#3: Colin Nabity, CEO of Breeze - How to balance life, work, and real estate, the benefits of multifamily investing, and the perils of a 72-hour fast

So, you know, we move in basically January 1st, move out immediately after, move back into our house middle of February. In March of that year, we were approached by a VC out of Boston that said, hey, we want to invest in the insurtech side of the business, which at the time was all one thing. In April, or, sorry, in May, we split the businesses completely. And at the very beginning of June, we took 10 million in financing into the technology side of it, and our son was born. We were. We literally signed the financing documents in the hospital when Jet was born. And in August, we were in marriage counseling. So, you know, you want to kind of talk about all those things that, like, lead up to wow like this. Yeah, 2021 was just a mess, you know, for.

Welcome to Heading West, a not so serious podcast where we talk about life, business, real estate, and our personal journeys as we head west. On today's episode, we interview Colin Navity, CEO of Breeze, an Omaha based insurtech company backed by Link Ventures, Northwestern Mutual. Steve, I think people could pick up on this, but you're somewhat related to Colin, right?

Yeah. I had the great opportunity to meet Colin 35 years ago when he was born, day one.

So, you know pretty well.

Yeah, he came out crying.

It was awesome. Yeah. I've known him for about a decade now, and I'm astounded that every. Just about every conversation I have with him, whether it's about marriage, faith, business, parenting, I mean, you name it, I walk away with something really valuable that I can implement into my life. And today was no different. I mean, if we're talking about personal health, how to balance life, being in the tech world, investing in real estate, I mean, you name it, we talked about it. So I don't want to give away too much to anybody who hasn't listened yet, but I want to wet their whistle a little bit that I walked away. My biggest takeaway was, and I think it was yours too, is how Colin balances being a co founder and a CEO, being in real estate, just buying and flipping a house, married, three kids. Where's the time come from for this? But how he balances that is astounding. What was it about that that really stood out to you, Jake?

I think it was amazing. Listen to Colin about how he balances work in life. I just wish I would have known that when I was his age. I sure could have used the advice.

Yeah, yeah.

Because I didn't do it.

Right. The young calf is teaching the old bull now, right?

So true. So true.

All right, well, let's get into it. I don't want to tease it up anymore. So stay tuned as we discuss how to balance life, work and real estate, the benefits of multifamily investing, and the perils of a 72 hour fast with our guest, Colin Abity. This episode is brought to you by Skyline Point Capital. If you're anything like me, you're always considering where to invest your money. Stocks, bonds, crypto and rental home. The list is literally endless. As we've all seen over the past year, the stock market is unstable, the housing market is just weird and inflation is on the rise. In times like these, the clear place to invest my money is in multi family real estate, AKA apartment complexes. Here's why. Returns on real estate investments have little to no correlation with the stock market. There's lower volatility, stable income streams, and the tax benefits are insane. And let's not forget that the apartments will typically appreciate in value over time, which means you can walk away with a pretty nice return when the complex is sold in three to five years. Best of all, multifamily investing is passive, so you get all the benefits without the hassle and headache of your typical rental home investment. Getting started has never been easier. Head to skylinepointcapital.com to learn how you can start investing Today.

I'm going through this workout and fasting program and so it's like a 90 day thing. And I had my coaching call on Tuesday for kind of the kickoff thing. And so I'm in the middle, I'm about, right now about 40 hours hours into a 72 hour fast.

So you have no food, just liquid?

Yeah, just liquid. I'm having like a lot of electrolytes and stuff. But yeah, you start getting into like you do a 72 and then like basically rolling 48s, but they kind of help you coach. So it's based off of like one meal a day. But then you're looking at your calendar and you're like, okay, what, what are the days I can skip because nothing's going on? And then so you start kind of like getting into these longer fasts and then there's like, you know, workouts and stuff that go along with it. But it's led by a guy here in Omaha. His name's Joel Staley. But there's like 500 people in this program nationwide. Like, it's kind of crazy. And I had, I had an insurance buddy that went through it and he was like, dude, like, if you want to shed weight fast, like, this is the best way to do it. So I started on Tuesday.

Okay.

I started on Tuesday.

Okay. You're gonna, you're gonna give it to me?

Yeah, I will, I will.

