Dec. 10, 2024
Building Beyond: Lessons from 2024
Summary:
Hosts Eric and Josh reflect on their accomplishments, challenges, and learnings from 2024 on The On Purpose Investor podcast. They discuss investment strategies, mindset shifts, and personal development. Highlights include stories of overcoming business obstacles, the importance of perseverance, and setting Big Hairy Audacious Goals (BHAGs). They also share holiday traditions and set the stage for goals in 2025. The episode is a blend of professional insights and personal anecdotes, aiming to inspire listeners to set ambitious goals and navigate challenges with resilience.
Links Mentioned:
Transcript
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Hello everybody and welcome back to the On Purpose Investor.
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I'm your host, Eric.
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And I am Josh.
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We are so excited that you're here today.
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It is, man, it has been an amazing year, Eric.
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Dude, 2024, going into it, I was like, I set some goals.
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I had some intentions.
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Didn't know what to really expect throughout the year.
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But, as we're nearing the end of 2024, I'm just I'm blessed I'm happy, and I'm thoroughly, happy with the way my personal life went, the way, My business and how I structured it with my wife and how all that's went.
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And it's just, it's been a really great year.
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It hasn't been one of those Oh my gosh, I cannot believe I achieved all that in this year.
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That's not what my intentions were.
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And so that's why I didn't experience that.
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But I'm so happy with the way 2024 turned out.
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What about yourself?
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Look very much the same thing.
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So 2024, it's so funny.
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You say it that way.
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I actually experienced a lot of, okay.
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Redirections, I won't call them failures, but we, I experienced some redirections, some places where I tried repeating some things that I had done as an investor in 2023.
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that didn't work as well in 2024.
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But from that, I learned a crazy amount.
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I've learned just a massive amount about capital, how to move capital around, but beyond all that.
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I like who I've become this year.
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I have faced some problems and because of that, I've become much more I don't know, much more strong minded.
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I developed a larger sense of grit.
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And as a result of that, I'm finishing the year far better than I started it, but mindset, man, I think this was the year of mindset because we had to get tough about some things and I don't know, dude, I'm like you, man, I'm finishing 2024 and I'm calling it a victory.
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Yeah, absolutely.
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There are definitely years where you get to the end of it and you're like, dang, what did I even do this year?
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What did I achieve?
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And it was like six, seven years ago when Tiffany and I started doing like intentional goal setting that we, we just made like this big, hairy, audacious goal, you've heard us talk about this, the BHAG, we'll just set a BHAG for that year.
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And that is kind of like our benchmark of did we achieve that big thing that we wanted to do?
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Of course, there are tons of other goals that are set at the beginning of the year, but the BHAG is did you achieve it?
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Or did you make, headway towards it?
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And our BHAG in 2024 was, Transition to properties, and 1031 exchanged them into a very performing property, which we have talked about on other episodes.
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It is our airbnbs and it was learning the airbnb space.
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It was.
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Figuring out how to run it.
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And then also before that, it was just get through the renovation.
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That was the most nightmare of a renovation I've ever experienced.
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There were so many lessons learned.
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And there's so many opportunities within those lessons that I have taken as many chances as I could to share with others to say, either it's, hey, don't do this thing or, hey, those things that you feel like are stopping you or not, because it didn't stop me.
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And if my thing didn't stop me, I promise you that thing's not going to stop you.
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And here's how you can, here's how you can navigate these issues.
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Here's how you can get through it.
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And it really comes down to mindset.
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So share a little bit about like how your mindset has shifted in 2024.
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My, my mindset shifted quite a bit in 2024.
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I started 2024 as a kind of a baby wealth builder, I guess you say, as a baby wealth builder, just moving out of beginner truthfully into a wealth that are phase.
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And my mindset shifted a lot from seeing small to seeing big.
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I think often as investors, we see our investment space only with what's around us.
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And there's a much broader word, very similar Eric to what you and Tiffany have done to where you were in the single family rental.
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Then you moved to midterm, then it got bigger.
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Now you're in short term.
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And you're expanding for me, a very similar thing happened as far as how I view leverage and how I view the loan space.
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And so we have spent a lot of time this year, but it happened out of necessity.
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We had a property that we got into and we use the burst strategy.
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And for the very 1st time, I got ready to do that refinance out.
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And let me tell you, the did not work.
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And I got told no, and I got told, are you ready for this, Eric?
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I got told no on the refinance by 26 different banks.
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That's how many calls I made over that period, 26 different banks.
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And was paying a 12 percent note for three additional months that I did not originally account for.
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But throughout the process what I learned number one is I found two banks that would.
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I found a bank that will do a no interest loan and use the no, or excuse me, the interest only I re let me reword that, but would use the re the interest only payments as a part of the DSCR, which solved the equation.
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I would have never found that yes, had I not gone through 26 different nose Rachel and I raised a bunch of money through SDIRA that we're going to be able to deploy because in an effort to solve a problem, we were trying to solve it in multiple different ways.
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We opened up our own S.
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D.
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I.
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R.
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A.
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R.
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and getting ready to deploy that.
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But that all started out of necessity.
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Everything we were doing.
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started with a simple problem that we had and an emergency that had to be solved.
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It is so funny.
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We're talking about this.
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So I'm going through some of the conferences by Tony Robbins, and he talks a lot about the difference between someone who accomplishes a goal and someone who just thinks about a goal is that sense of urgency and human nature.
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When we have a sense of urgency that we have to solve it.
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It is funny how our brain moves.
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And for me, Eric, I don't mind telling you about about halfway through this year, I was getting a little nervous there on one of these houses, but now that I've gotten to the other side of it, man, I have learned, I feel like an investor whose mind is on a different level and the brokerage of leverage.
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Space, if you will, because of necessity, I don't know if that makes sense, but that's one of my big takeaways from 2024.
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Yeah, dude, there's so many opportunities where you can say this phrase, you have to kiss a lot of frogs to find the princess or to find the prince, right?
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Man, I kissed a bunch of them.
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I got around.
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Dude, and there's so many spaces where you can, kiss some frogs.
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And there's nothing wrong with kissing like all the frogs.
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Because if you try to do the thing, right, whatever the thing is to the listeners out there and you go and you try to do the thing and someone tells you, no, are you going to let that define whether you are going to do it or not?
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There's a lot of circumstances out there in our world.
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Where someone is going to tell you no.
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And there's even more circumstances where a bunch of people are going to tell you no.
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And it's really in that mindset.
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It's in that perseverance.
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It's in, honestly, it's really deep down the why you want to do it that will allow you the energy and the tenacity to keep pushing forward and go to the next frog.
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Just I think there's a healthy mindset and approaching questions asked And preparing for no there's this guy that I've been following closely recently, his name's Jim Fortin and he is a business coach.
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He's an energy coach.
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He's out there in Sedona, Arizona, and he sent an email out yesterday that I started reading and he said, how often do you.
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feel energized when someone compliments you?
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How often do you feel energized when someone likes your posts on social media, shares your stuff, builds you up?
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It makes you feel great, right?
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Equally, how affected are you?
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When someone provides negativity towards you, when someone dislikes your post, when someone says, Hey, that wasn't great.
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Or it wasn't like positive feedback.
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It was negative, like just straight negative stuff.
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And if you allow yourself to be influenced negatively by negative things coming your way, it really exposes that you are fully impacted by the external world.
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You are not in control of your own energy.
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You are not in control of your own happiness, your own sadness.
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You're not in control.
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Everything external is making you feel a certain way.
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And so while you're saying that, like, Asking those questions, and then being told no, and no.
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Sure, it probably sucked to be told no, and you gotta go call yet another lender, or you gotta yet go ask another person.
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But also there's growth in those opportunities of, I'm not going to let no define the outcome.
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It's just, it's no for them.
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Oh, that's just it.
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And it's, and I remember too, you and I've spoke many times as I was going throughout the process of what I'm going to do.
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And Oh, you and Tiffany, both of always go, and we'll have you tried this.
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There's always a, there's always another thing to try.
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And I think a key thing is so often in life we hear no.
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But it's not really and truthfully a no, it's a not this one, but go to the next one.
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And I like the mindset too, of in everything I'm learning something.
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Cause for example, I didn't, you were talking a second about fear.
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I am one of those that I've always.
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Fear averse on calling people on the phone and really going down that, that diatribe.
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But the reality is these weren't just banks I was dealing with.
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I had to call, I called almost 10 private lenders who all told me no because that DSCR was outta whack.
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But in the course of that, I also found lenders that have lower interest rates, but I never would've found them had I not had the courage to start picking up the phone call and making those calls.
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Fast forward, we're finishing, my wife and I are licensed real estate agents.
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We started off the year as baby real estate agents, but the courage and the tenacity that I developed as being an investor has bled over there too, because we're building a team now we're growing and we're expanding.
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We're on a mission next year, 2025, we want to do about 10 million as just our solo agents.
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But I would have still been thinking small because I didn't have the courage To pick up the phone and call people.
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We call it TTP, Eric.
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You got to talk to people.
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You want to be successful.
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You got to talk to people and it's okay to be told.
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No.
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In fact, be honest with you these days, man.
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I don't even fear the word.
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No.
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Someone tells me.
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No, I like now.
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I don't write anyone off because I always ask a follow up question.
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You and I have a mutual a friend that told me no on the refinance on 1 of these.
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And I asked him, I said, hey.
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Why not?
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And he said this isn't gonna be the deal for me.
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I like you.
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I trust you.
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It's not that it's just this isn't the right time for me to invest.
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But when you go to the next person, instead of asking for 36 months, Why don't you ask for 12 months with an added half a point and you might get further.
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And each time I asked that question you told me no.
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But why did you tell me no?
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How can I get better?
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It was like a snowball.
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Eventually, I kept snowballing until I finally got something put together that would work for the next person that I just kept calling man.
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It is.
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I don't know where some of the quotes I say come from, but I'm going to say this one and maybe it'll land and you're just the man.
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You got the quotes.
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No, the quality of the answers that you get come from the quality of the questions that you ask.
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And if you're not asking the right questions, you're not going to get the right answer.
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And same thing for chat GPT, if you plug in a question to chat GPT, it's going to give you exactly what you asked for.
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And unless we get better at asking questions to either chat GPT or to people or to your spouse, you're not going to get the answer back that you really want, unless to ask the question that you really need to ask.
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Now, how do you figure out the question to ask?
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It's through that.
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It's through trial and error.
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It's, Hey, I need I need to refinance.
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I need a 30 year replacement note.
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And I, oh, I can't do 30, but it's in the follow up, right?
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What, why would you not do 30?
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What could you do?
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Or what would you be more inclined to do?
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And then they start telling you, and then they'll probably still say, but you know, even though I might consider that, this is not the deal for me.
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Then you go to the next person.
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And then, like you said, you snowball it and You capitalize on the lessons learned and the questions asked.
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And I think that's a great opportunity.
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Look, it kind of shift in this, but along with the same thing too, we've talked a little bit about mindset.
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We've talked a little about getting to the solution, but I think something too.
