Ep #588 – From police officer to over 900 doors
Whitney Sewell began his real estate investing career in 2009. Whitney’s passion is working with investors, helping them secure financial security via the exceptional opportunities that multifamily syndication offers. Whitney and his wife Chelsea are on a mission to help other families through the process of adoption. They have personally endured the financial burdens that the process puts on families and have committed 50% of their profits to this goal. Whitney and Chelsea have three children by adoption.
Here’s some of the topics we covered:
- The team at home
- The value of daily actions
- The value of small wins over time
- Success habits
- Your goals should define your habits
- Importance of your morning routine
- The Lifebridge Foundation
- Paint the picture for your family
- The value of mentorship
- Complimentary skills in partnerships
To find out more about our guest:
http://thelifebridgefoundation.com
Full Transcript Below:
Rod
Welcome to another edition of how to build a “Lifetime Cash Flow through Real Estate Investing”. I’m Rod Khleif and I am thrilled you’re here. And I’m blessed to have my friend on the show today. His name is Whitney Sewell. If you don’t know Whitney, he was a really awesome podcast called “The Real Estate Syndication Show”. And it’s awesome because I’ve been on it and I’m kidding. Now he’s actually had a thousand episodes. He kills himself because I think an episode a day, but he’s in over 900 doors. 150,000,000$ worth of assets under management. The name of his company is “Life Bridge Capital”. And he’s got a very interesting story in this. We’re going have a lot of fun today. Welcome to the show, brother.
Whitney
Hey, great to be here, Rod. Such a pleasure to see you again and to be on your show. It’s always great connecting with you.
Rod
Thanks, bud. Well I appreciate that. So you know, let’s start as is most of us do, with just having you tell your story, which is kind of cool. And so you know, take us from you know, just expand on the bio and tell us who you are, please.
Whitney
Yeah, I would love to. Appreciate the opportunity. So I go back Rod to March of 2001 and I say March because you know, that year it was obviously a big year for our country because six months later we were attacked. Right? And in March is when I decided to join the military. And so I signed up in March. And of course, six months later, I figured out a year before that we didn’t have any idea we’d be going to war. But six months later, we found out. Hey, there’s a good chance we’re going to be going to another country at some time in the very near future. And and so a few years later, I found myself spending all of 2005 in Iraq. And that, to say the least, was a massive learning experience. And you know, one thing I say the military taught me was to have a never give up mentality. And I mean, it’s not an option to give up or to not perform right? You know, Under that kind of circumstances. Other people, other people’s lives are counting on you in such a big way. Unfortunately, not everyone in my squad made it home. I’m very thankful to have– I mean I just thank the Lord every day that I did you know, that I was able to make it home. And so come home, though. And I love the uniform, the discipline and the structure. But you know, I was trying to figure out what I was going to do as a career. How is going to make a living and policing seem like a a great path for me. And so I applied with Kentucky State Police. There were 1200 applicants in five positions and I was blessed to have one of those. And and I loved working the road. I would have done it for free the first couple of years. Being a police officer with state police. I really loved it. I loved just the service and you know, I just I enjoyed it a lot. However, about a year and my wife and I are we got married. And I found myself the first year of my marriage just passing each other in the hallway. And soon it was like okay, this is as much as I enjoy this, this is just not what’s best. Right? I need to find some other way to support our family. And plus making about 30- 35,000 a year you know, it finally the writing was on the wall. Wait a minute okay, long term– I mean, there’s guys retiring making 40,000$ a year. I’ve been here 25, 30 years like okay, that I can see that this is just not going to cut it long term. Started looking for other avenues. This was now in 2009 and I realized about– I realized that so many– not like one or two people that built wealth and real estate but like millions of people have built wealth in real estate. And I thought okay, if that many people can do it, I can do it too. Right? And so I quickly learned as much as I could about real estate. Bought two triplexes made a ton of mistakes. I mean, just you know, improper due diligence, trusted the realtor and the seller way too much. All those things that you know, that you learned often the hard way in the very beginning. When we did that, remodeling a house at the same time, still being a police officer. All that happening. Eventually though, I became a federal agent. And so that’s most law enforcement. It’s like dream to go federal. And so very difficult process. Got hired as a federal agent. Moved us to Virginia, still pursued real estate. I got up to like a 15 unit Rod and really