Digital Social Hour - Triple Digit Flip, Near Death Experience & Building a Real Estate Empire I Jamil Damji DSH #441

Episode Date: April 28, 2024

Jamil Damji comes to the show to talk about triple digit flip, near death experience & building a Real Estate Empire APPLY TO BE ON THE PODCAST: https://forms.gle/D2cLkWfJx46pDK1MA BUSINESS INQUIRIES/SPONSORS: [e-mail] SPONSORS: Deposyt Payment Processing: https://www.deposyt.com/seankelly LISTEN ON: Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/digital-social-hour/id1676846015 Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/5Jn7LXarRlI8Hc0GtTn759 Sean Kelly Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/seanmikekelly/ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

I'm really good at understanding value. I'm known as the guy who can comp a house in 30 seconds. I need some pieces of information, but in terms of figuring out its as-is value or its after-repair value, I'm up. And then I'm showing him what the values are on all of the houses. There is no chance that you come out of this

in good standing. So my suggestion, cut, bait, and run. Wherever you guys are watching this show, I would truly appreciate it if you follow or subscribe. It helps a lot with the algorithm. It helps us get bigger and better guests, and it helps us grow the team. Truly means a lot. Thank you guys for supporting, and here's the episode. Ladies and gentlemen, he is back. He is back. What a crazy story. We're going to dive into it, but we'll also talk real estate. We're here with Jamil Damji. How's it going, my man? Oh, dude, it's going. What a journey you've

been on, man. It has been, you know, 2023 was one of the, well, it was my best year financially, but my worst year personally. Wow. January 1st, I lose my dog. Damn. I, uh, my dad gets diagnosed with cancer. I, uh, end up, um, getting this terrible spinal injury. And, uh, I, I split up with my wife of nearly 10 years. That's so insane because you're doing the best you've ever done financially, but at the same time, all that's happening. So you can't even enjoy the success. I it no it it's one of the weirdest it's one of the weirdest feelings to to be accomplished and feel like a failure at the same time yeah you know it was an interesting dichotomy that i had to really process and i have i have i'm you know one of the one of the most beautiful things about the split is that um we are uh we we're like best

friends oh nice and and we'll remain close friends so um you know we'll do it with the with the most grace that you can possibly ever do that you know um which is hard right it's it's easier to be mad it's easier to to like fight way easier yeah easier. Yeah, but that's not us. So, but, you know, otherwise, everything's been, you know, things have been really good. Wow. You know, I got a new dog. Nice. So that was fun.

And he's a handful. And business is booming. So I'm looking forward. I have renewed faith in, you know, my purpose and why I'm, I'm, I'm looking forward. I have, uh, I have a renewed faith in, in, you know, my purpose and why I do what I do. And I have more time on my hands now because, you know, I, I used to have to come home, right. Um, I don't really have to do that anymore. Right. So I'm, I'm a free bird. Were there signs that that split was coming or was it super unexpected for you oh man

um well i wasn't intending to get into it but i'm i'm i'm okay too it was yeah no it's cool it's cool it was you know yeah you know it's just one of those things where you like you you distance create you create distance right when when when you're going the way that i was going right tv show um you know the astro flipping popping off the way it has a keegly franchising you know hunter markets when when that happens to you and you get a level of success that requires you to be away so long so much it's hard to be the spouse of that guy yep and and um and that I think really weighed on the relationship. I own that.

I own it, you know? Um, and I, I, I, I, I,

I had the opportunity to go back and redo a thousand things I would. Um, but I don't think that's how life's supposed to work. Right. I'm the, the, the waves I got, I rode the way I rode and I end up where I ended up.

And I accept it. And I think the best thing about it is the acceptance at this point right now because I have accepted it. I am moving through it, which I learned you can't numb yourself out of grief. You can't distract yourself out of grief. You have to actually grieve. But then once you grieve and you actually process it and you surrender and you accept it and you these things happen beautiful things just start to happen you know and it's the the synchronicities of life the opportunities that present themselves uh the people who find you because your energy changes in such a dramatic fashion when you

just surrender and let yourself like raise up a little bit. I super believe in the power of ourselves, right? I think I've manifested everything that's happened in my life. One of the very few real estate like, you know, uh, types that feel that way or think that way. But, um, I came from nothing. And so I came from nothing with a grandmother who told us that we, we would never be, we would never be anything. Wow. Her mantra was, we have no money and, and we will never have money. And so, uh, when you have that seed planted in your, your subconscious at a young age, it takes a lot of work to reprogram yourself, right? And so I had to do that.

