Failing Your Way To Overwhelming Success

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’m thrilled you’re here. And I know you’re going to get tremendous value from the gentleman I’m interviewing today. His name is Rich Somers, and I’ve actually been on his podcast. He’s got a podcast called “The Multifamily Takeoff”. It’s been a couple of years, but he also co-hosts a networking event in San Diego, a real estate networking event, which is a fantastic way to build an investor list and build reach period. And he’s also doing something with what I would call turnkey short-term rentals, something called Fortune Cribs, which is an interesting idea. We’re going to focus on multifamily for this episode. He’s got over 350 doors and yeah, so I’ll leave it at that. Welcome to the show, brother.

Rich
Rod, thank you so much for having me on, man. It’s an honor to be here. I’m a big fan of your show, and I’m excited to dig into this conversation today. How are you doing?

Rod
I’m awesome, brother. Absolutely awesome. And thank you for that. And yeah, let’s get into it. So, you know, talk a little bit about I know that you had a corporate job there in San Diego, and you’ve since left that, maybe you could just talk a little bit about your background and how, why real estate and how you got to where you’re at now. I think that’d be very interesting.

Rich
Yeah. So I grew up middle class. My mom was an immigrant from Taiwan. My parents know the value of working hard and saving your money. And I was taught from a young age to go to school, get good grades, go to College and get a job. And for the most part, that’s what I did. I have a background in retail and sales. When I was going to College, I started selling cell phones and I started getting into car sales. And that was the first moment in my life that I realized, wow, I can actually impact a little bit of how much I make. And so I wanted to sell commercial real estate out of College. I interviewed with CB Richard Ellis in Grubb & Ellis, a couple of commercial brokerages. And this is 2008. And as you guys know and your listeners know, things started coming down at that time. And so they said, hey, we love your hustle, but we had to pull this internship positions? And so I found myself at a time, ’08, no jobs out there. I’m working on a car lot, trying to figure out what I’m going to do with my life. I backed into a job as an air traffic controller with the FAA, which is a government job. And I ended up doing it for 11 years. And along the way, I remembered real estate. And I read the book “Rich Dad Poor Dad”. I started getting into podcasts, and I started reading a lot of books and just really becoming obsessed with how I can restructure my life in my business in order to transition from earning my money as an employee to earning my money as an investor. And so I did at the time what a lot of people say is too risky. I cashed out my 401(k) and I pulled out a home equity line of credit against my primary residence. And I started buying some cash-producing real estate. The first deal was 11 units in Cincinnati. Shortly after that, I partnered with a couple of my partners today, we joint ventured on a 32 unit building in Indianapolis and launched a podcast, bought some short-term rentals along the way, learned how to raise money, tipped down a couple of larger syndications. And today I own about 350 doors and about $35 million worth of a real estate. And since I have left the day job for good. And yeah, it’s been exciting. So that’s my story in a nutshell.

Rod
Okay. Where are the assets that you syndicated?

Rich
Yeah. So the two deals that we syndicated were both in Greensboro, North Carolina. One was the Arbors, 150 units, townhome-style community. We bought that one last year in the spring, and then last summer in August, we closed on our second syndication out there, 145 units. Timber Creek’s 1980s product, also in Greensboro.

Rod
Fantastic market. Sounds like great assets. That’s exactly what we like. The 80s built product. Townhouses, to me, are the best you can get because of people living above them or below them. So, yeah, those sound like really nice assets. So let’s talk about this for a minute. Now, obviously, those indications you did with either partners or other team members. First of all, how did you meet those team members? Number one. And then if you would talk about briefly what role you play on those teams and maybe what role they play, it’d be interesting to hear if there’s some diversity there.

