Digital Social Hour - You vs. You: Master Mindset for Winning in Business & Life | Jerome Maldonado DSH #1186

Episode Date: February 17, 2025

🔥 It’s YOU vs. YOU! Learn how to master your mindset and crush it in both business and life! 🏆 In this episode of the Digital Social Hour with Sean Kelly, we dive into the power of resilience, focus, and turning setbacks into success. 💪 Joined by a multi-millionaire real estate investor, we uncover what it takes to navigate challenges, outsmart the competition, and win in the game of life. Whether it's about conquering self-doubt, raising unstoppable kids, or thriving in tough markets, this episode is packed with valuable insights you can use today. 🚀 💡 Ready to unlock your full potential? Watch now and subscribe for more insider secrets. 📺 Join the conversation and stay tuned for more eye-opening stories on the Digital Social Hour! 🌟 Your next breakthrough starts here. Hit that subscribe button and let’s win together! 💥 CHAPTERS: 00:00 - Intro 01:15 - Luck vs Skill in Success 04:54 - VC Firms Investing in Real Estate 06:06 - Overcoming Fear of Judgment 07:57 - Mindset Lessons from Sports 08:48 - Marathon Running Insights 10:12 - Ironman Competition Experience 12:05 - Importance of Focus 15:31 - Health and Wellness Tips 17:09 - Managing High Expectations Pressure 23:10 - Parental Influence on Dreams 25:13 - Importance of Education 30:45 - Teacher Impact on Students 34:37 - Finding the Right Mentor 37:05 - Jerome’s First Major Deal 41:00 - Immigration Challenges 44:42 - Understanding H1B Visas 46:25 - Employee Second Chances 47:55 - Evaluating Portfolio Size 48:55 - Setting a $1B Goal 51:49 - Benefits of a Coaching Program APPLY TO BE ON THE PODCAST: https://www.digitalsocialhour.com/application BUSINESS INQUIRIES/SPONSORS: [e-mail] GUEST: Jerome Maldonado https://www.instagram.com/jeromemaldonado1 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/ Digital Social Hour works with participants in sponsored media and stays compliant with Federal Communications Commission (FCC) regulations regarding sponsored media. #ad #mindsetmentor #businesscoach #financialeducation #realestaterookie #selfimprovement

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BedMGM operates pursuant to an operating agreement with iGaming Ontario. The testosterone level is back. And I battle mentally because you want to take the testosterone replacement because it keeps you leaner, but it scares the shit out of me, man. I'm not a fan of anything unnatural. Yeah, because I I mean you take that shit and then your body loses its own natural mobility to produce testosterone. Yep. And bro you're just you're on that shit forever. For life. All right guys with Jerome here we're in going to talk real estate and life today. Thanks for hopping on, man.

What's up, Sean? How you doing, brother? Yeah, it's been a while. It's been a year and a half. Couldn't believe how fast time flies. Time flies too fast, man. It's crazy. Yeah.

Shout out to Dan Fleishman and the guys that aspire for hosting events. Yeah, those dudes are badasses. I was talking to Dan last week. They're trying to sell the ranch up in Temecula. Oh, because of the fires? No, I think it's just the right time. The Olympics is going gonna do their question arena there.

And I think he wants to move here to Vegas and put something together here in Vegas. Nice. Just get away from the California politics and some of that stuff. It's hard to be Vegas, man. I like it here. I was doing a land development out here in the late,

in 2000, 2004, five, six, seven, eight, right before the recession. And we got out of here at the perfect time before everything fell apart, pre-recession. Was that luck, skill, or both? No, it was luck. It was luck. It was luck.

My son was born. So I said, okay, no more out of town development. My son was born in 2008. And I had just sold off the last development to Toll Brothers. And I said, we're gonna stick to doing work and development just herell Brothers. And I said, we're going to stick back, we're going to stick it, stick to doing a work in development just here at home. And so it was a little bit of luck, more so than anything. I love the honesty on that because some people would have said skill. No, man. I wish I was that smart. I wish I saw it coming. I had sucker written all over my face in that day, bro. Yeah. Well, no one saw COVID coming too. That was another. Oh, I know. We got

lucky with COVID though, man. COVID worked in our benefit in a lot of ways. Yeah. How so? Housing prices went up. The interest rates went down. I mean, we're paying the backlash effects of it right now from a banking perspective, but damn, we killed it. In fact, Ty Lopez and I were doing some stuff

over in Virginia and we had a project tied up in South Beach, Florida at the time, over on Meridian, Espanola, the heart of South Beach. And when we got that property, we panicked because we thought we were overpaying for it at the time, nonetheless. And we thought we were screwed with the pandemic. And ironically ironically enough prices in South Beach, Miami doubled. Damn. In a year?

No, not in a year, but during the course of like three years, prices just went through the roof and then we found ourselves down in Puerto Rico because things just got too crazy down in South Beach. Yeah, Puerto Rico is where you go when you make crazy money, right? Yeah. And you got it right off some taxes. Yeah, Miami exploded, Vegas exploded too during the pandemic. Everything.

I think nationwide, I don't think there was a bad market. Everything was doing good. Yeah. But now the question is who can get through the bullshit we're going through now? Because now we're on the backside of all of that and the reality of all of the attributes that we went through during that time period are now coming back full circle. And so it's the strong beginner survive and the backlash for people that don't really understand how to facilitate business and real estate and

what happened with all the appreciated values and stuff are going to get, they're going to get beaten to say the least. Yeah. Cause those people that were overleveraged are going to get wrecked. Right. Yeah. And it's one of those, it's that whole game that people play, you know, they go, I think I got one more, you know, before the market. I mean, everybody knew that it couldn't last forever. Right. And we, the market was already kicking ass in 2018 before the pandemic. And then it continued and, and then it even got even better. And so there had to be a correction of some sort coming. And so we're living it right now. Absolutely. Yeah. Yeah.

Yeah, it's gonna be interesting to see how long, do they call this a bear market right now? What do they call them this period? I call it a bad market. I mean, it's a good market. You just have to know how to invest, right? So, right, it's a great market for buying. It's a great market for repositioning.

It's those that come into this market right now and five years from now, we're gonna have a heyday. We're gonna make money hand over foot here in a few years. But those that can't survive it because they overstimulated their investments and their reach post-pandemic, those folks are going to take a beating and they'll probably never enter back into the market ever again. Damn. You know, so we'll see. We'll see how everything plays out. But there's like $2.8 billion that are, $2.8 trillion worth of real estate that's going to come to the market over the next two years. Holy crap.

Just in defaults from the low interest rates and repositioning of mortgage payments and the 5-1 arms that were real popular back then. So it's going to be interesting to see who weathers it, who weathers a storm. There's rumors of all these VC firms stocking up on real estate. Have you experienced that on your daily basis? Yeah, they're out there. I mean. Looking for the ultimate online casino experience?