Yeah. Give it to me after Italy.

Okay.

I'll probably gain about 10 pounds there. So you're, you're, you're three days into a three day, no food, water only, fast.

Yep. Well, like electrolytes.

Yeah, yeah, sure.

Coffee. Yeah, stuff like that. But yeah, so I, there's like an app that goes along with it and it's, it's pretty cool because they really educate you on. I don't know if you can see that, but like that's where. Yeah, my fast is. And so they educate you on like the, the, the fire thing there at the beginning is like when ketosis starts and then the next one is like with heavy ketosis. And then you start getting into like your, your body starts breaking down your bad cells. And so they like talk about misfolded proteins and like the types of stuff that would cause Alzheimer's. And so your body just starts kind of eating away at, at the bad cells. And so it's really cool when you say, like, hey, I'm going for a 72 hour fast. They'll show you at what point in like, different things kind of start to happen. And so it kind of motivates you. You're like, I want to get an extra 12 hours here so I can get into like the next stage of this. And yeah, so I'll.

What's it, what's it cost you?

It was 2400. So, yeah, not, not cheap. But yeah, I've, I've got like £50 that have been sitting around for about seven years that I'm just kind of sick of it. So.

Yeah, well, it's, it's a, it's a no, no booze.

So the cool thing is when you eat, they, they tell you like, eat like a king. So like Friday night I'm going to like make a ribeye, you know, asparagus, like, you know, do, do like a nice meal. You can, you can drink wine alongside of it. But then like the second you eat, you know, it's like you're refeeding and then you roll right back into your fasting again. And so for the first three weeks, they want you to eat like you're in keto, so no sugars, no carbs. And then after three weeks, depending on how your body's kind of adjusted to it, then they'll say, hey, like, let's start throwing a little bit of carbs in. But there's like coaching calls that you can jump into three times a week. There's like a Facebook community with it. Uhm, so it's. It's pretty cool.

Really?

Yeah.

Wow.

What do you do when you go on vacations and stuff?

I think you just, you just kind of stick to one meal a day. And you know, they're, they're not saying, hey, like, take out the alcohol. They're just, you know, it's, you know, kind of keep. Keep that fasting routine going. But it's, it's really cool because you're meeting with somebody one on one that's also looking at your calendar and kind of helping you strategically think through, hey, you've got this thing on Tuesday. Do an omad. And then jump into a 48 or a 72 after that. So it's like really kind of personalized to what's going on. But they work with a lot of business guys, CEOs, dads, like stuff like that.

That's great. It's like, okay, that's one of the tough parts is like if you're on a fast or you're on a meal plan, it's. If something screws with the rhythm, everything falls apart.

Yeah.

Like, you'll be like, in a good thing. And then I got this work dinner. Oh, let's get. Throw everything off. And then the next day you're, you're. You're kind of out of your rhythm. So it's having that coach there. I bet it's super helpful to say, okay, here's how we're going to handle that. You're going to do this, you can do that, and then we're going to get you back onto it after, after you get done.

So what is Summer. The summer. Going for this.

Are you.

Is she on this or.

No, she's. She's never really been like, willing to kind of do this. This stuff with me.

She.

She feels like she has something that works for her and if it's not broken, you know, like, I can't.

Sure.

Yeah. So she, her, her only comment was, don't get mad at me when I drink wine. I'm like, hey, you do. You.

Don't sip my wine.

What Lynette does, she goes, well, if you just eat healthy and if you ate what I, what I made, you wouldn't have to do this. And so you. It's kind of like you're ruining my, my mojo for food because you can't control yourself.

Yeah. And Becca will say.

I don't know.

Becca will say, if you didn't hoard breads and carbs like you're a starving child, you'd probably be fitting. Oh, the supportive wife.

Yep.

But somehow Becca looks better than me, so she's. Apparently her thing works.

Yep. Same with summer.

Have you found that the, like, what was, what was the experience like day one, day two, day three, especially, like, mental clarity, energy. How did it, like, affect work? Did you find that, like, you know, working in the, in your, in your tech companies that, like, man, I can't even think, like, what are people talking about? I can't compute anything. Or were you, like, on top of it?

