Next Level Pros - #27: JP Newman, Founder Of Thrive, Portfolio of 3000+ Doors, 2 Billion In Transactions

Episode Date: August 21, 2023

Welcome to another episode of The Founder Podcast! Today, I'm thrilled to introduce my good friend, JP Newman, a remarkable individual who has achieved incredible success in the real estate industry.  JP is more than just a real estate guru; As the founder of Thrive, and FP, he's built a substantial wealth fortune of over $2 billion in transactions. He also holds an impressive portfolio of 3,000 doors. JP and I dive into his journey of success, his early experiences in entrepreneurship, and his transition from corporate America to the world of real estate. JP's story is one of resilience, determination, and a relentless pursuit of financial freedom.  He shares anecdotes from his corporate days, including his time at Sony Pictures, where he learned the art of storytelling and produced iconic films like "Where the Red Fern Grows." But JP's story isn't without its challenges.  JP's dedication to financial education and his ability to navigate complex tax strategies make this episode a must-listen for entrepreneurs, investors, and anyone interested in building wealth.  HIGHLIGHTS "Probably one of the things that attracted me most to JP, the very first time that we met was his ability to understand tax and tax law and how to operate in the darkest gray possible." "I always say, man, you know, especially in those early ages, just say yes. And then figure it out." "...You know what? I'm done with that, like, I'm done working for making other people successful." TIMESTAMPS 00:00: Introduction  03:26: Tell Us Your Story  05:13: The Most Beautiful Air BnB 10:48: Working At Sony Pictures  14:48: Having The Balls To Make It Happen 19:42: Early Days Of Online Shopping 23:15: Comparison 31:51: Hygiene & Motivational Factors  34:35: The Largest Deal Of His Life 42:10: Favorite Current Strategies? 🚀 Join my community - Founder Acceleration https://www.founderacceleration.com 🤯 Apply for our next Mastermind https://www.thefoundermastermind.com ⛳️ Golf with Chris https://www.golfwithchris.com 🎤 Watch my latest Podcast Apple - https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-founder-podcast/id1687030281 Spotify - https://open.spotify.com/show/1e0cL2vI1JAtQrojSOA7D2?si=dc252f8540ee4b05 YouTube - https://www.youtube.com/@thefounderspodcast

I think it's just kind of college. It's like going from your kid fantasy of what you're supposed to do, what your parents tell you you're supposed to do, versus kind of figuring out that that doesn't really sound that fun. Yo, yo, yo, yo, yo. What's up? Welcome to another episode of the Founder Podcast. Today, I have my good friend, JP Newman. JP is literally, and I know I said this about quite a few people, but literally one of the coolest human beings that I know. He is a real estate guru. He's done over $2 billion in transactions, currently has 3,000 doors in his portfolio. The guy is building a massive wealth fortune in the real estate business. And probably one of the things that attracted me most to JP, the very first time that we met, was his ability to understand tax and tax law and how to operate

in the darkest gray possible, which, man, I love good tax strategy. Welcome to the show, Mr. JP. Thank you, buddy. It sounds so sexy being the tax guy, but I have to say I do nerd out on those kind of things with you. It's pretty fun. You understand the chess game. It is. It's a good time. So, yeah, a little background story. So, JP and I met on a private island out in Croatia, of all places.

This was, what was it, April or May? No, June. June of 2022. So we've known each other for just about 14 months. Stayed in contact with JP just via text. I also invested in a fund that he's invested into, this mutual friend that we have that invests in a bunch of, uh, that he's invested into this, uh, this, uh, mutual friend that we have that, uh, invest in a bunch of mom and pop good, boring businesses. Uh, I, I invested with him, but

anyways, the, the story goes, we were, we're on this private Island with his big group of, uh, entrepreneurs. I think there was 150 of us out there, you know, little Mormon me, not drinking, not doing any of the crazy psychedelic stuff that, you know, all these guys were into. And me and JP kind of found each other on a dock, kind of like out around, and we started talking tax strategy. And I'm like, holy crap, this guy is amazing. I am always looking how to not pay the least amount of tax possible now jp's not an accountant and any advice that we talk about or even like discuss on this don't even don't even take it to the bank but use it to your best discretion what's up so that's that's a little bit of our background jp dude tell us tell us your story how

how old are you i am 56 i've been doing this for a year or two i've been you always say so i got a lot of compliments this morning so it's like how do you know so much i'm like well you've a lot of successes you get hit on the head a couple times and you figure hopefully you figure things out so uh i actually my first career was in sony pictures i was a corporate guy vice president of family entertainment producing animation uh for so let's rewind before that let's rewind before that so you get that's where you got in your career where did you grow up what made jp tick like what kind of like childhood experiences that got you into these different things yeah Yeah, well, I grew up in Los Angeles. I grew up in the San Fernando Valley during kind of a fun time.

It was really a good childhood thing. And I have to say, you know, when Robert Kiyosaki talks about rich dad, poor dad, you know, my dad was always working. But the one thing my dad taught me in early age, he was definitely taught me about entrepreneurship. And I remember being like seven years old and literally like helping women take their bags from the grocery store to the trunk and making like $3 tips. I'm going to hustle those $3 tips. And then I, by 11 was like, he put me in a suit and I learned how to like sell my first things. I was selling calculators, those little calculators.

