How to Become a Financially Free Investor with Steven Pesavento

Hey, it's Mark Podolski, the land geek with your favorite niche real estate website, thelangic.com and on this week's Art of in Art of Passive Income podcast, I'm gonna put in my anchor million voice. He's a big deal. Stephen Pasavento is on a mission to create over a million financially free investors. He's a real estate entrepreneur, high performance coach, and managing partner of Von Finch Capital. He's been investing full time since 2016. He's completed over 200 transactions, renovated nearly 100 buildings, and transacted hundreds of millions in investment real estate. He supports investors on his mission through his education on the top ranked investor mindset show with over 1 million downloads, teaching people to create passive income investing plans and through his syndications investment funds with Von Finch Capital. Stephen, welcome.

Super excited to be here. I'm excited to dive in with you, Mark.

Yeah, I'm super excited that you're here. So, okay, let's just rewind to 2016. What were you doing before you're investing in real estate?

Yeah, so I graduated university, you know, went the traditional route. I always wanted to be an entrepreneur when I was a kid. Did a lot of entrepreneurial things, but jumped into management consulting and quickly realized, wow, the corporate world does not fit what I'm looking for out of life. So I left corporate, went into high growth tech and and then started doing some airbnbs back in 2013 to bootstrap a startup I was working on with a couple of their friends that had just graduated from Stanford. And we're working on this idea and you know, we intentionally didn't take on outside capital so we could grow the product market fit before doing so. And I ended up realizing in the process, I'm making so much money on Airbnb, what am I doing? Like, why are we even working on this startup? I'm not even passionate about it. So I redirected and then shortly after that, I made a decision to go all in on making real estate a full time thing. Airbnb had some regulation issues, so I jumped into flipping houses. And in the first two and a half years, I bought over 200 houses. And that's how I got started.

Amazing. Amazing. What would you say were some of your biggest learning lessons in that, in that journey?

I mean, I think the biggest learning lesson, which is one that you just continue to learn over and over again, is what you're capable of. And that capability, I find, really does come from your belief, it comes from your mindset, it comes from how you think so? At the time. You know, when I was a kid, I grew up watching HGTV and Food Network and wanted to be a chef like Emeril Lagasse or renovate houses like Bob V. And despite making offers on houses when I was 18 and 20 and 22, I never went all the way. When, when a deal didn't come together, I kind of gave up. I thought, you know, maybe, maybe I can't do this, maybe I'm not that kind of person. But when I finally made that decision to go all in, I mean, Airbnb was one thing. It was great. I kind of incrementally grew into that and was making some really good money doing it. But when I didn't even think of that as real estate, when I made that decision to go into flipping houses, I said, I've got to cut off any other option. I stopped any other income stream I had other than, you know, Airbnb the house once a month so I could cover all the expenses. And I just went forward and I went and found other people who were already doing what I wanted to do and found a way to be valuable to them, found a way to show them that I was a go getter, that I was going to be a go giver, and that I was going to actually use the information they shared with me. And, you know, the first person I approached at a, at a meetup, I went in with the intention of trading some skills that I had for some things that they could teach me. And, you know, everything kind of looking back, really started there. It started with that decision.

That's amazing. Was, was anyone instrumental in helping you shape this mindset, to help you sort of burn the ships, if you will, and really hyper focus and, and create mastery in creating passive income or doing real estate?

