Thicc Skin With Scott Carson From Indie Darlings With Knives Monroe

You're listening to Knives and Monroe versus the podcast. Well, let's just get right into it. My guest for today is Scott Carson. Scott, how you doing, sir?

I'm honored to be here, man. Just absolutely great to always be on another fellow Austin podcasters podcast, right?

Yes, sir. Well, tell me about your podcast. How did you start it? How did you get into podcasting? You know, I met you was fortunate enough. Jesus, was it? It was this year where there was a podcast meetup, and you were like a locker room leader that in that meetup, and I was like, I got to get to know this guy. He seems to know what he's doing.

Well, you know, I get started, I've been doing video and webinars and conference calls for over a decade now in our line of work. And so the last 12 years, I've really kind of focused on the niche of real estate and buying distressed debt. And I found one of the best ways to do that was to share what I was doing because it was such a small niche. So I would share it through Facebook videos and, you know, conference calls with our students and stuff like that. And then, you know, we've been doing zoom webinars. I mean, we've got thousands of videos on Vimeo, on YouTube. But it goes back to actually hearing Kevin Harrington, one of the Shark Tank guys, in an event in Vegas in November 1, 2016. He talked about video. You got to do video, everything video. So we started doing videos and Facebook lives for roughly about eight months. And then we had built a good following through Facebook and YouTube and said, okay, let's do a podcast. I was actually kind of anti podcast because I was like, oh, it's gonna be a lot of work. I don't have time to edit. I'm so busy. And luckily for me, I got a buddy that does a lot of that, and he's like, now we can do it all for you. I'm like, okay, great. What do I have to do? Just keep doing what you're doing. Just send us the links. And so I was unwilling to be a podcaster at first, but I'm glad I did. Biggest advice I could tell anybody out there is to start sooner.

Yeah.

And I've just been just basically kind of cranking on episodes. We just recorded episode 625 today.

Congratulations.

Thank you, sir. We crank out three to five episodes a week in our niche. We've spawned two other three other podcasts off of what we do in little niches, and we've grown it to almost a million Downloads. And we've now got the podcast nationally syndicated on radio across the country as well for the last year and a half now. So just. Just. We show up and we deliver, man. Just like you, man. Show up and deliver. Labor of love to our listeners and our audience. And give, give, give, give, give, give.

It's such a cliche. You know, anytime you want to hear, like, the best advice, it's always, excuse me. It's always, show up. Be the first to show up, be the last to leave. Give more than anybody else could expect. Just do it. But, I mean, those are cliches for a reason, and I think we keep passing that on to the next generation for a reason, you know, and. And that's the key. You know, I've asked incredible people who are masters at their craft, people in marketing, people who work with giant brands like Pepsi and Toyota and things like this, and they. I always ask them, what's the secret? I want to know, how do you scale? How do you grow? How do you be big? How do you reach a million downloads? And then, you know, you can get syndicated in the radio? How does this happen? And they always tell me, know your audience and consistency. And it's so cliche. It makes me want to roll my eyes, because it's like, okay, then why doesn't everybody do it? So let me ask you, Scott, in your experience, how come everybody doesn't do it?

The reason not everybody does it is it takes a little work.

Yeah.

You know, it's. It's showing up. And a lot of times, I think what you have to realize, it's kind of that whole field of dreams scenario. People believe if you record it, the money will come.

Yeah.

You know, if you. I'm going to be a podcaster with sponsorship right at the door, just like Joe Rogan, you know, I'm gonna sign 100. Look, Joe Rogan's one of those offsets, you know, three broke queens is another offset with things like that. You know, the Will Ferrell, the Ron Burgie podcast. Those are all great things, but they're all the outliers for the most part. And podcasting is made up of individuals that show up like you. Like me. We got it out. We are showing up on a regular basis. And honestly, I hate to say that. It's just that you have to realize that whatever you're doing, if you're doing it as a passion project or you're doing it something in line with what you're doing, you have to realize that it's going to Take time. You've got to plant some seeds and you've got to be patient. And I think patience is a virtue these days that a lot of people don't have because of the instant gratification that we get with phones and likes and social media. Oh, what, I didn't get a million downloads. I only had 20 downloads or I had two downloads and mom listened both times. You have to realize it. And here's a big thing. When your mother listens to your podcast, it does not count. Now when she listens to my podcast, it counts as a true download.

That's a good point.

But that's the thing, just being patience. Understand what's, what it's going to take. Talk to the people that are at where you want to be and they'll tell you the same thing. Hey, just show up on our go, be consistent and listen to your audience. Don't try to, you know, swap out a quick buck and you'll abuse your audience. But just be truthful because people can hear bs. They can see it these days more than ever. People don't want to be sold to. They want to be educated. They want to share something with commonality. And that's what I love about podcasting. Knives is it's really last bastion of free speech out there, you know, and be able to connect with things. And in today's society, when we have such a big divisions across the board, whether it's Democrat or Republican or ages or whatever, I think podcasts bring our tribe together and can share great things. It can bring people together. It also can drive people apart. So you got to be careful on what you're doing. You're not. You have to realize that not everybody is a listener and realize that's the audience that you serve as your true listeners, not everybody. And then the sooner you can get happy with whether it's 5,000 or 10,000 or a million, whatever it is, it's going to take some time to grow. But that's the biggest thing is understanding serving your niche and watering those seeds and watching them grow over time. Just give it time to grow.

That's true. You know, I'm guilty. I've been doing it for four years, but I have not been consistent this year. I've crushed it. I've been very consistent.

I.

But that's when I've seen the most growth, right? It's like, it's like getting a six pack or working out, you know, you can't just do it January 1st. And I really want people to know that and appreciate it, because I have a lot of aspiring filmmakers, content creators, creatives that listen to this show. And that's the secret sauce. You know, you have to be good. For sure, you have to be good. But if you're a good listener, you'll know if you're not good or not. Right? Because that's, that'll be the feedback that you get. I'm curious, Scott, and feel free to be as candid as you like, or tell me to go fuck myself if you want. You know, if it's too personal, I don't want to pry, but I am curious. Your main gig for you know, how you pay your bills. That's. That's real estate. Do I understand that?

