The Exchanges

Q The cool thing about you in bigger pockets is you weren't an expert when you, you weren't like a real estate expert when you started this, right?

A No, no. And, and I always felt, uh, what, uh, uh, imposter syndrome. I, I always felt like an imposter syndrome and I had a lot of people challenge me. They're like, who the hell are you to be talking about real estate? And I was like, I'm not the expert. I'm the guy who brings everybody together. I'm the community, uh, the guy who, who, who builds the community. And I would always use Cuban as my example. Um, I'd say like, Mark Cuban was never an NBA player, but he can own an NBA team and, and, and successfully run that business. I, I got my hands dirty in real estate investing, and I, you know, realized there was a need for this community. I was simultaneously running the community and investing, and I realized that I could not do both successfully. For me to be successful at something, I have to give a hundred percent, a thousand percent, and so I couldn't give a thousand percent to Bigger pockets. And real estate investing. And I chose. I picked, I picked the, ah, the online platform because, frankly, I thought it was more fun. And more of a challenge, I think. You know, I mean, like, how many, you know, there's, there's millions of real estate investors. How many people are building, like, really cool communities? Not a lot. At least back then.

AI assessment note: “No, no. And, and I always felt, uh, what, uh, uh, imposter syndrome.”

Q And what do you do now? Bigger pockets or, you know, is sort of in the past, like, what do you, how do you spend your time now?

A Uh, that's a great question. I'm still working on that. Uh, no. So, um, I, I'm on the board of BiggerPockets. I'm, um, I'm an advisor to a couple other startups. I invest in, in, in, uh, tech startups. I invest in, uh, real estate, uh, opportunities. I'm always looking for like investment opportunities, small businesses, things like that, that sound interesting. I love the advisory. I really love helping people, um, where, where I can, um, because I've put in the 10,000 hours in so many different verticals in order to build a successful startup that, that went to exit, that, you know, whether it's, whether it's community content, um, Uh, you name it, you know, initial scale, uh, product. Um, these are things I'm, I'm really good at. So, um, I, I'm toying with, with writing a book, um, kind of on my life, um, just cause I've had a really interesting life. Um, we all have, we all have stories to tell, right? Um, I, uh, I've been focused, uh, The last few years on health, uh, spending a lot of time and energy on, on my health. Um, and, and studying of that, that that's been really fascinating, fun to learn about just longevity and, and, you know, IO hacking stuff. I'm not one of the extreme guys, but, you know, I, I think each, each step is, is a step in the right direction. I love surfing. I love playing tennis. Um, I love just kind of getting out. We live in Maui. So, um, just e…

AI assessment note: “I'm on the board of BiggerPockets. I'm, um, I'm an advisor”

Q And was that your vision from day one? Like, from day one, did you envision books, podcasts, forums, or like, what was your vision when you started this quote-unquote pure?

A There was no vision. No. So, the vision was, I'm failing. You know, like, I am failing. You know, I, I walked into one of my units, and there was, there was a hole in the kitchen floor. Like, Like, you know, not, not like a mouse hole, like a hole that a human could fall through. And so like, like it's absurd, absurd stuff that like, what do you do? So I, I needed help and I figured there had to be a way to bring everybody together. So, so that was the first vision was like, let me bring people together, um, to help me. It was totally selfish from day one. Um, But what happened was over time, little by little, very, very little by very, very little, um, People were actually answering questions. People were helping one another out, and I was like, oh, wait, this isn't just about me getting help. People are helping one another. Wow, this is, this is cool. So, you know, when I had that realization, I said, well, we've got to craft guidelines. We've got to craft rules around how this community is going to operate, because if we don't, we will become That which, you know, I built this to, to be different from. Right. And, um, you know, almost instantly when, when people see an opportunity to do bad, they're going to do bad, unfortunately. Right. And, and bad is not necessarily bad. Bad is just being opportunistic. Right. So, you know, very quickly we had people shilling and soliciti…

AI assessment note: “There was no vision. No. So, the vision was, I'm failing.”

Q When you started BiggerPockets, were you working another full time job?

A Oh yeah. Yeah, so I started, when I started BiggerPockets, I was teaching special ed in Los Angeles as a full-time job. Um, at first it was, you know, I was kind of, you know, a little bit of time here and there, and then I became obsessed, and every single break I was, I was doing BiggerPockets. Nights, weekends, I was doing BiggerPockets. Um, You know, I, I, I am a, um, uh, I'm a cautionary tale, I think as well, because I believe I, I did too much. Um, to be honest, I was working a hundred hour weeks, um, for eight years. Um, there was a eight year period where I never did not work. On my company. When I went on vacation, I actually didn't go on vacation. I traveled. When I traveled, I had my computer, you know, and everyone, my friends and family all gave me crap about it. They're like, dude, you need to not work. And I'm like, well, I have to work. I had, you know, this is, and, and It wasn't true. It wasn't true. I, I, you know, I was a victim to my own kind of hustle grind kind of idea of like, if I'm not working harder than everyone else, I'm going to fail. I would have been fine if I had worked a little less hard, to be honest, but you do have to put the time in. You definitely have to put the time in. Um, but yeah, it's, it's, um, it's interesting.

AI assessment note: “when I started BiggerPockets, I was teaching special ed in Los Angeles as a full-time job.”