Yeah, there was a bunch of individual people, both everyday folks who were in the business to, you know, big name people that I listened to. But I remember, you know, the, the decision that I made to shut down the startup and sell off the assets. I was listening to Tony Robbins, Personal Power two. I'm going through the program and I'm, and I'm writing down the goals and the notes and, and in that process, I realized I was going after that strategy purely for money, like, purely for the upside, purely for the ego of it. I didn't even care about really what, what that underlying product was. And so in that process, it opened up my eyes to another way of, of, of thinking, another way of looking. And, you know, I kind of got obsessed I really dove in everything I could possibly learn from him and from other people who are great performers. And that allowed me to start thinking differently. And one of the other things that I did right off the bat was when I made that decision to go all in, I started finding meetups and places to be around other people. And every hour of every day that I was awake or not talking to somebody, I had an earbud in my ear. Listening to a book, listening to a podcast, listening to YouTube, just hearing other people who've done it, their strategies, and really being inspired. Almost like brainwashing myself into believing that this is possible. And then through that borrowing someone else's belief, I was able to actually build up my own, see that I was able to do it, and then have the confidence to persist. Because I feel like the game of real estate, the game of investing, is a game of confidence. But you first have to start with gaining those skills and knowledge, but you have to turn them into experience so you have that wisdom, the confidence to actually take advantage of the opportunity that's available.

Yeah. It makes me think of Dan Sullivan, a strategic coach, and he talks, you know, know first about courage. Right. You, like, you needed to have that courage to say, okay, here's an obstacle. I've got skills, but I don't know this. I'm going to go to this meetup and find a mentor. And then through that courage and going through that obstacle, then you're able to build capabilities. And you're saying, okay, now I've got some capabilities here. I'm learning as I'm doing. And then through that capability, you create that confidence, which it's really propels you as well. And so the. So the question then is, you know, what is for you, the definition of success? Because clearly, it's not about the money. Right. You know, culture looks at you and says, oh, Steve was a big success, but you had already been making a lot of money, and yet it wasn't something that was driving you. It wasn't this intrinsic thing. So for you, what is that intrinsic motivation that says if I do X, Y and Z, Steven's a success?

Yeah. To me, success is about who you are and who you're showing up as, as a person who's creating value in the world, who's making strategic investments in relationships, in assets of time, of energy, of capital, into things that are actually going out and creating value. And so what I'll tell you is when I got started flipping houses, I mean, I had drained my bank accounts dry. I didn't have a lot of money. I had some great experience of going out and trying different things, but I was essentially starting from scratch. I didn't have family with money. I didn't have other people who I knew were having success doing this thing. But I. I went and found that community. And I think once you have some success, you want to show other people that it's possible. The truth is, most people won't take the action. Most people won't do what's necessary. They won't make the sacrifice. But the truth is, almost anybody can do it. And that the ability to do it comes from seeing and believing that if someone else can do it, you can do it as well. And so along the path, I kept taking what I had earned and pouring that back into education, pouring that back into growth, pouring that back into the company. And even to this day, you know, I own $200 million of real estate with my firm, and. And we're buying large multifamily properties around the country, and we're taking advantage of some opportunities that are in the market today. And. And, man, it's a lot of fun, but it's extremely difficult. But I've taken everything I have and I've poured it back in because I know the power of that compounding, starting with 0, making it 1, 1 into 2, 2 into 4, and it just continues to go. And so there's a certain point, I'm at that point now where it starts. It's important for me to start taking some of that money off the table from the growth and the compounding and turn it into an income stream that I can continue to know that I've got that level of security while I go and take the big moves that allow me to be able to, you know, go to the next level. And the truth is, it's not about the money. However, the money sure can open doors. The money can lead to hiring better people, making a bigger impact. And so money is super important. But at the end of the day, success comes down to creating yourself, building yourself into the best person you can. And if you've got a lot of money and you're unhappy, it's because of what's inside. And so I found going through the process of actually clearing that out, getting into alignment, you know, makes it makes the money so much more enjoyable.

No, I. Yeah, I absolutely love it. So let's get a little tactical. So if I'm somebody that is struggling with belief, right, maybe my belief is I don't have enough experience. I don't Enough money, I don't have connections. The how of it all is overwhelming, and therefore I'm just not going to take action. What would you suggest as a first step?

