In the world of entrepreneurship, success stories often serve as a source of inspiration and guidance for aspiring business owners. One such story is that of Jerry Norton, a successful entrepreneur in real estate and software development. Through his journey, Jerry has not only achieved remarkable success but has also imparted valuable lessons to others seeking to follow in his footsteps.
From the importance of passion and community building to the power of perseverance and continuous learning, Jerry's story offers a wealth of insights for aspiring entrepreneurs. Passion and Long-Term Vision Jerry Norton's success can be attributed, in large part, to his unwavering passion for his work and his clear long-term vision. Throughout his career, Jerry has consistently pursued opportunities that align with his passions, allowing him to stay motivated and dedicated to his goals.
By following his passion, Jerry has been able to build a business that not only brings financial success but also provides a sense of fulfillment and purpose. His story serves as a reminder that pursuing one's passion is not only rewarding but also essential for long-term success. Community Building and Authenticity Jerry Norton understands the power of community and the importance of fostering authentic connections. He emphasizes the value of building a strong network of like-minded individuals who can offer support, guidance, and collaboration.
From the importance of passion and community building to the power of perseverance and continuous learning, Jerry's story offers a wealth of insights for aspiring entrepreneurs. Passion and Long-Term Vision Jerry Norton's success can be attributed, in large part, to his unwavering passion for his work and his clear long-term vision. Throughout his career, Jerry has consistently pursued opportunities that align with his passions, allowing him to stay motivated and dedicated to his goals.
By following his passion, Jerry has been able to build a business that not only brings financial success but also provides a sense of fulfillment and purpose. His story serves as a reminder that pursuing one's passion is not only rewarding but also essential for long-term success. Community Building and Authenticity Jerry Norton understands the power of community and the importance of fostering authentic connections. He emphasizes the value of building a strong network of like-minded individuals who can offer support, guidance, and collaboration.
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00:00 The biggest way for your wife to not believe in you,
00:02 or your spouse to not believe in you,
00:03 is to say you want something, say you have a dream,
00:06 but then don't do it.
00:07 Hey honey, we're buying these two properties.
00:10 You want to win someone over about what you're doing,
00:12 show them some result.
00:14 Her family was like, yeah,
00:15 they're going to be moving into the basement soon.
00:17 Like that's what they thought.
00:19 But sometimes you have to believe so strongly in your dream
00:23 that you're willing to make the sacrifice
00:25 and willing to go alone.
00:27 I did five wholesale deals in my first month full-time
00:30 and made $52,000.
00:32 Wow.
00:33 Now at the time, that doesn't sound like much now,
00:34 but it's-
00:35 It's double your income.
00:36 And it was, to me, it was all the money in the world.
00:38 And so what I did is at the time I couldn't afford
00:40 to go buy like the CDs from the greats, you know?
00:43 So I went to the public library
00:45 and I checked out of the library,
00:48 Tony Robbins and Tom Hopkins and Brian Tracy
00:51 and Zig Ziglar was like one of my favorites.
00:54 And while I'm driving around in a little pickup truck,
00:56 looking for some distressed house,
00:58 they're in my ear, the whole time in my ear.
01:01 And that was the greatest transformation
01:04 that ever happened to me,
01:05 was just thinking in a different way.
01:08 (upbeat music)
01:25 - Welcome to the show, Jerry.
01:26 - Thanks for having me, Jeff.
01:27 - All the way from Puerto Rico?
01:29 - Yeah, I came here just to be here
01:31 with you on this podcast.
01:32 - Oh, well, that means the world to me
01:34 and you brought your lovely wife.
01:36 So I got to hang out with her as well.
01:38 It's so cool.
01:39 - Thank you for the tour.
01:40 - Oh, my pleasure.
01:41 - It was fascinating.
01:42 I mean, we walked around in your shop with WeBuild
01:44 and we saw your models and Everbull.
01:45 I mean, it's incredible what you've built here.
01:48 - Well, thank you.
01:49 Thank you.
01:50 It's an incredible team we have, you know?
01:52 Definitely not the brains behind most of it.
01:54 More the inspiration, but it's a collective group
01:57 and I appreciate that.
01:58 - You know what though?
01:59 I feel your passion for it.
02:01 You know, like that's not something that you,
02:04 that's something you feel from an entrepreneur, I think.
02:07 I feel that from you.
02:08 So you believe in what you're doing
02:09 and you love what you're doing.
02:10 And so that makes it special, I think, right?
02:13 When you're doing something that has meaning.
02:15 - Well, I think like anything,
02:16 if you don't love what you're doing,
02:18 you're not going to be successful at it.
02:19 - You know, for me sometimes,
02:20 'cause I've been doing real estate for so long,
02:22 20 years now, sometimes I catch myself
02:25 where it's just another deal, it's another widget,
02:27 it's another dollar.
02:29 And I'm at a stage in my life now
02:30 where I don't want to be looking at it like that.
02:32 I want to be looking at the projects
02:34 like with a whole lot more meaning.
02:36 I kind of wish I did that more sooner,
02:38 but you know, when you're in the hustle,
02:39 it's all about, can I make money?
02:40 And that kind of takes precedence a lot of times.
02:43 - And the formula, right?
02:44 - The formula, yeah.
02:45 - So with that, let's jump right into the software
02:47 'cause that's kind of the next phase for you.
02:49 And we'll come back to real estate
02:50 'cause I'm fascinated with where Jerry's going
02:53 and then we'll get to where Jerry was and more.
02:55 - Yeah, I kind of try to identify a little bit like you,
02:58 more like a serial entrepreneur, but not totally
03:00 'cause most of it's all real estate related.
03:02 But I've been in the education space a long time,
03:04 been in the deal, like transacting
03:06 and investing space for a long time.
03:09 And a few years ago, we did a software
03:11 and it kind of rolled really well with my education stuff
03:15 because it was specifically for flippers,
03:17 like wholesalers and flippers.
03:19 And when we built that software,
03:20 it was basically just like,
03:21 hey, let's take all these Excel spreadsheets
03:23 that we use to do the business
03:24 and let's try to make it now more like a software.
03:27 And so we hired this development team from overseas
03:31 and it was like a shoestring budget,
03:33 kind of sort of like an afterthought.
03:35 It sort of kind of turned into a real thing.
03:37 Like we started getting a lot of subscribers
03:38 and very niche type of software.
03:41 And we just learned so much.
03:42 Like when you do your first type of thing,
03:44 I'm not a software guy, I just kind of had ideas
03:46 and brought in software people, sort of.
03:48 I mean, it was kind of like a janky software team.
03:51 And then I got to a point where it was like
03:54 a bolt-on product.
03:55 Like we just kept adding and adding and adding.
03:57 And I don't know if you've ever been on a software
03:59 where you're like in there and you're like,
04:00 what is all this stuff and why are there so many things?
04:03 And I tease people, it's like, it's called Flipster.
04:06 But it's like a Lamborghini that people use like a bicycle.
04:10 (laughing)
04:11 Unwittingly, but like, it's just.
04:13 - That's most software.
04:14 I mean, most of us-- - A lot of software.
04:15 - With our iPhones.
04:16 - Yeah. - The power of our cameras
04:17 on our iPhone. - Yeah, oh my gosh, yeah.
04:19 - Most of us are not, I mean, you could shoot
04:21 a Hollywood movie with the quality of the camera.
04:23 I mean, that's better than it was 20 years ago.
04:24 - Insane. - Yeah.
04:25 - But I hated it 'cause it was kind of like,
04:27 man, I've made this cumbersome,
04:29 I've made it, it's kind of a little complicated.
04:30 It's still amazing, we have a lot of users
04:31 and it does some really cool stuff.
04:34 But what happened was is another software in our industry
04:36 sold for number 175 million.
04:41 And I had no idea that that was even a thing.
04:44 I'd never been like an IPO guy or,
04:46 I never created anything thinking I'm gonna start it
04:49 with the intent to sell it at some point.
04:52 - With an exit in mind.
04:53 - Yeah, I never did anything with an exit in mind.
04:54 I mean, other than deals, but that's the whole point
04:56 is an exit. - Right, right.
04:57 - But like a business.
04:59 And so when I saw that happen, I thought,
05:01 well, what the heck, I wonder what my software's worth.
05:04 And so I started going down that road
05:05 and I quickly realized I gotta fix so many things.
05:09 Why don't I just start over and do a new software?
05:12 There's a whole, all these other things
05:13 I wanted to do anyway, but do it right.
05:16 So I did it right, like I hired the best development team.
05:20 And I mean, it's just been fantastic.
05:22 It's called PropWire, but it's a free software.
05:26 So we kind of followed Zillow.
05:28 The data, you can search data.
05:30 So this is a real estate people looking for sellers mostly,
05:33 but it's a real estate data software
05:35 where you can search in any market
05:36 and then download the data for free.
05:39 - Which is amazing.
05:40 - Yeah, because all the other models,
05:41 it's a subscription base.
05:42 You get a certain amount and then they upsell you
05:44 if you want more data.
05:45 So it ends up being sort of pricey
05:47 if you're actively using the data.
05:49 But then in real estate,
05:50 you have all these other ancillary services.
