How Leadership Plays An Effective Role In Real Estate Investing

Hey, it's Mark Podolski, land geek, with your favorite niche real estate website, thelandgeek.com and on this week's podcast, we've got a big hitter, Chris Craddock. Now, if you don't know Chris, he is a nationally certified life coach in leadership and one of the top real estate professionals in the world, closing 30 to 65 deals a month. Chris Craddock is the host of the Uncommon Real Estate podcast. A Realtor and entrepreneur who runs multiple successful businesses in the Washington, D.C. area. Richmond and Richmond, Virginia. Chris and his companies consistently bring in close to 10 million in revenue a year after year. His team, the Redux Troop, sold just over $160 million in volume in 2020. Chris Cradock, your big deal. Welcome to the Art of Passive Income podcast. How are you?

I'm great, man. I feel like I was just Ron Burgundy introduced right there. My apartment smells like many leather bound books.

That's right. You're exactly.

I'm.

I'll. I'll. I'll admit it. I'm intimidated. So, Chris, let's. Let's rewind the tape. And how did you, you know, start figuring this stuff out? Like, what was it?

Yeah, so. So for me and yeah, thanks for everybody bearing with me. I'm here on vacation down in Florida with our whole extended family in this massive Airbnb, so had to find a place where I think we got like 14 kids here in this one massive house. So I appreciate you guys. Bear with me if it's a little bit loud here, but, yeah, so it started for me when I was, you know, I graduated from college in 2000. I was on staff with an organization called Young Life. And I made no money, but I love doing what I did. But in 2003, my wife got pregnant and we needed to make some money, so I went to the library and checked out every book that they had on real estate investing. And, you know, I just went out and one of my whole thing is like, massive imperfect action, right? You know, just move and get something done better than, you know, thinking about it and do nothing. And so in four months, I made 12 times what I made in a year. And it really was just crazy for me. And so we ended up just kind of putting money away. Lived. Lived. Well, frugally. But I've got six kids, and anybody with many kids knows that the money disappears really quick if you're not bringing in a lot of money if you've got a lot of kids. And so I think it was 2011, 2012. I started. I got back into flipping houses again and started flipping houses. At this point, I'd always led large groups of people, and I'd gone back to school. I'd gotten a doctorate in leadership. Just because, you know, I really believe what Zig Ziglar says is you can have everything you want in life if you help enough other people get what they want. And so that was always my view of leadership, and it served me very well by helping other people win. And so I ended up getting a real estate license because at the time, you know, the way I was flipping houses in the early 2000s, after the crash, everything essentially was a short sale that I was going after. And so the banks were paying people commission if you bought a short sale, even if you're buying it yourself. So I got a license, and I read Gary Keller's book, you know, the millionaire real estate agent. I saw that there was a color by numbers. I know you're an engineer type, love the systems. You know that there was that system, the color by number system to how to make, how to gross and then how to net a million dollars a year, build a business, and not just a job you're out working in. And so we started doing that and started doing really well, and then saw that, you know, because we're. We're closing so many transactions, we could start a title company. And then, you know, I had my wife open a mortgage branch and then opened an insurance company and a construction company and just all of these other things because, you know, every time somebody buys or sells a house, they're going to need all of these other pieces. And so that was kind of the way we saw, you know, what. What we call vertical integrations. You know, how are we going to get paid four or five times in a compliant way on the same transaction? And that's kind of what we've done.

I love the multiple streams of income, and I want to get back to that and the thought process around that. But I want to talk a little bit about leadership. And at such a young age, what was it that drew you to go so deep into leadership? And what great leaders do you think are around today that are excellent examples for us to learn from?

Well, it just depends on what you're looking at, right? Because part of leadership, I mean, leadership is influence, right? Like that. That's just it. If you can't influence people to move, then. Then you're not a leader, right? Nobody's following you. You're not a leader. So that's really. It's kind of fun to look at what people have done. You know, I'm, I love political figures as a good picture of it, right? You know, you see jfk, right, where he talks the moon, right? It makes everybody in America was kind of dealing with just like it just wasn't a great place at the time. And he says, hey, here's the vision or Ronald Reagan, right, Who essentially goes to war against Soviet Russia, you know, and everybody, I mean, Jimmy Carter referred to America as being in a malaise, right? And so he goes to war against Soviet Russia or even Bill Clinton, who literally just, I mean, you saw he was going to win the election just when he had a town hall meeting and he told somebody, you know, she was talking about the pain she was dealing with in her life, and he was like, I feel your pain. And all of America believe that, that he felt her pain. So you look at these politicians that are able to galvanize just massive amounts of people. I think that's a really, really interesting place to start. And then other people, I mean, I love, I love what John Maxwell puts out there. You know, he's got so many books that, you know, I think that leaders are readers. And so, you know, I think that we can choose our profits, we can choose our mentors. And so I think that's one of the best things that we can do right now is, is read these books that they have. So John Maxwell is somebody that I really respect and I think the world of Zig Ziglar. I wish I would have known him, but, you know, he's. He's passed. But man, I've read everything that he has on out there and I've listened to everything he has online. I mean, just everything. I mean, Zig is just the man and I'd love to be like him. So. So, yeah, those are the people that have really, really influenced me. But I mean, I'll read somewhere between two and four books a month. And so I have so many mentors that I've never ever met.

