EntrePods

On this episode of Leafy, our host Jennifer revisits with one of our show’s first guests, Ellis Hammond. Ellis moved to San Diego, CA immediately out of college to start a Christian non-profit focused on serving the city of San Diego through leadership and spiritual development. He saw first hand the challenges, particularly in regards to funding, for non-profits like his own, and began to search for his own ways to create wealth in order to support the ventures he was involved in. Ellis is passionate about investing in wealth producing vehicles for long term financial growth and life changing impact.  He lives out his mission, to make money while making an impact. Ellis has a new ebook coming out ‘The Mission of Multifamily- A Missionary's Journey Toward Financial Freedom Through Apartment Investing!’.  Ellis tells us about learning to be a good steward of money, how to create it and multiply it, then teaching others how to do the same. Currently, Ellis is helping his clients navigate through the pandemic with their multifamily investing.  Listen to the entire episode to hear Ellis tell us what areas in the country are profitable right now and what questions to ask about multifamily markets to ensure understanding where to look and how to be successful with your investments. 

Visit Ellis Hammond at his website for a free consult and free checklist to download: https://ellishammond.com/

On today’s episode of Leafy Podcast, our hosts talk with Blake Templeton, an international motivational speaker, author of his new book ‘The Solomon Way’, 8 Figure Award Winner, and a regular contributor to Forbes Business Council. His mission statement is to help forward-thinking investors activate their net-worth by teaching them the ancient secrets of the world’s first Trillionaire. Blake founded a private investment firm, Boron Capital, in 2006 with a unique strategy that follows the recorded wisdom of King Solomon. Using this time-tested strategy, Blake has successfully closed over 300+ real estate transactions. He tells us that to date, not one of his clients have ever lost money using his investment strategy and their track record is $100M. Listen to the entire episode to hear Blake’s 3 Dimensional Investment strategy and how he has modeled King Solomon on building a financial fortress that acts as a substantial ATM machine. 

Check out Blake’s new book ‘The Solomon Way’: https://legacy.boroncap.com/go

Today, Leafy hosts sit down with Nicholas Hinrichsen, Co-Founder of Clutch, a company that is uniquely qualified to refinance car loans.  You may have heard Nicholas’s TedX Talk about his experience as a professional golfer on the German National Team. Nicholas co-founded a company called Carlypso after graduating from Stanford Business School in 2013. He and his partner went through YCombinator (same startup accelerator as AirBnb, DoorDash, Stripe, Reddit etc) in 2014, raised a total of $10M in venture funding by 2015 and sold the business to Carvana.com in 2017. He then joined Carvana pre-IPO, went public at a $2.5bn valuation and is now worth $40bn. Carvana is the most valuable used car retailer in the U.S. After working with Carvana for 3 years, Nicholas left  to start a digital auto loan refinancing platform. His new business, Clutch, is all around helping Americans with challenged credit and doing his part to address income inequality. Nicholas tells us if you have a credit score better than 700, going with a credit union, you will have a rate lower than 2%. If your credit is between 600-700, a traditional bank can loan you between 3%-15% interest on your loan.  Below 600 credit score, a car loan can be up to 29%. Listen to the entire show to learn how to lower your car loan interest rate and get refunded on gap insurance, etc. 

To learn more about Nicholas Hinrichsen and Clutch, visit:

https://www.withclutch.com/

https://www.withclutch.com/auto-refinance

https://www.withclutch.com/post/best-auto-loan-refinancing-lenders

Join Jennifer Gligoric and Tammy Geerling as they discuss trending REI topics including where to find top REI meet-ups (in person and online), rent to retire goals, investing abroad, first property rental advise and the best estate planning tips.  

On this episode of the Leafy Show, our hosts talk with Jennifer Grimson, host of the Micro Empires Podcast. Jennifer went bankrupt twice, lost everything - twice, and came back creating a $1.4m income producing success. Jennifer started with a short term rental in Nashville via AirBNB when it first got started. As the sole parent, Jennifer had to keep her day job and started using her retirement fund as a vehicle for investments. She slowly accumulated more short term rentals over the last 4 years, using tiny, actionable steps that moved her in the direction of her goals. She surrounded herself with the right people and took calculated, educated moves, which she called ‘micro-risks’. Jennifer then became a hard money lender and invested in private technology companies, creating a very successful company. As a consequence of her industrious investments,  she was able to quit her W-2 job and run her own business. Jennifer tells us that there are so many ways to be involved in real estate and they can be small ‘micro’ decisions, they don’t have to always be huge investments to be profitable.  

To learn more about Jennifer Grimson and the Micro Empires Podcast, visit: https://micro-empires.com/

Today, our host Jennifer Gligoric sits down with Charlie Hartwell. As Operating Partner at Bridge Builders Collaborative, Charlie is a change agent who shepherds ideas, resources and talent to drive sustainable growth. Passionate about transformation and innovation; he is a leader who ignites teams to accomplish remarkable results. He is a Harvard Business School graduate who has led, founded, run and worked in organizations in 16 different industries. He’s served in various organizations including corporate, small business, start-up, non-profit – and in leadership roles such as President, Chairman, board member, founder, consultant, coach, and trustee.  Charlie tells us that we are in charge of how we react to our world. We are not a victim to the world around us.  Hard times are a great time to awaken to your purpose and create change; to look at patterns that no longer serve us. He tells us to be receptive to what shows up and use it creatively. Listen to the episode to hear more about Charlie and his many business inspirations that are providing abundance to the world. 

To find out more about Charlie Hartwell, visit website: https://bbcollaborative.com/

Our hosts share their 'unpopular opinions' when it comes to online marketing, working from home and everything that comes with it.  

In today’s episode of Leafy Podcast, our hosts sit down with Logan Freeman, Founder of LiveFree Investments. Logan Freeman began LiveFree Investments in early 2018 after the corporate world had let him down one too many times. Real estate has always been his passion and got kicked into full gear after completing his first live-in flip in 2013. Today, with over 80 successful real estate transactions and $13 million completed for investors annually, he has created a proven track record to provide his investment clients the confidence and security they desire. Logan feels there are two things that set him apart from other investor agents; his never ending hustle and is proactive communication. He is continually investing in himself so he can provide great value to his investors; making sure to pivot and listening to what the market is providing. A driving philosophy is, “What got you here, won’t get you there.” Logan tells us that  Kansas City, Phoenix and Indianapolis are great markets that are seeing rent growth during the pandemic. He advises to do your due diligence in the market you are looking for and find a broker that has the network necessary to understand and help you succeed. 

To learn more about Logan Freeman, visit: https://www.livefreeinvestments.com/ 

Female Announcer  0:00  

Welcome to the Leafy Podcast, helping real estate investors and entrepreneurs grow. Say hello to your hosts, Jennifer Gilgoric and Brian Price, founders of Leafy Legal Services. Teaching you how to protect your assets, grow your business, and manage your wealth. Let's start the show.