05:52 Like you skip trace to get phone numbers.
05:54 You might wanna do some text blasting
05:57 or you might need some virtual assistants
05:59 or a title company, all the different kind of components.
06:02 So then what we're doing is we now either are investors
06:06 and owners in those other services,
06:08 or we have affiliate relationships.
06:11 And so now the idea is we bring millions of users
06:14 for the free data and now they're all using the...
06:18 So now it monetizes really well.
06:19 - You created a town hall
06:20 and you've now set up an ecosystem
06:23 which you've given enough value
06:25 that everyone wants to be a party to.
06:26 And then you can figure out yourself
06:28 or whoever will acquire it one day
06:29 how to monetize it the best way.
06:31 - And what I'm about to say here,
06:33 you'll really understand,
06:34 but for me, it's still a foreign concept.
06:37 We're not profitable on the software
06:39 and I don't even care.
06:40 - Right.
06:41 - As long as I can keep funding the development
06:44 to make it better,
06:46 and as long as we keep bringing on more users,
06:49 I know the value's there
06:50 because we literally will have millions of users
06:53 on this software.
06:54 And that's what I really care about.
06:55 - And most software takes many years to be profitable.
06:58 - Yeah.
06:59 - If you're looking to,
06:59 and that's important for anyone who's like,
07:01 "I'm gonna go do this."
07:02 You either need to be well-funded
07:03 or have the resources yourself.
07:05 - Yeah.
07:06 - Because if you're worrying about monetizing it too soon,
07:09 you're gonna prevent that attraction of all that community,
07:12 which is so paramount to the long-term viability of it.
07:15 - But as a business guy growing up,
07:17 I've never done anything where I couldn't very quickly
07:19 see how this is profitable.
07:21 - Right.
07:21 - So it's just a whole new world for me
07:23 to kind of be in that type of mindset.
07:25 - But you're-
07:26 - But it's forcing me to be a real,
07:27 like grow up, you know what I mean?
07:29 - When your priorities change from deals
07:32 to an exit in mind,
07:33 and the exit, the value of the exit,
07:35 do you care if you lose a million dollars a year
07:37 for five years, but sell for 175 million in six years?
07:40 - Yeah.
07:41 - That was very profitable.
07:42 - Right.
07:43 And that's literally what it is.
07:43 It's costing me a million dollars
07:45 to just operate this software,
07:47 a year or more to operate this software
07:49 with maybe a big number down the road.
07:51 - Sure.
07:52 - But what happens is,
07:53 is when you do something that monumental,
07:55 then you have to have a passion
07:58 and a belief in what you're doing.
08:00 That has to be such a driving force.
08:02 - Oh, for sure.
08:03 - 'Cause it takes so much vision to be able to do that.
08:04 - And if you don't, it's gonna feel like a job.
08:06 And that means that it's not gonna be on your brain 24/7.
08:09 You're not gonna be thinking about it in the shower.
08:11 And so all of that compound--
08:12 - Or you're gonna shortcut.
08:13 - Or you're gonna shortcut. - You're gonna look
08:14 for shortcuts. - That's right.
08:15 And all that compound growth that happens.
08:16 I mean, this is, I talk about this a bunch with my kids
08:19 because I say, yeah, I think about my businesses
08:22 all the time 'cause I'm passionate about it,
08:23 which means, yeah, I might only be in the office
08:26 for nine hours or 10 hours or six hours that day.
08:29 But when I'm in the shower and I'm thinking about it,
08:30 that compounding mind and brain power creates ideas
08:36 and connects dots that maybe I wasn't gonna connect
08:38 for six weeks, 12 weeks, 15 weeks.
08:40 If my competitors aren't as passionate,
08:42 I'm just light years ahead of 'em.
08:44 - Yeah, and you know what's fascinating about that to me,
08:45 Jeff, is people watching right now or viewing this,
08:49 a lot of your viewers are young, early in their journey,
08:54 or maybe aspiring to be an entrepreneur.
08:56 And what I tell people all the time is,
08:58 this is all developmental.
09:00 - That's right.
09:01 - You know what I mean?
09:02 If you've got fears or there's things holding you back
09:05 or you're still in that fall on your face a lot stage,
09:08 that's just developmental, it's okay.
09:10 - That's right.
09:11 - You know, like we tend to, I did certainly early on,
09:14 we tend to start to define ourselves
09:16 or we can define ourselves by our mistakes.
09:19 But really now, if you can have the foresight,
09:22 it's all just developmental.
09:23 - And you should, when you pivot,
09:25 when you mentally pivot from thinking about mistakes
09:28 as mistakes to understanding that your mistake
09:31 is actually what you should be cherishing
09:33 and you should almost wear as a badge of honor
09:35 to say all those mistakes actually create
09:38 what you end up monetizing the best.
09:42 All the ways that don't work
09:43 means you are that much closer to the,
09:44 it's like in sales.
09:45 I mean, I was an outside sales rep and a telemarketer.
09:48 Every no, my first sales job at ADP,
09:51 they had a model, 50 calls gets you five appointments,
09:53 five appointments gets you two deals.
09:55 If I call 43 straight people and they say no,
09:58 five of the next seven should be a yes, right?
10:01 I'm that much closer to my yes.
10:02 - You're that much closer to a yes.
10:04 - Yes.
10:04 - And when people who struggle are like,
10:06 oh, I can't take another no.
10:08 - Yeah.
10:09 - And I look at a no, it's nice.
10:10 I have to get through 45 no's to get my five yeses.
10:12 - Well, and like, I couldn't build
10:14 a world-class software today
10:16 had I not tried and not built
10:19 a world-class software previously.
10:21 You know what I mean?
10:21 Like, so it's just all developmental.
10:24 Everything that people, you're going through,
10:26 look at it as a developmental phase.
10:28 When you started out,
10:29 you weren't doing all the big things you're doing today.
10:31 - And hopefully 10 years from today, I say the same thing.
10:34 - Right?
10:35 'Cause growth never stops.
10:36 - No.
10:37 - And that's where we need to make that passion connection.
10:39 'Cause you have to love,
10:41 and this is, I think a lot of people get stuck,
10:43 like, do I love everything about what I do?
10:46 No.
10:46 - Of course not.
10:47 - But the end I love.
10:48 The bigger picture, the what we're building.
10:50 - The game.
10:51 - The game, the challenge, the journey.
10:53 I enjoy it.
10:54 I mean, yeah, there's days I hate what I'm doing
10:56 or I'm upset or whatever,
10:59 but the bigger picture is what excites you.
11:03 It lights your hair on fire.
11:04 - One thing I love about what you do, Jeff,
11:06 is you kind of look at business and it's just all a formula.
11:09 And I've listened to some of your content
11:11 where you talk about how,
11:13 in all the businesses you're in,
11:15 as far as the mechanics of the business,
11:17 you don't actually know or have expertise in.
11:20 Right?
11:21 You're building a lot of things
11:22 and you're not swinging the hammer
11:23 or know how to run the saw or whatever.
11:26 But what you do know is you do know the fundamentals
11:29 and the principles of business,
11:30 and that now can cross into really anything.
11:33 - Right, and that's a big stopper for a lot of people
11:36 'cause they go, "I need the experience."
11:37 And I think experience is the most overrated prerequisite
11:40 to start a company or be successful.
11:42 'Cause I can read every book about real estate.
11:45 I can take all of your courses and follow all your content,
11:47 but if I don't ever do a deal,
11:50 I'm never gonna get that first experience until I try.
11:52 I need the knowledge, and knowledge is important.
11:55 Right?
11:55 And you should.
11:56 You should become as educated in these fields as possible.
11:58 I don't know how to swing a hammer,
12:00 but I'm researching construction companies
12:01 and I'm learning from people who are doing it
12:03 and how are they scaling their business.
12:05 Same in restaurants.
12:05 - And you know what needs fixed or what needs built,
12:08 how much it's gonna cost and what it'll sell for.
12:10 You know that.
12:10 - Yes, and the hack I use is I use public companies.
12:14 I don't think enough entrepreneurs realize the power of that.
12:16 So whatever your field is, whatever your industry is,
12:19 public companies share quarterly all this information.
12:23 So in the restaurant space,
12:24 I can listen to McDonald's every quarter
12:26 and hear from their CFO, their CMO, their CEO,
12:29 what are the challenges they're expecting,
12:31 what are they working on.
12:32 During COVID, Domino's in their public filing
12:35 in their quarterly was talking about
12:36 how important third-party delivery is gonna be
12:38 and how important apps are gonna be.
12:40 What does that mean for Everbol?
12:41 Guys, what are we doing about third-party delivery and apps?
12:44 - And AI, whatever. - Chipotle was doing
12:45 the same thing.
12:46 And now you're seeing Chipotle coming out with AI
12:48 and robotics and how they're cutting avocados.
12:51 I can wait until everyone else is there and go,
12:53 man, my restaurant, I'm behind.
12:55 Or I can be proactive and say,
12:56 I mean, knowledge is everything, right?
12:58 I mean, you're in the educational space.
13:00 So you're a provider of that.
