With an 11-year CPA license, Daniel’s journey encompasses roles at the Big 4 Accounting Firm and a global pharmaceutical company, offering extensive international experience. Having navigated the solar industry and Insurance Technology, Daniel now runs a consulting business, aiding startups in Series A-Series B stages with financial reporting and process setup. As a licensed NJ real estate agent, Daniel engages in various ventures, recently closing a notable 84-unit acquisition. Beyond professional pursuits, he takes pride in family life and outdoor activities, from golf and snowboarding to beach outings and hiking. Noteworthy experiences include briefly owning a school bus for a brewery tour business and working front-row security at a Metallica concert.
Here’s some of the topics we covered:
- Daniel’s Travels Around The World
- Shutting Down Multiple Companies and Learning A Lesson
- Why Turn to Real Estate After A Successful W2 Job?
- Transitioning From Single Family To Multifamily
- The Significance Of Bringing Rents To Market Level
- How Daniel Found His Discount Multifamily Deal
- What a “Buy Box” is and What You Use It For
- The Mindset Of Getting Your First Deal
- Asking The Hard Questions About a Partnership
To find out more about partnering or investing in a multifamily deal: Text Partner to 72345 or email Partner@RodKhleif.com
Full Transcript Below
00:00:00:01 – 00:00:20:20
Rod
Welcome back to multifamily rock star. So as you guys know, this is where we interview people that are crushing it in this business. And we show you the inside scoop as to how multifamily investors are creating massive success in their businesses and ultimately in their lives as well. And as always, I’ve got my co-host is the director of our massive action team for our Warriors Warrior Group.
00:00:20:23 – 00:00:43:06
Rod
That is Mark Nagy on Mark A-Rod. Good to be back for another one. Yes, sir. Yes, sir. So today we’ve got Daniel Valez. So, Daniel is a licensed CPA. He’s also he’s done that for 11 years, doesn’t do taxes. He’s run the audit financial reporting side, the more interesting side. And he’s also a real estate agent in New Jersey, has been doing that for a good bit of time.
00:00:43:08 – 00:00:51:12
Rod
And I think Join the Warrior program a little over a year ago. And we’re lucky to have him today. What’s happening, brother?
00:00:51:14 – 00:00:53:18
Mark
Hey, thanks for having me. I appreciate being here.
00:00:53:20 – 00:01:09:09
Rod
Absolutely. So why don’t you do a much better job of, you know, introducing yourself than I just pathetically did and tell us who you are and why. Real estate. You know, CPAs make pretty good money and talk about, you know, your journey a little bit.
00:01:09:11 – 00:01:26:05
Mark
Yeah, absolutely. So, yeah, I got my CPA license out of school and the other conversation, three professors, where do you want to go? And they all push you towards go to big for audit side if you can. You’ll get to learn and see a lot more of just overall business operations, financial operations. So that’s what I did. I had a great time there.
00:01:26:05 – 00:01:43:22
Mark
I learned a ton. I was just an absolute sponge. After a couple of years there, I want to travel the world. So I joined a global pharmaceutical company, got to travel the world on their dime. It was fantastic. Got to see so much learned, so much on a global operations scale. That was something I didn’t get in my public accounting experience, so I got to see that.
00:01:43:22 – 00:02:01:07
Mark
And the fun part about that was basically every country I was in every month, the operations were a little bit different, so I had to learn that company or that entity pretty quickly to get up to speed. But all the controls are pretty much the same. So little nuances here and there, but that was a great experience. While I was traveling on the road a lot, I started really well.
00:02:01:08 – 00:02:06:06
Rod
What countries? Sorry, Sorry to interrupt. What countries did you go into? Just out of my own edification.
00:02:06:09 – 00:02:18:20
Mark
Sure. India, England, Germany, Ecuador, Panama, Argentina, Brazil. Wow. A couple of cities within the U.S.. Yeah. So I was. I was out of the country or on the road for two weeks. A month.
00:02:18:22 – 00:02:26:15
Rod
Wow. Oh, that’s cool. What? What, what? What an incredible experience. Okay. Sorry. Please, please continue. Sorry. Please. Yeah. Yeah.