So if I put you on a desert island, I said, okay, you're going to be on this desert island for two weeks. And with just this one book, you're guaranteed to be a better leader. What would you choose?

Well, I know it probably sounds like the cop out answer, but, you know, I would say, you know, if I had to take anything, I say the Bible teaches you more about life lessons than anything else. And so, you know, that's still part of my morning routine. Every morning is, you know, I read, I Read the Bible every single day teaches me how to be a better person, how to love people better, how to care for people better. You know, just. There's so much in there that touches everything. So, um, that would be the big key. But, you know, one of my good buddies who has a small business texted me. Yeah, actually just yesterday and was like, hey, what's the. What's five of the best books that I could read? And I'm like, well, it just depends. Are you looking for personal development leveling up? Are you looking for, you know, business building and scaling? Are you looking for, like, leadership development? Like, what are you looking for? And so that's the tough thing where I feel like, you know, the Bible encompasses all of those.

Yeah, there's so much deep wisdom in. In the Bible. And even, you know, you don't have to be religious, I think, to appreciate the wisdom of the Bible. There's a reason that, you know, this has lasted for so long. And, you know, there is. There's so many, you know, new books that come out every year, but it's. It's the ones that have lasted, they stood the test of time, I think, can really provide the most value to people instead of the, you know, the New York Times bestseller du jour. And typically when you read those, they're great, and they're different stories, but ultimately that. That core wisdom is from the very beginning, and that's what you find. Do you agree?

So. Oh, 100. I mean, there's nothing new under the sun. It's just all repackaged and said. I mean, it's so funny, you know, one of my jokes, just because, you know, I'm always quoting other people. And I think originality is forgetting who you stole it from.

Yeah, originally, I was forgetting who you stole it from. I love that I'm gonna steal.

That's original. That's original.

I'm Chris Craddock when I say it, too. Yeah. So getting back to the multiple streams of income now, was this something that was created out of. Let me just ask you, how did you create it?

Well, so one of my business coaches actually just said to me early on, he's like, there's two things you can get more clients or more of the client you can get. And he's like, but the better option is both. Right, right. And then the other, you know, there was actually three. Three pieces. The other thing was, why get paid once when you can't get paid five times on any transaction? As long as you can do it in a compliant way? And Then the last piece is just that, you know, so many people, so many business leaders or business folks are only focused on either top line or bottom line revenue. And if you only focus on top line revenue, there's so many people that have these big businesses and bring in so much money and keep so little of it. But if you only focus on bottom line revenue, then there's not really room to grow. Right. You don't have any upside for where you're at. So that's where it's really important to focus on both top line and bottom line. And when you look at these businesses where you can have kind of vertical integrations, you realize you can focus on both top line and bottom line at the same time. Also, you know, I love, I mean, I love, I don't know if you. Have you seen the show the Profit with Marcus Lemonis?

I love it. Yeah, I have.

So good. Like he'll go out and buy a sign company. Well, the cool thing about this sign company is then like his sign company outfits all of his businesses with signs, right? And then he'll buy a. Like, like just everything that he does. It, it'll, It'll, you know, integrate with all the other businesses. And so that, that's where like I look at my insurance company and, and we can feed an insurance company just with the hundreds and hundreds of folks that, that we close every year, be closing about a thousand people within the next year and a half, you know, in a 12 month period. And so that feeds, that'll feed and basically get a business up and running and off the ground. And then all you have to do is scale it, right? Because everybody knows the first couple of years is the hardest because you're, you're working to get out of the red and into the black. And the cool thing with, with having this like, you know, vertical integration is, is you already on day one, have enough, have enough business so that you are, are profitable from day one. And then you just get to play offense instead of playing defense.

Okay, so let's, let's unpack that because you're already profitable from day one. So we look at it like a, like a wheel, right? And the hub of the wheel is going to be your main core business, which for you is a realtor, correct?

Yeah, right. That's. That, that feeds all of our others and that feeds.

And then you've got the spokes of the wheel, so you got the insurance, you've got title, you've got construction, you know, what other spokes am I missing?

