CJ Yamada is a Las Vegas-based real estate investor originally from Japan, known for achieving financial freedom just three years after joining Rod’s Warrior Group in 2020. A devoted husband and father of two young children, CJ now oversees a total of 459 units—200 multifamily units in Temple, Texas, and 259 senior housing units in Wisconsin—with a remarkable 95% average occupancy rate. His portfolio is valued at $37 million under management, reflecting his dedication, growth, and success in the real estate space.
Here’s some of the topics we covered:
- How Backpacking Around the World Sparked a New Life Vision
- What It Really Took to Leave Japan and Start Over in the U.S.
- Why Trading Time for Money Was No Longer an Option
- The Game-Changing First Deal That Happened Through the Warrior Group
- What No One Is Talking About with the Coming Silver Tsunami
- How Paying for Speed Helped CJ Achieve Financial Freedom in 3 Years
- The Hidden Superpower Behind Magnetic Marketing Success
- Why Finding Your Lane in Multifamily Changes Everything
- What Being in the Warrior Group Gives You That Others Don’t
- Is It Possible To Do Multifamily With a W2 Job & Kids?
If you’d like to apply to the warrior program and do deals with other rockstars in this business: Text crush to 72345 and we’ll be speaking soon.
Full Transcript Below
00:00:28:24 – 00:00:50:12
Rod
Welcome back to Multifamily Rockstars. So as you guys know, these are the episodes where we dive deep on our guest deals and we give you really practical and actionable items to get started and do your first deal, especially if you’re brand new to multifamily. And because I’m having my warrior event here in Sarasota this weekend, this will be the second interview I’ve done today with a warrior, because they’re here for the warrior event.
00:00:50:13 – 00:01:04:24
Rod
You know, I have hundreds of warriors that come in, and we discovered a long time ago that our most successful warriors by far, were the ones that were the most connected in the community. And so we started doing things to help facilitate those connections. And so a few years ago, we started doing these events. We didn’t always do them.
00:01:05:01 – 00:01:13:00
Rod
And, they’re they’re a huge hit. And, and so, we were able to get somebody from Vegas. CG Yamada is here today.
00:01:13:01 – 00:01:13:20
CJ
Thank you for having me.
00:01:13:23 – 00:01:24:24
Rod
Absolutely, brother. I’m so glad you’re here. And it’s great to see you again. I know that, you know, I spoke at your meetup. You’ve got, I think, the largest meetup in Vegas for multifamily, like a thousand members or something now.
00:01:24:24 – 00:01:33:15
CJ
Yeah, I started by myself. Less than ten people three years ago. And, actually, my warrior, one of warrior mentors, forced me to start.
00:01:33:15 – 00:01:37:04
Rod
Oh, did it, and I. I wonder who that was.
00:01:37:06 – 00:01:38:00
CJ
Matt Piccini.
00:01:38:01 – 00:01:39:13
Rod
Matt Portunity all good guy.
00:01:39:16 – 00:01:54:00
CJ
And then after three years, I was following your advice. Your your advice, add value and be consistent. Yeah. So always it brought a, guest speaker and no sales focus on networking and education. And now all.
00:01:54:02 – 00:01:57:02
Rod
They even had to suffer through me once a couple of years ago and I believe.
00:01:57:02 – 00:02:00:10
CJ
Yeah. And you flew over for my event. Thank you so much. Yeah. Huge boost.
00:02:00:10 – 00:02:13:15
Rod
For us. Absolutely. So why don’t you talk a little bit about your story? You’re from Japan, which I want to talk about a little bit because we’ve, you know, we mentioned we might mention that, before we started recording, but tell us your story.
00:02:13:17 – 00:02:30:10
CJ
Yeah. So, it goes back to, 2008. I was, 21 years old, and, I was back backpacking all over the world, and my dad back in Japan was like, why don’t you go to America? I can stop backpacking and go to school in America and.
00:02:30:12 – 00:02:32:11
Rod
Quit screwing around and actually do something, is what?
00:02:32:12 – 00:02:36:05
CJ
Yeah, yeah. And why are you, you know, backpacking?
00:02:36:05 – 00:02:36:24
Rod
Oh, that’s really cool.
00:02:37:00 – 00:02:50:14
CJ
Like in Southeast Asia and, you know, surfboard in, you know, like hippie lifestyle. Go to America to find a, you know, bigger economy. And, I landed in Orange County, California in 2008 and,
00:02:50:16 – 00:02:52:02
Rod
Interesting timing.
00:02:52:04 – 00:03:16:24
CJ
Yeah, interest in timing, interesting timing. So I sort of got up and down all over on a campus in TV. And I learned a lot, to be honest, I didn’t understand English much at that point. I couldn’t ask where my bus stop was and bathroom was at that point. And the 21 year old guy crying on, huge American college campus couldn’t do, like, a basic thing, you know, it was easy in Japan.