And in so doing, I was able to, you know, create a beautiful life. And I'm proud of it. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, what you've done is incredible. You were selling 70 homes a month recently, right? Yeah. We average anywhere between, you know between 60 to 80, depending.

That's just our corporate stores. Then there's the franchises, and that's its own volume. We just collect a royalty on that volume. Amazing. So it's different than our own. Yeah, yeah. Number one show on A&E. Yeah.

Astro Flipping's crushing it. I get your ads every day, by the way. I'm sure you get that a lot. I mean, they're good ads. Yeah, thank you. you i mean you're obviously killing it with that's a coaching business right it is yeah so um we did phenomenal in our coaching uh last year we crossed uh 25 maybe 30 million on it damn that was your first year doing it no that's my now um second still crazy yeah second year 25 million wow we did really well and we're continuing to do really well um keegly i you know it's tough because i i have to be very careful with quoting

numbers for keegly because of franchise stuff yeah so i don't want to be uh i don't want to ever have him be like hey you said but but but we did we did many millions wow and what is keegly keegly is the uh wholesale real estate company that I co-founded with Josiah Grimes, Hunter Runyon, and my sister. And for those who don't understand what wholesaling is, we are arbitrage. We're the guys in the streets out there knocking on the ugliest houses in America, trying to secure the rights to buy that house in hopes of being able to sell that opportunity to another investor who would then come in and beautify it for the neighborhood. And so I feel wholesalers have gotten a little bit of a bad rap in the past just because of, you know, weird practices or maybe not being super on the up and up with respect to, you know, being honest with people

with value, about value. I think it's an easy conversation to have with a homeowner who wants speed and convenience, especially when property has distress, to say, look, you can only sell this to a cash buyer. This is not a financeable home. Now, a cash buyer is someone like me who has the cash to do it, but I need an upside. I'm not gonna just risk money for nothing.

So you have to understand that I'm needing to make a profit. Now, I'm not going to try to take everything out of it. I want to pay you as much as I can pay you. But beyond that, you got to know that I have to still eat. I got to pay a team. I got to do things. And so one of the beauties of being a wholesaler is it gives me the opportunity to cherry pick incredible opportunities for our own fix and flip business, sell off the rest. So there's no waste. What I don't want, I sell. What I want, I flip.

And we enjoy the fruits of that. Nice. We employ hundreds of people. Thousands of family members are eating off of the work we do. It is. And I'm proud of it. I really am. That's a great feeling, being able to take care of thousands of people work we do. Incredible. It is, and I'm proud of it. I really am. That's a great feeling,

being able to take care of thousands of people. Yeah, it is. And you don't truly get it until you come up for air sometimes. You know, in building it, because I remember it was, you know, the funniest thing, because a lot of people don't know

that I was once an aspiring stand-up comic. Oh, you were? Yeah, which is why my ads are the way they are so uh a stand-up and sketch comedian right and so i spent years in la uh doing open mics finally got to the comedy store finally got to the laugh factory finally got to um put uh beautiful like funny sketches on funny or die like i was was, but comedians don't make money. They don't make money until you're Kevin Hart. Yeah, you need 10 years, I heard, in that space.

Yeah, it takes forever, right? And I had just gotten engaged. And I wanted to show up for my future family. And so it was my birthday, actually, oddly enough. I leave LA. It was 12, 12, 12. And that was the day I left. Wow.