So they say the first 24 hours is always kind of the hardest, you know, and so you're like, you're supposed to replace your meals with basically drinking electrolyte. So I've got, like, propels off here to the side that are like, zero cal. And I ordered some, like, electrolyte powder off of Amazon. So that first 24 hours, I've got a little bit of a cold, you know, too right now because the kids were sick. But they're saying, like, once you start getting in 24 hours past, like, your mental clarity is a lot better, your decision making is a lot better, and like, there's. There's different stages of it where your energy goes through the roof. And they said once you start getting close to 72 hours of fasting, your. Your HGH levels are five times what they normally are.

Wow.

Yeah.

Really?

Yep. So, like, your, your testosterone and energy, all those things are just like, through the roof once you kind of get past 48 hours, getting closer to that 72, so.

Well, you're smarter than me. When I, When I did a. I do a 72 hour fast probably once or twice a year. My first one, I just, you know, I'm like a. I'm a Neanderthal in some ways, where if I'm gonna do it, I'm gonna do it, like, the right way, you know, not doing anything wrong. I'm gonna, like, go completely dogmatic about it. And I, I did just water, and I'm like, I'm not doing coffee, I'm not doing electrolytes, nothing. And I get to like, hour 60, and I about passed out. And my wife, who's, you know, uber smart, significantly smarter than me, goes like, are you. Are you taking, like, are you, like, replenishing because you're drinking like a gallon or more a day of water to try to, like, get rid of those hunger pains? She's like, are you putting. Are you like drinking salts? Are you doing electrolytes? Like you're, you're like flushing out all the essential minerals from your body? And I'm like, no. She goes. And I'll probably, I won't say what she said to me, but I was a knucklehead and like instantly I took it. An hour later I was better and I ended up having to quit it like 60 hours and was super pissed that I couldn't get the full 72. Since then, I do, I do salts and electrolytes twice a day, but crash and burn test run.

I don't know how you do it on just water.

A lot of grace from the Lord, a lot of patience from my wife. And just work.

In a fetal position.

Yeah, exactly. Yeah. I also. Go ahead.

Yeah.

Colin, did they tell you at what point you have to have your last meal like before 6:00'?

Clock? So there's not a timing, like they want it to be dinner based, but like they do weigh ins every Sunday. There's this massive spreadsheet of like everybody in the program. So it has everybody's name, the week, their weights. So it's like super transparent. Like a ton of accountability. I got a guy that texts me every two days that I talk to. And so it's, it's a, it's pretty cool. And like, you got a lot of guys that are, yeah. You know, pretty active in the Facebook group and. But yeah, it's, you know, index towards. They want you to eat at night and. Yeah, like I said, kind of ketosis or, you know, keto themed the first few weeks and then slowly adding in carbs.

So in a month's time frame, how much weight do they say you can take off?

There's, I mean, it depends on where you start, but there's guys that have lost 60 pounds in 90 days. Whoa. It's, it's, it's nuts.

Really?

Yeah. Yep.

How's this?

It's okay. Joel. Joel Staley, Fitness.com Shout out to Joel Staley. Yep. I'm gonna contact him afterwards and get some sponsorship promo code.

Colin Abity. How does that fit in your, in your daily routine? Like, do you know. I know summer cooks a fair amount. I know you cook a little bit. Do you find that one? Do you find that throws a wrench in, in the rest of your family's ritual? And also like, how do you, how are you fitting this in real estate? You're flipping your house. Not flipping your house, but you're remodeling your house. How, why? And how Are you trying to fit this in?

I think it's easy, you know, like when, you know, I'm 34, we got three little kids, house projects going on, businesses, real estate, all, you know, that, that kind of stuff. And you kind of get to the point where like, I only have so many hours in the day, I'm not going to make it to the gym, you know, five days a week, as much as I would love to exhausted, I gotta, I, like you're choosing in between am I gonna wake up at 5 o' clock or am I going to the gym afterwards? And it's eating into family time. It's eating into something at the end of the day. And so, you know, I think I'm looking at this as, hey, it's an easier way, you know, to kind of get to where I want to get a little bit quicker. But yeah, it's, you know, and one of the things they said too is they, they kind of coach you on when you're there at dinner with your family. Like, even though if you're not eating, if, if you're into a longer fast, you know, use that opportunity that you would normally be putting food in your mouth to be asking questions. Right. And like being more present there than you normally would be because you're eating, you know, so trying to kind of put yourself in that mindset. But you know, I love breakfast food, but I don't always eat breakfast. You know, when I get to the office, it's really easy to skip lunch. You know, that's something historically I've always been, been pretty bad at. So it's not like a huge transition.