How much were you selling them for? 10 bucks. I bought them for five and I was selling them for 10. I was making aators, those little calculators. How much were you selling them for? $10. I bought them for $5 and I was selling them for $10. I was making a $5 margin. Let's go. So I made $500 at 11 years old. And I have to say, I think that and the movie Ferris Bueller's Day Off. Who didn't want to be Ferris Bueller, right? I wanted that life. And so I think to this

day, my favorite day is the day I close a deal and everyone's making money, my investors. But if I'm on a ski slope and the thing closes and you get a little call on your wireless headset, like, dude, it's in the bank. You're just like, that's a Ferris Bueller day. And my first taste of that was really in childhood. And I really credit my dad a lot for, I mean, I'll say, you know, I had the personality to do it, but my dad really kind of forced me in some uncomfortable situations to, to, uh, to figure it out. Yeah. That's so awesome. Did I, uh, dude, let me tell you real quick about a cool Ferris Bueller experience I just had as far as like a deal closing all just out playing. Um, did, did

Daryl tell you about this, uh, this deal that we're doing in Hawaii together? He did. Tell me about it. Oh dude, we found this, the most beautiful Airbnb. It is literally on. Oh, he did. He showed it to me. It's gorgeous. Oh my God. Insane so amazing yeah so for for those that don't know what it is like we got this two and a half acre location that's literally secluded has a waterfall a giant waterfall in the background it's on the big island this land where the house is is where the king of hawaii used to have his residence and he sold this he sold this land in 18 like 65 to developers but they maintained like this small at the end of this cul-de-sac you literally are not around anybody three bedroom three bathroom gorgeous spot for like

dude anyways my first builder experience was i was up at my lake house last week having a good time or for the last couple weeks having a good time with my family and that's when we closed on the deal and and those congratulations you know when those deals happen and you're just like enjoying like you said you're on the ski slopes you're on the boat or whatnot it's a freaking yeah i i love that you that up. So keep going with your story. It is, you're the best day ever. By the way, if you need a third partner in that house, I've seen pictures of it.

And I know you don't, but just in case you feel bad for me, I'm in. Congratulations, man. Thanks, man. It's awesome. So you're growing up, you're learning sales, you're flipping calculators, you're making money. Your, your dad's teaching you also to have a good time. Uh, so, so can continue, continue there.

Yeah. You know, it's interesting that I know I was a pretty good kid as far as, you know, I got good grades, went to UCLA, you know, I thought I was going to be a lawyer. So like, uh, if I was going to get a law degree until I kind of woke up and realized that's just not who I who i am what made you what made you wake up like what what was like okay i don't want to be a lawyer like what changed i think it's just kind of college that's like it's like going from your kid fantasy of like what you're supposed to do your parents tell you you're supposed to do versus kind of figuring out that that doesn't really

sound that fun hey wait a second i really realized i started studying the lsats to actually i was you know free law i was gonna go you know graduate from ucla and i'm like this doesn't seem very fun this is kind of dry and if you haven't figured it out i'm kind of a storyteller and i think i started figuring out that my storytelling wasn't going to be a mod it's going to be yeah that's why i produced films and even this day I think I'm a storyteller for real estate, which is kind of fun. And then my podcast as well.

So it was interesting. And I really try to, yeah, you know, but what's been interesting is I talk about this a lot on my own podcast and to my kids.

I've got, you know, two boys is that it didn't come easy for me. I was a late bloomer. I was not like the, hey, I found a seven-digit business at 26. That was not me at all.

I must have failed 25 times, Chris. I mean, I failed so many times. I did everything from working for a developer. I mean, you name it. Go ahead. Tell us about some of the failures. What things did you try that you just fell flat on your face? And give us a little more depth on that. Well, I really wanted to... At first, I think I wanted to be a real estate

developer. But the first guy who let me work for him for $16,000 a year, he tortured me. We were in the desert. We were in Palm Springs. And he made me an assistant superintendent, which is basically a grunt. And he looked at me the first day and said, your hands are too shiny, UCLA boy. And he put me on a tractor at 530 in the morning with scorpions and snakes. And I had to deal with the contractors and fights and like being on the roof when it's 120 degrees and there's tar coming into your face. Like it was that kind of like I lasted about eight months in that role. But, you know, I did a lot of things. And then I thought, maybe I'm being called more to entertainment. And there's just a lot of trial and error, just jobs that didn't work,

sales jobs, just like sales jobs and boiler rooms. I just couldn't really find my spot. Nothing was really particularly easy. I think my big break was um as i was getting better just my own confidence i think the job at sony was a real big break for me i had some experience uh so what were you doing what were you doing at sony like give us some details there so so it was kind of a cool thing after the real estate thing started failing i kind of talked i needed a job so i went to work for a gift company like that made like stuffed mickey mouses and stuffed power rangers and like all these stuffed toys and animals they were the biggest ones around and i kind of wound up like as their guy who my job was to find the next hot trend or the next hot toy and go acquire it for them so it's kind of a fun

role i had to go fly around you know new york city and meet with all these inventors and figure out which movie was gonna be the next big hot movie and that's what i did kind of a quirky quite a quirky job but i liked it mckinney gave me the entertainment flag so how old were you at that time i was probably 26 27 nice and didn't pay a lot but it was kind of a fun i liked it was the first moment i think i had a spark of like this is didn't like law didn't like chasing scorpions and lights and uh that part of the development i kind of figured out i wasn't going to be like the guy who's going to be physically on the site thinking like you know i i learned a lot and this was really the first job of like there's some creativity i get to kind of utilize my my brain you know

high energy and put it all together and then sony came and i really was the dark horse i should have never been working there because i had no entertainment experience and they wanted someone to launch a family entertainment kind of division to compete against disney and uh they didn't exactly know what they wanted but they certainly didn't want a guy without any experience in their game and i was definitely the long shot to to be hired right and uh i think the guy who became my boss who eventually became the chairman of the whole studio by the way he saw something he just took a chance on me and said i i don't want to babysit you i'm making big feature films i don't have time to babysit you i I just need you to like, I want you to create $150 million library for signing pictures in the next two years. Can you do that? I'm like, sure, I can do that.

