EP. 105 | Financial Independence and Beyond with Billy Keels

Hey there. I'm very excited to be a guest speaker at Mfincon, which is taking place live in Charlotte, North Carolina this June 23rd through 25th. I am going to be talking about my path towards financial independence and how you can do the same thing. You can get your ticket now at www.mfincon.com. that's M F I N C-O-N.com use special code, next level, all caps to get your discount. And I'm sending you this special code because if you're serious about apartment syndication, multifamily investing, real estate investing, commercial real estate, mfincon is for you. I'll be speaking alongside an excellent lineup of 50 plus multifamily experts and professionals, as well as Shaquille O', Neal, Barbara Corcoran, and Jocko Willink. The opportunities at this event for networking are endless and you do not want to miss out on any of the great sessions that are planned. And with this special code, Next level, you'll save $200 on your ticket. I'll see you there. On today's show, we have Billy Kiels with First Generation Capital Partners. After over two decades in the corporate world, Billy now works with investors at First Generation Capital Partners to use all the knowledge that he used to solve his own problems that we're going to talk about in today's episode to help investors on their own path to financial independence. You're not going to want to miss this episode with Billy as he comes to us across the ocean from Europe to share more about his story.

Welcome to the Next Level Income show where it's our goal to raise your income, investments and life to the Next level with your host, Chris Larson. Get your free copy of his book@nextlevelincome.com book also, if you're an accredited investor, check out the Invest link to learn how to gain access to to institutional quality real estate opportunities.

Billy, welcome to the show.

Hey, Chris, thanks so much. Looking forward to a fantastic conversation and well, just trying to add a little value today.

Yeah, no, absolutely, man. And I'm glad you got the memo on the white shirt. So we're both looking nice and nice and crisp here. Although I think your teeth are whiter than mine, man. So, yeah, I'm a little. I gotta go. I gotta.

We'll work on that. I'll share that. I'll share the secret after the. After the conversation.

Thank you. Thank you. Dude. Where. Tell the audience where you're coming to us from today because it's the evening.

Where you are yeah, it's the evening here today in Barcelona, Spain, or some would say Barcelona, Spain, where I have actually been living for the last 15 years as part of a one year sabbatical that I started back in 2000 where I was living in Italy before Spain and France before Italy. So in. And this is all from a guy from. Originally from Columbus, Ohio.

So yeah, I love it, man, I love it. And you've just made a recent transition here that I'm excited for you to share with the audience because it really falls in line with what we talk about at next level income. I enjoyed kind of being on your podcast here over the past few months. Let's start with the big transition that you've made here since December. Billy.

Yeah, man, happy to share that. Just one thing and I just as a fellow podcaster, I always ask if you don't mind of your audience if you haven't had a chance to leave an honest written review as well as a rating for Chris because he does a really, really great job of bringing great guests and adding lots of value to you. Just take a couple seconds to do that. It will mean a lot.

Trust me. You're the man. Thank you.

