Work can take over our lives, and if you don't protect your time, somebody else will. Now, one of the most effective ways to create more time for yourself and your family is through passive income.

Today’s guests are Mike and Chrissy Koperna. Chrissy is a radiographer for 22 years now and while her hands are full working at the hospital, Mike works as a real estate agent and an investor. Mike’s first investment property was a duplex back in 2000. Eventually, he went into full-time real investing and started wholesaling properties and his income tripled.

The definition of financial independence is when your passive income pays your living expenses – and Mike and Chrissy are certainly on their way towards financial independence.

Here’s what we talked about:

Episode Highlights:

How to Protect Your Time Through Passive Income

Take bits and pieces from everybody else and implement it into your business. And that's what you need to do in life to make you happy, sane, and balanced. Implement that schedule along with your family because having a balanced family is important.

Investing is what creates the time. The more passive income you have, the more time that you can create for your family.

Asking for Help

When you're getting started with investing, learn as much as you can. And if you find some people, align yourself with them and ask for help.

Learn from people more successful than you. Don't just learn about what they did right, but also know what they did wrong, too. That way, you can understand or avoid those kinds of situations where they didn’t do well because success leaves clues.

No matter where you are in your investment journey, always learn from people around you because there is always something that people do far better than you do. And if you're open to that then you can learn a lot.

Always push yourself to another level. Find mentors. Listen to podcasts and read books. Take a financial mastery course to catapult you into a different level.

Mary Pat and Brian Kling are shifting from a situation where they are both actively generating income in an "active" way to more of a passive income strategy.

Mary Pat is a realtor with Keller Williams and a professional coach, and Brian is the owner of a water treatment business who has been an entrepreneur his whole career. Brian is currently in the middle of a buyout, which he hopes to be completed by the end of 2022. His exit strategy to get out by the end of 2022 has been in play so it has been a five-year plan.

Accountable Equity has opened their eyes to the opportunities to do things other than the traditional means available such as investing in stocks. Eight years after taking the financial mastery course, they have been walking down this to growth and success.

Here’s what we talked about:

Episode Highlights:

How to Shift From Active Income to Passive Income

It’s important that we’re able to direct our lives versus just letting things direct us. And it takes awareness to be able to do that. Unfortunately, sometimes in life, we just get so busy that we don't even realize there's another way. Therefore, you have to find avenues and seek opportunities, primarily through research and educating yourself.

Even, sometimes, just the word investing can be very intimidating. And yet, being able to create income for your future that you're not working consistently day in and day out for, and it's passive, or horizontal, is a gift for every single person that can give themselves and their families.

Creating an Income Tracker to Track Your Path

Part of financial mastery is also creating an income tracker. If you want to have progress in life, you really need to know where you are. That way, you can track how you will progress to where you want to be. And tracking is vital to our lives and wealth creation.

Being a Mentor to Others

You're going to become a better version of yourself as you change the models that you follow for personal wealth. And all of the people that look up to you, and all the people you care about are watching what you do. They're learning from that and picking up what they should probably implement if they want to see success in their life.

Sometimes, it's not even the success that we might see in our own lives, but the success that we can give someone else in the process of our own growth. There are a lot of different opportunities out there if you're just open up to looking at it, even if you don't even have a clue. Just be open enough to check it out.

The Power of Syndication

Being aligned with people to build and journey together is such a wonderful gift. Find some communities and find some people to align yourselves with.

Syndication works so well because multiple people can do things together that they couldn't possibly do on their own. And everybody has different experiences and different networks that they can bring to the table.

Links:

Accountable Equity

Based in Milford, Pennsylvania, Arlene Quirk has been a realtor for 22 years now and has been with Keller Williams since 2010.

Both Arlene and Dean have backgrounds in food and beverage and hotel management. Arlene went into hotel management for 15 years and Dean went from restaurant management to food administration in the prison system. 30 years out, Dean’s retirement fund gave way for Arlene to jump into real estate investing.

They bought a condo as a real estate rental investment knowing that when the market got good, they would sell their house and downsize – and so they did it.

Here’s what we talked about:

Episode Highlights:

The Power of Teamwork

Even if you don't have a spouse or significant other, you can align yourself with a team of people to make your dreams work.

That being said, it’s still important to create vision boards and dream boards with your partner to help you figure out where you want to go and where you want to be. This sets you up for success in passive income. There could be sacrifices to be had. In Arlene and Dean's case, they had to downsize their house.

Why You Should Build A Real Estate Team

Building a real estate team allows you to have a little downtime at the same time. This allows you some space and time to travel and temporarily disconnect whenever you need to.

Active vs. Passive Income

You can actually buy a house wherein you can rent out the rooms. That way, your housing is free to you and you're renting it out. This is the active way. People actually have to go buy it and they have to take care of the property. And that's probably what 99% of the people think real estate is.

But then there's this other way of joining a partnership and letting someone else do the heavy lifting. You provide some of the capital and then receive the same benefits as if you own the whole thing.

