From Airline Pilot to Multi-Billion Dollar Fund Manager || Ryan Tseko Interview

Ryan Secco, welcome to the show.

Good to have you. Yeah, thank you so much for having me, man. I heard a lot of great things about you, and it's it's it's it's about time we finally connected.

Yeah, this is gonna be a fun episode. So I've seen you on on videos forever. So people that don't know Ryan, so Ryan. Executive Vice President of Cardone Capital. Been with Grant for years. You guys manage over 20,000 units now. Um, raised, you said, over $1 billion from retail investors specifically, which is very interesting and unique. I would say probably one of the— you can correct me, but it sounds like one of the only people on planet Earth that have raised that much money from, from crowdfunding and from retail investors, which is fantastic. I love the mission that you guys have too, because it's— you know this— it is a lot easier to go raise at your level as well, to raise from— get big checks. And at that, at that point, you're almost like, let's just get rid of the retail investors. They're actually, they're hard to deal with. They have questions. But I think you and Grant have something deep inside of you guys that you want to help regular people get into real estate and get into big, large multifamily real estate, which is what all the wealthy people do, to allow little people to do that, which I love it. So today we're gonna dive into all this kind of stuff. So, um, Ryan, dude, welcome in today. Uh, if you can give us a, you know, just give us the thumbnail, like 30-second overview of you, your career, and then we'll dive into all of it. But give us like the 30-second overview stuff that I missed.

Yeah, no. So look, I was, um, my first career— so, so my uncle was a builder and I've always wanted to be in real estate, uh, but my first career was actually a commercial airline pilot. And I went to training, I had student loans, $140 grand, and, um, uh, I went to go work for United and, and I flew jets from the age of 21 years old. I was one of the youngest pilots till the age of 30. And, uh, at the age of 24 and 25, I literally started researching and figuring out how to do fourplexes and eightplexes. But I went to a class, it was the Regulation D class, which is what we're talking about here, funds and how to get them started. And, um, it was always so bulky, like there was no such thing as Reg D 506. Uh, and so what I did is I built up to 21 units. I hit the age of 30 years old. I wanted to join a team that was like going places and, you know, had, had a team because I was doing this by myself.

Yeah.

And so I knew that—

I knew that the side while you were flying, you just take your money and start buying multifamily.

Yeah. I had, I had, I had 18 days off as a pilot. So I'd go to work, I'd come home, I'd, you know, do the 4 units, do the 8 units. And I was doing everything myself. And when I hit the age of 30, I was like, there's gotta be something bigger. Like what's next? And so I literally found Grant on YouTube and his messaging and, and the way he spoke and the way that what he represented, cuz that thing inside of us all, right? Like why we're doing this, he had it. And I knew that he was an amazing leader and I wanted to learn a lot from him. Like, Grant Cardone has been a lot of things to me, from a mentor, a leader. I literally, the last 9 years, I've been with him every day and he is an absolute beast, but he is also an absolute, like, just a genuine person. So, at the age of 30, I decided, hey, I'm going to resign. I'm going to give up all my days off, my retirement, all that stuff, and I'm going to go work for Grant Cardone. 2 weeks later, I was here in Miami. where I sit today. And, um, you know, we'll, we'll, we'll jump into the rest, but yeah, no, I just keep it rolling.

So yeah, you— yeah. So what happens there and how did you even reach out? Did you send him a message? How do you even get in touch with Grant Cardone? This is years ago.

Yeah, I called his office and I said, look, I would love to add value to Grant's team. I could fly airplanes and I love real estate. And that was really my shoe-in. He didn't have an airplane. He— the airplane came like 2 or 3 weeks later and Elena, his wife, really like got me into the groove of things. But literally, like, I was flying, I had 10,000 hours, I was flying airplanes, but I've been studying and working and doing the real estate to where I could add value at different levels.

So you hit him at the perfect time. He had just— was just getting that jet and needed a pilot, right?

1,000%. He had 2,500 units. He just got the jet. He had done zero crowdfunding. All the only crowdfunding he did was from friends and family. And so he had a portfolio of 2,500 units and He owned 95% of the deal and he let 5% come in from, you know, his friends and his sister and his brother.

So, how— walk us through, how does the— how does a private pilot turn into multi-billion-dollar fund manager? Walk us through this.