13:01 And I'm consuming, I mean, we talked off air,
13:05 but I'm now dipping my toes more in real estate
13:08 and I'm consuming, I mean, I was consuming your data,
13:11 your content. - Thank you.
13:12 - Yes, I mean, it's fascinating and learning and saying,
13:15 it's not only what and how to do it,
13:17 but it's also, is this the right area or niche
13:19 inside of that, is it for me, right?
13:21 'Cause real estate's so broad.
13:23 - Yeah, there's so many different ways to do it and yeah.
13:25 - And flipping, is that for me or not?
13:28 Wholesaling, is that for me or not?
13:30 Long-term rental, is that for me or not?
13:32 Short-term rental, is that for me or not?
13:33 Development, and so the only way to learn is to consume.
13:36 And when you started, and I love the,
13:40 I heard a version of this story, I want the real one,
13:43 I want the direct from the source.
13:45 But when you started real estate, that wasn't your plan, A,
13:49 and I don't know if your wife was 100% on board.
13:52 - Oh yeah, yeah, well, yeah,
13:54 because she had grown up in a nine to five,
13:58 her dad worked at the same company for 30 years,
14:01 you own one house, you retire with a pension.
14:05 So that mindset was very prevalent.
14:08 So here I'm like, this struggling guy to pay bills.
14:12 - In construction?
14:12 - Yeah, underground construction.
14:14 Yeah, it wasn't real estate construction,
14:16 but it was underground construction.
14:17 - What is underground construction?
14:18 - Well, it was utility work.
14:20 So it was outside in Michigan on the weather,
14:23 I'd come home muddy, have to take my clothes off at the door
14:26 before I could come inside, like that was my life.
14:29 We started a family right away, we had a couple young kids,
14:32 and I mean, I'd always wanted something better,
14:35 I just didn't have the formula, and I didn't have mentors,
14:37 and I wasn't exposed to it.
14:39 You know, like I look at my kids right now,
14:40 I'm like, man, you guys are exposed to so much
14:43 that I just wasn't exposed to.
14:45 And whether you take advantage of it or not is up to you,
14:47 but you know what I mean, I didn't even have the exposure.
14:49 - I love that you said that,
14:50 'cause the Mathis twins have a saying,
14:52 exposure leads to expansion.
14:54 - Yeah.
14:55 - It is such an accurate statement.
14:57 - Like, I just commend people watching this right now,
14:59 because this wasn't even available when you and I started.
15:01 - That's right.
15:02 - Like information like this, it wasn't around.
15:04 - I mean, even YouTube.
15:05 - It was behind a paywall if it was around.
15:06 - Correct, and you had to even know
15:07 that there was that opportunity.
15:09 - Yeah, yeah, so I just, but I wanted it,
15:12 I was hungry for it, so when I started in real estate,
15:15 you know, my wife was like, no, no, no, no,
15:17 this is not safe, this is risky.
15:19 And I had to, there was this pivotal moment
15:21 where I had to say, do I do it anyway?
15:24 You know, and this is very common
15:27 for a lot of business people that start, right?
15:28 There's usually someone that's kind of the brakes,
15:31 and I see a lot of dreams crushed
15:33 because of just somebody with fear,
15:35 and it usually is a spouse, or it can be a spouse.
15:38 And so she was very against it.
15:41 - What was the impetus for real estate?
15:43 'Cause you're in underground construction,
15:44 but why did you say?
15:46 - I mean, I just, what happened was,
15:47 is like most people, I read an article that said,
15:50 you know, 80% of millionaires are in real estate.
15:52 I said, okay, well, my margin of error, you know,
15:54 like, okay, maybe that's what I should do.
15:57 And I had the same misconception everybody else does,
15:59 that you have to have money to make money in real estate.
16:02 And certainly there's some truth to that,
16:03 but you don't have to have money to get started,
16:06 and you don't have to have money
16:07 to do a lot of aspects of real estate.
16:09 There is really low and zero down ways to start transacting.
16:12 - Sure.
16:13 - But most people don't know that.
16:14 They just think you got to have big down payments
16:16 or all this money or access to money.
16:18 So when I started to learn that there was a way
16:20 to do real estate and transact real estate,
16:23 where I didn't have to have money,
16:25 that was very appealing to me because that was me.
16:27 I didn't have money, I didn't have credit,
16:28 didn't have resources, connections, none of those things.
16:31 But, you know, going back to my wife, I just did it anyway.
16:34 You know, against her wishes.
16:36 - You said, honey, this is what I want to do.
16:39 She said.
16:40 - At first I did it on the sly,
16:41 like I didn't even tell her.
16:42 - Okay. - Right?
16:43 And then we're, we had a baby.
16:44 By the way, we have 10 kids.
16:46 So this was, I think, kid number three.
16:48 We're on our way from the airport,
16:49 and I'm thinking to myself, you know,
16:50 this property I'm buying is like right around the corner
16:52 from here, maybe now's a good time to tell her.
16:54 - Had you already purchased the property?
16:56 - It was under contract, yeah.
16:57 - Is this the first one?
16:58 - One of the first ones, yeah.
16:59 And it wasn't the first one,
16:59 but it was in the first little while.
17:01 - So you had, you owned the property,
17:03 and she didn't know.
17:03 - Yeah, yeah, she didn't even know.
17:05 And so I said, I drove by,
17:06 and this is not a good neighborhood, by the way.
17:08 This is like bad area of Detroit.
17:10 - Okay.
17:10 - So I take her down this neighborhood,
17:12 and she literally has got a, we just had a baby,
17:15 you know what I mean?
17:16 Bad timing.
17:17 Don't ever, by the way, don't ever tell your spouse
17:18 you're investing in real estate when you just had a baby.
17:21 Bad idea.
17:21 And I said, "Hey, I'm buying,"
17:23 and there was like two properties they were close by.
17:24 I said, "Hey, honey, we're buying these two properties."
17:28 And she's like, looks at me like,
17:29 she just breaks down in tears.
17:30 Like, what are you doing?
17:32 And her family was like,
17:33 "Yeah, they're gonna be moving into the basement soon."
17:35 Like, that's what they thought.
17:37 Like, oh my gosh, who did our daughter marry?
17:38 They're gonna be moving into the basement next week.
17:41 But here's what I tell people.
17:43 What I did to win her over is I quickly got to success.
17:48 Okay, so like, you wanna win someone over
17:51 about what you're doing, show them some results.
17:53 It doesn't have to be big results,
17:54 but just show them results.
17:56 What I think a lot of times is men in particular,
17:59 and this could be either way,
18:00 but we say we're gonna do things
18:03 and then we lack the integrity to do it.
18:05 And the biggest way for your wife to not believe in you
18:08 or your spouse to not believe in you
18:09 is to say you want something, say you have a dream,
18:12 but then don't do it.
18:14 So I had been telling her,
18:15 I have a dream to own my own business.
18:16 I want a better life for us.
18:18 But that was just lip service until I actually did it
18:21 with or without her support.
18:22 - That's right.
18:23 - So then what happened is, this is a really funny story.
18:24 I'm not sure if you heard this story,
18:25 but early on I did this wholesale transaction,
18:29 which is just flipping my contract.
18:31 And the guy that bought this,
18:33 he paid me $4,000 in bills, like $100 bills.
18:38 - Oh, wow, cash, cash.
18:39 - Cash, cash, yeah.
18:40 And I'm driving home, looking over,
18:43 are someone gonna come run me off the road
18:45 and take this cash?
18:46 So what I do is I go home, she's not home,
18:48 and I put like $100 bills all over the house
18:51 with sticky notes that say, thank you for believing in me.
18:54 I couldn't do this without you.
18:56 And then she comes in and I'm like lying on the bed,
18:59 you know, like this with money everywhere, naked, no.
19:04 - Could have been.
19:05 - Maybe I was.
19:07 - I mean, 10 kids.
19:08 - And it was just this moment of like,
19:13 where for her, it was like, look at you doing your thing.
19:17 Look at you doing what you say you're gonna do.
19:19 Even though I haven't been supportive of this,
19:22 there was a proud moment of,
19:24 at least you're having integrity with what you say you want
19:27 and what you're gonna do.
19:28 But she quickly got on board and I took that $4,000
19:30 and I said, honey, this is going in a jar
19:33 and this money is only being used for babysitting
19:36 so that we can go out on date night and have time together
19:38 'cause you're a priority to me.
19:40 I wanna make money, I wanna do business,
19:42 but you are a priority to me.
19:43 And we did for years, that was like our babysitting money
19:46 out of that jar.
19:47 - That's fun.
19:48 - But I wanted to share with her like,
19:50 hey, come with me on this journey.
19:52 And now she's just been amazing and so supportive
19:54 and helpful and you know,
19:56 but sometimes you have to believe so strongly in your dream
20:01 that you're willing to make the sacrifice
20:03 and willing to go alone.
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20:31 - It's a want until you, you know, it's a hope.
20:39 - Yeah.
20:40 - It's not anything until you take that first step.
20:43 - Yeah.
20:44 - But what was that first step?
20:45 I want to go back,
20:47 'cause you said you did a little bit without on the slide,
20:49 but what was the first thing you did?
