Intro: Meet Desmond Metz

SPEAKER_01 0:00

Hustlers, on today's episode of the Turn Up to Hustle podcast, we're joined by one of San Antonio's top real estate agents and the go-to realtor for investors, including myself and Mr. Hustle. Unlike most agents who shy away from working with investors, he has built his business around understanding creative deals, investment properties, and helping clients grow their portfolios. His journey is just as impressive. Starting as a personal trainer at Lifetime Fitness before taking a leap of faith and quitting his job just one month in after discovering real estate. In just five years, he's become one of the top real estate agents in San Antonio. And today we dive into his story of what it takes to be successful in real estate and why working with investors has been his keys to success. On today's episode, Desmond Metz. Hustlers, welcome back to another episode of the Turn Up to Hustle Podcast, where real estate investors and entrepreneurs share their mindset and their stories behind their hustle. I am your host today, Skylar Moon. Mr. Mike is not with us. And with us today our very special guest, Desmond Metz. Welcome to the program. Let's go, brother. Yeah. Well, this is the Turn Up to Hustle Podcast, and this is how we start off every episode. My hustle is real estate flipping. I flip homes for a living and sell them, obviously, on the retail market. And this is a very special episode I've been looking forward to doing because today we have Desmond, who is my personal realtor and does

The Philosophy: How You Do One Thing is How You Do Everything

SPEAKER_01 1:23

all of our listings for me, Mike, and the whole hustle team here. And so super, super excited for this episode. But with that being said, my uh hustle is real estate flipping. What is Desmond's hustle when somebody thinks of Desmond?

SPEAKER_02 1:36

My personal segment for real estate is just uh both buying and selling, right? So I hope of residential as far as resale, residential as far as rental portfolio increase, and residential such as fix and flips. So buying and selling, that's kind of my wheelhouse in every aspect, and I'm all about an experience for all my clients.

SPEAKER_01 1:51

So when anybody thinks of needing to buy a house or sell a house, you are the first guy that should come to mind. And I can say that with confidence because I actually do use you in my business and you know, even got Mike to switch over a lot of his business over to you as well. So we can say with confidence you are the guy for buying and selling. But before selling all the homes, before we're even gonna get into it, you were a kind of like a bodybuilder and a trainer, before all that stuff. Let's go all the way back and talk about who was Desmond, how did Desmond grow up, how did he come about, how did he become the man that he is today?

SPEAKER_00 2:18

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SPEAKER_02 3:15

I think it's funny that you asked that, bro, too, because we we had multiple discussions of this. It's just my whole philosophy, uh, even just in real estate or back then is just how you do one thing is how you do everything. So I I was really taught morally and ethically to do the right things. And the most important part about that is just not segueing it just in one specific avenue in your life, but everything. So if you're gonna do the right thing in real estate, you gotta do the right thing in your personal life, your people around you, your friends, family, loved ones, because at the end of the day, all of it flows together cohesively. And I tended to see a lot of past experiences in my life that you learn from, right? Whether it's from the right things or the wrong things, and you can kind of take notes and just audit it yourself. And majority of the things that could happen in real estate also happen because there's occurrences in personal life that may not get deemed done correctly, or they're just not putting yourself into the shoes of how to fix it before putting business first. And I think if you're gonna put business first, you've got to put yourself first and make sure that you're mentally developed. And one thing that I always got taught at a year at a very young age from one of my mentors is your level of business development will never exceed your level of self-development. And that ties with me a lot just because

The Turning Point: How Family Hardship Created a Leader

SPEAKER_02 4:30

at the end of the day, most people that you see, regardless if they're Apple, Tesla, even y'all selves, it all follows the pattern of you guys' self-development. It's extremely intentional before the business. That's good.

SPEAKER_01 4:41

Yeah, real estate is a very, very, very people-driven business. If you're not good with people, you don't understand people, you don't understand the psychology behind people's thinking and their motivation, real estate can be extremely tough. But before all of that, where were you born? Where did you grow up at? I don't even as per, you know, we've been friends for a long time. I don't even know that I know much of your background. So I'm actually interested in all this.

SPEAKER_02 5:00

Yeah, no, I was born in uh Colorado, Denver, Colorado, right? So born in Colorado, and then we moved to Chicago, I think when I was like four, four or five, yeah. And at four or five, moved around a lot of schools, stuff like that. So it was very important because I got a lot of experience just around different people, different personalities, different dynamics. And after that, we finally decided to move to Texas when I was starting high school. And fun fact, I used to think you guys, like, again, this was just being naive about it, but like when I moved from Chicago to Texas, I thought like people like rode horses to school. Like, I thought like people were showing homes of you know, wagons. Tumbleweeds rolling around the yard. You know, but I showed up and I was like, oh man, this is this is nice. This place is nice, you know. So it was a different dynamic shift, but it all worked out, you know.

SPEAKER_01 5:47

It's funny you say that. So I actually went to New York when I was I was young, for like I was like 13 years old, and I was on a uh, I don't know if we were being shuttled or on a bus or somewhere, and somebody asked me that. They were like, Are there uh horses and tumbleweeds in Texas? I'm like, not that I've seen, dude. I've I'm in a regular city like this. Yeah, it's kind of yeah, yeah. What uh why'd y'all come to Texas? What brought y'all here? Uh work.

SPEAKER_02 6:07

Yeah. So at the time uh my stepdad moved here for work, and then that was a big shift too, if we're going into like that, right? Is as I was growing up, you see like a lot of people around and stuff like that, right? And I didn't have a dad when I like obviously grew up, right? But my stepdad took over as my my father figure, and it was great. And then you know, those that fizzled off, and then my mom became a single mom. And I remember going to school one day, coming back, and it was my junior year of high school. And she was like, Oh yeah, like your your dad wants to divorce, stuff like that. And then like at that time, my mind basically like orchestrated and realigned, like, oh man, like I gotta be the man of the house, right? I gotta be How old were you? I think I was 16, 15, 16. And ever since then, I was just it was a whole different mentality shift, right? Because I'm also a firm advocate and believer of if that didn't happen, and I think everything happens for a reason, but if that didn't happen, I I'd be a whole completely different person. I think everybody goes through certain facets of life in order to get where they're currently at. And that paradigm shift helped me a lot just because it reorchestrated even how I do business today. And what I mean by that is I'm very intentional of like the things I do isn't like a goal for me or a success for me, because I think at the end of the day, if you're doing things intentionally for other people and helping other people, because I think that's what you're here in this life to do, is just help, then you'll definitely pave the way and you'll you'll make sure that you're successful no matter what field you do, because your direct level of success correlates to exactly how many people you could serve. And I think it starts with your family, friends, and loved ones. So once that happened at an early age, I was like, okay, like I gotta I gotta make sure like I make it for my family, my mom, my sister, things like that, right? My wife, my baby, things like that, because it's very important to make sure that they're set up in the proper ways, not only just f on a mental aspect, but also seeing what seeing how you could do things with self-belief.

SPEAKER_01 8:15

That's good. And so much to unpack there, but what do you think why do you think that you were able to because some people, especially kids or teenagers, whenever their parents divorce, um, having come from a family that has a divorced family. It's like the kids go on or the other way. Sometimes they take it, like you said, as a positive and maybe not a positive, but as something in their life that changed them to become a better person, to become a stronger person, to take on that, that, like you said, that uh responsibility of being the man of the house. And sometimes

The 5-Minute Rule: Handling Failure Like a Pro

SPEAKER_01 8:45

it goes completely opposite, right? Some people get you know into alcohol or drugs or just maybe not that bad, but just you know, they uh they don't turn into the person that probably could have been had that figure stayed around. What do you think drove you? How do you think you made that decision to take it as, you know, I need to step it up versus just taking it as something like, oh, poor me, and you know, why did this happen to me? It seems like you had a really good shift um toward the positive. What do you think caused that?

SPEAKER_02 9:10

I think and this ties back again when we talk about real estate and stuff. When you're at your lows like that, a lot of people tend to like park and camp there. Yeah. Right in that cavern. And the whole purpose of that though is I mean, it feels easy and it feels comfortable. It's like, oh whoa, is me playing the victim and things like that. But at the end of the day, it doesn't matter who it is, it may take people longer, just like to your aspect of people going to drugs, stuff like that. They'll always crawl out. And it just depends if you want to at day one, once you set up that tent, if you want to just put your rucksack on and start climbing up, or if it may take a month or it may take a year, but at the end of the day, everybody comes through that realization of like, okay, like I need to do better for myself or for my family, friends, and loved ones. It just depends on when you hit that revelation.

SPEAKER_01 9:56

Yeah. Something I learned uh recently. I've I've always been like you. I don't dwell on anything. I'm a very much like short memory guy when it comes to good and bad. You know, I'm you know me, you've dealt with me a lot. I'm very mellow the whole time. I can have the highest of highs, win the lottery, and I'm like, oh, that's cool. I can have the lowest of lows and like lose 100 grand on a flip, like, oh sucks, go to the next one. Right? And so just staying mellow is is like a superpower, but a lot of people don't have that. But one thing I learned, I can't remember his name right now. Recently I was in an event, and there's a guy who wrote the Miracle Morning, it's a book, and he also has another, I think his name is How How something. Shout out to him. Um he wrote the morning, the Miracle Morning book, but he also has a five-minute rule. And his five-minute rule is you're allowed to feel however you need to feel about anything. If you need to go into a room and scream into a pillow, if you need to go cry in a closet, if you need to whatever, you have five minutes to do what you need to do, and then after that, you turn the page. And that is so powerful. I don't know how you know it sounds easier said than done if for guys like you and I who do that or maybe don't even take the five minutes, just you know, just as instant. I don't know how some people can adopt that and adapt that into their life, but if you can, I mean, that becomes such a powerful thing, like you said, that you know, you're gonna turn the page is gonna turn regardless, either way, right? Unfortunately, you know, you're gonna lose people in your life. Unfortunately, good and bad things are gonna happen, people are gonna die that you love, animals are gonna pass away. But if you get stuck in a place where I mean, you're just like you said, you're stuck, you're in that place, you're in that hole, you're in that that negative space in your mind, in your physical realm. I mean, it can just put you in such a it can just delay your life, like you were saying. You can either take it from day one, and so anyway, that's very interesting that you from an early age were able to figure that out and and turn that page.