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That I want to throw out there for people who are listening is when you get the solution, you have to have the courage to act upon it.
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And I want to brag on someone.
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So we put her in the hot seat at our last dealmaker Atlanta meeting.
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So by the way, if you're listening, we have a great real estate meetup, Eric and I would love to meet you.
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Go check out dealmakeratlanta.
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com.
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If you want to come to one of our meetings, just shoot us a message.
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You can come as my guest.
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We'd just love for you to come out and come check it out.
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But Tiffany Carter, can I just want to brag on her because she reminds me.
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Her goal was very similar to what we were talking about.
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It was to get into that real estate property.
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And we found her this house and we're so fired up.
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We got a chance to go out there, Eric, and see it last week.
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And it is looking great.
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I can't wait to get this for her.
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It's a, her strategy on this one's a flip and it's looking really good, but there's one key word.
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She had been attending meetings.
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She had, she'd read your book.
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Which is great.
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She was working on that mindset, but there's a moment that comes and Tiffany got there and I'm so proud of her because she had learned, but she had to have the courage to act on it.
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And then the day came and it was time to press the button and she had courage.
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And I think a lot of people too, they stop growing because they lack that courage because there's a certain point where you can listen to a million podcasts, you can read a million books, you can attend a conference, you can But you have to have the courage to go do it.
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It's just like you.
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You're being very kind on your story, but I know that you faced some trials this year to and getting that Airbnb it off the ground, but it's so successful now.
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Because when you face those, you have the courage because Eric, I've told you before, I'm trying to be like you.
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I would have sold that thing off a long time ago because I'm still growing in that level of courage.
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But you and Tiffany, if you don't mind talking about it real briefly, do you mind sharing?
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I'll let you choose.
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Cause I know you've had a lot of like friction moments, but would you just pick one and talked about how you kept your mind and just with that sense of courage, To hold it and get through it because I'm still amazed at this, Eric.
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I guess, there are many mountains we had to climb.
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And I'd say the biggest mountain we had to climb was we submitted plans for a certain use of the cabins.
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It's two cabins that are, they're massive.
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They're really nice.
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But we wanted to create sort of micro units out of the cabins.
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And we submitted plans to the municipality.
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They were approved, they were ready to go.
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And so we started work and we set up all the mechanicals to have these micro units.
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And then about two and a half months into the work, we called in for our insulation inspection.
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And during that, they said, Actually, you can't do it anymore.
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And that's just, that's one of those things.
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It's you're just baffled.
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You really, I do everything I can to hold up my end of every bargain I make.
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And you would think someone so much as a municipality of a city, Of the number three most visited city in the state of Georgia would hold up to a legally binding approved plan.
00:16:38.254 --> 00:16:48.815
And what happened, what had happened, there was nothing bigger than them that came in and stopped everything.
00:16:49.024 --> 00:16:50.475
And it was the state of Georgia.
00:16:51.634 --> 00:16:55.975
And so it's, it was one of those things that highly unfortunate.
00:16:56.424 --> 00:17:00.335
A big loss of income, a big loss of money invested.
00:17:01.284 --> 00:17:08.555
But it's one of those, do you find the battles that are big enough to matter, but small enough to win?
00:17:09.505 --> 00:17:14.424
And you taught me that 15 years ago, whenever you were my mentor and teaching me how to be a teacher.
00:17:14.845 --> 00:17:22.414
And it was one of those of, yes, this is absolutely big enough to matter, but I am not big enough to win.
00:17:23.565 --> 00:17:26.434
I'm not big enough to win against the state of Georgia.
00:17:27.359 --> 00:17:34.450
And I said, if I want to continue with my plans and make this, micro units and all that, let's see what that would take.
00:17:35.839 --> 00:17:50.019
And then it was just six figures of additional funding to go into these properties that we could not, we couldn't justify in the ARV, the after repair value, we couldn't justify it in the income it would bring in.
00:17:50.569 --> 00:18:00.210
And so we I'm not gonna lie, I put my head in the sand for about a month, hoping that it would just work, and finally got out of my own way, and said, hey, you know what?
00:18:00.579 --> 00:18:05.039
We're gonna move forward with this plan, and we're gonna make it work.
00:18:05.529 --> 00:18:15.650
And through that trial of getting shut down, Really, it was so surprising that it's like actually, we said you could do this one thing.
00:18:15.650 --> 00:18:17.059
You can no longer do this one thing.
00:18:17.470 --> 00:18:27.785
And it took a lot for Tiffany and I to just grasp the, I guess, the reality of it that we just lost a lot of money.
00:18:28.515 --> 00:18:31.785
In the blink of an eye with one phone call, we lost it.
00:18:31.884 --> 00:18:32.505
It was gone.
00:18:33.285 --> 00:18:35.055
And how do we recover from this?
00:18:35.494 --> 00:18:37.154
That's that meme that's going around.
00:18:37.164 --> 00:18:39.684
How will I financially recover from this?
00:18:39.954 --> 00:18:41.085
That's what I was thinking.
00:18:41.585 --> 00:18:43.605
We just, we kept moving forward.
00:18:44.075 --> 00:18:48.894
We have faced so many challenges in the past that weren't this big, but they.
00:18:49.190 --> 00:18:50.039
Got bigger and bigger.
00:18:50.240 --> 00:18:55.000
The first problem we had was we bought a house with an inherited tenant that was cooking meth in the closet.
00:18:55.410 --> 00:18:57.799
That was our first little problem that we had to deal with.
00:18:58.220 --> 00:19:02.410
And then our next one was we had, a handyman steal from us.
00:19:02.589 --> 00:19:04.259
And then the next one we had.
00:19:04.674 --> 00:19:09.335
A house burned down next to our house and we had to rebuild part of our house.
00:19:09.795 --> 00:19:12.984
And then the next one was a tornado took out three of our houses.
00:19:13.285 --> 00:19:19.744
And so you see how the problems that we faced kept getting bigger and we kept getting better at solving them.
00:19:20.335 --> 00:19:21.664
And sometimes we didn't solve them.
00:19:21.664 --> 00:19:22.575
We just got through them.
00:19:23.214 --> 00:19:30.234
And that's what I want to encourage to everyone out there listening today, whatever problem you're facing right now in your business, I promise you.
00:19:30.990 --> 00:19:35.180
There's bigger problems coming and you have to get through this one to get through that one.
00:19:35.900 --> 00:19:41.720
And sometimes getting through it is the hardest thing you'll ever do until you face that next one.
00:19:41.990 --> 00:19:43.930
And I'm not saying like hard is coming your way.
00:19:43.930 --> 00:19:45.470
I'm not trying to put that omen on you.
00:19:45.750 --> 00:19:50.625
I'm trying to prepare you that All of these challenges you're facing are training fields.
00:19:50.744 --> 00:19:55.025
It's like you're if you're military at all It's like you went to basic training.
00:19:55.035 --> 00:20:00.684
That's the hardest training you'll ever do until you go to the next training And then it's oh my god.
00:20:00.684 --> 00:20:01.894
I thought basic training was hard.
00:20:01.904 --> 00:20:16.154
This one's harder and it's oh I did that I know I can do the next one then you get to the next one and it's even harder But because you've had success navigating those other two events that you thought at the time were impossible, you have the courage to tackle that one.
00:20:16.515 --> 00:20:16.855
That's it.
00:20:16.855 --> 00:20:19.615
Usually the problems are the things that help you level up to.
00:20:19.894 --> 00:20:20.035
That's it.
00:20:20.464 --> 00:20:30.640
That's that was my experience in 2024 is this big problem that, we were talking about a second ago, plus all the other smaller problems really helped me To level up.
00:20:30.690 --> 00:20:34.670
It also, it opened up a whole new network and helped me to understand.
00:20:34.680 --> 00:20:36.740
I changed my whole mindset as an investor.
00:20:36.950 --> 00:20:40.099
It's kind of controversial, but you and I were chatting about this the other day.
00:20:40.099 --> 00:20:43.049
I do not see myself as the broker of properties.
00:20:43.049 --> 00:20:43.779
I'm the broker.
00:20:44.200 --> 00:20:49.349
Indirectly it's I'm the broker of leverage is the leverage that term is to profit profitability.
00:20:49.670 --> 00:20:57.400
But with that little simple mindset shift, it changed how I quantify just the math on what I do.
00:20:57.450 --> 00:20:59.029
It changed how I build teams.
00:20:59.755 --> 00:21:02.714
I didn't really need a team, by the way, coming in the 2024.
00:21:02.744 --> 00:21:20.184
It was just Rachel and I, and we just hire out some contractors, but because of everything that happened this year, we've expanded and we've grown, we employ people now we've got I call them bird dogs, but we've got bird dogs out now hunting for off market stuff that we just got one actually under contract.
00:21:20.585 --> 00:21:22.065
Because we've got bird dogs out there.
00:21:22.065 --> 00:21:25.065
If you've seen our social media, that's not me.
00:21:25.125 --> 00:21:28.515
That's I've hired that out now and it looks better.
00:21:28.575 --> 00:21:39.444
And I would have never been encouraged to expand my team had I not faced problems that needed better people to solve those problems.
00:21:39.515 --> 00:21:40.595
And that's something else too.
00:21:41.079 --> 00:21:48.710
That I want to point out there for people is sometimes the best solution to a problem is for you to realize that you are not the one to solve the problem.
00:21:49.019 --> 00:21:53.380
You need to partner with someone that can solve that problem better than you.
00:21:53.849 --> 00:21:54.079
Yeah.
00:21:54.240 --> 00:21:57.400
And through those issues that I went through, I was on the phone a lot.
00:21:57.785 --> 00:22:01.545
I called every mentor I have and said, Hey, I'm experiencing this.
00:22:01.575 --> 00:22:04.375
And some of them gave some, advice that I didn't follow.
00:22:04.704 --> 00:22:05.625
You have a lawsuit now.
00:22:06.184 --> 00:22:10.085
It's I'm not poking the bear in which my cabins live.
00:22:10.134 --> 00:22:12.505
I don't want to poke and sue the bear.
00:22:12.884 --> 00:22:15.355
That is ultimately given me ability to operate.
00:22:15.464 --> 00:22:16.865
And so that's right.
00:22:17.835 --> 00:22:27.174
I've learned too, which is, it's the quality of the people, one of my private money lenders charges me a little bit more than the other private money.
00:22:27.174 --> 00:22:34.315
Like I mentioned at the start of this podcast that I found cheaper money that I may do a deal with, but only for certain deals, this is going to sound weird.
00:22:34.384 --> 00:22:36.765
I learned in 2024 that.
00:22:37.545 --> 00:22:52.875
I am okay paying a little bit more to get money when I'm partnering with someone that has a lot more knowledge, because I have to say, when I got into this tech, this very demanding deal, the person that had lent me the money did not throw me under the bus.
00:22:52.924 --> 00:22:58.095
And even went a step further and actually coached me, helped me solve a lot of problems and mentored.
00:22:58.115 --> 00:23:00.345
And I grew a lot from his experience.