The Role of Culture When Choosing Where to Invest

Culture is really important. That's one of the reasons why Arlene joined KW. It’s how you want to live and how you want to project yourself. It helps develop you as a person and develop your team.

How to Realize Your Own Vision

Ask yourself how you can get started with something. And if you feel it's not for you, try to keep an open mind so you begin to see the opportunities – which are actually everywhere. Again, you just have to be open.

Consider investing in different ways so have a lot more opportunity to delve into different possibilities. Just start somewhere and financial mastery is key.

Links:

https://arlenequirk.com/

Prior to real estate, Scott and Lisa Loper were working as chemical engineers, which they liked but they didn’t really love. Eventually, Scott dove full-on into real estate sales – and Lisa into mothering – and both going from receiving solid income to just full commission.

Now, Scott has been in the real estate business for 21 years now, and Lisa, 16 years. Having knowledge of cash flow and return on investment, Scott grew the confidence to venture into investing. But it was the idea of having a passive income that mainly motivated him to jump on board. Once they made that switch, they ended up doubling their business within a year and a half.

Here’s what we talked about:

Episode Highlights:

Getting Started with Investing

Just because you don't have any real estate background doesn't mean you can't do real estate investing. You just have to be willing to learn about how things work and you don’t need to have a ton of money to get started as well

The Choice of Making a Switch

When they switched to Keller Williams, they ended up virtually doubling their business within a year and a half. They also ended up learning so much more about passive income, how important it is, and strategies to do it. And then making connections through people who are doing syndicates and funds who brought them in on those opportunities.

The Benefits of Real Estate Syndicate

From the standpoint of you being a money investor, the returns are very nice. And if the toilet is not flushing, you're not getting a call. And so, it's a way to invest in something larger without having that capability yourself yet.

Now, Scott is starting to learn how to acquire bigger projects. And when you join a fund that values education, you actually could build a business education for yourself.

Then investing at Renault, it’s all about Investing in something that builds joy to your heart and you can connect with it. It’s that whole thing about creating family memories. You can enjoy your investment right away and you can bring others to be a part of it.

Links:

Keller Williams

Renault

Accountable Equity

From a chance encounter in New York, Chad and Ashleigh Gallagher are now living their dream as a family – but that doesn’t mean it didn’t involve any hard work. Ashley is a powerhouse entrepreneur and Instagram influencer and Chad has been leading an explosive team over at SlateHouse Group Property Management. They've built one of the biggest East Coast regional property management companies with thousands and thousands of dollars.

Here’s what we talked about:

Episode Highlights:

Thinking Long-term Bets and Not Judging Cycles

Instead of picking cycles, try to just make long-term bets. If you're trying to invest in 10-20-year bets, cycle markets are way less important. And then from that perspective, get started as soon as possible and make it low-risk, almost like an experiment.

You're going to learn so much from your first investment. The reality is your first investment oftentimes, is really just a learning experience. Chad’s $20,000-investment grew to a 150k in equity. There’s an advantage in not always trying to judge cycles and just focusing on long-term investing.

Getting Your Spouse on Board

For new investors, once you've got yourself mindset and you've met a couple of mentors, the next step in that journey is getting your significant other on board with you.

Ashleigh gave her all-in support to Chad because she wanted to learn from it as well considering that Ashleigh's grandmother built a 50-unit real estate investment portfolio in Florida all by herself in her 70s and 80s. It was her grandmother’s investment that made the idea of real estate investing real for her.

Investing is Hard Work

Whether you're going to be a passive investor or an active investor, hard work matters. Sometimes, the work is finding a good property or finding a good person to invest with.

Being Driven by Passion, Not Money

When you can actually get yourself excited about what you're doing, and about trying to be the best at whatever it is, then the outcome becomes much better. You're not trying to win to get a paycheck because that's not what creates amazing outputs.

Links:

SlateHouse Group Property Management

Ashleigh’s IG: @healthylivingwithash

As their family was growing, Erik and Jane Cabral realized they needed more to their name. They wanted to pass something on to their kids and create a legacy wealth, which you normally can’t do in the corporate world.

As a creative director going up the corporate ladder, little did Erik know that he was absorbing everything around him and was able to leverage that to build his own companies. He became a real estate investor full-time, building teams, systems, and investor networks. He realized his calling was to help investors become creative. And seeing Erik’s struggles, Jane is now ready to jump in.

Here are some power takeaways from today’s conversation:

Episode Highlights:

On Investing and Relationships

In marriage and love, you have to be more open to hearing out the other person and willing the good for the other person. You can't be everywhere and all perfect. You are a team for that reason – you're both putting your hands in different pots to create a full life.

Having your spouse or life partner in your entrepreneurial journey, you both are sharing the entire experience along the way, all your lessons and failures. Eventually, your partner becomes such an integral partner in decision-making.

Mutual decision means mutual responsibility. One may feel a little less confident, and the other one feels very confident in the decision. But once you go in and you've made the decision, you're going to share in whatever the outcome is – win or lose – no pointing fingers.

