00:00 - 05:00
David: Adam Welcome to the show!
For those of you who don't know Adam Whitney, it's kind of weird talking to myself when there's like I can see you guys there so I'm gonna have to try and do something new today.
So Adam and I first met like two and a half years ago and we met well actually in person in California is one of the few people I got to hang out with in San Diego. We first met and he owned a few properties and then he got into wholesaling and now he has $100,000 a month wholesaling machine while active duty as a Marine, he speaks at events he's does coaching and accountability for I mean, I don't know how like, I get on stage and talked about being efficient and effective and not making excuses when you have a W two, and I got nothing on this dude, he's probably rolling a solid 20 hours, maybe 30 hours a week more, in his, quote, side hustle than I was at the end of being active duty.
That's my short intro to Adam. He's an active duty Marine. He's a fuckin badass all the way around. And if you don't know who he is, you just haven't been around the community long enough because you'll see him eventually. Welcome to the show, man!
Intro: Welcome to the Military Millionaire podcast where we teach service members, veterans and their families how to build wealth through personal finance, entrepreneurship and real estate investing. I'm your host, David Pere. And together with my co host, Alex Felice. We're here to be your no BS guides along the most important mission, you'll ever embark on your finances.
Sponsor: Hey, guys, if you're looking to take your investing, business, life, or just yourself to the next level, them I have something for you, the War Room Real Estate Military Mastermind Group is a mastermind group that meets weekly in small groups of five to six people to help you hold yourself accountable and really experience that growth. But we also have a monthly guest speaker that we bring in and we've had guest speakers that talk about mindfulness, taxes, we are bringing in somebody to talk about marketing, we bring in very specific topics that will adhere to very broad any kind of real estate investing, or investing or entrepreneurship that you want to do, and will really help you out. And we let you ask these speakers questions and get very personal with them. And then back to the small groups, weekly accountability for what you're trying to achieve. And just being surrounded by like minded people, and they say your network is your net worth. I know that's an overused phrase, but I recommend you check it out. So just shoot an email to wrmastermind@gmail.com Once again, that's wrmastermind@gmail.com and we'll send you some more information.
Adam: Hey man, thanks for having me on. I'm glad to come on here and banter with you guys. I'd say thanks for that intro but the reality is, I do three or four full time jobs and I'm average at best in each of them so that's the trick to doing more just be average.
David: Oh, perfect!
I'm about to take that.
Alex: You’re surprised. You think you're that good?
Adam: I was waiting for that from you Alex.
Yeah, I'm probably not. Honestly I'm maybe average at one below average, get the rest.
David: As long as you're fit reps or, you know, hourglass, you're good.
Adam: Yeah.
David: As long as your boss thinks you're awesome, then.
Adam: Yeah, I'm excited.
I'm excited to chat with you guys. And I'm excited, hopefully to talk about something that's worthwhile for the audience. Which you know, since Alex is here, I doubt we'll do that.
Alex: I'm here to entertain, if you came to learn something you messed up.
David: That's the standard we set for the show guys, it’s on the floor.
Alex: You've already been to the show Adam, haven't you?
David: No, this was Adam's first time. Well, unless we count as part of a show.
Adam: Longtime listener.
Alex: Do we have to interview him or can we just hang out?
David: We could let him give like two minute like..
Adam: Two minute intro?
David: Whatever you think people should know about you.
Adam: Akay.
Well, first, obviously like they said, I am an active duty Marine, 17 years in the service. Started seriously investing in real estate in 2017. Spent a lot of time learning and reading and following some of these smart guys like Alex and Dave to figure out what the path was and really just picked a path and dove headfirst in it last October. In the military we can't really make more money. It's like you just kind of wait your turn to make more money which sucks so I was looking at ways to generate capital faster. I knew Nothing about flipping or wholesaling properties. And last October, I just decided, you know what, I'm going to try that. And I jumped in to feed in and I spent six months floundering, which is pretty typical for things I do. And finally got some traction and got a deal. One deal went to 10 deals. And then 10 deals went to me being a co-owner of blackjack real estate, which was already an established company, a bit of a cheat code. And they were doing 100 to 200 deals a year. When I took it over, we weren't doing that. But that's what we're growing back to at this time. So that's kind of where I'm at. Southeast markets investing, I own rentals in Milwaukee, I've never seen any property I've ever transacted in my life.
05:00 - 10:00
Alex: You say, starting into a company, the cheat code, and I recently did something similar. Now in retrospect, to my real estate investing career, I think that's like, kind of the way to go. I think I don't want to take your intro thunder. But for me, there's definitely a lot of ego where I'm like, I'm going to go do this thing, I'm going to make this thing of mine. And then you start, you have to spend a lot of time learning. And you get, make a lot of mistakes that have been made by millions of people before, and you learn how to do it yourself. And then you start to get a little good. And you're like, oh, I need more people, more resources, you know, more knowledge, more sophistication. And now it's either like, I need to hire those people, which is a whole other set of complexity in and of itself. Or I can check the ego instead of making my own thing and go join, like a higher level to your team. Now that I have some of that experience and get back to learning, get back to growing with, I'm kind of just projecting what I did. But it sounds like something with what you did as well.
How do you feel about in retrospect, if you had known at the start where you're like, maybe I'll just, I'll go join something from the get go?
Adam: Yeah, I think the key word you said is ego, right? Because we want it to be ours. We want it to be the one to grow it. It's easy to see social media and go wow, look at how, look at these guys and their Ferraris. And they're doing really great. But I think the reality is, we're all trying to get out of our nine to five job into entrepreneurship, which is like a 5am to 9pm job, right?
Alex: I want to quit my nine to five, so I can work 24/7.
Adam: Yeah, I've seen a lot of that lately on the internet.
But I think that's the reality. That's what it takes, in my opinion, especially from somebody who's not skilled or intelligent, like, I need to do. I have to grind to get it to where it needs to be eventually, the hope that one day is providing something for me, that gives me the freedom. But to more directly answer your question, Alex. First I had to check my ego, two I just had to look at the deal like what's the risk in the deal in joining this team? And what's the upside to it? And obviously, it's clear, the upside is like it's already established. You don't have to do that whole one to two years of that, like I'm skipping two years worth of work. And now I'm just at a different level.
Alex: More than two years because the company might have been built two years ago with the operator experience that went into that far.
Adam: Yeah.
So it was really five years. Blackjack real estate's been around since 2016 doing deals but yeah, you're absolutely right my partner, Bill Allen, all the learning he did and all the stuff he put into it even just leading up to that.
Alex: I made a YouTube video about my transition. Oh, that sounds weird.
That sounds weird nowadays. I made a YouTube video and it was something like you know, I'm 38 I can go join another company. And I can literally work for this company for 20 years, and then start my own company. Because I have so much, I'm gonna live to 120.