00:23:00.855 --> 00:23:04.775
And I actually feel that it was worth every dime that he earned.
00:23:05.444 --> 00:23:06.704
throughout that process.
00:23:06.704 --> 00:23:08.275
And so I simply want to say that out there too.
00:23:08.295 --> 00:23:26.275
For those of you that are, you're trying to structure your deals or getting to the next set is don't think that the cheapest bet or the thing that is the easiest to get to, or am I talking about this on our, my last podcast, Eric, we're talking about mentors, the mentor that's easiest to get is not always the best.
00:23:26.845 --> 00:23:31.974
You've got to choose the people that believe in you, got skin in the game and won't give up on you.
00:23:31.994 --> 00:23:34.964
Those are the people that you've got to surround yourself with.
00:23:35.460 --> 00:23:37.970
Amen, dude, you got a little southern twang in that part.
00:23:37.970 --> 00:23:46.740
I know you got it.
00:23:46.740 --> 00:23:49.079
So, man, we talked about a lot so far.
00:23:49.079 --> 00:23:55.680
One of the biggest things that you and I have done in 2024 is like you mentioned earlier, we got dealmaker Atlanta off the ground.
00:23:55.690 --> 00:24:00.210
We have been hosting that meetup for a while now and y'all it's been great.
00:24:00.240 --> 00:24:03.650
It's been a great opportunity to, to just network and very.
00:24:03.934 --> 00:24:11.805
Organized fashion, I would say we're trying our best to really provide networking opportunities and learning opportunities for everyone that come.
00:24:12.125 --> 00:24:14.204
That comes I can't speak English sometimes.
00:24:14.424 --> 00:24:22.045
But you know, I'm very proud of what Josh and I have built and we're really looking forward to the 2025 year for deal Maker Atlanta.
00:24:22.394 --> 00:24:27.214
If you are interested in going to deal Maker Atlanta, please don't hesitate.
00:24:27.214 --> 00:24:31.474
Go to deal maker atlanta.com, but even more so deal maker.
00:24:31.795 --> 00:24:39.335
Richmond or Elite Dealmaker, which is the parent company of this all, is in March and I will be there.
00:24:39.375 --> 00:24:40.444
My wife and I'll be there.
00:24:40.454 --> 00:24:49.109
Josh, I think you are going to be there potentially and Y'all, Jim Ingersoll is a wizard of connecting people.
00:24:49.349 --> 00:24:55.569
He does a great job of fostering such an incredible event that it is.
00:24:56.230 --> 00:24:57.779
It is faith focused.
00:24:58.190 --> 00:25:03.339
It is based on, type of person that you want beyond just business.
00:25:03.369 --> 00:25:04.160
We talk about.
00:25:04.644 --> 00:25:08.265
You want to surround yourself with people who also will make you a good person.
00:25:08.404 --> 00:25:10.654
And we, his business acumen.
00:25:10.684 --> 00:25:12.325
Oh my gosh, it's amazing.
00:25:12.875 --> 00:25:22.545
But beyond all that too, Eric, I just want to throw in that Jim has figured out how to build a massive business, but do so while being an incredible person.
00:25:22.910 --> 00:25:23.960
Yeah, absolutely.
00:25:24.259 --> 00:25:27.799
So if you want to go to DealMaker in Richmond, it's the Elite DealMaker.
00:25:28.039 --> 00:25:29.119
Go to DealMakerAtlanta.
00:25:29.150 --> 00:25:29.539
com.
00:25:29.579 --> 00:25:33.099
There is a sign up on our page to get to that.
00:25:33.480 --> 00:25:37.069
Before we end the episode today, Josh we're almost at Christmas time.
00:25:37.299 --> 00:25:43.579
And I would like to bring in just a little bit of holiday spirit here and ask some questions of each other.
00:25:43.875 --> 00:25:44.204
All right.
00:25:44.204 --> 00:25:44.694
You ready?
00:25:45.315 --> 00:25:46.394
I didn't know you were doing this.
00:25:46.454 --> 00:25:46.795
All right.
00:25:47.125 --> 00:25:48.595
What is your favorite Christmas movie?
00:25:51.045 --> 00:25:52.095
You say die hard.
00:25:52.095 --> 00:25:52.734
I'm going to punch you.
00:25:53.664 --> 00:25:55.244
Look as crazy as it sounds.
00:25:55.255 --> 00:25:58.015
I'm actually not a Christmas movie kind of person.
00:25:58.184 --> 00:26:02.295
So my wife, it like has the Hallmark like Christmas stuff running.
00:26:02.345 --> 00:26:03.585
And I keep looking at her going.
00:26:03.924 --> 00:26:05.765
It's the same storyline.
00:26:05.775 --> 00:26:09.615
Like, why do you want to watch this for 12 hours?
00:26:09.674 --> 00:26:17.055
But, probably if I was looking back into my childhood, I still remember the day I saw the very first Home Alone.
00:26:17.474 --> 00:26:18.865
So probably Home Alone.
00:26:19.105 --> 00:26:19.494
Okay.
00:26:19.644 --> 00:26:21.474
Mine would be a Christmas story.
00:26:21.525 --> 00:26:23.224
OG Christmas story.
00:26:23.384 --> 00:26:23.964
Love that.
00:26:24.035 --> 00:26:24.375
Yep.
00:26:24.375 --> 00:26:24.644
Yep.
00:26:24.924 --> 00:26:26.994
My dad would put that on repeat.
00:26:27.075 --> 00:26:28.535
Like it would be in the VHS player.
00:26:28.535 --> 00:26:28.835
Right.
00:26:28.884 --> 00:26:32.404
And he would push the little button on it that says auto rewind.
00:26:32.684 --> 00:26:34.015
On that little tape deck.
00:26:34.315 --> 00:26:36.244
And we would watch it over and over again.
00:26:36.424 --> 00:26:38.835
And that's my favorite Christmas movie by far.
00:26:39.075 --> 00:26:41.625
What is your favorite Christmas dessert?
00:26:42.605 --> 00:26:43.484
Oh, dude.
00:26:44.394 --> 00:26:48.634
Hats off to my sister in law, my brother's wife, Mary Ev.
00:26:48.974 --> 00:26:54.315
She makes a pecan pie, but it's made with chocolate.
00:26:54.815 --> 00:27:00.184
And it's like chocolate, butter, pecans, brown sugar.
00:27:00.589 --> 00:27:02.960
It is absolutely amazing.
00:27:02.970 --> 00:27:05.930
And my sister makes a really good cheesecake.
00:27:06.500 --> 00:27:15.190
So I usually get both of those and last but not least, and perhaps the best one of them all, my wife is going to make she's called chocolate delight.
00:27:15.714 --> 00:27:16.964
And I don't know what's in it.
00:27:16.964 --> 00:27:17.845
It's just chocolate.
00:27:17.894 --> 00:27:20.095
Have you noticed that I really like chocolate, Eric?
00:27:20.095 --> 00:27:21.045
I just like chocolate.
00:27:21.045 --> 00:27:21.674
I can tell.
00:27:21.674 --> 00:27:22.305
I can tell.
00:27:22.305 --> 00:27:23.154
What about you, man?
00:27:23.505 --> 00:27:27.315
Dude, my favorite Christmas dessert is something my mom makes.
00:27:27.605 --> 00:27:30.805
She takes these Oreos and she smashes them all up.
00:27:31.144 --> 00:27:33.694
And then folds it in cream cheese and makes these little balls.
00:27:34.174 --> 00:27:39.585
They're like, she calls them Oreo truffles and she makes these little balls and then dips them in chocolate.
00:27:39.964 --> 00:27:42.515
And they are incredible.
00:27:42.565 --> 00:27:43.815
So that's probably my favorite.
00:27:43.855 --> 00:27:50.365
A close second that I learned even existed when I was like eight years old, my neighbor made buttermilk pie.
00:27:50.684 --> 00:27:55.265
And so that is my close second favorite Christmas dessert.
00:27:56.424 --> 00:27:59.154
I might have to try it.
00:27:59.424 --> 00:28:00.234
It's like a custard.
00:28:00.265 --> 00:28:01.025
It's so good.
00:28:01.694 --> 00:28:02.569
It is so good.
00:28:03.210 --> 00:28:10.690
What is your favorite Christmas pastime, either from your childhood or that you do with your family?
00:28:11.980 --> 00:28:15.680
So, my favorite Christmas pastime, there are two different ones.
00:28:15.799 --> 00:28:17.220
I'll give you the one from my childhood.
00:28:17.660 --> 00:28:22.869
It used to be a thing that all the cousins would get together at my grandmother's house, and there's 15 of us.
00:28:23.130 --> 00:28:28.029
And we would go out in the woods and play flashlight freeze tag, or fox and the hound, whatever you want to call it.
00:28:28.380 --> 00:28:30.420
That's what we did Christmas night.
00:28:30.849 --> 00:28:37.630
We all went outside in the woods and it got so, it was so big before my grandfather passed away.
00:28:37.630 --> 00:28:41.930
And then, we all the families now do sort of Christmas at their own places.
00:28:41.940 --> 00:28:44.309
But we, I mean, we had ghillie suits.
00:28:45.440 --> 00:28:51.900
We were decked out and all black, I mean, and it would last for to like midnight to 6:00 AM at that point.
00:28:52.140 --> 00:29:01.049
And we could go hours on a single round because it was so intense and we were playing out in a 20 acre section of woods in Eastman, Georgia.
00:29:01.140 --> 00:29:02.579
Like it was crazy.
00:29:02.579 --> 00:29:05.960
And I will say my Christmases now is.
00:29:07.204 --> 00:29:11.285
I, when we were doing, so when my oldest 2 were growing up, they're 16 and 17.
00:29:11.295 --> 00:29:14.234
We didn't do this elf on a shelf thing because that wasn't a thing then.
00:29:14.545 --> 00:29:20.224
Yeah, so, but I've got a 2 year old now and Eric this year.
00:29:20.674 --> 00:29:24.634
That little boy, when Jeremy came out, looked on the Christmas tree and saw that elf.
00:29:25.644 --> 00:29:37.065
And he looked at us and we're like, it's Crasher because he named himself Crasher and he's so excited and then every day he wakes up and he runs in and he is all on fire looking for this elf.
00:29:37.125 --> 00:29:40.855
So, Elf on a Shelf, I'm all in on that, man.
00:29:40.924 --> 00:29:41.615
What about you?
00:29:41.994 --> 00:29:42.414
We haven't.
00:29:43.049 --> 00:29:46.140
Dove into Elf on a Shelf, and I don't know if we will or not.
00:29:46.720 --> 00:29:48.720
It seems like a really big commitment, honestly.
00:29:49.519 --> 00:29:53.730
It is a bit of a pain, because you got or the elf has to end up at a different place.
00:29:53.730 --> 00:29:59.789
I don't know how he does it, but yeah, dude, and if the kid touches it, it loses its ability to fly.
00:30:00.240 --> 00:30:01.269
So they can't touch it.
00:30:01.950 --> 00:30:04.809
No, so for a two year old, it always has to be up high.