And I moved to Phoenix thinking I'm giving up my dreams of fame and fortune to go do this real estate thing that I'm just naturally talented at so that I can provide for my family. And what an incredible detour that was because it actually materialized all the things that I wanted in my my life but in another door and i'll forever be grateful to phoenix i'll forever be grateful for the decision i made um for my family at that time nice is that when you met pace morby around that time in phoenix actually so pace and i met um a little bit later uh we've been we've been we've been friends when when did we really so he slid into my dms um right right around like 2016 okay and um so about eight years and he was going through a situation man some some uh dude in in phoenix um you know a well-known like grifter

style guy right just Just a rounder. Well, at the time, not so well-known to be not super legit. Got it, got it. But I had done business with him, and I quickly learned that he wasn't somebody I wanted to continue to do business with. So I removed myself from the situation pretty rapidly. Pace had seen that, right? He saw that, hey, Jamil kind of kind of like distanced himself from this guy really quick so one day he shoots me a dm now at that time i had no social media presence pace was kind of already doing a social media thing um i used to like watch him every once in a while i liked

his renovation style so i'd copy some of the things he'd do yeah this is that he was flipping or helping people flip and um i end up finally answering this d. My profile picture was an owl. And two weeks after he DMs me, he's like, I need your help. And then I respond. I'm like, what can I do? He said, you want to meet me at this grocery store? I'll buy you a sandwich. I just want to ask you some questions.

I said, sure. Right. So I meet him and he asked me about this guy. And he says, you know, I'm about a quarter million dollars in financing this guy's renovations he's always behind on payments but i'm so far in right now it's like i don't know if i got to keep going or what i what should i do and i said pace i've uncovered that he's running a massive ponzi scheme wow come over for dinner tomorrow i'm gonna show it to you nobody else had put it together yet. Right. And, and he said, okay. So he comes to my house for dinner the next day and we are in my office and

I literally pull up every property that this person owns. And I'm really good at understanding value. Like I'm known as like the guy who can comp a house in 30 seconds. Oh wow. Without looking at it? No, I have to look at the house i like i i need some pieces of information but in terms of like figuring out its as-is value or its after repair value i'm like like a wizard at it nice um just something i i can do so i'm showing pace all of the properties that this gentleman owns and then i'm showing him the deeds of trust on all of the properties and then i'm showing him what the values are on all of the houses and he's over mortgaged them all by 120 damn and i have showed him that there is no chance that you come out of this in good standing so my suggestion cut bait

and run but he's like i'm 275 000 in i'm like bro, you're going to throw good money at bad money. Now, Pace, he's a wonderful guy. And I consider myself not only his best friend, brother, but sometimes protector in a way. Because he's so trusting. He's so giving. He's such a wonderful dude that people can take advantage of him. And in that circumstance, he was taken advantage of, right? So he kept throwing good money at the situation.

Oh, he kept doing it? He kept doing it. He got to a little over a million bucks. Oh, my God. And then the guy files BK. Oh. On like 60 people, you know, takes Pace out. And then Pace, actually, I helped Pace pull himself out of that, right?

So Pace pace began he stopped flipping houses he stopped being a contractor he finally stopped being a service provider to the real estate industry and became a real estate investor and um you know his first hundred deals or so he sold through me nice and and that's when we sparked up a really good friendship we would compete pace and i aren't aren't partners in in really anything oh yeah but the tv show but the tv show we're actually like fierce competitors really fierce that's an interesting dynamic it is and it's but it's one of the things that's really interesting about what we compete about is who can bring more value to the relationship that is a cool thing it is a do

it is it is a doozy because you're always trying to one-up the guy on a gift so here's a car here's just a thing like he bought me a 44 000 tree right like no it wasn't a christmas tree it was a canary palm wow and um they you know i had we were actually shooting the filming the television show and i and i wanted these three date palms for my house my home that i just finished building but i and i walked over to this canary palm. It was this beautiful palm tree. I don't know if you know, canary palm looks like the pineapple. Oh, I've seen those.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. They're just gorgeous, right? And I look at the price tag, and it's like 44 grand. And I'm like, I'm not on a tree, you know? Yeah. I walk off. He saw that I loved the tree though and quietly buys it. Wow.

And so when they came to deliver the three date palms, they came with the canary palm. That's crazy. And it wasn't even your house? It was a house you were selling? No, no. It was my house. Oh, it was your house. They came to, he came in.

