The Entrepreneur DNA - 7 Companies, 400 Employees, and a $250M Exit Before 30 Years Old | Austin Zaback | EP 57

Episode Date: February 3, 2025

In this episode, Justin sits down with Austin Zaback, a powerhouse entrepreneur who built seven businesses and leads 400 employees before turning 30. Austin shares his rags-to-riches journey, starting from his grandparents' garage to creating a vertically integrated real estate empire. He dives deep into scaling businesses, leadership strategies, and the power of partnerships, revealing how clarity and focus helped him grow fast. He also discusses his $250M+ exit strategy, the future of real estate, and why most entrepreneurs fail.   --   Connect with Austin Zaback: Instagram: @austinzaback YouTube: Austin Zaback Channel Podcast: "Austin Zaback Show" Website: www.austinzaback.com   --   Thank you to 'SelfPublishing.com' for sponsoring today's episode! Unlock the Power of Authorship: Transform Your Expertise into 7-Figure Revenue in 2025! Watch the Training: How to add 7 figures of revenue to your business in 2025 by writing and publishing a book. Go to: https://selfpublishing.com/dna   -- 𝐀𝐛𝐨𝐮𝐭 𝐉𝐮𝐬𝐭𝐢𝐧: After investing in real estate for over 17 years and almost 3000 deals done, Justin has created a business that generates 7 figures in active income through wholesaling and fix and flipping as well as accumulating millions of dollars of rental properties including 5 apartment buildings, 50+ single family homes, and 1 storage facility Justins longevity in real estate is due to his ability to look around the corners, adapt to changing markets, perfecting Raising private capital, and focusing on lead generation which allows him to not just wholesale and fix & flip, but also accumulate wealth through long term holds. His success in real estate led him to start The Entrepreneur DNA podcast and The Science Of Flipping podcast and education company, where he has coached and mentored thousands of aspiring and active investors over the last decade. He is a nationally recognized speaker and is on a mission to educate as many people as possible on becoming a successful dynamic real estate investor. 𝑾𝒉𝒂𝒕 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝑷𝒓𝒐𝒔 𝑯𝒂𝒗𝒆 𝑻𝒐 𝑺𝒂𝒚 𝑨𝒃𝒐𝒖𝒕 𝑱𝒖𝒔𝒕𝒊𝒏:  “Justin is one of the best trainers in this space. He really gives everything to his tribe.” – Brent Daniels (TTP) “Justin’s ability to connect with people and help them understand what he is teaching, is unparallelled” – Kent Clothier (REWW) “We have been in the trenches flipping homes in Phoenix for over a decade, he is one of the best to do it.” – Sean Terry (Flip2Freedom) Subscribe To Justin Colby: http://youtube.com/justincolby View All My Videos: https://www.youtube.com/c/JustinColby    

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Visit SelfPublishing.com forward slash DNA to register for a free one hour masterclass that I'm co-hosting with Chandler Bolt, the founder and CEO of SelfPublishing.com. In this masterclass, you're gonna gain actionable tools to write, publish, and share your book with the world. Go to selfpublishing.com forward slash DNA. So the companies that I have today all benefit each other, right, and they are all pretty vertically integrated, I would argue.

So I initially set out to just build a lot of companies, that's what I thought, right? That entrepreneurs did. I'm like, oh, Tony Robbins owns 125 companies has 8,000 employees. I need to do that too, right? What I didn't understand is that Tony Robbins did that after he got really good at one thing, right? This is like the whole idea of like, you know, if you taste two rabbits, you catch neither. So yeah, that's true. Eventually, you can hire somebody to catch the other rabbit for you though, right? And you just have to catch one. And so, you know, I think making the mistake of like,

I own an ATM company, I own a marketing company, I own a golf cart limousine company, I own an exotic car rental agency. I did a bunch of stuff. That was a mistake. What is up, entrepreneur DNA? Welcome back to another incredible episode and I'm super excited.

A good friend of mine here in the Phoenix market. We know each other because of real estate but this man is an entrepreneur through and through. Seven companies, thousands of real estate transactions each and every year, 400 employees and it's all before 30 years old. Austin Zabak, what's up bro? Dude, appreciate you having me Justin. You're the man.

Yeah, super excited about this because I think there's something to be said about what a lot of people would be calling like the younger generation, right? And I don't even know what generation are you, millennial? I think I'm a millennial, yeah. Millennial, I think. So I'm technically like the last year of millennial.

Okay. So me too, shocker. So, but I think a lot of people give the people under 30 this tag of being lazy. Yep. Like they just take everything for granted, they're entitled, whatever, right? You're literally the epitome of the opposite of that.

Let's talk about it. What gave you that drive? Where does that come from? I think it comes from not having what I wanted to have growing up and wanting to make sure that my kids and my future family would never have to deal with what I dealt with. I think ultimately for me it was just a chip on my shoulder, right? I grew up in a garage.