00:30:04.809 --> 00:30:14.464
Yeah, so my favorite pastime of Christmas When I was a kid, we didn't never do anything crazy special.
00:30:14.464 --> 00:30:16.845
We'd always have a family gathering and that was really nice.
00:30:16.934 --> 00:30:18.275
I really enjoyed those.
00:30:18.644 --> 00:30:25.615
As an adult, I love this opportunity of being a father of young children that we get to start creating.
00:30:26.884 --> 00:30:27.704
for our Children.
00:30:28.204 --> 00:30:31.634
And so what we've started doing is it's about two days before Christmas.
00:30:31.634 --> 00:30:36.105
We make hot chocolate and ride around in the van and look at Christmas lights and seeing jingle bells.
00:30:36.454 --> 00:30:42.125
And it's just one of those things that it's kind of wholesome of, we're just in the car together.
00:30:42.369 --> 00:30:43.130
We're driving around.
00:30:43.130 --> 00:30:47.450
We're looking at Christmas lights and that's kind of the one that I really like.
00:30:47.630 --> 00:30:49.779
Before we had kids, my wife and I had a pastime.
00:30:49.930 --> 00:30:51.849
We did it three, maybe four years in a row.
00:30:51.849 --> 00:30:57.619
We went up to Bryson City, North Carolina, and we rode the Polar Express Smoky Mountain train up there.
00:30:57.660 --> 00:30:59.984
And, if you hear the bell, you believe in the magic.
00:31:00.035 --> 00:31:00.964
We always heard the bell.
00:31:01.375 --> 00:31:10.164
So that was, that's, that was fun before children, but now with children, driving around, looking at Christmas lights, listening to Christmas music and drinking hot chocolate.
00:31:10.174 --> 00:31:12.244
That is, I look forward to that.
00:31:12.295 --> 00:31:12.825
I like that.
00:31:14.964 --> 00:31:16.305
I love some hot chocolate, man.
00:31:16.805 --> 00:31:18.755
Oh, yes, there's no doubt about it.
00:31:18.865 --> 00:31:19.384
Everybody.
00:31:19.394 --> 00:31:24.634
Thank you for joining us today listening to the on purpose investor from my family to yours.
00:31:24.674 --> 00:31:32.714
Merry christmas, and you know if you celebrate something different happy holidays to you I hope you get quality time with your family.
00:31:32.724 --> 00:31:48.595
I hope you're you know able to Create memories that are long lasting and if you get a few days Of quiet if you don't have like small children at home Do some heavy thinking about what does 2025 have to offer you and what are you going to achieve?
00:31:48.595 --> 00:32:01.095
And I said this really early in the episode Set a b hag a big hairy audacious goal one that it just scares the pants off of you and then back into figuring out how could I achieve that goal?
00:32:01.305 --> 00:32:08.150
And that goal doesn't have to happen until december 31st So you have 365 days to achieve that goal.
00:32:08.480 --> 00:32:11.339
And I promise you, whatever you set yourself.
00:32:11.880 --> 00:32:14.690
Up for achieving you can and will achieve it.
00:32:14.700 --> 00:32:17.119
So long as you plan everything around that.
00:32:19.259 --> 00:32:19.519
Yep.
00:32:19.710 --> 00:32:40.539
Absolutely, ma'am it's all about keeping your life in perspective, always remember on purpose investor It's not just enough about it's not all about investing It's about remember what you're investing for and I think that's one of the things I love about this time of year Is setting big goals, but remember the big goals I think can be bigger than money It can be bigger than equity.
00:32:40.660 --> 00:32:52.930
The biggest goals, the biggest thing that we do is to build a life that brings us closer to family, that brings us closer to God, and ultimately helps us to become the best version of ourselves.
00:32:52.930 --> 00:32:57.640
If you can become the best version of yourself, then it will be a happy holiday.
00:32:57.650 --> 00:33:01.869
And even better than that, every day after the holidays can be your best day.
00:33:02.349 --> 00:33:03.029
Absolutely.
00:33:03.369 --> 00:33:07.809
In 2025, my BHAG, honestly, is to survive.
00:33:08.079 --> 00:33:08.529
I'm kidding.
00:33:08.750 --> 00:33:15.720
We are welcoming in the third member of our family in the middle of June, in the middle, June of 2025.
00:33:15.779 --> 00:33:19.150
God willing, we will welcome our third child to this world.
00:33:19.470 --> 00:33:28.089
Woop! Baby's gosh! That's it! But we are excited to, finish building our family.
00:33:28.194 --> 00:33:39.914
In, in 2025 and we are very eager to get through like this young season but also relishing in the moments that are chaos and that are crazy.
00:33:40.234 --> 00:33:42.815
You only get one opportunity to experience that crazy.
00:33:42.825 --> 00:33:52.494
And my, I have a really big goal of 2025 is to not become frustrated by children being children, but to, be thankful that I get to experience it.
00:33:52.775 --> 00:33:53.394
Just like.
00:33:53.894 --> 00:33:54.825
all the other things.
00:33:55.045 --> 00:33:56.095
It's not happening to me.
00:33:56.134 --> 00:33:57.045
It's happening for me.
00:33:58.964 --> 00:33:59.654
That's it, man.
00:33:59.714 --> 00:34:00.164
Good luck.
00:34:00.164 --> 00:34:01.224
It's gonna be a great year.
00:34:01.224 --> 00:34:02.714
Congratulations to Tiffany as well.
00:34:02.714 --> 00:34:06.884
We'll have to get her on the show and ask what's harder, building a house or building a baby.
00:34:07.265 --> 00:34:07.795
That's it.
00:34:09.405 --> 00:34:11.074
Josh, appreciate your time today.
00:34:11.114 --> 00:34:13.385
And we'll sit down and record another one next week.
00:34:13.525 --> 00:34:13.885
Yep.
00:34:13.914 --> 00:34:14.954
Thanks for being here, Eric.
00:34:14.954 --> 00:34:16.534
This is so much better when you're with us.
00:34:16.534 --> 00:34:18.465
I mean, no one wants to listen to just me.
00:34:18.465 --> 00:34:24.364
They'll listen to me and you or me and Rachel, but evidently I'm just not, I'm just not as good without you, Eric.
00:34:24.364 --> 00:34:27.565
So we had great ratings on your episode.
00:34:27.565 --> 00:34:27.925
All right.
00:34:27.925 --> 00:34:29.003
We'll see y'all next time.
00:00:27.600 --> 00:00:30.149
Hello everybody and welcome back to the On Purpose Investor.
00:00:30.179 --> 00:00:32.439
I'm your host, Eric.
00:00:32.520 --> 00:00:34.200
And I am Josh.
00:00:34.240 --> 00:00:36.200
We are so excited that you're here today.
00:00:36.229 --> 00:00:39.799
It is, man, it has been an amazing year, Eric.
00:00:40.119 --> 00:00:44.850
Dude, 2024, going into it, I was like, I set some goals.
00:00:44.850 --> 00:00:45.740
I had some intentions.
00:00:45.750 --> 00:00:48.899
Didn't know what to really expect throughout the year.
00:00:49.219 --> 00:01:04.709
But, as we're nearing the end of 2024, I'm just I'm blessed I'm happy, and I'm thoroughly, happy with the way my personal life went, the way, My business and how I structured it with my wife and how all that's went.
00:01:05.040 --> 00:01:07.000
And it's just, it's been a really great year.
00:01:07.150 --> 00:01:11.079
It hasn't been one of those Oh my gosh, I cannot believe I achieved all that in this year.
00:01:11.319 --> 00:01:12.959
That's not what my intentions were.
00:01:13.000 --> 00:01:14.819
And so that's why I didn't experience that.
00:01:15.359 --> 00:01:18.939
But I'm so happy with the way 2024 turned out.
00:01:18.950 --> 00:01:19.939
What about yourself?
00:01:20.140 --> 00:01:21.500
Look very much the same thing.
00:01:21.500 --> 00:01:23.489
So 2024, it's so funny.
00:01:23.560 --> 00:01:24.480
You say it that way.
00:01:24.560 --> 00:01:27.109
I actually experienced a lot of, okay.
00:01:27.489 --> 00:01:37.450
Redirections, I won't call them failures, but we, I experienced some redirections, some places where I tried repeating some things that I had done as an investor in 2023.
00:01:37.450 --> 00:01:39.010
that didn't work as well in 2024.
00:01:39.379 --> 00:01:42.780
But from that, I learned a crazy amount.
00:01:42.780 --> 00:01:47.480
I've learned just a massive amount about capital, how to move capital around, but beyond all that.
00:01:47.819 --> 00:01:49.280
I like who I've become this year.
00:01:49.299 --> 00:01:55.510
I have faced some problems and because of that, I've become much more I don't know, much more strong minded.
00:01:55.510 --> 00:01:57.980
I developed a larger sense of grit.
00:01:57.989 --> 00:02:12.389
And as a result of that, I'm finishing the year far better than I started it, but mindset, man, I think this was the year of mindset because we had to get tough about some things and I don't know, dude, I'm like you, man, I'm finishing 2024 and I'm calling it a victory.
00:02:12.680 --> 00:02:13.610
Yeah, absolutely.
00:02:13.620 --> 00:02:19.039
There are definitely years where you get to the end of it and you're like, dang, what did I even do this year?
00:02:19.469 --> 00:02:20.379
What did I achieve?
00:02:20.710 --> 00:02:32.479
And it was like six, seven years ago when Tiffany and I started doing like intentional goal setting that we, we just made like this big, hairy, audacious goal, you've heard us talk about this, the BHAG, we'll just set a BHAG for that year.
00:02:32.930 --> 00:02:38.099
And that is kind of like our benchmark of did we achieve that big thing that we wanted to do?
00:02:38.110 --> 00:02:45.090
Of course, there are tons of other goals that are set at the beginning of the year, but the BHAG is did you achieve it?
00:02:45.120 --> 00:02:47.780
Or did you make, headway towards it?
00:02:48.050 --> 00:03:04.009
And our BHAG in 2024 was, Transition to properties, and 1031 exchanged them into a very performing property, which we have talked about on other episodes.
00:03:05.310 --> 00:03:08.629
It is our airbnbs and it was learning the airbnb space.
00:03:08.629 --> 00:03:09.050
It was.
00:03:09.354 --> 00:03:10.604
Figuring out how to run it.
00:03:10.685 --> 00:03:14.645
And then also before that, it was just get through the renovation.
00:03:14.685 --> 00:03:17.944
That was the most nightmare of a renovation I've ever experienced.
00:03:18.354 --> 00:03:20.324
There were so many lessons learned.
00:03:20.574 --> 00:03:35.375
And there's so many opportunities within those lessons that I have taken as many chances as I could to share with others to say, either it's, hey, don't do this thing or, hey, those things that you feel like are stopping you or not, because it didn't stop me.
00:03:35.935 --> 00:03:40.215
And if my thing didn't stop me, I promise you that thing's not going to stop you.