So, yeah, man, no problem, no problem. So with that as a background. Yeah, you know, I have recently just made a transition after 20 years of working in the corporate world where I very similar to, I think the story that you shared when we were on the. When you're on the Going along podcast, episode 152. You were awesome, by the way. You absolutely crushed it is being able to be a part of the corporate world where I actually enjoyed it. I really like I was 26 years into it. I was very happy. I had a chance to work and travel throughout some 86 countries during my time working in the corporate world. The last 21 years since I've been living in Europe, I worked across Europe, Middle east and Africa. I've met people from so many different walks of life, helped to challenge me. Super smart people because I was working in an cutting edge industry, which is enterprise software, which was amazing. And everything was going really, really well. I was in the, you know, the winner circle or the president's club kind of thing. I was going to Hawaii every couple years. I was in the top talent program. And the thing is, I don't. I watched my parents struggle a lot of times. They had two jobs, they were struggling to figure out which bills that they paid. And I saw a lot of the things that were challenging with money. And so I'd always been for many years, really focused on money. And one of the things that happened towards the latter part of last year is my dad had some very major health problems. And so for anyone who's had parents that have been through major health problems, I was very fortunate because my father is still alive today. But I flew back towards the end of last year in September, October, November, because of some the challenges he was having with his heart. And I remember being in the, in the icu and while I was there, I just thought about, you know, all of these accolades and the kind of like the dopamine hits, the recognition and stuff that I was getting from my day job. But Chris, I'd been going into my day job for probably about four years and I didn't actually need to. I liked it because I liked the environment, I like the people, I like the recognition, I like the paychecks. And the bonus checks were massive. But I realized that life is very finite. And so because I didn't love what I was doing, I liked what I was doing, I got an opportunity that a lot of people don't get. And that's really to say, okay, well stop. Reflect really what is you love doing and being able to do that. And so very fortunately was able to, you know, separate from the corporate world and have been really focused now on spending a lot more quality time. Not just, I mean, I'm flying now more frequently back to the United States and being able to see my dad and sisters and mom and stepmom and stuff like that, but also really the relationships with my wife because I was traveling a lot, you know, I was traveling three, four days and traveling all over Europe, Middle east and Africa. Playing video games with my boys is like, become the new, like my big, huge passion, right? Because I never played video games before, at least since college. I played a lot in college, way too much, but I wasn't doing that. And being able to watch, watched my sons beat me, especially because we play a lot of the NBA kind of it's just fun. And I'm right now, I'm enjoying that time. It's not something that I thought was going to happen so soon, but it did. I'm very fortunate because I'm enjoying every day, so. But yeah, it was a real life event that really helped to drive home a lot of the clarity and allow me the opportunity to move on and really focus on things that I'm really passionate and love.

That's amazing. And look, I didn't know before we had you on today of that which this just Adds even more to the story. And you have so much that, so much that you're going to share with the audience today. And I want to rewind a little bit, so excuse me. I've been outside a little bit and I think the columns getting to my. Yeah, so you've been in Europe for several years now. Talk to us a little bit about how you ended up there first. Because, I mean, look, I mean, for me, I think it'd be really cool to be expat or to go and live somewhere, but my boys, you know, our kids are similar ages. My boys are now 10 and 12. And I'm like, well, wow. How. How did you make that transition, Billy? And how is it, you know, being overseas?

Yeah, great question, man. Love that. So, you know, one of the things that happened, like a lot of people. Well, I was an A student. I. I really want to go out for myself. I put the goal there, I accomplished the goal, and you know, I was, you know, I was really, really happy. And so being an A student and going through high school and college with really great grades, I'd always gotten used to just getting the things that I put my mind to. And so I had this goal in this dream of working for P and G, because that was the company I went to school at Miami, Ohio, in the southwest of Ohio town called Oxford, Ohio. And I got the good grades. But the thing is, I got rejected from the interview process and I. It was a really tough thing for me. I did not deal with that like it was, it was tough. Um, I. Yeah.

And was this mark, were you in a marketing, like, track or why? Why? I guess why P and G is my question for you. I mean, phenomenal.

