 All of my real, I would say, influences were drug dealers. Honestly, I got wanted to be a kingpin. When I got my first paycheck, I called my mom and I almost cried. Before I moved out, I had four properties. Right. So I had three duplexes in a house and I moved into the house. So 2021, 2022, and even this year, I'm worth probably like a million dollars a year. We're here with Antoine Jaydeen, AKA YouTuber. Thanks, YouTuber. I'm working on it, y'all. No, but you got over 10 million in real estate in your portfolio. You have been in the game as an agent for what, five years now? Yeah, five, six, five, six, something like that. Okay, five years. You got about 10 million in real estate in construction. You got like what, 30, what'd you say, like 30 rental units total from the five to 15? So 38 units, right? So I got, so basically eight unit property building, six unit, five unit, multiple duplexes, single family houses. So 38 people that pay me every month. Okay, so we'll get into that. We'll talk numbers. We're definitely gonna talk numbers. But I like to let everybody introduce themselves how they like to. So welcome back to the DNA Show podcast. If you guys are listening, make sure you guys hit that follow, download, subscribe, whatever the button is. I don't know all these platforms are still new to this stuff. But either way, I know we're having some great conversations. We've been a few weeks in a couple of months now into the podcast and we're having a good time. So go ahead and introduce yourself as you would like to be seen and known as. So yeah, so I introduce myself. I'm Antoine Dean. A lot of people call me Antoine J. Dean because that's my Instagram name, but I'm a real estate entrepreneur. So what that entails is I'm a real estate agent. I'm an investor. So as we mentioned before, decent sized portfolio. I do flips, new construction. So all around just real estate entrepreneur. How old are you? 30. 30. Just turn 30? No, I'll be 31. You're an old 30. Yeah, I'm an old 30. He's an old 30. I'm an old 30. So it's 30 years old, with over 10 million in real estate. This is going to be a lot of good stuff for a lot of people, not only our age, but our color as well. Just seeing that it's possible and coming from different type of neighborhoods and environments, which I'm sure you're going to have a lot to tell us about growing up. So always like to start off. What is the shoe game like as a young grade school, middle school type individual? What was it like for you? Was you into kicks? Did you have the kicks? Did you not? How'd you afford it? Did your family? Let me know how that went. I'll be honest. I had some of the kicks. I didn't have all of them. So you was like in the mix? A little bit, a little bit. But it was kind of like, I guess my mom had me when she was 16, my dad was 17. So it was kind of like, it wasn't a lot of just money, extra money just for 100, a hundred feet dollar pair of sneakers, a hundred pairs of sneakers and just to have a bunch of them. So I, you know, I got certain ones. Like I got some grail pieces. So what were those like, you know, legendary sneakers to your memory as a young child? Sort of 13s. The Jordan 13. The, the bread 13s with the little bubble. I remember the little hologram. And those came out when we were like little. Those came out when I was in kindergarten. So you were like just before that or something like that. So I, there's a picture that I remember vividly, like, and I had, I probably was in, I was in, I had to be in like kindergarten, pre-K kindergarten. So like real young, we were young when those came out. I think, oh, actually I might've been in first grade. Either way. So if you're a first grade, I was in kindergarten, that sounds perfect. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. So good era. This is the flints, the, the he got games, the, it's like, there's a lot of good. No, for sure. And then I would say the, the 14s. Okay. The white in the candy canes. Oh yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Those are fire. Those. Yep. And then I don't, I'm trying to think. Wait, so was you a Hooper though? Barely. Barely? So, so look, I, so when did I start hooping? So in the, in a, and I was like, maybe 12 to 15. Okay. I was a Hooper. So you had like NBA dreams? You know, you know, if you come from me, where I come from, you know, you, you think you, you think you at least got a little shot at one point in time. I feel it. I feel it. You know. Everybody got the hoop dreams. You know I have my hoop dreams. That was my first, I was my first thing but I just never stuck with it. I got distracted. I got distracted with different things. And in those music, I was, you know, hard to be here. So what was your, what was your life like outside of like sneakers, fashion, a lot of stuff. But like you said, like your parents were young. What was your like house environment, like growing up as a kid, like in grade school? Like what are some vivid memories that you have? Like on the positive and the negative side of it. Examples that you would like, you know, use as yourself being a parent some day or whatever maybe. So I would say growing up, it was one of those things where it was like growing up, we were, I guess, I hate throwing away, I hate throwing out the term poor, but we just, we didn't have much, but I never felt that way, but my mom would tell me that. Like we don't, like she would tell me that, but I never felt this. So childhood, I just remember just like playing 007, go to nine, Nintendo 64. I'm a go at that too. If you ever. Oh no. I'm like, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, he's like, I still got it at the crib right now. No, I have it at the crib right now. Like put like this, I'm, I don't talk myself up in a lot of different things. Monopoly and 007, I'm a real, like I play, I don't know if you play on, what is it called? Gold, gold, I think it's like gold, like where one shot kills you, it doesn't matter what it is. Like it's certain little things, but I'm up there on that. It's like hardcore on Call of Duty, like same thing. Yeah, for sure. But I would say growing up, everything, everything was, I feel like I had a, I felt like I had a normal childhood, other than the fact that my dad went to jail when I was super young. So how, how over you when that happened? I was three. Three. So you can't, do you remember? Or like? Barely, barely. I don't, not necessarily no. I would say for the most part, I don't, I don't remember, but it's like, all of my childhood pictures are in Sheraton. So if you don't know what Sheraton is, that is a federal penitentiary here in the state of Oregon. And it's in Sheraton, Oregon. So like, if you, if I were to- How far does that drive? 45 minutes? Probably like an hour, somewhere on there. It might be 45, I haven't, I haven't done that drive so long. So you're traveling back and forth, like as a little kid, going to the pen, coming back, going to school, like, are you like talking about this, like with your friends and stuff? Like, how did that go like with the environment? Cause I mean, again, we come up in an environment where like, you weren't the only person that might have been in that scenario, right? So you might have related with other kids in that same time and era. Yeah, I had a friend, and this is crazy thing about, I had a friend and I think it was his uncle was in jail with my dad. And so like, our moms would drive out there together. Right, makes sense. So to me, like when I look, when I think back on it, it wasn't normal, but to me it was just, this is, I don't know anything else, right? And it's kind of like, it wasn't like I was in an environment where everybody just had their dads. So it's not even like, in my eyes, I'm not even missing, I'm not missing anything. So it's like- Cause you're like, this is what I knew. It wasn't like I had something to like compare it to or whatever, like it was just a part of your lifestyle. And I remember having friends or like, you talk to friends now that they feel really affected that like, oh, my dad wasn't there, but to me it just was normal. So like, I feel like there's certain trauma that people may have that I don't feel like I have on a conscious level, maybe subconsciously, I might be affected in a way that I don't know. And it might come like, once you become a parent. Right. Like it might be now you're like, oh, I'm good, I'm good, I'm good. And then like the moment you become a parent or like they're, when they turn three years old, you might hit a brick wall and be like, what the hell? Like, why am I feeling this way? Like, who knows, right? And like all you can do is prepare yourself for those moments, but- For sure. And I think like I've always, one thing I vowed to myself just as a person is to be the absolute best father and husband that I could possibly be. And it's like, I feel like that's something that I take super, super serious just because like, it's just the simple things. I just want to recreate what I didn't have, right? So like, I didn't see that. Like I look at certain stuff, it'd have been dope to have like, birthday photos with both of your parents or Christmases or Thanksgiving or just the little different things. So I was like, that's something I've always wanted to recreate for myself. So I just made that vow to myself to be that best, the best parent that I can and husband. And you think that's something that kind of like, from three years old and still into you today to be like, I'm about to kill it in real estate. I'm about to kill it in everything I do because I'm gonna set up my future for my kids for all these things like, just kind of subconsciously aligning together. Yeah, I would say so. Maybe not from three, but like I think it's subconsciously it's like, I wanted my parents to be together cause I think that's just a natural thing to have a child to want their parents to be together. So I wanted that. And so I just always thought like, if I, when my time comes, that's what I'm gonna do. So I mean, so yeah, in short, yeah, I guess in short, yes, but yeah, I would say so. Okay, so you're part-time basketball aspiring athlete. Growing up, just kind of seeing that. Now where was your relationship with money, starting to understand that? Like you said, you knew you was loved and all this stuff, but how did you have a relationship with money and finances and stuff? Or examples like in that grade school middle school, especially in middle school, I feel like in middle school, definitely you start to really notice and understand cause you get your own little lunch money. You get your own little, you know, going out in seventh grade trying to take a girl and buy her a little, little Birkin or something. You know what I'm saying? You talk about like, you talk about Reese's Pieces, you talk about Soskittles. No, yeah, but remember you said buy the girls the candies and stuff. So, you know, how was your relationship with money during those times? So I've always, I feel like I've always had a decent relationship with money. I was always entrepreneurial and I think it came from knowing, I was always super honest with me about like finances and whatever. So like knowing that we didn't have much, I never wanted to be a de-burden. So I never used to want to ask my mom for anything, right? And so I used to always try to carry my own weight. So I guess what that looked like for me was more so this is like back in burn CD days. Oh man, good times. Yeah, so like- Before line wire. Yeah, yeah, man. So I used to burn CDs, sell CDs. I feel like one of my like, my best middle school hustle memories. So I think I dropped my, so like I said, my second love was rap. Really? Yeah, that was my second love. Well, I mean, I can't say it's uncommon, but it makes sense why. Yeah, so that was my second love. And so I came out with a mixtape in the seventh grade. Really? And I had two of my friends selling it. I swear, like- Can we get this mixtape? I have it. No, you don't. I swear to God I have it. Yeah, you gotta drop the tape, right? So here's the thing, here's the thing. So I'm gonna say a name. No one's gonna know what I'm talking about with him. You know Levi? Maybe. Levi, he's went to Grant. He's the- Oh yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. He know, like he legit still knows the words. Cause I was thinking about like two different people. No, so we were in, I think we were in Phoenix or Cabo. Like he still knows the words to the song. No way. Like I swear, like people had it on their iPods. So it was a certified banger then. I mean, I was in the seventh grade. I'm probably 12, 13. I'm talking about a bunch of crazy stuff. Little Balboa was popping. Said again? Little Balboa was popping. Bro. But I'm not talking, this is not a little Balboa topic. I'm just, I'm just saying it was real rap raw. But I made like $100 in like a week. But to me, so me like seventh grade, like that was like, that was dope to me. You feel me? So with like hand to hand selling CDs, you know? And so that I used to sell, I used to actually sell shoes. Then I used to really just steal my uncle's shoes. Then I used to sell his shoes. I would, when I say steal them, I'm like, I might trade him something I had or he would never used to be a racer. I might steal a couple pairs of shoes. I ain't gonna lie. I might have wore some. I might have sold some. It's like, I'm a little devil in that. And then honestly, so I guess, this is me being transparent. This is me trying to be transparent with y'all people. Growing up, all of my real, I would say influences were drug dealers. So honestly, I want to be like my dad, you know? Aside from the gangs and stuff like that, I just want to be like my dad. So I used to spend all of my summers in Atlanta. So I used to see all of the craziness. My dad, for whatever reason, the world blessed me with very transparent parents. So I'm seeing my dad do everything. Like when I say everything, I'm saying everything. So he got out, did he get out or what? So yeah, he saw my dad. He went to Joe Nas three. He got out, I was like eight. And by this time, so by the time he gets to the gift perspective, he went to Joe Nas three. This took place here in Portland. And then by the time he