Derek Clifford is a successful single and multifamily real estate investor, adding 13 out-of-state units to his portfolio in his first year of acquisitions while working a full-time corporate job. Today he is a multifamily investor controlling 250+ apartment units with over $20M AUM (and climbing).
Here’s some of the topics we covered:
- D-Class Assets
- Retiring From Your W2 Job
- Avoiding Real Estate Brain Damage
- Lifestyle Choices
- Backup Resources
- The 3 Types of Freedom
- Joint Ventures & Syndication
To find out more about partnering or investing in a multifamily deal: Text Partner to 72345 or email Partner@RodKhleif.com
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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 enjoy the young man I’m interviewing today. His name is Derek Clifford, and Derek is an author. He’s a podcast host. He’s a vlogger. He’s got his own podcast called “Elevate Your Equity”. And he’s in 250 plus apartment units. And some really cool things that we’re going to talk about that are a little unusual, actually, as it relates to Derek and his lifestyle and what he’s accomplished and how he’s accomplished it. So I’m excited to get into this. Derek, welcome to the show, brother.
Derek
Rod, it is an honor to be on the show. Thanks for having me.
Rod
Thank you. Well, so why don’t you talk a little bit about your background, which is the first thing we always do anyway, but, you know, go ahead and touch on some of the things that I think we’re going to drill down on, as well as it relates to you know, some things you’ve done in this journey. So take it away, my friend.
Derek
Sure. Do you mind if I start at the beginning? When I first got–
Rod
Please.
Derek
Alright. I first got involved in real estate, like many great investors do, which is totally by accident. When we first started, I had just an idea to do the Dave Ramsey thing to create financial independence for myself, which is to save my way into retirement and start investing everything in stocks and hopefully, live off of a 4% dividend you know, that nest egg creates. Right. And it didn’t take me long to realize it was going to take me 20 years to be able to save that amount of money up to do the things that I want to do in retirement. So anyway, you know, I have this going on in my head. There’s been no real estate investing experience in my family at all. And moving forward, I found my wife eventually after working my first job, and she had just bought a condo in Washington state. Now, the problem is, I mean, normally that’s a great thing because she was doing her grad school there, and then she could sell the condo and she could pay for grad school with that. And normally that would be a great thing. But unfortunately, she bought it a month before the 2008 crisis or the mortgage meltdown happened.
Rod
No, it will.
Derek
Yes. And so she paid $250,000 for a condo out there and about three months later is worth 90 and completely decimated in. By the time that she had graduated, on year four, we had recovered value up to about 150. But, I mean, I’m a starving student. I just finished working. I’m in the corporate world. There’s no way that we can leave Washington State for her to start her residency in California. Right. And sell the thing. So the only thing that we could think of to do was to just rent it because we couldn’t come up with the difference. So we did a rehab, we put some people in there, and we started renting it. And then as we’re driving down from Washington State and we had some of these great renters in there, it got my gears thinking. I’m like, wait a minute. We are collecting $250 a month in cash flow off of this condo that we had purchased. And that was done by accident in the worst possible time that you could buy. Right. So what would happen if we actually did this on purpose, you know? And then I got my gears really thinking. So then I started you know, my analysis paralysis, and my over-analytical brain started diving into everything I could find regarding real estate. And that’s when I found “Rich Dad Poor Dad” as well, and started getting the mentality structured around what an investment portfolio looks like and who I have to be in order to have that portfolio. So you know, from there, we started with single-family homes and took me about–
Rod
May I ask you a quick question? Sorry to interrupt. What was your background up to that point? Were you still a student or did you have a career yet? Did you start a job yet? And if so, what was it?
Derek
Yes, I had a career in Chemical Engineering.
Rod
Engineering. Got it.
