Blaze Your Own Trail - How Dani Lynn Robison Built 8 Businesses and Scaled Big

Episode Date: July 13, 2026

Join Jordan Mendoza as he interviews Dani Lynn Robison, a successful entrepreneur who shares her inspiring journey from music to real estate and business. Discover valuable insights on building wealth, overcoming challenges, and scaling multiple companies.  Key Topics Journey from music to real estate Building multiple businesses Importance of mentorship and coaching Scaling through strategic investments Lessons from failures and setbacks  Sound Bites "Mentors help me fast track results" "Actions speak louder than words" "Add value before asking for help" Chapters 00:00 Introduction to Dani Lynn Robison 01:22 Musical Beginnings and Early Influences 06:22 The Role of Mentorship in Growth 07:18 Navigating College and Early Career Choices 11:06 Cruise Ship Adventures and Life Lessons 19:00 Transitioning to Real Estate and Building a Business 21:05 A Serendipitous Meeting: The Beginning of a Journey 23:45 From Cruise Ships to Art Auctions: A New Chapter 27:00 Transitioning to Real Estate: The Start of a New Career 28:26 Navigating the 2008 Real Estate Market: Challenges and Lessons 32:04 Building a Real Estate Empire: Strategies and Growth 37:44 The Shift to Passive Income: Understanding Investor Needs 41:34 Key Takeaways for Aspiring Investors: Building Relationships and Asking Questions Connect with Dani:  Website: https://freedomfamilyinvestments.com/ Get Dani's Book: https://prosperity-rx.com/ Schedule a call: https://freedomfamilyinvestments.com/chat-with-freedom/         Are you an entrepreneur?Join my FREE Group Coaching Community where we have live calls, Q&A and more! Our Trailblazer Ecosystem also enables you to network with other entrepreneurs and creator hub eliminates multiple subscriptions and logins creating a one stop shop to take action! Join here: https://byotgroupcoaching.com/ Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Hello, everyone, and welcome back to the Blaze Your Own Trail podcast. My name is Jordan Mendoza. I'm your host, and I've got a very special guest today. Her name is Danny Lynn Robeson. And I'm going to have her tell you a little bit about who she is and what she does today. Awesome. Thank you so much for having me, Jordan. So yeah, so my name is Danny Lynn Robinson. I'm the CEO and founder of Freedom Family Investments. We actually have a vertically integrated family of companies. So that'll be fun to talk about during this podcast because it was. It's quite the journey, bringing in one piece of the puzzle at a time in order to create eight businesses in total. And my husband and I, our offices are in Ohio, right in between Dayton and Cincinnati. And it was born and raised in Phoenix, Arizona. So when I went to Ohio, I learned I don't like snow. So my husband and I moved to Orlando, Florida, just south of Orlando, Florida. That's where we are now. And I CEO from afar. That's awesome. Appreciate you giving that intro and my favorite part of the show Danny is really taking a rewind and getting deep context into my guest story and their journey,

you know, finding out what they're made of. So let's go ahead and dive in and take a rewind. And I know you just mentioned it, but for the audience, you know, where were you born and raised? And then what type of kid were you, what did you get into in the early years? So we're talking elementary middle to high school years. Okay. So I was born and raised in Phoenix, Arizona. And in my early years, it was all about music. So I was a trumpet player. And just it came naturally. For whatever reason, I was in the class and I don't know how I got in the band, you know, room. I can't even remember that story, but I remember I was given a sheet with all these instruments. And so I looked at the instrument page and I said, okay, which one's going to be the simplest

to learn and fastest? And I saw a trumpet and only had three keys compared to the clarinet or the saxophone or whatever. And so I thought three keys, that's got to be a piece of cake. That's why I chose it and interesting to be a female as a Trump player was almost part of my journey and story because of all the businesses that I've been in. I'm just one of the very few females in the race and in the game. So that taught me a lot as I was growing up of how to navigate those types of relationships. So I loved being a musician. I got to the very, very top first chair, beat out all the guys, had to take, you know, all the unnecessary things that went with that, built some great relationships, learned how to navigate what that meant when you're at the top of the ladder surrounded by men,

ended up being a tomboy as a result because I wanted to hang out with them and actually be friends, not be hated because I was the girl. And so it was just an interesting story. Like my entire younger years was just very much 100% about music. So the fact that I'm in real estate and have built this many businesses at this point is not something anybody would have predicted. Yeah. Thank you for sharing that. And from music to real estate, yeah, definitely to different worlds, but I'm sure there's got to be some similarities, which we'll dive into. So thinking back to the early days, you know, being kind of the elephant in the room, so to speak, who helped you during those times? Did you have coaches? Did you have mentors? Did you have people around you

that you could confide in that kind of, you know, encouraged you to say, hey, don't give up. You can do this. You've got this. Can you talk a little bit about who those people were? Yeah. So I believe in mentors and coaches and masterminds. I hire somebody to help me get ahead in everything that I do. I never try to learn something from scratch, even AI. AI is like, you know, something new that we're all learning as we go. And I've got an AI systems engineer that works with us and teaches me. I've got an AI coach who works with us and teaches me. So as I was growing up, that was just maybe something that I learned early on that it helps me fast track the results, right? It helps me skip a lot of the mistakes. And so because of that type of success, I carried it into adulthood.

