Right About Now - Legendary Business Advice - The Secrets Behind Making Millions with Jamil Damji

Starting point is 00:00:00 I think that when we can show that and prove the concept of people that, hey, anyone can do what we do, then I think we'll have a title weight of people that will start taking responsibility for what they produce in this world and how they show up. This is right about now with Ryan Alford, a Radcast Network production. We are the number one business show on the planet with over one million downloads a month. Taking the BS out of business for over six years and over 400 episodes. You ready to start snapping necks and cash and checks? Well, it starts right about now. Hey guys, what's up? Welcome to Right About Now.

Starting point is 00:00:42 We're taking the BS out of business, baby. That's the tagline, but it's the truth. And you know what? There's no one better than my good friend. Jamil Damji, what's up, Jamil? What's cracking, brother? Good to see you, man. Hey, man.

Starting point is 00:00:55 it's good to see you. I always think TV when I see you and I talk to Pace and you're best known for probably with the masses. I think you're best known in our circles with just being a badass real estate investor, but best known probably to the masses from triple digit flip. But how's life, brother? Life is great, man. We are about to do a big event here in Orlando, Florida. Pace and I, we got Cody Sanchez. and Grant Cardone, Donald Miller, who have all agreed to come in and bless our stage and our

Starting point is 00:01:32 communities with their knowledge and wisdom. Pace and I are going to definitely rock the house there. 3,000 people in one event, which will be just an incredible room. So I'm excited for that. But otherwise, really catching a stride here in life right now. I have three primary residences. I spend two weeks a month in Phoenix, Arizona. I spend a week at the beach in my house in Marina del Rey in California. And then I spend a week out of every month with my 15-year-old daughter in Calgary, Alberta, Canada. So I'm really figuring out how to have this life where I get to do the things that I've been working so hard to do, which is continue to grow professionally, but be there consistently for my family and myself. Yeah. It's a delicate balance, isn't it?

Starting point is 00:02:22 It's like juggling the balls. but I respect the hell out of you for trying to get it done because that's what it's all about at the end of the day. Yeah, we all go to juggle balls, no ditty. Yep, but I will say this. I need to get an invite here to the stage here, brother, on one of these events. Heck yeah, dude, I think you would smash it. You know, this one, this last event, I don't know if you're familiar with Sage,

Starting point is 00:02:44 who they are. They do, like, ClickFunnels events and whatnot, and they really take control of the guests, who speaks, what they say, when they say it. It's like this whole thing. Unfortunately for Pace and I this time, we really were disengaged from that whole process. We had so many friends and people we would have loved to have had on that. But, dude, I would love to have you come and speak at one of our events.

Starting point is 00:03:08 In addition to that, I mean, Pace and I do, we come into different towns continuously throughout the year. And where are you physically located? We're in G Vegas, Greenville, South Carolina. You guys need to get here, brother. This is a happening real estate market. I'll tell you that. Heck yeah. Heck yeah.

Starting point is 00:03:25 Yeah, everything on the coast. And we're not on the coast. I love the, South Carolina's on the coast. Yeah. Yeah, we'll have to get you. We'll talk after this. We've got to get me, you, and paste together somehow, some way. But, Jamil, let's set the table for everyone.

Starting point is 00:03:38 People probably heard of A&E show, the triple-digit flip. They know you're a badass real estate guy. But let's set the table, man. What got you in real estate? Where has the passion and the energy come from? I've always loved that about you. I've just exudes from you. But let's set the table.

Starting point is 00:03:54 Where did all that jazz come from? I accidentally found myself in real estate. I'm an East Indian culturally heritage-wise. My family had eyes for me to be a doctor or an engineer, but doctor was where I was being groomed to have my life. I didn't get into medical school, which was at the time one of the most disappointing and heartbreaking things that ever happened to me.

Starting point is 00:04:21 I had worked so hard in college to get a near 4.0 GPA. I killed the medical school interest exam. I did all the things you need to do to pat a resume with volunteering and extracurricular activities that I didn't have time for but did anyways because I needed it for my application and the interview process. And then some dude and said, no, just not today. And I saw that as a sign, really, because I had done all of the things that you should do.

Starting point is 00:04:53 In fact, I can say it now, but in the exam, in the medical school entrance exam, the guy who sat behind me cheated off me on the test. I know him really well. He's my cousin, and he had partied the night before and needed help on the exam, and I let him cheat off me. He got into medical school. That guy is prescribing you guys all the things and is giving you everything you need right now to survive, I guess.

