How To Get From Where You Are To Where You Want To Be With Danny Randazzo

Welcome to the Next Level Income show where it's our goal to take your income, your investments and your life to the next level. I'm your host, Chris Larsen. If you haven't, get your copy of our book@nextlevelincome.com and just click on the book link. Today we have Danny Randazzo on the show. Danny is a real estate investor, author, entrepreneur, mastermind, host, national speaker, podcast host, and volunteer with the First Tee, as well as a world traveler. Danny retired from the corporate world at age 30 after working as a financial consultant for over half a decade and building a real estate portfolio that generated monthly income that allowed him to achieve financial freedom. Today, his company, PassiveInvesting.com controls over 380 million in real estate assets. When Danny's not investing in real estate, you can find him walking with his wife Caitlin, his dog George, or playing competitive golf. You're going to love today's episode where Danny not only shares how to get his new book, the Roadmap to Financial Success and how it can help you personally achieve financial freedom, but also talk about why he's written series of children books, what his highlight of 2020 was, and what he's focused on going forward and how you can change your mindset and achieve financial independence for yourself. Stay tuned after this short message. Today's show is sponsored by Money Insights and their investment optimizer strategy. In my book, I share how I use the same strategy starting over a decade ago to invest my money in two places at one time. This strategy has been used by the wealthiest for generations for estate planning, minimizing taxes, preserving wealth and increasing stability for their investments. Now you can do the same thing. In addition, you can build a plan to build an emergency fund, pay for college, fund a business plan for retirement, and ultimately optimize your total financial picture. To find out more information, check us out at the banking link at Next Level Income. Danny, welcome back to the show.

Chris, thank you so much for having me on. Always a pleasure to be here with you.

Absolutely, ma'.

Am.

And we've been doing a lot of zoom, so I know I was fortunate enough to get to see you last year. For a brief period, we got to enjoy lunch down in beautiful Charleston, which is one of our favorite places to visit here from the mountains. But for those that don't know you, maybe they haven't listened to the previous episode that you were on. If you could share a little bit more about your background and specifically your transition from corporate America to running this empire that you guys have Built in real estate.

The, you know, my quick background is, you know, I grew up a household where we were instilled to go to school, get good grades, and get a good job at a, you know, company that was not in the auto sector. I grew up in a middle class community in Michigan. And so the automotive challenges that occurred in 2007 were a huge impact to a ton of industries that all kind of survived around the automotive industry. So our family learned a lot throughout that process. And so that was why it was always instilled to go get a job outside and not be dependent on the auto industry. That goes even all the way back to my grandma and grandpa instilling in my dad and his brothers to kind of get jobs outside of that industry. And I kind of always had the mindset of not wanting to follow that entrepreneurial spirit. But anyhow, long story short, went to school, got good grades, got a good job, worked in corporate America as a financial consultant, traveling around the globe, helping multi billion dollar companies improve their financial performance. And I really love doing it. Phenomenal way to build a business resume, but also a personal resume. Being able to travel outside of the US being able to travel all around the United States, meeting different people, seeing how companies operate, the ins and outs of things. But what I realized is that, you know, I didn't have control of my time. While you are well compensated working as a corporate consultant, um, you're on road typically Monday to Thursday. And the kind of core values that my wife and I were building at the time was really around, you know, family and enjoying what we do and really having control of our own day to day. And the travel was a huge component. And so we made a decision within our family network and we just decided to change. We moved from San Francisco to Charleston and started investing in real estate to build up cash flow to achieve financial freedom where our assets generate enough income to support our cost of living and our lifestyle. And so we were able that I was kind of working two jobs at the same time, corporate consultant and real estate investor, building up these assets. And when, when we were nearing that financial freedom number, I quit, kind of retired from my corporate job and jumped into real estate full time. And you know, I have a huge passion for, you know, building companies, buying assets, helping other people along the way. And so, you know, I just don't, I don't want to be the four hour work week kind of guy and like go sit on the beach. And I really love what I do in a sense of working and buying properties, investing in real estate, helping other people achieve financial or better their financial situation. And so that's where it really led down the path of building this business@ passiveinvesting.com where we buy multifamily estate, we do other, we have other financial businesses that we help people with. And all while helping investors make a return on their money and having quality investments for them to put their money to work to help them and their.

Families now, which we love. We love having you on the show because it aligns perfectly with our values at next level income, which is how to help people make more money and then ultimately grow their money to achieve the freedom. So, Danny, I love how many places you've been around the world, the lifestyle that you and Caitlin live. You guys are wonderful people and you've had some tremendous experiences. Tell us about some of the places you've been around the world. What was your favorite place and where did you guys end up? Where did you and your wife meet?