So like, I have so much time and I think a lot of people, myself included, like I got wrapped up in this, like, Oh, I've already done a lot on my own, I don't want to go do something with somebody else. But the reality is I'm like, actually I can, if I really want to scale, if I really want to get good at life. There's an immense amount more to learn, and much more to learn. And I'm just now scratching the surface on what I learned. And I learned a lot on my own. And so I look at it when you say it's a cheat code. I'm like, it's the one that a lot more people should take.
David: I just realized ike, three years until I know everything, so I don't know why it's gonna take you so long.
Adam: It's interesting, Alex, I think, you know, Jay Scott made a post or said something about this recently. You either have money, time and skills or knowledge and you're trading one of those four things for this monetary benefit for you to get where you want to go. And you know, you said I'm 38 years old, but you've amassed all this skill and knowledge over that time, which makes you a valuable asset, which allows you to jump to that position where you just entered, right? Because, you know, you spent time in the banking world, then you've got your finance skills really sharp, you've been doing real estate for a long time. So you know, you just made yourself an asset that allows you to do that. You know, so if I'm a brand new investor, and I'm listening to Dave Pere and The Military to Millionaire, and I'm thinking, Well, I'm just gonna go join a bigger company and take it over. Or I'm just going to go join a bigger team, you've got to have some, you've got a bit of bringing some type of value.
10:00 - 15:00
David: Yep, sure.
Alex: Okay. Oh, sorry, David.
David: Oh, you're good. I was just gonna say, you gotta be able to provide a ton of knowledge or a ton of time, right to be able to say the other guy.
Alex: If I could provide. Well, I have two questions.
One, I was gonna ask what did Adam trade, right? What did Bill say, Hey, Adam, this is the right guy. And so the second piece is kind of fitting into that, which is like I looked at, you know, the company, I joined climb capital, and I'm like, you know, what they have, they have a really, really, really great team that's almost complete. And the gap in their skills is perfectly Alex shaped. And so it worked out well in that regard. And so I guess, not to push back. But to elaborate further on what you said, I get to bring skills, but you have to, not just bring skills, but like if I want to go work for David Pere, go take over some company. It's like they better need what you got. But everybody's got something. And so what is Adam got?
Adam: Part of it is timing too, right like that climb capital they're at the point they need that Allen shaped thing. And for Bill in blackjack, he was moving in a direction and would have had to kind of regress his progress to come back and take care of blackjack, the way it needed to go. I happen to be on a glide path and starting to get traction and doing well. Like he's here and I'm here and I'm going in that direction. He was about to come backwards and was like, Hey, I can't do that. What are my options? Well, I can take this guy who is just like I was five or six years ago, and he's gonna put in the work, right? He's seeing my work ethic, he’s seeing me put in the time and the learning and gaining the knowledge and the skills. So I think it was easy for him to go, yeah, that idiot down there that was me five years ago doing that grind that guy, he's not gonna stop until he wins. I'm gonna sign him up. See if he wants this opportunity.
And honestly, for me, it was a no risk opportunity, right? Like I was already on that path. And he said, here, here's the thing. That Bill, it's yours. Work really hard and do good. Like, okay, cool. Thanks.
Alex: To me what I hear because this is the way my brain works is I hear network, network, network, network, network, network network, because the person you need, the person with the, you know, the listener who's sitting there, the whatever is, you know, whatever your name is, like, whatever the your shaped hole in the company, like they're looking for you, you just need to be looking for them. And so when the universe says, you guys need each other, you have to always be putting in those networking seeds. This is why I do so much content so people can find me. So people say, Oh, my God, that's the guy that I've been looking for. If you're, you know, quiet and reserved, they're not making any, you're not making any connections, you're just lurking on the internet. It's like, dude, nobody knows you are the right fit for what they need. So a lot of it is in being out there being loud, making posts, doing podcasts, appearances, making content, showing up in these communities, adding value.
Adam: Yeah, and being consistent doing those things, right, or doing everything you're doing because how many people do we see? They kind of show up in the social media world or they start a website or they start a YouTube channel, and then you don't see him six months later? Because they realize the consistent work you have to put in so you're absolutely right, Alex.
The people need to know who you are and what you're doing for opportunities to open up for you.
David: They say the average podcast doesn't make a pass like 22 episodes.
Alex: I quit podcasts.
David: Alex, I had a question on this puzzle piece theory as an employer. Do you have to take the person that fits that hole? And if so, how do I avoid growing to a size where I get stuck with you?
Alex: Wait, you are stuck with me? Rephrase the question.
David: I just want to make sure that I never end up with a puzzle piece with Alex’s shape. That's all I'm saying.
Alex: I'm gonna say something. It's kind of pseudoscience, which I generally hate, but everybody should go off and take a bunch of those personalities. Because they provide a lot of insight into who we are. They're grossly overused and they can box people in but if you know you're an introvert or an extrovert that matters, if you know your creative type, high in openness you You know, you have high conscientiousness and a high work ethic, these are good things to know and to know what you aren't. Because I looked at Jeremy's team and I'm like, Okay, you got three people, if you look at the, you know, one of the personalities has the Deloitte business chemistry test. And it's like a four segment piece. And it's like, they got three, and I'm the other four. And turns out all of us are strong in our areas. Is that like hard science now, but when you look at you're like, Okay, I see where my piece is in relation to them. And so understanding who you are, is going to understand what your puzzle piece is.
So I highly recommend people take the big five personality tests, Myers Briggs, Deloitte, Business Chemistry, which is similar to disc. But I don't know the disc.
15:00 - 20:00
Adam: Yeah, Disc is a good one.
Yeah, they're all valuable.That works both ways too, right? Because we do. We've hired a bunch of Blackjack. And the way we hire is we use the WHO methods. So there's a book called The Who. And it talks about basically having layered interviews with very specific questions that you're asking to uncover certain things. Before you even get in the door there. I want to see what your personality profile is to see if you're even made up for that position, right? Like, if I'm hiring the sales guy for an example. And your people skills are the bottom thing you have, like, you're probably not going to get the interview with me because I need you to literally be talking to people all day long.
So we use it as a screening mechanism in our hiring process. And, you know, even then, to your point, it's imperfect, right? I've hired people whose profile was perfect. They answered all the questions incredibly well, they had the exact experience we were looking for. I called their previous employers and heard the information I needed to hear, I hired this salesperson. And two weeks later, he was no longer with my company.
Alex: Yeah, it isn't perfect, but it is. It's like don't overvalue it. It's a tough one for me to give advice to because I'm like, Dude, don't overvalue but also don't undervalue it.
So sorry, so sorry.
David: I just yelled, my turn.
Adam: Well now say something valuable, Dave?
David: I mean, if I'm gonna say something on this topic, what I'm going to say is that I followed Adam's advice for hiring cold callers. And I just ran into this where I hired two, and they did all their training. And last week, they started it and I'm down to one, so you never know.
Adam: Yeah.
David: He was like, Dude, you might only get one that's any good. So hire two. I was like, that's a good point. Thank God. Otherwise, I'd be really mad right now.