Well, look, I mean, when you're around Grant every single day, the pressure's on. And I always told myself, if I could last a week, I could last a month. If I could last a month, I could last a year. If I could last a year, I could last 10 years. It's really like you, right? I mean, your father was and still is one of the largest fund managers. Well, Grant, it's very similar, right? Like, like when I say Grant is different things to me, like literally, he's been a mentor, he's been a dad, he's been a friend, he's been a boss, he's been like all of the above. And so when you have that type of leadership, it's really like the put me in coach moments. And, and for me, since I am all in, like Grant calls me, here's an example. He's like, he gives me one task. I'm like, what else do you need? What else do you need? And so he just loaded me up with a bunch of responsibility. Look, I just love responsibility. I knew raising the capital and raising the money and all that stuff would happen. Now it's like, okay, we we have the responsibility to do the right thing. I think a lot of people get confused and like, oh, it's so easy to raise money. Yeah, but you got to invest in the right vehicles. You got to do the right things. You got to set up the right teams. You got to set up the right processes because you can grow something for the first time, but you can't grow it to $1 billion and then $10 billion and then $100 billion if you don't have these certain things in place. And so, look, it was each day I ask a lot of questions and I've really surrounded myself with a team of individuals from third-party and in-house attorneys to some of the best real estate, uh, owners and operators and management companies. Like, I, I, you know, you and me, I think we share this in common. You and I are probably like really curious individuals. For me, I'm like, well, how does that work? How did you do this? And, you know, over the course of 9 years, you continue to get elevated. And, you know, here I sit with you.

Oh, that's amazing. And I, I want to highlight what you mentioned. I think people overlook this. They could, they could say, oh, Ryan got so lucky. Or Ryan, you know, and I think some people, when you think about entrepreneurship, a lot of people think, I got to be the next Mark Zuckerberg. Like, I got to just come up with this crazy idea called Facebook, and that's the only way to do business. And reality is, you can do boring businesses, number one, like real estate. It's kind of a boring old-school business. And number two, align yourself with an incredible entrepreneur and do exactly what Ryan did. There was probably 100 other people that had the same opportunity. as Ryan, but the cream rises to the top. And you, you met it right there. Hey, what else can I do? What else can I do on the phone? And you kept asking, you were curious, kept asking questions. And, and just for me being an entrepreneur, I have about 50 employees right now. It's funny. I know every day the employees that are actually actively thinking or asking questions want to improve and other employees that just want to collect a check.

Right.

And what's funny is over 9 years, what happens is some of those employees that, you know, formerly were just the, you know, the guy cleaning up or the assistant, all of a sudden we're giving them huge responsibilities because they've aligned and proven and grown, and it's just been really cool. So I don't want people to just under— like, overlook what you just shared. And actually, I want to dive into that. You mentioned kind of a go-get, like, I'll get it done attitude. What other kind of attitude do you think you brought that made Grant say, like, hey, I'm gonna invest in this guy, I'm gonna help this guy grow, we're gonna— we're gonna give him more stuff?

Well, look, I, I, you know, I, I've always been taught from a young man is you're not above, you're not below, you're just equal with people. And I'm the chief executive B, you know, like, like, you know, I, I, you know, I'll, I'll do whatever it takes. Like, literally, you could send me to a property and I'll tell you what the issues are and I'm going to fix it. Uh, you can give me a task and I'm just going to make sure that the right person's on the deal. So, you know, for, for me, fine. And look, you know, I, I did get lucky in the sense that I had a lot of great mentors growing up. And my uncle was really tough on me when I was growing up because he was like, hey, look, Ryan, you, you like, like, you're not even working hard. Like, let me show you how to work. And so I've always had this grit and I've always had this hard work instilled inside of me. But when you get— so when you're ready and you get this opportunity, that is actually luck in my definition, right? Because a lot of people, they're not prepared for when the opportunity comes. I've always been studying. Like, when I was 25 years old, I was like, okay, how do you raise money? How do you do Reg D? I've always known it was bulky, right? And so, when I got on Grant's team, I was with him every day. So, again, for 10 years, I was prepping to build 10,000 hours so that way, when I joined Grant's team, I could drive And fly his Gulfstream G200. So, literally, when Grant pulled me into his office, he's like, hey, can you fly this airplane? I said, hell yeah. He's like, are you sure? Because Grant doubts everything, right?