P and G. Because it was like. Yeah, so like, it was the, like the gold standard because I got a marketing degree. Right. It's actually kind of. I got a BS in marketing, which is. Which is kind of funny. And. And that was the job. Like, that was the gold standard. And so that's what I set my sights on, because that's what everybody else did. Not necessarily because that's what I wanted, but when you're an A student, you just kind of follow what everybody else does. And so not only did I get rejected once afterwards, I ended up adding a secondary, Chris. And so I went overseas. I lived in Valencia, Spain. Never been outside of the United States before. And I was going to add another degree. So I thought, you know, I'm going to go over, have an international experience, come back, be fluent in Spanish. Hahaha. That didn't happen in three months, by the way. And then when I went back, I had the second degree, but I was really ready for process. And I went through the second time thinking to myself, I've got the international experience, I've got another degree. And I got rejected again. Yeah, I got rejected again. Didn't know what to do and just like distraught. But I had a really good friend. I was a co chair for a student body weekend, who's actually one of the guys, is still one of my best friends today. And he told me about this job of people that were working and traveling with Fortune 500 CEOs meetings as well as leisure travel. Leisure like president's club, things like that. So I went through an interview process after being rejected twice. And I had the opportunity. I was one of 26 people that was selected out of like 6,000 resumes. And this job absolutely fundamentally changed our life because during five years I had a chance to work and Travel with Fortune 500 CEOs, their direct reports, top producer in five years, Chris. I worked and traveled throughout 58 different countries. Completely changed my thought process. The things that I thought were right were not necessarily right if looked at from a different perspective, all these types of things. But more importantly what it did was I was exposed to so much of the world at such a young age. I was 26 and 50, 58 countries, man. I'm from Columbus, Ohio. I never even imagined going to California. Like that was a long trip for me. Right. And so having had this opportunity, I didn't see myself doing a normal quote unquote, nine to five job. And so I took a one year sabbatical, Chris. And that was two weeks after 9 11. I was a university at the, at the Sorbonne in Paris, France. And it was literally like two weeks after the 911 thing. So there was also like tension between, in the US I moved over there right at the time. But I actually. And I set three goals out for myself. I wanted to learn how to. I wanted to learn more about French language and culture. I wanted to learn how to salsa dance and I wanted to learn more about wine. And I don't know why those three things, I actually kind of laughed at this.

Women. Does that have anything to do with women? Because women like all those things.

Yeah, maybe had, maybe had, maybe had something to do with it. I can tell you that the wine really helped my salsa to dancing, that's for sure.

At least in your own mind, right?

Exactly. Yeah. This is amazing. Yeah. I'm out here dancing around and it was. Yeah, it was fun. We'll talk more about that later. But, yeah, so I started learning. Like, I went through a lot of the trials and tribulations. I knew what it was like to be living overseas. I didn't know anybody. Like, I literally moved over there. Didn't know anyone at all. I went there on a student visa after having worked and traveled and doing all this amazing stuff. And the nights where I went back home, thinking to myself, I cannot even believe that I did this. Like, this is making no sense. Nobody understands me. I'm frustrated. I'm trying to get things done. I don't know anybody. I have no network. And it was. And after probably about six months, I started meeting people. I was salsa dancing. That was really cool. Because what it did is it started to create a network of people that we had something in common. Not. It was dancing. And that was a really cool thing. Then I started building relationships, helping. They helped me. I helped them. And I continue to move forward. So six months, I realized, like, I want to stay here. Like, this growth experience is really like, I see the growth. I feel it. I'm starting to speak more frequently. I'm feeling more comfortable, I'm feeling more confident. And so I was very fortunate because I worked with a lot of the Fortune 500 CEOs in their direct reports. And so a lot of people were like, hey, listen, you know, I saw you in Beijing a year ago, and I saw you last week in Buenos Aires, and if you ever want a job, give me a call. Well, at that age, I was, well, thinking to my, cool, I've got all these cards. Let me call some people. And so I started doing that, and I was very fortunate to start in the IT space. So I got into the hardware space. Paris. I moved to a town called Montpellier in the south.

Oh, yeah.

Not far from. Not far from the Riviera. Yeah. And. And that was really cool. I started selling over the phone in France in French and Spanish. And then eventually I went to Italy. They. I started up a sales team there. I went back. But right before I left Italy, I met this really cool, cute Spanish. And so she moved back to Barcelona, and I was in Italy. I moved back to France, and then eventually I ended up coming here to Barcelona. We getting married a couple years later. And then two kids arrived a bit after that. And yeah, so that's actually how I got here. Like, I did not plan on being in Europe for 20 years. I did not plan on living in three different countries. I did not plan on learning four additional languages. And I did not plan on being retired in my, in my 40s from the corporate life. So a lot things can happen when you go away for a one year sabbatical. So I always kind of tell people a little bit and just you never know what's going to happen on a one year sabbatical. A lot happened.