That's, that's, that makes a lot of sense. That's, it's a natural fit into your routine already. How do you find.

So are they, are they, are they encouraging you to not eat lunch?

So it's, it's all based off of omad, like one meal a day.

And.

Okay.

Yep. And so that meal is typically dinner. And then, you know, some people right out of the gate have no issue doing it. Some are, you know, trying to figure out fasting for the first time. They want your first fast to typically be 48 hours. And, and I think the reason being just the, the mental component of, hey, if I can do 48 hours, 24 is no problem. And if I can do 48 hours, 72 is not that much further if.

You'Ve never done it before.

Yep, yep.

Anybody who says 48 to 72 is a breeze is. Yeah, no, I'm just kidding.

It's Something's wrong.

Actually, actually, day three is pretty easy. Day one sucks.

I'll let you know how day three is day three.

At least from my experience. Day three is I've never had better energy. I've never been more mentally clear. I've never gone to four days, so I have no idea. I've heard it. I've heard it's pretty good. Four and five days. Five days is when your body starts eating the bad cells in your, in your body. I mean, I think it happens day three on. But day five is man, where your, your body's getting, it's eating its bad stuff, it's flushing it out. And I'm no doctor, so don't take my word for that, but that's what I've, I've heard.

I read it on Google.

Yeah. The most trustworthy source. Do you. So how do you balance, how do you balance those things? We sort of talked about it like you're remodeling your house a bit. New house, not small. You're married, three kids. How do you keep things balanced? You know, you're a husband first, you're a dad second, and you're a CEO third, and you're a real estate investor fourth. How do you keep them in that order? And how do you keep them in balanced and proportion?

Yeah, I don't, I don't know that they're always like totally Zen, if that makes sense. I don't, you know, like just, just this stage of life, I think it's, you know, next to impossible to, you know, it would be disingenuous to say that we have it all figured out, but I think the timing of everything that's kind of gone on in our lives over the last, you know, year and a half, two years was like, you know, somewhat, somewhat divine. You talk about, you know, the house in the, in the kind of fixer upper project. So we weren't planning on moving. You know, there's, there's an area of the city that we've, that we live in and love and specifically this block that we've been walking around for five years and in a house came up and again, we weren't planning on moving and threw an offer out and it was accepted. And all of a sudden, you know, we're packing our stuff up and you know, moving about seven blocks from, from where our house was. And so we spent the beginning of 2021 really gutting this thing. And it was kind of funny as we walk around this loop, we'd always kind of Joke that, you know, this is the one house that doesn't fit. This is the one house that looks like it's falling over and doesn't belong on the block. And here we are later, the ones that are responsible for kind of cleaning up this eyesore. And so that was kind of the beginning of 2021 for us, was stepping into this massive house project. Summer's pregnant with our. Our third kid. So Jet, our, our son was born May of 2021. We had two little toddlers at the time. Jack was three and Amina was one. And we've, we've got this house that doesn't have, you know, railings on the stairs, there's holes in the floor going down in the basement. Like you want, you want to talk about anxiety? Oh my gosh. You know, and those types of things. You know, my. And I think Summer struggled with it, you know, quite a bit too. Cause it's like you can't. We don't live in a place where you can take your eye off the kids. You don't feel safe in this. And so we actually moved out for about six weeks and kind of floated in between my parents place and her parents place. We had, I had a mattress on the floor here in a house that had no ceilings or floors. And I would sleep here and wake up just so I could open the door for the contractors as that was going.

Wow.

So that was really how 2021 started off. And I'm glad we had that opportunity because we love our house, we love our neighbors. We've really gotten to kind of turn it into ours. But then you start kind of talking through the businesses. It was I think April of that year, so we move in basically, Jan1, move out immediately after, move back into our house middle of February. In March of that year, we were approached by a VC out of Boston that said, hey, we, we want to invest in the insurtech side of the business, which at the time was all one thing. And. And we had always felt like that was going to be something that was eventually going to happen. And so I think we were prepared for that discussion. But then in, in April, or, sorry, in May, we split the businesses completely. And at the very beginning of June, we took 10 million in financing into the technology side of it and our son was born. We literally signed the financing documents in the hospital when Jet was born. And in August we were in marriage counseling. So, you know, you want to kind of talk about all those things that like lead up to.