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a couple miles of your own front door. And people are all over the place and they're worried about everybody else that's picking that stuff up. It's going to happen, right? I mean, there's politics that are beyond our abilities and control. We try to lobby and be the best example and part of correcting the problems that are out there, but not any one of us alone can do that. So I always tell people, before you start trying to save the world and worry about all the big reefs and stuff that are going in buying this real estate, go focus on getting yourself financially corrected. And that more importantly is what really needs to happen because then with those people and their finances more well corrected, then you can go in and make an impact. Yeah, I love that mindset

because a lot of people try to compare themselves to other people and they're comparing their level 100 to level one. It's like no comparison. Yeah, there's no comparison. I told my daughter that this weekend. My daughter's been competing in gymnastics and she was a little girl. She got started 18 months and she's more talented physically than my son. My son's just a harder worker than her, and he has the mindset. Well, let me take that back. He's not a hard worker than my daughter. They're both hard working. He has the mindset and he competes like a dog. My daughter retracts, and I told her, I said, look, stop worrying about what other people think. I said, when you go in and you master

something and you become great at it, you're going to be judged. But if you worry about who's judging, you're never going to grow yourself. I said, when you can go in and mentally place yourself in a position where you stop caring what other people think, that's when you'll excel. And we were in Dallas two weeks ago and she had the worst competition that she ever had. She got like a five something on, on her bars fell three times. I couldn't believe it was the first time ever since she was a little girl. And she just got crushed.

And I told her, okay, now here's the thing. You need to stop worrying about other people. I said, you were worried about me, your uncle Rick that was there, that never comes to competition and everybody else and how they were judging you. Now it's you against you. You got to come back. And then yesterday, was it yesterday? What was it?

What state? Today's Monday. So Saturday she competed. It was the first competition since then. And she took fifth in the all around, which isn't her best performance, but damn, drastic change from what she did two weeks ago. And I told her, don't be worried about anybody else.

It's you against you. You know, who fucking cares what anybody else thinks? I said, are they gonna affect your life? Do they play any place hold in anything that you do in your life? And I said, if the answer is no, don't worry about them. You focus on you. It's you against you. And that's life. The people that can get through that, they are the ones that'll hit the highest level of success because they stop worrying about everybody else's bullshit and what other people think.

Love that. A lot of mindset things you could take away from sports. Oh my God. We've used sports. Our kids are spoiled to death. They don't do shit around the house. It drives me crazy, you know, absolutely crazy. But man, we have used sports to drive and instill a work ethic into them. It's been a great tool. Yeah, I was a distance runner

and I think that's one of the hardest sports mentally at least. Yeah. Cause you're really like locked in mentally. Yeah, cause you want to quit. Like you got, like running is one of those things. I hate running. Running, I ran for, because I was, you know, in college, I ran in high school for, because I was a wrestler. So we had to run, you know, and I hate running. Because it's one of

those things. And I did, I just did like a 10K of about, what was it, two years ago. And I remember running in Omaha. And I remember running the first mile going, OK, haven't ran a long time. I'm going to get through this. Then I got to about the third mile. I was like, oh, shit. I feel like I'm going to die. And then I got to about the fifth mile.

I was like, OK, I got my pace. And then it just gets a little bit easier. And then I didn't go too far beyond that on a 10K. just gets a little bit easier. And so, and then I didn't go too far beyond that on a 10K. I ran a little bit past that. What's a 10K? Six miles. Six miles, right? So a little bit past that and then we were done. And I was like, okay, cool. I actually was, I felt good about myself doing it. But they say that the hardest part of the marathon is not the end, it's the middle. Interesting. Yeah. They call it, what is it? Runners blockers? You hit the wall, something like that.

I've never ran a marathon, full marathon, so I couldn't tell you. It's on my bucket list. Yeah, the most I've done is probably like 12, 13 miles, maybe half marathon. I did a half Ironman and I did fast paced walking on it. I didn't really run. I did a fast paced walk, really did good on the bike and did okay on the swim, Did pretty good on the swim.

What was the toughest out of that? The swimming, the running or the bike? You know that the swimming was the hardest mentally because it was the first event that we did. And I was a little concerned with the winds because we did it over in Cozumel. And if you know what, like Cozumel, the island, it's the one side of the island is 100% of the time is windy. And so once I got halfway through the swim, I realized I was gonna be fine. And then, so my personal mental block was, that was the hardest getting started.

I thought the biking was gonna be the easiest until I got on the bike. And the bike, because it was in a circle, when you hit that wind, it felt like you were pedaling and you weren't going anywhere on one side of the island. And we had to loop that island. I can't even remember, we had to ride 110 miles on the bike, but I can't remember how many circles around anymore

because it's been so much time. But I remember riding across that stagnant wind part, that was the hardest. Because there was times that you sat back and you felt like your legs were gonna die, you were exhausted. And then, my buddy, um, we couldn't find her. Um, because usually we were lapping her. And so we ended up turning back around, going back the opposite direction. And so it added time to obviously, to what we were doing. And she got,

it totally annihilated her. She landed up just walking on that side of the island. And then that was where she, she gave up on the- Holy crap. It was that windy? It was that windy. Yeah. Like literally, bro, like you're pedaling, like if you're on a stationary bike, you're pedaling, you're pedaling on a low gear, just trying to keep going. And it felt like you were standing still and it'll jack with you mentally. Cause like, if you're watching, you're looking at your sign right here and you're pedaling and you keep pedaling, it feels like you should be a block ahead over here and you're only here at this other one. Dude, it messes with your brain.

And that's half the race, that's 50 miles like that. Oh my gosh. So I think that was the hardest part because, and it was mental, right? And I kept telling myself, right, Jerome, don't look at the landmarks, like don't look at the trees. Cause if you look at the trees, it'll jack you up. Just focus and it's like life, right?

You gotta just focus on your goal. Just look in front of you, keep pedaling, don't worry about it. You're gonna get there, but you gotta stop focusing And it's like life, right? You gotta just focus on your goal. Just look in front of you, keep pedaling, don't worry about it, you're gonna get there. But you gotta stop focusing on the obstacles and focus on the solution. You just gotta focus on where you wanna go, where you wanna go.

So it's just like that in life and in business too. And that's one of the reasons I did it, cause I suck, I suck at running and that type of stuff. And so it was one of those mental things where I was like, okay, let's see if I can really put my mind to this and get this shit done. And that was the hardest part of the race was that. I love it.

