Ep 361 - 2022 - The Good Times

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 All Freedom Through Passive Income.

Welcome to another episode, and this One is called 2022 the Good Times.

Yeah. And I don't know how it's going to come out in the recording, but it was really funny because you froze for a second. So the intro came, like, really fast. And part of it, you were like, it was just cute. So for those of you watching the video, you're going to get a kick out of that one. For those of you listening, I can't wait.

I can't wait to see it.

Never mind. So, yeah, I thought again, here we are towards the end of the year. There's not very many episodes left. I thought, wow, this would be a great time to go ahead and reflect for everybody, including us. What we saw, that was good. And tomorrow we're going to talk about what we saw that was tough here in 2022. And I think that's just a healthy thing to do as you are preparing for a new year, to look back and talk about what was good, what wasn't. And so I'm going to start with the impact of hiring a CEO. There's been many people who have talked to me and said, how's things going? Because it's really, really hard to hire a CEO and replace yourself, especially when things might not be run the exact same way that you ran them before. And I continually said over and over and over again that it was the best thing that we could have done is hire that CEO, because at the point in time where we were ready to make that move, we had spent years, long, long, hard, crazy roller coaster nights and weekends and days, and. And it was just tough. And we were at a wall. And we were at the point where we needed a break, right? We needed somebody else at the helm to take it so that we could kind of regain our inspiration and love for what we were doing, especially in light of the fact that we were building out a six company at that point in time. So that I feel like, was one of the really, really great things about 2022 is having that CEO in place. And then I wrote down a bunch of things with regard to the impact, right? Everything wasn't perfect, right? Nothing ever is. And you should never, ever expect things to be perfect, but you can always reflect it. The really powerful things that happened, that changed for the better that you're now going to take with you and launch into new years, into new businesses. Because you've learned some really incredible lessons. So some of mine are the culture that Aaron created within the company. We already had a great culture. We spoke on culture many, many, many times. But he created it in a different way. In terms of leadership, in terms of empowerment, in terms of trust, in terms of how you treated each other. Right. Healthy disagreements is okay in a company. And if you have a disagreement, it's okay to talk through it and talk with the person, not to talk behind somebody's back or go complaining to the CEO or blaming somebody else. So those healthy conversations and to say things with love. Right. Because you really. We all care about the people that we work with. We call it frank family for a reason. Right. We care about every single person on the team. And even if you disagree with them or you're upset with them because of something that happened, that taking that encounter and doing it with love and care and kindness is a game changer. And I think it impacted me the most because I am such a, like, high energy and crazy, like, person that when I'm happy, I'm freaking happy. When I'm angry, I'm freaking angry. And those swings of emotions can come across, you know, really, really easy. And a leader really impacts, you know, how everybody else leads and how they interact with each other. And as a leader, if you're interacting the way I typically interact with those strong swings of emotions, that isn't as beneficial as the way Aaron leads with. With kindness, with pause, with just thoughtfulness. So for me, that was one of the things that I wanted to talk about in this episode is one of my favorite things of 2022. What about you?

Yeah, you know, it's interesting because, you know, when Aaron came on and, you know, so we talked about hiring people, right?

Yeah.

You know, the interview process, everyone shines, right? And. And you're like, well, let's see what really happens, you know, because you're, you're only hoping that it's going to continue that that same. And it not only did, it got better. And, you know, one of the things that we had always done is, you know, with creating the six companies or the five companies at the time, and, and, and we kept the companies going, but we made sure that one company just dealt with their stuff. You know, don't worry about everything else. Just deal with your stuff. Get your stuff down. And when he came on board and he just said, no, we're all one big happy family, you know, And I'm just like, I'm like, oh, okay, well, let's See how this goes. And it was. It's awesome. You know, and now you got. The people in this company over here are asking the people in this company, hey, what happened with that? And they're talking to them over here about, you know, and everyone is just. And it's that he brought everyone up and, you know, and you talked about it and empowering them and just, it was just because on one side, you know, it's like, on paper. Well, yeah, that could work. But he proved it, you know, and, and I just, I just really like the, you know, just how that, you know, really helped because, I mean, you know, he's like, well, you know, I think we can improve the culture. And I'm just like, whatever. I buy Snickers ice cream bars, man.

