KGCI: Real Estate on Air - How Money Works with Justin Colby

Episode Date: October 1, 2025

SummaryDiscover how a rock-bottom moment led real estate mogul Justin Colby to unlock the true secrets of "how money works" and build a multi-million dollar empire. This episode goes beyond financial theory, diving into his hands-on strategies for flipping over 2,000 homes, raising private capital, and using real estate to generate active and passive income. Learn the proven systems, mindset shifts, and no-BS advice that can help you transform your finances and create the life you've always dreamed of.Bullet Point TakeawaysThe Investor Mindset is the #1 Skill: Justin emphasizes that the most critical skill for success isn't finding deals, but having the right mindset. He shares his personal journey from losing everything to building a successful real estate empire, proving that the mindset of a winner who adapts and persists is the single most important factor.Flipping & Wholesaling as a Wealth Engine: Learn the exact strategies Justin used to flip over 2,000 homes. He breaks down the process from finding deals to closing, sharing insights on how to analyze properties, choose the right exit strategy for maximum profit, and scale your business from one deal a month to multiple deals consistently.Make Your Money Work in Two Ways: Discover how to generate both active income through flipping and wholesaling and passive income through long-term rental holds, including multi-family buildings. This strategic approach to real estate is the key to building a sustainable business and accumulating millions in wealth.Systems Over Hustle: While hard work is essential, Justin's success is rooted in his ability to create repeatable systems. He discusses how to build a business that can generate predictable income with automated processes, allowing you the freedom to "flip homes while on vacation" and work on your business rather than in it.Leveraging Other People's Money (OPM): Get insights into the secrets of raising private capital to fund deals. Justin explains how to perfect this essential skill, enabling you to secure funding for real estate investments without relying on big banks or using your own money.Topics:Justin Colby Real EstateThe Science of FlippingHow Money WorksReal Estate Flipping SecretsWholesaling for BeginnersCall-to-Action:Ready to learn the real secrets of how money works and build your real estate empire? Listen to the full episode on your favorite podcast platform and get inspired by Justin Colby's journey!

This is Wake Up to Wealth, a podcast dedicated to helping you change the way you think about wealth. And now, here's your host, Brandon Brittingham. What's up, everybody? We are back another episode of Wake Up to Wealth. And what's really cool is today we're in freaking Miami. Yeah. And I got one of my homies. And he's not just coming on here because he's my homie.

He's coming on here because I respect him as an entrepreneur. My brother, Justin Colby, what's up, bro? My man, I'm excited to be doing this podcast with you, bro. Yeah, I appreciate you taking the time and getting in this beautiful setup today. So I want to jump right into it, bro. You've done a lot of stuff. And for people that don't know you or haven't heard of you, give me just a little, you know, give me the two minute, like how you got here and where you came from

and how you became an entrepreneur. Yeah, I think I have a similar story. Everyone has a story, right? I knew I wanted more as a kid. I wasn't in poverty by any stretch, but money was not really a thing either, right? I had alcoholic parents and moved out when I was 14 and everyone has their story,

so this is not woe is Justin, right? But from that childhood, I always had to rely on myself and had to, you know, provide for myself, essentially. And so going into adulthood, I got directly into real estate out of UCLA. Well, I didn't. I got into door-to-door sales.

And that actually took me. Great learning experience. Bet the best for about a year and a half. Owned my own company, made all the money, but door to door in Boston, Massachusetts during the winter, is not the jam. Brutal. Not the jam.

So, caught pneumonia, had to move back home, got into real estate and started real estate investing, or I'm sorry, real estate brokerage, traditional retail. Still around today, the top performing boutique brokerage in Northern California. And I helped start that. And when the market crash, I crashed. Yeah.

And it was because I didn't have a skill. I never mastered a skill. I didn't master marketing. I didn't master salesmanship. I didn't master how to cultivate clientele. I didn't master any skills. So when the market crashed as a realtor, I crashed, I had nothing. I know book of business, nothing. But I loved real estate, bro. And I just asked you off this episode, like, are you ever going to give up real estate? My answer is no. Hard no. I will never give it up. It may change on how I approach real estate. So I got into real estate investing, broke bust and disgusted. My home went to foreclosure. The repo man took my car. Funny story about that. I actually drove my car cross state lines, gave it to a buddy. That buddy gave me his car. I came back as a federal offense, by the way. I didn't know