Tammy Geerling  4:54  

Hi, everyone. Welcome to Leafy Podcast. Thank you for joining us today I'm Tammy, the podcast manager. And on the line, we have Jennifer and Brian. That's Jennifer Gilgoric and Brian Price from Leafy. Legal Services. Jennifer is the COO and Brian is a CEO of that service. They have a very awesome guest with us today. So I'll go ahead and pass it on over to them so we can get the show started. So hey, Jennifer. Hey, Brian, how you guys doing?

Jennifer Gilgoric  5:21  

 Great.Well, I'm excited to talk to someone Our guest today has a philosophy of what got you here won't get you there, which I absolutely love. He is the founder of live free investments. they've raised over $15 million dollars worth capital. They've done over 120 some odd transactions completed $75 million worth of transaction volume back in 2008. Or, well, he got his kit he kind of got kicked in the real estate industry and kicked off for his first live in flip back in 2013. And he's been blowing and going ever since. So I really want to give A great big round of applause. And welcome to Logan Freeman with live free investments and lift free investments calm welcome Logan to the show. How are you?

Logan Freeman  6:09  

I'm energized thriving in focus. I'm just just just drawing off of your energy. So good work, guys. Yeah.

Brain Price  6:16  

Keeps us all going. That's fair. Yeah, that's Yeah. So why don't you tell us about live free investments, which you guys do and what makes you kind of special than a lot of other folks out there?

Logan Freeman  6:26  

Yeah. So, you know, kind of twofold here in Kansas City. That's our market is Kansas City, Missouri. You know, we're a real estate brokerage firm. So we typically help a lot of out of state clients with their 1031 exchanges. And I was the head of acquisitions for a $50 million fund here in Kansas City, and what I learned during that period of time, and those were all mostly on single family homes, mind you, and so what I learned during that time was that, you know, there's a big need for buyer representation in the transaction process. And so when I moved my license over and started buying brokering commercial and multifamily properties, I brought this idea to my my broker I said, Hey, you know, I'm curious, do folks really work with buyers? She said, No, we just go after listings. Nobody works with buyers. They're tire kickers, and don't waste your time and, and I said, okay, but what if I created a system that I could identify folks who are doing 1031 exchanges that needed deal flow, they needed a team, they needed, you know, attorneys, right? They need attorneys, they need all these different things. And let me help them across the to get across the finish line. And she's like, Look, you can try it. But I don't know if it's going to work. Well. 12 months later, I had outsold the rest of the whole company. And so she said, Well, I guess it does work. And we've been doing that ever since. So that's the first thing is helping out of state buyers, you know, purchase properties and be successful in this market. And then the second thing is really focusing on our own acquisitions. And so we'll be close to over 1000 units by the end of this year. And those are all on multifamily deals. We've done some hotels and some office buildings as well, but primarily market rate multifamily properties here in Kansas City. So basically helping upstate clients either actively or passively get involved with real estate. Yeah.

Brain Price  8:16  

Okay, that's awesome. Because I think that makes a lot of sense because I know a lot of people that are trying to get, especially with the pandemic, get out of the big cities and go somewhere and invest in something that actually has some future to it, where the big cities aren't really that way right now.

Logan Freeman  8:32  

Yeah, there's been some interesting studies or just market data about Kansas City in general recently, so we landed some really large industrial hubs here in Kansas City on the intermodal side, which is creating a lot of jobs and warehousing, which right now is obviously really good. And then we have the largest concentration of animal hospitals and animal you know, veterinarian clinics and teaching those folks to do that here in the in Kansas City metro area as well. So So healthcare it is big too and and so unemployment has been beating the national average. And believe it or not everybody else in the markets like Texas and other markets are seeing rent decreases. Phoenix, Kansas City and Indianapolis are three markets that have been above 3% on their rent increases over the past six months. And we're still seeing that happen on our--

Tammy Geerling  9:23  

Can you say that again, for our listeners, because you are not the first guest we've had who has honed in on the Kansas City Market. So I want everyone to listen to this, who is looking for investments right now. So our clients anyone who's looking to invest Kansas City and what are the other two?

Logan Freeman  9:42  

It was Phoenix, Arizona, great market in Indianapolis. And I have connections in both of those markets that can can connect to it too. But those are all three really great markets that are seeing rent growth, not not stagnant rent growth, just I mean positive rent growth, beating inflation during the pandemic.

Tammy Geerling  10:00  

And that's absolutely unbelievable in this market, but it's really great. It really depends on where you at. So one of the good things about real estate investing and for us investors is that you can you were mobile, you can be mobile of where you do it once you have the right structure. And of course, you know, that's what we do is get the right structure, you can kind of do whatever you want. I do want to put put a little buzz, if any of you guys are living in California, or Commonwealth state, and you're utilizing an asset holding company, like a like a Delaware statutory trust us specifically, as an asset holding company. I want you to listen to him on this 1031 Exchange. I know that there's a lot of people who want to put on the brakes, they hear that and they're just like he because there's a lot of moving parts to that you need a Qualified Intermediary to be able to help you and you have a timeline and that stresses people out. You don't have to be stressed out with that if you have the right network. So can you talk to me a little bit about your 1031 Exchange and how you've been able to help buyers through that process, which can be quite stressful.

Logan Freeman  11:05  

Absolutely. And I think that it, it comes down to two things, it comes down to me having the best relationships and network in Kansas City. That's my job to know, the best attorneys, the best legal, you know, people, but also the best financing companies, title companies, property managers, contractors, when you think about that somebody coming in from out of state, you know, maybe California I mean, that's where 95% of our transactions come from, is California into into Missouri, or it's pretty similar. But anyways, you know, when you think about that, that's, that can get really, really stressful if you have to try to build all of those relationships. So finding a broker like myself, who has those connections that you can leverage is extremely, extremely important. So the relationships and with the vendors is one. The second is deal flow. It's my job to know what properties are trading, what properties are not trading, what areas you should be in And you know what you should pay. And so you need to find somebody that's very active in the transactions in that market that will allow you to, to leverage that network as well. And so, you know, I always tell folks, if you're thinking about selling a property, identify your markets before you put your property on the market, figure out which market you're interested in, and then find somebody like myself in that market that can guide you through that process, right. So get ahead of it be proactive instead of reactive, that would be my, that'd be my suggestion.