Come on.

You know, but, you know, and it really wasn't. And to, you know, because. Yes, we've always called it family companies. We called the family companies before, you know, we hired our fifth person, you know, you know, before we even knew who Aaron was. And I think the family, it really became stronger this last year. It's a much, much stronger bond and just a much healthier family, I should say.

Yeah, I couldn't agree more. Another one I have on our list is we are able to build out FCI in 2022 and, and do this podcast. And that's actually something that we talked about with Aaron just the other day. He said, you know, I'm. I'm happy to be a small part of the win of you being able to have the time and mental energy to pour into FCI and get that built out. And so, and he was, he. He was very, very right because I don't know that we would have been as successful as we were we were in that company had we had to have mental energy put into the other five, you know, during, during this past year. So I wrote down some of the cool things. Like, we did four acquisitions and three dispositions in 2022. Right. The first full year in business. That is just mind blowing that we did that.

That's.

That's just crazy, isn't it?

That's great.

Yeah. So we had already purchased Lake Forest, which was the 384 unit in Florida. That was our very first acquisition. That was 2021. So down what we did in 2022, the four acquisitions were Ridgeland Ranch, which is 129 unit in Mississippi. Serena Gordon, which is a 48 unit in our backyard. Riverwood, which is a 16 unit in our backyard. And we're getting ready to close on a deal in North Carolina that we can't talk about because it's not closed yet. And it's a 506 beat, but I'm still thankful for it. I can say that. So four acquisitions was kind of what we talked about with other coaches and mentors in this space, saying, hey, for. For a year, that's good. And I'm like, we just did four in our first year. Like, that's just crazy. And then our three dispositions were. It was. We did sell Lake forest, which is a 384 unit. So that was really nice. It's what made FCI profitable in that very first year. 2022, we sold Grimes, which was a personal win for you and I because that was ours. And we refinanced Pine Ridge, which, again, personal win for you and I because that was our first apartment complex. So those are huge, huge wins for 2022, when we weren't even focused on five other companies. Right. We were just focused in our lane. And to have this many wins in this one lane of the first year in business was. It's really mind blowing and exciting.

Yeah. Yeah. Typically, anyone who jumps into this space, I'm sure would be happy doing one deal a year in their first year, but no, we did four and sold two and refund. Yeah.

Yeah.

The other thing, too, that. That's not mentioned on here is that we. We actually dipped our toe into a seventh company, which is private money. Yeah, that's right. And so good. That's going to come. That's going to come around the corner before we know it. I mean, it's already around the corner. It's coming down the stretch. But the last thing about 2022 is we. We kept saying we're going to move to Florida. We're going to move to Florida. You know, we're looking at houses, and one just fell in our lap, and we're just like, you know, this is. This is the one. And yeah. Next thing you know, we're flying down to Florida to look at it. And. And, you know, and. And it was. It's not a money pit, you know, like the Tom Hanks movie, but it was also. It was not ready, which is bad.

We've spent a pretty penny pennies fixing it up.

We spent a lot of pretty pennies. Yeah. Yeah, it's low. Still spending those pennies, but. But still, it's in Florida and we get to live there with and the OWS and the. And the Snakes and the Cougars and the Panthers and the. Whatever else. Coyotes and yeah, yeehaw.

Yeah, it's been a really great year. And for those of you listening, I, I apologize for any of the, the, the pauses that you hear in this. We'll try to edit them out a little bit. Flip, flip. You froze twice. Just so you know. So it wasn't long. It was no big deal. But this is what happens when we're having to record in two different states to be able to finish out this 365 day podcast. So super exciting. 2022 was a great, great year and I am thankful to be able to sit here and talk about it with you. I'm probably. That's what I'm most thankful about. We're still here, alive, healthy, well, continuing to grow our businesses and celebrating a great year.

All right, well, we hope you enjoyed this episode. Make sure you're heading on over to our website, Freedom Capital Investments, to join the investor club. We got just a couple more things going on the rest of this year and we got a bunch going on next year. So make sure you're joining that investor club so you can find out firsthand what we're doing. But we like to end all of our episodes with Invest Smart, Live Happy. Bye, everybody. Nothing on this show should be considered specific personal. 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.

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