SPEAKER_02 11:36

And it yeah, just any anything, any hardship, I think, or any difficulties in the life, it just hyper-accelerates somebody's maturity and like focus. I think that's why it's so important. You know, you're not here, and that's why we get along so well, right? And we're we work so well together, is because you understand that you aren't here just because everything went well, you know what I mean? It's the lessons that make up the success for people. And a lot of people don't see all that.

SPEAKER_01 12:00

The people who are Alex Hermose, I think, is the one who said this, but the people who are the strongest people are the ones who've gone through the most crap. And so if you had to build a human being, is I think how he phrases it, if you had to build a human being, what would you train them with? What would you put them to? Would you give them the easiest obstacle or the easiest way with no obstacles, or would you give them obstacles? Meaning, if you wanted somebody to be patient, would you just hope that they're patient, or would you give them uh opportunities to learn how to be patient? If you want somebody to be strong, do you just give them protein shakes or do you put them in the gym and make sure that you know they're building weights? And so and so the people who have gone, I feel like, through the most, me personally, I can speak, and I know you've gone, I'm

The Book That Changed Everything: The Four Agreements

SPEAKER_01 12:35

sure, gone through a bunch of stuff. You know, I moved out when I was 15, homeless, slept on bus stops, all the stuff to building, you know, a pretty good business. And it really does show, I think, the people who have the most character and the most um sometimes I don't say the most to show for their business, but a lot of people have the sometimes the most to show for what they've built is the ones who've gone through the most, the most crap in their life and had to deal with, put up with a bunch of stuff and get through a bunch of stuff.

SPEAKER_02 12:57

And they're the last person to bring it up too.

SPEAKER_01 12:59

Yep. Yep, there's those quiet ones you gotta watch out for. You mentioned something earlier, and I know just knowing you today, you have one today, but you mentioned at a young age you had a mentor. How old were you when you had your first mentor?

SPEAKER_02 13:11

I it was right actually at that 16-year mark, yeah. And I think mentorship is so important.

SPEAKER_01 13:16

Yeah, I hear you talk about that a lot, and that was one of my questions I wanted to ask you coming in today. So, who was that first mentor? How'd you find them? What did y'all discuss? How did it help you?

SPEAKER_02 13:24

Ironically enough, it was funny, it was at the gym. Oh wow, yeah. And uh back after the he taught me a lot of things, right? And it it started off at the gym, and I remember this very vividly. He was like the very first thing he it was kind of like a test, actually. If I were to follow like instructions, he was testing you, yeah. He was like, Hey, I'm gonna give you this book, you need to read it. And I was just like, okay. And it turns out I did, and uh he's like, Yeah, okay, and then we just continued that that specific book, it led into like another book and then another book and then another book that like kind of compound together based off of everything, right? So my mentor doesn't just coach me on like business, but financial, philosophy, mental, spiritually, faith, you know, uh family, everything personal, the whole linearity name it. And I think it's very important just because it helps not only keep you grounded, but it helps again to your point, like hyper accelerates everything, you know.

SPEAKER_01 14:17

Yeah. You remember what the first book was? Four agreements. Okay. Yeah. I see a really takeaway.

SPEAKER_02 14:24

The key takeaway of that it's is so good, right? Because I it it's a really grounded book, and I read it literally every year. And I could say I could tell you the one thing that stands out, because there's four agreements, so I'm not gonna give away, but one of it is being impeccable with your word. Right. And the reason why he made me do that first is because anything you say to somebody or do, I'm I'm I like to be a man of my word. And people stop discipline not just because of just one big thing that happens. It's like the small little things that they promise them, promise themselves every day. And then once they start just negotiating with those little small increments, it turns into a snowball effect of everything. So if you're not impeccable with your word, it's very hard to be impeccable with anything else.

SPEAKER_01 15:10

Yeah, if you're lying to yourself, I mean, chances are you're you're lying to other people, and that's not not a way to do business or do life.

SPEAKER_02 15:17

Exactly, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 15:18

What uh what high school did you go to?

SPEAKER_02 15:20

Johnson. Johnson High School. Okay, okay. Sports? Football and wrestling. Oh, nice. I wasn't I wasn't even good, you guys, at football, actually. Position? Uh cornerback. Okay. Yeah. Okay.

SPEAKER_01 15:33

What uh how did you so you obviously were training, I'm sure, for sport. Yeah. How did you get into physical fitness and training?

SPEAKER_02 15:43

I think so that you could kind of tell based off of people's habits and things like that. Not always, but for the most part. I got into it just because one, right, for sports and things like that too, but just the aspect mentally of it. And when you see growth, it's not like uh, oh, okay, like let me do this until the X, Y, and Z happens. Because with fitness, it's just never ending. It's an endless pursuit of personal development, right? The physique, quote unquote, I guess, comes with it, but it just helps you because it's never ending. It's not something that's like a stop and go. And we're talking about businesses here and running businesses. It's not like, oh, okay, if Skylar, you know, flips 30 homes, he's done. He's just not ever gonna flip homes no more. It's an endless pursuit of improvement, and it helps because it just never ends in any facet. Whether you could either do the gym weights, you could run, you could do you know, high rocks, whatever it is. It's just always about improvement, and it helps you mentally, especially with business and especially things that go on in life, because if you learn how to not quit on yourself or your body or your physical health, you're more than likely not gonna quit on anything else.

SPEAKER_01 16:57

Yeah. So I um I wish this is my one regret in life. I'm sure I have more, but my one big regret in life, I was a golfer as a kid. I uh still good too. Yeah, I used to be very, very good as a child, as a protege. My parents were very uh very kind and putting me in in different tournaments, and we traveled all across the country and Texas playing events. I was homeschooled, and so had a lot of time to practice, and I utilized my time very well, practiced 365, sunup to sundown. But the one thing, I'm I had I had the best coaches. I went to Austin, Barton Creek um to get coaching from up there, Chuck Cook School Academy of Golf. And uh the one thing they told me is you have to get in the gym. And for whatever reason, I just I would not go to the gym. I'd never ever, I don't think I stepped into a gym until I was like 28. I never went to a gym. And I wish that was something I would have done because now I love it. Like I if I have any time off, like I want to be at the gym. I love it. It's my like number one favorite thing to do outside of work. And um I don't know, I just never clicked. I was a hundred and I I know why. I was a hundred and not even. I was probably like ninety-eight to a hundred pounds, five eleven as a teen, like a twelve, thirteen-year-old, fourteen-year-old teen. And so I didn't want to go to the gym because I said I thought just in my thinking, I was gonna be able to outpractice everybody and outwork everybody, and that that would make up for not going to the gym. But my goal was to be a professional golfer. In order to be a professional athlete, you have to be in professional athlete condition. You know, you may have those onesie twosie guys like John Daly, who's super out of shape. But I mean, if you want the best shot of going pro, you have to be you know pro athlete. So that would have been my one thing I wish that I would have enforced on myself, my parents would have enforced on me. It's like, hey, if we're gonna spend so much time and money putting you into these golf camps and into these tournaments and into your equipment and training, like you've got to go to the gym. And so I wish I would have done that earlier. I will for sure, whenever I have kids one day, make them go to the gym at an early age, because if you can get that into your brain, you know if it just becomes part of your routine and it's not unusual to not go, it's yeah, then I mean, dude, you're set for life.

SPEAKER_02 18:52

And that dude, I'm glad you brought that up because I mean, you know, you know, you met uh my daughter before. My wife and I talk about this all the time, right? And people always ask, like, oh, why are you so strict with you know her eating? Like she's only like less than one year old. But I I don't think of it that way. It's it's like what you said, right? What they see at an early stage. But

First Jobs: From Washing Cars to Bouncing at Nightclubs

SPEAKER_02 19:10

I personally think if I could help make her have healthy decisions on just something simple as food, then she was probably later down on the road in life gonna make healthy decisions overall. Yep. Fri, you know, friendly, friend choices, family choices, business choices, you name it.

SPEAKER_01 19:28

My mom is very similar to you. So I have a 15-year-old. Well, she's about to be 15 next week. We're going to Disney with her this week. And uh as a kid, I watched my mom raise her, which is cool because we're 21 years apart. So I got to kind of rewatch the whole process. Crazy, right? And um, same thing. No McDonald's, no happy meals, no none of that stuff. I mean, fruits and vegetables, Whole Foods, because my mom is super, super, super healthy. Um, and so it's very interesting to see how now she's got a taste for it. They'll let her now. I mean, now she's a little bit older, she'll have you know some candy here and there, whatever. But I mean, as a kid, you really instill that into them, and then they just get used to it. They like, you know, onions and tomatoes and greens and all the things you should be eating because that's what they grew up eating. And so now it's not so hard to have to train them. And she's in good shape. I mean, it's like you want to start your kid off wrong with filling them with sugar and processed foods and oils and all the stuff you shouldn't be eating.

SPEAKER_02 20:16

Right. And it makes you become a better parentslash person too, because I'm sure you know, when you're around, you're you're like, okay, like let me set a certain certain example. Yep. And that just correlates with business, right? The number one thing I learned about being a parent is people expect their kids to do stuff that they won't do themselves. Same thing as a realtor, right? I'm not gonna tell somebody, or you're not gonna tell somebody in your academy to do something that you wouldn't do yourself either. That would be very silly.

SPEAKER_01 20:41

So you go through high school, you get in the gym, you fall in love with it, I'm sure, right? As I can, as I know today. Um went to UTSA.

SPEAKER_02 20:48

UTSA, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 20:50

And what a random question. Had nothing to do with anything. What was your first job? First job. How old were you?