Focus is super important. A lot of people struggle because they call it TikTok brain these days. Your phones are just destroying your focus. But I attribute a lot of my success to focus, being able to just work and lock in for six hours without looking at my phone. I mean, not a lot of people can do that anymore. No, no. I won't look at mine. I'm pretty

good about, I have two phones. So my media phone, I'll lock in. I won't, I won't even touch that thing during the day a lot of times because I'm so busy on my other phone, my work phone, right? Like my day in day out stuff. That hasn't ever been a problem for me. I can fucking work. I can work. You always had that in you? I've always had that in me. I can work. Yeah. I don't, that hasn't been, you know, I am an ADD though. So if you get me off of work, you're interested in something else, man, my focus goes left, you know? Yeah. So if you get me bored where I'm sitting around or something, I'm, I'm, I'm drifting quick. I get bored so easy. Dude, I so easy. Even conversations sometimes I'm sitting around or something. I'm, I'm, uh, I'm drifting quick. I get bored. So I so easy, even conversations.

Sometimes I'm bored. But bro, do you think that's part of why, like, like the creativity of being self employed and stuff? Do you think that's a big part of it? I think so. A lot of our friends that are entrepreneurs have ADD. Yeah. Have you noticed that? Oh bro. I mean, most of them do. And I think that's where the creative part comes in. Yeah. You know, and I, like I was in front of a room last week and I told them, I always ask people, I say, hey, how many of you guys are immigrants in this room?

And I say, you guys have a better opportunity to becoming successful doing what I'm doing than anybody else that went through our education system because you guys haven't been taught all the bullshit, right? And I tell them, and I said, maybe that's why I'm successful. I was dyslexic, ADD, I was pulled out of class half the time. And maybe that contributes to my success because I wasn't fed all the bullshit in our education system.

Probably. And it kept my creativity going. Yeah, yeah, Damon John has all of those too. He's dyslexic, ADD, everything. Yeah. A lot of autism these days too. Yeah, you know, I think that has to do with our nutrition, man. For sure. I really do.

Bro, you don't see that shit in other countries, you know? No, and you travel a lot. So you're speaking from experience. Yeah. It's just, bro, there's so much shit in our food, man. Our kids are eating and then we, as parents are ingesting that stuff's gotta be fucking with our kids, man. You know, it has to be.

I mean, a hundred percent. Look at the fertility issues going on. Our average lifespan is decreasing in the U.S. So for males like us, we're only living to 71 on average. Yeah, bro, that's crazy, man. That's super young, man. Dude, yeah, that's 21 years away from me, so. Damn, you look good for 50.

Yeah, bro, so I'm going against that, man. I'm going against that grain. I love it. So am I, I'm aiming for 100. You know, you gotta be careful with these numbers. My dad would always say, I wanna lift a 60, like growing up and not stuck with me, but he ended up manifesting that.

It was pretty young. Oh, that's bro. That's way young. My buddy, Rick, he did that too. He, I remember when we were in our twenties and he has such a hard upbringing. He goes, he goes, ah, I don't care. I'm gonna do it.

I remember he was doing steroids and just all kinds of other stuff. And I go, I go, bro, you're freaking crazy. And he goes, dad, I'm going to die at 30 anyways. And then 30 just came fast. And he's 52 now. So he's doing fine. I thought you were going to say you died.

No, no. No, unfortunately, we lost his wife to ovarian cancer a few years ago. That was hard. Oh, shit. And her wife, 27 years. Cancer's everywhere, man. Dude, it's crazy. But no, he's still with us and we still enjoy,

in fact, he's working with our team now and it's great having him because he has such a, he's so light on his feet. I love that, man. Yeah, everyone watching this, I would recommend a MRI. I just got a full body MRI. It could detect cancer early. Yeah.

Yeah, so super helpful. Yeah. Shout out to Pranubho, they're in LA. Are they? Yeah, I need to do something like that. I'm super into like, cause people are just guessing with their health, but I'd rather take some blood work or whatever. Blood work I do. I do that every six months.

I go and get blood work every six months. Um, you know, most looking like, see about cholesterol, um, testosterone is important. You know, I've never had a testosterone problem. I've been able to naturally keep my testosterone normal. It was always high. Yeah. Wow. Even at 50, you have no.

Now it's like normal. But it was hitting the low end of the normal about a year and a half ago. And so I started doing organics, right? Like almonds and just a lot of avocado. There's nutrients in our foods that we can get our testosterone levels back. And I battle mentally because you want to take the testosterone replacement because it keeps you leaner, but it scares the shit out of me, man. I'm not a fan of anything unnatural. Yeah. Because I mean, you take that shit and then

your body loses its own natural ability to produce testosterone. And, um, and bro, you're just, you're on that shit forever. What are the long-term effects for it once you're on it? You know, it's so bad. Cause people that take it and then they stop, they're, they're screwed. Yeah. You bitch tits and they soft on the side of the chest, dude. I'm just like, you know what, man?

I'll just sustain, man. I'll just, I'll, I'll get up every morning. I'll do 150 pushups before I get going every day. I'll do it seven days a week religiously. I'll make my family late if I need to to make sure I get it done. But bro, that shit just, because otherwise, man, that other stuff scares the shit out of me.

Yeah. I mean, you never know. I mean, it's interesting seeing all this biohacking peptides and stem cells, but I just try to be as natural as possible, man. Yeah, I do too. You know? I do too. We're still eating garbage. I know you're be as natural as possible, man. Yeah, I do too. You know? I do too.

We're still eating garbage. I know you're doing it without even knowing. When you travel, it's tough to eat healthy. It's tough, but- Super tough. I think making the right choices at home makes a big difference. Absolutely.

Getting a chef was like the first hire for me when I had money. Yeah. Because I knew no matter what I ate, it would impact me a lot, so. Yeah. Bro, I still need to do that. You don't have a chef yet?

No, you know, we only do it sometimes when we travel, just to eat better. We need to. We had explored it at one point in time. Our kids are so busy with sports and stuff, and we were traveling so much. It didn't make sense to have them unless we had them travel with us,

which we could have done, but we just hadn't. But we're pretty good about it. Like my wife cooks. We don't eat out during the week. Oh, OK. I cook. You know? Yeah, as long as she's not overwhelmed,

then you're probably chilling. Yeah, you know, she's overwhelmed. But you know, as part of our household, man, I think everybody in our household at some point in time during the day gets a little overwhelmed. We live a pretty high intensity lifestyle between all of us. We all grind pretty hard. You know? I. I assume you have high expectations for your kids, right? Yeah. And I think they have high expectations for themselves. You know what's hard about kids is that both my kids are gymnasts. My

son's a two-time national ranked gymnast. My daughter's working to try to get to nationals this year. And I think that's what's playing on her brain so hard. But, you know, we pushed my son so hard into gymnastics because we were trying to teach him just how to win, you know, mentally, physically, that he landed up just hating the sport, right? Like he just ended up hating the sport. He went through the motions for the last couple of years and those were when he was going through the motions is when he actually did the best because he didn't care. And then we got to a place where we felt like, we said, you know, what's our goal, right? Like, is our goal for them to be like these super athletes

or do we just want them to be a part of our lives forever? And my wife and I are real close to our kids and I go, we're gonna kill them. The morale, we're gonna kill our relationship with them. If we do this, we saw the other parents doing it to their kids. And he said, at some point in time, they just have to want it and they have to love it.