00:03:17:01 – 00:03:35:23
CJ
So I decided I’m very competitive. So I decided to study English eight hours a day. Wow. No holidays, no weekend, no hangovers. Two years in a row. And, I started liking it. Country language, culture. And I’m stuck in this country now.
00:03:35:24 – 00:03:39:22
Rod
Wow, wow. It took you two years to to become fluent.
00:03:40:02 – 00:03:44:04
CJ
Yeah, one one and a half. I’m still learning in my in my mindset, but.
00:03:44:04 – 00:04:04:11
Rod
It would take me ten years to learn Japanese. You know, as an aside, you know, my my daughter went to Japan and taught English for a year. And when she was sick, she got she got cancer. It was really it was really horrific time, for us. But, when she was really sick and a life threatening sick, I told her because she always wanted me to go back.
00:04:04:11 – 00:04:20:13
Rod
I said, baby, as soon as you’re well, we will go back. We’ll go for two weeks. We’ll bring your brother, his fiancé, Tiffy. I will go and and, and we went and, and she. The reason she wanted me to go was she. She became fluent in Japanese. Oh, wow. Yeah. And I was just super impressed.
00:04:20:16 – 00:04:21:12
CJ
Just one year.
00:04:21:12 – 00:04:50:16
Rod
Yeah. She’s brilliant. I mean, she’s Mensa. Mensa smart. She works for me now. Yeah, but, but, yeah, so we we went to a soccer in Yokohama. In Tokyo? Oh, you’re from Osaka? No kidding. Yeah. Kyoto. Yokohama. Tokyo. Yeah, it was, it was it was quite a trip, but, so, back to real estate. So, talk a little bit about what you’ve done in real estate, and, and then we’ll dig into, a deal.
00:04:50:18 – 00:05:02:16
CJ
Yeah. So after college, I, I got a job and and, Oh, my career is in sales, and, one of that is, selling solar systems.
00:05:02:16 – 00:05:03:04
Rod
So I don’t know if.
00:05:03:04 – 00:05:27:08
CJ
It’s back in California making cold calls and knocking doors. And I was doing really good. Really good. One off top 1% in whole, whole, largest company in the industry. But I realized I was working, you know, easily ten, 12 hours a day, seven, seven days in a row and no time, for families, for hobbies and anything or learning.
00:05:27:10 – 00:05:50:21
CJ
So I just learned I was just trading my time for money. For money. And, I was rich, but not wealthy. So I started looking into what other people do on a YouTube and and podcasts. And, this guy was speaking, someone else’s podcast channel I was following and, talking about not only his success, but his failure.
00:05:50:23 – 00:05:55:05
CJ
Breakthrough mindset. And his name is Rock Lee. Oh, so it’s all.
00:05:55:05 – 00:05:55:21
Rod
Downhill from.
00:05:55:21 – 00:06:03:09
CJ
There. Switch to switch the podcast. Podcast channel I follow. That was that 2021 and I joined, warrior Group.
00:06:03:11 – 00:06:05:06
Rod
In 2021 is when you joined?
00:06:05:08 – 00:06:06:12
CJ
I think so, 2021. Yeah.
00:06:06:12 – 00:06:10:07
Rod
Wow. Yeah. Wow. Yeah. And so what have you done since then?
00:06:10:09 – 00:06:28:12
CJ
Since then, I kept networking. The biggest thing that helped me was the, close Facebook group. We help each other, introducing each other. Right? And, I maximize my time to set up 1 to 1, every day as much as possible, to grow my network and network.
00:06:28:12 – 00:06:29:13
Rod
To meet other warriors.
00:06:29:13 – 00:06:58:07
CJ
Yes, yes. Correct. And to learn from you know, other other fellow warriors. Right. And, one of many networks brought me this 49 units, assisted living facilities in Madison, Wisconsin, and, originally from Japan. I didn’t know exactly what Wisconsin was before that deal. And so they learned about the market industry management side. And so and, after 18 month or so, since join a warrior, my first deal happen.
00:06:58:07 – 00:07:00:09
Rod
No kidding. Yeah. And what was it, 40.
00:07:00:09 – 00:07:01:13
CJ
40, 49 units.
00:07:01:13 – 00:07:03:13
Rod
49 unit multifamily.
00:07:03:15 – 00:07:03:24
CJ
Assisted.
00:07:03:24 – 00:07:25:09
Rod
Living. It was assisted living. You went right into assisted living. By the way, guys, we don’t just do multifamily. Yes, my warriors zone. I think we’re pushing 270,000. Yeah. Multifamily units at this point. We know it’s over 260 because we’ve got that in the county. But there’s tons of a senior housing. There’s thousands of self storage units, there’s thousands of mobile home park units.
00:07:25:11 – 00:07:32:08
Rod
So it’s not just multifamily. So talk about this 49 unit deal. Is was it with Warriors I take.
