How I Built a 7 Figure Real Estate Business by 26 | Podcast: Jake Burhans on Real Talk with Waz

You're listening to Real Talk with Woz. I'm very excited to have you enjoy this episode. Jake Burhans, cool. Welcome on to Real Talk. It's, uh, it's cool to have you. For those of you that don't know Jake, he is a very successful young 26-year-old entrepreneur. He's the founder of a high-caliber acquisitions company. He's a friend within my sphere that I truly admire. His mindset, work ethic, and character are far above others of our age. Um, and I'm glad to have you on, so welcome.

Yeah, the, the character and the work ethic and the mindset and all those things, I hold those with greater appreciation than any of the titles or accolades or anything like that. Uh, I think definitely connecting with yourself and other people like that is what I enjoy the most though. Yeah, talking about the mindset and helping other people get past the mindset things, uh, because being, being successful or whatever you call successful in business is really not complicated. Anyone can do it if they have the right—

it's a good point. If you have the right skills and I guess mindset too, you could do anything. Yeah. Um, and that's the one thing that you— no one can take from you is mindset.

Yeah. You know, it is interesting thing, like as you, as you progress over the years and you build these skills and you build up your, your repertoire, no matter what happens financially with the business or this or that, those experiences and lessons and trials and tribulations and character, all that, that has been built for you can never be taken. It's a pretty comforting feeling, you know, like you'll always have that no matter what.

But dude, I gotta ask you, like, as a 26-year-old, like, I thought you were older when I first met you too because like you were just so with it. And like a lot of the people that I was around at the time, at least when I met you, like, they didn't have like this drive or like this, this mindset thing. And you're reading these books and, you know, doing these big picture things at such a young age. When you were younger, like, did you have that around you as a kid? Like, were your parents very entrepreneurial? Um, how was it growing up?

You know, I wish— no, I think it's good. I'm the only one in my family that's business.

Okay.

Everyone in my family is— that's not true, actually. My mom's father, my grandfather, is into business. But everyone else in my, my family does like behavioral, like they help special needs. They do all this great work for the community. I'm like the only one in business.

That's where you get the mindset from.

Yeah, the mindset.

But those type of people, they require a different level of mindset to push through and do those kind of jobs.

Yeah, those jobs are tough. Yeah. A lot of love for those people in dealing with that whole demographic. It's a, it's a huge thing. But in terms of drive, I mean, I, hockey consumed my life when I was younger, from when I was 5 years old, 4 years old when I started playing hockey, till I was like 20. You know, my whole thing was to go to the NHL, play D1, do all these things that consumed me 24/7. So I did have the same level of commitment and focus and all those things then, uh, and that's kind of translated over to, to entrepreneurship. But to be honest, I think a lot of the drive for entrepreneurship at first came from almost needing to— not to get deep right off the bat here, but to validate myself through the accomplishments or the titles of being an entrepreneur, be like being a success, successful entrepreneur, making a certain amount of money or getting to a certain level in business. You know, I needed that to almost feel validated or kind of worthy. But what I've come to realize over time is that it's not really about any of that. It's really about like who I am. Like, am I helping people, right? Am I putting people in a better position within the business? It's about our employees, our company. Developing them and just being a genuinely good person trying to provide value. And the universe pays you back. It'll come back around to you. But that's more my focus now. And I still enjoy all the work. I love business. I love business. I love the game of business. I love learning. I'm a voracious learner. So I love to read a tremendous amount and podcasts and all these things. But I've really changed my mindset to be more— play the— playing the infinite game, as Simon Sinek would say, playing the infinite game, which is Infinite games are like business. You don't win or lose business. You win business by being in business. Like, the point of it is to stay in business, right? Health, right? You don't win being healthy. You just— the point is to stay in shape, to stay healthy. Marriage— you don't win marriage. The point is to stay married, right? So these infinite games, it's just doing a little bit every day.

And, um, I love that concept. Yeah, you're, you're working for the future. Like Basically, you're not in the past, nor I'd say the present, because you're just like, just remaining stable and where you're at.

Yeah, you know, it's huge. I think, uh, my business partner Isaiah talks— has this one saying, it's, uh, live like it's your last day, plan like you're gonna live forever. I think it's a good balancing. He's always had a lot of balance where I have not had balance. I have been like overbearingly just work, work, work, work, work. Which I've learned to not be like that as much because I need to be sustainable if I'm really going to be like— because, yeah, it doesn't matter what I do in a year or 2 years. That's nothing. It's like the real results come over 15, 20 years.

Yeah, right.

Yeah. So who's going to be here in 15 years? Not me. If I work like I had been the past year and a half, right? Yeah. And I think there's this mindset of this hustle culture on entrepreneurship. We have to work, work, work, work, work, which you do. You do have to put in the work in the hours, but You know, I think working at a sustainable rate is much more important. Like, there's no race. There's really no race to get there. There's not. And if you just play that long game and like, hey, I'm gonna get there whether it takes me 5 years or 10 years, I don't really care. I'm just never gonna quit, and I'm gonna do everything that I can every day, but I'm not gonna drive myself over the edge so I'm miserable all day long, or whatever. You know, you're just overworking yourself. It's just for what? Yeah, for what? There's not even— there's no point.

I mean, I've had that shift recently where, um, you know, when I was first jumping into it, I was like, I gotta answer every call, I gotta do everything, do it, do all this stuff. And I was burning myself out. And when— and I was also like neglecting the other stuff in my life. And I got like this, this whole year, I'd say I've just been more taking things as they come and being grateful for the other things around the business.

Yeah, you know, yeah, absolutely.

You gotta—

got to focus on the other things as well. And I think, um, yeah, just working at a sustainable rate is, is the biggest thing that you can do. And, uh, and everyone's gonna be different. Yeah, there's a quote, comparison is a thief of joy, and it is like the best quote of all time. You cannot compare yourself to anyone else because everyone else has different personality traits. You different situations, different values, different skills. Yeah. So some people are going to be able to, you know, work a little bit longer. Some people work less. It's just you have to really feel into who you are and what makes sense for you. Make sure you're being disciplined though. You're doing it every day. That's the biggest thing. Another quote from Simon Sinek is consistency over intensity. And that's one that I've had to take because I just want to rush and get there. I'm like, I'm going to work 14 hours a day. I'm going to get there in 2 years. No, you're not. No, right.

Just work 8 hours a day because like those 14 hours of work could be 2 hours of really productive work.

That's the other thing too.

It's better to just have like if you, if you want to be productive, put in the 2 to 4 hours of productivity that you know you're performing at 110% versus just like sitting around because you feel like you have to work the 14-hour day.

Yeah. And that's like your beliefs around— well, there's certain beliefs that, okay, we got to work 9 to 5 40-hour weeks. Like, that's a good solid week, 40-hour weeks. Why do we believe that? Because we've been conditioned to believe that, because that's just how society's been for the last maybe 100 years, 150 years, right? You work the 40-hour week. But what if you are as productive as someone, as someone who works a 40-hour week in 30 hours or in 25 hours? Then what? Yeah, then what, right? So it's not about that.

