Liquidity & Liquor - Sterling Griffin | How to Invest Your Money

Welcome to success story the most useful podcasts in the world. I'm your host Scott D. Cleary the success story podcast is part of the HubSpot podcast network The HubSpot podcast network has other great podcasts like marketing made simple hosted by dr. J. J. Peterson Marketing made simple brings you practical tips to make your marketing easy and more importantly make it work now If any of these topics out interesting to you, you're going to love his show How to write and deliver captivating speeches, how to market yourself into a new job, how design can help and potentially hurt your revenue, and how to create a social media ad strategy That works if these topics hit home and there are things that you want to learn about go listen to marketing made simple wherever you get your podcasts Today you're going to hear an episode of my new podcast liquidity and liquor I co-host liquidity and liquor with Josef Martin a serial entrepreneur who sold his last company boxy charm for over 500 million dollars On liquidity and liquor we have conversations about business, money, and life with some of the most interesting people in the world You can download and subscribe to liquidity and liquor on YouTube or wherever you get your podcasts Sterling Griffin the one and only Welcome to our show. Thank you. So Sterling Griffin was actually referred by our guest Chris Lee and when he told us your story We really wanted to bring you on a show. So I'm very glad you drove all the way to the far Northern city calls for to all of them and no one got your over. Yeah, all right. Thank God for that We don't have enough parking anyway. I have only two spots in my place It's not a lie. Yeah, welcome to my home and we have the equally amazing Scott DeClairey and with us we were together at inbound We spoke at the show thanks to Scott nobody knows me over there, but they do know Scott is a big deal It was fun time. It's the first it's the first speaking engagement post COVID. Yes, that was fun Yeah, yeah, there was like not in our crowd I wish but there was 45,000 people registered for the conference. So it was a big one a lot of fun. Yeah, we've got back from Boston like two days ago Yeah, so would anyone host a conference there. That's what I want to Boston because that's where Huxpot I think was founded. Oh, God. I think there's Huxpot. Yeah, so I think I think they're I think they're I think Chairman now Brian Halligan and original co-founder. I think he's from Boston. Oh, that's probably the only reason that's the only reason Like it's not a destination. No, it isn't a conference like that's nation. I think that's why though. I think they are I don't know. That's a real reason. I mean sometimes a budget. Maybe because no No, I think that's the location. Maybe that's also a good budget. Maybe maybe I don't know. I have no idea anyway Forget about forget about that. Yeah. Yeah. That's how we got here. We do here. Yeah, exactly. How do you know Chris? So Chris actually mentors me so he's He's my life coach one of my life coaches. Funny. I have two life coaches that are in their fifties that are gay men named Chris Oh, well, so I just I'm just collecting them. I'm just collecting gay middle-aged men to coach me that are named Chris Specifically, that's like a requirement. Yeah, that's a boy star. What's your name? That's on my job description Yeah, I need no life coach must be. Yeah, were you at The summit of greatness? No, I wasn't I I was at it in previous years I was in loose house mastermind years ago But I actually was in an event that Chris spoke at because he's a trainer He's a transformational trainer all in events all around the country and I went to that back in 2016 and totally changed my life I'd since that time Chris and I hadn't stayed in touch But I continue to build companies and grow and grow and grow and eventually About a year ago now I reached back out and I said hey I'm at a point where I think working with you privately makes sense to go to the next level and and he agreed so yeah I mean, you know for for a while I was actually very critical over Life coaches I mean very sarcastic to and all that and eventually you start seeing that that results you meet people out there that they they had their life Transform because of someone's speech Mm-hmm, and I guess when you when you don't have that transform as you have different you just don't believe it's real You say you know what it works, and when I think when talking to Chris was when my opinion really I got a little bit more Open-minded for it, and then when I spoke to Chris the first time and then the second time and then we brought him over Listen, that's something to you. It does something some people have their wired different than others Mm-hmm, and they have different Energy and powers on other people, and they can really influence us to be better Mm-hmm. Chris is one of them. I mean this is this is definitely a person that I would say I want to talk to him more because I feel better after I speak to him It's just some people who make you feel smarter Yes, right? You you can talk to some people intellectually, but some people somehow makes you feel better about yourself Right, they improve yourself a steam in the presence. Yes, the reason why people hate on life coaches is because the bar to become There's no accreditation. Yes, the bars low. Mm-hmm. So you when the bars low for something People are usually scammers are not qualified or one to one to so many Yeah, so many scammers except one or two that actually make people well the thing about Chris is like Chris was a coach before coaching was a thing I mean he's been doing it for over 30 years Yeah, so if you think about in the early 90s coaching was not an industry I mean there was Tony Robbins and there was like a couple people like Chris. That's it zero others Yeah, so when you have that much time in the trenches like he has he's just way more trustworthy I mean his his It's the energy though expertise is like when you speak to him like there's an energy that you don't get with a lot of course That's the first thing that I know is I actually didn't even know much about it before you introduced me to him But there's like a certain energy that somebody like just brings into the room and it resonates like that's probably why you like so you know You 2016 you connected with him and then you had you know period of life where you're you're figuring your shit out And now you're making some money and then you see value in it So that's like not bad four or five six years later. You still want to invest and I know he's not cheap Yeah, so yeah, there's something there. Yeah, well Well, I think what I've noticed is that when people do it for a while They because you said you know, there's no credit. There's no motivation for it Yeah, there's no degree but when you do it for so many years You see so many people and you can kind of put them in buckets and you know how to treat each person Yeah, and how to approach a different person and and you find out when they talk about some And they tell you oh, well, you're that type of person is like are that's true. It's not some horoscope that now It's true. It's exactly why I am and they they can break it down and they they've seen a million use before And they've seen million use transformed before and they can kind of put you in the right path No, no, no, walk in that direction. That's that was that was when you cannot feel that this is true This is real. That's when you that's when they get my attention So you you brought yourself I and I want to clear because you brought yourself out of homelessness And I want to go into that story. Yeah, and I was just about to connect that to art I also about understand. Yeah, yeah, you bring yourself out of homelessness and then you make some good money and now You make millions of dollars doing what you do when you are like paper a million there Multimillion multi-millionaire What do you look like what do you look to Chris to help you with because you In theory figured out the most difficult thing that anybody could figure out coming from nothing to something and then some So what is Chris actually deal with I have it ingrained so deep in my consciousness at this point for reasons that I'll explain Here in just a second for my personal experience that I always need coaches I mean just like athletes like athletes always need coaches no matter what stage of career they're at they crave coaching because they know without it Yeah, they can be good, but they can't be their best and so six and a half years ago. I was homeless I I had nothing this was at the beginning of 2016 end of 2015 I was homeless for five months living in my Honda Accord in LA. So I didn't not I didn't sleep on the street I slept in a car so I was a step above the versions of homelessness and it was a Honda Accord It's not and it was a Honda Accord. Yeah, this is a good car It was reliable That's first word out of people's mouth and they are almost reliable least and it was it was and The reason why I became homeless though. Yeah was a few months prior to that I was actually a pastor that was a Christian evangelical pastor for several years But while I was in seminary school, which do you know what seminary school is seminary is like to graduate school But for ministers like you go to study the Bible in an academic juice. That's why Okay, great So you learn something new here. So that's seminary And while I was there I realized actually didn't believe anymore I didn't believe in Christianity anymore and it led to this terrible Terrible I say terrible now because it turned out