Yeah. We are in an inch of real estate and we're buying debt is what we do. That's my main 9 to 5, I guess you could say. I've been doing that and being an entrepreneur, real estate entrepreneur, for over almost 20 years now, coming from the mortgage industry. But since everything hit the fan Back in 2008, I stopped on the mortgage broker side and then started buying debt. So I buy mortgages direct from banks where people haven't usually paid in five, six or 12 months. And we buy that debt at a discount with the whole goal in mind to reach out to them. Say, listen, I know you've been behind. Something bad happened. I don't care what it is we like to keep in the house. Let's. Let's create a win win here. We'll let you stay in the house, but, you know, pay, you know, stay. You know what I mean? You got to try to work with me here. We buy that debt at a big discount. A big discount, usually 50 cents on the dollar, what's owed. And that gives us a lot of flexibility to work with a borrower to keep them in their house and modify their loan. So I've been doing that for years, closed on thousands of deals and thousands of deals.

Wow, congratulations, man. That is not an easy feat. I always tell people, because I tried sales for 90 days. That's how long I could hack it, right? I died, man. It was like death every day. Like, I am not that person. I am weak. I'm a big fat loser when it comes to sales. Like, that's not. That's just not one of my skills. But I tried it, you know, because I wanted to give it the old college try. I made two deals in six months. It was so difficult. And then you meet a master sales person and holy crap, they're like an Alien. You're like, I don't have what this guy has. So I always tell people, go, go, go make $1. $1 is hard. And then you want to be a millionaire. Like, dude, sales is hard. Go ask someone for a dollar. It is way harder than you think. So much, much props, sir. That's, that's incredible. The reason why I asked, and I was very curious and I'm sorry to cut you off, is you're good. Is simply because how big does your podcast need to get where that's your, that's your main gig. You know, you could teach people how to do what you do. You can go into education, you can go in monetization of information and go into courses. And you're, you're a thought leader in this little genre of ours. So how big would this need to get? Or do you have a true passion with real estate?

So don't be wrong. I love, I love real estate. I love helping people. I, you know, I went to college originally college to be a sportscaster.

I could tell you look like one.

Of those guys rumbling double and stumbling, whatever. But, you know, the podcasting side of things allows me to kind of, I guess you could say, itch, that proverbial itch that I really enjoyed, you know. But we already did with our podcasting. We've monetized it with a couple sponsors, but we use it to help us monetize our educational platform because we do teach workshops on what we do, we have coaching, we have different seminars or online summits we've been doing for years. And so our podcast has turned into actually one of the number one revenue generating resources for that is people hear our podcast or they check out our videos on YouTube from the podcast. So we get a lot of people that say, oh, I've been following you for three to six months and now I'm ready to do something. I'm like, okay, great. And that goes back to what you said. I know that my thing isn't like, hey, buy now, buy now. It's a nurturing process of taking time and people realizing that I'm not full of hot air or just trying to get a buck. I'm actually delivering and I care how they succeed. And I think that's the thing about sales. People can sense when you are down on your luck and you need a buck. And the idea that the most successful salespeople are those that really do care. But don't come across like, I gotta close this deal. Don't be wrong. There's been months and Weeks, I gotta close this deal to keep the lights on or to put food on my table. But the point comes down to is the more you show up, the easier that stuff becomes. And the valleys now are higher than the peaks ever were years ago. You know what I mean? So, I mean, we generate a lot of sales. We generally know a lot of activity from our podcast. So it's really kind of our number. I won't say it's drawn even with what we make in real estate at all, but it's become. Two years ago, we basically became our number one legion and marketing source.

I'd like to say, wow, that's something you probably couldn't even have imagined at episode one, right? That wasn't even. That wasn't even possible. So how do you. Let me ask you, Scott, how do you win? How do you win?

Here's the way. One don't give a fuck.

Yes, sir. Yes, sir.

You're not going to make everybody happy. And that's one of the. I think the hardest thing for most people to realize, especially in today's social media, we could have a million likes, is that one derogatory person that leaves a bad comment or makes fun of what you're wearing or how you look. And there are. I had a mentor of mine, Greg Reed, a couple years ago, really instilled something. Actually, looking back about 10 years ago, he shared with me the philosophy of the 33 rule. If you look at your database, you look at your social media, a third of your audience is with your friends, your families, the people that like, they follow, they love you. That's great. On the opposite side of the spectrum, you have a third of people out there that hate you no matter what. They have a dark soul, dark hole for a soul. Okay? They're unhappy with life. It doesn't matter what you do. It comes from a point of jealousy or hatred or they have something going on, more likely than anything else that's affecting their stuff.

That's right.

And so we as entrepreneurs and we as marketers, because we're all in media these days, have to realize not everybody's our audience. And you have to work on making that 33% that love you happy. And then that middle ground, that middle bucket of people that don't know you, that are on the fence, if you stick to that, you'll be a lot happier. If you forget and develop a little bit of a thicker skin, forget that one person that said something nasty to you. I know it's hard to do it initially because it's you like? I want to be liked. I want to be loved by everybody.

Yeah.

But it's physically impossible unless your grandma. Okay. And even grandma's got some haters.

Okay, man. Really well put. Dang. I like that. I like that a lot. How do you not give a fuck?

It's hard. It's hard, I'll tell you that. We've had some things that have been great, and we've had other things that just went south. I mean, in real estate, with what we do, we have a lot of great deals. We have a lot of singles and doubles, and we have deals that just some good stuff. So you're have people that are upset about things. Here's the best thing I can tell you is you have to surround yourself with people that you like and trust. And you also need mentors. You need people that have gone through it. Because another one of my mentors told me, hey, when you start having haters, it means you're doing something right. Because you'll never, ever have somebody who's above you in skill level or experience say something bad about you. For the most part, yeah. It's always somebody that's at or beneath you that is jealous or upset about things. And so you have to take that with a grain of salt and realize, okay, something's going on. I have to give some love. Even though there's times you want to say, go f off yourself. That's the worst thing you can do in such a polarizing society and online thing. So the best, best way is just to show up every day, realize that you've got a longer picture, pray for those people. If you're religious or wish them well, block them, and just keep cranking out and moving on because you're helping. There's a lot of people out there that you're helping in some sort of fashion that aren't commenting. And you have to realize it's the same thing. If you like a restaurant, you'll tell three or four friends. If you hate a restaurant, you'll tell 14 or 15 people you dislike it. Yeah, okay.

Yeah. Word of mouth. It's real.

Yeah. I mean, just keep showing up. You're gonna have good days and bad days and realize that we're not in any type, put into any type of situation that we aren't being prepared for. And it'll come out a lot better in the long run if you give in to being negative back, it just creates a bigger, bigger mess. And the best thing is, I hate to say this, but take the high road as best you can and just keep cranking out stuff.