20:51 'Cause for a lot of our audience,
20:52 like they are still working in a construction job
20:55 or some job and they want to transition to entrepreneurship.
20:58 - Yeah, well, what's great about real estate
20:59 is there's a niche strategy called wholesaling
21:01 you'd mentioned earlier.
21:02 And the idea there is go find a great deal
21:05 from a seller who's, it's a distressed property
21:08 and the seller needs cash really quickly.
21:10 So there's an urgency and they would take convenience
21:14 of a cash transaction to get and give a discount.
21:17 - Yeah.
21:18 - Okay, so, and these are all over the place, right?
21:20 It's work to find them, but if you find them,
21:22 then what happens is you can contract
21:24 with a purchase and sale agreement.
21:26 You can contract to buy that property at a discount,
21:28 but then you don't have to be the buyer
21:30 'cause that contract is assignable.
21:32 So then you make the deal on a piece of paper,
21:35 but then now here's investor over here who does buy deals,
21:38 does invest, has cash, has resources,
21:41 and he will love to have that deal
21:43 and he'll pay to buy it and he'll pay whatever his price is,
21:47 he'll pay whatever the difference is with your contract.
21:49 - So you can upcharge it.
21:51 - Yeah, so in simple terms,
21:52 and this is no different than what you're doing, right?
21:53 Where you explained to me exactly wholesaling, right?
21:56 Where you're getting it direct
21:58 and you're selling it with a markup.
22:00 And the buyer's happy to do it
22:01 because they didn't have to go source the deal,
22:03 you did it for them.
22:04 - That's right.
22:04 - So same idea.
22:05 And so like if I get it for 5,000,
22:07 but they'll pay 10,000, I get to make 5,000
22:10 without owning it, without renovating it,
22:13 without tenants or insurance or on title, none of that.
22:16 So it's just transacting paper.
22:19 - So how did you identify and find a good deal
22:22 with zero experience?
22:24 - Zero experience and at the time, no data, no technology,
22:28 none of these things we have now.
22:29 So there is a technique, it's still prevalent today
22:31 called driving for dollars
22:32 where you literally drive around in a neighborhood,
22:34 look for distressed property.
22:36 - Distressed meaning rundown.
22:37 - Rundown, yeah, gutter falling off,
22:40 vacant, dilapidated, grass this tall,
22:43 clearly someone neglecting.
22:45 Maybe they live there, maybe it's an investor
22:47 who just isn't doing anything.
22:48 And then you try to contact that seller
22:50 and you make an offer to buy it for cash,
22:52 assign your contract to the actual end buyer.
22:55 - So you found a property, it was distressed,
22:59 you contacted them, how many did it take till you got a yes?
23:02 - Oh, hundreds.
23:03 - Oh, really?
23:04 - Yeah, that's the part.
23:05 - So wholesaling is the most simple business model
23:07 you could ever dream of.
23:08 Everyone complicates it.
23:10 'Cause you're like, it can't be that simple,
23:11 so I'm gonna complicate it
23:12 and now I have a reason why I'm not doing it.
23:14 Have you seen that in business?
23:15 - Yes, all the time.
23:16 - Like when you were walking through
23:17 and explaining to me what you're doing,
23:19 the concept of what you're doing, Jeff.
23:21 - Simple.
23:22 - It is so simple.
23:24 I didn't say easy, but it's very simple.
23:26 And what you've done now is you've just scaled that model,
23:28 brought the resources in, but.
23:30 - Almost every business is simple.
23:31 - It's very simple.
23:32 - I mean, is Amazon complicated?
23:33 It's an online retailer.
23:35 - It is the most simple thing.
23:36 Why do we make things so complicated?
23:39 Now, what's hard is building a business
23:40 around that simple thing.
23:42 That's hard. - Of course.
23:43 - 'Cause you gotta develop yourself, develop a team,
23:45 motivate everybody, moving parts, like all the things.
23:48 But that's the only thing that's hard about wholesaling
23:50 is scaling or running a business at wholesales.
23:52 But the actual transaction of a wholesale deal
23:55 is the most simple thing you can imagine.
23:57 And so, like I quickly, I'm like, I'm not a smart guy.
24:00 I'm barely a C student in high school, but I get this.
24:04 But now, am I willing to go out there and hustle?
24:06 Can I take the nose to get that one yes?
24:09 Right, and I just drove around and I did it.
24:11 At the time I did it, before work,
24:13 if I had time on lunch breaks,
24:15 after work and on weekends. - Just kept doing it.
24:17 Just kept doing it. - I just side hustled it.
24:18 And one thing I did do, I think,
24:20 that kind of maybe separates me from others
24:23 is I never had a plan B.
24:26 So it wasn't like, hey, I'm going to try this.
24:28 I have a lot of people that come into my programs
24:30 and training and get into the business
24:32 'cause it does attract like a get rich
24:34 'cause it's like fast money.
24:35 So it attracts a lot of people who want money with no work.
24:38 Then they quickly realize this is work and I'm out
24:40 and I'm on the next cool thing.
24:42 So that wasn't me.
24:44 I was like, I'll put in whatever work it takes.
24:46 And it's not if it'll work, but it's when it'll work.
24:49 And I think when you have that mindset
24:50 when you go into business,
24:52 then you hit these walls, you climb over them.
24:53 You hit another wall, you climb over it.
24:55 You screw something up, you get back up on the horse.
24:57 Like that was me, just screw up until I figured it out.
25:01 - Yeah, you're going to Kaizen your way there.
25:03 1% better every day.
25:04 - Yeah, and that was kind of how I started
25:06 doing the business.
25:07 I still was very fearful.
25:08 Like I didn't quit the job.
25:10 What I did is I said, okay, well,
25:11 I'm going to save up enough money
25:12 doing these little transactions
25:14 until I have enough to replace my annual income,
25:17 which was not much.
25:19 It was like $25,000 or whatever it was at the time.
25:21 And then when I did the full-time plunge,
25:24 I did five wholesale deals in my first month full-time
25:28 and made $52,000.
25:30 - Wow.
25:31 - Now at the time, that doesn't sound like much now,
25:32 but it's- - It's double your income.
25:34 - And it was, to me, it was all the money in the world
25:36 at the time.
25:37 - Of course.
25:38 - And then it was like, I found my thing, I can do this.
25:42 And it was just straight ahead.
25:44 - How many more can I do?
25:45 - Yeah, and one thing I did though,
25:47 I think that maybe more important to all of this,
25:49 and I heard you say this briefly before we were recording is
25:53 you know, entrepreneurship is probably all,
25:56 it's mostly mental, like maybe 80, 90%
25:58 your own self-limiting beliefs.
26:00 We get in our own way.
26:02 And so what I did is at the time I couldn't afford
26:04 to go buy like the CDs from the greats, you know?
26:07 So I went to the public library
26:08 and I checked out of the library,
26:11 Tony Robbins and Tom Hopkins and Brian Tracy
26:15 and Zig Ziglar was like one of my favorites.
26:17 And while I'm driving around in a little pickup truck
26:19 looking for some distressed house, they're in my ear,
26:23 the whole time in my ear.
26:25 And that was the greatest transformation
26:27 that ever happened to me was just thinking
26:30 in a different way.
26:31 - You changed, you actually invested in your brain.
26:33 - Yeah.
26:34 - And your process, how you approach things.
26:36 - I mean, that was the development of myself
26:39 was just everything.
26:41 And so like I look back and I would have paid a million
26:44 dollars for the CD player, at the time they were CDs,
26:47 the CD player in that little beat up truck
26:49 was worth more money to me in perspective
26:52 than anything else I could have ever done.
26:54 - And I think you're hitting on something so important,
26:57 right, because as we go through life, as we're struggling
26:59 and we're saying, I'm doing everything I can,
27:02 are you?
27:03 What are you watching at night?
27:05 Are you watching Netflix or are you on YouTube
27:07 learning from great content, educational content
27:10 that can empower you?
27:12 Are you listening to your favorite music station
27:15 or are you listening to podcasts and audio books
27:17 in something you were striving to do?
27:19 I don't listen to a ton of music, it drives my family crazy
27:21 because I look at my, what I call my windshield time
27:25 as opportunity to continue to learn new things
27:28 and whatever it is, like right now I am actually learning
27:30 about real estate because I, I mean--
27:33 - It's important to you now.
27:34 - It's an investment area I wanna focus on.
27:36 I realized I don't have a good allocation there.
27:39 A lot of millionaires there, a lot of my friends
27:40 do really well and I'm like, what is a longterm plan
27:45 and real estate just, they're not making more land.
27:48 - Yeah, I love that you say that too
27:49 and that's a cultural, that's a cultural thing.
27:51 Like in our family, we are a podcast family.
27:55 We don't do any, and our kids have now grown up
27:58 in a podcasting family or a YouTube family.
28:01 Like when we're driving as if, and now when they're
28:03 on their own, they're on podcasts, our teens.
28:06 - Yes.
28:07 - They're not listening to music or whatever
28:08 and they like music, but I mean, they're podcasting.
28:11 - And it's okay to listen to music.
28:12 - Yeah, I'm not saying that either.
28:13 - But treat it like, to me, treat it like dessert.