Getting Ready for Your First Investment

Encourage your partner to ask questions. Because sometimes, if you don't know the answer, it gives you the opportunity to grow and learn in the process.

You have to learn how to be analytical. Spend the time on task over time until you become comfortable to the point where your spouse actually believes you.

Have a mentor. Leverage the expertise of people in your team. Learn to trust your partners and the people around you.

Resources Mentioned:

Rich Dad Poor Dad by Roberti Kiyosaki

Both in their 30's, Greg and Nancy Taylor are taking the long-term strategy when it comes to looking at investments. Nancy worked in medical sales while Greg has been in medical device sales for 14 years now. Although fairly new to investing in real estate, they feel lucky to meet great people they can grow with, especially that they’re starting at a fairly young age.

Here’s what we talked about:

Episode Highlights:

Their Background in Medical Sales

Nancy's goal was to get into PA school. She did get an acceptance letter, but she ended up declining it to do medical sales. It was a decision she never regretted.

Since Greg was a young guy, he has always been focused on wealth creation. Growing up, money was always tight so he started working at a young age, shoveling snow, and doing all kinds of things young kids do just to have some money in their pockets. Seeing the restriction that money put on his parents, Greg saw the amount of freedom money can provide. And this was the kind of mindset he began to develop.

Like Nancy, Greg wanted to apply to medical school. Unfortunately, he ran out of money because applying to medical school is really expensive. It's a barrier that doesn't need to be there. But it's also a barrier that pushed them down a different road that has led them to a much better spot where they are now at.

Dealing with Risks as a Couple

Being able to talk about things to come to a better conclusion has really helped this couple in terms of taking risks. Greg is less risk-averse than Nancy. But at the end of the day, they have a good check and balance when it comes to their decision-making. The foundational piece of having the same goal is just finding the vehicle in order to get you to a place where you both want to go.

Their Financial Goals

From a 50,000-foot view, their goal is creating wealth, which ultimately creates freedom. They want to live a certain kind of lifestyle free from financial constraints and this is one of the reasons they're starting early. They're not trying to get rich quickly. Although there are opportunities to do that, they tend to focus more on the long-term play and letting money work for them over the course of their life.

Mark is a mega real estate agent, investor, and entrepreneur. He leads his residential real estate sales team in the Philadelphia suburbs. He got started investing in real estate five years ago. Prior to real estate, Mark used to play in a professional band for seven years.

Here’s what we talked about:

Episode Highlights:

How He Translated His Success in Real Estate to Investing in Real Estate

Many real estate agents and higher performing corporate individuals spend way above what their means are. They create this lifestyle they have become accustomed to but isn't sustainable. So they end up burying themselves in debt and they just never get out. They don't invest in the way they need to.

His Musical Career

Mark and his band performed in large shows and major festivals around the country and some parts of Canada. They eventually got an offer from a record label. But he got his real estate license at that time so he knew it was time for him to do something different.

Mark has always been the math guy in the band, doing logistics at a very early age and working while playing in the band. So he was the only guy that had any money.

Growing Your Income Streams

The interesting thing about music that no one talks about is publishing and royalties. When he was getting out of the band, they offered to buy him out of the contract but he decided to keep his rights to the royalties. It never panned out anything, but he's proud of the decision-making process because it got him to think on the front of multiple income streams. This was when he transitioned into looking at income, not in terms of how much he's making a year, but how many streams he can add.

College sweethearts Michael and Anna Trefel made their careers on Wall Street. Then at some point, they decided to leave the corporate world and focus on real estate investing to be able to spend more time with family and live the American Dream.

Here’s what we talked about:

Episode Highlights:

From Wall Street to Real Estate Investing

One day, Anna came home and told Michael she can't envision her future working 16 hours a day sitting in the cubicle. Her retirement dream was to open a flower store so Mike encouraged her not to put it off.

After she left Wall Street, Anna got a designer degree in horticulture and design at the New York Botanical Garden Institute. Her MBA really did help in running her business as well as her management skills. The business grew to a very successful venture from a small local downtown shop into a massive 5000-square foot showroom, where they did events organizing huge accounts.

Ten years after, a competitor offered to buy all of her accounts. It was the perfect timing since she had baby #2 on the way and she wanted to take a step back to be able to spend more time with their kids.

After Wall Street, Michael was a global strategist for a bank for Lehman and he realized he was working too much that he was not spending any time with his family. He was traveling the world without seeing the world. At the end of his MBA program, he just decided to quit after three years.

Their First Flip and Counting

Their first flip was in college. They were working part-time and saving. Unlike stocks, real estate is something concrete. Growing up in Russia, Michael and Anna saw real estate as the American dream. So when they left Wall Street, they wanted to be in real estate. Michael became an agent and grew a team from there. At that time, they already owned and have been flipping around multiple properties.

While doing his executive MBA, Michael decided to focus on real estate finance, which also helped out with their investments. Since then, Michael and his team have been doing one interesting project after another, listing and representing big projects including a commercial project in New York.