Everybody wants to know how. I've got a great story I'll share. When I was first, you know, getting out of management consulting, I came out to Boulder. I'm working in the startup industry and I'm. I build a really good friendship with this gentleman named Chim Jack. He's, you know, a guy who didn't go to college right out of high school, he had started a business, he had grown that business and he just kept starting businesses, very entrepreneurial, had a different way of thinking. And I asked him the question. I said, hey, I want to, I want to really pour into this entrepreneurship thing. I want to make that my life. You know, how do I, how do I start a business? How do I, how do I do it? And he said, well, if you want to start a business, then you need to do business. And I said, man, but how do I do it? He said, you're not getting me. If you want to do business, you do business. And I got upset. I got upset because I wanted the how. I wanted the five steps in order to do it, in order to get to that point. But what I took away from it, looking back, and we're, you know, best friends this day and spent a lot of time together at his place in Hawaii and here. And, and it's fascinating because everybody wants the how. But what you actually need is you need to step into being that person. You need to step into, I am an entrepreneur, I am an investor, I am a person of value, and how am I going to go about then making that come to reality in the real world? And so the way that you go about changing your belief, from my experience, is you go and find other people who are doing it. You find a way to be around them, to be valuable, a great friend, a great, you know, a great support person, you know, offering to do work for free, but figuring out what they need instead of asking for it, just doing it. These are ways that you can show to the people who are having a lot of success that you're a go getter, that what you're looking to receive back in return is just to see what they're doing. And in that process, you start to recognize that, wow, like the way they're thinking. I can, if I can embody that, if I can step into that way of thinking now, I can do it as well. Now maybe I don't have the experience or the track record, I can build those things. But really it starts with stepping in and, and starting to recognize all those limiting beliefs that are holding you back. Because at the time I was saying to myself, I'm not a person who's an investor. I'm not a real estate person, I'm not a, a wealthy person. I don't come from that world. And every time I said it, I reinforced it. So as soon as I could let go of that and, and truly say it out to the world, but also believe it inside, that it starts to come true. And at first, maybe you are faking it, maybe you don't truly believe it, but you, you start going out and eventually you rewrite those programs and you start to be that person. And it starts just one day at a time. It's one thought after another. And over years they build. But most people give up. They give up because they let those other beliefs get in front of them. And it doesn't matter on the how. The how is simple. The how will come together. How do you buy real estate? Will you go and buy it?

Right. You're right. Yeah. There, there's so much wisdom in that. And you know, staying on that, that tactical train for a second. Is there something that you do? Like one of the great books of our time is Atomic Habits by James Clear. I think it's the best selling business book the last five years. Just a simple little habit that compounds everything, compounds relationships, compound money, compounds your habits, compound. Next thing you know, you're 1% better every day. You're becoming the best version of yourself in, in life and relationships and business. You wake up one day and you've got something really, really special. So is there something that you compound on a daily basis? A habit practice that you, you now see eight years later has really had a tremendous impact on every part of your life.

Yeah, so one of the, one of the. There's really kind of like four habits that kind of build into each other. The four M's, if you will. And the first is, is mindset. Right? It's, it's receiving a message. It's receiving a message that could be an audio, that could be a video, that could be a book. But I'm receiving information. I'm taking this in. I'm, I'm getting this motivational content. I'm getting these beliefs put into my brain. I'm, I'm listening to them for 10, 15 minutes an hour. And I'm looking for that. That could be the Founders podcast. Great Example of other successful biographies of great people could be a Tony Robbins, could be a variety of things. But I'm, I'm soaking in that information. I'm priming myself to, to remind myself what I'm capable of because of what other great people have been capable of. So I'm starting with that and I'm sitting down, I'm mapping my day, I'm getting a clear vision of what it is that I'm going after. What are the most important, one or two or max, three things that I got to get done today for it to be a win. And when I take that mindset and I bring it into that vision exercise, I, I get clear on what those action items are. I, I see myself having them done, feeling what it's like. I don't need to know all the how about how I'm going to get there. Maybe just the first step and then the third is movement. And so I'm going to go do a 10 minute run, 15 minute run. I'm going to do some stretching, I'm going to get that blood flowing and then I'm going to sit down, I'm going to do some meditation, some mindfulness. And the meditation that I like to do is from Joe Dispenza, although I've done many different meditations over the years, all of which can lead to some really great stuff. But one of the things I really like about Joe's work is that he's been studying how to get your brain synced into the right frequency and in that process, into alignment. And so I find that when I am in alignment, things just start magically happening. But when you have that vision next to that kind of alignment, you really start attracting those things into your world. And most importantly, as an investor, every day there's problems. Every day there's problems, but there's profit in solving them. But we can only do that when we're emotionally disciplined. And emotionally disciplined means that we're going to receive those emotions. They're going to be a signal. I'm going to feel them, I'm going to recognize that they're there, I'm going to feel them in the moment if I have the time and space to do that. Or I'm going to put them on the shelf and make sure I, I experience that so I can let them go. But I'm going to make my decisions from a logical place. So that meditation coming to that alignment allows me to make the best logical decisions in the moment that allow for the greatest returns both from time Effort, energy, and of course, capital when it comes to investing.