00:07:32:08 – 00:07:33:10
CJ
It all the warriors.
00:07:33:10 – 00:07:45:21
Rod
All warriors okay. Yeah. And you’ve done other things too, by the way, I think you’ve got 200 units of multifamily, as well. And you’re in about, and you’ve got other senior housing going as well right now as well.
00:07:45:21 – 00:08:09:13
CJ
Correct? Correct. So, right now and I have a little more than 250 units of assisted living facilities in Wisconsin. Okay. And, with all the same members. So for the Warriors and Wisconsin has a very generous government subsidies for senior housing businesses, I see. So we can source 100% income from the government. Well, which been increasing 7 to 9% annually.
00:08:09:15 – 00:08:32:11
CJ
Basically, they force us to have church, right? And then right before the election, they dumped it extra money to increase the rent 15%. Well, the end of last year. So business has been good to, 49 units. Increase up to 2250, plus seven buildings, full businesses. And then, I kept that,
00:08:32:13 – 00:08:35:11
Rod
For, for facilities.
00:08:35:13 – 00:08:37:20
CJ
For, for closings.
00:08:37:20 – 00:08:38:20
Rod
Oh, foreclosed.
00:08:38:21 – 00:08:43:23
CJ
Four closings. Five businesses, seven buildings.
00:08:43:24 – 00:08:47:16
Rod
Okay. Yeah. Five businesses. Interest. So. So five different facility.
00:08:47:16 – 00:08:48:15
CJ
Five different names. Yes.
00:08:48:15 – 00:08:54:23
Rod
Gotcha. Gotcha. Okay. Yeah. So 259 units, I think I see on your sheet here. Okay. That’s fantastic.
00:08:54:23 – 00:08:55:15
CJ
Yeah.
00:08:55:17 – 00:08:59:01
Rod
Okay. And you’re operating them as well. Correct. Okay.
00:08:59:03 – 00:09:01:00
CJ
I we weren’t originally okay.
00:09:01:00 – 00:09:02:21
Rod
Initially you hired somebody.
00:09:02:23 – 00:09:05:07
CJ
Yeah. And then they basically blowing up everything.
00:09:05:07 – 00:09:12:06
Rod
Yeah. And that’s that happens with property management companies in the multifamily business. So so now you’re vertically integrated. You’re managing yourself.
00:09:12:06 – 00:09:18:17
CJ
Luckily I have a lot of warrior partners who are smarter than me. So they they do a lot.
00:09:18:18 – 00:09:35:19
Rod
That’s that’s how it works. You get around people that know more than you do. And, Okay, well that’s fantastic. Yeah. So. So, talk about, you know, what did you pay for the portfolio and, you know, has the value increased, and if so, what does that look like? Do you know, off the top of your head? Yeah.
00:09:35:19 – 00:09:46:19
CJ
Yeah. So mainly what I’m looking for is a good story. Okay. In assisted living facility, not much physical value at, like, a renovating kitchen, a repaint.
00:09:46:20 – 00:09:47:22
Rod
So it was already in good shape.
00:09:48:01 – 00:10:13:21
CJ
Correct. And a lot of assisted living facilities are built. Late 90s, early 2000. Compared to multifamily. It’s not that crazy old, right? So not much physical thing. But what I’m looking for is a financial stories. A lot of businesses we built was, owned by, individual pop and mom owners in the late 70s. And a key phrase I want to hear is, it’s time for me to go to assisted living facility.
00:10:13:23 – 00:10:30:17
CJ
Then I’ll pick it up. Maybe, silo finance if it’s possible. Right. And then, those guys don’t have much advanced technology in operation, so we step in and optimize the rent, but also, optimize operating expenses.
00:10:30:18 – 00:10:39:15
Rod
Sure, sure. Okay, so, and you’ve got you’ve got a portfolio here in, in, Florida that you’re, Yeah, we are under.
00:10:39:15 – 00:10:42:21
CJ
Contract with 173 units. In how many?
00:10:42:21 – 00:10:56:07
Rod
178 173. Fantastic. Good for you. So I mean, you’re really moving quickly at your current pace. How long do you feel like it would take you to reach financial freedom?
00:10:56:09 – 00:11:06:16
CJ
It took me like a three years. Three. It depends on the old, you know, profitability and cash flow and everything but three years.
00:11:06:18 – 00:11:14:20
Rod
So you’ve already done it. Yeah. So you’ve already reached financial freedom? Yeah. It’s three years after joining the program. Yes. Oh, good for you, buddy. That’s fantastic.
00:11:14:22 – 00:11:15:21
CJ
Is so much good for you.
00:11:15:21 – 00:11:29:21
Rod
I’m really proud of you, man. That’s fantastic. So why senior housing? I mean, listen, I’m getting into senior housing as well. I’m raising money for a deal next week, so I’m very much into it as well. But. But I want you. I want them to hear it from you.