So my mentors, you know, at the time were teachers because, you know, in, you know, elementary school, middle school, that's who your mentors are at the time. You look up to them. You learn from them. But I also hired a private, you know, music teacher because I was a Trump player. And, you know, I wanted to learn. I just, I've always wanted to be the best. I've always wanted to be the biggest. Like, I've always had these huge aspirational goals.

And I've never really understood where they come from because they didn't come from my family. They don't have any of that. And so I was trying to find always who is the person that is where I want to be because I'm not immediately surrounded by that person. So I'd have to go out and search and I'd ask my parents and we were not well off, you know, so it was hard for them to be able to afford somebody like that. So, of course, my band teacher in school helped me find somebody that I could afford. And that was really my experience, you know, coming in in terms of the biggest learning lessons, even when it came to money, I grew up in church. And if you're familiar with the Phoenix, Arizona area, it's like one of the

largest churches. It's an assembly of God church. And the music pastor there, because I was in love with music and I played the trumpet, I was in the orchestra. The music pastor there was fairly well off. And I was still trying to understand life, right? And, you know, how to make my way. What do I want to do? What is what, you know, just everything that you're trying to figure out as a kid. One of the things I was trying to understand was money. Like, why was my family not well off and why was other people able to do a lot more things with their family and their kids and that we couldn't do? And, and, you know, as I pursued music and got closer to this music minister, he ended up being like a mentor coach for me. And as I went to college, I came back and interned at that church as a music minister.

And he just continued throughout my lifetime. We went on mission trips together. Like I hung out with his family. Like I really learned a lot of money principles from him along with just life principles and God principles and all of the things that I felt like I didn't have fully, right? We all have a family that we love and adore, but like the full package of what we need out of life usually means you have to expand. And you have to figure out what are the other areas that I need to learn and who can I learn them from? And so that's really, I would say the biggest mentors were my teachers and that music minister in my life that has really just, I don't know, instilled some really incredible things in me. That's just always taught me to never stop dreaming and always surround yourself with the right people that can help you. you take you where you want to go. Yeah, it's great. It's so important to have people like that.

You know, not everybody has those people ever in their life. Some people don't. And then some people, it takes a while to get them. So, yeah, when you have them, you know, I love that you can reflect and know exactly what it was, right, that helped you elevate and accelerate your timeline, you know, and that's exactly what it does. When I started investing in coaches and mentors and and really, really doing the work, you know, that's when you start seeing the exponential results. So let's talk after high school. Was it all eyes on music? Is that kind of what you had? And were the plans to go to college? And then I know you did some internship stuff at the church afterwards, but talk a little bit about, you know, what was the plan, what was the actual outcome?

What was your experience like if you did go to college? And then would you have, done anything differently looking back? Yeah, so none of my family had gone to college. And so I was trying to figure out what I was going to do. And in high school, I was participating in what's called fine arts. And in fine arts, you essentially compete. And so I would compete, you know, as a trauma players, a soloist, as a duet, and, you know, all these other groups. And I was always winning, you know, and always at the top. And so what I didn't know is that there's recruiters from colleges that also go to those events to find people that they want to recruit to their college. So I ended up getting offered a scholarship to a Bible college in Lakeland, Florida.

And so that's where I just remember, like, it's the scariest thing ever, right? Nobody in my family had gone to the college. It's all the way. I'm in Arizona, but I'm going all the way to Florida. I had no one really to lean on to understand what it was going to be like and what was going on. But at the same time, I was so excited about the possibility. So I just remember just being like so, so, so, so scared. but I was just going to do it and figure it out as I went. So, you know, full ride to go to this college,

went there. I ended up being there. It was four years, but I ended up moving and staying there and getting a job at a church. And my senior year at the college was I was playing at Walt Disney World. So that was part of my life there. I would say that what I learned in college was just more about life and being on your own. So if anybody is a musician and knows trumpet players, there was this guy Phil Driscoll and he would go to churches and he was a solo trumpet player and he would go there to minister and play his horn and I thought that's what I'm going to do you know like I'm really good at the trumpet and so I'm going to go and do that too and that's kind of what I thought was going to happen because I just didn't know and as I went to college there was you know something about I'm going to talk about something really

maybe weird right here but it's going to help you understand the path a little bit when I was at college it was a Bible college and so if you're in the church you understand like this battle between pursuing God and good and being a human and that people are human. And I think one of my friends said one day, your belief in God can't depend on the acts of human because when I was in college, I got to see close firsthand the mistakes of humans that said that they were Christians. And that like just taint my belief in church and religion and everything. I was just like, you say one thing, but you do another. And I don't agree with that. I'm a very black and white person. Like if you say one thing, then you are going to do that and you prove yourself by your actions. You do what

you say you're going to do. You don't say one thing to somebody and then don't show love or forgiveness when they do something wrong. And so I saw all these things when I was in Bible college. And so I rebelled a bit, even though I went and got a music minister career after that, I just was questioning like, you know, faith in general because I was putting my trust in humans instead of just, you know, putting it in God. And so when I got this job at Walt Disney World, That was like my entry into, hey, there is more than just the church life, like these, you know, what I would call religious people that I, I called them hypocrites. This is horrible. I don't even talk about this normally on podcast. So good job, Jordan. So I was like frustrated by what I would call hypocrites. And so I found like the secular world of people who had more just normal values. They weren't pretending to be something that they weren't. They weren't like some churchgoer and then pretending to be this perfect human that followed all the rules and followed the Bible. And so, I felt like in love with, you know, that just authenticity, if you will, being real. I fell in love with that.