that. Yeah. So the repo man took my car and I borrowed $25,000 to hire a coach. Wow. And from that moment my real estate investing journey took off and done over 2,600 deals today, but, you know, started with two deals and then six deals and nine, et cetera. But it's been a journey and what I can say is looking back on it. I don't think I would trade any of it. All the dog shit sandwiches I've eaten, all the losses, the flips that went bad, the development that went bad, all these, you know, business partner breakups, all of that has been able to shape me and who I'm today and now you and I are in a place doing stuff together with really cool opportunities and so it always leads to something good if you keep your head down keep pushing forward so one of the things

you just said which I think is crazy so you're broke you borrow money and hire from a friend from a friend yeah so imagine me calling you hey dude I got this vision it's going to be fucking sick can I get 25 racks yeah so like I believe that entrepreneurs a lot of times people think we're crazy as shit. But it's the ability at some point to say, fuck it and gamble and go all in. Yeah. Was that the moment?

Like, what goes through your head of like, I'm broke? Let me borrow money on a coach. Well, when you are at the bottom, you kind of say, what else do I have to lose? Right. All my friends are snickering like,

Colby got fucked up, right? Like, he lost it all right? So everyone's aware I'm in a bad shape. So at this point is kind of like, I have nothing to lose. Yeah. I thankfully had a friend that actually believed in me. It was a buddy, bro.

This isn't like I put it on a credit card. It was a friend. And he said, dude, I think you can go crush this. So cool. And it panned out for both of us, right? Got him his money back and gave him a great return on that. And it's worked out for me. But when you want something as bad as I wanted something,

when I just knew I was meant for more and the passion I had of real estate, I didn't know how. I just knew I was going to. Right. And so for me to make an investment into someone that could show me how, that's all I needed. And that's what the journey really became is I was able to learn the how. Then it just came back to the people. Right.

It's the who, not the how. Once I learned the how, then it was the who. And it's been the who, the rest of my career. So in what you've been through, 2,600 deals, you know, losses, gains, like, there's so many lessons. But what do you think is one of the most powerful lessons that? that you could give somebody to prevent them to go through some of the shit you might have went through. Yeah, I think don't take two swing of a bat. It's okay to hit singles for a long time, right?

And as someone, you and I both love sports, right? Like, you can strike out seven out of ten times and be a Hall of Fame baseball player. 100%. Right? Yeah. And I think everyone wants to go for the home run hitter and I want to be the big gun and have the big bat. and I think it's the singles are way more important and you stack those up consistently, although they're not sexy on Instagram and they're not sexy on social media,

there are little things that no one really notices, but you stack them up repetitively. You can have a big mountain of winds when you look up, right? And it's the people that try to go for the home runs. And I myself did, right? I did a 79-unit townhome development in Mesa, Arizona. I've never developed a home, let alone 79 at one time. Yeah.

I didn't know what I was doing. I was way ahead of my skis. I was going for the Grand Slam. I was going for it, right? Now, from time to time, those things do pay off. There's no doubt. And if you don't have, we just talked about if you don't have a big goal, big dream, then you're going to be lost, right?

Because you're going to limit yourself on how big you can go. Yeah. So there's this fine line of like going big, but also realizing the consistency in what you're doing. So I would tell anyone like, stay consistent at the little wins and let those wins compile and they will grow into bigger wins. I love that.

That's how you develop mastery. Yep. Yeah. So not just the losses. What do you think you learned in the wins? You know, what do you think you learned in the wins? Not nearly as much as the losses, right?

I know you and I can agree to that. Like when you win, you kind of like, fuck yeah, I'll do it again. It's a bad teacher. That's it. Yeah. Right? And you don't really learn a lot.

Now, it depends. If there's a win in a vertical or something I've never done, and I won, then I can say, God, that worked. Okay, so let's remember it. But in the traditional sense, like, you don't learn a lot when you win. And so while it's cool and you should celebrate it, it's kind of get back to work so you can continue learning because through that learning, the reason why you and I are in masterminds, the reason why we cut the check for other coaches and other things is because we want to grow

as business owners, entrepreneurs, leaders, most important leaders. And so that's the way that, like, I can expedite my learning. So I don't have to take the else as often. Yeah. So you also going back to when you said, hey, I paid the 25 grand for the coach. You know, obviously I believe in hiring a coach to scale. What did that 25 grand do for you? And then going beyond that, because I just, I think so many times what people make a mistake in is they look at the cost of a coach or the cost of a mastermind.

and they don't look at the value. So they go into it already wrong, right? It's like, well, if I spent $25,000, my ROI needs to be X in this amount of time, they don't actually look at the value. Like, talk a little bit about how you've invested into yourself, like where that has been able to take you because I don't think you ever looked at it as a cost,

especially if you threw 25 grand when you're in the shitter. Yeah. Right? Like, you looked at the long-term vision of, of what is the actual value? Yep. So it's never a cost is an investment. Yeah.