I grew up in my grandpa and grandma's garage in Gilbert, Arizona. The garage is still there. We can go FaceTime live right now, you know. If people don't believe me, I've got pictures of it. And you know, I wanted to have a normal family. I didn't have a normal family. My grandparents were amazing, but I ultimately wanted to live with my mom and my dad.

They didn't want me. And so, you know, I think, and my grandpa and grandma, they worked very hard. They didn't have a lot of money, but they were business owners that worked really hard their whole life. And I grew up around that, you know, and they, and I think as I just got older, I, I was like, I

can't be average, I just, there's just no way I can be average, you know, I don't want, you know, like I remember I tried to live with my dad one time, okay. For a short period of time, my dad has a lot of money. Um, but you would never know he's like Warren Buffett met Dave Ramsey, like, you know, had a baby, right? And I remember he told me big big, big, big house, I lived with him for one night. And that one night, yep, that one night,

he was like 95 degrees in the house in the middle of August, Queen Creek, Arizona, big, huge house, RV garage, the whole thing, right? And I remember walking into his room at midnight, I'm like, dad, we gotta turn on the air conditioner, I'm sweating my, you know, what off, you know? And he's like, nope, go jump in the pool and go back to bed.

He's like, that's what I do. He's like, we're not running the air conditioner, right? Wow. And so, you know, just the most frugal human being you've ever met in your life. Yeah. And so I think it was just a combination of stuff that led to me saying, nope, you know,

I'm gonna become wealthy. Yeah. And that's that. You know, it's funny, I have a similar story of why I'm so driven. It's because my first mentors were my parents. They were alcoholics. Yeah.

My dad, my mom, my stepdad, my mom was manic depressive, bipolar. So that mentorship, I just recently made a post about it, is a very real mentorship that I don't think people realize. And it comes from a place of like you, they're teaching you what you don't want. And there's as much value, if not more, of what you don're teaching you what you don't want and there's as much value if not more of what you don't want than what you want if not more and so I can totally appreciate your story there right is not being felt seen her yeah love wanted love totally even though as a parent you're always gonna love your kid but it doesn't take the priority and

so didn't feel that way right yeah so i feel as if most people find drive out of the pain would you basically say that's your story a million percent the pain is so good i had to be driven i don't think very many people get their drive from the out of voice i mean even today right like if if two people stand right next to each other and one person says austin you're killing the game you know you're 29 how my gosh blah blah blah blah right that doesn't motivate me nearly I mean like that's like 1% motivation compared to the guy standing right next to that guy this is Austin you're a piece of crap and you're not gonna this you're at the peak or

whatever it is or you're you're gonna fail or you can't do it that dude that's all the motivation I need right there is that second guy telling me I can't do it. That's right. And funny enough, I think it's funny, you have 400 people under this roof. Yep. Okay. Do you lead with motivation of the carrot or the stick? You know, I think both. It just depends on the time and the season and the place.

But I think, you know, like, there's so much to leadership and the different companies that we run in. It's so interesting because everybody, you have to lead everybody different, right? And like, you know, some people just aren't motivated by what you and me are motivated by. And some people don't have the big goals and aspirations that we have.

You know, I have agents on my team. It took me a long time to realize in the retail world that I live in, which is one of the companies that I own, I always thought that every agent wanted to, you know, be the next Ryan Serhan. That's right. Or Josh Altman, right? And it took me like a decade to stop forcing that down

everybody's throat. Yeah. Because it dawned on me one day, I'm like, there's a lot of agents that just wanna make 50 grand a year. Yeah. And they're perfectly okay with that. That's right.

And I can't change their mind. That's right. And so instead, change their mind. That's right. And so instead, and in order for me to achieve my goals, then it dawned on me, I just need more agents. And if I can't get the guy that is making 50K a year to want to make 100, then I just need two guys that want to make 50, right? And so, you know, yeah, I think the answer to your question

is both, it's from time to time. I'll tell you, It's both from time to time. I'll tell you, for those people who don't aggressively want more, it's harder for me to lead. Because it's kind of not in alignment with how I am. Sure. Do you feel the same when, or are you indifferent? Say, you know what?

It's totally fine. I don't care if you want 50 or 50. Or do you want to continue to pour in and lead that person? Oh, yeah, it's really hard for me because I thought for the longest time, and again, it goes back to what I was just saying. I thought everybody on earth was just like me. Right? That was my flaw as a leader. You know, I just assumed anytime I walked into a room with my employees or my staff or

whoever it might be that everybody had the same goals that I had. Right. And, and it really didn't serve me or them well might be, that everybody had the same goals that I had, right? And it really didn't serve me or them well because, yeah, it goes back to like me forcing them to be somebody that they don't want to be. And so it is difficult for me, right? Because I don't think how they think. And so I have to try to put myself in their shoes and try to, you know, do that. But I think now where I'm at is I'm leading the leaders and the leaders are leading the people. So like I'm not directly engaging with everybody in all my different companies on a day to day basis.

There's just no possible way I could do that anymore. I'm interacting with the leadership team and then they're interacting with the people. That's right. Yeah. What is, what are your seven companies? What industries, what verticals? So in a wholesale real estate company, we're the number one, number two wholesaler in the nation.