Are you a valued employee then, or—

Yeah, but I'm just saying, like, for yourself, I guess, for entrepreneurs, right? That's why tracking like, what are you actually getting done? Like, don't, don't tie yourself to time because time doesn't mean anything. It's like, what are you actually getting done? You could work 10 hours a day and be distracted and not really get anything done, or you could sit down for 4 hours, put your phone away and get more done than anyone does in 8 hours a day.

I love those like 45-minute spurts that I get where like I do like a million tasks in 45 minutes and it's like I just checked off a whole to-do list that is in the back of my head for so long. It's like those little spurts of productivity are great.

Makes you feel incredible. Yeah. Especially like myself. I took the CliftonStrengths personality assessment. I strongly recommend it for anyone. Had everyone on my team take it.

Yeah.

Very insightful. A lot of action items you can take from it. Gives you like blind spots and helps you in the professional environment, but also your personal environment. You know, it explains why you are the way you are. Yeah. One of my things is I take immense satisfaction in being busy and productive. So I just like getting my to-do list done is the biggest satisfaction for me ever. Yeah, that's why I make sure I get things— for me personally, getting stuff done in the morning really sets the tone for my day. Because if I say I didn't work from, you know, didn't start work till like 10 or 11, I'd feel behind the 8-ball just because of kind of my personality. But because I know I get that satisfaction in doing to-dos, I make sure when I get up I'm doing stuff right off the bat. It kind of sets the tone for the day. Makes me feel like I've done something.

Do you give yourself grace in the morning though, or like, are you getting really getting right into working?

Grace? I do meditate. Okay. So I meditate, uh, morning and evening.

That's good.

It's like right when I wake up, meditate. Um, which meditate, kind of a, a, uh, interesting term. I feel like people misinterpret, but, uh, I followed this guy Joe Dispenza. Dr. Dispenza.

Yeah.

He's got some phenomenal things. And the reason I like how he explains meditation is 'cause he brings science to it. He's like the first person to ever really demystify meditation and show the scientific results of meditation. He has the largest data set of brainwaves for large group meditation sessions. So he has these massive, people come, like thousands of people, and they're all hooked up to EKGs or EEGs or something, right?

And it's— I think EKG's like the heart.

Yeah, not EKG, it's a— something. It's like a brainwave, uh, sensor. Yeah. And they all have these sensors on. He takes them through these meditations and literally shows how it slows their brainwaves down.

Wow.

And the effects it's had. Um, but yeah, so it's really— the word meditate from a Buddhist, uh, literature standpoint is to become familiar with. That's really all it is.

You sit there. I think it's just being familiar with doing nothing. Yes.

That's all. Familiar. But becoming familiar with yourself though. Like, you sit down for 20 minutes and close your eyes and your thoughts are going to go crazy. You start to really learn who you are. Like, what are these thoughts that you just have on repeat in your head? What are they? Are they negative thoughts? Like when you just sit there and you don't think, are you thinking like, I'm not going to get the deal today. It's going to be a tough day. Today's going to suck. You know, like, are these negative thought patterns going through your head? If they are, you need to change those things.

Oh, 100%.

You know? Yeah. So I think it's crucial. Like self-reflection every single day, sitting down. It doesn't have to be meditation, but reflection in general. Meditation is a form of that. But like, yeah, am I on the track that I want to be on?

Yeah.

You know, it's December 2024. In January, I probably thought my path was going to be one thing. It could be completely different now. So you got to check in. I got to check in with myself and be like, hey, am I still doing what I feel like I should be doing?

It's hard to do that too. Yeah, it's hard to like dissect the layers of your own brain. There's like sometimes where I'm like, I get the late night thoughts where, like, I'm up past my bedtime and I'm thinking about life, like the big deep stuff. I'm like, all right, like, yeah, business is great. What, like, life checkboxes have I not checked yet type of thing, you know? And it's— you go down those rabbit holes, but it's also like a character buildup.

Yeah.

You know, because it's like, oh wow, I've been feeling not as great as my business reflects. Maybe be more with it, be more present.

Yeah, I think, uh, those are the good thoughts you need to have though. They are, because you just put your head down and you work and you do your things and you go—

it's easy to forget, like when you're working a 9 to 5, you don't think about what you're, what you're feeling really. You're, you're doing the thing, you're going home, you're making dinner, you're going to the gym. It's like you get into that routine, it's on a hamster wheel. Yeah, I, I like Dude, I have been so good at being present and grateful with everything that's been going on around me. Like, whenever I see people, I'm just trying to spread positivity because it's like people will come up to me, okay, how's work? What's new with you? Still crushing it, right? I'm like, it's like I almost don't want the compliment. I almost just like, like I just tell them, like, I'm just grateful that I've been placed in the position that I'm in. And I'm happy that everything is going the way it is, you know. And I try to push more on, on them. How are you? You know, like, what's, what's going— what's positive in your life right now?

Yeah, that's great, man. It's the little things. Yeah, that attitude, attitude of gratitude and, uh, and being optimistic and positive. We definitely need more of it in the world. It's easy to be negative, look at the bad things. Yeah, helping other people, pushing them to, to be great. Yeah, you know, and absolutely being appreciative is everything because especially with our goals and the things that we chase after, it's never-ending. You know, the goal just becomes a goalpost or just becomes a mile marker more than anything, right? Oh, let's get the business to $1 million or let's make $300,000 in income. Yeah. And then you get there and then it's like, oh, well, I made $300,000. Let's make $500,000.

Yeah.

Or we did $1 million in the business. Let's do $2 million. It never ends. Yeah, right. It's a constant journey. So just being appreciative that you've even made it this far. Yeah. You know, like, I look at where I am now, just to be a full-time entrepreneur and like, and own the business and run the business, like, take it so for granted. Like, I even 2 years, 2 and a half years ago, all I wanted to do was do like, do a deal a month. That's all I want to do. I was like, if I could just be a full-time entrepreneur, I'd be so happy, X, Y, Z. And that's a dangerous statement. Once I do X, Y, Z, I'm going to be so happy. It's like, no, no, you just choose to be now, right?

Be happy in the now.

Yeah. When you're, when you're searching for things outside, that's going to try to change your internal state. It's, it's a tough game.

Like being materialistic, buying the flashy things, working hard for those things. And I think that goes back to what you were saying, like you were becoming an entrepreneur because you wanted other people to appreciate you. You felt that you needed that, right?

Childhood traumas.

Yeah, I forget how you worded it, but I feel that. I feel like, you know, a big thing is like you want others to accept you for who you are. And when you get into an entrepreneur or journey like that, right, you see a lot of other people that are doing better. Everyone's always doing better than you. That way, that's like you have to be that, that good so that others can look at you like you look at them. Mm-hmm. And that's, that's also a never-ending thing. And like you say, comparison is the thief of joy. I feel like a lot of people do get into a business like this or like ours, real estate or whatever it may be, and they just think that once they do the thing, they're going to be happy, content, and everyone's going to love them. But if you're a bad person and you become an entrepreneur, people are still going to think you're a bad person even if you are successful. You know, success doesn't bring you— make you become this different person, I don't think.