Starting point is 00:05:19 He gets into medical school. I don't get in a medical school. And so that just showed me the disparity in this whole process, right? There's some guy, depending on how he woke up today or who I remind him of or what something, something about me made this guy say, no. It wasn't my testing scores because they were better than my cousins. It wasn't my GPA. It was also better than my cousins.

Starting point is 00:05:40 So what about me made that person say no? And when I saw that, I realized that another human being had control of my destiny. And on an arbitrary decision could change the trajectory of my life. And I decided then never again. I was never going to let another human make my choices. Never going to let a human being say yes or no to me. No, I'm going to pave my own path. I'm going to do it myself.

Starting point is 00:06:05 And so that's where the passion came from. It was a general, you know, looking at life and looking at the way the system is set up and just rejecting. It was a full rejection of what was paved out in front of me as a way to, succeed. So I knew I had to take control of it. Now, I find myself in an entrepreneurial situation, which wasn't really lucrative at the time, but it put me in proximity to a guy who was investing in real estate. And I got an opportunity to do my first wholesale transaction, which at the time I didn't even know existed, right? There was no online education. I thought I invented wholesaling because of the deal, but I hadn't, right? I just, I, yeah, right? I thought I did because I, because here I'm, I hear from

Starting point is 00:06:48 these developers that they're looking for these old bungalows in Calgary, Alberta, where I grew up, that they could demolish. They just needed to have 100 foot frontage, sorry, 50 foot frontage, 100 plus feet in depth. They needed to be zoned R2 and they needed to be in specific neighborhoods in the city. Now, I lived in one of those neighborhoods in a rental and I had tried to rent one of these houses a few months earlier, but I couldn't because it was $200 out of my budget. But it was still available when I was walking my dog the next day. And I called the for rent sign and I asked, the homeowner if they would consider selling it instead of renting it because they had been unsuccessful renting the spot. Her answer was, yeah, for the right price. And I inquired what that would be.

Starting point is 00:07:28 She says 350,000. And this decision that I make next is what changed everything for me. I didn't go to the people who were looking for that house and say, I can get you this house for 350, which most people would have done. I went and I asked the question, how much would you pay? And they said, $400,000. So now I have a $50,000 problem to solve, right? Because I can buy it for $350. I can sell for $400. I have no money. I have no credit. I have no way of acquiring this. What do I do? I start talking to my family members. I start asking for a loan. I start seeing who could give me $350 grand for a week or two. And nobody wanted to give me any money. I'm the kid who didn't get into medical school. Why would he give him anything, right? So then I start co-calling real estate

Starting point is 00:08:09 attorneys. And I get all the way through to the letter S, a guy named David Steed answers my call. He's so fresh out of law school, he had no secretary. And I tell him my problem. And he's, oh, that's easy. That's called a skip transfer. And I'm like, explain. He's like, you take two contracts, one where you're the buyer, and you pay $350,000 on that contract. And then you take a second contract with everything else lining up, except you're now the seller on that contract. And the new buyer is going to be who the buyer line is. And the price is going to differ because you're buying for $350. You're selling for $400. Everything else has to be the same. So the conveying attorney, the condition dates, all of that have to line up for this to work. But once you've got these things signed, bring these contracts to me. And then I

Starting point is 00:08:49 ask what happens then? He said, takes me a couple of weeks to do some research, look at liens, make sure that I can convey title, get a payoff on the mortgage, all of the documents have to be prepared. And once that's done, I'll have a check waiting for you. And it happened. I get a $47,000. or cashier check and coming from a situation where my parents hadn't made close to that in a year in either of their lives. For me, that was the game changer, right? That's where the scales fell from my eyes and I saw what is possible in life. And I never looked back. I went ham after that and I started wholesaling full time. I do really well in it until the financial collapse in 08 where I lose everything because of leverage and just inexperience and doing too much,

Starting point is 00:09:41 which is essentially how I got caught up in that. But it was a beautiful education and it taught me so much. And so that's where I get started. That's where the passion comes from because quite honestly, Ryan, I look at life as a series of choices, right? Everybody gets a chance to choose something different. Choose something that's outside of your regular patterns. And your life is pregnant with these possibilities of making different choices,

Starting point is 00:10:08 but too many of us get stuck in patterns that are familiar and comfortable. Now, if you continue to choose the same thing you chose yesterday, then your tomorrow will look like it does today. And if today looks like a job you hate, a relationship that doesn't serve you and just general discontent with where you've gone, then you're doing what I learned from Andrew. Huberman to be the, well, how they, how they treat rats who they're testing for depression, right?

