Episode 164 | Andrew Jones | Military Millionaire

00:00 - 05:00

Alex

Welcome military millionaires! I am your host, the wonderful Alexander the Great. I'm here with my slightly above average co host, David Pere. We're here for another episode of the Military Millionaire podcast.

David, and you got a friend with you. Thank you for coming. How are you today?

David:

Yes, yes.

My friend is Andrew Jones, I think everybody on the show has at this point heard about, but not met.

So Andrew started as acquisitions manager for the company. And now I guess he's the COO. I don't know, we're just making up titles, because there's like a whole bunch of jobs that he's doing them all. And then we just like, well, we'll just say you're doing this, and then hopefully, we grow and actually become a thing.

Andrew:

Just to make me feel important. Yeah.

Alex:

That's what I love about corporate bureaucracy is it started off as like, you know, everybody's a manager. And then it became everybody's, it used to be one vice president in a company. And now it's like, you know, every slightly above low level manager is a vice president. And then now it's trickled into people who have companies with one employee or somehow a CEO.

David:

VP of COO, there we go.

Alex:

Yeah.

Andrew:

Chief douchebag.
Alex:

Yeah, head of the head of the board. And it's like, there's one person in the whole company, and it's an LLC, and no stakeholders, no shareholders. Just yeah, it's a bunch of..

Andrew:

Just stroking our egos.

Alex:

Yeah.

Just a bunch of insecurity manifests as importance.

So congratulations on your very important promotion.

Andrew:

Thank you.

David:

Just to clarify here. He came to me and was like, Hey, I think I should be in this role. I'm not making up roles for him.

Oh, it's not a personal dig at all.

David:

Yes, it does help your LinkedIn, I noticed and I will send something and I was like, oh look he’s a COO.

Andrew:

Well, I posted a job ad the other day. And I was like, it would look better. If I was posting a job ad for somebody applying if I looked like I was, you know, somebody that mattered.

David:

The end goal, ultimately, I think, for both of us is a partnership on some level, it's just making sure he's not a piece of shit. Before we, you know.

Alex:

Before you let him know that you're a piece of shit.

David:

Yeah.

Well, he's probably figured that out. If he looked at my schedule, and he's like, God, I thought you said we could talk at this time. I'm like, you're right. It's on the calendar. How about, we just keep pushing that for another 35 minutes.

Andrew:

I just told him before we sign any paperwork, we're officially partners, he better make sure that he's okay with me too. Because I'm a lot harder to get rid of when I'm a partner that I am just you know, working with him.

David:

It’s hard to get rid of already, so Andrew, if you haven't figured it out this is like the epitome of like, when people talk like a visionary integrator, like he is so detail oriented, it drives me nuts. And I am, like, I'm traveling to Dallas on Friday, and just called the event coordinator 20 minutes ago to ask if I should fly on Friday or Saturday. So like, yeah, I could care less.

Alex:

I need one of those. But now I'm supposed to be doing that for client capital details. And it's not going well. Because I can start your podcast and help you create content and get you a vision and, and help you raise money and, and do big picture stuff. But if you need me to send out emails with the correct links you are in trouble.

David:

Speaking of and then we'll get into what we're gonna talk about today.

How'd your first episode go?

Alex:

Of what?

David:

Your political podcast. Didn't you do the first episode last night?

Alex:

Yeah. Went tremendously well, better than I had, I had high expectations and would have been even better. We had 15 people live with a bunch of questions, bunch interactions, and then it's, it's doing well on the backside. So we are going to do that more often. It's just a matter of getting the right guests and getting into flow. I kind of tiptoed into it because I was like, I really don't want to go super hard. And now I wish, you know, I'm doing a live broadcast every week of different topics. One of them happens to be political. I say political, but it's really like geopolitics.
Which was interesting, because as soon as we went live last night, Russia invaded Ukraine.

David:

You already saw that coming.

Alex:

Right, It was really good timing for us.

Andrew:

What's the point of doing a political podcast if you're not going to go hard?

05:00 - 10:00

Alex:

It's hard to go all in on politics.

David:

It's hard to go all in on a lot of things.

You know, people don't talk about that. But like, humans have this like almost Governor built into us where it's like, I use the analogy, like when you're, like an eight year old kid, and you're wrestling and you have no idea of like, with strength. So you like to go all out all the time. And it's like, you get older and you learn to like, limit what you're doing. And it almost like, it's like, I struggle with it. When I go all in on something. It's like, I'm not really. I don't know, like the whole burn the ships thing sounds great, but it is not easy to do.

Alex:

It's not easy to go all in. And then what do you mean by all in? Do you have to quit my job?

David:

Yeah.

Alex:

I mean, do you really have to go all in? Do you have to do it 24/7? Because that's all in. And so if you have, I have other things that I want to talk about, I have other content that I want to make, and I have other interests. And it's like I want to go hard. But it's also like, I want to yeah, you want to leave yourself out in case you're like, hey, look, this is not going to work. Nobody's gonna watch this. I don't have an audience for this. Nobody cares what I have to say about how the political landscape doesn't have longevity.