got out of jail, I was eight and we lived in Atlanta and he got out in Atlanta. So probably around 10, we moved back. So then I used to go to Atlanta every summer, if he was free. Okay. He's actually in jail, right? He's in jail right now. Okay. So definitely heavily influenced by the environment. For sure. And I mean, again, you understand why, it makes sense, like product, your environment, we get it. For sure. You know, those are the type of things. But there had to be a moment where you're like, I need to make a change. I have to switch the narrative. I have to do something different or whatever it is. So what was that moment? Like I know everybody has that moment. There had to be that day where you're like, fuck this, I'm out. Like I'm doing my own shit. I'm about to turn it up in a different way. So I, so in high school, I was relatively good at what I did, right? So like I was popular for being the kid who sold whatever I sold, right? And so I think, so growing up, honestly, I got wanted to be a kingpin. Like I used to watch the documentaries. I used to think like how I'm finding my plug and how am I feeling like that was really how I felt. I think where, but I never wanted to adopt the lifestyle. Cause my dad always went to jail for like the lifestyle stuff. It would be like gun charges or he went to jail whether he, you know, I don't know, did something to somebody that evolved weapons or just DUIs getting pulled over, just whatever. So I never adopted the lifestyle. And so like 50 cent was my role model. So like I still never to this day have ever smoked weed. Right. That's why you asked me. Cause I was like, I don't smoke either. Yeah. No, I've never smoked weed a day, like a day of my life, which is surprising. Did you ever drink a drink? I'll drink occasionally. Yeah. I'll drink like, I don't know, once or twice a year, maybe. Yeah. So I'll say occasionally. I'll probably maybe a handful of times. Going out to country, have a couple of drinks. Exactly. Something like that. But I'm not just like every weekend, like I don't even like going out like that. I feel you. So I think that I guess to come back to your question, the point that things changed for me was I was kind of like, I was trying to hustle to save up enough money to try to start a business. So like that's, so things I felt that way probably graduated from high school. I think when I graduated, I probably had my first $20, $25,000 when he graduated from high school. So my thing is like, I'm finna hustle, I'm finna stack up and I'm finna try to start something. So I probably ran through $40,000 trying to start various things. And I'm like 2021. And after I ran through all of my money, the game that I was in and making my money had shifted. Basically dispensaries came legal. So that just kind of messed up everything. And so I was like, I couldn't just make all the money the way that I had before. So I was depressed and it was one of those things I ended up getting a job. I'd never thought I would work a job. So I worked a job for 10 months. So I've only ever worked a legitimate job other than real estate for 10 months. So I was like checking in people at like a health clinic. Oh, okay. Like the front desk? Yeah, front desk. I did that for 10 months. So like I'll refer, like if I talk to people, I like I did my 10 months at the county, you know? Cause I saved up from my real estate school, got my credit together in this deuces. So okay, okay, okay. Rewind a little bit. Go ahead. We went to high school together. We were in the same entrepreneurship class and all this stuff. It's funny how that all went down. And then later we talked about that. I was like, oh man, cause I don't really know that many other people like in our class that was like on the entrepreneurship side. Cause it was just like a class, right? Yeah, for sure. But it was funny, cause we was actually like the ones in there like trying to turn up. No, for sure. For sure. That's like how we had our initial connection when we, cause I don't think I had known you until I got to high school. Yeah. We met in high school. I sat behind you. Yeah. So that all happened. And then like you said, everything changed. This is how old you, 19, 20? When, so I would say about 2021 is one of the things. My mindset was already on entrepreneurship always, but say it one time. You were like, I'm getting money. Like in high school, like I just, I'll come to high school. Like there's people that come after me. I come to high school. I had 10 bands. Yeah, I remember those days. We used to be so stupid. I'll come to school with 10 bands. I done brought a lot of things to school that probably shouldn't brought to school. I know. Okay. So that happened. And then you said everything changed and you're like, I was depressed. Like what does that mean to you? So I've experienced, I'll say, different levels of depression at different times. So this type of depression was like growing up. So you might remember this. You may or may not remember this. You remember Devin? Maybe. He used to wear suits all the time. Oh yeah. Okay. So that was my, that was my best friend at the time. Right? And so like we used to always talk about business or like I'm going to be like we, like I'm going to be richer than you. Like, I don't know, I'm going to be richer. Like I might pick up, he might pick up a napkin and throw it on the ground. Like, oh, I create jobs for people. Like you want to go ahead and pick that up? Right. Like we would just make fun of each other. If I woke up at five in the morning, I'm like, are you over here? You sleep. I'm like, I'm working right now. What are you doing? And so long story short, like I was always on the business tip. I always wanted to do business. And I guess it came from, so I have cousins in Atlanta that made a lot of money hustling, right? Like a lot of money and like they have music videos. Like I show you my cousin in music videos with Bun B and Lil Boozy like way back then. So like if I was, if I were, if you were my friend and I told you this in high school or in middle school, you wouldn't have believed me because like we're from Portland. Like you don't believe, but if you were my friend, like my dad got pictures with GZ in 06. So this is like prime GZ. So like that's where a lot of my influences came from. But long story short, I've literally seen them have everything, lose it all and go to jail. And it'd be like, I don't want to be that. I don't want to do that. Like so I used to think like, why don't they invest in something or start this or start that? So like I kind of got that, the business wanted to know the business side from seeing them do it away and mess up. And then me like, I'm not going to do the same thing. So that's really where it came from. So that came in it. But when you say like in that depression though, also. Oh yeah, I forgot. I missed the whole depression. How did you like feel in those moments? Like what did you actually go through? Like when you were at home, by yourself in your room, like what were those moments like? So for me, the sickness was like, okay, so think about this. Think about being 18 years old, right? You're 18 years old. You got 20, you got 20 racks, right? You got a cool car, you got all the little stuff that you would want and you kind of see your vision, right? So imagine running up 30,000, 40,000, right? And you think like, okay, I'm going to cross over and do something. You lose all of your money trying to start different things. And it's like you feel like you have so much to give, but you can't give it. And so it's like, you think about like, damn, I was having more money at 18 than I was at 20 or 21 or whatever the how old I was. Just like, just feeling like, how am I going to be successful? Like, how am I going to come out of this situation, right? When I feel like I had a path and it didn't pan out. Like so the depression was more just like, feeling like lost. Like no real guidance, not knowing where to go, not knowing what to do, but knowing that you were like, if you knew what to do, you would give whatever you could to be successful. So like when you, you were questioning yourself, I'm assuming. For sure. And like how, what would you question yourself? Like, what would you be saying? Like in those scenarios, like, what can I do? What am I like? Why am I not like, what? Like, what is it? What are those? The questions is the, you know, you maybe, you might be able to put this on there. When Big Sean said how to be a millionaire, I used to Google it or something like, you know what I'm talking about. Just trying to figure out like how to be successful. Literally, I think that I put a lot of pressure on myself of like, I felt like I told myself in high school, I want to be a millionaire by like 25, 24. Me too, same thing. I was like, I'll be a millionaire by 25. Yeah, no, that was my thing. So there's a lot of pressure on myself to perform. Just because I knew that I was intelligent and I just, I just wanted to figure it out so bad. It's just like trying to figure something out and not knowing what to do, but knowing that you have the worth ethic. It's like, imagine like, I guess this is the best way I could put it. This may not make sense, but think about like Kobe Bryant when he's in his last season knowing that he has this dog in him. He's willing to put in everything that he can, but just physically because of age and whatever, he just can't do it. It's just like feeling like trapped. Like I guess that's the best way that I could try to sum it up into words. So coming out of that, like that's when you're like, I need to get a job and like reset or like what was the kind of mindset behind even like, I'm going to get a job. So I think it was, what it was is like, I always wanted to do, I've always like, I've always like real estate. So like growing up, it was one of those things that I've always had interest in. So like, even if I was going to do a business, like I was always going to invest in real estate. And so I guess from trying to start whatever I was trying to start, what I realized is that people, even when I was doing whatever I was doing before people, like I'm decent at building relationships, right? And just making connections with people. And I realized like when I get in front of people, if I'm talking about whatever it is, like people are receptive to me. So when I thought about like, okay, like I could be a real estate agent because like a lot of times when you're selling a product, sometimes depending on what's available, the product might not be the greatest, right? But I know that anything that I personally, like put my name on, I will give everything I can to deliver on that. So I know that if I'm providing a service, which let's say is the product, I know that I'm going to do everything in my power to make that be the best that it can. So when I thought about being a real estate agent, it's like, okay, I think since people are receptive to me, I can, I think I should be able to, you know, I guess to like network and learn real estate from the inside out to then become, you know, a great investor or developer and all of that. Okay, so while you were in this job for the 10 months, you were just like studying your ass off. Yeah, for sure. I remember there would be sometimes like, damn you, you might have, no, I think you actually became an agent at that point. Cause I remember you would be like printing out contracts and stuff and just like reading them. Yeah. And like doing stuff. Yeah. And we'd be like at the party over there in the corner. I'm physically here, but I'm mentally here. So I, so I, so yeah, my mindset when I was at the job is I'm going like literally day one, like I am getting my real estate license. Like I'm working on my credit. So like I had like collect, I had collections, like just like some, just like stupid stuff. Right. So like, for example, I had like something had happened to me where I had like just like some hell stuff. Nothing super crazy, but my mom told me we had medical, but I guess we didn't have medical. And like I had medical bills and collections. And it was just like, I just never even know. I wasn't even, no, I didn't even know. And like I sold a car in high school and some, it got towed and it got like I knew they never transferred. They never transferred. I didn't even know that I was supposed to go get it. I was the only person that could get it. I'm like, oh, like I sold the car to him. Cause I would've go picked it up for 200 bucks and sold it again. Right. But like I just didn't, I don't know. So it was like little stuff. So like I literally saved up money, got everything out of my collections. Like there was a necklace I had at the time that I used to always wear. And it was like, you know, gold necklace. I like legit ponded that to get my credit together. And it was like, that was like a hard, I was at the time it was like a hard thing to do because it's like, just because you're doing that doesn't mean you're going to beat like, does it like you could have sold it and still messed up your credit again or not be, doesn't mean you're going to become anything. So I just was working, get them my credit together, got credit card, like my first credit cards, put my purchase to real estate school. And so like I completed my real estate, like I remember the dates I got, I paid for the program December 14th, or no, December 19th, 2014. And I finished it January 22nd, 2015. So I got it, like I went to the school in a month. It'd be taking people, I know people like, oh, like it took them six months and four months. Like I felt my test. I gotta do it again. And I had a full-time job. So you just was like, I'm committed to this. And I'm locked in, no distractions, and I'm getting my shit done. Like I don't have time to be wasting. No, cause I was at the, cause I already felt like I was losing time. Even though I was 22, when I got my license, I felt like I was losing time because it's like, if I, cause I truly, and maybe I'm crazy, I don't know, but I truly believed that I could be a millionaire by the time I was 25. So it was like, I felt like, I know that this job is not going to get me to anywhere near to what I want to be. Okay, so you get the