to be an instructive and useful later But but this identity crisis. What is life about? What is what does life mean? What am I supposed to do with it? And so over a period of several months little by little I ran out of all my money. I couldn't keep a job I was depressed. I was in a very strong depression. I was just laying in my And on my mattress on the floor and and feel sorry for myself watching Netflix for months at a time To wear an October 2015 and I could no longer afford the $250 a month rent To be the fifth in a two-bedroom apartment in Pasadena, California So I got kicked out and I I went and and slept in my car instead for a while But the first thing that I did Once I became homeless because I knew that I needed to change my mindset Something was off internally here in my mind And if it was ever going to get better, I had to change that first So instead of spending money on rent that month I went to go see Tony Robbins. It was the only person I knew that this guy helps people He can maybe help me and so I go to unleash the power within event This is a four you ever been to one of these is I've heard about it before. I've never been. Yeah, so it's something I've never been Okay, so it's like oh, this is I skipped a system. Yeah, yeah, it's like a personal growth. Yeah Well anyway, it was useful for me and I'll share anecdotally It's a four-day workshop you go there's several thousand people that go on a given weekend's 50 hours Like 12 hours a day four days very very intense like a rock concert But 12 hours in your learning things and on the third day Tony says There's no one that's 6000 something that's going well this one was like Oh, no, that's like the really nice seats your friends go to the really nice seats I couldn't afford that at the time. Yeah, I was like a 150 dollars a month That's why it's hard to believe that it's true because you feel like it's all about to money and it's it's but but it's not Yeah, they're allowed to turn cash and they're allowed to be yeah Yeah, well, he can charge a lot because he provides the value for it He wouldn't still have the brand if he didn't but anyway day three he says These incredible words he says if you take nothing else for this entire four-day weekend But the phrase I'm about to tell you and then you use it you apply it to your life You will more than get your money's worth from this weekend And so of course I'm on the edge of my seat. I'm like what is he going to say? He says proximity is power and who you surround yourself with is who you become So take a look at the closest five people to you and you will find out the reason for why you are where you are today It was like a light bulb went off. I'm like Oh the reason why I'm broke. I'm unhappy. I have no good friends Is because all my friends are all the people that I do know that are closest to me They're like that. They're unhappy. They're broke. They're stuck. They're going nowhere. They've no ambition So no wonder I'm the one that stuck to so it just it went off in my brain that I became obsessed from that day on That I'm going to get around people that are doing well in life I'm going to get around people that are happy are fit are Fucking rich. Yeah, because if I'm around them They don't even need to particularly tell me what to do I just know by being in their energy it'll rub off on me And so over the next couple months I started making friends with people that were running information personal development businesses Because really the only thing that I had going for me at that time is I was in good physical shape I've worked out for several years. I was fit. I'd made a body transformation And so I was like, okay, I could train people can do online training I can teach people how to get fit for a living So I'd met someone at that event who also did that for a living and that was inspiring to me Then one day a couple months in I met this Party in the San Diego area. It's all it's what's called the conscious community I'm gonna have you heard this term before these are people that are their spiritual their interpersonal development. They're running They're very conscious, okay, and they'll make sure that you know how conscious they are, okay And uh, anyway, it's like midnight at this party and I'm telling this life coach She was a very successful life coach making you know multiple six figures. It's good for that industry And I was telling her my sob story like oh, it's so hard to get clients I have no idea what I'm doing and she's like well, who's mentoring you and I said no one I don't have enough money for a mentor She said ah That is the problem that would be solved If you got a mentor, and I realized that my problem was that I didn't have enough money Said I didn't know how to make money when I needed it when I wanted it And so at that point it was like come hell or high water I'm gonna get somebody to teach me how to grow business And so I I max out all my credit cards. I borrowed money from my dad, which I was super embarrassed to do To cover the first twenty five hundred dollar payment to hire a coaching business mentor And that next month I went from making roughly little around a thousand a month to four thousand that second month that first month with him And I'll tell you one more piece of this story that's important to why I am the way I am about mentors today At the end of that first month I made it of money to pay rent so I was staying somewhere I paid off some pressing debt that had been missing payments on prior to that But I didn't have enough money to make the second payment to the mentor My dad was no longer willing to loan me anymore money And so I remember it was on a Thursday and my coach had told me say if you don't make that second payment By tomorrow I'm gonna take you out of the program. You're gonna have to do this on your own And it hit me at that time that like I I can't just do this on my own again That didn't get me anywhere good. I need to keep getting support And so it was 2 p.m. By 4 p.m. I'd made an ad and posted it by 9 p.m Someone handed me $4,000 cash and drove away with my Honda Accord I'd sold my car To pay the second payment to this coach the next day I took that $4,000 put in the bank sent him is $2,500 so I keep working with him and remind you mind you three weeks prior or month prior to this I was living in that that was my home So this was my last ditch like chance to make it work Well that next month I made $12,000 in my business because I was so maniacally obsessed with doing everything he said to do I became his best student So over the next five months I made 100 grand and it had completely changed my life I mean this is money For more I come from that no one had never made before like this is this is crazy And then once I went to a conference that Chris hosts that I started learning about not just running a business all myself But hiring a team and leading others being emotionally in a better place I started making $40,000 a month for the rest of that year So my first year in business I made 285 grand Then the next year I continued hiring mentors I transitioned about halfway through the year To being a business mentor for trainers because word had started to get out That I was a trainer that gone from nothing to something quickly and they're like hey That hell are you doing because trainers don't make a lot of money I don't know if you know trainers or I know they don't make a lot of money It's don't they don't get into it for the money. They get into it. They're not making over 200k No, they're making like 20k on average a year nothing Yeah, nothing and so they start asking me and I continue running this first business you just training people That's right. That's the business. That's right. Yeah And then I start adding business mentorship to it as well because I'm start having a passion for someone that like Literally couldn't eat every day and had nowhere to sleep for the first part of my training business I want to help other people get out of that struggle for themselves So fast fast forward 2017 at continue hiring mentors that year made 1.68 million So I'd gone literally in 18 months from being homeless to being a millionaire But I'm telling you this not just sharing the result But the reason why that was possible was because I hired mentors Is because people gave me a blueprint they said do this do this do this And then all I had to do was the easier work of just following instructions and that created the life that I love today I'm a multi-millionaire I'm very very happy the amazing friendships have been great shape And I really do give I'm not self-made I'm made with the help of you know when when you look at when you look at success stories I think that everyone has their Their kind of catalyst that said okay This was my aha moment, right? I think that was your aha moment. It was mentoring where you said okay I'm really good and kind of like doubling down on those ideas and if he doesn't They tweak it and we go back and into the drawing board with the mentor and we continue everyone I think it's different. I don't know if if everyone's good But I guess that in my case when I found that something was working for me. I doubled down. Yeah, I was just Pulling everything again until I knew that no longer now. I have to find something else And and I would look with commonalities what else works, but But that was your aha moment. That was okay. I found I found my my idea because I think at first you're looking for god And then you said okay, I will replace God with a mentor with leaders. Yes Yes, that's something you need someone To kind of like be above it. Mm-hmm to go and tell you this is your direction