00:02:26:17 – 00:02:45:12
Mark
So while I was traveling, I started reading about astronauts ship. I read Rich Dad, poor Dad. And then one of my old managers from public accounting had recruited me over to join a residential solar installer. They were number one competitor, SolarCity at the time, so they had just got acquired. They were going to go through a restructuring instead of helping that company grow in scale.
00:02:45:12 – 00:02:55:06
Mark
And they announced that they were actually gonna shut down business operations. So I fell on a small team that was actually responsible for shutting down operations. So a little bit different experience than I during that time.
00:02:55:06 – 00:03:08:04
Rod
So value is still valuable though, right? I mean, really valuable. When you shut down a company, you learn a ton, Ask me how I know. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I hate that. I hate that. I know. I hate that I know how to do that. But yes, I do. But I’m sorry. Please continue.
00:03:08:09 – 00:03:28:02
Mark
Yeah, that the envelope math was always a little bit different once the actual start rolling through. So. But now. Great experience. Read Rich Dad. Poor Dad started thinking about more about real estate, just different businesses. That led to me buying a small school bus to start a brewery tour operation didn’t pan out, but we had a bunch of fun with it anyway.
00:03:28:04 – 00:03:52:06
Mark
And then I still have that itch to join like a scaling startup company. I ended up doing that. I was there for four years. We were acquired in September 2021 as a 25th employee. We grew the company to 265 employees at the time of acquisition, So it was great growth, great scale, had an amazing management team there, learned a ton from them, and then basically post acquisition, I kind of decided to go off on my own.
00:03:52:06 – 00:04:14:14
Mark
I want to start focusing more on real estate, something I’ve always had an interest in. And then I also started my own consulting business, kind of focusing on that start up in the tech space, that Series A, series B, letting founders and just new ops folks focus on product, getting to market. And let me take care of the back end, the financials, certain KPIs, reporting metrics, and just make sure that the financials make sense for who their investors are.
00:04:14:20 – 00:04:22:17
Mark
So delivering that to them. So but knowing that and recently just closed down my first 84 unit here with a couple other warriors, so excited to get that going.
00:04:22:18 – 00:04:45:09
Rod
Fantastic, fantastic. Wow, you’ve done a lot, brother, and love the consulting. I mean, the fact that, you know, you’re helping a budding aspiring tech companies find money is that’s that’s sounds exciting as well. But let’s talk about real estate. That’s why we’re here. So, yeah, Why did you why did you join the Warrior program? You have a lot going on.
00:04:45:10 – 00:04:57:06
Rod
You know, if you exited a company with the way you described, I think you probably didn’t leave broke. So, you know, we probably made a couple bucks. So why? Why? Why multifamily? Why?
00:04:57:06 – 00:05:18:03
Mark
Why? Yeah. So in the background of all this, I’ve been running a local meetup group here in central Jersey for the past six or seven years, and for the first couple of years we got go and we kind of focus on that Bigger Pockets crowd of fixing flip chairs, the wholesalers, the BR strategy, 1 to 4 units. We had a couple of syndicators pop in and out.
00:05:18:05 – 00:05:37:17
Mark
We had decent crowds for those events, but it never actually clicked. We did have a local syndicator kind of come in and the way he presented it, everything finally clicked over the years and was like, Oh man, that makes a lot of sense. Just on the multifamily side, thinking about how I view business now after being in start ups for the last five or six years and just the ability to scale.
00:05:37:17 – 00:05:46:12
Mark
So I’ve done the fixing flips, I’ve done the wholesaling, I’ve tried to do and manage the small rentals, and it’s a lot more difficult than people think about.
00:05:46:13 – 00:05:54:23
Rod
Oh, stop it, stop it, stop it. It’s so easy. Yeah, it, you know, how many did you do? Tell me how many of you did.
00:05:55:00 – 00:06:00:13
Mark
Approximately single family. One fix and flip. And we have a family right now.
00:06:00:14 – 00:06:03:07
Rod
How many? How many do you do? How many do you do?
00:06:03:09 – 00:06:04:08
Mark
Or. And it was enough.
00:06:04:12 – 00:06:20:14
Rod
Okay, well, I did 2000 and I and it took me that many to get the memo. Okay, so you’re much smarter than I am. Just so just, you know. Good God. Hell, yeah. They’re easier to. It’s much harder to do single family. It is to do what we do. Sorry, I keep interrupting you. I’m great. I mean, a lot of.