Yeah. And newsflash, hey, no one really cares what you're doing. No one's so worried about themselves.

Yeah, they're so focused.

No one cares like what you're doing or what you're driving. No one cares. Yeah, like they are just so focused on themselves. I think that's why it's such an empty feeling too for people when you're chasing after things, because you think that you're going to get this love and this appreciation, but you just don't. Yeah, you just don't. So if you're not doing it because it genuinely makes you feel good, then you're doing it for the wrong reasons, right? Like now, like when I initially started the business, it was like, okay, let's make a lot of money. Never had— never even had any money.

Let's talk about the business. Tell people a little bit about what it is.

Yeah. So the business is a—

basically, simple terms.

Simple terms. Yeah. You know, the people who inherit properties or going through pre-foreclosure or have old rundown houses, we buy those properties. In the simplest terms, that's what we do.

Buy the ugly houses.

Buy the ugly houses. It's an off-market real estate acquisition company.

That's what we do.

We go direct to seller. So, things that are not listed on the MLS, right, with a realtor, just people who may not have expressed any interest, we might give them a cold call or reach out to them or we do some marketing on Google. Some people search on Google, "Hey, I'm looking to sell." If they like inherited a property, they don't want it. And then our company basically walks them through our process, makes sure it's a good fit for both of us and tries to negotiate a deal that makes sense for us. We purchase the property. So it's really just a, say, a marketing and sales business.

And how many people do you have working under you?

We have in the company, I think we have about 18 people. So Isaiah and I both own the company together. He kind of runs the operations and the dispositions, not to get technical, but He runs kind of the back half. I run the front half of the business. And yeah, we got about, I think we have like 9 people on the acquisitions team and the other 9 are like operations, administrative, TC, things like that.

Imagine being 26 and employing 18 people.

Yeah, I don't, I don't really think about it. It's, it's interesting.

A lot of people can't even manage themselves and you're out here managing 18 people basically.

Yeah, it's been a, it's been a huge year for, for growth in terms of leading the business because last year in 2023, it was just Isaiah and I in the business and we were just doing it together, right? I was running all of acquisitions, he was doing dispositions. So just to back up, so basically what we do is wholesale houses. So basically we will get a deal off market and we'll sell that deal to an investor. So Isaiah sells it to the investor, right? I, I'm on the acquisition with the homeowner and then Isaiah does on the back half. He sells it to the investor. So it's sales on the back end as well. But it was just me and him doing that. And then 2024, this year has really been the year of hiring, hiring people, building a team. And we've doubled, over doubled our revenue from last year just because we have people, just because we have team and we Like I hired our first acquisition rep. Like we had cold callers and appointment setters and stuff, but our first like actual closer in January of this year, and I didn't get to that could actually produce until August. 9 months, man, of just like not knowing what I was doing, hiring these people. They clearly weren't a good fit looking back at it, but they were, they were with us for a number of months. Yeah. And part of it wasn't— it definitely wasn't all their fault, right? We didn't have our marketing in place. Like there's a lot of things that weren't lined up properly. But, you know, in hindsight, just so easy to see now. But yeah, it's really been learning about leadership and management. That's a huge thing, man. Yeah. Like on— especially on acquisitions. Like, I'm—

people take that stuff for granted. It's very hard to be a good leader. It is hard to be a leader, but it's even harder to be a good leader.

Well, yeah, I think— I think being a leader is like an entrepreneur, like being an entrepreneur. It's like a sexy term. Like, yeah, I'm going to be a leader. I'm going to be an entrepreneur. But like, do you even know what that is?

Right?

Yeah, I want to be a manager because it's the next rung up on the ladder. Yeah, but what does that even— you know, it's, it's really just doing the hardest things that no one else wants to do. That's what it is, right? True. When I'm an acquisition rep, when I'm a sales manager like I am now, for like playing that role, I have to deal with everything that the acquisition reps can't deal with, right? So it's basically the hardest problems. Next quarter I hire a sales manager, right? Then I go to upper management or whatever you want to call it. I'm dealing with everything that the acquis— that the sales managers can't deal with, right?

Yeah.

So whatever the acquisition reps can't deal with, the sales managers have to deal with. Whatever they can't deal with, I have to deal with. Yeah. So those are the most difficult things again, right? And then you go hire upper management, you hire director of acquisitions or C-suite executives, and you're an owner, right? Then what problems come to you? Everything that everyone else can't solve, you as the owner have to solve.

Yeah.

So it doesn't get any easier. You just get better.

Get the systems better too.

Yeah, you know, systems better, but just managing people. And one of the most difficult things I think about management is that, like I said before, you're responsible for everyone's results. So, but you can't just tell people what to do. That's not how they operate. You can't just be like, do this, do that, right? People have minds of their own. You have to learn how do they, how are they motivated so that you can keep them motivated, right? How can you keep them accountable? How can you get— because I have certain knowledge in my head about how to close deals, right? So I'm trying to teach that to the reps. Yeah, but, you know, people learn in different ways. I have to figure out how can I communicate that to get them to, to perform. And it's a virtual company too. So it'd be one thing if everyone was in the office, you could see them every day like, hey, don't say that ever again on the phone, or what are you doing? You've been outside for 45 minutes. I have no idea what's going on.

So, yeah.

Being accountable. The biggest thing virtually is the KPIs and stuff, making sure they're hitting them. That's kind of how I know that they're doing enough for the day. Yeah. Yeah. Leadership management, the biggest thing this year.

It's bizarre, man. Like, I applaud you for managing all that stuff. And, you know, it's a lot of juggling and takes a lot of commitment and you really are just dedicated to it.

Hmm.

Yeah. Well, did— have you had any role models like that got you to this point?

Yeah, variety, variety of role models. I think the cool thing about podcasts and things like that is that you can kind of pick your mentors, whoever you just decide to listen to. You can pick a mentor like Isaiah and I both love following Alex Hormozi. It's probably a lot of people know from the business side of things, not necessarily real estate, but just like business. And Leila Hormozi as well. Leila's more with the people and hiring and management. And Alex is more— he's more like sales and acquisitions. Yeah, kind of visionary stuff.

Front runner.

Yeah, the front runner. But yeah, both of them, we listen to them religiously. Podcasts, I say from a business perspective, that's the biggest one. We have a business coach who's phenomenal. His name is Forrest Blackburn.

He's a—

he's an absolute killer. He's been in the business for 20, 20 years. So he's actually been the biggest reason we've done had such an increase this year as well. We got a business coach, which is huge. So he's been around.

How often do you meet with him?

Once a week.

Really?

Yeah, now it's back to like every other week.

