Traveling the US in Your RV with April Crossley

Welcome ladies to the Real Estate Investor Show, providing inspiration, strategies, and insight to empower women investors to live balanced and financially free lives.

Now here are your co-hosts, Liz and Andresa Guidelli. So in today's episode, investors, we have April Crossley on our show. She has been able to scale a flip business. She has a rental portfolio. She's involved in a lot of different things for quite some time as an investor. What's really neat about her story is that she just recently sold her house and with her husband and dog, uh, travels the country, travels the United States. And she talks a lot about how she's been able to set her life up in order to do that and in order to actually keep her businesses thriving while she's RVing. And we talk a lot about outsourcing, and I think you're going to get so much from the conversation.

Yeah. And one of the ways that she was able to do that, it was through partnership. So April shares here the tips and tricks of how to find a great partner and how can you align yourself with people that will basically allow you, enable you to live life on your own terms. So this is both an inspiring and very tactic episode for you that if you want to live a financially free and balanced life, this is what it is. And her pictures are amazing. I feel that I'm traveling with her through Arizona and across the country.

Welcome back, ladies.

This is Liz, and this is Andresa Guidelli.

Welcome back to the Real Estate InvestHer Show. We are so excited to have our first 3-time guest on our show here today, April Crossley. Thank you so much for being back on with us today.

Thanks for having me. I'm excited.

April was one of our co-authors in our "The Only Woman in the Room" book released last year. And she was our guest, I think, number 2 on our podcast.

Back in the day.

Back in the day. It's probably one of our highest, you know, downloaded episodes, actually. So, ladies listening, check that out. I think it's number 2. But thank you so much for being back on. You know, thank you, everyone, being back on with us, joining us for another week. Where we interview some amazing, amazing women who are living the life they want and, and learning and growing, and they're here to share that with, with all of you and all of us. So, um, before we get into our, our interview with April, we always like to share a quick tip or something that's coming up for us or something that we want to share with, with all of you. So Andresa, I'm on this, this week, right?

You're up. What's going on?

So, so I'm a big fan of a show called This Is Us, and I'm sure I'm that—

oh yeah, you show— cry a lot with that.

I know, I just like— it's like kind of you, you feel like you're just literally crying. Me and my husband are just like bawling every episode. But last night was interesting. And I wanted to share this very quickly 'cause there's an interesting lesson that made me think of our community. I feel like everything makes me think of our community. But so we're watching it and basically the bottom line of the story without giving the episode away is that it's about one of the main star's brother, main star's brother and it's his life and he's 75, right? And the show, if you haven't watched it, flashes back a lot. So you'd see them as a teenager. You'd see them through their 20s, 30s, 40s, et cetera. This guy's 75 in real time, if you will. And basically, what you'd see for this gentleman is he was a Vietnam vet. So he had a lot of things happen to him. A lot of tough things happened to him. And you'd see him make these choices, like, 2 times in his life where he didn't take the risk. And he just stops. And he ends up living for, like, 50 years in a mobile home, like, trailer by himself. Never leaves, never goes anywhere. And as a 75-year-old, he traveled across country and sees his nephew and his grand niece and nephew. And it's basically the story of how he missed those risks during his life. And then as an older gentleman in his 70s, finally takes a risk. And you see this progression. I'm getting emotional saying it. But why I thought of this community, why I'm thinking all of you amazing women listening here and being with us on this journey is, It's never too late, right? This guy was 75 and he travels across the country and that was a big risk for him. And you see these moments where he didn't have, he didn't make it happen. So ladies listening, it's never too late. And really in terms of risk-taking, you could have been cautious in certain points of your life, but it doesn't mean you have to be cautious now. So our past doesn't equal our future. And I just thought that was a, it made me think of that. I was like, that's a really cool way to see this. Gentlemen progress. And I'm like, huh, we all can do that, right? We all could be like— because sometimes I'm like that with my own life, right? Something that I haven't done yet doesn't mean I can't do it, right? The past doesn't equal the future. So I just want to share that. Um, it's a great show and it always makes you think about your own life. So, um, I love that. That's my tip.