00:03:40.694 --> 00:03:44.685
And here's how you can, here's how you can navigate these issues.
00:03:44.685 --> 00:03:46.194
Here's how you can get through it.
00:03:46.254 --> 00:03:47.955
And it really comes down to mindset.
00:03:48.264 --> 00:03:52.715
So share a little bit about like how your mindset has shifted in 2024.
00:03:53.340 --> 00:03:57.710
My, my mindset shifted quite a bit in 2024.
00:03:57.710 --> 00:04:08.409
I started 2024 as a kind of a baby wealth builder, I guess you say, as a baby wealth builder, just moving out of beginner truthfully into a wealth that are phase.
00:04:08.870 --> 00:04:12.759
And my mindset shifted a lot from seeing small to seeing big.
00:04:12.759 --> 00:04:18.470
I think often as investors, we see our investment space only with what's around us.
00:04:18.509 --> 00:04:25.139
And there's a much broader word, very similar Eric to what you and Tiffany have done to where you were in the single family rental.
00:04:25.139 --> 00:04:26.970
Then you moved to midterm, then it got bigger.
00:04:26.970 --> 00:04:28.250
Now you're in short term.
00:04:28.579 --> 00:04:37.060
And you're expanding for me, a very similar thing happened as far as how I view leverage and how I view the loan space.
00:04:37.500 --> 00:04:41.589
And so we have spent a lot of time this year, but it happened out of necessity.
00:04:41.589 --> 00:04:46.029
We had a property that we got into and we use the burst strategy.
00:04:46.029 --> 00:04:48.779
And for the very 1st time, I got ready to do that refinance out.
00:04:48.790 --> 00:04:51.439
And let me tell you, the did not work.
00:04:51.870 --> 00:04:55.120
And I got told no, and I got told, are you ready for this, Eric?
00:04:55.170 --> 00:04:59.540
I got told no on the refinance by 26 different banks.
00:04:59.540 --> 00:05:03.069
That's how many calls I made over that period, 26 different banks.
00:05:03.699 --> 00:05:09.089
And was paying a 12 percent note for three additional months that I did not originally account for.
00:05:09.089 --> 00:05:14.509
But throughout the process what I learned number one is I found two banks that would.
00:05:15.694 --> 00:05:30.024
I found a bank that will do a no interest loan and use the no, or excuse me, the interest only I re let me reword that, but would use the re the interest only payments as a part of the DSCR, which solved the equation.
00:05:30.024 --> 00:05:44.144
I would have never found that yes, had I not gone through 26 different nose Rachel and I raised a bunch of money through SDIRA that we're going to be able to deploy because in an effort to solve a problem, we were trying to solve it in multiple different ways.
00:05:44.589 --> 00:05:46.050
We opened up our own S.
00:05:46.050 --> 00:05:46.230
D.
00:05:46.230 --> 00:05:46.370
I.
00:05:46.370 --> 00:05:46.579
R.
00:05:46.579 --> 00:05:46.670
A.
00:05:46.670 --> 00:05:46.740
R.
00:05:46.740 --> 00:05:48.149
and getting ready to deploy that.
00:05:48.149 --> 00:05:50.459
But that all started out of necessity.
00:05:50.470 --> 00:05:51.459
Everything we were doing.
00:05:51.879 --> 00:05:57.589
started with a simple problem that we had and an emergency that had to be solved.
00:05:57.660 --> 00:05:58.370
It is so funny.
00:05:58.370 --> 00:05:59.170
We're talking about this.
00:05:59.170 --> 00:06:12.170
So I'm going through some of the conferences by Tony Robbins, and he talks a lot about the difference between someone who accomplishes a goal and someone who just thinks about a goal is that sense of urgency and human nature.
00:06:12.430 --> 00:06:15.410
When we have a sense of urgency that we have to solve it.
00:06:15.774 --> 00:06:18.225
It is funny how our brain moves.
00:06:18.254 --> 00:06:36.935
And for me, Eric, I don't mind telling you about about halfway through this year, I was getting a little nervous there on one of these houses, but now that I've gotten to the other side of it, man, I have learned, I feel like an investor whose mind is on a different level and the brokerage of leverage.
00:06:37.845 --> 00:06:44.004
Space, if you will, because of necessity, I don't know if that makes sense, but that's one of my big takeaways from 2024.
00:06:44.485 --> 00:06:52.634
Yeah, dude, there's so many opportunities where you can say this phrase, you have to kiss a lot of frogs to find the princess or to find the prince, right?
00:06:52.634 --> 00:06:53.665
Man, I kissed a bunch of them.
00:06:53.685 --> 00:06:54.495
I got around.
00:06:54.495 --> 00:06:59.125
Dude, and there's so many spaces where you can, kiss some frogs.
00:06:59.464 --> 00:07:04.834
And there's nothing wrong with kissing like all the frogs.
00:07:05.675 --> 00:07:18.754
Because if you try to do the thing, right, whatever the thing is to the listeners out there and you go and you try to do the thing and someone tells you, no, are you going to let that define whether you are going to do it or not?
00:07:19.314 --> 00:07:22.175
There's a lot of circumstances out there in our world.
00:07:22.620 --> 00:07:24.269
Where someone is going to tell you no.
00:07:25.139 --> 00:07:29.660
And there's even more circumstances where a bunch of people are going to tell you no.
00:07:30.129 --> 00:07:32.720
And it's really in that mindset.
00:07:33.060 --> 00:07:34.490
It's in that perseverance.
00:07:34.490 --> 00:07:46.709
It's in, honestly, it's really deep down the why you want to do it that will allow you the energy and the tenacity to keep pushing forward and go to the next frog.
00:07:47.180 --> 00:08:00.730
Just I think there's a healthy mindset and approaching questions asked And preparing for no there's this guy that I've been following closely recently, his name's Jim Fortin and he is a business coach.
00:08:00.730 --> 00:08:01.810
He's an energy coach.
00:08:01.810 --> 00:08:10.910
He's out there in Sedona, Arizona, and he sent an email out yesterday that I started reading and he said, how often do you.
00:08:11.185 --> 00:08:14.175
feel energized when someone compliments you?
00:08:14.555 --> 00:08:21.214
How often do you feel energized when someone likes your posts on social media, shares your stuff, builds you up?
00:08:21.264 --> 00:08:23.035
It makes you feel great, right?
00:08:23.485 --> 00:08:26.745
Equally, how affected are you?
00:08:27.024 --> 00:08:35.195
When someone provides negativity towards you, when someone dislikes your post, when someone says, Hey, that wasn't great.
00:08:35.514 --> 00:08:38.225
Or it wasn't like positive feedback.
00:08:38.315 --> 00:08:41.054
It was negative, like just straight negative stuff.
00:08:41.644 --> 00:08:55.585
And if you allow yourself to be influenced negatively by negative things coming your way, it really exposes that you are fully impacted by the external world.
00:08:55.715 --> 00:08:57.625
You are not in control of your own energy.
00:08:57.654 --> 00:09:01.085
You are not in control of your own happiness, your own sadness.
00:09:01.085 --> 00:09:02.174
You're not in control.
00:09:02.434 --> 00:09:05.615
Everything external is making you feel a certain way.
00:09:06.105 --> 00:09:12.570
And so while you're saying that, like, Asking those questions, and then being told no, and no.
00:09:13.500 --> 00:09:19.950
Sure, it probably sucked to be told no, and you gotta go call yet another lender, or you gotta yet go ask another person.
00:09:20.480 --> 00:09:26.625
But also there's growth in those opportunities of, I'm not going to let no define the outcome.
00:09:27.465 --> 00:09:28.815
It's just, it's no for them.
00:09:29.475 --> 00:09:30.345
Oh, that's just it.
00:09:30.384 --> 00:09:36.144
And it's, and I remember too, you and I've spoke many times as I was going throughout the process of what I'm going to do.
00:09:36.485 --> 00:09:39.455
And Oh, you and Tiffany, both of always go, and we'll have you tried this.
00:09:39.455 --> 00:09:41.804
There's always a, there's always another thing to try.
00:09:42.245 --> 00:09:45.664
And I think a key thing is so often in life we hear no.
00:09:45.945 --> 00:09:50.934
But it's not really and truthfully a no, it's a not this one, but go to the next one.
00:09:51.565 --> 00:09:56.115
And I like the mindset too, of in everything I'm learning something.
00:09:56.115 --> 00:10:00.095
Cause for example, I didn't, you were talking a second about fear.
00:10:00.565 --> 00:10:02.524
I am one of those that I've always.
00:10:02.544 --> 00:10:08.514
Fear averse on calling people on the phone and really going down that, that diatribe.
00:10:08.514 --> 00:10:11.095
But the reality is these weren't just banks I was dealing with.
00:10:11.095 --> 00:10:18.225
I had to call, I called almost 10 private lenders who all told me no because that DSCR was outta whack.
00:10:18.514 --> 00:10:29.044
But in the course of that, I also found lenders that have lower interest rates, but I never would've found them had I not had the courage to start picking up the phone call and making those calls.
00:10:29.095 --> 00:10:33.044
Fast forward, we're finishing, my wife and I are licensed real estate agents.
00:10:33.044 --> 00:10:45.365
We started off the year as baby real estate agents, but the courage and the tenacity that I developed as being an investor has bled over there too, because we're building a team now we're growing and we're expanding.
00:10:45.705 --> 00:10:51.184
We're on a mission next year, 2025, we want to do about 10 million as just our solo agents.
00:10:51.205 --> 00:10:56.355
But I would have still been thinking small because I didn't have the courage To pick up the phone and call people.
00:10:56.365 --> 00:10:57.955
We call it TTP, Eric.
00:10:57.985 --> 00:10:59.274
You got to talk to people.
00:10:59.294 --> 00:11:00.475
You want to be successful.
00:11:00.695 --> 00:11:04.894
You got to talk to people and it's okay to be told.
00:11:04.975 --> 00:11:05.524
No.
00:11:05.565 --> 00:11:07.325
In fact, be honest with you these days, man.
00:11:07.335 --> 00:11:08.725
I don't even fear the word.
00:11:08.784 --> 00:11:09.174
No.
00:11:09.195 --> 00:11:09.955
Someone tells me.
00:11:09.955 --> 00:11:11.904
No, I like now.
00:11:11.934 --> 00:11:15.544
I don't write anyone off because I always ask a follow up question.
00:11:16.134 --> 00:11:22.664
You and I have a mutual a friend that told me no on the refinance on 1 of these.
00:11:22.674 --> 00:11:24.455
And I asked him, I said, hey.
00:11:25.070 --> 00:11:25.940
Why not?
00:11:26.090 --> 00:11:28.580
And he said this isn't gonna be the deal for me.
00:11:28.610 --> 00:11:29.330
I like you.
00:11:29.330 --> 00:11:30.029
I trust you.
00:11:30.029 --> 00:11:34.779
It's not that it's just this isn't the right time for me to invest.
00:11:35.169 --> 00:11:45.519
But when you go to the next person, instead of asking for 36 months, Why don't you ask for 12 months with an added half a point and you might get further.