Unknown Speaker  12:30  

That is a very, very good suggestion. It's always better to do that. And of course, having a network is very important, but you don't have to start from scratch. You know, when you're doing it by yourself, you're gonna have overwhelm but if you can connect with the right people and vet them, because you know, there's more than one person that you can talk to and find someone you have a, you know, you really like vet them out, make sure you do your due diligence, and that just makes everything a lot easier for you especially on projects like that when you're having to do it. You also One of the questions you want to ask when you're vetting for someone like Logan is, tell me about your work with real estate investors, especially if you're an investor, there's going to be a very different mindset for someone who's 1030 exchanging for their estate plan, because they just want another buy and hold, they want something that's going to be a legacy product, you know, or asset for their children. And then someone who's looking at this as an income potential and they're having to do a 1031 exchange, right? So you really do want to work with someone like Logan and a broker who understands the mindset for that. So whatever you're trying to get out of it. Don't be shy to tell them this is what I'm trying to get out of it. Have you ever worked with someone like me before? How did that go and have a conversation so you can you can feel like if they really understand you, because it'll make it a lot better?

Logan Freeman  13:53  

Absolutely. Fantastic advice. I don't have anything to add to that. That's

Brain Price  13:59  

Awesome. So Let's talk about you know, how what are the deals looking like in in Kansas City? And what kind of things you're looking for when you are putting a deal together for sure. Actual investors?

Logan Freeman  14:10  

Well, I'll just talk about a deal that we're working on right now. So I mean, we've got, you know, a portfolio of properties in what's called Independence, Missouri, which is just about 15 minutes, just east of our downtown. And, you know, it's 426 units. And here's what's unique about this property, or these these three different properties is we we went under contract right around the end of February, right, so kind of before, or at the end of February, beginning of March COVID was kind of a thing, not really yet. But what we did, we did see was was scarce, you know, scarcity in the market from a competitive standpoint. So, we were able to and I broker deals in this sub market all the time, we're able to look at the comps that were in that area and say, okay, you know, stuff usually trades 5556 a door over here. We're going under contract at 49. And it crossed 400 plus units, that equals two or $3 million worth of equity on the front end of this. So we saw less competition on the pricing, which was really important, then we were very curious to see how, obviously, occupancy stayed and then collections, right. And so those are the two biggest things right now is, is, you know, what are the collections look like? And what type of debt Are you trying to accomplish and try to place on this property. Those are the two biggest things. And so the collections on this have stayed above 92%. And across 400 plus units, that's really, really good. And then actually, they started to continually, you know, implement their business plan. So their value add business plan, which was going through the renovations, and then placing tenants at higher rents, so our noi on this property across those units has already increased $52,000 while we were on track, so I mean, that's pretty cool, right? 

Jennifer Gilgoric  15:56  

That ain't too shabby.

Logan Freeman  15:58  

Yeah. 

Jennifer Gilgoric  16:00  

Didn't work with that. That's good enough for me. Wow.

Logan Freeman  16:02  

So you know, I mean, I think that we're still trading anywhere between a 6% and a 7% cap rate here in Kansas City, depending on location, obviously the asset type and what the business plan could be. Our cap rates are still pretty attractive, just when you think about when you can go get debt, maybe 3% three and a half percent. So there's a good spread between capitalization rates that you're buying properties at and the debt that you're putting on it. And so there's there's a good spread there to be able to make some some dollars and some cash flow here in Kansas City. The other thing I would say that we're seeing a big opportunity and nobody's looking at because obviously COVID but his neighborhood retail shopping centers, and what I mean by that is not your big box retailers like your TJ Maxx is your Kohl's and those things these are Dollar General being the the anchor Family Dollar being the anchor, and then you have a chiropractor, you have a dentist, you have all of these service Based e commerce resistant tenants in the in the building, and these things are trading between eight and 9% cap rates. And the interesting piece about that is that we're able to look back five or six months now to see what have what have collections look before COVID during COVID? And where are they at right now. So you have data that you can make intelligent decisions on.

Brain Price  17:22  

You know, it's really interesting because a lot of people talk about, you know, staying out of commercial real estate all together. They said, Don't even touch it. But yeah, with stuff like that. I mean, it is people got to go to the chiropractor, or the dentist and stuff, there's no way to be virtual with that, you know, it's got to find meaning.

Logan Freeman  17:42  

They gotta, they got to do that stuff. And, and I don't know where everybody's located, but I mean, I took my wife out for our four year engagement anniversary last night at dinner, you know, we're in Kansas City, you know, I mean, so, but like, like I said, I mean, you gotta be really careful with The locations in the tenant mix. But when you find the right type of properties, nobody else is looking at that. And that's where you want to, to really kind of hone in on is where there's less competition, because you're not going to overpay for something. 

Jennifer Gilgoric  18:12  

I think e commerce resistant is really a buzzword. But a lot of people didn't understand what that meant. And we're talking about like, that came out right at the beginning of COVID. And then people, you know, became this buzzword. And now it's like a real thing. Like, let's see what's going to happen, because at first it was like, well, this is gonna kill small business, but I actually see with supply line differences and people getting so angry, you know, for social issues and other things like that at big box realty retailers. And what they feel is maybe not the best practices for their towns, I think that that there is going to be a different wave that's going to push small businesses and towns that employ local people that don't work together, because that's really the backbone and it's the heart of our country too. So I See it's coming back, I see these things coming back in this push to want to localize. And I am like so for that, you know, you can be both expansive and local. And there's ethical wonderful ways to do that that actually helps the economy and helps your neighbor and is good for everyone. So I love that we're having these conversations and I think it's super cute that you celebrate your engagement anniversary Yes.

Logan Freeman  19:26  

When you have two small children we have a three week old we have a 17 month old anytime that I can get wow our one on one because my I always tell her my three week old boy has has stolen my wife away like all he does. So it was really nice to have a date night last night. Yeah,

Jennifer Gilgoric  19:47  

that's a big smile on your face. And that's really super sweet. If y'all don't see it y'all need y'all need to catch the video episode because he's got like the like the blush in his cheeks and he's staying on the planet. So that's just Sweet. 

Logan Freeman  20:00  

She's my everything.

Tammy Geerling  20:04  

So okay, so where do you see it? Okay, so now we're still involved in like the weirdest time of everybody's life. Right? But But businesses are still going investors are still investing and we still have all this that we're thinking about. So besides retail and e commerce resistant retail, is there any other trends that you're seeing in your little micro area, which is the Kansas City Metroplex area?

