From Military to Millionaire with David Joseph Pere

Everyone thinks like, oh, he made enough money to leave the military, so he did. No, I just, I just got bored. You know, when I first joined the military, the Marine Corps, it was like running and gunning and combat and training and exercises and, and it was a blast. And then the war ended and everything calmed down and I got promoted a bunch and I got stuck in a windowless vault with no cell phone access half the day. And I was like, this sucks. Why am I doing this? Like, so at that point it was like, yeah, I'm making more money out of the military than in. I'll, I'll take it and go do my own thing.

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Maybe kind of steer this around because, you know, real estate's a big thing, but it's like busting out of this kind of mindset, I feel like, is the bigger thing, you know?

Yeah, there's so much to go down. Yeah, real estate's great, but, you know, there's a million real estate investing podcasts. That is how I originally got out of the rat race, so to speak. It's not why I left, though. Everyone thinks, like, oh, he made enough money to leave the military, so he did. No, I just. I just got bored. You know, when I first joined the military, the Marine Corps, it was like running and gunning and combat and training and exercises and. And it was a blast. And then the war ended and everything calmed down, and I got promoted a bunch, and I got stuck in a windowless vault with no cell phone access half the day. And I was like, this sucks. Why am I doing this? Like, so at that point, it was like, yeah, I'm making more money out of the military than in. I'll. I'll take it and. And go do my own thing. But had I still been fulfilled and doing all the stuff I loved in the service, I would have stayed and. And vice versa. Had I not had the investments, I would have also kind of been stuck not enjoying my, you know, I would have been getting it out.

And so, yeah, I got into real estate. I mean, that's great, but I kind of like the. The idea that, you know, I mean, I started this whole community just talking about what I was learning. I think there's. There's so many different options for people out there. Just chasing a passion.

Yeah.

I mean, you know, networking, building communities, just content. I mean, I think what you're doing right now, content and, you know, the, the intellectual property is the wave of the future, for sure. Branding and all of that.

Yeah, man. And I know you talk about impact too, right? It's like putting it out there. It's not just to do it, but it's like, what's the intention behind it? And obviously, you have your personal story. You had a lot of friends, have a lot of friends in the military, I'm sure. And, well, obviously now you have a community focused on helping those folks to break into real estate, but also, you know, expand out of what they're doing. I think that's a big thing because a lot of folks listening could be an entrepreneur, could be an employee, could be in the military. Whatever it is, maybe you feel stuck, maybe you feel like it's a rat race moment for you. And, and yeah, I'm kind of curious of maybe your mindset around that. Kind of the before, the during, the after, you Know, and kind of like breaking down some of those breakthroughs for you.

Yeah, Well, I mean, the before. Right. So my parents are. I grew up in a super conservative, religious, you know, homeschooled household. My mom was an envelope budgeter. They were very. Still are to this day. Very, very frugal, very Dave Ramsey. Very safe. Save, save, save, save.

You know, I can remember. It's actually my book that I. At one point I remember, like, you know, I'd go steal 20 out of the gas envelope for snacks and then pretend I was going to put it back. And, you know, like, I don't. I'm sure she noticed there was money missing, but she never. She never called me out on it.

So I guess, guaranteed she noticed.

Oh, yeah. She's like, why am I always short? Why is David getting fat and I'm short $20?

He seems too happy over there.

Yeah. So, I mean, that was. That was kind of the. And I still struggle in a lot of ways. Like, not that that's a terrible mindset. I think that's a great framework for getting out of debt and getting to zero and. And, you know, avoiding lifestyle creep. But I still struggle with, like, asking for big payouts or big percentages and deals or. Or like my. My true value that I bring to the marketplace because I'm very like, you know, I don't want it to all be about money. I don't want to. I mean, just. Just yesterday I was talking to a coach. I'm negotiating a. Basically my ownership percentage in a deal. It's 14 single family houses. And essentially I'm going to be the. I'm gonna get the financing under my name and sign for the debt. And I raised all the money for the down payment and the renovation.

Nice.

And, you know, he's like, what. What equity do you want for this? And my coach was like, you're an idiot. Ask for more. I'm like, yeah. I'm like, why? I'm like, this guy's doing all the work. He's doing all. He's like, yeah, but you've got all the risk if it goes south. That's a good point.

That's a good mentor.

Yeah. Yeah. So I still struggle with asking for, you know, my. My fair shake or whatever. So that was the. Before, I guess.