So I ended up not being in the church anymore and just spending time at Walt Disney, working there, trying to explore what I wanted to do. And I got invited on cruise ships. And so it was from that college point of view that I took my path into music, played at Walt Disney World, went to cruise ships, and then we can expand the story from there. But that takes you all the way through college. Awesome. Appreciate the deep comment.

context is no, it's super helpful for people to get. And I think, you know, most, most people that, you know, start going to church, there's always going to be setbacks or backslides or what you want to call it and rebellion and things like that. I know that happened for me, but, you know, you're always going to come back, you know, at least in my experience. So, yes. And, you know, I have two daughters, 17 and 14 and they're both like on the worship team in youth and then one like you know things on stage so they're heavily involved and they love that actually our 17 year old be a senior this year and she wants to go to Bible college to be a worship director like it's so that's awesome that was kind of the path that you had so so yeah let's get into it so you have this opportunity to go

on to cruise ships which how cool is that I'm assuming international travel and and exposure to different cultures and things like that. So talk about the experience and then what you decided to do as you wrapped up college. Yeah. So the experience, so wrapping up college was, really was, I had gone to school for music performance and ended up getting the job at the church as a music minister. And in the meantime, I'm still working at Walt Disney as a musician. And that experience of the rebellion of the church and finding people who I felt were more real

and more authentic led me to accepting the job. on cruise ships. And so I was like, okay, I'm just going to just forge a new path, if you will, blaze your own trail. Like, I'm just going to go down a different road and see where it takes me. Still music, right? So what a great opportunity to travel and just, you know, do something different. And so I took the job on cruise ships. I ended up being on cruise ships for 10 years. Like, that was, like, a true, like, game changer for me. And it was really great because I love, I love playing. I was just really naturally good at it. I didn't have to practice a whole lot. I just, just was just naturally good at it. And so on cruise ships, we call it college on water. So it's almost

like going from college on land to college on water. We were all very young. We were getting to travel. And, you know, the itinerary just depended on, you know, what cruise ships that you were on. I was playing big band music. I got to do what I love, but we only had to work like a couple hours a day because we're musicians. There's not much else for us to do except to play, you know, at night, the big band music or dance sets or whatever it was. So I really just got the opportunity to live. Like people, you know, work, work, work, work, work, work, to be able to retire and travel. And I got to do it, like, right out of college. And I did it for 10 years. And I got to go, you know, to the crazy, as awesome as places and just see so much and have so much opportunity to be

able to explore and live life in a different way. I learned how to not have to pay taxes because I was on the water for so much. Like, I learned this rule about how if you are not in the U.S. for all, like five weeks of the year, then you don't have to pay taxes. So like I started learning money in a weird way on cruise ships. And the cruise ship experience really was, it took me into art auctions. So 10 years on cruise ship, it wasn't all just musicians. As a musician, because we didn't work a whole lot, I had to figure out what else I was going to do. I was studying computer science, trying to figure out, is that something that I want to do? Because ultimately I knew I had to grow up, grow up sometime, right? I have to actually go get a real job. I wasn't going to live on cruise ships forever. And so I was figuring

that out. And I learned there was an art auction on the cruise ships and they paid people to help them. And so I became like a cashier at their art auction. So I would work there on the afternoon, help them set up everything, help check people out, you know, at the end. And there was one day that he told me, hey, Danny, can you go run to my cabin and grab this thing? And so I was like, absolutely, grab his to his cabin, ran back to his cabin. And I grabbed that thing. When I was grabbing that, it was like probably paperwork or something. When I was grabbing whatever it is that he wanted me to grab, there was his commission check sitting on his bed. And he, he was, he, He made a lot of money.

And I was a musician and I did not make a lot of money. And so I looked at that and at the time my now husband was actually on cruise ships with me at that time. It's its own story of how we met. It's crazy. Talk about everything happens for a reason and fate. That story is 100% perfect. But I went to his cabin as soon as I saw that check and I slammed open the door and I said, Flip, you're going to be an art auctioneer.

Because then all of a sudden it was like, everything just. kind of rallied up to that moment. I was like, okay, this is my next step. I want to do this. We know cruise ships. We can do this. This guy's making a whole lot of money. We're going to be able to save so much money and then do all the things we want to do. So ultimately that's what happened. And we told this guy, his name was Bill. And we said, Bill, we want to be art auctioneus just like you. And so he said, well, let me talk to the boss and let me tell him that I really love you guys. And I think you do a great job and see if I can start training you. So we interviewed and they said yes. And so we became art auctioneers on cruise ships.

And we did so well, they promoted us to land. And eventually how we got off cruise ships was us moving, getting promoted to land. And now we traveled across the United States two weekends out of every single month to do VIP auctions in all the areas where people bought artwork because they came on a cruise ship and bought something. So I'm going to stop there because I don't know where you're going to take me next. And you can dig it into anything that you want. No, I love it. Ten years on a cruise ship.

I mean, that's like most 60 and 70 year old's dream. It's like, I would just want to be on a cruise ship for 10 years. You got to do it at an early age, which is great. And I have a bold prediction because my dad's from the Philippines. And I've been on cruise ships. You definitely ran into some Filipinos. Yes. While you were there and probably some of the nicest people that you've met.