Alex: I actually think it's much less useful for people. It's a really weird dynamic, I find those things to be much less useful for understanding other people. Like I can't if you tell me your test numbers or your test grades that are like that, it’s like I'm not going to have a place for you, what is really useful for me is me understanding me, right? Like I didn't realize that I was like 99% extrovert I knew I was a peaceable person. I knew the social person. But I didn't realize that if I'm not around people for more than 24 hours, my mental health starts to degrade noticeably and start to get fussy and like not depressed, but like negative self talk. And so like, if I'm not around people, my quality of life degrades quickly. And so I didn't realize that until I started taking these tests. I'm like oh..
David: That’s why I'm so miserable all the time. Which sounds funny, but it's true. It's like yeah.
Alex: Yeah.
David: I wonder how different, I would imagine our profiles aren't too far apart like Adam, I did Adams culture index and I came up as a super high influencer than I do Disc and I'm an influencer and so you know, the the guy who thrives off people and yada yada yada yada. And then at the side, the bad side of that is I take everything personally, right? If somebody says something, it's like, oh my God, I know this doesn't make sense.
Alex: No, David. No.
David: Hard to believe.
Alex is gonna make the same point he makes on every podcast that I defend my honor, and he thinks it's hilarious so we're gonna skip that and move on to Adam.
Alex: Dude, you baited yourself on that one. I love it. He can even take the criticism that I might have given him.
David: I was skipping you.
Alex: He canceled me on my own show.
Adam: Yeah, I will just say, Alex, it does actually help me know all the people in my company's profile. It helps me in the way I communicate with them. I’m like running a million miles an hour and I'm a low detail person. I think probably like you Dave, right. So I'm like, Hey, we need to do this thing. And in my mind, I've got what that looks like, but I don't communicate it. If I don't communicate that to a high detail person, I'm going to get what I asked for, but I'm not going to get what I want, right? So I know, my high detail people, I got to be like, Okay, here's what I'm thinking, I think x, y, and then z, right?
20:00 - 25:00
Alex: All really good points.
And so yeah, to summarize, or to come like a kind of ticket step back to where we started, which is, there is a lot of stuff here that, it is often overused, but a lot of times people don't even know it exists.
If you don't even take these tests, you have never seen or never heard of them, it's like go off and spend some time learning about these and how they interact, and how they affect you. Because there is usefulness there. I do think they're overused once people know them. But if you don't know them, it's like, you don't know what shape you are. So you don't know what company, you know, hole is right for you.
David: Yeah or you might even be working in a job field that makes no sense for you. Because maybe you think you are good at it. And you just like it doesn't fit. It's amazing how much synergy there is in life if you can kind of try to fit those holes. So today, we've kind of ended up started talking about like, we just say cheat code, but like, the idea that you don't have to start something from the ground up, you can kind of jump into something that's already, you know, moving, which I love.
You know, I mean, that's why I know Adam does some stuff with in terms, I've scuppered my skill bridge, on my way out of the military. And so I love the idea of, you know, like attaching yourself to something else and working with it, and potentially you grow into it, or you branch off from there. But for somebody who's first starting out, like I guess the question is that none of us were looking for this, right? Like, I mean, I didn't jump into someone else's thing. But it doesn't sound like Adam or Alex was out hunting this down. What would you do? Like what's an actionable way to try to like, if this was something you were trying to do, like, just get attached to an established team to gain that mentorship and an opportunity? Like, kind of advice? What do you think? What's the answer there?
Alex: I think that I would have in retrospect, now, it seems obvious, I would have done this probably three years ago. I didn't because literally my ego didn't allow me to think that this was a viable opportunity. I was just like, I'm gonna build my own thing.
And in retrospect, I'm like, That was so stupid. I should have never even bothered not really not to the high level, I should have said, what is it that I want to do? What's the biggest thing that I can accomplish? And then find the company that's like, maybe what I call a close carrier, five steps ahead of me. 10 steps ahead of me, if you want to be multifamily like don't go try to work for Grant Cardone, I don't think that's going to work out good for you. But there are a million people who are in between that need a body that can use you. And a lot of them are set up in a way they're small enough. They were like, look, go work for somebody for free. What do you need? I'll go do it, and then run with it. And then once you add value, like, that's how I got linked up, it's like, Hey, here's the deal. Let's do more deals.
Adam: I think, you know, what the hard part is like, well, a couple things. One, like everybody who has an especially small business, like Jeremy's team, or even our team who's less than, like, 1520 employees, I'm always looking for a person who can do sales, and wants to make over 100 grand a year and is hungry. Like, I'm always looking for that person. And what we often hear on these podcasts, and what we're often guilty of saying is, oh, just provide value and the opportunity will come but we don't really quantify what does that mean to provide value? And, and that can look a number of different ways. But I put that question back on you two, like what does it mean to provide value to somebody like what is valuable to you, Dave and helping you with your content creation? Or what is valuable to you, Alex? Was it underwriting deals like what is it?
David: I'll tell you what's valuable to me.
It's my time, right? And everyone says that, but I don't mean time, like save me time. I mean, like, I say that in the way of like, respect the time that I've already invested.
So if you're coming to me, and you're looking to try to add value to me, and it becomes evident that you've never read anything I ever put out on in the world or watch a YouTube video or listen to a podcast, then like you don't even like if I have to explain to you who I am right you don't have any idea how I work. You're not gonna know me, you don't know me well enough to know what I need. What I don't need, like, don't come ask what how can I add value, right?
25:00 - 30:00
David: Without trying to sound like a pretentious asshole. Like, I get asked that all the time. I get asked to mentor people. I get asked how I can add value? How can I do you know, whatever? And like the answer is, like, find something that is helpful. And do it, like jump in. It's not. Don't make me stop and be like, oh, man, what am I missing? Because like, it's weird, but you don't know what you're missing? Like I, there are so many services out there that I have, you know, I don't know, right? So then you're asking me to stop and spend energy trying to decide on something, like, what one specific thing I want you to do and it may not even be something you're good at.
And so I think the answer is, if you're looking to mentor like one or two or three specific people, like build a relationship, get to know them, and then find that Alex shaped hole, right? Like, Alex wasn't just like, waiting around and someone walked up, it was like, bro, you know what, we're gonna give you a camera. You're gonna be awesome at this. Like, he developed that and then found a team that needed him.
Alex: Yeah, so that's a good point.
Recently, David partnered with Matt Faircloth, the DeRosa group on a big apartment deal, and I did the video marketing for that. Matt didn't call me. Yeah, but Matt didn't really call me and ask what happened was, a year ago. Like, you know, what does the internet have given you access to everybody you want to be friends with? Whether it's Grant Cardone or Matt Faircloth, I don't really recommend going to the big fish, like go to that big fish that's five, six steps ahead of you, not 50, right?