You know, found rich dad, poor dad. I just really was just. Yeah, man. It was just. It was just like everything clicked when I realized, like, if I can spend a hundred bucks to buy something that'll pay me $10, and I do that once A month. Then at the end of the year, I'll be making, you know, 120 bucks a month off of my 100 bucks a month that I invested. And then I can buy two, and then I can buy three, and then I can buy four. And it just, it scales like a hockey puck. And it was, it was such an easy concept to grasp, not necessarily to take advantage of. And then the more you do, the more you realize, like, the more value I put out into the marketplace, the more I get paid and the less I worry about money, the more I make. And the.

Now I'm probably a little too far the opposite side, where it's like, I made more money last month than I've made in a year prior to leaving the military. Right on in January, I had more revenue in the business than I made my last year serving in the military.

After 13 years, after all the, the upgrade or, you know, advanced.

Yeah, I mean, I was, I was a. An E6. I got out E7. So there's nine enlisted ranks. I made it to the seventh one and I've been in for 13 years. So decent paycheck. Not, you know, not a general, but a decent, pretty solid paycheck. And I, when I, when I realized that and I was like, holy. My. My business just made, you know, and it was 90, 92, 3 or something like that in January. And obviously you don't keep all of that, but I make all of it. I'm like, wow, this is amazing. And then I'm looking at my book, my QuickBooks, and I'm like. I'm like, so far the opposite now. I'm like, I have nothing left in my bank account. Where did I put all this? And it's like, I'm just like, invest and throwing money everywhere and it's great, but it's. I'm having to, like, pull back a little bit. Okay, maybe you don't.

It wasn't always like that, right? No.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. So now that it is like that, I'm like, okay, go back a little bit to the roots. Let's find that balance between the super conservative upbringing, making money and increase that savings gap and life will be good. But.

Well, it's not like you're popping bottles in the club. I mean, maybe you are, but like, you're investing in yourself but, like, heavily, it sounds like, right?

Yeah. Yeah. I mean, I was, I was pretty frustrated for a little while. Then I went back and I really dug through it and I realized it's kind of funny. This puts in Perspective how little I pay attention to my money or. Or to money in general. Like, it's just, you know, as long as there's money coming in and going out, like, I'm. Whatever. Um. I maxed out my 20, 23 IRA, you know, 6. 6,500 bucks or whatever. And I'd forgotten. So I'm like, why am I not. I was like, I paid myself five grand, but I don't have anything left in the account. And I started realizing I'm like, oh, I put 6,500 in the IRA, paid off $11,000 worth of debt, paid off my motorcycle.

Maybe you're. I don't know if you got one of them, but that's.

That's good.

You got a little thumbs up. I know.

I can't get past that.

No, not yet. That's. I'm gonna. I'm talking to a friend this week about a solo or a sample. This was just. I was gonna. I told my friend, I was like, I'm gonna max out my 24 IRA just so I can talk about it, you know, like, good content. And then I realized, oh, you can pay off your 23 until April 15th. So I'll do that, and then I'll pay off 24s next month. Yeah, I'm gonna have to look at, like, a solo or a sep, because I'm. I'm like, I could put a lot more away here, and then I could invest it as a private lender or whatever.

No, I'm sure there's a. Yeah. And. Yeah, my CPA is in my ear, you know, about, like, well, for years, like, the value. This ain't a tax show. I'm not a tax expert. So you go find. Do your own damn homework. But, like, so you're talking about all this, David. And I'm like, all right, money's flowing. Money's great. But obviously there was that mental shift, I think, you know, like, that's the big one, because people might be listening. Like, that's great. David's maxing out all these things that I don't even do or haven't thought of or whatever it is. But, like, I don't know, like, what was that shift moment? Or, like, was there obviously the rich dad, poor dad, the Purple Book. That was like, my first book into entrepreneurship, too. That's a shift. But, like, maybe some after that, that really had you hitting the road running, man.

You know, the most recent one would be the book 10x is easier than 2x. I don't know if you've Read that yet?

Oh, it's.

Ben Hardy writing for Dan Sullivan.

Okay. Yeah, yeah.

And it's phenomenal, basically. I mean it's a super same thing everybody hears all the time. Right. It's a very simple way to break down. Outsourcing things that you shouldn't be doing or whatever.

Really simple concept, but something that like I've told myself a million times and it wasn't until this year that I read that book that I really started to. So I think that was a big shift. I hired a performance coach and then over the last year I went from 1 employee to.

2 W2 21099 and 2 full time VAs and just was like, how much of this can I offload? Like 100. I was doing video editing. Now I'm not. I was writing my captions and my emails. Now I'm not. I was, you know, it's just how much of this can I get rid of to focus on the thing that I'm good at? And I think, I mean that was a huge shift for me was, you know, the military. You want to be a part of everything, have your hands in everything.

