Hi. My name is Rod Khleif, and I'm the host of the Lifetime Cashflow to Real Estate Investing podcast. And every week, I interview multifamily rock stars. We talk about how they built incredible wealth for themselves and their families through multifamily properties. So hit the like and subscribe buttons to get notified every Monday when a new episode comes out.

Let's get to it. Welcome to another edition of Lifetime Cash Flow through Real Estate Investing. I'm Rod Khleif, and I am thrilled that you're here. And we have a very unique guest today. You know, from time to time, I bring you things that are kind of outside the multifamily industry, but I but things that I believe will add value.

So the gentleman we're interviewing today, his name's Chris Long, and, he's a Canadian immigrant and has kind of a unique business model that's real estate related, and I'm intrigued by it actually, I'm frankly interested in it. Haven't told him that yet, just told him now, but sounds very very interesting, and excited to get into it. Welcome to the show, brother. Pleasure to be here. Awesome.

So, you know, why don't you, tell us a little bit about your story, you know, being an immigrant and all that, but then just talk about how this idea came to light and then describe it and we'll go from there. Yeah. Great. Okay. So I'm, I guess, a bootstrapper.

I basically was selling shockwares when I was 14 just to make ends meet and I got into the trades really quickly and When you say trades, you're talking like construction. Right? I'm a licensed carpenter. Okay. I went, you know, did my apprenticeship and quickly came to discovery.

I was in residential real estate. I had 2 houses, turned them into duplexes. I was loving it. It was good. You turned the houses into duplexes.

Correct. So you did the work yourself and threw the kitchens in, all that stuff. All that jazz. Got it. Permits and all that fun stuff.

So then, wasn't long after where I pretty much discovered in, Ontario, Canada is, like, the tenant laws are a lot different than in Florida. Right? If they don't pay, you have to nurture them and hold their hand and we're, like, you know what? I've very quickly learned I don't like that part of it. Yeah.

And and I will tell you, not to not to interrupt, but but that's the we have blue states here in the United States that have similar, you know, and we're not gonna get into politics, but, you know, it's much harder to do business there. They have rent controls, harder in hell to get somebody out, you know, that, of course, you know, we're not even talking about the excess taxation and all that that comes as a result of all that. But anyway, please continue. Yeah. A lot of lot of factors and I was Right.

You know, I but I love real estate and I love actually making change. It's in my DNA whether it's a builder to put up walls or to change landscape. So I had this commercial property I was sitting on and I was sitting on it for a while when I was What was this commercial property? It was industrial property. It's 10 acres.

So it's just land? It's just land. Land got it. Old house. It was grandfathered in.

Okay. So it's an old little blue house Okay. On the entrance and it is quite literally a long yard. So it's 200 feet by 2,000 feet. So it all went together, Chris Long Long yards.

And so I was sitting on it for a while and I always wanted to do this concept. Oh, I'm sorry. Let me let me explain what you just said. So his name is Chris Long. The name of his company is Long Yards.

Okay? So if you didn't understand what he's talking about. Okay. So it it literally is a Long Yard. It literally is a Long Yard.

That's the third little pun. So Okay. We were we basically, you know, I always want to do these these contractor yards. I figured it's a very simple Contractor yards. That's it.

If I need to add tools, trailer trailers, equipment and I couldn't, you know, I'm I'm having a hard time storing them on a little jobs, kind of finding a place to call home for myself for my my construction equipment. So I was like, you know what? If I need this then somebody else needs it. Mhmm. So I I pretty much had to sell my houses to bootstrap it because no lenders, no investors would get people in.

So so so you sold your houses to to go after this business model concept that you came up with? Correct. Okay. And everyone's like, you're crazy. It's not gonna work.

We launched. Within 5 weeks, we released up. Okay. It was just So so everyone said you were crazy. It's not gonna work.

So so, guys, there's some big clues in all of this. Are you gonna encounter naysayers in in your journey here? Okay? Are you gonna encounter and sometimes it's family, you know, and and, you know, they'll tell you you can't do something. I remember my dad telling me, get a real job, you know, and and and and, you know, this whole real estate thing is not a real job.

You know, I'm getting a retirement. I'll have a retirement income. You know how much my mom got from his retirement income? $697 for working for 36 years at Continental Airlines. And he's like, it's a stable job.

You'll have a job. You don't have to worry about the income fluctuation. He got laid off after 36 years. So, you know, but anyway, so so you talked about dealing with the naysayers. You push through in spite of that.

You you built this this long yard Yep. Which is just a place for construction companies and or contractors to park vehicles and store things. Correct? That's it in a nutshell. Pretty much it.

Okay. I mean, we are going more in-depth. I mean, we build a small business community. We help everybody there, but it's more or less, most people just need storage. They need safe storage.

And this is for your industrial, you know, small business economy driven businesses. Sure. So that's what we do. So it's a lot of it is a lot of similar languages like multifamily and self storage, you got multiple units, cap rates, NOI, all that jazz. Okay.

But, yeah, that's basically So so so we're gonna drill down on this a little bit. So when did you open up the facility? Was it in Ottawa? Correct. Okay.

We got the first one in all. When did that open up? That's the one you just described. Yeah. We cut the ribbon October 2019.

Okay. So you've had it 3 years already. So October 2019. Mhmm. And and you basically bought some industrial land, you bootstrapped a quarter $1,000,000 worth of fencing on it, I think you said before we started recording.

Is that correct? Yeah. Because your brother had a fencing company, but, you know, so you put in 6 foot chain link fencing to divide things up. Mhmm. And you mentioned that that, in this model, that fencing has to be, it can't be permanent.

It's it's like depending because you may have one tenant that needs more square footage than another. Is that correct? Correct. So part of our model is to always innovate. And then part of the innovation that we're focusing on is these long boxes we we can get into but also making the fencing movable so the yards move because long yards is a is a real estate play.

It's a land banking play. Right. So we find land, then as the city grows out towards that land, there becomes a different highest and best use. Cool. So we want everything to be, you know, modular, easily moved, and then eventually, you know, you can do a new set of drawings for industrial flex or whatever the case and then Sure.