Logan Freeman  20:28  

Yeah, you know, I think a few things the The first being that I want to differentiate between the different types of multifamily real estate there's what I call RPN or renting by necessity, or RBC renting by choice, you know, when this all happened, all of the class a multifamily guys were shouting for joy, oh, we're gonna be fine. Our rents are going to be great. You know, our guys are white collar tenants. They can pay, you know, $3 a square foot for rent and they're all excited. Well as that has started to come down. They started those folks. But this pandemic has hit the white collar now as well, if you look at the trends, so what's happening is those folks are not paying their rents and they're educated enough to know that they might live in a market that they can lawyer up and say, Hey, I'm not paying my rent. So what's very interesting is the push from what are called class a multifamily back down to the B and C class multifamily properties because those folks are out there. They're essential workers, and they're still paying their rents. And so, you know, that's one trend I would say is my sister is moving back from Kennewick Washington or Yakima Washington right now. And she moved back and we have all of these new deliveries downtown, and they're all Class A and they're all highly amenitized. And guess what she got. She got an upgraded from a studio to a one bedroom. She got three months free rent, no amenity charge and free parking for three months. That is a Big indicator to me saying those guys are doing everything that they can just to get their rents up just to get their debt service, you know, cover. And so I think there's a big push now back to affordable and, you know, rents that are $1 $52 62 square foot here in our market, not 250 and $3. And people are starting to say, Man, I think I might want a little bit more space, you know. And so we've always focused on those larger units with garages, people love garages here, they got cars. And so we've always focused on that. So that's one big trend. I think the second trend that we're seeing right now is I don't know how to put this but it would be. We see folks that have traditionally been in the equities and the bond markets just from an investment standpoint, saying, Hmm, I wonder if there's something else right, especially folks that are 55 to 65. And they're saying oh my gosh, I just lost 33% of my portfolio, what can I do? That's not not going to be, you know, tangent on what the stock market is happening. So we've been educating, we've been doing a lot of work just talking about the different, you know, hedges against inflation, right? I mean, you think about that you think about the devaluation of the dollar with the Fed printing all of this money. So that's another thing to keep in mind. And we're, you're seeing, obviously, a lot of folks run to gold and precious metals right now. Because they're worried that the dollar is not going to be worth anything. I think the dollar is gonna be worth, you know, $1 for now, but at the same time, we've been seeing a lot of folks that maybe weren't interested in real estate, previously say, Hey, I didn't know I could invest in real estate passively. I thought I had to deal with toilets, tenants and trash. And I'm like, No, you don't. You can invest with somebody that deals with that stuff for you and get the same benefits. So I think the second trend that we're seeing is, that conversation is happening a lot more and more fully. are open to it as they they've seen kind of some of their their investments go to go to nothing to dust to fairy dust,

Tammy Geerling  24:08  

I heartily agree that there are many people now who are conservative by nature that, you know, they walked into to get their w two or you know, they're they said, Okay, you got these five phones. Here's the conservative one. Here's this, just pick one. And now they're hearing more about the things we talked about all the time solo 401k starting your own business, being able to be your own bank and aggressively make your money work for you. And they're like, Hey, I didn't even know I could do that. And then and then Is that legal? You know, it's weird how some there's this limiting belief that pushes back against being abundant or you letting the law work for you. Right? And that is a very limiting belief. So So get that out of your head and realize that there are laws that are there to help you. They want you to have a savings. The last thing we want is for people to have to live on. So security, it's not going to be there anymore. And the government does have programs for entrepreneurs and solopreneurs to be able to save into build a retirement because that person is is a benefit to society, you're a benefit to capitalism, or soda, or whatever we end up with, in this huge upheaval, people who are able to buy and add and keep themselves healthy because they have the income to do so and eat yummy, healthy food, because they can afford to do so are a lot more attractive than the people who lose everything in a public market. They thought they did well, and then they end up on some system, you know, and so utilize these things. This is where the pushes this is what the government's trying to do to help people educate yourself and then put these things into place. Yeah.

Brain Price  25:45  

And and also to note, the Fed actually is, you know, since 2008, they actually are investing in more distressed securities, which is part of what they their new thing that they have, they're not just printing money like they usually do so right on, so It's kind of another thing too in the Fed is kind of investing in real estate as well. So in that case, you know that it's a unique thing that they found in 2008. So that's kind of another thing as they print more and more money from this pandemic, you know, they're likely going to get into securities as well which will be having an impact on the real estate market.

Logan Freeman  26:20  

Now one last thought on that it's great point is that I just wrote an article on LinkedIn about this, the head of the SEC is pushing very hard for more flexibility for people with their solo 401 K's and they want them to be able to get into privatized investments like real estate, like businesses, all those things so you know, we're seeing some trends here especially during the COVID I mean, if the head of SEC is pushing for that I mean that's a that's a pretty interesting you know, what I call clue in the news right? The clues news Absolutely. Yep.

Jennifer Gilgoric  26:53  

Okay guys, so we've been talking to Logan Freeman Logan is with a Live Free Investments you You can go to live free investments calm just the way you spell it, no spaces and you can find out all about him. You can see him on another podcast. You can read his great quotes like one says knowledge alone is not power it is potential power knowledge plus massive strategic action equals power. Like Logan has like a lot of really good ones. Probably gonna end up stealing and not really stolen them. And, or, you know, at Logan, you're gonna hear someone say, Oh, I heard this girl Jennifer this great quote, you're gonna be like, that's my quote. 

Logan Freeman  27:32  

I love it. I love it. I grant you access to anything that's on there. 

Jennifer Gilgoric  27:37  

So don't, don't don't give me free rein loaded because I will take it and I will just run like a chicken with its head cut off. Anyway, so we're getting to the end of things. Can you think of anything else that maybe some potential investors whether or not they're brand new or they're just looking to diversify their already large portfolios might might get from what you're doing right now. They're in the Kansas City. area, you know,

Logan Freeman  28:00  

I would just say it's time to take control of your financial future. And, and that starts with education. So, you know, a lot of folks get really scared when we start to talk about economics, but you have to understand the fundamentals are what's going on, not only with the economy, but the financial system that backs our economy. So it's super important to know that those are not one in the same. And so macro trends that are happening, how those are affecting the micro markets that you live in, and that you can invest in. So find somebody that's an expert, some and then there's so much education out there, you guys do a great job, there's so many podcasts, you know, just Google and start instead of watching 400 episodes of Netflix, you know, start watching, you know, 399 and one podcasts a day, you know, I mean, so it's time to myself and make it make some really good financial decisions because it'll help you in the future. So that's all I would say.

Jennifer Gilgoric  28:53  

We've said a lot and I just actually love Logan, your spirit and you just have all this energy and I just wish you All the best of luck and I hope we have you on again. Thanks so much, Tammy. We're gonna have to end it before I just like grab him up and I adopt him in some way. This lovely family. Thank you again, Logan. 

Logan Freeman  29:13  

Thank you guys. 

Jennifer Gilgoric  29:15  

Tammy tell them how they can reach Logan and find more information and all that other good stuff.

