From Real Estate to Business Empire: How Kyle Mallien Helped Me Pivot, Scale, and Succeed

You know, when I first got started, it was, it was tough. You know, I was in real estate. I was equity rich, cash poor. Like most real estate investors. I was buying a ton of single family homes and, you know, I didn't have the cash flow. So there were some months where, like, I was like, you know, diving in it and swimming in it. And then there were some months where, you know, I was, I needed, I needed money to pay bills. And so I knew there had to be another way. And that's when I got into business acquisitions. And all thanks to Kyle. You know, I was sitting in my hot tub during COVID I remember, I remember it like it was yesterday, and I was DMing him in my hot tub saying, hey, man, you know, you know, tell me about this business acquisition thing, you know, and, and he, he laid it all out for me and him and I kept going back and forth for weeks and days, and I had no fear at that time, and I, I dove in headfirst and bought my first acquisition in Orlando, Florida. And right, right during the middle of.

COVID Where'd you find Kyle? Like, you're. You. Where'd that come from?

Yeah, so I, I just saw a social media post. I actually don't even know how I found him, but it was through Facebook and saw a social media post and, you know, I'm just aggressive and I wanted an answer and I, I, I sent him a DM and he replied right back. I think this was right before he was jumping into the coaching space. And, you know, so I think I got him right before he kind of blew up. And so it was great because I, I mean, the attention, you know, that I got from him at the time was incredible. It was impeccable. And now I see what he's doing with all his students and, you know, he, he's definitely delivering because these people are having tremendous amounts of success.

And he still does a lot of zone dming. Don't, don't DM him. I'm just saying, though, he still hit. Yeah, he's very engaged and very part of this process.

He is, he is. I mean, him and I text and call each other on, you know, on the regular, and, you know, we stay in touch and I'm filling him in on my deals and, you know, we're asking personal things and all that, and he's, he's just a, he's a really all around genuine guy and really does care about his friends and his students.

And they all kind of become like friends and family is the family Reunion. When you show up here.

Absolutely.

Talk to me a little bit, because you were doing exactly what you're supposed to do in terms of wealth building. I mean, there's a lot of people that have no idea what to do with wealth building.

Yeah.

But once you do get a little engaged in it, real estate's supposed to be the thing.

Yeah. Look, I'll tell you this. You know, I did, you know, I followed the status quo. Right. I went to school, I got married young, I had kids, had a 401k. I started investing, I started a business. You know, I did everything I was supposed to do or what society was brainwashing me to do and, you know, was still fulfilling unfulfilled and still not feeling like I was doing it right. So what I do, cashed in my 401k, I decided to start acquiring companies. I started, you know, getting out of real estate, you know, buying and, and becoming more of a real estate lender and, and then also buying more businesses. So I, I, I kind of really flipped it on its head over the past, I would say, five or six years. And the past five or six years have been the best years of my life. And, you know, it's because of the, the pivot that I made. I wasn't happy. I wasn't, you know, happy with what I was doing. I wasn't motivated and feeling good about where I was heading. And now with business acquisitions and M and A and just, I'm just alive again, you know, so it's great.

And this all kind of started during COVID though, this transition.

It, it did. So. Yeah, right. During COVID it all started with that first acquisition. Orlando, Florida, again. I remember the seat that I sat in to buy that company. It was at the Waldorf Astoria in Orlando in the little bar area. And I have a picture of it. And the crazy thing is that I bought my second. That was an NEMT deal. I bought my second NEMT deal at the, in November of 2023, just recently at the same spot at the same hotel. It was like, serendipitous, you know, like. And I did that on for, for a reason, because the first one was so successful. I was like, I'm gonna keep the karma and keep the juju and let's do it in the same spot. And sure enough, thank God, it's, it's actually paid off very well.

So, so that sounds like, like a hyper process. Like there's a process here to follow. But you got it even tighter.

