Investor Cheat Code Podcast with Mike Simmons

For today's episode, I gladly welcome realtor turned investor Bentley Pugh, who joins us to discuss his incredible journey in life and business so far. In 2006, Bentley sold his landscaping company and became an agent most interested in commercial real estate. Since then, he's evolved from a real estate broker to managing his family-owned real estate investment firm, Beachworks LLC.

At first, we learn how Bentley's backstory has profoundly impacted his career and business. He studied business and marketing, and while in college, started a landscaping company to have a passive income source. He spent the next five to six years as a realtor and then turned to real estate as an investor. Bentley has shared with us today why he chose to do that and how the pivot helped him in the long run.

He shares how having the capital to start with was advantageous for them as it was rare for anybody just beginning to have enough to invest. Bentley also shares why it is essential to keep adjusting to the market's changing trends and ways. We discuss why it's important to know both knowledgeable and neutral people in life and how both can positively shape your path. If you know smarter people, you could get valuable tips to scaling and expanding your business, and if you have friends and mentors outside of the business, you have a fair chance of getting unbiased, heartfelt input from them.

Bentley also shares how relationships with contractors and others in the business are extremely important. Your business can have phenomenal growth if you find people who are really into it. He also discusses his plans and where he wishes to take his business moving forward. He still focuses on their core business, which is single-family, construction, or townhome sites, while still doing some wholesaling and flipping of properties.

We also learn how these unprecedented times of the pandemic have added to his choices on spending. Bentley has cut his expenses by 10 to 15% by filtering out what he doesn't need. He stressed what an important lesson this is for each of us to benefit us in life and business.

Please tune in to the Just Start Real Estate Podcast to know all that this extraordinary businessman has shared with us today and take your business to another level. Do not miss out on this insightful episode with Bentley Pugh!

Notable Quotes:

“We can't use our new construction contractors on a flip because they're just not into that. ”

• Bentley Pugh

“For us, we had capital when we started out, which was very rare at the time. We were going after large, untitled, distressed development properties.”

• Bentley Pugh

“Real estate's sort of like a chameleon - you have to be constantly adjusting and thinking where the market is going to go.”

• Bentley Pugh

“Don't try to change the recipe. If the recipe works, use it. If you apply it and it doesn't work as well, then change it for sure.”

• Mike Simmons

“During the pandemic, I've cut my spending probably 10% to 15%. It isn’t really affecting my business.”

• Bentley Pugh

“You surround yourself with some people that are smarter than you, they answer your questions, and then you can feed the end results to your buyers”

• Bentley Pugh

“So it's really all about relationships. Our relational foundation is a model that has never changed.”

• Bentley Pugh

“Helping people helps to reinforce what you already know.  It also makes you realize some of the things that maybe you're not doing as well as you used to do.”

• Mike Simmons

Links:

Bentleys Website

Bentley’s LinkedIn

Mike’s Free Coaching

7 Figure Flipping

Return on Investments

Just Start Real Estate

JSRE on Facebook

Mike on Facebook

Mike on Instagram

Mike on LinkedIn

Mike on Twitter

Level Jumping: How I Grew My Business to Over $1 Million in Profits in 12 Months

For this episode, I am happy to welcome Jason Yarusi. Jason and his wife, Pili,  are active Real Estate Syndicators and Real Estate Investors. In 2016 they founded Yarusi Holdings, a multifamily investment firm and they are General Partners on over 850 units across four states with 450 units under management. The firm repositions properties through operational efficiencies, moderate to extensive renovations and complete rebranding. They are also hosts of the popular Multifamily Live Podcast and The Jason and Pili Project on Youtube. Jason and Pili are founders of the Tennessee, Kentucky and New Jersey Multifamily Foundation Club with over 2,200 members that focuses on Real Estate Syndication and Multifamily Investing.

I start by letting the audience know that Jason and his wife and I are friends and have known each other for several years, so that I will be asking him questions I already know the answers to! I know that they both started working in other fields before moving into real estate, so I asked Jason to give us some of his background. He talks about how they first met, when he was invited to perform some restoration construction work on the barge bar that Pili worked at. In the wake of Hurricane Sandy, they began working for Jason’s dad who owned a company which moves and lifts houses in New Jersey. They loved supporting and assisting in the running of their family business, but they knew they also wanted more for themselves.

When they first started in real estate investing, they were flipping and wholesaling single family homes like crazy, but they felt like they had filled their plate to overflowing and wanted a more passive income model of investing. A friend of theirs was investing in out-of-town rentals, which seemed attractive to them, but they decided to start looking at multifamily units. In 2017, they bought their first apartment building and learned the process of that kind of property investing.

Jason explained that part of the reason that flipping and wholesaling wasn’t working for them was because they were doing it locally and kept throwing themselves in the process. Not only did this take away their free-time but it often slowed down the process itself! Investing in out-of-town multifamily properties really benefited them because they were forced to hire a team and put processes in place to handle and manage these assets. Jason talks extensively about the advantages of being involved in multifamily versus single family homes.

We then discussed how Jason and Pili are reaching out and educating people in the multifamily investing model. I asked Jason to explain why they decided to do this because I know they are a super busy, young family. Jason explained how they developed relationships and made mistakes, but their hope is to have others avoid those same mistakes and realize their goals more quickly.

Jason talked about the Multifamily Live Virtual Summit that they are hosting on March 25th and 26th and he stressed how beneficial these events and meetings are for new investors. Jason explained they are having twelve active multifamily investors speak at this event and each of them have a particular superpower in order to impart as much varied information as possible to the attendees. Not only is the information provided going to be extremely actionable, but it is also FREE!