And, and it's, it's, it's all about like our— we can only connect the dots by looking back, right? And if we all look back on in our own lives and say, okay, oh my gosh, if I didn't have made that decision then, my life would be completely different, right? Like me, for example, I am in Philadelphia, PA. I was born and raised in Brazil. The chances for me to meet April, our guest today, and Liz, very, very like close to none, right? So I made decisions that propel me to live the life that I want to live. So think about the decisions that you are making now Does that take you to where you want to be in the future? Because sometimes we think, oh, I'll make that decision when X happens, right? But the decisions that you are making now will definitely affect the future, will definitely affect who you meet, who you connect with. It's all like this big, like, mass of connections that you don't know what's going to happen in the future and why.

But It's—

it—

that's the beauty of it, right?

Yeah.

And I'm glad we were taught— you were talking about this because it's a perfect segue. It's a perfect segue for April's story.

I know, it actually made me think of— I think we think of the, the women we're interviewing, we look at their— what their background is, and we really prepare and think about these things, and it is a perfect segue. So without further ado, April, um, you know, April is an investor, and she's been an investor for quite some time. She's involved with a lot of different Elements of Investing, and she now is traveling the country with her husband in an RV. And, you know, we— so, I usually ask what propelled you to get involved in real estate investing. So, I'm gonna change that because you've answered that a couple of times now on our show. So, the question for you as we kick things off is what propelled you to sell your house and travel the country with your husband in an RV?

That's a great question. So, we would snowbird. We started out snowbirding. We are from Pennsylvania, for just in case anyone doesn't know. And we started snowbirding in Arizona because that was all part of our goal of doing real estate was I don't like the winter and I don't want to live in the winter. And if I'm living in the winter by the time I was 40, I'm like, I have not met my goals. I don't want to be living here. So we weren't sure where we wanted to live in the winter. So we bought an RV and started snowbirding first. And we did that for 3 years. And we saw the most beautiful things out west snowbirding in Arizona. So, you know, life progresses. And I have a son who bought his own house and moved out. And at the same time he had moved out, we had a dog and our dog passed away. And we were like, why are we just here, the two of us in this big house when we could really work from anywhere? And there's so much more we want to see. We've seen so many beautiful things. And there's so much more out there. We should just go and do this full time and go see everything we want to see while still working. So that's what we did. It was definitely a, are we really doing this? And some days we still sit here and ask ourselves, are we really doing this? Because we have no home. So it's not— I still have family in Pennsylvania and all my businesses are in Pennsylvania. But when you talk about going back home, it's like, Okay, where will we stay? Because we have no home. Like, we can go back and visit, but we have no permanent home at all. So yeah, wanted to see a lot of stuff.

That's very brave and courageous of both of you to really take the leap. You guys test the water first, of course, but, you know, really like making a decision and selling. There's no bridge. You burn the bridge. You burn the bridge and say, "Let's go." So talk to me about the nitty-gritty process, right? It's for you to be able to work remotely from anywhere that you want. What processes did you have to put in place?

Yeah. So, and you know what I tell people is like, if you want to know how much you're working in your business, leave your business. Just leave for like 3 months. Go snowbird. Because honestly, snowbirding helped me set it up so that I could be more remote because I would never have been able to see where I was so involved in what my weak points were in my business. So like the first year we, we were snowbirds, I was getting bombarded every week, my son would check the mail and he would scan and email all the bills because we flip houses, we have rental properties, we were doing our own bookkeeping. And he's scanning and emailing all these bills. He's like, Mom, this is taking me a couple hours a week. And this is horrible. And on my end, I'm like, this is horrible. Why am I doing this. So immediately after the first time we were snowbirds, we came back to Pennsylvania and hired a bookkeeper. And now all our mail goes to our bookkeeper's house, and he opens all our mail, and he takes care of paying all the bills. And then I really, after that, had to join a mastermind group to learn how to, like, get around other people who are outside their business working on it instead of working in it. Because it's hard when you want your business to run a certain way. You tend to think I have to do this, I have to be the one to do this. You don't have to be the one to do it, but you have to be able to train someone to do what you're doing. And sometimes that's a lot harder than what people think. So it's not always— it's not, um, easy peasy, but it's worth it. But like anything else, it takes a lot of effort and trial and error.