Yeah.

And I'm like, put me in training for 4 weeks. I'll come up. I'll show up. And I had the airplane completely tricked out. Like, I had all the organizational stuff done. I had all of his stuff that he wanted on the airplane done. I had all of it. Like, everything was like, it was a fine-tuned machine. And so, once I showed him that I could operate and maintain the airplane in the aviation department, then he's like, well, hey, let me start sending you to deals. Hey, let me start putting you on these calls. Hey, let me start putting you in front of the banks. Let me start putting you in front of the debt guys. Let me start putting you in front of the brokers. And so, it's like every single day when you're with somebody, literally, we would hop off the airplane and we'd go shop deals. I've shopped tens and tens of thousands of apartments with Grant, and I'm almost 40. I'm 38. I'm 39 years old. I'm almost 40. Like, like, like, it's, it's a very similar experience to you when you're like bred and you're, you're sharing the same home and the same airplane.

Like, you really get that intimate feeling.

And that's what we have. And so my attitude has always been like, hey, I don't know everything. What— like, like, how can I help you? And if Grant doesn't know something, if I don't know something, well, there's somebody that does. And we, you know, we just— we tap into smart people, you know, we really tap into smart people.

And how you do one thing is how you do everything, right?

1,000%.

And it just— and I love Tony Robbins. It's cheesy, but it's proximity is power, right? And you mentioned that 30 times already in this episode, like proximity is power. Be just being around, be in the vicinity of people that are successful.

It just—

it rubs off.

1,000%. And, and you cannot not be successful hanging out with these individuals. Literally, my net worth has grown 10, 20— like, like all of my money that I make, and, you know, we're working and we're doing all this stuff, I literally invest it into the deals right next to Grant. So there's one thing to listen to, to, okay, a person, what they're doing, but it's another thing to actually invest with the people and become a part of the company. Because now I have an invested interest on how these deals do, what we're doing, how we're raising money with the investors. Like, it's just a really good thing.

Uh, shifting gears, I want to ask you about capital markets this last year. So, I've talked to a lot of fund managers and they were like, man, 2019, 2020, it was really easy to raise money. Last year was way different, different landscape, different investment. We still raised money, but we just had to do it in a lot different of a way. Did you guys see a huge shift this last— let's just call it last 12 months? And what was that shift? How did you guys adjust? Yeah, yeah.

No, we saw a huge shift, and this is going to be completely different from what you're hearing, right? For us, we typically raise between, you know, call it $1 and $3 million a day. Our target's $3 million a day. And, you know, what we— what happened is we actually had a shift off of a deal.

KPI, I love that because you guys have so many investors. Like, $3 million a day, that's awesome, actually.

Yeah, no, well, no, look, I mean, if I send Grant we did $1.5 or $2 million, he's like, yep, $1 million short. This is why I love Grant. That's why we're such great partners, because it's like I'm focused on operations and doing the deal and getting everything done and investors and scaling and growing everything, and he's just like, yep, Um, that's a great stat, Ryan, but you know, you could do better. You know, hey, you're— it's a great stat, but your team could do better. Like, like, you know, and, and he's a real, he's a real pusher and driver. But yeah, no, look, we, we had a shift from actually raising for a deal. You know, your guys, and you guys have seen this, right? When you're raising money for a fund in real estate, typically people want to see the deal. Well, we don't have a deal right now. We're literally raising money for opportunities and distressed deals where maybe we go in as pref, mezz piece, and/or we take over deals and/or we just buy deals right now at a new value compared to where they were 6, 8 months ago. So, what we did is we're actually raising a fund. It was launched $150 million, and we've already raised $80 million in cash. Like, we don't do commits. Uh, one thing that makes us different is, you know, you say, hey, I want to do $400 grand. Great. Send me the money. I don't count you in until your money's actually in this deal.

You don't do capital calls. It's all called day one, and you just sit on the money. Do your pref and management fees all start when it's even sitting?