It's kind of tough to let things, let things go. But it's amazing how much. I mean, I've doubled the revenue since I started doing that just by being able to focus on things that actually bring people into the business and bring deals into the business and networking, which is kind of my superpower. So I mean really, if you boil it all the way back, I don't know that there was a massive like mind shift for me or mindset change for me so much as a lot of good people in my ears telling me what I needed to hear or already knew but didn't believe. To get rid of some limiting beliefs and finally start realizing like.

I lived with a governor my whole life, you know, I, I really. Yeah.

Like mental. Yeah.

Oh yeah, yeah, sorry. Yeah. My, my dad's, you know, Donald Trump, you might have heard of him.

Okay.

No, no, no. So like, you know, you think of like a car, right, that'll go 160 miles an hour, but they stop it at 120. And I feel like I've kind of lived my whole life that way. Like it's like, oh, you know, I'm wrestling with a friend and I could probably tap this guy out in 20 seconds, but if I do, I might hurt him. So I lay back and make it, you know, drag it out for like three minutes. And I kind of played that way in business. It's like, there was always that part of me that didn't know what was going to happen or didn't believe was going to happen and laid off the gas pedal. And it was. It just took a long time for people to kind of be like, no, dude, you're. You're undervalued or you're underpriced or you're. You're undervaluing yourself. You're bringing too much to the marketplace for what you're asking.

For me to really start getting out of that shell, which is why I always. I don't know, man. I mean, you're asking me questions and making me. Make me go.

Why? Why do I. What did change my life?

It's a lot here, man.

It's been a crazy road. And really, I think the sum of all of it is I finally started believing in myself. Yeah, that's probably the biggest piece. And. And for me, that took a lot of people telling me, like, you're a dumbass. This is. This is the. This is how I see you. Maybe you should try seeing you this way. And I'm like, oh, yeah, that feels good. Thank you.

Here's that mirror that we're all. You know, we're seeing you this way. But, yeah, it's.

Yeah, man, that's. That imposter syndrome is real, and I have eaten that for years.

So we're. We're getting there.

But, no, it's a work in progress, man. I mean, I feel the same. And. And, I mean, even lately, it's like these little shifts, something might. Might be told or read, and for me, it's like, oh, like the latest one is like, I'm the creator of my entire reality. I might not control the outside influences, but, you know, there's like this. There's this vision, and then there's a blended reality. If I put myself out there in the right space or, you know, do this podcast with you, David, you know, connect with this person, whatever. Go in this mastermind. It's like something cool is going to happen with this, but I got to believe and create that opportunity for myself.

That whole mindset side of things is. It's trippy when you start, like, get to a place where, you know, I went through a divorce this year, and, you know, but. But not even that, like, in a. In a breakup, right? Like, yeah. Get into a place where you can, like, look at things existentially. I don't know if that's the right word for this, but it sounds cool, so we're going with it. But but like, looking at things from like a third party perspective and realizing, you know, yes, that person did all these things, but they're not why I'm mad. I'm mad because I'm not regulating my emotions and I'm choosing to live in that moment rather than going elsewhere. And like that whole woo woo idea that the, the happier you are or the more you believe in success and blah, blah, blah, blah, but like, it sounds like horseshit until it happens. And you're like.

I told you, like, not last month was the highest revenue that we've ever had. It was probably the least I've worked in. Like, there you go. Two years. I was sick for the first week and a half of January, and I canceled two of my three trips that month. So it was the most. I was home. Like last year. I was probably gone twice every single month. And this year, so far, January was the only. I took one small trip. And it wasn't even a work trip for most of it. It was a friend trip. And then I canceled my two work trips and sat around the house, was sick and moped and.

Didn'T do much. Played dad, you know, and, and, and, and it was the most money I've ever had come into my, my life at one time. And so it's just kind of, it's just. Yeah, it's just a whole weird thing. And, and my. Someone, my coaches was calling me out on it. He's like, he's like, there. I feel the imposter syndrome creeping up. I can hear you internalizing the, like, what did I do to deserve this? And you need to shut the hell up and believe that you deserve it.

Okay, well, and it sounds like, you know, I had this chat with someone I'm, I'm coaching right now, but he's also kind of coaching me at the same time. Like, it's kind of a cool relationship there, but it's like the, it's the push and pull strategy. And what you're in there is. It's pull. Like it's all kind of flowing pushes, that resistance, it's friction, you know, it's too much effort. It's working your ass off. You're like, yeah, why am I, why am I tired all the time? It's like, yeah, just let it in, you know? And, yeah, I think that's a big shift in a lot of folks. Like, we feel like the push is the only way. And yeah, it's part of it. You know, you got to do it. Obviously, the hustle, pretty much, yeah.