So yeah, it's more like, let me see if I can gain an audience and then I'll go all in, it's hard to go all in out of the gate. Like I have no proof of concept. And I want to turn everything else off and do a hard marketing campaign for this. Yeah, it's tough. It's tough. The content doesn't scare me in any capacity. I know. I'm very well read on the subject. And I know how to articulate my ideas. It's just a matter of, can you find the right guests? Can you find the right audience? And can you do it in a way that's unique because there's a lot of political content out there. Nobody needs to hear my, perhaps nobody needs to hear my opinion. Well, that being said, I think there's a, I think my approach, there's a lot of opportunity,

David:

When you're trying to fill a weird void to where you're more neutral. And not like, coming at a political podcast from one side or the other. Whereas like, seems kind of like, in today's society, it's like, polarization is really the only means of communication in politics.

Alex:

It sells well.

David:

Yeah.

Andrew:

I'm simplifying it because I'm not in this world, like you guys are. But I would probably stuff that we'll get to later today talking about this is like, provide value and let the chips fall where they may, like if you're actually providing value, and then you have less to worry about.

Alex:

Oh, yeah, sure. Well, like I said, like David said.

Andrew:

It’s easy to say, I know.

Alex:

Yeah, well, it's a very WWF style arena, right? Where it's like, it's very much like us, me versus him. And it's very cartoon eyes, politics, it's become very, very, it just sells, it sells, anger sells. And I don't really care about anger, I care about, you know, thinking critically through complex ideas. And there's just a smaller audience for that, because people don't really want to critically think through complex ideas they want to do, you know, F those guys over there. They're the root of all my problems. And anyways, so the first episode went well, we had Anna Kelly on and she was very excited. She's like, I'll come back every two weeks, I'll come back every month. So that was exciting. If I can get it, I probably have six people lined up if I can get some form of them. Even four of them. I might do it once a week. But I don't know how much news there is right now, as the midterms you know, ramp up, then there'll be a lot more things to cover. So we'll see how it goes. Yeah, there's no money in it.

David:

I mean, you blow up as a political podcast, there's plenty of sponsors.

Alex:

Oh, yeah. Well, you got a real problem then, right? And then you gotta say what they want.

David:

That's true.

They're not all sponsors you want, right? It's not like a Rentometer where it's like, Oh, man. Well, yeah, sure. We'll talk about you. We all use you. You're awesome. And this guy will tell me about why I need to renew my membership for it.

Alex:

Yeah, you get sponsored by the pillow company. And you find out that the guy has an unbelievable political agenda. So who is out there that's going to fund you for a political show that doesn't want influence?

David:

Yeah.

The Koch brothers or whatever their names are?

Alex:

Coke?

David:

Coke. Yeah, they clearly, no strings at all.

Alex:

Yeah.

But it's gonna go well, Oh, also, we're doing a show next Wednesday. I don't know when this will be released.

Next Wednesday is called For Creators by Creators and it's me and Austin Clark. And we're going to do another live show. And it's going to be us talking about basically a show for people who are entrepreneurial or business oriented and they want to start creating content but they don't know how. And so we're gonna go through like YouTube channels and be like, how do you like this? What kind of equipment you might have, how do you set this up? We're gonna obstacles you run into like, what kind of trends you know are coming out so it'll be for people kinda like you and I would have been three or four years ago where you're like, I want to start a YouTube channel, but I don't know how, what should I buy? How should I? How should I get started? How do I make it look cool?

10:00 - 15:00

David

Watch Pat Flynn.

Alex:

Yeah, but the next generation of Pat Flynn is going to be out in Austin. It's gonna be called By Creators for Creators.

David:

I like it.

It’s a niche for sure. But I think that there's a lot of people out there who are interested in that. If you need help, happy to throw my hat in the ring for anything there.

Alex:

Everything about your set, I designed so I think you need my help. I don't think I need yours. Boom!

David:

I was talking about the content, not the lighting.

Alex:

Boom! Roasted!

David:

That's true. Everything about my lighting and setup. You did design.

Alex:

Yeah, actually, I'm looking around at that thing.

David:

Who gets the views?

Alex:

You have a work ethic that I just cannot match. That is true.

David:

I don't know about that.

It looks that way from the outside. I'm a fucking chaotic wrecking ball.

Alex:

One day I'll hire, I'll hire content. If I could get somebody to partner up with that could just do my content, like organization for me, I'd be deadly.