No, we don't, we don't collect the fees. But what we did is we actually negotiated with the bank. We're on the accredited fund. The, the individuals, we have interest-bearing account, it's at 4%. And so what we do is we actually mark when they come in. So as they're waiting on the accredited fund, they actually get credit for the 4%. And so when we close on that deal, we'll actually send them in the form of a distribution the 4%, which is more than most people can get in their own account and/or, you know, they have to lock it up in T-bills or, or, um, uh, CDs. So we've created this where, where, you know, look, we, we have, um, And our audience understands this, right? We do a Zoom call. Like, we literally, until 11, uh, 10:30 last night, we were on a Zoom call with 1,500 people. We do Zoom calls every single month. Grant, myself jump on. Like, we are out there. We're not just hoping and praying that we can do this. We're like, hey, this is what we're doing, guys. This is what we're gearing up for. We've already got 3 or 4 deals we're working on. Send your money, you earn 4%. We close on the deal. It's a short-term wait for a long-term reward. We oversubscribe all of our deals.

Yeah, that's cool. I love it. What's your, um, I love that. That's actually really, that's a really cool idea. Have the money come in, pay 4%, just until we have a good deal, then we can close really quickly on deals when we see them. I actually think it's a really cool idea.

We closed on it. We bought a deal from Goldman last, um, 3 months ago. We closed all cash because the debt market got all wobbly at the States. Like literally on an office deal was 8%. I'm like, I'm going in at a 7 cap rate. I'm like, I'll just close, we'll close cash, raise the money for tenant improvements and leasing commissions, close it all, and then the investor gets, you know, 6%, 7%, 8%, and then we'll refinance it when the markets kind of settle in. But the debt markets have been very not conducive for doing deals. That's actually where the gap is. You know, when you want to go out there and buy something, you got to get debt because most people can't close cash. Most people don't want to put 50% down, and it screws up your— screws up your IRR, to be frank. You know?

Oh man, that's, uh, very interesting. And now how— I'm curious how many— I don't know if you track this— how many people, repeat investors, that do you have of that? I don't know if you're a non-accredited and accredited. Like when someone starts with a $5,000 investment, do they come back with $10,000 or $20,000 later? Do they just repeat or they just do once? Like what's your guys's— if you can share a little bit of data, I'm curious on the Reg A side of things. What is that? I know more Reg D, like I work in that space, but Reg A's I haven't worked in as much. I'm curious just how that functions with Reg A investors.

I'll get the exact stats. So next time when you and I do a wrap, we have the exact stat. When I look at across the board, it's like 40% and 50%, probably even higher for the Reg D that's blended. But we have a lot of repeat investors. And the reason why is, for example, a guy, Jamie, he's based out of Austin. I've used his name a couple of different times. The first deal he did to fund one, he did $150 grand. He's now invested with us for close to $6 million. So we have a lot of these repeat investors because, look, we send out monthly distributions. They see the K-1s, they see the financials, they see the deal. a portal built out for the investors. Once people know and trust you, like literally, and you've seen this too, like once you have your base, you know, we're all praying for each other. We all want each other to win. Like we all see these deals. And so, you know, we have the Growth Conference. We just rolled off of that where Tom Brady and these big names were there. People, our investors come there. It's amazing when Grant's like, hey, how many investors do we have? A lot of people raise their hand. And so, we have a tremendous amount of repeat, especially in the accredited I'll get the number on the, on the Reg A, but, um, you know, I was looking for the ballpark.

Yeah, I'm just, I was just curious on the Reg A, but, um, the, uh, okay, really interesting. So that was kind of last 12 months of cap raising. I'm curious, you know, your thoughts and the team's thoughts looking forward next 12 to 18 months. What does the crystal ball hold, especially in the multifamily markets? What are you seeing with rates, with the Fed, with just overall markets right now? What are you guys kind of seeing and looking at?

Well, this, this is my personal opinion, right? Um, I think, I think the Fed has done a terrible job At, at being responsive to inflation. Uh, I personally believe they waited too long. You know, we, we, we were all having a roundtable thinking that they should have raised rates earlier. Um, so now they have to do it. Inflation is still a battle. They're going to hold rates, I think, for higher than they, you know, priced into the market. They were pricing in Q3 and Q4 that rates were going to come down. Yeah. And I see all the, you know, you and me track all the yield curves, right? It's like, it's, it's there.

You know, you go to Chatham and it's like, you know, a lot of those yield curves are predicting right now, like, July, August, they're starting to come down. It's what they're predicting, but that's what the market's pricing in. But who knows, right?