00:06:20:14 – 00:06:24:13
Rod
Hey, I’m going to get a lot of hate on this episode for that. But anyway, so.
00:06:24:13 – 00:06:48:09
Mark
So yeah, just thinking about business and scaling operations did a bunch of research, talk to a couple of different folks who had their syndication businesses locally and multifamily, right? Was always going to be the most consistent. People always need a place to live and in certain markets, locations, right? They’re always going to want to be there. So if you’re close to a downtown, if you’re in a major metropolitan area growing city, I don’t think you’re going to be able to go wrong there.
00:06:48:09 – 00:07:04:19
Mark
Right. And there’s always going be room for improvement of operations, improvement of rents, making sure you’re on top of the asset as a whole. And then there’s just so many systems in place, there’s no reason to recreate the wheel here in the space. There’s been thousands and thousands and thousands of people over history who’ve made their fortunes in real estate.
00:07:04:21 – 00:07:13:06
Mark
It’s a long road, but it’s stable and it’s consistent. And being a CPA, pretty conservative in nature, that aligns pretty good with my values.
00:07:13:08 – 00:07:18:05
Rod
So. So again, back to my question. Did you come to a bootcamp? Is that how you joined or.
00:07:18:05 – 00:07:33:00
Mark
No, actually. So I started looking at a couple of the different programs. One of my old senior accountants at my startup, his friend was actually in the program, so I got on the phone as with the wells, so I spoke.
00:07:33:04 – 00:07:33:20
Rod
To the wells.
00:07:33:21 – 00:07:47:14
Mark
Oh God, what’s the job? The same. And the simple question was like, Would you be where you are today? And the program short answer is no one was like, it’s all any of the year. So wow, that’s great to know. A couple of days later. Yeah. And got on the horn. And here we are.
00:07:47:16 – 00:07:51:22
Rod
Here we are. Okay, so where is this 84 unit that you bought?
00:07:51:24 – 00:08:15:16
Mark
So this is in a small town called Indiana, Pennsylvania. It’s an hour east of Pittsburgh. Location right across the street from the University, right on the main road, there’s two Starbucks each direction next to Burger King, Wal-Mart, Kohl’s, local shopping center. There’s a bus stop right outside. It’s a white tech property. So low income housing tax credit, it’s just coming to the end of its 30 year agreement.
00:08:15:18 – 00:08:20:09
Mark
So we’ll be able to take advantage of that in the two years and that ends in 2025.
00:08:20:11 – 00:08:28:03
Rod
And so what he means, guys, is they’re going to be able to bring their rents to market level, which is that going to be significant as well from what you can see?
00:08:28:05 – 00:08:33:19
Mark
Yeah, yeah, yeah. We should be able to get a nice spread there. The beauty of it is we bought it at a massive discount.
00:08:33:21 – 00:08:39:20
Rod
Fantastic. So and this was a joint JV deal, joint venture. So you didn’t syndicate this deal.
00:08:39:22 – 00:08:56:02
Mark
Got it. We kept all the money with ourselves. So there’s six total partner groups. Okay, For the. For the team members are out in Pittsburgh, so they’re going to be the boots on the ground, which is great. I’m here in Jersey and then we have a partner down in Florida who has that tech experience and is significantly more experience than the rest of us on the team.
00:08:56:03 – 00:09:00:15
Mark
So he should stay within the guardrails and we’re learning every day.
00:09:00:16 – 00:09:01:07
Rod
Okay.
00:09:01:09 – 00:09:03:02
Mark
Just so much fun so far.
00:09:03:04 – 00:09:27:05
Rod
So one thing I wanted to flag that you said and you know, you you have heard me talk about this. You want national retailers around your asset. And I you know, if there’s a Starbucks nearby, I’m happy as hell. But you don’t want, you know, you know, small local retailers, you know, because, you know, if there’s a lot of national retailers, they really do their demographic research and they can tell when there’s a good market.
00:09:27:05 – 00:09:35:06
Rod
So it’s really important. That’s that’s a big barometer. So I love the fact that, you know that that you flagged that so know.
00:09:35:09 – 00:09:43:03
Mark
Yeah, it probably wouldn’t have been an asset that I would have dug into further had it been further away out on the outskirts of town. But this is right on the main road.