And of course I said that with really no evidence that I could, but you know, you, you would do the same thing, Chris, right? Yeah, sure. I can do that. Yeah. I always say, I always say, man, you know, especially in those early ages, just say yes and then figure it out. I actually had an experience where I was thinking about starting a search engine optimization company. And I went down, I was talking to a guy that needed search optimization. And I was like, oh, I have a company.

He's like, oh, will you do this for me? I'm like, oh, I have a company. He's like, oh, will you do this for me? I'm like, yeah. And so then like my flight back home, I was like researching how to get this thing off the ground so that I could make an offer for him. It was pretty funny. So that's definitely, definitely safe. I'll tell you, I don't usually talk about this, but the funny thing was they fly me to France for my first trade show. I'm going to Cannes. I'm in this fancy television thing.

And there's this person next to me I bump into, and they say, hey, I'm acquiring family for Sony Pictures. Not Sony, for Sony as well. And I'm like, wait a second. They just hired me. What would you be doing there? So it turns out that Sony had Sony Music and Sony Pictures. I worked for sony pictures and then there was sony music and a big corporation is so large so it turns out

that the studio chairman of sony pictures wanted to show the guy at sony music it's like two large guys who was better so i was like the poker chip and but but they didn't tell me the game so i'm now competing against sony music and i'm sony pictures well you don't know what you're doing muscle for this guy you know it's cool um it was a wonderful experience i was the youngest you know the youngest vice president out of you know 400 people and they really left me alone and mostly which was like i got to do some great out of you know 400 people and they really left me alone and mostly which was like i have to produce some great things like you know

three years three years three years i mean so like it was pretty cool though like how do you how do you go from not knowing what you're doing to becoming a vp because you know there's a lot of listeners that that got that question like, dude, come on. You don't just start knowing nothing and become the VP. Like what were like some key points that made you the big swinger? I think I just, the results were, I was acquiring at a rapid fire rate

and my projects were working and making them money. And so my boss said to me, I would really like to fire you half the time. I really just want to fire you because you're a giant pain in my ass because you're insistent. Like you see something and you won't let go of it. Like you're like a dog until, until I say yes, you just won't say no. He says, but I have to promote you to vice president because you just keep making so much, like you keep doing so well, making so much money for this division that, uh, in spite that you could annoy the shit out of me um i have to promote you so that was kind of the relationship we had so i so i think i think you bring up a such

a solid point that like the characteristic of being a dog right like the one that can just go and make it happen no matter how smooth no matter how much people love you right like if you can just make crap happen like you're gonna be able to be promoted be an incredible entrepreneur whatever and it just seems like so many people lack that i you know i'll tell you a funny story on that do you remember there was a series chris you probably were growing up called the veggie tales. Remember this veggie tale? Yeah, I know veggie tales.

It was. So when Phil created veggie tales, I was like one of the, I was, I was at a Christian like marketplace and these Bob and Larry characters pop up. Right. And I'm there and I'm like,

this is going to be huge. And no one had spoken to Phil, the creator at this point about what this was going to be. But I knew he, I knew this guy had something special. I've been looking at people have pitched me thousands of ideas so i was a guy who pitched your idea to for your next family thing and so i bring phil i fly him out to sony pictures he'd never been to a movie studio but he's praying in the commissary so you've got all these movie stars around you and studio executives and he he's praying in the commissary

which was pretty funny and i knew it was going to be a winner but as soon as he prayed and he also wore larry he wore larry and bob golf pants so he looked like everyone's in giorgio armani and then there's phil wearing his veggie tails clothes and nobody got it no no nobody understood and i'm like let's acquire this it's going to be huge we're going to make toys we're going to do the whole thing. And I finally told my boss, which I don't think most people do. I said to my boss, look, I know this is going to work. And if I'm wrong, you can reduce my pay from my six digit, you know, my low six digit salary.

I'll just make minimum wage. I'll just, I'll take minimum wage for you. I'll just work for one year free for minimum wage. But if I'm right, you're going to triple my salary and you're going to do it. And they still pass by the way. And it became huge. And my, the president of Sony pictures, like would always tell the story about,

I was the only guy who had the balls to actually put my job on the line for a project. So, so I think, I think what you're sharing right here is like so valuable, especially for somebody that's sitting in an employment role, doesn't own a business, isn't a founder, isn't running, you know, the big organization, like you can still be an entrepreneur under, through an employment and the, and the fact that you were willing to take that risk and put your, yeah, your balls on the line and say, look, this one I believe in.

I got the stamp of approval. One, not only does it show how committed you are, but like after that point, you're going to bust your butt to make sure it works. And two, I mean, you negotiated triple your pay. Freaking, that's awesome. Nobody negotiated triple your pay. Freaking that. That's awesome. Nobody gets triple their pay in the employment world. And so congratulations. That's awesome. It's a good, it's a good, I'll tell you what I learned from the corporate experience that to this day

though, is that I was the guy, like most people in corporate America, you got to please like, instead of like, let's say like A to B is the fastest route. Well, that's not always the fastest route in corporate Americaica you gotta please like instead of like let's say like a to b is the fastest route well that's not always the fastest route in corporate america when you're employed it's like a kissing butt to b so b signs off and like tells d that this is a good idea and then it gets to f and then all of a sudden like and i've always been the guy who just goes to a to b and to this day for my own company i can get i have a short span of patience and attention. So I just want to get from here to here. I can tell you it's not always the best strategy in corporate America because sometimes you've got to be a little more diplomatic.

I took more of the cow in a China bull shop approach to it. But I got promoted and I produced them. But I delivered my promise of larger we did a time we were doing dragon tales bear in the big blue house i produced five best-selling books where the red fern grows trumpet of the swan like we did some really really uh we did a heavy metal adult animated show we did some really really cool things that i was really proud of so at the end of the day i might not have been the most diplomatic, but we got things done. So you're working for Sony.