Tammy Geerling 29:20

Absolutely. Thank you again, Logan, for all the great advice and we will have everything of Logan's on our show notes. So anywhere you can find us at leafy legal. We are on all the podcast platforms. We're all over social media. So we will have all of Logan's links there. And thank you again, Jennifer and Brian, for hosting for us today. And we hope to see everybody next time. Have a great day. We're out for now. Bye bye you guys.

Male Announcer  30:01  

Attention real estate investors and entrepreneurs. Did you know that real estate investors are a primary target for lawsuits according to the National Survey of the court data 25% of Americans risk being sued in their lifetime. However, if you are a real estate investor, you have a 95% chance of being sued in the next 20 years. Leafy Legal Services helps you protect your assets and strategically grow your business and wealth Leafy Legal Services are experts at the series LLC and Delaware statutory trust two of the newest and most ideal legal structures for real estate investors leaving legal services at the most personalized and affordable solutions for setting up LLC as property owners are always at risk when it comes to their assets. anonymity is so important. If you own just a rental house and you own your home you have to protect yourself and your properties from any potential legal issues. Leafy Legal Services have the right solutions to make sure you are happy and feel secure or they offer cost effective documentation that suits their client's needs. For a free consultation and ebook, visit levy elite services.com They are waiting to hear from you leafylegalservices.com

Female Announcer  32:07  

Follow us on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. Don't wait take action now levy legal services calm protect your assets, grow your business and manage your wealth.

In this episode of Leafy Podcast, our hosts sit down with John Vuong. John founded Local SEO Search, where he helps small business owners grow and succeed, giving them a leg-up to compete with more established companies in SEO and being seen on the internet. John also has a podcast Local SEO Today, a tool for business owners and entrepreneurs to help them succeed. John tells us that understanding how Google works and being aware of what customers want and are looking for is how he begins with his customers. He tells us that to start, focus on running a business, the foundational components to operating a successful business and SEO and advertising on the internet is a secondary concern after creating a solid company.   John explains how to utilize certain online platforms for advertising by understanding the mode of communication and the purpose of each platform (Facebook, LinkedIn, etc.) , understanding what’s going on with the users and capitalizing on what is available.  John believes life is short, so embrace it and take on the adventure. You can run a business the way you want and do it well so that you can spend time with family and friends, which is what really matters.

To learn more about John Vuong, visit: localseosearch.ca

Episode Transcript:

Female Announcer  0:00  

Welcome to the leafy podcast, helping real estate investors and entrepreneurs grow. Say hello to your hosts, Jennifer Gilgoric and Brian price founders of Leafy Legal Services,teaching you how to protect your assets for your business and manage your wealth. Let's start the show.

Tammy Geerling  0:18  

Hi, everyone. Welcome to the Leafy Show. Thank you so much for being with us today. I'm Tammy, the podcast manager. And on the line we have our awesome hosts both Brian Price and Jennifer Gilgoric from Leafy Legal Services. Brian is the CEO of that service and Jennifer is the COO. They have another awesome guests for us today. So let me pass it on to them so that they can get the show started for us. Hey, Jennifer, hey, Brian. How are you guys doing? 

Brain Price  0:44  

Good, good. 

Jennifer Gilgroic  0:45  

Great. Great. I'm very excited to be here today. So today's guest has a really awesome backstory. And so his life has been this incredible journey. His parents were Vietnamese immigrants to Canada and then through his life. He as he went, he got a paper route. So he's always been an entrepreneur. So even as young, he had a job, he was an entrepreneur, he went on a paper route. Then he ended up doing finance classes there at the university in London on it, Ontario. So that's still Canada. Then he ends up going to England. Then he comes back to Canada gets involved with yellow pages and red pages, actually, which was a startup that was going to compete and they were going to do an actual written, they're going to print out website addresses, just like you had for the phone book. So yeah, this was back in the day. So it's like so cool. And then he managed to move that forward and move that forward. And now he's an SEO expert. So I want us to give a huge round of applause and welcome John Vuong to our show. And he's with local SEO H O Seo search.ca. So welcome, John. I just love your story.

John Vuong  1:57  

Thanks a lot, Jennifer. Yeah, that was a great Intro. Yeah, it's been a journey for sure. And I'm excited to share some insights along the way.

Unknown Speaker  2:07  

Yeah. So how did you kind of get through this? You know, going through these different avenues? How did you finally settle on SEO? And and once you walk us through us and I like to hear more about these red pages, I think that's pretty interesting.

John Vuong  2:21  

Yeah, definitely. So seven years ago, I started this agency, local SEO search. I had no clue about anything technical. So I'm not an SEO background expert by any means. I started my career actually in sales in advertising sales. And I studied business finance, so it was kind of different. But in order for me to get a real job, that was my first job, and I stuck with it, and over the course of many years, I refined my art of sales and marketing. And I got to really understand what my strengths are what I enjoy doing, and Yellow Pages where I was there for five years. The relationships is what really connected me with local business owners, and really wanting to help them grow and stand out because they were genuinely interested in the community, right, like real people supporting real community leaders, right, like computer people. But even before that read pages, so that was my first job actually, outside of university. It was the, it was a great concept. It was competing with the yellow pages. First directory ever going to every single business home office tower, but printed every website, so it was competing with Google, but Google wasn't like taking off at that time yet. Right? So it was called read to and it also came out with a directory read Toronto, but it didn't last it didn't survive. It was a great concept. So I sold a bunch of it because I was a true believer in it. But it just didn't. survive.

Jennifer Gilgroic  4:01  

I think it's an absolute scream that you are in finance and that you went into finances school, but you end up in sales and you're like a total sales he kind of, hey, let's talk because usually finance people are like, hey, let's not talk so I can like do this right here with these numbers that I love. And you're like completely opposite of that. So I always love it when the journey switches in in changes, and and that relationships are so important. And it is weird when we look back that there was a day before Google, you know that you had these books and everything like that. I have a house that's over 100 years old, and my son we we were we it still has stuff in it from the the lady who had owned it her entire life. She was like literally in her 90s when I bought that. I think it's always been like their house, you know? And we found the old rotary phones. And I was like, show me how you would make a call. You know when we found them and he was like, I had no idea Like whatsoever, and then he was like, so you had to do that for every single number. And I was like, yeah. And if you got the wrong number, you have to start all over again. He was like, wow, this is fascinating, fascinating to him. So it was really cool. So tell me a little bit about how you went from the Yellow Pages. You're doing all this relationship, marketing and relationship sales, because people you know, the biggest part, if you're in advertising sales is not just to sell one ad, you want the people to constantly, you know, be re re upping their subscriptions. And that's part of your compensation, with many advertising sales. It's why some advertising sales reps make really good money. They're good at keeping their people, you know, they're always checking in with them, you know, so tell us a little bit how you went from that in and where you're at now.

