How To Push Through Fear

Full Transcript Below

Intro
Hi, my name is Rod Khleif, and I’m the host of “The Lifetime Cashflow Through Real Estate Investing” podcast. And every week, I interview Multifamily Rock Stars and we talk about how they build 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 back to Multifamily Rock Stars. So as you guys know, this is where we interview people that are just flat-out crushing it in this business and show you the inside scoop as to how multifamily investors are creating massive success in their businesses and of course, in their lives. And as always, I’ve got my co-host, who’s the director of our Massive Action Team for the Warrior group, Mark Nagy on.

Mark
Hey, Rod, happy to be here for another one.

Rod
Yes, sir. So, today we’ve got Ian Schmidt. Ian’s a Warrior and Ian’s been in the real estate business for 12 years. He’s a listing broker. And you know what? Let me just let him tell you his story. Welcome to the show, brother.

Ian
Oh, Rod, sensational to be here. Thanks so much for having me. This is life-gold stuff here. So, I’ve been listening to the show for a long time and can’t believe I’m here as a guest.

Rod
Kind of you to say that, buddy. Kind of you to say that. I, you know, appreciate you being here. You know, give us a little background on you, you know, a little better bio, a little higher level, but background on who you are, where you came from.

Ian
Sure. In short, Rod, I’ve been in Charleston for 19 years and I was in hospitality for a little over a decade before switching– first, I became invested in single-family homes in the Charleston area. And then about six years ago, transitioned into residential real estate where you know, there are a lot of ups and downs income-wise. And so passive income is a great way to, you know, offset the slows in income and the downturns. So that was my initial foray and interest into investing in real estate.

Rod
I see. And at what point did you decide multifamily was the way to go? And did you have an epiphany? It was like, okay, now I get it. When did you join the Warrior program?

Ian
Nine months ago. So September of ’22. And I can almost tell you the exact date I had the epiphany run.

Rod
Okay.

Ian
So, I bought my first single-family in 2011. You know, definitely made some mistakes there and built that up to seven doors of midterm and short-term rentals through Airbnb. And for about three or four years with doing a lot of reading about multifamily, listening to podcasts, and I– in 2021 trying to buy a quadplex on my own. Market was hot, lost out on a couple of deals. And it was mid-April that, as luck would have it, went to a local multifamily meetup where I met some mutual friends of ours, Sam and Jonathan Wells here in Charleston. And I listened to them give a presentation for about two hours on how they had put together I think it was over 400 doors of multifamily apartments through syndication. And full disclosure, after that meetup, I jumped onto our local multi-listing service. Jonathan is a residential agent as well and I looked up his production for the past 12 months and saw he was a very busy, successful agent. And I had this epiphany to your question of how did this busy realtor like myself put together all of these doors. So I wanted to know more and jumped in with both feet to learn about [inaudible]

Rod
Well, he told you about the Warrior program, I guess. Is that correct?

Ian
Correct. He did.

Rod
Yeah. Okay. Love it.

Ian
He told me about the Warrior program, and, you know, it was just meeting that one person face to face after wanting to learn more for years and years. But having someone I had met directly was what really opened the door and caused the change.

Rod
I’ll have to thank him. So take a minute, Ian, and talk about, you know, some of the good decisions you’ve made over the last period of time, whatever it is, and maybe even some bad decisions you’ve made since you got going in this business. And, you know, sometimes the bad is as helpful to listeners as the good, but give us both.

Ian
Sure. I can think of a lot of mistakes I’ve made, Rod. I think one large one was waiting for so long to get into real estate. You know, it’s a twofold question because I think I was scared, I mean, really for the better part of a decade to jump into real estate with so much desire and waiting for the market to be right and, you know, just being afraid to fail forward. I think the double-edged sword on the flip side to that is having waited so long gave me a lot of urgency. Having, you know, waited until my 30s to get into real estate and work for myself and start a business to really work that much harder to maybe make up for the lost time.

Rod
Yeah, we hear that a lot.