So we met in this place called Ha Long Bay, Vietnam, and we were both randomly traveling around the world with a friend separately. We both lived in San Francisco at the time, but probably never would have really crossed paths or been in the same circle or places. And we met on this overnight boat trip in Ha Long Bay, Vietnam. We met for 24 hours, stayed in over email following that experience and just it kind of blossomed from there. And so that is a very special place to us. Wonderful place to be and just kind of, you know, fate serendipitous moment. Just crazy. But we're so grateful for that experience. From some of the other kind of favorite places we've been to, I'll say pre pandemic, I guess this must have been in like 2019. We had the opportunity to go to South Africa, which is just a wonderful place that not it's not on your kind of top three hit list to go to if you're going to do Europe or something like that. So South Africa is a beautiful place where you can really get engrossed in the nature and the environmental aspect. And it is a very humbling experience to see how countries are different than the US and how they they may be in just different political environments or different humanitarian phases as countries and people continue to evolve. And so very beautiful place. We really love that. And then we also had the opportunity to go to Israel. And again, just a clash of the cultures. It's a real melting pot where you can have the ability to follow the Jewish face, the Muslim faith and the Christianity faith all in one Spot can hear the church bells going while there's a Islamic call to prayer. And then you have a lot of the. Oh, why am I missing the word on the Jewish. Not a temple.

Well, it's a Torah, but it's.

We'll need to edit this out. Shoot. So it's a real melting. A real melting spot in the world where you have, you know, Jewish synagogues with all coming in and out, and then you have, you know, the Muslim call to prayer and the church bells going all at the same time, all in the same location. So cool. Ton of history as well that you can get ingrained in. And so, you know, those are some of the things that we enjoy to. In a couple of the places recently that have been just a wonderful experience.

Yeah, no, and I mean all those things in such a small area. It really is a. Is a very interesting part of the world. So today, almost $400 million in multifamily and apartments.

Yep.

You moved from San Francisco to Charleston. Tell us about that first deal and why. Why real estate? You coming out of the financial world, why not stocks? Why real estate? And what was that first deal like.

For you, the reason to go and invest in real estate? You know, I had read a ton of investment books in the stock market by, you know, Charlie Munger, Warren Buffett, Benjamin Graham, all about value investing, which is. Which is great. The issue I have with the stock market is the lack of control. And so no matter what you or I could do today, we can't really impact or influence the value of that asset. And if one person who's very influential in that company makes a mistake or does something awesome, that could go very high or very low. And so that. That was not very appealing to me. And I think it's really important for individuals to determine what their goal is first before making an investment. And so you should figure out what your goal is and then find the investment that fits your specific goal. You shouldn't be investing in real estate or investing in the stock market because your friend is doing that or you hear us talking about it on a podcast. Right. You should be investing because it meets your goal. There are hundreds of different investment vehicles out there that will achieve you need for yourself and your family. And so real estate aligned perfectly. It was an asset that we could buy that generated monthly cash flow to replace that W2 income to ultimately achieve financial freedom. And so the goal was, I'm going to buy anything that can produce cash flow on a monthly basis to help me replace my W2 income and the light bulb went off that real estate is probably the best asset to do that with. And so that's how we got started in the space. And it served us quite well since.

So for somebody that's listening today, they say that's great. Danny, I just bought my first property. I'm looking at my first property. What's your advice to somebody that is looking to scale and get from, say, a few hundred dollars a month in cash flow to a few thousand or even tens of thousands of dollars in cash flow to achieve that ultimate goal of financial freedom?

Yeah, I would say you need to kind of open up your mindset and thinking. So if you have a few hundred dollars in cash flow. Right. That's probably maybe one. Excuse me. Or two, single family home that's, you know, maybe it's $250,000 in value. You need to expand that thinking and try to something that's $2.5 million in value because it's going to take that few hundred to a few thousand. And so I kind of set a goal and work backwards to figure out how to get there. So if you want to increase that value, you need to figure out, okay, I just bought a $250,000 house. I'm getting a few hundred dollars in cash flow. It took me probably 50 to $75,000 to buy that asset. Well, if I scale up and try to buy something that's 2.5 million, you're probably going to need, you know, 500 to $750,000 to buy that. And so now you're thinking is, well, how do I get that money? Because I don't have it in my bank account. And you, you know, if you want to scale up and go bigger, you need to more people. It's a team sport. And so working with partners, where you could pool your funds together and all do different roles and responsibilities, maybe you can find an investor who just wants to have some cash flow coming to them and you could partner with them if they have the money and you have the time and the skill set to manage it and oversee it, that's a great way to do it. But you have to think bigger if you want to do things differently. And so, you know, I challenge people. If you're looking at buying another single family home, think about how you would buy two, you know, 10 times the amount, and that's what you should be focused on.