thought that I was doing something, you know, and it felt good. You know, so okay, we’re really growing that side of the business a little bit. And but I was still working full time. And believe it or not, I was actually training horses full time at this point, too. And there was a it was a passion of mine since I was a little boy that was to ride and train and and I built a brand there also and was doing clinics all over the country and training sales. Selling horses for more money than I ever imagined. But finally, we were at my wife and I were on the beach one fall Rod. And we got to just really praying together and walking and thinking about our future. Right? And and thinking about “hey, how sustainable is this over time?” And it wasn’t. I mean I was working too many hours. I was going all the time. Like two full time jobs, plus some rentals right? And so we had to make some big changes and we decided Rod to sell everything. And so within two months, we sold our house. Sold our entire farm and committed to the commercial real estate business. We knew that that’s the only way we were going to build passive income and more wealth. You know, build a great team. And so that’s what we did. And so it was very difficult decision. But we sold everything really the horse trading business, even the 15 unit and everything just to commit to the syndication business in commercial real estate. So we bought a small house in town. I built a two corner, two walls in a corner of the basement in this little house. And that’s ultimately where you know, the commercial real estate business started. I just lived in that office for the next couple of years. I mean the kids even knew they wouldn’t see me till Saturday night or Sunday even though I’m in the house. But that was it was just that level of commitment though, that it took to grow as fast as we have and get to where we’re at now. But anyway, that’s a lot a satellite image view of how we got to where we’re at.
Rod
Oh no. I appreciate that. Well firstly, thank you for your service. And that’s quite a cool trajectory to state police. And you know, it’s funny like that just triggered a memory for me. I bought this van and I had an office custom office made in the back and I hired a state police guy to drive me because of the best drivers in the freakin’ world. You know, they just triggered a memory for me. And then it’s federal that’s cool. Horse business. I don’t know where the hell that came from. But you know, I love the way you describe your transition. Does your wife help you in your business or is it pretty much you, wouldn’t it?
Whitney
So it is all me. But there’s a unique story there though, that I always say that like she’s my biggest play– a team player. Right? My biggest person on my team. Because during that two years Rod, it was more than two full time jobs. Doing a daily podcast, working full time, doing deals you know, working with investors. I mean, I was traveling to like two conferences a month all over the country. And so she did everything in the home. I mean, everything. And there’s a a whole another portion of that story. And that’s our why our commitment to helping families through the adoption process to children. And I say that to say our why and our mission behind Life Bridge Capital. We now have the Life Bridge Foundation, but that’s a passion of hers. Right? And so while she wasn’t into real estate man, she was extremely supportive of our why and our mission. And it took that because she had to do everything in the home. I mean, 100% while I was getting the business going. And so that’s– she’s not in real estate but man, she’s I couldn’t do it without her but that’s for sure.
Rod
I just have to tell you, I just love the way you describe that. You know, you said we knew we had to make changes. When really it was you making the changes and making it happen. Just love the you know, the accolades that you give your bride. And yeah, and I– you know what, I am– I’m remiss that I missed that on the bottom of your bio that you have three children by adoption and that’s what your foundation is about. That is so freaking cool. And that speaks to what your wife’s name?
Whitney
Chelsea.
Rod
Chelsea. That speaks to you and Chelsea’s hearts because that is just freaking awesome, buddy. So I mean, I tell you, I salute you. That is just–
Whitney
Thank you.
Rod
Incredible what you’re doing. And guys, you’ve heard me say this. I mean, you guys know what I do. If you listen to my podcast at all and you’ve heard me say this you know, “when you live to serve other people and you make that part of your mission and your focus, success is inevitable because power moves to those that serve it”. Just you know, this type of world works. And so that’s– there you go. Here’s another example of that. So you know, it’s funny you talking about not giving up. And I muted my things so I could grab I can grab this thing on my desk that says from Winston Churchill “Never, ever, ever give up”. You know–
Whitney
A lot of that.
Rod
Truth of it. It’s you know, I’ve seen that meme where that where there’s I think there’s something in the mouth of a stork and whoever whatever is about to get eaten is holding on to the neck it says never give up you know, but you know, it reminds me you know, of a book called “Three Feet from the Gold”. And so–
Whitney
Yeah.