Wes Watson screaming at you about being a little. Or whatever.

And I'm like, wes is crazy. Yeah, man, I thought I did good today. No, man. Yeah, you got Goggins or whoever.

You know, I have such a love hate with Goggins, and it's mostly a hate. I'm like. I'm like. I'm like, dude, I like the first, like 10 of your message, and after that, I need you to shut up because I struggle to turn it off, and I want to turn it off.

I'm like, I get that you want to be 120, 24 7, but I would like to be able to, you know, leave work and go on a date and not be thinking about.

Yeah.

Why I'm not at work working.

Like. Yeah, I see him like in the.

On a date, like in the mirror, just like screaming at himself like, you could be running right now, like, what are you doing?

Sitting on your ass drinking wine or whatever. Like, no. Oh, such a.

It's such a great message. But I'm like, at some point, I'm like, I need to. I need to tune out or I'm gonna break.

Yeah, but you know, that guy doesn' Turn it off either.

Never.

Like, no way.

I don't know if I'm jealous or if I just hope you find happiness one day, but I. I don't know. I'm like. I'm like, he's still just like, there can't be anything left for him to prove. I don't get it. But he is such a freaking stud, though. So it's like. Can't hate the guy. But, yeah, it's great.

You see what's possible for the human. You know, it's like, all right, I'm going to find a little in betweener space there.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. You can be the. The reason that my mean is higher than my average or whatever. My average is higher than my mean. Yeah, I'll just be above average and we'll be good.

Yeah, just. Just make. Make your average incrementally better, you know, in whatever way you think is best. That's. That's a great framework, man. Dude. And I'm thinking from the military, from you. Like, I mean, you bring up coaches a lot, so you obviously took orders in the marines.

Had to sometimes.

Sometimes.

Other times I'd question a lot of things.

That's probably a good thing, too.

When you're in the military, they don't.

Think so, at least. Good point. Good point.

I got kicked out of a meeting at one point. It was pretty funny. I stood in, I stood in for my boss when he was out of town and by the end of the meeting they were like, don't ever come back in his place. And I was like, you know, but they were all mad because I, my questioning was good and it basically got the entire plan turned around and I was like, well, you guys planned a bunch of stupid shit, so I'm sorry.

Had to let you know.

Yeah. I happen to be the transportation expert in the group and you guys are all mad because I'm calling you out on, you know, it was. Anyway, yeah, really a boring topic for most people, but it's when you're the junior guy stuck in there with a bunch of guys that are normally, you know, down your throat, it's like, yeah, this is my chance to poke holes.

I'm gonna like, yeah, yeah, good for you, man. Well, I mean, translates to what you're doing here, you know, you're, you're putting it out there and in your own voice and I mean, you gotta listen to the coaches though. They're obviously guiding you. But then you still got to play your game. Yeah, is, is that something. Obviously you have your own community mastermind. You do real estate. We talked about that. Kind of curious about some of the specifics as like a, just a framework so people understand, I guess, the style of real estate. You know, there's like syndication deals and stuff like that.

You know, I'm, I'm the worst example of the shiny object syndrome. So I, I tell people if, if you can buy it and hold on to it, that's my, my niche. So I mean, I current portfolio is.

Actually I sold a lot of houses. I think I'm down to eight single family and duplex that I own myself. And I still have one apartment complex, we just sold another a hotel and an RV park. And then I'm under contract on a duplex and I'm going to be a 50 partner or whatever on a 14 single family houses, little portfolio I'm buying with a buddy and then.

50. Are you sure? I'm just kidding.

Yeah. No, no, no.

Yeah.

Bye. Bye. I was gonna say 30.

There you go then.

Yeah, so. And then, yeah, I mean some syndications as well. So I'm, I'm a very, very, very small owner in two that they're like 900 doors, 60 or $77 million worth of real estate. But I mean I own like a third of a percent and then I'm probably a 8 or 9% stake in 130 unit hotel that we just Bought in Tennessee. And that's. It'll be a $14 million project. And so I raised like one and a quarter million for it. Then I'm doing all the marketing and stuff like that, so.

Right on. Yeah. I mean, I love it. And. And this is where, you know, I just own my home here in San Diego. It's expensive as obviously have some land so can develop, but. Yeah. What parts have been.

East of downtown about 20, 30 minutes. Yeah, yeah. Lamesa area for everybody who wants to look it up.

If you said north park with land to develop, I'd be like, why are you not building?