The people I trust the most in this business all definitively say that Jason is the man when it comes to multifamily investing so you will not want to miss this awesome episode the Just Start Real Estate Podcast! And don’t forget to sign up for next week’s Multifamily Live Virtual Summit today by clicking the link below!

Notable Quotes:

“Like most people, we were just trying to figure it out.”

• Jason Yarusi

“We knew we needed to get back to where we were controlling our time.”

• Jason Yarusi

“Active effort produces money, but at that point, you are trading time for money.”

• Jason Yarusi

“Most people think they need to say ‘yes’ to everything to maximize their opportunities, but they risk diluting themselves and not being great at anything.”

• Mike Simmons

“What can I do today to meet the potential of this property?”

• Jason Yarusi

“When starting a new venture you need to understand the mindset, understand the terms, and how to talk the talk.”

• Jason Yarusi

“People look at the mountain top and think, ‘Too big, too tall, can’t even imagine it.’ But you don’t need to get to the top in the first step.”

• Mike Simmons

“Ultimately, it is a team sport. Working together is more beneficial and gratuitous because we are all serving a bigger purpose.”

• Jason Yarusi

“Where people get stuck is that they feel they have to accomplish all of these things on their own.”

• Jason Yarusi

“Educating others is about making the line straighter for them so it isn’t a gigantic bell curve for them to get to where they want to be.”

• Jason Yarusi

“That’s the key… connecting the dots so that people know what they have to do to get started.”

• Mike Simmons

Links:

Multifamily Live Virtual Summit

Yarousi Holdings

Mike’s Free Coaching

7 Figure Flipping

Return on Investments

Just Start Real Estate

JSRE on Facebook

Mike on Facebook

Mike on Instagram

Mike on LinkedIn

Mike on Twitter

Level Jumping: How I Grew My Business to Over $1 Million in Profits in 12 Months

For this episode, I am excited to welcome Johnny Wimbrey, an internationally-acclaimed talk show host, #1 best-selling author, and motivational speaker whose charismatic nature inspires everyone from inner-city youth to corporate moguls and celebrities. Author and writer of the best-selling book, From the Hood to Doing Good, Johnny has just released his new book, Building a Millionaire Mindset: How to Use the Pillars of Entrepreneurship to Gain, Maintain, and Sustain Long-Lasting Wealth. Johnny Wimbrey expounds on critical concepts in his book and also shares his incredible rags-to-riches story with us in this powerful interview.

Johnny introduces himself and shares his personal and professional history. He describes his rough past and run-ins with the law, noting how this affected his ability to get a job since it deterred companies from hiring him. 

Talking about his book, Building a Millionaire Mindset, Johnny points out how it focuses on the mindset regarding wealth, describing that he wrote it like he was writing to teach his descendants how to keep making wealth. He strongly recommends the book for first-generation millionaires as it explains the impact of your inner voice on your success and the success of your children.

We discuss the need to walk away from negative or harmful situations that you may encounter in life. This is done by exercising your mental muscle, the muscle of being able to walk away from controversy and acting as if you have something to lose. Mike also explains the importance of a successful mindset over being spoon-fed with tactics or methods. Johnny agrees that the inheritance for his kids is not his money but the principles to manage the money.

Johnny narrates the experience of trying to turn his life around, what he characterizes as participating in your own rescue. He describes his work as a temporary insurance agent and trying to get his license during this time. He details the many failures along the way, and the persistent effort he put at each point of failing, taking part in rescuing himself from the impending demise that would have been a fallout of his previous actions. 

Johnny explains the importance of having a mentor to hold you accountable for actions taken and how dangerous it can be to not have another person’s council. A mentor can't just be a cheerleader as they are supposed to shake you up and help you make real change in your life. Johnny stressed that you can't mentor anybody unless you have a genuine interest to see them level up in life.

I asked Johnny to describe what he means by being busy versus being productive. He said when people equate this to be the same thing it is a huge lie. Being productive requires intention and direction. If someone takes a step towards something and it has nothing to do with their goal, even if it is helpful in another area, it cannot be considered as truly productive in regard to what they have said is important to them. Additionally, if being busy doesn't mean being productive, it follows that you can be productive without constantly being busy.

We also discussed how adopting someone else's mentality wholesale should not your reality. In every industry there are influencers and you have to be able to discern between voices that are in line with your goals and voices of disruption. How people around you see the world should not affect you and you have to break out of such a mindset. Johnny points out that a friend is a person, place, or thing that's going to push you towards your goals while a foe is a person, place, or thing that's going to pull you away from your goals. You can't allow someone else's thinking to become your reality because if you do, it could change the DNA that you were designed to put out in this lifetime.

Johnny’s book is filled with actionable steps and instructions to provide the reader an opportunity to live each experience that goes beyond the written words. You will not want to miss this powerful interview on the Just Start Real Estate Podcast with popular influencer and successful businessman, Johnny Wimbrey!

Notable Quotes:

"My story is basically this: where you come from doesn't have to dictate where you're going, your past doesn't have to determine your future."

• Johnny Wimbrey

"It's just amazing what abundance some people start with and not appreciate how much farther ahead they actually started."

• Mike Simmons

"The bottom line is, what voice are you going to entertain the most? That is the reality you are going to manifest."

• Johnny Wimbrey

"How do you develop muscles if you're not forced to lift anything?"

• Mike Simmons

"We are not raising 'try' babies. We are raising 'do' babies"

• Johnny Wimbrey

"One of the worst things you can do to someone is to give them something they didn't earn or have no idea what to do with."

• Mike Simmons

"If I give you fish, I rescued you. If I teach you how to fish, you rescued yourself."