So good. So good. Well, we're, we're getting to that point in the podcast even where I'm going to ask you for your tip of the week. A website, a resource, a book, something else actionable. I know we didn't talk about in the beginning of the podcast. You're like, wait, what am I doing? So, so I want you to think about that for a second. But I want to talk about just what is an investor mindset that we should all be adopting. Like I'm always talking about, you want to solve your money problems and your time problems. Passive income is the way to get there. And I don't care how you get there. Like, I think land investing is great. You probably think multifamily is great. It's, I'm sort of agnostic on how people get there. I just think it's super important because once they've solved their money problems or time problems, they've got the time and the energy and the resources to really live their best lives and go up that Maslow's hierarchy of needs and the self actualization. So what is the investor mindset that you preach?

Yeah, the investor mindset is different way of thinking, right? So we've been taught, go to school, get a job, work for a 401k and a gold watch and hope someone else is going to take care of you. We've been taught to be consumers, to go out and buy the house and move into it and pay for it ourselves. We've been taught to go buy the car and the nice clothes and continue to spend that money on living a great life. We've been taught to be consumers. But what I've noticed and what I've realized over time is that investors think differently. And when you step into the investor mindset, it's of course it's related to investing in portfolio and capital and money. But when you think like an investor, it's so much more than that. It's recognizing that everything you do can create an roi. An ROI could be, of course, making a lot of money, growth and appreciation, cash flow, but so much more than that. It's investing into relationships. It's investing your time. It's investing to create an impact. It's investing to help a fellow neighbor in the community. All of these things that we do every minute of our day, every moment of our energy, we can make an investment with it. And that investment comes back. Sometimes it comes back selfishly to us, but oftentimes the only way that we receive value is because we're creating value and we're putting that value out into the world. And so the way to step into the investor mindset is first you have to build expertise. You have to go and get that knowledge and, and learn all the things and understand all the details of a niche or multiple different niches and pull that together. But then you have to take action and turn it into experience. You have to understand what your numbers are, you have to know your number, you have to name your number, and you have to understand what specifically you're going after. So when you have that vision of what you want your life to look like, how you want to spend your time, where you want to be living, how you want to feel, and who you want to have in that life, you can then back into, well, how much money do I need to live that life? Do I need $10,000 a month? Do I need $50,000 a month? Do I need a hundred thousand dollars a month to live that life? Most people, they're not very far off from that, but once they, you name your number and you back in, well, this is the amount that I actually need to live the quality of life I want and give the experience to those people I love. You can then back into the strategy to get there because $10,000 a month, it doesn't take that long to, to, to be able to, to reach that. Most people who are far into their career know they have a couple million dollars in a portfolio somewhere parked away in their house. If you take $1.6 million and you invested at 8%, you're making $10,000 a month. And that's a pretty conservative return. If you're an insider, if you really understand the game and you're invested in the private markets. But to get to that 1.6, most people think, hey, you know, I'm 25, I'm 35, I'm 45, how am I going to get there? Well, if you have a hundred thousand dollars and you only make one single investment, you only have to compound that four times. So that could be doubling your money every five years, making a 20% return. Well, you're going to be there in 20. That could be doubling your money every three years, something that's very growth focused, you're going to be there in 12. But imagine what that compounding effect does if you make implant more than one of those seeds. And so you can back into that. And then the final thing that I'll say about what it means to be an Investor is because you've got that knowledge and experience, because you've got that clear vision, because you know your number and, and you know your numbers on how to get there and the type of investments you want to do. You do your due diligence and you manage risk, right? You manage risk in everything. When you're getting married, you want to manage risk. When you're having kids, you want to manage risk. What kind of insurance do I need in place? How do I want to protect myself? What conversations do I need to have when it comes to investing? You need to understand where your money is going. You need to, even if you're going to invest in a fund or a syndication, you're going to invest in an expert like me who goes and does this all day, you still need a basic understanding of what that strategy is and how you can choose the right people to invest in. And that's where managing risk comes in. Because when you do all of this and you're emotionally disciplined, you, you're so much further ahead than everyone else. Because most people, retail investors, most average investors, they buy when things are high and they sell when they're low because they're being driven by emotion. But if they're able to step out, get the bigger picture, see that? You know, in the multifamily market right now values are down 38%. During the Great Recession, they were down 42%. People are afraid of buying because maybe they bought at the top. But right now is exactly the time to be making those investments in different real estate categories and businesses because you want to be rushing in when everyone else is running away. And you can only do that if you step into the investor mindset.