What would you say? Consistency, obviously, is a tenant. We need to do that. That's a virtue. Consistency, we can't take that out of the equation. But how do you manage? And I struggle with this. So brief, brief anecdote on me. I have. I come from filmmaking world, right? So it, it did not prepare me for content creation on the Internet because the whole idea was to spend a year, two years, sometimes to make a 90 minute product and then sell tickets, promote that product and put asses in seats, and then use that word of mouth to replicate that to two theaters, 10 theaters and so on. That was the school I came from. Now, I'm very familiar with video and audio like you, and I'm able to translate that and help people and so into, say, TikTok or Facebook or what have you, what we're doing here. And then there's this idea. Okay, consistency, I totally get that. And then there's this idea of quantity. Right? So you do three or four episodes of your podcast a week. As someone who, man, I must have did a podcast every day for 30, maybe 45 days in a row. And that's intense. Not every one of them is a banger. But then you do one that you would have never done otherwise. That resonates with people, right? So how do you balance quantity? You know, like, how much is too much? Is there such thing as too much? And how do you basically create enough material to generate that content?

Those are really good, great questions, and I'm glad you asked that because I get that all the time. When people hear that we crank out that many episodes and it comes down to a couple of things. One is we start the day off marketing. Every day has got to start off marketing. So a podcast episode becomes our hour long of marketing. Either it's that day as we're live streaming it, or the next day when it goes out on social media platforms as a replay, or a week or two later when it comes out as a blog or the audio episode on itunes or whatever. Okay, so we're planting seeds every day to start that off. That's our number one thing. Let's start with marketing first, because that leads to a lot of things. Whereas a lot of people, they wait till the end of the day for marketing when they're, you know, they're tired or worn out. Can't do that. Here's the other thing, too. Nice. If I had to do all the editing myself. Yeah, I would never, I wouldn't do Three to five episodes a week.

Yeah.

Okay. So that's the big thing. I would maybe be one or two episodes a week so that you have to look at what you're. You have. Luckily, we've got some sponsors that cover our. Our production costs and make pays for itself with what we do. So that's a big thing. You have to look at what your. But initially, when we started off, we were still doing three to five and just doing videos to build an audience to start driving that stuff in with people signing up for things or sponsorships. The best thing I can tell you to do is brainstorm. If you see an faq, frequently asked questions on websites or in a niche, that's a great place to start as kind of your catalog of episodes documenting your journey. People love that. I think it's the biggest, best thing about podcasting has been is documenting your journey. And that's what I did initially. I would share episodes of how I got started or even before the podcast, I would take videos of me getting. Calling banks and getting hung up on, or me walking real estate with a little, you may not remember, a little Dell cameras, the little flip cameras.

Oh, yeah.

You know, I'd be out there sweating my ass off at 120 degree Austin, Texas heat in the middle of summer and documenting it, and people would crack up at me because, you know, stuff like that. So you just got to basically realize, okay, I got to plant these seeds. I got to keep doing this on a daily basis. It will pay off exponentially in the long run. But realize if you have a question or somebody's asking a question, they're not the only one. And your audience probably is thinking the same thing too. So that's the biggest thing. It builds a habit. It's like building that muscle. When you crank out an episode, they don't have to be an hour long. I think my average episode is somewhere around 40 minutes. But we do a lot of smaller ones, 30 minutes or less, and then we do interviews. So we started off like our first, really our 50 episodes was just me teaching. Then we started bringing on some guests or vendors in our niche. And now it's roughly about 50, 50, 50% of me interviewing people in my field or entrepreneurship mindset or business systems along with me teaching on that. So that helps. Don't be wrong. There's times that I've been burnt out. Yeah, you know, I'll take a week or two laps and just kind of chill and go there and try to revamp my energy and figure, okay, what do I need to talk about, but because that's important. Being creative all the time can burn you out really fast, especially if you're burning it on both ends of the candle and a lot of podcasters are up there. So being consistent is all about just making a list and then you're going to have things that pop up. But if you ever go to the. You dry at the well for a thought, go back to your list and there's your FAQs that you can dive into. Is an easy way to kind of prime that pump.

How do you tap into hunger? Right? Like, how do you know when you've scratched the itch, you're good, you're satisfied, you're satiated, your cup is full, it runneth over. Like how I'm 32 years old. I struggle with this now. Like I'm in this weird spot where I never even thought I'd make it this far. Like, I didn't think I'd make it past 13 or 16. So to even be here, it's all extra. And I got kids and you know, they keep me humble and you know, they need braces. You gotta, you gotta work hard for them. I get it. But how do you stay hungry? Like when I was poor, when I was dirt poor and I had no prospects and I had a chip on my shoulder and I was young and angsty and angry and jaded at the world, and I had so much to prove. That hunger, like I've used this metaphor. If I had to paint the picture, hunger for me was like oil on the floor. It was just in surplus, it was seeping from the ground. Now today, for whatever reason, I've just lived a wild life these past couple of years. Now I gotta dig so deep, I gotta dig miles deep to just get some oil where it just used to be so plentiful. So do you struggle with that? You know, nobody's perfect. But how do you. How do you reignite the fire?

Yeah, that's such a great question. And it's honestly networking with others. Like the meetup group that we went to and met each other. You know, we exchanged some information, we talked, we. You hit it off. When you're on like minded people, you can have a mastermind. You've heard that mastermind is overused in today's society. I'm a big believer. But really you can get a group of people appears that you support and you all kind of hate to say this, row in the boat in one direction. And that's what I love about the podcast. In the world. We all have different destinations we want to get to, but we're all working to go in one direction, make ourselves better, and get our word out. And so, especially right now, the last six months, being stuck at home for the most part, especially the last 30 days, not gonna lie, I have had a hard time motivational wise, because I'm not getting that dopamine of being out and being able to get a high five or have a beer with you. You know what I mean? This. Honestly, I get more enjoyment from doing podcast interviews where I can see somebody face to face. Now, I can't go out and network with people these days for the most part. But that's the thing is whenever I feel that way, I pick up the phone and I call a mentor, I call a coach, I call somebody that I admire, and I just talk. Hey, I'm dealing with this right now. How did you overcome it? What do you think? Sometimes we just got to get that outside view, because sometimes we're so busy banging our heads on the tree, we can't see the forest for what we're trying to do. If you're struggling with motivation or fire, do yourself a favor. Don't record an episode because it's going to come across the board as being angry and bitter. Some cases, pick up the phone and call somebody, have a guest on, go outside and yell. Honestly, you know, if you listen to. If you're into that mental game and doing stuff, Tony Robbins is great to listen to.

