 the goals to, you know, work to a place where I feel very comfortable that I'm going to hit a million subscribers on YouTube, but also close on that 100 million this year with the multifamily. I really want to create better content, you know, because there's, there's, there's so many levels to this, you know, and I don't care how good you are, even the top guys, you know, that, you know, like Mr. Beast and, you know, all of the top guys there, you can tell, like, they're always trying to figure out the next level to what they're doing and to make their content better. So there's always another level, but yeah, content creation. So I went all in on reels. You guys probably have realized, like about three or four months ago, something like that. And I've been posting six times a day and it's been incredible. I've got celebrities following me now and DMing me and I'm picking up 100 plus followers a day and just all kinds of stuff's happening now. And so that's cool because I took a step back and I was like, okay, my Instagram's not growing. Let me, let me not post for like two weeks and really study Instagram algorithms. I talked to meta several times. I just did research and development and studied for like two, three weeks. And I kind of put a plan in place and said, let me, let me try this, you know, and it was creating more reels, it was creating higher quality reels and it was posting way more and that knocked it out of the park. And so now I have all this momentum on Instagram and it's incredible. So now I'm doing the same thing with YouTube. I'm taking a step back. I'm studying, I'm talking to Google, I'm researching, developing and really going to horn in on how that platform behaves so that I can, because there's no reason why I shouldn't be to million subscribers in the next year or two. And that's going to happen because I'm going to figure out the mathematical algorithmic process to what works and what doesn't work and how to actually blow up. So that is one of my biggest focuses this year. I'm going all in on social media, YouTube, creating content. That's why I built up this studio and that's going to be a big part of what I do. Like my day to day literally is I'm a YouTuber. That's my day to day when I wake up is answer Instagram DMs, check on all my real estate deals and then create video for YouTube. I'm going to post every day. So my day to day is I would say I'm going to be a YouTuber, which is crazy to say. But equally a focus is real estate investing because my goal is to go out and buy $100 million worth of multifamily this year through syndicating deals. And I mean, I've been looking for deals for like a month now. We've been underwriting deals left and right looking for, you know, and everybody's, I mean, most of the deals are overpriced right this second, but that's going to change. And so, you know, we're being patient and I know things are going to happen. And but, you know, finding the deals, the hard part raising the money is the easy part. I have people ready to throw money right now millions and millions of dollars right this second. It's just a matter of finding the right deal where I know everybody's going to be proud to own this property. And that's what I want. Now I want to build a reputation that people know that when they invest in whatever I'm investing in, that it's going to be a solid investment. It's going to be something they're proud to own with me. And that we're going to do very well on, you know, short and long term. So, yeah, the goal is to, you know, work to a place where I feel very comfortable that I'm going to hit a million subscribers on YouTube. And that's just, that's kind of like it's kind of like when you make a million dollars, it's basically a representation of how many people you helped in the world. The million dollars really wasn't the goal. It was the people that you helped along the way. Same thing here to get a million subscribers means I helped a lot of people. And so that's what the million subscribers is about. I could care less about the actual number of subscribers. I care about the actual people that are subscribing. And so the goal is to touch that many people in a positive way over the next year or two, but get into that momentum, but also close on that 100 million this year worth of multifamily. Sure. Yeah. You know, we find that it's interesting. We just started coaching people as well. Pretty recently, we've always helped people along, but never really coached people along. And it's interesting when these people get wins or they make money off of us coaching them. That actually is a better feeling than us getting a paycheck and brokering a deal or something, right? Seeing someone else feed their family or do something good with something that we provided is a, is a good, is a better feeling for me. In regards to your investing real quick, I know that you're, you're looking at syndicating deals. Where are you looking to invest? Are you historically investing in Alabama or are you looking nationally? So we're, I'm looking in Alabama. I'm looking in Florida, mainly. I'll look at stuff in Georgia. I'll look at stuff in Mississippi, Tennessee. I'll look at stuff in Louisiana, you know, Texas, but really my comfort is in Florida and Alabama. I just know the market's a lot better because I'm licensed in both of those states. I've sold in both of those states for 20 years now. And I'm just super comfortable. And plus I have my, you know, my