start not getting in your own way anymore. But that first deal is always the hardest. You have to talk yourself into it just as much as you talk yourself out of it.

Rod
And I see it with my students all the time, my coaching students, you know, that first deal, they’re six months in, they’re eight months in. Sometimes they’re a year and they’re moaning and bitching and then they get that deal. The next thing I know, they have four. You know, what just happened? You know, they get past that first deal. It’s a law of the first deal. You know, the scariest, is the most stressful, it takes the longest, and then is that all there was once you’re done? It’s like it’s crazy. So let’s go and shift gears. So let’s talk about where we are right now in the market. Okay? Tell me what you guys are doing as you’re evaluating deals today. Okay. Now it is June 9th. Like I said, Dimon just said, the head of– I think he’s head of Chase, just said that we’re heading into a hurricane. He said it could be a category four storm or it could just be a, you know, tropical depression. But he’s–you know, that’s kind of alarming when someone of his stature says something like that. Of course, had a Fannie Mae says we’re heading into a recession, had BOA, Bank of America says we’re heading into a recession. I mean, and they have to curb inflation. So give me your thoughts on where we are and how you guys are evaluating deals right now. I’d love to brainstorm that with you.

Cody
Yeah, well, no doubt. I think this is probably one of the most challenging market cycles to be in right now. I think we have so many variables that are affecting our industry that probably has not been experienced collectively all at one time, you know. And so I definitely think it’s the most challenging time. For us, number one, we are still staying very active, and I think that’s key. We’re seeing a lot of our competitors sitting on the sidelines waiting until some of this dust kind of settles. A lot of people are spooked, rightfully so, but we are staying active because I do think that that’s going to open up opportunities for those who are still looking to buy quality real estate right now. The second thing is is that and we made this pivot last year is to go more to the flight to quality. Focusing on quality assets in really prime locations that you can hold comfortably for five, seven, or ten years with the right debt structure to make sure that, you know, you’re a little bit more risk-averse. And so, you know, we’re looking at opportunities that are, you know, good quality assets. Again, A, B type assets, newer buildings that don’t have all of the deferred maintenance headaches, have strong demographics that make up our resident profile. And then we’re also looking for good, solid debt. And it’s refreshing now because we’re seeing agency debt now coming back into the market and being aggressive.

Rod
Like in the last couple of days, literally. Like days. Okay. Literally.

Cody
Days. Yeah.

Rod
Right.

Cody
Yeah. So we’re looking for those opportunities now to recap, you know, our deals looking at agency debt versus going bridge, which we’ve been doing for the last 18 months.

Rod
Right. Yeah. Bridge is dangerous. And, you know, like we penciled a deal with Bridge Debt recently, and we literally looked at, hey, what if the refinance rates at 8% when we have to refinance this thing out and you’ve got to look at it like that. I mean, you know, I remember when 8% was a fantastic rate. Okay. I’m just telling you guys– before you guys were around. I’m just telling you. But I remember it, okay. I remember doing back flips when it hit seven. So it’s not outside the realm of reality. And it could be very short term as well. I mean, it could happen very quickly. You know, they do– too many more of these–you know, 50 basis point bumps. And they’re going to have to do something because inflation–I mean, you know, I’m in a lot of cash right now, and it’s freaking killing me to hold on to this cash. But, you know, in a crisis, cash is King. And cash will give you the ability to, you know, pull the trigger on stuff that other people may not be able to, especially when lending tightens. But anything to add, Brian, or did he cover it?

Brian
No. Cody hit all the nails on the head, the quality assets, and then, you know, the thing that really kills most real estate deals and Cody hit this one last just to leverage, making sure you’re getting good debt, not over levering, giving yourself room. There’s a lot of stuff we can go into. But Cody hit the great point.

Rod
You guys are active in Texas, I would take it since that’s where you live. Yes? That’s your market?

Cody
Yes.

Rod
Okay. That’s great. Well, let me ask you this. What’s the driver for you guys? What’s driving, you know, your push for this? Cody, you start.

Cody
Well, you hear this term all the time, right? When we talk about legacy and generational wealth. But ultimately, that is our motivating factor. I’m a father and a husband. I have three kids. Our partner John is married. He has two kids. Brian has started looking to start a family soon. This is something for us that’s not just about the present moment, but, hey, what can we build that we can deliver and give to our families for multiple generations to come? And so that’s really the motivation behind this is creating that legacy and that generational wealth for our families, you know, for generations to come.