I'm a big Tony Robbins guy for sure.

Okay.

I wouldn't. I wouldn't be here right now if it wasn't for that guy.

Okay. All right, good. So he did his big upw, you know, his big virtual event a few months ago. 30,000 people across the country. I sat through it for the first time, even though I'm. And that's the big thing. No, no, no. It was all online via Zoom, Dude.

Wow. So cool.

30,000 people on a Zoom call.

Intense.

Five days. Okay. Wow. Sorry. Three days. But the thing is just building some habits, going out there, breathing, getting out. And it's a lot of times our energy and motivation comes from our physiology, our movements, and that's a lot of times people have been stuck. So I like to get up and try to go outside and walk in my backyard, look at the vegetable garden that we've planted in the flowers and stuff in the last six months, or get up and just get out the heck out of Dodge, out of the house. That's one of the best things because we have to really unplug sometimes. Otherwise you're just going to be, you're going to wear that battery out and it's going to be like one of those lithium ion batteries, you know what I mean? You recharge it. It says it's full, but it only lasts, damn, an hour. It's like a damn computer laptop. After a year or two, you got to keep that thing plugged in because it's never going to be charged.

That's right. Emotion is caused by motion. Yeah, There you go.

T.R. baby.

That's right. I'm a big Tony Robbins guy. That guy saved my life. I, you know I'm a big pirate, right? So I was a child of the Internet and I was like on Napster when I was 12 years old, like, I figured it out. And so I downloaded, illegally torrented, allegedly, all the Tony Robbins audio stuff. This is pre YouTube. And as a young kid, I was like, this guy's speaking to me. And so I own all his books. I've read them. And anytime I'm lost, like, I kind of go back to the basics, right? So he's always been there and I love him to death and I appreciate him for sure. Can you talk to me about a big fat juicy failure? The first one that comes to your mind that, that still stings to this day, what you learned from it.

Oh, okay. So flashback 12 years ago, market here in Austin takes a big dump across the country. Takes a big dump. Okay? Mortgage market meltdown, real estate meltdown. I bought a couple properties that were great. And then in the period of me rehabbing and they went below what I paid for them. I was upside down. So big, big. You know, I had went through a divorce, ended up business partnership. And I was sitting literally renting a room from living in a 5 bedroom, 4 bath, 4400 square foot house with me and the dog and a cat to renting a bedroom for $400 a month that I could barely afford.

Ouch.

Ouch. And so I knew I needed to change my location. So I was down at my brother's house watching is like March 1st part of March 2000 and 2010. And I was watching, you know, ESPN and they had those Visa commercial come out, you know, $6 for a hot dog, $10 for a beer. Going to all the ball games with your son. Priceless, right? I was like, oh, I would love to go to that. I'm a big baseball fan.

Yeah.

So I'm sitting there feeling sorry for myself. I got these two properties are Just arbitrasses. I'm just kind of feeling down. I got to get the heck out of Dodge. So I literally, you know, they talk about writing down your goals. I said, okay, I want to write it down a goal and try to see 30 leagues. And I said, well, what would it take for me to go to all the major league baseball clubs? So I pulled up the schedule and applied it all. It take about 30 weeks, 34, 35 weeks to go across the country. And I just wrote it down. Okay. But I put the dates in for like when the Rangers are playing and the Astros and of course the Braves and had this whole fictional kind of thing. And I was doing marketing. Here's the thing, I was doing still videos about the deals that I was doing and what I was finding and going through this kind of like, I won't say this weird time in real estate, but it was a real weird trick because we weren't had any experience what we were going through. And fast forward about 30 days. I had four real estate investment networking clubs reach out to me, who saw my blog, saw my videos, and they asked me if I would come out and speak to the real estate club. And I'm like, when do you want me to come out? And the dates they had on their calendar that were open lined up perfectly when I would be in that city for a baseball game. Wow. Total divine intervention. Okay. So I was like, okay, all right, somebody's telling me something. So I sold everything I had left, basically. Wow. Jumped in my truck. And what that turned in what I thought be 30 weeks turning into three and a half, four plus years of traveling. Be on the road by myself, me and my dog, by the way.

Okay, okay, real quick on that note, traveling by yourself with your dog, John Wick style. Did you enjoy that or was it.

I loved it. It was.

You see, you're a road. You're a road warrior like me. There's any to any chance I get for an eight hour drive, I'd rather drive. I'll go for some reason.

Well, I don't know if I would drive that much. I get a little stiff these days. I'd rather jump on southwest and fly. And it saved me like five hours. I do get in some more trouble or at least I could drink for five hours someplace fun, you know what I mean?

If you got to go to Corpus, Dallas, Houston, the Rio Grande Valley, you're gonna drive, right? Texas is so big if you're awesome, if you're out of state. Yeah, of course. Texas is so Big. You could fit Germany, Denmark. I don't know what else in it, but so I totally feel you. But. So you did enjoy. You. You know, just not to sidetrack. But you did enjoy that, those four years?

I loved it. And there's something so liberating about giving up worldly possessions. I mean, I had my truck, I had my dog, I had some clothes. I had a small storage facility unit that I had. It was like 10 by 10 with some stuff in it that I didn't want to get rid of. Family heirlooms. But it was. I hit it. I mean, I was like. I reinvented myself. And it was from this ashes the phoenix arises out of it that I built this nationwide network, kind of grassroots network of investors and people and made friends and relationships all across the country to the point that I actually have really more friends. I'm better connected outside of Austin than I am in Austin, if that makes sense. Absolutely. Just great. It was just getting out of my head, seeing new experiences, talking to people, and literally just, you know, the best thing that came out of it was not only this network, but I found the love of my life along the way. She heard me speak somewhere, and boom, we've been together for a while. We're not married. We're happy, as I like to say.

Oh, yeah, yeah.

But that's. You know, you sit there, a divorce and financial ruin. Almost had to file bankruptcy. That's. A lot of people are going through those things right now.

Yep.

And it can be a tough time and stressful. And it was very stressful. And very, very stressful to the point I was like, I don't know if I can make it through this.

Yeah.

But I was like, I got to keep chucking along. Something's going on here. I don't know what it is. Let me just trust the process. And the process played out well.

Scott, how many birthdays have you had?

I am. Well, how old am I? I'm carry the 1 43rd birthday. 43.