Derek
I was in Engineering, but then I got my graduate degree while this was happening in business and then became a project manager. So I kind of made a switchover, but they’re very complementary, believe it or not. And so, yeah, I was working as a project manager. And when I made the move down to California, that’s when we started to really put the jets on actually taking action. And so in the first year that we started seriously investing, we went from zero to about 12 to 16 properties.
Rod
Where were they located?
Derek
All in Indianapolis, Indiana.
Rod
So you did it remotely and you hired a property management company out there that handled single-family properties?
Derek
That’s right. I hired two because I didn’t want to have all of my eggs in one basket because if something happened with one, I could rely on the other. And when you have six and six properties with each, it’s enough for each property manager to take you seriously. So that’s kind of what we did.
Rod
That was smart. How did you identify and find those assets? How did you have them inspected and so on and so forth if you lived in California?
Derek
Yeah. That’s where networking really comes in. Bigger pockets back then in 2017, 2018 was reaching its heyday. Right? So there’s a ton of value that you could get there for free. And so before I had purchased all these properties, I went out there and diligently you know, doing what an Engineering Project Manager does. I blocked out all of my time that I was going to spend in Indianapolis to say, this is who I’m going to visit. And I visited I think at least 20 people. Lenders, property managers, contractors. And I identified who I was going to work with from the beginning. Everyone was telling me, you don’t need to drive the streets. You don’t need to go and waste your time looking for a property that is you know, overgrowing and drives for dollars. Work with the people who know how to find them. That’s a more sustainable way to do it. So I spent my time talking with all those folks, and then eventually just that network was supporting me. So by the time I had my first couple of properties, I had many property managers to choose from and a network of investors who were local that I could also ask if we could partner together or if we could you know, ask for recommendations.
Rod
Did you do some of those deals with partners then?
Derek
I did not.
Rod
Okay.
Derek
I did them all with my own capital upfront. Although looking back, I think more scale would have been achieved if I did pull in partners. But you know, we all have a journey to walk.
Rod
Oh, sure. Sorry, I interrupted you. Please continue with your story. Forgive me. I shouldn’t do that. I apologize.
Derek
No, no. It’s okay, Rod. I think you know, there’s not too much more after this. After we got a single-family portfolio up, we maxed out our ten loans that you can get with Fannie Mae. Right? So then we started looking into multifamily, and I took out a few people that I knew from work to Indianapolis to show them what I was doing because they wanted to see what I was doing. And I was like, well, I’ll tell you what, guys, I’m going to Indy, right? So if you want to come and join me for a certain amount of dates, I’m going to be here from X to Y. So come out and join me. Right. And I can introduce you to my people and everything. So we did that. And the three people that are with, we decided to get into our first multifamily and we did a JV. And it was an 18 unit apartment building, and we bought it for 350K.
Rod
In Indy?
Derek
In Indy. Yeah.
Rod
That’s a good price. Good price. When was that?
Derek
2018. Late 2018.
Rod
Wow. That’s really good for that time frame. C minus asset. D asset. What was it, D?
Derek
It was D.
Rod
You had a seminar then? I’m sure you had several seminars.
Derek
You better believe it. Yeah, we learned a lot on that property. We spent a lot more money than we did on rehab. So those of you out there that are listening, you know, I always tell everyone this. It’s like whenever you look to start to get your first rental property, whether it’s a multifamily or single-family, just expect to hit some lumps. And that’s just a learning experience. You don’t know what questions to ask until you’re actually in it. So you know, if once you frame your situation away from trying to make a slam dunk from the first get-go to trying to learn something on your first one, that’s what I recommend.
Rod
No question. Yes. We’ll circle back to that asset here in a minute because I know there’ll be some lessons there that you can share. I’ve had D assets myself. I strongly urge all my students to stay away from them for a number of reasons. So that was the first one. Let’s just go there right now. So what happened with that? What went wrong?
Derek
Well, first of all, we were working with a wholesaler, so we only have 14 days to decide whether or not we were going to– once we signed the paperwork and put our deposit in, we only had 14 days for due diligence. So that is red flag number one.