Rod
Well don’t give up so close to the finish line. You know, so you touched on a lot of cool stuff to talk about it. So I appreciate that we need. But you know, let’s talk about– you know, you’ve grown your business so quickly and it was because you had that foundational support at home. You had– you know, didn’t have to worry about anything at home. And guys I’m going to tell you you know, those of you thinking about getting into this business, it’s so easy to think you can just go off and do it yourself. Which you– you know, it’s so much easier when you have that support and some of you may have you know, a spouse that’s fearful about you know, trying something new and maybe the thought of giving up on your W2 job. You know, now what you did with me, I will say I tell people not to do it the way you did it, okay? And that is don’t quit your job. Don’t stop. Keep you know, you can do this on the side. I’ve got students that have done it countless times on the side with full time jobs and kids and everything else and replace their income. But because– and here’s why. Because if you don’t have that source of income, fear can pop in and fear is paralyzing. And so you know, that’s why when someone asked me should I quit my job to do this full time, I always say no. But the fact that you had all that support and you had to obviously have some liquid capital if you sold everything off. So that gave you a cushion so that–
Whitney
I would say that I didn’t quit the job right away. I did keep working for like two years, doing both for two years before I actually quit the deputy.
Rod
Got it. Okay. Well, I’m glad I mentioned that then. So let me ask you this. You starting out in your career, were there any– I mean in this real estate thing, were there any like aha moments you like, “holy cow, look at that”. Or any you know, this just does that. Just wherever you want to answer that. Does that trigger anything. Any aha like epiphanies.
Whitney
You know, moving into commercial real estate and really– it pushed me Rod to have a bigger vision. Right? And it pushed me to think bigger. And I’m still struggling with that. Right? You know, even though we’re so much bigger now than we were two years ago than we ever thought about being two years ago. Like even now, I still struggle with that. But I think early on it was such a self-improvement journey. Right? It was such a self-improvement journey. I mean from where I came from a few years ago when I started to realize how much focus I needed to put on even just and people are here this all the time and they gloss over it, but they don’t focus on it. Things don’t change for them because when I started to change even my morning routine and being extremely structured in the daily consistent actions that you feel like are nothing right at the moment, whether it’s answering email or taking those phone calls or I mean, it feels like after month that you’re almost going nowhere. But then it’s like man, it’s like you said that Three Feet from Gold, you got to keep going. Right? It’s those things that are the most important. And it’s almost me seeing that were the aha moments. Right? Like seeing that man, these things are really adding up even right through the most difficult times when I was working so many hours and didn’t get to see the kids. My wife and I was still we love that morning time and we’re usually up reading together like 5 a.m. and that was crucial. Like that was time for her now to reconnect, talk about our day, talk about the kids. Even though I wouldn’t get to see them, I didn’t get to have most meals with the family until the weekend. I mean that was still time for us to connect. But many aha moments, I think happened gradually over time in those daily consistent actions.
Rod
Yeah. My love language is gifts and there’s a great book of five love languages. In fact, I was blessed to have the author on a few a couple of months ago and my– I love to give gifts. That’s how I show love. And so I give my students lots of gifts and books is the primary gift. And one of the books is “The Slight Edge”. Which is exactly what you’re talking about. It’s those little decisions you make every day that you traject life up or down. They don’t seem like a big decision at the moment. Health is a certainly a great indicator of this. You know, if do you have that cheeseburger? Do you have a salad? You know, and in the moment it’s not a big deal but it adds up. And it’s the same–
Whitney
For self-discipline.
Rod
Yeah. It’s the same way with your habits. That you know, you talk about a morning routine. I want to ask you what that is in a second. But you know, you have habits and they can be success habits, so they can be failure habits. And–
Whitney
That’s right.
Rod
Those of you who’s listening, you know what they are. And so you need to consciously and that’s the operative word. Consciously take a look at when you’re in a trance or you’re in a habit having a habit. And is it serving you or is it disempowering you? So tell us about your morning routine. I mean, you have a five good God. I did that you know, I’ll play a little bit and–
Your goals– but your goals should define your habits. You know, and I wanted to tell you one book everybody may have heard of but “The Power of Self-discipline” by Brian Tracy. No excuses, man it’s just keeps you motivated. I just try to read that like, once a year or even listen to parts of it because man it’s just like, okay, I need to hear that most of that over and over and over. But it’s so good. But yes. Morning routine yes, I read the book “American Morning” probably four years ago you know–
Rod
Hell on the show. He’s super–
Whitney
Awesome. Yeah. And I wouldn’t say I follow everything to the T in that but it did help me to think through the importance of structuring that morning routine. And I would say first being up there like it’s like the alarm set for like 4:50. I even have a light that comes on on a timer. An alarm set away for away from the bed. So like, I have to get up. Right? I have to get out of the bed and get going. One of the first things is coffee for me. Bulletproof coffee
Rod
It’s awesome.