We drill it down. Absolutely. You know, so. And. And now, you know, look, I never imagined where I would be today, you know, as far as how big our. You know, the amount of companies we've acquired since then. You know, we now have our own holding company. We have a C suite. We have CEO, cfo, CEO. They manage the entities that we have. And that has allowed me to grow and raise capital and find more acquisitions, find more deals. And, you know, I never would have thought I'd be in this position where I am now today. And, you know, obviously, you know, credit Kyle for all of it, so.

And I've heard several. You talk about it's like a potato chip, one of these things. You got hooked, right?

You do. You do get hooked. It's almost like, you know, it's. It's a. It's my addiction, right. You know, I mean, people have other addictions and other vices. This is my vice, you know, believe it or not. You know, so I love doing deals. I love deal flow. I love looking at deals. It's the first thing I think about when I wake up, last thing I think about when I go to bed. And it's probably everything I think about during the middle of the day, so. But yeah, so I love the M and A space. I love business acquisitions. And, you know, again, my world has definitely changed for the better. Coming from the real estate side, talk.

To me about growing up. Was money something that was discussed? Was something that wasn't discussed. Was there a lot of it? Was there none of it. What was it like?

Yeah, money. Growing up, parents were both W2 workers. You know, I saw my dad bust his ass for a very long time. He worked a government job. You know, it's crazy part is, I remember looking at his tax return. I was. I was probably 17 years old, and I remember looking at his tax return that he got at the end of the year, and it showed his wages and compensation. I think it said $75,000. And he was retired. And I was like. At the time, I'm like, there's no way I'm gonna be able to live on $75,000. Like, how does somebody live on $75,000? And that just like, you know, that. That woke me up at a young age. And, you know, so I, you know, I tell people, you know, a lot of time when they ask one of my parents and whatnot, you know, my dad's great guy. I don't really talk to my mom, but, you know, I was taught what not to do. I saw a lot of the things that they could have did differently because they were just too scared. Like they, they were so fearful of taking risks. And I don't know if that was that generation, you know, that generation was just, you know, they were. They were locked in on like, you know, their job and staying close to, you know, home and getting their house and keeping the homestead intact and, and that safety and security in that maybe this, you know, our generation and generations now going forward. I don't actually, I don't know about going forward. That's a whole nother topic for another day. But I feel like our generation, there's a lot of risk takers, a lot of entrepreneurs, a lot of people that want more out of life. And, you know, I think I'm living proof of that, at least for, you know, my family, you know, tree. So.

And that was probably back when 75,000 was good amount of money. Yeah, I looked recently, they said 100k back when, when we were kids. So for our parents, that generation. Yeah, that's like 300 today or at least 250, 000 today. So I mean, just. But.

But that just. I guess what I'm getting at is like, it's like the mindset, right? Even, even my mindset then was like 75 wasn't enough. So I was always thinking bigger. And, you know, I was an entrepreneur from a young age. You know, I tell this story a lot. I got my entrepreneur itch when I was like a kid. I was eight years old, I went on a cruise with my grandfather, father, my grand. My grandmother. And I was on that cruise. And they give you these little key cards on the cruise ships, okay. And I got the key card in the cruise ship and I would go around and buy the candy and buy the souvenirs for all my friends are on the boat because they didn't have the little credit cards, the key cards to buy it. So what they would do is they would give me cash, add a dollar or two onto it for my aggravation of having to buy them their stuff. And then at the end of the cruise, my grandfather got the bill and it was like this $500 bill. And he's like, holy shit, Josh, what the hell? How did you spend all this money? And I was like, oh, no, no, it's okay, papa. And I pulled out the wad of cash that I had from all the friends and it was like $750. And he was like, holy cow, son. He was like, you are an entrepreneur. You know, so that is like. I think what got me, you Know, started was at a very early age I learned how to, how to capitalize and make money on other people's money. And now I use opm other people's money all day long. So.

Well, and there's that desire I feel that we, we all have in us. And a lot of people though, it gets, it get. They get scared out of it. Yeah, they get scared of the pursuit of it. They get scared out of the realization of it. Well, yeah, a little bit about where maybe that drive comes.