license. And now you have to, how long were you working before you're like, I'm quitting this job? I think I did six months. Six more months, okay. So how was your first year being a real estate agent? Because you know, a lot of people say like, first year is rough, you gotta build it up. Like explain how your first year went. Oh yeah. And where'd you go for the real estate school as well? So I did online, online ED. And so literally when I got it, I was like, I was working at a full-time job. I would, since I was checking people in, if it was slow, we had two monitors. I'm doing my real estate thing right here, but everyone at the front desk, they know that I'm doing it. Like no one cared, I don't really care. Like I'm so slow, I'm doing my real estate license. And I wake up, I wake up, work on it, at work, work on it. And then I would leave, used to be a coffee shop called Southeast Grind, it was a 24 hour coffee shop. I used to go there for like two, three hours. Cause like my life depended on me getting my real estate license. Cause I knew like this job is not like, I was making, like when I got my first paycheck, I called my mom and I almost cried. From real estate? No, from the job. From the job? Yes, I almost cried. Why? Bro, taxes bro. Oh, like how much they took for me? Bro, I thought something was wrong. I legitimately thought something was wrong. Damn. Cause I'm never, I'm hand to hand. I'm not paying taxes. Straight cash on me. You know what I mean? And so I was like, I'm making, I've made more money than this in high school. Way less time. Way less time. I'm chilling. And so it was sick, but it helped, I think looking back on it, it helped me understand the value of a dollar. Really knowing what a dollar is and like what taxes is and like what people are talking about when they talk. And I'll find you, my checks are probably 1,400 every two weeks, 1,500 every two weeks. It's not nothing crazy, but you get 1,500 and they take out taxes and it's 11. I'm sick bro. Bro, what am I going to do? There's days in high school I made, you know, like it wasn't, maybe it wasn't like gross, right? But I made a thousand dollars in a day before. So, wait. So where were you living during this time when you were working a job and everything? I was living at home. So you're still living at home? I'm still living at home. One huge bonus right there. No, for sure. Because a lot of people still have over here with just living expenses. And that is like a huge, huge thing. And that was intentional too. Because I think, and I guess I'm speaking to young people right now who are trying to figure it out, like don't rush to move out. And the reason why I say that is because if you rush and move out and you're working a low, if you have a low earning job, you're literally just working to maintain what you have. And then if you want to buy a car, you got rent $1,500, your car note $300. You're making $1,800. And then you still got food, you got car insurance, you got gas, you're trying to live a little bit. Like, I literally, I didn't move out until I was 28, but we'll get to that part. We'll get to that later. I didn't move out until later either. I was like doing the same thing. I'm like, I'm on that same notion. Even when I bought the first house, I was renting it out. I was like, don't go into my room. But I still had stayed at my parents' house for like four more months before I even decided to move in. Cause I was really like kind of in no rush. Like I'm here for the money for that, but I'm really not trying to be moving out like that. Before I moved out, I had four properties. So I had three duplexes in a house and I moved into the house. I love it. But so I was like, I wasn't like, I probably had... Today's partner is shopdnashow.com. Are you tired of wearing low quality gear? I completely understand. I made a personal mission to go out and find higher quality stuff and give it to you guys at an affordable price. And not only because of that, I have to wear this stuff every day. And I don't wanna be wearing cheap clothing all the time. So I wanna make sure that you guys know about it and our understanding that we have a lot of cool stuff coming out as well. Hit the link down below or pinned or wherever it may be. It's gonna be shopdnashow.com. There's new drops every single month. I'm excited to see you guys in the gear. And now let's go ahead and get back to the podcast. I'm super transparent. I probably had a quarter of a million dollars before I moved out and I'm still nervous about paying the mortgage. That's tell you everything about my mindset right there. I could have paid my mortgage for three years, but I still didn't wanna take on that payment. And my mortgage, I got a great... I'm an investor, y'all, so I got a great deal. But my mortgage was like 1,300 bucks. Oh yeah. And so that's nothing at all. So it's like under $18,000 a year and I could pay my mortgage for 10 years and was tripping, you know? But that's the things though that literally help you scale faster, grow faster, get farther, do all those different things. It allowed me to take a lot of risk. Cause it's like, I used to... Cause so at this point, when I'm before I moved out or whatever, I had four properties, I'm living in my grandma's basement. And it was a, it was a cool basement, but I'm in nonetheless some of the basement. So I used to always tell myself like, I could take certain risks because how much worse is it gonna get to this? Like if I lost everything tomorrow, are they gonna dig another level in my grandma's basement? Are they gonna go below that? Like it's not, you don't have nothing to lose. I got another house, but I'm still staying at my grandma's. Yeah, exactly. But imagine, so this is what I think, imagine dating and talking to girls and that being the situation. A. I got cribs. I got cribs when I'm at the crib. I'm at the crib. I'm down in the baby crib. Okay, so, but before that though, we gotta step back just a little bit again because a lot of people was like, oh yeah, four properties had this much money, da-da-da, right? So how did you get the first property? How did you go about it? Because again, there's so many different ways to get different loans, whatever it may be. Like take us through that step by step because people are still trying to get their first property. And they wanna have four, they wanna have 10, they wanna have 20, but like I don't wanna jump too far ahead before we get there. For sure, so first property I bought, so as you know, or a lot of people know, in order to get like a conventional loan or normal loan, you have to have work for two years. Right, so yeah, two years of tax returns. So the second that I got my two years of tax returns, I got pre-approved and maybe within a week, I saw a duplex. So you used your tax returns from your real estate agent money? Yeah, that was a lot. You need two, yeah, two years of income. So how long were your agent for two years? Like immediately like- It was, so I got licensed in 15. Like I don't really count 15 because it's like I worked a job half of 15. Like I kinda, and I quit then, but it was still like a transitional period. So like my first real full year, I say it was 2016. So like 2016, 2017. Exactly, so I used, so I bought something at the top of 18. Okay. So that's my first purchase, duplex. Before that, I put myself in a first time home buyers program. And so long story short, the down payment for my first crib was 12,000. And but the program, I had put probably like 3,000 into it. For the duplex. For the duplex, I put 3,000 into it and they matched me like nine, right? So my down payment money was already covered. So I negotiated that the sellers pay my closing costs. So like just so you know, just to give you perspective, when you buy a property, the two main expenses you have is a down payment and your earnest money. Earnest money is your closing cost. And like that's how the lender gets paid. And like just Google closing costs, you'll get it. It's not hard. But basically, I negotiated that they pay my closing costs. So then I represented myself. I was my own agent. So I made a commission. Which is very convenient. Which is basically giving your money back. Yeah. So I made a commission. So I want you factor out my commission, right? Like if you factor in my commission, I don't remember how much it was. It was three, 45, two and a half percent. It might've been like eight grand or something. So I made five, like if you, I made 5,000 buying it and then when you purchase properties, a lot of times your, it skips a mortgage payment. So like if you buy something in January, your first payment might not be until March or, depending on like when you close. So like then I got to pocket those two months of rent. So in my head, I made like 9,000 buying it. So I was like, I didn't have to come up with- So you had to have money. Technically, you had to have money to make it happen. But at the end of it all, the way it all penciled out, you ended up making money buying your house. So basically all the money that I came up with initially was the $3,000 that I put in this program and then they matched me with nine. So I had 12, that was my down payment. I negotiated that they pay my closing costs. So I was into it for three grand. By the time I make my commission, I'm a head five. By the time my tenants pay me rent and I don't have nothing that next month. Those three months. That's, you know, so that's a free month. I don't remember what it was. It's called two bands, right? So I'm up by the time I buy my first property. I like it. So you get in and you're already on a good start when it comes to the first property. Have you ever sold any of your original properties that you had? I have, I have. This first time this year, I sold two properties. Okay, so I'm sure it's for a reason. We'll get into that in a minute. So okay, so you get the first property and now how long until the second one? Six months. Six months, okay. So how do you go about it, getting another property six months later? I gotta say first shout out my partner, Brett. So we weren't partners at this time, but it was this deal that I was on Craigslist. He was like, I think this guy will do seller's financing. We're not really interested in it. It's almost this ugly duplex. Okay, and also explain to them what seller financing is. Oh, okay. So was this your like first introduction to seller financing or what? Yeah. Okay, so explain to them what it is. Okay, so seller's finance. So traditionally when you buy a property, the bank lends you money and then you're paying the bank. Seller's financing is when you say, hey, I'll pay you a down payment of, I paid him basically $20,000 and took over his mortgage. It's pretty much what it was, but that's the homeowners, right? So that's a way of it. But typically the typical way of seller's financing is essentially somewhat, let's say someone owns a house free and clear and it's worth $100,000. You give them $20,000 and you make payments to them every month. And then you come up with a timeframe where you would refinance it and then they will get all of their money back. So essentially they're being the seller and they're being the bank. So that's what they call seller's financing. And then you'll hear them say like, two years with a balloon payment or whatever it may be. Exactly, so it was that. So basically a guy, there was this duplex. It was a beat up duplex and it was like not in the greatest area. Like it was a dog and I'm just like, I call, so he wanted $20,000 down and then one of the units needed to be remodeled and it was like $20,000. He needed like $20,000. So you're like, I need 40 just for this. I need 40. So I call, I call, like, I call him like a real estate mentor, am I? Mm-hmm. I like call borrow $40,000. Mind you, just a couple of months prior I saw something that was the first time I ever asked to borrow money for this type of thing. And so he believed in me. He's the first person that ever lent me money. He lent me 40. And so essentially, like I was nervous. Like this was a easy remodel, but this is not my money. This is big because this is not my money. I'm doing the sellers finance thing. Like this could all just blow up in my face, right? But what made me wanna buy the duplex in general, it had a huge lot, right? And so it ended up having like, in what it was zoned, the zoning was changing at the time. So I'm like, oh, you can be able to, in the future, you'll be able to build this on here. Like some huge, right? So I'm like, this will be cool for the future. So like my first vlog, which I haven't even mentioned, I'm not a, I try to be a YouTuber, but I'm not a real YouTuber. My first vlog was me buying my home inspection for this. Okay. And so long story short, I do the, I do the deal. I borrow the money and then two years later, I refinance it and pay him back. So, okay. So two years later, you refinance it. So now when you go to refinance it, who are you using for refinancing? Is it based off of like the equity that you got in and out and all other stuff? Yeah, so basically, at that point, I just go to like a traditional, just like a traditional bank, right? So a local bank here, a big local bank is on point, I go to on point. And then I refinanced it. So I put $40,000 into it. So I ended up putting an extra 20 into it over time, over the two years. I bought it for 2.90. It ended up appraising for like 4.25. So then he gets his money back. Everybody gets that money back. Everything's over like that. And you told him like, it's gonna be a two-year play. Yeah. Okay, so he was good. Everything's straight. Yeah, everything's straight. You're not like pressed about that or anything. I got my first lawsuit there too. Tennis tried to sue me. Really? Yeah. There was a, it was settled. So I legally can't speak about it. But there was a settlement. It was a money grab. And it just was like, rookie landlord stuff. Like just stupid. Like you being a rookie. Yeah, just stupid. It wasn't, but it wasn't even like, like the situation was, I was building a tiny house on the back of it. And it's one of those things where it's like, oh, you didn't give proper notice. But it's like, it was just like some BS. Just some corny stuff. Some