Is that pretty costly to have a business coach?

Yeah, yep, it was. Um, yeah, I mean, you can spend— for a business coach, you can spend anywhere from, you know, $5,000. Well, you could spend any amount of money. Yeah, $5,000 to $30,000 or more, probably a year or a dozen. Uh, a year.

A year. Yeah, like a one-time fee. Yeah, yeah.

But it's worth it. So you pay, you know, you pay $10,000-$15,000 for a business coach for however long. Yeah, even 6 months or 9 months or a year. That's one deal.

Sometimes it's— I feel like it's hard to find the right one though, and like they want you putting money up front, you know. So you're, you're kind of taking a risk there because I know like, uh, Anthony Nucci, who's like— I don't know if you know him. On— he's a realtor in like Florida, but one of the guys I know bought his course and it was $7,000 and he meets with them once a month for like an hour. I don't know if that's really worth it in my opinion.

Well, it's interesting, right? Because what if you have one meeting? What if it's $20,000, right? Yeah, $20,000, one meeting with someone. Yeah, but that— in that one meeting you get one idea or one thing shifts in your brain that takes your business from $400,000 a year to $800,000 a year. Yeah. You know, would that $20,000 meeting be worth it? Yeah.

Yeah, it would.

So really depends. Really depends. I mean, you see these people paying for masterminds $50 grand to get into a mastermind.

I know.

For one meeting. Yeah. Right. Because they're just looking for that one nugget, that one thing that's going to take their business that's doing a few million dollars a year to $10 million a year, $50 million a year.

Yeah.

So it's an interesting thing. But yeah, finding the right person is definitely huge.

What, uh, what would you suggest to like a younger person looking to go the entrepreneurial route but they don't know like where to go with it? Because you have the mindset of an entrepreneur, I feel like you'd be able to guide, um, someone who may be maybe even not even a young person, someone who's looking to job shift, you know, shift their life kind of thing, like what they should do in entrepreneurship, you're saying? Or how they should go about finding the right information to get?

Hmm. Yeah, that's a— it's such a broad thing, entrepreneurship, right? It could be real estate, it could be other things.

What do you think the best industry is? You think real estate's the best industry?

No, I don't know. Real estate's great. I think there's other— it depends what your goals are. I think if you're really trying to scale, real estate's not it. Like, you— like, the biggest businesses that are like billions of dollars, those are the ones like the simple ones, like a roofing company. It's like a window company or something.

I think roofing is like a cheat code. Yeah, I say that all the time. Like, material cost is so low and you could just like put a roof on, profit, profit, profit, you know.

I think, uh, but in terms of that, I think one, I would say take a CliftonStrengths personality assessment and understand what your strengths are. Understand what your strengths are before you do anything, and you want to focus on those things, right? If you're— if your strengths are doing If your strengths are doing and executing, then maybe you do go into like a sales role or something where you can do that. If you're more of a strategic person, then, uh, you know, search out things that are more strategic. If you're more of like an influencer and you can activate people and you like being with people, um, or you could be a, or like a relationship builder, right? So those are like the 4 categories of the CliftonStrengths, uh, understanding where you fit in, uh, as an entrepreneur, because typically you're going to need a team around you. So understanding what your strengths are, you'll know which, what kind of team to hire around you. But yeah, I think, and then in terms of what you want to do in, in the entrepreneur space, specifically in terms of real estate or other industries, yeah, I think it comes back to your strengths and understanding.

Do you like sales?

Do you like this? Do you like that? And then what, what value do you want to provide? Because that's what you should be leading with, should be leading with value. So what kind of value you want to provide? Like someone getting into real estate, for example, might like to be in real estate because they like talking to sellers and they like helping sellers out of difficult situations because that makes them feel good. And that's the value to the community, right? So that would be a good reason to get into wholesale real estate or real estate off-market acquisitions because you like to talk to sellers, like to talk to people, like to help people get out of difficult situations. Yeah, obviously make a good amount of money doing it. Yeah. So that'd be a good reason. So understand your reason for doing it.

And was that your why? Like why you got into your, your field?

Well, originally it was just money.

It was all money. It was money, man. Yeah.

Yeah. I was like, I mean, I mean, now, now it's way more that.

Yeah.

Now it's more about the company though. Yeah. Now it's way more exciting to come in.

Yeah.

Yeah. It's way more exciting for me to come in and like talk to, talk to our team and do our meetings and develop them and see them succeed. Like that's more exciting than anything. But when I got into it, it was money for sure. I was like, oh, you can make $80,000? Sign me up.

Yeah, I was listening to Wholesale Hotline and I was just like, listen to that one.

I was blown away. Brent Daniels, he was a big mentor for me starting. Brent Daniels, he does things the right way. He's so much energy.

He's good on the phone.

Yeah, he's, he's good. Yeah. But yeah, I was just like, $80,000 blew my mind. So you can do $80,000 on one deal. Yeah, people doing like $127,000.

How much have you made on the big— on your biggest deal?

Our biggest deal was $161,000.

What?

Yeah, and it was supposed to be $300,000.

Was that this year? Yeah. Wow.

Yeah, it was supposed to be $300,000 on one wholesale deal.

What happened?

Why didn't you get the $300,000? It was a big— it's a long story, but the buyer, you know, went around our back to the seller and this and that. And he knew we were making a lot of money. And it was, it was one of the worst experiences, honestly, with the buyer.

Just more money, more problems.

Yeah, he was just being super shady and just a really bad experience. But in the end, we made it. We were like all salty. We made $160,000. It's like, grow up. Yeah. You know, because we wanted the $3 million.

I made someone's salary in a day.

Yeah, it was. But yeah, that was the larger property. And any time that you get over So we did $160,000. We had another deal that fell through because of environmental concerns.

It was a—

but it was— we had a buyer locked in, $255,000 spread, $255,000. But the price point was like $1.2 million. So if you get over million-dollar price points, I mean, making $100,000 is not like a crazy thing.

Yeah.

Because think about it, like you say, you make 10% on a $500,000 property, make $50,000. 10% on $1.2 million is $120,000, right? Same percentage, but it's just more money. So yeah, anytime that we've done deals over a million, it's been like close to $100,000 spread, if not over. But, but yeah, deals are out there.

I guess deals are out there. That's, that's a lot of money to be making on one transaction.

Yeah, that was huge for us early in the earlier this year because earlier this year, oh dude, helped us so much. Yeah. Like, and now we're like finally catching up because we got the right people in place.

Yeah.

And, and we have the systems because of Force and the coach and all these things like. Yeah. And it's so crazy. Like, if we didn't hire the coach, we would be not even close to where we are right now. Not even close. Like, we thought we were like, we thought we were close to where we wanted to be. We were so far.

We were— does your coach also do wholesaling?

Yeah, he's been doing it for 20 years.

Oh, okay.