They actually never even aired the, this was going to be like B-roll for some other, you know, a lot of what you shoot when you're making a TV show ends up on the cutting room floor. That was one of the things I wish they had shown. Probably one of the most touching moments for me in our friendship. That and getting to be the godfather of his firstborn daughter was also very touching. Yeah, that's incredible. I think competition is very healthy if you do it in that way. I think some people get a little carried away, but there's healthy competition for sure. Of course. It keeps us both on our toes and it sharpens our pencils, right? It makes us, it makes us really, really efficient. It makes us really good. And he shares tactics with me. He's not the kind of guy who's

like, Hey, I'm going to, you know, um, this is my plan and I'm not going to tell you my plan because I'm going to beat you. Right. It's not, that's not him. He's like, this is my plan and I'm not going to tell you my plan because I'm going to beat you. Right. It's not, that's not him. He's like, this is my plan. And now I'm going to beat you. So he's like, uh, Larry Bird with it. Yeah. Larry Bird always announced his moves. And I don't, and I don't, I, you know, I, I love that. Yeah. Right. Because he shares with me. Right. And, and, and sometimes I take the plan. Sometimes I just take the plan. I'm like, cool. Thanks bro. And he doesn't care either. He's not like, you know, he, when he shares it with me, he shares it with the intent that, Hey, put this to use. It's working for me. Nice. We'll work for you too. And, um, you know, those are the kinds of friends that I want in my life. And that's, you know, I've got one. You only need a few.

Yeah. People try to get too many friends, I think, but I keep mine on one hand and I like it that way. I agree. Um, do you do any of his creative financing stuff or no? You know, I had, I have an interesting relationship with creative finance. I did real estate in Canada and that's where I came up and I had done creative finance in Canada, what they would call sub two there. And it didn't work out well for me when it turned. Yeah, I couldn't keep up. There were 42 houses that I owned, essentially subject to, and I just couldn't keep up. You couldn't find tenants?

No, I couldn't rent them out. The market crashed, right? It was 08. Got it. Couldn't find tenants, couldn't sell them, couldn't do anything. They were just done, right? And that was when I became really frightened of leverage. And so him and I are very different from each other because he collects as much leverage

as he possibly can. While I'm the guy who owns out, who owns all of my homes outright. I own 100% on all of them. No mortgages, bro. Wow. I own my cars outright. I live, I'm a, I'm a cash man. You're Dave Ramsey.

I, I, I know. And when i see him and i you know i i know he's going farther than i am with respect to his holdings and whatnot but i feel that i'm safer in a way right i i keep it safe now again nothing against the creative i i i i do i have bought into the the narrative that%, 3%, and 4% loan is an asset class now. And I believe that. I truly believe in it. And so what I see Pace teach, I feel, is true teaching.

Because he's not telling people to go and take over 6%, 7%, 8% mortgages. He's like, go after the people that have no equity or a little bit upside down. They got a 2%, 3% loan. Go get that deal. Go do 100% seller finance at 0% interest and overpay a little bit. You know what the amortization schedule is on a house when you're paying 5% on a loan?

How much interest you paid on that house? If you overpay by 40 grand, 50 grand on this house, what you'll save in interest will have been hundreds of thousands of dollars. So, you know, he understands the math at a level that I think is pretty unique and gifted. So, no, I don't do the creative stuff. I hand that to him. I'm a cash guy. I wholesale. I like making big checks. I like flipping my contracts and making my money. Right. And that's the high I chase.

Are you interested in coming on the Digital Social Hour podcast as a guest? Well, click the application link below in the description of this video. We are always looking for cool stories, cool entrepreneurs to talk to you about business and life. Click the application link below. And here's the episode, guys. So no leverage. So you're not even borrowing other people's money.

It's all your money. Yeah. Wow. So that's super safe.'re not even borrowing other people's money. It's all your money. Wow. So that's super safe. I have used hard money on some flips. So that, you know, I want to clarify that I have used hard money on some flips, but I, but, but that's like, I, I, my, my flipping business is I, I, it's not me. It's non-recourse, right? Hard money loans are non-recourse, meaning I can walk away. Oh, you can? Oh yeah. I lose my down payment, but it's a non-recourse, right? Hard money loans are non-recourse, meaning I can walk away. Oh, you can? Oh, yeah. I lose my down payment, but it's a non-recourse loan. So I can walk away from this thing.