Whitney
Yeah.
Rod
You put the butter or the butter in it? All that stuff too?
Whitney
We do. Yeah. Lots of butter.
Rod
Awesome.
Whitney
Yeah, I love it. And so you know, but then it’s really my time of reading and Chelsea something up. We’re reading together. Maybe talking about our day and whatnot. But then it’s also time I am in scripture. I’m in the word and praying. But then also there’s usually have another book that I’m going through at the same time that’s business related entrepreneur related you know something around our team. Whatever that’s educational. Self-improvement. Right? And that even just energizes me for the day. Even a book like I just shared with you that “No Excuses” by Brian Tracy like those things just help energize me on a daily basis. I kind of get me pumped up. Right? I’ll usually have 30 minutes– about 20, 30 minutes of some kind of exercise as well before I go and shower. And then it’s to the office, to the appointments. Right? Whatever schedule for the day. But that’s been very crucial. And even reviewing my calendar say, the night before, you know, there’s many other things that happen through the week. And my assistant now, this didn’t happen in the very beginning, but obviously now I have an amazing assistant that that helps me to structure that day and keep me on the most important tasks. She knows that’s her most important goal now is thinking helping me think through the most important use of my time. Right? Whether it’s morning routine or whether it’s daily things. The people are asking like they do. I’m sure for you Rod, all the time. It’s just like asking for help with this help with this help with this. Right? And we want to help. But man, it’s a you know, where can I spend my time? Because you can get it taken away very quickly. Right? So she helps me with those things but yeah it starts with the morning routine.
Rod
Well, that’s amazing that she’s that ingrained in actually deciding helping you decide what to do. Right?
Whitney
She questions me about it.
Rod
I don’t know if I could give up that control. Honestly, maybe I’m as much of a control freak but so I want to just for a second because I want to give some attention to– I know the answer to this question and but I would like you to articulate it in your words. And that is, you know, where does the drive come from? What makes you jump out of bed in the morning to conquer the day? What’s the why talk about you why. Because I think it’s pretty amazing.
Whitney
Yeah. So I appreciate your asking for one. And if you don’t have a why, then you’re just not going to make it as often or almost. I mean, it’s like you got to have something else behind you. Right? It’s too easy to give up. So easy to get overwhelmed because it’s going to happen. I mean, it’s going to happen. You’re going to get kicked in the face. You’ve got to be willing to get back up. There’s got to be some other thing that’s pushing you. Right? And pretty deep thing. And so for us, Rod, when we moved to Virginia, it was in November of 2011, we went to this thing called “Secret Church”. If you’ve heard of David Platt, he’s a pastor, that’s become pretty well known. But anyway, he was talking about caring for orphans and widows. And he talked about how they had adopted and he talked about how it can cost Rod 40 to 60,000$ to bring a child home to adoption. And there’s a 160,000,000 orphans in the world. I mean, it’s a real shame that it costs so much. Right? However it’s not the children’s fault,. You know, but so David Platt was sharing about this. And honestly, Chelsea and I had never been exposed to adoption before. We never even thought about it. We would only been married probably two years or less at this time. And so but on our way home from this trip, from going to this, the biggest question we could ask ourselves was why would we not adopt? Like, why would we not? It’s just seemed to make so much sense. There’s such a need. And so why would we not do that? And so within a week, I think I’m thankful now for our real ignorance of the process of adoption. Right? Because we did move forward very quickly. Within a week, we turned our application to adopt from Ethiopia. In two years to the month. Our first son, Samuel, came home from Ethiopia. A year later, our second son, Elijah, came home to adoption. And then a few years later, our daughter, who is now between two years old next month, also came home to adoption. And so raw that, we talked to so many people now. So many couples who say, “Whitney, we would love to adopt”. They’ve asked us about the process and we share with them tips and things that we did. But they say “well, that’s more than I make in a year. How can we afford 50,000$?” You know, will they would be great parents. And so that pushed Chelsea and I to start the Life Bridge Foundation to help those families commit financially. And so we’ve committed half of our personal profits to that foundation.