Ian
You know, another failure would be my very first townhouse that I bought was negative cash flow, just a very elementary level of running the numbers. I didn’t have anyone to learn from. I just sort of signed on the dotted line, jumped in with both feet and, you know, made operational mistakes throughout.

Rod
Well, I’ll tell you– let me interject something. That is a very common mistake with townhouses and condos because you don’t take into account the HOA fee and the effect on the cash flow. So, you know, I totally get that.

Mark
Now, since September, you’ve done passive investing in the 79-unit, but also a 40-unit as General Partner here, which is awesome. How were you able to push through that fear and get to that first deal so quickly?

Ian
Yeah. Great question, Mark. I think, one, I had a little bit of an advantage because I’ve, you know, been in the real estate residential space for six years, so there was slightly less of a learning curve. Although there were a lot of similarities jumping into multifamily and being surrounded by like-minded individuals that led me to become a General Partner so quickly. I think when you’re starting something new, it’s really important to say yes to everything often. So you really are at a sponge stage. I think as you progress and advance, you tend to say no more as you figure out what you’re good at. But early on, I just said yes to everything. Coming down to the Warriors-only meetup shortly after joining, I believe it was October of 2022, and realizing there are 300 people around the country with similar mindsets and goals, and experience levels and some less experience than me and some more experience than me. Really [inaudible]

Rod
Helps a lot doesn’t it?

Ian
It sure is.

Rod
Yeah, that helps a lot when you can see it’s been done. And I know that on the deal you did this as the General Partner, I’m looking at your notes here, you partnered with other Warriors on that deal, it looks like, yes?

Ian
Correct. Yes.

Rod
Some awesome people. I love some of these names, very successful people. And by the way, Mark– go ahead.

Ian
Sorry, I was just going to say, Rod, not only did I partner with them early on, but they’re folks that I still talk to once a week or a couple of times a month to this day. And it’s been the ultimate game changer and really put me on the fast track to success.

Rod
Yeah, I see. I will tell you, you know, I just saw David at the IMN conference literally a few days ago. A beautiful human being. Jennifer, John, and Sam [inaudible]. You got some– a Frank– good Lord, you’ve got some real rock stars that you partnered with on that deal. And by the way, we just scheduled our next Warrior-only event, which is going to actually be on the West Coast. You know, I’ve had them all here in Sarasota because I live in Sarasota and I pay a good chunk of money to put those things on. And like, you know, I buy UFly, but I’m doing one in Phoenix, actually, in November. So it’ll be on the West Coast. Those of you Warriors that are listening will be very excited to hear that if you’re over there on the West Coast. But that’s our next one. You got a lot of value from that, right? I mean, we dove deep on underwriting and you got to network like crazy. Yes?

Ian
Insurmountable value.

Rod
Yeah.

Ian
That definitely helped put me on the fast track. And the last thing I will say, what possibly moved the needle more than anything was taking blind faith in my Warrior coach. He would say jump, and I would say how high. And oftentimes I wasn’t sure about the method to his madness, but it’s almost like he had a crystal ball. He had been through so much in a relatively short amount of time that, you know, it was limitless value what I learned from him in a very short time within the first three months of joining the Warrior program.

Mark
What were some of those things? You mentioned he told you to do some of those things that you weren’t quite sure. You just trusted the process. What were some of those things that he told you to do that felt kind of uncomfortable?

Ian
Yeah, it was a huge list. And you touched on the key word there, Mark, which is he got me comfortable being uncomfortable. And everything from you know, having me get over myself and post live posts for 30 to–

Rod
Live videos, right? Oh, yeah. He does that with some of his students. You’re going to post a live video on Facebook. Yeah.

Ian
30 of them for 30 days. And I was more scared of disappointing and letting my coach down than I was of posting the videos. Starting a website and a company, I worked nights trying to think of a name, and I didn’t know why exactly he was wanting me to do that. And sure enough, you know, weeks would go by and I’d have these epiphanies of going, wow. He was adding so much value to me from the very beginning that it really accelerated.