00:09:43:09 – 00:09:49:16
Daniel
You mentioned you got this deal at a discount. How did you guys find it on market broker off market direct to seller. How did you get that?
00:09:49:18 – 00:10:05:13
Mark
Yeah, so I found this from a broker. I was scouring, looping at one day or correctly one of the two. There’s a deal that was just outside my buy box that I had set. So I said, Let me do a quick underwrite. Didn’t hit their parameters that I was really looking for in their overall returns. I was an offer, so I just shot the broker, an email.
00:10:05:13 – 00:10:26:13
Mark
I said, Hey, I just took a look at this property that you had listed on. Looking at this a little bit outside of our buy box. I attached my buybacks, I gave the feedback and I just asked if she was available for a call. We jumped on a call the next day. She mentioned this property and she was like, It is outside your buy box in terms of price, but had a number of units had the vacancy or the occupancy that we were looking for.
00:10:26:13 – 00:10:43:07
Mark
And then a couple of the other demographics that kind of zone in on. So I said, you know, yeah, I’ll take a look at it. We looked at it, the numbers worked right? And then so I knew I had the person warrior I had met actually at the first Warrior events, only he’s in Pittsburgh, so I sent it to him to take a look at.
00:10:43:09 – 00:10:55:15
Mark
He connected me with another warrior who’s in Pittsburgh, who also underwrote the deal and presented it to him a day later. So the three of us got on the phone and we said, Let’s go make a push at this deal. So yeah, this one came from a broker. It wasn’t.
00:10:55:17 – 00:11:16:14
Rod
So you met you met a warrior. You met a warrior at a warrior event. And that’s how that that’s in Pittsburgh and that’s how, that’s how this, this, this what do you call it? This waterfall of communication started. You know, you said something else. You kind of alluded to your buy box. And I think I’d like I think for edification of the listeners talk about what your buy box is.
00:11:16:14 – 00:11:20:12
Rod
So what did you tell that broker you were looking for? Can you be a little more specific?
00:11:20:14 – 00:11:38:09
Mark
Sure. So we’re kind of looking for those Class C plus B’s. So this way there’s an avenue for the value add, and then we’re looking for a minimum of 50 doors. Okay. And location wise, we’re looking for A, B, B plus area. We don’t want the areas, but we just want to make sure it’s going to be stable.
00:11:38:09 – 00:11:56:02
Mark
It’s going to be that middle class, working class group where we’re not going to have to go in and do a massive tenant turnover. But the item with this property was that there’s quite a bit of deferred maintenance on it, and so it was going to be a little bit heavier of a lift. The price again, right. We paid 1.45 million for this property for 84 units.
00:11:56:02 – 00:12:11:20
Mark
Rents are 680 bucks. So they left us plenty of room there. Yeah. Yeah. So it was really a good deal just on the surface. And then once we actually went to go look to like walk the property, the team was just thrilled with the shape that it was. And property management had done a really good job over the time.
00:12:11:22 – 00:12:17:21
Mark
Just keeping up with all the tickets, great reviews from the tenants, which was hit or miss.
00:12:17:22 – 00:12:18:14
Rod
That was good.
00:12:18:16 – 00:12:30:12
Mark
Always good. Yeah. So but yeah, no, we yeah, checked all the back so our buyback 50 units want that value perfect was simple rehabs it’s kind of we’re looking for perfect.
00:12:30:12 – 00:12:52:05
Rod
I have one more comment here, Mark but I’m sorry I’m stealing all your thunder. But, you know, I will tell you that 50 unit is a sweet spot. Okay? And because it’s typically not the most sophisticated sellers that you’re you’re buying from, institutional players aren’t interested in it. And you know, you can get some great deals, as evidenced by the fact that, you know, this deal you got And I want to mention something else you mentioned.
00:12:52:05 – 00:13:16:17
Rod
We talked about this being a joint venture. So a joint venture in a joint venture, everybody has to be active and you’ve got five or six people in that deal, which is absolutely doable, that everybody’s playing a role in that deal. If you take money from someone and they’re not active, you absolutely have to syndicate it. And, you know, I drilled that into, you know, you know, I drill that into my warriors and but that that deal is solid.
00:13:16:19 – 00:13:20:17
Rod
The way you did it is solid. So, you know, great job on it. Yeah.
00:13:20:19 – 00:13:22:02
Mark
Yeah. And I appreciate that.