corny stuff. Oh, we know the loophole. Let's try to hit the lead. So it was like, I got something in the mail one day. Like we need you to pay 50,000 in like 90 days. I'm sick. I'm so sick. I'm super sick. But we ended up settling. It ended up costing a fraction of it. And it wasn't nothing serious, but it was like, it had me ready to be like, I'm done with this. I'm done, Mike. I'm done. This is on your second property. Yeah, for sure. Okay. So second property, it's another duplex. Another duplex. Two duplexes. Still staying in grandma's basement. Yeah. Okay. Third property. Another duplex. Three duplexes. Three duplexes. Same scenario. Same scenario. No, no, so this is a traditional buy. Traditional. This is on the market. So for finance and for that, you just use regular income from property sales that you have for your job. Yeah, exactly. So I sell properties that I sell 30,000 down. And so this was around the time. So prior to this, I had a Mercedes, right? There was another crazy little Mercedes, whatever. I made a vlog of me taking back my Mercedes because when you buy properties, you get to this thing where it's something called debt to income ratio where essentially, again, this is one of those things you can Google, but essentially what it is, is that you make a certain amount of money, you have a certain amount of debt. So I have these multiple mortgages that are showing up. And so it's like, even though that I have renters in there and they're paying for it, the bank looks at things differently at times. So the easiest debt that I could get rid of was selling my Mercedes. I sold it back to the dealership and lost 2,000 and went back to Toyota Camry. And I didn't, and the thing is I made a vlog about it because that's how much I didn't really care. Like I never was a super materialist. But it was like the same thing of like selling your chain back in the day. And so I, it's crazy you brought up that reference because I thought about that at that time, like had I not did that then, I maybe have not even been in the position to take this back, but it's like my thought process was like, about the duplex for 315 is probably worth 525, 550 now. So it's like that car would have been worth 10,000 now. And this is worth damn near double. You know what I mean? So it's like one of those things is like, to me it's a no-brainer, but I think people get so caught up in ego. I got to look this way. I got to be presented this way. But it's like, when you know, if you know, you know. Well, I was in the same scenario, like when I was going to get my first house and I bought the second one, it was like, bro, I got all these shoes. Like I can sell these, take the cash, get a hard money lender, go get the second property and make it all happen. And I was like, I didn't want to cause I worked so hard. I had so many stories and memories, but I was like, man, it's not going to hurt me to sell a few hundred pairs of shoes. I got like seven, 800 pair of shoes. Like it's not going to be that bad, you know? Wait, hold on to everybody. Can I get a pair of shoes, bro? Let me get a couple pair. I know you want some 10 and a half, bro. I'm a 13 becoming- No, you guys- Bro, he's- All sell shoes, don't worry. Bro, you're a shoe hoarder, bro. You have some- I'm size 13. You got some 10s in the stock frame, bro. I don't have enough 10s, bro. If he was a size nine, I'd have some crazy samples, but- I'm a size nine. That's a whole another story. I'm a size nine. I'm going to need some racks. Y'all need to drop- Can y'all please, in the comments below, tell them to give me some shoes, man. I need some shoes. Everybody in the comments coming, you're asking for the shoes. Hey, ask them to, yeah. Listen. They go, they want them for themselves. Tell them to just give me some shoes. I need some of those 13s that meant so much to me growing up, man. You need to just give me a pair of those. No, no, I'll just- Okay, okay, okay. No, I'll just talk to you. When I released last time, one of the last time I released, I bought like three pair of them. Oh, you did? Yeah, I ended up selling them, though, but that's it. Love that. Hard times, bro. I just told you, I was depressed, bro. I lost all my money, bro. That was gone. But yeah, no, I know what you mean, though, like on, you know, getting rid of stuff and like making that sacrifice, definitely because like, even sneakers, like this is a status symbol thing. I get that, like, but like, bro, I sold them shoes, took the money and like multiplied it by so much. I'm like, I would have never got that. Like if I would have just kept it or whatever. Oh, for sure. Yeah, sure. I would have made a little bit of money, but not the same. Right, and I think that's what like, what I've had to realize even for me and becoming successful, they always say like, you have to do what others aren't willing to do. To be able to do what others can't do. Or won't you do what they won't do? And so you can do what they can't do, right? So it's like, like, I think we're both in our own rights at that point. So there's a lot of things that we can do, like you can do whether it's with shoes and like with your channel or all of that. Cause you stay down, you make the sacrifices. And there's a lot of things that I can do in real estate that a lot of people can't do, even if they've been in business longer than me because there are certain sacrifices that we both made up front that pay it off. That it's like, we just receiving the dividends from that in the short term, we're super uncomfortable. And we didn't want to do them, but it propelled us and it really made us that much better entrepreneurs and business people because we understand what it takes to be able to sacrifice something in order to get ahead. But you said it earlier too, like, you had to check your ego. No, for sure. That was like the biggest thing. I think that's the hugest hurdle. Oh, I don't know for everybody, but I feel like the vast majority of people, the ego is the hugest hurdle for a lot of people to take that next step, to get over it. Because what, they don't want to see, they don't want to have people see you fail or take, you took a step back, you was driving a Benz, now you got a Camry, da, da, da, like all that stuff like, and you're like, nah, nah, it's good. Yeah, no, I- I'm doing it now so I can get here. No, it's for sure. And then later you're going to be like, damn, you driving that Bentley, you should have put some different rims on it. Yeah, for sure. Like, you know how I go. No, 100%. And so I think what it is, is what you have to realize too is like, in business, it's no ego. Mm-hmm. It's, it's, there's no ego, right? It's like, you do transactions with people because it's a value exchange, right? You sell somebody some shoes, they have the money, you have the shoes, it's an exchange, right? So there's no ego, like, you don't care, you know, you don't care who this person is or what it is, they're who their mom or their dad is. It's like, do you have the money for the shoes or do you not have the money for the shoes? Right. All of the ego stuff goes out the window. So it's like, in business, it's like, you have to be able to provide a value and or service to someone. Mm-hmm. To the best of your ability, right? And so I guess at this point, I provide housing and it's like, if I wanna be able to provide housing or benefit from, to be able to provide housing, if I have to sell a car to be able to buy a piece of property that's gonna appreciate and give me money every single month, I don't give a damn about that car. Man, see, he gonna have me selling my whole collection at the end of this podcast. No, don't, don't sell the collection, bro. And if you do, bro, just say what's your parachute for me, the 13th. I am actually thinking about downsizing a little bit. I'm in the middle of a weird position right now cause I actually wanna buy a bigger house and have a big ass shoe room and have it be like crazy and just go like 1,000 pairs, just fire, just like crazy. But then I'm also like, bro, I need to do this, whatever. And it's not about status or any of that stuff. I just love this shit. I've been doing shoes for so long. I always love having a fire collection, being able to pick whatever I wanted, being thankful for all the things that I've been. It's so dope. Like sometimes I walk into my office in here and I'm like, bro, I remember my 16 year old self, like dreaming to be here. And I'm in here living it right now. And like it's just so, like it's so dope to be in that. And it's like, it makes you wanna like go harder, build the collection more like, and I give away a lot of shoes, I do a lot of stuff. But to people that need, to people that truly need this stuff. But I'm in like an interesting place right now. I be some days I'm like, what's my collection worth? What could I sell? What should I do? Ooh, I could dump like a hundred pairs. I could do this. And then other days I'm like, nah, nah, I gotta like, I mean, I worked hard for these or like, I got a good story for this. Like, so it's like a- I feel, so I can relate to that because, so my vanity sheet, like you can walk in this room and you can see all of these shoes, right? I got an Excel sheet that has all of the properties that I own, how much equity I got in them, all of that. I look at that bottom number and it's like, how you be like, how much like, and I'll go in there, like, if I feel like the market is down a little bit, I'll adjust the numbers down or if it's, I'll adjust it, you know, make my little adjustments. Like, that's my, it's called an SREO. It's called a schedule of real estate owned, the bank's export. So I like, that's my vanity sheet. I look at it, I'm like, damn, okay, I'll work this. Like, how can I get this up to this number or this number or this number? Should I sell this to buy this? Sometimes I'll be just, because real estate is super cash intensive. So it's like, you could be worth millions and not have that much money at times. You know what I mean? And there's other times that you could have five, 600,000 and you find a new project and it's going, that's, there you go, you can stay on the place for it, you know? So it's one of those things like, I'm like, damn, should I liquidate this or is the market gonna do this? So should I sell this so I can have this? But then it'd be like, I'll look at the taxes on it. Like, if you like, there's a private, I was looking at, if I sold it for, if I sold it, I could make 250, right? Taxes would be like 70,000. Damn. Like, is that worth even? Yeah. Oh, I almost had 180. Right. They didn't even lend me the money to buy it. I thought 250 was a threshold. Oh, if it's only if it's your primary residence, so huh. Yeah, I'm sorry. Yeah, because this would be a investment property. Yeah, so this is like, you got 20% capital gains, 9% state, excise tax, all these other taxes, corporate, if you do over a million dollars a year in revenue, not growth, like gross numbers, there's a corporate activity tax and it's like 1% on every million. After like, whatever, so it's like, since I've literally do new construction, where I'll sell a house, if you sell two houses for 500,000, but you do that four times, that's four a million. That's four, you know what I mean? It's just, bro, it's just be, it's just be out and up. But it's like, we don't really say if you sell it a certain way, you can, you know, you can, what is the proper word? It's not pay taxes, you can defer the taxes. Right, right. So one thing that you, I feel like pride yourself in also is like learning about zoning. Oh yeah. That's like your thing. Yeah. So like, explain to them zoning and then also tell them like, why it's so important to you. Right. And what you've learned like, from it the most. So, so basically in a real estate, when you buy a piece of property, everything, every property has a, is zoned for something, right? So if you, that's like, think about this, you drive down the street, you're in a neighborhood, it's all houses, generally it's all for single family houses. You drive down a busy street, it's all buildings, usually that's on commercial, right? And so there's zonings in between that. So essentially zoning is where the jurisdiction, the city allows you to build in on a specific parcel. And so basically, since I do a lot of new construction in the city that I'm in, I know the zoning code, like the back of my hand. If I don't know something, I know who to ask to get the answer instantly. And so to answer his question of, why zoning is so important to me is because I'm like the last split, I don't say master, that's steep. But like I'm a last split guy. So like a lot of the times. So you do it often. Yeah, I do it, I do it often. So basically our real estate prices are high here. So if I can find a piece of property that's on something I can split, if you can buy the initial property right, that land is dang near free. It's like you could sell it, make 100,000 or you could leverage it to build on it and not have to put up any money because you could use the equity in the land for the construction loan. And it just opens up your whole arsenal. So, and it's a lot of things, but a lot of times it's that thing that everyone just doesn't inherently know right off the top. Everyone just doesn't know zoning. So when I see something, you know, if I can fix it up and split a lot off of it, I'll probably buy it. So in those scenarios for you guys to like kind of visualize or anything, he's talking about like a property that's like, oh damn, this is a good sized piece of land in a neighborhood or whatever. And there's a, the house is like pushed back to the back of the property. So he could split it and run it, like I'll cut it in half or take a, you know, the front half of the property and then we'll sell that or use it as equity or advice versus like the house. Sometimes you guys see houses like close to the curb and then there's like a big ass backyard. That's where you can go take the money and like, let's split this, let's cut that backyard in half and then let's turn it into a whole another lot of land. And then that's just literally kind of like, I don't know if it's like, I wouldn't say printing money, but it's like creating