David:

Dude. The problem with that is, like, that's not cheap, like the people who are good at that. I mean, that's a six figure job. And so it's like, unless I'm doing like, a, like a profit share or something. I mean, that's rough, because they're either doing it themselves. Or they're the guy who likes to be behind the camera. But if they're good at being like D Rock, like D Rock probably makes seven figures working for Gary V, right? But he started, you know, like, I would love for somebody to come along and be like, Hey, I'm gonna intern for you. And we're gonna blow this thing up. But the problem is that most of the guys willing to do that aren't at a level where it's like, like the guys who are good enough to actually blow your shit up out of the water.

Alex:

They'll do it themselves.

David:

You're paying them an arm and a leg because Yeah, they'll do it themselves. They wouldn't, they wouldn't. They don't need you.

Alex:

Wait, I just need somebody to upload, who uploads your stuff.

David:

I do.

Alex:

You do it all yourself?

Yeah, the only thing I outsource right now for the YouTube channel is some of the editing, I still do some of it.

Alex:

Dude, you're a workaholic.

David:

Well, it's why my editing lacks though, too, because I'm not a great editor.

Alex:

I had good editing. But I have no views. I can't even get videos out fast enough. Because it takes me so long to do my, my little stick.

Andrew:

And this is why I can't get any of his attention when I need to work on the real estate stuff.

Alex:

Yeah well, the good news. He's like, he's bad at most of it. So it balances. He's like, look how much I did.

David:

It's a quality quantity thing, right? Because if I want to get out three videos a week, with my current skill level, they're not going to be high quality.

Alex:

Oh my god, three videos a week. That's insane.

David:

I tried to do it Monday, Wednesday, Friday at least.

Alex:

And so this is what we talked about before about like, going all in you're like David is not an all in he's trying to do go all in on everything. And like, fundamentally doesn't. That's you can't go all in on everything. You can go all in on one thing.

David:

Yeah.

Alex:

And so it's like, do you want to go all in in real estate you want to go all in? So I think what David you've done really well though, is being able to start hiring people. So it's like, Hey, you go all in on real estate? I'll go all in on, you know, building a company.

David:

Yeah, well, and that's why he got the fancy title. And that's why we actually were hiring. We've got a girl coming in today to figure out what computer and stuff whatever setup she needs to be our new lead manager slash transaction coordinator. But the whole reason for the fancy title and all that is that we realized as we were growing this that I really do enjoy the real estate side, the off market deals and the hunting and the buying properties for pennies on the dollar and, and all the fun that comes with renovations and whatever. But that business is fairly like there's always something that needs your attention business.

And so every day it was like I'm gonna make six videos today so that I can fund the next two weeks of whatever, nevermind I'm gonna do that tomorrow because I gotta go run and check on this and so..

Alex:

Dude, you're better at marketing.

David:

And so that's literally what we're working on is growing this enough and giving him enough I'm focused on the marketing and the raising money and then he's running the the appointments and the projects and whatever we're doing a trial run about to bring a contractor on full time and then he'll be able to run that side while I do like the marketing and raising money side for it. And then I can focus on YouTube and, and the podcast and speaking of I've got a I think I'm going to can the editor that we're currently using. They're not bad. I think if we're doing these kinds of episodes that are more casual, we don't need them for the price. And so I think I'm gonna find a VA to do. I want to focus more on verticals like reel like clips, for reels and Tik Tok and like clips for YouTube because that does way better than like full podcast episodes on YouTube.

15:00 - 20:00

Alex:

Okay.

I need to hire somebody to do the climb capital podcast. I'm editing it. This is not sustainable.
David:

I did that for 50 episodes.

Alex:

I'm gonna do it for 25 episodes.

David:

And Alex's problem is he has a quality thing where he's good at it. So he's actually editing those when I was editing the podcast, it was the intro in the beginning. Like, I actually, I think I've told you this, you're the only person when I was editing it myself. You are the only time I've ever edited anything between the entry and the intro outro. And it was one time, it was the first time we ever recorded. You like to lose your train of thought. And it was like a 45 second piece where you were just like, Fuck, what was that? Fuck. And at the time, I was like, I don't know if I want this to be explicit. So I cut that that was the only cut I ever made in 50 episodes.

Alex:

Dude, I'm literally learning how to master audio and like, do noise. I mean, I'm learning how to use Adobe Audition right now. And I'm gonna learn it just good enough so that I can hire someone else to do it and then never do it again.

David:

Alright, so we're gonna talk some some real estate because otherwise he's gonna be like, Why the fuck did you bring me in here to talk with you guys? What do you get going on with climb capital? We haven't really talked about that since you I mean.

Alex:

I'm trying to find my place and climb capital right now. You know, we're doing a lot of marketing, I feel like I'm adding value some days I, some days I'm insecure about it. Some days, I feel really confident. We got a podcast coming out called inside the climb. And it's gonna be a really interesting format, where it's just the seven of us talking to each other in two pairs, where we just talk to, no guests, no interview, just like, hey, what's going on inside the company. And so it'll be us building a company. And that's getting built. So that'll come out, I think, April, early April.