00:11:47.009 --> 00:11:50.110
And each time I asked that question you told me no.
00:11:50.139 --> 00:11:51.330
But why did you tell me no?
00:11:51.330 --> 00:11:52.320
How can I get better?
00:11:52.500 --> 00:11:53.720
It was like a snowball.
00:11:53.720 --> 00:12:01.649
Eventually, I kept snowballing until I finally got something put together that would work for the next person that I just kept calling man.
00:12:02.825 --> 00:12:03.225
It is.
00:12:03.835 --> 00:12:12.355
I don't know where some of the quotes I say come from, but I'm going to say this one and maybe it'll land and you're just the man.
00:12:12.365 --> 00:12:13.264
You got the quotes.
00:12:14.144 --> 00:12:18.725
No, the quality of the answers that you get come from the quality of the questions that you ask.
00:12:19.245 --> 00:12:23.235
And if you're not asking the right questions, you're not going to get the right answer.
00:12:23.485 --> 00:12:28.654
And same thing for chat GPT, if you plug in a question to chat GPT, it's going to give you exactly what you asked for.
00:12:29.065 --> 00:12:42.424
And unless we get better at asking questions to either chat GPT or to people or to your spouse, you're not going to get the answer back that you really want, unless to ask the question that you really need to ask.
00:12:42.774 --> 00:12:44.625
Now, how do you figure out the question to ask?
00:12:45.059 --> 00:12:45.750
It's through that.
00:12:45.799 --> 00:12:46.889
It's through trial and error.
00:12:47.169 --> 00:12:49.960
It's, Hey, I need I need to refinance.
00:12:49.960 --> 00:12:51.830
I need a 30 year replacement note.
00:12:52.179 --> 00:12:55.090
And I, oh, I can't do 30, but it's in the follow up, right?
00:12:55.129 --> 00:12:57.000
What, why would you not do 30?
00:12:57.009 --> 00:12:57.840
What could you do?
00:12:57.889 --> 00:12:59.889
Or what would you be more inclined to do?
00:13:00.139 --> 00:13:06.320
And then they start telling you, and then they'll probably still say, but you know, even though I might consider that, this is not the deal for me.
00:13:06.409 --> 00:13:07.379
Then you go to the next person.
00:13:07.399 --> 00:13:11.879
And then, like you said, you snowball it and You capitalize on the lessons learned and the questions asked.
00:13:12.230 --> 00:13:14.669
And I think that's a great opportunity.
00:13:16.629 --> 00:13:21.090
Look, it kind of shift in this, but along with the same thing too, we've talked a little bit about mindset.
00:13:21.429 --> 00:13:26.169
We've talked a little about getting to the solution, but I think something too.
00:13:26.399 --> 00:13:31.799
That I want to throw out there for people who are listening is when you get the solution, you have to have the courage to act upon it.
00:13:32.240 --> 00:13:34.490
And I want to brag on someone.
00:13:34.490 --> 00:13:37.870
So we put her in the hot seat at our last dealmaker Atlanta meeting.
00:13:37.899 --> 00:13:42.340
So by the way, if you're listening, we have a great real estate meetup, Eric and I would love to meet you.
00:13:42.340 --> 00:13:43.889
Go check out dealmakeratlanta.
00:13:43.909 --> 00:13:44.309
com.
00:13:44.549 --> 00:13:47.549
If you want to come to one of our meetings, just shoot us a message.
00:13:47.549 --> 00:13:48.519
You can come as my guest.
00:13:48.519 --> 00:13:50.669
We'd just love for you to come out and come check it out.
00:13:50.669 --> 00:13:54.970
But Tiffany Carter, can I just want to brag on her because she reminds me.
00:13:55.320 --> 00:13:58.320
Her goal was very similar to what we were talking about.
00:13:58.320 --> 00:14:00.490
It was to get into that real estate property.
00:14:00.490 --> 00:14:03.460
And we found her this house and we're so fired up.
00:14:03.470 --> 00:14:06.820
We got a chance to go out there, Eric, and see it last week.
00:14:06.850 --> 00:14:08.070
And it is looking great.
00:14:08.070 --> 00:14:10.100
I can't wait to get this for her.
00:14:10.100 --> 00:14:15.110
It's a, her strategy on this one's a flip and it's looking really good, but there's one key word.
00:14:15.110 --> 00:14:16.919
She had been attending meetings.
00:14:17.470 --> 00:14:19.139
She had, she'd read your book.
00:14:19.509 --> 00:14:20.340
Which is great.
00:14:20.350 --> 00:14:28.789
She was working on that mindset, but there's a moment that comes and Tiffany got there and I'm so proud of her because she had learned, but she had to have the courage to act on it.
00:14:29.529 --> 00:14:33.929
And then the day came and it was time to press the button and she had courage.
00:14:34.590 --> 00:14:49.705
And I think a lot of people too, they stop growing because they lack that courage because there's a certain point where you can listen to a million podcasts, you can read a million books, you can attend a conference, you can But you have to have the courage to go do it.
00:14:49.735 --> 00:14:50.914
It's just like you.
00:14:51.264 --> 00:14:59.945
You're being very kind on your story, but I know that you faced some trials this year to and getting that Airbnb it off the ground, but it's so successful now.
00:15:00.325 --> 00:15:05.904
Because when you face those, you have the courage because Eric, I've told you before, I'm trying to be like you.
00:15:05.924 --> 00:15:11.894
I would have sold that thing off a long time ago because I'm still growing in that level of courage.
00:15:11.924 --> 00:15:17.004
But you and Tiffany, if you don't mind talking about it real briefly, do you mind sharing?
00:15:17.044 --> 00:15:17.975
I'll let you choose.
00:15:17.975 --> 00:15:30.945
Cause I know you've had a lot of like friction moments, but would you just pick one and talked about how you kept your mind and just with that sense of courage, To hold it and get through it because I'm still amazed at this, Eric.
00:15:31.504 --> 00:15:34.095
I guess, there are many mountains we had to climb.
00:15:34.705 --> 00:15:42.095
And I'd say the biggest mountain we had to climb was we submitted plans for a certain use of the cabins.
00:15:42.254 --> 00:15:44.294
It's two cabins that are, they're massive.
00:15:44.394 --> 00:15:45.345
They're really nice.
00:15:45.774 --> 00:15:50.684
But we wanted to create sort of micro units out of the cabins.
00:15:51.065 --> 00:15:53.745
And we submitted plans to the municipality.
00:15:54.274 --> 00:15:56.095
They were approved, they were ready to go.
00:15:56.625 --> 00:16:03.134
And so we started work and we set up all the mechanicals to have these micro units.
00:16:03.794 --> 00:16:10.575
And then about two and a half months into the work, we called in for our insulation inspection.
00:16:11.914 --> 00:16:16.044
And during that, they said, Actually, you can't do it anymore.
00:16:16.774 --> 00:16:19.065
And that's just, that's one of those things.
00:16:19.075 --> 00:16:20.384
It's you're just baffled.
00:16:20.654 --> 00:16:24.565
You really, I do everything I can to hold up my end of every bargain I make.
00:16:25.304 --> 00:16:37.294
And you would think someone so much as a municipality of a city, Of the number three most visited city in the state of Georgia would hold up to a legally binding approved plan.
00:16:38.254 --> 00:16:48.815
And what happened, what had happened, there was nothing bigger than them that came in and stopped everything.
00:16:49.024 --> 00:16:50.475
And it was the state of Georgia.
00:16:51.634 --> 00:16:55.975
And so it's, it was one of those things that highly unfortunate.
00:16:56.424 --> 00:17:00.335
A big loss of income, a big loss of money invested.
00:17:01.284 --> 00:17:08.555
But it's one of those, do you find the battles that are big enough to matter, but small enough to win?
00:17:09.505 --> 00:17:14.424
And you taught me that 15 years ago, whenever you were my mentor and teaching me how to be a teacher.
00:17:14.845 --> 00:17:22.414
And it was one of those of, yes, this is absolutely big enough to matter, but I am not big enough to win.
00:17:23.565 --> 00:17:26.434
I'm not big enough to win against the state of Georgia.
00:17:27.359 --> 00:17:34.450
And I said, if I want to continue with my plans and make this, micro units and all that, let's see what that would take.
00:17:35.839 --> 00:17:50.019
And then it was just six figures of additional funding to go into these properties that we could not, we couldn't justify in the ARV, the after repair value, we couldn't justify it in the income it would bring in.
00:17:50.569 --> 00:18:00.210
And so we I'm not gonna lie, I put my head in the sand for about a month, hoping that it would just work, and finally got out of my own way, and said, hey, you know what?
00:18:00.579 --> 00:18:05.039
We're gonna move forward with this plan, and we're gonna make it work.
00:18:05.529 --> 00:18:15.650
And through that trial of getting shut down, Really, it was so surprising that it's like actually, we said you could do this one thing.
00:18:15.650 --> 00:18:17.059
You can no longer do this one thing.
00:18:17.470 --> 00:18:27.785
And it took a lot for Tiffany and I to just grasp the, I guess, the reality of it that we just lost a lot of money.
00:18:28.515 --> 00:18:31.785
In the blink of an eye with one phone call, we lost it.
00:18:31.884 --> 00:18:32.505
It was gone.
00:18:33.285 --> 00:18:35.055
And how do we recover from this?
00:18:35.494 --> 00:18:37.154
That's that meme that's going around.
00:18:37.164 --> 00:18:39.684
How will I financially recover from this?
00:18:39.954 --> 00:18:41.085
That's what I was thinking.
00:18:41.585 --> 00:18:43.605
We just, we kept moving forward.
00:18:44.075 --> 00:18:48.894
We have faced so many challenges in the past that weren't this big, but they.
00:18:49.190 --> 00:18:50.039
Got bigger and bigger.
00:18:50.240 --> 00:18:55.000
The first problem we had was we bought a house with an inherited tenant that was cooking meth in the closet.
00:18:55.410 --> 00:18:57.799
That was our first little problem that we had to deal with.
00:18:58.220 --> 00:19:02.410
And then our next one was we had, a handyman steal from us.
00:19:02.589 --> 00:19:04.259
And then the next one we had.
00:19:04.674 --> 00:19:09.335
A house burned down next to our house and we had to rebuild part of our house.
00:19:09.795 --> 00:19:12.984
And then the next one was a tornado took out three of our houses.
00:19:13.285 --> 00:19:19.744
And so you see how the problems that we faced kept getting bigger and we kept getting better at solving them.
00:19:20.335 --> 00:19:21.664
And sometimes we didn't solve them.
00:19:21.664 --> 00:19:22.575
We just got through them.
00:19:23.214 --> 00:19:30.234
And that's what I want to encourage to everyone out there listening today, whatever problem you're facing right now in your business, I promise you.
00:19:30.990 --> 00:19:35.180
There's bigger problems coming and you have to get through this one to get through that one.
00:19:35.900 --> 00:19:41.720
And sometimes getting through it is the hardest thing you'll ever do until you face that next one.