Rod
Wow.
Whitney
And so we just– it’s just been amazing to see the world work through the acts. We just committed to three families and helping them in a very big way with this financial burden. And we have three or four more that we plan to partner with over the next few weeks. And so it’s just it’s been incredible. Like we got to have a zoom call with families.
Rod
I’m sorry for disrupting you.
Whitney
Yeah, go ahead.
Rod
If someone were to want to contribute to help you with that, how could they do that?
Whitney
You can go to the “LifeBridgeFoundation.com” or you know, obviously you can reach out to me. I will connect you. But 100% of any donations go directly to families because there’s very little admin costs. We’ve really minimized all that and I cover that those things. But it obviously would welcome that. Getting to be on those Zoom calls with those families. Rod is just amazing. You know, getting to share what they don’t know who it’s all from, but they know it’s from the Lifebridge foundation. But just you know, it’s just amazing that once they get to bring their children home, it’s going to be incredible. Right? I mean, I hope I can be there.
Rod
I hope you can, too. Well, that’s I got goosebumps from this conversation. That’s just so freaking amazing. Okay, well, I want to shift gears from that. I hate to come off that topic.
Whitney
No, I understand.
Rod
It’s dear to my heart. You know, I’ve got a foundation and that same thing. I cover all the operational expenses that but I’m absolutely going to contribute to yours. So let’s shift back to real estate, because that’s what people are here. You know, what words of wisdom would you share with someone aspiring to get into this business? Based on what you know and your experiences. What might you say to them?
Rod
Yeah. I would say Rod, there’s so many things that they could get held up on or whether it’s thinking about markets or deals or how to find the deals or the types of deals even or all those things. Right? But I would say go much further back than that. And for me personally, it’s and we talked about it briefly to making sure your family’s on board with this decision and your level of commitment and your spouse and even your kids if you have them. Like to me Rod, it was important that we painted that picture of where we’re going, even for our children. They need to be able to see that Dad’s not going to have to work this many hours forever. There is a light at the end of the tunnel like that was that was very crucial. Another thing for me was having a mentor. Having somebody that’s been there and done that. And that was– I spent a lot of time trying to figure out who that should be. But that was crucial. Just having somebody hey, I can call. It just increased my level of confidence in a big way as well. But just to say hey, you know, this is what I’m struggling with. What have you done this before? And more times than not, they have. Right? You know, they’re way ahead of you. And so that was also crucial. I mean those two things alone, I would I would just stress in a big way being surrounded. Even mastermind, obviously a part of your mastermind. And if love that. And it’s just great to be surrounded by people that care about each other you’re in the business.
Rod
Love it. Yeah. I mean, I’m so freaking proud of my warrior mentorship. Oh, my God. I don’t know if you knew this when they own over 45,000 doors now and I’ve been teaching what maybe a little over three and a half years. I mean–
Whitney
That’s awesome.
Rod
Unbelievable to me. And yeah guys, if you’re interested. If you want to apply. We don’t take everybody on these very serious about that. But if you want to apply, just text the word “CRUSH” to “72345” reach on the calendar and see it’s a bit both ways. But yeah, no. And if you even if you’re not interested in working with us. Go to your local real meetings. Go to your meet up–
Whitney
Right.
Rod
And see who there is doing the business and see if you can add value to them in some way. Maybe there’s something you could do to add value. You know, and approach it that way and you’ll find eventually. You’ll find somebody that wants to help. So love it. Okay so you know, this is a team sport Whitney. In your experience, I mean, do you have a partner, is this pretty much just you? Do you have a partner? Or–
Whitney
I do Rod. I have a business partner. We have many team members now.
Rod
Okay and what skills– excuse me. I still find this Covid in my lungs. It’s crazy. It’s been like three months or anyway. What skills do you bring to the relationship of your team and what is your partner, your business partner brings? Just curious if it’s–
Whitney
Yes.
Rod
Dynamic.