Rich
Yeah. So how I met my partners was they were air traffic controllers as well at the time. So we were in the break room one day, and my partner Mike had just bought a fourplex in Cleveland. And I remember talking to him, and this is before I even got into real estate. And I thought, wow, that is so cool that you bought a fourplex in Cleveland. I want to learn more about that. And so he was like, go read this book. And I went and read the book. I think it was like a real estate investing book by Brandon Turner. And read the thing and we hopped on a call, started chatting, and one thing led to another. And as this relationship evolved and we were all individually looking for our own deals, I came up with the idea and I approached them and I said, hey, guys, what if we put our money together and figure out a way to take down a little bit larger deal? And they liked it. And that was the 32 units that we ended up buying. In terms of the roles, you know, we do a good job of kind of staying in our lanes. We don’t like to overlap a lot of roles. And so my primary roles within our group are acquisitions. So establishing deal flow, networking with brokers. And then I also focus a lot on capital raise, investor relations, and raising capital from investors. So those are my two specialties, and then my partners, obviously, they cover a lot of the other things, and we hire out some of the admin stuff as well.

Rod
Okay, well, I want to drill down on just a little more, if you don’t mind, because this will really help people that are listening that aren’t sure what role they can play. So you brought your sales experience, and you’re obviously an incredible communicator. Air traffic control. Very cool. I’m sure you’ve got a lot of cool stories to tell there.

Rich
Absolutely.

Rod
You know, high stress. Incredible high stress. So that’s really interesting. But, you know, the fact that you’re a great communicator, I knew that’s what you were going to say. Okay. I already knew you were going to be in acquisitions and investor relations and broker relations, because if not, then you would not be playing in your superpower. Let’s talk for a minute about what your partners are doing. So what are their lanes? Talk about that a little bit.

Rich
Yeah. So my partner is Sean, he’s our primary underwriter. So he underwrites all the deals that we decide to take a deeper dive into. He also manages a lot of the rehab and works with a lot of the vendors and contractors. He has a background in construction. His dad actually owns a construction company, and so that was kind of his niche, and he’s been doing a great job at it. My other partner, Mike, is our asset manager. So he works side by side with the property managers at the different properties. And he also works side by side with our legal counsel and also side by side with our CPA. And so that’s kind of how we have the partnership structured.

Rod
No, that’s really good. And so obviously, Sean is analytical, but he’s also got a construction background, which is fantastic. I mean, that’s a real win. And then Mike handles the asset management, and both those guys were air traffic control as well?

Rich
Yeah. The three of us were air traffic controllers. And yeah, it’s funny because when we got started, Rod, we got started, and we thought it’d be a five-year journey to get to where we’re trying to go, but it happened a lot quicker than that. You know, I think it’s easy to underestimate what you can do over a two to three-year span if you really hone in on your craft.

Rod
No question. Now, does one of them live out there in South Carolina or you’re just doing it remotely?

Rich
Yeah. So the three of us all live here in San Diego.

Rod
You do. Okay.

Rich
Yeah. And we have co-sponsors on both of those larger syndications. They are based out of Charlotte, North Carolina.

Rod
Perfect.

Rich
And so we basically co-GP’d both of those syndications with them. They have their own property management company that self-manages all their assets, and so we were able to leverage them.

Rod
Okay, fantastic. Okay, so you’ve got boots on the ground there. Awesome. So let me ask you this. You know, it’s not all gravy and perfection. Talk about some setbacks or some early failures that happened on this progression that may have contributed to– that you see may contribute to future success or maybe already have. Can you speak to any setbacks? I call them seminars because they’re learning experiences. Can you speak to any of those?

Rich
Yeah, we could talk about this topic for an hour.

Rod
Yeah.

Rich
You know success is never a straight line. Right. And our first 32 unit deal out in Indianapolis, we had all the problems. First of all, we bought it from a slumlord. There were six down units when we brought the property. I think when we were out there for inspection day, I saw a drug deal go down. I saw some tenants get arrested by the cops. This is the middle of the day afternoon on a Monday. And so there were a lot of issues. We closing the property. More tenants move out unexpectedly. I feel like when you take over these older properties that have a lot of issues and you try to bring structure to the property, you’re going to have people move out. Right. And so then shortly after that, you know, we’re renovating units and trying to release them, and Covid hits. And we’re like, oh, crap. Like, what the hell are we going to do? We’re not releasing these units. And our occupancy is starting to dip. We’re a little bit low on capital. And so we’re seeing our operating account balance diminish, and we’re hopping on calls and having serious conversations with each other like, hey, what are we going to do to pull ourselves out of this? And so we had to get creative, and we had to just realize, hey, in the thick of the pandemic, when all this first dropped, like, we had to just throw concessions out there. We had to reduce our rents, and we had to just do whatever it took to release these units and get people to live at the property. And so that’s what we did. And we got low on capital, but we got creative and we were able to source a private equity lender who basically, lent us a second, unsecured on the property, which gave us the rest of the capital we needed to finish out our business plan. And fast forward to today, we just closed on that property. We sold it three weeks ago.