Rod
Right.
Derek
Red flag number two is I had a team in place for single families, but not for multifamily. I mistakenly assumed that we could just use that team right away in the multifamily business. And sometimes you can get away with that. But with something as big as this, that was a mistake.
Rod
Yes.
Derek
And then the other thing was we just underestimated how long it was going to take to reposition the asset because we kicked everyone out of the asset so that we could reposition it because we had to do new electrical, we had to do new plumbing, we had to redo all of the units, like, everything. And then you know, I could tell you more, Rod.
Rod
Oh, no, listen, just by what you just said, I can’t even imagine. It’s amazing you still have all your hair. And it’s not gray because that is a massive undertaking. Stressful undertaking. Again, guys, those of you listening, please listen to me when I tell you to avoid D assets. You know, I’ve had people killed in them, around them, behind them, you know, crack houses, whore houses, believe it or not. Major drug rings. I mean, you name it, I’ve seen it all. And life is too freaking short. And there’s enough low-hanging fruit in the C asset class, C plus B, you don’t have to mess with it. Are you in agreement?
Derek
I completely agree.
Rod
All right, good.
Derek
If you have to do something like this where you’re having to talk with the police for operations, that’s really not a good thing. And you know, one thing that I can tell, looking back, Rod, one thing that I should have looked at from the beginning and knowing right away this was going to be an issue was when we were under contract, the broker came by and told me, said, hey, I’ve got an unusual request. The seller is looking to see if you can basically amend the purchase agreement to allow him to dip into $3,000 of your earnest money so he can replace a furnace in the property.
Rod
That’s what we call a clue.
Derek
Yes. What is going on here? But regardless of that, that was one thing that I just didn’t pick up on. So we have contractors stealing from us, right, Rod. You have people where– because here’s the other layer. None of us lived in Indy. None of the partners lived in Indy. Only a property manager out there that we didn’t get along with well, because one of my partners didn’t jive with them.
Rod
Right.
Derek
And it was just really, really hard. And we learned a lot about what not to do. Almost everything that you could make a mistake on we did on that property.
Rod
Yes, I totally get it. I could just see that train wreck coming, and only because I’ve experienced it myself. And I’ve interviewed people as well and know people that have done the same thing. And I’ve got students that before they came to me bought you know, assets like that, this nightmare assets. So again, guys, it’s just not worth it. Yes, the cash flow looks great, but there’s really no exit strategy. And for the amount of brain damage you’re going to have. And then, of course, you took on an asset, you had to replace all you know, the major systems. That’s major work and scary work. And if you’re not right next door to it, it’s very, very difficult.
Derek
You know, Rod, I would say that in theft of time and materials, we’ve had probably a quarter of a million bucks stolen from us. So we took a rehab that should have been 500K, which is already really hefty on 18 units. Right?
Rod
Right.
Derek
We turned that into $700,000. Right.
Rod
Wow.
Derek
A lot of money. And thankfully, you know, we were able to get the thing operating. And then we were able to refinance it with some actual debt and getting out because we had to take out private notes with people that we knew at 8% to pay this thing. And we were using our salary to keep the thing afloat. And finally, we got an operation. We were able to refinance it at a 4% note. And then we finally are able to cash flow on this thing. But yeah, definitely all you listeners out there listen to Rod. Listen to me.
Rod
Life is too short.
Derek
Yeah. I will also say too, Rod, you can quantify this. I spent a year on that project and I was burnt out after it because of the stress with the partners internally trying to find the money, like making commitments and stuff, finding banks, everything. And it was only for 18 units. If I had gotten a more up to date, better in shape C class where I could replace stuff as tenants leave and there’s income coming in, I would have been able to have the time to pursue double or triple that amount of unit count in the same market, but instead, I was stuck in this one property.