And you need that kind of direction, but you'll be Perfectly fine taking it from their own. We just very minimal directions going forward, right? Mm-hmm Yeah, that's interesting. Can I ask a question when you were when you first worked with that mentor That was a very high-risk activity because you didn't have a lot of money to play with So I'm hoping that somebody who's listening to this is not in that position Right, they do have a little bit of extra cash, but You took a super high risk with this particular person and that person wasn't Chris It was someone be honest. No, no, no, no So how did you gauge that this person was going to be the good The good option the best use of your last whatever $2,500 because that could have gone two very different ways, right? Well quite frankly, it was that He had done it for other people So it was a recommendation it was correct It was a lady that told you or you need someone she referred you probably exactly she did directly to him He said oh this guy works specifically with trainers to build on us. So you put yourself in the right environment Exactly with with people that are searching for results Right, they call themselves the award people during I assume some party with lots of flowers around them Conscious people right the conscious people yes, and some say I'm very very aware and conscious of myself We don't you have a mentor let me connect you and you were comfortable. You're just okay. You know what I'll do it I saw that Tony Robbins Made an impact you already open up for that idea and you moved I mean look when we're like a like as people when we when we go and we look for answers Many times you want to make sure that the answer is Gonna come from someone that's gonna tell us So you don't have to find it yourself Because it's very hard to think that I'm the only one that have to come up with everything So it's so convenient when you say you know what there is a rabbi. I'll follow this rabbi or priest or Tony Robbins or something like this and this is where a lot of people Are challenging that concept because they're saying you idolize those people, but in reality it works for some I think it doesn't work for everybody But but it definitely works for some and I mean when you take something that they're saying Just saying something and actually pushing it into your subconscious right if you tell me right now Where he said look your proximity is how did you proximity is power? Yeah, simmity is power right You'll hear about this since you're a kid wait tell me who your friends and I'll tell you who you are You hear it all the time But why is it that when you go and you pay so much money or by the way not everyone has those messages from when they're a kid Maybe you were fortunate to get those messages, but most people don't have that message in their ears. I didn't I didn't it most people's friends are just the people that are You know closest to them physics is not wrong because I know that quote like you know the five best friends or you know All these quotes about being around the right people I only really started to see and hear these quotes when I was already Becoming successful and then I found myself consuming this content all the time and this is what all the but I was very much Self-taught so I was the person who was seeking this out on my own and then I would Listen to a business mentor say surround yourself with the best people But it wasn't my parents it wasn't my it wasn't my friends in high school and university that we're saying like hey Skako level yourself up. Mm-hmm. So you do you have a children? No kids. Okay, so you guys don't have children imagine if you are the Tony Robbins for your children Imagine when you grow your children and you tell them look You can make your life very easy if you're surrounding with the right people Del drive you into the right directions always go with people that do better than you because that's how I grew up with right We're very poor my mom and I Were also I mean there was a point that we had no place to live she was a living repair She had no place to live so I had to find some church people to help me be around over here and But it was stuck in my head for years right and you don't put all that attention into it But you somehow gravitate towards it when you're young So imagine if you take those knowledge and it's okay. It is gonna work for me, but How great it is if I can pass it on yes, and they're gonna be kind of like It's gonna be part of their DNA their instinctive part where they're gonna come in like animals and figuring out who are the right people to Hang with and don't it's just your life as a parent are gonna be so much easier Right when you grow and it doesn't have to be the the private versus public It's really easy all you have to do is are they bookworms or they just what are they do? How is their language? How do they speak let me hear their verbiage? Yeah, right and yes for you guys when do you have this It's all about we were poor my mom and I were growing poor in in an area that was good But but some people would be very poor some rich, but it doesn't really matter for her She didn't care if you came from on your not she wanted to hear how my friends speak She wanted to hear their Hebrew and she was okay. You should spend more time with this friend Mm-hmm. I don't want you to play with that kid straight out just with her. Wow. Yes, that that counts to be wise. Yes. Yeah Yeah, I mean I had all the messages when I was younger around You know, it's not my fault It's somebody else's fault that my life is the way that it is and just that victim mentality which I think it was rural America I grew up in a small town in northwest Florida near Pensacola And no one that I grew up around No one now has money or is successful most of them still live in that same town They're repeating the same patterns of their parents and that culture that that poor people subculture And I'm not criticizing I'm just saying it produces a certain result and I knew that that I knew from when I was young I didn't want that result I didn't quite know how to get out of it till later Actually, but that's probably why you were depressed. Yeah, yeah when you were trying to figure it out in LA Yeah, how old were you when you ended up being homeless? I was 24 it was almost 25. Yeah, did you graduate from College? Yeah, I'd already graduated college. Yeah, okay. Yeah, college didn't do anything for me We did speak about this before the show. Yeah, colleges For the for listeners. What did you study marketing economics marketing economics and you did not find this amazing job 500,000 a year right now college? No, the thing is speaking of mentors or the lack thereof I mean if you go to if you go to college to learn business think about who you're learning from you're learning from people that are academics These are bookworms. These are not practitioners. They're not people like the three of us that actually run successful businesses today I will say shadow to like Stanford and Harvard who actually do employ yes, they do have some actual business people there Yes, but not not very many business schools have them especially not an undergrad level usually It's for like a post like a post doctor like that. He's been Canadian and nice way now. No, I mean Stanford has like some no they do They do great so for the Stanford people Congratulations. There's about 100 colleges in the United States So you're plucking those two right now that most people can go into unless there's a crazy story behind them But yeah, yes, you're right most don't have actual like operators from businesses or they have an operated in like a Significant period of time. Mm-hmm. So that's what you're stuck with. Yeah, and so you go to those classrooms And sure I can learn information I can memorize information out of a book But I'm not actually using it. So that's why wasn't useful to me all the update I mean, I just love it because you're going to say listen. I went to school. I spent years in school I ended up being homeless after school and I didn't even consider doing something around this I didn't consider taking another course in college to help me get out of my situation I just went and listened to Tony Robbins and I got out of it It's like with a big fuck you with two fingers With both hands to the educational system So if you didn't understand that up until now, I mean what else Okay, so um where are you at now? So after it's a you grew this coaching business to like one point something million Yeah, it was the second year and then I grew it by the next year was two point two the next year two point six and then 2020 was the last year that I ran it before I sold it and it did three million revenue that year I sold it right at the end of the year and The reason why I sold is frankly I was bored. I was just I felt like When you run an education business They're you're teaching a particular topic and after a while You're teaching the same thing over and over and over and over and over for a creative like me It was boring. I need to do something else So I removed myself from the operations of it I put leaders in it I went from at the beginning of that year working 70 hours a week down to five hours a week and the margins ironically went up When that happened because I got people better than me doing They're in parts of the business and then and then I sold it and when that happened I was like, okay, I really want to learn about Because the business was very stressful. I really want to learn about passive investing and learn about how to grow my wealth without working that hard Um Who wouldn't right but that was the big idea and so