Ep 316 - Flip & Dani's Story Part 2 - College & Cruise Ships

Hey, everybody. Flip and Danny here, founders of the Freedom Real Estate Group family of companies. And welcome to another episode of our.

Podcast, which is called Freedom through Passive Income.

Okay, good. I didn't know what it was called. You'll have to watch the end.

The blooper.

Yeah, the end of this one. Because for the first time in the history of this podcast, Danny actually made a blooper. So you'll have to listen to this. Anyway, welcome to another episode. And this is the flippin Danny Story, the docu series.

Oh my gosh, he keeps changing the title.

Yes.

Which segment is this?

This is part dos, which is college and cruise ships.

We were trying to figure out how to tell a story and separate it into like chapters, if you will. And the reason we're telling our story is because we're in the middle of writing a book and our team is working on it and they're like, hey, what's your story? You want to record a quick 30 minute video or do you have it written somewhere? I was just like, you know, I know we had it written, but it probably doesn't include everything, so let's record something. But we are recording podcasts today, so I thought, hey, I don't think we've told our story on the podcast. Let's just wipe both of them out at the same time.

Perfect.

Awesome. Okay, so college and cruise ships. So yesterday was childhood and now 18 years old, done with high school, getting ready to go to college. I was playing trumpet and I auditioned for a scholarship and I got a full ride to Southeastern University. Back then it was Southeastern Bible College. It is now Southeastern University. I actually know people that listen to the podcast and that are in our circle that we met in other ways that went to that same school. So that's pretty exciting. So went there and I decided to focus on my. My degree was going to be in music performance because I love playing. I didn't want to teach it. I don't have the patience for that, quite frankly. But I wanted to be able to play and I didn't know what else I wanted, quite frankly. I just was like, I don't know what I want to do for a living. So I'm good at this, so why don't I just do this? And then I'm not going to say college was a waste. I mean, it's an experience, right? There's a lot of lessons that you learn while you're in college, but it's not something that I ended up pursuing. After I graduated from college, I went and got A music minister position at a church. So if you listen to the childhood thing, you understand the progression, how this went through. Right. Because of my childhood and ours is so similar, why I went to Bible college and why I ultimately became a minister of church, because it just made sense based on my family and how I was raised and everything like that. Ultimately, again, just decided this was not my career, this was not my future. This was just not something that I was even passionate about. But I was pretty okay at it. But without the passion, you never get great. Right? So ultimately I ended up going on getting invited to go on cruise ships. And so I was like, yeah, that sounds interesting and fun and I'm still young and this is kind of exciting. Yeah, let's do it. So I went on. Actually, no, I went to Disney first while I was in college. Man, I should have like rehearsed this before we started. But while in college, I auditioned at Disney World and got in the Christmas Brass. And at first I was in Toy Soldiers and then got upgraded to, what's it called? Just Christmas Brass, I guess. And being in the clown man, that was for the parade. And the reason is because I couldn't fit in the toy soldier costume. It was like.

Because you were too short.

Yes, yes. And trying to put the herald trumpet right up to my chops and to try and play it just wasn't happening. So they put me in the clown band instead. But that turned into like a maybe three or four year thing. I can't even remember. Flip usually is my memory bank whenever talking about this.

It was three, but we'll talk about this.

Okay, so I did that and absolutely love the performance aspect of this. And so I think that's probably why I didn't enjoy the music minister position is because I loved playing at Disney so much. It was such a great time that moving into a position and not performing just. I didn't have the joy anymore. And so that's when I got offered to go on cruise ships. And so then I went on cruise ships. And I'm going to stop there because I know you're going to tell a story. So part of this college and cruise ships edition is the story of how we met. And I know this is going to go over, so apologize in advance. This is going to go over our typical 8 minute quick daily podcast. But I think think it's.

This is the juicy one.

Yeah, this is the juicy one. So I went on cruise ships, started performing with the band, and Flip, I'm gonna let you tell your story because Here in Flip's story, he's gonna connect the dots of this segment of our lives.