Rod
Congratulations.

Rich
Thank you. We 3x the value of the property. We bought it for, mid-30s a door. We just exited around 100 a door. We only renovated 50% of the units, but we did a good job of just offering the property and cleaning up the deferred maintenance, and bringing some structure to a property that was just all over the place. We did buy in a great location, but the main thing–

Rod
Really? A 30 a door, you bought in a great location?

Rich
Yeah.

Rod
Wow.

Rich
Yeah, I know. Surprising, Rod.

Rod
Find me a deal for 30 a door now. Would you please?

Rich
I know. I know, it’s crazy. It’s crazy. And, you know, the times that we’re in it, it’s very, very competitive. You know, cap rates have compressed, yields have compressed a little bit. But the point is, if you do a good job and operate these properties, for example, Rod, every single month that we owned it, literally every month, we owned it for 25 months. The gross revenue or the gross income went up every single month. Right. And it’s still going up. And I think that the group that bought it from us because of all this rent growth and because they’re buying in a great location, I think there’s still a lot of meat on the bone, and I think they’re going to do well as well.

Rod
Yeah. And by the way, guys, I don’t know, that comes up very often on the show. When you’re selling an asset like this, it’s important to leave meat on the bone because otherwise there’s no value add potential for a buyer. So, you know, a very common strategy is to show, you know, a few renovated units and show what you can get in rents to prove the rental amount. And then that shows, you know, a buyer that there’s meat on the bone and they can make money. So let me ask you this. On that asset, did you have a third-party property management company that played a role in this? And how heavily were you involved to have that income increase every month, which is very impressive, actually. Very unusual, honestly. Usually, it dips for a few months before it comes back up. And I’m sure you’ve probably had that, actually. I’m sure you had a little bit of that at the start, but then it trended up. Is that an accurate statement?

Rich
Yeah.

Rod
Okay.

Rich
No, 100%. So we use a third party to manage this asset, and it was a challenge. You know, we’re out of state. We’re in California.

Rod
Right.

Rich
And, you know, we’re using a third party. This property is not large enough to justify on-site management. It’s 32 units. And so we’re using a third party. They’re not on site. The owners are in California. And so what do you think they’re going to do? You know, these guys are new. So they’re going to try to take advantage in specific ways. Not all third-party management companies will, but some will. Right. And so you got to be aware of that. And one of the challenges with using a third party in our experience with this particular property was the leasing. We would inquire on our marketed units, on their website, or via Zillow. We would shoot a message, you know, from a girlfriend’s account or a buddy out here, shoot a message and see how long it would take them to respond. And often it would either take four or five days to get a response or there would be no response at all. And so we realize we’re like, you know what? This is not going to get us to where we’re trying to get the property by going this route. So we decided to hire our own leasing. This is a good tip for your listeners. We decided to hire our own leasing agent who was a real estate agent, residential agent, living in the same submarket where this apartment building was. She was young. She was a hustler. She was looking to bring in an additional commission. And so we said, hey, her name is Leah. We said, hey, Leah, we have 32 units. We’re renovating these units. We need a good leasing agent that lives close to the property that can go lease these units up for us and we’ll pay you a commission. And she said, great, I love to. And so she ended up being our on-site leasing agent if you would. And we went to the property management company and we said, hey, your lease-up process is not working for us. This is our solution. Would you like to collaborate? And they ended up collaborating with us and it ended up working out great.

Rod
So they stayed on. Okay, well, that was generous of you, leave them on because I would have probably lost my, you know, what over that.

Rich
Yeah.

Rod
How were you handling the CapEx with the work that was being done? Was the management company supervising that? Did they get an override for supervising that or were you trying to do that remotely in-house? How did you do that?

Rich
Yeah. So the first batch of units, it was the eight down units. We started right away when we closed. And as I mentioned earlier, my partner, Sean, his dad owns a construction company in Louisville, Kentucky.