And if they don't want it and they don't love it, then we can't make that, we can't make them want it. We can't make them love it, right? They're gonna end up presenting us for it. And we felt it with my son, because I remember going, we were in Costa Mesa and he had a gymnastics competition up in Costa Mesa. And I remember he was expected to win it

and he was doing vault. And the coach brought him up to me and said, I think at this time he was in seventh grade. His coach, Joey comes to me and goes, he goes, I don't know if Jacob's gonna be able to compete today. And I said, why? He goes, he's just, he's falling apart on us.

You might wanna talk to him. And he was just bawling, crying. And this was in my son, like my son doesn't cry, especially not for stuff like that. And so I said, what's up, man? And he goes, and then he was like gasping for air. And basically in so many words, without saying much, is basically he's felt overwhelmed with the pressure

that we put upon him to do something that he didn't wanna be doing, right? So as a parent, we had to recognize it one and not say, okay, he's a puss, like, you know, we're gonna push him anyways, right? Like there's like a level of reasonability and a threshold that you gotta focus on. And I called my wife, I said,

Jacob is mentally crushed, man. Like we gotta figure out like what we need to do. And we need to listen to him, man. He was talking about he wanted to play football, wanted to play football. We'd had him in private lessons. We're sustaining, holding him off on that. And like now he's crushed it, man. Like this last year, he was first team everything.

First team all-metro, first team all-state, first team all-district, offensive player of the year, 6'8", state champions. And he crushed it, but it was his choice, you know? And we tell him now, like he'll come home and say, oh, my grind hurts. Oh, I broke in his finger was sideways. He went to state jacked up. Hey man, you could tell us you want to stop right now.

This is your choice. You could tell us right now you want to stop it and we'll be okay with it. Like, we're not really okay with it like that, but you know what I mean. It was like, hey, you know, this is you. You pick this sport. You decided you wanted to do it. You want to do it at this level, you know, this is you. You pick this sport, you decided you wanted to do it. You want to do it at this level. We're here to support you. But the second you tell us that you don't want to do it at this level, we're okay with it. We just love you and we want to support you.

And they go, so quit. And I tell them quit. And he goes, and then he just doesn't say anything. He goes back and then he goes back and competes harder. And so, and my daughter's in that phase right now where she's at a breaking point with gymnastics. We've used it as a good tool, but we've already told her that like last weekend was that same type of a transitional period for her where I told her, look, man, like fuck gymnastics, right? Like the competition's you against you. Like what are you going to do with this in life? What she needs to know is dad's got my back and dad's right. I need to do this for me, for my mental state. Because if I let her get crushed, and just lose and acclimate to losing, that's a habit. And it scares me. So I sit back and go, no, I can't teach her the losing is okay. What I have to teach her is that focusing on your mental

health is important and that with your mental health, you're going's okay. What I have to teach her is that focusing on your mental health is important and that with your mental health, you're gonna win. Right? And there's like so many different moving pieces to it. It's the same thing in sports that we deal with in business. And it's one attribute that I just thank God that I got when I was in sports, not even knowing I got it in sports.

And so when I got into business, even when we're going through hard times, they were hard times and they did feel like hard times, but they didn't, you know, and all the hard times that we still go through, they feel like hard times, but they don't. And it's because we've I've conditioned myself through sports my entire life to, you know, to get back up when things are tough. And I think if we can give that to our kids, and they get it without killing their morale and their self-confidence in the process, it's one of the most self-sustaining attributes they can take with them forever.

That's beautiful, man. Because there's a lot of parents in that same situation you're in, right, with their kids, and they're forcing, they're shoving sports down their throat. Parents want it more than the kids. We see it every day. We see it in football. Like, kids like, sports down their throat. Parents want it more than the kids. We see it every day. We see it in football. Like kids like, dude, it's a, like I was like, no kid wants to get out there

all beat to hell and go play. You have to love it, man. Yeah. Cause those kids by state, man, they're beat up. Like you have to love it. They have to, themselves have to want it. I think a lot of parents project they didn't make it in sports, right?

Yeah, they use it. They want it for their kid. Yeah, they use it. They use that as, they try to live through their children. Bicariously, yeah. Yeah, yeah. It's stupid, it's crazy, man. It's tough, man.

Because sports are supposed to be like a learning experience, fun, make lifelong friends, and then you turn it into a business, it gets tricky. Yeah, it's what's going to be a good, it takes a, like they say, it takes a village to raise a child. And the whole point, and we've had really bad coaches for our kids, but we've had some really good ones, man.

And the really good ones really make the big difference because they themselves will help you as a parent fill the gap where your kids don't listen to you. So we've been blessed now that my son's in high school, he has incredible football coaches, just great guys, and great attributes. They were Division I. One of his coaches was a Division I college coach.

So to come back to a high school and coach at a high school level, to be with his kids and his family, and give that up, those attributes he gained at the Division I level, oh, bro, the life skills that he's given my son, that I try to give my son, but he doesn't listen to something dads has to say. You know, just like, cause we listen to our parents though. Yeah. You know, teenage phase is rebellious. I was rebellious

with my poor mother. I was being sarcastic. I was horrible, bro. Yeah. I think it's natural, right? You want to rebel once you're a teenager. You don't listen to your parents. Your parents don't know nothing, you know? And so my son, you know, he lists, they hear you, but they don't, they don't want to listen to you. So it was, so having those little bits and pieces of mentorship in their lives from coaches, priceless. I love that man. So freaking priceless. Are they at a public school, both of them? No, we, oh dude. So that's a whole different story. Roll up dude. Fuck. So we, so my son in kindergarten went to a Catholic, traditional Catholic school because we grew up Catholic. My wife and I both went to Catholic school growing up. In high school, I went to a public high school

because the Catholic high school didn't have wrestling. So I, that was my ticket out. Got it. Into public school. In that day and age, I was like, oh my God, thank God I got to go to school with all my cousins. I got to go wrestle. So we homeschooled our kids. We put them in a 50-50 hybrid until my daughter started competing at the highest level in gymnastics. Then we put her in full-time homeschool. And we kept my son in a 50-50 homeschool,

Christian-based homeschool. It was like a co-op, it was awesome. It was great, because we had them with us all the time. They had plenty of interaction between the 50-50 aspect. There was a lot of mentally challenged kids in a lot of those schools. And it was, I think that was probably the best attribute to that program.