28:14 - Yeah.
28:15 - Don't make that your meal, right?
28:17 Unless you're completely content with where you are.
28:19 If you do not need to learn anymore and you're like,
28:22 I'm in my zone, I'm having the success I want
28:24 and I'm gonna listen to music, go for it.
28:27 But if you're not where you wanna be
28:29 and you're struggling and you're really trying,
28:32 but you're not capitalizing on that,
28:34 what I call that windshield time or that shower time,
28:38 that's the margin.
28:39 Everyone else is learning in the same eight to five.
28:41 Like you had the eight to five or nine to five job.
28:44 It's what you do when no one else is around that extra bit.
28:47 And like you said, what kept you going
28:49 with all those no's was Zig Ziglar.
28:51 - Yeah.
28:52 - Brian Tracy.
28:53 - Yeah, they're like, even to this day,
28:55 they're like my heroes because I had such an emotional
28:58 and mental transformation that now they're like,
29:01 they're like iconic to me because they were such
29:04 an important part of my development, my life.
29:06 - So you did something that I found fascinating.
29:09 It was 2014, I think, when you started creating content.
29:13 You were very early to the record.
29:15 You recognized early the power of personal brand,
29:18 the power of creating content,
29:20 and then utilizing that content to grow a business.
29:23 We talked, I'm very late to that party.
29:26 What inspired you to do that?
29:29 'Cause you're making a ton of money in real estate,
29:31 but now you started to turn towards education and content.
29:34 What was the pivot?
29:36 What made you pivot to that?
29:37 - I didn't quite have the same realization
29:40 that you're having, which is,
29:42 when I build a personal brand,
29:43 it's gonna bring so much connection to my businesses.
29:48 For me, I was already in the education space,
29:51 so I was selling products.
29:53 A lot of it at the time was home study type of programs.
29:56 Those were very prevalent for a long time.
29:58 - Prior to the real estate content.
30:00 - Yeah, prior to just social media
30:01 really becoming a content platform.
30:04 It didn't really start out that way.
30:05 It used to be cats on YouTube, right?
30:07 But it quickly turned into a content place
30:10 where people are really learning.
30:12 Education became a big part of it.
30:14 So at the time I was selling products
30:16 and it was pay to play.
30:18 We'd run ads, we'd get a customer.
30:20 I loved it.
30:20 It was like, awesome.
30:21 How much money can we spend?
30:23 What is the return?
30:24 Let's spend more money.
30:25 Let's get more customers, sell more products.
30:27 But what was starting to happen, and I felt late,
30:29 what was starting to happen was,
30:30 is I was starting to see the free content come on the scene.
30:34 And I was just looking ahead five years, 10 years,
30:38 and I thought to myself, the home study course
30:41 is going to be a thing of the past.
30:43 It's gonna be gone.
30:45 And what was happening at the time,
30:46 you'd see this, maybe you remember this.
30:47 I still see this today and it cracks me up.
30:49 You'll see where like on YouTube or somewhere,
30:51 you'll say, hey, here's steps one, two, three.
30:54 If you want steps four, five, six, buy my course.
30:56 Like that's what it used to be.
30:59 And so what I did while that was happening,
31:01 what I did is I said, you know what?
31:02 I'm gonna stop selling a home study course
31:04 and I'm gonna give it all.
31:06 And I'm not gonna hold back
31:08 and I'm just gonna give so much value.
31:10 I'm gonna take the paywall down for the information.
31:14 And then, but you know, I'm still a business guy.
31:16 So then what it was, was it was software, coaching.
31:20 And we have like a finder program where you can find deals.
31:22 We have different things.
31:24 And I took my course that I used to sell and now it's free.
31:27 Like here's a free, and it's good.
31:29 - And that's like really good.
31:29 - It's a $1,500 course that we now give for free.
31:33 And so I follow a very unique strategy.
31:35 Maybe, I don't know if viewers will find this relevant,
31:37 but what I like to do is I like to give
31:40 not just good information, but we give a lot of resources.
31:44 - I think you have 47 giveaways on YouTube.
31:46 - Yeah, okay, yeah.
31:46 So you know, yeah.
31:47 And we're always, now it's up to 50 something
31:49 'cause we're always thinking of
31:51 what is something really beneficial
31:52 that people need and want and can be helpful?
31:55 So contract, a checklist, a script, whatever.
31:57 Every business has them.
31:59 And we used to put those things behind a paywall.
32:01 Well, I give them all for free.
32:03 Just carry go free, free, free, free, free.
32:05 Now they opt in, they join a mailing list.
32:07 And now I've taken them off of social media
32:10 because who owns that fan, that subscriber?
32:12 - You do.
32:13 - Well, before you take them off, the platform does.
32:16 So YouTube owns my 500,000 subscribers.
32:19 I don't own them and they could turn me off tomorrow.
32:21 - True. - Technically, right?
32:23 But if I get them off of YouTube and on my mailing list,
32:27 now they're my customers.
32:28 I can email them anything I want.
32:30 I can offer them special promotions.
32:31 I can get to know them better.
32:33 So that's kind of been our model is,
32:35 and we build, I mean, we build 20,000 email opt-ins a month.
32:40 - Wow.
32:41 - And then now they're in our funnels.
32:43 Now we can offer them special promotions.
32:44 We can watch their behavior.
32:45 We can give them what they want, what they don't want.
32:47 - Yep.
32:48 - But now they're on my email list.
32:50 Now they can opt out if they're no longer interested,
32:52 for sure, but I mean-
32:53 - But you're giving so much content and value,
32:54 why would they?
32:55 - Right, and so now when I say,
32:57 hey, watch this training to learn about an offer,
33:01 they're like, well, this guy gives me,
33:03 this guy gives me really good information
33:05 that he's not charging me for.
33:06 He gives me amazing resources that I get to use for free.
33:09 I want to listen to what he has to say.
33:10 - You've earned the right to ask them to do something.
33:12 - Law of reciprocity.
33:12 - That's right.
33:13 - Yeah, and that's just been an amazing business model
33:16 because now I'll meet people in the airport
33:18 and they're like, man, you changed my life.
33:20 So 90% of what I do, people get to do for free.
33:23 I don't get to make money on it.
33:25 But then what's happening though is it's starting to,
33:28 it's a long game
33:29 because you got to play the long game with this, right?
33:31 Is people are now willing to buy whatever I have to sell.
33:35 The few times that happens, they want it
33:37 'cause I've built rapport.
33:38 - And it's so premium at that point, right?
33:41 Because you've given them all of the entry level
33:44 and light advanced and advanced,
33:45 but now it's like a lot of people want to learn,
33:48 but now they want to work with Jerry.
33:50 They want to actually work with you.
33:51 - But what I didn't realize, Jeff,
33:53 is what you're doing right now,
33:54 which is I did not realize how much more opportunity
33:58 would come my way by having a personal brand
34:01 and having a social presence.
34:02 - Yeah, I mean, I only learned this,
34:04 I only committed January 1st, 2023.
34:06 - And it's totally fine because, I mean,
34:07 what you're building in your businesses
34:09 is just astronomically, I mean, it's just amazing.
34:12 So I think what you'll do is you'll do
34:14 a little different than me,
34:15 is I think you're going to jump to the front of the line
34:16 way faster because you can have whatever high profile person
34:20 on your podcast you want because of your business accolades.
34:23 You know what I mean?
34:24 So that's going to be helpful.
34:25 - It helps.
34:26 It definitely helps.
34:27 And the relationship capital.
34:28 - You don't want to skip like the C and B level guys like me
34:30 and go right to the pro athletes and the, you know.
34:32 - I did, I spent, similarly, I did the long game
34:35 20 years ago of building relationship capital.
34:38 And I always used a concept of bug light.
34:41 I went to law school to be a sports agent.
34:43 And the idea there is I'm not the talent,
34:46 I represent the talent.
34:47 So I've always had that mindset where,
34:49 when Neil Patel was my partner, he was the big name,
34:52 I don't need the attention.
34:54 So I would sell Neil's name and we'd go together
34:57 and it was all about Neil.
34:58 - And now you're Link though.
34:59 - Well, he's my buddy and we used to do business.
35:01 We were partners.
35:02 He's now a very good friend, right?
35:04 So Neil can open doors for me.
35:05 - Now Dan Fleisman, these really high profile people.
35:09 - And I never thought of it that way.
35:11 So kind of like how you gave away free value,
35:14 I just enabled others and stood in the background
35:17 and just did business and connected dots and did what I did.
35:20 And now I realize I've earned the right
35:23 to invite Drew Brees to come in here.
35:25 He'll sit with me for an hour.
35:26 We'll have a conversation
35:27 and I'm now sitting with Drew Brees, right?
35:29 Or I'm sitting with Shaq or whoever I'm with.
35:31 Those opportunities, similar to you with the email opt-in,
35:36 I used to do my version of give it all away for free,
35:39 not caring about a personal brand
35:40 until I finally realized through the help
35:42 of a lot of my close friends and mentors and investors
35:45 that said, "Jeff, you need to get out there
35:48 "a little bit more.
35:49 "You have more value to give."