Starting point is 00:10:38 It's this theory of hopelessness, right? It's like, at what point does a rat that you put in water stop swimming? When does he give up? Right. And they look at that time and then they give these rats drugs to see if they can extend how long the rat will swim. And then they say that's the drug that's going to cure depression or at least solve some symptoms, right? What about not putting that rat in that situation? Or how about helping the rat out

Starting point is 00:11:05 of that situation rather than just extending how long he'll swim? What about figuring out how to put that rat in another medium? And that's what we're doing to each other in life, right? We're putting ourselves and we're putting each other in these glasses of water and these tanks of water and we're like swim. And this is like people that are in relationships that are terrible. These are people who go to their nine to five job that they hate. They work for somebody they don't admire or don't trust or wouldn't trade places with based on character. And they give up. At some point, they say, you know what, life happened to me.

Starting point is 00:11:40 And now I'm just going to do what I do until I have to retire. So the passion comes from being able to get in front of that person, making the choice to quit, making the choice to give up and saying, hey, I know about another glass. I know about another way that you can get out of this spot where you're no longer hopeless and you can maybe do something with your life that would make you proud. Damn, man. We say taking the BS out of business. That's how you take the BS out of business.

Starting point is 00:12:07 That's real shit right there. Let me just say, I'm going to pack a little bit here. So they say growth happened. The best and greatest growth happens in discomfort. I firmly believe that. When you didn't get into medical school, when you've been working for that, that's the expectation. You were highly uncomfortable, I would have to guess.

Starting point is 00:12:32 Yeah. Yeah. But then. Very uncomfortable. But look, the greatest gifts sometimes come in these surprises in this discomfort. Instead of, I'm sure, look, I joke all the time. I have balloons and clowns at my pity parties, but they only last an hour. They're one hour. You may have had a pity party for a little while.

Starting point is 00:12:52 I'm sure we all do, but you flip the fucking switch, dude, and you turned it into greatness. and not only just, okay, going into real estate, but uncovering and unlocking the whole selling aspect and the ability to do something that a lot of people around you that didn't know how to do. And that's what I call grit and resourcefulness, the two greatest attributes on earth. And you exude it, man.

Starting point is 00:13:17 I love that shit. Thank you. And then you start it, you go through this. Look, how many stories I've had on the 08 shit? Like we could probably have an whole episode on that. That grit and resourcefulness got you through that. And then now you're passionate about sharing it with others and turning them around. And that's the greatest gift we all have.

Starting point is 00:13:38 Because I remember growing up in my 20s, I was early successful, but it was me, me, me, me, me, me, me, me, me. And when you start sharing those gifts and you start spreading it around, that's what really unlocks. Not only greater gifts, but it's amazing what starts the door. that start opening. And I think we had some other doors that started opening. When did it all change? What was round two and three of this journey? So the building of Kigli, my wholesale business, was, you know, a beautiful dream come true. Unlike what people may believe the perfect entrepreneur looks like, I definitely wasn't in the beginning. I was struggling with alcoholism and a addiction to pain medication from a motor vehicle accident. And so as I'm building this company,

Starting point is 00:14:33 I'm still struggling to just maintain life and maintain my head above water. My relationship was as good as it can be with a man in that state. And I did. I tried, right? I was doing okay, but it wasn't until I took a good look inside and I said, what am I doing? Like, who am I? And why am I giving up? Like, why am I getting my energy and my fuel source? from this false light, from these false sources. How do I change this? And that took me down a path of self-discovery. And I was reintroduced to Maslow's hierarchy of needs, which I had been originally introduced to in elementary school by a person who didn't understand it themselves. And there I was looking at the pyramid and seeing I've been living in survival. And of course,

Starting point is 00:15:25 when you're in a survival mode, you do what you've got to do to survive. And that means you're clutching and grasping and filling holes of worthiness and filling holes in yourself with whatever you can. And even though it's temporary and even though the chemical lasts, it's half-life, and then you need more of it or crash. And so you're on this hamster wheel of trying to maintain, eventually you fall, right? You fall on your ass and that you've got to make a real pivot, or real change, something from the inside out. And that's why I really believe success is an inside job. We can kick in as many doors as we want.