Yes. Is that a true prediction? It is a true prediction. And I didn't know then, but now. half of our company is from the Philippines. Oh, that's awesome. And we love Philippines. Like when we're hiring, like my right hand, my executive assistant who pretty much runs my

life, she's one of the smartest people I've ever met. And she's from the Philippines. And I always tell them, I said, we're going to figure out how to go there and, like, create some type of culture and community because you guys are amazing. I love it. Yeah, I love that culture. Yeah. Wonderful.

My dad just retired about almost two years ago. And now he's just, you know, he's back home, which is awesome. when he came to America to get a slice of the American dream, built a landscaping business for 40 years, and then retired and went back home. So it's pretty cool to see him now just doing nothing. It's not very easy for him, though. So when I say doing nothing, I mean, he's only working probably like five hours a day on his land, you know, instead of 12 hours. But yeah, he just can't stop, you know. So let's talk about this story.

I mean, so you meet your husband on a cruise ship. Yes. That might go into the title. She met her husband on a cruise ship and now they have a real estate empire, right? So you meet your husband who is boyfriend, I'm assuming at the time, or acquaintance friend, whatever. And then you end up getting, becoming auctioneer partners that you do this so well on the ship that they promote you to land. I don't know if that's a promotion, by the way. I would have rather stayed on the ship.

I mean, the free food alone and probably cheap housing, I don't want to know how much money you guys saved in that 10 years, probably a lot, sounds like with the tax breaks too. We got to have a whole other episode about that. But so you guys meet there. You do all the stuff. You start doing these on land auctions. And how does that segue into the real estate space? My initial assumption is because you got some cash flow and you have money to invest. but I don't know.

So to take us on this journey and then also obviously how do you guys end up deciding, hey, you know what? Maybe we should get married. We built a business guy. Let's get married. Yeah, yes.

I love this story because I believe in the power of following your intuition and just trusting your path, leading with love, following your joy. That's probably the thing I trust the most.

Anything that makes you happy, I believe is exactly what you're meant to be doing because it's usually your superpower. You're just really, really great at it. So here's the story. So Flip is his name. And he and I are both musicians. We're both trumpet players. We both go to college in Florida. We don't know each other, right? So we're both trauma players. We both go to college in Florida, different schools. I go and work for Walt Disney World in Christmas Brass. And I work there, I think, for four years. The year after I left, he works at Walt Disney World in the same band. And so this is where college is where it starts. In college, he's in the band. And they say, say, hey, do you know Danielle? That's my full name. And he's just like, no, I don't know, don't know who Danielle is. They're like, oh, okay, well, blah, blah, blah. And they tell him about who I am.

Then he goes to Christmas Brass at Walt Disney World. And I had just left the year prior. And so they're like, oh, you know, you went to college in Florida. Now you're here. Do you know Danielle? And he's like, no, I don't know who this Danielle is. And so they're like, oh, okay, well, she's been here the last four years. And, you know, so they're talking about me. So I go, I had gone to cruise ships right when I left Walt Disney World. And I got on my first ship. Well, that year after he worked at Walt Disney World, he also got asked to go on cruise ships.

And so the day I was getting off the cruise ship was the day he was getting on the cruise ship. And so again, we're passing. And there's a hurricane that, like, we have a picture of a hurricane. Like, we're like, we finally got this close together and there's a freaking hurricane. So I'm leaving. He's getting on.

He gets on this cruise ship. And they say, oh, you went to college in Florida. Oh, you worked at Walt Disney World. Oh, Danny just got off. So do you know Danielle? You must know Danielle because you guys are all on the same path. And so he's like, no, I do not know this Danielle person. And so like, okay.

So then a hurricane, another hurricane ends up diverting both of our ships, because I was moving to another ship, both of our ships into the Bahamas. And so now we're side by side because of another natural event. And so my band didn't have a set to do that night. his band had a captain's cocktail party to do. So my band said, hey, we're going to go over to their ship. We're going to go watch their captain's cocktail, support them because we're in port. Nobody's going to be there in their audience anyway.

We know that. So we went in and sat in the front row and watched their captain cocktail set. And as the curtains open, the people in that band see us there. And they're like so surprised that there's an audience at all because they figured nobody would be there because we're in the Bahamas. And the guy next to him said, hey, remember that Danielle girl that we keep talking about? there she is right there in the front row. And he was like, oh my gosh, this is so crazy. And so at the end of the captain's cocktail set, we left. And we're going down to go to a bar or something at that point in time. And because we are musicians. So they kind of left the church lifestyle. And we're in the music industry. And so we're walking down the pier headed to go do what we're going to do. And he had opened up the curtains to come meet me for the very first time. And we were gone. And so he ran to his cabin. And got his cruise ship pass, and he's still full tuxedo. He gets off the ship, full tuxedo, and starts running down the pier, screaming, Danielle, Danielle, and I turn around and I'm just like,

who the heck is this guy, and how does he know my name? And he runs up to me, and he tells me the whole entire story. Like, I was at college, I was told about you. I went to Walt Disney World. Now I'm on cruise ships. You guys are here. They pointed you out. I had to come meet you. And I'm like, wow, that's so, so crazy. And so we said, hey, we're going to this bar, and we're going to listen to the live music here, would you guys like to come? He goes back to the ship, changes clothes, grabs his whole band. We all end up meeting that night to watch the live performers there. And so that's how we met. So two natural events, him following me his entire life. And then the next ship that he got on, he was the band leader. He needed another horn player

because somebody else was getting off. And so he asked for me to come to his ship. And so I got transferred over to his ship. And that's when we actually started working together for the very first time. and actually didn't like him at first. That is part of the story. He was a jerk. But we grew to be friends and we ended up starting dating and the name of that ship was destiny. So that's the whole story from start to finish. And like you can't like make that up.