I love it. Yeah, I think there's this whole 10x people like Grant Cardone, he's kind of like a sweet dessert to Me, he's like, a little too sweet, but I love to listen to him or read a little bit of stuff to get fired up. And what I love about the 10x mentality, which you just touched on, Danny, is that it causes you to think differently. Think about maybe not how to do something, but who to do it with. And that's. We talk about in our book, the same thing, getting the end goal in place, working backwards from that, thinking bigger and how real estate is a team sport and making that happen. So I'd love to talk. I'm sorry, go ahead.

The last thing I was going to say about that thinking bigger mindset, I think it's really important, too, that people kind of challenge their thinking about money as well. And so, you know, I'll just ask some questions to you. We don't need an answer, but just to think about, you know, when did you think $100 was a huge amount of money?

Right around maybe like five years old, Right?

Sure. You think back that you got $100, oh, my God, I got more money than I'll ever need. Then. When did you think $1,000 was a significant amount of money? When did you think 10,000? When did you think 100,000? When did you think a million dollars was a lot of money? And I think people need to do whatever they can to kind of visualize that or put that into perspective and overcome some of those barriers where people think, oh, gosh, I need half a million dollars to buy this property. I'm never going to get that, and you're not going to buy that. And so you need to understand that $500,000 is very achievable. And you just need to think a little bit differently and overcome that kind of mental barrier of, wow, that's a lot of money, and it's gotta be digestible. You need to think, okay, we can do this. We've got it.

No, I agree. I mean, that's such great advice. And then I'll piggyback onto that and say, if you're having trouble overcoming that mental hurdle, find somebody who has and begin to hang around with those people, ask them advice, find out, okay, how did you do it? What was the point in time where you thought this? And it's like, if you look at extreme sports these days, we are seeing just tremendous leaps and bounds in the limits of human performance. And one of the reasons that science is starting to show is that because we're actually seeing it because of GoPro and this technology, and. And that's how the Human mind works the four minute mile. When we know something is possible, it makes it more achievable for us. So, you know, if you're listening to Danny and you're thinking, I still think a million dollars is a lot of money and a million dollars is a lot of money, you could do a lot with it, but it's not an unachievable amount. Find people that you can be around that you can go to that will help you overcome that. Danny, you just wrote a book and we're going to get to that in a minute. But this isn't the first book you've written. One of the things that you and I really share a passion for financial education for our younger generation. I work here locally in Asheville with a group called Open Doors. I'm helping them with a financial education plan. Share with the audience why you chose to write your series of children's books.

Yeah, and I've got right here just to kind of show them off. I wish you could flip the camera around so you could see the actual title. But these are the two books. It's in my Wealth Lessons for Kids series. And, and you know, the real reason to writing them is that whole limiting belief or mentality where money is a tab subject. I want parents or adults and children to be able to sit down and talk about money and learn the sick fundamentals of it so people are not intimidated or people are not challenged by it or not scared by it. It should be an everyday convers where you and I can talk about it comfortably to each other and not feel weird about it. And that is the whole purpose. And so I came up with five specific fundamental lessons. Each book represents one lesson. I've written two of them, so I've got three more on the docket to write. But again, it's just a great way for parents and adults to start educating kids and getting them comfortable around the subject of money and you know, ever important today with just, you know, all of the new things we encounter on a regular basis.

Yeah, absolutely. I mean, as soon as we met, I went and bought your books right off Amazon and gave them to my boys. I think it was actually for Christmas of last year. I might have given them to them. Very easy to read. So if you haven't seen them yet, the Boy who Lost his Wallet and was it Danny and the Ice cream. Is that right?

It was. You got it.

Pick them up. They're great for any children that are in elementary school. Terrific lessons. You can read them. They're quick reads. You can pass them on. Danny and I are kind of finance nerds. So these are like our bedtime stories, but one of the other things we've done because we try to do the same thing. Danny, talk to our two young boys about money and make it comfortable for them. Obviously this isn't something we teach them to brag about, but something to be comfortable having the conversation. We also picked up Cash Flow for Kids, which is, I feel it's a great board game. So again, if you're listening and you're looking for tools to educate your children, Cash Flow is a book by Robert Kiyosaki. Cash Flow is a board game. And then he has Cash Flow for Kids and it educates children and things like what is an asset? So if you ask my boys, hey, is our house an asset? They'll tell you, well, no, dad, it's a liability because it takes money out of your pocket every month. Whereas if you ask them, is our office building an asset? They'll say, well, yeah, because people pay us every month to be there and you make money from it. So it teaches children. Yeah, simple lessons like that. And it also shows that no matter where you start, you could be a teacher, you could be a business person within the game. It shows that you can ultimately get the financial freedom, which I think is a terrific lesson. So the roadmap to financial success, your new book and I love the subtitle. Thank you. How to get from where you are to where you want to be. So if you could share with the audience. Danny, why did you choose to write this latest book? And for those that read it, what are they going to get to learn and see inside of the book?