Well, I think too that most people, you know, they have a little success and then also they get some failure or maybe it's big failure. Maybe they, you know, they lose money or whatever it may be and then they stop. You know, I think that's where most people, if they just kept going, would realize their true potential. But most people will just stop and pivot and go back to security. And that's where I feel like you can grow the most, is if you could, you know, really fight through that and just get to the other side because, you know, the bad times don't last. You know, the good times don't last either, you know, but the bad times also don't last. So if you can get to the other side. And the reason why I'm saying this is because I've been there, you know, I've, I've gone through it. I lost a million dollars, you know, so, um, but that happens. And Kyle say this all the time, you know, that you're going to, if you're swinging for the fences, you're going to strike out, you're going to hit a strikeout. He's like, the key is to have more home runs and more base hits than strikeouts. And that's what we're doing, you know. So, you know, we've got six deals now, you know, so, yeah, we have one go bad out of six. Whoopty do. Looking back, looking back on the cash flow, okay, yeah, we lost a million, but if I wouldn't have lost that million, I would have never made the multi seven figures from the next deal that I had because I was looking for the next deal aggressively because the this, the second one failed, you know, so everything happens for a reason. And as long as you're able to get through those tumultuous times and you're able to kind of push through it because. And look, I used to think that was all guru speak, you know, all back then, you know, like, oh man, these guys don't know what the hell are talking about. It's Because I never went through it myself. I went through it myself and I pushed and pushed and pushed and I got through the other side and thank God I did. I'm glad I didn't throw in a towel and just say, effort. I'm going to go work for somebody else.

You know, so well that, that retreat to safety.

Exactly.

Keeps so many people from doing what they could be doing.

100%. Yeah.

There's also a bit of, of an inertia where, I mean, it, listen, it takes something to get the ball moving, to get. It's really easiest to stay put. Even as good as this event is, it's still easy to leave this event, go right back to your world and not for. Not.

Oh, man. Man. You know, I see people all the time go to real estate events, go to conferences, they get rah rah and hoorooed and they get all excited or they're. They get loaded with information and then all of a sudden they're like, yes, I'm going to go buy a deal. I'm going on biz by sell. I'm going to go, I'm going to go network with brokers, we're going to go start underwriting deals, we're going to use the buy box. We're going to do all the things, we're going to do the money math. I mean, they're going to do it all and then they get home and then life happens. They're thrown back, thrusted back into life. And that is where most people fail, is that they can't actually compartmentalize and say, no, hold on, life. I'm pushing you to the side for a minute because I'm focused on getting this done. And if people locked in and just said, no, this is my target, this is what I'm going to do. And locked in on it, they would actually probably hit the goal. Problem is life gets in the way. Kids get sick. You know, you have weddings, you have, you know, as Kyle says, football games. Everybody wants to drink and party, you know, and there's a thousand different things that'll pull you out of that. So for anybody you know that watches this, and if you go to a conference, you come to one of college events, you're going to get overloaded with information. You're going to get all the things necessary you need and you're going to have the mentorship and you're going to have the kick in the ass to get you there. But at the end of the day, if you let life control you, you will never, ever Do a deal. And so, you know, my message is basically, you know, to, to utilize all the information, all the, all the people, all the networks, all the connections. But they can only get you so far. You have to do the work.

Right. And that goes back to really. There's two things that I think moments in life that will get people to take action. One, they think, aha. Do they think, oh no. So which, which, which is it for you? What's the driving factor? Was it the aha, I'm going to get it or the oh no, what if I don't?