Depends on how Keighley Corporates do them right now. I'm not sure. Love Jamil, love Hunter, love Josiah. So we're top wholesale company in the nation. And then we own the number one retail real estate team in the state of Arizona. Soon to be the nation. We just opened up Florida, Texas, and California.

We're the first to ever do it. Okay, we're not building our downline, we do have a downline, but when I say real estate team, I mean they're on our team. Not just in our downline, right? Yeah, so like we have a team. So we're the number one in Arizona, that's a big company. We own a mortgage company, title company,

media company, obviously, and then I own two flipping companies, and then an education company, actually, so eight. Yeah, I love it flipping companies and then an education company actually so Yeah, I love it and we're in your studio So this this episode everybody is being shot in Austin studio as I'm here in Arizona Okay, so you just talked about how you have all these different companies. They're all essentially in the real estate vertical Yeah, so every one of them which I made that mistake a long time ago You probably saw me make that mistake because we knew each other, right?

I did the golf carts. I did the APM. Oh yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I did all that crap. And I think that was a mistake looking back. I think that I could have been further along in the real estate world had I not kept going off course and building all these other companies that had nothing to do with real estate.

That's right. Yeah. Yeah. So I mean, they're that had nothing to do with real estate. That's right. Yeah, so I mean, they're somewhat vertically integrated to some extent, but also separate, which I think is the challenge with people these days is they don't actually know what they want. And obviously you are under 30 years old, you're 29 years old, turning 30 this year, and you own seven companies, you have an executive team,

you have 400 people under your leadership and guidance as a whole, but I think it's because you were able to find clarity in the direction you wanted to go. I think a lot of people, especially in the younger years, there's no clarity right now. Talk to us about like how you kind of woke up or found, if I can find some clarity, and the word I really want to use is, well, clarity is probably the best word for right now, but how that has changed your trajectory within business. I think if you don't know where you want to go,

how are you going to get there, right? Yeah. So, if you're just getting your car, and you started like just started driving but you had no destination, then where are you gonna end up? Like who knows? I mean maybe right back where you started. I don't know, you know?

So I think you have to know where you wanna go and I think where you wanna go can change though too. That's the other part of it is I think when I got into entrepreneurship, okay, I'm just gonna say it, because I know there's a lot of people probably watching Justin that are gonna be like I was back then, but I just wanted to make a lot of money. I wasn't this guy initially, day one,

when I was 18 years old, I'm 29 now, been a full-time entrepreneur for 11, going on 12 years. But at the end of the day, I just wanted to make a lot of money. At that time, I wasn't thinking about going on mission trips, I wasn't thinking about charity, I wasn't thinking about going on mission trips. I wasn't thinking about charity. I wasn't thinking about, you know, any of that, dude. I was thinking about a Lamborghini. But you still want to make a lot of money. A million percent. But now I've gone on three mission trips. I'm a, you know, I do a lot for the church.

I do a lot for philanthropy. Our companies, you know, are very generous in a lot of things that we do. And now it isn't the money that drives me anymore. The money used to actually physically drive me, where now what drives me, I think, is the achievement, helping people, like, dude, there's nothing, and you know this better than anybody, when I walk out onto my floor, which I don't even think you've been out there yet, I'll show you in a little while,

and I see a 20-year-old making 70 grand a month that used to work a Safeway way or whatever the case might be. Like, dude, that gets me fired up, bro. Way more than walking out and seeing a Lamborghini in a parking lot that's mine. I wanna see a Lamborghini in a parking lot that is somebody that works underneath my umbrella that I helped achieve that.

Nothing gets me fired up like that. So I think that's my drive now and that's my goal now. So I got clear on that as time went along, right? But in the beginning, I was very clear on one. So I got clear on that as time went along, right? But in the beginning, I was very clear on one thing. I wanted to make a lot of money. And I never wanted to tell my kids one day, no. I never wanted it to be Christmas morning,

and my kids to want something, and me to say, hey, you know, your daddy didn't work hard enough on his goals and dreams 20 years ago, so therefore you can't have that toy. I never wanted those words to come out of my mouth. You know? You will want to have to say I'm in that season right now, saying no is actually really difficult. A million percent. It is really difficult.

But you have to. Yeah, of course. So, but listen, you know, people will criticize me or others about talking about money or being money hungry, and you said it the right way. The reasons for wanting to make a lot of money can change they can right initially just like you it was more just like I wanted the nice things whether it's a car or whatever right but you you get to a place where you're like no I still want to make a lot of money I'm still willing to work really hard to go make a lot of money because I want to be

able to finance a church I want to be able to finance a mission I want to be able to do something where the tool of money changes why I'm making it. Right? But that takes maturity and like I was joking before we went live. You are lightening years beyond where I was at at TweetLine, right? I was making a lot of money so I'd go to Old Town, spend it, right? Or go to Vegas, spend it. That's why I wanted to make a lot of money. And there's a tool for that, right? I would tell you everyone has seasons. We have a mutual friends going through a season we were just talking about, right? I mean there's a tool for that, right? I would tell you, everyone has seasons. We have mutual friends going through a season we were just talking about, right?