Yeah, but who knows? Because these feds are, you know, pretty adamant about, you know, hey, look, we're really like, like, we're going to continue to raise rates and we're going to hold it there. So what happens is, you know, you just have to readjust. Look, our, our long-term vision has always been clear. We're going to buy this stuff, we're going to hold it for 7, 10, years. We'll either refinance it, sell it, and/or package it, package it all up and roll it up into an upgrade and/or sell it to a big company. Our game plan hasn't changed. Like, that part of the business never changes. We buy in all cycles. And so, we'll continue to buy. It has to cash flow. It has to make sense. But, you know, we actually think there's opportunities when there's a lot of chatter on the mics, when there's a lot of chatter in the air. That's when the real opportunities are. So, I feel bad for people who have to sell. I feel bad for people who have 3 and 4 and 5-year fund cycles. You know, we always wanted to set it up where we had the flexibility and the latitude because that's where you get pinched. Yeah, I know people do it for fees and the recycle of money and all that stuff, but you know, in our business specifically in real estate, we've always felt it's a long-term wealth creation and you get all the benefits while you ride.

Yep.

A lot of opportunities though, man. A lot of opportunities. I think 12, 18 months, now's the time. It's go time, baby.

Yeah. I know, it's funny. I talk to a lot of fund managers that manage significant portfolios, well over a few billion, up to deca-billion-dollar funds. And a lot of you would be surprised of the optimism that they have right now. They're almost excited. And that's funny. I talk to other people that are scared, nervous. They're like, dude, this is— we've been just ready. Like, we are— it's go time. Just like that. It's really funny to talk to them. And it's true. I mean, that's where good money managers make the money is right now. And they find great deals that are distressed. And yeah, we feel bad for somebody else that was overleveraged, but like, You know, we're gonna come in and we're gonna benefit our investors really, really well. And so it's a cool, uh, it's a cool place to be.

When the tides go out, you see who's wearing clothes.

Yep. So, uh, I have a different, different question for you guys. Um, uh, this is— and I had a bunch of people ask me this question too, and I was— I didn't know the answer. I wanted to ask you, and I don't know if you have insights. Um, 2020, Grant put out a video on social media, and I think he was— because a bunch of people were like picking at Grant like he was running this bad business. And he put out a video, I'm selling the jet, I'm selling all my stuff, we're going bankrupt. And I thought he was trolling everybody. I'm curious, what was kind of the back— if you can share the backend story of that video that went viral on social media.

So, timing is everything, right? And he was literally filming a show called The Undercover Billionaire. What happened was they took away everything from him and they gave him $100. And so, he went and I actually dropped him off in Pueblo, Colorado. And they gave him $100. And so literally, he went broke. He went bankrupt. He had zero money. He couldn't even use his name. And so, he had to go out there and build a company in 90 days for $1 million. Well, literally, in the middle of that, COVID happened, and they were forced to shut down the show. And so, he came back with this bald head, and he was in the office, and they were shooting this webinar or whatever it was, and he was literally in promo mode. For the show.

Okay, gotcha.

Literally, literally saying, hey guys, you know, I'm going bankrupt, I'm going broke, I'm got like, like I've got to figure this thing out, I'm selling everything. And you know, the timing of that with COVID and everything else just wasn't perfect timing for him. But, but the crazy thing is, you know, Grant, Grant is a, um, he's one of the best marketers I've ever met in my entire life, you know. Yeah, you know, was it, was it not a great look for the investors? 1,000%. But once he explained it to people, he understood. And what happened was he actually got a massive, massive spike on Google. And we track all this stuff, right? We had people like all over the world reaching out and calling us. And so it created this huge inflow. And, um, you know, we probably ended up raising more money off of that. Now, obviously, is that the way people, you know, in hindsight and all that stuff? No. But, but, you know, Grant does write off the cuff. And, um, he's not perfect, but at the end of the day, his intentions are never like, you know, because look, you and me both know, like, like the real estate and, and, and the assets and everything else, those are completely protected from not just Grant, but, you know, like those are, those are their own entities. And so I think, you know, with, with, with all of that, it creates confusion. But that was the backstory. And he was like, oh yeah, well, it wasn't the perfect timing, but, you know, you move on.

So it was from the TV show. Okay, that makes sense now. It was from the TV show and he was doing that for a promo. That's funny. Did you have to field it? I mean, was it just a— was it 2 weeks of just fielding phone calls from people? And that's crazy as that sounds, or no?