And listen, I've made investments in mentors, coaches, or even masterminds that I would argue I didn't get a lot out. Yeah. But I don't always need a lot. I need one thing. That's a gem. One. That's a gym.

I got to stop you there because it is so important. I've had this conversation so many times with people where a one or two percent adjustment in your business could be. millions of dollars 100% and you go into a room and you you want to get nine you know you want to get 10 well you're not going to go execute on 10 do you know I mean that's such a powerful statement for everybody listening you hire a coach for the one thing that the one thing you can take to make you better could change your life forever that's it you get in the mastermind for the one thing that can make you better yeah and that's it and so I would say for those that are always skeptical and

oh it's a cost and you know I get this all the time and my team does I have a organization for my coaching. They'll say, well, I'm going to go do a deal first or I'll do two deals and then I'll pay for the coaching. And then you say, well, so how are you going to go get those deals? Right. Well, I don't know. I mean, I'm just going to, you know, I'm going to hustle. Well, is hustle a strategy? Sure. Right. And so you just kind of reverse engineer that they're very short side. And a lot of that has to do with money in how people were raised and they don't understand the value of certain things. right? They would rather spend, you know, $200 on dinner tonight than to save a couple of those dinners and pay for a coach that could teach them how to go make $2,000 or $200,000. And it's because they

don't understand the value of money. It's a big, big, big thing that I focus on with my podcast in the sense of I want people to understand you have to have mentors in your life. Right. Yeah. It's not even really an option. If you talk to anybody, including someone like a Tony Robbins, an Ed My Ladder, any of the biggest names in the space of entrepreneurship, they have all cut checks. They have all surrounded themselves with smarter people, people that know more. And even if they're not cutting a check per se, they are spending their time, they are offering value, and they're getting next to those people. It is very short-sighted for anyone who wants to build something remotely cool for them not to make an investment in someone who's done.

done that before. You said something in that conversation, which I talk about a lot on this show, is that we've been taught about money wrong. Right. So traditional, go to college, whatever, save your money, invest in a 401k. I'm not shitting on 401k's. But you and I have found something, which is when you get in the room with wealthy people, you know what they do with their money, they invest it. And they actually believe, outside of a threshold that they think is safe, they actually believe that investing their money is the path to wealth. And that's been repeated and repeated and repeated. You and I love real estate, but talk a little bit about like helping people change their mindset. If you want to be wealthy,

you got to invest your money. There's no doubt. And I don't, you know, you and I love real estate. So the obvious answer for us is getting your real estate. Yeah. And I think that is the answer. And anyone who is successful has some level of real estate. Maybe they're even a lender at that point, right? But I mean, listen, I am one of those people that talk about diversification. And I don't think it's all over the board. I'm not heavy in the stocks. I'm not heavy in crypto.

Yeah. I'm very heavy in real estate. But I also have apartments and I have single family real estate. But I do have a certain put aside for crypto. I do have a certain put aside for stocks. But then just the idea of investing, I would rather cut the check. to another new mentor as a style of investing so that I can grow and make more money to invest more money and do more things, right?

Yep. And, you know, again, you are truly investing when you hire a mentor or a coach or join a membership of a mastermind. It is a style of investing that can give you infinite returns relative to, I'm going to put, you know, a hundred grand down on this house, and I'm going to have a seven cap, which isn't really even how you should do it, in that world. You know, it's people have to think like investors if they want to move forward.

I'm actually excited to read a new book that Tony Robbins is coming out. I don't even know the name of it right now, but like the ultimate book of investing or whatever is called. Because I'm also looking to always understand what else is out there. What else is going on behind the scenes? Yeah. I'm talking about starting another fund. Yeah.

Right. I know you have funds. Like this is how we play, but we didn't learn this. It's not like we were born like, oh, we're going to start funds when we grew up. That's not what we were thinking. I didn't even know what the hell that meant. I didn't know it was possible. Right.

Yeah. And to own a fund. I thought, you know what I mean? The Wolf of Wall Street blew my mind with stuff like that, right? And all of a sudden, I'm like moving forward. I'm like, oh, I have one fund. We're about to start another fund. Right.