No, it's, it's amazing story and it's, you know, it's something that so many people, I mean I've not been to, that I've probably been to, you know, a quarter if, If I'm or 10th of the countries you've been to. It's amazing. Just so many experiences that you've, you've gotten to have. And you know, one of the things I think, you know, there's this dichotomy and a lot of people that are part of the corporate world, they think like, oh, if only, you know, when or when only I can exit, you know, then I can do this. And I love what you talk about in your bio, which is, you know, you're, you know, you, you were the happy corporate employee and you were successful. And James Altucher has a great book, it's called the Rich Employee, if I'm recalling that right. But he talks about how you can, you can become rich, you can have what you want and work for somebody, it's okay. Like these things work together. I think that there's a lot more autonomy in sales like you and I were both in, Billy. It's very entrepreneurial and you get to do that. So I think it's easier if you kind of like stick yourself in the revenue cycle of a company. What are your thoughts on that?

Well, so that's a double edged sword, right? And absolutely. I personally love the sales profession. I think it is the most phenomenal profession that exists.

When done, I can argue with you because.

And the reason for. One of the reasons for that is because you're there to solve problems like your job as a sales professional, whether you're a frontline or you're a sales leader, is to figure out what is the problem. And the gravity of the problem that you're solving will also be commensurate or should be with the compensation that you receive. So when you're doing the sales profession or you're acting as a sales professional in its purest form, I believe that it's, it's fantastic because you're looking for the outcomes you're not based on amount of time. Nobody cared if I was 2 hours or 200 hours working on the deal. What everyone cared about was, what the client cared about was what was the outcome? What is the investment that we have to make? How quickly can we get the return on our investment? So I believe that it's fantastic. At the same time, if you don't perform, you're completely exposed. Right. If you don't perform, you're usually the first one that's gone. And also, there is massive pressure on you as a sales professional, because if there is no revenue coming in, there's no income. Right. There's no. No one else has a job. There's lots of pressure there as well. And if you enjoy the pressure of performance, I think it's the perfect place to be. I loved it. I absolutely loved it. Because you're solving problems.

Oh, you know, it's. It was like you reached into my brain and listened when I was having these thoughts and these conversations with my sales team back in the day, because we'd have, you know, you. You run this. You ran sales teams. You have these tough conversations, and your employee would call you, your sales guy would call you, and they'd say, billy, man, like, I can't this. Like, the company can't deliver this. You know this. My customers are giving me these problems. They don't have money. And I was like, it sounds like you got a lot of problems. And they'd say, yeah. I said, that's why you're here. You're here to solve problems. And I always tried to instill that in the reps, because I think if you change your perspective and you say, hey, I'm looking for problems, I'm expecting problems, and then I'm going to figure out how to solve these problems, because that's an opportunity to be successful and to provide value. That really is the key in my mind, like you just said, of being successful.

Yeah. And, you know, I'm sure you saw this a lot. Like, in the sales profession, one of the things that can tend to happen is you try to do things on your own. You know, I was. I was building my own life. My. My real financial life. Ten years, like, while I was working this highly demanding job. And so sometimes when you're in the corporate, especially if you're in sales, and I was enterprise sales, you know what it's like. And there are multiple stakeholders. And so when you are very complex.

Very complex sales. Yeah, yeah.

Extremely complex. Right. But sometimes you get in this thing where you want to try to do things by yourself, and there were moments where I kind of did that. And it didn't work as well. And so that's when you start realizing, how do you give clear direction? How do you have clear communication? And you call out the things that most people don't even want to talk about, Chris, because it makes them feel uncomfortable. But those are the things that you talk about. Those are the. Those are the types of conversations that you have to engage in, because that's where all the magic happens. And the reason I also say that is because it's important that you not just try to do everything yourself. Right. As I made that transition, and there were times when I was trying to lift and do everything myself in my own, like, syndication business. And you start realizing, well, that's not how I'm succeeding in the corporate world. I'm succeeding in the corporate world because I'm not doing everything. So then you have to make sure that that transition. I struggled with that in the beginning, and there's still moments where I struggle with it because it's being an A student and having the high standards and all that stuff. But. But I think that those are also different parallels. That anyone who's a high performer, anyone who wants to continue to excel in the corporate world, outside of the corporate world, that you just have to be aware of. It's about clear conversations, having the difficult, challenging conversations, and making sure that you have the right person doing the right task at the right time, because that's the way that you really build momentum.