SPEAKER_02 20:56

Honestly, it was so funny. You don't you don't know this either. I was 17. Okay. No, 16, 16. My friend hyped it up. He was like, dude, you gotta come work at a car wash with me. This is awesome. It's amazing, this is crazy. Like we worked together vacuuming cars. And about a weekend in the job, it was in the heat too, right? So, like before school, like I was. I wake up, start 5 a.m., work like two hours shifts just vacuuming. I remember this to a T. And this was something that tested as far as like, okay, like, am I in it? But I was vacuuming the car with my friend, and he was like, and it was just, you know, it was hot and it sucked. And he was just like, Desmond, he's like, I'm sorry. And I was like, what? And he quit. Like he stopped. And then I just I was just there. I was like, all right, I guess I'm just here then. Yeah, I guess I'm just working. I I took that job until the school's over. And I was just like, all right, cool. Did it pay good? I think it was like $10 an hour. You have no tips here and there, too. Yeah, yeah. But it was it was crazy.

SPEAKER_01 22:00

So, wash tub for you guys who are not local to San Antonio is a local business. I don't think they've ever expanded outside of San Antonio, but they are a big franchise here. They've probably got, I don't know, 20, 30 stores in San Antonio, all super, super, super high producing lines out the yin-yang on any side of town you go to at any time of the day. Um they're like the standard of car washes here in San Antonio. Full service. It's not like the newer tunnels. They kind of were doing the tunnel thing before that became popular because they have an inside seating area where they actually have uh gift shops where you can buy it's not even like gifts for your car, it's like boutiques and all kinds of crazy stuff. Yeah, yeah, it's really cool. So they're shout out to the wash tub.

SPEAKER_02 22:34

Shout out to the wash tub, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 22:35

And then after that? After that was Target.

SPEAKER_02 22:38

Okay. Yeah. So I worked at Super Target uh all all throughout high school. And then when I went to college, wanted to help my mom too, just because she was paying for my tuition and stuff like that. I actually worked just three nights a week, though, uh during college the whole entire time. I was a bouncer. Yep.

SPEAKER_01 22:54

That's where I met you. That's the first time I ever met you. And we actually didn't even like me. I think we crossed paths, but we didn't like become super friends, nothing like that. We you know, I was going out because I was trying to research for my new business. I was not in the nightlife at all.

SPEAKER_02 23:07

And uh It was different, yeah. You know, the dynamics is very different. But yeah, no, it was that for all four years of college, three times a week, it was pretty good. See a lot of things.

SPEAKER_01 23:16

And not to sound weird, but the only reason I remember him, and I remember you as a bouncer because I was actually trying to scout and steal bouncers from the club you were working at. And I was successful. I got one or two of them to come over. Because again, I was going into the business not knowing anything. And so I wanted to, my rule of thumb is always when you're going into a new business that you don't know anything about, you just go recruit the best people, right? And so the club you were at, Hotel Discotech, was the top club in town. It's crazy. They had, you know, the best bottle sales, they had the best DJs, they had so I recruited some of the DJs, I recruited some of the bouncers, and so that's my thing. Not that you should be stealing other people's staff, but if you can uh make a compelling offer and they decide to come work for you, then so be it. So, anyway, that's why I remembered you specifically because uh I don't did I poach you? I don't even know if I think I might have asked you.

SPEAKER_02 23:58

I think when you were starting to get into it, it was when I left. When you left, yeah, because I transitioned a lifetime. Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 24:03

Um so that's I remember seeing you, man. You were Mr. GQ, you had like the whole getup, the vest, the top, everything, yeah. Yeah, dude. Yeah, you were super, super because you kind of doubled as you were security, but I feel like you doubled as like concierge and and VIP service.

SPEAKER_02 24:18

That's one thing, dude. Hotel Discotech did phenomenally, is like every bouncer was like service oriented too, right? Processes and systems, and like it wasn't just like enforcing, it was like okay, like making sure everybody was all good, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 24:31

I'm sure you made good tips doing that too. Three times a week, yeah. It was pretty good job.

Transitioning into Real Estate & Lifetime Fitness

SPEAKER_01 24:35

You get your VIP customers, they want to skip the line, they wanna uh get the best section or get certain regulars, things like that. Yeah, that's cool. What uh what's the craziest thing you saw at hotel? The craziest thing at hotel?

SPEAKER_02 24:55

Honestly, I don't even think it's crazy, but I because I mean there's a there's a lot of crazy stuff and I don't know if I could just you know but I could I remember this one moment which was pretty funny is I was at hotel, and again, Malcher's jobs aren't like in you know, like trying to be aggressive, it's trying to disengage. But I remember I had to kick somebody out, dude, and he was a regular, right? He was like, get this person out, blah blah blah. And I was like, okay, no worries. And then like I was getting him out, he splashed like the water on this regular's wife's face, oh no, like while leaving, and I had to like really hurry up. Took him around the corner, you know, to the door. I was walking him out as we were walking him out. The regular goes over here full force, right? Because he he did he saw his wife do that, and he just started wailing on him. But I pushed him out of the way to get out of the door, and he just kept wailing, and he hit me a couple times and then he just disregarded me and then just started wailing on him, and I was just like, Oh shoot. And then they they broke it up, and then afterwards, it it was crazy because, like, again, I wasn't gonna do anything because he he was a regular, he was a cool, like, I'm friends with him, right? He's like, bro, I'm so sorry, blah, blah. Hand me like 500 bucks. Everybody's like, Are you okay? And I was like, No, yeah, I'm good. But just stuff like your biggest drawing. Just stuff like that.

SPEAKER_01 26:12

Did you work for Ryan? Was Ryan there at the time? Yeah, okay. Yeah, so Ryan eventually later on after hotel shutdown came over to our side. Yeah. Um so you're in that, you're in your college, doing the bouncing. How did you make that transition? Because that's where I really started to. We didn't even really meet that much, but I start seeing you at the gym. You were doing your training, you started going to lifetime. How did you make that transition?

SPEAKER_00 26:32

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SPEAKER_02 27:25

So Lifetime, it well, one, it was just like nightlife is like how long are you gonna be in it? You know what I mean? And it was good, it was a good part of the chapter because again, connectivity, relationships, stuff like that, which is super important. And then I went to Lifetime because that's when I graduated UTSA. So I graduated UTSA, you know, double majored in business administration and kinesiology, started at Lifetime. And I really much so to be honest with you, run Lifetime how I run my real estate business, right? It was it was a very sales job, commission-based only. I don't know if you knew that, but service-based, you know. And when I first started there, it wasn't necessarily hard, but it was just making sure you had systems and processes aligned, right? Because as you know, if you're starting a business, it's like, oh, like you can't just wait and pray and expect, like, okay, like I hope, hope it goes good. You gotta kind of still work and make sure that you have stuff set up. But uh made a lot of connections, stuff like that. Met a lot of people too, especially in the real estate realm from lifetime, and it all turned out to be really well.

SPEAKER_01 28:23

So I heard that that's how you got into real estate because you trained your exactly your mentor, which is Rami. That's one of my mentors.

SPEAKER_02 28:31

I have like four mentors, bro. Yeah, and uh yeah, I used to train my broker, and I he basically was just like, hey, you know what? You do pretty good, you know. You do pretty good in real estate. Shout out, Rami, right? And uh I was just like, Oh yeah, sure, you know, I I don't mind it, right? Because at the end of the day, it wasn't about a lucrative figure to me. It was just more so like uh how could I help people, right? And that's why I like real estate a lot too, because a lot of people think of it more like transactional basis, but it's not because you're you're literally dealing with somebody, same thing as personal training, somebody's physical health, fitness, longevity, same thing with real estate, somebody's biggest transaction that they're ever gonna own in this life, whether it's a fix and flip or first-time buyer or seller and things like that. And it's all about experience, and I really enjoyed it just because there was an there it was an endless ceiling of it, right? Yeah, because you could help as many people as you'd want. At lifetime, by the way, I got to the point of it was like a regular, like I guess, nine to five hour shift, but I had so many people. I had to I had to come early, dude. I had to leave, I had to like come at five in the morning and do three clients before my shift started, and then I had to, after my shift started, do three clients as well. So like it was just like I could I could only train so many people at one time.

SPEAKER_01 29:44

Yeah. So at the same time that I kind of met you and you were going through that transition to hotel to lifetime, that's when I was telling you, that was the first time I ever went into a gym. Like I had never gone to a gym before lifetime. I might have gone like once or twice, but like I was not consistent at all. And so I signed up for lifetime. I was just, I was actually very overweight at the time. And I told myself that I was going to I was going to uh get myself in shape, and so I started working out. And eventually I picked up Paul, who was a trainer alongside you over there at Lifetime. We worked out for a while. But I just remember seeing you there, and I don't think we ever even talked, to be honest with you. I don't even think we even said hi to each other.

SPEAKER_02 30:16

Always on the floor, yeah. But that's the thing.

SPEAKER_01 30:19

That was the thing that I noticed was that out of all the trainers there, you were like top-notch. I mean, your clients were always um you know, on point. It always seemed like you were ver going above and beyond training. And I'm sure all the trainers there are pretty good. You know, I'm gonna be honest, now I think they're kind of like letting down their uh their um qualifications because I don't know, the trainers there now kind of seem kind of weird. But but back in the day, I mean it like I said, you, Paul, I forgot the other guy's name, the country guy that had the hat, Brad. Brad? Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 30:44

I was just gonna say that's how it started, you guys actually is Brad was one of my mentors too. Shut up, Brad. I the very second day, which is weird, right? I don't remember who the team leader, whatever it was, but the very second day, he asked, like, oh, what do you want to do? I was like, Oh, you know, like I look up to Brad, like, I don't want to be like Brad. And he was just like, Good luck, bro. You ain't you can be like Brad. And I was like, Oh, all right, okay, you know, he's like, Yeah, he's been here for 15 years, blah blah blah blah. And I was like, Oh, okay, well shoot. I mean, you asked me, like, what I you know. Anyway, that's when my mentor, uh,

Betting on Yourself: Quitting a Salary for Commission

SPEAKER_02 31:20

and I still know him at this day and age now, and he helps me immensely, basically helped me and got me my skill sets and mental capacity on how to do it. And after a year, I was I was at Brad's level.

unknown 31:32

Nice.