Like like what he's talking about with industrial flexes is, like, you know, you see these office warehouse example. You got a small office, you got a big warehouse, and that may be a, you know, certainly more, could be more lucrative play once the the market, you know, shifts and and it makes, you know, makes sense to do that. So so you go into an outlying areas where you had this piece of land then? Oh, yeah. Ideally, for corporate, what we're looking for is basically anything outside the city close to a highway that's probably good 10, maybe 20 minutes max drive to the core k.

And and that's where we'll set up shop. And now also, I mean, as the city builds out, you increase your rates just like traditional multifamily Sure. Increase the net, increase the value. So Okay. When you're sitting on this cash cow and you're just milking it, you kinda wanna keep things simple as well.

So Sure. There's always 2 ways. So you say movable fencing. What do you do? Just like concrete, concrete, squares to throw your poles in or what do you do?

Yeah. Depending on the landscape. I mean, you have you can put like a t frame that's weighted down, you know, but obviously strong enough so the weather with the screening can't move it. Or you can actually, pound the posts into the ground, but this the frames move along. So it would depend on the soil conditions and on the ground.

Okay. I'm getting a little granular here, guys. Sorry. I'm getting a little too detailed because I'm personally interested. So I'm I'm getting some of the some of the some of the secret sauce here, but but I I love the idea.

Now and so so you basically just lease this land to contractors, jobbers, and people that need extra storage. I mean, hell, I've got a trailer on my driveway you pulled past when you came in here. I'd love to get out of here. So, you know, I mean, that's more of a residential, I suppose, but yeah. But but HOAs are a big problem.

Right. And a lot of people, they automatically think, oh, boats and RVs. How much more equipment is there than a boat and RV? Sure. You're right.

They all they all have they all these storage needs and and limited availability, and it can become a real pain. I mean, I went by my Nashville asset, and there was a semi just a cab parked up on the upper level of the parking. Like, guys, we can't have that here, and but there's an example of it right there. I dry I ride my bike down our neighborhood here, and this is one house that always has 3 or 4 HVAC freaking vans parked in the front of it. You know, those neighbors hate that.

I don't think there's an HOA, it's how they get away with it. But but so yes. So so there's a real need for that. So I know this doesn't tie into multifamily, guys, but but let's talk about some of the things that you did that that that work in multifamily just like they do that like they did for you. Like, I think you talked about seller financing on one of your deals.

Correct? Yeah. So the first deal, I had to be creative. Okay. I didn't have the capital upfront.

I was bootstrapping. I was a carpenter. Right. So we did a, seller take back mortgage. Right.

So seller finance, it's called here. Right. Seller finance. So, you know, we took back most of the loan Okay. And, basically Okay.

Financed it. Then at that point, said, okay. What's the next step? We need money to develop and then I pretty much went and raised funds. So Okay.

So you raised some money. How much money did you raise? In total, just over $1,000,000. So $1,000,000. And you went to friends and family or or Yeah.

I went to friends, family, social events, Halloween, I was talking about it, any opportunity I could, and and then the money started coming up. So so in you did this in Canada, so I don't know what the structure there is. I mean, did you, like, do a syndication, or did you just set up an entity and give people pieces of the entity? How did you set it up? Just strictly debt.

So I was able to leverage my It was all debt. Okay. It was all debt. Okay. I owe a 100% of it.

So I wanna kinda dig a little deeper on you, Chris, as to I mean, you lived in Canada. Yeah. Why'd you immigrate? Why did you why did you come here? What's driving you know, this push to make things happen?

You bootstrapped this by yourself. Did you have mentors in this? Did you just learn it yourself? No. I had mentors.

Okay. A great coach of mine is Bruce Firestone. So learning real estate at a young age, she was a great mentor of mine. And, I've been fortunate enough to always kind of seek the guidance and the advisors that I needed. K.

So in Ottawa, you know, I kind of felt like I was a bit of a goldfish in what I like to be in a shark in the ocean. So I always wanted something bigger and that's one of the reasons I was motivated to go to where the heat is quite literally Florida. An opportunity, more business friendly. I didn't know how I was gonna make it work here but I didn't care. I figured I'm gonna find a way to make it work.

Okay. Okay. You have a family, kids? I have 3 daughters Oh, wow. And I had nobody here.

I didn't know what's I've never even been to Florida and we were packed with our vehicles driving here. No kidding. We had to take a private jet because we weren't even allowed to cross the border. Really? It was fun.

Yeah. It was we didn't know how we were gonna get here because it was Canada made it difficult at the time to actually leave the country. So with You leased a private jet to come down here? We had to get a private jet to fly across the water because it wouldn't allow us to cross the border. So Good lord.

At one point in Canada, you couldn't leave your house past 8 PM without getting a fine in Quebec. Crazy to yeah. Crazy to me. But anyway, so so how would you be able to push through the fear of taking action on this? I think the fear of not taking action would be greater than the fear of taking of what could happen if I take action.

So how much did that land cost you? Just to get an idea. 470,000. So you paid $470. Was there fear associated with pulling the trigger on that?

Absolutely. What if this doesn't work? So so so so how did you push through that? Because this is this will definitely help my audience. Because there's a lot of them sitting on the sidelines.

They know they need to freaking do something. Incredible opportunity is coming. I don't, you know, I don't care what they tell you on the news. It's coming. Okay?

Trust me. So so, you know, but but fear holds people back. How did you push through the fear? The fear of regret is still more powerful. So I was, like, I wanted something bigger, and I knew in my body there was, like, this anxiousness of not taking action.

And I had to, overrule those thoughts and and push through the fear. Fear of regret. Yeah. You know, I told a story, about this nurse in Australia, hospice nurse, that her name was Bronnie Ware, and so she'd take care of patients when they're about to die, and she would ask them, do you have any regrets? And she wrote a book about it.

It's called the 5 Regrets of Dying. And, you know, the number one regret was not living the life I could have lived, living someone else's life, not doing what I know I'm capable of. I can't think of anything worse than that. Yeah. You know, people fear failure.

Hell, I've failed so many times. It's crazy. I call them seminars. You know, I've built 27 businesses, several worth tens of $1,000,000, but most spectacular flaming seminars. Right?