Yeah, he owns 2 wholesale companies and he also helps people around the nation do specifically virtual wholesale. Wow. So comes in and we had already had some traction, which helped, but he was like, tweak this, tweak this, pull this, da da da da da da. And it was just like 3 to 4 months of us just heavily changing the processes and the systems. Yeah, right. He came in in May and then June, July, August, didn't really see the results. We were just changing things, changing things, changing things. New marketing process, new inbound lead process, new drip campaigns, Hiring, how do you manage? How do you set up the meetings between all the teams? Like getting everything in place. And then finally, when we had the right people in place to actually perform on it, then it hit and we went and we tripled our business per month from one month to the next month like that. And then it's been like that every single month since.

Wow.

So it's interesting like that. Like it doesn't, you don't grow linearly.

Yeah.

Right, it's just like you just pop up and you jump up. Yeah. But yeah, so having him was—

and you got to capitalize on that, that time. Yeah, that's coming up.

Yeah. So that, that, that, um, that deal though, like, helped us out a lot because it allowed us to, to fund that business while we were, you know, not crushing it in the middle of the year.

Yeah.

Uh, but it held us over to where we are now, where now we have this more— we're more steady.

That's awesome.

We have the stuff. So it's business though, right?

Yeah. Good for you. So what are your, um, what are you shooting for, for like sales volume for Next year?

Uh, next year our goal is $2 million in revenue.

Okay.

In assignment revenue. Um, this year, so 2023 we did like $350,000, I think, with just Isaiah and I.

Okay.

Uh, and then this year we've done like $550,000 or $600,000 maybe. We're projected— this is a big month for us— we're gonna, uh, projected to close like $140,000 or something this month. So I think we'll—

December is a hot month this time of year, I guess.

Yeah. So I think we'll do like, I don't know, I'm hoping we'll get into the eights, get to seven, whatever. Yeah, it's been a great year regardless. Again, super grateful for how much progress we've made. Yeah. Next year I think we can definitely do $2 million based on how much we've been doing every month since October. If we keep that pace up, it should be $2 to $2.5 million. Then the year after that, we'll get it to $4 or $5. If we're growing linearly, but who says? Maybe we could just do that, you know, next year. The goal is to really get it to like $5 to $6 million and kind of have it sustain at that rate and optimize. And yeah, but it's a journey. It's not even about that though. It's just about, like I said, it's like about the— all the lessons and character and everything you're learning along the way. That's what you could take from it because this business isn't even really about making money. It's more about learning. Yeah, right. It's more about learning all the things. Like, we're learning— I'm learning sales, I'm learning how to manage people, I'm learning how to lead, I'm learning about finances, I'm learning about hiring, operations, all those things, which I can then go apply to other things as well.

Do you ever get bored of it? No, no, no, never.

You can get a little stressed out. Yeah, but never get bored. No, I mean, it's a funny thing. Like, hear someone say, I'm bored. Yeah, like, I don't remember the last time I was bored. Yeah, there's always something I'm doing, right? So it's either, it's either building, building the business or it's something to recharge my batteries, you know, something personal, being outside or hanging out with people. Yeah, there's always something. I just toggle between those two things, build the business and recharging the batteries.

I feel like you're probably really good at doing that and you're, you seem very balanced.

Yeah, I I'm more okay with it now. Before, I wasn't at all. Yeah, I wasn't balanced at all. I would just do business. And again, I think that came from a spot of I felt like I needed to work 12 hours a day or 13 hours a day, or I didn't feel like I was doing enough. I didn't feel like I was doing enough. Yeah, but what is enough, you know? Exactly. It's never enough. Um, but now I'm much more comfortable with working a little bit less and being like, that's fine, that's plenty, right? If I'm playing the infinite game, as long as I got up today and did something, then that's fine. I don't need to go all out every single day. It's a step in the right direction. And not in completely detaching from the outcomes of things. That's huge. Yes. Law of detachment. So yes, we talked about the other day we were at dinner, but detaching, like, I don't need the money, right? Like, I don't need the business. I don't need the deals. I don't need any of it. Right? I'm grateful for it when I have it, and I, and I would like it, obviously, but I don't need it. It's not like the end of the world if I don't have it. And that type of mentality— obviously I'm doing everything in my power to keep the business going and, yeah, and all of that.

Yeah, definitely.

But that type of mentality helps you relax a little bit and be like, it's okay, you know? Yeah, it's not the end of the world. And don't take life so seriously because, hey, guess what? There's 8 billion people on the planet and we're floating around the middle of freaking the universe, like nothing even really matters. So we get so caught up in our day-to-day like it's the end of the world.

I think it's a lot like the law of abundance, you know? Yeah, there's abundance out there. Like, you don't need that one transaction because yes, but there's another one right, right, right down the line coming your way. You just don't see it yet.

Exactly. And that's where I think doing the right thing and like the whole notion of karma is like a very real thing. Like you're doing the right thing, you're leading with value. Okay, you don't get out on this one, you're gonna find another one. And if you're thinking abundantly, things just happen in a certain way. Like, if you're thinking abundantly, they just happen in a certain way, and those opportunities will come across your plate. But if you have this scarcity mindset, like, I need to take it all, mine, mine, mine, mine, mine, then things just get farther, farther away from you. And that's like kind of— yeah, I think goes hand in hand, the abundance and the law of detachment, because it's like, hey, It's fine. You know, this is not going to work out. You can't really control the outcome. That's, I guess that's like stoicism too, but it's just what can I control today? Yeah. And even on a sales call, it's huge if you detach from the outcome of a sales call. Like you don't care if you get the deal or not, right?

You don't care if someone says no to you.

Yeah. You don't care if someone says no and you don't care if you blow it. Yeah. Because that was some of my, the most anxiety I had on these sales calls when I used to do a lot of them. I'm still helping on the phone with sellers, obviously, but is I'd get on the phone and just be like, oh my God, I better not mess this up. I better not mess it up. Right? Obviously, you're not going to be having the best conversation you could possibly have. But if you just get on the phone and say, hey, I'm just going to have a conversation, see if we can come to a win-win solution. And I don't care if it's a deal or not a deal. Then you're getting on the phone, you're so relaxed, you don't care, and you're going to crush it. You're going to absolutely crush it. I heard this thing someone say, David Guillaume actually was on a Lewis Howes podcast, School of Greatness podcast, which is another really good podcast. And he said, uh, one of his mentors had told him, you're only fearful when you're trying to take from someone. You're never fearful if your goal is to give. There's no fear in giving, right? Like you get on the stage and you're nervous for the presentation because you're, you're trying to take things from people in the sense of like their, their approval, right? You're afraid what they're going to think of you, this and that, um, their approval. Are they going to like what you have to say? This and that. But if you were to get on stage and and say, you know, give everyone $10,000, you wouldn't be nervous for that. No, you're gonna get on stage like, I'm going to personally write everyone a check for $10,000. You're not gonna be scared, right? Same thing with seller calls or listing calls or whatever it is. If your goal is to get on the phone and help someone, you're trying to give to someone, never going to be nervous. Yeah, so pressure and giving. But when you're, when you're thinking about yourself on these calls, that's when the anxiety kicks in. That's when the fear and the pressure kicks in. That's a good— you're thinking like, oh my gosh, like, Am I going to get the listing or not? Are they going to choose me? Blah, blah, blah. Make it about you. Yeah, about you. So it's like this reverse psychology. When you don't make it about you, the more it comes back to you, you know?