SPEAKER_01 31:33

Yeah, I remember, like I said, I always remembered, you know, you were on point. I would talk to to uh my trainer about you and about the other trainers, and he would give me insights like what number they had when they signed up for lifetime, who had the oldest number, and how many so we always talked about you as well as being one of the top the top Gs over there. It's funny. So it seems like your whole life kind of led you up to becoming a realtor, which is funny because you know I never thought I was gonna be in real estate full-time. I thought, you know, I I always did it kind of on the side. I flipped one house here and there every couple years. I had a rental property, and like as a side kind of passive thing, I would have it on the side, but I never thought I was gonna be in a full time. And then you got into it while I was doing the club business, and we, you know, we didn't really talk, we didn't know each other that well. And you know, we followed each other, I think, on Instagram whatnot. But um we ended up having lunch one day, almost two years ago now. I think it's been almost two years, when I said, Hey, I'm selling the club, I'm gonna get into real estate. I think I might have reached out to you on Instagram, or somehow we got in touch online, and so we went over to uh BJ's at the rim. I remember and uh I said, Yeah, we're gonna do some business together. Here's my plan, I'm gonna flip all these houses and blah, blah, blah. And I didn't, obviously, I hadn't, you know, just barely writing my business plan and getting started. Yeah and uh we didn't do business at all. I think we didn't even talk to each other. Next year, yeah. Everybody was almost in retirement.

SPEAKER_02 32:49

You sent me that hey, here's our BJ's anniversary. Yeah, I was like, What? Exactly, exactly. That was crazy. Um I knew you were gonna do well though, bro. Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 32:57

Yeah, it's been a fun, fun journey. It's been crazy. But how did let's talk about that transition? So you were training Rami. He said that he thinks that you would be good at real estate. How did you make that full-time shift or how did that process go?

SPEAKER_02 33:09

I just started. Like, I literally like it that that's one thing instinctively, too. Like, I'm a I'm pretty much so more so like an executor. Like, if it's like, okay, like we need to do this, like, all right, let's do it. So after that, I was just like, okay, let's go. Did champions, took the test, did the course, and whatever, and then I just started and transitioned it fully.

SPEAKER_01 33:26

How long was the process going from trainer to before you quit lifetime? I think it was like a month and a half. From the time he first mentioned it? Mm-hmm. Holy crap, dude.

SPEAKER_02 33:35

Yeah, about a month and a half, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 33:37

And so, I mean, obviously in real estate, it's a little bit slower turning the commissions over and getting your first house sale. Were you already selling in that first month and a half, or how did you know, like, hey, I can quit comfortably and not have my because it at this time, lifetime is your full income, right? Mm-hmm. And so you're you're comfortable enough to get rid of that just to switch into something new. How did how did that work?

SPEAKER_02 33:55

I think it's more so it wasn't it's and I think about this now even, right? But it's just about betting on yourself, I think. That's the most important thing is self-belief. The power of self-belief in real estate, especially. I I love seeing agents go from that, right? Like the stats are like, oh man, there's no way I could sell like 20, 30 houses uh in a given year. And then when they do it, right? The self-belief in that is what starts how well you perform in anything in life. Not in a cocky way, like oh, I could do it, but like hey man, I could do this, and no matter what type of work I need to do, I'm gonna make it happen. Just like how starting businesses go, right? And with that, I was just I I I sponged everything, right? It was a whole new field sector sector for me too. And I was just like, hey, like, what do I do? Who do I learn from? How do I do this? What's your average blah blah blah? What does somebody do at this given like first startup and you know, just take with it and run with it and make sure that you're just doing everything intentionally.

SPEAKER_01 34:49

I will say, I don't know, Rami 22. You know, we said hi and talked a little bit here and there, we follow each other online, but I don't know him super well. But it seems like he must have an incredible operation to get you and a lot of the other talent that he has kind of in his in his uh pool of influence. Um because all y'all all you guys are top performers, and I say that to say that had you have gotten started with a group

Systems vs. Jobs: How to Run Your Real Estate Business Like Apple

SPEAKER_01 35:10

that was not very good at training new agents, that could be difficult because a lot of people jump into real estate thinking all you do is just put the sign out and you're gonna get you know sales and that's it. And if they join into a a realty office that doesn't have good leadership, I mean, you know how that goes. I mean, you could be sitting there all year. I want to say some kind of stat of like 70% of all agents last year or this year didn't even head and sold a home, like a single home. Yeah. And it's like, man, how do you make money for people? And so shout out to Rami and his team because I think that is a a major, major differentiator when you've got somebody because you can have somebody like you who's got the talent, who's got the work ethic, but if they're in the wrong environment Oh, yeah, 100%, yeah. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 35:49

I fully agree.

SPEAKER_01 35:51

So you're in real estate full time, and how'd your first year go? How'd your first six months go? What did that look like? What are the transactions like?

SPEAKER_02 35:59

You know, it's funny, is I don't even to this day, you'd be surprised, slash CPU would be surprised. I don't I don't really like physically aim for numbers, I just physically aim for how many people I help. But it all has been incrementally increasing every year. But my first ever year in real estate, the first month, it was a 10k month. And from there, it's never gone lower. And it always sustains. And the reason why is going back to this, my mentor taught me it's very important to treat your business like a business and not like a job. And I I know this sounds common sense, but when I first was there and I hit that, I met with my mentor, he's like, Oh, you know, how's real estate going? I was like, Oh, it's going pretty good, you know, uh, you know, blah blah blah blah blah blah. Hit 10k the first month, blah blah blah, which was like a record or whatever. And he was like, Oh yeah, that's great. He was like, but how'd you do it? And I was just like, Oh, you know, I was just working, you know. And he's like, No, no, no, Desmond. He's like, that's great, but how did you do it? And then I looked at him, I was like, uh Well, you know, I meet meet with the people and then they they see the places they like, and then you know they'll they'll sign a lease or they'll execute a contract all that. He's like, no, no, Desmond. He was like, I get that. And this is something that changed uh thankfully enough, right? My whole trajectory throughout the whole entire uh realm of real estate, and I just so happened to know it in the beginning because of him, he was like Desmond, and he sat down because I was training with him and stuff like that too. He was like, I get that, but how many like people did you meet? How many leases, how many homes did you see? And I was just like I I don't know. And then he was like, You don't know. And he was like, You don't think Apple or Tesla knows how many cars they sell or iPhones they sell or what demographic they sell or what they project and stuff like that? He's like, How do you how do you expect to maintain it? How do you expect to hit it? Or better f matter of fact, how do you expect to double it or triple it or quadruple it? And he said, if you don't know your numbers and systems and processes, you're not gonna run this business, the business is gonna run you. And I said, Oh. And ever since then, I was dialed in with all systems and processes. I made sure I knew everything to a T, made sure I had to put everything aligned to where the business, to your point, too, right? You're flipping, there's a bunch of moving parts, but once you get them all aligned together, it's running smooth like an engine. And ever since then, it's just now scaling up from there.

SPEAKER_01 38:21

That's such good advice because a lot of people who even own their own business, I've met a ton of different I actually, I don't know if I've told you, I used to do uh very small on the side, like business mentorship, business coaching. And um it's interesting, all the people I would meet that, like you said, they have businesses and they have no idea who their customer is, who their avatar is, how much they make, what are they looking for, what are the pain points you can solve. They don't know any of that stuff. They're just, you know, hey, I have my product. Hopefully people come and buy it because it's cool or it's good. And uh that is not a way to run or scale, like you said, a business. So that's that's really good advice that you got on that side. One question I've had for you for a while is a lot of agents, I would say a majority of agents. I'll go out there and say a majority of agents do not like working with people like me. Investors. They don't want to work with flippers because typically we're asking for discounted commissions, typically it's just a different sale. Some buyers, not a lot, but some buyers have the stigmatism of, oh, this is a flipped house, there's got to be something wrong with it, they probably didn't do it right, or whatever. I don't even know what the other excuses are, but a lot of agents do not like to work with flippers or with investors. Um, and I know that because we interviewed a lot of them when we started switching from so before we hired you, we Mike is a broker, you know, he would list all of our properties. And I finally, after a few months, told him, like, hey, you're one, you're too busy for this, two, it's not like your best use of time. You need to be doing other things in the business, in the wholesale business, in the owner finance business, and the subject to and the education and the podcast, all that stuff. You don't have time to be taking, you know, doing listings, drawing up contracts, uh, taking calls from agents. And so we finally made that transition. So then we said, okay, well, we need to start interviewing who's the best because we're gonna be doing a lot of volume, we're gonna be sending somebody a lot of transactions, and so we want to make sure they're giving the level of attention, a level of care, and obviously selling for the highest price. And so, how do how do we do that? So we interviewed a bunch of different agents. You came up, you know, Mike selected, I want to say two or three, I selected two or three. We vetted them, and we gave you guys a bunch of listings. You got a couple listings, I think you got running phone and another one, somebody else, the other agents. I think it we ended up narrowing it down to three or four, and then everybody got two listings or one or two listings. That's how we kind of uh after that saw how do you guys work? You know, how do we align? Do we align um communication-wise, morally, ethically? Um, you know, so we saw all that stuff. And we worked with a bunch of great agents. But during that process, I saw that a lot of agents, I mean, they wouldn't even like they'd leave you on Red Base, they don't want to deal with investors. So, one, have you seen that to be true just in your time in real estate? And then two, you are quite the opposite. You work with myself, but you also have a list of, I don't know, 10 or 12 other investors that you work with. And at any given time, I think you've got, you know, 20 or 25, 30 listings, and a lot of them are investment investment properties. So walk me through your thinking of, you know, why do you think that's a good play when most other agents are running away from it?