Oh, you're a baby. You're a baby. Oh, that's so cool, man. That is so awesome, because you remind me a lot of myself, you know, but we're. We're a generation apart, you know? That's incredible. That. That sounds a lot like me, you know, the woman that I'm with right now. We got two kids. We're not married, but she's my spouse. She's my. She's my everything, you know? So I totally get you. We're in love. Let me ask you a Selfish question. So at the. At the beginning of the year, my wife and I were. She really wants, you know, this is just me sexist here, so trigger warning. Just kidding. But I think. I think I never desired to own a home. I never really desired it. It was kind of my wife's idea. And she was like, I don't know how we're going to do it, but that's something I want to do. And it's the whole adage of, you pay five years in rent, that's enough for like a house that you could own, but you're not owning anything. And I'm all about ownership. So she kind of sold me on the idea. And lo and behold. And this is an exclusive. I've never said this on. On my show before, because it's kind of like, don't count your chickens, right? But we found, like, a developing neighborhood that we liked. I won't say where, just to protect myself. And we started to build a house. And which was really exciting because I came from. I'm trailer park trash. Like, I came from nothing. Like, I didn't get a floor until, like, I was 14 years old. I thought Goodwill was a brand growing up, right? And so I never really thought I'd get a house, a home like my own house with my. For my kids and my dog. And then this Covid shit happened, this pandemic, you know, fortunately, so blessed by the grace of God that my job was, dare I say, recession proof. And that, you know, you said to yourself, so many people are struggling right now, living in their car or worse. And so what are your thoughts? Just from, you know, you check the pulse every day, I'm sure. Here we are, September 15th, just to. For posterity, just to timestamp this, because we'll look back at this years from now and marvel over this time period because what a crazy time to. To live in a big city and to be an American. Like, this is just the most wild time of my lifetime. What are your thoughts on. On building a house? I'm putting you on the spot right now. Is it weird? We don't need to get into, like, the technicalities of, like, interest rates and stuff, but, yo, like, isn't this crazy to buy a house right now? Like, that's absurd. How can it not be? I'm asking an authority figure here.

The number one answer to every real estate question is, it depends. Okay? And so I'm going to say that it depends. If it's your house and you love it and you've got a Great deal on it and you're able to afford it. Affordability, that's a beautiful thing. Keep going. Because your primary residence is different than if you're an investor.

True.

So I approach things different. When you look at your primary home and you've got mama, if mama ain't happy, ain't nobody happy. Yep. Okay. That's a whole different animal. Especially coming from the idea of building a nest. When you've got kids, they want to have kind of that home base. Especially with the craziness of what's going on. The more you can have your home base and the more safer and secure you'll feel, the better it is for your spouses, your kids, your growing up and stuff like that. Because I bounced around rented places and as an individual guy, it's not that big a deal. But when you got two kids in schools and a spouse, it's a whole different model.

That's right.

I mean.

That's right.

So if you're building a house, that's a great thing. Your primary is you got a great deal on it, you got some great things on it. It's affordable. You look at the taxes and everything's be affordable. Especially in Austin right now.

Yeah.

I would honestly say it's probably the most affordable thing compared to if you're trying to buy something that's been out because we have such a low inventory here in Austin right now.

Yeah.

And I think it's great. I think. I don't think there's anything wrong with it at all. Because if you look at appreciation in the next. What's going on right now, these six months or the next six months of this year. Yeah. We're gonna have some craziness happen.

Yeah.

But over scale, you're gonna be in that house hopefully on Average at least seven years. Seven to 10 years for the most part, before people upgrade or sell, you should see it. Your double. Your house should double in value in the next five to 10 years.

Wow.

For those that aren't investors, buying a primary residence and saving what you're saving on rent or what you are paying on equal to rent, you're getting a lot more. Plus the tax write offs. You know, all the other things that you can do by having a business in an office there and being able to write that off too. For you, having a home, being a homeowner is one of the best tax savings and tax havens that you can have as an individual in the United States today.

So that's a very good response. And you made me feel Better. Thank you. I'm going to be. I'm going to wear my cynical hat. I'm going to be the devil. Truth be told, in real life, Scott, I'm a bit of a punk rocker, right? I was anti establishment. Never dug school. Full disclosure. You know, my wife, she. She got her degrees. She. She went. Got a higher education. She's got some debt, right? She's got some debt. Everybody wants their. Everybody wants to go to college. But, you know, nowadays your kids going to college is weird because they're. They're going to college from home. So it's a strange time. But I was able to avoid all that and be fortunate enough to go all in. I doubled down, tripled down, went all in on my skills and was able to make money. And I'm lucky. I'm the exception, not the rule, I think. And so what are your thoughts? I'm putting on my cynical hat of just deep down inside, man, there's a voice in me, it's like a parasite, like a worm in my head that tells me this is all, this is all for. Not, man, like, none of us own anything, man. Like, who. Who are we to say we own land, man? Like, I didn't ask to be born. And then I'm going to say this. This is my land. Like, what is ownership? You know? And then there's this whole conspiracy theory of, like, the banks, they got to make money and so they. This. The Grant Cardone thing, right? Of like, so the best way is to. Is to sell debt, right? And that's how. That's how they eat. And so the best kind of product to create for the banks was like, homes, right? And I'm on my soapbox and this is just what I hear. But what are your thoughts on that? You know, like, you're an expert in the field. I'm putting you on the spot. I'm asking the hard questions, you know, what are your thoughts on. What are your thoughts on ownership and equity and debt and, like, our relationships with this? Because, you know, I told my wife right now we have a landlord, but our landlord's gonna be the bank. How's that any better? She's like, oh, we get to paint the walls and all that without asking.

Sure.

But then there's the homeowners association. How's that? Not like a manager. I don't like people breathing down my neck. Just a punk rocker and me, man, I'm. I'm kind of like you from years ago. Like, I got my bags packed and I'm ready to Take my dog out on the road, and I'm just fishing. Poles are in the car, like, at all times. I'm ready. So what are your thoughts on that? You know, with the pandemic? You know, it's. It's a strange time. I'm wrestling with these thoughts.

I mean, opposite side with. Based on your scenario, I am the evil empire, the bank on the other side, because we buy that. I'm kind of your secret agent, though, to make things happen. Because we. I would say we legally steal from the banks. We take their own, you know, what they've got going on and use it against them to find deals and make opportunities. Now, here. Here's the biggest thing. Everybody has a boss. Everybody. Even Jamie Dimon over at Citibank, the number one biggest bank. He's got a boss. He's got his board or he's got the stockholders.