My son became more genuinely, not softer, but more in tune with people and just a little more sensitive to, because I wasn't me, you know? And I still ain't like that. I stuffed real hard, really hard to be sensitive to people's emotions and stuff. And this is because I'm hard on myself, so I'm hard on everybody. But because there was kids that I think were challenged athletically, mentally, that school catered to a lot of diversification and personalities with kids. And so it was great. And my son went in like a rock star in high school, just getting straight A's. Sucked it taking tests at first, so he had a hard first semester. And my daughter, we decided to put, do, do, um, public school this year.

And she, we, we, we filter in an eighth grade to public education. We, we hung her homeschooling her again. It's so fucked. That fast? Bro. It's so fucked. Yeah. Do the teachers.

Where is this? Um, it's in, uh, it's in Rio Rancho, New Mexico. So I just outside of Albuquerque. We live just outside of Santa Fe and we spend our time half in Arizona, half in New Mexico. But the teachers are fucked up. There's some good teachers. There's some good teachers, but there's a lot of teachers that are really fucked up. When you call and like my daughter had been homeschooled, she'd never done like standardized test taking nor did my son. But my son has a very outgoing personality. So he was able to get a lot of the help he needed just with his own personality. My daughter's not quite like that. My daughter's a little bit more intense, but like doesn't speak up

with her intensity. She kind of holds it in. More introverted. Yeah, well, yes and no. Like there's times that she is very introverted, but she, and there's times that she's very extroverted, but when it comes to that stuff, she hates being embarrassed. So going out and asking for the teachers for help, she wouldn't do it.

So I said, look, I'm gonna intervene. And I started making calls to the teachers, no phone calls back. I do emails, say, look, I'm going to intervene. And I started making calls to the teachers. No phone calls back. I do emails, say, hey, because I sucked in college. And I went through all the way through college. But I just communicated with my teachers. They sat down with me. They worked with me.

Shit, I got Cs just because I think they felt sorry for me. They were like, fuck, this kid's been here every damn day. He signed into tutoring every single day. This guy's still getting Fs on tests. And I think at the end of the semester, they're just like, okay, we're just gonna give this guy a C, you know? Cause I mean, he just worked his ass off, you know?

And that was me. And with my daughter, you know, I thought, I told my wife, ah, just communicate with him. I'll just do with my daughter what I do with myself. No phone calls back, nothing. They don't help you, they don't work with you, they don't wanna sit with you, nothing. Yeah, it pisses you off. You to go choke a teacher, you know?

That's nuts. I guess from their point of view, they're being paid hourly, right? So they don't want to devote any extra time to the students. I don't know what it is. I think it's fucking crazy. You know, like I have my education platform and you know, we're doing this stuff

and I didn't think I love it as much as I do, but you know, one of the things that I love the most is seeing people succeed. And it's cool, man, like when they're under your influence and you help them do something they wouldn't have done without your influence, man, it's one of the most gratifying feelings in the entire world. And I think that they're in the wrong profession.

And I know we need more teachers, but God, at what expense, man, is my question to that. And I told my wife, I said, this is bullshit. I said, we're pulling her back out. And I talked to my daughter about it because she was really enjoying the social aspect with the kids and stuff, but she gets plenty of social interaction.

And so we talked to her during Christmas break and we said, hey, it's up to you. You can go back. But school was slowly demising her, man, because she was feeling stupid, like she wasn't smart. And I was like, oh my god, you're freaking smart, man. You're super intelligent. And she is. She was feeling stupid, like she wasn't smart. I was like, oh my God, you're frigging smart, man. You're super intelligent.

And she is, she just doesn't know how to take standardized testing. She's never had to. And so, anyway, so that's my little story on education. So for all you parents out there that have the ability to go out and take advantage of homeschooling your kids, frigging do it. Yeah, homeschool are private, I think, for now,

until the public education system can fix something. Yeah, and like my son's doing fine in public school. You know, there's parts that we can appreciate with the growing up process, and there's other areas that it's lagging big time. But anyways, you know, he's acclimated, well, my daughter's going to go to public school next year for sports. So she's gonna have to acclimate and we'll just deal with it one step at a time. Yeah, man. The right teacher has a lot of impact

because you're not only affecting that person but their family, their friends. Yeah, you do. You're probably seeing this with all the people you coach. Yeah. So it really matters. It makes a big difference, man. I had some pretty bad ones growing up,

some pretty good ones. Yeah. I had priests, man. You know, uh, I had priests, man. You know, the word, my worst teachers were priests, man. I, uh, so I remember seventh grade. I, uh, yeah, I thought, I think those priests are going to be living in hell, bro. Yeah. They're that bad.

Oh bro. Seventh grade was tough for me, man. You know, when you get to a point when you're a kid, I wasn't a bad kid. I had good parents, man. I came in, came from a good, good upbringing, good family. Seventh grade was so tough, man, that I was segregated out because I couldn't read right and pulled out of class and things were blamed on me.

And rightfully so, at the end of my sixth grade year, me and three friends took out the little nuts out of the lockers and we were just dumb kids, right? And we used to wrap our books in paper bags and this girl put her bag of books at the last day of school in the locker and the bottom of her locker fell through and it was like a domino effect, like five or six locks fell over. And we were like little kids. We thought it was funny, just like you laugh. We're just like little kids laughing. Well, that was the last day of school.

They couldn't suspend us. So when the other two boys didn't come back to school, I did. And so from that point forward, everything was my fault. Everything was blamed on me. The bathrooms got flooded. It was my fault. And then I beat up a kid that found out, I found out who did it. And I was aggressive kid and I go, and I told him, I said, you tell them that you did it. And it wasn't me or I'm going to kick your ass. And, and he didn't. So I kicked his ass. Then I got suspended for fighting. And then he told him it was him, but then they thought that because I beat him up, I made him tell him.

So then through the whole year, just no, never ended. Wow. And so, um, so then you get to a place where like, well, any, if everything's my fault anyway, so it's all going to be my fault. Who fucking cares? Like shit, you know, I'm going to fight. I'm going to do whatever I want to do because everything's my fault anyways. And that was kind of the app, the attitude that I acclimated in seventh grade. And then my mom put me in a different private

school and there was this teacher, her name was sister Ada. God bless her heart, man. She, she just, she sat with me and she goes, no school wanted me because they thought I was just this bad kid and I wasn't, but they, uh, she sat with me and she goes, Hey, uh, Hey Jerome, she goes, I know you're a good kid because God doesn't make bad kids. He, she goes, she goes, I want you to come in and work with me. And, um, and she goes, I know you're a good kid because God doesn't make bad kids. She goes, I want you to come in and work with me. And she goes, we're gonna get you through your eighth grade year. And no other school wanted me.