Starting point is 00:16:01 And we can do this the Newtonian way where every cause has an effect and every action has an equal and opposite reaction. And I can look at the laws of physics and say, okay, I need to have a force. And that means I need to have some mass and acceleration behind me so that I can actually move this obstacle. Or I can work with my spirit. I can work with the creator, the thing that binds all of this to, together and I can part red seas. I can build universes. I can tap into the divine qualities within me

Starting point is 00:16:30 and not have to do this the hard way. And that is where I think things really started to change. That's where I think second part and the third part of this story come from was me getting in and having a real honest look at who I was and how I was showing up in the world and making adjustments and changing my patterns and deciding that I wasn't going to be the same Jamil Damjey as I was today I'm going to be a new one. I'm going to make a new choice. And I don't, I can't say you make all the changes and choices all on one day. You'll fall, you'll burn out and you won't be able to sustain that either. But it was small micro change after small micro change after small micro change. And slowly, but surely I started to evolve. And I evolved spiritually. And then I evolved emotionally.

Starting point is 00:17:14 And then the last to drop was physically. I recently dropped 80 pounds. I was a heavier guy and unhealthy at that and I had to make that final adjustment in my lifestyle and I feel like a completely different guy today right I'm healthier I'm healthier and more fulfilled I've made more money with those attributes still there and intact and I'm continuously learning I'm still finding myself in hard situations I recently just went through a separation with my wife who is a beautiful human being and one of the greatest women I've ever met. And it's a friendship that I'll carry on in for the rest of my life. But I learned so much in how that happened. And what I can do differently in my life to show up better as a father and as a husband in the future. And I'm making those

Starting point is 00:18:11 adjustments and I'm going to continue pushing forward and growing. And that brings me to today. right i'm ecstatic with what's around the corner i know that because i'm not living in fear i don't have anxiety about what's coming i live in faith and so i have excitement you look great yeah you know the i've watched the trends and you do look good i wouldn't be surprised a handsome devil lots of doors might be opening for you when i'm ready i still got a lot of healing and things to to go through i know you yeah yeah I get it right mentally. You got the physical, but it's all tied together.

Starting point is 00:18:51 And I love what you said about strength and success. HAP starts within. There's never been a truer statement. I do another show that's really like a holistic show, mind, body, spirit. Everything starts internally and like it manifests in the mind. So it starts in the mind and manifests in the body. If you don't have your head right in the right head space, and that can be spiritually, that can be.

Starting point is 00:19:17 like meditation, whatever your outlet is, but having that being centered and focused, and it's just so important. And I know that's had an impact for you. I'm sure the audience would love to hear probably some A&E fans out there, some triple digit flip fans out there. Talk about that experience a little bit. It was wonderful while we did it. Pace and I, my sister and Laura Morby, We got to spend hours and hours on set, hanging out, doing what we do, which is enjoy each other's company and flip real estate. And so it was really a blessing. And I have a tremendous amount of respect and love for our friends at A&E for the opportunity that we had. They originally signed us to a six-season deal.

Starting point is 00:20:09 And as you guys are probably aware, we only have produced two of them. So they did have an order for us of 30 episodes, which Pace and I, you know, humbly declined. And the reason for it is just at the end of the day, we are principles in the real estate business. So our daily job is not choosing tile and picking paint colors, which unfortunately in a visual medium like TV is something that people want to see. And the general public doesn't realize that real estate investors don't do those things during the day. And I've got people that pick tile. people that choose the paint color. I have staff that handles those things. I'm not the guy doing that. I'm looking for new opportunities. Yeah, you're doing the boring, not the boring stuff,

Starting point is 00:20:52 but the boring as far as TV goes stuff, the roll up your sleeves and deals and hunting and networking and all that shit. And they want me to demo a wall. And so it's just not authentic to the experience that I have on a daily basis. And when you look at it from the perspective of how long it takes to shoot an episode. They're looking at 80 to 100 hours of footage for a 42-minute episode, which is oppressively long. And it takes us out of our day-to-day responsibilities. It removes us from being able to show up better for our communities, which I'm 100% committed to. And it takes us away from being able to be there for our staff. I've got over 300 people that rely on Jamil Damjey being the best version of himself every single day and to be there to

Starting point is 00:21:40 answer questions, to motivate, to lead. And if I'm on a TV set pointing at tiles and choosing paint color, I'm not doing that. Unfortunately, that's just not a show we want to continue making. And again, no judgment for people who do. And again, a tremendous amount of love and respect for our producers and friends at A&E. They are professionals and they did give us one of the things I have just so much respect for in the process with A&E was we originally told them, hey, we're never going to do this fake drama stuff, right? I'm not going to throw a contractor under the bus or a vendor under the bus and pretend like somebody screwed something up.