I love it. I love it. You said a couple things there I just want to underscore. Um, you know, one, learn how to solve problems if you want to create value and create income. And two, don't try to do it all yourself. Learn. Learn to find the who, not the how. Right is. I like to say it's a great book out there, and we've. We've kind of. Yeah, we've alluded to this. And I really, you know, now I really want to talk about. When did you start your investment journey, Billy? Like, when did you. Because you're. You're. You're successful, you're making a lot of money. You got the commission checks coming in, you start a family. You said you spent about 10 years building your investment portfolio. When did that start? What's the story of your first investment?

Yeah, so this is kind of another story. It's interesting, man, because start to take a step back. You realize when you don't grow up from money and you think money is the only thing, and it's the most important thing, and then you go Back to these points in your life and you start to realize that that's not actually what you in motion. That's not actually what makes you take action. It's amazing. And what do I mean by that? So as an A student, I did everything I was told. You know, you get the good job, you go out, you 1k IRA. And that's what I was doing. I was maxing all that stuff out. 2000 hit. I'd been working five years. I lost portfolio. Financial advisor was like, don't worry, dca, it's gonna work out. I didn't even know what that meant. Dca, dollar cost averaging. Like kind of keep putting the same amount of money in. He was absolutely right. Eventually, 2008, I got crushed. I lost 33% of the value of my portfolio. And I realized that I needed to do something. So that's actually when I started thinking about doing something. Had a chance. I was in the States. I picked up Rich Dad, Poor Dad. I put it down, I didn't finish it. A couple years later, I went back, picked it up. It was amazing. I was this young father at the time. Our first son was born, Getting ready to have a second son. Read it end to end. Like I was a theoretical, like Mastermind Chris. Like I knew everything. All the books. I watched the videos on YouTube. I was listening to podcasts. You could, like. There was nothing about the theory that you could tell me that I didn't know. All of that changed on my oldest son's third birthday. And the reason for that is the night before his third birthday, I was not feeling well at all. I wasn't feeling well because the next morning I knew that I had to get up and I had to go to a flight to Germany. I flew to Frankfurt. This is a thing that I used to be really embarrassed of. I didn't feel comfortable talking about it. I was actually ashamed of it for quite a long time. Because my thing was I wanted to be an amazing father. I'm the product of the household. And I said that I wanted to be there and I wanted to do all these things. And so I woke my wife up and our one year old. I was about probably 5:45 in the morning, something like completely disheveled. You can imagine, 5:45 in the morning. But I woke everybody up. I was out of the shower and I wanted to sing Happy Birthday to my oldest son. And so we sang Happy Birthday Kiss and I left. And when I left, I realized that, like, something wasn't right inside because I said I Wanted to be there for the important moments. And I spent all day in a business meeting in Frankfurt. I was at night having a dinner with people that I don't even remember who was at the dinner. But the thing I remember is that I missed my son's third birthday. I was not there to blow out the candles. My wife, kids in laws were all together while I was in Frankfurt listening to it on the phone. So that was the moment that I went from the theoretical like ninja that I was talking about to I've got to do something. So I literally went back on my goals. And the goals that I wrote down, I actually started to accomplish them. I made my very first purchase eight months after I wrote my goals down. Moving theory to practice. I actually purchased that very first property. My wife and I were in Cairo, Egypt. You can imagine this is back in 2013. Chris. My wife and I are in Cairo, Egypt. We buy this property. I remember going to the business center, having to do a send a fax was just absolutely insane for a property that was in New Jersey. Right. And so that was my long distance investing kind of thesis took place because I wanted to buy here in Barcelona. Realized that this was not the type of location that was cash flow. I was looking for flow. But then from there that is actually what started me investing in the real asset space. So I know it may be a little bit long winded answer, but no, that was, I didn't, I didn't, I didn't actually start. It was just once again it was like real life stuff is what pushed me into action. Not because I was making more money, I just wanted more control. I didn't want to miss any more special events.