Rod
Okay.

Rich
The drive is about a couple of hours to Indianapolis. And so for those first eight units, his dad brought his crew up there. They basically lived– they stayed at a hotel right down the street. And they just turned those units really quick for us.

Rod
Nice.

Rich
Now, after that, his dad was like, hey, I can’t do more projects with you guys. So we had to pivot and start using the property management company and some of their in-house contractors. The time it took for them to turn the units and the cost, the cost went up the time to turn the units obviously went up. And so that was definitely a bottleneck. But we figured out a way to make it work. It wasn’t ideal, but we had these conversations, Rod, and we’re just like, hey, should we move on, or should we just figure out a way, a solution to continue to collaborate with these guys and get this property to a place where we think it needs to be in order to refinance or exit? And we had no intentions to sell at this time. But as you know, this market has been hot.

Rod
Right.

Rich
We saw a property next door get listed at a price what we thought was very, very high, a lot more than we thought we could get for ours. Spoke to the broker, and he’s like, yeah, we could get you that. And to circle back on a point you made earlier, a great point you made, Rod. You know, you always want to leave a little bit of meat on the bone for the other buyer. Right now, in this climate, buyers will pay more for unrenovated units than they will for renovated units. Let that sink in. Buyers will pay more in today’s climate for unrenovated units than renovated units. It’s crazy.

Rod
Yeah. That absolutely is the case as long as they can see that light at the end of the tunnel with rent increases. I want to circle back to the management for a minute because I think this is really beneficial to my listeners. So when you’ve got an asset like this, guys, that you can’t hire on-site management, on-site leasing, on-site maintenance, you want to be very, very careful because some of these other areas can be a real profit center for the management companies. I.e. maintenance, for example, and CapEx can be a huge profit center. You know, they’ll hire some kid at $20 an hour and bill them out at 100. So it’s really important that you keep your eye on the ball. But I want to salute you on this one, Rich because the way you handled the leasing was really, really impressive, And I’m not sure I would have even handled it that well. I would have probably said next and got somebody else, but you went ahead and made it work, which is really impressive. And, you know, one thing I’ll also add, guys, it’s critical, regardless of what size multifamily you have, that you’ve got eyes on the property every single day that somebody is getting a break in rent and to maybe do the yard work to pick up the trash, to keep an eye on things, to make sure drugs aren’t coming in, and so on and so forth. I’ll give you a little tip that I teach at my boot camps, and that is one thing that works really well if you can find it, especially in the size, place that you had there, what was it? 32 units? If you can find an old retired couple where the guy was a contractor of some sort. So he can do anything with his hands. You know, it doesn’t matter what the trade was, but he can do minor maintenance, make-ready units, turn them over, stuff like that. And the woman is that woman that’s sitting at the window with binoculars and everybody’s business seeing what’s going on. If you can find that retired couple, I’m telling you, they’re worth their weight in gold because they’ll make you money. But did you have somebody on-site there that was keeping an eye on things, or did you just rely on the management company to do regular inspections? How did you do it?

Rich
You know, it’s funny you mentioned that because the leasing agent that we pivoted to, she ended up being our boots on the ground because she was going to tell us things that the property management company was just simply not going to tell us. So, for example, if the hallways were dirty, the common areas had trash, dog poop all over the front lawn. We weren’t going to know that being in California. Right. The property management company is not going to tell us that. And so she ended up being our boots on the ground. So whenever she went to go lease up a new unit or do a property tour, she would take photos and be like, hey, guys, there’s trash all over the common areas here. And so we would take that info and then we would pass it along to our property management company. And so that’s kind of how it worked. And so that’s a great tip for your listener out there. You know, if you’re using third-party and you’re living out of state and this property is not large enough for on-site management, you should look into, you don’t have to do it, but you should look into bringing on your own leasing manager or leasing agent, if you would, to kind of be that boots on the ground for you.