• Johnny Wimbrey

"You can't mentor someone unless you have a genuine interest to see them level up in life."

• Johnny Wimbrey

"You don't need permission to create accountability."

• Johnny Wimbrey

"Taking risks takes a moment, but not taking that risk becomes a lifestyle that leads to regret."

• Johnny Wimbrey

"You either do or you don't."

• Johnny Wimbrey

Links:

From the Hood to Doing Good

Building a Millionaire Mindset

Johnny’s Website

Mike’s FREE Coaching

7 Figure Flipping

Return on Investments

Just Start Real Estate

JSRE on Facebook

Mike on Facebook

Mike on Instagram

Mike on LinkedIn

Mike on Twitter

Level Jumping: How I Grew My Business to Over $1 Million in Profits in 12 Months

In this episode, our guest, Brent Kesler, who was a Chiropractor and Chiropractic coach for over 14 years, shares a very unique strategy that got him out of $984,711 in third-party debt. He accomplished this in 39 months after implementing The Money Multiplier (TMM) Method. He became so passionate about how powerful this concept was, he began sharing it with others, and he breaks down the basic principles in this interview.

Brent shares his background, explaining how he grew up in Florida and worked his way up the ranks in a grocery store. He had always wanted to be a Chiropractor but was financially constrained. Following a transfer to St. Louis, where he met his wife, she encouraged him to go to chiropractic school and gave him immense support. In the end, though, he found himself with some pretty substantial debts to pay off.

Explaining how he ended up with five chiropractic clinics, Brent notes that he moved from his first clinic upon realizing that the location wouldn't work for his family. He trained an associate doctor to work there and opened another. Subsequently, he did the same for the second clinic when he was craving more free time. After eventually selling all the clinics, Brent believes he should have kept part ownership of the business since it was such a great profit center. 

Brent explains that he was recommended a talk called, "The Infinite Banking Concept: How to Become Your Own Banker," based on a book by Nelson Nash. After hearing from his colleagues the power of this particular strategy, and with almost a million dollars in debt, he decided to apply it. He paid off all his debts within 39 months of beginning the use of this strategy, without changing cash flow, working harder, or taking more risk. 

Brent said that all he needed to do was change one thing in his financial life and that was developing his own infinite banking concept process. This involves building your wealth with a specifically designed whole life insurance policy in a mutual company that pays dividends. It is a huge cash value policy and you're able to start using money paid into premium within the first 30 days. The idea is that anytime Brent uses money in the policy, he doesn't take money from the policy but instead puts the policy up for collateral to take a loan from the general fund of the insurance company. This means his money is untouched and still growing tax-free.

Brent discusses the details of buying policies and taking loans in this way. He also noted that you never have to pay back your policy loan, because the loan is simply a prepayment of the death benefit and the death benefit is usually far more than the loan or cash available. Also, the insurance company cannot lose because you're guaranteed to die at some point and any outstanding loan you have on the policy will be paid by the death benefit. The difference between the death benefit and the loan will be paid to your beneficiaries.

Brent Kesler describes how to fund your real estate deals using this strategy in his book, Mapping Out The Millionaire Mystery, which he wrote with Chris Naugle, a client of his. Chris is active in real estate investing, and he shows how he uses all his policies to fund his deals. Brent shares that although Chris was a financial adviser, he never learned about this strategy until they met. He explains that insurance companies don't teach agents about designing the policy this way because the agents have to take a huge hit in their commission.

Brent explains that he never tells anyone where to start with their premium and that you don't need to have a huge amount of money to start. He shares that 91% of the clients that have been with him for a year or more, come back and add onto their policy. Before Brent sets up a call with a potential client, he advises them to watch the presentation at the top of his website’s home page, under the Resources tab, to get acquainted with his investing strategies.

Brent shares that all listeners of Mike's podcast can contact him to get his Mapping Out The Millionaire Mystery ebook for free or choose to pay for postage to get the hardback copy. You don’t want to miss this episode of the Just Start Real Estate Podcast to get this unique, exciting, and helpful advice for achieving financial freedom with The Money Multiplier, Brent Kesler!

Notable Quotes:

"Love doesn't buy your lunch."

• Brent Kesler

“I told my wife at age 28, ‘If I go and do this, by the time I'm done, I'm going to be 34 years old.’ My wife said, ‘Well, if you don't do it, you will still be 34 years old in 6 years.’”

• Brent Kesler

"People think if they're older than their early 20s, they're locked into what they are doing, but they're not."

• Mike Simmons

"Make a decision...you can either play for the next 10 years and then have to work the rest of your life, or you can work for the next 10 years and play for the rest of your life."

• Brent Kesler

"The decisions that you make today are going to affect the next 5 years of your life."

• Brent Kesler

"So I thought to myself, there has to be something to this right? There's no way 10 or 12 of my closest colleagues are lying to me."

• Brent Kesler

"All I did was add one step in my financial life and it drastically changed my financial life."

• Brent Kesler

"I don't care if you make $10 an hour or $10,000 an hour, everybody needs to break the bonds of financial slavery they don't even realize they're in and start taking control of their wealth."

• Brent Kesler

Links:

Brent’s Website

Brent’s Email

Chris Naugle's Email

Hannah's Email

Chris Naugle’s Website

Mike's FREE Coaching

7 Figure Flipping

Return on Investments

Just Start Real Estate

JSRE on Facebook

Mike on Facebook

Mike on Instagram

MMike on Twitter

Mike on LinkedIn

Level Jumping: How I Grew My Business to Over $1 Million in Profits in 12 Months

For this episode, I welcome Kris Reid to the show. Kris is a business growth expert and founder of Ardor SEO. He developed a simple system to get your message in front of your ideal audience to predictably grow your business. Now, he works with diverse companies and brands all over the world to help them get customers and make the profits that they've always envisioned. His own passion for entrepreneurship, small businesses, veganism, and helping sustainable, ethical businesses directs his vision for Ardor and the company's impact on the world.