Starting point is 00:22:23 They don't do that. Now, if something authentically happens and a mess up occurs and we catch it and we want to talk about it, I'm totally down. But I'm not going to make it up. But we're not going to lie. And there was only one instance where a producer, a director had asked for us to do that. And I walked off set. I just left.

Starting point is 00:22:43 I got in my car and said, nope, not doing it. And then the producer, the executive producer, got on the phone and told that director, what are you doing? He's, I'm doing what I do. This is what we're supposed to do. He's not these guys, not this show. And I was apologized to, got back to set. They said, you just do what you do. And I'm like, we do it by heart.

Starting point is 00:23:02 We do this thing for real. and I'm never going to dramatize and throw someone under the bus. Unfortunately, that's not the TV we make. And they honored that. And they produced a television show that I am proud of, that I know my children will be proud of. And even though it will live in the ether somewhere on the internet, at some point in 20 years, my kids will look at it and say,

Starting point is 00:23:26 wow, look how fat dad was. This is cool. But we want to do something that is meaningful, on a societal level. And so Pace and I are self-producing a show where we're going to look at how we can help solve problems we have a hand in. Now, there's no doubt in my mind that real estate investors, wholesalers, fix and flippers have a hand in the inventory shortage and affordability going where it's gone in the in the United States. And if we want to pretend like we don't have a hand in it, then we're blindly diluting ourselves. Now, that's not to say that I'm not going to

Starting point is 00:24:02 participate in it because that's how I feed my family. It's the way that life is. And that's just unfortunately how it's going. So houses are going to get more expensive. They're going to get harder to buy. But knowing that I have a hand in things getting more expensive, can I not find ways to help the people who are being negatively impacted by what's going on in real estate? And that's what Pace and I want to do. So moving forward, we're self-producing a show where we will go into skid row we're going to go into tent cities and we're going to find vulnerable people who who really want to affect some change in their life and we'll show them how to do this business we'll show them how to get deals we'll show them how to make money and we'll do that with our own

Starting point is 00:24:47 time our own resources and prove that you can teach a man or a woman to fish and change their existence and that's going to be how we can a at least begin helping solve the problem that we know is sweeping the country. And then looking to then change that model from people that are experiencing being unsheltered to single parents who are doing the best they can to other disenfranchised communities in the United States that would benefit tremendously from the knowledge of the pace and I have gained in this industry. And so sharing that, and even I don't give a dang if anybody watches it or doesn't watch it for the fact that we'll be able to do it and do it authentically and it'll be a subject matter that we're very tied to that we're very interested in and that we

Starting point is 00:25:40 know will make a huge impact on society and if you watch that and that we can help a person struggling with addiction or struggling with other factors in their life and help them do the business then what excuse to somebody who has everything going for them, except a lack of priority and how they want to spend their downtime, whether that be watching Netflix or doing something that can help change their financial life. I think that when we can show that and prove the concept of people that, hey, anyone can do what we do, then I think we'll have a tidal wave of people that will start taking responsibility for what they produce in this world and how they show up. Yes, I love that, man.

Starting point is 00:26:29 I can't wait to watch it. I'm surprised, and you probably did, but maybe you don't have a discussion with A, you pitching it there. Well, we did, but they just said people aren't ready for it. Yeah. They want to still see house porn. And that's okay. That's totally okay. It's not until you break the mold that new molds are formed.

Starting point is 00:26:53 And maybe we got to self-produce this and show how. the appetite and how strong the appetite is from a internet basis, right? Because Pace and I have really good YouTube channels and our communities are super connected and they are engaged and they're all excited to see this come to fruition. And so even if it's just self-produced and watched by our communities, cool. If it catches on and others see utility and want to share it and do the same, amazing. And then if that then turns into a conversation with A&E again where they say, thanks for proving this, now we want to do this type of show, awesome. And if not, awesome.

Starting point is 00:27:39 There's not a day that goes by since not filming the TV show that I miss it. Yeah. It's not sexy, brother. I know. I've been in on both sides of the show business for quite a while, creating ads for some of the biggest brands of the world and sitting on those some of those TV sets and everything else. And it's a lot more work than people realize. But I do want to back up. We talk a lot about marketing on this show and the power of branding. And I happen to own the trademark on the phrase, it pays to be known.