00:13:22:04 – 00:13:41:07
Daniel
One thing we haven’t kind of talked about is this is this timeline. Right? I think if if my dates are correct, it maybe took 15, 16 months from when you became a warrior to closing this first deal. And probably in that time frame, it could probably feel like a long time right before you get your first deal. What and this is really important, right?
00:13:41:07 – 00:13:56:24
Daniel
Thinking, thinking long term. I know Rod talks about the lore of the first deal, but what what was your mindset going into this that you’ve had through that entire 15, 16 months that kept you moving forward and kept you continuing to make progress instead of quitting like a lot of people might?
00:13:57:01 – 00:14:17:13
Mark
Yeah, I think I knew that it was going to be a longer game, right? And I was being really patient throughout my search and just communicating with the different teams where I’ve had opportunities to jump on and be a capital raise. But I really wanted to get my hands or my feet wet and really jump in on the asset management side and kind of own in control and go through that process and just drink from the fire hose right off the bat.
00:14:17:15 – 00:14:43:15
Mark
So my search range on that initial was definitely a little bit smaller than most. And then I was also looking for I wanted to experience I really that was the big thing, right? And then focus on working with a team that I felt super, super comfortable with and that was really what I was kind of doing as all the meetings that I built and all the relationships that I’ve built so far over the past six months now.
00:14:43:17 – 00:14:58:24
Mark
But at that time, I think when we got under contract, that was maybe ten months in. But yeah, just finding the people and I felt really, really comfortable with working on and going through a deal and making sure that if I’m unavailable, somebody else will be available to pick up the slack. Or if they’re unavailable, I’ll be available to pick up the slack.
00:14:58:24 – 00:15:22:06
Rod
So how did you get to fruition? How did you evaluate it, These team members, these warriors, for example, what sorts of things did you look for and how to talk a little bit about your because you’re obviously very analytical, extremely analytical. And so I’m sure that you put you put them at least in your corner, you put them through some sort of a of a of a process.
00:15:22:10 – 00:15:27:22
Rod
They may not have known they were in a process, but I’m sure you put them through a process. So can you speak to that a little bit?
00:15:27:24 – 00:15:43:08
Mark
Yeah. I just wanted to make sure that our overall values aligned right, like make sure so you have that partnership questionnaire that’s out there. So we had gone through that and just, Oh, you did good. Yeah, yeah, yeah. So just simple questions of just what are the things that are important to you? Why are you in the space?
00:15:43:08 – 00:16:02:10
Mark
Are you just in it for a quick buck? What’s the long term play? What are their goals? So we wanted to make sure we aligned on a lot of those. And then obviously, right, just being able to have a laugh and a conversation with that person outside of work and actually enjoying it where I’m not feeling pressured or sales or just being overanalyzed, what’s the true value that I can bring?
00:16:02:12 – 00:16:04:22
Mark
They were just really genuine relationships right off the bat.
00:16:04:23 – 00:16:21:03
Rod
Love it. And I was hoping that’s what you would say. And, and since you did, I want to let you know, guys, partnerships are like a marriage. They’re easy to get into and hard to get out of. Ask me how I know. And so, you know, you want to ask all the hard questions upfront and I’ve got a free resource for you.
00:16:21:03 – 00:16:39:12
Rod
If you go to Rod’s links dot com, Rod’s plural links Broadcom. It’s in the free book section. It’s a list of questions you should ask before you get into a freaking partnership. Important questions because you know, you get you get excited about a deal or you get excited about someone you meet. And just like when you’re dating and I’m dating again.
00:16:39:12 – 00:17:00:11
Rod
So I know all about this right now. And so, you know, you get excited and then, you know, and then it doesn’t work out. And and so it’s really important that you ask these hard questions upfront even when you’re dating. I can’t believe I went there. But anyway, so so if you go to Rod’s links dot com and go to the free books there, that book is there and it’s very valuable.
00:17:00:11 – 00:17:23:05
Rod
I highly recommend you use it and lastly, before we move on, you know, trust your gut, trust your intuition. Your brain is so powerful that it’ll pick up on micro nuances that you don’t consciously pick up on yourself. You know, and I like this example from a book called Blink where, you know, the best art experts in the world can be looking at a painting and they know it’s a fake, but they don’t know why.