Kris first shares with us his background story. After getting his degree as a Software Engineer, Kris moved from Brisbane, Australia to London, UK, and worked with investment banks. When the 2008 global financial crisis hit, his career was destroyed. He moved back to Australia and decided to build an online computer game. Like many online businesses, he struggled to get visitors to his website to play the game. So, Kris put his analytical mind to work and by learning the rules of search engine optimization (SEO), he developed a simple system to get people to his website. He then started building websites to sell backlinks and that started his SEO journey.

Without having any previous knowledge about SEO, Kris is completely self-taught. We talk about the importance of backlinks, which Kris believes are fundamentals of how Google works. The more backlinks you have from more credible sources that are in your niche, the more trusted you are and the better you are going to rank.

We then move on to talking about Google making changes in their algorithm and how it can affect SEO marketing. Kris then goes on to explain the difference between two different types of SEO: whitehat SEO (things that Google likes) and blackhat SEO (things that Google doesn’t like). If you are doing blackhat SEO and Google discovers it, you will receive penalties and you can lose all of your traffic. Google’s algorithm is getting better and better at finding good websites and good, quality content online. So, if you have a good website, changes to Google’s algorithm will not affect you.   

Kris shares with us some of the most common mistakes that people make when it comes to SEO. One of the most noticeable things for him is that he believes people spend too much time on their websites talking about themselves. Your page needs to be simple: show the person that you can solve their problem, show examples of your work, and make it easy for people to do business with you. 

Kris believes that most marketing is a waste of money. He says this is mostly true when it comes to traditional marketing: TV ads, radio ads, paper ads because it is almost impossible for you to track if anybody is paying attention to your ads. With digital marketing, you can track everything and you know exactly where your customers are coming from. SEO is the best form of digital marketing because it has a compounding type of return.

I also asked Kris for his advice on how to grow a podcast. His main advice is, just like with SEO, to do some keyword research. If you have a podcast once a week and you rank it for a hundred search volume keywords, it is a hundred searches a month. In the span of a year, you have a website that is generating 5,200 visitors a month and that translates into a million-dollar website.

Our next topic was marketing agencies. When looking for an agency you want someone who is going to focus on your goals and help you grow your business to where you want it to be. You want an agency that will show you a report of your revenue growth, tell you where your leads came from, and where your money came from. You want that type of personal approach in a firm for the best possible outcome.

Kris also talks about how often a website represents a part of the problem. He explains that there are two ways to generate more customers: to increase traffic or to increase conversions. The easiest way is to increase traffic and once you get enough traffic then you focus on the website to see if the conversion is good or not.

Do not miss out on this amazing and super informative episode of the Just Start Real Estate Podcast with business growth and SEO expert, Kris Reid!

Notable Quotes:

“When you are building a business, you are building it for the long game.”

• Kris Reid

“The longer you are around, Google appreciates that and trusts you more.”

• Kris Reid

“Backlinks are super important. They are the fundamentals of how Google works.”

• Kris Reid

“The more backlinks you have from more credible sources that are in your niche, the more trusted you are and the better you are going to rank.”

• Kris Reid

“A website is designed to get in front of people who don’t know who you are.”

• Kris Reid

“Google’s algorithm, all it is ever doing, is getting better at finding quality websites and getting rid of the crappy ones.”

• Kris Reid

“Your action needs to be equivalent to the amount of value that you provide.”

• Kris Reid

“One part of why SEO is better than all of the other forms of digital marketing that you pay for is that it’s compounding.”

• Kris Reid

“That is how you grow a podcast. Don’t go after massive keywords, just rank each episode for a hundred searches a month and in one year you are going to be sitting pretty.”

• Kris Reid

“What you need to do is grow in a sustainable way that is right for your business.”

• Kris Reid

“One keyword might generate more leads, but another type of keyword might generate more customers. That is where we want to focus on.”

• Kris Reid

“You have two ways to generate customers: increase traffic or increase conversions.”

• Kris Reid

“Generally, fixing your ugly websites is not the most important thing; it is getting people to your ugly website because ugly websites still convert.”

• Kris Reid

Links:

ArdorSEO Landing Page

Kris on Facebook

Kris’ Podcast on YouTube

Mike’s FREE Coaching

7 Figure Flipping

Return on Investments

Just Start Real Estate

JSRE on Facebook

Mike on Facebook

Mike on Instagram

Mike on LinkedIn

Mike on Twitter

Level Jumping: How I Grew My Business to Over $1 Million in Profits in 12 Months

For this episode, I am excited to welcome Sean Castrina. Sean is a serial entrepreneur, having started more than 20 companies over the last 20 years, and still seeks to launch a new venture annually. He is an amazing investor, teacher, and highly-sought-after speaker who communicates with humor and a bluntness that engages and captures his audience. His podcast The 10 Minute Entrepreneur, is one of iTunes’ most popular business shows. Sean is also the author of 8 Unbreakable Rules for Business Startup Success, The Greatest Entrepreneur in the World, and World’s Greatest Business Plan.

We start this episode with Sean’s background story. After graduating from college, he was able to secure his dream job. But five years later, he got fired overnight with no warning, after just having a newborn child. This was the moment he realized that he would never again work for anybody but himself. He went on to create a car detailing company that brought in $35,000 of passive income. He repeated that formula with service companies over the next 25 years.