35:50 And I don't care about fame
35:52 and I don't care if people come up to me in an airport
35:54 and know my face or don't.
35:56 I want to lead with value.
35:57 I want to help as many people, but I'm also a business guy.
36:00 And I want to attract my community and tribe
36:03 into what I think, and I want to give them value
36:04 and enable them to be successful
36:06 and connect them to my company.
36:08 - Yeah, and so you're playing that strategy really well.
36:11 I mean, it's because what'll happen
36:13 is it will land you those big deals.
36:16 It'll get your circles, it'll get even better and bigger.
36:19 - It compounds.
36:20 - It compounds, yeah.
36:21 It's interesting.
36:22 And I live in Puerto Rico part of the year
36:24 and I'm doing some deals there and I bought a hotel.
36:27 And then solely because of the little bit
36:32 of a brand name I have,
36:34 I had one of the largest real estate investors
36:36 in Old San Juan.
36:37 He's like the majority commercial property owner.
36:40 He contacts me and says, "I've got two hotels.
36:44 "I want to partner with you on my hotels.
36:45 "I see what you're doing."
36:47 But he has no idea who I am
36:48 other than I have a personal brand.
36:49 And that just lent a lot of credibility enough.
36:53 And he's reaching out to me and I didn't know who he was.
36:56 And I was blowing him off.
36:58 And then finally I say, "Listen, if you come out to me
37:00 "and meet with me at my house, then I'll sit down with you."
37:04 And he's like, "Okay, done."
37:05 I mean, this guy's a billionaire.
37:06 I make him drive from Old San Juan
37:08 an hour out to where I live.
37:10 We're sitting in my little gazebo office
37:12 and it dawned on me very quickly like,
37:13 holy crap, this is like,
37:15 I cannot believe I just made this guy
37:17 come out to me and chase me.
37:20 But that would have never happened.
37:21 I could have had all the same success in real estate,
37:23 doing all the same deals, no personal brand.
37:26 He wouldn't even have known to reach out to me.
37:29 - Well, and this goes to my own self-limiting beliefs.
37:32 'Cause I think a lot of people
37:33 on the other side of the camera or see
37:36 that people who have had a level of financial success
37:38 or business success or real estate success,
37:40 and they don't think we deal with the same issues mentally,
37:44 the same insecurities of imposter syndrome.
37:47 - Oh, totally.
37:48 - I think the personal brand side,
37:50 especially the super young,
37:52 not yet accomplished anything in business or in life,
37:55 but they're just getting out there and getting started.
37:58 And they're on that journey.
38:00 There's a time where you need to have some success
38:03 and put in the hard work.
38:05 And that doesn't mean you can't continue to work
38:06 on a personal brand simultaneously.
38:08 But if I'm 18 years old and I just graduated high school
38:11 and I've never run a company,
38:13 I can do a lot of posting on content,
38:17 but can I talk intelligently yet about business?
38:19 No, I got to do it maybe about something I learned
38:21 in high school or how I'm going to tackle the world
38:23 and do it differently.
38:25 And I never felt like I was needing to do that until now.
38:30 And I think same with you,
38:31 but you're kind of just articulated.
38:33 And so that personal brand side needs to coincide
38:35 with success in your market, success in your industry.
38:39 - I think one of the biggest mistakes I see
38:41 is that exact same thing where people recognize
38:43 that there's a real need for them to be on social,
38:46 but then what happens is they're coming on social
38:48 and they're trying to be Jeff, they're trying to be Jerry,
38:52 they're trying to be whoever when they don't have yet that.
38:56 And that's okay, just be you.
38:58 And whatever level of success you have on that level,
39:01 people will actually respect you even more
39:03 if you're not being what you're not.
39:04 - Actually, share, say, you know what guys,
39:07 I'm new in real estate, I'll be honest.
39:09 I just got, I mean, I've owned personal houses and stuff,
39:11 but this year I made a commitment to invest in real estate
39:14 and be a real estate investor.
39:15 I'm a real estate newbie.
39:16 If I created my own channel, it would be saying,
39:18 guys, join me on my journey as I figure this out.
39:21 I'm not a real estate gazillionaire
39:23 and I don't know how to flip houses, I'm gonna learn.
39:25 And together, if you follow me, I'll make mistakes.
39:28 You can watch those real time.
39:29 Like that's the way to do content if you're a rookie.
39:31 - I would watch that content, yeah.
39:32 - Don't be the expert.
39:33 If I come on and go, guys, I'm Jeff and I'm-
39:36 - I'm gonna tell you everything I've done,
39:37 my one deal I've done.
39:38 - Yeah, my one or two deals,
39:40 come here to learn about all the expert stuff I have,
39:43 I'm not authentic, right?
39:44 So I think that that's the pivot.
39:46 And so for me, now that I'm doing this personal branding
39:48 thing, I'm much more aware of what I see out there.
39:51 And I think the issue for a lot of people
39:53 building a personal brand,
39:54 they're like, maybe like me, feeling insecure about it.
39:57 I didn't do it, even though I had sold companies
39:59 and I'd made millions of dollars.
40:01 I was like, well, what is my personal brand gonna be?
40:04 And I felt insecure.
40:05 And so I think if you're on the sideline
40:07 without a personal brand and you're saying,
40:08 well, I haven't accomplished things yet,
40:10 share your journey to become accomplished.
40:12 If you're a teacher and you're like,
40:14 watch me empower 50 students this year
40:17 to get better grades in math, science, whatever it is.
40:19 If you're a firefighter, talk about your conditioning
40:22 and how you're doing that and how you're learning your craft.
40:24 If you're in construction, if you're in real estate,
40:27 whatever it is, share your journey
40:29 from where you really are.
40:31 And I think people want vulnerability.
40:33 - Hey, fitness fans, ready to crush your fitness goals?
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40:38 where becoming a member starts at just 9.99 a month.
40:41 Gyms are open 24/7 and packed with the latest gym equipment
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40:47 What are you waiting for?
40:48 Give them a call, drop by,
40:50 or hit up jefffenster.com/eos to join.
40:54 Eos Fitness, better gym, better price.
40:57 Now let's get after those goals.
40:59 - Yeah, you know what?
41:03 Self-awareness and being vulnerable
41:05 about your own faults and your own failures.
41:11 When I see someone who's willing to share that
41:14 and still move forward and still see success,
41:17 for me, I have tremendous respect for that
41:18 because it's real.
41:19 - Yeah, well, I mean, like you have
41:20 half a million subscribers on YouTube.
41:22 I won't lie to you.
41:23 We celebrated when we hit 500 YouTube subscribers.
41:27 I was excited.
41:28 It's 500 people that made a commitment to push a button
41:31 and say they want to join our channel.
41:32 And you know what?
41:33 One day I hope I have millions,
41:35 but I'll never forget the first 500
41:37 'cause that's the hardest.
41:38 - But you're embracing the journey.
41:40 - Well, I love it.
41:41 I love that.
41:42 - And so then it doesn't matter
41:42 because you'll keep doing the work.
41:44 And it's interesting for me, like on the content,
41:47 people ask me all the time,
41:48 well, how do you decide what you're going to do
41:50 or what you're going to do content about?
41:51 And they're certainly like,
41:53 well, what's the algorithm want?
41:54 Like there's some strategy and that's smart
41:56 to think about your titles and things like that.
41:59 But at the same time,
42:01 mostly what I'm doing is I'm just sharing what I'm doing.
42:04 Here's the deals I'm doing.
42:05 Here's why I did a deal.
42:06 Watch me put the deal together and that's it.
42:09 And so, like you just said,
42:12 if you can actually be authentic,
42:14 be real about who you are, show what you're doing,
42:18 increase your skills the whole time
42:19 because you are on the most competitive platform ever.
42:22 The content world now is so competitive
42:25 that somehow you have to separate yourself from the masses.
42:29 - And you have to give your tribe a reason to follow.
42:31 And that's what we're trying to do on the Jeff Fenster Show
42:35 is we're trying to share the success formula
42:37 of incredibly successful humans
42:38 that are outside of what I do, right?
42:40 'Cause I've been successful at what I do.
42:42 You've been successful at what you do.
42:44 And there's common traits, but we approach it differently.
42:47 And we approach it from a different upbringing
42:49 and different life circumstance.
42:51 And I don't have 10 kids, I have two, right?
42:54 - It's a good start, Jeff.
42:55 - Well, thank you.
42:56 We're not working on any more, but thank you.
42:57 And you stay on that side of the table.
43:00 But what I think is amazing about you, Jerry,
43:03 is you have so many built-in excuses
43:06 that prevent people from achieving success,
43:09 and you've compounded them, right?
43:12 I have three kids or four kids, I can't afford,
43:15 I can't, you have 10.
43:16 I mean, you've shown that the number of children
43:20 doesn't stop you.
43:21 You had a spouse that wasn't supportive to start.
43:23 You didn't have a family that said,
43:24 "Jerry, we're all behind you day one."
43:26 You had to overcome that.
43:28 You didn't have all this upper education, Harvard MBAs.
43:34 Grew up down a dirt road in an old farmhouse
43:36 in rural Michigan.
43:37 - Right. - Like, yeah,
43:38 didn't have any of those things.