I mean, there's seasons to all this. But again, getting the clarity that we were talking about is really impactful. I agree. And it will change too, Justin, and you know that, right? Cause I didn't, like at the time, if you'd have asked me when I was 18, like, will it ever change?

I'd have been like, nah, dude, I just wanna make, you know, I just wanna be a billionaire, right, but it just does change. It's like, you don't even have to try for your thing to change or what motivates you to change. It just will change over time. So it's like, I tell young people in particular, hey, if money's your goal, there's nothing wrong with that. Right, you're 20 years old, 25 years old,

there's nothing wrong with putting a Lamborghini poster on your wall and wanting a nice car to be what drives you. Because it will change once you get that car and you drive down the road and you have a bad day in that car. You never thought you would and you will. Right? I remember there's a lot of days where I was unhappy driving my Lamborghini down the road. Yeah. You know? Well yeah and that kind of stuff isn't fulfilling. Right? I mean there's always something, there's always something more. I wanna dive into, you have seven businesses, but why?

Why did you decide to go this big? I mean, you can make a lot of money with one company, right? And extreme focus, that was one of the words I wanted to use, extreme focus can create extreme results. So why did you choose to go build and grow seven companies? Did you know that publishing your own book is one of the fastest ways to grow your business, to build trust and increase your income? But let's face it, getting started can feel impossible.

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that could add seven figures to your business this year alone. Again, you can register for free for the upcoming master class by visiting selfpublishing.com forward slash DNA. So the companies that I have today all benefit each other, right? And they are all pretty vertically integrated,

I would argue. So I initially set out to just build a lot of companies. That's what I thought, right? That entrepreneurs did. I'm like, oh, Tony Robbins owns 125 companies, has 8,000 employees. I need to do that too, right? What I didn't understand is that Tony Robbins did that after he got really good at one thing, right?

This is like the whole idea of like, if you chase two rabbits, you catch neither. So yeah, that's true. Eventually you can hire somebody to catch the other rabbit for you though, right? And you just have to catch one. And so, I think making the mistake of like, I own an ATM company, I own a marketing company,

I own a golf cart limousine company, I own an exotic car rental agency, I did a bunch of stuff, that was a mistake, right? Now fast forward to where I'm at today, the seven companies, so wholesale and retail do deals with each other all the time, right? I was an agent that was a huge wholesaler. And so I was like, it kind of just happened.

It was like, oh, I want to be the number one wholesaler, but why not build a huge real estate team as well? Because I understand both worlds at a really high level. And we pass deals back and forth all the time. Our agent goes on a listing appointment, bring a cash offer with you. Wholesalers talking to a seller on the phone, direct to seller, and you know, seller is talking about how they want to sell. Cash offer doesn't work. Great. Refer that to our agent. Why not me keep all of that under one umbrella? That's why one of our

companies is called One Roof, right? Because it was the idea of, hey, we're going to do multiple different things under one roof. We're here to solve a problem, right? And then, you know, when you look at like the media company, it was like, okay, we talked about it on your podcast a little while ago My brand is the reason that any of this even exists to begin with. I wouldn't be here without my brand, period I wouldn't know my partners that I have in my different companies without my brand I wouldn't have any of my people without my brand like nothing would have happened without the brand, right? That's right. And so by the very nature of me pouring time money and energy into my brand You know other people were like,

hey, Austin, you have all these really cool podcast sets, you've got a quarter of a million dollars worth of equipment in between this studio, that studio, training room, you know, can we use it? And I'm like, well, I can't film all the time. That's right. So what is my full-time team doing when I'm not filming? Of course, they have a lot of editing and stuff too,

but I'm like, yeah, come use our stuff. So that kind of turned into Zayback Media of like, hey, you know, we can service other people now we service, you know, quite a few people, right? The education company, you know, we teach wholesaling, right? That was a passion project. I actually told myself I would never educate because I had a really bad taste in my mouth for many, many, many years when it came to the world of education. But it just happened by happenstance.

I'm like, okay, I legitimately own a massive wholesale company. We do a lot of deals nationwide. And so a lot of people are always asking me to teach them. I may as well teach them, right? Sure. That, again, vertically integrated. Mortgage and title, same thing, you know, on the retail side of real estate. You know, the money's not in the deals necessarily when you're a team leader, right? When you run a big team and you're working with people like Zillow and you're working with all these different

vendor partners and stuff, the profit margins aren't great unless you have the ancillary. So, if you don't have your own mortgage company, you don't have your own title company, you have these different things, insurance is a big one, we own an insurance company as well, then you know you're not gonna be very profitable, therefore you're not gonna be able to really grow or scale, right? So that was kind of a necessity by building that company. And then the flipping company that I own, same thing, right? It was like, well we're huge wholesalers and occasionally we have a deal where it's just kind of like,

we can't not buy it. Like, I have to buy it. Like, I look at it, it comes across my desk, and I'm like, dude, I'd be an idiot to wholesale that thing. Yeah. You know, like, I have to buy it. And so, you know, we have to have the flipping company. Do you consider that two companies,

wholesaling and flipping? Totally. Yeah? Two, yeah, because it's different people. And the processes are different. Everything about it is complete. The way that I run it, at least. Ies are different. Everything about it is complete. The way that I run it at least.