Wow.

Like this. Yeah. 2021 was just a mess, you know, for us. But so. So all that to say, you know, I think we. We really take it day by day in terms of, you know, trying to make sure that there's that balance. But I can tell you it's not something that I'm great at. And I think that, you know, you. You kind of need to be in the mindset or the posture that I've got to decide every day what my priorities are, because it's very easy to get those misaligned really quickly.

Yeah. If you. If you're comfortable sharing. How did you know. You've talked about. You've got all these things going on. Culminates into taking the investment money jet being born, and then, boom, you're in marriage counseling. How did that process go? The marriage counseling. How did that process go? How are you guys doing today? What's that. What's that look like? 2022 versus 2021.

Yeah, it was. It was tough. Summer started going before I did, and one of the. The major, like, fights at the time, and. And, like, I. I remember being really upset about it in the moment, but I. I feel like an idiot, you know, talking about it now. But, you know, we. We had. There was so much going on, but we had two cars, both of which neither of those could fit three kids. And so jets born. We're in this house. I didn't prioritize getting a car that she could get the kids around. And so three weeks into being home inside of this house, that's getting fixed up, like, she can't leave. And I think she took it upon herself to start looking for a van, and I was not helpful in that. This is right after we took the financing. My whole mindset is I got to figure out how to grow this. We've got to add people to the team. You know, this is my priority here while my wife's in at home without a car practical.

Yeah.

Oh, yeah. Yeah. And so, you know, there was a period there where, one, I don't think I should say. I don't think, like, I didn't meet the needs that. That our family needed. But, you know, two, we were just kind of. We always talk about, like, my top 10. And, like, priorities hardly ever align with what her top 10 are. And. And so that's, like, a constant discussion that that is. Is being had, you know, like, minor business, like real estate, like, what's going on with the team and all these things. And hers are like, we need to get the trim painted and Jack starting preschool and you know, getting soccer going and, like, it doesn't align, you know, but you got to, I think, prioritize those conversations to kind of come back and, you know, figure out how do you kind of tackle the things that need to be tackled together? Because it's very easy, you know, to say, hey, this is. This is what I'm focused on, and this is what you're focused on. And then you end up just becoming strangers in your own house. Yeah.

Become roommates. Not partners. Not. Not a couple. It's like I just sit side by side, shoulder to shoulder with this person, and we'll talk about things as they come up. But that's. You can understand her. I mean, I know you understand it now, but you can understand her position of she's locked in her. Not locked in her house, but she's in her house. This is her world, her kids, school, soccer. I need a van. I need to actually leave the house. Give me something. I mean, you can, you can appreciate her perspective. Now. Did. Did you find that going through marriage counseling actually propelled you guys into a better place than you've ever been? Or how's exiting marriage counseling? How's that been?

I think, I think it was a little tough. Like, I think, you know, if, if anything, when you wind up there and you realize, oh, man, like, we're not in a good spot, and, and how, like, how did we kind of get here? I'm sure you feel the same way. Like, I married a saint, man. I, I, if there's one thing I've done in my life, well, it's, like, married incredibly well.

Yeah.

And you married up. Yeah. Yep. And so I think when you're there, it was less about, you know, like, tools or resources from. From the counselor themselves and more about, like, we're here, we're in this. What happened.

Yeah.

And so I think that was, like, a little bit of a reset. And so, you know, the fall of 2021, you know, I think we, after, you know, jets, you know, you're going through the whole process, too, of, like, you've got two little kids and a newborn that, you know, nobody's sleeping well, you know, you're trying to figure out how you integrating this new baby into the family when you feel like you already have two others. But by the fall, you know, it felt like, hey, we've kind of started to figure out a routine. And so I think that gave us the opportunity to kind of come back to the table and say, like, hey, we're. We're going to fight for this, and, and this is worth fighting for. And, and one of the things I think it was my mother in law always told, told Summer is like the best thing that you can give your kids is a healthy marriage. And so I think, you know, I've, I've heard that said all the time. And so I think that just gave us, got to a point of like having grace and understanding for like everything that had gone on. I don't know a lot of people that have, you know, kind of had all of those major things hit in the course of like six months. Yeah. And, and so I think, you know, it got to the point of like being comical, you know, like you're, you're having the attitude of like, hey, if we, if we can get through this at this point, like there's probably not a lot of other big things that, that we can't tackle together.