We fail our way to success. Have you had any failures? I went bankrupt. You went bankrupt? I had a construction company.

I was doing renovations. I got into commercial. We were doing multifamily, commercial development. Wow. I did a I was doing $1,000,000 contracts.

I didn't get paid from a large You didn't get paid. From a large client even though I had to sign off and at the time I couldn't float it. Wow. So even then I didn't allow failure to get my way because I knew I was still had a flame so to speak to build something bigger and I just found a way and the banks wouldn't even finance me. So you did the seller financing?

I had to be creative. I I I you know, guys, I hope you get the lesson there, and that is you just don't give up, and and you keep moving forward. And and so, you know, that's that's I'm really glad I asked that question. You know, I didn't bankrupt. I probably should have because I had 100 of foreclosures, and I almost wish that I had because it would have been cleaner and easier.

But, anyway, so so, I know you so I'm sure the why is the kids, the why is the legacy. Yes? Is that is that am I speaking out of turn? What's your why? I named my construction company after my grandfather, Conrad.

K. Conrad and I ran that since 2012, and I I I put a lot of, you know, love and passion to that, but I wanted something for myself. That was on my mom's side so I wanted long, you know. I wanted the name to be out there and I want to feel like I just came from what I feel like is not the best background, not the best upbringing. So my why was to to show an example that, you know, you can make more out of where you came from.

And for my kids and for my family just to see that, you know, there's you could be great. You could build something great, and that's that's my why. Good. Oh, wow. Okay.

So so to be a an example. To be an example. Okay. Love it. Love it.

So so, what future opportunities do you see for your for your yard thing? What what Well, I believe in the future so bullishly, I sold my house and I was driving to the place of opportunity. So and I also built a franchise out of it. So we are the franchisor, we have a franchise systems and this could be copied and templated. We have the recipe book, we know where the best land, we know the best markets, we know how the best revenue drivers.

Mhmm. So, you know, I'm going in every direction I can to build it as big and as international as I can. I'm very hyper focused in Florida for quality control. And as I'm here organically, I can literally drive out to the sites, oversee construction, which is what we're doing. You've got you've done the one in Canada, and you've got the one now in, Lake where is it?

Winter Haven. Winter Haven. We're building it out right now. Winter Winter Haven. Right.

How big is that one? That one's 6 acres. Six acres. Okay. Okay.

Okay. So so you also have your construction experience Correct. Yeah. To to lean on. Let's let's drill down on a little bit because I think that'll actually help my my my my people that are buying assets that encounter, you know, vendors, contractors that screw them around, you know, and which is very common in this industry.

And so, you know, what are some things that you would suggest to a multifamily operator when they're dealing with contractors? It's a really good question and you experience a lot of pain points very often. Me, as a contractor going through the trenches with it, I would say don't take them at face value. If you're meeting the contractor and they they all sound great, there's a difference between someone that sounds great and that they can execute great. K.

Go and visit their job sites. Mhmm. Take the time. If they're saying they're operating at 123 Smith Street, go see 123 Smith Street. See how their trades are operating, see how they're dressed, see how they communicate when you go up to the job and, you know, is it is it well organized?

Is it is it a is it a clown show on the job site? Right. So the the due diligence is really big and this will there's a few flags at the beginning that will save you a lot of headaches later on. Like I'd say what's one of the biggest ones. Like like what just what you just said this the the organization and things like that.

And you can kind of give them little check marks so during your due diligence of just talking to them, do they schedule meetings? Do they call you when they say they're going to? Do they send you a follow-up email after the conversation? You can actually have 5 to 8 little trustworthy check marks to prequalify them before you even get face to face. So you have to kind of set your boundaries and set the expectation for the contractor and a lot of people forget that, like you have to control the contractor, you know, it's if if they're not doing a good job, it's a reflection of you you and your company, your brand, which is obvious, but these are a lot of things you could do to really stay on top of them.

Yeah. You know, it's interesting, you when you drove in, you probably saw they're building a house right across the street, and you probably saw that I've got tarps all over my buildings here in my compound because hurricane Ian, caused a lot of damage, and the guy over there says, hey, let me bid your roofing project. Well, I've been watching that shit show is really what it is over there, and and the delays and the everything else, I'm like, there's no freaking way I'm gonna let this guy do it. But it's if I hadn't seen that, he had a nice little presentation, had a nice brochure. Yeah.

If I hadn't seen just how, you know, the horrible job he's doing across the street from me, I would never have known. So besides doing that due diligence, how does someone protect themselves, you know, with the agreement and the payments and things of that nature? It's a really good question. Yeah. So during the contract, let's say multifamily, you have you start with demo.

Right? And you have your phases. First of all, get an itemized scope work that's as clear as you can. Mhmm. And then you have every as as more you could have signed off on the job the better.

You even from the type of cabinets, the countertops, type of tile, get as much detail upfront as possible 90% prep and 10% execution. The more prep, the less you have to worry about execution. So it's on you to create this quality control with your contractor. Then once you have all of your line items specifically identified, you have your scope of work right from the demo to the framing to electrical, you actually line it up with your payment milestones. So it's very clear.

After the demo, you do a walk through ideally with the inspector or with the appraiser, with the contractor. Once it's done, they get their sign off, they get to pay, and you you follow that process right through all the milestones right from final occupancy. And with final occupancy, what people should be doing is they should be holding back a larger trunk rather than a small because we all know that last 1% can take 20% of the time. Right. So what you want to do is you want to get really organized near the end and create a very clear execution expectation of the punch list, line item at all, and hold a reasonable amount back which I would suggest around 10%.

Mhmm. And then it gives the contractor a lot of incentive you know, incentivizes them to really To finish it. To get it done. Yeah. Quit screwing around.

Yeah. As kind of an overarching response to this question based on, you know, my listeners, who my listeners are, what advice would you give the listener that hasn't taken action yet, that that knows they wanna do something for their family, maybe fear or limiting beliefs are holding them back, or maybe maybe they're super analytical and they need to check off every single freaking box before they make a move, you know, and you know who you are if that's you. What advice would you give them to maybe start taking action in some fashion? Try to visualize the life that you that you dream of living. Mhmm.