Oh, I would be all over it. No, there's demand where I'm at, big demand. So it's just. How do I approach it? Hey, I just want to pause this episode really fast and shout out a podcast that's Also on the HubSpot podcast network, the audio destination for business professionals. This one's a podcast that's hosted by someone I've followed for years. Name is Donald Miller. Is the whole story, brand book and all the different stuff online. He hosts the podcast called Business Made Simple. The premise is to basically take the mystery out of growing your business. And he recently had on one of the other guys I follow is Alex Hermosi. And. And right at the beginning of the year, they're talking about facing uncertainty in your business. And Alex and Donald, they talk about different ways, four different ways to basically shore up your business to. To ride the uncertain times that inherently are the ones we're living in in 2024. So make sure to go check that out. Go listen to Business Made simple, that episode with Alex Hormozi, but also the other ones. Wherever you get your podcast. Are you tired of the hassle of building online sales funnels? You know, I get it. And you started your business for freedom and not to be chained to your laptop all day long. And thankfully, there is an all in one platform that makes this process super easy so you can start attracting customers online. It's a tool called Kartra and it has every tool you need to grow. So every Kartra account comes stocked with a bunch of done for you Campaigns like that are designed, connected and written for you. All you gotta do is customize them to your liking and you can launch a fully built sales funnel in minutes. So make marketing easy on yourself. Visit www.hustleandflowchart.com Kartra and snag a free 30 day trial of Kartra. And again, that's hustleandflowchart.com K A R T R A and I just think of real estate, it seems daunting for a lot of folks and I'm just speaking to my own self right now too. But as an entrepreneur, someone that might be like you're busy doing your own shit, you got your own routines, like, is there, is there a, not a silver bullet but like a direction you think people should explore, at least dip their toes into or just jump all in in the game of real estate.

I mean it all depends on like what you are looking to get out of it. Right. So I didn't even mention it. But I, I built and sold a wholesaling company a year and a half, two years ago. So I mean, I've kind of dabbled in that side and house flips and all that as well, you know, and it's like if you're at that phase of life where you've got no money and a ton of time, then like wholesaling is probably the way to go because you can go and just bang on doors and send, you know, handwritten letters and you can do it really cheap and you find one deal that can make you a pretty solid chunk of change, then you can slowly build from there. But if you're in, you know, already an entrepreneur and you've got money and, and no time, then obviously you're not going to go build a real estate business. So maybe passively investing in syndications. I mean most of my accredited investors in my bigger deals are guys who are like, you know, Amazon employees make 3,400k a year or you know, big time high salary earners or.

Or they've, you know, they're entrepreneurs and they've got big windfall and they're accredited. Yeah. And they just, they don't want to spend the time so they do the quick analysis and they're like, you can run everything, here's the cash. And they just sit back and collect their K1 and you know, and that works out well for some. There's a middle ground though. I mean if you're, you know, even if you got to buy a place, well, you don't have to buy a place. You should buy a place to live if you're going to be there rather than just renting. And like, you know, I love, my favorite strategy for people getting started is house hacking. You buy a fourplex, you live in one unit, rent the other three and you know, you can live for virtually free and pretty much any market. I even have a buddy who bought a house a Fourplex in downtown San Diego and he pays like 400 bucks a month to live in it.

Wow.

And it's like he's not technically living for free, but he's paying 400 and his tenants are paying down 3,000amonth on his principal. So he's, he's, he's doing all right.

And the fact that I think what was just recently San Diego has been said to be the most expensive place in the world or something to.

It's up there for sure.

Yeah, it's. I'm like, oh, yeah, makes sense. Whenever I hear it, that's all I know.

Whenever I hear that stuff, I'm always like, it's so skewed. Because if you've ever looked at. And I only know this because I was on a podcast, we, we did a conversion on currencies and we were talking real estate prices with this guy that I recorded with in Qatar. And dude, some of the real estate in like the Qatar, Saudi, Dubai area.

Insane.

Like, yeah, it's like you could buy, know, 10 of your houses in San Diego for the cost of your current house.

That's what I was going to call BS when I read that. And at. I was like, yeah, right.

Yeah, it's definitely, maybe they mean like in the Western hemisphere. I don't know. You know, there's always a criteria in there, but it's definitely, I mean, San Diego is definitely not a cheap place to live. San Diego, San Francisco, D.C. new York City, Miami, you know, Hawaii, they're all pricey. And that's my biggest. Whenever I talk about house hacking, people are like, oh, it doesn't work in expensive markets. I'm like, there's always a reason not to invest in real estate. But like, they're like, well, I won't live for free. I'm like, well, you'd pay 2,000, $3,000 a month in rent. So I'd say if you're living for even half of that, it's a win because you're building equity and cashing appreciation and learning how to be a landlord. True. And honestly, I'd rather, I mean, I don't know about you, I'd rather pay 1500amonth than 3000amonth to live in the two one. So.