So I'd love to, I'd love to shift the direction a little bit and go back to, to, to your home. You know, you talked about how you use that as a, obviously as a place to raise your family. But I imagine at some point you have a business mind. I mean you're, if I know you well enough, you're constantly thinking about numbers and how do these things fit the financials. I mean this is investment as well as it is a place to raise your growing family. Did you, did you have that in mind that this was going to be your first foray into real estate? Was it your first entry into real estate buying a fixture upper and you know, building equity in it, or did you jump in somewhere else commercial, you know, retail? Where did you start with that?

Yeah, that's a great question. So our first kind of dipping our toe into real estate was actually back in 2018. So we've kind of always been around it summers. My father in law, he, he has a real estate company. They do everything from multifamily commercial retail development projects kind of all over the country. And so he's always been a huge proponent with the kids of, hey, let's you know, start, start looking at this, you know, even, even if you're not doing this full time, you know, to kind of have real estate on the side that's throwing off passive income that you can kind of continue to build on. Let's do it. And so back in 2018, we actually went through the process of purchasing a 24 unit apartment complex in Fremont, Nebraska. And so that was really my first experience going through, hey, how do we underwrite, how do we do all the due diligence. I've got a background in that kind of stuff, so I felt comfortable doing it. But how do we make sure that this is going to. One, we're buying at the right price, but two, we really have a solid plan for what we want to do with this property, how long we want to hold it. And so we, yeah, kind of dipped our toe into that in 2018 and then actually just exited that about two months ago.

Wow. I, I'd love to hear from you in a minute. Like, how'd that turn out? Was it. I can imagine doing an apartment complex for the first time. If I did it, I probably could probably crash and burn, but I'd love to hear how it panned out. But Steve, do you, I mean you've got, you've been investing in real estate for, for a long time. Have you found that it's common for someone's first, you know, dipping their toe into the water, that they're jumping in at the multifamily arena or are they usually going residential? Like, what's your, what's your experience with people's first step into real estate?

Usually what they do is they'll buy a single family rental home and then become the landlord, the maintenance man, the, the person that gets the calls at midnight or 2 o' clock in the morning. And, and some of, if they've, if they've got it figured out, they'll may buy a couple more single families, but after a while they find out that, you know, it's not probably the easiest and best way and then they'll switch over to multifamily at a much larger scale, either a 4 Plex or an 8 Plex, but that's for all the work and effort. Going to multifamily is the best way to go rather than going to single family homes.

That's interesting because, you know, I've, I've always assumed and it's been shown that I was wrong, but I've always assumed starting with a single family home is the easiest way to get in because it's, it's one house. Like if there's, if something goes wrong, it's just a small, it's gonna have a small impact. I'd have been terrified, Colin, to go and buy, would you say 24 unit apartment? Because the magnitude of what could go wrong is, it's much larger. But it sounds like what you're saying, Steve, is the thing you should be worrying about is are you gonna have to be active in this rather than passive? Because I Imagine, Colin, you were passive through this whole thing. You probably hired somebody to run it for you. Is that. Is that fairly accurate?

Yeah. So I think. I think single family is easier to get into if you're starting from scratch because it requires less capital. Right. Like, it's no different than, you know, going through and buying a house that you're going to live in. Aside from, you know, the amount of equity that you have to put down with multifamily, you do reach economies of scale. You know, we. We bought it at a price where we had factored in. I didn't want to be the guy that was driving to Fremont, you know, to fix a dishwasher. And so we had, you know, kind of pro forma in, hey, we're going to have a management company run this. Which was. Which was great. But I think it really comes down to one. When you're first starting out, I think a lot of people do, you know, they go through house hacking or are buying, you know, one or two individual properties, whether it's single family or duplex. But you really start to reach economies of scales and economies of scale and get to the point where you're like, man, I don't want to manage five or six or seven individual homes. It's so much easier to roll that into something bigger at that point.