SPEAKER_02 41:06

I think it's so the thing with that too, I think it's just the connotation is like if somebody has an offer from an investor, it's usually lower, right? But the reason is is they're just not putting themselves into the shoes of an investor, right? Or anybody in general of any business, right? If I'm working with a buyer, I like to put myself in the buyer's shoes, the seller, seller's shoes. Investor, investor shoes. And me having an investor experience and background too, because I fix and flip, it just helps a little bit more. And the communicative uh standpoint of it is super important to know. And by that is if you're already kind of predisposing yourself in like a oh man, like investors, I I could already tell you this is gonna be hard, right? Then you're not keeping your you're not keeping your mind open enough to where it could lead into a long-term play. And a lot of people don't understand that is yes, of course, investors are gonna try to make a deal, but it's just like anybody,

Why Desmond Loves Working with Investors

SPEAKER_02 42:00

a buyer's gonna try to make a deal. Right? It's the same way, it's the same scenario, but I personally think it's just a smaller niche because a lot of people don't know about the investment realm, whether it's rental portfolio or fix and flips, they don't know maybe possibly how to run ARVs, margins, and stuff like that. Because I could tell you a story too of my first ever investor. And that's I think what the difference is. And it goes back to the self-belief and understanding the whole process along the way. I personally remember my first ever listing was an investor. Brock. Shout out Brock Orton. So you had experience early on, super early on. Well, I guess if you want to call it experience, right? Because I had a wholesaler, he recommended me to Brock, which I'm super good friends with, right? And he was like, Hey, like I have a listing, blah blah rehabbed, and I I need a I you know, I got recommended from you, blah blah blah. Like could you when could you come? And I was like, Oh, like when do you need me? He was like, I need you right now. And like I was I remember this, I was in the office, I was like, All right, all right, like let's let's go, you know. Morning Star was the address. And this was me going back to your point. I was not predisposed to anything investment, right? Nobody told me anything about investors, nobody told me anything about anything like that. So I just showed up. I was just like, okay, like I'm ready, right? And first thing he told me about when I got there, he said, I'm interviewing four agents. And I was like, all right, cool, man. Yeah, let's let's go and uh I was like, okay, you know, broke the ice of him, blah blah blah. And he was just asking me questions, showing me around. I was here, I was learning from him, right? And that's the biggest thing too. I was learning, I was like, oh man, you did all this yourself, you did this, blah blah blah blah blah blah. You got it for this, blah, blah. And I ran comps. And the biggest thing about not having a predisposed image of an investor is is because of this. Is your level of service shouldn't be or matter or dictate what type of uh client you're working with. You should It should be all the same. Right. And I ended up getting that listing out of the other four agents. And anything I do well or not well, I always like to ask for feedback. I say, hey Brock, at the end of it, he told me he was interviewing other four agents, but this is what something I came up with as well. But uh about the three A's is I asked him, I was like, okay, like aren't you gonna interview other agents? Because he after that listening appointment, he just said, Okay, cool, when are you gonna get the photos done? And I was just like, uh what about the other people? And he was just like, oh no, like I got my I got my match. And I was just like, oh, like out of curiosity, like why? You know, like you you had to interview other people, right? He told me directly. He was like, the first person that I called didn't answer. The second person I called was a referral, and I called them and they didn't want to work with investors. And the third p person he c he called it was like a high-end person who was super busy and they didn't jump when he needed him to jump. Like he was just like, Oh, I can't do it today. Like, what about tomorrow? And when Brock proposed it, he was like, Oh, I can't do tomorrow either. I g I I could do next week. And he was like, I chose you because you were available, affable was the other one, right? Which is like friendly, kind, good natured. And I told him, and I was very honest. At the end of that, I was like, Hey, I've never listed an investment home before. But I can tell you right now I'm gonna do my absolute best. And he liked it. He said, You didn't have the ability, but that's like the third A, right? So it goes affability, availability, and then ability. And I hit him, knocked it out of the park, he made a good amount of money. And the reason why I like working with investors is they're repetitive. Buyers and sellers, yeah, they're repetitive too, but like it takes some time.

SPEAKER_01 45:56

Exactly. Two houses a year, even.

SPEAKER_02 45:58

Exactly. And if you're d hitting a level of service and you're helping an investor, of course they're gonna continue buying more and using you because of what? Like you're making them money, so you're gonna make money in return.

SPEAKER_01 46:10

That's really smart. And uh something you said at the beginning of that was since you stepped into that realm without having prior knowledge about it, I actually think that is a huge, huge benefit in many different aspects. And I'll give you another example. When I stepped into the bar and nightlife business, I had one, I never had any aspirations or dreams to do that. I just strictly, hey, it's a business opportunity. I bought during COVID, you buy things low, sell things high. It's a pretty simple concept, you figure out the rest on the way. And so when I got into the bar business or the nightlife, the club business, I knew nothing about nothing. I couldn't name you probably more than two liquor bottles. I mean, I didn't drink, I didn't know anything about anything. I don't listen to music ever. Like I never, if I'm in the gym, I'm listening to podcasts, in my car, I leave it silent. Like I never listen to music, so I don't know about DJs, I don't know about none of that stuff. I am like the most the last guy you would ever think that would buy or own a nightclub. And um but going into it without any bad habits, I'll call it, I think was a and the same in the wire when I got into the wireless industry, right? Um I'll go back to that. But because I didn't have any idea of what to do, yeah, I just did what I thought was good from the principles I had learned in business. Exactly. Right. And so it ended up being like one of the top nightclubs in town. I'll give you the secret what it was. I basically, I knew I was a mile and a half or two miles away from UTSA. It's the biggest college in San Antonio. There's 30,000 students there, and students like to party, right? And so at that point, Hotel Discotheque and any of the other clubs that were in town were not really marketed as college clubs. Maybe a couple would sneak in here and there, but for the most part, it was very nice, formal people in suits, dressed up well, VIP experience. And so I said, from day one, I'm gonna go after college kids. And everybody's like, Oh, you're not gonna make any money do that. College kids don't have money to spend, all this stuff. Like, okay, cool. I'm gonna try it. And so all the people I would consult, because I would consult a lot of people, because again, I didn't know anything about anything. I consulted a ton of people about which DJs to hire, I consulted a ton of people about which bar managers to hire, what audio and video companies to install all the lights and sound and audio, and so I had to consult a ton of people, and we had six months worth of like intensive meetings on you know, who needs to help me put all this stuff together because I didn't know. And so my part, one thing I'm very, very good at is putting teams together, taking in a bunch of information, and then making a decision. And so everybody was fighting me on making it a college club, and I just said, that's what I'm gonna do. I know that it's gonna work because of one thing, and that was the day that I started designing that place was how can you make people feel emotionally attached to this place? How can you make from the second you walk in the door? That's why we had this crazy cool grand entrance, to you know, your whole experience there, how can you create an experience? Because people will pay money for experiences and something that sticks with them and resonates with them. That's why a lot of times your favorite restaurants are not necessarily restaurants that have the best food, but they have the best food and the best service. And they look nice and they're very appealing to the eye, and you know, whatever, because you have an all-around good experience. Chances are you're gonna be a Ricky P customer and you'll pay more for that.

SPEAKER_02 49:12

I remember it's funny that you mentioned that, dude. I don't even know if you remember this, but it was like three years ago. And before I even we we saw each other maybe at lifetime like a year before this. Yeah, you were at the door and you shook my hand. You remember? Like you greet you shook my hand and you're greeting people at all in the like during the line. Yeah, the owner like is greeting people during the line. That services. There was no doubt in my mind that it was gonna be great.

SPEAKER_01 49:39

So that's just me. I mean, I am like, no matter what job I'm doing, I mean, even with like my guys on the construction crews, I'm out in the field, I'm you know, making sure the guys are you know being treated well, being paid on time, blah, blah, blah. And so it really does go a long way. But with that, I was able to do one thing. I started charging minors because they can't drink. That's what everybody said. We can't make any money off them. And I said, Okay, cool, I'm gonna charge 30 bucks ahead. And they're like, Oh, you can't get that. Back in the day, you like $10 cover charge or whatever, right? And they're like, Oh, you're never gonna get that. I think I even charged like $50 at the beginning. And they were like, No, kids don't have that money. Bro, it was COVID time. Everybody had free money from the government. Like everybody was getting free checks. What do the kids want to do? They want to go party. And so we made more money at the door than most other clubs were doing, their whole business, bar and door combined. Because the other thing that most bars were doing was they would not only not charge the, they wouldn't allow miners in, so you weren't making that that extended profit, but they also were oh, VIP customers. You've got, you know, you've ordered a table tonight, you got 10 people, all 10 of you guys get in free. We didn't let anybody in free. And they were like, oh, you're never gonna sell tables. We were sold out the whole time because it's 10 bucks. Who the heck, if you're gonna spend $600 on a table, you don't have 10 bucks. And so we would almost like, I don't want to say we would shame you, but we're like, bro, you know I got like 30 bucks, it's $30 to get in. And they would throw their fit, and oh, I can go to hotels. Like, okay, cool. But the friends had here, yeah. But the thing with us, we had all these young kids, and a lot of them were girls, and unfortunately, the way that the bar business works, older guys want to be around hot younger girls. And so if you fill your club with their and you create that demand, they're not gonna go to the one up the street because they don't have to pay ten dollars, they're gonna come pay your cover. So, anyways, long story short, I didn't have any of those preconceived notions coming into this business. I knew the way I wanted to do things, and I knew the way that I was fairly sure would work, and sure enough it didn't. It paid dividends. I'll I will give this little snippet and we'll get off the subject. We made over $1.1 million in the door sales, no, not bar sales, and your cost to that is zero. You have one girl sitting at the front that you paid like 40 bucks a night and she made all her money in tips. Yep. And bro, they would the door girl would make more than the bottle girl sometimes because you've got uh you know, 800 to 1,000 people a night coming in, even if they all just give you five bucks, you do the math.

SPEAKER_02 51:48

There was never a there was never not a line. Yes. It was insane.

SPEAKER_01 51:51

So that was great. So it's interesting as you said the same thing going into real estate because you didn't have that preconceived notion about investors are bad and you're gonna have to take discounts and you know they're gonna get low offers and all this stuff. Exactly. It works out because you understand the business and the business principles and what should work in a business, regardless of who the investor is or who the seller is. Trevor Burrus, Jr.