new opportunities with the land to give you more money. It's one of those things. Like I said, people don't look, people don't necessarily, not everyone looks for it or can knows it well enough to be able to act fast as I can or something. So opportunity could pop up. You might not, you might need three or four days to figure it out, run it by this person, run it by this person. In the moment I see it, I already know what can be done. And I might have to figure out a detail or two, but by the time you've tried to figure it out, I already got it under contract. Right. So we locked in. Yeah, we locked in. So we went from the third duplex to like a little bit farther ahead. Right. Everybody like to get into real estate and then they're like, I want to scale, I want to grow. You know, like you and me, we always talk about, you be like, right, pay the taxes, do the thing. I'm like, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Me, I'm like, I'll just do cash. I'll figure it out. So, but with that, like for me, like I got to pay a higher rate or whatever it may be. What was your thing for scaling? You would say, cause you said how many properties and how many years? So I've bought 17 properties or 17 rental properties. Okay. In five. Five years. Okay. So yeah. 2018 to today. Okay. So 17 properties and five years. Yeah. And that means you're basically like either buying multiple in a single month or essentially like on average every few months you're buying a property. So what is that like getting into that phase of like, bro, I'm trying to get a, I'm trying to get like a new property every quarter or whatever it is. So for me, I don't look at it that way just because it's like I, you can't force a deal. Oh yeah, for sure. You know, or if you force a deal, it's you gonna mess up. So I don't like, it just happens, sometimes it just happens in ebbs and flows. Like there's months where I bought two or three things. There's been two or three months where I haven't bought anything. Right. So it's just literally like when I see it, I know when I, that's it. Like right now I got something under contract. It's a house, it's a 10,000 square foot lot. Literally it's on the 5,000 right down the middle. It's a whole another one. I'm literally gonna split the lot, fix up this house, sell it. I'll probably be into this land for 50 grand. It's not the greatest area. So a lot might be worth 125 or whatever. I'll be into a 50. I'll either sell it, I'll either sell it to profit maybe 50 or so, or I'll just keep it and build it like a four unit, four plex on there to just keep. You got partners, you do everything by yourself. Like how does that work? So out of the 17 properties that I have, I have partners on three. Okay. So the other 14 are just my solo. Okay. So you're saying after 10 properties on your name, you have to go private money after that? Yeah. So basically with, so right now, if you're getting like conventional financing Through the bank, through the bank, they only allow you to have 10 mortgages. And I passed 10 mortgages a while ago. And then after that, like the financing is a little bit harder because they're called a non QM product. So if you look up non QM, it's non qualified mortgages. So these are just like different pools of money that are a little bit more expensive, a little bit higher interest rates and all of that. But it's like, what do you do? You gotta do it. You gotta do it. So 2019 I just wanted to buy one property a year and that's because I know it's easy financing. So a lot of people will say they want to buy one a year because they know they can put 5% down, 3% down. Once you get an investment, you got to put 20% down, 25% down. So again, that was just my goal. And then that first person that lent me money when I bought my second duplex, he had a bunch of money tied up and he was gonna start lending me money to flip pretty much, right? And so I talked to him- For the down payment money? Yeah. Like for the collateral with the hard money, you're saying? Either that or he's gonna buy a cash or he's gonna loan me the- So he'll be the hard money lender? Exactly, he was gonna be that. Okay, so he'll be the all of it. Exactly. 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I can help you with finding loans and remodeling properties and getting yourself on the right path to become a millionaire if that's something that you desire. If this sounds like something for you, hit the link down below in the description and get signed up today. This is more than just sneakers. I wanna see people grow and succeed in all aspects of life. Let's get back to the podcast. I don't know if prices are gonna fall. What's gonna happen, right? So I was like, I wanted to be in, give myself the best advantage or to put myself in the best possible position to take advantage of any opportunities that came. So I was just on the phone, just calling a bunch of people, just trying to get access to money. So I called him. I was like, hey, in this video, this is actually recorded when I was shooting something. I called him. I'm like, hey, do you know anyone that would lend kind of similar to what we were talking about? I know you got a lot of money tied up. He's like, tie it up. He's like, I got a guy. Let me talk to him. Let me see. And at this point, he's lent me millions. And so that's kind of what he'll- So the first guy referred you to the second guy. And now the second guy is like, yo, guy. That's my guy. That's how you've been rocked away. That's my guy. Okay. That's my guy. I would have gotten to where I am without him. It just would have took longer. Oh, right. So how did you negotiate with him to not be like a partner on the property but more of like, I just need the money and I'll give it back to you and we'll just keep working on more properties and I'll give you your money that you want in return. Cause I feel like a lot of people on the entry level with the lower amount of money, people's like, I'll lend you the money, but I'm trying to be a owner in this too. Right. I think it was one of those things that, well, one, the person who referred me to him, I'm like, that's like my grandpa. That's like my real estate grandpa. Okay. So it's like, he basically like vouch for me. Right, so you're good. So I'm good. So when I'm talking to him, I'm just like, hey, like this is kind of how I do it. He's, he would partner with me, but he just as a guy, older guy made his money in real estate, commercial real estate, like, so do you know? Okay. So this is a Portland thing. You know where the desktop coffee is? They own that whole building. Okay. So they sold the parking lot across the street for like 11 million. Right. So they made that money. Right. So him, he just has this money. He just has cash, a lot of a couple of million in cash for whatever reason. And he just was willing to lend it out. Right. Cause I mean, he's getting a higher return on his money. He's not, he doesn't want to, he doesn't really want to do much honestly. And so it's like the perfect storm because pretty much how he made his money is by lending or he made a lot of his money by lending in the past and kind of being partnered with the right people. So it's kind of already up his alley. So like on my biggest, or one of my biggest properties that I bought for a million and 50 were, like he's my partner on two of them. Because it was just, it was so, like I could have borrowed the whole million from him, but it would have cost me 80 grand a year and it took a year and a half to do it. So like, do I want to be on the hook for, I think it'll be like eight grand a month, like to hold this property. Do I want to put myself on a hook for that? Or I just want to make you a partner. So if it doesn't go exactly the way I want to, there's a little bit of safety there. Cause I don't have to pay you anything cause we're partners. Right. So that's moving further ahead. But that's what turned me up is having access to money. Cause I, as, as an agent, and like I was already remodeling properties, I was already buying properties, right? And I was already like wanting to work with investors. I was learning the zoning code. So as soon as I got them, as soon as I had access to money, it was over. Right. Like I already knew what to do, right? Like it wasn't like one of those things of like, you know, like I stumbled into this cause I legit called someone and asked them, hey, do you know someone who would do this? And then I was already looking for these properties for other people. So I just, now I can just buy them and now I can profit from them. So what would be some advice you would give to somebody who's like, cause there's people that like, I feel like you have to have like, at least done a couple of flips and done a couple of things to even have some type of track record to make people be like, oh yeah, I'll work with you. You can't just be like, oh, I bought my first hat, my first property. So I need somebody to give me money too. Right. What would you say would be like the baseline criteria because you might be in the position one day where that comes to you. For sure. And then now you're going to be playing that role where they just did for you and that, you know. You know what I've asked already. Huh? I said, people have asked me before. You see what I'm saying? I said lend money here. So like what would you say it would be that like criteria you think kind of checks those boxes to be like, you're a qualified individual. I think I want to rock with you. Right. So I guess to speak to you directly in order. So if you're at a point in real estate where you have, you, you feel like you could do, like, you know, do a flip or you could do something. I think you have to establish a track record some way, somehow. Right. So whether you take the time and you go work for someone who's doing it or you're assisting someone, you have to kind of give yourself an in. So it's like the, the, not the stereotypical, but like the typical way of how they always say like, Oh, go work for somebody for free and they'll teach you whatever you want to know. But essentially doing something like, find a way to get in the motion and get in the mix because I guess the thing is this, like people lent me, they were covered with lending me money because I had a track record. I was not only was I a real estate agent. I flipped things. I invested. I've already kind of did the thing I could show. I already showed promise. Right. So it was an easier decision versus someone who's just trying to do it. I think a lot of the time you, like I said, either have to find a way to get in the mix by like, or, or sacrificing and buying your first one to show proof of concept or even, or yeah, working, working for somebody or just again, just trying to find a way to get in the motion. It's one of those things I feel like it's hard to give direct device on because it's like the, the access, the people you might have access to, you only need one person to want to lend you money, but it's like for everyone, it's a different reason why they would lend it to you. Right. Like they might, some people might lend it because they, they know you, they trust you got a good family. Some people might trust you because you have a track record. So I think one of the, I think, but the clearest thing is to be able to have some type of track record. So I think that, so that kind of, to me, I would summarize it as like identifying yourself, understanding where you stand and who's around you and what you have done or what you need to do to be credible. And then networking is key. And then not being afraid to pick up the phone and ask for help. No, for sure. I feel like that would be like kind of how I would. No, so I would exact. So what you said. No, so basically that's a perfect, I feel like it's a perfect summary. Maybe I effed up trying to answer that. No, no, I'm just, that's how I would interpret it. Yeah, so summarizing it, yeah, not being afraid to ask for help. Like I remember the first time I called the person that lent me that first $40,000. When I called him and asked him, there was two people that I called. I didn't even call him first. I called somebody else and he was like, like, oh, let's, we can talk about it. Like what I'm doing something right now, like let me give you a call back. I can visually remember where I was at, what I did it. I was so nervous, my heart was pounding. I'm sweating. I've never asked anybody for $40,000 or any type of money ever. And so this person, he was like, oh, like, let me see the deal and whatever. He just believed, he believed in me. And then I was like, you know, I love, I love him forever. Okay, okay. But yeah, so basically answer the phone. Cause even today, like there's somebody that we both know, I won't say his name, super athlete. I just asked him to partner with me on some stuff. It was like, but I got his contact, like I'm pick up the phone, like, I mean, what I got to lose by asking you, you know, it's not like I don't have a track record or there's not something that I could, like I'm just random guy, hey, let's do stills together. But it's like, you pick up the phones, you know, you got to ask. Cause if he would have said, if he says yes, like that could turn me up. If he says no, you never know if you didn't ask. Yeah, or they might say no. And then later it'd be like, he asked me a couple of years ago, I saw their growth since and then now I like what you're doing. So like even setting that plant in that seed, I always say that too, like when you're, for a lot of different things, like, I know it's like for social media side, you leave like a DM like for a brand and say, hey, I'd love to work with you guys that I would do, like, you know, cause everybody just wants some free stuff from the brand, but really you're doing it to build a relationship with the brand. So for me, I like it because it's like putting a timestamp on it. Like I hit you up today. And then a year from later, you know, I might see you at an event or something. And then I messaged again, oh, nice seeing you at this event, whatever. And then they see it cause they met me now and they're checking for the DM. And they're like, oh damn, you messaged me a year ago cause you wanted