Sean started a lot of businesses in his lifetime and along the way he learned that you don’t have to love that business, you don’t even have to be a part of it, in order to make a profit. As an entrepreneur, his goal is to systematize them and make them passive at some level. Sean goes on to talk about how the fact that he was born legally blind affected his childhood and his adult life. He explains how it taught him to work with that, around that, and defeat any obstacle that came his way. 

We then move on to learn more about Sean’s entrepreneurial career. He talks about how, after creating his detailing business, he started working with other service companies. At one point, he wanted to turn his dining room into an office, but he soon realized that it was impossible to find a handyman in his community. Led by his entrepreneurial spirit, he started a company named Advantage Handyman Service that ended up being a multimillion-dollar company within the first three years, and soon it will be an 8-figure company. It was always the same formula that turned out to be successful for him - service companies. 

We then move on to talking about Sean’s plans for the future. His goal is to start a new company every single year. He explains how some business owners have an entrepreneurial moment - they start a business and they are happy with that, but that is where it stops. Some entrepreneurs are addicted to looking for the next thing that they can get involved in, an opportunity that is within what they know and understand.

Sean and I then dive into discussing one of his books called 8 Unbreakable Rules for Business Startup Success. He shares his perspective about the book and walks us through all eight rules that helped him become a successful business owner. Among other things, he explains why you need a great team, why you need to know your numbers, and how important marketing is. 

Lastly, Sean shares his amazing advice on how to learn from other successful entrepreneurs. Business owners love to get a pat on the back and they love to tell you what they are doing. His advice is to go to any business owner, tell them you love their business and you would just love to bring them a cup of coffee once a month and pick their brain for twenty minutes. You will get a wealth of wisdom from doing this simple task!

Don’t miss this episode of Just Start Real Estate that is filled with practical and incredibly actionable advice from an amazing, and most definitely serial, entrepreneur, Sean Castrina!

Notable Quotes:

“A job is not security. At the very least, you have to put up with stuff that you don't even like.”

• Sean Castrina

“There are very few jobs that are like being an entrepreneur.”

• Sean Castrina

“Business is nothing but chess pieces; every chess piece moves a little bit differently. Employment is playing checkers; you move linear, trying to get to the end of the board.” 

• Sean Castrina

“You are not going to be good if you do everything. Do a couple of things really, really well.”

• Mike Simmons

“When you face an obstacle, you climb over it and that paints the picture of who you become.”

• Sean Castrina

“Do the craft that you are good at.”

• Sean Castrina

“Entrepreneurs are addicted to the next thing they can get involved in.”

• Sean Castrina

“When you are an entrepreneur, you are constantly looking for something that works within what you know and understand.” 

• Sean Castrina

“This is a hard game to win if you don’t know any of the rules.” 

• Sean Castrina

Links:

Download a FREE COPY of Sean’s book, 8 Unbreakable Rules for Business Startup Success

Sean on Instagram 

Sean on Facebook

Sean on LinkedIn

Sean on YouTube

Sean on Twitter

Mike's FREE Coaching

7 Figure Flipping

Return on Investments

Just Start Real Estate

JSRE on Facebook

Mike on Facebook

Mike on Instagram

Mike on LinkedIn

Mike on Twitter

Level Jumping: How I Grew My Business to Over $1 Million in Profits in 12 Months

Today, I am so excited to welcome Tom Wheelwright! Tom is known as a tax and wealth expert, he is a CPA, and the CEO of WealthAbility®. He is the Best-Selling Author of Tax-Free Wealth (part of the Rich Dad Advisors Series). Tom is a speaker, entrepreneur, and host of two popular podcasts: The WealthAbility™ Show and The WealthAbility® for CPAs Show. He is a contributor to Entrepreneur magazine, and his work has been seen in Forbes, The Wall Street Journal, The Washington Post, FOX and Friends, and many other media outlets. 

We begin this episode, as we often do, with Tom’s background. Tom began his career doing bookkeeping for his father’s company. After getting his master's of Professional Accounting degree from the University of Texas, he managed and led the professional training for thousands of CPAs at Ernst & Young’s National Tax Department in Washington, D.C. He was an in-house tax advisor for Pinnacle West Capital Corporation, at the time a Fortune 1000 company and he also served as an adjunct professor in the Masters of Tax program at Arizona State University for 14 years, where he created the course for teaching multi-state tax planning techniques. Tom now teaches the Rich Dad Education Advanced Tax and Asset Protection class and he is also currently building a network of CPA firms around the world in order to serve more people. 

We then talk about the importance of planning and thinking ahead when it comes to taxes. Having these discussions with your CPA early on in the tax year helps you to prepare properly. As a successful business owner, you need to know your numbers every single day. And when you know where you stand, it is much easier to plan out your taxes. 

We briefly touch on the differences between bookkeepers and CPAs. According to Tom, your bookkeeper is there to provide accurate records that help you make right decisions. Your CPA is there to analyze those records. The role of your bookkeeper is to keep you accountable, and it is that accountability that creates profitability. 

Tom then talks about buying and selling CPA firms, as well as creating them from scratch. He walks us through the process of turning around a CPA firm after the purchase. For Tom, it was all about building appropriate systems. For example, very few CPAs have a system for meeting with clients: when, how often, what is the goal, etc. Tom believes that systems are what creates value in a business, that they are the primary asset of the business. 

We then move on to talking about Tom's partnership with Robert Kiyosaki. The two met when Tom bought a CPA firm that had Robert as one of the clients. This just proves that you never know where your contacts can lead you. Tom goes into detail explaining how all the pieces came together at the right time and led to him becoming Robert’s tax advisor.