April, for you, what was some of like the first areas that you looked at? Was it where you were spending the most time, the things that you didn't want to be doing, the you know, the low-hanging fruit, if you will. Like, you know, for the women listening, I think that they, they want that, right? But they just don't know how to do it, or really the, the, you know, the kind of step-by-step, if you will. So what was your process? What did your kind of process look like there? Yeah, so my—

and even regularly now, this is still my same process. If I find myself doing something and I'm like, I, I hate this, or I'm complaining about it, or this causes me more pain than anything, I think Can someone do this better than I can? So bookkeeping was causing me pain, and it frustrated me, and I wasn't good at it. Like, I really wasn't good at it. I'm not very detail-oriented. So that was the first thing that had to go. And even now in my business, like in my flipping business, we can sometimes get like 35+ calls, phone calls a day. And I say to my business partner all the time, I don't really like you know, talking to sellers. That's not what I'm good at. I'm good at like big picture marketing, thinking about growing the business, but I'm not good at like the nitty-gritty and talking to the seller. So she's so good at that. And like, as we grow, we need to duplicate you because I'd love to say it's going to be me. But I'm forcing myself to do something that I'm not good at. And if I just focus on my strengths and what I'm good at and what I love doing, the business is going to grow even more than trying to force myself to do something I don't like. So really, if it causes me pain or I'm not good at it, I try and get it off my plate. But it's a slow process. It's like one thing at a time. Even now, when I find myself working all day, I think there's probably stuff I'm doing today that I should be training someone else to be doing. But, you know, you can't do the whole thing at once. You kind of got to chunk it out 'Cause you wanna make sure those people are trained well.

Exactly.

I wanna highlight what you were saying about knowing your strengths, right? In theory, you're like, oh, let me know my strengths. Where can I find it? Where do they put that list of items? You mentioned the things that cause you pain. How else can people figure it out, their strengths? And this is like a tricky question because if you don't know, what you're good at and the things that you're not so good at. I think that that's the first thing that you got to know, because then if you're not even aware, right? You are just on that like pilot mode, automatic pilot. You don't even realize, you're just so used to collecting rent or doing certain things that it's just part of it, right? But do you really enjoy it? So do you have any recommendations on how to figure that out?

Yeah, definitely. I think for me, like getting coaches, being in mastermind groups, taking classes, all that really opens your eyes. And just being in groups like this, like the community you've created really opens your eyes to like, wow, someone else has a better way. Or someone else is really killing it in sales. And what's my process? And how am I speaking to sellers versus how they're speaking to sellers? And And do I want to become good at that? And am I going to focus on that? Or am I better off hiring someone else? So for me, it was really like getting in mastermind groups and getting around coaches that were opening my eyes to like, hey, if you're not doing it this way, you can either learn to be great at it, or this is how you can outsource it. So I feel like you, if you don't know what your strengths and weaknesses are, really surrounding yourself and like immersing yourself in with other people that have similar businesses to see how they're running things really helps open your eyes.

Yeah, and it's not— it's kind of like mixing your, your strengths with where you want to go, because sometimes what you're really good at is, you know, you're good at it, right? But it's not going to necessarily get you to where you want to go, that ultimate goal, you know, if you will. And it evolves. Um, so no, I love that. I love that, that, you know, you were on that— you were And you're constantly working in and on your business. And I think that's critical, right? And I think so many of us, right, put our heads down and just focus. When it comes to you and your partner, 'cause you've built some phenomenal partnerships, you're flipping like close to 30 homes a year. You're not even in the state that you're flipping all these homes in. So clearly you've not just built up good systems, but you've built up good partners, right? And so much of real estate investing is a team sport. So talk to us a little bit about that. Talk to us a little about how you met your partner you know, how did you come together? Did you start small? And, you know, how did you even navigate one another's strengths? Because sometimes you have to learn that stuff, right, the hard way. So curious about that and how, how you navigated that with, with her or him.

Yeah, and I tell— it's, it might sound strange, but I tell a lot of people, most of the people that I work with, it's all based on core values. Like, if they— I feel like they have the same core values as me, I— and we we click. I don't, I don't really want someone that's like, like me, but I want them to have kind of the same core values as me. So I met my business partner because she was wholesaling houses in my county, but she was working full time and wholesaling on the side. And I went to a mastermind meeting. And I was in my business completely by myself. And they were like, you're never going to be able to grow this thing by yourself. So you need to find someone else who hustles as hard as you hustle and this girl hustled so hard wholesaling houses on the side. So I just met with her, but we met probably 2, 3, maybe 4 times, just talking about, you know, what do you want out of real estate? What do I want out of real estate? What, what's her background? I mean, her background was basically going in and putting in new systems for businesses, like going in and looking at their systems and processes and then ripping them apart.