00:11:29:21 – 00:11:52:03
CJ
Not. Yeah. So I definitely started from multifamily. Obviously I joined a warrior program. That’s focus. Main focus is multifamily. And, I sold like a cap rate to low and and very competitive. Yeah. And, I shifted a little bit and assisted living facilities again, I didn’t intentionally look into it. One of my networks, brought it to me.
00:11:52:05 – 00:11:53:20
CJ
So network is one.
00:11:53:20 – 00:11:54:18
Rod
Of the warrior networks.
00:11:54:18 – 00:12:01:14
CJ
Yeah, yeah. And then I found out, we have huge shortage on an assisted living facility.
00:12:01:14 – 00:12:08:04
Rod
Huge shortage. There’s not enough beds, and. Yeah. I’m sorry. I’m going to not have you keep going because I. I get excited talking about.
00:12:08:05 – 00:12:10:08
CJ
Yeah, 10,000.
00:12:10:10 – 00:12:10:19
Rod
People.
00:12:10:21 – 00:12:21:04
CJ
Baby boomers a day attorney and 65 years old right now. And we just met a 30 minutes ago, since we met here today, 200 people turned 65 years old. Right?
00:12:21:06 – 00:12:33:22
Rod
But I said, I want you here, that 10,000 people a day are turning 65. Okay? And in ten years, they’ll be turning 75. Yeah. And this, this, this, what do they call it? A silver.
00:12:33:22 – 00:12:34:23
CJ
Silver tsunami.
00:12:34:23 – 00:12:56:01
Rod
Silver tsunami. And it’s it’s coming. And and there’s going to be a huge need. And I’m a huge proponent for senior housing. I actually don’t know if you know this. I got my senior housing Alf administrator’s license ten years ago. Oh, yeah. Yeah. Here in Florida I did a three day course and you know, and got the domain name affordable senior housing.com.
00:12:56:01 – 00:13:04:11
Rod
And I was going to run with it. And that’s I think that’s when the crash happened. This was like yeah. In fact more into it’s 50 God. Wow. It’s back in 2008. So it was.
00:13:04:12 – 00:13:05:15
CJ
It was oh that’s what it.
00:13:05:15 – 00:13:29:00
Rod
Was. It was like 17 years ago and, and and then I had to shift gears because I was losing my ass. And so, yeah. So I didn’t do anything with it, but, there’s a huge need and a huge shortage. And so, you know, it’s definitely an asset class. I’m very excited about it. I’m excited to be getting into it myself, finally, after all that.
00:13:29:02 – 00:13:42:19
Rod
But, yeah. So, so, you know, what do you think? Well, let me ask you a couple questions. What is your role on the team? Are you raising money, finding deals? What piece are you playing?
00:13:42:21 – 00:13:44:07
CJ
Mainly raising money.
00:13:44:08 – 00:13:58:08
Rod
By the way, guys, if you have any interest in the warrior program, for God’s sakes, apply. Okay, text the word crush to seven two, three, four, five. That’s how you apply. We don’t take everybody. But I mean, is it is it a decent program?
00:13:58:10 – 00:14:05:11
CJ
Absolutely. Best room you can ever ask for. So, you paying for speed?
00:14:05:17 – 00:14:06:00
Rod
Yeah.
00:14:06:06 – 00:14:21:06
CJ
And with with the knowledge. I have collected podcasts and YouTube, I could have say the same thing, but I haven’t done the same thing at all because of the network and, coaches, mentors. Absolutely. No. When you pay for the speed.
00:14:21:10 – 00:14:42:21
Rod
And, and, and, and it’s not just your personal coach that you get, there’s there’s dozens of potential mentors because there’s so much knowledge in the group. Yeah. You know, when I first started this business, I would bring people that I had on the podcast that weren’t students to to go on panels, and now I’ve got more panelists than I would ever need because I’ve got so many successful warriors.
00:14:42:21 – 00:14:44:03
Rod
It’s just such a blessing.
00:14:44:03 – 00:14:48:24
CJ
Yeah, we have a Facebook group, and every time I have questions, I ask and I.
00:14:48:24 – 00:15:08:06
Rod
Get them, that’s it. Yeah, we with our Facebook group is very powerful. Yeah. It’s very, very active. And it seems like almost every day a deal is closing on there. And yeah, questions get answers right away. So you’re involved in the capital raising piece. Let’s talk about that a little bit because I’m going to be teaching that this weekend obviously.
00:15:08:10 – 00:15:28:01
Rod
Because that’s, that’s, that’s actually more important in this day and age and finding the deal 100%. It was finding the deals. It was tough up to this point. But raising the money because there’s a lot of fear out there right now. Yeah. So talk about you know, your strategy for raising capital. And again, we’re going to we’re going to spend two hour, 2 or 3 hours on it at the warrior event.