David:

You should hire a film crew and do it. The Office style. Or just like, Pan passed Jeremy. He's just like sitting in this chair. Like, yeah, I really did like that.
Alex:

I would like to do it on video. But it's expensive right now. And without a podcast being yeah, so right now we're worried about income generation, not, you know, not throwing around big money for theoretical, you know, projects.

So, start the podcast. We're doing these deal debriefs. We're doing another one tonight, actually, at 7pm. And that's been really interesting, like a zoom webinar, where we just go over, you know, existing deals and how they got done, how they got paid for how we found them, what the investor payout was, and those are, those are with live q&a. Those have been interesting. And then they go up on YouTube later. So that's been kind of easy, easy content.

We're starting a fund. So I got to learn how to do an off market. Excuse me, an outbound marketing campaign.

No, it'd be 506 C.

We have $20 million in LOI out right now, I think probably for those is going to lock up pretty easily. Actually, I think that back for that million is under contract. Another 15 and a half is an off market deal. Pretty sure we're gonna lock that up. So we have another product that I can't talk about yet. We're acquiring a fairly large business that should close in a few weeks. That's going to be a very exciting thing. And then if that closes, I will be down to do pictures and videos. Get some of that content.

David:

I assumed what we were talking about for a while. That one's pretty cool.

Alex:

Yeah, the goal is to buy $65 million worth of real estate this year, not including that M&A purchase so if we can get 20 in the first quarter, that'll be on track. I'm just trying to make sure that I earn my keep find my place bringing investors who want to make some money and we are full on pivoting to RV parks which I'm really excited about because I'm telling you bro, I'm oversea class value add I think, it was great five or six, eight years ago when but now most of them have been flipped. The margins are crunched and with this looming rate hikes and five year balloons, I can't see the future but I worry.

So I think RV parks especially like what we're doing is we're buying these kinds of low end RV parks and sprucing them up. We put pools and amenities out of them and then we attract a tier of customers. So you get a tier of customers, you get a C Class cap rate. And then you have no maintenance because you just want to dirt.

20:00 - 25:00

David:

Yeah.

Alex:

So and then you go and you and you get people with like, you know, real RV’s and real trailers showing up, like, you know, people that take care of your place. So it's a really interesting, it's kind of what people are doing with open door cabinets, doing mobile homes, but instead of going, bro, okay, so what's going to happen, I don't wanna make too big a conversation that what's gonna happen over the next few years is you're gonna see wealth inequality rise, because of you're gonna get economic volatility. And anytime you get economic volatility, the rich get richer, the poor struggle harder. And so what opendoor capital turns companies basically said is we're gonna bet on the D tier, and some people are going higher, like Grant Cardone's company's going towards the A tier, right. And so those are the bets everywhere in the middle is gonna get crunched. Those are the bets and so what climb capital is basically done is said we're gonna go for these traditionally low tier asset classes, but make them for an a tier customer an RV park.

So that's kind of our bet, we do not want. I've had too many C and D class apartment buildings. I don't want anymore. That's a lot of work for a theoretical return and a lot of headaches and sometimes a lot of 911 calls.

David:

You know what I really like about the RV model. So the mobile home park model is really tempting. For a lot of people because of the same thing, you own the dirt, you do some landscaping and you don't own the building you lease the lot, right? So it's like, okay, cool, minimal maintenance, minimal, whatever.

The RV model, very similar, but they pay you up front. So it's like, I love that as a guy who's gone through a million evictions. And you know, whatever, like, well, I save a million evictions like clarify mostly inherited tenants. But yet I've had some really bad ones. And it's like, well, that wouldn't happen if they paid before they showed up and then left.

Alex:

Yeah, we've done some interesting things too where we do have monthly rents on the RV parks as well. And we started, we partnered up, part of that m&a acquisition is in the manufacturing component. And we are going to be manufacturing tiny homes on wheels. And then we're going to roll them onto an RV park, right, you get to depreciate it by 100%. And then you have a tiny home Airbnb on an RV park that you can extract more income out of that isn't like what a performer would see. So you get an RV park with 100 units, then you add 10 tiny homes, rent them out as Airbnb, and you have now a diverse set of you get a diverse set of income streams. So really, really exciting times.

David:

Yeah, that's awesome.

All right. And I'm gonna let Andrew tell you about what we're doing. Because I told him he was gonna come on here we were going to talk about deals we're doing so I don't want to waste his time or he'll never talk to me again. It would be a blessing.

Andrew:

I can drink coffee at my desk.

Alex:

Andrew, why don't you introduce yourself a little bit more thoroughly too.

Andrew:

Trying to get in Dave's light here.

Alex:

You can both fit in that frame.

David:

Luckily, it's a wide angle.

Andrew:

So yeah, so my name is Andrew Jones. The last few years, I've actually been doing vacant land, sneaking out. So I've been buying and selling vacant land. It's kind of a wholesale flipping type of scenario. And so I've actually had some experience with the mobile home and RV clientele in that world. And I can certainly tell you, I would rather deal with RV guys. But that's just, that's just my experience.