to work with me. And now they're already like more excited about it. For sure, cause it's genuine. Yeah, yeah, like, oh, you really did that, you know? And sometimes it might be you hit them up not every day or nothing, but like, you know, every few months or every six months or something. And then it lines up and it's like, it's perfect time. And they see you've been really trying to do this, being persistent and what do you think? So I think it's good. And I think that's a part of it too, is like being persistent too, because I feel like there's a lot of people that feel like they have a great idea in the moment like, oh, I just want to flip property. It's like, all right, well, what do you have? Like, I think you have to, if you could be objective about yourself, right? Objective, look at yourself outside of yourself and say, would I lend this person money? Right. So would you lend yourself money based off of what you know? Not because you feel like, but if you could just physically look at yourself and be like, all right, this person, you've done this, you've done this, you've done this. These are, this is your skill set. Like, would you lend you money if you came to ask you? Right. You know? People's probably listening to this right now, like, I wouldn't lend myself nobody. But that's okay though, like, you got to figure out what you need to do to get in that position. For sure. I'd say self-awareness is key. I'd say self-awareness is key. I think in business in general, because it's like, the one thing that I don't like about school that I like about business is like, you know how, if you're not good at, if you're not, if you don't want to edit these videos, right, you could pay so-and-so to edit these videos. But in school, if you were trying to get help from someone in class to be able to try to figure out this, oh, you can't, you have to figure this out on your own, right? Or like, oh, that's cheating. But it's like, that's what the rich people do. Like, I don't do every single thing for myself. You know, like, I don't buy the properties. I mean, I don't buy them. And then on top of it, I'm in there painting and working on the roof and cleaning it and taking the photos and posting it. Like, there's people whose expertise are doing portions of everything that it takes to do it. And I let them do it. I'm not the stager, you know what I mean? I'm not the painter. I'm not the stager. But I know who to call to do what and how to organize it in a way to where everything gets done. But I don't have to know how to do everything. Okay, so we talked about a lot of good things, right? Right. Money, properties, lenders, people helping out, all this stuff. What are some of the biggest struggles you've had with this whole process? Like, where you're like, remember you said, talking about different emotions, different forms of the depression over the years, whatever, right? Like, what was one of those like tough moments during this real estate time? I mean. In just the past five years, I guess. They come? Honestly, it's still not over. Like it's still like, I think people think you get to a certain point. So it's like, oh, I have 10 million. You have 10 million dollars in real estate and you're building all of this stuff and you make however many six figures that you make or if you have X amount of money, it's like, they never stop because it's like real estate is one of those games of like. It's always something. If you have a hundred thousand dollars, you can find how to spend it. If you have a million dollars, you can figure out how to spend it. If you got 10, you got a hundred, like it's just literally the levels just go higher and higher and higher. So it's like, it's an infinite money game. So it doesn't matter how much money you have or how much money you make. So I think it's one of the issues that I would say that I like to, so I guess, okay, I'll go back to like a more like recent stressful time of like 2022, right? So let's say January or not January, July 2022, the Federal Reserve is now combating inflation. Interest rates are just going up and up and up and the market is just tightening and tightening. Things are slowing down and like, are we about to be in a recession? And then we had two quarters where GDP went down. So basically it's how much money is moving through the economy, right? So if it goes down for two consecutive quarters, that is technically a recession. So like we had that, but it was like not really a recession cause the job market, it was just weird, just weird time. So it's just like, what is that about to look like? For me, right? What is that gonna look like? Yeah, I remember like looking on, cause I be looking at like the different platforms like every night before I go to sleep. And I just remember seeing like prices of homes and then like, I'm like, damn, they had this one listed at like 700. Now it's like 550. Like what's going on? Like, what should I do? I don't even know if I should be getting in right now, but this rate is crazy. Like I'll be paying the price or something else. Even when I forgot the house for cheaper. And then seeing stuff like, I didn't know what was about to happen, honestly. But I feel like it's coming back to it. The thing is, so I can tell you what I think happened. That was on new development stuff too. Right, but still, but that's the, so I wasn't ever worried about my personal investment portfolio. That's not the part that I'm worried about. The new construction is what you get worried about. That's what I was looking at. If you have, okay, so let's say for example, let's say for the second conversation, I got 10 projects going on. And let's say I have, like I'm paying interest on all of these every month. So let's just say I'm paying two grand a month on 10 projects. That's 20 grand a month. They're not selling. Let's say they're not selling. That's 20 grand a month, every month. Until they sell. And you gotta like do a little price drop or whatever. Right. So it's like, only are you spending money to hold it if it's not selling, you're lowering the price. And then it's like, are you gonna be upside down? Like your gap is just squeezing like this. And then eventually it's like, all right, we gotta Airbnb it now. So then it comes to the point where it's like, if it drops down far enough, when you sell it, not only did you have to pay the money to hold it, but now you have to bring money to then, like if you owed a hundred, let's say for second conversation, you're selling something for you owe 400,000. Initially you're gonna sell it for 550, but you have to sell it for 350, right? In order to make good on the loan, you have to bring in that extra 50. So not only did you have to feed it, and so if you don't have it, so if you don't have the money, then what? Right. Yeah, you're a bankrupt. Don't bet. That's monopoly. That's monopoly. You got the game. So it's like you go through all of these thoughts, like do I have enough reserves? Like, can I withstand this? Should I sell this now? How long can I hold out? Do I dig a deeper hole? Do I try to cut? Do I cut losses now? Don't put more in it to try to make it nicer? Exactly. Do I try to add more value? Yeah. Do I try to add more like literally a roller coaster? Cause this is your life. Like this is in this like, and it's like when I'm stressed out, like when I'm stressed out, my world kind of stops a little bit. I'll be honest with you. Even today, like it still just stops a little bit. When I'm super stressed out. Okay. Not mild stress I can. Yeah, yeah. So how do you deal with stress in current time? I eat. You eat? I eat. So you're like stressed out. You're like, I'm gonna go get something to eat. I'll get some donuts. So Christian Curry donuts. Oh, it's eating, man. When I'm stressed out, if anybody that knows me knows I'm stressed either. Cause like I don't smoke. I don't drink. I don't really party. I'm not doing any drug. Doing no drugs. So I might just eat a little donut. You only get some a little dope of me for that. I'm so done. And then I tell myself, what's your favorite kind of donut? So it's glaze, I'm basic. Glaze, regular, old fashioned? Yeah. Which one? So I like, so I used to have you know, Helen Bernhardt on Broadway. That used to be the, like, that's what a donut tasted like. Anything that's not that, it's a good, it could be good, but like this is what it's supposed to taste like. This is the example. And then kind of Christian Curry kind of got me more recently. You like Christian Curry? Yeah, I know. Okay. So Christian Curry and regular glaze. No maple bars, no chocolate, no stuffing, no sprinklers. And then I like Praline's and cream from Basket of Robin. Okay. My girl won't put me in it. I'm like an old school, I'm an old school, or what's it called? Old school, old fashioned, whatever. Yeah. Like a glazed donut? For, oh yeah. It's like a more textured. Oh, I know what you're talking about. What are you talking about? It's like the edges is a little different. It's not like the circled edge. Yeah. I know what you're talking about. It's not all puffy and soft. It's like a little bit more textured. I don't know. It's an old school. I know exactly what you're talking about. What can I think of the name of it? It's in my head right now. Old fashioned. I know what you're talking about. Whatever. If I pulled it, I could, those are fire. You gotta put those in the microwave for a little bit. I don't use microwaves. Bruh. I don't use microwaves. You gotta put those in the microwave. I don't own a microwave. That's crazy. I use microwaves since I go to school. For donuts, little seven seconds, little six seconds. Okay, I don't know. Little zap, little zap. It was it. I don't use them. I don't use them. So stress, bro, is normally like, probably every couple of months, like my, cause I, and so in new construction, I have a partner. So I have all my new construction. I have a partner. I have a lot of my own projects that are coming up. That'll be so low, but everything that I've done today, I have a partner on. So when I'm freaking out, I gotta call him. Literally, that's the first call. Like, what do you say? Like when you first pick up? I talk me off the ledge, bro. Like talk me off the ledge. Like, I see, I've seen this, like, what is this? And he just talks me off the ledge every time. And I feel better. That's the only person who under, like, this is what I'll say. And you might be able to relate to this, but once you get to a certain point of like, perceived success, the problems that you have, no one can relate to. Bruh. It's the worst. It's the worst. The worst. Like my mom will tell me like, oh, you just have rich, you just have rich boy problems or rich man problems. It's just like, it's like, and then they think you're smart. So like, oh, you'll figure it out. Like, you'll always figure it out. You'll figure it out. And it's like, exactly. But it's just like in your head, it's like, bro, I could lose it all. Yeah. No, I feel that. What's that? Okay. My other one was too. Cause I feel like, it sucks, but you know, what is it like being a young black man with success, all these different things, navigating into space, dealing with, especially the type of people in Portland. Cause you know how that goes sometimes. It's amazing, bro. It's a, no, I'm not even talking. It's amazing, bro. Okay. I'm gonna tell you why I say that. I'm gonna tell you why I say that. And this is what I genuinely believe. So I'm not one of those, like the world's trying to hold me down or whatever. Like I looked at it, I looked at being a young black man as an advantage. And I'll tell you why. It's because, so I'm not the dresser. I've never really been a dresser, right? But like when I first got real estate, I'm wearing, I'm coming through, like I'm looking like a business guy, right? Suits, whatever it is, like, you know, not overkill, but like I'm, whatever it is. And so I feel like if they expected me to know less because of how I look or the color of my skin, right? And I come through, I looked the part and I really know what I'm talking about. You might think I'm smarter than I actually am. You know what I mean? Like you already underestimated me and I over-delivered. So I always looked at it like it was an advantage. Okay, okay. Right? And then also like- But you haven't had those months where people are like, all right, that was disrespectful. You got to chew it. Like people haven't said nothing or done nothing like- And so I think if I've experienced something because of my, what I look like or the color of my skin, it's probably was always passive. Like if I'm about to open house- Well that's Portland. But I guess I'm saying it's one of those- That's the definition of Portland. No, but I guess it's, I guess to explain it. If I, let's say I'm hosting an open house. I'm sitting here on the couch. I'm selling this house, right? And people walk in, I greet them, you know, have a conversation. And let's say if I had looked differently, they would have worked with me. But because I look a certain way, they don't work with me. They're not openly walking in the house and I'll look at you. I'll look at you. So it's one of those things is like if I've experienced it, I don't know that I experienced it. So since I don't know, I don't count it and it doesn't matter. Gotcha. Because I mean, I don't like, I've defied all of the odds. So I don't even, I don't even look at it. Because it's like, and at this point like, I don't see how I could, someone could hold me back in the sense of like, if I see a great deal that's on the market and I write an offer and I have a great offer and they're gonna make more money working with me than the other person because my offer is better. They're gonna have to take it. They don't care that what I look like. That doesn't matter. If I'm LGBTQIA black upside down, blue, green, it doesn't matter. They're like, we getting the money. We getting the money. That's it. We want the green. I feel it. So that's how I look at it. So it's like, and I genuinely believe that. So like, I don't, to me is great. I don't know. It's just great. Because I feel like then you get to the perspective on the other side of success where it's like, oh, we want you to do