Starting point is 00:28:15 And so with that said, I don't want to gloss over too much. And you did homage to A&E. but the power of television even still today, it's diminished. But speak to just, you guys did it for a reason, the show. It was good for them, good for you. But I talk to people all the time. Don't get it twisted. If you get the opportunity to grow your reach and frequency and awareness on the power of the medium of television,

Starting point is 00:28:47 as long as it's in line, like you said, with your morals, your beliefs and it's not altered, you better take that ticket because it's still very powerful, right? Yeah, it absolutely is. And again, a tremendous amount of love and respect for A&E and Six West, our production company that was a huge support and partner through the whole process. And Pace and I and the rest of the cast have just the utmost respect for all of them. It was a great opportunity. And I'll always have the TV show.

Starting point is 00:29:22 under my belt. I'll always be able to lead a bio with A&E TV star. And that's awesome, right? It'll never be stripped from me. It's not something that you can never take away. But I did my time. You know what I mean? Oh, absolutely. I did my time. I get why you're walking. Yeah. Yeah. And so you guys that if you have the opportunity, of course, take the opportunity. Will it be a lot of work? Yes. Will there be a tremendous financial return? No. Will you get credibility and unlock doors that you wouldn't have been able to unlock without it? Absolutely. And will those doors lead to greater ROIs and opportunity? You better believe it. And so a TV show is not just the eyeballs of the housewife or the house husband that's watching you on a Sunday at 11 a.m. while they're looking after the kids and doing DIY home project.

Starting point is 00:30:13 That's not the guy who's going to stroke a check and join your mentorship or your coaching or do a deal with you and buy a wholesale property or that's not the person the voyer isn't the avatar of my customer but my customer respects that i'm on i'm on that medium and it lends to my credibility it lends to the the visibility and let's just be honest right it's cool it's cool for somebody to have a tv show and it's even cooler for you to be friends with or know or learn from that guy and when I'm on my coaching calls with a few hundred people and they are having a lengthy discussion with me, how many times do I hear? I just can't believe I'm talking to you.

Starting point is 00:30:57 And I'm like, bro, I just farted. There's nothing full of it. It's all good. Let me say this. Jamil, I'd love you even if you weren't on TV, man. Thank you. Talk about some of that coaching stuff. I know you mentor, you coach, teaching people to do what you do.

Starting point is 00:31:14 I know you mentioned helping on the TV show, which will be amazing. but for the everyday person, how are you unlocking these opportunities? I built the nation's largest wholesale operation because I scaled and I created a replicatable business where people didn't think it was really possible, right? No one's ever sold a wholesale business until we came in and franchised ours and built a replicatable model that has now been operating in over 118 different markets under the same brand. When you're able to do that, you can prove to folks.

Starting point is 00:31:47 that this is a replicatable business and this is a sellable company, right? And that for me is really awesome. But in addition to that, I looked at this business from a relationship standpoint, right? And what most wholesalers were doing in the past and what people were teaching them to do were was very difficult lead generation techniques like cold calling, door knocking, putting out banded signs and direct mail. And all of this is extremely expensive, time consuming. and the ROI is, you know, like maybe not. But because of that, for somebody that is working at W2 and doesn't have a lot of expendable resources

Starting point is 00:32:27 and disposable resources available, then asking that person to gamble $5,000, $7,000 on the possibility they may get a lead or get a contract is a hefty ask. And then let's just say they are successful and after $6,000 in costs, they get a wholesale deal under contract. And they make the national average of $15,000 on that assignment, which is pretty standard. Let's just say it cost them six.

Starting point is 00:33:01 They make 15, so they're making nine, but they've got overhead and all the other expenses. So they get to pocket a few thousand bucks. Cool. But are you doing business with that homeowner again? not likely because they're in a distress situation, which is why you were able to buy their house at that value. They have a distress property. These people don't usually have three, four, five, ten homes. So you do all that work, build a relationship, build trust to do one deal that then ends the relationship. And I'm inherently efficient and lazy.

Starting point is 00:33:36 And when I saw that as the model, I was like, nah, I don't think that's going to make sense for me. So I built my business on scalable techniques, relationship-based techniques. And those relationships bear fruit over and over again. For instance, one of the lead generation techniques I've mastered is called agent outreach. This is where we called outreach to real estate agents who are in control of these types of situations and properties. And I've got one relationship right now. I have hundreds of relationships with agents, but there's one in particular, an agent named Monique Walker here. in Phoenix, Arizona.