Whitney
It’s been extremely complementary skill sets. And that was so important. We were aligned on so many other things about just life and family and those things. But man, when it comes to the real estate business, we had very complementary skills. That’s one thing that attracted us to each other. But you know, early before we even met there Rod, I was doing the podcast. I was really more of the marketing, the capital raising, the investor relations, all that and just honing those systems the best I possibly could. Right? Building a big network there, obviously, through the daily podcast. Just growing as fast as I could. But he on the other hand, at the same time, we didn’t know each other then. But he, on the other hand, was really I mean, just an expert in numbers and excel and and structuring deals, learning that process and creating relationships with brokers. Right? He had some deal flow that he had no network and no investors. Right? And so once we met, we were able to move very fast.
Whitney
And so as busy as I was when we were first getting the business started. I didn’t have time to also nurture broker relationships are really perfect underwriting. Right? That’s not I don’t just love underwriting. It’s something I had to do some. But it’s not something I could focus on. But man, that’s where he focused. And so when we were able to come together. It’s like, Okay now, Sam, that’s your focus. And hey, this is mine over here. It enabled us to even move so much faster because now he’s in charge of that. I’m in charge of this and we can do those things even better than we were before.
Rod
Guys that you know, I know you’ve heard this before, this whole dynamic because this is my partner Scott Knight, the exact same thing. And former partner Robert Knight you know, he was in both cases. They’re the analytical ones. I’m the outgoing one. And it just works fantastic that way. And I know you’ve heard this many times that you want to play to your strengths and hire a line or partner for your weaknesses. You go so much faster–
Whitney
For sure.
Rod
So let me ask you Whitney, what do you think is some of the best advice you’ve ever gotten in your career? And it doesn’t have to be real estate related. It could be from your time in the service or whatever. What do you think is the best advice you’ve ever been?
Whitney
Wow, that’s a great question. Best advice? Oh, man. I think it still goes deeper than the business. It’s more– it would be more related to personal development Rod. Like you know, in the daily commitment stuff like we were talking about. You know, as far as personal advice, I think it would be more even from say, a grandfather or from– you know, how to treat your wife or you know or how to you know, love others. Right? You know or those things I think would go much further than say, just somebody in business. Right? There’s tons of advice we could give. But I think some of the like you very stressed as well when you’re stressed on any self-improvement, but also outward to help others. It just– it changes everything.
Rod
Yeah. You know, as so many of us are taught to achieve and be happy. But when you’re giving back in any fashion for anything that you’re passionate about, you’re happily achieving. And not only are you going to get to success faster, but you’ll be happier along the path as well. Is this you know, this is not a dry run we’re on here. You know, this is our lives. So let me ask one other question about the topic. Is there a favorite quote that you have on your wall or is there anything that comes to mind you know, favorite quote that you draw strength from?
Whitney
There is a quote that we use often by Winston Churchill and it says “We make a living by what we get. We make a life by what we give”.
Rod
Oh, I love that. He has so many quotes that are so fantastic guys. I’m going to tell you, that guy was was awesome. I’ve got tons of them in my material. So let me ask you this. What has been– I know you’ve talked about what you’ve sacrificed to get where you are, the time with your kids, meals with your kids, which is really painful to hear honestly. And you know you do give sacrifices. But what do you think has been the most challenging part of your career– you know, you’re role so far in the business?
Whitney
The most challenging time was the first say, two years. And I mean, it was challenging because of the time commitment that we made. I mean, it was not– I mean, saying no to everything. Right? I mean like in good things, right? Like you know, church things that I would normally have been a part of, we had to say no to. Right? Or people that we would normally love to have gone to dinner with or whatever I had to say no to. Or I was traveling or whatever it may be. But one of the most difficult things about that was really missing the time with my wife and kids. And–
Rod
Yeah.
Whitney
I mean you know, I would be in the office Rod from say, 5 to 7 a.m. before I would start my federal agent position at 7 you know, answering emails and even sometimes taking phone calls. Whether or not some investors will schedule calls at 5:00 or 6:00 in the morning. And then I would come back and I would record sometimes three to five interviews after I got back from work and take phone calls and whatnot on a daily basis. Or I had two days off a month every other Monday and I would my team knew that I had to record 12 to 15 interviews those days. Just back to back nonstop. And so that we call called a marathon days. But some of the hardest times Rod was say many months in I was– I had a little window up–
Rod
15 interviews?
Whitney
15 in one day.