I'd heard real estate was great for that So I start going all in on learning and real estate. I'm listening to podcasts I eventually joined a mastermind so I could learn from real practitioners in person people that are doing this and after looking at because I've got this capital And I want to invest it to grow it but I also I moved most of my funding from it to come in the beginning of 2021 as opposed to the end of 2020 Because I knew that I was going to get hit with a big tax bill if I didn't I mean you vex that you understand this problem that happens So I was like, okay, how do I offset these taxes as much as possible as realistic And so in joining this real estate mastermind they show me a way to do that. It's what's called accelerated appreciation It's where you can buy a property and then in the first year of ownership You can take all of the depreciation associated with that property And use it as an expense to wipe out your income to wipe out your taxable income and therefore pay no taxes So when I discovered this I was like, oh, this is like magic So I want to buy properties, but then I'm like, okay, what properties do I buy though? So I start looking at different structures and if you've ever looked at real estate deals There's many different kinds you can do syndications you can do single-family homes where you're purchasing individual homes You can buy short-term rentals so you can buy a home to then rent out for vacation users You can buy multi-family apartments But then there's a section which fewer people invest in or understand as a percentage of the total real estate investor market And that's in commercial deals that are non-multifamily So I start realize there's just like a few people that we're doing that in this master hundreds of guys that are all doing real estate Just like literally three or four that we're doing this type of investing But as I look closer I start looking at these deals and I realize there's a specific type of lease structure in commercial and non-multifamily commercial deals Where it is 100% passive It's where the tenant the person that is inside of your business property They'll pay for your property taxes. They'll pay for all the maintenance. They'll pay for all the insurance They'll pay for literally anything that goes wrong with property They handle it themselves they pay for it out of their own pocket and it's no stress to you So as I start comparing this to all the other types of deals I'm like this seems like the least stressful Can I ask what so and just to put a time frame on it This is as you're exiting your business 2020 you push the sale of 2021 I push the funding yes the funding so you get a calendar year to figure out where your money is It's screwed on taxes correct you figure out this commercial non-multi-res real estate opportunity and for this particular opportunity Why would they take care of all that shit The tenants excuse me well they do it there's there's why is that what I'm I'm not real estate So yeah, yeah teach me as to why somebody would do a triple net a triple net when you will they will they'll do this They'll do this as a percentage because it means that they can pay lower rent Okay, so they'll take on more responsibility Both time energy and money for themselves to cover all these additional expenses out of their own pocket So for an investor like me that wants to feel more passive in my experience This is great now there are some investors that are like they don't mind they'll take the stress They're like okay, sure you can call me at 7 a.m. For a broken pipe But it's actually standard for commercial real estate and commercial Triple net is the standard Okay, yeah, just what people do yeah you you go and you do the math with like okay if this is the rent then The rent comes after they pay triple net after they pay your taxes on the property and everything else If you're buying larger multi-res and you'd already have a management team in place They would be taking care of most of these things anyways, but then you have to manage people right you do have to manage people So it's still a headache and then more gray hair listed and there's still decisions that get floated up to you There always is but in triple net it's way easier way less headache and and why is this not a more popular version of real estate Well, there's several reasons one of them is because in general Most people would prefer to do deals that are smaller and in total price for and that's for a couple of reasons There's always less intimidating doesn't Right off the bat and second of all because it requires larger amounts down to get into properties that are triple net They take the bigger finance at the same way when you when you look at the residential You can get sometimes 5% down sometimes nothing down and you you're good to go right But when it's a commercial usually the interest rate is higher And you have to put a bigger percentage down So it the pool of people that can enter this plus the size is bigger So the pool of people that can enter this however once you go into it If you think about a warehouse it's four walls Right you do nothing you don't have to worry about it Maybe the roof but that's it right and then what happened is they go and they do the long term five years Right six years long term leases and Versus residential where people get it for a year time You're at the time every time and then million things can break I water heater and now they're going to sue you because she was pregnant and those and so on And they actually broke the water heater so they can sue you it's just all those little issues when you're looking at you're looking into some of this stuff now You're yeah, so one thing about Yosef is when he wants to figure something out He like you can tell he's like focused on learning about this thing because he'll like learn every new wants about Yes, and the reason why it's interesting is because he's actually looking at commercial property I think like as we see I mean yeah I'm looking at commercial and residential Yeah, most investors. Yeah, yeah, most business guys if they've gone through an exit I mean they're gonna put some of that capital in real estate. Yeah, it's just like you know show me show me how many people lost your money Starting startup or business and show me how many people lost your money in real estate Except bubbles. It's very hard to find people that lost money on real estate. So real estate to really take It's not like there is no brain there is brain into it, but it doesn't take to it It just takes a different type of person and when you look at real estate like uh right now I'm learning right now. I'm an apprentice right I did not touch any investments of any kind all those years I had one thing in mind selling those black boxes yeah to to make a proverse and then let me worry about everything else Once I'm done. I was the same way and it's like right you double down So now now when I look at this there are two parts where I look at something right I was very inspired. Have you heard of Moisha mana? No, okay Moisha mana is a multi-billionaire a real estate a tycoon where he actually built first When you look at the mid-packing district in New York, it was literally a mid-packing district So he started purchasing properties over there Over time and just Transform the whole place once he bought the whole place down and he didn't really care much about the rent It was more of kind of like Uh, what would you call it? Were you when you kind of a land banking right it was just putting 4% but then eventually what he did he made it That look and feel made that be cool and then eventually he took all that that cash he doubled down and he went to winwood when winwood was a place You don't want to drive there during the day and he bought 16 square blocks wow and he didn't change nothing He didn't build nothing except one One place with convention center over there, but he did build nothing he just paint he paid painters to come and paint And then he started going from all those commercial areas That were for warehouses. He had to rezone them to to be Restaurants you have to rezone right? Yeah, yeah, yeah, different type of retail and he made winwood suddenly safe and I spoke to him and he said one day I drove at night and And no one wanted to go in with him He drove at night and he saw two young ladies going with mini skirts at night and and he called his brother and said we made it Now it's safe. You're gonna see now. It's gonna blow and today winwood is winwood. He needs owns 16 square blocks still Because in real estate, you don't sell right you revive you know, so you refine you and now he ended up buying So he told me now what he's doing is his buying Downtown but on the on flagler because flagler is the first my street in Miami that was incorporated in 1895 So he told me what I'm doing is I'm just buying everything all the way to the hood Whatever it is a battle and then I put one or two destination places into it and then I start changing the tenants making sure that they're better tenants Making the place look cool fun. She's not expensive. I don't like it expensive, but I had just let So he started building everything. So the way I'm looking at this now there is um There's an area and Miami that's a block away from winwood And my friends and I are we're buying now. We're gonna start buying now properties and it's still cheap It's still scary. It's still sketchy, but we're gonna buy blocks once you own the whole block. It's it's a safe place You own the whole bar. So the idea is you buy place after place after place and the good thing is once you have You know once you start renting