SPEAKER_02 52:11

And it's it's you are who you surround yourself with. Other investors have other investor friends. Yeah. You know, so Brock had a bunch of investor friends. Trevor Burrus, Jr.

SPEAKER_01 52:19

And on that same point, in the wireless industry, when we would hire people, we would purposely there was pros and cons. You wanted to hire people that had worked at another wireless store, so ATT, Sprint, T-Mobile, whatever, because it's less training. You don't have to train them because they know the sales cycles, they know about the accessory sales and insurance and add-ons and all that stuff. But the downside is they came with their whatever they were trained with before, good and bad, you picked up the bad. And so some of them, unfortunately, knew how to steal phones from inventory

Desmond’s First Flip: How He Made $52k

SPEAKER_01 52:45

because they'd done that at other places. And some of them just wouldn't take your criticism about you know how their sales pitch was because, oh, I've been trained by you know the top guy at this company. And so they really they come in with a limited belief about what they can do or what they should be doing. Whereas what we would do, we would go find people with good attitudes at restaurants. If you are a server making $2 an hour or whatever they make on you know their minimum wage plus tips, what is that person going to do? They're going, they already know how to give great customer service because they have to earn it in the business they're in now. They're probably friendly, you know. So when we would go out to restaurants and we would have really good service, we just give them a business card. Hey, we're hiring and we pay way more than what you're making now. And dude, we would get the best sales reps from restaurants, from you know, just different businesses. Um, but again, it's just thinking outside of the box. A lot of people, when they come into business, they're just like, it has to be done this way, this is how it's always been done, it's how it's always going to be done. It's like, no, dude, you can shake things up and you can actually be a disruptor and make a ton of money doing that.

SPEAKER_02 53:37

And I'm I'm extremely grateful for that opportunity again, way back in the beginning.

SPEAKER_00 53:41

Let me ask you something. You ever thought about investing in real estate, but assuming you needed perfect credit, a huge savings account, or a bank willing to say yes? That's exactly why Rick started to partner with our guy Mike Leva at Conventus. Conventus is a real estate lender built specifically for investors and not homeowners. They help people fund deals like fix and flips, buy and hold rentals, and even ground up construction. And here's the part most beginners don't realize Conventus doesn't lend based on your W-2 income or your personal credit score. They focus on the deal itself, the value of the property, and the numbers behind it. That means investors can often access higher loan amounts and more flexible terms than a traditional bank, sometimes with rates that are more competitive than people expect. So instead of asking, do I qualify? The better question becomes, is this a good deal? If you're serious about getting to real estate investing and want a funding partner that truly understands investors, reach out to our go-to guy at Conventus, Mike Leva, today using the link in the show notes and see how real estate investors are actually getting deals funded.

SPEAKER_01 54:47

Looking at you and seeing your business now, I think that was probably one of the biggest things that probably set you apart and put you where you're at now. Because now you can do both sides. You don't have to just be into the investors, you can be on the traditional side as well as investors. Why do you think most other agents are just so turned off to it? That's like the number one thing.

SPEAKER_02 55:04

I I think it's just that again. It's just that self-belief because it's a different dynamic. You get you really got to put yourself you don't have to, but it does help with you know, some concept of fix and flips and knowing that because you got to know what to look out for, how to portray and showcase things. Because to your point, too, it's kind of like if somebody's looking at a house and they know it's a rehab, it's like, oh, like, oh, was this a bad rehab? You gotta have that self-belief in reinsurance, like, oh no, what makes you say that? Oh no, absolutely no. Permits were pulled, everything's all done, everything's orchestrated, everything's under warranty, there's a separate electrician for this, there's a plumber for this, etc. So it's it's speaking about it along the way. But that also comes with experience. So I think more so if they already have one, that pre-notion of like, okay, investors are just gonna oh it's gonna be so hard. And then also two of like, oh, like well, people are just gonna know now it's it's already lipstick on a pig. Yeah, then you're kind of gonna want to turn it down.

SPEAKER_01 55:58

I think that's so true. I think it's a lot of times, like you said, just the preconceived notion of agents typically talk with other agents or their broker that they may have learned from, you know, point them away from doing it, and then at that point they just stick with the notion and they never get the opportunity to do it. But you've also done your own flips. How did that come about? How did you go from just being a strictly an agent to being an investor agent?

SPEAKER_02 56:18

No, our first ever it was so funny, right? So my wife works at F-45. Shout out my wife, Andrea. Right. And there was a there was a client of hers uh that was there, and it was it was for a listing appointment. I was like, Oh, okay, yeah, you know, this was way back then. And I I showed up to the house, you know, Rick. Shout out Rick, by the way, phenomenal guy. He's he's such a genuine soul. But I was talking to him, and you know, and he was like, Yeah, we just need to get out of this house. Like I already contacted Zillow, blah blah blah, like an offer pad offer, like we just need to get out. And I was like, Okay, no worries. I was like, hey, based off of the condition and stuff, probably it's probably gonna have to be a little lower. And he said, Okay. He was like, when could we do it? And I was like, I could I mean you want to do it right now. And he was like, Okay, yeah. And but there was there was some this was tricky, and I think it was like as fate would have it, right? It was a God given kind of scenario because he was like, Yeah, like let's sell it, but I don't want anybody to see the house. I don't want to see I don't want to have showings. And I was like, You don't want to have showings. I was just like, What do you mean? Like we have to take photos and he's like, No, no, no, like I I don't want any showings or photos. And I was just like, uh I was like, all right, well, I mean, we'll probably have to sell it to an investor. And he was like, Yeah, that's fine, it's just as long as they don't you know need to see the house, blah blah blah blah, stuff like that. Like you're just like, let's just get this old, I want to get it over with, etc. And I was like, Rick, you know, if you just like kind of renovate this, renovate this, stuff like that, you'll probably get 60k more out of the house. And he's like, No, there was like emotional attachment to the house, things like that. And I called my wife and she was just like, Wow, this is a crazy scenario, like what are you gonna do? And then pretty much at that point, I was just like, I think we're gonna buy it. And then, you know, talked to him. I was like, hey Rick, how about how about I get your house? Because he needed a net amount, things like that, right? I and he was just like, Really? Yeah, you do that. And I was like, Yeah, for sure, like let's do it. It was in Stone Oak and I was just like gated comedian. I was like, Yeah, let's do it. Closed, made it very easy for him. I said, You could leave everything here, like help movers. He got another house from me too, and that's you know, he he got another new new build. And the funniest thing about this, right? And I couldn't have asked for a better flip, right, for the first time. We were at the closing table. Even the person who like the escrow officer who's closing, right? Like, we were just signing paperwork. He was like, Yeah, man. And he looked at me, Rick, and he was like, if you ever need help, you know, rehabbing or anything like that, like let me know. I'll come over and help. And I was like, I was like, what? And then the escrow officer stuff, he was like, This is the craziest thing I ever heard of. I was like, Rick, I didn't I tell you, like, if you can do this yourself, like you could do it. And he just started laughing, and uh yeah, so that was what that was the first one ever, and it was the turn and burn, I think it took two or three weeks. Oh wow, all cosmetic, except for HVAC, and it turned out really well, man. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 59:16

And how did you find your contractors and design and floor plan and all that?

SPEAKER_02 59:20

Investors. I had I had I have like at least eight investors at a time, always turned and burning, excluding even you. Right, yeah, right. So I just got multiple bids, stuff like that, and then we started, and then boom.

SPEAKER_01 59:33

That's awesome. How much you make?

SPEAKER_02 59:35

I think that flip was 52K. 52k.

SPEAKER_01 59:40

Whoa, that's good. That's good. That's way above average. Everything, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 59:43

Yeah, yeah. It was pretty the that was the best case scenario to start off a flip with.

unknown 59:48

Yeah. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 59:49

Yeah, and that's that's the hard part is that I get students who try to do it on their own the first time and unfortunately they lose money. It's so easy to lose. It's probably 100%. It's for sure, I'm not gonna say probably, it's for sure way easier to lose money than to make money on your first flip if you don't have guidance, you don't know what you're doing. Absolutely.

SPEAKER_02 1:00:03

You'd be lucky statistically just to like break even on your first flip.

SPEAKER_01 1:00:07

Yeah. Yeah. But with the right, like you said, mentor, you've mentioned that a million times. It's been your personal life and your business life and your your physical training and your realty

The Secret to Selling Homes in 18 Days

SPEAKER_01 1:00:15

business. I mean, mentorship is a huge, huge thing. Having the right mentor does make a difference. If you've got some moron that doesn't know what they're talking about and just trying to give you advice, they like to hear themselves talk, then at that point, you know, it's not really gonna do you any well. But if you have the right mentor, I think it is uh something I preach a lot to people that I know, even to Mike, you know, hey, we need a you know, if we're gonna try to open a podcast, let's make sure we've got the right team on our side. If we're trying to open an education business, let's get the right people on our side. And so connect surrounding yourself with the right people, um, connecting with the right people, and then getting advice from the right people definitely, definitely can honestly make or break you, especially in the flipping business.

SPEAKER_02 1:00:48

100%, absolutely.

SPEAKER_01 1:00:50

So you've grown up, you went through uh starting your career in in odds and end jobs, working at Lifetime. You we didn't even talk about your success in in uh bodybuilding. What uh I know I've seen so many if this guy took off his shirt right now, one I would get out of the room and run out of here because I look ridiculous. But dude, you are like chiseled to the max. Um what was you did competitions?

SPEAKER_02 1:01:17

Yeah, I actually have one this end of this year. I haven't competed in three years, but I'm gonna do the end of the year.

SPEAKER_01 1:01:23

And so it seems like everything you do is with excellence, and that is one reason why you and I work so well together. Going back to whenever we did inter uh interviews for different agents and we ended up selecting you, uh I'll give you some. I don't even know if you ever heard this behind the scenes. So we had XYZ agent selling this house and that house, XYZ agent selling that, and then you obviously got I think you I don't know, did you get more than one, or did you just start with running fun? I think it was just one.

SPEAKER_02 1:01:45

It was two. It was it was it wasn't Elk Trail, it was the other one that was like 200 days on market that you had.