Now, I wouldn't suggest you do that to your hard money lenders because they're not going to want to do business with you. But when I know that if they're like something completely disrupts the way it did in 2008, if I'm in a non-recourse loan, that means there's no personal guarantee. That means I don't lose my house because when 2008 happened i had asked my family to i i was so desperate to to do something big at that time that um when i first started wholesaling i uh i i started doing really well i thought i invented wholesaling to be honest with you because i was doing it back in like 2002 in Canada and there was no Cody Sperber there was no internet was brand new uh I actually I I I solved a problem for a builder who was looking for a specific type of house that he needed to

knock down so he could build luxury duplexes right and when I was walking my dog one day I I called a for rent sign of a house that i tried to rent a few months earlier but it was like 200 bucks out of my budget just to kind of tell you an idea like where i was economically yeah yeah right and so i call the woman and i ask her well you know you've had this for rent for a while and it hasn't rented would you sell it she said for the right price. Well, what is it? $350,000. So my mind works a little different than most people's minds, right?

Because I had heard that these guys had a need for this type of property. It was actually my business partner's father. I run to the office. I talk to my partner. And I'm like, what would your dad pay for this? Instead of saying, hey, I found one, where they would have given me like a $2,500 finder fee. Yeah. I'm like, what would your dad pay for this house? He's like, one where they would have given me like a $2,500 finder speed yeah um i'm like what would your dad pay for this house he's like 400 grand all day wow so now i have a $50,000 problem to solve right because i don't got 350 grand but i i have the

opportunity to buy a house for 350 grand that i could sell for 400 grand so what do i do so i start calling family and i'm asking my uncles and my aunts do you can you would you guys lend me money i have this for sure thing i have a for sure thing like i can buy it for 350 i can sell for 400 we'll make 50 000 you can take half right nobody wanted to give me the money right but i was a guy who didn't become the doctor i'm the only non-doctor damji in my family you serious i'm the only non-doctor damji in my family. You serious? I'm the only non-Dr. Damji in my family, right? I'm the black sheep, right? So it's crazy because, you know, I don't get into medical school, which was, again, one of the bigger detours in my world, which ended up being one of the biggest blessings in my life, right?

So I start cold calling real estate lawyers. And I get all the way to the letter s bro wow the the lawyer's last name was steed david steed uh been since disbarred don't know why but because i i wanted to look him up and like thank him right yeah because i call him and i said and he was so fresh out of law school dude didn't even have a legal secretary on his phone um he's and he didn't even have an ad in the yellow pages he just had a name and a phone number yeah so i called him up and i was just i just said hey dude um i got this i got the situation i can buy a house for 350 000 and i can sell the house for 400 000 and i have no money do you have any ideas for me he's like oh that's easy okay okay what well what do you do that what do you do he's like, oh, that's easy. Okay, well, what do you do that? What do you do? He's like, it's called a skip transfer.

And I'm like, oh, a skip transfer. Yeah. It means we're just going to skip and transfer the deed into the other person. So he said, this is how you do it. You get two of the same contract. On one of them, you're the buyer. And on the second one, you're the seller. And the first one, you're buying it for the $350.

On the second one, you're selling it for the the first one, you're buying it for the 350. On the second one, you're selling it for the 400. Everything else has to stay the same. The only thing you need to know is on your buyer name, you have to write and or nominee, right? That was it. He's like, everything else has to be exactly the same. Close date, inspection times, everything's got to match. He's like, if you get those things filled out, bring those two contracts to me. And if things work in a couple of weeks, I'll have a check for you. Wow. And I did it. And in a couple of weeks, there was like 47,000 and change in a bank draft in my name. Nice. And like, this is coming from a guy who, you know, couldn't rent a house that was $200 out of his budget. So, you know, for me, that was a

life-changing moment. Right. And it, and it taught me something and a skill that now I learned is actually called wholesaling. Yeah. And it had been happening in America for a long time. But in Canada, there was no thing. So I literally thought I invented this thing. But I wanted to get into development so bad that I got my family involved in these construction projects, which ended up going belly up in 08. And so prior to that, we'd made millions of dollars.

I bought my mom a house on a lake. I bought myself a house on the top of the hill in my city, overlooking the city. I'm feeling like the king of the world. And then all of a sudden it all goes bust. 08. 08 happens. And I got these 42 subject twos that I can't cover anymore.

And the bank is calling all of my loans. And in Canada, the banks and the government are one. So when they come, they just take your shit. Wow. And they did. And so going from a lake house and a house on the hill overlooking town, we went to all of us, my mom, my dad, my sister, my niece, 150-pound dog, cat, myself, into a two-bed, one-bath apartment.