Who's your. Who's your boss?

My boss.

Because I look at you, you're an entrepreneur.

I'm an entrepreneur. Yep. My boss is still going to be my investors. My boss is going to be the lady in the house. You know, I can. I cannot do, you know, happy wife, happy life. Right. Happy spouse. I don't. Can't figure out. I can't rhyme right now, but yeah. Oh, yeah. Happy, happy spouse. Don't get doused. She just said down there, she's a poet. She's a poet and didn't know it. But that's the thing. I think it's what it comes down to, because it all depends. Unless you're independently wealthy, and if you've ever watched the movie the Gambler with Mark Wahlberg.

Oh, Mark Wahlberg. No, I'm thinking of a different movie.

Well, the Gambler, where it's got Mark Wahlberg, and basically he's a gambler, and everybody there's a Right.

Anyway, I know who you're thinking of.

John Goodman.

John Goodman. Correct.

And John Goodman says it in there, if you own your house, you got 2 million in the bank, you've got fuck you money. Fuck you, whatever you want to do. I'm good to go.

Now we're talking.

All right. I love that quote. It's a great quote out there. And here's the thing. You. You can try to fight the system, you can try to fight everything. But the idea here is, yeah, you can fight against it, but at some point, you're gonna get into it. So what you have to do is know the rules of wealth, know the rules of money, and use those rules that everybody's playing by. So it's literally like trying, if you're playing checkers to Monopoly, you're gonna get run around. It's literally like trying to play monopoly and then just trying to win the game by going around the board and collecting $200 every time you pass go. That's not how the game is played. And that's, that's the thing. You realize there are rules out there, laws out there, and this is what the wealthy do. They use those rules and those laws of arbitrage. You know, putting money in a bank and a bank paying you 0.1% and then they're taking that money and lending it in mortgage loans at 4% or 5% they're not making 3.4.9% return on their, they're making a 490% return on their money and arbitraging the funds.

That's right.

So you have to understand how the game works and what you can invest with a dollar saved is not always a dollar earned unless you're putting your dollars out in the market and it's bringing money back above what you're paying towards your debt. So debt's not a bad thing. Cause let's say you're the average price home in Austin, let's just say is three. What's 340 unless you got $340,000.

That's right.

To plunk down, which most people don't. Taking out a mortgage at 97% or whatever you're doing and you're paying 3 to 4%, money's really cheap right now.

Money is cheap.

So you look at what your cost, savings per rent or what and adding the taxes to it, you're going to come out ahead of time in a variety of things. So that's what you have to do. You look at both sides of the equation. I mean, look, I grew up in a small town called Ingleside, Texas. We weren't wealthy. My dad owned the local hardware store. Entrepreneurship does not mean wealth. You have to realize that one of the best things about what we have here in the country is our access to education. Whether it's online or through lynda.com or the Khan Academy, we've got more access to education than anybody else out there does. And if you are a hustler, somebody who's self motivated, like yourself out there, who can go and find that information, Great. Save you from paying $40,000 a year to become a debt slave. For most degrees these days don't have value what they should deliver. And I Think it's illegal for. I really think it's bad that these, if you're going to college and they can't get you a job or put you in a degree that costs more for the degree than what you're going to make as an income, I think that's a big fallacy.

I happen to agree. Very slick. Very slick, sir. I think I agree with you there. Yeah, it's, it's, it's mind boggling to me. And you're totally right about the game, which is why, and I'm not proud of this, I'm saying this, giving absolutely no credit to, to these men that I'm about to mention. You know, I come from a long line of drug dealers. My father was a drug dealer. His father was a drug dealer. My grandpa on my maternal side was, it was one as well. They weren't very successful, you know, but that's what I'm sure they did what they did because they, that was the, the game. They knew those rules in that game and that's what they played. So if I'm, and I come from, I'm Hispanic and so my parents are the, you know, descendants from, they're like second generation Americans, right. So even though Knives Monroe, it's my real name and you know, I'm quote unquote, I don't like this term, but it is what it is. White passing. I've been afforded different luxuries than the most people, especially the community that I came from in South Texas, which was a border town. So if I want you to give resources or advice or point to whatever education that you can, if there is a disenfranchised minority person of color, what have you, someone, maybe they come from an immigrant family, they came from Russia or they come from Mexico or someplace and they want to learn the rules to the game. Where do they, where do they find them? How do they, how do we trust that? You mentioned the rules of wealth. What are the resources? Why are these. And I think I can understand why these are like heavily guarded secrets or rules, you know, because they ain't on billboards, right? And there's so many people that are very entrepreneurs and business people that are very protective with their hand. So where, where would you recommend someone who's coming with a disadvantage to learn the rules of wealth?

I would, I would, I would. First, the first book I would read or go download it somewhere is thinking Grow Rich by Napoleon Hill.

I own it and I've read it.

Yeah, it's one of the best books the Richest man in Babylon would be the next book I read. Here's the thing. Rich dad, Poor dad by Robert Kiyosaki would be another one that I would read.

Yeah, that's a good one.

And there's theories in there. You have to realize you have to break the chain of what you're doing. Most people will say they spend everything and then they save with what's left over. And if you've read those books, you've heard the philosophy of pay yourself first.

I agree with that.

Pay yourself 5, 10% first and live on the rest if you can. If you want to go Dave Ramsey and talk about that, that's a great thing. I think he's a little extreme in some cases, but that's okay. But here's what you have to realize, too, if you're wanting to invest. And that's why I think that's one of the biggest things about immigrants when they come to the United States is they understand the opportunity. Whereas a lot of people that are here in the United States take ticket. Don't take advantage of the opportunities that we have.

Mm.

Okay.

They're comfortable with being a spoke on the wheel.

Well, not just a comfortable spoke on the wheel, but they have a sense of entitlement.

Very true.

Everybody. Everybody. Unless you're Native American, we're all immigrants. That's right. Somebody had to jump on a ship, come here, whether it was forcefully or you came here on free will.

Correct. All right.

And there's never been an equal. Never been a time where you could access as much information as you can right after podcast or video libraries. I mean.

Very true.