00:17:23:05 – 00:17:29:01
Rod
They know it’s a fake. And so it’s the same thing when you meet someone if your gut doesn’t feel right, frickin trust it.
00:17:29:07 – 00:17:37:23
Daniel
So they know now that you have that first deal closed, how much easier do you think it’s going to be to get the next one? The next one, the next one? I know this happens very often, but I want to hear from you now.
00:17:37:23 – 00:18:08:07
Mark
I think it’s significantly easier just being able to talk to brokers. I feel that there’s a much more natural confidence that I have about speaking like I was very educated on the process, but you don’t really know until you go through it, right? So I take an education as far as I can go. And now just being able to go through and actually having examples, having those conversations, being in those different scenarios or before significantly more confident, and actually that broker that we bought this property from, she just sent us another portfolio unit that we’re in the process of underwriting same team.
00:18:08:07 – 00:18:18:05
Mark
We’ll look at some more experienced partners. It’s a little bit larger, but hopefully that will pan out something because again, beautiful location, so we’ll see where it goes. But yeah, I’d feel much more confident now going forward.
00:18:18:05 – 00:18:46:22
Rod
Beautiful. And you know, that’s one of the benefits of the Warrior program. There’s so many sponsorship groups in there. So, you know, if you if you need a more experienced group that you got to raise more money, you’re going to actually syndicate. For example, There’s just so many options like that. So let me ask you a question. You know, we get so many and it’s a question I ask almost every time we get so many people that are listening that have not taken action towards their dreams, they’re, you know, in a job they don’t love or maybe they’re in a job they love, but it’s not going to give them the retirement that they want,
00:18:46:22 – 00:19:11:12
Rod
the freedom that they want. And they haven’t taken action yet. And I really believe we’re heading into an incredible environment to buy deals. We’ve got one that we think is going to go under contract today or tomorrow. That was at 28 million. We’re getting it for 18. Okay. So so we’re seeing huge discounts right now. So, you know, the people that are listening that haven’t taken action, aspiring, you know, commercial real estate investors, give them some words of wisdom, give them some advice.
00:19:11:12 – 00:19:30:12
Mark
Please don’t be afraid to ask for help. Yeah, I know. That’s where I was stuck for a long time before joining a group was just trying to go out at my on my own. And it was difficult. So being able to ask for help I think is just pushing your ego aside briefly. Everybody has to start somewhere. And there’s a lot of smart people out there that are just looking to give their advice.
00:19:30:12 – 00:19:50:13
Mark
So be genuine about the questions that you’re asking. Try to bring value where you can. Right. I’m analytical, spent a long time and spreadsheet, so I’m always happy to underwrite for folks or review underwriting and then I’m always happy to present my underwriting. Now for somebody who’s more experienced in a particular market, just to make sure that my assumptions fall in line with what they’re seeing and what they’ve done before.
00:19:50:15 – 00:19:56:15
Rod
Are you using the new underwriting software that Craig and our team put out, or are you using something else?
00:19:56:17 – 00:19:58:23
Mark
No, I kind of built my own a little bit.
00:19:59:00 – 00:20:17:18
Rod
Of course you did. Ha ha ha ha. Of course you did. Well, we’ve got some kick ass. Craig has done this incredible job. Oh, yeah, It’s really, really good. And it’s free to warriors. But. But of course, you have your own. I should. You know, I bet your you kick ass with asset management just as your attention to detail.
00:20:17:20 – 00:20:20:10
Rod
Are you playing a role in the asset management on that on that property.
00:20:20:10 – 00:20:32:14
Mark
Yeah. Yeah. So I’m going to be one of the main managers on the deal. So it’s myself and another warrior. He’s going to be kind of pushing the contractors forward and they’ll be on the backside making sure that we’re sticking with in line with our budget, in our business plan.
00:20:32:16 – 00:20:35:12
Rod
Do you feel like you’ve gotten value from the Warrior program?
00:20:35:14 – 00:20:57:11
Mark
Oh, yeah. The relationships a lot, right? That that was the biggest thing by far. Just making sure I could find people I could trust. And then just having like the mindset that the positive mindset stuff that you push out in the content that is so important, especially right, you’ll see folks who join a group with already a couple of assets under their belt or folks who just hit the ground running and they’re at 100 doors within a month.