So I go to Matt and like, we're buddies. And how are we buddies? Well, because I just know him on the internet endlessly. And like, people don't block people really, that if you're being like, polite, just obnoxious, they're gonna block you that he'll put up with you. That's how I get in. I just avoid people. And so the Stockholm Syndrome until they're like, oh, that's Alex guys not going away. And so I'm like, Hey, and so he goes, I'm going to want to say, let me do this deal. So I go there, I shoot with my camera, I'm like, look, I'm gonna make you a product that does not exist, this market, I'm gonna make you a high production quality video marketing piece per deal that you need to raise $6 million in cash, I'm gonna give it to you for free. Because one, I need some experience and two, I don't know, this doesn't exist, this might be really valuable. And I'm going to give it to you and we're gonna do it together. Turns out it was valuable.
Now, the path of the universe didn't really line up that I would go work for the DeRosa group didn't work that way. But I'm basically doing the same thing for a different company that did need me. But I have those skills that I can now bring. I did the next I did the second deal in Winston Salem that he just did. I did that video. That's when that's on David's page now, which came out some of the best stuff I've ever made.
And, and then now you know, other people start perking up and like the amount of stuff some skills I can use him. So I think a lot of it is, you know, go find out who it is you want to be and go, you know, just stop like do not stop sniffing up their ass, right? And then don't ask, give. Don't be like, What can I do? Hey, I'm going to show up. And then at the end, look around, what do they need? What do they need? Oh, you need this. Don't ask them how to do it. Don't ask them if they need it. Just go deliver. And so in reverse. I don't want to take up all the air. But in reverse. There's a guy who watches the show named Austin Clarke hot shot, and an upcoming YouTuber highly recommends him. He comes to me and he's like, Hey, I see you doing YouTube. And I know you're busy. I can take some of that YouTube stuff off your plate. So now he edits a couple of my videos. He does some of my thumbnails. He just shows up. And he's like, Hey, what are you working on? You got a YouTube video I can work on? Yeah, here it is. Here's some music. Here's a new intro. Here's a new outro like here is value, you didn't ask for any of it. I saw that you needed it. And so I think a lot of that adds value. It's like look at somebody and look at what they need. And then give them the things that they either don't know they need or can't stop, like David said, ask what they tell you what they need.
Adam: Yeah, I think it's like a screening interview too, right? Because initially, you're probably not going to invest in Austin like, Hey, let me show you how to put all the settings on do this stuff. But once you see him come in, figure some stuff out, do some quality work for you. Now you're probably giving him all kinds of feedback that he couldn't just get access to, like somebody who's that five steps ahead and you're like, Hey, your video would actually get more traction if you did X, Y or Z. Because he brought that particular value to you.
So I think that's where that's where I think people get kind of tripped up like, Okay, well, how do I just reach out? A lot of people say I don't know what value I could provide. And I think that to Dave, your initial point is, we'll just look around if you don't know what value then you're probably not the right fit. Like if I look at Alex I know he's doing videos stuff like he's becoming an expert at doing video and pictures. And Dave's doing a ton of content creation in real estate like what is it that what functions are happening in there that I can go take over? No, I could crush it even though I don't know it that well.
30:00 - 35:00
Alex: Yeah, who's scheduling all of David's content? That's a pain, who's scheduling all of David's content, getting it out to TikTok? Getting it up to anything out in Instagrams, getting out emails, getting out Facebook posts, moderating the Facebook chat. That's work, that's work that somebody's going to do. And somebody listening if you want to get in David's, like, go volunteer to be a Facebook moderator, for his groups go volunteer to do all his Instagram posts and schedule them out, it's like there's so much to be done that can help. And if you just look and say I want what David has, Hey, David, like, what can I do? So I can get a paycheck. It's like, Dude, that's just not the right way, you got to add a lot more value. And that means actually showing up and doing free work a lot of times and be like, Okay, I'm going to take on some of David's responsibilities on goodwill. And it's not that hard to think about. It's just like, people go, they go one they go surface level, I'll go ask David and David like, dude, I'm not stopping to tell you what I think you might be able to, I'm able to create a job for you. I'm not going to do that. I need you to actually just show up and take it from me.
Adam: You know, it's kind of an interesting point I think is valuable is when I when I jumped into the wholesaling and flipping world wasn't because I love wholesaling or flipping the money idea was nice, what I learned was really two skills in real estate will let you dominate any niche, and that is being able to do marketing and sales and raising private capital, right, and that those are all people skills, those are all key critical thinking and people skills is the same thing as it applies to network to bring in value to people. You know what I'm saying? Like if you can do those two things, if you can do if you can figure out marketing and sales, which is not overly complex, and then you can figure out how to raise private capital that all just relates to talking and interacting with other humans.
Alex: Yeah, the rest of it is just operations and underwriting which, which is well look, okay, but to okay, like, like, okay, there's three extroverts here, and we're probably talking to extroverts, let's, let's try to talk to introverts, which is not easy, because none of us know what the heck that's like, but look, if you're an underwriting if you're an underwriter, or you think you're good with spreadsheets, or you're you want to do that side of the business. You know, it's the exact same way. So you call like, David is partnering with somebody but, but there are bigger deals where it's like, who's their underwriter? Find that person like, what are the deals that you at first look at, you don't think are deals, but you need somebody to comb over them. And you don't have the time to comb over the deals, let me look at those. Let me look at those and do the spreads and do the and do the and do the risk profile and say, here's what I think. Yeah you're right, that's not a deal. But here's where it would be a deal.
Maybe I can put the stretch offers in on deals that you initially pass on. Right now it's spreadsheet work. It's, you know, alone, it's a computer. It's not people's business, but it's the same exact thing.
Or like I said earlier, it's like maybe you don't want to deal with people, but you want to do systems. Let me help create email campaigns, let me help, do social media marketing, like I don't have to talk to any people. But I can still do a ton of work like this is not an extrovert, like you made really good points out about those extrovert driven, people driven qualities. There are introverted driven qualities too that are in just as much abundance. In fact, a lot of times are in more abundance, because the three of us are bad at them.
Adam: If you're an introvert and you like details and spreadsheets, and you want to learn real estate, give me a call.
David: There will be no self promotion on this podcast.
Gosh, Alex, you think you weed them out and you still get the guy's spam in there?
Alex: I didn't, I would never have had them on the show.
Adam: Hey listen, for $997 I will sell you something I guarantee you it's a million dollar value. So you're getting a discount.
Alex: Yeah, how much time does that million dollar value have to do?
David: You gotta go rent a McLaren
Alex: A million years.
David: A great example of what you just said is Jake Baldwin, I don't know if either of you know him too much. But Jake, while he was a student, he's been a guest way back going on the podcast. When he was a student at the Air Force Academy. He got really good at underwriting deals. So good that he ended up going for free to like the Michael Blanc events and helping people analyze deals. And then he got small percentage equity in deals for helping underwrite and analyze deals for these syndicators.
And then now he does it. You know, he's got his own thing haven't like daily partners and they own a bunch of stuff. But I mean, he literally got to start by being like, wow, I'm amazing with Excel. Actually, I don't even remember, if he was he may have created a skill set for this but created some crazy spreadsheets that added a ton of value to people. Next thing you know, he owns, you know, a small percentage stake but in 2,3,4 doors with no money invested as a student at College.