So when I first got started, it was oh no. Everything was oh no. I was living in, I was living in a fear based mindset. You know, I was, I was looking at deals and, and scared to do deals, scared to take risks, you know, and then now I've kind of shifted and pivoted into what I call creation mode. I am now in creation mode. So I'm not in that scarcity survival mode, you know, where I'm, I don't want to lose it. You know, I made it, I don't want to lose it. Now it's more like I made it. I want to get more, I want to keep going, to create more. You know, we have now 156 employees over four, four states. You know, and so the impact that I see, you know, on being able to help these families, you know, create a life for themselves and give them some safety and security. And then also at the same time, we're giving people within our organizations opportunities that they wouldn't have ever gotten before. That lights me up, that gets me excited and that, but, but I would have never have done that had I been in that fear based survival mode. I would have been, let's hoard it all, let's hold on to it. I don't want to share with anyone else because I may lose it. A completely different mindset now. Now it's how much can we give away to everyone else so that they can help us reach the goals that we want to get. And my goal was, you know, I made this goal up in the summer of 20, summer 2023, is that in the next four years I wanted to get to 10 companies or $10 million in net revenue. We're at almost 3.5 right now. So we're getting there. We're at six companies, so we're getting close, you know, so we're almost halfway there. If we get the Chicago deal, we'll be halfway there. And so that's, that's where we're at.

I can feel this incredible focus coming off of you. Yeah, I heard it when you were talking in the room, and I hear it now.

I'm locked in, man.

Where does that come from? Is that natural? Is it earned? Is it the process? What?

You know, I think it's experience builds confidence, right? I am so confident in what I do. You know, like Kyle says, put me in a chopper, Drop me off in Austin, Texas. I'll do exact same thing. I feel that same confidence he has. Put me in a chopper, drop me off wherever you want to drop me off at. I'll go do my thing. I'll go raise the money. I'll go find a deal. I'll find a deal. If it's the buy box, raise it, execute, operate it. You know, get the right people in place, double it in, you know, 12 to 24 months, and then add it into my portfolio and then go do it again. And that's. That's been my process. That's what I've done. I found. What I do is we find good companies and we make them great. So we're not looking for companies that are like rehabs like me, real estate space. We're not looking to go overhaul stuff. We're looking for companies that are just lacking certain things, certain areas. Mom and pops, they don't have technology, and they're not utilizing it. And we can come in and utilize our team and our people and make the company great.

And that's part of the buy box, too, right? I mean, everything that goes back to the focus. You're looking for something specific. Oh, you find it. Imagine that.

Yeah.

If you're looking for trouble, you're gonna find trouble 100%.

I had a friend of mine tell me the other day, you know, he was like. He did, like, an exercise where he was like, I'm gonna look for nickels on the ground. And he was like, I'm gonna find me a nickel. And so now he was locked in. Every time he was on the. Every time he was walking, he was looking for a nickel. What do you know what? Every time he was walking, he would, like, find a nickel, like, almost every day. But it's because he was, like, locked in and looking for it. You know, most people are, like, locked in on, like, I'm. I'm looking for. I'm not looking for a deal. So what's gonna happen? You're not gonna find a deal. But if you're always. You know, if you're always looking at deals with a Fear based mindset of what can go wrong, how you know nothing's going to go right, you're never going to be able to raise the capital, have imposter syndrome. All these things that he talks about, you know, you're never going to do a deal. But if you change that mindset and you come in with it where, you know, you're coming in with more of a creation mode mindset and you're, you're thinking positive and you're, you're following his steps, you're following, you know, the framework, you really can't go wrong because you have a group of people around you that are all doing the same thing. They're all going through the same problems, the same motions. And I think, you know, for anyone else that's looking, maybe even enjoying this program, like, you know, I'd do it in a heartbeat, you know. You know, the problem is, is that most people are just, again, like I said, they're just so fear driven, they don't want to take any chances. But this is like, this is an investment. You know, you'll go invest in a condo on the beach, that's going to be a, you know, very could be an unsafe investment. You could lose tenants, etc. This is almost damn near guaranteed. You follow the steps, you know, so invest in yourself. Absolutely. Can't lose.

Second to last question.

Yeah. Yeah.

What are you doing this for? Is it a legacy? Are there people? Is it, is it the, is it the drive? What, what is it?