Rod
Yeah. Even in a duplex, $25 off the rent to pick up the trash. And, you know, maybe you pay them all the yard, whatever, anything that they can do, make a little money. But be your eyes on the place is incredibly, incredibly important. So as you know, Rich, we’ve got a lot of people that you know, join in on both of our shows that are aspiring multifamily investors. They know they want to get into this business. And, you know, of course, I encourage you to come to my boot camp, if that’s the case. But that said, what would you tell those people that haven’t taken action yet? You know, of course, in this business, some of my most successful students are the ones that are super analytical. They’re the ones that have to check off every box before they make a move. Speak to them for a minute.

Rich
Well, first of all, there’s a couple of thought processes when anyone goes to make a decision and they have an idea they want to act on. Most people and I used to be this way myself. I had to teach myself out of this. Most people, when they have an idea, it’s a three-step process. One, they have an idea, okay, I’m going to do it. But number two, they come up with a plan. And then number three, they commit. The problem with that thought process is when you come up with the plan, you wait for it to be perfect. And because your plan is never going to be perfect for you to commit, most people never end up committing and taking action on their goals, whether it’s buying multifamily, whether it’s starting a new business, whatever it might be that gets you excited. But the successful entrepreneurs and real estate investors that I’ve been studying, their thought process is a little bit different. One, they have an idea, okay, I’m going to do this. But number two is not planning. Number two is they commit. And number three, step three is to figure out how. And so when you can actually train your brain to think that way, you will actually become more and more successful as time evolves, I mean, especially if you’re younger. I mean, if you’re younger out there and you’re between the ages of 25 and 40, this is the time that you should be taking action and taking on a little bit of risk. I mean, real estate investing and apartment investing at the end of the day are really not that risky. I mean, look at what the lending environment is like, you know, non-recourse debt, two and a half percent interest only. That’s because it’s a very, very low-risk asset class. And the lenders, I mean, they are your biggest partner. And the other thing I’ll say about this for your listeners there, Rod, is this. You know, it’s scary taken action, buying your first deal. It’s scary cashing out your 401(k). I mean, I was scared, too, when I bought that first deal and cashed out your 401(k). All your friends, family, they’re going to highlight the risk because they care about you. And here’s my takeaway at the end of the day, looking back. All those risks that people alluded to, you could run out of money. This could happen. That could happen. All those risks are real. So put some weight on them. But on the other side of the balance scale is another risk. And it’s this. I could be 80 years old one day, laying in my bed, staring at the ceiling, kicking myself, because I never tried anything in life. How about that risk? That’s a risk, too, that no one talks about.

Rod
I do, but yes, thank you. In fact, you know, one of the things that I stress vehemently is don’t be in the same place you are right now, a year from now unless you absolutely love where you are right now. And, you know, I tell the story, there’s this nurse in Australia, a Hospice nurse named Bronnie Ware. So, you know, she took care of patients when they were about to die. And she asked him a question. And the question was do you have any regrets? And she wrote a book about it. It’s called “The Top Five Regrets of Dying”. The number one regret was not living the life I could have lived, living someone else’s life, not doing what I know I’m capable of. And so, you know, I can’t even imagine anything worse than that, frankly. So good feedback, brother. What would you say is, now this is a very general statement. You can answer it any way you like. It does not have to be real estate related but what would you say is the best advice you’ve ever received, Rich? Think about it. Maybe it could be an– if you struggle with that one, I’m going to ask you about an aha moment. Like a real aha moment. I think you’ve alluded to some already, but answer it any way you like.

Rich
There are a couple, one of my favorite quotes out there. I don’t even know who came up with this quote, but it’s “don’t fear failure, fear regret”.

Rod
Yeah.

Rich
And that’s one of my biggest why’s. The other big takeaway that has really propelled me recently, is knowing your worth and knowing what your time is worth. For example, the big aha moment for me was I was refinancing the first eleven-unit building that I had bought and the initial appraisal on the refinance came in a little bit low. I spent one hour going through all the recently sold apartment buildings between eight units and 16 units in the whole Cincinnati MSA that I felt would increase the value of this appraisal. And so I spent one hour going through it. I submitted it, and that one hour actually increased my loan proceeds by $55,000. And that was the aha moment when I realized, wow, my time is actually worth $55,000 an hour now. And so it’s a great lesson for your listeners. So I think as soon as you can start delegating tasks out that are $15, $20, $30 an hour, the sooner you’re able to free up more time to actually focus on growing your business and working on your business. Not being a worker bee in your business.