I did that for a few years. And I actually liked it, it was just pretty active. And I just wanted to do something a little bit different. I ended up going back into a W two and had known Dave for a few years and just kind of got the feeling he was wanting to grow. And it came back in town and tried to just kind of beat him up a little bit to figure out what he was doing. Somewhat to help him out but a little bit selfishly, like, I wanted to get back into real estate and wasn't doing it full time anymore and missed it. And we started working for somebody else.

So, you know, we had several conversations about that and, and I basically forced him into deciding what he was going to do with, you know, his active real estate portfolio and was he gonna grow it and did he need help? But if he did, you know, did he want me to help with that? And we came into just very open and honest from the beginning like, Hey, I'm, I'm not new to this. I don't need you to train me. But I'm also not going to act like a newbie with you either and certain things that come with that. So you know, I think so far it's been good. The nice part is that we've grown, you know, you've always got that section of time where like, you're wanting things to happen and you think, like, what do they say you over estimate what you can do in the short term, which was kind of us in the beginning, we're like, Okay, well, we know what we're doing, why are we not making $100,000 a month immediately, this is stupid.

And then all of a sudden, you know, a few months later, we blow up like, Oh, crap, this is too much at once, what are we doing, which is good. And I say blow up relatively, like, it's just the two of us doing it at this point. So then he's focused on things like this. It's mainly me. So you know, if I want to run a million dollar company, it's really tough to do that with one person.

25:00 - 30:00

Andrew:

So you know, that's where we're at at this point where I did talk him into doing more of a rehab component, which he's not super keen on, but but I also knew going into this that if he wanted to grow his rental portfolio, that was maybe the best way to do it, so that we could take distressed properties, fix them up, and then decide whether we're going to sell them or add them to his portfolio. And just kind of built a team around me with GC’s and contractors. And now we're bringing in this lead manager, and we're growing, which is exciting. We're on track for our goals for this year, which is exciting. And yeah, I think this is eventually going to end up in a more long term official partnership, but we're just yeah, we're just having fun along the way, as much as he wants to complain about it, or we are having a good time.

David:

Yeah. So a little context there. I suppose. For one, the main reason that I wasn't super keen on renovations, is because the last time I did a flip is actually the deal that has resulted in the last year and a half of ALEC saying I'm not very good at real estate, because they point out terrible. And that was, I wouldn't say that's the only deal.

Alex:

Yeah, I was like just a couple of deals that you've done that really made me question your talent.

David:

So I lost 30 grand and just got like robbed.

So yeah, I mean, flipping a house is much riskier than just assigning the contract and moving on or buying it for yourself. But I'm not a detail guy. So he's been running that he kind of pussyfoot around the fact that he like when he says he came to me and like beat me up. Like he literally I was super out of my comfort zone, I was in the spot where I was like, I don't know if I want this to grow, or if I want to kill it and focus on the brand. And I kind of want to do both, but I can't do both. But I don't know, blah, blah, blah. But I was like super in my head. Like my first hire was my executive assistant. And she had just started like, a month, month and a half prior. And I didn't have enough work for her and I was paying her and I didn't know how I was gonna be able to afford her. And all this was just weird timing and Andrews like, Yo, asshole. Let me come work for you. Like for like three weeks, it's like, Hey, you want me to come to this? Hey, here's all my experience. Let me come to this. And then finally at one point, he was like, hey, so if you don't do this, I'm going to go work for this other guy in town who's way bigger than you but I'm letting you know. And just so happened that another guy and I were at a meetup that week. And he was complaining because he couldn't bring what he was like. I'm trying to find a role in this role, and nobody wants a job. Damn it at this point. I'll take anyone and I was like, huh, if this guy's telling me that he's going to go work for that guy. And that guy is griping that he can't hire anybody. Who am I not to hire him, I should probably take this guy and figure out what happens.

Andrew:

Just to be clear, I had not officially reached out to that guy and been turned down or anything. I had not contacted him yet.

David:

He was threatening me.

Andrew:

I knew he was hiring. And I was like, Look, Dave, I would rather work with you. But if you don't want me just let me know. And I'll go to, you know, I'll go make this other guy money. Just depends on who you want to make money.

David:

Yeah.

Andrew:

You know, I know I've listened to you guys talk a lot on the podcast about when people want to come up and say, Hey, let me buy you a cup of coffee or buy you lunch and let's sit and you give me all your years of experience and just train me for free. And we'll figure out how can add value later? Or why don't you tell me how I can add value. And it was more like, you know, bringing, I brought Dave out for breakfast and said, Hey, what are your plans? What do you want to do? How can I make that happen? But also, here's what I bring to the table and I don't expect you to babysit me. I'm not a charity case. Realistically, and he won't toot his own horn here but I tell him all the time like not to be an asshole but I didn't need him to grow another real estate business. I'd already done that. What I loved about it was he was really good at connections and his visionary role makes it really easy for him to do marketing and really easy for him to raise capital and be able to fulfill something that I didn't have. But I knew I could come in and work my ass off and make us both a lot of money by utilizing what he brought to the table and me doing things that he clearly couldn't do himself or wasn't willing to.