SPEAKER_01 1:01:51

Okay.

SPEAKER_02 1:01:51

You y'all gave me a new listing and then one that was like 200 days on market. That's right.

SPEAKER_01 1:01:55

Yeah, we did that with a bunch of different people just to make sure that and Elk Trail was the very first listing, and it got under contract in four days. And so Mike for sure was I was in your corner the whole time. Not that I mean I didn't really know you that well. Like I said, we had met, we talked, we went to lunch that day, and but I could just tell I'm a very good one of my other very my good skill sets is I'm a reader of people like instantly. I can know if somebody's BSing me in a matter of like two sentences, I can know if somebody what their work's good ethic is. So I've interviewed so many people. My past business, and I've probably interviewed at least over a thousand, if not several thousand people, having to hire fire, and so I've been through the just I've got the experience of talking to people when they're trying to get hired and then when they're on their way out. So I just am a very good reader of people. And um I could just tell you were a go-getter. I knew that we were gonna vibe good together, I knew that your work ethic was there. And so when the first one got under contract in four days, I knew that that was gonna be the case going not every time, obviously you're not gonna get under contract, but I knew that we were gonna have a good working relationship, and you were probably gonna be the person we selected. And Mike was, you know, he was skeptical, oh, you know, that's just look, you know, first time, and then consistently, time over time, not to say again that every house got under contract in four days, but you consistently were getting offers, you consistently were making something out of nothing, houses that had been on the market for 200 days. Um and so it was a really big shift in my business. I was going through a lot of different shifting. We were going, I had fired a bunch of contractors and was finding new contractors, hiring a new agent, new underwriting strategies, all the stuff I was doing at the same time to make sure that this could be a very scalable, you know, big I have very big goals for this business. And uh you were a key part to that. But um it was interesting the way that it came about just because we knew each other or of each other for so long. We talked about it for a year, and you know, then at some point we came back together and you just started crushing for our business.

SPEAKER_02 1:03:42

You know, I think you you put your trust in me.

SPEAKER_01 1:03:44

Yeah, no, you proved yourself. So I said all that to say I have a question. I know what my answers are, and I actually brag about you a lot on my calls with my students and stuff like that, and I refer students to you. Um and we have just a really good network of folks that we work with, and you're obviously on the top of my list. But I have a question. I know, and I'm gonna I'm gonna hype you up, but not to hype yourself up, but what separates you, because I know you are a top-tier agent who if you had to look at the metrics of other agents, dates on market, number of sales, all the stuff that people look at, I know that you're like in the top percent. What separates you, what like from a technical standpoint of being an agent, what separates you from other agents and why do you why are you I know that you pay attention, you have excellence and everything that you do, but what specifically do you think if you had if you had to give advice to a new agent that was out there, you said, hey, here's what really separates me, here's what I do, what are those things that make you that top agent?

SPEAKER_02 1:04:34

I could just tell you right now, intentionality, man. Like I said, I personally, this is just my opinion, I don't do anything differently than top listing agents. No? We probably market the same, open house the same, list the same, photos the same, but at the end of the day, I'm truly what I mean by intentional is like I truly treat every single listing, every single purchase from a buyer's perspective like it was mine. If I'm getting a listing, it's like okay, like this is my listing. If a day goes by, a month goes by, two months goes by, I'm personally like, okay, like what's going on? Like my house is not selling. And the intentionality behind it is super important. And I I was having a discussion actually with my mentor about this, because what really helps is going back to the highs and lows, it's like, oh, like you could be very easy, like, oh, I'm the best. I could l I could list any home, blah, blah, blah, sell it all, right? And let's say something doesn't sell. Now you're celebrating your highs so high, and now when you do get your lows, it's like, oh man, like this is terrible, blah, blah, blah. Things like that. But the intentionality behind it of how you do things, I don't let I don't expect no as an answer. Even if it was a no, it's like, okay, well, do you have another client? What uh what do we need to make this a yes? Right. I'm just I like listings because I'm a problem solver by nature, and I like that. I like more problems. I I basically say, give me more problems. Shout out elk trail, right? But hey, but that's how you are too, right? That's that's why we're so.

SPEAKER_01 1:06:00

Talk about this all the time. I am a professional problem solver. You give me anything to figure it out.

SPEAKER_02 1:06:05

Yeah, and that's what it's about. Like it's just intentional, like, hey, like we need to figure this out. There is not a solution. We need to make a solution. And that's the biggest thing is I don't like to ever be complacent. And I was talking to my mentor about this because what do you do or what dictates you the difference, especially in real estate when you're a top producer, is once you hit your goals, you get the you investor, you get you know your high-end buyers, whatever you may name it, right? This is just human nature, right? People get complacent. Yeah, people are like, oh, you know, I'll just continue giving me listings. Oh yeah, I'll I'll just always get these buyers like oh I I I I make this so much already, right? And he taught me something super powerful. And once you hit these goals, it's not about hitting them, it's about your character. Can you carry your character after the fact of when you hit these goals? Right. And what I mean by that is once you hit these numbers, or once you hit your whatever physique or your fitness goal and stuff like that, it ties back into how you do one thing is how you do everything. Cause like once I do hit these goals, it's not like, oh, okay, it's over. It's just next day I go back and do it. You know, the same, the same scenario. We've had transactions sell to where I can even put my sign up.

SPEAKER_01 1:07:23

Yep.

SPEAKER_02 1:07:24

Next day though, we go back to work. We had some deals too, right? Where okay, we fall back out of contract. It's not like, oh, whoa is me. Next day, okay, we get back to work. We had deals where that happened, and then that same day we get another cash offer, you know?

SPEAKER_01 1:07:36

Yep.

SPEAKER_02 1:07:36

So it's just all about being intentional and making sure that you're put it putting every ounce of intentionality behind everything you do as opposed to just one singular aspect.

SPEAKER_01 1:07:44

So now I'm gonna brag on you a little bit. I'm gonna expand on what what you just said. Well, first of all, it's about what you're saying is that's the art of staying hungry because a lot of people, like you said, get complacent. They, oh, this guy's gonna keep sending me deals. Oh, I'm gonna keep you know being the top agent or whatever it is. And so it's the art of if you can figure out a way to always stay hungry, even at the highs, that is like a superpower. The other thing is do you have ADHD or ADD? I have OCD. OCD. That was the next question. And so me and you are like that. I have ADHD, OCD, Flexy, all this stuff. And it's honestly like a superpower because that's where that attention to detail, I think, comes from. You can tell people that all day long, and they you can train it and you can get better at it. But if you've got that OCD in you, I mean that is something that, you know, it's really hard to get that level of attention if you're not already kind of just wired like that. Um, but I said that to say this man here will and I know a lot of agents and I know kind of more or less how they work and how they do things just because I've been around it so long and uh and so much. Because most people sell one house every what, five, seven years. I mean, we're selling houses four, five, six times a month. And so I get a lot of you know, transaction history and kind of seeing what people do, on top of just being around it with other friends and investors and people I know across the country that are doing deals in LA and New York and and Ohio and Vegas and all this stuff. And uh one thing that you do very, very well, like you said, you don't just talk about being intentional, you actually are. And what I mean by this, guys, is that me and you are on showing time for people who aren't realtors, showing time is an app that whenever a listing gets a showing, you get a notification by text message, email, app, whatever. And um, I mean, I'll get the text message from showing time, the actual platform, and I'm not even not even 60 seconds later, this man's texting me, hey, we got a showing. And I know if he's texting me, he's also, because he'll send me screenshots, he's texting the agent, hey, so-and-so, I see that you booked a showing for 123 Main Street. Uh, looking forward to showing you this this house, it's got great features. It was just remodeled, everything's brand new, and the seller is highly motivated. Let's make this deal happen before they even walk in there. So now you've already built that rapport. Whether you've done a deal with that agent before, you haven't done a deal with that agent before, you now have already broken the ice and built that rapport. And they're looking forward to seeing the new house that's already fully rehabbed, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. Then you know that they're showing based off showing time and based off the tools you have. You can see the showing's at you know, noon till one o'clock. This man at 101 p.m. is texting the agent. Hey, how'd the showing go? How'd you like it? What's the feedback? Got up. And, you know, and this isn't like automate in a world of automation, this isn't automation. This is him personally from his text messages in his phone going out, reaching out to people and saying, Hey, how was your experience? What did you like? Give me all the feedback, be honest. And then you start building that rapport. And so people who've done deals with you know that you're

Why Most Agents Fail with Investors

SPEAKER_01 1:10:30

on top of it. And then even the new people who haven't, they can get that sense of he's on top of it. And one thing that I always say, because I'm a sales and marketer, that is my I love, love, love sales and marketing. And as a sales and marketer, easy cliche saying is that the the money's in the follow-up, right? The money is always in the follow-up. And I know so many agents who, like you said, they're complacent. They think that just because they got the show, hey, we have five showings this week, one of them's gonna make an offer, right? That's not the case with you. You are going out there, whether it's one showing in a month or one showing every hour for the next, you know, this next day because of it's a new open house and we have new, new uh eyeballs on it. You are constantly texting everybody, and that's why, like you said, whenever contracts we have had fall out of contract, within an hour, we're back under contract because you've already made those relationships, you've kept up with them. You know, hey, even though we didn't take your offer, we have another offer, but let's let's make sure that you're a backup for us, right? And so going above and beyond, and that's just part of it. I mean, there's a million other things I could talk good about you, that things that you do that I've seen personally and having been around, we've worked now together. I think our one-year anniversary is coming up in September, so like two years, two months away. Um, and so just having been around you enough, and it's not a one-off. That was what I was saying earlier. It's basically Mike was kind of skeptical because we were interviewing a lot of people, and you know, maybe you do get a luck of a draw where first house goes under market in four days under contract. But I mean, we've done that multiple times. Elk tra uh not elk trow, um Timberhill was the first weekend. We listed Thursday by Saturday under contract.

SPEAKER_02 1:11:55

Um one off Redland too.