Yeah. So again, take Danny's name out of her story and put me. It's very similar. No. So I was born in Ohio, went to Michigan, and when I lived in Michigan, my. My dad went to Michigan State, my mom went to Michigan State, and my brother went to Michigan State. So I really didn't have a choice when it came time for choosing colleges. In fact, I actually applied to Ohio State, was accepted, and applied to Michigan State, was accepted. But the difference in tuition was astronomical because we lived in Michigan, so I was in state tuition. So I went to Michigan State. And I wanted to, actually, because for some reason, I thought that I was smart in high school, and it was just because I went to a school where I was just smarter than most everybody. And most. There was some very smart people there that were way smarter than I am. And so I went to Michigan State for computer science, but I took my trumpet along because I was starting to play trumpet, and I really liked playing trumpet. It was fun. And so during the summer before my audition for the Spartan Marching Band, the huge marching band for Michigan State, the director pulled me aside and says, hey, I think you should audition for something else instead of trumpet. I don't know if that's really the right thing for you to do. And that's all you needed to do was to kick me in the arse. And so I practiced so much and so hard that summer. And so when I got to Michigan State, very first thing was Michigan State marching Band, before classes even started, went and auditioned, and I got into the marching band. And then I'm waiting to get my. Find out what chair I got, which is important. And so I was sitting there waiting, and all these people saw me, and they're like, oh, you're Dave Robinson's little brother. Because my brother had just left, like, the year before, right? And so. And I was like, oh, crap. I'm gonna get the crap beat out of me. And so. But I ended up getting first chair out of 72 trumpets. And I'm like, oh, I might be kind of good at this. And so that's. That's what I started to do. And so I immediately. Well, after the first year, I stopped doing computer science and went into music, and I did more and more music. And you. You said college and cruise ships. I need to say colleges cruise ship, because I went to Michigan State for four and a half years. There was a half year there, and I did. I ended up going into music performance and music education. And at the end of that fourth and a half year, I was just like, I just. I can't. I can't do it anymore at Michigan State. And so I was done. And then a couple years later, another friend of mine called me for Western Michigan University, because all the universities in the state of Michigan are directional. Eastern, western, northern, Southern. There's no Southern, and there's a central. So anyway, so he called me over there, and I auditioned over there, and I got a full ride over there. And so now I'm going into music education at that school. And then winter happened. I did two years at school at that. Two years of school at Western Michigan, and winter happened. It was so bad, my car door froze open. I was like, no way. Meanwhile, a friend of mine calling me from Jacksonville, Florida, saying, you need to come down here. I've got an extra room. And so I auditioned for the school down in Jacksonville. And you got a full ride down there. College number three, for those of you keeping score at home. Still no degree, but what is that for you? So, anyway, so I get to get down to school in Jacksonville, and I only know a couple people, and, like, the first week or so of school, they're saying, oh, you need to go audition for Disney. They've got this great winter program. It's an absolute blast. That's called Christmas Brass. And I'm like, okay, sure, whatever. Somebody played a recording of it. I'm like, oh, I've got to play that. That was. That sounds like fun. And so I got. I auditioned. I got. I got into the group, and first rehearsal, I'm sitting there, and the guy next to me, who's an amazing trumpet player still today, he tours all over. Because the musicians in this group are just beyond amazing.

Yes.

And so I'm sitting there, and the guy next to me goes, oh, so you went to North Florida. Oh, so do you know Danielle? I'm like, no, I don't. And that was all. That was always. That was it, you know, so nothing else was said. Yeah, well, about.

And keep in mind, Danielle is Danny.

Yes.

I don't say my full name very often.

Yeah, there you go. Very good. Thank you. Thank you for answering that. Hey, everybody.

Hey, everyone. This episode is running a little long because somebody got a little chatty.

What? You said, tell my story.

So we're going to cut it off right here and tune in tomorrow to hear the other half.

That's right. But we still like to end all of our episodes with Invest Smart Live. Happy. Bye, everybody. Hey, everybody. Flip and Danny here, founders of the Freedom Real Estate Group family of companies, and welcome to another episode of our.

Podcast, which is called Freedom through Passive Income. Whoops.

I don't think you've ever messed that up.

Freedom. Poo. Poo. Poo poo. We're gonna start over.

What? A.J. put that on the end and then save that one. Because so far, if you're keeping score on bloopers, that's flip 249. Danny won.

I was screwed up before, but I don't know if I screwed up on the title.

All right.

Okay. Take two. Ready?

Nothing on this show should be considered specific personal or professional advice. Please consult an appropriate tax, legal, real estate, financial or business professional for individualized advice. Opinions and information on the show are not guaranteed. All investment strategies have the potential for profit and loss.

Sam.