team that is, you know, behind me on this, that's where we all are in Alabama and Florida. So we're just real comfortable there, you know, for a first deal, you know, that's kind of what we're looking at. What type of deal are you looking for out of curiosity? Is it commercial? Is it an apartment building? Are you looking for apartment buildings, you know? 10 to 100 units, you know? We're just looking for something. I mean, it could be a value add, you know, building. It could be, it'd have to be a really good deal to be a value add. You know, a lot of these value ads are asking, you know, a price of, you know, A or B class property, you know, so it, you know, those kind of properties honestly are tough right this second. I mean, you have to really grind it out right now to find something worth buying honestly, just because everybody's asking too much right this second. It's still kind of the hangover of the, of the, you know, expanded market. But, you know, as a lot of these adjustable rate mortgages come due over the next, you know, six to 12 to 18 months to 36 months, I think we're going to see, you know, I think we're going to see some balancing, you know, cap rates are really low. I mean, you know, we're lucky. It's like, it's like, we're lucky to find a six cap, you know, on something, you know, and it's like, you know, there's a lot of fours and fives and it's like, you can't even make sense out of this stuff. You know, it just doesn't even compute, you know? Yeah. Going back to methods that, you know, interest rates are now super expensive, you know, making super expensive, you know, on the commercial side, they're seven, eight percent many times. If you're buying something at a six or five or four cap, it's just not going to cash flow for you. It's not. And that's the problem, you know, that's the problem. But to answer your question, it really comes more down to location, right? If it's an A class and great location and it's, you know, in the range that we're looking for, you know, awesome. If it's a value add in a great location, you know, and we can get it at a price where it makes sense that we can go in and add the value and have equity because of that extra effort that we put in, then, you know, great. But it's more going to come down to location. You know, that's the biggest factor for me is that I want a great location where it's close to things and when people pull on the, on the property, they're like, okay, this is a nice place, you know, that's what I'm looking for. Yeah. In regards to syndication, I think maybe some followers don't really know or understand what that means or how that works. You know, a lot of, a lot of newer investors, maybe that's too big of a game for them to do syndication. But at the end of the day, if you have a good network of individuals that can, that want to invest, if you have the knowledge of how to find good deals or good properties for them, I think at the end of the day, it's about finding a good asset for people that want to invest. Can you speak on, like, what syndication means? Are you getting your people from your sphere? Is it from, is it from your YouTube channel? How are you getting connected with individuals that want to invest? Well, so syndication is there's two ways you can go about it, right? You can create a fund where you can go out and raise the money and you can say, hey, we're going to, you know, invest money into my fund and we're going to go buy properties like this. Commercial or multifamily or single family or whatever, office building, storage units, whatever, you know, that's a fund. And then, or you can do a syndication, which is one property at a time. You find the property, you create the companies, and then you raise the money to close on the properties. So there's two different ways to do it. With, with the syndication, you go out, you, you identify the property, you know, you go under contract, you create the companies, and then you raise the money that you need for either the down payment or just to pay cash for it. I mean, you can raise enough money to pay cash, you know, for the property as well. If you, you know, have that big of an influence. And as far as, and then it gets, and then it gets to the point at, you know, where you can kind of decide to want to go credited, not accredited, right? Accredited is someone who's worth a million dollars over their personal home that has a certified letter saying so. You know, so that's a different ball game. If you take unaccredited money, which are people that aren't worth a million dollars over their personal home, then it's a little more sticky. You have to be very careful when you're playing that game, but it's totally doable, totally legal. And as long as you follow the rules, then you're perfectly fine. You can even start out the deal, you know, taking non-accredited money, you know, do a round of non-accredited, and then do a round of accredited after that if you wanted to, or you could just do all accredited. Just depends on how you want to play it. So there's a lot of different, you know, ways you can put it together. As far as the people that want to invest, yeah, it's just followers. And I haven't asked anybody to invest. I haven't, you know, said, you know, anything about this. I've just said, hey, I'm going to go buy some properties. And I'm getting messages from people saying, hey, I have this much money, I'd like to, you know, throw in on this or whatever. So, and