So my Wife runs our mortgage business. We have a legal shield business. I have a flipping business. I have a wholesaling business. I am part of exp. So anybody that I bring in and help work with there, I get paid in a downline there, I have a real estate. I coach investors on how to monetize all of their leads, because most investors think they can only monetize leads if somebody wants to sell, sell it 65 cents on the dollar. So I've got a coaching business. So all of these things get fed by the people that come into the. Into our world, into that flywheel, and they all get fed by that. Huh.

Okay. And so from a management standpoint, so how. How do you structure it? Because you have so many different businesses going, even though you have sort of the core client, but then you've got to serve that client in so many different ways. And then I can imagine that managing all these different businesses could be a challenge. But you walk me through it.

Yeah, no, absolutely. So the hardest part is dealing with bookkeeping and taxes, honestly. And with it, although, I mean, I've saved fortune on taxes. A couple of years ago when I got put in touch with a good cpa, which by, by the way, if anybody is making any sort of decent money, if you don't have a CPA that somebody recommends you, that they rave about, not just say, oh, this person is okay or this person is good, but rave about, then you're with the wrong CPA. Because I'll tell you when, when I switch CPAs, and they saved me a fortune. Like, it was incredible. But, but yeah, what, what I heard from Gary Keller, you know, I had the privilege of being personally mentored by Gary Keller for a short period of time. And one of the things that I heard from Gary that I thought was really crazy is he's like, you can have as many businesses as you want. You can have, you know, hundreds of businesses as long as they're all in a manila folder, right? They're all in a folder. And there's somebody's face on the front that's in charge of that business, and that person's face is not yours. And so I was like, it just made so much sense. And, and so, you know, my title partner is an attorney who runs the business, right? My insurance, insurance partner, he runs the day to day of the business. Like my construction partner is. He runs the day. He runs the business, right? So I'm a silent partner in that business, right? So all of these things, I'm a partner in these businesses. And, you know, I'm able to bring value what I do, you know, scale and help see things bigger and all that. But, like, I don't know. I mean, I couldn't write an insurance policy if you, you know, if you paid me. Right. Like, which, you know, people do pass, and I don't write it. Right. And so that's. That's that whole idea. You get somebody that's really good at what they're good at. And this is something that I've learned over the years. And I've got a big sign in my office that says, are you in your genius zone? Right. And so I know what my genius zones are. I've got four of them that I work to stay in all the time.

And.

And then I work to make sure that the people that I partner with are in their geniuses. And actually, that's one of my genius is strategic relationships. Like, I'm really good at building relationships that are strategic. And, you know, all of those partners are strategic relations.

I love it. I love it. We're singing from the same song sheet for sure. And I'm a big believer in who, not how. Yeah. And Jay. I had Jay Papazon actually on the podcast as well. For those of you that aren't familiar with Gary Keller, he is also the author of the One Thing, which is one of our most recommended book, and he's a billionaire, so it's pretty crazy that you were able to be mentored by him. So much wisdom there, I'm sure. But, Chris, given your area expertise of leadership and creating all these passive income streams and scaling, what is some of the worst advice you see or hear given in this area?

Well, it's so interesting. I mean, you and I spoke before we got started today. You know, we were just talking about some of the hustle culture. And, you know, I think that the hustle has two sides, right? Like, like, there's. There's the people that say it's all hustle all the time, all grinding, and I don't think that's right. And then there's those that, like, I've got. One of my really good friends is like, he is like the absolute anti hustle culture guy. And he's like, never, never, never, never. And. But I. I don't know. You know, going back again to the Bible, it says there's a season for everything, a time for everything, right? And I think there's a time for hustle, right? And one of the ways that I see scaling happen is you work your business has to earn the right. It leads with revenue to build out its org chart. And so what I see is there's a short period at the beginning where you need to hustle and you need to earn a lot of money. But again, Gary Keller says that if you grow just by working harder, you're cheating. That's not how you do it. And I think that's really important. But what happens is you work really hard and then you earn the right to hire an assistant, right? And then you get things that are way below your pay raise range, right? Let's say you make $100,000 a year. That means your time is worth $50 an hour. You make a million dollars a year, it's worth $500 an hour. If it's $2 million a year, it's $1,000. Now, so you look at your pay rate, and as you start making money, then you take the things that are below your pay rate, right? Like whatever Your number is. 100, 500, a million, 2 million. Like whatever your number is, you take that number and the things that are below that, you hire somebody else to do that so that you're then spending all your time and things that are more valuable, where you start to get into your genius zone, and then automatically your income will go up. And everybody's heard of the Pareto principle or the 8020 rule, right? That 80% of your income comes from 20% of your. Your effort. And so if you do that, if you work to get rid of those that 80%, then you can stay in the 20% and you double, triple, quadruple your income. And that's when I saw my income really, really quadruple. It was when I got out of my own way, stopped doing everything, and started hiring people that were good at doing things that had no business doing anyway.