Rod
That’s the big point. You guys need to get. It takes your freaking time. It’s just not worth it. Well, thank you. That’s very helpful for my listeners to hear that, because you know, many of them, you know, they’ll see these things and like, man, this thing cash flows. This looks great. And the potential here is great. I can buy it for this and just don’t do it. All right. You did something else that you didn’t mention in your bio that I want to circle back to because you actually retired from your engineering position or whatever you were doing at that time to do this full time. So talk about that process, that decision-making process, why you thought it would be okay, and what prompted you to do it? Just talk about that.
Derek
Yeah. So, I mean, obviously, this is not something that you or your listeners or me would be able to do on a dime. You can’t just sit there and just decide, oh, I’m going to leave the job. Right. And I’ve got this real estate portfolio. Even if you have passive income and you know, you’ve got something going on on the side, if you don’t understand what it is and you’re making the jump out of your steady income into something that you don’t understand, that’s ill-advised. So the key to me being able to leave the job was preparation. I had built up a side hustle. I built up a business. I have skills that I knew I could scale into further if I left my job. And the point at which I realized my job was holding me back and I had to leave it, was when I realized the potential of me escaping the job was a lot– was greater than me staying in it from a time perspective in my day. Okay. Now, the reason I say that and a lot of people have different thoughts and opinions, but first of all, have to preface this by saying that my wife is a driving factor behind everything. She was encouraging me to leave a soul-sucking job that took away all my energy and time. And she was the one that was able to generate some income on the side to help supplement our you know, the whole lifestyle financially on the side. But what we ended up doing, Rod was we sold our house, our primary residence, and we use the capital gain from that or the excess funds to have like a Pad account. And because it’s just my wife and I, so for those of you who have kids out there, maybe this doesn’t apply much to you. We realize that if we lived outside of the California Bay Area, which requires you to spend about $10,000 a month, a minimum, just to live out there. If you take that same $10,000 or nay, half that $5,000 and live anywhere else in the country, you’ll be living really well. So what we did was we realized that we don’t have to be in Bay Area anymore. So we sold our house. We have a huge cash buffer. We have passive income coming in from all these sources. And we got our expenses super low. And what we’re doing right now, Rod, which I think you want me to allude to.
Rod
Yeah, no, I want the idea. It’s very interesting. Yeah.
Derek
My wife and I are now Airbnb nomads. So we are hopping from Airbnb to Airbnb, spending anywhere between two weeks to two months from each place. And right now we’re in Austin, Texas. And after this, we’ll be heading west to Colorado, and then we’re going to continue west to L.A. We’re going to visit the Grand Canyon and you know, all these amazing places along the way. And then I was just telling you before we hit the record button, we’re going to be spending three months in Japan as well in April. And so it’s a bucket list adventure that we’ve always wanted to do. And the fact that we don’t have a house, we don’t have any fixed expenses to pay on top of when we’re traveling helps enable all of this to happen. And so we’re just really grateful for all of this. And again, I have to go back and say that this is all because of my wife. She’s the one who asks questions. We’re a team. We’re the ones that signed off on it. And we’re like, yes, let’s make this happen. This is going to be an amazing adventure for both of us, and that’s why we’re able to do it. So I’ll pause there and see if you want to–
Rod
No, actually, yeah. Thank you. I was about to try to stop you because I want to drill down on a couple of things you said. So the first thing I want to talk about is the fact that you retired from your high-paying job, but you had that parachute. Okay. In case you know what hits the fan fund and I get to ask this question all the time, should I quit my job and do this full time? And my answer is always the same, and it’s no. Okay. Now, you are an exception because you had the ability to survive without that income. Most people don’t. And if you do quit your job and you need to make money in multifamily or whatever, you know, you’re going to have fear. Okay? You’re going to have financial fear and fear paralyzes. And so, you know, I would encourage you not to do it unless you have a scenario like Derek has here. You did it all right. But let me ask you a question. Now, your wife was instrumental in this. So she had a job. Now she’s a doctor?
Derek
She’s a doctor. She has her own business now.