this is a lot of people and a lot of money already, and I haven't even said anything. So like I said, raising the money is going to be the easy part, right? I even have celebrities that I have calls set up with right now that want to invest in real estate with me. And so it's just a matter of finding the property. Like it's the money's not the problem. And like I told my partners, I said, we're probably going to be able to pay cash for whatever we get because we're going to have so much demand from investors to get in on these deals. We just have to find the right properties. I think that there's going to be a lot of opportunity coming up. And like you said, it is still relatively challenging to find deals in this market. Many people think that, you know, the interest rates went up and the market is so and so crashing or going to crash. But if you lived through 2008, where you dealt with an actual crash, the difference that we're seeing in this market is that inventory is not increasing inventory at least in this area. And I'm sure your area is still really low in the demand, especially for investors, because a lot of investors are trying to jump in right now looking for those deals. So, you know, finding the deal is the challenging part. So what are some strategies that you're using, especially now shifting from, it seems like maybe residential investing prior to this. Now you're going a bit more into commercial investing, which is a different field. So are you licensed in commercial or how are you looking for these deals? Yeah. And so, you know, two, the reason why prices haven't come down with interest rates is because rents are so high, right? So the investors that own these big deals, they're making so much money on the rents. Now the problem is their interest rates have doubled or their interest payments have doubled. And not all of them. You know, a lot of them are still locked into that lower rate for now until that matures. And that's where we're going to see some serious movement in the market, I think, when these adjustable rates come due. And, you know, and the investors, you know, interest rates are literally going to double overnight. I think that's where we're going to start seeing a little pressure from the sellers who are in those situations where now their property doesn't cash flow when you double the interest rate. And now they're going to have to do what they have to do to get out from under these properties because they're locked into these rates. And they're going to have to sell them for cheaper because the next buyer is going to have to buy in to it at the new rates. It makes sense. And so it's going to be interesting. I'm telling you right now, you don't see it, but it's coming. And so that's another reason why I'm gearing up for this is because I know that there's going to be a nice little wave, not a massive wave, but a nice, you know, mild wave of, you know, good deals on these apartment complexes. And I'm going after the small to medium ones, right? The really large ones, you know, the big institutions are selling those back and forth to each other. You know, when I'm at 10 to 100 units, that's kind of under the radar from the big boys. And it's a place where I can play and kind of build myself up to become one of the big boys in the next decade. So, but as far as, you know, I'm not licensed and commercial, but I have, you know, serious connections with people who move big time commercial properties. And I'm always getting consulted by and collaborating with and asking questions and watching what these really big movers do. And it's so easy, right? I hate to say it like that, but you put just as much effort into going out and selling a single family home for somebody else to make a commission as some of these big boys do to close on, you know, a $50 million deal and own part of the deal in the process. You know, it's crazy. Yeah, no, I agree. We talk about that all the time, you know, just investing, whether it's helping other brokers invest for themselves or for their clients, you know, they have the powers in the real estate license, right? Like whether you're a commercial broker or residential broker, if you have a license and you have access to certain properties within the market or have connections with those people that have those properties, you know, you might as well start taking advantage of that for yourself, especially in this upcoming, you know, next year or two that you spoke about, because there are going to be things available properties that are going to be, you know, for instance, commercial real estate, you speak about, you know, these rates doubling in commercial real estate. A lot of times, you know, people get loans that are five year balloons, right? They have to refinance. The bank takes another look at them in five years. And so, you know, at that time, it can double up. And that's what's happening, which you're going to see in the next year or two is that those, those balloon payments are coming up. And so they're going to have to refinance or sell. Exactly. Exactly. So that's what's going to be interesting, you know, to kind of see how that plays out. And, you know, it's going to, it's going to be like residential in a way where when we see some of these guys that let their properties go because they're in trouble, because there's going to be the guys that can hang on on, you know, honestly, there's, there's the guys that can hang on, but