That's perfect.

Yeah, all over again, like so that they ran smoother. So she had a great background. And she's very much like me, we're kind of— I don't want secretive is not the word I'm looking for. Like, we just have our head down and we go about our business, but we don't like talk about our business to a ton of other people for no reason. And, you know, she's very humble. And she, she really believes in like putting people before the profit. So all these things, it's not like I was asking her direct questions. You can learn a lot about somebody just by asking about, you know, their family, their career, you know, what do you do for fun? Let them talk and tell stories about their life. And their core values start coming out just by listening to stories about their life. And you can tell if they're going to be a good fit for you or not. Don't get me wrong, like, I, we definitely personality test people. We bring them on also to make sure they're a good fit. I'm a firm believer in that as well. But for me, it starts with that like initial conversation and core values.

That's awesome. One thing that, that you mentioned about being able to scale, scale by partnering up and building your team. There is this, this blockage that a lot of women come across and say to me, listen, I understand that I need to partner up. I get the concept that's healing. I cannot let it go. I just can't. I don't know what it is. I don't know if it is a trust issue or whatever that is, but I don't know if the other person is going to carry the load as much as, as I do, and I rather just carry it myself. So for those ladies that are listening, what would you recommend, April?

Um, I mean, I feel, I feel like that's, you really have to sit with yourself and look at how far have I come by myself and how far have other people gotten by partnering? And I think it becomes pretty darn clear, like, when you look at people that partner up, that, I mean, their businesses just explode because you're not good at everything, even if you think you are. I guarantee you're not, and you're not meant to be. Like, God gives us all gifts, and the more you focus on those gifts and strengths the more you're going to flourish. And you, if you bring in someone that has gifts and strengths that balance out yours, you're just going to flourish twice as fast. I'm not saying— it is definitely hard to let go of control. I mean, I'm someone that's like, I like to like control and oversee everything. But if you really want to build your business and have freedom, which I think is the whole reason people get into real estate, You, you can't be doing everything on your own forever. You can, but you will have no freedom.

Yeah. And you know what I found is there's usually two types of people: people who are going to hold on to things too long, or people who just give everything away and don't give enough guardrails. You know, it's usually one of the two, and you're somewhere in that realm, you know, that pendulum, if you will. And knowing that about yourself will help you set yourself up to then partner with other people too. Yes, yes. To your point about the control or the not, you know, there's other people who just literally let everything go and they're like, oh wow, that didn't work out. Well, there was literally no guardrails. There's no direction for these people, you know?

Yes.

What do you and your partner do like on an ongoing basis? Do you have weekly calls? Do you do monthly calls?

Do you, what do you do to work on the relationship?

Because I think that's something again, important, not urgent. And it just doesn't get focused on enough. And then people wonder why 6 months later, they're going two different directions with their partner and they can't even speak to each other and it ends up in court, right? I mean, it happens a lot and it happens time and time again, personal and professional relationships, right? Where you, you love the person at first and then in 6 months you literally can't stand that person. So for you now, you're traveling, right? So you're not even— I mean, obviously we're in the world of, of like Zoom and virtualness of everything happening, but regardless of that, how do you stay connected to your partner? And what do you do to kind of set yourselves up for success?