Mm-hmm. I was literally like my listing appointment today. I was one of 3 agents that was getting interviewed. I was the second one in the door and I didn't feel any pressure from it because I'm like, I've been on enough of these. There's going to be more to come even if he doesn't pick me, but At the end of the day, I'm going to be a good person to this guy right here, 100%, selling his house, you know, and I'm going to provide and show that I have value to offer him. And that's that. If he doesn't go my way, it doesn't go my way. Exactly.

There's no pressure. Yeah. It's like you completely detach from the outcome of that listing appointment. You're like, hey, I'm going to go in there, I'm going to be me. I know the value I provide. If it's meant to happen, it happens. If it doesn't, it doesn't. I'm not here to force anything.

But like 2 years ago, like if I was on a listing appointment, I would have been like, losing my mind. Like, why didn't they pick me? This is horrible. Like, I did everything right, you know?

You know, I think it can be hard to have that mindset though when you're starting.

It can.

It is. Because when you don't have anything or don't have the experience, how do you act like you don't need the deal? You know, that takes a lot.

It takes a lot.

Very true. Yeah.

Yeah. So you almost have to sacrifice that for a little bit, like not being able to give, right?

Well, no, I think you can do it right off the bat. Just it takes some conditioning, some— you gotta reframe your mindset around it. Like Like, say you want to do direct-to-seller acquisitions, you want to, you know, talk to sellers and get deals. Yeah. You just really have to understand from the get-go that he who needs it less always wins. He who needs it less always wins. If you're getting on the phone hungry, you know, they're going to sense that and you're never— and you're not going to get deals, right?

Yeah.

Because again, you're attached to the outcome. You cannot be attached to the outcome. You just got to get on the phone, have a conversation.

Yeah.

Never happens happens. And that's one of the— been the biggest, the biggest mindset shifts for me, even over the past few months, just about everything. Detaching from the outcome and just showing up as yourself, because that's when you're, you're most in the flow state with everything.

It makes sense.

You can just, you can just perform. You're not as restricted. Yeah.

Have you thought about like, uh, speaking engagements, like doing like big group speaking engagements?

Yeah, I used to be It's funny though, in college I was deathly afraid of public speaking. Freshman year I had to really—

I never would have thought freshman year I had to do freshman year.

I had to do a presentation for like our little group.

Yeah.

At UNH, dude, I almost passed out. I literally almost passed out. We had a presentation. It was like 5 of us up there. I just remember being in my suit, dude, and my legs literally shaking, shaking. And I was like, no one even mentioned anything after, but I'm like, everyone definitely saw my legs like straight up shaking. Like, I literally, like, blacked out, like, at the presentation. Wow. It was wild.

And, you know, I just— people probably didn't notice.

Yeah, I know. It's crazy. But literally, like, I, like, blacked out as I was speaking. I came back to it. I was like, I have to keep going. Like, the second everyone's eyes went on me. And then I— and then I identified as like, oh, I hate public speaking. I'm not good at it. That's another thing, too, is like, what do you identify as? But then I forcefully put myself in. Then I joined this group in college called the Atkins Investment Group. Pretty much like an investment banking group. And every quarter you had to make 2 presentations, 45-minute-long presentation in front of people.

Wow.

So I would— I went into that and purposely because I was like, I have to get up and be in front of people. And those were like terrifying too. But what I learned about public speaking too is that you always get the butterflies before, but the second you start speaking, it all goes away, right? It's always the anticipation. Then as soon as you're into it, You're in the flow, all the things, right? So yeah, just having that mindset shift of like, it's okay to be nervous, like to have the butterflies or the—

or the part of the game.

The nerves is part of the game, right? It means you're excited. It means you care about it. Yeah, right. But not getting mentally sucked into that and being like, oh my gosh, I'm going to mess up all these things. It's like, that's just part of it. Yeah. And then mentally you're calm. You got the little jitters in here, but they call that eustress. It's like a healthy stress, but it actually helps you perform better. You're more alert, you're more sharp, you're more articulate, you're more clear, you're more focused. You can work through your points better. So all that is good. So I've done a few speaking engagements down in Tampa, actually, which I loved. And yeah, I definitely want to do, want to do more of them. That's one of my favorite things to do in the whole world is I love to learn. And because I love to learn, I love to share it with people. Yeah.

And you, you, you consume it the best when you're sharing it or teaching it.

Absolutely. Yeah, it's one of the, the best ways to learn something is to teach it. Yeah. Which I had a limiting belief about that at first because especially sales, right? And I'm no sales guru, right? I only know sales from what I've learned over the past 2, 3 years. Yeah. Of the seller calls, right? So, I mean, I mean, I've probably done— I mean, just cold calling alone, actually crazy stat, cold calling alone. When I stopped cold calling in the beginning of 2023, I talked to like 20,000 sellers or something, or like asked them if they would consider an offer on their house. That's just cold calling, not like really closing. Some of it was closing. Yeah. So yeah, definitely a lot of that just by sheer volume. Yeah, right. Took in a few sales trainings. I figure I was going at this point about—

I want— I myself, I want to get really— I want to get better at the speaking aspect of things, you know, I guess it's like you said, it's what you describe yourself as.

Speaking engagements, right? Speaking engagements. Yeah. I was saying how I like to learn and teach. Oh yeah, the limiting belief around, around teaching. So I had, say I had 2 years of sales experience. I still didn't feel like I was an expert, so I felt like I shouldn't be teaching. Yeah, it was like an imposter syndrome. Yeah. I was like, who am I to be telling people X, Y, Z? Yeah, or even in Optimize REI, like our Facebook group. Yeah, I would just be like, well, there's definitely people who know more about sales than me. I feel like a fraud for trying to teach people about sales. Mm-hmm. But that's just a limiting mindset. You know, you're always going to kind of feel like an imposter when you start to do those things, but you just be authentic about it. You say, hey, this is what I do now. This is what— and if you frame it like this, this is what's worked well for me. Mm-hmm. You know, instead of saying this is what you should do, because when I say this is what you should do, then people are like, well, who are you? What's your experience? But when I say this is what's worked well for— listen to you.

Exactly. Yeah.

But if I say this is what's worked well for me in my experience, what are they going to say? No, it didn't work well for you in your experience. And then they can take with it what they want. So that's kind of the mindset I like to have, especially with my social media, to be like, hey, this is what worked well for me. That's something I learned from Alex Hormozy with your social media is don't tell someone you, you, you, because then you get that response. Who are you? Why should I listen to you?

I like talking from experiences and sharing experiences.