43:39 - You didn't come from all this money that gave you the,
43:42 so when you look at that and you look at Jerry
43:44 and you see where you are today, I think it's so amazing.
43:47 And I love, the reason I'm doing the show
43:49 is I want everyone on that side to say,
43:51 "You know what?
43:52 "I might not have 10 kids,
43:54 "but I have a lot of the same challenges Jerry had
43:56 "when he was doing it."
43:57 And you know what?
43:58 Look what he accomplished.
43:59 Can I not drive for dollars in real estate?
44:01 Can I not listen to Jerry on YouTube while I'm driving
44:04 and inspiration from others?
44:05 Can I not do those same things?
44:07 This is the roadmap.
44:08 So if you are trying to be successful,
44:10 this is what you need to realize
44:12 that we all come from different backgrounds.
44:14 Some of us are more fortunate to start
44:15 at a higher starting point,
44:18 but everyone has to put in the work.
44:19 - Yeah, I think Jeff, and maybe you've seen this too
44:23 with most people that come in the business,
44:24 'cause there's such a high attrition rate to any business,
44:29 is having that real compelling reason,
44:32 that driving thing that just gets you out of bed.
44:35 It's really interesting to me
44:36 because I'll talk to a lot of people who get discouraged
44:39 and they're asking me, "How do I stay motivated?"
44:42 And it's the strangest thing for me
44:45 because I can't even relate to that.
44:48 Like I get out of bed excited.
44:49 I don't need motivated to get out of bed.
44:52 I don't need someone telling me,
44:53 "Hey, Jerry, get out of bed and go do something."
44:56 And I haven't for such a long time.
44:59 And I think that's because I just have a compelling reason.
45:02 I believe so strongly in what I'm doing
45:04 and I'm so passionate about it.
45:05 In fact, I think I thought of my quote for your wall.
45:08 - Oh, all right.
45:09 - Wanna hear it? - Yes.
45:11 - "If your why doesn't make you cry, it's not big enough."
45:14 - Oh, I love that.
45:15 - Yeah, that would go good
45:16 'cause you got some really cool ones on the wall.
45:18 - That's a good one.
45:19 If your why doesn't make you cry, it's not big enough.
45:22 - Meaning if you don't have this really moving,
45:25 compelling reason, it's too easy to quit
45:28 and go back to a nine to five and something else
45:30 and then get home and turn Netflix on.
45:32 It's just too easy.
45:33 And we live in America where you can get by comfortably
45:35 and do that and live the same year 70 years in a row.
45:39 I don't wanna live the same year 70 years in a row.
45:41 - And I don't want my best days to be yesterday.
45:44 Right?
45:45 And I share this.
45:46 I don't usually share what I do for fitness,
45:49 but I work out seven days a week.
45:51 I don't miss a day.
45:52 No days off, zero.
45:54 I do cardio every single day,
45:55 no matter my travel, et cetera.
45:57 And when someone asks me, well, why?
46:00 Because I have a goal of being healthy
46:03 and that goal is every day.
46:04 So if there's a day I don't have that determination
46:06 that I don't wanna be healthy, I won't work out.
46:09 If I don't wanna make money,
46:10 I won't think about my business.
46:11 If I don't wanna be a good dad,
46:13 I don't have days where I decide, you know what?
46:15 I'm okay being a terrible dad today.
46:17 I just don't have that.
46:18 So I'm gonna strive to be a good dad every day.
46:20 And when that motivation to do those things,
46:23 it's because of the why.
46:24 It's because I have these goals
46:27 and they are everyday goals.
46:29 My real estate's not an everyday goal,
46:30 so I don't do real estate every day.
46:32 There are days I don't think about real estate.
46:34 - Well, it's interesting.
46:35 So my oldest, he's 23, he got married recently.
46:38 - Congratulations.
46:39 - Yeah, and he's doing amazing.
46:39 Marriage has been the best thing for him.
46:41 He's growing up so much.
46:42 He's doing so good.
46:43 I'm so proud of him.
46:44 His wife that he married, sweetheart,
46:46 our family just loves her.
46:48 She came from very much similar to my wife's background,
46:51 like the nine to five.
46:53 You have just enough money in your bank account.
46:55 You basically live to pay bills, right, like that.
46:58 And so she said to me, we were talking,
47:00 and she said to me, "Oh, Jerry, I just,
47:03 "I don't wanna have to think about money all the time.
47:06 "I don't wanna have to think about money."
47:08 And so I looked at her and I said,
47:09 "Then you won't have any."
47:11 - That's right.
47:12 - You won't have any, because the reality is,
47:14 is if you wanna have money,
47:16 you wanna be successful in business,
47:18 it's gonna consume you for a lot.
47:20 And you gotta learn how to compartmentalize.
47:21 That's gonna be your biggest challenge.
47:23 That's been my biggest challenge, probably yours too.
47:24 Like, okay, how do I turn this off sometimes?
47:27 - Balance.
47:28 - Yeah, but like, you gotta be thinking about that.
47:32 When you get home from the day job,
47:34 you're thinking about the side hustle.
47:35 When your head hits the pillow,
47:36 you're thinking about the side hustle.
47:38 When that side hustle finally becomes a real thing,
47:40 you're thinking about the real thing.
47:43 But what's gonna happen here is there's a lie
47:47 that if you aren't a business owner or money is important,
47:49 that you're not thinking about money.
47:50 That's the biggest lie ever,
47:51 because when you get the flat tire,
47:53 all you're thinking about all the time is money.
47:56 - That's right.
47:57 - It consumes you.
47:58 Money no longer consumes me.
48:00 Now I get to do passion.
48:02 - That's right.
48:03 - Because all the needs are met.
48:04 I live so well below my means, right?
48:08 So that I can go and do
48:09 and pretty much do whatever I want now.
48:11 And so now it's about, well, how much impact can I have?
48:14 How do I have impact now?
48:15 - And that's what we all want, right?
48:17 That's the natural progression.
48:19 - Yes.
48:20 - And I think you nailed it.
48:21 I think that what you don't focus your brain power on,
48:24 it's like I talk about in the shower,
48:25 I don't think about,
48:27 I'm not daydreaming about some time
48:30 in Puerto Rico on the beach, right?
48:32 I'm thinking about my companies.
48:33 I'm thinking about my family.
48:34 I'm thinking about ways that I can improve.
48:37 I'm constantly working on myself, constantly,
48:40 because I want to be a better version of myself.
48:43 Every day I wanna be better than I was yesterday.
48:45 In everything I do,
48:46 I think success is 360 degrees of improvement.
48:50 - Yeah, if you're not growing, you're dying.
48:53 - Yes.
48:54 - It's like we're like, humans are like a plant.
48:56 A plant is either growing or a tree.
48:58 A plant is either growing or dying.
48:59 It never just stays.
49:01 - That's right.
49:02 - And that's us, that's human development.
49:04 - So for the audience, Jerry,
49:06 what would be the one thing
49:07 for those that are interested in real estate?
49:09 - Yeah.
49:10 - In today's current circumstance, macro environment,
49:14 whatever we wanna call it, high interest rates,
49:17 real estate has obviously gone up a lot.
49:19 We're in a weird time in the world, very polarizing.
49:22 - Yes. - Just weird moment.
49:23 This is a weird moment in world history.
49:26 Well, if you had to start over today,
49:27 you're on the other side. - Yeah.
49:28 - You're 22, you're working in construction.
49:32 You read that 80% of millionaires are in real estate.
49:35 What's the first thing you would do today?
49:37 - Yeah, I love this question.
49:38 And what I'm gonna say is gonna be contrary
49:41 to what a lot of other people say,
49:43 and it's not even necessarily right, maybe.
49:46 I feel so strongly about this
49:48 when you get into real estate.
49:49 I think the biggest mistake people make
49:52 is they do the wrong type of investing in real estate
49:55 in the wrong order.
49:56 It's not that it's wrong, they do it in the wrong order.
49:59 And so what I believe is I believe
50:00 that you first have to transact real estate,
50:03 not hold real estate.
50:06 Again, I get a lot of negativity around this,
50:10 but here's my belief around this.
50:11 Real estate as a long-term strategy,
50:17 meaning you're now holding assets
50:18 and you're taking the benefits of cashflow,
50:20 appreciation, depreciation.
50:22 Like I know you're looking at tax strategy.
50:24 And so what happens is people very early on,
50:28 they start to try to hold these assets
50:30 where they don't know how to manage the assets
50:31 and they quickly run into some barriers
50:34 to grow enough to have impact.
50:37 And if you learn how to transact,
50:40 and when I say transact, what I mean is like
50:42 do deals that make cash
50:44 and create what I call a printing press.
50:47 And there's two ways you can create a printing press.
50:48 Another business source can create a printing press
50:52 or real estate itself can create the printing press.
50:54 The strategy itself can.
50:56 Kick out enough cash to now meet the needs, pay the bills,
50:59 provide a nice living, 'cause that's important, right?
51:02 And have a padded bank account.
51:03 Everybody needs and wants that.
51:05 Then take that excess cash
51:07 and now start to learn how to invest.
51:09 - For holding.