I mean, maybe for somebody else, it could be one in the same. If they're a one man guy, they're out there doing it themselves. But the way that I run it, my wholesale team knows nothing about my flipping team. My flipping team knows nothing about the wholesale. Yeah.

You know, so I think it's really respectable to go do business where you have bolt on businesses. Respectable is not the word, really smart, right? And I think we all can agree that sometimes the main thing isn't always the most profitable thing. But if you have the bolt ons that can support the main thing, it becomes this big great thing. Yeah. And I applaud you for being able to kind of vertically integrate. I do remember the season you were in when you had like seven different businesses going seven different ways.

I'm like, I don't get it. But it's your journey. I didn't get it either. I'm cool with it. Yeah. You know, and that was a fun time. I remember being on that podcast as well. That was cool.

It was. So talk to me about what you see, obviously, most besides the media company, I think we're all within the real estate space. What do you see? You had me on your episode, you asked me this question, but what do you see? Let me ask you back. The next two to four years look like in the real estate space.

Well, you know, I think they look very, very good. I think I agree basically with everything that you said a little while ago. You know, I think that I would be very surprised if there was any big market crash or anything like that. You see all the YouTube clickbait, right? You know, and I love Graham Stephan and guys like that, but you know, the market is crashing, right? It's always the market is crashing. I don't think the market is gonna crash, okay?

Again, just my opinion, could crash tomorrow. Nobody knows. Nobody has a crystal ball. I personally highly doubt that it will anytime in the near future. People have way too much equity in their homes. The market they're entering now is completely different than the market. People always compare like today to 08, and it's like totally different, right? Like, I mean, you look at that. It's not even close. So, you know, I think that sure, eventually, yeah, the, you know, history will eventually repeat itself.

It'll be cyclical. Eventually, I'm sure we're gonna have a market correction, right? Do I think it'll be tomorrow? No. Depending on when this airs, Trump might already be in office, right? Whether you voted for him or you didn't vote for him, I think he'll be good for the world of real estate

because he's a real estate guy, right? So you don't have to like the guy. If you're a real estate guy, I think he'll be good for you because I think he's going to make sure that the market does well. What I said on your podcast, what I didn't actually mention the refined thought I have,

why I think in year three, he'll actually bring the Fed rate down to zero is because what happens to real estate when loans are cheap? People buy a lot of real estate and real estate prices go way up. Of course. What does he own a lot of real estate and real estate prices go way up. Of course. What does he own a lot of? Real estate. So I believe by year three,

the smartest thing he'll ever do maybe in business is lower it to zero. Totally. Make loans cheap again. Prices go up and he'll put an extra two to $5 billion to his net worth minimum. Easy. By that one little thing. And anybody that owns real estate. Right, and I'm just like, so it's almost inevitable. Yeah. That at some point in this four year journey

that he's gonna be on, he will make the interest rates drop. Now, a lot of people were thinking like, oh man, now we're gonna get back. It's not gonna be in the first year. No, I can agree on that. I mean, there's just too much he has to unwind. I don't even think interest rates,

I think they might come down a half a point, maybe total in the whole year of 25. Yeah, maybe. Maybe. I think we live in the space we're in right now. I think so. Like wherever we are right now, like the DSCR, I just got approved at seven and a half. That's where we're gonna live for a while. I think we're gonna live there for the rental stuff.

If you had to start all over, and I know you're really young, so take it for a grain of salt, because I think you're going to go through a lot of iterations of what you want to grow and develop and focus on, right? I agree. And respectfully, 30 to 40,

that's a lot of years. Yeah. And you'll get there, but... And I can't wait. I can't wait to be a friend of yours on this journey because you've built something so great already and I can't wait to see the iterations of what you do and don't do.

And as business owners, right, I have multiple business too. It's not always puppy dogs and roses. Oh, you know, walk around shitting gold and saying, oh, seven companies, print money, it's the easiest thing in the world, right? But what do you think the next iteration looks like for you? Does it just grow more of what you have? Is it maybe shed a little? Do you think there's an iteration of where you're going in the next decade? A couple of the companies we

own I think are sellable. Okay. And I think we intend to sell within the next three years. Nice. So I think we're really connected. I have an exit. I want to have an exit. I will have an exit. Are you able to talk about which ones? The space is one of the companies, my retail team. Um, you know, it's never been done, but what we're doing has never been done. Right. So we, we essentially right now, effectively have something that has never been done.