She's accepted me in. And just her, just believing in me, you just don't wanna let them down. You know? And so that in itself will make you a good kid. Wow. You know? And that was like a turning point. I was like, see, I'm not a bad kid.

I am a good kid. I didn't like deliberately go out to jack shit up and get in trouble. But when it just took her believing in me my eighth grade year, that changed me in my attitude because she just didn't accuse me of stuff. She didn't condemn me. And I was able to be put in a position

where I had this one woman, this one nun that she just believed in me, you know, as a person. And I just didn't want to let her down. And that changes the directory of a kid's life, man. But what if I didn't have a sister, like what if God didn't put her in my life? What could have happened?

Would have been a whole different life, right? Yeah, like how many kids go through that? You know? A lot. A lot, bro. Because public teachers don't really give a shit about you. It happens in the home, it happens in school, it happens, I mean, it happens more than we even know. Like I lived that and I was a lucky one,

because I had a sister Ada in my life, but God only knows where I would have went if I didn't. Thank God I had the mom I did that was persistent and kept placing me someplace, because she knew better. Yeah, she could have given up on you. She could have, man. My mom could have said, subject said,

but my mom knew I was a good kid. She's like, so my mom continued to work to try to place me at the right place. And thank God she did, because it made all the difference in the world. Love that. Yeah, the right mentor and teacher is a game changer, dude. Not even just for kids. For adults. Yeah. Like I'm sure you had one getting

into real estate. Yeah. You know, I, um, I had a, I had a business mentor. Um, I didn't have a real estate mentor, um, per se, per se. I mean, I get, you know, you find your own leadership elsewhere. You know, Google was, was a mentor of mine because I found a lot of underwriting skills and training skills on Google when I really got into the big game of real estate where I really wanted to learn the game and brokers that confided me, you know, they were also mentors without me knowing like,

I'm here for the National Multifamily Conference and like there's a gentleman's name is Joe Dietz, he owned the Orion Group and he probably doesn't even know this. I just had lunch with him the other day. He was a big piece of mentorship for me because I was already doing good. I was probably worth about $20 million at the time

back in like 2012 or so when I met Joe. And Joe challenged me, man. He sent me out to this 84 unit apartment complex. I was buying all this small retail stuff, and I was staying in this little safe haven that I felt was safe and was afraid to push it into anything bigger. And Joe challenged me leaving his office one day and he told me he goes, he goes, hey, go drive by this property. He goes like, this might be a good property for you. He said, I think, and I go, what do you think it'll trade for? And he goes, ah, probably about 7.8 million.

And I was like, ooh, okay. I was like, all right. So, and I'm thinking this to myself, like I ain't telling him that, but I'm like, all right. I'm trying to man up in front of him. And so I went and looked at it and it was a beautiful property. And the first thing that goes to your head is that there's no fucking way I can afford this, right?

But then Joe challenged me and he goes, bro, if you really wanna get into this stuff, he goes, you could be you really want to get into this stuff, you know, he goes, you could be one of two people. He's like, you could be the guys that come in here and act like they're going to do something that I never hear from them again, or somebody that comes back in. There's very few of them that come back in.

He said, we'll find out which one you are. Wow. And I was like, fuck it. So I drove to the airport in Phoenix that day. I remember driving out there going, Jerome, don't be a puss. Stop being a pussy, you know? Like man up. And I looked at it and I was like,

and I kept these, all these things go through your brain, right, like, okay, I do this, I get money from here, I pull from this, I do that, you know, and all these, you're putting all these, you're putting all of the, you're trying to find solutions, but you're putting all these roadblocks in front of you, and that's what people do. And sometimes it just takes somebody challenging you like that and you pushing past your ego and you

sit back going, you just take it one step at a time. And that's what it was with Joe. Joe put an offer together. He explained the underwriting on it with me. I sat, I went home and I went back through it and then I didn't understand some, jacked it up. Joe fixed it for me and said, no, bro, that ain't the way you do it. And he took the time to help me fix it. And lo and behold, six months later, I bought another property from Joe, you know, and, and we're still buying stuff from Joe today. Wow. So you bought that one for seven, eight? Yeah, I bought that for seven, eight. I still own that property today. It's worth a little, well, it depends how you look at it. I did a cash out refi of $15.5 million about three years ago during the big market.

Wow, so it doubled. Yeah, doubled in price. And I pulled like $5 million out tax-free out of that property. Damn, that's why I love real estate, the tax benefits. And that came from a portfolio that I bought during the 2008 recession in Phoenix, a bunch of garbage, little garbage shit.

Like I was buying these single-family homes for like 25 to $30,000. That's it. Renting them. That was it, man. I was buying them cash. I was buying them sight unseen in central Phoenix. And in Phoenix at that time, they were going through, they had a, they had their, the mayor and the Senate and the governor were both high and heavy on Mexican immigrants. And they were like, look, if you, if you get caught leasing to somebody that doesn't have legal residency, it's a $2,500 fine per occurrence. Damn.

And so I rented to all of them. Bring in all of them, bro. You didn't care? No, fuck that, man. I didn't care. It was fucking wrong, it's bullshit. If it's wrong, it's wrong, bro. Let me tell you why I didn't care.

One, I had retail back home that I had built and I was struggling through the 2008 recession just to stay alive. And I was buying this real estate side unseen in Phoenix and I'd go down to the Home Depot on 36th street in Thomas. And all these Mexican cats were in the parking lot with signs saying, hey, they needed work. And these guys want to work.

And there was some that were bullshit guys that, but most of these guys just need to work, man. And I needed workers and I needed workers for a very reasonable cost. You know, it wasn't a time, a day and age in that moment that we wanted to spend exponential amount of money renovating stuff. You needed to do it on the slim.

And so we went in and I started picking these guys up and saying, hey, you know, I just bought a Ford Plex over on 44th and into the 202. Come down and help me with that one, right? And I found a handful of just really freaking great dudes and they brought me in guys that they were like, I thought I was gonna buy appliances. They're like, oh no, $25.

They buy me this little piece and the whole stove would work. Be a little flint and they fix the whole stove for like a $25 part. And then I started buying these houses and then I bought one house and I put it up to rent. whole stove would work, you know? Wow. Build a little flint and they fix the whole stove for like a $25 part. And then I started buying these houses and then I bought one house and I put it up to rent. It was like, Hey, how about me?

You know, can I live here? Yeah. I say, yeah, you know, and I'd rent it to them. And then they go, you got one more? I got a cousin, you know, that needs a place. And I was like, no, but I'll buy, I'll find one, you know? So I go and buy another one, man. And I leased to their cousin and I start renovating.