Rod
Fantastic advice and I’d like to expand on it if you’ll humor me.

Rich
Of course.

Rod
I’m going to tell you, you know, with my students, my warriors, my coaching students, occasionally I’ll get this question. You know, I’m overwhelmed, but I know I need to hire some help. Who do you think I should hire from my business? My answer is always the same, and that is an executive assistant. Someone that can help you. And that person can be a VA for $3 to $5 in the Philippines or in Latin America. But that will free up your time. And I’m so glad you brought up the time value conversation because guys, you should not be doing– I mean, listen, I love to sit on my lawnmower. I love to do things for my wife, and I will do them even though they’re way, you know, beneath my skill set, including taking out the trash. But by God, you know, if you can hire someone to do as many of these things as possible, it frees you up to, you know, really focus on making some serious money. And that’s a great, great thing. And then the last thing I want to circle back to, or the next thing is you mentioned not fearing failure. And guys, we fail our way to success. It’s never a straight line. It’s not a failure. It’s a seminar. You know, those of you don’t know, I’ve built 27 businesses. Several have been worth, you know, tens of millions of dollars. Most are spectacular flaming seminars. But I don’t give up. I learn and I move on. It’s only a failure if you don’t get the lesson, you don’t get back up. Right? So you mentioned a quote. Let me ask you this. Who inspires you? What inspires you? Is there anyone you look at that’s just, you know, alive or dead that inspires you? And then do you have any other quotes that you love? Because honestly, this in any business is 80% to 90% mindset in psychology, as you know. You know, I love spending a little time on this topic. So again, who inspires and any other quotes?

Rich
Yes, Rod. You know, it’s interesting because when I first got into real estate investing, I thought it was 100% about strategies. That’s all I focused on. I listened to podcasts, I read books. I just learned strategy. And looking back, I wish I knew what I know now. And the strategy is only one-third of the equation of being a successful real estate investor and entrepreneur. Mindset, you need time, business architecture, knowing your worth, all those things, leadership. I wish I would have started studying those things sooner, but now I am. Right. And these are the real needle movers. You know, there’s a lot of things within your business that you do daily that make you feel busy, but they’re not really moving the needle, you know. And so to answer your question, I’ve been reading a lot of books, like right now I just finished “The E-Myth Revisited” by Michael Gerber. Great book. And he talks about not working in your business but working on your business. Talks a lot about mindset, business architecture. I love studying a lot of these entrepreneurs out there. Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos, how did they create their dream? You know, those are the guys that I’m studying right now. And those are some of the guys that get me excited.

Rod
Oh, yeah, Elon, what a freaking rock star he is. Good Lord. And Bezos, although I disagree with him politically, I really love his adage about making everything about the client. Everything is about the customer experience, which is why literally you can go on Amazon and buy something in 30 seconds. Anything. You can literally buy anything in 30 seconds, which is that’s what that dedication and focus are brought about. And then you talk about ” The E-Myth Revisited”, just so you don’t know if you guys haven’t read that book. It’s one I read regularly because we’re doing this in my thought leadership business right now. And what you do is you basically McDonalized the business. Is really what it is. Where you set up systems or procedures, literally, and I even said this today in our leadership meeting because we’re doing our SLPs where I’ve got a new COO. And he’s tasked with this now where literally if something happens, we can hire somebody from McDonald’s to step in and do this particular role because it’s so well documented and measured. And yeah, it’s a great book, guys. You know, for when you start your own business and are involved in a business, Michael Gerber’s ” The E-Myth Revisited” is fantastic. So let me ask you this. What do you think is and we probably alluded to this, but I just want to make sure that I’m accurate on this. What do you think is your unique skill set or superpower that has helped you the most?

Rich
Yeah, I think it’s going back a little bit. And, you know, the sales background that I had growing up, having the ability to talk to people and communicate my vision, being a visionary, kind of having an entrepreneur mindset, helping others, providing value, knowing my worth. I think that’s my biggest thing so far. Another thing that I like doing is I like giving back. I didn’t use to do this when I was younger, but giving back and helping others, realize what’s possible because growing up I didn’t know what was possible. It wasn’t that I was not cut out to be an entrepreneur or real estate investor. I just was never introduced to it. And so for me now, I love coming on podcasts like yours and telling my story, because if I can just inspire one or two people to realize what’s possible, that’s a great feeling. Do you know what I mean?