30:00 - 35:00

Alex:

Yeah, that's kind of what I did with climb capital, they're really good at operations. And they don't have somebody that's like, hey, look, we got to get the world to know who we are. And I'm like, Ooh, I can do that. I can't do it as good as David in some ways. But you know, I'm getting better.

David:

Your content is way better. It's just, and I'm happy to sit down and talk, but it's like the..

Alex:

Operations.

David:

SEO like.

Alex:

Yeah, Oh my God.

David:

I was talking. I was actually talking with Austin Clark, because he was like, Man, I don't know why Alex hasn't blown up. And I was like, Alex’s YouTube channel is designed as though he were Graham Steffen.

Meaning if Graham Steffen makes a video that's like, oh my god, I can't believe this happened. Everybody watches it, because he's got like, 3 million followers. So they all see the notification. But nobody's gonna search for oh my god, what is Graham Steffen? Whatever, you know, so as like, Alex just needs to get a like one or two videos that pop for like, stupid shit. Like, how do I invest in an RV park or whatever, where somebody who types it in sees you because your content is foreign above anyone else in that realm. It's just making it to where they see it when they're looking like answer a question that they're looking forward. You'll blow up.

Alex:

Yeah, maybe all right.

Somebody said today. They're like, I was on the phone. I was on the zoom with them. Jonathan Farber.

David:

Yeah.

Alex:

And he's like, Dude, your setup was dope. And I was drinking out. I have a coffee cup. That looks like one of my lenses. He's like, dude, everything you do is so dope. And I was like, he's like, how come the world doesn't know? And I'm like, because I'm too busy being dope to tell him but no, I love that you guys have that good fit. I would love to find I love, it sounds a lot like you know, visionary integrator. It's a really good fit. I'm hoping that my place I'm selfishly, I'm thinking about myself, I'm hoping that my fate would climb capital is similar. But I'm really glad that you guys linked up and I think you have been friends for a while. So we all hung out in Orlando. So it sounds like you know, kind of like partnerships, you know, I was taught, one of my positions on partnerships is, you know, don't partner with somebody in a single family home. Like, that's a crazy idea. Because now you're like, like, like I said, at the beginning, it's hard to get rid of you. Once you have that partnership, and it's legal. It's like, it's hard to get rid of you. And now I get it. We're gonna do it to share for 30 years, you know, tentatively, to share 300 bucks a month, 200 bucks a month, maybe less, depending on how you buy it on a single family home. I don't like you that much. 30 years, a lot of time to learn how to hate somebody, and you better have some real money. You better have a real operation. So it's good that you guys kind of sound like you went slow. A little bit. You're easing into it.

David:

We didn't try to, we just spent a shitload on marketing that was not doing what I needed to do until I found what was.

Alex:

Also, what's that old saying, slow the hire quick the fire.

David:

Yeah.

It's interesting, though. So someone asked me last week about hiring because people see that I'm starting to grow this team, right. So it looks like I should know what I'm doing with hiring. And I was laughing because it's like, okay, so Rachel, I used Jeremy's friend, I paid five grand for this dude to like, scout out whatever. And he went through like 100 applicants that gave me one. And I interviewed her. And then I was like, this other company that I had, like a good friend of mine who is a hiring lady had also interviewed her and the only reason they didn't hire her is because the girl they were replacing ended up not quitting. And so like, I just happen to be like, Hey, I did. This is my first interview ever. Can you tell me what you think? And she was like, Oh, I interviewed her like two weeks ago. She's awesome. You should hire her. And I was like, oh, so it was one interview and one hire. He basically had Stockholm Syndrome.

Alex:

Who's the girl?

David:

My assistant. Who brought us the coffee at the beginning of the podcast.

Alex:

I didn't see that.

David:

So that was one interview and one hire.

Alex:

Wait, wait, wait, one more question. Where are you right now?

David:

Missouri

Alex:

Okay, more specifically, are you in your house?

David:

Oh, yeah. So this is the office setup. It's the basement of Airbnb. It's a walkout to one.

Alex:

You live there at that location?

David:

No, no, no.

Alex:

Okay. Interesting.

David:

Yeah, well, I was looking for office spaces, but there wasn't anything I could get.

Alex:

No but the house is like an office space but with a different deed. I mean.

35:00 - 40:00

David:

Now that we're doing renovations and stuff and starting to buy materials in bulk. We're starting to search for an actual office space much sooner than I ever anticipated. Because we're going to need warehouse space because we can get, if we buy 10 pallets of LVP, we're getting $1 off what we're getting it at one or two pallets for that, you know.

Alex:

It helps.