00:20:57:16 – 00:21:06:16
Mark
You’re like, Whoa, but just staying focused, staying positive, and then just being patient with it. Yeah, I mean, so much value there for sure.
00:21:06:18 – 00:21:24:12
Rod
Thank you. Thank you. By the way, if you’re listening and you’re interested in applying to the Warrior program, text the word crush to seven two, three, four or five. Again, that’s crush. So we can help you frickin crush it in this business. Two seven, two, three, four, five. And and and we’ll check you out and you check us out.
00:21:24:12 – 00:21:36:14
Rod
And if it’s a fit, you are going to frickin love it. And if it’s not, you’ll still leave that call better than when you came on. So again, text crushed 272, three, four, five. And we will look forward to speaking with you.
00:21:36:18 – 00:21:53:11
Daniel
So, Daniel, I know your husband, father, accountants, all that sort of stuff. Those are typically excuses that people use to not take action. Right. How how, how have you overcome that? And and what did you tell yourself to just jump in and get started when you have all those things going on in your life?
00:21:53:13 – 00:22:11:18
Mark
One of the goal setting workshops, right, where it’s like you really draw out and you put everything on paper what you want in the future. And then following the miracle Morning process of just writing down what that future looks like and then just visualizing it and then really being detailed about what my day is going to look like.
00:22:11:20 – 00:22:35:08
Mark
So I always block out time for underwriting, deal searching, calling a broker, and I try to do at least one or two tax tasks a day towards real estate, towards moving my business forward on this aspect outside of my consulting business, my agent hasn’t tried, so I just really want to make sure that I’m doing something on a daily basis to make sure I’m striding forward, even if it’s just a phone call with another warrior or somebody else who’s local interested in real estate.
00:22:35:08 – 00:22:40:19
Mark
Just trying to expand. But I just one or two things every day just kind of keep pushing it forward.
00:22:40:21 – 00:23:01:08
Rod
That’s fantastic. You know, you mentioned goal setting, which obviously that’s the first thing we do at our boot camp because how the hell do you get any of that? We don’t know what it is. You got to know what you want and you got to know why you want it. And you talked about time blocking, which is another thing that’s you know, if, by the way, if you’re listening and you haven’t done your goals in a while, go to Rod’s links dot com at the bottom is my goal setting workshop.
00:23:01:08 – 00:23:16:06
Rod
I do it every day on New Year’s Day every year on New Year’s Day, and there’s a guide you can download. We’re not going to try to sell you anything. You know, people spend more time planning a frickin Christmas party than they do designing their lives, and that’s designing your life. So if you haven’t done it, if your spouse hasn’t done their goals, have them do it as well.
00:23:16:06 – 00:23:30:06
Rod
It takes about an hour. You’ll leave so frickin juice, you’ll be coming out of your skin. And then, you know, if you’ve got kids that are over ten years old, have them do it. Better yet, come to one of my boot camps where if you can’t go to Rod’s lengths and do it there, because that’s that’s how you get that hunger.
00:23:30:06 – 00:23:43:24
Rod
You’ve got to have a burning desire. You got to have hunger to go out there and make it happen. And how you said something else I wanted to elaborate on. You said go, Oh, you talked about Hal Elrod in The Miracle Morning. You know, I just interviewed him three days ago on the show. Again, he’s got a new book.
00:23:44:03 – 00:24:07:08
Rod
He is Rocky, and he sent me an autographed copy. It’s not even out yet. But yeah, if you if you want a great book, get the Miracle Morning. Talk about what you do every morning to set your day off. Right. It’s a gift that I give my warriors. And because it’s so impactful and, you know, talk about journaling in the morning, exercising in the morning, meditating or praying in the morning and just starting your day off.
00:24:07:08 – 00:24:10:13
Rod
Right. Like that is incredibly powerful.
00:24:10:15 – 00:24:14:16
Daniel
Unless you’re like me, you’re not a morning person, then you can make it a miracle evening. I prefer that.
00:24:14:16 – 00:24:17:16
Rod
Oh, okay. That’s fine. That’s why. So is there a miracle in there?
00:24:17:16 – 00:24:42:02
Daniel
And it’s my miracle evening. I just switched out nowaday. We talked about the underwriting, the analytical, but you kind of glossed over something. You have a networking group that you’ve done for for many, many years. And for people listening that that may want to do the same, start a local, meet up, whatever. What are some tips that you can give to them to help them get started and build that that community of attendees coming to those?