Rod
Okay. That’s what threw me because how is she doing medical practice if you’re bouncing around from place to place? So please elaborate on that.
Derek
Here’s the magic of this. Right? So my wife, normally you’d think of a doctor being tied to a city and having to drive into a hospital to do what they do or you drive into family practice. Well, Covid kind of upended everything.
Rod
She went virtual.
Derek
And so she went 100% virtual. So now she has all of her clients everywhere. She has international clients now. She’s starting to now play the game where we’re both working with each other. I’m doing you know, lead magnets and you know, all the business things, the landing page. You know, all the things that you do, Rod.
Rod
Right.
Derek
We’re now, like, doubling that effort. We’re being able to use the same virtual assistant that we have for her stuff. We’re using the same design teams, and you can see where the power comes in when you’re working together with your spouse. If you’ve got a situation like this because it’s like economies of scale, you know.
Rod
Let me elaborate on what you just said, because that may not make sense to some of the people listening. So you know, he was talking about lead magnets. Okay. A lead magnet is something you give away for free to capture email addresses. Okay. Like, I’ve got a stack of books below my desk here. I can show you. I’ve written you know, a dozen of them here. You know, Derek has got a book. That’s how you capture leads. And that same business model would work for your wife’s virtual medical practice, where she does concierge doctor, basically, is what she is, right? I mean, it’s just a virtual concierge doctor. If you need me, call me on Zoom. I’ll diagnose you and prescribe you and all that. Brilliant, man, I freaking love that. Absolutely love it.
Derek
You know, Rod, it goes a step further than that because she’s licensed to practice in the state of California. So she can write prescriptions, and she can do everything that she can do in the state of California. She’s repositioning herself now to be able– she’s recording courses right now, and she’s walking people through, like, a 21 day, 30-day detox program. And guess what? Passive income source, because you create it. You shoot the videos once, you give them all the supplements materials that they need, they can pick it up off of Amazon, or they can pick it up from you know, this place called Rupa, which is a processing center for– I’m learning all about this because I’m her integrator. Right. She’s the visioner.
Rod
Right. Nice.
Derek
You know, so we’re able to kind of work together on each other’s businesses and think through you know, the mindset. We’re working with each other constantly. And she’s always pushing me. I’m always pushing back on her. No, I’m just kidding. I’m always pushing her as well and you know, being able to have this virtual business on the side, plus, you know, I’ll be honest with you, Rod, even if we didn’t have any income coming in at all, I know this may sound scary and maybe is not right for the vast majority of your audience, but if you have full control over your expenses by being able to live wherever you want to live. Right. And you’re used to paying $10,000 a month to live in the Bay Area, and then you move to Indiana, where my market is, for instance. And now you can live a very nice lifestyle off of $3,000 a month. That changes the dynamic totally. It goes from me having only six months of runway to having almost two years of runway. And two years of a runway is fine because I can see it coming. Like, if their expenses are low and I need to go back to work, I can go back to work. It’s not a big deal. And so that’s kind of how we’ve approached this. And this is my wife coaching me through all this because she saw me getting fearful and she saw me getting scared. And she was helping coach me through our options. And it’s only possible because we can choose where we live and we have those mobile options. Right.
Rod
So what’s the first thing here? Choose your spouse carefully.
Derek
100%.
Rod
I’m just messing. No, that’s awesome. You’re living what so many people dream about right now. I mean, Japan in April. My God, you’re going to see the cherry blossoms in Japan throughout the whole country. What an awesome– we’re probably going to be there at that time as well into March 1st, April. And what a lifestyle just to Airbnb around. And you know, you never have that opportunity again if you just don’t do it. So very, very cool. I don’t scare a lot of people, but still, you know, absolutely, very cool.