Rod
That’s great. No, that’s so important. And that’s what a coach does. A coach narrows the gap between where you are and where you want to be. And sometimes it’s just little nudges. A little nudges. I remembered something I wanted to say, which was, you know, you have operated in a fire-ready aim capacity. And I want to tell you, I want to take my hat off to you because I will tell you, you know, I think you’re a fairly analytical guy and you– you know, and that’s challenging sometimes. And, you know, we get a lot of analytical people that listen to the show and you know who you are and I love you and you know that you have to check off every single box before you make a move. And I want to tell you that you know, it’s okay to make mistakes. What’s not okay to have regret because you didn’t take any action whatsoever. So I don’t care if you learn from me, but don’t lose out on this incredible opportunity that’s coming. I truly believe unbelievable opportunities come in. I’ve been going to events with other large operators, and there’s a lot of fear because there are a lot of deals that are in trouble with bridge debt. And these operators either have to sell or they have to refinance. And neither option is looking great right now because there’s a 75% year-over-year decline in sales and the rate caps are just crazy. I don’t know Ian if you heard my Facebook Live on rate caps, but if you wanted to cap your interest rate on an adjustable-rate mortgage, a $100 million mortgage in 2020, cap it for three years and cap it at 3%. So it’d only go up 3% in a three-year period. That was $23,000. That same rate cap today, just for one year, forget three years, for one year is 2.3 million. Okay? And a lot of operators don’t have that kind of money. So there’s an incredible opportunity coming. So guys, if you’re listening, for God sakes, if you’ve been thinking about this, get off the fence and learn it as quickly as you can. If I didn’t mention it in the intro, we’ve got our boot camp coming up in September in Orlando. Should be about a thousand people there. It’s going to be a kick in the butt. There’ll be hundreds of Warriors there, and it’ll just be an incredible opportunity for you to, you know, maximize this business. So, anyway, I do hope I see you if you can make September.

Ian
I’ll be there. For sure.

Rod
You’ll be there, Ian. Good, good brother.

Ian
I already booked it. Yes, sir.

Rod
All right. Awesome. Awesome.

Mark
Well, I’d love to hear your thoughts on that, Ian, because obviously, you mentioned, you know, the fear of jumping into multifamily in a hot market right, where things were just going up and up and up. Now, with interest rates, the market, and everything changing, there’s even more fear. What do you think would be the advice or message that you would give to people that, you know, are afraid of those things and they’re not taking action right now because of that?

Ian
Sure. Great question, Mark. I would say education is the most important thing. And as the market changes and rates change, and I see it in the residential real estate space and the commercial real estate space, I mean, we have, what is it, a trillion and a half dollars in loans that are expiring at end of this year and early next year. And it’s always a good time to jump in. I mean, there’s up markets, there’s down markets. And I was so analytical for so long that jumping in and becoming a Warrior moved the needle for me more than anything I’ve done in the last two decades.

Rod
Well, I salute you, brother. I salute you for taking action because, again, that’s the biggest hurdle for, you know, people that are analytical. And I get it. And I will tell you, that persona kills it in this business because it’s primarily numbers. It’s empirical. You get the numbers right– you know and if you’re not a numbers person, then you need to align or hire or partner with somebody that is. But you get the numbers right it’s, you know, it’s a home run. Do you think there’s a specific type of person that’s better suited to this business? I alluded that analytical people can do really well in this business, but, you know, what’s your answer to the question? You know, what type of person do you think is best suited for our business, the multifamily business?

Ian
Well, it’s such a team sport, Rod. In fact, I just got done reading a book called “The Ideal Team Player”, and it talks about the three virtues of teams and how there’s not enough emphasis on teams in our education system, among many other things. But it really talks about having the three virtues, being hungry, being humble, and being smart. And I think that anyone would be amazing in this business because you are seeking out folks with complementary skillsets. That was one of the things that stopped me from purchasing a quadplex back in 2021 is I was having to be a jack of all trades, a master at none. Whereas, multifamily syndications has allowed me to play my strong suit.