John Vuong  5:50  

Yeah, so at Yellow Pages, so I was there for five years and relationship sales was more of a I don't know Like, I was genuine, I was really like just authentic raw. So I always had a story. And where I was just letting people in on like my journey, right? Like, what I grew up doing, how I discovered like traveling like I love. I had a exchange experience, like going to school in London, England for a year. And I was amazing. For me that really opened up a lot of opportunity for me to see what's bigger and greater than just my local community of working in a small suburb of Toronto, right? That's where I grew up. So for me, it was more about like, just connecting with people and letting them in. And yes, I was able to not just renew people, but upsell, and then of course, it was all about listening to them asking the right questions and finding out what their true needs and desires were right because ultimately, a lot of people were frustrated. They were getting spending more money than ever but not getting the same sort of return. They used to get 10 1520 years ago. And when I hear that all the time, I'm like, so what is going on? Where are people shopping? How are they pivoting? Like, what is the user behavior, right? And as you know, the internet started to take off, Google started becoming more present. Email started to be the main mode of communication, no longer fax machines, no longer telephones, text messaging, like all these new innovative stuff that you hear today, like social media and content, video content, audio, all that is all new within the last 10 years, right. But before that, it was still traditional media, which was newspapers, flyers, magazines, trade shows, billboards, Radio Television, right. But today, it's now podcast, YouTube videos. There's Instagram, Twitter, Facebook, you name it, right? Like there's so many other new initiatives. that technology has allowed users to change their behavior. Being controlling in a different platform in different way, at their convenience, right? So it's just different. But there's still a lot of people consuming information. And you have to understand the users behavior to then gravitate on what is important for business owners. And that's where I shifted, because a lot of people were just frustrated spending so much money and didn't see a good return. 

Jennifer Gilgroic  8:24  

It's very frustrating because it's changed so quickly, you know, it was like 100 years ago, it was still well, we have this directory and local and you go to this guy, and he puts up a little sign, you know, and that's how it was for like, ever. And when I say forever generations, yes, just in our lifetime. It's been you know, going from paper to then television and now you have radio now you have internet now the internet's completely changed and you have this is like weariness to have to as soon as like every other year, there is some new hotness and what Did you know six months ago isn't the same? And I think that there's a lot of business owners, but also people who are frustrated, where do I go to get really what I need? And and oh, now I've got to learn a new app. It's just crazy. So it's amazing that you're on the on the edge of that. How do you not get tech weary? I mean, there's a lot that's in your head. Do you just dump it out as you are constantly knowing new stuff?

John Vuong  9:28  

Yeah, so I specialized now just on SEO because it's already fairly complex. Digital advertising comprises of email, social content creation in various forms. And then understanding like, what these different apps and software and technology can actually do for a business, right like to either scale and understand the process and efficiencies of it. So you have to really just focus on what you do best. And I continue doing that which is building relationships, meaningful ones with business owners that are I'm trying to help them grow and build a digital presence, right. And what we do is focus just on SEO, because I feel it being very similar to what Yellow Pages provided, which is the organic, natural listings on Google where the businesses are not pushing stuff at you, right? That's advertising, you know, trying to disrupt that user behavior to get someone to either click or call you at that given moment with a creative ad, right. But when you're appearing organically or naturally, someone else is seeking you out. So you're pulling people when and during control. And that's what Yellow Pages provide. So that was more directive advertising versus Creative Advertising. And that's why I feel SEO is still the dominant player for that same sort of medium that people used to spend a lot of money and yellow pages with.

Unknown Speaker  10:53  

Yeah, that's an interesting way of putting it because yeah, I mean, it is it is kind of like the new Yellow Pages is but You have to kind of put yourself out there and find different ways of attracting people. It's not like in one, one book. So how are you helping people to get in front of more people to get to those those folks that are that are searching for you.

John Vuong  11:15  

So understanding how Google works is very important. And I feel people overcomplicate things. I always tell people like run a really good business. What I mean by that is, take care of your customers, listen to them, provide an amazing product or service. Understand that value prop what unique selling proposition you're offering, like, understand foundationally what makes a really good business because over the course of many years, I've worked with thousands of business owners that operated for generations without technology. So imagine how did they survive? they relied on referrals and word of mouth, right and minimal advertising on maybe yellow pages or print media or flyers. Whatever may be right, so right, how did they survive? And what has dif different right? Like, the challenges? There's a lot going on today technology has advanced so quickly in the last five or 10 years that people are bombarded with this new app, this new software, this new social media feed, and they're looking for quick solutions, fast ways to expedite to make that hundred thousand dollars in a week because they saw an ad there, right? And they forget that well, maybe one in a million person actually receive that benefit. Everyone else is gonna lose a lot of money and get stressed and frustrated. So why not you do what everyone else used to do, which is grind it out, understand how to run a business and focus on the foundations right? So that's what I always boil things down to like SEO can really help advance a business Once they already know how to take care of the customer, and run a good business, but we cannot help someone that doesn't even know how to run a business because their reputations on the line, there's a lot of other foundational things that are missing.

Jennifer Gilgroic  13:13  

Yeah, well, that's kind of what we do we do the foundational things on the back end structure so that they don't take themselves before they even get started, because everybody wants to sales come in. But there's a lot of other things you have to put in place in order for that to happen. So I get that. And I'm gonna ask you a question. You know, you were all heavy Google, Google Google. But right now, you know, like, as the time we're taping this, Google and Facebook and Amazon are all in this, like, antitrust. People are willing to break them up. I mean, you know, Google is the Yellow Pages, but it is the everything. It's like the new source. It's like the thing. So do you. Do you think now like, Are you already building your plan for what if they break it up? Like what if they actually split up Google and now People have other products that they can do, you know, there's brave, there's DuckDuckGo there's all these other search engines, you know, Yahoo used to be the search engine. But But now I think Yahoo doesn't that piggyback off of Google Now. They're all like together. But do you have a plan? Like how do you think it's gonna go now that there is so much heat on these these mega monopolies? Which, you know, in my opinion, they all need to be broken up. But you know, I'm, that's just my opinion. But yeah.