Derek
We like to talk about you know, unlocking three degrees of freedom. I’m sure you know these already. It’s the degree of freedom of location that can be unlocked very easily just by working with your employer to see if you can be fully remote. That allows you to be able to work anywhere. Right. Then you have the time freedom piece. That’s the second degree of freedom when now you’re at a point where you have full control of your schedule. Then you have the financial freedom piece. And that’s the one where you can do whatever you want to do at the place and at the time that you want it. And you know, folks like you, Rod, who are further along and are already established there, you have that. You get to choose what your day looks like and what your time looks like. And so I’d really encourage people to peel back that financial freedom challenge or whatever it is that you’re interpreting my message to be and break it down into chunks, right. And start one piece at a time. And I’d be curious to hear your thoughts on that, Rod if that’s something you would agree with.
Rod
No, I completely agree. I’m going in fact, Thursday, we’re going to Miami. I’m going to go rent a condo there because I love the energy of Miami. I’m looking at places in South Beach and around South Beach. Tiff and I are gone. We already have a realtor selecting a place. You know, we’ve got a whole bunch we’ve looked at. The rents are freaking what you’re paying in San Francisco. But you know what? I love the energy of it. You know, I live in Sarasota now and I joke about it. You know, we’re about an hour South of Tampa. And I joke that old people live in Tampa and their parents live in Sarasota. Okay. So that’s where I’m at here. Now, it’s beautiful, don’t get me wrong. But I need some excitement and I need to change the pace. And Tiffany’s on board. So we’re going to get a condo in Miami and just try that for a year. And I’ve been there before when I was young, single, and stupid. And now I’m just stupid. I had a condo there and it was a lot of fun. I love the energy of it. But no, I totally agree with your three freedoms. And that’s what this business affords you as well. That’s what the multifamily business supports you. I can tell you how many students I have that have retired from very high-paying corporate jobs because their you know, cash flows exceeded what they were making, you know, and their W-2. So let’s circle back to multifamily because this is a multifamily show, for God’s sake. You’ve got 250 apartment units. I’m assuming you’re syndicating. Yes?
Derek
Yeah. Actually, half of them are joint ventured.
Rod
Okay, so you joint-ventured half of them, and the other half are syndicating. Talk about your team. Do you have other people that you are going to consistently work with, or have you done one-offs with deals, or do you have some partners or partner that you work with you know, that you intend to work with moving forward? Speak to that a little bit.
Derek
Yeah. So in Indiana, where we have some of our stuff going on, I’m the lead. I’m doing all the asset management and taking point on the capital. And that’s where all my JVs are. But with some of the stuff that we have in Texas, yes. We’re partnering with people that we found you know, across networking over many years that we really trust and we like. And so we help you know, place capital there as well. So we have those two dynamics going. But I would say that while I was working a full-time job, it was mostly the joint ventures that helped get me to where I am right now.
Rod
Love it. Okay. Love it. Can I ask how old you are? Do you mind?
Derek
Yes. I am going to be on the 22nd of this month, which is January, so people know my birthday now. I’m going to be 37.
Rod
Wow. And I’ll tell you, what you’re doing is typically something somebody in their 20s would do as well, which is really cool also. Very cool. So let me ask you a question that I asked regularly, just because you know, the answers seem to be fairly similar. I’m just curious if I get the same answer from you and that is if you went back and told your say your 20-year-old self. 22-year-old self. I used to say 18, but nobody knows their head from a hole in the ground when they’re 18. So let’s say 20, 22, 25. What might you do differently in this business, multifamily? Which is what we’re talking about here. What might you do differently, if anything? Maybe nothing. I don’t know.
Derek
Meaning if like, if I–
Rod
From what you know now. You go back and say, hey, go back to your 23, 22-year-old self and say, hey, knucklehead, you need to do this and this. So we can be here now or whatever, you know. Whatever it is.
Derek
I know what the obvious answer is, and I can see that, but I wanted to go you know a step.
Rod
So what’s the obvious answer?
Derek
The obvious answer to me is to get started. Like, just start reading material and get educated back then.