When I first got started, I didn't know. I had no idea. Now as I'm getting a little bit older, I'm starting to, I've acquired a couple of businesses now. I feel like I'm starting to get a little of a footing. And what drives me, what excites me every day is I think the motivation. You know, I was, I was telling somebody this the other day that I could have been, I could have been a football coach. I feel like I'm starting to find my purpose and it's, and it's in motivating other people. So like our teams, right, we have, you know, a ton of employees across the, across the country and you know, being able to motivate them like, you know, through our text messaging and through like our emails and like, you know, we do our zoom calls and like just being able to, to motivate them, incentivize them, to get them to reach the goals that we want. And there, there's team members, man, that like sometimes I'm on their Ass. And they're like, why is Josh on me so hard? And it's because I know they can do so much more. And so what I'm starting to find is my passion is bringing out the best in people. And like, I see it like I, I live and breathe it. Like I wake up and do it. So, like, legacy cash flow, all that stuff, it's great. But I think I found a true passion of what I really enjoy. And now the cash flow is just like, for what we call in Louisiana, it's called LanYap, just extra, you know.

So, yeah, I got two more questions. Well, one more than the last one. You've made a health transformation through this process, right?

Oh, yeah.

And it's part of the freedom, part of the by design, part of not living in default, not playing on the rat race. What, what has this process.

So I'm going to, I'm going to say this one for Pat Hilton because I did a reel about this and it was pretty funny. He loves it the way, the way I said it. But, you know, I said in the real that I'm like big into cold plunging. I love cold plunging. But I said in the real, I didn't cold plunge when I was broke. And it's a true statement. When I was broke, I didn't have any money. I didn't have time to invest in myself. I didn't have time to work on myself and my body and my habits. And I know people say, oh, man, you don't need money to go invest in yourself. I call bullshit, you know, because at the end of the day, you're. All I was worried about was providing for my family and giving them safety and security, but through the financial means necessary. I didn't care about me. I didn't care about making my body better. All I cared about was making sure that they were good. And so once I got that laid out, they're good, they're. They're happy, they're healthy, they're safe, they have money, we're good. They are in that aspect. I was able then to focus on me and work on myself and get me right. And, you know, and they, you know, they do say, you know, man, when the plane's going down, you know, when the oxygen comes down, you got to put your mask on first. I feel like I'm putting my mask on finally now, you know, and so I feel like if something does happen, I'm able to help and provide. But before I was in a place where, man, if the plane was going down, I don't know if I would have been able to save the ship because I wasn't. Right. You know, so I was just kind of getting by, you know, just floating along through the air and. But now that we have the cash flow, we have the businesses, we have the income, you know, we're able to weather some storms, you know, so. And then also at the same time, provide an incredible health transfer. Me, I lost £75 in the past year. And, you know, I'm very proud of that. I do cold plunging every day. I do a sauna, you know, I do intermittent fasting. I do, you know, all kinds of stuff, man. I'm just, I do, I work out three days a week. I'm, you know, I'm doing all that stuff, you know, so doing Peptides, doing the whole thing, so.

Very cool.

Yeah.

Last one.

Yep.

If you have a message for Kyle, that's Kylie's in the camera.

Okay.

Say. Say something to Kyle from your heart.

Oh, man. So, you know, Kyle, you have been a tremendous mentor now. You're an incredible friend. You know, I look back, you know, going through Covid and thinking to myself, like, there's no way. The success that I had today, I would never have imagined what we've done and we've been able to accomplish. So, you know, I do, I give it all to you, man. I tell everybody about you and, you know, you're. You are one of a kind man. So. And by the way, thank you for this minty green Rolex here. Love it. Thank you again.

As he. You've become his peer.

Yeah, right.

I mean, he was mentoring you and now you're doing what he's doing in terms of you guys are buying these businesses.

You know, he says that, you know, but like, I don't, I don't even believe that to myself, you know, I don't even believe that yet, you know, so.

And I'm not talking about.

Yeah.

What you're. What you're teacher. I mean, like, he imparted on you and you. And he's. He's authentic in what he's doing, exactly what he teaches. Yeah, you guys go out and do it too. And then you're. He's still the mentor he's built up.

Yes. Yeah.

But he empowered you now to I.

Hooked because you want to be correct. I have that confidence, you know, because he's given me the ability to have the experience. You know, if I didn't have the experience through him, I wouldn't have the confidence. Now I'm able to go out and do what I do because of him. He imparted the confidence. Awesome. Absolutely.