Yeah, so much wisdom in that. Thank you so much, Steven, for sharing. Well, your mentorship has been invaluable on this podcast, but now I'm going to ask you for one more tip of the week. A website, a resource, a book, something else actionable for the art of passive income listeners to go improve their businesses, improve their lives. But before you do that, I'm just going to give a shout out to our sponsor, which is flight school. Learn how the next 16 weeks can transform your life. Go up that mountain of land, investing quickly, safely, efficiently, so you can start building that passive income without renters, rehabs, renovations or rodents. I know you're thinking, oh, the tuition and they going to cost you nothing, guaranteed you make it your money back 180 days or less. Just show us you did the work. Learn more, Go to the land. Geek.com forward slash training the land. Geek.com forward slash Training. Stephen, though, what is your tip of the week?

Yeah, I mean, my biggest tip just plays at everything we've been talking about and it really comes down to making that decision. Make the decision of what you want from your life and what you're willing to sacrifice to go and create it. Because with that vision, you can back in to all the other things about how you're going to get there, what beliefs you need, and you can start climbing that ladder towards becoming an investor, really stepping into somebody who's thinking through these things because that's what's going to change your life. Buying a new car, going on a vacation, these are things that are rewards that your investments can pay for. But if you first start by saying, hey, what do I actually want for my life? What's that vision? How am I going to back into it? That's where the real magic happens.

100% agree. Well, my tip of the week, as good as yours was, is better. Go to investor mindset.com I'll have a link in the show notes. Go to investor mindset.com Stephen has an insane podcast. It's one of the top in the country. And just learn more about what he's up to and, and maybe you, you know, invest with them. I don't know if Steven, if you only take accredited investors, but if you're an accredited investor, check it out. All right, Stephen, are we good?

Amazing. It was so great to, to sit down and, and share this with you guys and, you know, if you got value out of this, you know, Stephen Pesivento on Instagram or LinkedIn, you know, shoot me a DM, let me know you listen to this and, and what value got from it. That would be, you know, the biggest thing you can give back to me is just let me know what are you going to do with the information. And I hope you'll take some action today because every moment that you're consuming this content, you're gaining this knowledge. Decide how am I going to use it, how am I going to apply it, and then, you know, share that with me.

Fantastic. Fantastic. Well, I want to thank the listeners and just remind you the only way I'm going to get Stephen to come back for a part two is if you do three little favors. Three Follow rate review the podcast, send us a screenshot of that review. Support thelandgeek.com and I send you for free a signed copy of Dirt Rich. But don't even do it for the book. Just do it selfishly so I get better guests which will benefit you, so please do so. All right. 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 training let freedom ring.