You're doing all these things. You're winning in corporate America as an employee. It's definitely a cool thing. What was next? At what point did you decide, no more corporate America. I'm going to go and do this on my own. Or were you kind of doing side hustle along the way and then launched into, into being, doing your own thing? Like where, where was that filling the gaps there? Yeah. So, you know, um, I kind of knew that my,

I had a dream of financial freedom and I knew that Sony, it was going to always be a great fun job, but it wasn't going to be the path to financial freedom. So I started getting antsy. This is like, this is the theme of me. I'm just impatient a lot. And for better or worse, it's just part of my personality. Yeah. And so I actually, I kind of did a side hustle. Here I am a vice president. And then I created a website and a whole new business.

And I was flying to New York and taking my time on the weekends and doing all this crazy stuff. But I ultimately knew after five and a half years, I kind of did everything I needed to do there. I took the job out. So what was the side hustle? My last thing I did was I produced my own. You've got to tell us what the side hustle is. Okay. The side hustle actually became a pretty large company, but it wasn't mine. It was the early day of online commerce.

And I really saw that nobody, the big retailers, were not aggregating gift registry yet. And I knew that whoever figured out how to aggregate gift registry first would win. And I was pretty early on in that days. It actually, the biggest one right now is like wedding channel. If you have to buy a gift, you can run a wedding channel. But I was actually about three years early, which was another lesson for me. I hit it early and I got to every CEO. I mean, here I am making appointments on Thursday.

Every CEO, I'd show them this. And you know what they said to me? We don't think that online internet commerce is ever going to be viable. We don't see how you'll ever get past the security hurdles of online commerce. So it just shows you that I was too early. I was too early. And it just shows you how timey really is everything. Here's the crazy part, Chris, my last job I took, they hired me, the company that won three years part, Chris. My last job I took, they hired me. The company that won three years later hired me because they knew I was the only guy out there who had actually thought of this.

And they gave me a bunch of stock options to be their head of sales and fly around the world and get them all those stores. And then the internet bubble crashed. And my $100 million plus, you know, being 30, and I wanted to be, you know, worth $100 million at 30 in stock options. Well, they all were worth about that much after everything crashed. Now, they did bounce and they did, they're still open today. So they didn't fail. But when I quit Sony, that company was on the cover of Time Magazine as the most promising internet company. Like that's how confident I felt.

Wow. Hold on. So you have these stock options. They're worth potentially a hundred million bucks or whatnot. And so you're 30, you're thinking you're on top of the world. You're like, dude, I'm unstoppable. Everything I touch turns to gold. Might as well call me midas baby and so you're you're sitting there and then it goes to zero walk us through your feelings and and they fire me dude well they let me off walk us through your feelings right there like like legit what was going on in your head um it was very strange because it was very political who got fired who got to stay and i was from the la entertainment crew and this was a job this was like the san francisco tech crew i always say it was like there's kleiner perkins the largest venture firm and there's Sony Pictures. And they called me Mr. Hollywood. I was the guy who wore Armani while they were all in Banana Republic, if you know what I'm saying. So I think part of it felt

really personal. I'd worked my ass off. Once again, I felt like I was delivering the goods. I delivered them to all these major retailers. I was flying around the world. So I think I was a little disillusioned, if you want to, maybe sad and maybe disillusioned because i knew i had produced and i felt like i was being penalized for not producing uh and i felt like it was again political became it became kind of a fraternity sorority situation so it was a little of a blow uh i changed my life i had left sony which was a big risk you know moved to San Francisco to go work for this company. So it was definitely disappointing. And I didn't know what to do next, frankly. I was like, okay, this isn't like being a vice president at Sony. This is a failed internet startup. My resume, I'm not a shiny man. I'm 31. I'm not 26. I'm not one year kid anymore. What am I going to do next?

What's your net worth at this point? Is it zero? Have you spent everything you made? Do you have any assets, anything like that? No. I mean, nothing enough to barely pay rent. I mean, I bought a used Infiniti for $6,000. I bought a car. I was in a kind of a shitty apartment. And it's like, dude, what happened to me, man? I was working my butt off. And all of a sudden you know i got friends they're in their 20s they're rich but they've got good corporate jobs and they're married they got kids i'm like now i'm like i'm like this 31 32 like i should have been a lawyer i should have stuck to being a lawyer yeah

pretty much yeah it was very very humbling and depressing, to be honest, because I felt really like I compared myself to others. And I felt like a failure, probably at that point, I just didn't have much to show for it. And I had worked so hard. And I knew I was good. And I think that's the one thing that kept me going, Chris, was that like, when people say, why'd you keep going, not just settle and take a job? It's like, I did believe in myself, although I didn't have the evidence to show you but i kind of did i just kept doing it for other people and then i felt like i was at their political whims in the end in both sony and that last job it's like how much i produced in the end almost didn't matter to versus how much i was perceived or liked by the right person in charge and that person would always change Like the person who hired me wasn't the person who even was my boss in the end. And so I'm always like back to that A to B. It's like, if I do something, I should be rewarded. And I realized in this system that that's not what's going to be happening for me. I want to, I want to go back.

You brought up a strong point that like at this point in your life, right. You felt like a failure because of comparison, right? You're looking at yourself, like, look at all my friends, they're doing X. I could have done this, right. Like it's, it's this analyzation of comparing. And whenever we look at any, anything in life that way, it, it, we're either overly satisfied or overly depressed, right? Like we, we, if we're right, we're looking at, well, at least I don't have it as bad as this person. And so then you become overly satisfied and you don't hit your potential or it's, man, I wish I was doing what, you know, this person was. So then you become unmotivated. But the interesting thing is like each one of us have a

completely different path. Like your path to get to your success is yours it's it's not yeah it's not chris lee's it's not grant cardone's it's not anybody else it's yours and and i think it's so important that we each own our own path and understand that the ups and the downs they're all there for us like, we need all of it in order to get, we do, you know, so thanks. Thanks for like kind of digging into that, like kind of the emotion and whatnot. And so, so you're at this point, you understand, like you got to get stuff from A to B. What's what's next? What, what happens next, Mr. JP?