Rod
Yeah. You know, you mentioned hungry. You know I do these Own Your Power clips every week about you know, motivational topics. In fact, I’m writing one today for this week because mindset and drive are such a big component of this. That’s why, you know our Warriors own, God, I don’t know, somewhere between 160 and 170,000 units that we know of. We’re trying to count them right now. It’s very hard. But, you know, where do you get your hunger? Where do you get your drive? What makes you jump out of bed every morning to go do this? And most importantly, what made you push through the fear of doing the things that you did that Eric had you do and we had you do to really take action with this? What’s the driver?

Ian
Two things, Rod. One, I waited till I was in my mid-30s to really get up off my butt and take any action. And I think it’s about impressing my former self, impressing my younger self, who always wanted to start something, start a business. I wanted to get into real estate since I was in college, freshman year. And having not taken action until my 30s was a big why of really, you know, that self-satisfaction piece of accomplishing something. And the other big why is I have– you know, my parents I’m very close with, they’re late 60s, early 70s, and they’ve taken a pretty substantial hit with their savings in the stock market.

Rod
Oh, yeah.

Ian
I’ve been able to– I mean, so much of what I’ve learned in the last nine months, I’ve been able to share with my close friends and family. And it’s just really about a financial education, which I think, you know, we live in a culture of buy now, pay later, and invest in the stock market. And so what I have learned in the last nine months to bring to my other relationships is a huge why for me.

Rod
Yeah, I love it. And I want to say something. You know, if you’re listening and you’ve got money in the stock market, I just kind of want to put a little tick mark by that for you right now because I really believe the soup is about to hit the fan. As this commercial debt, you know, if they can’t sell or refinance, which doesn’t look good, and a lot of that– and by the way, a third of all commercial real estate debt is adjustable rate, which shocked me when I found that out. I didn’t realize it was that high, one-third. And like Ian said, 1.6 trillion is expiring by next year and they’ve got to sell or refi. And if they can’t, then a lot of banks are going to be taking back debt. And I believe there are going to be bank failures, and that’s going to, you know, create stock market, you know– we could have a crash. We could literally have a stock market crash. I think that’s very possible. So again, if you’ve got money in the stock market, be very, very careful. And of course, if you’re interested in learning this business and, you know you want to apply to our Warrior program, let me tell you how to do that. And it’s an extraordinary program as you kind of hearing from Ian here. What you do is you text the word “crush” to “72345”. Again, that’s the word “crush” to “72345”. And, you know, we check you out, you check us out. And if it’s a fit, you’re off to the races. And if it’s not, you’ll still leave that call better than when you got on it, I promise you that. But yeah, no, it’s extraordinary times that we’re living in right now, and I believe an incredible opportunity is coming. I think pain is coming, too, but with that pain will come opportunity. And so, you know, get up to speed quickly. If it’s going to be real estate, you know, come to my boot camp, apply to my Warrior program, whatever. Learn from somebody else. I don’t care. But learn it right now. If you want to buy businesses, there are 80 million baby boomers getting old and they’re retiring and they own businesses, too. So everything’s going on sale and there’s going to be a lot of opportunity. So you just got to, you know, decide what you’re going to do, go learn it and go kick absolute butt.

Mark
Well, Ian, why did you come on board with the team? I know you were a realtor, sold tens of millions of dollars in homes, fairly successful. You’ve done single-family investing. Why did you decide to come on board and become a Warrior instead of going on your own?

Ian
Sure. One of the very first big things that I got from residential real estate was I’m an independent contractor with these communities of about 250 homes each. And the way it was presented to me was, you’re a franchise owner, almost like we’re giving you a McDonald’s. So there’s room to be an entrepreneur as a 1099 employee to instead of selling hamburgers, we’re selling residential homes. Right?

Rod
Right.

Ian
So you’re operating within that franchise. And the developer I work for, year one, I was in business, hired a coach for me. And that really moved the needle faster than just about anything. So when I saw that there was coaching available through the Warrior program, really piqued my interest.