00:19:41.990 --> 00:19:43.930
And I'm not saying like hard is coming your way.
00:19:43.930 --> 00:19:45.470
I'm not trying to put that omen on you.
00:19:45.750 --> 00:19:50.625
I'm trying to prepare you that All of these challenges you're facing are training fields.
00:19:50.744 --> 00:19:55.025
It's like you're if you're military at all It's like you went to basic training.
00:19:55.035 --> 00:20:00.684
That's the hardest training you'll ever do until you go to the next training And then it's oh my god.
00:20:00.684 --> 00:20:01.894
I thought basic training was hard.
00:20:01.904 --> 00:20:16.154
This one's harder and it's oh I did that I know I can do the next one then you get to the next one and it's even harder But because you've had success navigating those other two events that you thought at the time were impossible, you have the courage to tackle that one.
00:20:16.515 --> 00:20:16.855
That's it.
00:20:16.855 --> 00:20:19.615
Usually the problems are the things that help you level up to.
00:20:19.894 --> 00:20:20.035
That's it.
00:20:20.464 --> 00:20:30.640
That's that was my experience in 2024 is this big problem that, we were talking about a second ago, plus all the other smaller problems really helped me To level up.
00:20:30.690 --> 00:20:34.670
It also, it opened up a whole new network and helped me to understand.
00:20:34.680 --> 00:20:36.740
I changed my whole mindset as an investor.
00:20:36.950 --> 00:20:40.099
It's kind of controversial, but you and I were chatting about this the other day.
00:20:40.099 --> 00:20:43.049
I do not see myself as the broker of properties.
00:20:43.049 --> 00:20:43.779
I'm the broker.
00:20:44.200 --> 00:20:49.349
Indirectly it's I'm the broker of leverage is the leverage that term is to profit profitability.
00:20:49.670 --> 00:20:57.400
But with that little simple mindset shift, it changed how I quantify just the math on what I do.
00:20:57.450 --> 00:20:59.029
It changed how I build teams.
00:20:59.755 --> 00:21:02.714
I didn't really need a team, by the way, coming in the 2024.
00:21:02.744 --> 00:21:20.184
It was just Rachel and I, and we just hire out some contractors, but because of everything that happened this year, we've expanded and we've grown, we employ people now we've got I call them bird dogs, but we've got bird dogs out now hunting for off market stuff that we just got one actually under contract.
00:21:20.585 --> 00:21:22.065
Because we've got bird dogs out there.
00:21:22.065 --> 00:21:25.065
If you've seen our social media, that's not me.
00:21:25.125 --> 00:21:28.515
That's I've hired that out now and it looks better.
00:21:28.575 --> 00:21:39.444
And I would have never been encouraged to expand my team had I not faced problems that needed better people to solve those problems.
00:21:39.515 --> 00:21:40.595
And that's something else too.
00:21:41.079 --> 00:21:48.710
That I want to point out there for people is sometimes the best solution to a problem is for you to realize that you are not the one to solve the problem.
00:21:49.019 --> 00:21:53.380
You need to partner with someone that can solve that problem better than you.
00:21:53.849 --> 00:21:54.079
Yeah.
00:21:54.240 --> 00:21:57.400
And through those issues that I went through, I was on the phone a lot.
00:21:57.785 --> 00:22:01.545
I called every mentor I have and said, Hey, I'm experiencing this.
00:22:01.575 --> 00:22:04.375
And some of them gave some, advice that I didn't follow.
00:22:04.704 --> 00:22:05.625
You have a lawsuit now.
00:22:06.184 --> 00:22:10.085
It's I'm not poking the bear in which my cabins live.
00:22:10.134 --> 00:22:12.505
I don't want to poke and sue the bear.
00:22:12.884 --> 00:22:15.355
That is ultimately given me ability to operate.
00:22:15.464 --> 00:22:16.865
And so that's right.
00:22:17.835 --> 00:22:27.174
I've learned too, which is, it's the quality of the people, one of my private money lenders charges me a little bit more than the other private money.
00:22:27.174 --> 00:22:34.315
Like I mentioned at the start of this podcast that I found cheaper money that I may do a deal with, but only for certain deals, this is going to sound weird.
00:22:34.384 --> 00:22:36.765
I learned in 2024 that.
00:22:37.545 --> 00:22:52.875
I am okay paying a little bit more to get money when I'm partnering with someone that has a lot more knowledge, because I have to say, when I got into this tech, this very demanding deal, the person that had lent me the money did not throw me under the bus.
00:22:52.924 --> 00:22:58.095
And even went a step further and actually coached me, helped me solve a lot of problems and mentored.
00:22:58.115 --> 00:23:00.345
And I grew a lot from his experience.
00:23:00.855 --> 00:23:04.775
And I actually feel that it was worth every dime that he earned.
00:23:05.444 --> 00:23:06.704
throughout that process.
00:23:06.704 --> 00:23:08.275
And so I simply want to say that out there too.
00:23:08.295 --> 00:23:26.275
For those of you that are, you're trying to structure your deals or getting to the next set is don't think that the cheapest bet or the thing that is the easiest to get to, or am I talking about this on our, my last podcast, Eric, we're talking about mentors, the mentor that's easiest to get is not always the best.
00:23:26.845 --> 00:23:31.974
You've got to choose the people that believe in you, got skin in the game and won't give up on you.
00:23:31.994 --> 00:23:34.964
Those are the people that you've got to surround yourself with.
00:23:35.460 --> 00:23:37.970
Amen, dude, you got a little southern twang in that part.
00:23:37.970 --> 00:23:46.740
I know you got it.
00:23:46.740 --> 00:23:49.079
So, man, we talked about a lot so far.
00:23:49.079 --> 00:23:55.680
One of the biggest things that you and I have done in 2024 is like you mentioned earlier, we got dealmaker Atlanta off the ground.
00:23:55.690 --> 00:24:00.210
We have been hosting that meetup for a while now and y'all it's been great.
00:24:00.240 --> 00:24:03.650
It's been a great opportunity to, to just network and very.
00:24:03.934 --> 00:24:11.805
Organized fashion, I would say we're trying our best to really provide networking opportunities and learning opportunities for everyone that come.
00:24:12.125 --> 00:24:14.204
That comes I can't speak English sometimes.
00:24:14.424 --> 00:24:22.045
But you know, I'm very proud of what Josh and I have built and we're really looking forward to the 2025 year for deal Maker Atlanta.
00:24:22.394 --> 00:24:27.214
If you are interested in going to deal Maker Atlanta, please don't hesitate.
00:24:27.214 --> 00:24:31.474
Go to deal maker atlanta.com, but even more so deal maker.
00:24:31.795 --> 00:24:39.335
Richmond or Elite Dealmaker, which is the parent company of this all, is in March and I will be there.
00:24:39.375 --> 00:24:40.444
My wife and I'll be there.
00:24:40.454 --> 00:24:49.109
Josh, I think you are going to be there potentially and Y'all, Jim Ingersoll is a wizard of connecting people.
00:24:49.349 --> 00:24:55.569
He does a great job of fostering such an incredible event that it is.
00:24:56.230 --> 00:24:57.779
It is faith focused.
00:24:58.190 --> 00:25:03.339
It is based on, type of person that you want beyond just business.
00:25:03.369 --> 00:25:04.160
We talk about.
00:25:04.644 --> 00:25:08.265
You want to surround yourself with people who also will make you a good person.
00:25:08.404 --> 00:25:10.654
And we, his business acumen.
00:25:10.684 --> 00:25:12.325
Oh my gosh, it's amazing.
00:25:12.875 --> 00:25:22.545
But beyond all that too, Eric, I just want to throw in that Jim has figured out how to build a massive business, but do so while being an incredible person.
00:25:22.910 --> 00:25:23.960
Yeah, absolutely.
00:25:24.259 --> 00:25:27.799
So if you want to go to DealMaker in Richmond, it's the Elite DealMaker.
00:25:28.039 --> 00:25:29.119
Go to DealMakerAtlanta.
00:25:29.150 --> 00:25:29.539
com.
00:25:29.579 --> 00:25:33.099
There is a sign up on our page to get to that.
00:25:33.480 --> 00:25:37.069
Before we end the episode today, Josh we're almost at Christmas time.
00:25:37.299 --> 00:25:43.579
And I would like to bring in just a little bit of holiday spirit here and ask some questions of each other.
00:25:43.875 --> 00:25:44.204
All right.
00:25:44.204 --> 00:25:44.694
You ready?
00:25:45.315 --> 00:25:46.394
I didn't know you were doing this.
00:25:46.454 --> 00:25:46.795
All right.
00:25:47.125 --> 00:25:48.595
What is your favorite Christmas movie?
00:25:51.045 --> 00:25:52.095
You say die hard.
00:25:52.095 --> 00:25:52.734
I'm going to punch you.
00:25:53.664 --> 00:25:55.244
Look as crazy as it sounds.
00:25:55.255 --> 00:25:58.015
I'm actually not a Christmas movie kind of person.
00:25:58.184 --> 00:26:02.295
So my wife, it like has the Hallmark like Christmas stuff running.
00:26:02.345 --> 00:26:03.585
And I keep looking at her going.
00:26:03.924 --> 00:26:05.765
It's the same storyline.
00:26:05.775 --> 00:26:09.615
Like, why do you want to watch this for 12 hours?
00:26:09.674 --> 00:26:17.055
But, probably if I was looking back into my childhood, I still remember the day I saw the very first Home Alone.
00:26:17.474 --> 00:26:18.865
So probably Home Alone.
00:26:19.105 --> 00:26:19.494
Okay.
00:26:19.644 --> 00:26:21.474
Mine would be a Christmas story.
00:26:21.525 --> 00:26:23.224
OG Christmas story.
00:26:23.384 --> 00:26:23.964
Love that.
00:26:24.035 --> 00:26:24.375
Yep.
00:26:24.375 --> 00:26:24.644
Yep.
00:26:24.924 --> 00:26:26.994
My dad would put that on repeat.
00:26:27.075 --> 00:26:28.535
Like it would be in the VHS player.
00:26:28.535 --> 00:26:28.835
Right.
00:26:28.884 --> 00:26:32.404
And he would push the little button on it that says auto rewind.
00:26:32.684 --> 00:26:34.015
On that little tape deck.
00:26:34.315 --> 00:26:36.244
And we would watch it over and over again.
00:26:36.424 --> 00:26:38.835
And that's my favorite Christmas movie by far.
00:26:39.075 --> 00:26:41.625
What is your favorite Christmas dessert?
00:26:42.605 --> 00:26:43.484
Oh, dude.
00:26:44.394 --> 00:26:48.634
Hats off to my sister in law, my brother's wife, Mary Ev.
00:26:48.974 --> 00:26:54.315
She makes a pecan pie, but it's made with chocolate.
00:26:54.815 --> 00:27:00.184
And it's like chocolate, butter, pecans, brown sugar.
00:27:00.589 --> 00:27:02.960
It is absolutely amazing.
00:27:02.970 --> 00:27:05.930
And my sister makes a really good cheesecake.