And then ask yourself, do you have the ability to live that life? And if you're being honest with yourself and you really want it, well, then that's what you're risking not having by not taking the leap. Yeah. Yeah. Do you have a team or is it just you?

No. We have a team. Yeah. So so talk about how you built your team and maybe what qualities you looked for when you put your team together. Pioneers, people who are brave, action takers, hard workers, people that are very specialized in their field.

So I built it pretty much by sticking my neck out there. So talk about the different components. So what sorts of people do you have in it? So we have, operations officers who who deals with your daily ops, and we basically we have advisors as well who are more high level. We have business development, marketing and sales, technology.

So this is helping us These are all different people or All different people? Wow. Yeah. That's a lot. Yeah.

So it's all like, you know, we have an acquisition, officer. So he's mainly focused on getting off market deals and it's I mean, we have, you know, those two deals but there's a lot in the works and Okay. As you know, it's like planting a tree. You gotta put a lot of roots in and then water them and then wait for them to come to fruition. So it's a lot of work in the back end before people see the results.

It's like a foundation for a multifamily. You spend a lot of time going backwards and down before you start seeing the surface. And that's what we've been doing for a long time. It's just building a great team, building good systems, spending a lot of time on the due due diligence. You know, I was after I got my butt kicked in construction, I'd rather cautiously take one step forward at a time than get hit and take 5 steps back.

So we've been building the right people around us, taking the right steps, and and but we're moving forward. How are you funding this this this big of an operation? It can't be from one site. There's no way. Well, the one site it so I bought it for 4.70.

Okay. In total, we put around 700,000 into it. Okay. And it got up it's over 4,000,000. Okay.

And it's cash flowing good. Okay. Now And that's based on the NOI? That's based on the NOI. Correct.

Wow. That's good. So that was my very first deal and frankly, I kind of didn't really know what I was doing. So that's some good cash flow. Okay.

That's some good cash flow to get you And the other deals are looking even better. Okay. So we kind of have like the the blue ocean. Everyone's focused on a few spots. We have lots of opportunity.

So what everyone loves that's joining our team about it is there's so much money in the deal that they will be deal specific to the opportunity. I see. Interesting. And that's what holding people back with fear like how do I get started? It's so simple.

The deal is how you get started. Right. Find the deal, you know, and then if you have a good team or you're motivated and have somewhat experience, find the deal and you'll find the money. And sometimes it's not that complicated. No.

You find the deal, you'll find the money. Absolutely. No question about that. So you know what? You know, everybody thinks these paths are easy and now you've only been at it really about 4 or 5 years as it relates to this new business that you're doing, But talk about a time you got your butt kicked, you know, a setback, a failure, that and and maybe the lesson you got from it.

Like, I did a $1,000,000 contract Mhmm. And I had 10 employees. I was a carpenter, and then I didn't get paid. Lost it all. I couldn't even afford to put gas in my truck.

Wow. So what did I do? You know, you sit there for a day or 2. Okay. You get past it.

I put the tool belt on by myself and I went back to 1 employee and I built it up and I built it better and more efficiently. I was making more money with 2 employees than you were with 10. Than 10. Isn't that funny how that works? I've I've had that happen to me more than once in my business career.

I told you I've built 27 businesses and where where you just cut back everything and you're lean and mean and you just kick absolute butt, you know. It's it's very interesting. So what's some of the best advice you've ever received? Man, I say just go for it. Like, I'm a little fearless, it's sometimes if you spend too much time thinking Yeah.

Like, you have to go with the information you have and the gut. Like, you have you have your gut, you know, you have Mhmm. Your stomach. You you gotta trust your gut. You gotta trust your gut.

I talk about that a lot because if your gut doesn't feel right, your brain is incredibly powerful. It can pick up on these micro nuances, especially with other people. Yeah. If you meet somebody and your gut's like, something feels off, trust it because your brain is that strong. And and, you know, I I give the example of, there's a book called Blink and and where somebody, like, they they talk about your, like art experts, best in the world.

They can see a painting and they know it's a fake, but they don't know why they know it's a fake, and your brain is that powerful. So, yeah, your gut's super important. Is there is there you know, from a business standpoint, is there a book, you know, because I'm sure you have people come up to you that ask you, you know, what can I do? How can I make money? How can I be a success like you?

Is there a book that you gift more often than another? I'd say a great book is Money People Deal. Money People Deal. Yeah. Okay.

And that's by a Canadian entrepreneur. I always mess up his last I think it's Stephane Arnio. Okay. Oh, yeah. Oh, oh, I know.

He died. I know exactly who he is. Yes. Black, Black Cardiology. Yeah.

Yeah. Yeah. Very great. He had me on his show or I had him on mine. I can't remember, but I know exactly who you're talking about.

Yeah. And they just started rolling his stuff out again as an aside. I I saw something from Black Card. But so it's what is it? Money, people, deal?

Money, people, deal. Okay. And that's such a simple philosophy because it you know, going back to why you're not taking action, like, so you're overthinking everything. Yeah. Find the deal and that's the biggest chunk and then once you have that opportunity and then you'll notice you're in the game.

Things happen. So and that book is a great example of that. It's just you need the 3 people. You need the money, the people, and the deal and Yeah. You need to typically have 2 and you'll find the 3rd one in whichever order it comes.

I see. Interesting. Okay. So what's your definition of success? What success look like to you?

Doing what you want, when you want, with who you want. Love it. And going wherever you want. Yeah. I'll add that to it.

And being and I'm not by any, you know, a multi multi millionaire, like Right. But for me just to get up and go to Florida with my family and say, you know what? I'm living my own path. There's freedom in that. I don't depend on a boss to tell me what you can and can't do.

I don't ask for a week off. Right. I follow my own path and, like, that is freedom and I wish people would live up to their opportunity to experience that. Yeah. It's sad.

So many people, you know, they they get caught up in comfort and no one's ever been hugely successful that's in the comfort zone. It's just that the 2 don't correlate. And talking about comfort, one thing that I went through, I was I was in union at 18 years old. I was making $27 an hour. Wow.