Nice. Yeah, yeah, you can start stacking.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. It's a great strategy. So it really just depends on where you're at in your journey. Like, obviously that's not going to work for a family of five.

True.

But there's always a way.

Yeah, there's always A way man. And yeah, I mean I, I think of. Yeah. Here in San Diego. It's like my mother in law, like perfect opportunity right now to do the house hacking thing. I'm like, well, I'm going to send her this little clip here just so it's not coming from me. Oh, Penny, if you're listening, cut your.

Cut yourself off and be like, yeah, look at this podcast I heard the other day.

David's brilliant, right? Yeah, no, I love it. And, and that's where it's, it's approachable for all levels because I hear, you know, I've learned the whole syndication deal, you know, Marky and Sitch, you know, he's a buddy of mine as well. He's been on the show a long time ago now. But yeah, used to be in San Diego. He sat me down at the coffee shop and Marky's Radio and he totally laid out what you do to get in the syndication deal. I'm like, that's actually not that complicated once you understand it and accredited investors. Sure you have all these criterias or whatever, but don't need to go down that now really.

But it was around that too. So yeah, there you go.

See? And it's who you know, it's getting out there. Start talking to people. Right. Community wise.

And that's why I wanted to transition to a little bit like. Cause you have your mastermind, your community. You were telling me that that's crushing as well. Like you have real estate popping off, but then you have this obviously content. Your YouTube channel. Podcast is kind of like the glue, I would imagine. Yeah. How's that look? What are some thoughts there?

I mean, shit, like just call it, call out some of this stuff so people can explore it for first. First step here.

Yeah. So I mean the, I'd say the biggest part of the community is we have a Facebook group with 65,000 people in it. And then I've got. Yeah. YouTube, podcast, Instagram, tick Tock. It's all under either Military Millionaire or from military to Millionaire. You can find it on your favorite platform. And it's just. Yeah, it's slowly built out of community. It all started as. It's funny because I didn't have any intention of. I didn't know what I was building. I just, I wanted to learn how to write. And a buddy of mine said, you should start a blog. And I was like, great, what should I write about? He's like, just document what you're doing in real estate. You're a military dude buying houses. Other people do that, just, you know, whatever. And then a friend of mine actually came up with the domain name because all my domain ideas were terrible. And he's like, he was like digging around. He's like, how about this? From Military to Millionaire.com. i was like, oh, that's, that's catchy. I want to be a millionaire one day. And so I was just documenting the journey and then other people started to follow along. And then other people would ask questions. So I'd write articles based on their questions or research things to write articles about their questions. And then, you know, people recommend guests and it just over time. One day I woke up and was like, holy, I have a business. Like, what do I do with all this? I was like, I've been paying to build this thing because I didn't monetize anything. And at the time I probably had 50 to 100,000, you know, followers across all platforms. And I was like, I should probably do something with this. And so.

Yeah, I'd been in a couple mastermind groups. They were super helpful to me. So I decided to start one. And I had no idea how cool that community was going to be. I mean, the people in there are far and away crushing it. More than most people I know, they're doing deals together. They're. They hold each other accountable because it's all service members and vets, so they're a little rough around the edges sometimes calling people out.

Well, they're used to it though.

Yeah. And it's great. And it's not the style for everyone, and that's fine. That's why we don't allow everyone in. So it's just service members and vets that are all serious about. It's not even all real estate. It's finance, financial freedom. Right. So you got guys acquiring businesses, we've got business owners, we've got, you know, a bunch of real estate, for sure. But that community, you know, in a lot of ways it saved me when I got out of the military because it was just, it was like I had this place to go and interact with other service members of vets. And I felt fulfilled, helping and gave me a sense of purpose and identity and all those things people struggle with when they leave. The military really helped with that. And then over just this past year, I kind of realized, like, this should be my one thing. I should probably focus on this thing because it's more fulfilling, it's more enjoyable, and it is. Does happen to make a decent amount of money just by sheer volume. I mean, it's underpriced, but it's. We've got 323 members now and it's. Yeah, it's awesome.

I mean that's the thing is documenting the journey, man. It's like such a great way to start for anybody. And we all got something to express or put out there. So you might as well package it up, do it in a way that's less friction. But eventually, you know, maybe get a camera, microphone, can even start guesting if you don't want to start your own thing. But get in front of people and start just talking about it and something develops, you know, as long as you're leading them down the journey to the next step. That's kind of how I think of it at least.