35:00 - 40:00
Alex: I love that because he said the same thing that Adam I said from the start, which is he didn't start his own thing he joined somebody else's thing and skyrocketed ahead. I think in retrospect now that I'm like, kind of looking at this whole our culture, I think the entrepreneur, culture like Everybody's an entrepreneur. Mindset actually hinders people, because some people, you know what, dude, I'll be a good entrepreneur, but it's gonna take me I'm not going to be good entrepreneurial about 50-60. Because of the way my personality is, I look at it now. And I think that's what'll happen if I start creating my own stuff, when I'm 50-60, have a lot of resources, and a lot more confidence. Like right now, I really am happy to be in a place where it's like, Dude, I can keep learning. And it just took a little bit of an ego check straight up, it really did. Also, it helped that for anybody that's out there. It helped that the company was named Klein capital, and not if it was named Jeremy Hans capital, I would have never done it.
So name your company, something that other people can buy into. Because nobody wants to build David Pere’s thing. They'll build Military to Millionaires, they'll build Blackjack Capital, they'll build Climb capital, but they will not build Alex’s ego investment firm.
Adam: You know, that's an interesting point about, we've got this really robust entrepreneurial, solopreneur culture right now. And it feeds itself, it's like a self licking ice cream cone, as we like to say, in the military, right. But it feeds itself, right, because it's like hustle, grind until you have your breakthrough. Don't ever quit. But the reality is there's a, there's far more failed entrepreneurs or broke entrepreneurs, and there are successful entrepreneurs, because it's not, what you find in entrepreneurship is like, you can only do so much by yourself. And then there becomes a real business component to it, where you do have to build a team. And then you do have to manage it like a business. And you do have to do all the business functions, in order for it to go where you thought it would go, right, and it becomes less of a, I'm just going to grind my way through it until I have that big breakthrough, right.
So there's a business component that needs to evolve to typically to get to where you want to get.
Alex: There are far more failed entrepreneurs than successful ones, like 99%, right. And so this whole, like hustle, never stops thing. I'm like, that actually might be bad advice for most people, you actually might just fail and be stuck with it. There's a lot to be said for. And so the second piece of that is, this is a business when I started my real estate journey. My original goal was 10 properties in 10 years. That was my goal. Because I was kind of a disaster when I started right and so it's like I'm creating a real estate portfolio that's going to fund my retirement. It was no business and there was no entrepreneurship. It was just like, Dude, I need a safety net. Because I was messed up in life. So I was like, I'm gonna get, I'm gonna create a safety net set off so not grind the nine to five for my whole life. Well, I got, I ended up getting eight houses in three years, nine houses in three years, I went way faster and I was like oh there's something else here. I am a little bit entrepreneurial, a little bit, right. So I started getting apartment buildings. And I'm like, this is a business. Now I'm like, stuck in this thing where it's, I'm not that entrepreneurial, where I can be the head of this big company. I'm not that guy. I'm not built that way. And, but I'm also now in a space where I can't do it alone. It's too big to just be a retirement like, I'm in a weird quagmire. And so for me, it was like, join a company, because this is a team sport, there is nobody doing good. There's no solo business that's big. You got teams, you got people, and like, you got to really know what part of that what part of that team you are. And then the second piece is, you have to really know that you have time. Because if you join that team, you're trying to do it at 25. It's like dude, spend 10 years learning because there's a lot to learn in business. And sometimes, you know, checking your ego and learning from people who are better than you. And then coming back to it when you have more skills. And doing your own thing is the way to go.
Adam: What's funny about that, too, is like most people, they want to take off those nine to five handcuffs and, and not have that same kind of commitment and responsibility to do it on their own. And then to your point, if you are the one leading it and you do grow the business, you do have a team. You kind of got the handcuffs background, because now you're responsible for the team. And I mean, you got people working for you.
Alex: Golden handcuffs.
Adam: Yeah, I mean, of course you're making money, but you got these people working with you. And I mean, their livelihood is dependent upon your ability to be the CEO of a company.
Alex: You have more responsibility than before.
Adam: Right. And that's, you know what I'm saying, that'll weigh on a lot of people, not everybody's built for that.
Alex: Yeah, I'm not.
40:00 - 45:00
David: No, there's a couple reasons why everybody fails when it comes to entrepreneurship, right. Like, there's the piece that a lot of people can't handle, being in 24/7. A lot of people can't handle losing money or not making any money for potentially a long time until you're in the green, right? Like, and so I'm reading this book right now called Buy the Build, and I say reading, it's an audio book, it’s alright. It's not what I really needed to hear what I thought I was going to get out of it per se, but it has some really good points about why you would look at buying a business, rather than building a business. And a lot of it is this, right? Like the initial startup headaches have been overcome. And you're able to work with a team, right that already has a culture and already has, like, it's a lot easier to tweak things with an established team than it is to build from scratch and have no idea where the hell you're going, especially if you're is just on detail oriented design.
Adam: Yeah, I don't know, if I would say it's a lot easier to tweak things. I haven't just experienced inheriting a culture that I didn't build. But it does, it does start you from a different jumping point. And you still got to solve problems, you still got to inculcate a culture, even though it wasn't yours. And sometimes, what comes with that is there is a culture, there'll be leftover people, there'll be people who are resistant to your change, and you make no mistake you're coming in to make change to grow. And those people you may have to get rid of, and you may have to bring new people in anytime you bring somebody new and it steps you back because now you've got to train them, you have to commit time to them. And then oh, by the way, sometimes they don't work out so you have to start over.
So it's still hard it's just different and now you have a machine that's potentially producing you profits and money already, which is great, but you know, it all it all comes at a cost and I think to kind of go back to that initial point is this like entrepreneurial culture just sees the check sees the McLaren sees the, sees Alex in his pink shirt and all the cool shit he's doing and all the awesome places he's traveling any cut it up I know.
David: I know. I was gonna say he's, he's, he's sold out. He moved out of life.
Alex: Sold out yeah.
Yeah, we'll see. I set a lot of things. But who knows, I might wear the pink T shirts anyways.
David: At least you had to think about the logo.
Alex: YYeah, I definitely think it is an element of ego. And I definitely think there's an element of impatience, where it's like, I gotta go build this thing now and be the next, you know, somebody, when in reality, I'm looking at it, I'm like, I know my brain well enough now at 38. And I know there's a 25 year old listening, that it's just not going to have the same relatable experience. But I know my brain, now my brain is going to be, I'm going to be most valuable when this joker turns white, that's when I'm gonna be most valuable because my, my value is in creative ideas, communication, and those are hard to monetize 25 You know, it's not easy to monetize the 25 to 30, labor, grind, work, work, if you got a good work ethic, you're gonna do great if you got, if you got a good brain, you might not, you might take a little bit longer lead time to find a way to monetize, because being smart is actually far harder to monetize than going out there and swinging hammers or just going in and doing the grind.