it right now It's the best time because obviously interest rate or high. So the pull-off buyers slower So you buy in now in cash you wait for the interest rate to go then you refine later on and we tag money Buy another property. So basically it all returns into 20 know the drill You know the but it is go to one area by the whole block And make sure that your friend buy the blocks nearby and you wait for the whole area to develop you do it right next to a good Developed area. Yeah, and then you wait for the whole so it's it's lend banking you put the money in the whole area praise Eventually, so you put it for a dollar then it's two dollars and then or three dollars and then you can change more You can charge more rent, but you never really sell it. Mm-hmm. You always keep it and then you just Refine your refine your refine your own and then put it somewhere else. Yeah, so I mean the the web that's a big money play so a lot of people They don't have a hundred million dollars to play with the buy blocks. You don't need it. You can get a block for for Ten fifteen two three blocks And that's all it needs because in the center of town by downtown. There's no more expansion No one does any single homes. Yeah, they're only gonna build more building correct So you're gonna be right there you you can't like the last more Mark and standing at the last more right? They are making so it's like just you buying them now in the cheapest area because it's just a matter of time Give it five years. It's gonna be gold. Yeah, yeah, and you don't need that much money People can come in you can buy two three homes if I tell you where it is And you can come in with a million or two million and you're just good. You're just sitting on it And we're all doing it collectively and we're lifting the whole place You don't have to go with 500 million like like he did when you both win world at the time. Mm-hmm That's awesome, man. I love that play too. Yeah, I mean for me The the initial pain I was trying to get out of with my investing was a I want it to be passive So I want my appreciation to happen whether or not I do anything and I don't want any additional expenses and then be It was how do I eliminate my taxes? How do I literally just the outcome was this Can is it possible that I can use money that I'm already gonna spend on my taxes and use just that portion of my asset To buy properties and so I closed on my first property in in my first commercial property in April 2021 to do this This was a 3.6 million 3.7 million dollar property And I did it in such a way Where and this is a big part of my strategy now for what I do with investors is I negotiated between um, I got a loan on the property And I also negotiated the seller of the property to carry a portion of the down payment for me So that I was able to get in for a very very small percentage. I was able to get in for I don't know it was 414,000 On a 3.7 million dollar deal Which is just over 10% it's very low as a percentage compared to what you said most times in commercial You're putting down 25 30 percent. That's the typical a lot of times Multifamily deals is 35% so it'll be even higher ltv So here I am getting in for about 12% on this deal And it was like and in the process putting down 400 grand I was able to offset exactly 400 grand for my tax bill for my exit Amazing So all of a sudden it clicked to my head. I'm like what if I could do this for other people What if I could take an investor that entrepreneurs they make a high income? You know not even people that exit But just people that make a high income and don't have offset for their taxes They're gonna on a million dollars of income. They're gonna pay 300 grand in taxes How can I make it so that I can get them into a secure deal like this? You know leases Not just five years in length But 10 years 15 years my average is 20 years on deals that I buy for myself 20 year leases So someone buys a deal they have guaranteed income for two decades Need like talk about set it and forget it all the expenses are covered all the management's handled for two decades guaranteed and so I got 20 years and Call it a four million dollar deal. I can get somebody in for 300 grand 250 grand sometimes And at the same time offset 400 grand taxes on that same deal for them So it's something that I realized and I can share more on this something that didn't exist really in the space I mean most times if you look at a deal It's a finished good that you're giving people don't have to think too much. Yeah And and I end up being the seller in this arrangement to them because I buy the property I get it set up and then I sell it off to them and as a result I can get them in because I'm the seller for less than they otherwise could do if they bought a property off of You know online exchange or something like you could you could get a deal theoretically Like the ones that I give to investors But you could never get into it for the amount of money That someone can get in with me a four million dollar deal. I mean you're gonna put a million dollars in So aren't you taking on more risk though that way? I Am but that's why I make sure the leases that I structure with my tenants that are structured a very particular way Like we've eaten example and I have this fast food chain that I work with I have several locations I'm selling this month for them I'm buying a couple myself. I'm selling a couple two investors and on these leases Not only are they triple net to where they cover everything But they're also a step above which is called absolute triple net Which means that literally anything that goes wrong with the structure they take broke everything AC the roof needs replacing the parking lot needs repaving literally anything they take care of it But also there's layers of what's called guarantees on the lease So when you have a corporate tenant It's very normal for them to put what's called a corporate guarantee on it So even if they're into that individual location struggles for a period of time for whatever reason then Mama corporation will continue to pay your lease for you. So that's one layer of guarantee Now this particular chain is also held in a portfolio company portfolio entity where there's several other brands that are held inside of it Which is also normal Typically, you know, you've got private equity or an ownership group. They want to own multiple brands Well, that portfolio company has a guarantee on the lease as well So you've got the corporate guarantee you've got the portfolio company And then one of the majority owner of that portfolio company is super super wealthy guy He also agreed to put a personal guarantee So his own assets are online if something were to go wrong with the lease and you have to understand You start to look at commercial leases so you know you have context on this that is extremely rare That does not happen literally the only way you can get leases like that or if you negotiate them off market Which is what I do all my deals are off market And so that's why I feel very comfortable both buying them myself I'm like I'm not gonna lose money here. So those those so those deals are the ones where we spoke about this before Say a chain is going to come by the length for 500 and build it for for another 500 there in for a million They sell it to you for two million, but they guarantee you Everything in we're going to rent it for the next 20 years So they made 500,000 off the back before they even started then they get The franchise Z to be come to be forced to go and pay you everything Plus paying them commission. They don't guarantee Yes, that's that's well the kind in this case is not a friend. It's not franchise manages corporate man Okay, it's a corporate manage. Okay. Yeah. I mean, I'm talking more McDonald's time right right because it's McDonald's That's a model McDonald's model is I'm have much more respect for McDonald now than knowing how they operate In today's world because what you saw with the founder was a little bit different with the movie in today's structure is what I mentioned Where they buy the property they build the property they sell the property to someone else and they guarantee to lease it for 20 years But then they don't technically guarantee it. They don't really lease it That's a franchise Z that has to pay the rent and obviously if that franchise is no good Then they said okay, then we're gonna find you another franchise Z because that's not a problem for them But they know that the franchise is gonna be in business. They know that everything is gonna work and then that's how they The operate so that's they make money from the franchise E plus it's not even their thing So they just make money before they even started they bought something for a dollar But they go well it goes for $2 so so the I guess the secret sauce really is finding some of these off-market deals too Because that's a lot of it's not just finding the deals it's a good question that you're asking but for me Everybody that's in real estate is looking for off-market deals. Okay, if you find typically if you find a deal that's listed on an exchange online You're only seeing that deal because it passed through five other investors hands that a minimum and they said no So that's why it's listed on an exchange all the best deals you'll never see online And they're all passed under the table so to speak between guys that are have connections So I realized early on if I was gonna be new into this space I wasn't gonna I wasn't gonna get access to the best deals. I had to make them I had to literally create them out of nothing ex nihilo is a old Old Greek term that I learned from from Bible school. It