51:10 - For holding, yeah.
51:12 People do this really wrong.
51:13 And I think a lot of it's from,
51:14 I joke around about the Purple Bible,
51:17 Robert Kiyosaki, Rich Dad, Poor Dad,
51:19 where it's like get enough cashflow real estate
51:21 that's more than your expenses and you're retired.
51:26 Well, that's not the reality of real estate
51:28 because there's rainy days.
51:29 The roof needs replaced, the furnace goes out.
51:32 And so what happens is people are trying to live on cashflow
51:35 from a real estate asset
51:37 when they have no business touching that cashflow.
51:40 - It should stay in it.
51:41 - All of that money has to stay in it for a long time.
51:44 Until you've got enough of a portfolio.
51:46 At some point, yeah, but it's just a long game.
51:49 So like for example, you're a great example to me
51:52 and you're most real estate people.
51:53 You have these very successful businesses
51:56 kicking out a lot of cash
51:58 that you're now bringing over into real estate.
52:00 Real estate isn't your main thing and it never will be,
52:03 but it will become an amazing vehicle for wealth building
52:07 because of all the tax benefits and the appreciation tax,
52:10 all the things that real estate does.
52:13 But so you're doing it right.
52:13 You've got your printing press
52:15 that's now funneling into your real estate investments.
52:19 But you're able now, because of your cash,
52:21 you're able to do down payments.
52:22 You're able to, you don't need to see the money
52:24 from the real estate to pay your bills this month.
52:27 - Correct. - That's smart.
52:29 So if people are thinking,
52:30 I'm going to go buy a rental property
52:31 and I'm going to use that $200 to make my car payment,
52:34 you're in trouble.
52:35 You're in big trouble. - Because when the roof
52:36 needs repair, you don't have the money.
52:38 - Yep, and I see so much failure in real estate
52:42 because not that the strategy's wrong, the order's wrong.
52:44 So I use this analogy in real estate all the time.
52:47 Your freshman year is wholesaling.
52:50 Your sophomore year is fix and flip.
52:51 Now fix and flip, you have to buy the asset.
52:53 You got to hire contractors, borrow money.
52:56 So it's a next level, right?
52:57 It's still transacting though,
52:58 'cause you're in, you're out, you make some money.
53:00 So wholesaling, lowest risk.
53:02 Fix and flip is sophomore year.
53:05 Junior year is buy and hold.
53:07 And it's usually single family
53:08 'cause that's a good place to start.
53:10 Senior year is going to be development
53:12 or commercial, multifamily, the kind of bigger assets.
53:17 But if you think about how you progress in anything-
53:21 - You start with transact.
53:22 - Start transacting low risk,
53:24 then transact a little bit higher risk, fix and flip,
53:27 then start to hold assets.
53:29 Then maybe go into bigger assets.
53:31 Like I'm doing hotels and the kind of bigger projects,
53:33 development and things, but that's senior year.
53:36 Now you can go through, you can go really quickly.
53:38 - But still you got to go in order.
53:39 And there are certainly people that skip grades, right?
53:41 - Yeah, I mean, I never flipped a house.
53:43 - Yeah, you're skipping, you're skipping, yeah.
53:45 But see, you've got a master's degree
53:47 or a doctorate's degree over here.
53:49 So you're kind of skipping a couple of grades, you can.
53:51 - I mean, I looked at it, at this stage in my career,
53:56 and I do have the financial means.
53:58 My why of real estate is not to make cashflow.
54:02 My why of real estate is to make generational wealth
54:04 and tax strategies.
54:05 - Yeah, so for you it would make no sense
54:08 to wholesale or fix and flip
54:09 because that's a high cash strategy.
54:11 - I'm actually looking if a wholesaler wants to call me
54:12 with a good opportunity.
54:13 I'm actually-- - You're the cash buyer.
54:14 - I'm the buyer.
54:15 - Yeah, because you already have a printing press.
54:17 You don't need one.
54:18 But what happens is, is people come into real estate
54:20 with no printing press.
54:21 And again, when I say that, I mean--
54:23 - A business that makes money.
54:24 - Something generating a lot of money
54:25 that you need to do something with, right?
54:27 You can either do that in real estate or do it in business.
54:31 But if you follow kind of that mindset there,
54:33 I think people will be really safe and successful.
54:36 - So as you're sitting here listening to this
54:38 and you're saying, okay, I need to get started,
54:40 there is actually no better real estate educational
54:44 individual that I know in the world other than you
54:47 who focuses 80, 90% of his content
54:50 for exactly that freshman, sophomore individual.
54:55 - Wholesaling and flipping, yeah.
54:56 - Wholesaling and flipping.
54:57 So you need to go to YouTube right now.
54:59 Well, if you're watching this on YouTube, finish it,
55:01 and then go to Jerry's channel.
55:03 Obviously he's got over 50 free giveaways
55:07 that will cost you nothing and empower you
55:09 to take immediate decisive action in this industry.
55:14 - And if you're watching this on my channel,
55:16 then you also need to get into Jeff's world.
55:19 He's doing content that is like all driven
55:22 towards the entrepreneur.
55:24 It's around your mindset in business.
55:25 How do you build a team?
55:26 How do you find the right people?
55:28 How do you attract talent, right?
55:30 How do you grow and scale?
55:31 Like those are things that apply
55:33 in definitely in real estate.
55:35 - Yeah, well, thank you.
55:36 - And in all business.
55:37 Guys, also make sure you follow Jeff.
55:38 If you are on my channel right now watching this,
55:40 I'm gonna put your info below your channel.
55:42 Please subscribe to Jeff and follow him as well.
55:45 - Well, thank you.
55:46 I appreciate that.
55:48 But Jerry, this has been awesome.
55:49 - And we're gonna do some investing, I think.
55:51 I wanna also invest in what you're doing.
55:53 - And ditto.
55:53 I was talking to Pace.
55:55 I wanna do some real estate deals with you guys.
55:57 - Let's do it.
55:58 - You guys are the experts.
55:59 I wanna participate.
56:00 And that's the other element, I think,
56:01 which we didn't really touch on.
56:03 But if you do have a little extra cash
56:05 and you don't have the time investing with smart people
56:08 who have or are syndicating opportunities,
56:10 it's a fast track to success.
56:13 - We're doing a really cool thing.
56:13 We're doing a fund right now
56:15 on my hotel projects in Puerto Rico.
56:17 And the way we're building the fund,
56:19 I think you'll really like this,
56:20 is part of that fund is our investors
56:24 are also going to learn while they earn.
56:27 So we're gonna mastermind with our investors
56:30 about what we're doing.
56:31 - Oh, that's cool.
56:31 In Puerto Rico?
56:32 - Yeah, well, yeah, they can come out to Puerto Rico.
56:34 We can show them, okay,
56:35 we're gonna open the books and be like,
56:36 okay, here's why these are deals.
56:38 Here's how we're structuring these deals.
56:40 Here's why we're renovating them this way.
56:43 Here's how we're gonna monetize these assets.
56:46 So for me, if I was investing in something
56:51 to get to kind of come in and see that,
56:53 that would be very fascinating.
56:54 And I think-- - I am very interested.
56:56 - Cool. - Yes.
56:57 - That's great. - Yes.
56:59 - Well, I'm pumped to also collaborate with you, Jeff,
57:02 and do business together. - Well, this has been great,
57:03 Jerry, and thank you so much
57:04 for stopping in San Diego.
57:06 I mean, I know it was a trek, so I really, really appreciate
57:09 it. - We were, you know,
57:10 it's fun 'cause I'm gonna spend some time with my wife here,
57:12 and I was gonna meet you with Pace Moraby,
57:15 dear friend and just one of the greatest human beings alive.
57:17 - Love Pace. - Yeah, just phenomenal.
57:19 He made the connection for you and I,
57:21 and I thought, you know, maybe we reschedule
57:24 where Pace is here with us,
57:25 but I'm so glad that we still met and got to do this.
57:29 - And we're gonna be together in Vegas at WealthCon.
57:30 - Yeah. - So if you're in Vegas
57:32 in October, you can come meet us both and hang out,
57:34 go to WealthCon, Ryan Panetta's event.
57:36 We're both speaking.
57:37 It's a fantastic event. - Oh, yeah.
57:38 - With incredible value on real estate, entrepreneurship,
57:42 and all of the above.
57:43 - Some amazing speakers there. - Yes.
57:45 - Yeah, that's- - And Ryan's great too.
57:46 - Yeah, Ryan's awesome.
57:47 - But Jerry, dude, thank you, man.
57:49 This was awesome. - Thank you, Jeff.
57:50 Appreciate ya.
57:51 - Hey, everyone.
57:53 First, I wanna thank all of you for tuning in.
57:55 And if you guys haven't heard about my new book,
57:57 "Relationship Bank Account,"
57:59 click the link in the show notes
58:00 or search the title on Amazon.
58:02 This book is packed with all my secrets to success
58:05 in both relationships and life.
58:07 Make sure to pick up a copy.
58:08 And if the book helps you on your journey,
58:10 let us know by leaving a review.
58:12 I appreciate all of you
58:14 and can't wait to see you on the next one.
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