We then discuss the current political situation. We talk about how political changes affect us and what should we know from a small-business standpoint. Tom’s estimate is that the taxes will probably go up in the next four years. The incentives will probably shift to clean, renewable energy. From a real-estate point of view, if you have a real estate with solar production or hydroelectric production, that will be a great source of cash-flow. These changes will require an adjustment to how we think when it comes to real estate. 

Lastly, we dive into the stimulus bill. Tom takes us through some of the most important parts of the bill as far as taxes are concerned: restaurant business meals (both takeout and dine-in) are 100% deductible for the next two years, extending the universal charitable deduction through 2021, and qualifying for PPP loans. Tom then goes on to explain PPP loans even further in regards to the new act.

You do not want to miss this amazing and advice-packed episode of the Just Start Real Estate Podcast with the legendary tax expert, Tom Wheelwright!

Notable Quotes: 

“One of the mistakes that new entrepreneurs, new investors get into is that they are catching up on their taxes, instead of staying ahead.” 

• Tom Wheelwright

“Good tax records and good tax practices are also good business practices.”

• Tom Wheelwright 

“If you are running a good, tight business and you know your numbers, tax season won’t be so stressful because you will have the information available.” 

• Mike Simmons 

“Your bookkeeper is there to create accuracy, accurate records that you can make good decisions from and your CPA should be there to analyze those records.” 

• Tom Wheelwright 

“If you don't have the documentation, you don’t get to deduct that expense.”

• Tom Wheelwright 

“What a system does is actually create value. Because if you don’t have a system, really all you are doing is constantly selling. If you constantly have to sell, you don’t really have a business, you have a job as a salesman. ” 

• Tom Wheelwright 

“You can sell a business, but a business has to have assets and primary assets are going to be the systems of the business” 

• Tom Wheelwright

“A sellable business is also a well-run business.” 

• Mike Simmons 

“Once you find the formula that you can repeat over and over again, all of a sudden business is easy. When you are making a new decision every day, that makes business hard.”

• Tom Wheelwright 

“I happen to believe that business produces income; workers are necessary but they are not the reason that business survives. The business survives because of the assets in the business.” 

• Tom Wheelwright 

“Never turn down free money.” 

• Tom Wheelwright

“A tax strategy should be a long-term tax strategy.” 

• Tom Wheelwright 

Links: 

Tom’s Website 

Tom on Facebook 

Tom on LinkedIn 

WealthAbility Website 

WealthAbility on Facebook 

WealthAbility on Twitter 

WealthAbility on Instagram 

WealthAbility on LinkedIn 

Mike’s FREE Coaching

7 Figure Flipping

Return on Investments

Just Start Real Estate

JSRE on Facebook

Mike on Facebook

Mike on Instagram

Mike on LinkedIn

Mike on Twitter

Level Jumping: How I Grew My Business to Over $1 Million in Profits in 12 Months

For today’s episode, I am happy to host Dave Dubeau, a real-estate investor, investor attraction expert, and a best selling author based in British Columbia, Canada. Dave famously began his career back in 2003, doing 18 deals in 18 months, and has continued to grow ever since, doing a remarkable number of client-first, rent-to-own deals, and later investing in multifamily properties. He is truly a master at what he does and has a proprietary 5 Step Money Partner Formula with which he continues to help his clients grow their portfolios significantly in record time by attracting investors. 

Dave gives an insight into his childhood when he used to live in a 6-plex, where there were always tenants around, and the idea of rentals was not alien to him. He also gives credits to his mother, who was no slouch at real estate investing herself and racked up a sizable portfolio of over 50 doors while being a working mom. So, the seeds of real estate investing were planted into his mind from an early age.

Dave recalls that when his daughter was getting to school age, they decided to move to North America since it offered better opportunities and a safer environment for kids to grow up in. So, they moved to Canada and started all over again from scratch in 2003. He remembers coming across a Ron LeGrand commercial, saying that you could get into real estate investing with little or no money down, and thinking to himself that it’s perfect because that’s exactly what he had. He immediately took it to action and did 18 deals in 18 months.

Dave then went on to work with a real estate guru, who was pretty much the Canadian version of Robert Kiyosaki who saw what he was doing with marketing and other business dealings. He became the Director of Marketing for his companies and helped him grow from two employees to 128 employees with seven branch offices, clocking in $200 million a year.

Dave shares his non-conventional ways of making deals like instead of starting with the house, and then trying to find somebody for that house, he starts by finding the person and then buying a house for their requirements. He shares his philosophy of raising capital. He says, when it comes to the chicken and the egg, which comes first, the money or the deal, he says the money always comes first, which means that before you go around trying to make deals, you’ve got to have the capital to back you up. That's when you can go after the best deals, that's when you can negotiate the hardest, that's when you can go in with the Mojo because you know, you've got the money to back you up.

Dave then goes ahead and gives a glimpse of his 5 Steps Money Partner Formula. Step number one is to come up with a list of prospective investors, a list of 150 to 200 people. Hit your cell phone, take a look at your contacts, email, Linkedin, and all other profiles, and start making a solid list. Then, reconnect with these people. Before talking business, build a genuine relationship and gradually find out if or not they could be a potential investor. You’ll probably get 30 to 50 replies out of that list you’ve made.

Step number two is to go with a good presentation for when somebody puts up their hand and says, hey, I'm interested, tell me more. Most people aren't super experienced with raising capital as they aren't natural salespeople. So having a really good, well structured, well-laid out, attractive slideshow presentation can serve you very well.

Step number three is all about marketing. Dave stresses the importance of constant, consistent communication. Ideally, you want to be reaching out to your list of prospective investors once a week, but at the very least, consistently do it once a month. Keep in mind that the person coming in may not care about real estate investing, but they do like the idea of getting a good return on their money.