00:15:28:03 – 00:15:36:13
Rod
Although the main purpose of the event is networking. But but we do a lot of deep diving on stuff, underwriting things. But talk about your strategy for raising capital.
00:15:36:13 – 00:16:00:12
CJ
Yeah. So my, my capital raising or any real estate strategy is like simply network is net worth. Yeah. My focus is to grow my network. That’s why I constantly network with the Warriors. Still. And then I manage my meetup. And every time I have a speaking opportunity, I fly out and talk about my businesses. I see, and, it’s like a farming business.
00:16:00:12 – 00:16:15:23
CJ
You can just raise capital when you have a deal and call uncles and aunts and raise $1 million. It’s not going to happen. So you have to constantly add value to them. In my case, through monthly meetup, meetup and email.
00:16:15:23 – 00:16:16:16
Rod
Oh, email is what.
00:16:16:16 – 00:16:16:23
CJ
I write.
00:16:16:23 – 00:16:18:00
Rod
Blogs. Oh, good.
00:16:18:00 – 00:16:41:04
CJ
And then, first thing you can do is grow the size of farm, like a number of emails and then grow the quality of relationship constantly. That takes time. So what I always tell my, you know, new Warriors, if they ask me a question, is best time to raise capital is when you don’t have deals, you know, of course you constantly educate, brand yourself and, add value to their lives.
00:16:41:04 – 00:16:48:12
CJ
And then when their deal is ready, you might be able to harvest it. So it’s a lifetime game. You add value and don’t stop.
00:16:48:17 – 00:17:10:16
Rod
That’s that’s fantastic advice. And and and like you said, which you learn from me, you add value and you’re consistent. Yeah. I mean I do podcast interviews. You guys don’t know this. I was in the hospital the last two days and I’m struggling today. I’m big, big time strong. And they were laughing at me a minute ago. But I don’t miss these interviews and I haven’t missed one in frickin, what, eight years?
00:17:10:16 – 00:17:30:18
Rod
Nine years. And so, you know, thousands, a thousand. I don’t know how many. We’re over well, over a thousand interviews, but, but, you know, it’s being consistent. And now now you do quite a bit on social as well. Yes. Yeah. Because I saw your post that you were coming down here and you were meet you were a doing due diligence and you did a nice post on social.
00:17:30:18 – 00:17:53:24
Rod
It flashed on my camera or on my phone before I came up here. So. Yeah. Good for you. Yeah. But, so, so you add value, you do a blog post, and of course your meetup is huge. That’s a before social media. That’s all people did. Yeah. You know, I used to have people sitting on this couch that, you know, had 5000, 10,000, even 20,000 doors before social media.
00:17:54:05 – 00:18:16:00
Rod
And the way they raise money was, you know, ROI meetings are real estate investor association meetings even before meetup. Yeah. And so you can raise a lot of money just by doing that. I mean, we’ve got warriors. There’s dozens of meetup groups around the country that are warrior based meetup groups. So so I don’t know if you agree with me here, KG, but I think we live in the greatest time on earth to, to create reach.
00:18:16:00 – 00:18:31:00
Rod
I mean, we have I mean, we have so many social channels and they don’t cost money. They cost time, you know, now you got to be okay with doing what you do blogs. So you don’t do videos. You got to be okay with you got to pick your medium. You know, if it’s writing, then you enjoy writing.
00:18:31:00 – 00:18:43:09
Rod
For me, I enjoy talking. I’m a talking head, you know? And so for me, I do videos, but but, you know, I mean, it’s just extraordinary what you’re able to accomplish. Creating reach. Correct?
00:18:43:15 – 00:18:49:00
CJ
Yes. I have a question. Sorry, listeners. Yeah. Do you think I should start like a video on social media as well?
00:18:49:02 – 00:19:07:18
Rod
Yes, I think that that I think that would be really smart. Okay. Videos where everything’s going and and and I will tell you what’s, what’s what’s cool is you can really do some cool stuff with video. Now, I don’t know if you saw the baby video we just threw out, you know, we’re doing the there’s this baby videos now where the babies are talking.
00:19:07:18 – 00:19:08:00
Rod
Is it.
00:19:08:06 – 00:19:08:10
CJ
You?
00:19:08:14 – 00:19:30:06
Rod
Yeah, we just did one two. I mean, we’re we’re modeling what other people have done, but it’s really funny. But there’s, you know, with AI there’s so many things you can do now and and so yeah, I would highly recommend you start doing video. And, and you know, that’s really where everything is going. And you know, like in this interview we’ll, we’ll take out sound bites and little clips that will post on social media.
00:19:30:12 – 00:19:50:07
Rod
And so we’ll cut this up into numerous different sections that can go out on social media, same source. And exactly. And you could do this at your meetup groups as well. Have those recorded and and and and if you’re asking the presenter some questions or things like that, you know, it’s great for positioning but, but and use it and put that out in your social media.