this. Right, right, right. Because we need to hit quarter. We need to hit this thing. So like, I mean, like I've sold properties for the city before. I don't know if I would have got it if my skin color was different. Right. So I don't- So it's like double ass sword, both things. Yeah, double ass sword. But I think, I mean, I don't know. I just keep, I just know how to position the sword. You know? But yeah, I don't know. He's like, that reflection, it can hit you. Exactly. You know what I mean? I gotta do a little something different with the wrist. But no, I think it's great. Oh, because you got the Rolex on? I mean, yeah, you know. Tell us about the Rolex. Is that right? Tell us about the Rolex. I mean, so this right here, I don't know which can't, yeah, this camera, this, to me personally, this is a hit trophy. Okay. You know, it's a, the presidential Rolex 18 karat gold diamond, diamond dial, you know, I mean. So I saw you when you got it, that one day. You got it the same day. That's right. Right. It was just out getting food. Out getting food? I don't know. I might have been stressed out. I spent too much on this Rolex. I gotta go get some Rolex. But it's like, one of those things, it's like, it's a hit trophy. At least for me, it's like, I always want it. I always want it. I always want it. And I had one, I've had this same watch before. It was like an older version, like a used version. So how much was the old one? Probably 10 bands. And then you sold it? For how much? And when did you buy that Rolex? The first one? The first one was 2016. So you bought that like, I'm a real estate agent, I bought a Rolex. I just wanted it. I just always wanted it. I bought it. Okay, so you had that for how long? Probably some years. Okay, so you had that for a little bit. But you wasn't like seeing the success you wanted to get a type thing. Yeah, I just, it was premature. I bought it prematurely and. This is like, get rid of Rolex, exactly. Yeah, okay. And then, now when I got this one, it's more like, it's more deserved. Literally like a few months ago or something like that. No, like. How long ago was that? A couple months ago? No, like the second, like, like what's today? Was that the same? Was that a month ago? That was 27 days ago. Oh damn, I feel like, bro, I got a lot going on. It's a lot. Not for sure. I just know the date. Cause when you buy one, they mark your warranty card and it says the date you buy it on. So you bought it a month ago. Yeah. And what made you be like, all right, I can justify buying this Rolex. And this was like, how much compared to the other one? This one was $43,000. $43,000. So you bought this for like, is that a retail price? Yes, retail. Okay. So you bought it at the store or something? Yeah. Okay. So Lambo next? Nah. Nah, I'm not a Lambo guy. My god, you know, my bro got like, you know, you probably know. Well, you know, you know. Honestly, they're not that hard to get, but. He got a year. What's that going to say? Oh, so what made you justify like, all right, it's time to get there, Raleigh. I didn't. I didn't win. It's what happens is this, right now Rolex is short supply. You can't, you call Rolex store right now. You can't get them. Everything in the stores, exhibition. Yeah. So it's like, you can't buy it. So I was like, I was talking to the lady that I bought cause I have another Rolex. Okay. And so I was talking to her. She had an allocation for me. If I'm going to wait another two years for them to maybe have it. Okay. So I didn't just. It was just like a kind of like, spirit of a moment type thing. It came. But you also just closed on some deals or you started a new project or something at the same time, didn't you? I saw it kind of aligned with something else. In short, yes. So basically I sold, I was just a new construction property that we sold. And that's what I use to pay for the watch. Okay. So you like, you made the money on a new construction deal. I didn't even, I spent the money before I made it, which is never a good thing to do. Never spend the money for you making. I had a deal that went pending. You're like, I'm buying the watch. Yeah. Basically. It just, it really just happened. Like it just wasn't one of those things. Like I was like, you know what? This is the moment. I'm finally going to the store. I'm like to buy it. It was like, I went down there, just was talking to her like, Oh, like, do you guys going to get any more allocations? Just talking and have a conversation. And then shortly thereafter, they, she had an allocation. She thought of me and I bought it. Okay. So it wasn't, I wish I could tell you like, Okay, okay. No, that makes sense. I made a million, bro. And I just like, yeah, I just need to go grab that. No, I'm just wondering, cause everybody has like their, you know, story to why the Rolex is so important to them or like, why they want one or what made them get one. I'm at the point where I could do it out it, bro. I don't, it's a watch. Like, but it means something to me because it's something that I've always wanted. So I looked down at it. I'd be like, this is dope. You know, and then when you walk in certain rooms with certain people, if they know what it is. And that's the thing too. It's one of those things. It's making me think about getting a watch. Cause I just, I got to have a watch. I don't really care. I really, like, I have some crazy PEs as worth watches. And I'm like, I'd rather have the PEs cause I like PEs. I like shoes, you know? But like, I do understand that you do get like same thing. People are like, oh, you don't need a Lambo. You don't need a Ferrari. You don't need it. But that gets you into like rallies or whatever or certain rooms and it's a statement piece. Or it's like, we'll put you in a different group of people and I'll have you in an elevated status with that to then cause new conversation which then opens more doors. So it's also investment into your brand. No, I, so I agree with that. But I don't, depending on where you are. Cause I guess this is what I'll say to anybody out here watching this, don't spend it all just to buy the watch. Cause it's never really worth it. At the end of the day, it's just a watch, right? So it's like, I've made a bunch of money with the watch, without the watch, no watch, whatever, right? So I guess what that being said, don't shortcut it, cause I short-cutted it. But at the end of the day, once you get to a certain place, yes. Cause it's like, if I see, if I'm out, we're out in public, oh, nice, you know, nice watch and I got on something similar to what you got on. If I spent $43,000 on a watch and you know exactly what watch this is, you know, it's worth 50 grand, that could, okay, he's doing something that's different. Cause that's a salary, that's an average salary. Just sitting right there on your wrist, casually. Right, right. Just like you see somebody hop out of the Lambo and walk in the Chipotle and you're like, what's this guy doing? Like, what's going on here? It peaks your interest a little bit because they're obviously doing something right. Right. And so that's, I think that's, that's kind of, I think where it goes as far as a conversation piece. Okay. But I never, I don't think it's whatever. I'll make money with it without it. Right, right, right. It's all the same. Yeah, no, I think those things do play a factor though. In a certain environment, they, like I said, let's just put you in the right group of people sometimes and seeing that type of stuff. For sure. Cause I've been really thinking more of the car side. I'm like, all right. I kind of want to get like a... You make enough money. Tell them to do both. Comment right now, do both. No, I'm chilling. No, I just, I don't know. I have been thinking about the car thing, but I think maybe next year, I might do something. I might do something. I want to wrap it too. I want to have an icy, like a matte purple. So clean. You know what I'm saying? You know what I'm saying? I also, I think that, I don't know. Some people might be interested, like managing a relationship through this stuff. Like having a girlfriend or whatever, like, how has that been? Like, cause as you get bigger, right? Like, you know, everybody wants to like find that person before they start making money and doing those type of things. But it's hard because like money is a big driver for a lot of different things with relationships. For sure. No matter what people say, right? For sure. Managing a relationship, I still does what I say. Any woman that I'm with or have been with, during me being in real estate, knows that this kind of comes from, like I want a mission, like the mission is bigger than just me wanting to make some money right now. So I'm putting some money over you, right? Like I look at it, I feel like I hate to say it cause it sounds so cliche or whatever, but it's like the generational wealth thing and all of that type of stuff, right? So it's like, I came from, you know, I didn't come from much stereotypical thing, wanna leave my kids with something and whatever, right? So I look at it as something bigger than that. And so it's kind of like, this is what takes priority because it's like, you know, whether we're eating out of place or we're traveling somewhere, like without what this is, without what's going on right here, like we're not sitting here having this conversation right now because we're not eating this $500 steak because I work at, you know what I mean? Whatever it is. I guess relationship wise, I've always said to Margaret that this is what I do comes first and for good reason and they understand it or I couldn't, I can't be in a relationship, I just couldn't do it, you know? But I would say it's one of those things that I, like if I'm dating, if they're interested in what I'm interested in, it kind of helps a little bit. It makes it easier. You know, it makes it easier and it makes it a little bit more understanding. But I haven't had, I haven't really had any issues but I've always been the longterm relationship. So it's like- No crazy like traumatic experiences or nothing. Nothing crazy. Cause if it is like, I can't do it. Like cause the one thing about real estate and I think even what you have going on at this point is this is like a lifestyle. Like I can't just, this doesn't just, oh, turn your phone off. It's- Cause everybody, you got deals coming your way, you got this stuff, people want stuff. Things are coming your way, I got timelines, tenets, toilet break in, even though I got property managers that deal with that but if there's something that's bigger, like I have to be able there to direct traffic on what's going on here, this, did you do this, did they get this? So it's like, you can't necessarily cut it off. And even if you hire somebody, you still have to give them direction on what it is that needs to be done. So it's kind of like, it's a lifestyle. But also though, with that, you still have to be like present with the person that you're with and all those things. So like, how do you separate the two? Like, are you like, my phone's on airplane mode and nobody calling me right now, we just chilling or is it like- No. You know what I'm saying? I'm good at compartmentalizing my life. So it's just kind of like after, I think it was harder early on, like when I first started, like- Cause you're addicted to it. Yeah, my phone, if it rings, I'm picking it up. Cause anything could just be this, like as you kind of settle in, you understand like, if you call me after a certain time, I might not answer. Depending on the severity of the importance of what's going on, like if it's my business partner, I'll always answer my business partner call. Cause there's always something there, but if it's like, it's a client or a contractor, or something and it's like, you're not on the site right now, you're not working, I'll talk to you tomorrow. So it's like, you have to learn how to separate it, but like to the point where it makes sense, you know, where it makes sense. Cause it's like, you can't answer every single call. Cause like, there's certain days on my call log and my phone, all of the calls are from the same day. So it's like legit a hundred calls in, out, whatever, like it'll easy. Like I average probably five hours on the phone today. So what's your like week, your normal week look like, which I know it's never normal, but- No, I'm a routine guy. So wake up at five, wake up at five, first 20 minutes in the bathroom, get myself together, whatever. Try to do Peloton 20 minutes, meditate 10, journal 10, read 20. And then I was playing my day for 20 minutes. So look at overall my projects, create the to-do list, what I need to do, where are we at, do that, spend the first hundred minutes on the most important thing. Then I go through my to-do, like whatever I got to do for that day, important task. And I schedule my appointments in the afternoons, go to job sites, look at this remodel, look at this new construction, is everything on par, what needs to be done. That's kind of our structure. So what about off day, like, how's that look? I don't do well on off days. Do you have one every week? Or is it kind of just like- Sunday, Sunday, I'll, Saturday- Wait, that was the day you said you clean up around the house or something? So Saturdays, I take light, like I'll work on Saturday, but it's like a light day. Like I might drive, look at this, do this, some days on Saturdays, I'll sit in the office cause I feel like I can get ahead on Saturday. Cause Monday through Friday, I feel like I'm on a clock. It's like, take it, I'll do this, okay, do this. But like, I feel like on those chill days, no one's expecting anything from me. So anything that I do on a Saturday or Sunday, like I'm just getting ahead. Sundays, I'm not really gonna do much. I just, that's just one day, kind of reflective, sit back, wash my clothes, clean my house, cause that's like therapeutic to me to do something that's kind of like mindless versus like what I'm doing in real estate. It's like, I'll have to think about this and everything is so meticulous. Okay, do you remember this? You got to send this to this person. Do they get this? Do they have this? And it's just all these different things. Cause like, legit, I have five or