Man. I mean there's. So yeah, definitely check out the YouTube video. Even if you're not a vet or in the service right now, go check that out. And from military to millionaire. Well, I guess I don't know if you look up that or your name either way, but I'll link it all up. But yeah, man, I'm just thinking of what keeps you. Now this is more like the flowchart side of my brain. We talked a little bit about this already. Living life with a governor, you know, there was that whole kind of like get past that point. What are some things now as you're, you know, you're feeling like you're kind of humming with the real estate stuff, the, the mastermind community, all that like what keeps you in the game and feeling grounded. Obviously you went through a divorce, so it's like you got some shakeups happening in your life. It's getting real. What, what keeps you kind of level headed, content.

I just love helping people. And it's funny because I would never have like, I don't like one on one coaching. I don't like the pressure of like the whatever.

I like to put it in the most selfish of terms. I like the feeling when somebody comes back to me and tells me they succeeded because of something that I told them like. And that's, you know, the selfish angle on it. But it's, it's less that I enjoy just putting out free stuff and hoping somebody gets something out of it and more that I absolutely love the moments. Well, just yesterday, here you go, here's an example. Yesterday, my buddy, I won't name him buddy calls me, he's like, yo, I got this killer deal, beachfront, you know, east coast. I need like 151, 000 to take this down. And do everything. The numbers pencil amazing. It's a hundred thousand dollars undervalued, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. And I was like, I'm flattered that you hit me up, but I did just buy a hotel. I'm a little, little cash poor at the moment because I, I just invested, you know, a chunk in this $7 million purchase and, and all the. We've got $3 million renovation budget and all this other crazy stuff. And I was like. But we started talking, and I was like, dude, why don't you just ask the seller if they'll carry back the down payment so you get your normal loan, and then 25% of it you just pay back to the seller. You'd be in for zero. You'd have a little bit higher payment because you're paying them. And he was like, well, you know, I thought about that, but I don't want to come across, like, needy. Like, I don't have the down payment. I was like, that's not how you approach it. You approach it as, hey, you bought this for 200. It's public record. You can see it. It's worth 605. And if you take a 405, 000 capital gains tax, it's all going to be in this massive tax bracket. But if you take, you know, 250 of that, it's still that big tax bracket. But the other 150 slowly whittle out over the next decade. With plus, you're earning 5, 7% interest on it. So you're earning a return guaranteed. Not S&P 500 maybes, but guaranteed return on your money. And you're paying less in capital gains. The less than capital gains actually makes your. You know, it might be a 5% return, but if you're paying 23% instead of 30% on it in taxes, now it's a 12% return guaranteed. Plus, they're making whatever 5% on 150K is or 7% on 150K and they're not having to deal with tenants. And he's like, I hadn't thought about pitching it that way. He texted me back this morning. He's like, well, we've got a call scheduled. The husband loved it. The listing agent loved it. Got to talk to the wife. He's like, you want to hop on a call and we can all chat through it? Like, you know, so it's little things like that where it's like, that's something I do in my head all the time, you know, and I've bought A bunch of properties that way. But theoretically, if everything works out, knock on wood. I just. One phone call saved this guy 150 grand and having to deal with a partner.

Yeah.

And you know, partnerships can be great, but they can also be terrible. So he doesn't have to roll the dice on that. He's going to own 100 of a house for, you know, nothing, nothing down. He'll furnish it all himself, he'll do all the closing costs himself and all that and he'll have this house that he can Airbnb beachfront and it's gonna be a killer deal. Stuff like that just makes me so happy because I'm like, I'm like. In my head, it's like a totally normal conversation, but I'm like, this guy didn't even think about it. And you know, one, one phone call can make that a win for everybody.

Yeah. And, and also you like flipped a switch. It sounds like in his brain he just made that a reality. Like. Yeah, my brain doesn't think like that yet. I would imagine the way all that, all those scenarios in yours is, I would imagine through experience just doing deals and learning.

Yeah, I'm a creative little nerdy, you know, lefty. I'm a lefty, so.

Oh, okay. Right. I got you.

Yeah.

Yeah. I'm a left hander too. I just don't. I gotta, I gotta learn.

Well, your creative brains working through the podcast. Mine was all real estate for a little while. I'm a good point. You know, the podcast came second.

Hey, that's. That's perfect, man. Documenting. Well actually like, I'm just curious selfishly too to like trigger a little bit more of that brain and that thinking. Obviously getting into deals can also get into bad deals. Are there some good resources or ways to explore that kind of thinking, deal making that you just kind of gave an example of?