Step number four is all about demonstrating your authority and credibility. You only need to be seen as the expert, as an authority in the eyes of those people on your list. Again, keep in mind that the vast majority of those people have never purchased a single revenue property. So, if you even have closed one deal, you're already light years ahead of them. When you're meeting with somebody, even if it's on zoom, and you're talking about money, dress up professionally and show them respect. Dave advises that people speak knowledgeably about your strategy and your market.

Lastly, step number five, once you get a couple of investors on board, it's so much easier to get more of them with effective testimonials and referrals. If your investors are happy with what you're doing for them, if you do it properly, you can get referrals and testimonials from them, which will greatly boost your growth. Dave says that he firmly believes that a good real estate deal is the best way for everyday folks to make an above-average return on the money, backed by a solid, tangible asset, a real property.

What a fabulous episode of the Just Start Real Estate Podcast! So much great information and value from this wonderful conversation with Dave Dubeau!

Notable quotes:

“If I were going to write a book on the keys to success, there would absolutely be a chapter on self-awareness.”

• Mike Simmons

“Instead of starting with the house, and then trying to find somebody for that house, we start by finding the person and then we buy them a house.”

• Dave Dubeau

“Find a good deal and the money will find you.”

• Dave Dubeau

“You need to turn every conversation into a real estate conversation. You have to get out there.”

• Dave Dubeau

“I always tell people the best time to raise money is when you don't need it.”

• Mike Simmons

“When it comes to the chicken and the egg idea, which comes first, the money or the deal? I say that the money always comes first.”

• Dave Dubeau

“When it comes to raising capital, especially for people who are just getting started, just go after the low hanging fruit.”

• Dave Dubeau

“Marketing is all about having constant, consistent communication, so we're planting the seed of real estate investing.”

• Dave Dubeau

“When you're meeting with somebody, even if it's on zoom, and you're talking about money, dress up.”

• Dave Dubeau

“I think it is really important to say that you firmly believe that a good real estate deal is the best way for everyday folks to make an above-average return on their money, backed by solid, tangible property.”

• Dave Dubeau

Links:

Dave Dubeau’s Website

Dave Dubeau’s Book

Dave Dubeau Facebook 

Dave Dubeau Instagram

Dave Dubeau LinkedIn 

Mike’s Free Coaching

7 Figure Flipping

Return on Investments

Just Start Real Estate

JSRE on Facebook

Mike on Facebook

Mike on Instagram

Mike on LinkedIn

Mike on Twitter

Level Jumping: How I Grew My Business to Over $1 Million in Profits in 12 Months

For today's episode, I'm absolutely thrilled to welcome Jimmy Murray. Jimmy is a millennial house hacker turned corporate dropout, a specialist in flipping 2-4 unit multifamilies, and the Co-Founder of Lyon Property Management Company that operates across Rhode Island and Southern Massachusetts. Jimmy also co-hosts the Cashflow Kings Podcast along with fellow millionaire investor Frank Patalano.

Jimmy opens up and talks about his childhood and that his family had no background in real estate investing. His dad was a contractor, one of the best finish carpenters in New England, he said his dad did not want Jimmy to end up like him. He frequently advised Jimmy to take up some books and start learning and he always insisted that everyone must work smarter, not harder. Jimmy credits his parents with his strong work ethic that was instilled in him from a very young age.

Jimmy went on to get a degree in finance, but his mind was on starting a business to buy multifamily properties. He remembers the dismissal he received when he presented this idea to his father, who thought it was nothing but nonsense. Jimmy was certain that multifamily would help set him up financially, and when he finally did buy one, his dad told Jimmy that he had made the biggest mistake of his life. He conveys the idea that even though parents are acting out of their love and are simply trying to protect you, you can be set back by their opinions, especially if it concerns a topic they are not aware of. Jimmy stresses how important it is to realize that you need to continue to follow what's important for you and educate yourself. Jimmy claims that anyone capable of elementary mathematics could get into investing in multifamily properties.

Initially, Jimmy says his goal was to make it to Wall Street, make a ton of money, and eventually get into real estate. Jimmy then landed a dream job with a huge private firm after graduation, only to realize that it was not his dream job. The job definitely set him up financially, though, and made him capable of venturing into the real estate world.

On starting a company of his own after quitting the corporate job, Jimmy shares that it can be a struggle to focus on the right things. There are some things that naturally we like to do and we really need to have this self-awareness. There are other things that we don't want to do, so for those tasks, Jimmy recommends hiring people as quickly as possible. Along the way, it is helpful to make a list of the things you most enjoy and the things you least enjoy, so you can hire appropriately and start to pivot as you grow your company. 

Jimmy said the biggest thing is actually making the jump. People always hold themselves back, thinking about hitting rock bottom. But the truth is, if you really screw up and you hit that rock bottom, you can always rebuild, and you just gotta figure it out, and you gotta be willing to put in the work. Being successful is really about having the right systems in place and recognizing what's really important that you need to jump on right away. Jimmy stresses that real estate is a relationship-based business and it is very important to network and build strong relationships with your tenants and contractors.

We talk about his podcast, Cashflow Kings, and Jimmy shares the goal has never been to monetize the podcast, but use it as a way to give back and educate other investors. Jimmy lets us know that financial freedom is a massive thing for him. Having financial freedom over your time and assets is huge. He says it is easy to become a millionaire in the stock market, but it's much more exciting for him to leverage his retirement assets to invest in real estate.