We're a real estate team, not a downline of team operated in four different states across the United States, and we're the fastest growing team in the nation, right? And we have some of the biggest channel accounts, our processes are bar none, I mean it's unparalleled to any team out there, period, end of conversation. It's just a very well-oiled machine, and nobody's ever done that before. People build brokerages all the time. Yeah. It's a different story, right?

I'm talking about a team. A lot of people, Jason Mitchell wrote, a lot of people become a team, and then they eventually become a brokerage? I'm talking about a team. A lot of people, Jason Mitchell, right? A lot of people become a team and then they eventually become a brokerage. They don't stay a team. We fully intend on staying a team. So your brokerage is who? Who do you handle? LPT. LPT we talked about.

LPT, real estate. So I think that we can sell that company and I think we can sell it for a quarter of a billion dollars if not more. So we're working on that. We have a three year game plan of exactly how to get there. Who do you sell to? Like a Zillow? No, Zillow. You sell to somebody like that. Private equity or Zillow. Hmm. Mm-hmm. Somebody in that ballpark of things. Yeah. Interesting. Yeah. So and we've talked a lot about it.

We sat down with some really big people and I think that that's totally doable. You know so that's the goal with that company. You know with wholesaling it's just I think you're like we can can, we can probably get, my partners and me think that we can probably do 20 million a year wholesaling. No kidding. And that's it. There, after that you can't go any bigger. So there's, and I don't know if you know of him, but what used to be secretly by far the largest wholesaler. Yeah. Tragedy, tragic story if you know who I'm talking about, but I actually don't think I do.

I'm blanking on the company's name. But he was and didn't want to be known. Really? Fortunately he did it in a bad way, took on too much debt and ended his life. So it's really sad, right? It's terrible. Yeah. He couldn't have come back.

But I don't know if anyone coming close to 20 million in the wholesale space. I don't think Kegley even does that as a franchise. Not Kegley corporate. I mean, you can't look at the franchises though because that's not one wholesale company. That's true. It's 170 wholesale companies.

Just branded. Right. So you can't, that doesn't, when I compare, when I say like we're number one or number two or whatever, I would only be comparing to Kegley corporate. Right. Not the Kegley franchises. That's right.

Right. And again, I love all the owners of Kegley. I've known them literally forever. And I think we're, hopefully I think the world, and I know I am, I'm more on this collaborative effort than competition. Sure. So, Oh, we collaborate all the time.

Yeah. I don't care. I would rather make $10 with Austin. For sure. And I'll take five and I'll take five then go make 10. We do the OVO Kegley the time. Yeah, I don't care. I would rather make $10 with Austin and you take five and I'll take five than go make 10 and fight along. We do the OVO weekly every day. Yeah.

So you have potential to sell a real estate team. That's why I'm like, because it's never been done. I never even thought you could do it. Yep. Why would Zillow buy it? Or a private equity, why? Zillow, why Zillow would buy it is because they're trying to gain total control anyways.

Right? Like when you're really looking, you start getting under the hood of what Zillow's actually doing right now and what they've been doing for a really long time. Like take Arizona for example. You know, Arizona used to be, you could have flex, okay, which is like you get leads from Zillow and you don't pay them for the leads, you pay them off the top of the commission when you close the deal. Or you could do Premier Agent, which is I pay for leads in a zip code,

you give me leads and I make what I make and that's that, right? And then it became just a flex only market, Arizona did, right? Which is off the top. Which is just off the top, it's the only option. You can't pay for leads, it's just off the top. And then they closed the program and they're like,

okay, we have 100 teams, or whatever they had at the time, on Flex in the whole market, right? And they've been cutting it and I think we're down to about 15 teams in the entire state of Arizona on Zillow. Okay, we're the number one team on Zillow in the state of Arizona, and we're going to continue to do that. And so like that's one,

but like now they have ZHL, okay, which is Zillow Home Loan. So all of this is getting tracked, right? So like if my team, if we stop sending our, if Zillow sends us a lead, okay, and we don't give ZHL the at-bat to get the loan on that lead, then we, if we do that enough times, we would eventually lose Zillow. Yeah.

Okay. So Zillow's becoming really, for lack of better terms, a monopoly. I mean, they want to own every aspect of the transaction, right? And so what better than to eventually own the number one team in America that already is getting, they're already the number one team on Zillow for everything. We're already paying them 35% on any of the leads that come from them. We've proven the model at scale more than anybody in the world. They're the perfect candidate in my opinion. And they have the money to do it. Yeah, interesting.

I like that. I like that. So sell one or two, what next? Again, that's shedding, right? So you're going for an exit, so you're shedding. Do you think there's, you have the want or desire? And by the way, you may not know the answer, but you're so young. Yeah.

And I've done similar things, right, where I've built big and then I've shedded and considered building big and we have a tech company I believe will be a very big, big, big, big company with an exit. What do you think, do you think when you shed you'll want more or do you think you? Yeah, I mean there's two things. I either wanna get big into what you're doing

which would be multifamily real estate and go dive deep into that world, right? The reason I haven't yet is because I'm kind of an all-in-all kind of guy. Once I do that, I've got to do it big. I just have to. I don't want to do it until I have the bandwidth, because bandwidth is really the thing that you've got to be careful with, right?