00:27:06.500 --> 00:27:15.190
So I usually get both of those and last but not least, and perhaps the best one of them all, my wife is going to make she's called chocolate delight.
00:27:15.714 --> 00:27:16.964
And I don't know what's in it.
00:27:16.964 --> 00:27:17.845
It's just chocolate.
00:27:17.894 --> 00:27:20.095
Have you noticed that I really like chocolate, Eric?
00:27:20.095 --> 00:27:21.045
I just like chocolate.
00:27:21.045 --> 00:27:21.674
I can tell.
00:27:21.674 --> 00:27:22.305
I can tell.
00:27:22.305 --> 00:27:23.154
What about you, man?
00:27:23.505 --> 00:27:27.315
Dude, my favorite Christmas dessert is something my mom makes.
00:27:27.605 --> 00:27:30.805
She takes these Oreos and she smashes them all up.
00:27:31.144 --> 00:27:33.694
And then folds it in cream cheese and makes these little balls.
00:27:34.174 --> 00:27:39.585
They're like, she calls them Oreo truffles and she makes these little balls and then dips them in chocolate.
00:27:39.964 --> 00:27:42.515
And they are incredible.
00:27:42.565 --> 00:27:43.815
So that's probably my favorite.
00:27:43.855 --> 00:27:50.365
A close second that I learned even existed when I was like eight years old, my neighbor made buttermilk pie.
00:27:50.684 --> 00:27:55.265
And so that is my close second favorite Christmas dessert.
00:27:56.424 --> 00:27:59.154
I might have to try it.
00:27:59.424 --> 00:28:00.234
It's like a custard.
00:28:00.265 --> 00:28:01.025
It's so good.
00:28:01.694 --> 00:28:02.569
It is so good.
00:28:03.210 --> 00:28:10.690
What is your favorite Christmas pastime, either from your childhood or that you do with your family?
00:28:11.980 --> 00:28:15.680
So, my favorite Christmas pastime, there are two different ones.
00:28:15.799 --> 00:28:17.220
I'll give you the one from my childhood.
00:28:17.660 --> 00:28:22.869
It used to be a thing that all the cousins would get together at my grandmother's house, and there's 15 of us.
00:28:23.130 --> 00:28:28.029
And we would go out in the woods and play flashlight freeze tag, or fox and the hound, whatever you want to call it.
00:28:28.380 --> 00:28:30.420
That's what we did Christmas night.
00:28:30.849 --> 00:28:37.630
We all went outside in the woods and it got so, it was so big before my grandfather passed away.
00:28:37.630 --> 00:28:41.930
And then, we all the families now do sort of Christmas at their own places.
00:28:41.940 --> 00:28:44.309
But we, I mean, we had ghillie suits.
00:28:45.440 --> 00:28:51.900
We were decked out and all black, I mean, and it would last for to like midnight to 6:00 AM at that point.
00:28:52.140 --> 00:29:01.049
And we could go hours on a single round because it was so intense and we were playing out in a 20 acre section of woods in Eastman, Georgia.
00:29:01.140 --> 00:29:02.579
Like it was crazy.
00:29:02.579 --> 00:29:05.960
And I will say my Christmases now is.
00:29:07.204 --> 00:29:11.285
I, when we were doing, so when my oldest 2 were growing up, they're 16 and 17.
00:29:11.295 --> 00:29:14.234
We didn't do this elf on a shelf thing because that wasn't a thing then.
00:29:14.545 --> 00:29:20.224
Yeah, so, but I've got a 2 year old now and Eric this year.
00:29:20.674 --> 00:29:24.634
That little boy, when Jeremy came out, looked on the Christmas tree and saw that elf.
00:29:25.644 --> 00:29:37.065
And he looked at us and we're like, it's Crasher because he named himself Crasher and he's so excited and then every day he wakes up and he runs in and he is all on fire looking for this elf.
00:29:37.125 --> 00:29:40.855
So, Elf on a Shelf, I'm all in on that, man.
00:29:40.924 --> 00:29:41.615
What about you?
00:29:41.994 --> 00:29:42.414
We haven't.
00:29:43.049 --> 00:29:46.140
Dove into Elf on a Shelf, and I don't know if we will or not.
00:29:46.720 --> 00:29:48.720
It seems like a really big commitment, honestly.
00:29:49.519 --> 00:29:53.730
It is a bit of a pain, because you got or the elf has to end up at a different place.
00:29:53.730 --> 00:29:59.789
I don't know how he does it, but yeah, dude, and if the kid touches it, it loses its ability to fly.
00:30:00.240 --> 00:30:01.269
So they can't touch it.
00:30:01.950 --> 00:30:04.809
No, so for a two year old, it always has to be up high.
00:30:04.809 --> 00:30:14.464
Yeah, so my favorite pastime of Christmas When I was a kid, we didn't never do anything crazy special.
00:30:14.464 --> 00:30:16.845
We'd always have a family gathering and that was really nice.
00:30:16.934 --> 00:30:18.275
I really enjoyed those.
00:30:18.644 --> 00:30:25.615
As an adult, I love this opportunity of being a father of young children that we get to start creating.
00:30:26.884 --> 00:30:27.704
for our Children.
00:30:28.204 --> 00:30:31.634
And so what we've started doing is it's about two days before Christmas.
00:30:31.634 --> 00:30:36.105
We make hot chocolate and ride around in the van and look at Christmas lights and seeing jingle bells.
00:30:36.454 --> 00:30:42.125
And it's just one of those things that it's kind of wholesome of, we're just in the car together.
00:30:42.369 --> 00:30:43.130
We're driving around.
00:30:43.130 --> 00:30:47.450
We're looking at Christmas lights and that's kind of the one that I really like.
00:30:47.630 --> 00:30:49.779
Before we had kids, my wife and I had a pastime.
00:30:49.930 --> 00:30:51.849
We did it three, maybe four years in a row.
00:30:51.849 --> 00:30:57.619
We went up to Bryson City, North Carolina, and we rode the Polar Express Smoky Mountain train up there.
00:30:57.660 --> 00:30:59.984
And, if you hear the bell, you believe in the magic.
00:31:00.035 --> 00:31:00.964
We always heard the bell.
00:31:01.375 --> 00:31:10.164
So that was, that's, that was fun before children, but now with children, driving around, looking at Christmas lights, listening to Christmas music and drinking hot chocolate.
00:31:10.174 --> 00:31:12.244
That is, I look forward to that.
00:31:12.295 --> 00:31:12.825
I like that.
00:31:14.964 --> 00:31:16.305
I love some hot chocolate, man.
00:31:16.805 --> 00:31:18.755
Oh, yes, there's no doubt about it.
00:31:18.865 --> 00:31:19.384
Everybody.
00:31:19.394 --> 00:31:24.634
Thank you for joining us today listening to the on purpose investor from my family to yours.
00:31:24.674 --> 00:31:32.714
Merry christmas, and you know if you celebrate something different happy holidays to you I hope you get quality time with your family.
00:31:32.724 --> 00:31:48.595
I hope you're you know able to Create memories that are long lasting and if you get a few days Of quiet if you don't have like small children at home Do some heavy thinking about what does 2025 have to offer you and what are you going to achieve?
00:31:48.595 --> 00:32:01.095
And I said this really early in the episode Set a b hag a big hairy audacious goal one that it just scares the pants off of you and then back into figuring out how could I achieve that goal?
00:32:01.305 --> 00:32:08.150
And that goal doesn't have to happen until december 31st So you have 365 days to achieve that goal.
00:32:08.480 --> 00:32:11.339
And I promise you, whatever you set yourself.
00:32:11.880 --> 00:32:14.690
Up for achieving you can and will achieve it.
00:32:14.700 --> 00:32:17.119
So long as you plan everything around that.
00:32:19.259 --> 00:32:19.519
Yep.
00:32:19.710 --> 00:32:40.539
Absolutely, ma'am it's all about keeping your life in perspective, always remember on purpose investor It's not just enough about it's not all about investing It's about remember what you're investing for and I think that's one of the things I love about this time of year Is setting big goals, but remember the big goals I think can be bigger than money It can be bigger than equity.
00:32:40.660 --> 00:32:52.930
The biggest goals, the biggest thing that we do is to build a life that brings us closer to family, that brings us closer to God, and ultimately helps us to become the best version of ourselves.
00:32:52.930 --> 00:32:57.640
If you can become the best version of yourself, then it will be a happy holiday.
00:32:57.650 --> 00:33:01.869
And even better than that, every day after the holidays can be your best day.
00:33:02.349 --> 00:33:03.029
Absolutely.
00:33:03.369 --> 00:33:07.809
In 2025, my BHAG, honestly, is to survive.
00:33:08.079 --> 00:33:08.529
I'm kidding.
00:33:08.750 --> 00:33:15.720
We are welcoming in the third member of our family in the middle of June, in the middle, June of 2025.
00:33:15.779 --> 00:33:19.150
God willing, we will welcome our third child to this world.
00:33:19.470 --> 00:33:28.089
Woop! Baby's gosh! That's it! But we are excited to, finish building our family.
00:33:28.194 --> 00:33:39.914
In, in 2025 and we are very eager to get through like this young season but also relishing in the moments that are chaos and that are crazy.
00:33:40.234 --> 00:33:42.815
You only get one opportunity to experience that crazy.
00:33:42.825 --> 00:33:52.494
And my, I have a really big goal of 2025 is to not become frustrated by children being children, but to, be thankful that I get to experience it.
00:33:52.775 --> 00:33:53.394
Just like.
00:33:53.894 --> 00:33:54.825
all the other things.
00:33:55.045 --> 00:33:56.095
It's not happening to me.
00:33:56.134 --> 00:33:57.045
It's happening for me.
00:33:58.964 --> 00:33:59.654
That's it, man.
00:33:59.714 --> 00:34:00.164
Good luck.
00:34:00.164 --> 00:34:01.224
It's gonna be a great year.
00:34:01.224 --> 00:34:02.714
Congratulations to Tiffany as well.
00:34:02.714 --> 00:34:06.884
We'll have to get her on the show and ask what's harder, building a house or building a baby.
00:34:07.265 --> 00:34:07.795
That's it.
00:34:09.405 --> 00:34:11.074
Josh, appreciate your time today.
00:34:11.114 --> 00:34:13.385
And we'll sit down and record another one next week.
00:34:13.525 --> 00:34:13.885
Yep.
00:34:13.914 --> 00:34:14.954
Thanks for being here, Eric.
00:34:14.954 --> 00:34:16.534
This is so much better when you're with us.
00:34:16.534 --> 00:34:18.465
I mean, no one wants to listen to just me.
00:34:18.465 --> 00:34:24.364
They'll listen to me and you or me and Rachel, but evidently I'm just not, I'm just not as good without you, Eric.
00:34:24.364 --> 00:34:27.565
So we had great ratings on your episode.
00:34:27.565 --> 00:34:27.925
All right.
00:34:27.925 --> 00:34:29.003
We'll see y'all next time.
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