Yeah, so we have daily meetings, um, so which are super important in our business where no one misses the daily meeting. So even right now, all my businesses are on East Coast time. We meet at 9:30 in the morning East Coast time, which is 6:30 my time, Pacific. But I'm like, I don't care, I will be on Zoom, I will be ready at 6:30 in the morning. It's a 15-minute daily meeting. And then usually Once every, I would say, 2 to 3 months, we have a meeting where we're like, okay, let's look back at all the numbers in our business and see what needs to be changed. And are we on the same page? So I think also genuinely caring about your partners and what they want. I mean, there, we just had a conversation last week with my business partner where I was like, I just want to make sure that we're, we're not just heading in a direction I want, that we're also heading in a direction you want, that you are building your portfolio, that that you are working your way towards freedom, because right now I can work from wherever I want. Well, I want her to be able to work from wherever she wants, if that's what she wants. Okay. So you have to listen to each other and what your, what your vision is for what you want out of life. And so I want to make sure if she wants to work remotely, that we're building the business so that she can also work remotely. I want to make sure that if I'm building my portfolio. And that's something she wants to do that I'm helping her build her portfolio. Like my whole goal with everyone on my team is I'm not going to force you to buy real estate. But if you want to buy your own real estate and grow wealth and achieve true freedom, then I want to make sure I'm helping you do that along the way. It's not just my flips and my rentals and my this and my that, like I want to make sure they're building the same thing. Open communication. So daily meetings, and I would say at least quarterly, big quarterly meetings for like an hour where you're going over where is our business come from, where is our business going, what needs to be fixed, and personally, what do we each want and are we marching in the same direction?

That's awesome. I'm listening to a book on Audible. It's called Mastering the Rockefeller Habits. And it talks about the importance of daily meetings. And one of the objections is that people say, oh, I don't want to meet every day. That's like a lot to me. Right. But as you were saying, it is 15 minutes where it's in and out and people can be in touch. And what they found is that it actually saves time at the end, instead of having those like 2 hours, 3, 4, or 5 hours, long meetings, this is more productive for them. So, you talked about having an understanding of not just professional, but personal. You talk about the 7 Fs. Is that a habit that you created that you can tell us more?

Andresa Guidelli: So, I heard Trevor, who's with Carrot, the Investor Carrot website, talk about it on a podcast. And then I just started Googling it and there's tons of articles on it and people have different 7 Fs that they talk about, but a lot of like articles towards businesses and entrepreneurship are written on it. So it was eye-opening for me because I have a problem with balance. Like, I will just go and go and go and go and go and work and create, and that's, that's my thing. And I could do it all day, my husband would have to drag me away from my desk, okay? So I found that when I'm not happy, like when I'm not feeling happy and centered, When I was back home, I had the 7 Fs written on a dry erase board in my office. Now they're on my desktop on my computer. So when I find that things are severely out of balance in my life, I'll look back and check my 7 Fs. So like, am I in touch with my friends? Because everybody needs friends. You need downtime and other people to talk to. And am I in touch with my family? And is my family doing well? Are my finances in order? Or am I stressing out about my finances? Am I having fun? Like, when was the last time I did something fun? So we're traveling, but I'm still working. So I'll have days where we'll work, work, work, work, work. And I have a normal workday life in the RV. And then we'll have fun and like go to the Grand Canyon and go visit another national park and go here and go there. So is the fun in balance? So the, I think the other one is faith, like, am I focusing enough on my faith? So it really like having the list in front of me visually just helps to remind me that there's things other than work that I have to be focusing on in my life. And for some people, I would say they don't necessarily need it right in front of them because it's probably easier for them. For me, it's not easy. I have to constantly check my work-life balance constantly.

So, April, a lot of investors have this concept that they need to be active in order for them to feel that they are really doing it, right? And reading a couple of— on your bio and a couple of things you mentioned about it, that there are other possibilities to reach financial freedom, not necessarily being active, but being passive as well. So I think it's just a lot of pressure, right? If you're not doing the rehab, you shouldn't get the credits or whatever that concept is. But, you know, your lifestyle doesn't allow you to do it and neither you want to do it. So I want you to talk a little bit more about it.