John Vuong  14:33  

So, like every generation, always look at where people the users are going to gravitate towards. So understanding what what channel or what purpose Facebook has, right, like, Who do they target and what's the sole purpose when you go to Facebook? What's the sole person is when you go to LinkedIn or Twitter, right understanding that mode of communication and that platform and medium of choice. So think about zoom and Eventbrite and all those online platforms where you can now do presentations since the pandemic, it's really been elevated, where people are now spending more time in front of a computer pitching and doing a lot more conferences that way. So it's just understanding what's going on, right in terms of the users. And if Google is still and yes, Google's always pivoting, they're trying to find ways to monetize. They're trying to own the real estate, trying to alleviate and not get business owners who are ranking users to click on their website, they will either click on Google's properties right around the SERPs, because that's your prime real estate. They make money through ads, right and retargeted ads, I get it. So you have to understand the whole purpose of the medium. And then how do you capitalize on what's available? Right, right. And I still feel SEO is very powerful, because you can control and position yourself and optimize as that local player. On the map below, right? Because that's still free at this time, but you also have to be weary of what's going on. Right? Because same with Facebook. You know, before, once upon a time a couple years ago, you could organically get position, right? But today, every two times every time you scroll down, there's an ad that appears, right? There's always pushing stuff at you. And it's more like, you're bombarded with stuff that you don't really want to, you know, be there for right like, yeah, so you have to understand the channel and the different media's out there and understand what's going on within and I still feel Google is great, like duck, duck go. It's not like in terms of use. 

Jennifer Gilgroic  16:45  

Yeah, I mean. 

John Vuong  16:45  

1%.

Jennifer Gilgroic  16:46  

Put that on every single phone. You see, when you have an agreement that every single phone that comes out, it has to have your voice.

Brain Price  16:54  

if you own the operating system.

Jennifer Gilgroic  16:57  

Now it's like you can't infer some people. They do all their work. I mean, I know people who literally work off their phones now, you know, the phones are more expensive in some cases than computers, which is nuts. Right? But you do everything you're doing your banking your you have your password keepers, you've got all your things on your phone. And so, yeah, I mean, it's crazy to have it so embedded like Facebook, I mean, there's entire things you cannot do unless you have a Facebook account where you can log in, that are totally unrelated to Facebook. Right? So it's just interesting because there's so much interconnectivity, it can be confusing for people. Yeah, very much so to compete, you know, but that's good. I really love the fact that you still believe in your in this every single day that you can still use it for local people, because that means that local businesses still have a chance to get the people around them for free. And they have ways that they can utilize this technology. So that actually warms my Heart, a whole bunch for that.

John Vuong  18:03  

Understanding the space, right? Like it's always evolving, but looking for opportunities to capitalize because people get frustrated, spending too much money not getting good returns. So I want to help the little guys.

Unknown Speaker  18:15  

Yeah. So are there certain things that you always do know? You know, I know things change for hours, there's kind of some basis that you actually do and maybe some of the new stuff that you're looking into as well.

John Vuong  18:26  

Yeah. So for us, we always look at foundational stuff like understand your client, creating a content journey mapping, and really positioning yourself as the expert, right. So understanding who your ideal persona client is, and writing every piece of content, your website piece is directly driven to those type of people, right, from everything you produce. From video, podcasts, audio, you know, images or written depending on where they're at in terms of the journey, create that content piece for them, and then making sure that You're up to date in terms of like, what's going on what the users want, like they want fast, secure, easy to use navigation. Like, all these things are now behavior. If you don't have it, someone else is gonna, you're probably losing out right on an alternative because they're bouncing off your page to someone else. Right? So just staying current and what's going on, right? Because technology's moving so fast. And as much as you want to stay on top of it. It's kind of scary too, because there's so much going on, right? Like AI. What's going on there? Like they know too much about you already. Right? Is that

Jennifer Gilgroic  19:40  

right? Yes. I'm like terrified like I can have a conversation with a friend of mine. And then immediately I'll go on, you know, to look at something and ads for that pickup. And I'm like, How did my phone know I was, you know, talking to somebody you know that. Maybe it's time to get hair extensions. My entire timeline is nothing but a hair extension company. Whatever but yeah, yeah, it's weird man. I don't like it. I'm like stay in as much as I say that. I still have an Alexa. So if I 

Brain Price  20:12  

Don't say it. 

Jennifer Gilgroic  20:16  

Oh, yeah, people used to be what was that joke? They used to say, you know, don't say that over the telephone because you never know if the CIA is listening, and then it says 2020 CIA, how do I bake a pie? Like that coming back to? That's cool. Well, so Okay, so what else can you tell people? Right now if they have their own, like website and stuff like that? Is there anything anyone can do besides writing things in the in the tone of the voice for your target client? Like taking it down from I just want to tell everybody in the whole wide world to really knowing who your ideal client is, it's very important. Is there anything else that you can give us on on top of that?

John Vuong  20:58  

Yeah, so I focused On a lot of service based small, medium sized business owners, like the local dentist or plumber or lawyer or whatnot, Google My Business is a great opportunity. If you haven't verified it, optimize it, make sure you're in the right category, put in all the services that you offer, update it once a week, get good reviews onto the Google My Business Page, because people are checking you out before they call you. And they know so much before they even reach out to you. That's scary, right? They know, they checked out you on LinkedIn, they check out your reviews, case studies, Chapter all your blogs to see if you're credible, right. So as much as you want to put out information, make sure it's consistent along the lines, don't, you know, say one thing and do something else the other channel right? So it's more important than ever to make sure all your assets and all the properties that you own online is consistent has the same tone of voice and has the same good, you know? Good feel authentic feel rawness, right, because end of the day people are gonna check you all. And if

Jennifer Gilgroic  22:11  

I actually have a really good local thing, so I had a marketing company and I used to help people do this and there was an assisted living facility here in our town, and they did not go out and grab what you say their their property. So when he says that if for anyone who doesn't know what that means, it means like, go to your Yelp and claim your business claim your business on Google, there's actually a little thing when you you put it up, is this your business? You want to claim it because somebody else can claim it. So they had a Facebook page that actually wasn't theirs. It was a it was a well meaning former staff, and so nothing had been updated on it. And there were some like comments that weren't that great, but their Google business showed had a set of pictures, the first pictures that came up That had someone had made a cut is disgusting, but they had messed their bed. That's all I'm gonna say that it was very graphic. And that is the picture that came up for now this is one of the cleanest, nicest facilities. And that picture wasn't even of their facility. Because the flooring was they didn't have that flooring anywhere in any of their rooms. But that was the picture that pulled up. And it was actually a process to pull that listing away, and a verification from the person who had claimed it, who was a competitor of a very small unit to do it. So people wouldn't go to this very large one. I mean, they had hundreds of rooms, a skilled nursing or whatever. And they're like, how can businesses just dropped and we're not getting calls. We're not getting this? Well, as soon as I help them clean that up a little bit just because I knew enough to do that. I'm not an expert like john, who could have probably really maximized that all of a sudden, the phones started ringing. They started getting more residents again, because that false information wasn't out there. So you do want to do that not just for SEO, but also to protect the name and good reputation of your business. So add that to that. Yeah. So I didn't mean to hijack you there. I just had an actual thing I knew about what you were saying worked. Well, we've been talking to john Vong. Am I saying that correctly? I should, yes. Okay. Great. And he's with local SEO search.ca because he's Canadian. Right. So local SEO search.ca. And we're getting to almost getting close to the end. So Brain, did you have any? Some questions? Still? Yeah.