00:19:50:07 – 00:20:15:20
Rod
I highly recommend, if you’re not doing that, that you do that and have a video editor cut it up. You can find somebody in India or the Philippines, you know, on Upwork and cut up those video clips, for you and, and post those on social. But, but yeah, I mean, like I said, we live in the greatest time on Earth to create reach because we’ve got, you know, like I’ve got the largest multi-family Facebook group and all we did was manage it and we got, you know, 55,000 people in there.
00:20:15:22 – 00:20:39:17
Rod
And of course, the podcast, it’s the largest in the world now. And just by being consistent and adding value. And so it’s it’s it’s really, just an extraordinary time to, to, to to reach more people. Right, right. And, and when you and when you focus on adding value and being consistent. Yeah. You may not you may only have five people at your first meetup group like I use.
00:20:39:19 – 00:20:44:06
Rod
How many do you have? You said you had less than ten at your first one, and now you’ve got a thousand members, and.
00:20:44:06 – 00:20:45:16
CJ
A seven of them are my friends.
00:20:45:16 – 00:21:04:14
Rod
And so yeah, 710 we’re like, okay, we’ll come, we’ll see. Yeah, yeah that’s funny. But but but you know, that’s how you start. And you know, we’ve got dozens of podcasts in the warrior Group as well. And you know, and you may have five listeners the first time you do an episode, but but it builds and you just can’t get frustrated.
00:21:04:14 – 00:21:24:20
Rod
That’s what. Yeah, you have to be consistent. Yeah. One of the things I created for the warrior program was, a video. Oh. I’m sorry, a course called Crushing It in Social Media. And it’s freed all the warriors and it’s, you know, got a lot of great strategy in there, but, you know, Instagram, LinkedIn, Facebook, even TikTok now, they’re all extraordinary for creating reach even if you don’t advertise mean.
00:21:24:24 – 00:21:52:15
Rod
But if you just post consistently, if you get lucky, something goes viral. You get more followers. It’s it’s fantastic. Talk about a time everybody thinks this is all roses and gravy and everything goes fantastic. Talk about a time you got your butt handed to you in this in this business. And we all have numerous examples. You know, I ask this question every time I have panels at my boot camps, and I have everybody answer the question because I feel like we learn more from failure than we do from success.
00:21:52:19 – 00:21:54:00
Rod
So talk about a setback.
00:21:54:06 – 00:22:15:18
CJ
Yeah. It’s like like you always said, ask me how I know, like, every day this, you know, step up and then failure and I come back. But, talking about a first, you know, it took me a little more than a year. And looking back, why it took me so long, was I was trying to do everything.
00:22:15:18 – 00:22:39:16
CJ
I was so generalist, talking about market. Hey, I’m going to go nationwide. Units, 50 to 200 units, c to a class I wanted to do first. They were so bad. And I brought up, my my hitting zone is so wide, and I. Nothing happened. Right. And one day, one of your podcasts, recommend that to narrow down your own.
00:22:39:18 – 00:22:41:00
Rod
Focus is power.
00:22:41:00 – 00:23:03:24
CJ
Focus is power. So I switched that. What? What can I do? Underwriting? No, I hate zone XL. Help me more. Right. So I focus on capital raising sales. Right. And then people started calling me, hey, seizure, I have a deal. Do you want to, join a deal? We need, investor relationship guy and hearing the other three, 3 or 4 deals I underwrote, and it happened right away.
00:23:03:24 – 00:23:20:10
CJ
Yeah. So learn general thing from YouTube, podcast from other mentors. But when it comes to your own business, super narrow down maybe one market, one asset class, one super, super power narrow down. That’s success. Power.
00:23:20:10 – 00:23:39:07
Rod
Focus is power. And you know, Napoleon Hill in his book Thinking Grow Rich, says be a specialist, not a generalist. Correct. And that’s what we’re talking about here. You can’t be all things to all people. Let’s pick one market. Yeah. The most successful people I know are in one market. They vertically integrate and they stay there. Now, you’ve got a nice presence already in Wisconsin.
00:23:39:07 – 00:23:57:18
Rod
I know you’re moving into Florida here, both fantastic markets. The but you’ve got to and I’m assuming you’re in a vertically integrated here as well. Yeah. I mean you can do that. And that’s, that’s the those are the most successful operators that I see. And, and don’t you know, this is a team sport. You don’t have to wear every hat.
00:23:57:24 – 00:24:14:23
Rod
That’s the beautiful thing about this business. You raise money, you’re involved in the asset management as well, in the investor relations, but someone else is is is loves the spreadsheet. I don’t either. My God, I took the short bus to school for math. I mean, I’m just amazing. I can spell the word math, but, you know, I can get my way around a panel.
00:24:14:23 – 00:24:26:23
Rod
I just don’t like it, you know? And so do what you like. And when you like what you do. Work is play and never work another day in your life. Yeah, right. And you already great at sales. So you’re a people person, correct? Duh. That was a no brainer for you.