Yeah, no, it was, it was, it was, it was not what you want as a fund manager. It was not what you want as a fund. It was not what you want as an individual. You know, put everything aside, right? You and me invest together. Um, uh, we're all humans here, right? And so people react. And, you know, look, for me personally and Grant, we take the money raised very serious. And and we know that the brands are interconnected. If Grant didn't have a fund, it would be funny. It'd be great. Da da da. But since we have that fund, we just gotta you know you like you know man. You gotta ride that line.

Yep. I love it. Um yeah, I know. I I would agree, Grant. I mean, he was wasn't he labeled like one of the top marketers in the world? The number one marketer in the world for from all these different organizations. And that's what I mean. They always talk about marketing. That's that's what marketing is: the buzz, the the whether it's good or bad, it's it's marketing, right? And so. Um, yeah, I was, I was curious about that question for, uh, for, uh, Cardone Capital specifically with you guys.

So I'm curious, uh, let me just add really quick too, just because this is going to be interesting for you. Like, like last year, I, I, on marketing dollars, I probably spent somewhere around $800 grand, okay, in marketing. The year before, I spent like $51 grand. And so like, like to your point, you know, Grant has been a genius marketer because— and you have a similar case where you have an education program, right? And now people know you. He has upfront people coming in where he's spending, you know, on the training side, millions of dollars a month. Well, that also flows into Cardone Capital. And so for a number of years, we actually didn't spend a lot of marketing dollars because of that. He's just so creative. I mean, he is, in my mind, he is, he is a complete marketing genius. And that's how we built Cardone Capital so successfully on a lower budget, because a lot of guys go out there and they spend a bunch of money and they're looking for this ROI. This is slow. Like, this is a much slower build it up. And then, and then the rewards come.

That's interesting. Yeah. So because I, our little company here, we spent $1.2 million last year on ads.

See, see, that's what I'm saying.

And it works and we get leads and stuff, but it'd be really nice to post just a bunch of videos that go viral and you get free, you know, free traffic, which is— that's pretty, that's pretty impressive. $800,000, was that Cardone Capital or across all the companies?

Well, that's Cardone Capital alone. Now, on the, on the training side, they'll spend, you know, $1 million a month depending on the, depending on the event.

Yeah.

But, but, but all I'm saying is that some people should look at, and, and you've looked at this, I know, is like, okay, you have the training, right, where you're selling something that actually creates more buzz and more leads, and you're able to offset some of the marketing. That's what Grant has done. So their companies are completely separate, but we ride off the draft of all the people coming in for the events. You know, at these events, they'll let me go for a breakfast or on stage, and they'll let me pitch Cardinal Capital. You know, that, that's amazing cuz that's a, yeah, uh, uh, uh, that's a warm audience that already knows Grant, that already trusts them. And then they're like, hey, I'm making a bunch of money, where do I invest it?

Yep, yep.

I love it.

That's awesome. I'm curious, uh, organizational-wise with Cardone Capital, um, so walk us through a lot of— I get a ton of questions from people and I'd love to ask you these. Like, okay, first off, what does your, you know, executive team look like? Um, who have you put in place there? How many, um, how much equity do you give, or do you give revenue shares or shares or part of the GP or something to employees? How do you incentivize key employees inside of Cardone Capital? Um, and I'm curious, your headcount across kind of the levels as an organizational structure. I get this question all the time, and I'd love to hear what you guys do.

Yeah. Look, I think when you're first starting out, I think a lot of that stuff is you just really need people who can operate the company. I think too many times people give away a piece of their company to the wrong people. And so we incentivize people initially with, hey, look, what are we buying? How's the performance? And then whether it's a bonus or whether it's compensation, we allow people to come back in and invest in the fund. And so that's the initial start. Now, as you build up and as you, you know, 3 years, 4 years, 5 years, 6 years, we are now moving to that. Because look, you and me both know when you first start out a fund, it's really hard to pay the top line, which is the executives, right? It's hard to pay the most expensive people because everybody wants $250,000, everybody wants $350,000, everybody wants $450,000 depending on the salary, right?

And funds delay their return. Like, you don't make money in a fund sometimes for 18 months, you know, make it a little bit until you start selling these properties anyway. Sorry, keep going.