Rod
I was just complaining to you about my day to day where I’ve got six back to back. And I think that’s the most I’ve ever done in a day. And I just circled back to you said 15. Good God, because I– you know you have to be on for that whole time, too. It’s it drains a lot of energy. I’m sorry I interrupted but it’s just like, God, just I can’t believe you said that. So I hope you can remember what you were talking about because forgive me–
Whitney
Yeah. I do. But it was really just a mentality of saying, hey, whatever I got to do to get this like, let’s just get it started. And I just had to have that every day. And that was the intensity, though. But during that time Rod, we were in this little house and like I said, I’ve made this little the wall or to put up two walls to make this office in this basement. There’s a little window up at the top like you imagine, old house, a little window in the basement. And I’d watch my boys playing in the backyard. And that was some of the hardest times really, because I mean I wouldn’t see them for sometimes weeks at a time. But I’d see them playing out there while I’m working. You know, and I couldn’t be out there with them. And so I had to keep in mind where we were going and what we were doing. You know, I was just it was very difficult. It was just over a long period of time. But the Lord sustained us. And I’m thankful that He did that we’re–
Rod
Now, you have that time.
Whitney
That’s right. Now, I can schedule that time, many time I want almost.
Rod
Right. You know, let me ask this question and then I try to ask this a lot. You know, if you could go back in time prior to starting in this business and now you know, with the knowledge that you have now having been in the business for a few years. What would you tell your younger self? Is there a thing you might say or do differently in any aspect of the business?
Whitney
I would have had a mentor earlier for sure. I would have had more advisers at least earlier on or even like I think back to 2009. I mean I needed somebody in my corner that had been there and done that. Right? I learned enough to go make a deal happen. And thankfully, we didn’t quit. But that deal put so much stress on my new bride you know, at that time myself, our new marriage. And thank the Lord we made it through that. But I just mean, that was that was really tough right at that time. And so I would say, I need some– I needed more advisers, not just in real estate, but even just in life. You know, I would say I was like 22 at that time or 23, you know, just needed to be surrounded by more men specifically that were way ahead of me. You know, that were leading their families well and even in business also it would have been great. But that you know, what I would have said about “Whitney you know, wait. Let’s wait”. Wait even if you waited another year to buy a piece of real estate. Let’s go build some more relationships first and let’s go you know, find those people that will invest in you. Right? And then you can help them as well possible. But let’s find some people that can provide some advice, right? I mean and I feel like no matter where we’re at in our business walk, we need those people that are way ahead of us. And eventually we can turn around, help others as well. You know, of course. But for me, I needed– you know, I wish I had reached out earlier or found advisors and found. But as soon as I did, things changed.
Rod
Yeah, I think that’s probably the impact when I interview my warriors in my coaching program. I think that’s probably the thing we hear the most is that the incredible value they get from the group. You know, it’s not a–sure the training is important, but it’s really those connections. And most of those 45,000 plus units are owned between my warriors and investors.
Whitney
Right.
Rod
Just incredible. And and like the mastermind that you’re a member of. I mean I want to be around people that think what I think is far as easy you know, and there are people in there with100,000 doors now. And, you know, people like Albert and we were talking about before we started recording and you know several with 20,000 doors. And you know, again, they’ve seen more than that I’ve seen and I’ve seen a lot. And so you know, want to be around people that hold you to a higher standard. That can answer questions, that can motivate you. That aren’t afraid of of the things you haven’t done yet and that you know or whatever you haven’t done something, there’s some fear there. Cheaters call it stress, but it’s fear. And so I love it. Well, this is not the direction I intended this interview to go on. It assumed it would be more technical. But I’m really glad that we did it the way we did it, buddy. Because guys, the bottom line is, if you get anything from this episode, it’s you know, what you give you receive times a thousand. And whether you’re religious or not, it’s just the way God, the universe, whatever you believe, works and you know, and you are a poster child for that brother. So I’m really, really I’m embarrassed that I didn’t know all this about you. So really impressed. And it’s been a real treat to have you on. And thank you guys. Yeah. The– what was then what was the website for your foundation again? Just for my own purpose.
Whitney
It’s the Lifebridge Foundation.
Rod
The Lifebridge Foundation. Just like it sounds. Okay, love it. Well listen brother, it’s great to see you. I really appreciate you coming on the show. And I’m sure we’ll see each other soon, my friend.
Whitney
My pleasure, Rod. Appreciate you.
Rod
Thanks.