You gotta, you, you gotta get to that point where you, you, you have no choice or you in your head, you know that and my, my son's third birthday, my oldest son's third birthday, I spent in the or. And I rushed home, I felt terrible, sick, like I was just holding it together. We threw the birthday party the next day. I couldn't get out of bed. I just kind of, I forced myself through it. And you never forget those moments. So you built your investment portfolio over a period of time. And I want to hear more about kind of your business today, Billy. But you're sharing before the show. You're there at your father's bedside in, in December and you had another one of these moments.

Yeah, I mean that was the thing. So the, so when we went through the thing with my dad and his, and his heart issues, I mean that was a similar type of thing, right? It was. I like my job. I enjoy what I'm doing. I'm very good at it. I'm highly compensated, massive bonus checks, but it's just not filling my heart. Like, I don't love this. And so that was the moment I realized, like, okay, it's time for the corporate to go as well. Right? And. And there's absolutely no hard feelings. There's no, like, I'm not one of these people. As, like, your job. Corporate's terrible. Like, I don't believe any of that. I just realized that there was something that was out there more for me to be able to serve on a different level. And so that moment, going through that experience is what made me realize, okay, corporate has been fantastic. I've been coming into this job for the last four years, not really needing to go into this job. And so when you're faced with that kind of mortality in front of you, you start to realize, okay, let's move on to the next thing. And because I'd been building this business for, like, nine and a half years on the side, it was time to place more focus and attention to the business as well as. And more importantly, that investing the time with my family, with my boys, with my family in the United States and doing those types of things. But, yeah, so it's been those kind of two major events, which neither of the two of them are related to money or money or any of that kind of stuff, which have been the catalyst of really creating movement for me. And now me and my team.

No, I love that. And so you. You built a portfolio. You got to that point. And like, me, I was on a podcast last week, and somebody said, so you're retired now? And I said, we don't use. Like, it's like, my boys aren't. There's like, you know, the F word, the B word. Like, there's. There's words that, like, my boys aren't allowed to use. I'm like, oh, we don't use the R word in here. You know, I'm like, stop. Like, you have to edit that out. And they're like, well, it says. I'm like, no, no, no. There's. There's a reason. There's quotations, right? So, you know, people. I have found, like, people like us, Billy, they don't. They don't. We don't want to slow down. We look for a bigger purpose. So, like, what. What are you focused on now, aside from. Aside from getting really good at the latest video games? Yeah, the video games.

Right, Exactly. Aside from video becoming a professional gamer, what. Some of them are making pretty good money is not that bad.

Yeah, I know some people are like, I don't.

And I think as well. I think they keep.

I know some people are like, I don't really see any benefit in my kids playing video games. My. I'm like, well, I was like, my neighbors two years ago, they had a really nice house. I was like, they. They design video games, and they do really well.

Like, yeah, yeah, yeah.

And I'm like, but I see your. I see your point to a degree. But, yeah, there's. There's some upside to some video games every now and then.

Yeah, definitely. But, you know, at the end of the day, and it's to your point, like, I. The. One of the goals is now is to be able to design and continue to design a life that I never have to retire from. I was talking to a really good friend of mine this morning. He was talking about, you know, he wants to be able to work until his 90s. I said, well, it's not like work, because you love what you do. And so I don't ever want to use the R word. What I want to continue to do is be able to invest my time with the people that I love. My family, my friends, our investors who are clients. Be able to invest time there, because at the end of the day, that's the stuff that matters. Chris. I mean, you know this just like. Just like I do. It's what happens when you're no longer here. What. What was the impact that you made? And so today, that's the real focus. And I still don't get it right, man. I mean, I. There's still days where I struggle, where I stay in the office too long because I. Because I love doing so. Like, that's the new thing that I have to fight against is I love this so much. I want to make such an impact and help other people that literally do this 24 hours a day at the same time. Like, one of the reasons I'm no longer in the corporate world, investing time with. With my wife. Last night, we went to this amazing flamenco Spec spectacular, is what I wanted to say. My brain gets five. Five languages. Every once in a while, I get confused. Sorry. And I think.