Totally. My bandwidth is minimal. My calendar is jam packed all the time. So I'm trying to like kind of figure out where I have the time to kind of like allocate to different things. But I could see myself eventually doing what you're doing, what Grant Cardone's doing, what Zach Hapton Stahl, the guy that I was telling you about a little while ago is doing, and really going and raising some really serious capital and buying some really big deals and

like blowing that out of the water, right? And doing it better than anybody. And so I think I could do that. I also really want to get into home services. So I've become good friends with a lot of big home service guys in the valley and abroad. And Cameron's a good buddy of mine now. He just sold Green Mango. Okay.

Pest control for nine figures. And you know, and so, and he's a really good friend now. And Tommy Mello and all these different people. And Cody obviously just started Floor Daddy, right? We both know Cody. So you know, home services would be the easiest thing for me to break into because I already have the database of people that would use the easiest thing for me to break into because I already have the database of people that would use the service.

Like we sell 1,100 houses a year just in Arizona. This year we'll sell 2,000 or 3,000 homes just in Arizona. Is there a reason you don't do that right now? Bandwidth. Yeah. It's all bandwidth. Cause then I would start to vibe like, bro you gotta. Bandwidth.

I would do it tomorrow if I had more bandwidth. Well, if you had the right executive. Need the right executive. Wewidth, you know, I would do it tomorrow if I had more bandwidth. Well if you had the right executive, you need to talk about that right? Would that be worth you going and finding an A level executive paying them $150,000 a year with bumps and incentives to go start that right now? Probably, yeah, probably.

I think time will be right. But I think I will have to be involved though. Oh no, it's for your company. Let's bring it to another question I wanna ask. You have different partners. Yeah, I do. How many? Total, I have different partners

than every company that I own. So every company you have a partner on? Yep. Okay. Every company. Is it a 50-50 type world? Yeah, a lot of, some of them are. Yeah, uh-huh.

Well, all of them or some of them? There's a handful that I own less than 50 and there's some I own more than 50. Okay, that's fair. So why partners? Well, let's answer that. Why partners? You have to have them.

I mean, you can't, in my opinion, do anything at scale without people, the yin and the yang. I mean, I'm only good at what I'm good at, right? I mean, you have two options. You can either hire really good executives, to your point, and maybe you can try to give them a dangle of carrot and say, hey, I'll give you a couple percent equity, or hey, if we have an acquisition, we'll give you some shares, and if we ever sell,

we'll make sure you're taken care of. But at some point, I think a lot of executives, it can be difficult to find, well, first of all, if you're a startup entrepreneur, you can't afford to pay a quarter of a million to have an executive. So, partners are free. So a lot of times, when you're first starting out as an entrepreneur, you can't afford to have an executive.

You have to bring in a partner, because you don't have to pay your partner. That's right. They just get paid on equity, right? When you get paid, they get paid. And so, I think initially that's why I brought in a lot of partners, but then as I continued to scale, it kind of just dawned on me, right? When you get paid, they get paid. And so I think initially that's why I brought in a lot of partners, but then as I continue to scale, it kind of dawned on me that I like doing business,

I like doing life with people, first of all. All my partners are Christian, all my partners love God, all my partners are amazing, just spectacular human beings, every one of them, they're just truly phenomenal human beings. There's zero stress, no anxiety, I don't wake up in the morning and like, what does my partner think of me today? It's like no, the Bible's the foundation. I know exactly what they're thinking that day without even knowing what's on their mind. And so we all are very good friends and we're doing

life together. I think that's very important and I don't need to own 100% of anything. I mean, Elon Musk owns what, 16% of Tesla? Jeff Bezos, I think, owns 12 or 13% of Amazon or somewhere in that ballpark. And I think that, you know, at the end of the day, bringing people that are good at what you're not good at. You know, I'm not an integrator. I'm not a good ops guy. I'm really not even a good CEO. I'm good at being maybe the president of the company, which is what I am now for a lot of the companies that I own. I'm the president, and I'm not the CEO of my wholesale company anymore,

my partner is, I still own the majority of that company, but I'm not the CEO. Sure. And I don't think I would be a good CEO for that company. I'm good at this. That's it. I mean, there's definitely roles in, I think I saw around here, like traction,

rocket fuel in those books, can talk further into that great books by the way Would you tell someone starting out to go get a partner I Think it just depends on like what they're doing You know and and what the goals and stuff are I think if you're if the goal is to do it really big then yeah I would get it I would find a good partner you know what I mean?

Because you're this is something you're gonna be building for a really long time if you plan to do it really big and the odds are not very high that you're gonna do it all by yourself. So I think I would go get a partner. Now, I wouldn't rush getting a partner. I've done that before. In 2024, I actually bought one of my partners out of one of my companies and it was very painful,

very, very, very painful. Devin actually, who's in the room, knows that because we talked about it you know just a little bit but you know that was a painful thing and he was a he's an amazing human being but we it just wasn't it wasn't the right fit anymore you know and that was a tough conversation that I had to have and then I had to write a check right to to buy him out you know so you know you gotta you gotta get in business with the right people.