The reason for writing this book, again, it really comes down to individual goals. Each individual person, Whether you are 5 years old or 100 years old, you are responsible for your financial success and financial well being. And so getting from where you are today to where you want to be is. It can be challenging, right? There's things that you need to learn, there's obstacles that you'll encounter. And so the passion for writing this book, my co author, Kelly Garrett, great friend of mine, business partner in Charleston, we wrote it together to give a diversified story. So within the book, we set it up to be a roadmap. It's a step by step guide to follow with fundamental lessons in each chapter. And then Kelly and myself each provide our personal story along with those fundamental lessons to give people a new perspective. I'm a firm believer of understanding how people learn. So are you a Visual learner, Are you an audio learner or are you both? And so giving those different perspectives, someone may resonate with my story and it may help them. Someone may resonate with Kelly's story will help them more. So that's the reason for kind of jointly working on this project. And having that shared passion for financial success is again, the utmost important piece for each individual person. You have to have that burning desire to change where you're at. Change is difficult. Right. We struggle with it a lot as humans. However, if you have that burning desire to get to a place in the future, having a roadmap is a great tool to get you there faster, to help you get there in a smoother fashion, an easier trip, less headaches along the way, less obstacles, and, you know, just different tools and methods to overcome challenges that you'll encounter. And so, you know, again, great, great, simple lessons that, you know, adults can learn, adults can teach to children and, and it's just about powering people to take responsibility for where they're at and where they want to go.

Yeah, absolutely. And that is the big thing that it's come up now a couple times in our conversation is no matter where you are, I had very humble beginning. I truly believe no matter where you are, we live in the greatest country with the greatest opportunity to achieve financial success. And I think that anyone can do it. And I'm to going, I'm pretty good with quotes, I'm pretty bad with names, but I love the quote, it says a genius without a map will get lost. An idiot with a map will get to his destination. And to your point, if you have a roadmap, if you have clarity, the coaching clients I work with, the first thing we do is put their three year vision into place. Because even if you are making a million dollars a year, if you're wandering all over the place and you don't know what your ultimate goal is, you're going to get sidetracked. And even though you may achieve financial success or are you really going to be fulfilled at the end of the day. And that's what I love about you, Danny. Like you travel, you have a wonderful relationship, great business partners, and you've achieved this success while still not losing focus on all these other things such as helping to educate our next generation here. So in our first episode together we asked you, what advice would you go back and give your 25 year old self? I'm not going to let you answer. I'm going to make listeners go back and listen to that. But we just rolled into 2021. 2020 was a tough year for a lot of people. Devastating for some, a true opportunity and explosive growth for others. What was the highlight of your 2020?

The highlight of my 2020 was from a personal perspective, we took on an opportunity. So we learned that our investors wanted some diversification in short term and long term investment opportunities. And so we launched a real estate debt fund that gives investors the ability to access their capital or have liquidity to their capital if they ever need it. And that was a huge accomplishment because with all of the challenges that Covid was bringing in 2020, the shutdowns, the closures, the lack of people being able to move around like we did in the previous year, I think starting something new is always great and exciting. And the debt fund was a huge move forward for us to, you know, get through the year, help people out, have a new investment vehicle that aligns with people's goals because again, your individual goal is what we need to figure out and then find the opportunities that meet your specific need. And so we were able to help people meet those needs and that was very grateful to do.

That's wonderful and it's a great lesson too. Continuing on the theme of things that we get to teach our children and pass on to the next generation, I tell my boys, if you want to make money, figure out how to help as many people as possible. And I think it's wonderful that the options that you provide investors so people are listening. They want to know the best place to get your books, Danny, is get in touch with you. How can we find out more about your books that are out there offerings that you have with passiveinvesting.com best place.

To go for the books, go to Danny randazzo.com and if you want to learn anything about what we do from an investment side, just check out passiveinvesting.com awesome.

And of course we'll have those in the show notes. You can find Danny's books@danny randazzo.com you can get a free copy of my book@nextlevelincome.com just click on the book link. Danny, thank you so much for joining us again and sharing your story with our audience.

Chris, thank you so much. Always a pleasure.

Hey Chris, here again. I hope you found this episode valuable. Now I have one more gift for you. If you haven't gotten my book Next level Income yet and would like me to send it to you in the mail for free, then go to nextlevelincome.com and click on the book tab. If you fill out the form on that page, I will send you a copy of my book and cover all the shipping costs as a thank you for being a podcast listener. Also, please like share and take 90 seconds to give us a rating on Apple Podcasts. Sam.