Well, I really had a hard moment because i was really kind of lost to be honest chris at this point i'm like okay what do i do and the one thing that kept coming back to me is i don't want to go back to work for somebody because i realized i wanted to control my future and i wanted to control my destiny that if i produced that i would collect on it and so what i realized was when you're in the studio system or when you're or when you work for a venture capital firm you work for someone and they control like you know i gotta get sony to approve if i even make a film because in the end i made a pretty well-known film called where the red fern grows with dave matthew and allison that was your film i mean yeah i produced it and so

hold on hold on did you guys hear that this guy's a big deal yeah you know he thought we thought we were talking to you know just some chump here but dude mister where the red fern grows dude that was a classic from when i was a kid yeah it's something i'm really proud of actually it's something i'm really really proud of producing but i had to get disney to say yes and i had to get dave matthews and allison i had to get like a lot of people to say yes and get that film made and in the end quite, the financer took all their credit and got most of the profit. So that was the last thing I did. And I'm like, you know what? I'm done with that. I'm done working for making other people successful. And I kind of got on my hands

and my knees. And my dad was in the real estate business, but he was retired. He had kind of closed up his office. And he wasn't a huge syndicator, but he was retired. He had kind of closed up his office and he wasn't a huge syndicator, but he was a good one. And he was always smart. And I was an investor since I was, you know, since I was seven years old, he put me little money in deals and just teach me how to think like it. And I asked him, would you train me for a year? But Chris, if you can imagine, I had to go back. He had no office. He was back in my, I was back in my childhood bedroom. He had converted my childhood bedroom into a home office.

So here I go being an executive at Sony with a balcony and an assistant and a huge office and being a vice president traveling the world. And now I am dialing for dollars and learning real estate in a second career in my childhood bedroom. You're living at home? I'm not living at home. I'm not living at home. I'm not living at home. Basically.

I'm working out of my... Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. I'm commuting to my childhood bedroom, right? But what was it? And it was a really difficult time. And again, I realized, but to my dad's credit, I spent one year with him just learning the basics of how to build an investment business, how to bring investors in. And then I really think one of the greatest values I got from my dad is you obviously can see someone's strengths and weaknesses.

I think that on his strength side, I always saw his integrity with the investors. He would always be willing to lose his dollar before an investor loses their dollar. And that integrity was like, I'd say it's a lifelong lesson that I take today with every investor. I will be the one, whether I tell them or not, I will be the one to take the bullet when I can, when it's reasonable, when it's reasonable and fair, I can't do it all the time, but without even telling them sometimes we just take the bullet because that's what a fiduciary does and that definitely came

directly from uh my lessons from my from my father so i yeah and that was really great and something i'm really my dad's 85 he's still alive he's still like to chase single family fix and flip so it's it's cool that we still get to talk about this stuff and you know and all that stuff um so literally raised money 25 50 000 at a time they had little small deals little shitty apartment buildings and really shitty like i say shitty markets markets and this was the lesson i had to learn so i was starting to buy apartment buildings small ones but the cap rates were like 12 caps man it was like it was like because i was buying in like louisiana and uh you know like and and uh it turned out to be really good it really got my career going what i realized though is like when you're buying an 11 cap at that time there was a

reason why you're buying an 11 cap my rents were you know five hundred dollar rents six hundred dollar rents i remember i said to my dad there's something what is that on the floor over there and he's like i don't know i asked the manager they're like that's a heroin needle i mean it was bad i mean it was really really bad the first things that we did and uh and i learned a lesson though and we did make money because you can imagine a 13 cap we were able to you know turn these at 10 caps and we actually did my first real money was in real estate came on those early deals. But I also made a decision that I would never do real estate in markets that didn't give me energy. Because I'd go there and work on these properties and get updates.

And I'd feel like my energy was like shot. And like it just took everything out of me. Because it was depressing. And for me, of me. And because it was depressing. And for me, it was at least it wasn't my thing. And so my rule to this day is only invest in markets and things that interest me personally that serve humanity or markets that I want to be in or pass.

I don't care if it's a good deal. There's too much. There's too many good things to do out there. So that, that lesson that I took from that, I still use to this day of the markets that I, that I invest in. Dude, there's too many good things to do out there. So that, that lesson that I took from that, I still use to this day of the markets that I, that I invest in. Dude, that's a, that's such a strong point. How will you measure your live talks about how there's hygiene factors and

there's motivational factors, right? Hygiene factors are, are money, oxygen, like things just to survive. But once you're past that, you need something else that pushes you. It's not just about the money. It's not just about the return or whatnot. And the fact that you've identified that your real motivating factor is like, does it give me energy? Am I excited about it? And a lot of people don't realize this that haven't experienced success. But once you've experienced success, you realize quickly, like, I love the quote from Naval. Naval is a great, like modern day philosopher. And he says the best thing

anybody can do is get rich as fast as possible for then they will realize that that's what world is not all about. Right? Like, like once, once you have money, you realize this, that's not what it's all about. It's about what you're're talking about it's about doing deals with great people doing deals that just make sense bring energy that are exciting that are fun and team building like that that right there ladies and gentlemen is a secret nugget that mr jp just shared with us i appreciate that that's true it's true and you think about it know, I was storytelling at Sony, but you probably know this, like now I get to storytell again. Like I love my deals. Like when I'm talking to an investor, I think that one of our reasons why we're successful is because I really love the story of not just the apartment

building. Why is the market expanding? Like, oh, like I have a deal right now where I'm building 629 units.'m gonna be the closest apartment building to the new tesla plant in austin texas i know where they're coming in and i've got i've got that deal right that's my deal yeah i know so it's like sim city i cut you know i i uh i know i see all the farm i see all the farmland turning over right now i see the pipes being installed i know how big those pipes are and how much water they're going to bring in, how much electricity. I know how many people are coming.