I've made that mistake and you don't wanna make that mistake. So, if you're sitting there and you're like, I need a partner, that's cool, okay, but take your time. Take your freaking time. And the last thing I'll say is don't partner with the same person that you are. Like, if you're a visionary, you don't need a visionary partner.

You need an integrator. Like, go read Rocket Fuel, read Traction, like, you know, whatever, yeah. So I have slightly different point of view on that only because what you just said. So I just went through a partnership exit that was terrible also. And I think when people are starting out,

they tend to lean towards less partner because I don't wanna do this alone. It's a lot more on the level of insecurity and unsure, and it feels better to do with and more safe and like probably more energy too. I just think it's the wrong reason to do it. I agree. Now, if you're working full-time and like your time's limited

or there's a strategic, like maybe someone's the finance partner and that's what they're bringing because you don't, there's a strategic, like maybe someone's the finance partner and that's what they're bringing because you don't, there's reasons. I just don't love when people are starting things that they go out and partner with their boy because, you know, let's just do it together, it's more fun.

I just don't believe it would be that. Yeah, strategically. Yep. Right, you and I doing a strategic partner on something would make a whole lot of sense, right? But it's because there's value on both sides of the equation. So that's what I mean by going and getting a partner. Like you need to strategically find a partner

that's gonna bring real value to the table. Like I would say if you were going to do a service company, I wouldn't tell you to go get a partner. And the reason why is you are financially at a place where hiring that CEO would be a better financial move. So you do have the control. Now I'm not saying over time maybe there isn't that play or maybe you would partner with someone

who already has it going and you can use your brand, your influence, your authority to build a bigger business on something that's maybe struggling. And so you almost do a M&A type move with someone who's not doing as well and then your brand can escalate, that would be smart for you. It would, yeah.

And I thought about that. That actually is something I'd tell you to look into more. I've been looking into it. Yeah, I gotta pick the industry. I've gotta pick, I know I wanna do home service. One of my buddies just sold a plumbing company for nine figures. You got Pest Control, he's a dear buddy of mine,

nine figures. Tommy Mello, I think, just sold part of his company for four or five hundred million. Should be worth a billion soon. It's pretty wild, A1 Garage. So yeah, you know, it's like pool cleaning. I owned a pool cleaning company when I was younger, so I understand that game really well. The guy that just sold the Pest Control company, Cameron Green Mango, he sold a pool company, but he said he told me he's like, don't do pools. So and there's a lot,

we won't get into why, but so I don't know that I'll do that. I might actually do Pest. We'll see. We're gonna play it by year. I might do Termite, I might do Pest, I might go into that arena. So we'll play it by year. I think, you know, I think what I would say sitting here and watching you now for a decade, I remember when we met in your journey,. I think, you know, I think what I would say sitting here and watching you now for a decade, I remember when we met in your journey, and I would tell you if you guys aren't following Austin, first and foremost, you gotta follow this man. Make sure he has a podcast.

He has so much cool stuff that he can just deliver with true value. So I appreciate who you've become, but I'm really looking forward to this episode and doing this at least every year or so and just being able to look back, dude, because you are incredible of what you've built as an entrepreneur already.

I appreciate you. And you've had iterations of it and I wanna kinda see this journey because if I have to play a gut guess right now, I think you're gonna get a place with your wife who's an incredible human that you're gonna actually probably shed more than you grow. Probably.

And I say that in a great way. I can see that. Because I actually probably shed more than you grow. Probably. And I say that in a great way. We can see that. Because I actually think with your skillset, if you actually harnessed your skillset into more of a one or two vertical type thing, I think the sky's the limit. Yeah, especially. I'm not telling you not to.

I got guys like you in my corner, you know? So yeah, I mean, I'm gonna be calling you to get advice and all the other people that have more wisdom than me at the end of the day that have been on earth longer than me. You know? F***ed up more. There you go. But that's what it takes though, bro.

Of course. You know what I mean? You've been on earth longer than I have. That's it. You've been to more than I have. More s*** sandwiches, I promise. There you go. There's no doubt.

You know? So yeah, I appreciate you. It's going to be a fun ride, dude. Now I'm going to be in your corner the whole way, dude. And thank you again for coming on. Thank you for having me. It's going to be a fun journey. Again, everyone, make gonna be in your corner the whole way, dude. And thank you again for coming on and- Thank you for having me. It's gonna be a fun journey. Again, everyone, make sure you go follow

on Austin's day back on all social media, his YouTube channel, everything he has. He is just a true giver. And I appreciate you being on, bro. I appreciate you, bro. Thank you very much. If you are watching this and this meant something to you, please share this with two people.

If you're listening to it, share it with two people. Make sure you give a five-star review and keep sharing the love. Have a great 2025.