David:

Yeah, a 20 or 30% discount is worth having a space to store it. So then he bombarded me and was like, I see that you want you need this, whether you see it or not, here's what we need to do. Boom, boom, boom. And then now we're hiring. Our third like, I mean, we've got three cold callers, but we were hiring our third in person. And basically we were talking about it. And the same week we were talking about it, a friend that he worked with for like five years at AT&T called it like, Hey, I'm looking for like, you seem to be enjoying what you're doing, are you guys hiring blah, blah, blah. And we put out like, a couple ads pinged a bunch of other people. And like nobody else showed up for an interview she shows up to the interview and crushes it. I'm like, so like, on the surface, it looks like Dave's starting to learn about hiring. But the reality is like, I've just kind of fallen into everybody at this point. And it seems to be working for me so far.

Alex:

That's the whole universe.

Oh sorry Andrew, go ahead.

Andrew:

No, I wanted to clarify because a lot of people have asked Dave. And I'm not. I'm not saying this to toot my own horn by any means. But I'm trying to toot he’s actually a lot of people have asked him like, every time he posts about deals we're doing and you know, oh, my, you know, my acquisitions guy got these deals, we're making this money. And he keeps getting asked like, Oh, how did you find them? Where are you interviewing these people? How did this happen? He found me. And, and they feel bad. Because he always tells me like I don't have a good story for this. Like I don't have, I don't have a good like, solid teachable, I can't make a YouTube video about how to recreate this. And when I keep trying to tell him from my perspective, be the guy or girl, be the person that other people want to come work with. And you don't have to worry about being a great hire. You don't have to be a great interviewer.

I mean, that's a lot harder. Like if, if nobody knows you, and nobody gives a crap about you, then yeah, you have a lot more filtering to go through. But when I first started wholesaling, three years ago, this guy and his mustache came in from Hawaii and did a meetup through bigger pockets. And I was like, Holy crap, I want to do this. I'll go meet this guy. It'll be great. And he came out the next day to look at a house I had under contract and was super nice. Even though my numbers were crap. It was my first deal. There was a dead cat melted into the carpet. It was like this awful, awful thing. I made 500 bucks on it.

You know, you learn a lesson and you make money. It worked out.

David:

Yeah.

Andrew:

But realistically, what happened was we kept up with each other. I got into land, he thought that was cool. And when he was in town, we'd meet up and we'd hang out. And we built that relationship. And I learned what he was doing. And I'm not a military guy admittedly, which I know I'm not supposed to be on this podcast if I'm not but. But I have a lot of family. That's the military. I love that community. And I was like, This guy's doing some really cool stuff. He's the kind of people I want to be around. And I can grow teaming with him. I can help him grow, teaming with him. And so that's why I pursued him.

And also, don't be a piece of crap when you're pursuing other people, like, if you don't, I'm not saying that you can't be new in real estate, and still offer value. But what I'm saying is, don't come in and expect somebody to just do your business for you and completely train you. Like if somebody is good and busy, they don't have time to babysit you. So be well read, listen to podcasts every day on your ride in and out of town. Like do your own freakin work. Because you don't need to be babysat. We're adults here like this. It's ridiculous for people to come in and think that other people are just going to build them a fortune and make them successful.

You know, if he had time to do that, for me, he's not worth it for me. He's not worth it for me to team up with him. If he's got so much time to babysit me. That's not the kind of person I wanted, anyway.

Alex:

I love that because I think it goes about, I equate it to dating, right? It's like, you don't want to be good on first dates. You want to be somebody who attracts the person who's right for you.

And so like if you're you can be the best hiring manager like in terms of interview or scouting resumes, but if the leads themselves aren't what aren't good fits, if you're not attracting the right people to enter in to show up then. What's the point right you can't turn. You can't turn, it's harder to turn the wrong person right than it is to just get the right person like just get the right person to show up. So David's like Oh, I'm not good at hiring it's or I'm not that great at hiring. It's like right but you're doing the harder task which leads and you're saying it's like, you're acting as if somebody is like, oh, I want to go work for him. I want to go work for him. There's a guy I don't know, if you listen to this podcast, Jacob, he posted the other day about. He wants to join the open door capital. And I don't know how I got involved with the thing, but he's like, How can I? How can he have any advice? How can I do that? And I'm like, yeah, go work for them without like, just go do it.

40:00 - 45:00

David:

Yeah, intern.

Alex:

What’s that?

David:

I said, yeah, intern or something.

Alex:

Yeah, just start sending them deals, like just start working. Just start working. And, you know, I gave a couple other pieces of advice. And I was like, go make friends with everybody who's there. Like, don't ask for an interview, go find out who works there and go make friends with them. And then find out what their problems are. And then go solve those problems, like, just make yourself invaluable whether or not they think they need you, or they want you or anything, just go make yourself indispensable. And so he's like, Oh, that's actually pretty good advice. And so now he ended up doing that. And then they did give him a second, I think he's on his third interview. So now I think he is actually going to get hired. And he's like, Dude, I owe you. And I was like, Yeah, you owe me a piece of your paycheck. But it's very similar, where it's like, find out somebody who's like, okay, he's doing what I want to do, he has these problems, I know how to solve them. Don't ask for permission, just go solve those problems.