I'm like, oh my god. This is great. And I I grew up less fortunate. That's called those are called golden handcuffs. And that's what it was.

Yeah. I left it for $12 an hour to be an apprentice carpenter. And everyone again, they're like, Chris, you're crazy. Uh-huh. Sure enough, I was then making a $1,000 on weekend because of the skills I learned.

So it's sometimes, you know, you gotta take a step backwards, you take 5 steps forward that's how it works. Skills. Absolutely. So besides getting really clear on what someone wants, I think that's what you said, For someone sitting on the sidelines oh, you've said picture picture how you could be. Visualization.

Very powerful. What action steps besides that would you recommend someone take if they know they they they want and deserve more for themselves and their family? It's great. And sometimes it's so simple yet so powerful. Create a checklist.

Mhmm. So you have your and I did this when I was 19 years old. Right. It was very simple. I I wanted to, have a duplex.

I wanted to have a certain amount of savings. I wanna have commodities, gold and silver. And So is it you're talking about a goal list, really? A goal list. Okay.

Not a checklist. It's this we're talking about a list of goals. Okay. So a goal list. Okay.

And that's it. And then you you what's it what what do I need to do to get there? And then so you visualize the high level. What's the north star? Star?

Mhmm. And then you got your goals list, and you just relentlessly attack those goals. And you you say no more than you say yes, you shut out the noise, you you you get super focused, and you get really clear, and that's how you get there. You shut out the noise. That's good too.

Yeah. I mean, I just had a boot camp this last weekend, had hundreds of people in it, and first thing we do is goal setting. Because how the hell do you get anything if you don't know what it is? Okay. You gotta know what it is you want.

You gotta know what you want with clarity, and you have to know why you want it. The why is even stronger than what you want. So so, do you have any routines that you live by, like a morning routine? Like, this morning, I got my ass in that cold plunge again. I got a cold plunge back here by my guest house, and I'll tell you, this is like the 6th time I've done it.

Now I'm actually starting to enjoy it, believe it or not. I know that's crazy, but I I got Wim Hof's book about, the Iceman guy that that gets cold. Yeah. Yeah. I got his book, but but do you have any routines that you that you do?

I'm not crazy with routines. I'm a little bit unorthodox in my styles. But, I mean, I hit the sauna. I hit the gym. You do.

Walk the dogs. Okay. And I'm pretty religious with with that. Okay. But it's not like, you know, 6:30 cold plunge.

No. I wake up, grab a coffee, go to work, crunch my goals. And that's that's pretty much my routine. No. That's good.

No. That's good, man. That that but that is a routine, actually. You know what it is. Yeah.

So so let me ask you this, if you could teach school children one thing for an hour a week, what might you do what might you teach them? Finance. Finance. So what do you mean by finance? Well, I think the school system teaches people how to work a job rather than create freedom.

Yeah. And it's counterintuitive because as well, I'm more entrepreneurial and just driven on my own goals, but I think the school system just foundationally doesn't do enough of a job to teach kids to kind of live their own path Oh, we definitely to create their own future. It definitely doesn't. And it's Yeah. And it starts with finance.

It starts with them understanding. It's like, hey, how come both my parents, work jobs were in a typical, you know, nice area and Mhmm. We can't have the life or do what we want when we want. Well, it it comes down to money. It comes down to creating enough income, passive income, ideally that exceeds your expenses.

And I think that framework doesn't get engraved in kids in in school to really mold them to see that in the future. It's just harder to learn that as you're older and it it would be easier as they're younger, I think. No no question. And and and it I think it's a travesty, frankly. They don't teach entrepreneurship.

They don't teach finance. They don't teach you how to raise money, how to find money, how that money really is just thought. They don't teach any of that. Yeah. Emotional management, they teach very little there, and and, you know, and you're seeing you know, and and there's this whole entitled mentality as well, you know, with, with, hey, you know, instead of giving you a trophy for winning, you're getting a trophy just for being there, you know.

And and it's it's and it's creating it's creating a a really a you know, and Stefan talked about this a little bit, your your the guy you mentioned, but it it's it's, it's creating weak Weak men. Weak men. It really is. Yeah. Yeah.

What's he saying? Hard times create strong men, strong men create weak times Right. Weak times create weak men. And I think I think we're in that cycle. We're in that cycle for sure.

Yeah. We're in that cycle for sure. So let me ask you this, when you think of the word successful, what are some of the people that pop into your head when you think successful? Just curious. Elon Musk.

Oh, god. Yeah. Jeff Bezos. We are so so on the same page there. You got some of the high players.

I mean, like, look, we're we're talking about real estate. These people are yeah. He wants to send people to to Mars to a whole different level. Right. But what he's gone through is an inspiration.

You bet. He almost went bankrupt, you know, and look at look at and I love that, you know, the fact that he had the courage and the, you know, the the tenacity to buy Twitter and take on all that hate, you know Yes. And all of that, to try to create a platform that would be honest and and and truthful and and not censored and, you know, so so I couldn't agree more on him. He's he's my hero. And and Jeff as well.

Jeff's extraordinary. They, you know, they they he asked himself, Jeff. He said, you know, if I if I didn't do this, how would I feel versus it, you know, if I did it and failed? And he said I had to do it. And I remember when people were laughing at him because he was gonna sell books online and then he became the wealthiest guy on the planet.

I mean, he buys, you know, now that guy that has a luxury brand is a little Arnault Arnault is wealthier, but but, you know, talking about so much money. Let me ask you this, are there things that you had to cut out of your life to achieve what you've achieved? And if so, what what did you cut out? This is a very good question. Growing up in a difficult neighborhood, you know, I couldn't go out because it's just gang violence at a certain age and I had to cut out a lot of the people that are just poison and toxic to your vision.

And I mean, you know, you gotta you are who you surround yourself with so you kinda got to shed a skin to get to a new layer, to a new level. Yep. That's one of the things I had to learn really young is to separate myself from people that were not aligned with the vision and the goals that I had. And that's hard. It's easy to say.