I think we. I think we all understood what you meant. It's fantastic. Yeah.

Okay. All right, cool. So we, you know, doing that, you know, on a. On a Tuesday night or Wednesday night was just phenomenal. Being able to take the Boy, we took the boys out of school last week because one of his birthday. And so that was something. It's not anything that I did with my sons, right. We took them when we had pizza right now from their school and they went back to school. And so being able to invest time there, spending and being able to invest more time with our investors, those are the. Those are the things. That's the. That's the purpose that I'm now focused on. And like I said, I have to. I have to really struggle. Keep just doing the work because I love it.

Yeah, no, it's fantastic. And you got to make sure you don't let your boys get too much better than you at those games. You got to set aside.

I am kind of competitive.

I'm competitive. So you like me. You started with kind of simple, right? Like single family rentals, and you grew that portfolio. You did very well. But now you started to bring in investors alongside. What types of projects are you now working on building? Who do you work with?

Yeah, so. So a couple of things that we. That we do, right. And. And I guess one of the things just to kind of state it is I've always very similar to you, Chris. Like, I've always started, like, trying to solve my own problems. And then as I solve my own problems, I'm like, okay, well, I've solved this problem and I'm surrounded by people that are just like me and they like what they're doing. They don't want to stop doing it, and they were interested in what I'm doing. So then you just open it up to what you're doing to other people, right? And so initially started, I wanted more control, right? And so that's when I started getting into real estate. When I started real estate, it was fantastic. I was enjoying it. I was long distance. I was making a lot of mistakes because I didn't have a lot of systems in place. I didn't have a lot of education. I didn't network in place. Like all the things that you shouldn't do. And I tell people now, don't do it this way. I did it that way, of course, 10 years ago. And then afterwards, one of the things that happened. So I had these smaller multifamily. I bought a mobile home park. And then I realized I found out that I was something called an accredited investor. I didn't even know because I don't come from that world, right? And I wasn't surrounded by people that were constantly telling me. And so when I found out about that I was like, hang on a second. What am I doing all this work for? You mean I can actually give somebody else $100,000 and they will do the work? Oh my gosh. Hang on a second. So then I found out about that and I was looking for more consistent cash flow. Yeah, I mean it was just like, boom. And so as I found more consistent cash flow, then I moved from real estate and I started getting into ATMs and started investing with other people as a investor because I found out about this world. Then there was a development opportunity that as they were looking for other passive investors on a real estate deal. So Hilton branded hotels, Marriott branded, a couple of those invested in a really large, you know, multifamily commercial deal. And then the thing that was happening was, and this is what I love about you look for like, what are the different ways for income? And as I was having the investing in the real assets and very passive type of income streams, I was making a lot of money in my day job and so I was paying a lot in taxes in my W2 and I was like, how do I solve this problem? And so then I found another way to solve that problem was doing that through investing in energy equipment, specifically carbon capture equipment. And so as I was investing in that, that saved helped me to solve another problem. And as I was solving that huge tax problem, I was then started opening it up to other people because they had the very similar type of issue. And so what I've realized through the company, so all different types of real assets, but they're all real assets that have helped me solve my own specific problem. And then once I solved my own problem, got the experience, got standing, and there were other people that had a similar problem, have opened it up to them as well. So now today it's really focused on actively is still the real estate, the, the multifamily as well as the energy equipment, which is very specific for people with W2 income issues. And then also one of the things I need to look for because I enjoy passive investing as well. Chris. And so I am always looking at new opportunities in the passive investing space that are solving the next issue that I'm looking to solve. So hopefully that gives you a, a broad idea of kind of where we are today.