Rod
Well, the one I hear more than that is to go bigger, faster. Just so you know. I hear that one, too. And I want my peeps to hear that because you know, they’re like, should I start with a house or a duplex? And you don’t have to. You can start bigger. But anyway, please elaborate on, keep going.
Derek
Yeah. So basically in my 20s, I just was not in a mindset like, I had a one-track mind. I had to graduate school and just go. And I think even buying a house out of College, which would have done such amazing things for me, that wasn’t even crossing my realm at all. I was like, I just want to rent something and I just want to you know, enjoy my life and everything. I think what it would be is to have an open mind. Think, get off of your one-track mind and explore a little bit.
Rod
Be curious.
Derek
Be curious. Thank you. That’s what it is. So open-mindedness because that precludes all of this amazing stuff that we’re doing. Right, Rod? Like, you know, who in their right mind before they start thinking about investing in real estate or especially multifamily are driving by these things on the highway and you see these apartment buildings and you scratch your head and go, man, how do you own these things? Or who owns these things or how does that work? And you just go, oh, well, you know, that’s all. That’s where it ends. And the curiosity is in asking how come? And again, it comes back down to your spouse at that point in time I was dating someone and they were asking these questions, but I didn’t want to listen.
Rod
Really? Wow. Interesting. Well, you give a lot of credit to your wife, so she must be an amazing human being. Mine is as well. She just walked in. Gift from God. We’re both very, very blessed. Probably playing way above our pay grade. I know I am. That’s awesome. Well, listen, I really appreciate you being on the show, brother, you’ve added a lot of value. You’ve got such a unique lifestyle. That’s so cool. I’m really envious of your you know, ability just to go out and do that. You know, I could. So I have to look in the mirror and say, why not, you know?
Derek
Do you mind if I say one thing here, Rod? I know we’re trying to wrap up. But the last thing I wanted to comment here on this was one thing that really stuck with me because I had all these limiting beliefs around how to live this life.
Rod
Right.
Derek
And when my wife said or encouraged me to think about the abundance mindset. That you’d be able to step into for the alternative, it’s just like when I went out from stocks and said, oh, you know, it’s going to take 20 years. That’s not going to work. I got to open my mind up and do something else.
Rod
Right.
Derek
And so I did. And then this is what we’re doing. When she said– this is just another iteration. She said, think about when you step out into the unknown and you step into a consciously uncomfortable situation that’s going to push the bounds of what you’re comfortable with A. And B, you’re going to be living the abundant lifestyle that you’ve designed everything to try to get towards. So try it out now and see if that’s something that you want. And the ironic thing is that once you’re in the abundant state, it’s really funny how people start getting attracted to you, Rod. It really is. As soon as I left my full-time job, I had four deals happen in like three months. And it’s just because my language changed, my confidence changed. I was stepping into the mind realm of abundance. And instead of being in scarcity mode all the time. So that’s the last thing I want–
Rod
I’m so glad you said that, buddy. I’m so glad you stopped us from ending because that is such incredible information. And I will tell you, you know, Tony Robbins has a quote that is, “the quality of your life is in direct proportion to the amount of discomfort you can take”. And I’m going to tell you that’s exactly what you’re describing here. So, guys, you’re listening. If you think back to every amazing thing you’ve ever done in your life, I promise you you got a little uncomfortable to make it happen. And like you say, if you look through that lens of abundance and you put yourself in that place right out of the gate, instead of working towards that, instead of achieving to be happy at that point, you’re happily achieving because you’re already living it. I love it. All right. Well, it’s a pleasure to meet you, my friend. It’s been a lot of fun. I’d love to circle back in a year and see how this last year has been for you and have you talk about it again. So please hit up my team to do that because I’d love to circle back and see where you’re at a year from now.
Derek
Absolutely. It’s been an honor and thank you so much, Rod.
Rod
Pleasure. Take care, my friend. See you.
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”.