It's hard to do but you'll find yourself trapped. It's like an eagle wanting to fly that's stuck in the chicken coop. You just gotta get out there. Oh, that's a good analogy. Yeah.

You know, it's interesting. I just had a coaching call with, the person that's helping me prepare for a TEDx talk and that peer group is exactly what just came up. And I talk about it a lot, you know, who you hang out with is who you become, and and and, you know, that you don't allow naysayers to influence what you're doing and so many people default to a peer group that they grew up with or went to school with, which may not serve you, you know, and and you've got to be really careful who you allow to influence you. And sometimes it's family, you know, so, you know, you love them, but you you really clearly define who you allow to influence you. Who do you think has been the biggest influence in your life?

I'd say my uncle. Yeah. What lessons did he eat you? Just, he was so jolly and, it's a positive attitude. It's a very powerful yet very simple, you know, no one wants to be someone around that's like a naysayer or a Debbie Downer.

So no matter what obstacle you're facing, where you are on your goals list, if you're feeling hard on yourself, it's like you got to see the the you got to look on the upside of things, got to be positive, you got to be upbeat. People want to be around someone that is positive and encouraging. So I'd say that's really powerful. He influenced me, to be, you know, to be very optimistic on life. That's a fantastic, thing that he taught you and and huge and, you know, I tell people play to your strengths, for that very reason.

Because if you're playing to your strengths, you're doing what you enjoy, and if you're doing what you enjoy, you're not even working, you're loving life. You're not working another day in your life, and if you're doing what you enjoy because you're and you're playing to your strengths, which ties in together, you're gonna be passionate. And if you're passionate, you have the ability to influence people and raise money like you raise money for your deal. They have to see that passion, and people wanna be around people that are passionate. Exactly.

So playing to your strengths is such a huge piece of that optimism. And, so, you know, why do you think people give up? Why do you think, you know, why do you think people fail or give up? What do you what are your thoughts on that? I think there's a lot of voices in people's heads that are actually discouraging them from the opportunity that they have and it could be their parents, could be their friends Yeah.

Could be an old boss because a lot of people project their fears on you. Right. And, you know, because if you're on your way up and you're going to exceed people around you, they're actually they want you to win but they don't want you to win. No. They they may claw you back because they're afraid of losing you too.

Crabs in the bucket. Or alright. Or they they may claw you back because they wanna they don't wanna feel less than if you succeed. They'll feel like a failure. And so you gotta be so careful who you allow to influence you.

Right? You live in your head, so you have to really protect your thoughts, protect the people, protect who you allow in your thoughts, who's around you. And I think that's what really traps a lot of people. They they live in that dark space and they allow these voices and shadows to live over them without allowing their own voice of strength to just overpower that to do what they need to do. So so how has your life been different than maybe what you've imagined?

Well, I never imagined living in Florida. I never imagined being a franchisor. I never imagined being Why Florida, by the way? Well, was it political? Was it the warmth?

Was it above? Okay. I mean, it's great for family. Right. I mean, you know, we can my daughter sometimes looks like we're having a family day and I take the girls and we go to Disney and Right.

Like, there's magic in that. You can't put a dollar figure especially having the freedom 8 to do that and 8 to be able to drive an hour. Nice. So as a young dad, I'm like And you live in Tampa? Is that where you're at?

Yeah. We live in Tampa. So So you're an hour from me. Okay. It's beautiful.

And that's what and Florida, there's massive migration. Right. Right? So my business is an incubator for small businesses. Mhmm.

So I figured, you know, on the up and up, I'm coming here for business. Let's take a round. Reason, it's a lifestyle reason. It's everything. Okay.

All of that. All of that. Do you have any regrets? You know what? I actually I don't think I do have many regrets.

Okay. You always ask yourself, like, what could I have done differently? But I wouldn't be here if I didn't live the life that I live. Every day. Great answer.

Great answer. You know, I've had lots of failures and lots of setbacks, but they are what made me who I am, made me strong enough to endure damn near anything at this point. And so, you know, that's a great answer. And going back to, like, your thoughts. It's like I I was in a 5 year relationship and this this my partner at the time, she didn't support me being an entrepreneur.

Mhmm. And you know what? Going home and feeling like you wanna just express your excitement with the business but feeling dead, it's like I wish you had a job. These are the things you heard. Mhmm.

And then, like, I had the midnight move. I had to break that chain. So, like but it allowed me to catapult who I am and where I am today. Mhmm. Sometimes it's your partner that's actually closest to you which is the biggest reason holding you back and that is the most painful thing that I think someone can go through to break that chain.

We we actually talked about that on my boot camp this last weekend on Saturday and I asked I asked actually that people come on, I said, you know, how many are dealing with this where their partner doesn't believe in their vision? Says, okay, you know, that may be great for you but no way I'm you know, and and I said, who has gotten past this with their partner, with their spouse? And I had several people come on and talk about how they got past it, you know, more communication, showing them the benefits, you know, and and just holding their hand to get them past their because it's their fear. That's I mean, with your ex partner, it's just fear. It was.

That's all it was. That's all it is. So you gotta get them past that fear. Yep. But but yeah.

And I had the same dynamic in my first marriage. I mean, she she was afraid of what I was doing and and didn't wanna grow, didn't wanna and and that was a that was a, you know, a deal breaker for me, candidly. And and, you know, so so let's talk about leadership for a minute. Yeah. Because, I mean, you're a young guy, but you're a leader.

Yeah. And and so what are you what do you think are some characteristics that a leader should have? Because as we get into this business, you know, guys, when you when you take off your employee hat and you put on your entrepreneur hat to become a multifamily investor, you're gonna become a leader as well. And frankly, honestly, if you're listening or watching me, you're already a leader because you wouldn't be here if you weren't. And let me just say this before you answer the question.

As a leader, you know, for me, one of the biggest things you gotta pay attention to is your focus because there's so much crap out there right now, negativity, the news. Don't get me started on politics. I even get sucked into it. I got sucked into it this morning. And and, you know, and you just really gotta stand guard at the door to your mind to maintain your focus because there are people watching you.

So if you're watching or listening to this, you're already a leader, so be very careful about what you focus on. But so I maybe took some of your thunder away, but what what what are some other characteristics that you feel like a leader should have? I love these questions. I think a great leader leads by action and example. Yep.