But it's always about, I think everyone needs to understand about what are they doing it for. You and I've had this. What is the purpose? Absolutely. Not what's the why. That question has been overused in my opinion. Yeah. What is the purpose of doing any of it?

And I tell a lot of people this. It's actually you're better off just keeping your job because the amount of shit you have to eat to go win, I don't know if you're necessarily built for it. Most people aren't. The fraction of 1% are. Yeah. Right?

But man, is it so fucking great. And what a great life. Because it is a Wednesday, I think it is today. Yeah. And it's 3 o'clock in the afternoon, almost 4. and we've spent the better part of two hours together and we're going to go grab some dinner and we're going to now if you have a W-2, who's doing that?

Right. You know, you're staying at the four seasons. You're in my town of Miami. We're going to have an expensive dinner. And it's not always about the money. But it's the freedom. But it's the freedom. And money makes it a lot more fun to go out to dinner.

Yeah. Right? Yeah, it's eating at the four seasons tonight versus Burger Kings, two separate things. And my first job was at Burger King. So I can speak from that as an expert. Respect. Yeah.

Your respect. Yeah. You know, a couple of other things that I think we're kind of, you know, kind of aligned on is, you know, being like going through the seasons of an entrepreneur, right? And so we're at a mastery level in a lot of different things. But one of the things that I'm sure you hear it, and I hear it a lot, people are like, I want to invest in real estate, but the barrier of entry is so hard. I don't even know where to start. So someone's out there, and let's just assume for a minute that they can figure out how to get some money to buy a property, right? What would you say to that person of going out to buy in their first property or investing in real estate the first time?

Like, where would you suggest they start? So in general, I think people need to understand you don't need your own money to invest in real estate. I have tens of millions of dollars of real estate assets. I don't have a dollar of my own in any of it, not one dollar. And I think people don't understand that is in large part. Yeah. And so I do believe I don't care if you have a W-2 or if you're going to do this business full-time. The biggest mistake I ever made is not the seven-figured loss on the development play.

It's not the millions of dollars I've lost on flips. The biggest mistake was not to start buying real estate sooner. Yeah. It's because I didn't understand what I understand now. It's not about the cash flow. people buy real estate for cash flow and I understand you want to have a retirement plan that can pay you when you know you're done working and I get that but for me it's understanding finances and bankability and I don't know if bankability is a real word but I use it a lot being bankable same thing yeah

and it's the idea of so last year my accountant called me December 1st and he said hey baller uh you're going to have a real big problem for 20 2023, or 2022. So you need to go do something about it. And within 30 days, I bought a 584-door apartment in Houston. Right. None of my own money. Raised it. Right.

And that's a big project, but you could do the very same thing to buy one home. Sure. And why that's important is not the homes $200 or $300 of cash flow. It is the depreciation. It is the equity, right? So you're working in. a way to not have to pay the IRS because I don't believe in paying the IRS if you don't have to. You just got to know more. And then also you're working in a way to actually grow your

economic value. Your economic value becomes if you did this 15 times in 15 years, you have 15 properties. If you put 15 year mortgages on them, you'll own multiple properties free and clear. You'll have a hell of the amount of equity in 15 years. You can likely go to the bank and say, give me a couple million dollars against this equity. Yeah. And I'm going to go buy 15 more homes and then I'm retiring. Yep. And you will retire with a portfolio of 30 homes that is paying you directly.

Some of those will be free and clear each and every year moving forward. Another home will be free and clear. You will pay off the remaining 15 in the 15 years. And that's a lot. So maybe slow that part down for some people and rewind it. No. But the bank ability is everything. Yeah, no.

The thing is that I tell people is you don't have to own thousands of doors. and your example, and in some places in our country, you could end up with 10 or 15 homes, and it's going to drastically change your net worth and your cash flow. And if you hold on to them and you're smart about it, eventually you're going to wake up one day and they're going to be paid off. So I believe if you're W2, if you're not W2, whatever the case is, everybody can in a 15 or 20 year period acquire 10 to 15 houses and get them paid off.

That actually is achievable. for most people. Yep. For a lot of reasons, bankability, raising money, partnering on deals, whatever the case is. But it will drag, I was saying this, flying here today, I was sitting next to somebody that manages money on the plane. Do you fly first class? I do.