I love it. I love it. Well, Chris, your mentorship has been invaluable this podcast. But now I'm going to ask you one last question, put you on the spot and give the listeners your tip of the week. A website, a resource, a book, something actionable for the art of passive income listeners to go improve their businesses, improve their lives. Before you do that, I just have to give a shout out to this, our sponsor, this podcast, which is flight school. Learn how the next 16 weeks can really transform your life. Start building that passive income quickly, safely and efficiently with Scott Todd, who's done thousands of deals as your Sherpa. He's going to take you up that mountain very safely. In fact, you're going to start building Passive income without any renters, rehabs, renovations, rodents, and the tuition for that mentorship ain't going to cost you nothing, guaranteed. You're going to make that money back 180 days or less. Just show us your work. Learn more go to landgeek.com training thelandgeek.com training learn more. Chris, what is your tip of the week?

All right, so tip of the week is to monetize all of like everything that you can make the most out of, everything you can do. So if you are, if you're buying or selling real estate, right, if you're going direct to seller, make sure that one you're winning when you buy. And to any of your leads that are coming off that, that are coming out of that, that you're connecting with a real estate agent, you're finding a way to monetize those other deals, right? So that's, that is in the real estate world. But what are the other pieces that we could do to monetize, right? It's, it's leveling up. So here's, it's leveling up all across the board. So whether that's the business there, the other piece is what is your genius? Do you know what your genius zones are? Because that's optimizing you, right? Because if you don't know where your genius zones are, you haven't thought about it. Because we are all built and created uniquely and we're all built and created with certain areas in our life that we are absolutely gifted in. And if you are not spending time where like the idea of being well rounded is bogus, right? Don't be well rounded. Like I'm just telling you right now, don't be well rounded. Be excellent in the areas that you're good at because you, the areas that you're good at. If you focus on that, you're going to become 2 times, 3 times, 20 times more effective than if you get mildly good at area. Like if I just got really good at being organized at administrative tasks, I promise you I would never make the kind of income that I make right now. But when I'm focused on my, my relationships in pitching vision to folks, but strategic problem solving, you know, like just imparting energy where I go, I'll tell you, those are the things that the double tripled. I mean, when I started focusing on that, that was the first year that I broke a million dollars net income because I started focusing on those things that, that I really knew I was one of the best in the world at. And Then as I focused on that, I got better. So the whole idea is optimize. And I think I got there in a long way. So sorry it took me so long to get there, Mark, but optimize everything that you're doing, whether it's your business or your life.

I love it. I love it. Optimize everything you're doing. Chris Craddock. Fantastic. My tip of the week is learn more about you. Go to Chris Craddock.com and you know Chris does have a coaching program. Check out the REI Revive program, and it's advanced training. And just from, you know, this podcast today, you kind of get like a little taste of the wisdom of Chris. I can't imagine what his coaching program could offer. So definitely check that out. Chris. Chris Craddock.com will have a link to it. Chris, are we good?

Yeah, this is great. One of the things that I'll just throw this out there because early on, when I first started in the business world, I would listen to podcasts and when I liked people's vibes, I would reach out to them and I could not believe how many people would respond to me. And so I have decided me, not an assistant, that anybody that sends me a DM on Instagram, I will personally respond to. And I've actually done some business deals with some people. I've talked to a bunch of people. But yeah, so if you reach out to me, Radrock on Instagram, C R A D D R O C K, old cheesy high school nickname, then yeah, I'll respond to anybody. And anything I can do to help them serve you. Just because so many people were generous with me, I wanted to be generous with other people, too. So if there's anything I can do to serve you and help you, please feel free to reach out.

All right, well, thanks so much for this, Chris. I want to thank the listeners and remind them the only way, the only way we're getting the quality of guests like a Chris Craddock is if you do us three little favors. Follow rate Review the podcast. Send us a screenshot of that review. SupportLanggeek.com, i'm going to send you for free a signed copy of Dirt Rich. So please do it. It really helps us out. Helps my fragile ego. So please do it. And it's going to help you out as well, because guys like Chris do check our reviews, and if we don't have any reviews, they're not going to spend their time. Chris actually is taking time out of his vacation to share all this wisdom with you and I can't thank you enough. Chris. Thank you, thank you, thank you. And thank you listeners. And as we always end it, Scott Todd's not here today. Let freedom ring. Thanks everybody.

Thanks for listening to the Art of Passive Income podcast. Are you ready to learn how you can start building a passive income without renters, rehabs, renovations or rodents? Schedule a free consultation@thelandgeek.com forward slash training. Let freedom ring.