How did this. You said you just sold it. How'd that. If you. You don't have to share details, but how'd it go for you guys?

Yeah, I think it was a great transaction for us for a couple reasons. We, you know, going through, we were able to raise the rents every single year. But really what it came down to was we found the right buyer. That the way that they underwrote it was they're local. They. The way that they were looking at it was, hey, we don't need the management company. And so when they, when they kind of spreadsheeted it out, they were able to pay a much higher purchase price than somebody that would be using a management company. So it was really the right buyer, but ended up being a fantastic transaction. And we'll be able to do some other projects with that capital that we pulled out.

Nice. Is, do you want to keep it in multifamily or are you thinking spread it out?

I like multifamily. Just because you're really diversifying the risk over a lot of different units. Right. Like, when you. When you look at one, we're in a period of really high inflation and we're in a period of. Of interest rates are Going through the roof. And so that is pushing a lot of people that would be normal first time home buyers back into the rental markets. And I think it was just yesterday or the day before, you know, the housing market just demand right now is down so much because interest rates are up. And so I love multifamily from the perspective of instead of having the risk of, you know, 1, 2, 3 or a whole bunch of like individual homes, you can really think of multifamily as if you have 24 units or you have 240 units. Right. You're diversifying and spreading the risk of that vacancy over a much bigger amount of units. And when you look at occupancy rates across the country right now, whether it's Omaha, Nashville or somewhere else, there's just a lack of housing. And so I think that's going to continue to be a strong market here over the next several years.

That makes sense. That's great, Colin. We're coming up on the end of our time, but we with guests on the show, we like to end with a speed round of questions. Seven questions just to give. And you haven't read them or seen them yet, so I'm going to spit them out at you. But this will help us listeners get to know you a little bit better. So roll through them. What's one piece of real estate advice you'd give to others?

Start early. I wish this was something I was doing in my early 20s. The more I learn, the more I'm kicking myself for. I should have been doing this a long time ago.

Amen to that. All right. Do you have any daily rituals that you swear by?

I think just the morning coffee. Summer and I really enjoy a French press. We do it every single morning. One of the things when we fix the house up that we put in was a hot water faucet, you know, right. Right next to the sink there. So that, you know, at our old house we would have to, you know, put water into the teapot, you know, wait 10 minutes for it to boil and, you know, then pour it in the French press. But that was like one of the things when we were going through the kitchen. We're like, we are not finishing this kitchen without a hot water spout. So we really enjoy a French press.

Yeah, that's great. And I bet it's a great ritual for you and your wife to connect early in the morning, get on the same page. And then because you guys are going opposite directions after that you're going to business and she's going to family. So I bet that's a great touch point.

Every morning it ebbs and flows because I think most mornings when our feet are hitting the floor, the kids are already up and the circus is already.

All right, what's one item you could not live without?

Oh man. Item or item.

So family is already included. You don't have to, you don't have to say your wife or anything.

I think my laptop. And that's probably a bad thing, you know, but like as an entrepreneur, like, you know, whether we're going to my in laws or traveling, like, you'll, it's always in my back pack. I, I, I'm learning how to disconnect or at least trying to get better at that. But yeah, it's kind of the hub, you know, for, for everything that I.

Feel like I do, Summer's gonna hear this and be like, you should have said your wedding ring. Lose, lose. Question. I'll, I'll scrub that one from the list. All right. What's one thing in life, business or real estate that you're really excited about?

Oh man, we're a couple things. One, you know, my main gig, you know, is, is running Breeze. It's an insuretech that's helping American workers in the event that, you know, they can't work due to a sickness or injury. We will step in and help replace their paycheck. And we just launched a new product actually about a month and a half ago. There's a short term disability product that pays benefits for childbirth. It also pays benefits for family medical leave. So if you work for an employer that you, you know, have, have a child or adopt a kid or have to step out of work for the care of a child, spouse or parent, we'll pick up and, and pay a portion of your paycheck. And so it's a really, really cool product. So I'm super excited about getting that out and continuing to distribute it.

That's awesome. What's one business you wish you could go back and start or invest in.