His thing is to just wake up every day and take action. He recalls listening to a guest on the podcast who said that massive actions equals massive results. And that's one of the things he puts to work every single day, go out, take action, and you're going to learn a tremendous amount. That's what's really going to fuel your growth. 

You do not want to miss this fantastic episode of the Just Start Real Estate Podcast that is packed with actionable advice! Just a ton of truth bombs to learn from in this engaging and educational conversation with Jimmy Murray!

Notable quotes:

“If you can add, subtract, and divide, you can buy multifamily.”

• Jimmy Murray

“Now that I know what I know, I would have tried to leverage everything to the hills to really grow the portfolio to gain that momentum.”

• Jimmy Murray

“If I could go back and talk to my 2008 self, I'd go, dude, you need to figure it out, raise money, buy properties, and build a portfolio.”

• Mike Simmons

“My whole life is guided by the books that I read to shape my mind.”

• Jimmy Murray

“My advice would be to lean on other people that have had that experience. Ask them what the feeling was, what was the big thing that got them over the hump.”

• Jimmy Murray

“If you really screw up and hit rock bottom, you can always rebuild. You just have to figure it out and be willing to put in the work.”

• Jimmy Murray

“I like unstable buildings because that's where you really create the value as an investor.”

• Jimmy Murray

“You need to take care of your tenants, because your tenants are going to take care of your cash flow.”

• Jimmy Murray

“I think that COVID introduces a whole another layer of complexity in terms of structural changes that we'll see in the market.”

• Jimmy Murray

Links:

Cashflow Kings on Facebook

Jimmy on Facebook

Cashflow Kings on Instagram

Jimmy on Instagram

Cashflow Kings on Twitter 

Mike’s FREE Coaching

7 Figure Flipping

Return on Investments

Just Start Real Estate

JSRE on Facebook

Mike on Facebook

Mike on Instagram

Mike on LinkedIn

Mike on Twitter

Level Jumping: How I Grew My Business to Over $1 Million in Profits in 12 Months

For today’s episode, I’m excited to welcome real estate investor, developer, and founder of LiveFree Investments, Logan Freeman. He has found his niche in the industry acting as an investment property specialist, actually representing buyers instead of sellers in the transaction process. Completing over 120 transactions in less than a year, Logan relies on his established processes and priorities to guide his profit-producing activities. He continually invests in himself so that he can provide great value to his investors, making sure to pivot and listen to what the market is providing. Logan is also the host of the LiveFree Investors Podcast where he interviews business owners and investors from around the country. 

Logan first shares his background story with us. He finds his home town to have more of a fixed mindset and says he’s always had a growth mindset. He believes this fixed mindset was ingrained in him because of two reasons, which he is still reflecting on. His mother worked two jobs to provide for their family. And that was one reason he thinks that even though she's not really a growth mindset type of person, she did what she had to do. And then the second one is that his dad, from an early age, instilled in him the feeling that you can do whatever you want to, but you have to set your mind to it.

Logan talks about the menial jobs he had when he was a teenager and the lessons they taught him. He also talks about the role that playing sports had in his life. He had the awesome opportunity to play football both in college and in the NFL, and he shared the difficulties related to this, but also how it shaped who he would become. In the course of a six month period, he got cut from the NFL, was no longer an athlete and had to find his identity, lost 120 pounds, went back to school while working full-time, and he lost his father after a long battle with drug and alcohol addiction. It was a very tumultuous period for Logan, but really formed his journey forward.

Logan shares how he completed his first live-in flip in 2013. He discusses the different ways he found the money to finance his real estate deals and how he expanded into the multifamily market. Logan also discusses more creative financing options such as a Delaware Statutory Trust Structure (DST). We also talked about affordable housing and how Logan uses it for his business. 

Logan takes the time to explain the concept of syndication to our listeners. Logan’s favorite book on this topic is Principles of Real Estate Syndication by Samuel K. Freshman. He calls it “the textbook for syndication” and he tells us how it helped him immensely in building the sector of his business. Logan talks about the different ways that his company, Live Free Investments, works with investors in the Kansas City area. They act as a broker with their clients, placing the tenants, managing the property, and providing visibility into any rehab work that needs to be done. They also are involved in equity syndications, sourcing investment opportunities to investors which allow them to be part of an asset class they may not have otherwise been able to invest in.

Don’t miss this incredibly honest and informative conversation with businessman and podcaster, Logan Freeman! Make today the day you become a faithful listener of the Just Start Real Estate Podcast as we provide you with insight into actionable real estate investing and business development wisdom!

Notable Quotes:

“What I learned as I was going through collegiate sports was that you get to affect your results and you are impacted by the decisions and the choices that you make.”

• Logan Freeman

“I'm a big believer that I can't sell or be a part of something I don't believe in.”

• Logan Freeman

“There are certain types of investors and there's a big difference between active and passive investors.”

• Logan Freeman

“I created what I call a capital raising machine. It all starts with reputation, leadership, and visibility. ”

• Logan Freeman

“I have built a massive following of over 10.5K people on LinkedIn that engage with me on a regular basis.”

• Logan Freeman

“It's my job as a real estate broker to build relationships with sellers.”

• Logan Freeman

“People want to understand who you are. People invest in a person, not necessarily a brand unless you are Apple or something.”

• Logan Freeman

Links:

Logan’s Website 

Logan’s Instagram

Logan’s Twitter 

Logan’s LinkedIn 

Logan’s Facebook 

Principles of Real Estate Syndication

7 Figure Flipping

Return on Investments

Just Start Real Estate

JSRE on Facebook

Mike on Facebook

Mike on Instagram

Mike on LinkedIn

Mike on Twitter

Level Jumping: How I Grew My Business to Over $1 Million in Profits in 12 Months