Jeez. And it was the worst, best time of my life because I learned a lot. I learned about my family then because they didn't blame me. Oh, they weren't mad at you? If they were, they didn't make me feel like they were mad at me. Wow. Nobody said, you ruined us. us nobody said you screwed us they just loved me everybody my sister my mom everybody just loved me you know and and i we had tender moments in that crappy little apartment and though there are moments i'll never forget right and it's the

foundation that i think i've been able to build what's happened and why i felt this drive this need to like redeem our family to like get us back yeah that makes a lot of sense why you buy everything in cash now yeah after hearing that story you don't want to experience that again i don't i'm ptsd you know yeah that's a big big change man going from nice house to just two bedroom apartment with six people and a 150 pound dog sounds like you like dogs a lot i do i'm a dog guy i love dogs too i'm an animal person yeah i'm an animal person for sure i will say getting dogs has has almost because i used to have bad anxiety it really helped with it honestly they help with everything yeah i there's you know um even like you know with the split with my with my

wife right like um the dog has been my home my buddy right you got to keep it well she took her dog okay and there was a dog that we got together as a as a puppy when the other puppy passed away and you know um in the beginning of the year we got this labradoodle henry and uh and natalie didn't want to part with him but she knew that i was gonna need i was gonna need somebody something you know nice to get through it and so she she left me the dog that's cool and uh he's my best friend man like that that you know i get to i walk him every morning i walk him every evening he sleeps with me in the bed you know uh he's my he's my he's my boy i love that yeah i sleep with my dogs in bed some people don't do that i'm like you're missing out weird people absolutely i want to talk about the spinal

surgery because you were supposed to come on the podcast that week and then that happened so what exactly went down so i wake up one morning and I'm numb from the neck down. My fingers are numb. My chest is numb. My like, you know, I couldn't feel going to the bathroom. It felt like my feet were tingling. You know, when your feet are asleep. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

That feeling like the tingles, right? So that's what I'm experiencing. So we make an appointment with a primary care doctor, which is like a week out. So I'm just suffering for the week with this numbness, wondering like, what's going on? Go into the primary care doctor and he says, I think you have Guillain-Barre syndrome. And I'm like, what is that? And he's like, look it up. But it's a neurological disorder that is really, really dangerous. I'm suggesting you go straight to the ER, have an MRI, and get this looked at.

I can't help you. Okay. So I don't go to the ER. I go home, and I tell my wife. My wife was with me in the appointment, but she's arguing with me. She's like, dude, what are you doing, man? You've got to go and and so uh i relent we go in the evening that night you know there's less people it was like you know i'm like okay we we get there we finally get into the mri i hate mris

man i'm so claustrophobic yeah they give me a valium to just oh they have to knock you out not knock me out but they gotta drug me into one of those machines because i just i freak out right so i'm in that and it's like it's an hour-long mri and so an hour an hour long jeez i would freak out the whole thing right yeah i thought it was 10 minutes they can be but this was an hour long 54 minutes in in total actually so i'm in this, I get the result. And the neurologist says, in a week, one of two things are going to happen. You're either going to have a stroke or you're going to be paralyzed. And I'm like, what?

He's like, your spine, look, look at this, look at this MRI. You're 98% impinged. Like there's no cerebral spinal fluid getting to your brain. Like and your brain requires like the CSF flushes in our body every 24 hours and it like nourishes your brain with salts and minerals and all kinds of things to keep you, you know, neurologically and mentally stable, functional, and, you know, all the things. And oddly enough, I had fallen that week in a really weird way, right?

I just ate **** for no reason. So that's what caused it, the fall? No, I was already numb. Okay. But I fell. So my motor function was starting to get impaired, right? Got it. And so I didn't think anything of it.

I'm a clumsy guy, so I just put it to that, right? I'm like, oh, it was just me being clumsy. But ultimately, we find out the doctor says, I got to get the surgery. And he says, and I'm like, well, when? And his answer was tomorrow. And I say, well, well, dude, I can't do it tomorrow. Because here's why. I have a mastermind.