They're like, no, no, no, just throw in. They're like, it's good. You know? So I go and buy another one, man. And I leave to their cousin and I start renovating. They're like, no, no, no, just throw it in. They're like, it's good. You know? And I was like, no, it looks like shit. I can live there. And they're like, no, no, we got it. And then they would renovate for me in lieu of exchange for rent money, you know? And so I started putting this portfolio together, just housing Mexican immigrants, man. And I was buying all these shitty Ford Plexus for like 40,000, 42,000 for a Ford Plex. And I was buying all these shitty fourplexes for like $40,000, $42,000 for a fourplex. And I was buying these single-family homes for like $28,000, $25,000. And I assembled this portfolio with about $800,000 out of pocket. I had 64 units of fourplexes and 12 single-family homes. And I sold that whole portfolio out for a little over $4 million back in 2015.

And that was the money I 1031 exchanged into some of the bigger stuff that I got into. whole portfolio out for a little over $4 million back in 2015. And that was the money I 1031 exchanged into some of the bigger stuff that I got into. And I landed up with a little over $3 million after, uh, um, after taxes and stuff. That's incredible. So you five X on that and helped out a lot of people. And some of those guys still work with us today. They still do work with us today. That's cool, dude.

Yeah. Yeah. Fuck all those bullshit rules. Yeah. I didn't know Phoenix did that. Yeah, they've since, that was all the old McCary days and stuff. Those days are gone, man. And I mean, now it's just, you know, when there's bullshit laws like that, man, it's just, they're just wrong.

What's wrong is wrong. I mean, who's really doing wrong? Like, was it me doing wrong by going against their legal actions to do that? Or was it what they were doing? I think their policies were fucked. Dude, even right now, so 75% of the workers in the fruit fields are not showing up to work anymore.

So it's gonna be high prices, you know? Cause they're scared that they're gonna get- Deported. Deported. Yeah. Crazy. Yeah, my guys are worried. You know, we still run our concrete company. I still got guys, man. I got friends freaking out, dude.

Really scared. Because they're deporting, there's a tracker tells you 500 per day right now. Yeah, and there's going to be a threshold to that. So I told one of my guys, he has three DUIs that works for me. And he's still driving the other day. I got mad at him. I said, what?

I go, bro, you don't have to drive my trucks, man. You know? You drive my trucks. And I told him, you don't learn, man. Here's the thing. If you're doing shit right, there's going to be a threshold. And what they're trying to do is they're trying to cut out. They're trying to cut the bullshit. So like, you know, what they're doing right now is a little different than what we went through in Arizona. Big picture. These guys that they're sending back, they're trying to get, they're trying to get placed back in the countries they came from, because not all of them from Mexico that they're sending back, they're trying to get placed back

in the countries they came from, because not all of them from Mexico, they're just from South America from different areas. And these are some of the worst criminals. And the country they came from don't even want them back. They won't even take them back, bro. And so the biggest thing is, is they're gonna clean house with those

that shouldn't be here and are causing trouble. And I told my guys that, I said, look guys, if you guys just put your head down, stay working and go to work, you ain't gonna be messed with, they're not gonna mess with you. That's what I'm thinking too. But if you're out there getting DUIs and doing dumb shit,

domestic violence and doing dumb shit, you needed to get deported. Cause you don't learn, man. Like, okay, give you a slap on the hand, fix your stuff. But if you don't learn, fucking deport their ass. If you're not gonna do shit right, fucking leave. You know? I mean, I'm all for immigrants coming to the country.

I love them. I love immigrants, man, because they come to this country for opportunity. They work hard. Bro, they come to this fucking country based on what this country was built on. Was built on capitalism. It was built by our forefathers for free enterprise. You know? And hate it or love it, that's what America was built on capitalism. It was built by our forefathers for free enterprise,

and hate it or love it, that's what America was built on. And the reality is, is that those people that come to this country come for opportunity, because as bad as our politics are and as bad as some of our policies are, we're still the best country in the world when it comes to economics and capitalism. And so when you look at it from a real perspective, we are the land of opportunity.

And just because people that are born and raised here don't want to take advantage of it, there's people that come to this country because we are still the best country to live in and create a life of entrepreneurship. I mean, Vietnamese people come here, they don't even know how to fucking speak English and they're crushing it in nail salons, they're crushing it with- Flower restaurants. Yeah, flower, whatever it is. Yeah, restaurants. Bro, you know, Ukrainians, I'm doing, I have a development that I just finished up in Kirkland, Washington and all of our trade labor now, they're not Mexicans, they're Ukrainians.

Wow. And these guys frigging work, man. And they came in from their country scared with the war and these guys just put their head down, they just go to work. Those guys need to stay here. We need those people. Facts. Those people need to be here. Because people born and raised here,

they're too comfortable, man. We have fat homeless people on the side of the street. We're the only country with fat homeless people. We have no lack of food. No one's starving in our country, is really starving in our country. So the reality is those people need to be here. You know, we need to help them be here.

There was that whole drama with the H1B visas. Did you see that? Yeah, yeah, I did see that. Yeah, sounds like you side with Elon and Vivek on that one. Yeah, yeah. Yeah, it's tough. I mean, I get it from both perspectives, you know. As a business owner, we want to save money,

but we also want efficient workers. Yeah, we do want efficient workers. We do want to save money, but it's save money, but there's a balance to everything. And that's what's hard about everything that's happening right now is things are gonna get a little worse before they get better. People only look at the worst initially, but sometimes if it's broken,

sometimes you just gotta devour it and then start all over again. And when you devour something, as you know, if you're getting rid of poison in your company, it's gonna get worse initially before it gets better. Right. We've all dealt with it with employees where you have that one employee that's poison and it feels like when you get rid of them, because usually it's the

most talented person. I know it always works out though. You know, it isn't like, like the shittiest person, poison in your family. Cause then it's easy. It's like, bye, get out of here. No, it's usually the person that has the most talent and they're the poison. And then you're sitting back going, damn man, that person makes me money, but, get out of here. No, it's usually the person that has the most talent and they're the poison. And then you're sitting back going, damn, man, that person makes me money,

but they're fucking killing me. Yeah, it was my top salesman and he was just so toxic to anyone else. And he was probably by five X the top salesman, but I had to let him go. Yeah, you have to. And at the time when you let them go, it's painful. You feel like, damn, okay, how am I gonna replace them?

But God's good, man. God works in great ways. And if you, if, when you finally get rid of them, you realize what a hindrance they were on your company. Everybody else comes too. Sometimes you even feel like you're gonna lose some of the other ones because they're so influenced by this toxic person.