No, it's fantastic. It's almost like you're a cooler, better, dancing, more well traveled version of myself, Billy. So with whiter teeth. But no, it's the same story. Right? You took the same thing that we're talking about was solving problems and One thing I wrote down and circled big. You know what really changed your life is when you took massive action. So if you've listened this far, thank you so much. I mean, Billy has an amazing story, but if you're waiting to do the next step until everything's right, stop right now. When you finish this podcast, write down what you can do today to make that next big step. And Billy, if you're speaking to that listener right now, what would you tell them should be their next step?

Well, so what I would say is just to be very specific about what said. Right. Is just to build on what you said. It literally is what is the next step? Not. Not what are the next step? Literally the next thing that you need to do. Everybody is at a different place. But what is literally the one thing that you need to do? And if the one thing make your stomach a little bit uncomfortable, then it's not the right thing. So. Yeah, exactly. No. So I'll give you an example, right? If what you've been thinking is, I know that I want to action. I've seen that Chris's has a number of opportunities. There's something that's happened in car wash, or maybe there's something that's happening in multifamily, and you've just the button literally, to have a conversation with them. Like, what are you afraid of? Like, you're here, you're listening, you're watching. Just literally, like, go to yourself. Like that piece of paper that Chris was just mentioning, right? On the thing, click the link to speak with Chris and literally do that. Like, don't overthink it. I mean, it's serious. Like, what is just the one thing? And it may make you feel a little bit uncomfortable, but that's exactly the one thing that you need to do next. I mean, to me, that's. I don't want to overcomplicate things. What is the one thing? And literally write down that one thing. And that's a very concrete example. First.

I love it.

Hovered over to click and just do that.

I love it. And it's usually probably that thing that you've written down for the past 10 weeks and it's still on your list. Move it to the top. Do it first, you know, eat the big frog, as they say. And Billy, if people want to learn more about what you're doing, how you're working with investors, First Generation Capital Partners, Right. How do we stay in touch with you?

Yeah, the best way is. And I know I mentioned the thing earlier on the. On the. On the tax thing on the W2 thing. If there's anybody that wants to find out more, you can go to first gen cp.com forward/paylesstax. That's probably the best way to find out more about that. You can find out us about us. Excuse me@gen cp.com we're there. And then Chris, I also like to connect with people on LinkedIn, can tap into kind of some of the things I'm thinking about and talking about and you can just come the only Billy Keels that's here in Barcelona, Spain, I'm pretty sure. So you can check it out and just let me know that you watched and listened to Chris and I speak here on X11. That would be very, very helpful. So Chris, man, I. I could talk to you forever, man. We got to figure out how we meet up either here in Barcelona, Stateside, whatever.

I'm working on that. I'm working on that. That. Listen, you let me know when you're over here. You're always welcome and. But I really want to get over there, dance some salsa and drink a little wine, have some wonderful food. But also, how can listeners, where's the best place to find your podcast? Because you have an amazing podcast as well.

Sorry. Thank you so much, Chris. Yeah, the podcast, we're on all major platforms and literally like everybody has to go listen to episode 152 because Chris Larson was there and he crushed it. So going long podcast, I appreciate that. And yes, you can find us on all the major platforms.

Awesome. Billy, it's been a pleasure catching up with you again. The best to you, your family, especially your father here during this time. And yeah, I look forward to seeing you face to face someday soon.

All right, thank you my friend. Appreciate it.

Hey Chris, here again. I hope you found this episode valuable. Now I have one more thing to gift you. We have a page for my coaching clients where you can get a free copy of my book as well as much more from previous guests on the show. Just check out nextlevelincome.com coaching to get a free copy of my book, audiobook and much more. I'll send you a copy of my book and cover all the shipping costs as a thank you for listening to the podcast. Also, please like share and take just 90 seconds to give us a rating on Apple podcasts.