Starting point is 00:34:12 Her and I have been working together for over a decade. I could literally only answer her phone calls if I just ignored it. Every other call. Her and I do on average five to six deals, maybe seven deals every month. If I only answered her calls, I'd have $150,000 in income every month. Every single month. So I'm talking about over a million dollars from one relationship. that bears fruit over and over and over and over again.

Starting point is 00:34:44 That's the win. Yeah. That's the win. And I get invited to her family functions. I get invited and I get sent a Christmas card and I get gifts and all kinds of love and respect from the people around her and her teammates and all of the things. And every time she has a chance to say my name to people, she will. And that leads to more business for me.

Starting point is 00:35:02 So the goodwill and the word of mouth credibility and then the residual business that comes from that word of mouth advertising and credibility. is something that I know I could build a scalable business on. And relationship-based lead generation like agent outreach and doing co-wholesale deals and JV deals with other wholesalers and flexing a disposition model, which is how we really grew. Dispositions is the selling of the contract, right?

Starting point is 00:35:29 Most people, they are good at going and getting a deal under contract, but then they fail when it comes to selling it for top dollar. Kigli, my company, saw that opportunity and said, we've got all these people out there doing a great job locking up houses, but then they cancel because they can't find a buyer. And that's something we can solve. So I looked at it like if I was to approach this business like the record business, right, would I rather be Michael Jackson or Sony? Yeah, Sony. Michael Jackson's gone. Yeah. Sony's still making money off of it. Knowing that, I chose the record label, not the artist. So Kigli is a distribution model. We sell how

Starting point is 00:36:08 houses and contracts for people all across the country and help them get top dollar. And we get paid on every one of those deals that we help. So that model definitely scalable. That model definitely adds value to the marketplace, which the more value you add to people, the more money you make. So it's sustainable. It allows me to build my network and surround myself with awesome people like you.

Starting point is 00:36:34 And it's something I'm proud of. It's something that I can go to bed at night knowing that I've added value to a market that I genuinely love. And now with what Pace and I are wanting to do on a societal level, I can actually feel good about how I'm showing up because I can help solve a problem, which is really hard to stomach and swallow. I have a hard time. When I get to L.A., I have a house right on the water. And unfortunately, that beach attracts a lot of people facing homelessness and I get to see both sides of the equation. I got a $9 million neighbor and I got a homeless person that's in front of my condo and I get to see the extreme of it and I will have a

Starting point is 00:37:22 conversation with that person and find out that this is just a regular person with a good mind on them and they just had a hard time. They were priced out of their houses. I went to a homeless shelter here in Phoenix, Arizona with, and I got to stop saying homeless people. I learned that's actually not the correct term because you're now giving this identity. You're giving the shelter that somebody has their identity. You're saying you're a homeless person. You're a person who is labeled that because you don't have a place to live. So these are people experiencing homelessness. And it makes sense to me. And I have no problem changing the way I address it. So forgive me for those of you listening. I'm still working it into my terminology if I've offended anybody. But

Starting point is 00:38:04 But with that, we went to a shelter here in Arizona and we saw the people that are there were just like you and I. They weren't strung out. They weren't bouncing off the walls. They were regular people. And I asked the administrators there, what's the number one cause of this? I was always thinking it was, let me ask you, what do you think the number one cause of homelessness is?

Starting point is 00:38:33 and drugs and alcohol. Yeah, addiction. And then, or what's the next one? Financial. Mental illness. Mental illness would probably be number one for me. That's what I thought too. I thought mental illness, drug addiction.

Starting point is 00:38:48 That's got to be 80%. It's not. It's economics. It's people who post-COVID can't afford the rent hike. Legit. I seen a family there that had pulled in two days earlier. and the mom goes to work, does 10 hours of work a day, and the young brother and the kid sleep in the trunk of their car

Starting point is 00:39:09 that she hides close to the office or close to the place that she works at. And that's how they live. They're living in their car. And she was super sweet, like a real great lady. And then I find out that when they asked kids who were there, what they wanted to be when they grew up, the number one answer was safe and when I seen that my heart broke man you got kids yeah it's unbelievable

Starting point is 00:39:40 i got kids and i can't go another day and not be a part of the solution in this situation so i'm just super happy man i'm so happy that i get to a have the awareness that i have right now the heightened awareness and the new awareness of what the problem is and what the causes of the problems are and then do something that can solve it. Like one of the things that I've been doing is reintroducing low income housing to the market here in Phoenix. I build homes, brand new homes that are well priced well below the median home price. And I do that and take less profit on all of these projects knowing that I'm providing housing to somebody that wouldn't be able to afford it if I had, you know, maximize what this thing should sell for. So I purposely take