Like it is the craziest story. And so I really, really believe like, you know, he is absolutely my soulmate. We've built everything, you know, from that point in time to now. He's my best friend. And like, it's just that story. I'm just like, how did that happen? Like, how did that freaking happen? And that's so nuts. And so we ended up, so I now go back to the art auction. So we're traveling on

cruise ships. He and I are always now working together because we're dating and we're going to all these cruise ships together. Lots of cruise ships stories we could tell, but it's not about blazing your trail. So we'll do that another time. And so we start our art auction stuff and then we get promoted to land. So when we get promoted to land, we're doing these land art auctions and we're traveling all the time. So we had just traveled for 10 years on cruise ships. And Flip always just, jokes that when you go to St. Thomas and you're going, oh, St. Thomas again, like, that's the time to get off cruise ships. We've been doing it long enough that we're just tired of all the destinations. So, that's one of the reasons we decided to go ahead and do the land auctions. Well, you also get tired

of traveling every single weekend. Like, we're now at an age where all of our friends have houses they're married. You know, we've just been living life and having fun. And so I said, you know what, you keep on doing the art auction thing and you keep on, you know, keep our income going, I'm going to get off and I'm going to start pursuing different ideas. And so I started pursuing financial services. Then I went and did mergers and acquisitions. I did the mortgage industry. Ultimately landed in real estate. So we'll end there. But that's how we split up. And for all the money that we made while we were on cruise ships, because we did make a pretty penny. And then also, you know, when we moved on land, when we moved on land, and that's when we, so the proposal was us on a

crystal cruise line, I think it was. It's one of those cruise ships that I think goes around the world. So that was the ship that we were on. And we were just talking about what we wanted to do and that we were kind of getting tired of the cruise ship lifestyle. And he was in the bathroom sitting on the toilet, not, no, sitting on the bathtub, because that is one of the only cruise ships, by the way, that will give you a bathtub. You're never going to see a bathtub unless you go on crystal or celebrity and we were talking about marriage and he goes well will you marry me i was like yeah sure let's do it so um that's how he asked we started planning we had his family a plan for us we decided we were going to live in texas because of the two families we knew that we were going to have to

fly one of them to the other anytime we out wanted a dual family get together and so my family was smaller than his so it was going to be cheaper for us to fly my family from arizona to texas so that's how we chose texas and so we had his family plan the wedding and do everything we ended up getting married on leap year because when we were planning it, it was kind of fast. And so all the weekends were taken, nobody wanted leap year. And I thought, that's kind of cool. You know, our story's really unique. This is a great day. Let's do it. So February 29th is when we got married. So he says that we should only celebrate once every four years. I say we should celebrate twice every single year on the last day of March and the first day of February. Or sorry, last day of February, first day of March. So that's how we got

married. And then that's how we transitioned out of the art auction business into real estate ultimately, because I was the first one getting off and exploring the next chapter and what we were going to do. And it ultimately landed in real estate in 2008. So that was the fourth career I had tried. And when I got there, I was like, I love this. And financial services, mortgage industry, mortgages and acquisition, for some reason, they all just naturally kind of led to a really great spot for me to be in to enter real estate. But we were in Texas, had no network, right? Because we've been in cruise ships the whole time. Like our network is all. all over the world, all over the United States. And if you're going to be in real estate and you're going to be a realtor, guess who you sell to you? Your friends, your family, all the people that you know in that area. So we didn't have anybody to sell anything to you. So I was a realtor for eight months and did, I think, one deal, a short sale is what we ended up doing. And I don't even remember if that closed. So that's what led us to the investor path. And that's where I'll close

because that starts the new journey of what caused us to build the empire that we have now. Yeah, I love it. Yeah. And I love that you had the ability because of how everything was set up, right? Being able to save, having something that was predictable and repeatable on the cash flow side, and that enabled you to be able to go and play in the sandbox and see what you wanted to do. And I really believe that, you know, having the kind of back-end foundational side of like mortgages, mergers, and acquisitions, then becoming an agent, then being an investor,

that going that route is super helpful because you, you know, you know, you know, you know, You know the number side, you know the back end side, you know the risk side, and then you know how to sell it. And then now it's like probably the easier side when you're putting the money in and just trying to find all the contractors and all that stuff on the back end. So yeah, what a unique way to do it for sure. But definitely it sounds like it is paying off with everything that you've built over time. So 2008, not the greatest time to get into real estate. So talk about the initial setbacks. I'm sure there were some in the beginning.

And then talk about also like the upswing on when did you start seeing some of these investment opportunities becoming profitable. And then what was the first kind of step into scaling and growing into your now portfolio of eight different companies? Yeah. So at the time, looking back, you would have thought that 2008 was just a horrible time to get in real estate. And surely I might have thought that too if I knew what I know now. But at the time, I didn't. And so you know that thing about you don't know what you don't know. We just went at it.

