Ep 244 - Week 35 Live Progress Update

So I posted on Facebook about that as well and kind of joked that that's going to be business number seven. It's not really a joke. It is going to be business number seven.

It already is.

Yes. It's not going to be. It is.

It actually ties into one of the funds that we're going to be launching. Funds that we're going to be launching. And then also, I had a great conversation with Chris, another Chris. This is with a C, but it's a different C. Columbus, Chris. Even better about a Columbus deal that we might be working with him on. He's got pretty much all the people in place. It's just figuring out how to structure. So we'll be a small part of that deal. But it's, again, nice to have this amazing network around us that they say, hey, I've got this deal. It's, you know, here's the numbers, here's the ideas. I've got. This person can do this, this, this, this, and this. Can you help me structure it? Because I'm not sure how to do it in this space. And that's exactly what we did when we first got. We didn't know what was going on. So it's really nice that we're now able to help others who are learning in this space, and people are starting to see the power of what we're doing in the multifamily arena. So super excited about that. Just waiting to get that going. And then meanwhile, we're still trying to get unpacked.

Yeah. I opened up the garage door yesterday, and I wanted to look for something, and I realized that I could not see the other side of the garage. That was pretty impressive. Yeah. Yeah. So it's a work in progress. And we also learned that you may have heard that we have alligators.

Big, huge notebook. And he was writing. It's, like, crazy. And he was like, I've got lots of ideas, lots of things that are going to improve revenue and reduce expenses. And I was like, bam. That's why you were hired.

That's awesome. And then Danny said, you know, because we brought all of the equipment to record our episodes, the live episodes, last week in Ohio. And she said, hey, Ben's coming in early. We're going to record an episode or two, I believe is the words that were said to me. And Friday morning, we. We actually. We actually started recording a little bit later in the.

After.

In the morning, but we had a big party at the office, and we recorded before and after the party, and we ended up getting 12 episodes?

Yes.

12.

Yes, 12. Yes. Just a couple.

But the fun ones, we're calling them Coffee Talk. Sorry. Because I'm editing. So I just watched them all. And so this was like as if you were to sit down with Danny and Flip at a coffee shop and ask us anything. Ben went through a series of questions, and we have. I think there is 34 episodes of Coffee Talk.

No, no, there's just six.

Six. But anyway, so they were. They were fun to record, so that was a good time.

Oops, sorry.

I didn't turn off my alarm. And we're in my office right now. So the other thing that we did was FCI team meeting with Joe. So we actually, if we haven't talked about this before, fci, for the most part, which is Freedom Capital Investments, the sixth company that we created, is mostly virtual. In fact, now more than ever, because we actually are in Florida. So CJ's in Columbus, Ben is in Cincinnati, Della is in Kentucky, and Eric is in, like, I think the Kettering area.

Yep.

And we all don't. We were the only ones that really came to the office. Jody is in the Philippines. Aj. Thank you. Aj, who is now a part of the team, is in the Philippines. So am I missing anybody that's part of sei? Like, the core team? Joe, our operations managers in South Carolina. So our sixth company is the one that's like, almost one. Well, I think it's 100% virtual now, right?

Yeah.

Even though four of those team members are local into the Ohio area, where, like, it's a half an hour to drive to the office. But anyways, so we decided that since Joe was coming to town to walk the properties and meet the team in person, that everybody from FCI would be there. So it was. We actually, on Saturday got a big picture. I was like, we're all here in person. Take a photo.

Yeah, yeah.

And we realized how frequently large everyone is. They're all super tall except for Danny and I. It's like person.

It's funny. Ben and Eric are at the ends, and then CJ and Della and then me when was a big drop off. And you were right here. I think you and CJ are pretty much the same. It was pretty funny. So that was the FCI event. Right. So we had. And that was a funny picture, too. We haven't posted it on Facebook or anything, but we all had swag on. We had our freedom.

Yeah.

Except for you.

Yes.

You had the American flag shirt.

Polo shirt. Yeah, I sort of fit in, maybe.

That we consider that swag since we're Freedom.

I didn't get the memo for some.

Reason that morning, but it was really cool. We all had our T shirts on and then we recorded two more podcast episodes and it was a Meet the Acquisitions Team and Meet the Investor Relations team. So that's the first time we've had Del and Eric on an episode and. And the first time we've had both Ben and CJ at the same time.

Yeah.

On a Freedom Through Passive income episode. Because CJ's been featured on our other podcast for our family of companies. Real Talk. Ben's done a lot of episodes here with us on the Freedom through passive income, but CJ's never transferred over to help us on the Freedom Through a Passive Income. So it was just a fun experience.

Yep. Yeah. So that was, it was an eventful weekend.

Yes.

And that was just Saturday.

Yeah. Yeah.

And then Sunday because we left some items in Ohio that we didn't want the movers to move. So Sunday we hooked the U Haul back up to our truck and. Oh, actually that was Saturday afternoon. And loaded the U Haul on Saturday afternoon, went to bed Saturday night. And then Sunday morning, bright and early, actually, before the sun even came up, we were back on the road to drive back down to Florida.

Yes.