No, no, no, that's, that's what I'm saying though. So Grant and I, we actually took very little upfront, like very little. And, and, and now as we continue to build the team, you know, what our structure looks like is, you know, so, so, so I run the shop here in Miami, you know, my title's EVP, but I'm not worried about titles, right? Like everybody reports to me. I've got a CFO, his name is Mark. He's really heavy in funds and also asset management. Uh, I've got in-house, uh, counsel, which, you know, he focuses on compliance and, uh, rules and regulations. And then I'm actually hiring a new— I had a COO, but what happened was, you know, our culture is a little bit different. Like, we're like, like you, you know, we're, we're, we're, we're, we're, we're, we want to get stuff done now. And if people don't fit inside that culture, it's like, okay, who do we need to— because when I travel or Grant travels, you know, we were looking for a director of operations and/or a COO. Right now I'm filling that slot and just making sure that all the projects and everything happens right. But, you know, those are really the main tiers, like on our fund. Okay, how do you do compliance? Compliance and accounting are really, really the most important. And then how do you get the operations where, you know, right now I'm doing, you know, between 450 and 600-unit rehabs over the next 12 months. And so you got to have somebody where it's like hard charging, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, because our fund's performance is based off of the performance of the individual assets and they all roll up to that. So, you know, look, I recommend not going out and saying, hey, I'm starting this new fund, I'm giving you this, this, this, this, this. You need to say, hey, I'm starting this fund. You need to prove yourself. And then as you get invested into the company, hey, my top people are the people who actually take the money they make and invest it into the deals. You can't say, hey, I support this and I'm behind this, and then you don't want to invest. All of my money that I make, I invest it right back into these deals because I truly believe in them. And I think that's actually one of the most important things as a sponsor, as a syndicator, as a lead guy, is you have to put your money where your mouth is.

Really cool. So employees, you're obviously encouraging them to get into all the deals. Do you give them any discounts or bonuses or, I don't know, no fee, no carry to get in those deals?

No, no. I mean, look, we give them like, yeah, yeah, for like investor relations, you know, once they raise, you know, certain, you know, like, like they do their job, they get a salary and then there's step-ups, you know, but, but, but we're self-issuer, right? So we self-issue and our guys aren't licensed. And we just, as the guys continue to do better, and look, we pay our people very well. And so the fact is they can make a bunch of money in 1 year, 2 years, 3 years, 4 years. I have an investor relations, he's making $350,000, $450,000. It's literally like they're making more money than they've ever made in their life. They can take the money. If they live off of $50,000, $80,000, $100,000, they can take $50,000, $100,000, and start investing in these deals. And that's really one of the things that I'm proud of too, is we actually have a vehicle where our employees want to invest. I was I was working for United, the only option was a 401 scam. And I was like, I just wasn't— I wasn't aligned with that, you know? I wasn't aligned with that whole traditional way because I had no control of where my money was going. I had no idea what they were even investing in.

Yep. No, I love it. That's awesome. Um, Ryan, it's good—

it's good employee— it's good employee retention too. Like, when you actually create this vehicle and you allow them to invest— I actually see guys where they don't want their employees to invest. It's, it's, it's, it's brutal. It's hard. Like, you need to open that up for everybody so they have They have an interest in the company.

Yeah, I love it. And it's— well, what they do, they go the extra mile on the deals, on the rehab, on every piece of the deal. They just go a little bit extra because they have some skin in the game, which is so cool. Um, I've kept you here a little bit longer than I told you, but I got 2 more questions for you and we'll kind of wrap things up. So, um, first question is, how do people get in touch with you guys if they want to invest? If they want to get in touch with you, what's kind of the best avenues? And then I got the final question after that.