00:24:26:24 – 00:24:49:09
CJ
I have so much fun of making calls and text message and, you know, coming up with a marketing idea, but numbers, finances, due diligence, data constructions. I’m nothing. I can’t do anything. I can have fun. Yeah, I can read, you know, high level underwriting. Right. All right. Business owner. But my focus is people and raise capital.
00:24:49:11 – 00:25:09:09
Rod
Nice nice nice nice. You know, I know that was an epiphany for you. That was an moment where you’re like, okay, I need to focus on what I’m good at, which is sales and communication. Any other epiphanies or moments in your in your, in your journey here that come to mind when you’re like, okay, now I get it.
00:25:09:11 – 00:25:33:22
CJ
It’s it’s a power of consistency. Period. Yeah. So when I did, first capital raise, I literally text everybody in my phone 3 to 5 times, and some people started not liking me. That’s fine. I want I wanted to chase my dream last, couple of deals, one email reserved. Like a quarter million, almost two millions. One single email.
00:25:33:24 – 00:25:53:14
CJ
Well, and, I didn’t do I didn’t change anything. I was doing the same thing, adding value and and sharing deals and, you know, updating investors in it. As I said, it kept networking five new names a week. That’s my goal going networking event. And, the last couple deals and raising 1 million is so easy. Yeah.
00:25:53:16 – 00:25:57:02
CJ
Just because at a time I kept doing the daily grind and daily grind it.
00:25:57:03 – 00:25:58:24
Rod
Yeah, right. That’s it. That’s fantastic.
00:25:58:24 – 00:26:16:15
CJ
So I meet, two, three warriors every day. Well, every day, over zoom. Okay. Right. But not everybody is so successful. Not everybody. You provide a great content, so you provide great coaching. But at the end of the day, is your action. That’s it. You action. That’s it.
00:26:16:16 – 00:26:35:22
Rod
Massive freaking action is the bottom line, correct? It doesn’t matter how intelligent you are, doesn’t matter how much money you get. It doesn’t matter how much education you have where you live, if you’re willing to take massive freakin action. Success is inevitable. Period. I’ve seen it with my students time and time again. There’s no there’s no one size fits all with it.
00:26:35:22 – 00:26:55:06
Rod
Just the people that go do it. They push it. They let go of their stories. Because many people have stories as to why they shouldn’t do something. You know, they they, you know, they say, I should do this, I should do that, I should do this. And they should all over themselves, as you know, and and so, you know, the most successful people, the ones that just go do it.
00:26:55:08 – 00:27:14:11
CJ
Yeah. So I do a couple deals a year, three, two, three deals a year. Right. And I was listening to your podcast almost six month, 4 or 5, six month, not joining warrior. If I join a right away, maybe I could have done a one. One more extra deal. What am I, financial freedom? I would have been earlier.
00:27:14:16 – 00:27:20:19
CJ
So whoever listening to this podcast or watching YouTube know that just just just jump in and just do it.
00:27:20:20 – 00:27:39:07
Rod
Just do it. Do it. Yeah. By the way, if you are interested in applying, like I said, text the word crush to 72345. And that’s how you apply to the program. So, you know, besides that, are there any other words of wisdom that you would want to share with, you know, a listener that’s sitting on the sidelines?
00:27:39:07 – 00:27:51:01
Rod
They know they need to do something. You know, they may like their job, but they don’t have the freedom that they want for themselves in their family. They they may not like their job either. You know, what advice would you have for them?
00:27:51:03 – 00:27:54:14
CJ
Start with end in mind. And if you’re married with your spouse.
00:27:54:14 – 00:27:57:13
Rod
Yeah, start with the end in mind and bring your have make sure.
00:27:57:13 – 00:27:57:23
CJ
You share the.
00:27:57:23 – 00:27:59:12
Rod
Same picture with on board.
00:27:59:12 – 00:28:21:00
CJ
Yeah, yeah, yeah. So my wife and I, sat down a four years ago and define a four freedoms, a time freedom, location freedom relationship freedom, and, financial freedom. So not only money, I want we want to work with only people who we want to work with. Right. Wherever we can work and whenever we. We want to work.
00:28:21:06 – 00:28:41:13
CJ
So don’t chase, like, a number of units of money. Only, in my opinion, the time is absolutely more valuable than money in a location nowadays. I can work in any time. Right on the way to, your studio here, I was on a zoom meeting with my partners on my phone. No, my my, Uber ride to move the due diligence forward.
00:28:41:14 – 00:28:48:22
CJ
Nice. So define like a clear picture, with your spouse, if you if you have a partner.