So another two day trip back down to Florida, but we made it back to Florida. We're back here safe and sound with our, with our doggies, which are at our feet right now.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

And we got here actually just in time for a marketing meeting. We had a brand script meeting with one of our marketing team. So we have two marketing teams working with us now and they both do different things, but they're both providing content around our story and really helping us fine tune exactly how we're speaking and conveying things so that it's very clear. Because right now I always tell them, I'm like, I feel like I'm all over the place. We've got a turnkey company, acquisition company, renovation company, property management company, brokerage, and now a commercial real estate company. And we're doing private lending now. So I'm like, what am I talking about.

Right now? We're like a sprinkler and they're going to try to fine tune us.

So that was exciting. But it was like, that's why you said in the beginning, what day is it? Because.

Oh yeah, that was.

We got back on Monday.

That was Monday.

It's been nonstop work and travel and moving and everything. So we're like, okay.

In fact, they asked me if I wanted to be on this, this year's fantasy football team. And I said, I will show my championship trophy from last year because I won. I don't know how, but I won. And that's why I've got the championship trophy. And I'm going to. I'm going to, you know, I will defend it with pride once I find it in one of the boxes that's still probably in the garage.

That's right. And then I don't know if it was yesterday. I can't remember when it was. I think it was two days ago. I met with a large operator in the storage space that actually Joe connected me with. It was a really great meeting. They do huge institutional type grade stuff, development and stuff like that. And actually you asked about it before this thing and I wasn't sure which note you were pointing at. And so I again, flip learning as we on this episode about what's going on. But actually what I thought was gonna be like two, maybe two next level for us, I thought it was gonna be a call that I said, hey, you know what? In a year or two, this is somebody we would work with. Let's go ahead and start the conversation now, start building the relationship. And it turned out he was just like, you know what? And he told me some things that I won't go into because it'll take too long for me to actually explain. I might do a podcast episode about it, but he was like, you're exactly the type of person that we wanna work with. And I'm really glad that we had this call. And I think that there's some can do together. So we're already taking next steps to continue to understand each other's business models and get to know each other due diligence, vetting, all that type of stuff because it's a new relationship. And then yesterday was, I was on another call with another person that was referred to me, a multifamily operator who did, I think a thousand doors in their first year, which was our goal. And he's got three partners. And so we started kind of masterminding. He's like, we're doing this. And I said, we're doing this. And we had like, it was just a culmination of really great ideas from somebody else in the space. And it was just phenomenal. And he even told me some of the mistakes that they made. And I was like, yeah, we've made something similar. This is what we did. So now it's lessons learned as well. So now we're going to be meeting every single month with him just to exchange. We're holding each other accountable for the fun launches. And then I always say fund for the fun launches. They're fun. But also for golden nuggets, like, to exchange ideas back and forth. So that's super exciting. So, yeah. Yeah. I'm getting blown away about. So. But that's like, professional front. I know you're getting ready to talk about the personal front. And we're already going along. I'm sorry. The live episodes. We do so much.

It's crazy. This week is crazy. I think we say that every week, too. But we. Because we talked about this earlier in the year, that we were starting a new nutrition plan and a new fitness plan, and that was just like a trial type of thing for four months or whatever. And so now that we've gotten over the buying a house in Florida and moving to Florida, and I still can't believe we did that already. It's still a little surreal. But we met with them again, like, last week or two weeks ago now, but we started back up, and this one is already entrenched in our community here in Florida, has a Facebook page. And so she's already inside that page. She already found a chef to do our meals. So that way we don't have to worry about cooking the right things for lunch and dinner. So that way, somebody else does it. We don't have to think about it. We just have to eat.

Yes.

Because I think that was our biggest hurdle.

I don't know what to make, so I'm just gonna make macaroni and cheese.

You go for ease and convenience when you're super busy. Right. And so that was. Yeah, that was magic sauce. And we got the workout room unpacked, took a picture and posted it on Facebook yesterday of Sparty laying on.

Yep, Yep.

He was laying on the treadmill. I was like, now that's how you use a treadmill.

Yep. But anyway, so that all started. We're gangbusters now.

Yes, we are. Yep. Yep.

Videographer interview. So with our two marketing teams, we're also interviewing videographers to start doing stuff like this on a more professional basis going forward. For social media, for website, for just content delivery.

What?

This isn't professional right now? This year, we've been winging it for you guys.

Yeah, that's definitely true.

We're literally flying by the seat of our pants this year, trying to just kind of figure out how to get more content out there, how to share exactly what we're doing. So we can take other people along the ride, both active and passive investors. And now we're gonna do it on a more professional basis, having teams help us put it all together so that we're not going. We gotta record, like, 12 podcast episodes because we look at our watch and realize we need to catch up. They're gonna get us and help us stay ahead of the game, so that's exciting. And then we did our second private lending deal.

I know. Well, somebody says, hey, Flip, can you wire money? And I'm like, oh, yeah, sure. I have no idea what this is for, but here you're getting ready.

You underwrote the deal, right?

No, actually, I'm kidding. This one, I actually did know what it was for. I mean, I just sent a wire this morning. Have no idea what that's for. But anyway, this one was down in Texas, actually our backyard, basically, where we lived in Texas. And so when they said where the. Where the property was, I'm like, oh, I know this area.

Yeah.

Like the back of my hand. Because we were there for 10 years.

Yeah.

And so underwriting that deal was not very hard at all. That was. That was a very easy one to underwrite. Well, we knew the area, but, yeah. So that was very cool.

I love it. And so.