And we didn't know any better that this was a really, you know, crappy time to get into investing other than it taking us eight months. But we thought it was more about our network than it was anything else. We thought we just, we didn't have the network. Everybody else did. So we got a mentor because I believe in getting mentors and everything that you do. And he's the one that taught us real estate investing. And I was just like, okay, forget this realtor stuff. I don't want to be doing this realtor stuff anymore because we are in a market where sellers still

wanted to sell at the prices that they could sell before the crash. And that was not possible. And it was such a waste of time. And it was very hard to educate them when you're still new to the space. So I learned 12 different ways to buy and sell real estate. And he taught us during this time, during this particular market, here's what's going to work the best. And so we started doing what they called back then mortgage assignments. It's really just wholesaling a subject to deal. And so, and then we learned short sales. We learned what was a for the market at the time. And we surrounded ourselves with the team because I love, I love doing things with other people. I don't like, you know, blazing my trail on my own. I literally believe in

bringing other people on the ride because you learn faster. And it's just more fun because you all get to, you know, help and succeed together. And so there was five of us that all had gotten this mentor. And we were doing all these strategies. And we decided that we were going to paper the neighborhoods. And so we got, we went to Sands Club, bought these, this remit paper of bright color paper, and then took a magic marker and then just said, hey, if you know of anybody interested in selling their house in this neighborhood, blah, blah, blah, because a lot of people couldn't sell at that point in time because the market crashed. And so we went and we rolled it up and we put it in the door. So you drive by your house, you see this big orange or green flyer like in the middle

of your door. So you see it. And it looks handwritten because if we did it in magic marker and you copy it, guess what? It looks handwritten. And so that's how we did it. And that's how we got so many leads because we just did something unique that nobody else was doing and it stood out. And so we were really successful. And our coach was like, oh my gosh. And if you've been a coach, do you know that most people don't actually do what you tell them to do? Because I've tried being a coach before. And it was not fulfilling because I'm like, come on, guys, I'm telling you exactly what to do. Please just go do it. And for whatever reason they don't. And so this coach was like, you know, I can't believe you guys are doing exactly what I tell you to do and you're thinking of new ideas and

you're succeeding, I want to take you with me to all my events and I want to prove to people that what I teach actually works. And so we started flying across the U.S. and we were like his testimonial, if you will, his case study that, hey, if you do what I teach you, it actually works. And so that's how we actually started getting well known in the real estate space. At one of the events, people started gathering around us and, you know, asking us all these questions. And the other guys, our coaches said, hey, get away from our rock stars. And so then we became known as the RIA rock stars. And so then we actually did start, you know, some coaching with them and doing some other things. And that's when I learned exactly what they told me. Most people just don't do, don't do anything. And so we had tried and

tried and tried and tried, because again, I have such a passion for helping people, try to make the coaching thing work. And it just didn't work. It just, it's so frustrating to pour your heart into people and not have them succeed because they're just not doing it that I was just like, forget it. I'm just going to do my own thing. I'm going to keep blazing my own trail because these people don't want to blaze their trail. And so I stopped coaching and really just started exploring different real estate. avenues. And as the market shifted, we kept learning new things, right? It was a different market. So sub two and wholesaling wasn't like the right strategy. And so we just kept learning, learning, learning, navigating, getting coaches, figuring out what works, what's the right thing. Eventually we land on

turnkey real estate. And so we're in Arizona at that point in time, back in Arizona, we're learning about turnkey real estate. We're learning that, hey, this is I had done for your rental property. And you go buy the deal, you rehab the deal, you put a tenant in it and you sell it to cash flowing investor. So this is a way that you can also learn how to own your own rental properties, build your own portfolio, but help others do the same. Ding, ding, ding, hit checks all my boxes because now I'm building wealth for myself and I'm helping other people because I have such a passion for helping other people. And so I fell in love with Turnkey Real Estate. So we're in Arizona, the guy that I'm learning from and build a mastermind with is in Ohio. And so it was this match that he was like,

Tanny, like, you should move to Ohio with me because you know all of this stuff. And you know all of this stuff and I know all this. He's self-made millionaire, like in real estate. It says, let's just get together and let's build this thing up. So we ended up moving to Ohio. Longer story there, but it's not pertinent for this episode. Moved to Ohio, got into the Ternkey real estate business. That partnership ended up not working out, but it's part of that greater. Everything happens for a reason story. So now we're in Ohio. The partnership didn't work out. And we're like, okay, what are we going to do? Well, we'd still love Ternkey real estate. So let's go ahead and, you know, just keep on doing that. So we keep on serving people and keep on doing real estate. Well,

If you've been in real estate long enough, you know that you're going to get burned, screwed, sued, all of the things are going to happen to you. And we had been sued a few times prior to that because when you do subject to deals, you're going to get sued to. Fortunately, we always win our lawsuits because we do a really good job of transparency and disclosure and we would just have to walk the attorneys on the other side through what we did and what they signed. And they're like, okay.

And everything worked out for the other person and for us all the time. But it's just part of the story I think that's important to know. and I share it because active investors don't usually understand that part of the business. So renovations was the very first thing that I learned was where you're going to get burned the most. And so tons of stories we could fill another few hours with those stories, but it meant we pulled in renovations as one of our in-house companies. Then property management is the next place you're going to get screwed the most. So we pulled in property management.