Because then it's valid, then it's genuine, right? And you say, hey, and if you don't know things, you say, hey, I don't know. Yeah, right.

Um, or admitting when you didn't know. Yes, that— I think that shows more value.

Absolutely. Yeah, because if you admit what you don't know, then people take more seriously what you do, what you do preach, right?

It's accountability with yourself, you know. Yeah, that's not an easy thing.

Yeah. Yeah, but yeah, teaching is, uh, I think everyone should be teaching. That's just like a value add too for people, right?

Mm-hmm. I've learned a lot by, uh, help— just like kind of like helping raise my brother. Like, he's 10, he's young, like he's starting to form into a person. I think you learn a lot raising someone. Oh yeah, you know, and you wanna— and it's a different level when you start wanting to teach other people of your age or maybe older, you know?

Yeah, it's—

it'd be tough to do.

Yeah. Yeah. Teaching, you really have to— there's a line, I don't know who said it, but it's like, if you can't explain something to a 4th grader, then you don't really understand it. If you can't— if you can't explain something on like 4th grade level terms and you don't really understand it. Because being able to break something down so simply like that, you have to have such a good understanding of it. Yeah. And that's since I've had the acquisition reps too. And both my acquisition reps have more sales experience than I do, right?

That's bizarre.

Yeah. So, but being able to break down the concepts that I've learned to them has really helped me become so much better. Yeah. Like if I were to get back on the phones now and just be a straight acquisition rep, Oh my gosh, I'd be scared.

Would you be?

Yeah. No, I mean, I'd be scared for other people because I would just be buying everything.

Yeah.

No, I'm just kidding. But I would be way different, right? Yeah, I would be. Because, because I've had to teach these concepts. I had all these things in my head about how I knew to be an acquisition rep. Yeah. And then over the past year, I've literally been explaining it to people for a whole year, just teaching it. So this stuff is just solidified in my mind and when I say like, hey, you have to do it this way, right? Maybe I didn't think about why I needed to do it that way, but then when they're, they're questioning me, I have to go deeper into that. Well, you have to do it because of this, because of that. You just get such a deeper understanding of things.

I know what you mean. Yeah, yeah. Because the experiences you go through, you, you really do dissect the different layers of the topic. Yeah, but that's, that's very true.

Yep. It's good.

Yeah, good stuff, dude. Um, what's, uh, you were just in Europe recently for how long again?

Uh, 2 months.

So like you were in Europe for 2 months managing this business and it didn't sink. Like how does it feel to be able to travel the world, experience life all while still working, because some people don't have that.

Yeah, it's, it's an incredible privilege. Yeah, what it is, honestly. Yeah, we went to— Isaiah and I both went. It's an interesting thing because we started the business out and we were like, the whole purpose was to travel. And he had been traveling for a while. Isaiah's been to Asia, Malaysia, Indonesia, Bali. He was in Nicaragua for like 2 months. Meanwhile, I was down in, in Florida, which is great, and all these things. And I always told people, yeah, it's virtual, you know, so I can work from anywhere. Meanwhile, I'm just, I'm just working from the same place. I'm not taking advantage of it. And I'm just like, screw it, let's, let's go to Europe for 2 months. So we did that, 14 different countries.

So what happened?

So we would basically wake up around, you know, 8 or 9. We would go explore the cities and different spots until about 2, and then there's 6 hours ahead. So then we would work from 3 to like 11 or 11:30 PM.

Mm-hmm.

Um, and, uh, and it was great. Yeah, we didn't, we didn't miss a beat. And it was good too, because some of the, some of the team was like, hey, you know, um, because as a manager too, one of your biggest things is bringing energy for the team, right? You're setting the pace. Like, hey, you know, you guys come in, you bring such good energy. It's like, it really helps us all perform in our, in our roles. Like, I really don't want this to, to, to, you know, slow down when you guys go to Europe and XYZ. And I was like, We'd already been in Europe for 3 weeks. I was like, I was like, good, good. Yeah. It's like, yeah, we've already been here for a few weeks. Like, okay, great, blah, blah, blah. But yeah, so I don't think that they really felt any difference whatsoever. That's good because there's really no difference, right? It's all on Zoom. So you log into Zoom, you have a background.

I wish, I wish my career was more virtual. Yeah, because that would be unreal.

But that was an incredible experience too. It was— went to 14 different countries. So we went to— flew into Netherlands. And then we went to Belgium. Um, Netherlands and Belgium, beautiful farmlands. Belgium has beautiful medieval feel. Uh, we went to Bruges and in Brussels. Uh, but then, so yeah, some beautiful, um, Brussels sprouts. Yeah, Brussels sprouts. I don't know, I don't know.

No, is that where the Brussels sprout was made?

It might be, it might be.

Yeah.

Um, fun fact, Amsterdam, uh, Netherlands, biking capital of the world. There's 1.2 bikes for every person. You've never seen so many bicycles in your life. You walk down the streets, they're just piled up on the sides of the streets like crazy. Everyone bikes. Really? Everyone freaking bikes. Like, it's crazy. It's pretty cool though, because there's bike lanes everywhere. You can, uh, yeah, you can just bike everywhere.

Uh, would you say there's more bikes than cars? Definitely.

Oh yeah, for sure, for sure. So with the Netherlands, Belgium, went down to Munich, Germany. Into Austria, beautiful Austrian Alps, massive mountains. Highly recommend that for, for anyone who likes to ski. And then we went into Liechtenstein, which is right in between Austria and Switzerland. It's like a little country. And I learned this from my cousin the other day. It's one of only two countries in the world that is landlocked and also surrounded by countries that are all landlocked. So it's a very landlocked country. Wow. So to be landlocked means you're not exposed to any ocean, right? Yeah. But then every country around Liechtenstein is also landlocked. There's only like 2 countries in the world that are like that. And that's one of them. Liechtenstein, it's a tiny little thing.

We stopped in Liechtenstein. Is that in Germany?

No, it's its own country.

Oh, okay.

And it's in between Austria and Switzerland. So if you look at a map, yeah, there's Switzerland and to the east of it or to the right of it is Liechtenstein. And then Austria. Okay.

Yeah.

So we went to Switzerland, down to Italy, which was amazing. Uh, southern coast of France, French Riviera, highly recommend. Uh, that was great. And then Monaco, which I thought was in France. It's its own country. I was telling everyone like, yeah, I'm going to Monaco, France. Going to Monaco, France. It's going to be great.

Monaco is its own country. I didn't even know that.

Yeah, it's tiny.

It's like—

yeah, it's, it's tiny. It's must be like 5 square miles. I don't know.

Some very rich country.

Yeah, very rich. Everyone's driving freaking Ferraris, McLarens, Bentleys. It's crazy. The poor people drive the Mercedes.

It's a whole different world out there.

Yeah, a whole different world in Europe in general. Yeah. Italy. They went to Croatia, which was my top spot for sure. Beautiful.