Yeah. And I think, I mean, I've been through it all. So when I started, we were ripping out carpet, we were painting, like we did as much as we could on our flip projects. And then it progressed to hiring out contractors. And going back to just focusing on your strengths, sometimes that's how you learn is just by doing and realizing, okay, I suck at this. So I should probably stop doing this part because someone's way faster and more efficient at it. So then we outsourced it, then I was overseeing the projects. And I was like, man, I do not like this. I don't like communicating with contractors. So I'm gonna let this part go. So then I hired someone to oversee my projects. And then you're kind of left with what you're good at, because everything you suck at, you have outsourced. But I really, I do think there is that pressure to be involved. And it comes back to what do you love? What do you love? I love travel. I love growing wealth, and I love helping people grow wealth. So even just an example, from my side of things, I go through this now, like, we're focusing more on buying larger apartment buildings and larger complexes and we've invested passively as an LP, we've been a general partner on them, but I'm like, man, I just want to find one on my own and do it from beginning to end. And then there's days where I'm like, why do I want to do that? Like, there's literally people bringing me on board to be GP just to leverage my strengths that they don't have. And I'm involved that way and seeing the whole deal. So why do I feel like I have to find the deal and do everything from beginning to end when I can work with all these great partners that balance all my weaknesses and still learn along the way and still have freedom without having to be bogged down with like overseeing rehabs, overseeing property managers, like, so it's really, I guess, comes back to like, what are your strengths and staying in your lane. And I find when I stay in my lane, and I focus on my strengths, it's actually what makes me happiest. And when I fall into the Oh man, other people are really good at design and rehabbing. So I should be good at that too. I'm— what do they call that, like forcing a square peg into like a round hole? That's when you're unhappy because you're like going against the grain, you know, and that's— it comes back to like faith. That's not where you're meant to be. So it— I'm not saying things aren't hard work, but you have to be able to recognize when it's not the work that you should be doing. It's not your calling. Yeah, yeah, I know.

I think that's so true. And I don't know what it is about— maybe it's more of a feminine thing or a woman thing, but I feel like more women I've talked to are like that, right? Where it's almost like you have this something to prove a little bit. And, and, you know, it's like, it's fascinating, right? So who are we proving this to, right? For ourselves, other people? Like, and when you get out of your own way and you can just focus on what you're great at and partner. I mean, I had that realization where we're pivoting a little bit in our real estate business in some other, you know, areas. And it's like, okay, now that's a whole new area that you need to learn. And I know that because I know what it takes to learn multifamily or flipping, you know? And then until I partnered with Andresa on flipping, you know, our projects miraculously actually got done on time and we're under budget.

Wow.

Because we actually partnered with someone who's capable of doing, of helping us do that piece of it where we were good at other things. So, but yet I still am like that, right? Where I'm like, I gotta know the whole thing about vacation. Well, you know what, do I want to know the whole thing? And so I think it comes back to as well, ladies listening, it comes back to your goals. And there's a lot of ways to slice and dice to get to your goals, right? You don't have to be completely active. You could be passive. Um, but what do you bring to the table? And what is your amazingness, joy, and what brings you joy? What will align with your goals? And then how do you potentially partner? It's a question that I think a lot of us wrestle with and continue to wrestle with. We have this need to like, I should know how to do this. I've been investing for a long time. I should know how to do that piece. Well, do I though? I guess if I don't need to and I still get to my goal, right?

Yeah, yeah. I always say I'm like, I admire people that sometimes people come to me and say, you should invest in Airbnb here and Airbnb there because you travel so much. I'm like, yeah, I'm just not really, not really into Airbnb. Like, doesn't— nothing wrong with it. And I watch people that have Airbnbs and it's amazing. It might be amazing. But that's another thing for me to learn. And it's another— so a guy came to me in my market and wants me to fund an Airbnb that he's starting in my market. And I'm like, Sure, I'd love to, because I'm going to get to learn a little bit about it and it looks really cool. And like, I don't have to learn everything because he knows everything. So this would be awesome. There's other ways to go about it than to have to know everything about everything. I love what you said about getting out of your own way that I can't tell you how many times a week I'm like, okay, bro, this is you standing in your own way. Like, get out of your own way. Yeah.

And I can only imagine being— having the opportunity to like travel to different areas. Like, talk about being, being able to put yourself in a different environment, which then gets different ideas. And I always say that to people, it's so hard with everything happening in our world, but like, you got to change things up. You got to change your environment because sometimes you get stagnant just by, by like literally being in the same environment all the time, and you just start to see the same things, you know, like driving the same way and going to the same supermarkets and it's like, is this the same day I just had yesterday? You know, I can feel heavy right now because of even just the realities of everything. But yeah, it's changing things up a little bit. So what are you focused on when it comes to kind of core real estate investing and everything happening in this world and everything happening in the market, right? People are like, oh, this is a crazy market and can't find any deals and this and that. You hear all this buzzing. So what are you currently focused on and how are you growing your wealth, you know, right now, you know, in 2021?