Very simple. You can have a great leader that's talking all this fluff, but what are they doing? How are they pushing the goals forward? What are what's their daily activities like? And, you know, there's accountability.

A leader is going to say, hey, I I effed up. I did this wrong. Mhmm. They're gonna take action. They're gonna know, you know, they're gonna have to have their team make sure they're accountable to what they're supposed to be doing.

But at the other day, I'd say a a foundation of a great leader is one that's taking action and willing to lead the charge and to be accountable to any mistakes. Great. Fantastic. I would also add that they have a vision, and they can get people behind that vision. Vision.

Yep. Absolutely. You know, and I don't know if in your organization you're implementing any business strategy, we've used EOS. Are you familiar with EOS from the book, Traction? Entrepreneur Operating System.

Yes. Are you familiar with it? Are you implementing it? Yep. It's fantastic.

Yep. We have a 3 year strategy plan. Fantastic. And we have a vision, and we're Fantastic. So you're absolutely doing it.

Good for you. So what did you have to give up to be where you are? What did you have to sacrifice? I kinda asked a version of that question but but You know, I sacrificed a lot of Need time with the kids, things like that. No party time.

Okay. No, like, weekend clubbing, like none of this fun. There was no fun. It was when I was an apprentice, I'd work 7 to 5 and I work evenings and weekends. I did that for about 8 years and it was just sacrifice grinding 2 jobs.

Even in high school, I was selling chocolate bars and I was going and selling asphalt on the weekends then I had a job on the weekend pushing grocery carts. So I sacrificed my time and been in the trenches just to allow the opportunity to buy real estate to get to where I am and you know you you stack these skills underneath your belt that allow you to catapult to the next level so you got to sacrifice the luxuries of kind of the good life and you have to eat crap for a little bit. Yeah. And I think that's just the pain of the entrepreneur. Yeah.

Everyone loves this entrepreneur lifestyle. They they think it's great looking at it, but have you gone through what the entrepreneur has gone through? Have you eaten crap? Are you willing to give up your weekends for 5 years? That's what I've given up to be where I am.

It's fantastic. You know, and, you know, it's interesting, I remember this prompted a memory for me. I remember when I had 100 of of properties in Denver, but I still lived in a 1 bedroom apartment, and the and the rent was free because I had this balloon business and I put up a balloon every weekend. I climbed up on this 3 story roof, risked my life to put this damn balloon up that said move in special, and an apartment complex, which is kind of ironic because now I this is what I teach people how to buy. Yeah.

And I and, you know, it's funny. This is really triggering some memory. I remember seeing the owner of that apartment complex drive up in his Ferrari. This is in Denver, and this is I'm we're talking see, I'm 60. This is 40 40 40 plus years ago And and thinking to myself, man, that is so freaking cool.

He's got a Ferrari, owns his complex. That's so funny. And and and and and looking back on what I've done since then is just I kind of there's a lot of irony there. So let me ask you this, you know, you talked about leadership. What is there a unique skill set or superpower that you have that you feel like contributed to your success?

I don't know if it would be the the greatest answer, but it's like a stubbornness to persevere. Mhmm. It's like I will just not allow failure. It's a lesson. So by allowing myself to be okay with failing Mhmm.

And knowing that it's just, you know, it's just a It's feedback. It's feedback. That's all it is. That's it. So I think you you gotta, like, lower the expectation.

You you have to see you know, you gotta be very vision focused and create the goals and the the goal check marks, but on the day to day you have to accept that there's gonna be failures and it sucks learning new things. It's hard. Like, I'm learning all these softwares and technologies and I'm like, oh my god. I was a carpenter for 15 years. Right.

Here I am learning all this tech and it's but it's gonna help us catapult the business. So it's okay to learn and to get frustrated not doing things you want them to, but just keep at it. You're gonna get better and you're gonna push through it. Have you gotten any bad advice along the way? It's it's just not finding out people's true intentions fast enough.

Mhmm. Yes. And I I don't Not trusting your gut, maybe? Not trusting your gut. Yeah.

You know, because you have people around you, like, oh, no. You got a bad vibe. This person's not good for you. Right. But you ignore it.

You ignore it. Yeah. And then you kinda sweep it under the rug, and then it takes a while to creep up, and then you got a bigger issue than it And it always does. It always comes back around. You know, I always bring my wife around when I'm doing a really important decision on somebody and, you know, because women have better intuition.

I hate to say it, guys, but it's the truth. You know it's the truth, but but but you can can a man enhance their intuition? Absolutely. But you gotta listen to it. That's the problem.

We don't listen to it very often. Yeah. My wife meets my partners now. Yeah. Same here.

Same here. You know, I take I I try to try to go to dinner and have a couple of drinks and see how they act. And, you know, I tell the story. I had this this one guy COO is gonna be, you know, big big money and and so we took him to I remember we went to Fleming's Steakhouse here in Sarasota, and and it was just something in the way he ordered his drink. And I actually picked up on it, my wife didn't.

But something the way it there's just kind of the aloofness and the and the and the just, you know, just not treating the the server the way I I I try I like to try to treat a server. And I remember he gave me his resume, and one of the jobs that he had, he said the guy had cancer, and so maybe probably shouldn't get a referral from that guy. You know, don't call him. He's got cancer. Well, I'm like bullshit.

So I called him. He didn't have cancer. The guy had stolen from him. And so, you know, it's just that it's just that trust in your gut thing. Yeah.

Definitely definitely, guys, please listen to that. And by the way, guys, if you are getting into a partnership, I have a resource for you. It's questions to ask before you get in a partnership. And if you go to it's on Rod's Links. Right?

If you go to rodslinks.com, it's right there as one of the free books, because, you know, we get excited about getting into a partnership with somebody, and and we allow emotion again. We don't ask all the hard questions upfront. You gotta ask all those hard questions before you move forward, and that book has them all. So so it's a free resource. And I think a great thing to add to that is a date before you get married.

Oh, that partnership. Have a memorandum of understanding. Mhmm. Create your your expectations. Mhmm.