You have to take advantage of opportunity. If you don't, then, okay, then it's on you. We're all in specific situations because of the decisions we've made on a daily basis. Nobody's held a gun to your head. Well, in some cases, we've had. I've been shot at a few times. I think everybody has at some point, depending on what's going on. But what I'm trying to get at here is take the education and then start applying it. People that want to get into real estate investing, here's a great thing. There's millions of dollars sitting out there at local investment clubs of people waiting for a good deal. So if you can go find a deal or a property or something, that makes sense, there are somebody out there that will probably give you the money, that won't give a rat's ass of what your credit score is or what the color of your skin is, or what your, your age is. It's all about, hey, what's the property going to do? And that's one of the things that we have done for years is raise capital for our projects from other investors. We haven't gone through getting approved of the bank. They haven't had to jump through those hoops. The deal made sense and they were able to fund it. So most people don't realize that there's all this private money sitting out there waiting for somebody to call them up and say, hey, I've got a deal. And you can borrow this money at ridiculously low rates compared to long term financing for a short term. So that's, that's the biggest. And realize if you want to do stuff, there's usually funding or financing. And the biggest thing I would tell you as well out there, if you're struggling and there's somebody who's successful in what you want to do, pick up the phone and give them a phone call. Reach out to my social media. Most of the people, most of my mentors that I've met, that I've met in person or I've talked to the phone because I just reached out to them. Most of the most successful people in America out there in the world want to share their secrets with you. They literally want to help those that are less fortunate because they've gone through a bad period. They would rather help you avoid those hiccups and, or speed up that learning curve so that you can take off and you don't make the same mistakes. Because people don't in success, they don't see the mistakes, they don't see the failures.

That's right.

Those that are successful are only successful because the fact they have failed more times than not. I was a banker originally when I first moved to Austin. Well, back in 2004, I was a mortgage banker for JPMorgan Chase and opened up like a dozen branches around Austin as Chase is going through an expansion. One of my clients up here on the north side of town was Mr. Lee. And Mr. Lee actually owned a, the restaurant, the Asian restaurant inside of Lake Lane Mall. And I got to, I got, he come in. I was his personal banker and other things. We got to talking and I said, well, you know, he's got all these 10 or 12 chains, he's got a couple houses. I said, how did you, how did you build it with? Because, well, I started off, most people don't realize that I worked in a restaurant like this. I washed dishes and I worked my way up. I Saved. I was eventually able to buy the restaurant from the owner, previous owner. And then for five years, I slept on the floor in my kitchen on a grass mat at the end of the night.

Five years.

Five years. My. My wife wanted to do the same thing. So five years. And we had the opportunity. We had saved enough money to either A, buy a house or B, buy another restaurant store.

Yeah.

And they decided, okay, we're not gonna buy a house. We're gonna go ahead and sit on the floor. They thought they had to sleep on the floor for another four years. They only slept for another two. But in that time, for another two years, they bought four more locations. And so they invested heavily in themselves. They invested, they listened to what the social media, their friends and family told them that they couldn't or couldn't do.

Right.

They looked at the numbers they believed in themselves, and they really rolled up their sleeves and went to work. You know, it wasn't always easy, you know, and that's the thing, the whole idea. And then the big. One of the biggest problems in the United States is the keeping up with the Joneses. You know, I've got to do this because of image or I got that. I'm like, screw that. You know, if you want to read a good book, read the Millionaire Next Door. In the Millionaire Next Door talks about the average. The average millionaire drives a late model Ford F150 white pickup with three dents in it and 100,000 miles.

Fascinating.

Because they realize they don't need the new, you know, freaking Cadillac deville or whatever it is. They're going to use something. It's a tool that works and it saves some money. It's just a different mentality to get beyond that. So if you're motivated, read some books, reach out to people. There are great people everywhere. Go to your Small Business Administration office. Talk to somebody who's a thing called score there, which is a retired executives in business. There's so many resources. You just got to pick up the phone, say, hey, help me. And most people are glad to help you in any form or fashion out there.

They'll say, okay, I want to vouch for that. I think that's very true. Yeah. You know, I just, for a micro example, put out there on Facebook and I was feeling down, was having a bad day, and I was kind of fishing for some sort of adoration or something online. But I. I had no expectations and I put out there, does anybody want to talk on my podcast or something? And 50 people responded and I was like, What? And you were one of them. And I was like, I. What? I, I. Whoa. Like, we need to ask more often. We need to pick up our hand and say help more often, you know, or. Or be more invitational, you know, we certainly aren't, and I think that's very true, and I want to vouch for that. This is a surreal time in our country, but it is still the land of opportunity, for sure. So as we're winding down here, Scott, I want to ask you, because I just came back from another interview right before we started this one. I say I don't do interviews. We do. We do conversations. Right?

Yeah, that's good.

But I've been asking a lot of questions because I look at you as just a fountain of. Of wisdom. And so I got to get in. I got to get it all. I collect all the jewels and the gems, and I just try to share them. Right. That's what this podcast is about, isn't it?

The beautiful thing about being a podcaster, you can interview and pick the brain of people that you love. I love that about podcasting. It's my favorite thing, having people on and learning.

Yeah, it's my favorite thing. I. What Tony Robbins would call at the hour of power. This is from, like, the 90s, so I don't know if he still says that, but still says it. Okay, good, good. I'm a big believer in it and had two hours of power today. I was doing some fasted cardio in the morning, and from 6am and it was still dark, the sun didn't come out to, like, 6:45. And anyway, so I'm breaking a sweat, and, you know, emotion is caused by motion, and. And it's great. And I do it to clear up the mind. I do it. It's all mental for me, the physiology. It's great, but it's all mental. And the brain is physical after all. Right, So a new. A new something, a new perspective, a new wisdom. And I was saying this on an interview prior, and you said the word and it triggered it. And it's one of the. It's the last question I want to end on here. Something occurred to me today. When we reach a moment of stagnation, or we're idle, or we hit the proverbial brick wall, we hit the glass ceiling. You know, pick your euphemism. When we reach some sort of plateau, this is an invitation to transform. That's the incredible thing about being a human being. We create these tools. Like you said, you know, about the millionaire and pickup Truck. It's a tool. These iPhones, they're tools. These microphones, they're tools. It's what you do with them. That's what makes human beings so amazing. If you look at Elon Musk, I mean, what a brilliant mind to. To cultivate the world's greatest engineers, to design an electric car, right? Like the ingenuity that goes into this. So it makes humans special. The other thing, this is the thought that I had when I was on my hour of power was when something sucks and things don't feel right, that is a signal to transform. I need to reinvent myself. And so these two words, I was like, I don't see them on the Internet enough anymore. We always hear things about marketing and branding, and we always hear, like, kind of the same shit, but we don't really hear enough. I don't in my echo chamber about transforming, about reinvention. And anytime I've got my boots together and I was like, enough is enough. You reinvent yourself. So can you give me some advice or share an anecdote on how you and I want to say, recently reinvented something and it transformed either your lifestyle, your relationships, or your business?