00:24:42:06 – 00:25:03:05
Mark
Sure, yeah. We started off in a brewery, so it’s great location social. It was just open networking at first and we just wanted to see who we could get right. And this is probably six, seven years ago. We maybe started off with maybe seven or eight people for our first meet up, and then right before COVID, we were averaging 35, 40 people at every meet up with speakers.
00:25:03:07 – 00:25:21:21
Mark
And we’re getting great turnouts. And just such a wide spread of folks who just listen to their first podcast, the folks who had significant assets under management or folks who had successful wholesaling businesses or flipping businesses, different contractors. But yeah, now my advice would be find a great location and then just let people know that you’re having a meetup.
00:25:21:21 – 00:25:44:10
Mark
So we used to put it on meetup.com, Facebook, bigger pockets. We eventually set up our website where we were building out that email list over time, so I think that’s up to over a thousand names realistically. So just really letting people know and then network. And then we built a great relationship with our venue as well. So it would slower during the week and then we would come in with 30 or 40 people once a month towards the end and they would love it, right?
00:25:44:10 – 00:25:59:05
Mark
So they would cater to us a little bit and offer a couple discounts. They’d bring on an extra bartender. But yeah, so just make sure that your options are obviously publicizing it and then find out what people want to learn about. So that really helped you. At the end of every meeting, we always ask, What do you want to learn about next?
00:25:59:07 – 00:26:08:10
Mark
Who? Someone that you might want to hear of. That’s a local that we can invite to come and speak. And so that’s exactly what we did, right? Just asking people what they were looking for and you brought it over to them.
00:26:08:10 – 00:26:36:15
Rod
It’s so awesome that you did that. I mean, I have, you know, a lot of warriors that since they become warriors, have done that and and very, very successfully. And and I talk about this where, you know, you can act as if even if you’re not experienced in a particular area of business, you can act as if by bringing in experienced speakers and by you being the host, you’re perceived as being, you know, as having knowledge and experience in that particular area and a lot of that same same with being a podcaster.
00:26:36:15 – 00:26:57:09
Rod
You interview experts and and again, by being the host, you’re perceived as the expert, you’re acting as if. And and so you know what’s great about the fact that you have that is of course that’s going to be a great source for raising money for you. At some point, you know, that’s in fact, before social media. I’ve had, you know, people on the show with five, six, seven, $10,000 and they started before social media.
00:26:57:12 – 00:27:16:13
Rod
And that’s how they did it. It was called Real Estate Investor Club meetings before even meet up. And and they raised, you know, tens of millions of dollars by doing these weekly or monthly meetings and meeting people. So, you know, it’s fantastic that you’re doing that. And and and it’s you know, it’s it’s fun. You have fun with it.
00:27:16:13 – 00:27:23:08
Rod
You meet great people. It’s just a home run all the way around. So last question I have for you, brother, is what’s your definition of success?
00:27:23:10 – 00:27:46:01
Mark
Oh, good one, I think. Right. I don’t think there’s no one set definition, but my definition would be, are you happy at the end of every day? Right. So I am successful today day. And is it my long term goal? Not necessarily. I have those long term goals, but it I give it almost 100% every day. Sure, some days aren’t, but did I make strides towards what I’m working for?
00:27:46:03 – 00:27:52:15
Mark
Am I grateful for the things that I have around me? Yeah. So success is super simple. I think I’m one of the most married kids.
00:27:52:15 – 00:27:55:01
Rod
I, I forgot. Are you married kids?
00:27:55:06 – 00:27:57:13
Mark
Yep. Married. And we have a five month old daughter.
00:27:57:15 – 00:28:16:24
Rod
Oh, that’s awesome. Yeah. How fun. That’s awesome. Awesome. Well, listen, thanks for coming on the show, brother. I really appreciate you bringing some wisdom and and really impressed with what you got going. And just based on the caliber of your answers, I mean, you’ll be on in a couple of years with a few thousand doors. I can see that coming a mile off.
00:28:17:01 – 00:28:18:16
Mark
So I hope so.
00:28:18:18 – 00:28:24:00
Rod
That’s I’d say it’s done. I can I can see it. Seriously. Thanks for coming on, brother. As I see it, it.