David: I'll tell you this, though, if you're a detail oriented person, and you're looking for a way to tag yourself in a team. Not all but most people who start something are similar to myself for what Alex is saying, or Jeremy or you know, you name it, where they're, like what Adam said earlier, right? I want you to do this thing. And I don't know what that looks like, but have fun figuring it out. Right, like, and so if you can be that detailed or organized person who comes in and takes the chaos that is their life, and streamlines things. And there's your way into a team that's already starting to grow. You find the guy who's who's at that point, you organize their life.
Alex: Entrepreneurs are generally a more creative type of people and creative, you know, people that score high in openness on the Big Five personality test, generally score low on details. And so if you've got an entrepreneur type, like go link up with them, because they're right, like David, mine and Adam’s life, I'm betting that if you look at it on the surface, it's like, yeah, we're going places, but the details the day to day is like a nightmare. Maybe even, what's worse than a nightmare.
David: Yeah. A jet is supposed to spray one flame out the back.
Alex: All three of us probably need full time assistance to run calendar and, and stuff. And I bet you that all three of us. I don't know about you guys, like I just can't. I don't know how to train that person. I don't know if I can afford that person. If I had somebody who's like, look, I got free time. I can just basically be your right hand man. And believe in operation. It's like, that's what people need. But it's a big ask.
David: She's sitting right there. And I pay her full time. And when you said you don't know how to train them. Like, oh, I am still not using her to the point that I'm like, and so now I'm just getting to the point where it's like, here's this mess. Tell me if you have questions, and that's actually been amazing. She's taking things off my plate for sure. But there's you know, to your point, we talked about scheduling videos, scheduling blog posts, like I'm teaching her how to put blog posts on the internet now. But it's, yeah, it's not like if somebody knew how to do that, had experience doing that, came to me and was like, I'm going to do this for you, that would be amazing. I'm doing teaching training. And I don't know what I need. And it's a painful process for me.
45:00 - 50:00
Adam: Yeah, in my life. So my wife has taken these tests, she is incredibly high detail. Like everything through her day is scheduled. And she has photographic memory. And she's just check, check, check, check on point. And everything is neat in her life and organized. So that helps me in my personal life.
And in my business I have Ashley and she's our operations director. And she's also a high detail person. And, you know, she's cleaning up a lot of, you know, she's stopping me as I'm just spewing nonsense to the team. And she's like, wait a minute, like, okay, let's dig into that a little more detail. And, you know, and whatnot, it's gonna be great. Let's go, 100 miles an hour, press the gas pedal.
So actually, they force you, they force you to do what you need to do.
Alex: Yeah, it sounds like. I don't have any of those people. I decided I didn't need an assistant, I needed a boss. That's what I needed.
David: Ultimately, it also gets you the details, organization and everything else.
Alex: Yeah, Jeremy's details. And Bob's details. But a lot of times, it's so funny. On the other side, you know, when it comes to, like, communications, like brand communications and ideas, and like inbound marketing and things of that, like, they need a boss, they need me to be like, you need to do this, you need to do this, you need this. And so, in addition to all the other things that we're telling people, like, hey, approach, you know, Adam, approach David and do this thing, they, you also have to be assertive enough to say, I'm going to do this for you. And then I'm going to tell you, I'm going to tell you how to do it, right. And so you have to not just, you know, bring that value. And bring, you know that labor, you also have to say, I know, I know this, I know your flaws, and I know your needs well enough to know that. I know how to fix it. And you have to listen to me. And that's just a built in trust.
David: Adam, what do you think, like, biggest takeaways, in the last six months or eight months, or however long? It's been since taking over a company, right? Like you've had to hire people and fire people and like this whole new world to you. That's a big leap. You know, entrepreneurship is one thing, but taking over somebody's baby and running with it and having to change things to your way but not destroy their baby, right? Like, that's a whole new beast.
What kind of things have you learned throughout that journey that you think are? Like, man, I wish someone had told me that before?
Adam: Yeah, probably like three major lessons from my tactics perspective, in particular, particularly when you're doing you're looking for off market deals, and you're doing marketing, there's always a conversation, there's always two sides of the coin.
Is your outbound marketing more important or is your sales more important, right? It's like the chicken before the egg. Well, if I don't do marketing, there is no sales. Where I fall on that is sales, good sales is like, so critical to convert leads, you can drive all the leads in the world, you got to be able to convert them. And I think that applies more than just like a wholesaling or flipping company. That's like really any outbound marketing that you're trying to convert even if it's raising capital, and having conversations to help raise 6 million bucks if you got to convert those people into dollar bills, right.
The other thing and it's not just me, I'm having conversations a lot of other business owners like A players settle for nothing less in your business and the people you surround yourself with, like, you will only go so far with a minus b players like you have to find a players if you want to take it to where you believe it can go like that is the most..
Alex: That’s good. That's really insightful actually.
Adam: You have to be ruthless in that and be ruthlessly honest with yourself like ah, yeah, but they're bringing in revenue and it's going to be a real headache to put somebody else in that seat. Well good do it because it's gonna pay off in the long run. Don't be short sighted.
And then the last thing that I'm realizing, I'm still learning is the accountability piece and I don't mean like your military accountability buzzword I mean, accountability in a business meaning people are assigned to a sit with a clear role in responsibility and they have a scorecard of things that they are held accountable to.
50:00 - 55:00
Adam: So in order for our business to get here, there's some type of funnel right? Start at the top, what are those things or activities or numbers we got to hit? Who's responsible for them? Then it goes down to the next person, where does it go? Then okay, what are the things activities are numbers, they got a hit. And then you have to check in on that weekly we use. We're using the traction book, everybody's familiar with traction, we use their level 10 meetings in that model. And that model lends itself to that. But it's, it's critical, because if you're not measuring something, there's really nothing to hold anyone accountable. Like, I can't just be like, Alex, I brought you in to do a good job. And I don't feel like you're doing a good job. You're like, Fuck off, man.
Alex: Time capital uses the system. I've actually not read the book. But it's on my list now. Because you know, I want to know, I don't know what the heck I'm doing, right? I'm now using this process that I don't know about, it’s unacceptable. So I'm going to go read this book. And they use this, you know, level 10, these rocks, all these things. And on the project management software they have every day at 4:30, I get an email that says, What did you do today? And I like that for me, because I'm very, I have a hard time self accountability. I'm driven and it's part of extraversion, where I'm like, Oh, we're all hanging out together. I am not going to let you see me. It's not that I'm competitive. It's as much as it's like, well, I'm not competitive when nobody else is around but when I'm around. Oh, I'm definitely competitive. And so I love it because I'm like, I look at it every day. I'm like, I get to brag.
Look how much I did.
David: It's like the old. What's the, like, hey, there's a morning crew or a day crew or a night crew. And the boss comes in. And they have to make, you know, 10 widgets a month, and they're only making like three or 10 a day and they're only making three and the boss comes in and writes a big shock six on the ground at the end of the day shifts. And then the night shift is like, oh, what's the six? Oh, that's how many day shifts got done today. And then now the night shift is doing? You know, seven. It's like the subconscious. Like when you set those goals, right? You want to outperform other people that creates that competition, you want to Oh, he got three appointments, I want to set four appointments, and yeah, put it out.