means out of nothing. Oh, it actually means that yeah. Yeah Um or no, that's Latin ex nihilo but You know when you said you learned something from Bible school did you feel like there's some things you learn From in religious time of your life that apply for business Of course of course. I everything that I've gone through has been instructive and useful tell me Into the businessman to the man that I am today Yeah, and I think you talked about this this respect for authority I definitely learned a like a level of coachability from from being in religion And that's maybe not something that most people would connect but I learned an appreciation for Call it following orders from people that I trust and being coachable being willing to implement being somebody that's disciplined From that because prior to religion I became a Christian on 16 I didn't have any of that. I was very lazy. I felt very disconnected lost in the world so to speak and And it provided a sense of structure that Maybe the military provides that for other people in their life or or something else But yeah, it was useful in that way and you're right the military does I'm ex-military so it's it's definitely There's some I mean depends how you take things in life right things can go right above your head And you would notice and you wouldn't think about this But when you're in a creative mode when you're building a business I think you're being forced to go back into your inner self and everything you ever had in your life You use it as a tool and you say I'm gonna make something out of nothing no matter what it is And if it was Bible school if it was if if it was Minus business school But everything else you can go and bring it all in and you can say that is more instrumental Then you would think if you actually go and think about how to leverage that in your life So I think I think when you go to say Bible Bible studies or if you go to military something that you can absolutely use it for For leadership when you go to Bible school you hear the the pastor is like how can I be As charismatic as that person that speak on the stage very much, so right? How can I get people's emotions to come out and because people would follow you because of their emotion Not because of the rational they will justify it with the rational, but they'll do it because of their Emotional side right for emotional so you you you just tap through and if when by the way when you when you tap into the People's emotion It's not about his intelligent anymore You for for good or bad Right when you wanted to go and convince Anyone why when the when the Nazis wanted to convince the Germans that it's time to go and be the superior race and kill Jews The Germans didn't go into their rational They went to their emotional side right so it can go the other way around So how can you go and influence people positively right You need to understand the difference between your rational and your emotional part definitely I want but go back to what you're saying though to find these deals. You're not finding these deals It's hard to find these deals so you're building them from the ground up exactly these deals Well, I build relationships with tenants that want to expand into new locations They have many locations around the country and they are in a position where they want to expand in new markets Their core business model is very profitable But they just don't have they don't want to a lot the capital to buy the real estate And or they don't have the team internally that can go and find the right real estate Yeah, they want to keep their cash and so my model what it allows them to do is have a new location have the build out done and have 18 months of operating capital And for free like all they have to do all they have to do is sign a 20 year guaranteed lease It's a very strict lease it is very very like hardline guarantees I negotiate and get But at the end of the day if they're confident in their business model which they are Then they'll sign that lease because it enables them to grow their business very very fast I mean, this is not unusual within commercial tenants. I feel like it's useful for me to give an example Like Amazon doesn't own a huge percentage of the buildings that they use they just lease and the reason why is because They don't want their capital tied up in a building When they know that that same capital used in their core business model will yield them a much higher percentage So many businesses are like this they're like hey you go and make it ready to go where we can start making cash day one Which fast food restaurants their profitable day one like they they're just like they have a grand opening A bunch of people come through they make a bunch of money So it's a good business model that has fast cash start up on it. I was I was actually looking at couple Amazon Facilities open and I think it's around 40 million dollar when they want to open each one of them And he's doing the same scheme like like McDonald's yeah, by the place the place back. Yeah, and then And they're never going to get out. So it's a guarantee 4% copyright plus and all that and usually you'll find a lot of Real estate investment trusts going through this And you'll put their money with them and then they'll go and they'll rent this. I mean, I think Harry's Harry's is one A big real estate investment trust that has about nine billion under management and it's mostly warmer than And Amazon's locations And it's it's it's something that's been going on through. I mean, it's gonna be Dying out for the little percent eventually. It's gonna go more into big money Institution because it's already a business. So when when you wanted to get a guarantee return That's that's how you do it. Yeah, do you have to so when you're buying these buildings And is there like a chicken and egg scenario where You have to find the building and then you have to put it in front of the actual corporation to make sure they approve the location Then you close on it is that yeah, there's a little bit of due diligence Yeah, I won't basically I won't even start looking for the buildings until I have an agreement in place with the tenant But then when I do and I understand their specifications then I work with a site selector that goes and helps me find the individual locations And of course they have to give the stamp of approval. Yeah, they want to move into it. No, of course. Yeah So then then you structured this building an interesting way to sort of get yourself into the market a little bit quicker right because you're coming from an exit You don't have a huge real estate track record when you're first getting in. Yeah, so how do you make these and this is interesting because you're talking about even numbers before like the percent interest And the fact that you can bring the actual Down payment down from whatever 30 plus percent to 10 is six seven six seven. So how do you how do you do these deals? How do you structure so that your investors actually Get these opportunities that normally would not have access to in terms of like the actual financing the year putting forward Well, there's a couple things that make that possible first of all I work with local banks who give me very aggressive very good lending terms that bigger banks that Most novice investors would not have access to because I now have a track record on closing so many deals In today's world. What's your what's your interest rate? Oh, well, it changes week to week I mean by the time this podcast comes out it will probably change again. So it's it's it's it's you know It can't be nailed down right now. I think we're coming to the end of when it'll it'll stop it'll start like Freezing for a little while towards the end of this year 2022 when we're recording this And then it'll kind of stay static for a couple years. That's my guess before the Fed starts bringing it back down We're gonna we're going into a recession. I mean there's gonna be some pain that this economy feels a lot fewer people are gonna be Spend in money like they were these previous few years and I think overall is a good thing. You know, we kind of had The the price the values of things are a bit inflated from the last few years of having a zero percent interest rate So it's good But I mean right now when I'm able to lock in for at least five years at a time is Five or three quarters percent But again By the time this comes out it's not gonna be that anymore. It's gonna go up again This is just the nature of my industry right now um But yeah, there's ways that I flex on it. I I get very high percentage loan to values what it's called right now I'm able to get 85% with a bank local bank very very unusual But then also I float about half of it to an end investor So I'm floating about seven and a half percent to them so they can close on it for themselves only putting seven percent down So you think about this that same person they go and buy that deal On online and it still won't have the same level of guarantees that my leases do and probably won't have as long of a lease as mine are Maybe it's 10 years instead That same deal they're gonna put 25% down on because let's just say for simple numbers. It's a it's a five million dollar deal Okay, they're gonna put 25% down and that's on a That's very good if they can get 25% for the normal investor most times we put 3035 let's say it's 25% That means they're gonna put 1.25 million dollars down to own that property whereas with me a five million dollar deal they can get into it for about 400 grand Or maybe 350 grand and yet because there are 100% owner on that deal They get all the benefit of all the appreciation