the guys that can't hang on or kind of kind of bring the values down of the properties of the guys that can hold on for the guys that can hold on that want to sell, whatever the reasons may be, they're going to be subjected to, you know, some of the comps. Now, you know, commercials way different than residential when it comes to comps. It's more of a cap rate situation mixed in with, you know, location and so many different variables when it comes to, you know, valuation of a apartment complex size commercial building, but the price per unit and age has a lot to do with it as well. That's one of the factors. And so it's not going to completely, you know, demolish like if in the residential, like if one house that's apples to apples sells at a lower price, the next door neighbor is screwed. Like that is the price, not so much in commercial, you know, like, you know, somebody could sell for 100,000 per unit over here. And then this building over here could still be worth 150 a unit, 175 a unit, it could still be, but that 100,000 a unit is going to, it's going to sway it a little bit, not as much as residential, you know, so we're going to see, just going to, this is, this goes back to math for me, where this is the, this is a puzzle where I'm always looking for the hack, you know, like the Instagram story example, that's a hack that I figured out, you know, I'm going to figure out the hacks to this as well and be in the right place at the right time. Absolutely. I think, you know, going back to, to the brokers that you help out, right? So I know a lot of your, your influences on coaching and mentoring a lot of real estate brokers. Can you speak about like things that you mentor them on? I know that you, you speak, you know, you wrote a couple books about how to level up your business in real estate. You know, do you do any coaching on investments or what do you tell your, your, your clientele base or your members about investing in real estate? Yeah. No, that's good. That's a good question because the conversation of real estate investing amongst real estate agents is really almost non-existent. You have to really kind of move over to a real estate investing class or real estate investing, you know, a group or something like that that's more focused on real estate investing to kind of get into that conversation and learn more about real estate investing. It's crazy because like real estate agents don't, most of them don't own real estate. It's nice. It's nice. Yeah. So, and it's, it's not really talked about a lot in the industry. And, and so I'm trying to open up this conversation with real estate agents. You know, I'm going live on different platforms. I'm doing videos like this and I'm trying to open up that conversation because honestly, that's the end game for real estate agents, right? You can look at a lot of different things. You can say, oh, well, I'm going to, you know, get to where I'm making a million. Like a lot of agents, they say that their end game is going to sell forever. It's like, because they love it so much, right? And I said the same thing. It's a grind. What? But it's a grind. I mean, it's, you know, we're always looking for the next deal, whereas the end game should be to invest and get residual income so that you can work when you want to, but not necessarily because you have to. Because once that deal closes, you have to get to the next one. Yeah. So that's the thing is that most agents, they can't really see that far out. And it's because they're so much in the grind trying to get their business off the ground. So I totally, I was the same way. I didn't see the future. I didn't like, I wasn't like, what am I going to do after real estate? I was too busy trying to make it in real estate. So I totally relate and I'm 100% empathetic to that mindset. But looking back, I mean, I played it all the way it should have been played. Focus on real estate, get it to a million dollars a year, go become an influencer. Not everybody walks that, to go out and do what I did on social media, honestly, in my opinion, is like one in a million people are going to be able to do it like that. I lost $100,000 for two years doing this. I was spending 80% of my time losing six figures a year. Meanwhile, neglecting other businesses that were seven figure a year. And I'm like, what am I doing? I'm neglecting this seven figure business. I could grow it to multi seven figures. And I'm investing money into, I'm investing time into this business that I'm losing six figure on. Not a lot of people can go through, not a lot of people can grind that hard for a loss for that long. And honestly, that's kind of what it takes to get to build the brand. It's a flywheel, right? It's like these companies that lose money for however long, many, many, many years, until they build up their names at the point where they can start turning a profit. That's kind of what my brand was. And not a lot of people can do that. So people come to me and they're like, you know, you should teach that. You should teach that's the end game. Do real estate and then start building social become a coach. And I'm like, nah, I actually don't, I don't, I don't wish that on anyone whatsoever. If you want to, I'll show you by all means, you know, let's, let's get after it. And I'll, I'll take you down that, that rocky path. But the real end game for people that it's, that's completely legitimate and easily attainable is to pick up rental