SPEAKER_01 1:11:58

Yeah. Yeah. So that one was three days again. We listed on Thursday by Saturday under contract. That was Red Sky. Um it's happened several times, but not only that, 2026, 2025, and 2026 are extremely hard years to sell homes, whether it's a flip or not. But especially if it's a flip because people have that connotation of hey, it's it's a flip. Our app, I don't even know if you know this, and I don't have the exact date, but just by knowing, kind of I have a tracker that goes through this. And so just the last time I looked at it, I want to say our average day is on market for this year, which is probably the hardest year to be an investor in a flipper or just a home seller. Yep. I think our average day is on market's like 18 days, which is insane. I mean, that is like it's not something that you do by accident. It helps because we have a good product, sure, but having the right sales agent and the sales team, because it's a team that works with you. You know, you have the marketing department, you'll have all the different ads that you guys run. Um, so really, really, really a shout out to you and everything you've done because you're not like a 20-year vet agent. I want to say how many years you have four years? Five. Five years. So I mean, to do what you've done in five years, to be able to work with some of the hardest clients who are investors, who then in turn bring some of the hardest clients, buyers who are buying investor homes, and to have made this, you know, a full-time business where you're doing you know big numbers. And I know you'd like to talk about you know numbers or brag too much, but I mean you're doing 20, 30 listings at a time at all times. You personally are going to the home, setting up the signs, checking the property. You'll walk it with me before we list. I have to. And you'll get on to me and say, hey, like, you know, I know your stuff's good, but this isn't this needs to be touched up. No, and so the intentionality is not something you just talk about. It is honestly something that you live by every single day. And so I knew from the first transaction, I was like, yes, okay. We're not uh we're not going anywhere else.

SPEAKER_02 1:13:36

Yeah, Skyler makes it easy though, too, you know, he makes it super good. His finish outs are remarkable, you know. So it makes my job a little easier. I try. I try. But it is a team effort.

SPEAKER_01 1:13:44

I mean, honestly, it is a team effort because I was still doing the same level of rehab. And whenever we were doing our own internal listings, because we have five or six other businesses running at the same time, we're not doing the ads we should be doing, we're not doing the follow-up we should be doing, we're not doing you know, the the reach out initially that we should have been doing. And so I kind of recognize that again as a new investor who didn't have any any idea what I was doing, but just knowing business and knowing sales and marketing that you have to have to have to follow up. I knew that that was a place that we were lacking in, and so we needed to find somebody that could do that. And uh, I mean we plugged you in and it was night and day difference.

SPEAKER_02 1:14:18

It's cohesive though, like you said, like being a business owner, especially in this real estate industry, I've heard that every year, dude. And I'm sure you have too, like, oh man, this is a hard year. Like, or this is a different year. Since I've gotten into real estate, even COVID, right? When homes are flying off the shelves like left and right, it's like, man, this is a hard year. Like I I put in uh 20 offers

The Godfather & Closing Mindset

SPEAKER_02 1:14:40

and I can't get my client a home. And being a business owner and especially a problem solver, just by nature, like you have to adapt.

unknown 1:14:47

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 1:14:48

This is the hardest year, but you have to adapt. That doesn't mean it's gonna be you know, just miraculously just handed to you. But if you adapt, it won't be a hard year. You're just getting used and adapt to what you need to do in order to make sure that this year does well. Yeah. And that's the biggest thing, man, is just making sure that you have that mindset.

SPEAKER_01 1:15:04

That's one thing that I appreciate the most about the wireless industry. So I was in the I was a sprint retailer for 12 years and um at a pretty high level. And that was one thing that I hated. We said we had a saying in the office that the only what was the saying? The saying was something along the lines of the only thing consistent in the wireless industry is inconsistency, meaning that every three months our comp structures were changing. Every three months the devices were changing, you had to rotate out inventory, and you couldn't just like send if you had you know X amount of new iPhones they didn't sell, you have to sell them. Yeah, and so we were constantly changing employees, constantly changing our comp structure from corporate, which means we had to change our comp structure for our sales reps. I mean, so everything accessories change all the time. I mean, bit uh rate plans change all the time, promotions change all the time. I mean, everything changed all the time, like almost on a they would send us emails saying, hey, this device is going on promotion tomorrow, and then before it even launched from oh, we're changing it to this. Yep. It's like, bro, how do you train a whole sales team? We had 200 sales reps across six different cities. Like, how the heck do you communicate? And so I got really good at communication, and uh that's one thing I really, really appreciated about, you know, I hated it at the time. I hated that about the wireless industry. But coming out of it now, it's like, okay, so we need to adapt and change. Like, who cares? You know, it is what it is. It's literally a part of doing business. And so if you can become good at that, again, it's hard when you're going through it, it's hard when you're learning it. But you know, if you can get that skill set and understand that like everything's gonna change all the time, and if you can flow with that, man, you've got like an incredible superpower.

SPEAKER_02 1:16:29

Absolutely.

SPEAKER_01 1:16:30

So well, I'm going to I really, really appreciate your time. This has been super fun. It's been great for me to just get to know you more. Obviously, we've hung out a ton and you know done Bible study together and worked out together and all that stuff, but this has been great to get to know you a little bit better. But this is the Turn Up the Hustle podcast, and so with that being said, what is one time in your life that you've had to really lean in and turn up the hustle?

SPEAKER_02 1:16:51

When I had to really lean in and turn up the hustle. You know, we'll we'll talk about it in let's say deals, right? Just in general. And I think this is something super important for realtors to know too, because it's not just one time, but you're gonna have to turn up the hustle quite a bit. And what I mean by that is there are some deals, you know, that people again, once you take all this aside out and really truly put yourself into your client's shoes and making sure that you're resonating with them. Sometimes in order to make a deal happen, you're gonna have to go above and beyond. Yeah, right. And that means either wearing multiple hats, you have to be the buyer's agent and seller's agent, you have to be the lender sometimes, you have to be the title company sometimes, you have to be, you know, on the contractors sometimes, as you know, right, with Ltrail and stuff like that. But at the end of the day, you have to give commission sometimes. But if you're truly in the best interest for your clients and truly in the best interest of hustling, you know that no matter what, these temporary sacrifices, whether it's a commission reduction or going above and beyond, is part of the job. And once you do that, you'll truly understand the meaning of business because everything in business doesn't just always hand on the silver platter, and everything in business always isn't profitable. But if you zoom out in the bigger picture of things, ten out of ten times you'll always be successful by putting and serving your clients first and making sure that you're doing it with intention.

SPEAKER_01 1:18:17

Very, very well said. And last question before we wrap up, this is a question that Mike always asks every guest, and he will judge you based off of this question, and I will be reporting back after this. What is your favorite movie of all time?

SPEAKER_02 1:18:28

My favorite movie of all time. I really want to see the Odyssey, to be honest with you. It's it's hard because I don't watch a lot of movies. And I'm I'm curious to know his now. I would have to say The Godfather. The Godfather's the reason why I like the Godfather because if people get too there's there's symbolism, right? It's like a Shakespearean, but if people get too wrapped up in money, power, fame, etc. There's uh I'm gonna kinda go off on a tangent just because I like to. People think that these things make your life easier. Right? Like, oh, I got money, it should make my life easier. Oh, I got power, it should make my life easier. But people don't understand, it's like the you know Bible verse, Luke 12, 48. You know, to paraphrase it, much is given, much is tested. When you have skill sets or you obtain these things, you're now not obligated, but you're requested now to do more of it there's more of you to be requested of. And people don't understand with money comes creates temptation, with let's say skills, right, or talent, it creates expectation. And with all these things, with power also creates again more impact and responsibility. People don't understand if they don't understand that it doesn't make your job easier, it doesn't make life easier, it actually makes it a lot more harder, and you have to have the magnitude to handle that. And if you take it way too far up, you end up losing yourself and everything you've done it for along the way.

SPEAKER_01 1:20:22

That's good. That's really good.

SPEAKER_02 1:20:24

Yep.

SPEAKER_01 1:20:25

Uh mine is not good. I so I don't watch movies ever, ever, ever, ever. Shame. Um, but fourth gump, just because it's a good old classic Americano movie. There's so many good nuggets in that movie, but I don't have any like main thing at it. But yeah, it's a if y'all haven't seen The Godfather, I would check it out. I'm gonna tell you, I have not seen it. I don't see any movies, dude. I've never seen The Matrix, Godfather, like any of the big time movies.

SPEAKER_02 1:20:48

Like I don't either, but it's it's a very old classic. But like that's I just like the message of it.

SPEAKER_01 1:20:52

Yeah, yeah. Do you remember what Mike said his uh favorite movie was? I know he's told me a couple times, I don't even remember.

unknown 1:20:57

He did say uh it was Forrest Govern too.

SPEAKER_01 1:21:00

No, no, his is not Forrest Gulf. I promise you it's not no. I promise you it's not. Mike, yeah. I'll ask him again, but anyways. Um, yeah, I definitely do not want to speak for him on the movie. He is the movie expert. He's seen every movie. He can quote you movies like the back of his hand, any movie like he has the lines from, but yeah, I'm not not the movie guy. But but dude, it was so fun having you on here. I really appreciate your time. Appreciate you coming on. I uh look forward to a very, very, very long, successful run with you. Uh, we are just getting started, as you know. My career's in the flipping business is very, very fresh. I have huge, huge goals. I know that you're even though you're five years in, I know you're barely getting started. You have big goals and ambitions and stuff you're working on too. So I'm looking forward to in a year or two having you back on and really seeing where both of us are at and doing this again. So it's again, appreciate you guys tuning in. This is another episode of the Turn Up the Hustle Podcast. We try to provide value each and every single week to help you in your real estate career and just in your business. And so if you're finding value in this podcast, we ask that you please like, subscribe, comment, turn on that bell notification, do all the things that you're supposed to do to help us reach more people every single week. As always, as always, turn up the hustle, and we will see you guys on the next one.

SPEAKER_02 1:22:03

Shout out Mike and Skyler too. Y'all creating something special. Appreciate you.

SPEAKER_01 1:22:06

Let's go, let's get it.