that happens through time So every single year in my leases the rent goes up it goes up 2% every year like clockwork And that is that what that creates is people in real estate understand this term It's called forced appreciation that means the property must appreciate because the income is going up There are three things that affect the value of a property and commercial. This is just Billings around and then Well, three three things that that affect it it is actually pretty simple number one is how much income am I getting paid from the property? Number two How long am I gonna get paid that income for so over what length of time is the lease and number three is how likely am I To get paid that amount so how secure is it? Those three things if you affect if you improve any one of those then the value of your property goes up So that's why when you increase the income on a property and people in multi-family know this you raise the rents You raise the rents that's why people give you tenant improvements Exactly. I'll give you 40 bucks of food instead of 35 I'll give you a hundred thousand dollar to renovate whatever you want Because they want to make sure that they can do the refi and Exactly exactly So Anyway That same deal they're gonna get that 100% of the appreciation because they're 100% owner But now instead of having to tie up 1.25 million they could put 400 grand in and then they can go They have 800 grand left out and by the way they've wiped out 500 grand in taxes at least from this from just that So they've now literally become cash flow positive just on the tax savings And then they still have 800 grand left over they can go and put into call it another multi-family deal or buy some houses with that or buy a block next to use of here Well, I can't only read it because when you were on a company You're you're not trying to be in a real estate business When you when you sell when you sell Hamburgers or whatever you're trying to just do your job and grow and then you because when you want to sell this business later on or go public Or so on they're not gonna judge you in the appreciation of your properties that you you accumulate right you They're gonna be judged based on the growth of the business and you're a vdand that's that's what it can come down to so So you want to make sure that you keep and and cash is king yeah a cash is king you look Apple had more cash than any nation globally right in in reserves, but Covid happened they went and they borrowed cash They just wanted like oxygen. So so that is a solution for a lot of companies And that is a very unorthodox way to tackle a problem that most people don't think about yeah So you went to a conference basically you heard about the you went to a real estate conference Well, it's not quite that simple. I mean, I talked to I looked at so many different deal structures and some of it was at conferences some of it was just in zoom meetings with people that I knew were experienced And I basically synthesized a version of this from multiple different deal structures interesting I didn't get this from any one person and it didn't work like my previous business where somebody just handed me a blueprint Yeah, and I paid them for that and then I executed on it like I had to pull it together and so At the same time the value that I received for myself as a business owner providing this to others is greater than The type of business that I had before I mean, I've gotten significantly wealthier using this model because it is by the numbers Much more value that I'm providing to so you know, I want to ask you so since you're making millions right you're worth millions and in cash So tell us about your lifestyle. I mean we see a lot of people flexing Particular lifestyle once they start making some caution. Mm-hmm. How is it for you? I mean say cars and watches And I mean you look very simple like remind me of me. Thank. Thank you Not like start to be here wearing a watch trying to show off his Rolex over here You said you said we were gonna wear blazers. I'm on a blazer. I was Yeah, you know, I said that they changed my mind. Well This is a good I appreciate this question. It's something that I actually think a lot about how are you wearing on your wrist? These are just my intent bracelets. These are reminders. They're words about what I want to focus on one says legacy Think about mm-hmm my life after I'm gone and the other says grateful. I love it So these are things that kind of ground me whenever I look at them. Yeah Great company run by my friend Chris Pan my intent. I know Chris Pan you know my show. Yeah. Oh cool I was just with him at Burning Man. Really? Yeah He's very cool. Oh, he's amazing. He's amazing. I was actually wondering because I I interviewed him probably about a year ago and I remember he was building out that company And I wasn't sure for the same thing, but that's very yeah, it's a very small world. Yeah Yeah, so The lifestyle question. I live a very simple life right now and I'm I'm thinking about elevating into that next level of stratosphere Like buying a big ranch property making a compound like building my own custom gym on the property. This would be in Texas. Yeah, not here in Florida Um, I'm thinking about those things. I'm not super attracted to buying expensive cars It for whatever reason it's never quite landed for with me as being important or even interesting Um, I do think about watches buying nice watches be partly because they hold their value and Uh, pretty well. It's definitely better than cars and also because Um, they're just interesting to me. What did you what did you do when you when you sold? I Literally lived the exact same lifestyle. Yeah, I am thinking about buying a plane sometime in the next couple months Um, a private plane because I do see the usefulness of that of being able to fly private I'm getting tired of flying even first-class commercial. It's like getting harder and harder to know when you're actually going to show up at the place Because flights get delayed or they get canceled. It's happening more and more and more How often do you fly? How often do you fly? Every week. Okay. It would seem yeah for one reason or another So yeah, whether I was just a burning man two weeks ago. I'm here for a week. I'm going back to Austin for an event I'm going to to loom next week. Uh, I'll be back here to film a bunch of content for my social the week after that I mean, there's a lot is um, I I'm also a film actor So I fly on to set to do movies for periods of times. That's been a dream of mine for a while What's a good copyright by the way going back to real Yeah, that's a hard part of the lifestyle. Yeah, let me go. Okay So if someone's watching this, someone's watching this car. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah I mean, so someone's watching it. Everybody gets a copyright. What's your return on investment every year? For me real estate that you would say this is the least I would be consider If it was a regular list not 20 years and all that well 20 years is something that is we different pretty much always do Yeah, but at this point occasionally I'll do 15 or 10 Because and I'll tell you why why that's important to me I'll take a little bit lower cap rate to have more security on the length of the lease Because I I never want to be caught in a position where I could lose a bunch of value with at least ending Okay, so so 10 years. What's the least copyright you're going to consider Uh, the lowest that consider would probably be a I mean a five or five and a quarter Yeah, but again, I'm always thinking what is the return with the percentage return that I can get on it Which is massively affected by how much money I'm putting down So if I can put down 7% the same deal that for somebody else might be an 8% return would be 24% return for me Because I'm getting in for a third what they're getting in I have the same rent on the same deal And yet it feels like three times the return because it Logically is so that's the way I think about it I'm looking always north of 20% annualized return on my real estate deals and that is a function of getting in for less What's the deal that you're looking at now that that warehouse you were looking at now the the warehouse is is one thing the warehouse is Something that I look it doesn't matter to warehouse. I'm actually and just put an offer in the person It was actually a cheap one But it was in an area that they bought out bunch of homes in the bad place that turned into a really good place and turning much more because they're Putting right in front of me couple high rises. Oh nice. So there was a warehouse and then there was a residential place So the residential was actually a small compound 14,000 square feet with eight units in it And the guy was trying to sell it for 1.9 We did the math that it's going to be 7% annualized return in the first year and I said, you know, I'll just offer one and a half. See they told me it's just way too low. No one's gonna So I offered and now we can back with 1.65 So yeah, so I said all right. I mean that's cool Let's let's offer a 1.55 Delan final See how it does honestly don't care. It's a small deal. It's a very small deal. It's just there I'm not really developing the area like I told you I want to do in Miami where you feel like we have developed that area when you talking about legacy on your Like that's why you said well that area was not the same and you want to feel like you've done something This area someone already they've been buying all those properties for five years already Doing the same methodology that I spoke to you about So it's less exciting But I can still throw