Because we pulled in property management, we added the brokerage. And then acquisitions, we were buying from wholesalers and the wholesalers dried up. And so we're like, crud, we've got all these businesses. we can't keep them running if we don't have deals. So we built an acquisitions company. And so we ended up building five companies for the turnkey real estate operating business to work. And so that was the first section of the vertically integrated process. Then company number six was because we were being wholesaled a, no, we found a deal that was a 56 apartment complex and like 12 duplexes.

We wanted like the 12 duplexes or the 12 single family and three duplexes. We didn't want the apartments. We hadn't done it before. And so we were wholesaling the apartment to somebody else. That somebody else tried to screw us, and it was during COVID. And he started trying to get us out of the deal. And so we were like, forget it. No, we don't work with people who are shady and who do bad practice.

So I said, we're going to buy it ourselves. So we ended up buying that deal ourselves. And then that's when I understood economies of scale. And I was like, oh my gosh, we just did a 56 unit apartment complex. And it was so much easier than 56 properties across Dayton and Cincinnati. I love this. I want to do more of this. So we built company number six, which ended up being a fund and syndication.

But at that point in time, I didn't really understand fund and syndication. So I had to learn what that company actually ended up being, but is where we went into commercial real estate. And so that is freedom family investments. That is kind of the empire that we've really sat behind because ultimately, where I'm going to take all of this to is we ended up scaling back our turnkey real estate business. And we did that because as we were evaluating everything that we were doing and who we are serving and as I'm checking my boxes, building wealth for myself, and,

helping others build wealth at the same time, but I'm doing it for them, the work for them. I realized that my turnkey investors weren't incredibly happy. And I was like, why is that? And ultimately, I found that being a landlord, as much as you think it might be passive income, is really a second job. You are going to have to deal with tenants and toilets. You are going to have to deal with a property manager. You're going to have to babysit things. You're going to have to improve repairs. It ends up being more work. And the expectations of a done for you rental property that's been 100% renovated, people think that I'm going to get a tenant and it's going to be cash flowing forever. No, they end up leaving their tenants. And sometimes they damage your property. Sometimes

they stop paying rent. So all of these issues come up that a turnkey investor is not prepared for, even though we tried educating them going in. And so they end up not being incredibly happy. Now, the people who are landlords already, totally, they're fine. They're like, we understand this game. And so I didn't want that. That wasn't fulfilling either. So now I'm like, I don't want to be in the turnkey business because they're not happy. Who's happy in my world? You know who's happy? It's the private money lenders. It's the people lending me money to go buy the deal, renovate it, and sell it to somebody else. So I was like, that's actually true passive income. They're the ones that are actually getting the check in the mail and not doing any work.

So that's where funds and syndications really came in because I understood I could do all of this and I could do it, you know, multifamily bigger, have the economies of scale, invite investors to passively come with me on that ride and just trust me and all the experience that I've gained of building all of these companies, six at that point in time, and they just got to return. So that's really the story that led us to where we are today. I tell people, the reason that we ended up building so big is because I tell everybody that when you're investing, one of the most important things to do is talk to people about your worst deal. Because blazing your own trail does mean mistakes and failures and a lot of them. And I believe in speed. And so I tend to fail fast and I learn fast as a result.

And on that journey of building five companies, we built one company per year. and that was not easy. It took us five years to get all five companies fully profitable across the board. And in that, there was so many mistakes and we lost a lot of money. And one of those was a duplex that we lost $72,000 on because it was a contractor fraud. They were sending in the pictures. We thought they were doing the rehab. We had a runner checking the property who wasn't actually checking the property. And we paid $72,000 for a rehab that wasn't done. And we didn't know until we randomly spot checked a property. And we walked in and we said, hey, I know we've been paying checks here. So there's nothing done. And we uncovered what was happening. Two things like failed.

on us during that. And so you build systems around that as a business owner. That's just how it goes. And you fix it. But we took the loss. Our private money lender got paid everything they owed for the entire time we were borrowing the money. The person who had bought that property had full rent promised payments. And so those are the things that when you are blazing your own trail and you're building your businesses, you have to understand you're going to fail. Things are going to go wrong. That is part of the game. And it tests your character and who you are as a person. And that is what allows people around you to trust you and to do more things with you. And so that story is the thing that I tell everybody.

Understand who you're working with because times will get tough. Every single business that you're in, you will face trials and tribulations. And when those happen, understand who you're working with. And they're not going to tuck tail and run because a lot of people tuck tail and run. They are going to stand there and they're going to respect you and your word, understand the relationship and the long-term aspects of it and make sure that they do what they said that you're going to do. So that's how we've built and grown and just earned the trust of our investors. That our growth is more fueled by repeat investors than it is new investors.

because they keep pouring money into what we're doing. Yeah, I love it. And I love just the whole journey. If I could almost kind of sum it up, it's don't be afraid to put yourself out there. Don't be afraid to face adversity, face it head on, fail forward. Make sure that you're consistently playing,

but also hustle. You've got to put in the work. You got to do it. You got to go put in the reps. Think outside the box. Learn from your mistakes quickly. move forward and you can scale as long as you have all the puzzles to the pieces figure it out.

So when you look at your journey and you look at the context of starting it on the mergers and acquisition side, on the mortgage side, on the lending side, getting that information into the bank, then going and learning the process of how to sell, what curb appeal is, what the application process looks like, how to actually tour, what's actually going to work, right? And then that leading into single family, then multifamily, then scalability, and then literally building all of the infrastructure pieces because why have someone else do it when you can cut out that margin and speed up the timeline?