Man? I mean I feel like everybody would say Google or Apple, you know. Right.

Or Berkshire.

Or Berkshire. Yeah. I mean iconic companies that, yeah, you know, just so transformative. I remember sitting around our kitchen table when, at my parents place when the iPhone first came out and we were talking about, I remember my dad asking, he was like, would you ever use something that allowed you to play music on your phone? And you know, at that point you have your CD players and your MP3 players.

Walk, man.

No. Why would, why would anybody ever Want to do that. And, and yeah, you know, just a really cool, you know, leading and kind of anticipating, you know, where the market's going. And, and, you know, I think that, you know, the whole entire world can say that they're, they're, you know, one, I think more connected, you know, but two, they're just beautiful products.

Yeah. Yeah, that was, that was one item along with crypto that I poo pooed the idea pretty early and was significant. Super wrong. All right, two more. In what situations do you find your most happy or fulfilled?

I think being with, with our kids, you know, it's a really fun stage of life. One of the things we did, it was actually my dad's recommendation when, when we did the house renovation and pulled the ceilings down, he was saying, hey, like, you got the ceilings down, put speakers up. And again, I'm like, no, man, I'm not, not paying to put speakers in the ceilings. And we ended up doing it. And I'll tell you, being able to just throw music up in the house and like, watch the kids dance and have fun, oh, yeah, is like one of the most joyful things that I, I enjoy. And we're beating. I don't know if you've ever heard of George Ezra. He, he. He had that song Istanbul. Oh, he's got a new one out called Green Green Grass. And we've been beating that to death at the house right now just because it, you know, like, the kids just kind of get this little bump going.

And it's really good. I'll have to do that.

Colin, you, you were, you were talking about pulling down the, the drywall and finding things. When you, when you bought this house, it was built for lots of kids. When you walked through the house or above the garage and you were looking around, did you find anything that, that was like, oh, man, this old house.

We. So we found a couple guns and knives up in the, in the, the attic above the garage. And yeah, so we, we brought those down and, and they're pretty cool. They're like sitting in a box somewhere here in the house. But yeah, the house we bought was built by an orthopedic surgeon back In, I think 72 or 74. And he had 13 kids. Whoa. So this. Yeah, really, really cool, you know, really cool house. Just needed, you know, some love and rehab. But yeah, there was a lot of, you know, just, I think over the course of 50 years, you know, things as we're pulling ceilings down and, you know, things that got stuck in the ducks and, you know, You're. Yeah, finding. Finding old. Old toys and, you know, things in the house. It. It was kind of a fun process.

13 kids. Is that foreshadowing for you in summer?

No. No.

Not even close.

Yeah, we're. We're. We're. We'll. We'll be a great customer for marriage counseling at that.

Got enough room? Just move them in.

Yep.

All right, last one. As you head west, where do you hope to end up?

That's a great question. I think. I think there's probably a lot of ways you can, you know, interpret that question. At the end of the day, I think everybody's, you know, you're always, as a dad, you know, striving to be a good dad, a good husband, you know, first and foremost. But, you know, when it comes to business, when it comes to real estate, I love entrepreneurship. I love, you know, where. Where I'm at right now in the ways that I spend my time and the people that I work with. So I think, you know, first and foremost, you know, making sure that. That the west that I'm. I'm traveling to is. Is one where, you know, my wife loves me, my kids love me, and. And that's always, you know, first priority. But two, I think just indexing towards, you know, spending, spending time on things that are fulfilling. I think one of the things I learned really early on from investment banking days was money. Money doesn't make you happy. And I feel like super fortunate to have learned that at a relatively young age, because I think that's something that people get stuck in and can really, really wreck you. So I think, you know, outside of family, it's. It's working on things that are. That are fulfilling.

That's super good. That is really good. Well, Colin, appreciate you jumping on today, chatting with us, sharing your story. Is there any place that listeners can find. You can find breeze? What do you want to leave them with?

Yeah, so I'm probably Most active on LinkedIn, so you can find me on LinkedIn and Facebook. I'm not a big Twitter guy or. And anything like that, but, yeah, you can find me out on LinkedIn.

Awesome. Thanks, Colin. Appreciate it.

Hey, thanks, guys.