Unknown Speaker  24:46  

Well, I think that I noticed on your site, you have a free site audit. So why don't you tell us about how what that includes and how people can get and you know, get theirs, their site audited and how you can help?

John Vuong  24:58  

Yeah, so what we've been trying to do is give and help as many small medium sized businesses as possible. So usually with that someone inputs her website, usually it's a real business that's been in business for a while that is frustrated and need some more of a digital presence, right? Because we need to benchmark you, we need to figure out how we can help. And so we we kind of do a console, a phone conversation first, to see where you're at what you've done, and kind of analyze how we can help. Right? Yeah, because not only do we bring an SEO background and console, we actually go in a little bit deeper because of our business experience. Myself, yes, I have 10 plus years in sales and marketing working with thousands of businesses, but my VP of sales have worked with over you know, a couple thousand clients as well, but he was at Yellow Pages for 35 years. So his experience his insights in how to run a good Business is invaluable for a lot of business owners that are just starting, right. So we try to just help as much as possible. And that's what differentiates us from a lot of other competitors.

Brain Price  26:11  

Cool.

Jennifer Gilgroic  26:12  

Yeah, experience like that is really invaluable, especially when they've you've guys have seen it all. And really the best advertising is a good business. You know, you do what you say you're going to do, and you make people happy. And they tell their friends and I know there's the old adage, well, if they're unhappy, they'll tell everybody if they're happy, they're not gonna say word, but that's just being bitter. That's actually not true. People do talk about good experiences, and they do recommend, and even on Facebook, you have local here in Galveston, we have this Galveston is called Galveston gossip or something like that. There's like 60,000 people on it, and people gossip and they talk and they take pictures of things. And they even give shout outs but they also ask questions. Hey, guys, who do you know who can fix this? Or Who's your landscaper? My guys, not doing it anymore. I see that a lot. And people refer to that all the time. And that's just my little town. So you know, there's there's just running a good business and being good people will talk, they will talk and send you stuff. It's which is this.

John Vuong  27:15  

These are great forums and groups because once you are known and reputable, it's all about like cultivating more opportunity, right? So just do good end of the day, eventually things will come to you and be honest about it. Right? Like don't don't try to you know, do a fast one on people right? Or, you know me like they're so

Jennifer Gilgroic  27:38  

Basic but yeah. You're right. Don't pull a fast one on me but there's so much click and bead and there's so many people on social just trying to make it or hustle or whatever it is. Yeah, but are they real business owners like really? If you look at any athlete, pro athlete or any successful singer, they don't tell you what they've been doing for the last 20 years. yours. You see them at the pinnacle. So it's the same bit entrepreneurship like, no one sees me doing what I did for the last 20 years. They only see me at now. Right? But how many years of you know the grit and wrongness of hustling and door knocking cold calling and all those other things? sleepless nights and not paying for food? Like all these things, no one sees that, right? 

Brain Price  28:26  

Yeah, absolutely.

Jennifer Gilgroic  28:29  

Okay, so, as Connect, I'm going to set one more question before Tammy has to take us away but as Canadian who had to live in England, I want you to tell me what English food does there any English food that you particularly liked? Because, you know, back in the day, England was not known for its food. So I'm curious as what a Vietnamese Canadian living in England like for his food. I know that's off topic, but I just have to ask you.

John Vuong  28:55  

Know, I still love the chips there, which is fine. Yeah, but they were really greasy. They were like dripped in, you know, after you go to the local pub and uh huh. No, no. I mean, it was great. But because I was drunk, maybe but

Jennifer Gilgroic  29:14  

Man, you can't you can't beat it. Well, that's awesome. Well guys we've been talking to john von john is with local SEO search.ca. If you're a small or medium sized business owner and you're just racking your head, trying to figure out how to cut through the noise and increase your exposure, but you know, in the way that you need to get in more clients that you can take great care of, then go and see him at local SEO search.ca. And Tammy is going to give you more information about us. Thank you so much, John, for being on the show. It was just great Convo. 

Brain Price  29:48  

Thanks. I appreciate it 

John Vuong  29:49  

Thanks a lot Brian and Jennifer. Thank you.

Tammy Geerling  29:51  

Yeah, thank you, John. And thank you, Brian and Jennifer for hosting today. And we will have all of John's links in our show notes. And you can find us at leafy legal we are across all social media platforms and also podcast platforms. So thank you again so much for listening today. Hope you have a wonderful day and we will see you next time. Bye.

Male Announcer  30:22  

Attention real estate investors and entrepreneurs. Did you know that real estate investors are a primary target for lawsuits according to the National Survey of the court data 25% of Americans risk being sued in their lifetime. However, if you are a real estate investor, you have a 95% chance of being sued in the next 20 years. Leafy Legal Services helps you protect your assets and strategically grow your business and wealth LiFi legal services our experts at the series LLC and Delaware statutory trust to have the newest and most ideal legal structures for real estate investors leaving legal services at the most personalized and affordable solutions for setting up LLCs property owners are always at risk when it comes to their assets. anonymity is so important. If you own just a rental house and you own your home, you have to protect yourself and your properties from any potential legal issues. Leafy Legal Services have the right solutions to make sure you are happy and feel secure or they offer cost effective documentation that suits their client's needs for a free consultation and ebook visit levy legal services.com They are waiting to hear from you Leafy Legal Services.com.

Female Announcer  31:35  

Follow us on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. Don't wait take action now. LiFi legal services calm protect your assets grow your business and manage your wealth.

In this episode, Leafy hosts sit down with ‘The Man with an Exit Plan’ Rob Berger. Rob, who retired at the young age of 49, is a big proponent of FIRE (Financial Independence / Retire Early). In his retirement, Rob authored the book, Retire Before Mom & Dad, is a Forbes Deputy Editor, and podcast host to the Dough Roller Money Podcast, a finance podcast for easy-to-understand advice and guidance on managing your money.  Rob is also an investor and retired lawyer. Rob has been investing in the stock market for nearly 30 years and in real estate for almost 20. Rob tells us that low cost index funds are a great way to start your investments. It’s the best way to build long-term wealth. Then active investing, like real estate investing, are wonderful tools to help extend that wealth. Rob started in his real estate investing with HUD foreclosures.  He warns don't overextend yourself, think 10-20 years down the road, instead of an immediate payday. Over leveraging with real estate investments can get a novice investor into real trouble. Just remember that as painful and difficult as today’s market is, this will pass and be irrelevant long term. 

To find out more about Rob Berger, visit: robberger.com 

Find his book: Retire Before Mom and Dad https://www.amazon.com/Retire-Before-Mom-Dad-Financial/dp/1733914501