So I love that it is a trailblazing journey to be able to create five businesses across five years that are all profitable. None of it would happen without a great team. Yes. So as we're wrapping up and I want to give our audience some gold. you've already dropped a ton of gold nuggets, but I know there's probably two or three tips you can share for that listener whose ears perked up and they're like, you know what? Maybe I'm investing in the wrong things. Maybe this is an avenue I want to take. So we're definitely going to give the audience some tips so they can get your notepads ready, folks, to jot these down. But talk about the importance of having the right people around you so that you can collapse the timeline to getting to that exponential growth phase. Yeah. So number one, always find somebody that is exactly where you want to be. And if you're not sure where you want to be, just find somebody that's close. And the closer they are in their journey, the easier it is for them to share valuable gold nuggets because they were just there. They just did it. And they can help you along the way. Never, tip number two, never underestimate people's desire to help because you might be afraid to ask.

And I think what's most important is not the, I want to pick your brain moment. It is the, how can I add value to you? What can I do to help you so that I can learn along the way? It would be okay if I learn from you while I serve you in this manner. That would be tip number two. I think that anybody at any stage in their career, when they hear somebody come to them that says, hey, I know that you're doing this. I actually think I might be able to help you in this particular area.

I'm really good at it. And it would allow me to learn and understand your business. Would it be okay that I work for a discount, work for free, whatever it is? You'd be surprised how many people in very, very high places will say yes to that because they recognize the person that wants to add value. That's the person that's going to succeed and go somewhere in life, as opposed to the, hey, can I take 15 minutes and pick your brain? That's usually the person that ends up wasting your time.

And it's unfortunate that's true, but that would be tip number two. And tip number three would be learning how to ask really good questions about where you want to go, because a lot of people that I meet do go down the active investor path. They think real estate is so powerful. This is how you build wealth. I can see it. I've learned it. Like all these books say it, right? And so they go down, they become a realtor, they become a flipper, they become a wholesaler, whatever it is. They didn't ask enough questions. So as you're trying to figure out and navigate that path, what is the outcome that you actually want? And if you think wholesaling is your path, go talk to a few wholesalers that are doing it now. Ask them really good questions. What's your life

like? How much money are you making? How many things do you have to do to get a deal? Because it is a roller coaster ride. Almost everything you do at the beginning ends up being a roller coaster ride. And more than anything, the people that invest with us now are people who tried to do it on their own first and realize that just wasted my time and my money. And ultimately, what does that do? It waste your life, right? You end up losing parts of your life that if you would have just asked enough right good questions going in, you would have realized, hey, this is what I'm good at. I'm going to follow my joy. I'm going to do my superpower. This is the money that I have. And instead of learning it myself, I'm going to focus on my superpower and earn money that way while investing passively with a team I can trust.

I am going to ask the hard questions because now I am a passive investor, not an active investor. I don't control the outcome. So I better ask really good questions and understand the character of the person than I'm investing in. And, And that collapsed as a timeline because everybody else took two to three years to figure out that's where they wanted to land. And you landed there first because you took the time to ask really good questions and do some upfront due diligence. Love it. So much value. Folks, make sure that you run to the show notes to check out all the places where you can find Danny. And I want to give her an opportunity now as we're wrapping up. What's something that you'd like to share with the audience?

Yeah. So depending on where you're out in your journey, we would love to talk to you. and be able to help you answer some of those questions. So if that's you and you want to explore, it's no obligation, go to chat withfreedom.com and just jump on the phone. I'm even on the phone sometimes. So you may even catch me because I love talking to investors or people on their journey. It's one of my favorite things to do. So ask good questions to get on the phone. If you happen to be a physician, we have a new book coming out, Prosperity RX. So visit Prosperity-Rx.com and check that out. There's a companion app. It's really, really fun. And we have a new. new book coming out called Calm Money Never Panics. So by the time this is released, it may be out. Go to

our website, FreedomFamily Investments.com, and you may see that book there. It's life is about freedom, safety, and peace of mind. I believe that wholeheartedly. And I don't think that you should be looking at just R-O-I, which is what your money makes. I think you should be looking at your return on life, what I call R-O-L. That should be far more important for you, for your joy, for the legacy that you want to build and for your family. I love it. Great advice. My friend, you are Definitely blazing some trails out there. I know our audience is going to get so much value from your story and journey. And a lot of it just resonates.

You know, I did five years door-to-door sales. I was in multifamily for almost 20 years on site. And then I was in corporate for eight doing training and development. So I love the multifamily space. We're going to have a lot of fun offline conversations for sure. So any final words for the audience as we're wrapping up? For entrepreneurs and trailblazers out there, never give up. Love it. Great advice. And for everyone that's listening to the show, I've mentioned it a couple

times that I just want to make sure everyone is aware. The all in one hub for live coaching, AI tools and business tools, B-YOTGroopcoaching.com. If you're not a member yet, why not? It's free to join. There are tools that can help elevate your business that are on the subscription side, but want everyone there to check it out. We meet every Friday at 1 o'clock, Eastern Standard Time. Thank you so much, Danny, for coming on the show. It's been great having you. I know you're going to continue to blaze some amazing trails out there. Have an awesome day. Thank you so much, Jordan. My pleasure.