Yeah. I guess the king of creative financing is the sub sub 2 community pace Morby. He's a. And he's a really solid dude. Now granted his community is not free, but he does give a lot of really good resources, information.

I'm trying to think, if I ever posted it, I actually have for my mastermind, I did like a 12 class video series on, you know, like, what is creative financing? How do you negotiate it? How do you talk to a seller about it? Because.

People think creative financing, they think seller financing, which is great, but there's so much more to it. And then they, and then they get to this point where they're like, there's this Whole mantra on the Internet, like, oh, you'll never land seller financing unless you ask. And so people will just kind of run around and go, hey, are you open to seller financing? And it's like, grandma doesn't know what the hell seller financing is. She just wants to sell her house to get some cash.

Yeah.

So you don't. If you run around and ask that question, you're never going to find the best deals. But if you just try to solve problems and then you have all these tools in your tool belt. I mean, I've landed properties with zero down, zero interest, where somebody's like, I flipped a house once, we couldn't agree on price. And I was like, look, man, I can come up the three grand to your offer, but the only way I can do it is if you let me pay you when I sell the house. And he thought about it and he's like, yeah, sure. And he was so set on winning his price over whatever that it didn't click that he literally let me buy a house. Zero down, no interest and no payments for 12 months. And then when I sold the house after we were done renovating it, I cut him a check out of the profit. So I didn't put a dollar into that house other than, you know, the renovation, which, to be fair, the renovations were like $140,000 on the house, so put a lot of money into it, but I wasn't paying interest and I wasn't paying for the house. I paid him his money afterwards, so.

And that's where it's like, what price? In terms. Friend, mentor of mine, Roland Frazier. He's like one. You know, it's, you know, Roland. Or falling.

Well, I know who rolling is for sure. Yeah, yeah.

He's a brilliant guy. Yeah. He's luckily out here in San Diego, so we meet up occasionally, but exactly what you're saying. He's like, price and terms. Pick one. You know, so it's like, well, you let him have the price. It's like, great. I get the terms and I get creative now.

Absolutely. Yeah. So I'll have to go back and look. I can't remember if I posted that publicly anywhere or if I kept it just for my mastermind. But even if I kept it for my mastermind, there's a couple videos that I know I did put out there. So I'll. Yeah, I'll run through that and I'll shoot it your way.

Thank you, man. Appreciate that. David. Cool. Before we wrap, is there anything, like, super exciting or something that's Just kind of keeping you up at night that you're maybe learning, diving into, obsessing over. It could be anything. I'm just kind of man.

Well.

What I'm really obsessing over is buying a Porsche this year. There you go. I've been a car guy for such a long time, and it's finally. I'm finally at a place where I sold all my toys to get into real estate, you know, my Harley and my S2000 and all that, and now I'm like, oh, I can finally buy whatever. But as far as, like the life side, honestly, for the first time in a long time, I feel like things are just in alignment and just moving and I'm sleeping and I'm not stressing and it's good. So, I mean, what am I excited about? I'm about to launch another course for within the Mastermind. It'll be free for all them. That's, you know, how to house hack using specifically, like tailored towards the VA loan and then be the most detailed house hacking guide I've put together. And I'm nice, just excited about growing the community, man, and helping more. More people.

Right on. Well, hey, for. For the vets out there, people that can exercise VA loans, how can they find that community specifically?

Yeah, yeah. Hey, you're gonna love this. This is a Brandon Turner idea. I always have to shout him out, but I bought this domain and I'm so happy about it. So if you go to thebestpodcastguest.com you can get my free download of my book and find all my social media there.

Man, that is a great name.

We were like, looking for URLs. He's like, we gotta come up with something creative that people will remember. And then I just goofingly. I typed that in and it was available. And I was like, well, there we go. I like. That's hilarious, dude.

It's great. It's memorable too. The best podcast guest dot com.

And it's especially fun when I get to say that to somebody who's like a way better podcast guest or. Or podcaster than I am. And I'm like, yeah, I own this domain. I'm the best podcast guest dot com. And I could just see the look on their face. And I want to just be like, I mean, I know you're a better guest, but you don't have the domain, so bother.

I'll sell it to you.

Sweet. Just wait until I get on like Rogan one day and I'm gonna be like, oh, yeah, I'M the best podcast guest dot com. You.

Take that Ro any?

Yeah. David, this is incredible and it's got me reinvigorated. You know, my wife and I have been talking a lot about real estate a lot lately, so I'll be passing this her way as well. And get that noodle going more. So. Appreciate you man. And when you're in San Diego, hit me up.

I'll be out there end of March. So yeah, let's hang out.