And I've got that deal. And I'm going to hold on to that deal. So it's like a different kind of storytelling. But as you can tell, I've got a lot of passion for it. So to tell good stories, you have to be really excited. And I can only be excited on things that really excite me, not just to try to sell you, but things that really bring me passion and that I have strong conviction for. So areas that I love, you know, areas that I love, stories that just make sense. It's like about growth and growth that you can really get behind because it's good growth.

It's like pro community growth. It's good for America. It's good for workers. It's good for people. It's like you're part of something bigger. That's good. That all is like the base of my, of my energy when I, when I look at deals. So over the, over the years, you've done all kinds of really cool deals. Two questions. One, what's the biggest deal that you've ever done? And two, what is the most amount of cash that you've ever raised from one investor? Yeah, that's good. So the biggest deal I did was a pretty ballsy deal. There was these four apartment buildings. There was about 850 units in Dallas, Texas, in an area in Dallas, Texas, that was not doing particularly well.

And these buildings were like in foreclosure. So there was like, it was ridden with crime and gangs. And nobody would buy these buildings at any price because they're like, you can never turn these around. Right. And so they should have been worth 80, 90, 100 million, but nobody wanted to buy them. So we bought them for much, much, much, much less. What did you get them for? A lot of people thought we were suckers when we bought them.

What did you get them for? How much? Come on, you got to give us the details. This is all about details. I've already said, we'll just say less than 40 million. How about that? Oh, come on, JP. Give us the details.

Somebody bought, somebody. I actually don't remember offhand but it was around 49 38 or 42 something like that but the point was even during now imagine during the 30 days when you're doing your diligence during the diligence period there was three murders on the property during due diligence like the games were so bad there was i've never been a property where like and then we had the vision we had this audacious vision that we were going to clean all the games out make this a great thing for the community we believe the community this was the worst problem child in the entire community like the community was getting better and this was the problem job and nobody had the courage to go in there because they said, you can't turn it around.

And I'll just tell you in the end, we sold it for over a hundred million. I love that. The investors were happy. Yeah. Awesome. Yeah. Yeah. So question two, what's the most money?

Awesome. Yeah. What's the most money you've raised from a single investor? From a single investor from a single investor i i'm going to say five to ten million i don't know the exact number somewhere between five and ten million most of my most of my investors are accredited investors and they're putting somewhere typically between 250 and a million five with me i've got a lot of investors and so i would say even my wealthy ones, like the ones that have higher balances with me, they like to put 2 million here,

2 million in the next one, 2 million in the next one. So I still haven't gotten to those checks. I would like to, actually my next aspiration in this next cycle is to have what I call my five anchors that I can count on them between five and $20 million

for every deal that I do, because I believe in the next cycle, it's going to take more and more equity to get these deals done. So actually right now I'm kind of marketing and building my sales team to kind of target to make sure we have a few more of those anchors, um, just for that reason. Yeah. That's, that's so cool. So dude, what, uh, what drives what drives you now? You've had all this success. You're married. You're 56 years old. I can't remember.

You have kids? Two boys in high school. Awesome. Two boys. So tell me, what drives you? What motivates you? What gets you out of bed every single day right now? I'm driven by a ferocious curiosity about the world and about people.

And like Chris, even with you and I, I think this is – when you and I were nerding out in Croatia, I was having fun with the conversation. But I was incredibly electrified by our conversation because I was curious about you and what you stand for and what you're about. And as you know, your partner, Daryl, flew out to see me. So a year later, after not hearing from you guys, I get a call from your partner. He calls me and says, I'm going to come to Austin. I got a couple of things I want to chat with you about. I could use just some advice. I call it second summit advice.

Chip Conley talks about your first summit is wealth accumulation, and hopefully your second summit is servant leadership, wealth preservation, servant leadership, stuff like that. So what gets me out of bed are those things. It's mentorship. It's servant leadership. I still like making money. It's super fun. But now with making money, I'm really passionate about making sure the money being made is really having impact and conscious capitalism for everyone. That every stakeholder in the chain is benefiting, whether I'm investing in someone else's deal or doing my own deals. I'm really being more and more conscientious.

Is this action not only a return, but is everybody benefiting? Because I think sometimes by accident, capitalism can be very extractive because we don't mean to, but somebody, someone to win, someone has to lose, right? Like there's this feeling like, you know, I'm not saying it has to be, I'm just saying a lot of times, like it could be the cost of the tenant. Are we just, are we raising rents? Are we, are we, are we, you know, are we scorching the earth?

Like what are we doing in order to make this return? And I think that in this, what I'd call the second summit part, it's much more about really being clear. Like for me at this point, for Thrive FP, which is my company, Thrive FP, for purpose, for profit. So we are a for-profit syndication private equity company, but the purpose has to be in there too and for me doing apartments uh for our workforce for america's you know police policemen firemen teachers i really want to make sure that my investors are doing well but i really want to make sure that the residents in my communities are also doing well are we really are we really living up to the promise through our actions of taking good

care of these people? Because it's their home. It's where they spend the most amount of time. And so that's where I spend a lot of my energy. And that's what gets me out of bed these days. Awesome. Appreciate it. Now, let's shift gears. I'm sure listeners taught since i introduced you as a tax guru well who we gotta we gotta talk some tax strategy what what are your favorite super gray tax strategies not black you know we ain't going in the black but what are what are like just some good ones that people just never think about? Well, first of all, I don't like to use the word great. In fact, I had a great conversation with Tom Wheelwright.