Okay. I'm gonna stop everyone. Make sure if you follow Brandon and you listen to his podcast, fly first class. And this is why he texts me on the way here, by the way. And he said, hey, I wanna talk to you about your funds. I think there's a synergy between us too. that's why exactly um anyway so i'm talking to him and and just having a conversation and i said to him well he's like because we're we want to raise money and we want to break into the real estate space

but he doesn't i don't understand it i said let me give you the simplest analogy i can what's the houseworth that you grew up in and i saw a light bulb go off in his head and he was like damn i get it yeah and i said now multiply that by thousands of doors, multifamily, all that kind of stuff at scale, do you see what it can do? And he was like, holy shit, man, yeah.

So the thing is, you don't have to own thousands of doors, but think about the house right now, look at the house that you grew up in. What is it worth today? What was it worth when you grew up in it, right? My grandparents' house, by the way,

my grandparents, my grandfather paid $2,800 for his house. right like think about that shit going back in time i say this all the time and real estate time is undefeated if you can buy real estate and hold it your fucking life is going to change from a net worth and from a cash flow perspective i believe i believe i'm saying this right but isn't it every 15 years it doubles i think that is the national statistic but if we look at like the last 30 years it's skewed because it's been faster that's right yeah yeah 100 percent yeah i think I think it's a fool's game if you don't in some way get into real estate.

And again, like I started this conversation, you don't need your own money. And I'm finishing up my own book right now. And I talk about even if you have 10, 20, 30, 40, 50 grand, and you could go buy the rental. Yeah. Don't. Yeah. You said this earlier about IRA's 401K's retirement plans. You're not shitting on them.

Well, you did for good reason. I raise millions and millions of dollars out of them. Yeah. That money to those people is dead money. It's just sitting there. A lot of times it's losing value, right? Not just because of inflation because of what the, what is doing in that account.

Yeah. They can go make 8%, 10%, up to 12% with someone like me with you. Same. We do self-directed IRAs. We get money from literally I'm on the plane getting wires. That's it. You know what I mean?

From people's self-directed IRAs. We're in a studio right now. The owner of the studio hears me talking to my private lender. He's wiring $672,000 for an apartment deal today. Yeah. It's all the same. You just need to understand how money works, how this all happens. That's a great name of this.

How money works. Because this is what you know and I know, but the listeners need all. Hey, that's what we're going to name this episode, how money works. That's exactly right. Yeah. Because that's how it works. You have people that can make a lot of money. So my private lender is a dentist.

He's made a lot, a lot, a lot of money in his life. And he's getting passive income. Right. And in this current scenario, I'm going to give him an equity piece to give him some tax writeoffs. You think he wants to lend more? He literally said when we close this, what's the next deal? Yeah.

I've never done business with this gentleman before. He already is like, hey, come to Houston. We need to buy another deal because I'm giving him an incentive to continue to work with me. I'm giving him a good interest rate on his money. But then because it's an apartment, he's going to have depreciation from the cost egg, and he's going to have an equity piece. And he's going to write off his, you know, multiple six figures of his seven figure active income. He thinks I'm a golden child.

Yeah. And I'm just doing what I know. the tax law allows us to do you know a good point to segue from that is there's so much money that's out there that people don't realize and you just the thing is there's two economies the educated and the non-educated and what you just gave was a PhD on money the thing is there's so much money out there that you can raise that you can learn about i mean there's just there's the educated and the non-educated. You want to become wealthy, learn about money. He just gave you some great gems. But there's so much more out there that most people are aware of. Listen to shit

like this. Pay attention because there's a difference why there's such a wealth gap in our country. And when I say educated versus not educated, I'm not talking college education. I'm talking money education. No doubt. Very, very different. Yep. No doubt. I want to end with this. And I ask everybody this same question we call this show wake up to wealth to you your version of it doesn't have to be money can be anything what is waking up to wealth to you man it's pretty simple being able to wake up next to my wife with my daughter my newborn son coming in march and did not have to do anything to just choose to do what we want do we want to go to breakfast do we not want to go to breakfast do we want to go to the park do we not want to go to the park to have that choice and to be able to do that without

feeling any obligation or being forced to have to go do something that's wealth it doesn't get any better than that and lastly the health right good health is wealth right and so as long as is those people are healthy i'm wealthy brother we're going to end it with that i appreciate uh you for setting this up and yeah man shooting an episode with me on the road and i really appreciate your time today my brother let's go Thanks so much for tuning into this episode of Wake Up to Wealth. We're sure to appreciate it. If you haven't done so already, make sure you're subscribed to the show wherever you consume podcast.

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