So I'm really focused on with my flip businesses, just, I have two flip businesses. So automating those more as much as possible to allow my partner to have more freedom. So we're really focused on that. That business kind of just like hums along. We're actually partnering up with more people in different areas of the United States. Talk about like when you're going back to your story in the beginning, and Andresa saying, you know, you can connect the dots by looking backwards. Like, I used to do a lot of coaching and speaking, and I would meet people all over the United States, mostly women, real estate investors. And some of these women, I'm like, these are really strong women in these markets. Like, they work hard, they know their market like the back of their hand. So when we decided to expand our flip business, I started reaching out to all these really strong women I met through coaching. And I don't do a ton of coaching anymore. But I was like, hey, you know, you know your market well, you're a really hard worker, like would you want to team up? So we're taking basically our flip business and duplicating it in other markets by having strong partners on the ground that I've met in my previous, whatever life you want to call it, when I used to coach and speak more. So we're focusing on that. And we really don't really buy rentals unless we're going to buy larger. So we're refining our private lending business because we do a lot of private lending. So we've been doing a lot more lending into apartment buildings and lending on flips And we are always looking for larger multifamily, but I try not to stress over not being able to find them right now. So I try to focus on the things I can control, which is, I'm really good at raising money. We're focused on always raising more money and teaching people how to invest passively so they can have more freedom. And just learning, like, learning as much as we can about multifamily and multifamily systems so that when we do buy something, we have the systems in place and just have to run refine those systems. So instead of getting stressed out about we're not buying enough or buying big enough, I try to focus on just like more educating myself and the things that I can control and how I can get involved more in that space. Yeah.

Especially nowadays with the market that the way, the way that it is, there's a, there, we can't just use the same rules that we did in the past. It's like, oh my gosh, I haven't, purchase a house in the past month or this year or whatever that might be. And you put a lot of pressure in yourself because the pressure is on the purchase. I got to be purchasing. I got to be rehabbing it because if I'm not, means that I'm not doing it. And it's like you're shooting so many options instead of really waiting to the right moment to pull the trigger, because then you do the right thing. But I want to hear your opinion on this. I think it's a muscle, right? You hang tight with that pressure that exists. Sometimes we are the ones putting the pressure and using the time to learn, to connect with people instead of getting so stressed out and being like, oh, I need to just get something. So I feel that I'm moving forward.

Do you agree to that? I totally agree. It's like if you want to get in great physical shape, it's not like you're just going to walk into the gym and transform into this completely ripped muscular person. Like, it takes work. So people get frustrated and tell me like, well, I'm not finding any deals. And it's so hard right now. And there's a million people out there buying houses. And it's so hard. So You have a choice, you can sit back and do nothing, or you can prepare for when the time is right. So what do you want to do? One is going to propel you forward and one is going to get you nowhere. So you can sit and whine and complain about the market and how things are, or you can be preparing yourself so that you're 100 times more ready when it is the time to buy, you know, and I'm not saying things are going to happen with the market one way or the other. But because I don't think anyone knows exactly what is going to happen. But I always believe in buying when the time is right and buying conservatively. And if now isn't the time, then there's so many things you can do to be preparing for that time— educating, networking, building your systems, all of those things. And that's kind of what we're focused on now.

Yeah, and that's, and that's like one of the most important things to be as an entrepreneur, right? Because like when you take the ownership to yourself and you take it back, It's so much easier to say, I can't find any more deals. 'Cause what did you use? Andresa always says this beautifully. You literally have just now given all your power away, right? Oh, I can't find deals, so I can't, you know, well, yes and no, right? So, it's like, what can you do? What do you have control over? And it's, you really, it's disempowering, right? To give your control up, give your power up. 'Cause ultimately it's like, it's just not only is it not true, but it's actually disempowering to yourself. It's like, you know, and we have these crazy timelines, you know, and I know I had a goal the first quarter to buy a vacation rental. That was one of my goals. And we're at the end of the quarter and I haven't bought a vacation rental. I think that goal is changing and that's okay. And goals do change.

Yeah.