Rod
Got it. Anything to add to that, Brian? Is anything different for you?

Brian
No, very similar. You know, for me, I’ve always had the type of mentality I want to push the needle and show people what just somebody can do. You know, I come from a blue-collar background. My mom’s a stay-at-home mom’s a kid. My dad owned a small business. We always just got by. We weren’t poor, but we definitely were, you know, lower middle class. And I always told myself, like, go out there and show your peers, show your family, show your cousins or uncles or brothers, like, what can be done when you work hard and put your mind towards something.

Rod
Nice.

Brian
And as Cody said, you know, just creating that legacy, generational wealth, which sounds really cheesy, but it’s really what we’re about.

Rod
No, it’s true. So what is your definition of success, Brian?

Brian
Oh, my definition of success would definitely be in a position where we have time freedom, I think is really important. So having the ability to, you know, pick and choose when and who you want to work. I’m a workaholic. So I think, you know, even if I had all the money in the world tomorrow, I think I’d still be doing what I’m doing right now because I love it. And then definitely, you know, having the opportunity for me, there are things I’d love to do for my parents. You know, I’d love to help my parents, retire early or buy them a house. Do all the little things that they maybe never thought it was possible. My parents were lifetime renters. They had never owned a house. Actually bought their first house for them last year, which is a great feeling.

Rod
Pretty cool. Pretty cool. I did the same thing. I bought my parents a house here on a Canal, you know when my dad was alive. That’s pretty freaking cool.

Brian
Amazing feeling. I want to do more stuff like that. What can I do for my nephews? What can I do for, you know, my siblings and my brother and sister-in-law? Just trying to show them what’s possible when you put your mind to something.

Rod
I would encourage you to even think bigger than that, brother, because you know, you can do a lot of good in this world and the world needs it. Cody, how about you?

Cody
Yeah. For me, this may sound cheesy again, but I think when your goals and actions align to yield results. And for me, it’s like the idea and the goal of time freedom, you know, being able to take full control of my time back on my own efforts and give that back to my family, where it’s needed is going to be the first level of success. And then for me, like I said, it’s just really creating a sustainable business that’s something that we can eventually pass down to our children in the near future.

Rod
Love it. Love it. Love it. Well, I hope you guys can make my Denver boot camp. I’ve got one coming up at the end of July. There will be a bunch of– I’m shooting for a thousand people. We’ve got hundreds of already signed up. It’ll be incredible. It’s not too far for you guys in Denver’s United Hub. So I hope you can make it. It’ll be a great opportunity for you guys to network and raise capital and all that things that you do. But listen, I really appreciate you coming on the show. It’s a pleasure to meet you. Thank you for your kind words about the fact that you know, you’ve suffered through some of my podcast episodes. And, you know, so again, it’s Cody Laughlin. It’s Brian Alfaro. It’s Blue Oak Capital. And thanks, guys. Great to meet you and I hope I see you soon.

Cody
Thanks, Rod.

Brian
Thanks, Rod.

Outro
Rod, I know a lot of our listeners are wanting to take their multifamily investing business to the next level. Now, I know you’ve been hard at work helping our Warrior students do just that, using our “ACT” methodology, which is Awareness, Close, and Transform. Can you explain to the listeners how they can get our help?

Rod
You bet. Guys, we’ve been going non-stop for three years, building an amazing community of like-minded people. And our coaching students, which we call our warriors, have had extraordinary results. They’ve purchased thousands and thousands of units, and last year we did over 1000 units with our students. And we’re looking to grow this group and take it to the next level. We’re looking for people who want to follow a proven framework that’s really step by step and then leverage our systems and network to raise equity, to find and close deals, and to build partnerships nationwide. Now, our warrior community is finding success in any market cycle. So if you’re interested in finding out more about how you can become more of our incredible network and take advantage of the incredible opportunities that are coming very soon, apply to work with us at “MentorWithRod.com” or text “CRUSH” to “72345” and we’ll set up a call so you can check us out and we can check you out. That’s “MentorWithRod.com” or text “CRUSH” to “72345”.