Cardonecapital.com is our website. I actually think websites are BS. The number that they could reach, you know, Cardone Capital is 305-407-0276. For me personally, I think it just emails the best way, and then I can filter through, you know, like if it's a phone call or whatever it is. So my email is Ryan. It's simple, ryan@cardonecapital.com. But we are very, you know, and again, I don't want to beat this drum, but I think anybody who's starting a fund, you have to have people answer the phones. You can't open a fund and think your website's going to do all the work for you. That's one thing we pride ourselves on is, hey, you have a website, but it's like a landing page, and then you actually have phone calls. You have people who pick up the phones and walk them through their IRAs, walk them through the investment. I am very like, hey, here's my cell number, here's this, let's figure out a way to collaborate, because we actually do think that partnerships in the future become even more valuable because guys like you, fund to fund, individuals who are creating funds, maybe they don't have the deals, they can co-invest. And so, I'm really optimistic about that as well because everybody's growing these tremendous audiences. And so, look, reach out to me. I would love to collaborate. We are trying to collaborate. Like, this thing is big enough for all of us. And that's why I'll get on here. I'll go to your event. I'll do whatever you want me to do because I actually believe in abundance. There's so much out there for all of us. You starting a fund has— means like that, I'm excited for you. You starting 5 funds, I'm excited for you. Like, let's go.

No, I love it. That's awesome. So, Ryan at Cardone Capital, cardonecapital.com. I love it. I think that's— you hit on a great point of we pick up the phone, we just talk to people. And I think I've had a lot of people ask me like, how does Cardone Capital do it? Like, how do they— because they do like, they run online ads and stuff. I'm like, dude, I don't, I don't know. I've opted into your stuff for a night. I'm like, I get called by guys. Like, they call me up. They just— it's just like any other fund. They just do a lot more front-end marketing to get eyeballs on them. But then they, just like any other fund, they walk you through it. They're going to do a pitch deck. Whatever it is, which is so cool. I really respect you guys for that. It's amazing.

Okay.

Final question, Ryan. I'll let you go. I love asking guests this question. So, if you were to die tomorrow, okay, and this is the last podcast you ever did, this is the final message you had to leave with the world, which is like what you would believe is the most important thing that you want to be remembered by, or people that they looked you up 200 years from now, they would remember this about Ryan. What would it be? And you got about a minute, minute and a half. And I haven't prepped you on this question, so I'm going to talk a little bit longer here to let you give some time to think about it. But yeah. You know, if this is your final message on earth, and you can talk if you want to talk politics, religion, spiritual stuff, work, I don't know, motivate, like mentality, whatever it is, I don't care. Open mic. But you got about a minute, minute and a half. So, Ryan, what would be your response?

Look, one of the things, and people that follow me on social media, they know that my message is very consistent. I think the way to get ahead in life is to get around people who are already ahead. You know, I say the fastest way to get to X is get around people who have X. It's overlooked. Partnerships are overlooked. And so, You know, for, for me, I want to help other people realize and wake up saying, hey, you don't have to do this by yourself. You know, like at Cardone Capital, it's not a pitch. It's like, if you want to invest in real estate and you don't want to deal with all the headaches, well then it makes the perfect partnership because you're going to end up making more money with us than by yourself. And so like, like literally, I just, I, I stress to people, please do not do this by yourself. Get coaching, have mentors, get people who have already built something because that way you're accelerated. Um, unfortunately, I see a lot of people like, I have to have 100% ownership. Oh, I got to do it myself. It's just, it's just caveman thinking. And so moving into the future, like, please just remember me as like, hey, he showed up and, you know, he built this based off of like the number 2 guy behind Grant Cardone. And then eventually I'll be number 1 and they'll have another number 2 guy. Like, I want to, I want to keep paying it forward because that's how, like you, this is how generations are built. You can't, you're not built by yourself. And it's Look, it's much more fun with the team rather than by yourself. You know, when you're walking down the airport and you're with your buddy, you do different things, your steps different. When you're walking by yourself, it's like, okay, you're not, you're not as, you know, um, uh, uh, uh, uh, peppy, or you're not, you know, like, like, literally life is so much more fun as a team, whether it's in sports, whether it's in business, whether it's in X, Y, and Z. Get around a team, man, that is just thinking so much bigger So that way you can actually go out there and accomplish and fulfill what you were set here to do. Because man, uh, I thought small my whole life. I am now really like around Grant and the team. I'm now stepping into my potential and it's so much greater. And so I just, I just hope that for everybody else, you know, just, just step out of that old caveman and then walk into these, these, these new relationships and teams.

I love it. Ryan Secco, everybody. Thank you so much for coming on again. Ryan at Cardone Capital, cardonecapital.com. You're amazing, Ryan. Thank you for coming on today, and it's been a pleasure, dude. Thank you.

Yeah, I appreciate you, man. You're awesome.