properties as you're selling real estate, pick up one here, pick up one there, pick up two a year for five to 10 years, you know, pick up, you know, buy, start buying multifamily, start, you know, and build your business up to a million dollars a year. Whereas once you get there, you already own some rental properties and then you can start expanding that portfolio. You can literally get to a place where you don't have to sell real estate anymore. And you have massive tax benefits. You have cashflow every month. You have, it's paying the principal down in the debt down, you know, and you have appreciation. Right. I mean, you've got all these different factors that you can make money with your money that you don't really get anywhere else. And I tell you why a lot of people don't do it because it's not sexy. You buy a house and you make $200 a month. Yeah, it doesn't cashflow very well. But like you said, there's many more benefits that people don't think about off the bat. Yeah, like I talked to an agent and he was like $200 a month. I was like, but wait a minute, what about the debt it's paying down over the $200 a month? What about the appreciation of that property? What about the bonus depreciation you could take and write off on your taxes? You know, it's more than $200 a month, my man. Yeah. Yeah. And, you know, I think that's a super solid point and that's something that we try and drive home all the time as well is that honestly, you know, I got into real estate six years ago and was fortunate enough to meet Michael and we just have very similar mindsets. And we've really just been grinding for the past five, six years, building our rental portfolio. And we did so by doing fix and flips to get that quick cashflow and then turning that cashflow into long-term holds, which ultimately is creating the residual income. Like you said, it's not, you know, the goal isn't to get a rental property into cashflow several thousand dollars a month. It's not going to happen. In fact, we're fine just making zero dollars on that rental and we do 15 year mortgages, pay them down quickly, get more tax write-offs and benefits. So our actual rental portfolio is not what's making us a ton of money right now, but in 10, 15 years it will, besides short-term rentals, but then, you know, now once you get to that level and you own 20, 30, 40 rental properties, then you can start going to the next level. Like you said, start looking for syndications, start looking for apartment buildings if you want to go to that level. But starting off, it's, you know, the move up method is the easiest way to go, just get rental properties and start building your own retirement income. And it does take time to do that, but yeah, absolutely. And so I'm just trying to start the conversation with agents, you know, to make them aware that they need to be thinking about this, you know? So how do you buy your first rental? You save up money for the damn payment, you know? You buy one and then you save up money for another one and you buy one. Or even using your primary residence and, you know, keeping that as a rental and moving to a new primary residence. So... I did that. The first one I bought coming back from the crash was a $68,000 condo I lived in for a year or two, moved out. It's been a rental ever since. It's worth like $200. It's been paid off forever and I've rented for a thousand a month. It's a little one bedroom. So, you know, it's been a great investment. And then I moved to another one I lived in for a while and then I rented it out for a while. Then I sold it, made some money, you know? So, yeah, all this house hacking stuff is super interesting for, you know, younger people. You know, people that are like 25 to 30, you have to go buy a four-plex and live in one of them, you know, like buy it on a 30-year fixed, you know, rent out three-spot. I mean, it's like, wow, you know, live there for a little while and then do it again, you know? So... So, you said that you're going to be doing a lot of events coming up this year and that's going to be another big focus along with the social media. As you mentioned to us, you're going to be doing about one event a month. And so, this event, these events, can you tell us a little bit about your message at these events? Who you're targeting? Is it for agents, investors, anyone that wants to be a part? Or is there a certain audience that you're trying to achieve at these events? Yeah, so it just depends on the event. So, my first one next year, you guys know Ryan Panada? Yes. I think I saw that one in February. Is it or the end of January? It's actually next week. Oh, okay, okay. Yeah, so he's doing a big real estate conference next week. So, I'm going to go there and, you know, hang out for the week, speak at his event. So, that's going to be like a mix of like real estate investors, real estate agents, web three guys, you know, entrepreneurs, like that's going to be all kinds of stuff. So, there I'll just be trying to, you know, tell my story, inspire and, you know, see what I can do to help people. The next one's in Long Island, right after that. That's going to be about 350 real estate agents. And so, that's going to be more geared towards agents. But again, I'm going to be talking about what they need to be thinking about as far as buying properties. You know, I'm going to teach them how to sell and make a million dollars a year, but also what are we going to do with the money? Absolutely. That's