Starting point is 00:40:30 less money. But that's okay. I'm not doing that so you guys can say he's a great guy. I'm doing that so I can sleep at night. It has nothing to do with what you think of me. Secondly, I have changed my rental model from long-term rentals and short-term rentals, which is what I was doing before. I was a big Airbnb guy. And then I learned that there's all these vacant Airbnbs that should have people in it. But people bought these homes, turned them into vacation rentals, and they removed this inventory from the rental market and that also added to the increases in rents because you get less homes available for rent, that's going to put demand and pressure in the market and that's going to raise prices. And so I'm, I've pivoted my rental strategy from short-term rentals to co-living, right?

Starting point is 00:41:19 I looked at Europe and I saw how they've been, how have they been handling this housing shortage that they've been experiencing much longer than we have in the United States. how are they dealing with it? And they've been doing co-living for decades, right? Co-living, like there's a company called Pad Split that I partnered with recently, and they have built a beautiful platform where people can rent houses or rent rooms in a house by the week. So think of that, right?

Starting point is 00:41:50 You are working, you don't have enough money for a security deposit. You don't have good credit. You don't have the things that you need in order to, to get into a single family house, but you are making enough money to pay rent. You are making enough money to pay for food. You're just not making enough money to rent a whole house. Okay, cool.

Starting point is 00:42:13 What if I take my housing unit and I make more of these co-living environments, but I make them with dignity, I make the finishes in they're beautiful. I give everybody their own bathroom. I give everybody a comfortable bed. I give everybody air conditioning that they can control themselves.

Starting point is 00:42:29 So instead of doing one central unit, I do mini splits in all the room, what if I do this in a way where the dignity of the human being is primary for me? And can I be handsomely rewarded economically for doing so? And I'm finding that. I'm making three times more what I would make in a long-term renter from a long-term rental than I can, when I'm doing co-living. I'm making three-X the rents. So I'm doing a good deed for the market.

Starting point is 00:42:55 I'm doing something good for the people that are renting for. me. I'm making the units gorgeous so that they feel dignity and I'm making more money. And for me, that's a win. So that's how I'm helping the problem. But in addition to that, by bringing awareness to it, even talking about it on your show here, more people can start having the debate with themselves on what they can do today that could do something for a human being experiencing this problem. I love it, brother. And I think you're going to be seeing more of this sort of sharing economy, like sharing all kinds of things that we have redundancies galore, things that we don't necessarily need all the

Starting point is 00:43:40 time. So I think you're going to see the proliferation of that over time. But I know we can talk forever, bro. Where can everybody keep up with all these projects, everything you got going on and when the airing of the TV out, I'm sure that's down the road a bit with filming and all that has to take place. but where can I keep it over everything? My YouTube is probably the best place. It's just YouTube.com slash Jamil Damjee, J-A-M-I-L-D-A-M-J-I. Also find me on Instagram at J-D-A-M-J-I, so at J-D-A-M-J-D-M-G. Send me a DM-I.

Starting point is 00:44:13 I love hearing from folks. So subscribe to my YouTube, learn what I do for a business. I love cracking jokes. I like making people laugh. So you'll be entertained, you'll be educated. And if there's anything that I could do to help you or help you, or help you with learning something that I have a skill at. Send me a DM and I'm happy to be a part of your world.

Starting point is 00:44:33 Thank you so much for coming on, bro. We'll do a follow-up maybe when this series comes out. How about that? Would love it. Maybe get you in pace. Maybe do it all together now. And I talk about the project and everything else. So I'd love to get that schedule when you guys are ready.

Starting point is 00:44:48 You got it, dude. Hey, guys. You'll find us, Ryan iswrite.com. You can find links to all of Jamil's stuff, all of the highlight clips from today, all of our social media. You can find me at Ryan Alford, a blue check mark.

Starting point is 00:45:03 Had it before you could buy it. We'll see you next time. Right about now. This has been right about now with Ryan Alford, a Radcast Network production. Visit Ryanisright.com for full audio and video versions of the show

Starting point is 00:45:17 or to inquire about sponsorship opportunities. Thanks for listening.

Right About Now - Legendary Business Advice - The Secrets Behind Making Millions with Jamil Damji

There aren't comments yet for this episode. Click on any sentence in the transcript to leave a comment.