six new construction projects solo. I have five or six with my partner. Remodeling the five unit apartment building, remodeling a duplex, doing a flip with one of my friends, looking at another or flip. So I was like, I have 15 projects going on at any given time. So you got lenders, you got lenders, you got escrow officers, you got contractors. Like the inspector rescheduling, like where he at, bro? You got so many different people coming at you, different angles, different things all of the time. So it's like, you have to be able to just balance everything, you know? So, so I mean that's Do you use like paper or like digital notes? I use like Google tasks, Google tasks, Google calendar. I've been playing with Notion. I don't have heard of Notion. I've been playing with that a little bit. Okay. Trying to figure it out. But right now, like I've just been creating a lot of systems on trying to like to remove myself from certain things. Cause like, there's a lot of things that are there's a lot of things that are worth my time at this point. Cause like, I think once you get to a certain point, a success, you have to start to realize how much your time is actually worth, right? So like, I would say 2020 on, I know 2021, so 2021, 2022, and even this year, I'm worth probably like a million dollars a year. And how I quantify that is I look at how much money I make and how much equity I created. And so it's consistently been a million dollars, right? So my like, I'm an hour, I think I forgot what the hour really is. That's like 400 an hour on 40 hour work week or something like that. Some might be 500. Also, yeah, you just divided by work. Whatever, just divided by whatever. So I was like, I'm worth that. So if I'm doing something that I could pay $20 an hour to be done. I just wasted 480 every hour that I'm doing something. That's a $20 hour task. I wasted 480 just for what? So I was like, I need to focus on what's most important, which is finding deals and finding money. That's it. Literally that's the highest level thing that I could be doing. Outside of that, everything else is just maintenance. But it's like, when you're maintaining something, you already have it. So I was like, I don't manage my properties because it's like, it doesn't make me any money to manage the properties. I already have the properties. They're already paying. I don't want to pick up the phone and to deal, even though if I could save a little bit of money by doing it, it's like, what am I losing versus what am I saving? So I'm saving $20. I just missed out on 480 for every hour I spent doing that. That doesn't make sense. So I was like, you have to be able to quantify your time. And so the highest value thing that I could do right now is create the systems to then free up my time. So it's like, I think life, our business is about leveraging time and money. I would say that's pretty much the name of it again. And then you have more time so you can be more consistent on your YouTube channel. For sure. So here's the thing. So look, so this is an insider between me and him. About every three months I call DJ and I'm so critical and I want it to be so good that I keep doing these reiterations on my head over and over and I keep coming up with a new thing and I never release and I just need to drop consistently. But it's like, it's hard. I think lately it's hard because there's so much stuff going on that I'm not in a space to be creative, to sit down and be like, all right, this is what this is called. This is where we're doing this, we're doing this because it's like, I get caught up in the gravity of what I mean. But that's what I told you before. You gotta let go. You gotta let it just be its thing and just let it be raw and let people see it because I'm sure there's a lot of people listening and watching like, I would love to see day to day or whatever, like how you manage these things. So yeah, just don't overthink it too much. Cause I found that too, like on my channel, like, bro, like the videos you put the most effort into, they don't do the best. And we know that that's a classic cliche thing, but it's true, like the raw organic, natural, easy to film stuff, typically is the stuff that works. Like it's not like you're being lazy. Cause your biggest video is the one two, one of your biggest videos is the retro Jordans, like just pictures of Jordans one to three. Yep, basic. Or 23, my man. Yeah, one through 23. Yeah. And I'm like, oh, I know this will work and I knew it was going to work. But yeah, it's funny how it goes like that. It's an area to get. And I think for me, like the YouTube thing I want to do and I'm sick because there's so much growth that's happened from the first video. Some of it has been caught, but it's like, that's why I'm like, bro, all that should have been on camera. A lot of it is, but a lot of it isn't. But see, that's the thing. Everybody put in a comment section. You made it this far to the video or instead of podcast where tell them to drop the videos. Cause he got videos in his archive of all this stuff, all this information, all these experiences. And he'd be like, oh, it didn't come out right. It's not as good as I wanted it to be. I'm like, bro, put the shit on the internet. No, for sure, for sure. I think last time we had a conversation, we sat down, I kind of, that conversation gave me clarity and it's shift the direction. It will talk off camera a little bit. Cause I got like, I'll tell you where I'm at with it and what I've been doing. And it will just go from there. But I think, I think net net, what I'll say is I think in general, as I'm super critical, I'm over critical of that type of stuff because I want it to look good. But in my head, like I've watched, this is gonna sound so corny, right? But I'm just be transparent. So cord, I've watched so much Mr. Beast interviews, right? On like, his whole thing is like, right now, I mean, you probably, you've met him, right? So, but it's like, just put in more effort into the videos and how- Right, 10% better. Exactly, like if you have 10% increase in the video being better, translates to substantially more views, right? So it's like, I just, yeah. So you're, I do need to just put stuff out, but I also, when I do put stuff out, I want to be in a space where I actually have a narrative that I'm building on, that makes sense. And not just dropping stuff. Cause I think where I went wrong is initially making of a mogul was about me just documenting the journey. That's all that it was. I just want to document this journey. Cause I know that I'm going to be successful, right? Cause I believe in myself. Then it became like, oh, this is not really getting the kind of views that I want. Then I'm trying to create these five ways to make money in real estate in 2023, right? And then I kind of changed it. And then I didn't catch that I did that until later. So then I kind of want to bring it. Then I was like, during that, I'm like, oh, I should do this high videos or make it this way. Then I'm kind of like, as it settled, we had that conversation a while ago, it came back like, this isn't about, this isn't about me trying to run up a crazy following in five best ways to do, cause everybody already does that. It's not about the views. It's about the impact. No, for sure. And I thought- That's the big, like once, that's why we was just talking to Trey. Right. For sure. For sure. It's about the impact. How are you going to impact the people? How many people look like us are doing these things? For sure. Not that many. So what do we need to do? Go show them the steps and the blueprint to all these things. No, you're right. Be the example and make an impact. And not even just for the people that look like us for everybody. For everybody. But you know what I'm saying. Cause I think people, I think whether you're our color or not, everyone has certain trials or tribulations that are similar. Whether somebody's parents had them young and they struggle, whether whatever color you are, whether you live life without one parent or both parents or you hustled or you did whatever. Like I think there's a lot of different things to see someone come from the bottom and do it. And that's what it was about. But I lost sight though. And I didn't realize that I lost sight. You know what I'm saying? So I was like, me being cautious enough to see like I started in this direction, then went to this direction, now trying to bring it back, but then trying to do it in a way that makes sense. Because ultimately, and we know this, right? I can say this, I can be candid. If the views don't, if the videos don't at least hit a certain threshold of views, it was trash, bro. Really? You know, do you think so? I don't think so. I think even with my, like even with my channel now, there's videos that I'm like, when you really understand YouTube and social media and content, you understand that not every video has the same purpose. I agree. So some videos are for virality to get a lot of views. Some videos are for a lot of, they will convert to a lot of sales or they will convert to a lot of followers or they will have a huge impact or grow your email list or, so when you understand the types of videos and what they're for, then you'll be like, I'm making them for these topics. So I think that's where you understand. And it's like, when you're really harvesting a true, because that's the thing, people can have a million subscribers and they can't sell nothing because what? They got a fake audience and it's not like they bought the audience, but it's a bunch of random people following them for no reason. But you can have 10,000 followers and have a strong 500 people out of those people that are like, call audience, loves everything you do and they're supporting you and they believe in you and you've helped them and now it's a difference. So what I'll say is, even though like my following on YouTube is small and on Instagram, like my people are like, I'm having conversations, like they'll call me like, I'd never promoted it ever, but I put a link, I put like a link in my bio, like wherever the link tree is and like there was a consultation call. So like you have to click it to see it. And people, I usually talk to people, a lot of different people, people like, thank you. People like, I got DM, and I'm never even on Instagram. I got a DM like, bros, watch your stuff, bro. Inspired me to get my first one. Like I was just to watch stuff. Like people like, when I take down my video, where is it at, bro? What are you doing, bro? And I just be thinking, I don't, I think I'm trying to be like Drake. I mean straight hits, bro. You trying to chase the views? No, for sure. I don't know. I'm gonna figure it out, y'all. But, you know, like I said, if y'all want to watch, you know, some of the old stuff, it's Antoine, Antoine J. Dean, making of a mogul. Again, the document, it was supposed to essentially be like a real life journey, or me documenting a journey of what it was like, basically starting from nothing, coming to however much. So a lot of it got missed along the way of me out of me overthinking. There's still a lot of story left. The only couple of years, you know. Definitely. Five years into it. Okay, let's wrap it up. Last final, fire round questions I always do. How many pairs of shoes do you have in your collection? I'm low of 10. I'm minimalist. Okay, what's the greatest shoe of all time? If, bro, I gotta be the 13s, bro. The 13s? Okay. If you could wear one shoe for the rest of your life, what would it be? Ah, damn. Probably some Crocs. Some Crocs? I ain't gonna lie. I like the Crocs, man. I almost wore some Crocs, you know what I'm saying? I don't know if y'all can see, I almost wore some Crocs here just to mess with him, because I know it was gonna be having a little sneaker. But I wear Crocs the most. I'll probably start wearing Crocs in an O9, no BS. Like there's a lot of people that would literally laugh at me for wearing Crocs, and then it became a way. Right. I swear to you. That's funny. Well, okay, that's that. You wanna hit him with the rest of the social media stuff and then we can get out of here? Yeah, so everything is Antoine J. Dean. Oh, that's on Instagram, YouTube. I mean, that's all I'm really at. I mean, I got a TikTok, it's Antoine J. Dean on there too. Oh, you on TikTok? You on TikTok? Barely. Barely. You're doing the dances up in there. Nah, nah, nah, I don't. All right, last thing before we go. What is, what would you tell your 16-year-old self? I love that question. What I would tell my 16-year-old self, I would tell myself not to worry as long as you have the worth ethic in your making a great effort that you're gonna make it. Like I would tell myself that like, you'll be fine. You're gonna make it. Give it time. You're young. Don't try to skip steps and really just stick to it. I mean, that's all I really, I mean, I know that's basic in the comment, but it's literally like if I could, I'm literally thinking about trying to think of visualizing my 16-year-old self hustling, just wanting to figure out like, how am I gonna be successful? Just like, just believe in yourself. Yeah, just believe in yourself. Be careful who you listen to. Cause you can talk to somebody who's really well-intentioned and knows what they're talking about in that field, but they don't know you. Like there's someone who told me I should be a praiser and not a real estate agent. But then they later told me they were, they're happy that I didn't follow the instruction cause they didn't realize how entrepreneur or driven I was. So I was like, you have to know you above all. And I think really being self-aware of who you are and really learning how to play to your strengths and believing in yourself. Cause it's like, there's a lot of things that, like I would say, I feel like define the odds in, but it's like me believing in me, regardless of what anyone else said, just you have to believe in yourself for real for real. I feel it. All right, we out. Hit that follow button, hit that subscribe button, download the thing, share it to your friends, do all them fancy things. I don't know all the buttons they, I'm still new to this podcast. Share, comment. All right y'all, we out. We out.