the part that people kind of leave out at the end of the day. Then I'm doing Orlando, January 25th and 26th. So, January 25th is going to be like a three-hour multi-speaker event. And then the next day is going to be an all-day workshop, where on these all-day workshops is what I'm excited about because I literally just want to spend time with people. So, I'm maxing these out at 100 people. And like if they want to show up at the gym with me in the morning, you know, show up with a gym, right? I'm going to include lunch. And then all day I'm going to cover how to become number one in your market, real estate agent-wise, social media, how to become an influencer, and everything I've learned along the way and all the little hacks I've learned and what, you know, how you could actually do that over the three to five-year period. And then real estate investing and get into buying your first rental, to expanding your portfolio, to syndicating deals. So, I'm doing that one in Orlando, and then I'm doing another one in my hometown. The one in my hometown is really cool because I'm doing it in the clubhouse in my subdivision. And so people are going to be able to come down and actually stay on the beach, you know, where I grew up, hang out with me for a day, and do the workshop. So, that's going to be really cool. So, I'm excited about that. I want to do one a month this year in different cities just to get around and spend as much time with, you know, people as I can. I mean, I've got, I have a lot of agents that are in my program that are, that have hit number one in their MLS, top 10, top five, tons of them. And so, and I was the number one agent in my MLS for eight years in a row. And so, I have like a, again, mathematical, you know, you know, system where I can literally, you know, help you visualize becoming the top agent in your MLS. And then coming up with that customised specific game plan for you based on your market. Like the first thing is, what does it take to be a number one? Who is number one? What are they doing? What's their numbers, right? And understanding the entire market overall. If you want to be a number one, you have to know those numbers. And then you have to understand how to put a plan in place to execute against those numbers to become the top agent, you know, in the market. So, it's going to be a lot of fun. And again, I'm just excited to hang out with people, you know, and, you know, get to know people more. And, you know, too, like these people are going to invest in my deals with me as well. You know, it's going to be, it's just deepening the relationships. Yeah, it's interesting the funnel that you're creating from social media and funneling business and relationships and connections and people probably are sending you properties, people are throwing money at you to invest and creating that funnel has been huge for you. I know that we're starting to create that funnel for us and we're already getting some of those, those direct messages about situations like you spoke about and it's fun to do. It's a whole nother avenue. It's something that's like you said, it's not for everybody, but if you can create that brand and create that funnel, it can be huge. And it sounds like a fantastic opportunity for agents because as we mentioned, many agents don't invest themselves. So understanding how they can take this, their success with becoming an agent and becoming a top agent and not just stop there, but take all of that many that they've worked so hard to earn and turn it into investments that are ultimately going to help them retire, get residual income and not really have to do the daily grind of being an agent for the rest of their life because we only have that amount of energy for so long and you want to be able to enjoy it. So it sounds like a really fantastic opportunity for these agents to be a part of all of your events. We are in the end of this podcast. We are going to share your social media, your website and for those of you watching, please keep Ricky in mind, go to those events. I would even say it's absolutely worth traveling to if you're from another state. So thank you so much for the opportunity to have you on our podcast and we will continue following you and watching your success and we would love to also get together with you at the end of 2023 and see, you know, did you achieve those things you are talking about and just follow you and follow your success because I think it's a great inspiration for us and for every other agent and investor watching. Absolutely. And if everybody would follow me on Instagram at Ricky Karuth, it's my everything's in the link in my bio there and I answer all my messages there. So if anybody wants to say hello or has a question or anything I could do to help you guys, please reach out there. Pretty easy to get a hold of. So thanks guys for for having me on and thank you. It feels good to say all a lot of this stuff out loud honestly. So it was good for me as well. Well, yeah, absolutely what you say and you think about you bring about. So there's no doubt in my mind that you're going to achieve everything that you want to this year and just be continue to be a great inspiration for us all. So thanks again so much for your time and we would love to catch up with you at the end of the year. Thanks guys. Yeah, look forward to that. Definitely hit me up and let's do it again. Thanks Ricky. Appreciate it, man. Take care. See you.