The Exchanges

Q Any carrying costs over the time of the demo, you know, the build?

A Uh, no. So when you buy a home, the construction, you put down an earnest money deposit or an EMD as we call it in real estate, and you don't actually close on the property until it exists. So in that whole eight month, uh, construction, you know, I'm not paying a mortgage payment. It can't be financed until it's built. So you get to pocket all that equity. And one of the things we actually did was we would just flip them before we'd close on them. So, 30 days before, excuse me, 30 days before we'd have to close on the property, I would just assign that contract to a different, maybe to you, for a 145,000, because now you're stoked, you're getting a quick discount, and I just made 20, 30,000 dollars doing nothing other than, you know, having a deposit on a home for eight months.

AI assessment note: “Uh, no. So when you buy a home, the construction, you put down an earnest”

Q Give us one or two names. Which one are you excited about most?

A One's Jam Card. Let's give, let's give Elmo a throw out there. So, yeah, Jam Card's a tech company I invested in. Elmo Lovano is the CEO. He's a professional musician that toured the world with just some of the biggest names out there as a drummer, and, um, he created a product For the, uh, I guess you'd call it the professional musician community, people who want to book gigs in a more efficient way other than just posting on Craigslist. And so a jam card is, is it's a virtual, I guess, business card, jam card for the, uh, community of musicians that actually make a living as a musician to be able to have a very professional way to exp, you know, some demo reels of them singing or playing their instrument, whatever it is in a community where they get gigs. It's, it's huge and it's getting some huge endorsements from some big name Musicians and I got in the very first round of that.

AI assessment note: “One's Jam Card. Let's give, let's give Elmo a throw out there.”

Q So tell me kind of you evolve. You have 11. It's my job in kind of 10 minutes to get the value that you've learned over 11 years in real estate. What kinds of deals are you doing now? Or is your thesis still betting on appreciation and quick flips or are you focused on cash flow?

A No, absolutely not. I'm doing what's so quick flips. Yes. Instead of buying and holding, hoping that it goes up, we're buying and repairing. So I'm buying properties that are undervalued, distressed, using a combination of my own money, private money or hard money. We can talk about what all that is. If you're interested, uh, fixing the property up to increase the value and turn around and selling it inside three to five months. And, uh, we found that to be much more efficient because it no longer banks on appreciation and regardless of what's happening economically or in the real estate climate, Even if we're in a collapse like 2008, nine, and 10, I'm in and out of that project so quickly, I don't take those long-term losses, and because I'm buying a property that's literally dilapidated, mold, infested, disgusting, and making it gorgeous, I'm forcing value into that home, and so that, that works, whether real estate's going up, down, left, right, or any direction, and so that's, that's a big focus of ours, and then, like you said, buying and holding as well, because flipping houses is cool, but, you know, buying and holding is, is how you create long-term passive income and wealth, and so, In my real estate business, it's a combination of both.

AI assessment note: “In my real estate business, it's a combination of both.”

Q So what is your thesis in terms of what you go after? And if you go to the kind of the Gary route, Are you interested in kind of being hands off and just putting your money and letting the, the, you know, as an LP and letting the other people do the work?

A So it just depends on your strategy. You know, the, the big question is as an angel investor, do you bet on the jockey or the horse, right? Are you, are you betting on the CEO or the product? Yeah. And I, and I do both. And back to the real estate analogy, I like buying a beat up house and then knowing that I can make improvements to get my money out. I like buying or investing into companies where I know that my personal expertise or relationships can help make that business more valuable. So I literally am forcing equity back into my pocket. I buy in at X valuation, and I know just through a few phone calls or a couple of insights, I know that I can make that valuation higher and therefore immediately pocket money, if that makes sense.

AI assessment note: “investing into companies where I know that my personal expertise or relationships can help”

Q Interesting. Tell me, let's go now to the conference, thriveconference.org. These things are a lot of work. Many times people don't even make money on the things. Why are you doing it?

A That's just my passion. Yeah. So thrive is, um, I guess the culmination of my experience as an entrepreneur. I had two seasons from 21 to 26. I made a gazillion dollars. I was making hundreds of thousands a year as a young, you know, 20, 21, 22 year old, sometimes six figures in a month. And I lost it all because I was a hundred percent leverage in real estate. And like I said earlier, banked on appreciation. 2008 taught me a lesson that maybe I should be more diversified. Number one. And number two, know how to make money within real estate, whether real estate's going up or down. And so after three years of limping through the recession, 2011, I came back with a vengeance and then went off to make millions of dollars. And in that season of having made money, having lost it all, and then having made way more back than I'd ever had before, you know, you start asking, geez, is it really about the money? Cause that's what the world says is important or is there more to it than that? And so what I have found is that money's great, uh, but it's just a utility. It's not a destination. It's a starting point. And when we have money, it gives us more options, options to take great vacations. Options to buy great cars or options to do good in the world. And, uh, I believe that business can be the greatest tool or, or vehicle to leverage to, to make a really positive change in the world,…

AI assessment note: “That's just my passion. Yeah. So thrive is, um, I guess the culmination”

Q How are we going to watch multiple channels at once? I mean, come on, you need six, seven.

A Exactly. The gaming consoles. I got, got it, dude. I had my wakeboard boat, the whole deal. I was freaking going nuts, taking all my buddies to Vegas and getting a three bedroom penthouse. So I know exactly where you are. And, you know, I guess I just had a wake up call with my near death experiences that regardless of anyone's religious things. Uh, yeah. Well, actually, so I was a firefighter, but the accident was just, uh, had nothing to do with firefighting. We were just in a car, the car flipped and I was ejected going 80 and, you know, got really hurt. And so, Almost losing my life. You know, I got, I have a, a stronger sense of time is precious, right? There's all the cliches and the memes out there, but the reality is I'm on borrowed time. The doctors looked me in the face and said, you should be dead. And I realized that, you know, money itself doesn't, doesn't make happiness. I'm like you. So, so let's, I'm a capitalist too. Almost like sport business is fun. And I want to make more every year, just like an athlete wants to run faster every year. Like it's, it's fun. And I get all that, But I know that when all the dust settles and people standing around my grave, cause that day comes for all of us, no one's going to talk about how many dollars were in my bank account, how many cars I owned or the vacations I took. They're going to talk about the meaningful difference …

AI assessment note: “So I know exactly where you are. And, you know, I guess I just had a wake up call”