Rod
Yeah. You know, a lot of people don’t understand the whole coaching model. You know, they’ve heard, go to school, study in school, study in college, get a job, you know, work for 30, 40 years, and then retire on a pension. And I love to tell the story. My dad worked for Continental Airlines for 36 years. And you know how much pension my mom got? $697. A lot of people just don’t understand the coaching information marketing space. You know, talk about coaching for a minute. Michael Jordan had five coaches. I try to see if I can name them all. He had a nutrition coach, obviously, head coach, assistant coach, nutrition– I said nutrition, relationship coach for him and his wife. Oh God, literally, five, maybe there were six coaches. I can’t remember all of them right now, but he’s the best in the world with six coaches. And, you know, I’ve had coaches throughout my entire life. I mean, I just went to a business event just in the last 30 days. Here’s the thing, guys, if you’re not growing, you’re dying. And if you want to maximize what you’re doing, get a coach and you can do it so much faster. Okay? Just so much faster. Basically, you’re paying for speed is what it is. Would you agree with that, Ian?

Ian
I couldn’t agree more. In fact, a funny story, I was having dinner last week with some friends of mine that are about to take a $500,000 bath on a beach vacation house here in South Carolina and the conversation quickly turned to coaching. And this friend of mine is fairly stubborn not wanting to take on a coach and trying to do it all themselves. And they’re not going to real estate meetups, and it’s going to cost them a half million dollars.

Rod
That’s a shame. Yeah. That’s the other piece, obviously, you know, is to prevent mistakes. And, you know, it’s so easy to make mistakes. And there are more zeros in apartments than there are houses as well. So that’s another big piece. And, you know, the other piece, really, and I’ve always had high-performance coaches as well, it’s the life coaching component that’s super important as well. It’s not just about the money, it’s about your health, it’s about your relationships, it’s about your purpose, your mission, and purpose in life. All of those things come into play to achieve the level of success that you want. So let me ask you this, Ian, what’s your definition of success? Just out of curiosity.

Ian
Great question, Rod. Being able to do what you want, when you want, with who you want.

Rod
Love it.

Ian
In a nutshell.

Rod
That’s it. That’s a great answer. Well, listen, brother, I appreciate you coming on. You did a great job and you definitely added value. And we’ll see you at the very latest at that Warrior event. Probably at the September boot camp.

Ian
Absolutely.

Rod
But, you know, most of my really successful Warriors go to everything just because it’s just– in this business, it’s who you connect with. It’s really that’s even more important than the knowledge of the business. It’s the connections. Would you agree with that, Ian?

Ian
Couldn’t agree more, Rod. And I look forward to seeing you at everything and really appreciate it. It’s a real honor to be here today.

Rod
Thank you, brother. See you soon.

Mark
Thanks, Ian.

Ian
Alright. Thanks, Mark.

Outro
So one other quick thing. We encounter so many people that are frankly frustrated. They’re looking in the mirror and they’re frustrated that they haven’t been able to escape the rat race. They haven’t been able to build cash flow to the point where they’re able to have financial and time freedom with their families. And maybe they see other people buying real estate and creating incredible cash flow and they think well, it’s just scary. You know, buying apartments is intimidating. And I get it. See, that’s why we created our Warrior Mentorship Program. They’re our coaching students and they’ve had extraordinary results. My students, I’ve been teaching about five years and they own upwards of 140,000 units now that we know of, right? And we feel like it’s just getting going. Now, we’re looking to grow this group and really take it to the next level and honestly believe that the greatest transfer of wealth could be upon us right now with this current economic environment. Everything’s going on sale. So we’re looking for people who want to follow a proven framework, really like a blueprint or a map, literally, step by step. And then they’re able to leverage our systems and our incredible network to raise money and equity, to find deals and close those deals and build partnerships really nationwide. So if you’re interested in finding out more about how you can become more in our incredible network and take advantage of the unbelievable opportunities that are upon us, you can apply to my Warrior Mentorship Program by texting the word “CRUSH” to “72345”, or you can go to “MentorWithRod.com”. And what we’ll do is we’ll set up a call so you can check us out and we can check you out and see if it’s a fit. Now, again, you can go to “MentorWithRod.com” or text the word “CRUSH” to “72345” to apply, and we will speak soon.