The second they're gone though, it's amazing. All these people were wanting them gone as much as you did. Yeah. And then all of a sudden leadership starts popping up even within your own environment from it. How many chances do you give your employees? Are you pretty forgiving? Bro, I'm way too forgiving, man.

I'm hard in life in general, but damn, I'm really forgiving. And I do it, and I tell my wife, I say, I do it for my own sanity sometimes because the amount of work it takes to train good people is tough, man, it takes a long time. So, and I try to see the good in everybody. And look, most of these people are good people, right? They're self-destructive in so many ways. It's more of their self-destructive nature that is the bigger cause of their demise

than it is them trying to demise my company. We haven't had a lot of jealousy or stuff like that. We've had a little bit of that where we've had to fire people, but really it's self-destructive people within the company that are bringing alcohol to our job sites, right? And we tell them not to, but then they're bringing all these other guys and they get a whole crew drinking.

Yeah. Right? And so, but they're just an alcoholic, man. And you can't reason with somebody that's an abuser with substance abuse of any sort, whether it's alcohol, whether it's tobacco, whether it's drugs, amphetamines, whatever it is, man. That happened to one of my landscapers.

I was pissed, bro. They showed up drinking the whole time. I'm like, why am I even paying you? Yeah. You know, it's unprofessional, on the job at least. They showed up drinking the whole time. I'm like, why am I even paying you? Yeah. You know, it's unprofessional on the job at least. Like do whatever you want outside of work. Yeah, I just don't do it in my trucks. That's what I'm saying.

Yeah, in my customer's houses. Those are my customers. I own those customers. Those are my customers. I marketed them. That's my job. That's my customer. It's a representation of you.

Yeah, it's a representation of everything that we do. Yeah, that's tough, man. You're up to a $600 million portfolio now, right? Yeah, we are. I mean, probably lower now that the way the interest rates are. So real estate's funny, you know?'re up to a $600 million portfolio now, right? Yeah, we are. I mean, probably lower now the way the interest rates are. So real estate's funny. It's probably worth $300 million. It just depends.

So real estate is very arbitrage on valuations because it's all predicated on cap rates. The value of it is, if I sold it all today, I'd probably have to scrub the portfolio at a discounted price, right? Because everything's based on interest rates and valuations based on financial revenue. So right now, you know, our revenues are the same, everything's the same, but because cap rates went so low, values artificially got really high.

And so now that interest rates are higher, cap rates have to go higher, and so values are kind of softened. Got it. But values will come back. They always do. And so, yeah, so we've been able to accumulate about a $600 million portfolio over the course of the last 28 years that I've been self employed

for 32 years, but been in real estate for 28. That's impressive. Is the B your goal, the one B? Yeah, I don't know that that's a goal. People keep asking me that. And you know that it isn't know that that's a goal. People keep asking me that. And you know that it isn't the money that's my goal anymore. It is when I was younger, because I think that's what drives you when you don't really have much else that's driving you. My goal now is just better. I've been telling my wife, we've got to buy our time back. My son graduates high school next year.

My wife and I are simple people, man. My wife is super simple. God bless her heart. As long as she could be by her babies, she's cool, man. And so our goals are a little different where we know our kids are going to probably go to college abroad someplace, either the United States or someplace else. So we just know we're going to have to travel. And she asked me about 10 years ago, she goes, I the United States or, you know, someplace else. So we just know we're gonna have to travel. And she asked me about 10 years ago, she goes, I just want one thing when the kids graduate. She goes, I just want, I don't wanna be tight.

Just because every vacation we go on, we're tight to our businesses, phones are ringing, there's problems, shit happening back home. We're dealing with tow trucks and trucks getting broken transmissions. We've never been able to enjoy a transmission. I mean a transmission. We've never been able to enjoy a vacation. I mean a transmission. We've never been able to enjoy a vacation

for 20 plus years together. Because we enjoy them as a family, but every vacation has issues at home. Got to put out a fire, right? Yeah, man. I mean, when you're self-employed and you got people and you got boots on the ground, man, there's shit that has to get taken care of.

I can't vacation without working. I'm not going to lie. There's certain hours I have to spend working. And I don't mind working. I just want to be able to work a hundred percent remote. And so that's like what the whole personal brand is. That's why I started raising capital. That's why we got so heavy into large assets back in 2016. And that's why we scaled, you know, was, was because I made that promise to my wife. And so for me, it's less about the dollar achievement of what, what our net worth is and more about,

okay, can I do what I'm doing now and still make what I'm making now and still play the game at the level I'm playing it now without having to be stuck in an office? And to give my wife the one thing that she asked me for over the last 27 years that we've been together. And if I can't give her that, why did I do all this, man? Like to be a slave to myself.

So we've been really just trying to buy back our freedom. So my goal more is wrapped around that. Now, once we hit that in the next couple of years, my daughter graduates high school, then I'll probably go back into the money game being that goal. Cause then I'm just gonna be old and I'll just be like, fuck it, man.

Let's go all in, man. You're so close at that point. Yeah, kids are raised. Yeah, obviously maybe I'm just going to be old and I'll just be like, fuck it, man. Let's go all in, man. You're so close at that point. Might as well. Yeah, kids are raised. Obviously, maybe at that time, hopefully grandpa or something. I'll be like, fuck it. Let's go all in, baby.

Let's go. And then I might do it. Cause I have no intentions of ever retiring, but right now that's not my goal, man. My goal is freedom, flexibility, position my wife and I where we can be wherever our kids are at any given time time at any point in time without having to deal with bullshit. Love that man. Yeah.

I don't believe in retirement also. I think that's how you age quicker actually. Yeah. 100%. Yeah. Yeah. This has been awesome. I can't wait to do more with you in the future.

Anything you want to close off with, you got any coaching programs or anything? Yeah. I mean, we're, we're, uh, we're coaching on accident, man, put together. I started a social platform to raise capital to scale my real estate portfolio. Started helping people do the same in their own real estate portfolio. And now we have like 1,800 people nationwide.

We're fucking crushing it. Our students are crushing it. They're kicking ass, they're buying land, they're building houses, they're buying land and building apartment complexes. And we're changing lives all over the country. So I'm proud of that. Your audience can find me just with the Cliff Notes and they can see and we're changing lives all over the country. So I'm proud of that. Your audience can find me just with the Cliff Notes

and they can see what we're doing and see what our audience, what our community's doing. I'm proud of what we've built. It's been pretty, it's been really fun and it's been a very interesting ride over the last few years that we've created it. I love it, man. Thank you for asking.

Yeah, we'll link it below. Thanks for hopping on. Check them out, guys. We'll link it all below. See you next time. Appreciate it. B.E.T. MGM is an official sports betting partner of the National Hockey League and has your back all season long.

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