You never would have guessed you were gone. You weren't posting pictures every single day.

No, I didn't. Well, yeah, I kind of did that too. I didn't want to be be, uh, a distraction for anyone on the team either within the company to see me like doing all these things. I wanted to be like focused. I did post one at the very end. Yeah, but I shouldn't want it to be like, oh, he's off doing XYZ, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, right?

It's good. It helps you be present in those moments when you were traveling too.

Exactly. Um, Croatia, then went up to Hungary. Budapest is an incredible city. A lot of architecture and like monuments there and they have some hot springs.

You probably almost checked off everywhere.

Yeah, they're Slovenia and Slovakia went to and we ended in Czech, Czechoslovakia or Czechoslovakia, not Czechoslovakia. Czech Republic is what it's called now. Yeah.

Prague.

Prague, which is a cool spot. Really cool spot.

Prague.

And we flew back.

Did you have tour guides when you were doing all this stuff?

We just kind of did our own thing. ChatGPT. Is the best tour guide ever. Isaiah discovered it and it was actually, it was genius. You type into ChatGPT, literally is what we type in and be like, it'd be like, hey, we're in, we're in Monaco, France for 4 days. We can only explore from 9:00 AM to 2:00 PM. We have a rental car. We have to be back by 2:30 every day. What can we do? Boop, spits it out. Go here in the morning to this coffee shop, go over here to the castle at noon, sit at this restaurant, look at the view. Then you can drive back here for 1:30 and you'll be back at 2:30 to work. We just—

yeah, I did that every time.

That's great. So every time we're at a spot, like we're in Venice for one night, like, hey, in Venice for one night, not working, we're here from 7 to midnight, what can we do? Yeah, blah blah blah. Spits it out.

I wonder if you could have done that like with the whole trip plan, like saying, hey, I'm going to Europe, I'm visiting 14 countries, map out the best route to go from this country all the way to this country by hitting all the ones in the middle.

Definitely could have, you know, but we didn't plan for 14. We planned for like 5.

That's a big switch up.

Yeah, we just—

I mean, you guys are just like, let's, let's run it. Let's— every week you're playing real life Risk.

Yeah, every week we were in a new thing. I mean, we— because sometimes we'd do like 2 countries in a day or like 3 countries in a day. Yeah, because it'd be like Switzerland, Italy, France, um That's awesome, man. But, but yeah, so the biggest thing though, yeah, then work obviously was, it was definitely challenging, but it was important for me to show up at work like nothing was different, right? That's my responsibility. Yeah, which I think we did a good job of, but we had our two best months ever while we were there. Yeah, so it was pretty, pretty, pretty fortunate for the whole thing.

So more trips coming next year?

I don't know. Yeah, I think so. I want to get to like Portugal and Spain for sure.

Yeah.

Britain, Scotland, Ireland, things like that. I don't know when I'll do that, but, but yeah, I'd say in terms of Europeans, what do they do? So the Europeans, their food is much healthier. Like they have higher standards on their food, I think.

Yeah.

Like, for example, like everyone drinks tap water in every country. It's like filtered. There's like a much higher standard on on like the water. Everyone drinks it out of the, out of the faucet. Like, we were in Croatia, we drank from the freaking river. It's like the Dragon Eye Lake up in the mountain. You like drink the water. Uh, so everyone drinks tap water. It's like really good water, for one. Like, you, you don't— it'd be tough to drink tap water in like Manchester, you know? Yeah, it's like not great. I mean, you can obviously, but, um, a bunch of stuff in that. And then the food itself is just so much less preservative. It's much more farm to fork. Yeah, like it's right from there, you bring it in. Like, stuff doesn't last as long in your house. Like, you buy vegetables, it's gone. It's like ruined in 3 days if you don't eat it. Um, so you could eat a lot, you don't feel like bloated. Like, even the pasta—

oh, that's great—

big pasta dish, whatever, you're not like as bloated as you would be here. So I'm very strict with my diet. I was able to be a little bit more free over there, which was nice. That's one thing that's great about the Europeans. They have much better public transportation in Europe, for sure, right? It's much more commonplace to take They have like trolleys everywhere. That's what they have, which is like on the road and it's connected by those wires on top. Yeah, like San Francisco. But they're like nice, they're like updated new trolleys.

Okay.

It's very common for people to bike. There's bike lanes everywhere. Take the trolley. Yeah. And then train. They train all over the place. So much better public transportation infrastructure, which I think— because over here it's like, shit, you take the bus, it's like, oh, you know, you're poor, like this and that. Um, but over there it's like everyone does that.

It's cleaner.

Cleaner. Yeah, cities are very clean. Yeah, very clean. Not like Boston, that, that there's— there could be— it could be kind of dirty in Boston. Very clean. Um, a lot of cool coffee shops. A lot of cool coffee shops, man.

Like, you probably ate that up, dude.

We were ripping this espresso. Yeah, the Americano every day.

I know when we first met, you put me on to, uh, Nero.

Oh, Caffe Nero. Yeah, that's the best one around here. Yeah, I'm gonna buy Caffe Nero. You are?

Yeah, you could.

Making that declaration right here on Real Talk. That I will buy Caffe Nero. Shit, dude, I was thinking about that the other day. I was like, that's the most authentic kind of European-style feel cafe I've seen around here because a lot of them are very like— that's true— very commercialized. Like, you go in, it's not like— it doesn't feel like it does. Like, you go to Europe in the coffee shops and They're just— the ambiance is incredible. You go in there, it's cozy, the lighting's great.

They got the books on— they got the books or whatever it is. So good.

And there's so many cafes and they're all unique. There's not a lot of chain cafes over there. Um, yeah, it's beautiful. It's beautiful over there.

It's—

I recommend it. Yeah, let's go over there. Awesome. Good experience.

I hope you buy a Caffè Nero soon.

Yeah. Yeah. Well, no, I think actually That's a good point. I don't know if people— if they're owned individually or one person owns them all.

I think it's a franchise.

I want to try and buy the whole thing.

Yeah, because there's like— I've seen a couple now.

Well, no, yeah, there's like 10 around Boston. Yeah, but I'm wondering if one person owns them all or if it is a franchise.

We'd have to look into that.

I don't know, it is interesting.

Do your research.

I will. Yeah, research. It's a shiny object right now though. It is down the line, right? See that? And this is what I'm talking about with in the wholesale business, I'm learning all these business skills which could translate to other things. Yeah. So once you know how to run a business, business is business. It's marketing, right? It's bringing leads or opportunities in the door. It's converting that. It's sales. It's managing your finance. It's hiring. It's people. It's no different.

Yeah.

You do it to anything once you know how to do it. So, yeah, it's exciting.

That's awesome. I think it's awesome, all the stuff you do, and I appreciate you being here and sharing all your insights, sharing the mindset, dropping the gems. I think a lot of other people will appreciate that as well.

Yeah, I appreciate it. It's been, uh, it's been real.

Yeah, thank you, man.