Adam: It's the same thing we preach this time of year to everybody, like to set goals, make them smart goals and, and have a way to measure your progress, because that's how we work as humans.
Alex, I would say my recommendation to you is to read the book called Get a Grip, because it's a parable that explains the whole process, but it's not as dry as traction itself.
Alex: You think that I'm averse to the drive books?
David: Get a Grip has pictures.
Adam: I know you like drive books, Alex. But it's more like the book's traction is more of like a guide to how to a playbook. It's not really it's just like oh, step one, step two, step three, but hearing or reading it in Get a Grip really, I think in my opinion brings it home because it's like a story of people going through the process. And so also, you know,
Alex: I have to finish reading Moby Dick right now, which is not gonna help me with my business. But man, what a book.
I'll do these two next.
You know what is actually interesting about that book. Anybody here? I think that obsession is a good way to get your stuff your life accomplished?
David: I did until about 30 seconds from now.
Alex: Bro. I've never understood obsession before like I understand now, thanks to Moby Dick.
David: Well, that didn't change.
Alex: Dude, that really does a really good insights.
Adam. I'm very grateful that you share those with us. That's really useful stuff.
David: Yeah, I've now read traction.
Well, there's my question for you, right? Because you guys have one of these magical people who shows up and helps you actually do traction.
So I've read it twice. And I have done some of it. At what point were you doing attraction in your personal business before you took over blackjack? Like because where I struggle is I have you know, two employees and some VA’s and it's like, I'm not really at a point where traction makes perfect sense yet like parts of it do but I'm not where it's like. I feel like half the stuff that's in it just feels like okay, well this is pointless right now. At what point is it like? I don't know. I've heard people say I should jump in now.
Adam: Yeah, David, what I would do is I would get a hold of one of these traction implementers and ask them. Do you think I'm the right fit based on where my business is at and where I see it going?
55:00 - 1:00:00
Alex: Man, Adam Whitney dropping mad Wisdom. I can't believe we have him on the show.
David: He said they were called what?
Adam: Traction EOS integrator.
There's a slew of them. I can get you some recommendations after this, Dave.
Alex: I can't believe he almost didn't want to have you on the show, what a travesty.
David: I’ve been trying to add him on this show for like years, and he has this thing called the Marine Corps. And apparently he's better than us. I don't know.
Adam: It's weird I only had to send a $500 check. I sent two couple $100 checks, and he still wouldn't let me on still. So.
David: Don't worry, your $3,500 guaranteed forex return will be $100 soon.
Adam: $1 million value.
Alex: Only $99.
David: Oh, well, Adam you know, I don't know if I want to jump into the like ending questions we always ask everyone.
Well, at least now we know who really delayed getting you on the show, Adam.
Okay, fine. So if an E one, E two, young service man, service woman, service they were to walk up to you and ask you for advice, right? What's the one thing you wish you'd known when you got started in real estate or, or even just life advice?
Adam: Yeah, I think for me, it would just be if they're asking me for advice, it means they're probably motivated and driven. So I don't need to necessarily give them that. But be patient and stay consistent, right. Alex said that you drew a great parallel, like, it's gonna take me 10 years to get to where I want to be right that there's, I can't remember the generic saying I think Bill Gates said, You overestimate what you can do in one year, but you underestimate what you can do in 10 years, there has not been a point along the journey that I haven't looked back and went, Wow, that was like we did a lot, a lot more than I thought. And there's the whole time I'm moving, I'm thinking I'm not going far enough. I'm not going fast enough.
So be patient, stay consistent and take action. And if you are taking those actions, it will materialize, if you are consistently taking action to your point earlier, Alex, like you're constantly networking, the good thing, opportunities will come. And that opportunity will probably look different than what you think it is today.
David: You're right. It's consistency. I mean, that's it right there. That's what it's all about.
All right, a resource, what's one, book, course, website, resource, podcast, whatever, that you would recommend to anybody looking to get started in real estate?
Adam: Yeah, so I've got a book up here. It's the No Bullshit Guide to Military Life.
Alex: And that's why he's on the show.
Adam: I'm going to give, I'm going to give a couple books. I truly mean, I truly mean that. I think, particularly for our military audience and the younger folks who are like, how do I be better and change my life like that is a great starting point. Dave did a great job putting that together. Even though I didn't get an advanced copy. I'm not bitter about it. I just didn't get it. You know what I mean?
Apparently, my following isn't big enough. So the other book, I'd say, from a leadership perspective, that I feel like if enough people don't talk about is the Book Legacy, thought the All Blacks, their rugby team. That book encompasses every leadership lesson or leadership book you could ever read. And I'll tell you what, if you model your life around that, you're going to go far. I'll just say one of my favorite parts is this part in legacy where they talk about sweeping the sheds. And you know, you're in a leadership position, but you're willing to get your hands dirty and do the hard work with a team. The team is going to go a much longer way for you at that point and for your organization.
David: They are the rugby team. Just not just a oh, sorry, I'm probably the only guy that has ever even watched rugby here. I played in high school.
Alex: I would like to interject and say a resource that has recently changed my life.
Adam, I think it is good for you too is the War Room.
Adam: Yeah.
Alex: I'm singing the fucking war rooms phrases these days because I did not, you know, for people who don't know I would not have closed my 52 unit if it wasn't for Jeremy and I met him for the war room and I would have not joined climb capital if I wasn't in the War Room. So now I think best of all of maybe my entire life the most. Like the coolest thing in my whole life is I'm going to see a tool in January with another tool fan. And I met that tool fan from the War Room. So highly, highly, highly recommend.
1:00 - 1:05:00
Adam: Yeah, I think I can just count on the war room because I'm like, I'm like number one or two. Like, I don't know why I joined these clowns. Yeah, that's not to get to do it. I've been with the same group for two years, we do not miss days, we meet once a week in our particular team. And in my group, I've got two really amazing Navy guys who've been in for a long time, I've got a CEO of a major fitness company. And since we started together, you know, there's just a bunch of great humans. But since we started together, we've added like 50 doors to our collective group and multi millions of dollars of equity. It's just like, we looked back probably a month ago, and we're like, Well, what have we done? Have we even done anything in two years? And we're like, Oh, my goodness, look at this group of people.
Alex: We should have a yearly war room olympics and see like, what and like measure squad squad, that'd be cool.
David: Was actually one of the original things we tried to do. If you go back and watch the introduction to the war room, like the first ever zoom call where we said like, welcome aboard. We wanted to try to do like, net worth per squad.
Adam: I think we're measuring cash flow.
David: Yeah, it was something like that. And I don't remember exactly what happened with it other than probably the fact that I'm not detail oriented. And it's a great idea that no one else came along and helped me finish.
Alex: There was an opportunity for somebody listening who's like, you know, I want to add some value. You can I bet you if you did a lot of the organization I bet you David would give you a free membership.