It's like taking the control back and going, okay, what do I really want? Where am I going? What do I need to tweak? Okay, great. How can I set myself for success for the quarter 2, quarter 3, quarter 4, et cetera? I like to think in quarters because it's it's more manageable. But to your point, April, right? It's really about taking that ownership back, you know, 'cause it's a lot easier to say, well, it's the market's fault. It's that person's fault, you know, or it's just too crowded right now. So I'm just gonna go back to Netflix, you know, or whatever.

You know what's funny about that? Just like with the whole traveling thing too in the RV, like we're traveling and me being controlling, but people saying, when are you coming back? When are you gonna buy a house?

I'm like, I don't know.

I don't know, like, we have no timeline, we're just gonna travel. And we thought maybe a year, but we meet people that are like, oh yeah, we, we were gonna travel full time for a year 4 years ago, like, and we've been traveling ever since. So I'm just kind of like, life's gonna take me where it takes me. And I'm meant to be on this journey for a reason. And I will meet the people I'm meant to meet and things will unfold and I'll end up wherever I'm meant to end up. And I'm just kind of like, well, you know, whatever happens happens. So far, I love it. And I try to apply that to my business and think I'm actively working and educating myself and improving my systems. And it will take me where I need to go because I keep working on it. So it's— I'm kind of trying to apply that theory to my business life as well.

And as you do that, you're allowing other people to do it because they're asking you and you're coming back because they really are are, you know, some ways they see what you're doing, right? And they're like, wow, there's a part of them maybe that wants to do that too, you know. And then by you answering the way you're answering and standing for what you stand, you're allowing them to kind of maybe have some openings for themselves. But, you know, just so— it's neat, it's, it's really cool the journey you're on because you're, you're, you're, you're setting an example, which I think is really neat for people to live life on their own terms, which is what we're all about, you know. And whatever that looks like, you know. April, I love this. How can the ladies learn more about what you're up to and all the cool things you're doing?

Yeah. If you want to see pictures of RV journey, you can follow me on Instagram at April Crossley. Same on the YouTube channel. We do a lot of education on my YouTube channel, which is under April Crossley, and our website is crossleypropertygroup.com.

And she's super fun. You're gonna laugh a lot with April. So all this information you guys are going to find on our show notes. And now we're going to transition to our fabulous 3 questions. And the first one, April, is what's the most transformational book have you ever read?

Oh my goodness. That's a great question.

Lately, I usually say lately, right? Because our books change all the time.

Yeah. Let me look at my Audible because there's one about life and I don't know, my mind's blanking because it's really early in the morning here. But I just read one. Oh, Untamed by Glennon Doyle. I feel like every woman should read that book, should read that book. You want to talk about life balance and just like taking pressure off yourself, what other people think. Untamed by Glennon Doyle. It was amazing. I will listen to it over and over.

Love it. I'll add to my to my list here. The second question is, what's the most powerful routine that you do to create a financially free and balanced life?

For me, as simple as this sounds, like routine for me, I have to wake up and I have to go to the gym. Like, in as much as that's not like a business-oriented thing, for me, it's sets my entire day. If I go 2, 3 days and I'm not waking up and immediately going to the gym, mentally everything just starts to decline for me. Like, it's easier for me to get negative and in a funk. And I don't know if it's the endorphins, but between working out and traveling, it really helps like my creativity and keeps me kind of like motivated and moving in a positive direction.

Awesome. And last question, which woman, famous or not, has inspired you the most?

Um, definitely Susan Lasseter Lyons, for sure. I think I've probably mentioned her before, but she totally just like lives life on her own terms, totally lives life on her own terms. And it started out same thing, flipping houses and slowly like let go for more financial freedom and branched off into avenues of investing that no one probably would have ever thought when she first started out as a real estate investor. So, she truly just like follows her calling and what she's passionate about. And I so admire that.

Love that. And, you know, we just appreciate you so much, April, for making time to be with us and sharing your journey with us and sharing with all the women that's listening. So, love what you're doing. Keep it up. I can't wait to see where, you know, as your journey unfolds. Just excited, excited for you. So thanks for sharing all your great nuggets.

Thank you for like creating this amazing community of women. It's awesome. I appreciate it.

Thank you, April. If you enjoyed this podcast and want to receive updates on our next interviews, go to our website, therealestateinvestor.com. There you can subscribe to our show, become part of our investor community, and get updates on upcoming episodes.

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