00:28:48:23 – 00:29:08:03
Rod
Listen. And this one of the things we actually do at my boot camp is I had people come on and talk about how they get past a hurdle. If a spouse is not that excited about it. And it’s always I want them to hear it from my listeners. But it’s always communication. You’ve got to communicate what you’re doing, show them what you’re doing, you know, because you need a supportive work, supportive home environment.
00:29:08:05 – 00:29:25:10
Rod
If your environment is not supportive, it’s much, much harder to do this. And and I will tell you, for a lot of spouses, it’s very fearful, you know, for, for for someone, you know, the other spouse to say, hey, I want to do this instead of what I’m doing. But I will tell you this, you can do this on the side, okay?
00:29:25:10 – 00:29:29:04
Rod
You do not need to quit your job to do this. You agree?
00:29:29:06 – 00:29:30:04
CJ
Absolutely. Yeah.
00:29:30:09 – 00:29:47:14
Rod
I mean, you could you could, you know. Yeah. You got to kick ass. You got to get up early, stay up late, make sure your health is good state. So you had the energy. But you can be a great parent, a great spouse and do this on the side with a consuming full time job and ultimately quit that full time job once you know your income supersedes what you’re making.
00:29:47:19 – 00:30:06:16
Rod
And tons of warriors that have done that. But but I get sometimes I get asked, should I quit my job and do this full time? My answer is always no. Not unless you’ve got a big nest egg or you’ve got some other income coming in because fear will paralyze you. If you could tell 18 year old CJ’s something, knowing what you know now, what might you do differently?
00:30:06:16 – 00:30:11:20
Rod
If anything, maybe you don’t do anything differently, but what might you do differently?
00:30:11:22 – 00:30:14:10
CJ
18 years old or 20?
00:30:14:10 – 00:30:15:24
Rod
You know, just just younger version of.
00:30:16:00 – 00:30:48:02
CJ
Yeah, yeah, yeah. One thing I could always do better is, daily education, reading books, podcasts, YouTube and take actions. Don’t be so reactive to your daily job. So daily happening. Be intentional to your life in the future. I sit down and write my goals, starting from lifetime, five years up, down to, this week, today, every day.
00:30:48:07 – 00:30:55:05
CJ
And you advise me to write down whys, not only what. Right. So what and why and by when you.
00:30:55:05 – 00:30:55:13
Rod
Do that.
00:30:55:13 – 00:31:06:24
CJ
Daily. Daily. Wow. I wake up 4 a.m.. Wow. And write down goals and read one chapter and send out emails through my Vas and hit the gym and golf range. Comeback.
00:31:07:00 – 00:31:07:22
Rod
The miracle morning.
00:31:08:03 – 00:31:09:06
CJ
Miracle morning. Yeah.
00:31:09:06 – 00:31:13:21
Rod
Did you get that book for me when you joined? Yes. Yeah, I suppose so. You do it? Yeah. Good for you, man.
00:31:13:22 – 00:31:29:20
CJ
So, that four hours, for 4 a.m.. So three hours extra hours in the morning makes my life very intentional. Not, reactive to what it happens. Right. So.
00:31:29:22 – 00:31:39:21
Rod
So you exercise, you journal, you read, you email your Vas. Yeah. All in the morning before anybody’s up.
00:31:39:23 – 00:31:41:13
CJ
Emails and record a video and.
00:31:41:13 – 00:31:42:03
Rod
Record video.
00:31:42:03 – 00:31:43:18
CJ
That you do that direction things.
00:31:43:18 – 00:31:45:01
Rod
Oh, wow.
00:31:45:03 – 00:31:56:24
CJ
And what I have to do during the day is just waiting for people to wake up and getting ready to speak with me, such as meeting 1 to 1, broker calls, investor calls, and my day is done on.
00:31:56:24 – 00:32:12:06
Rod
You’ve written your goals that in that time as well. So you’ve journaled your goals at that time. Wow. That’s fantastic. But well, this is why you’re successful. Correct. And by the way guys, my love languages gifts for my warriors get plenty of gifts from me and one is The Miracle Morning by Hal Elrod, which is a fantastic book.
00:32:12:06 – 00:32:29:05
Rod
Go out and get it. He’s got a new version now. He’s been on the show twice. Is beautiful human being, but it’s extraordinary way to start your day. You want to be a success. You know, this is one of this is a clue. Listen, thanks for coming on the show. It was great to see you. How can people reach you if they want to reach you?
00:32:29:08 – 00:32:32:22
CJ
I’m, luckily only see Joe Yamada on any anywhere.
00:32:32:22 – 00:32:34:11
Rod
Kumar to.
00:32:34:13 – 00:32:35:23
CJ
Instagram. Facebook. Okay.
00:32:35:23 – 00:32:39:15
Rod
Fantastic. Fantastic. Well, we’ll see you the day after tomorrow at the event, bro.
00:32:39:16 – 00:32:40:12
CJ
Yeah. Thank you so.
00:32:40:12 – 00:32:41:08
Rod
Much. Thanks for coming.