Tom Wheelwright's my accountant. A lot of people know he's Robert Kiyosaki's accountant. And I pay my taxes. The one thing I wanted to spell a thing about is that a lot of real estate guys show up in their fancy cars and they're saying, I pay zero taxes. It is possible. I'm not saying're saying, I pay zero taxes. It is possible. I'm not saying it's impossible to pay zero taxes.

I don't know if I can be humble. Many people who know taxes better than I do. I could try to force a zero tax or even a lower tax thing because there's a couple of reasons why I don't. The strategy doesn't match up with my life and what I need and what I want to do. It's like, who's wagging the tail is it like my lifestyle or is it my tax plan that's wagging the tail of how i want to live i want cash now i don't want to defer everything right i also an american i don't i don't mind paying some taxes i feel like this country is giving me like an incredible thing i'm actually honored that i'm honored that i get to pay some taxes. I just want to pay what's fair and reasonable, and that works with my life.

So that being said, what are your favorite strategies? Well, I'll tell you what I'm doing right now. This is like my three strategies as we speak. So I'm investing, as we speak, into two different solar projects. So I'm doing, with the America's green policy, these new tax credits, there's some incredible opportunities within our tax code right now because the government wants to incentivize us to go green.

And I personally, I show those guys are wanting to go green. I want beautiful lakes and all that. And when you invest in the right solar projects, the depreciation that you get to take from your investment year one is absolutely insane. And then it's just like this steep depreciation curve. And then you still have an investment behind it. So right now as we speak, I'm doing my year-end planning. I will invest with this great group that I really trust.

It's a large family office. I got to know him in Egypt. I was in the middle of the desert going 100 miles an hour on a land cruiser with this guy. He had a hugely successful business, a famous company. I don't know if I should mention it. It doesn't matter. But anyways, in the middle of going 100 miles an hour in the deserts of Egypt, he's like, you should do what I'm doing. This is how I manage my family office. And I'm like, that is fucking rad. Excuse my language. You may have to take that F-bomb out. But so right now as we speak, solar, I think right now with what President Biden has done is a great, great opportunity that we should all Americans, we should get behind.

Remember, don't feel bad. It's what the government wants you to do. The government wants you to go green. So I want to invest in solar. I'm all for it. It's literally called the investment tax credit. Like they want to incentivize investment into green energy. So here you go. Plus you get depreciation. Plus you get all these incredible things.

So, yeah. Which is why I don't call it gray. I'm just doing it. I'm just being a good citizen and doing what the government wants me to do. They're incentivizing me to do it. I want to do my part, right? Right now, as we speak, I just invested in an Opportunity Zone fund from this amazing group, a multi-billion dollar group. But again, these are all friends.

What I'm learning is I'd rather invest with friends. So I met that guy in Egypt. This guy, he's in a... My business partner is in a... There's a group called Tiger 21, which is a kind of a high-end mastermind. And so we met him there.

He runs a multi-billion dollar corporation and we're doing OZ. We're doing OZ basically through him right now. I've got another Opportunity Zone project for those who don't know. It's a way that you can defer a current, if you have a current real estate deal or a current tax gain from real estate, you can defer it for a couple of years. And then ultimately, after you defer it, the next project you go in is tax free. So you pay, you defer your taxes on this one, which gives you more net present dollars if you want to nerd out. And then you can go to a zero basis on taxes over a 10 year period. And so I actually have several of those right now.

And then, of course, I think there's various kinds of insurance. A couple of really great insurance strategies, which I won't bore you guys on the details. And those are probably my three favorite strategies. You got to bore us a little bit on one insurance. Just give us one quick two-minute explanation of an insurance strategy. Well, I think that the IRS realizes, especially if you're an entrepreneur, that there are certain insurances that either don't exist in the marketplace or are very prohibitively expensive for you as an entrepreneur to run your business. So there's a, there's a, there's a code, there's a tax code that talks about this thing called captive insurance, which is you literally can create your own insurance company to insure risk with other people in a shared risk pool, other entrepreneurs in a shared risk pool. If you've got a, if it's an easy risk, or if it's

a very insurable or cheap risk, you won't qualify for captive. But if your business truly has a risk in it, that is just again, not easily insurable. That's really where captive insurance can be a great way. And it's legitimate insurance, by the way. That's the great thing about it is, I mean, it's insurance that I really count on. And I share my risk with another 35 entrepreneurs. We all, I'm the main, I'm mostly responsible. We all share this risk together. I share their risk too. But putting in the shared risk pool, it brings me confidence that I've got the right insurance for my company. And it has some amazing tax benefits to it, potentially,

depending on how many times you use the policy and what you need the policy for. So there's no guarantees, but hopefully incentivizes all these business owners to run really good businesses. You don't want to have unnecessary claims. It works against you in the long run. So it can be a win-win. And again, the government recognizes and the government's supporting small business and medium-sized business with these captives. And it's been incredibly valuable for my business and as a tax strategy. Very cool. What, uh, what, what is the best place to find more information from you, JP, like your podcast, social media, like where, where,

where are the best spots to find you? Yeah. So for my business, if anyone wants to know more about what I do on the real estate syndication side, it would be, uh, thrive like FrankPeterForProfit.com. If you want to know more of the more social impact side, my podcast is Investing On Purpose. And that would be at Investing On Purpose through all the major handles like Instagram and YouTube and what have you. And the show really is basically the double bottom line. It's just using all these stories you've been telling Chris, like how do you use your most creative mind to create, you know,

to create the highest profitability and the highest purpose and sustainability in the same business? And basically, how can you outperform your competitors by simply doing the right thing? And I interview a bunch of CEOs and business thought leaders about that. And that's what my podcast is about. So those are my two jams. Awesome. A few more questions for you, JP. If you could go back to 21-year-old JP, what would you tell him to do different?