Rod
Well, listen, you know, I tell the story that we’ve been– yes, I absolutely know what you mean. And I really appreciate again, you’re bringing up some great topics that in my opinion, I have to elaborate on because they’re that good. And that’s a huge one because, you know, we’ve been taught–you know, I tell the story about having an epiphany in my backyard. I built this $8 million house on the beach. And then two months after I built it, I’m getting depressed. And, you know, we’re taught that we have to achieve to be happy. And that’s when I started my philanthropic stuff. This is 21 years ago and started feeding families and a whole bunch of other things. And, you know, we have to achieve to be happy. But when you’re giving back in any fashion, you’re happily achieving. And I know that’s a play on words, but it’s an important play on words. And I got to tell you, whatever you give, you get back 100 to 1000 fold. And you know this. You know, it’s one of the biggest secrets to success. You give until it hurts because it always comes back to you. And then, you know, Tony Robbins calls it the science of achievement because achievement really is a science. You want to learn multifamily, come to one of my boot camps. There’s a blueprint. You just have to do what the maps tell you to do, and we tell you what to do. But fulfillment is an art, and so it’s the science of achievement and the art of fulfillment. Fulfillment, which is what you’re talking about when you’re giving back as an art and you have to decide what juices you. For you, it’s helping people. Me as well, obviously. I love what I’m doing right now. And, you know, whatever it is, maybe you’re helping people learn this business. Maybe you’re helping the elderly, you’re helping children, animals, the environment. Whatever it is, it doesn’t matter. But give back in some fashion, and you’ll be happily achieving, and you’re going to get to success faster. That’s just the way God, the universe, whatever you believe works.

Rich
Yes. And to your point, Rod, I think I first heard this when you came on our show about a year and a half ago, but you said something along the lines of growth and progress leads to happiness with most people.

Rod
That’s right.

Rich
I didn’t realize this as a kid growing up or in my 20s or early 30s. I did not realize this. And once I realized and discovered that, things started changing for me. There was a time where we took down our first couple of syndications last year, and I had reached financial freedom, and I had hired out. I had hired an assistant. And so I had a lot of free time for about four months at the end of 2021. And I was traveling a little bit. And for the first time in my life, I was asking myself questions of like, what truly makes me happy? What do I want to accomplish on this planet for the rest of my life? And I never had time to even fathom to ask myself those kinds of questions before. And so when you have a chance to ask yourself those questions, things start moving for you. But I discovered what really makes me happy. I sat around for four months, traveled. It was fun. But what really makes me happy is growth and progress. If I’m not growing, I’m going to get bored. And so that’s why I decided to put the pedal back on the metal and decided to launch another company in the short-term rental space where we help clients, you know, buy short-term rentals and select markets and still looking at multifamily. But, you know, the point is Rod and for your listeners is like, you know, growth and progress is what makes me happy. And maybe that’s not what makes you happy, but at the end of the day, you need to figure out what that why is for you.

Rod
No, growth and progress make everybody happy. I’m just going to tell you that right now. It’s one of the things I teach. When I teach a weekly planning process at my events, it’s never about the goals. I tell the story. I worked 20 years for that house on the beach and two months after I moved in I got depressed because I didn’t know what I was going to do next. You know, like the good book says, without a vision the people perish. You need a vision for your future but, you know, you absolutely need to, you know, be progressing and you need to acknowledge that progress as well. So every time you look at your planner and you check some things off, patch yourself on the back because you’re going to have delays, you’re going to have setbacks. But if you’re progressing you’re going to be happy. Super important. Rich, thanks for coming on the show, buddy. You’ve added a ton of value. It’s a pleasure to see you again and I’m really impressed with what you’re up to, brother.

Rich
Yeah, Rod, this was an awesome. It’s been a pleasure being on your show. Totally enjoyed the conversation. I love talking mindset. Good to see you and we’ll have to have you on our show again here in the next year or so and catch up.

Rod
Sounds good, brother. Take care.

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 nonstop 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”.