David: Probably.
Alex: I know him pretty well, but I can negotiate that deal. If you added a lot of value.
Adam: We could have a website or something.
Alex: Yeah, we should add something, Jesus. God, we should add something.
David: We're trying to figure out how to get the website going in such a way that we wouldn't have to, if we replace teachable it becomes a logistics nightmare, right? So we're trying to find a way to incorporate and still have everything that makes sense but should have a website up here soon. Hopefully. Actually, I'm about to do a deal or in the process of doing actually I got a couple deals from one of the guys in the group Marty.
Marty and I bought some tax liens together, we just listed one for sale. We just wrote another offer for 27 units yesterday after the same offer got denied the day before and we tweaked some things but.
Adam: Marty went from owning a coconut to owning 15 properties since we started or something crazy.
David: These good people. Good people. They're all good.
Alex: He's okay.
David: Adam, where can people get a hold of you?
Adam: I'm on social media. All of it. Look up Adam Whitney. I’m most active on Instagram.
David: I was gonna say like the real Adam Whitney, your official Adam Whitney or something fancy like that?
Adam: Yeah, it turns out Adam Whitney it was already taken so I had to add a qualifier on that so you know, but it's all good because I am the official am Whitney like doesn't get more official than that because I said it
David: Yeah until someone makes official underscore Adam Whitney and gets a blue mark on Instagram and then now you look like a crappy person.
Adam: And then I'll sell him my handle for 1000 bucks.
David: Oh man.
Yeah, dude, thanks for joining us today. It's always fun to hang out with you, always fun to talk to you. I'm glad we got to meet and in Cali glad we got to hang out in Florida.
I wish that you had you know found it in your heart to take your frickin RV and stop by and hang out with Marty and I when you drove through my state and didn't want to hang out with your squad but you know like Marty and I were trying to figure out if we could drive all the way up to KC to see you but it was just bad day for some of us do things during the week that they should stop doing because they say they have financial freedom but keep working anyway.
Adam: Yeah man, glad to come on in. I've got immense respect for both you and Alex. Believe it or not.
Alex: Yeah, I don’t believe it.
David: Hard to believe.
Adam: I’m proud to call you guys friends and be in your circle.
David: It’s all good man, we are right back at you.
This is fun. This is good.
Alex, I like the non-interview style. Just fun. Fun conversations.
1:05:00 - 1:07:28
Alex: I would love to get listener feedback because you know we've talked about this a few times where there's definitely some, let's say, I'll put this as diplomatically as possible. There's some logistic friction with doing interview style with new guests 50 times a year, it's definitely easier. It just makes it an easier format, you, me and a friend. More often than not, but I want to make sure that we are adding value. I think this is actually a lot of value in this episode. And I think there's a lot of value in the last episode we did with that person. That was a really good show.
And it was a good show.
David: I don't know. I don't know what show he's talking about.
Alex: The one we just recorded a couple days ago.
It was a good show. And I remember being super valuable. But like, I'm just drawing a blank on the name of somebody that we know.
Paul Thompson, he was great.
David: Oh, that one.
Alex: Yeah, it was great.
And so it was just us BSN, not BSN. But just, the problem with the interview style is we spend the entire time doing things like, Who are you? Tell us your story. And that's great. But then we can't get into second tier and third tier level ideas. And so I find this to be a lot more, a lot more engaging, and it's a lot easier for me. And I think David will have a more interactive and more useful conversation. But I would really like for listeners to make that known what their preferences are because I do care more about the listeners, the viewers than anything.
And so I want to make sure that I feel like these are more valuable because I feel like it's a format that I can be more engaging, I feel like the guest gets to bring a lot more value and have, like I said, the second and third tier ideas. And so we get a lot deeper. Whereas if you just do an interview in an introduction, you kind of get that surface level meeting of somebody so I'd love to have listener feedback on this new format and then we're going to do whatever we feel like but I would like to know.
David: And on that note where we talk to you for two minutes about something and then tell you we aren't gonna listen anyway.
Oh man, Adam, thanks for joining us, man. Have a great day.
End: Thank you for listening to another episode about my journey from military to millionaire. If you liked it, be sure to visit frommilitarytomillionaire.com/podcast to subscribe to future podcasts. While you're there, we'd love for you to rate the show. Give us a review on iTunes. Now get out there and take action.
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Episode: 158
Adam Whitney
Join your host David Pere and Alex Felice, in this episode with guest Adam Whitney as they dissect the importance of knowing your “shape” as a professional in the real estate industry as well as the skills that'll help you dominate.
For Adam, consistency is by far the most transferrable skill you can have that'll matter so much in real estate. Unfortunately, like in YouTube, most people often find themselves unprepared for the level of consistency it needs to be a successful entrepreneur/investor.
In this episode, Adam, David, and Alex also discuss why always hustling can prove to be bad advice for most people, the benefits of personality tests, how adding value should be approached by a novice real estate investor, and so much more.
About Adam Whitney:
Adam Whitney is the co-owner and CEO of Blackjack Real Estate. Adam has served in the Marine Corps since 2004 and remains on active duty. He started investing in real estate in 2017 and became a Co-Owner and CEO of Blackjack Real Estate in June of 2021. He has a passion for serving, solving problems, and leading. He loves serving the community by offering fast and fair solutions to all types of real estate problems.
Outline of the episode:
- [04:21] In the military, you wait for your turn to make more money
- [06:58] You check your ego, then you assess the deal
- [12:49] Network, network, network!
- [19:46] Know where you fit best by knowing your shape
- [23:55] Value is different for everybody
- [30:51] The skills you'll really need in real estate
- [37:00] There are more failed entrepreneurs than successful ones
- [42:54] Being detail-oriented ties you faster to stronger teams
- [48:09] Is your outbound marketing more important than sales?
- [56:01] Just be patient and consistent…
Resources:
Website: https://blackjackre.com/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/officialadamwhitney/?hl=en
Linktr.ee: https://linktr.ee/WillToWinInvestments
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Zero to One: Real Estate Investing for Beginners:
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My name is David Pere, I am an active duty Marine, and have realized that service members and the working class use the phrase “I don't get paid enough” entirely too often. The reality is that most often our financial situation is self-inflicted. After having success with real estate investing, I started From Military to Millionaire to teach personal finance and real estate investing to service members and the working class. As a result, I have helped many of my readers increase their savings gap, and increase their chances of achieving financial freedom! – Click here to SUBSCRIBE: https://bit.ly/2Q3EvfE to the channel for more awesome videos!
THIS SITE IS INDEPENDENTLY OWNED AND OPERATED. ALL OPINIONS EXPRESSED HEREIN ARE MY OWN. THE VIEWS EXPRESSED ON THIS SITE ARE THOSE OF THE AUTHOR OR THE AUTHOR’S INVITED GUEST POSTERS, AND MAY NOT REFLECT THE VIEWS OF THE US GOVERNMENT, THE DEPARTMENT OF DEFENSE, OR THE UNITED STATES MARINE CORPS.