I would tell him to enjoy the journey more and have, have faith in myself, like have faith. It's all going to work out. In spite of the evidence, not looking to certain at moments. Uh, I guess I would say I gave myself a little more grace. Yeah. Very cool. I think it's hard. I think, I think, I think, go ahead. Keep going. Keep going. No, I was just going to say, I think it's, I think there's so much pressure from the world. You know,

I watched my kids at 16 in high school and I'm watching them on their Tik Tok and their Instagrams and everyone's got this 30 second clip about how rich they are and how they made it. And they're the man or, you know, and I think that I just feel like we have put so much pressure on people that their value is around money. And you just said it, what you said is, you know, earlier is exactly true. Money is awesome. It provides these lifestyles that we get to go to Croatia and meet each other, great human beings. At the end of the day, if you don't have your happiness, your peace, your joy, which is going to come from who you are your character and

what you're about what you stand for and everything that actually matters the rest of it really doesn't matter without without that joy so um i i think the grace comes from not only saying hey slow down it'll all work out whatever that means but if we all could just take a breather here for a minute and say, it's not all about money. Like you're okay. You're you matter. You belong just because you're you and enjoy the ride a little bit more. It's great to be ambitious, but like enjoy the ride. That's what I would say. I love that. I love that. JP, I know you're a, you're an avid traveler. Where are some of your favorite, I know where's. Where are some of your favorite places to say, going to Egypt down the Nile, and actually, you know, I didn't think the pyramids would be that cool and all these holy temples would be that cool.

But when you actually, I just got back like 60 days ago, but when you actually go and experience going down the Nile River, the frontal crescent where basically mankind came from, and you see these buildings and you see these hieroglyphics that they're either 5, 10, or 15,000 years old. The truth is no one exactly knows. But it doesn't make sense. It breaks the whole story of humanity

because it doesn't match anything I've ever seen anywhere. It doesn't match Greece. It doesn't, what I've seen in Jordan, what I've seen in Israel, the dates, like the stuff you see in Israel or Jordan is like 2,000 or 3,000 years old. but the stuff in Egypt is like 10,000 years old. And it looks a lot newer. It looks newer than some of the things you see today. So I think just to be mind blown and having a reverence for how intelligent, whatever we were in the past was,

I think there's nothing like Egypt to to to experience that and then i would say to you um going to africa being in the bush in africa and watching the animals migrate and like really being out in the bush um there's so few places left on earth where it really is a healthy ecosystem of gorgeous animals that can actually eat us like we're not the we're not the apex predator and there's definitely moments you're just like i can't i'm just in this fishbowl with everyone else i am not the apex predator in this uh in this with a really really humbling experience and gave me a great um respect and love uh not just for the environment but just just for whatever

you want to call the great man the god God, the spirit, whoever created all this. It's just the diversity and the beauty of what we have. It's just, I don't know that I've seen that kind of beauty before anywhere else. And the last thing I would tell you, if somebody had a chance to go to Japan, particularly Kyoto, which is one of the only few cities besides Jerusalem, it's over 3,000 old, and it's still a working city today. And when you walk through the city, the reverence, the soul, the spirit, the history, the artistry, the love is all it's all still, you're not walking into a museum, and you're not going to Disney, you're getting like, a real piece of beauty. And unlike the pyramids that are now this great mystery of a civilization we don't really understand, these are the same people. These are the ancestors that are living there today that have passed the generation on and on and on with such beauty in a way that I can't explain.

It just brings me so much awe and reverence for the Japanese people. It really is amazing what the japanese have been able to establish i i believe it's japan where it's like uh there's there's a family-owned business that has lasted like 30 generations or something you know which is like the longest family business in the world or something crazy. But yeah, it's absolutely amazing what the culture that they've created. Thank you for sharing those places. That's awesome. Last question.

One to two books that you would recommend that maybe have changed your life or something you're reading right now that uh that would be great for the listeners um well i think the one that's to this day it's it's a the big one that was definitely was um i think sapiens for me was a big big day like i feel like sapiens is the one book that finally because i'm being curious i know so much about the world but sapiens kind of was the glue for me about all these pieces fit together of why when you have these days, you're like, oh, mankind is so retarded. What are humans doing politically or what are we doing to this world? Sapiens kind of explains it all. We're really we're really retarded and beautiful creatures at the same time.

But when you understand our background in a way i i have i get really frustrated but i have a tremendous amount of compassion for our species we're really we're doing the best man we just separated from the apes not that long ago we're figuring it out and then a recent book that i got actually came from our baby bathwater uh member that i'm really enjoying is uh built to move just came out and it's from the people who started crossfit and i don't know how much you know about functional fitness you probably do because enjoying is Built to Move just came out and it's from the people who started CrossFit. And I don't know how much you know about functional fitness. You probably do because you're a fitness guy. But this idea, and I can tell you as you get a little bit older, this idea of not just, you know, for me, longevity, we talk about, you know,

healthspan over lifespan, like what's your healthspan. And this book really goes a lot into people think it says stretching is not good for you. Like people stretch or they do yoga. So to really understand a new way of how best to keep your muscles strong, to keep yourself flexible, keep yourself moving so you don't become a hunched over old person. And you really like always snap off. Can you snap off the floor? Can you do the functional movements?

And I think this book does a great job of giving you 10-minute, very practical things you can do every day to keep your body agile, young, and really healthy. So that's a book that I recently read that I've enjoyed. Very cool. Thanks for those recommendations. JP, thank you so much for your time. I know it's extremely valuable. You've got a lot going on. You're welcome.

I've been trying to chase you down, I i think for two months to get you on this so i appreciate you taking the time out of your day to make this happen until next time