Both of you sign it, and it's gonna be a simple conversation. You both craft what's your here's the vision of the company. Here's our strengths. Here's our weaknesses. Here's what you're gonna do.

Here's your 30, 60, 90 day plan. Here's your 3 day here's your 3 month structure. Yep. Love it. And then 3 months.

Give them the at least the 3 month probation. See how they communicate. See how they follow-up. See if they're executing on Yeah. See see what their work ethic is.

I mean, they're actually doing anything, you know. And and and communication, like you said, critical. And, you know, in the multifamily business, maybe you just do one deal together and see how that goes before you you get married. You know, the dating could be one deal. Very important.

So Yeah. No. Absolutely the case. So in this journey of yours, have you had any epiphanies? Like any, like, 's, like, okay.

Now I get it kind of a thing? I had a few of those. I mean, the biggest one was with Longairds when I leased up my last yard. Yeah. And I was like, uh-huh.

Because I didn't even think about going, you know, bigger with this. I was like, this is good. It's 8 minutes from my house. I can be financially free, cash flow, one deal, life is good. But was like, you know what?

This this works and this is gonna be bigger than I even think it could be and I have a pretty big vision. Mhmm. And that was probably one of my biggest moments. And that's when I went all in. Right.

Right. Right. So what excites or concerns you about this current market that we're in? Great question. What excites me is opportunity.

K. There's gonna be deals coming in. I I think there needs to be a new cycle. It's just it's been crazy. It's too much low interest rates, too much money in the market.

Deals are just multiple bids. Like, it's been too hot it's been really hot for a long time, so there needs to be a bit of a a recycle, I think. Mhmm. So it the opportunities where they're gonna pop up excites me. What I am worried about and I just it's a little bit over my head is everything that's going on with the US dollar Mhmm.

With, China and and them getting off and Brick and all that. Yeah. What that means for us in the future. Like, what's our dollar backed by? Nothing.

You know, that that, you know, yeah, we could I actually I actually had an interview with somebody that sat right where you sat about that very topic and and, you know, it's it's a train heading towards a brick wall, at some point. I mean, they can keep kicking it down the curb. But right now, as we do this interview, we're we're facing a debt ceiling here and, you know, they're, you know, the that I don't know if it's it's almost I don't wanna go too far down that rabbit hole. I I I'm I'm it's almost like it's intentional to me, but but, you know, we'll see we'll see what happens. I I I think it's, it's it's some of the stuff that's been happening is a travesty to this country.

You know, and the inflation inflation is caused by one thing, and that's that's printing money. And they've been printing money like freaking crazy, and that's what causes inflation. And so, you know, it's really painful, you know, and then they then they they they try to curb it by raising the interest rates, which is it's it's we're heading for a commercial real estate calamity. I'm just gonna tell you right now. I mean, there's 1,600,000,000,000 in commercial real estate debt that comes due by the end of next year.

And real estate is not selling, and and you have to either refinance or sell, so and the rates what's happened with the rates? And if you don't have the income, the NOI, to support a debt service coverage ratio, you know, basically, you know, commercial real estate's based on the property's ability to service the debt, not the person's, And if you can't cover that debt service coverage ratio, you're gonna have to throw a lot of money in. A lot of people don't have a lot of money. This is why I know there's gonna be incredible opportunity in this business. It's it's inevitable.It's gonna happen. But there's also, you know, we could see a lot more bank failures because a lot of that debt is with banks. And so, you know, I I think there are several things that could be a catalyst for this calamity, but I I do you know, I'm a bear. I really believe it's coming. I don't know, you know, if you feel otherwise, if you're more of an optimist.

I know you're an optimist, but as it relates to the economy, but, you know I mean, you see it coming. I mean, there's so many writings on the wall and you can only print so much money. I mean, everything Right. If every currency has been backed by nothing has gone to 0. No.
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And and and, you know, and they've put this brick currency together that's backed by golden commodities, and and, you know, and that makes a hell of a lot more sense. But Yeah. You know, I but there is I will tell you, I did see an interesting article where there's still so much that has to happen before the reserve currency could change, just because, there are a lot of things that China does with their currency that manipulates it, which is why, you know, there's a lot of there's a lot of dubious, it's dubious to to to to hang your hat there because they manipulate it, so badly. You know, we do as well, but I think it's maybe it's a little more transparent because we just print money, but I you know. But anyway, is there a question that I didn't ask that you wish I'd asked you?

No. I think it's been great. I asked a lot of, you know, trying to encourage listeners to take the leap. But, No. It's been good.

Okay. Well, I really appreciate you coming on the show, brother. It's been a lot of fun. Right. You've got a really unique business and, you know, yeah.

So I I actually wanna talk to you about it a little more, but I I I think I'm gonna get too micro for this podcast. So one other quick thing. We encounter so many people that are frankly frustrated. You know, they're looking in the mirror and they're frustrated that they haven't been able to escape the rat race. They haven't been able to build cash flow to the point where they're able to have financial and time freedom with their families.

You know? And maybe they see other people buying real estate and creating, you know, incredible cash flow, and they think, well, it's just scary. You know? Buying apartments is intimidating, and I get it. See, that's why we created our warrior mentorship program.

They're our coaching students, and they've had extraordinary results. My students, I've been teaching about 5 years own upwards of a 140,000 units now that we know of. Right? And we feel like it's just getting going. Now we're looking to grow this group and really take it to the next level and honestly believe that the greatest transfer of wealth could be upon us right now with this current economic environment.

Everything's going on sale. So we're looking for people who wanna follow a proven framework, really like a blueprint or a map, literally step by step. And then they're able to leverage our systems and our incredible network to raise money and equity, to find deals and close those deals and build partnerships really nationwide. So if you're interested in finding out more about how you can become more in our incredible network and take advantage of the unbelievable opportunities that are upon us, you can apply to my warrior mentorship program by texting the word crush to 72345, or you can go to mentor with rod.com. And what we'll do is we'll set up a call so you can check us out, and we can check you out and see if it's a fit.

Now, again, you can go to mentor with rod.com or text the word crush to 72345 to apply, and we will speak soon.