some money into it because it will have the same effect like but there's not gonna be the legacy behind this I wasn't one of the original ones like like Michael Manna that The like Mochimana that built winwood and today winwood is winwood and it associates in those circles everybody knows it's him Right, so it creates legacy if you want to create legacy in in a real estate world You want to go to a place in Miami and that that's where it's going to be and it's it's going to be nice to know that you've built this But this is like an interesting deal and a figure why not like throw something just for cash and my kids when they'll tell that's yours Nothing more that is a significant part of the value for legacy places Being able to point and say that's us that's our family. Yes, right there I have a question for you and and I'm trying to understand and you probably have a strategy With where you want to build your business and you're I'm gonna call it a fun, but it's not a fun like a firm whatever company When you're when you're subsidizing You're basically buying the properties and subsidizing the other investors heavily. Yes. Why aren't you just holding these properties yourself? Well, it's because it's extra cash for me to sell it to other people and plus as an individual investor Not immediately though still no a lot of it comes later now I do make some money up front is because of the difference between the work the the property that originally bought it for Essentially add a significant amount of value to it by putting the tenant and get the construction done all of that Yeah, I'm doing all of that and so I'm increasing the value significantly in a short period of time So I make some money up front, but yes, the big portion comes later Ultimately, I buy properties every single month. So I do buy a lot. Yeah, I buy I don't know I bought a $12 million property Uh, what was that July I bought in July and I buy I buy between seven and 10 million a month for what I'm trying to get to I'm trying to buy don't I buy everything myself? Why don't you buy everything yourself and I can't go in your head How do you choose which ones that you want to flip like what's the what's the metric you look for or the or the category of property that you look for Versus what you keep well, this is a good question. I literally don't sell a single thing to investors that I wouldn't happily buy myself That's right. Yeah, so so everything you can fold down on it any chores. Yes. Absolutely. Absolutely. I would never I just for integrity reasons. I just wouldn't anyway, of course But the reason why I don't buy everything myself is because I get more capital if other people put money down Yeah, okay, so I'm just making this is my active income that I then put into my yes to buying my own deal Flywheel going exactly so I take the money that are from investors from buying them a building and then I buy more buildings with it So, but isn't that I mean for I guess I mean something to do isn't that actually Um, taking away from your cash flow for five years. I mean You put the money in and on well because I get some money upfront, you know based on what they put down Oh, so I get some money up from you maximizing in all and by the way and by the way as time goes on Yeah, I will require investors to put more money down I don't have to do it the way that I'm doing now It's an extraordinary deal in the way that it is today But someone like Grant Cardone would never do this because he doesn't have to he has a big enough brand Where he can get more money upfront because people just know his name and as my brand grows I will do more of the same just because I just won't have to do anything else So really people that invest with me now are getting the best deal that they're ever gonna get and quite frankly that they literally could not get Yeah from anyone else Terms this good they cannot it doesn't exist So and I stand by that like I Anybody wants to show me a deal that looks as good as mine. They don't so where do you so when you when you build out Real estate firm where do you take it do you start to raise funds and do larger investments? Is that yeah, yeah, I'll get in the bigger and bigger deals for sure for sure We'll get into you know 30 million dollar. I mean, I'm looking at a 33 million dollar deal with a partner right now somebody a bigger retail deal big shopping center in Florida And I'd love to do more like that. I'd love to do some hundred million dollar deals In a year that's probably the size deals I'll mostly be doing So so very good But yeah, this is all building for a big exit that I would do in three to five years from now And at which time I'd either get into one a private equity Yeah, I'd either get into private equity or and or Consumer product brands is something that is interesting to me at that time I'll also be a major film actor. That's my long-term play is is to be an a-list film actor. I didn't have an ability. Yes You've been comedy too. I've done comedy. Yeah Yeah So so let's go back to that so you're an actor. Mm-hmm. It's still acting. Mm-hmm. Yeah, I did I've done two movies this year so far One in Rome one in Texas. Okay And what was the name one word the name The movie in Rome was called deep six. It's action movie Um, I played a character named it's a movie about the breakup of an American drug cartel located in Italy And I played one of the villain characters lead villain characters Name Jack. I was a manic psychopath character, which is so much fun to play as an actor being a fuss I've passed. Yeah to that. Come a long way. Yeah, yeah, so so it's it was super fun getting to play that playing Alongside some stars and then I played much smaller film actually Christian film I did in in Texas Middle this year. Do you find keeping that creative outlet open helps you in business? It just makes me happier so yes Yeah, I'd say for that reason it does more like Legion in it's not necessarily Something I take seriously and I work very hard at too. Yeah, I do. I love the craft of acting. I love the The the ability to creatively live somebody else's life I think it's part of the legacy. Yeah, yeah, and over time I want to I will produce my own films because I want to create more positive messages and entertainment That are because that's how That's how the masses get influenced is by entertainment actually So like film TV that that's what teachers people had to think So I want to make content over time that raises people's consciousness that helps them think differently Pretty strategic you can always go and say buy my properties buy my properties when you put in means that's a grand Well, it's not even subliminal. That's a grand card on playbook. I mean, that's how he raises money for his properties He has that whatever Millions of people that follow him all over social. Mm-hmm. That's how we crowd funds for real estate Yeah, it's a very very different way than the original one which was a boring business Yeah suits behind this just small amount of people now It's kind of like open up to the masses and everyone can come and invest through a thousand dollar in my phone through five hundred Thousand dollar and I find doesn't matter. It's for everybody So you go retail basically. You don't go also, right? But what I appreciate with how you sort of structured your life and how you're still pursuing your passions is a lot of people that get into building something You were the same way when you're building boxy charm. You're so laser focus that you do nothing else And I think that sometimes there's benefits to that But I think that for some people that could be very toxic in building your life that way Like it's not easy for a lot of people to just do one thing for 15 years No, of course, but you're not doing that. That's the thing. No, you're not. Yeah. No, I'm much I'm multi-passionate I think a lot of entrepreneur Lee Entrepreneurish people are like this. They they want to do lots of different things. That's just interesting for them I'm a creative and so that's what keeps me happy that keeps me engaged otherwise I get very bored So I love business and I love creative pursuits. So I'll always have both I used to think that I would just be an actor or for a period of time I thought I would just be a businessman But neither of them in and of themselves are enough to keep me fully engaged. I'll always need to have both I love that So that's good for I think we covered everything. We we really did a good job on that one So where can people find you uh socials website all that Yeah, I would say for people that are investors are looking to invest their entrepreneurs are looking to save on taxes or things like that You want to look at properties? That's just one or hot chicks Yeah, well, let's stay with the investors first. Hey hot chicks that are investors or is he is even best? That's the best of everything They could just go to my website sterlingcapital.cc. They go there and you can get access to my deal flow list Just let me know a little bit about your social media network. We're going to that next so sterlingcapital.cc and then social media at sterling on Instagram is the best way. So just my first name. Awesome. S-T-E-R-L-N-G. Okay. We did amazing. Yeah, I agree. I did do amazing. You're going to have to have a real estate deal after this Now listen, this is really impressive. Very very impressive. Thank you Thank you so much for coming over and We're going to sit down and keep talking and definitely have some questions that I didn't want to put it on there for you Sounds good. Sounds good. That was amazing. Awesome man. I appreciate you. Thank you so much. Yeah. Yeah, you're welcome You