It starts on Friday. And I sold it out. 100 people at $10,000 a head. I have a mastermind. It starts on Friday. And I sold it out. 100 people at $10,000 a head. I'm not. I can't refund a million bucks. I got to show up for my people. I can't. He's like, are you negotiating with me right now?

I'm like, I can't do it in two weeks. He's like, well, yeah, if you want to. But I'm going to bring a binder worth of release forms for you to sign saying that I told you that you shouldn't. And, you know, then I have the conversation with Natalie and she's like, you got to do this. And I come to terms with the reality of what's happening right now. Right. So I say, OK, tomorrow morning. It's tomorrow morning.

So where we go? I go in. They fused C3, 4 six seven wow it was massively invasive you know they go in through your neck i got you know and they move your esophagus over oh my gosh and then they go in and they you know tinker with your spine right and it's it's it was incredibly painful afterwards um you know the the split with my my wife happens very soon after as well um and it was just the hardest time of my life wow like it was so it was just so hard i i i didn't i didn't know or think there were moments where i was like i don't know that i'm gonna

recover like i don't think i'm gonna get out of this, the sadness, you know, just the, like, just like what is happening to your life. Right. Um, but, but you do. And, um, I'm grateful, dude, I'm grateful that I'm moving and, and I'm grateful that I, I'm not paralyzed. I'm grateful that I didn't have a stroke. I'm grateful that the doctor was as, as, um, you know, real with me as he was, he could have just let me push the surgery a week, you know, and, and I don't know if I'd be here again. Insane. And you would have been like, you know, we were going to have that guy Jamil on the podcast, but he died. Insane. It's insane. It's insane to know. Yeah. And so I'm, I And so I'm really grateful. And this is not the first time that this has happened to me.

I broke my neck in a motor vehicle accident 15 years ago. Yeah, you said you were paralyzed, right? I was paralyzed in that accident. Wow. I had a spinal fusion at that time. Oh, so you've got two now. It was at that time they fused 5-6. They had to refuse 5-6 again.

Wow. And in fact, they believe that it was the 5-6 fusion that caused the vertebrae above it to degenerate. And that's why this happened. It was a result of the first fusion. And so, you know, just one of those things. But like, it's a full circle moment, right? Yeah. Funny enough, I had that car accident a week after meeting the woman I married. So, you know, real close after we meet, I'm in a neck brace.

And then when she leaves, I'm in a neck brace. Wow. Full circle moment. Full circle moment. That is insane. And, you know, it's just like, you know, patterns, right? It's, yeah, I think we just almost take our health for granted And it's just like patterns, right? Yeah, I think we just almost take our health for granted until a bad incident happens.

And then no money's enough. Like you gave up a million dollars because your health is bad. No, I didn't. Oh, you didn't? I showed up. Oh, you still showed up? Oh, dude. This was the thing. This is what I'm so...

It's foolish because I should have been at home recovering. Yeah. But I I get discharged out of the hospital. And I, you know, I can't walk well, but I can walk. I got a cane. I got my neck brace. And I went and I did those that three day mastermind. And I tell you

what when i walked into that room they didn't think i was going to be there they did not think i was going to show up because they'd been following but they all came they all came to the mastermind they weren't sure they weren't sure what was going to happen they figured something's going to happen they didn't cancel it and you know they'd been emailing and calling like hey we're following jamil on social media. And like, is this going to happen? And the publisher wasn't sure. I wasn't sure. My team wasn't sure.

But Thursday, like Wednesday, Thursday, I was like, I'm going to make it. I'm going to go. And I showed up. And they jumped to their feet when I walked in there with the cane. It was the coolest thing. Legendary. Yeah, man. You're a trooper, man.

Thank you. I must've hurt, but I can't wait to see your comeback this year. I'm going to be watching your ads every day. Where can people find you, man? If you want to find me on YouTube, I teach people how to wholesale real estate in a really ethical way. You can find me at Jamil Damji or yeah, just youtube.com slash Jamil Damji. That's spelled J-A-M-I-L-D-A-M-J-I. I'm on Instagram at J-D-A-M-J-I. Send me a DM. I like to just kick it with anybody. I want to know who you are, what you're about, and let's be friends.

Awesome. Yeah, that's how we met, man. Appreciate you coming on as always. We'll see you guys tomorrow. Thanks for watching. Later.