That's a good question. We're doing this for a while, so I would say this. That's a great. I love that question. I absolutely love that question. Transforming. So I would say this. No, I'm not going to say that, because that's too anecdotal. What I would say is one of the biggest things. Okay, here's the thing. We. A year ago, went through one of the most difficult times in my life. A year ago, I had a couple of deals that went south in real estate. I had people that went out and went online and just bashed me, people I've never dealt with before, people I haven't even worked with went online and bashed me to everything. So literally a. I won't say online bullying, but it was a lot like that. People spreading falsehoods, people saying bad things, and it's just a wave of hate coming to me. Very, very difficult time. Very depressed. You imagine you have somebody goes to every, like thousands of Facebook groups and posts falsehoods and lies about you, and you have to go back and track them down to try to save. And then you have people that you thought were your friends who read these falsehoods and then decided to believe it and say bad things about you, too. Total hell on earth for about 90 days, maybe six months. So I look at that as like I could have Given up very easily on what I do. I could have called it quits and went on to do something else out there. But what I did is I just kind of. I circled my horses, I talked, I got rid. I literally stopped looking at people that hated me and realized, hey, I'm not a bad guy. I didn't do anything illegal. I just. It's real estate. Everybody has ups and downs, no matter what type of it. And I will always take care of those people.

You know, just on that note, you're talking about the game. Talking about the rules of wealth. Talk about Monopoly. Don't people get real butt hurt when they land on your hotel? You didn't do nothing wrong. That's the game.

It's the game.

It's the game. Continue, please.

Yeah, so I think the biggest thing that. That was a big growth transformation. I really. I would say my podcast saved me, is that I said, okay, I'm just gonna sit here. We're not gonna go out in the road and speak. We're just gonna crank out episode after episode. I'm going to double down on the giving. Yeah, okay. And recently, literally, I would say within, actually at the beginning of all this craziness that happened in March and February, Covid I look at it as a time that God actually gave us an extra six months to kind of go, okay, everybody's dealing with chaos right now. Everybody's dealing with shit. Here's your opportunity to kind of re. Pivot or turn 90 degrees, maybe not pivot 100, but continue to give. Continue to give. So that's what we did. We continue to double down. We increase embedded our marketing. We've invested in market. In educating ourselves in other markets out across the country besides Austin and sharing that information with our network. And we've come through this. We're gonna. You know, there are a lot of opportunities with what I do with what's going on, the debt game. So we're gonna come out of this fine. I'm gonna look back at in a year or two years and laugh.

Yeah.

About things. You know, but here's the thing. I think God always gives us stuff that we can handle. And before I listen to Tony Robbins, I used to. I loved the Chicken Soup for the Soul. You're familiar with that from Jack Canfield and another guy by the name of Mark Victor Hansen.

That's right.

And four months ago, a buddy, a fellow podcaster of mine reached out, said, hey, anybody would like to have Mark Victor Hansen on their podcast? And I'm like, me, me, me. Me, Me. Because when I was going through the rough time back 2008 and nine, I was listening to a cassette of mine. I wore it out over and over and over again. I had a chance to hear him on an interview one time talk about that when he filmed that tape series. He was going through the worst time in his life.

I love it.

Okay. And so that was one thing that really I said, I'm going through the rough time and I'm a really shitty situation. Let me just double down and believe in myself, know that I'm not these things that people are talking about and that they're hurting right now. We're going to solve that over time. It just can't be fixed like that. And so I reached out. I had Mark Victor Hansen on my podcast. I was episode 600.

Wow.

Him and his wife Crystal have become friends. They've referred me to probably about 20 other podcasts to be guests on. I've done the same thing. But their book that they book they're talking about now, which is what you just talk about that we need to ask more. Right. That's their book.

There it is.

Wow. There it is. And it's literally ask. The bridge from your dreams to your destiny is just one question away asking. And so that's the biggest thing is when I went going through that, I asked people, I asked my peers. I had my friends and colleagues in the real estate that reached out to support me. Hey, how can we help you? What can we do? We're here to bounce ideas off you. So that's what I would tell you is that pivot is sometimes you've got to duck your head down, realize, hey, shit's going to hit. The phantom cases just focus on you and come out of that. Not maybe, yes, reinvented in some way, but also more focused.

Yeah.

Because part of the issue that happened was because I did lose focus on some things. Yep. And I took. I took the buck. The young responsible that, hey, everything's. The buck stops with me. I'm not going to point fingers. It stops with me. I could have been better. But I've taken what I've learned from my mistakes and I know I will not repeat this mistakes in the future. And I think that's the answer to the question that you're looking for.

Very well put, Mr. Carson. Question where can people find you on the Internet? How can they support you? How can they support what you got going on in the future? Tell them where to go.

Best place is just going to our website. We close notes Dot com. You can find out our blogs, our videos, our trainings, or you can always go over and listen to the podcast, the Note Closer Show. It's anywhere you listen to podcasts. IHeartRadio, Spotify, iTunes, whatever. It's everywhere out there and every platform out there. So give it a listen. But here's the one thing. If you guys are listening to this, go on over and hit the subscribe button for what Knives is doing, because we all know Knives is kicking butt and taking names. And hit the subscribe button to Knives and leave them a review. Tell them how much you'll love this guy. I love his interviews. I love it. Because when you reached out, hey, I'm looking for guests, I was like, I might not be a fit because I'm a whole different thing, but I think we can have a great conversation, brother.

You're a guy that, you know, you plant the seeds, you give it sunshine, you give it water. I knew I could tell the moment we met that you were a nurturer and you took podcasts seriously. So I think we're cut from the same ilk, sir. And thank you so much for doing me the honor and doing getting on this podcast. I appreciate your kind words. Let me know if you need anything, need anything in the future. I'm just a hop, skip, and a jump away from you.

Amen to that, brother. Same here, man. Anything I can do for you, please don't hesitate to reach out to you. We got to talk some more. I got some stuff lined up for you. I think it can be helpful, too.

Okay. Okay, great. Well, thanks so much for coming on the podcast, sir, and I'll see you down the road.

Never, ever believe anything you hear. And believe only half of what you see.

And always, always, always, always, forever and ever and ever. Put a force field around your heart. Never stop.