Andrew:

And that's what this lead manager did too. She's my same age, not like some college kid that just needed a job. She had a job she liked. But she's known me for a long time and knew, hey, Andrew is really happy with what he's doing. I want to know about that. And I would like to be involved in that. And she trusted me as a person from, you know, you could build relationships, that stuff doesn't come out of it for years.

Alex:

Relationships.

Andrew:

Yeah, it's relationships long term takes a while. But she came to me out of nowhere, and was like, hey, I want to do what he's doing. And I want to be involved in that, because it makes him really happy. And I trust this guy. And I'm willing to quit the job I've got with a husband and a family and all this other stuff. I'm willing to put my, you know, my livelihood in his hands, because I trust what he's doing. I know, he's gonna take care of that. And that's that it's the same thing over and over again, it doesn't have to be another investor. You know, maybe she's coming into leads, maybe somebody is coming in just to be a VA for you, whatever it is, like, wake yourself up with those people who were successful and the kind of people you want to be around, and then figure it out from there. That's just how I feel about it.

Alex:

Speaking of which, for all my friends listening, I need lots of help. So if you want to link yourself up with Alex, I have nobody working for me right now. I need help with SEO. I need help with organized marketing, email campaigns, putting my stuff on YouTube, Instagram, I don't do any SEO because I don't care. But somebody freakin should care and help me out with it. So if you want to link yourself up with me, and come intern with Alex, for a little while before I inevitably blow up. We can make that a liquid of agreement.

David:

I was gonna say that I would be more than willing to jump on a call and help you out with SEO.

Alex:

I don't need a call. I need somebody to do it.

David:

You don't need pointers. You need the work and I'm not gonna do that.

Alex:

I sort of, I mostly sort of know what I need to do.

David:

The unsexy part of the online stuff.

Alex:

Well, it's all the details and I'm not gonna do it. And like you said it the success will come inevitably, especially with the new show. You know, this has been tremendously helpful, this show which I love, and the real estate thing is going very well so and then also I put in this little town this town sucks.

David:

When are you moving?

Alex:

I'm working on it. I waited for my taxes to get done.

Andrew:

What are you doing to make the town better?

Alex:

Leaving.

David:

You know, two months ago he was waiting for his property to sell.

Alex:

I closed my side yesterday. The buyer side closes tomorrow.

David:

Now he takes on taxes.

Alex:

Don't make me feel like this is the most embarrassing problem two years of my life. Although I shouldn't be too hard on myself because in the last two years, I have raised about 2 million bucks. I closed a bunch of deals and did learn a lot about this camera. Oh my god.

David:

You were jobless for two years. And you loved it.

Alex:

Yeah, but now I'm bored. Now I want to do good things for climb capital. I want to grow and I some bigger momentum. So it's been a good two years, though.

David:

You got some fucking killer things going on with that camera.

Alex:

I'm going to Iceland.

David:

Yeah, I was gonna say I'm jelly about Iceland.

Alex:

Yeah, who wants to go to Iceland with me?

David:

What's the ticket on that? 5? 7?

Alex:

Yeah, all inclusive though.

David:

That’s cool..

Alex:

Yeah, that's hotel food, everything.

David:

When is it?

Alex:

April 6. Rod Cliffs gonna be there, David Tupin, Eric Upchurch.

45:00 - 50:00

Andrew:

My wife has some family that almost exclusively do photography for their business and mostly do destination engagements and weddings and things like that. And they're always shooting pictures in freakin Iceland or wherever, Hawaii constantly on like that. I've got way too many kids to do that kind of thing. And I'm not a photographer, but it looks pretty freakin awesome.

David:

Yeah, a good photographer will make it look good, right?

Alex:

I am a photographer.

I got a lot of cameras. I'm bringing in. I'm bringing cameras and gimbals and drones, and tripods and flashes, and we're gonna make that look dope. Also, for anybody who's, I don't know when this is gonna come out. The best ever conference is this Thursday. And they're gonna have the annual BiggerPockets meetup.

David:

Which comes out like two or three weeks later.

Alex:

Yeah, so you guys missed it. But I went to the bigger pockets. I'm going to the bigger pockets annual event this Thursday evening, at the bigger pockets headquarters. And they asked me to do the photography for that gig. But I mean, I was just going to be, it’s a party. I'll have my camera. I mean, that's basically my superpower. And then also, I'm going to the bigger pockets, rookie boot camp. And something. April late April.

David:

Speaking of bigger pockets I don't think I've let the cat out of the bag yet. And I don't know. I signed an NDA. But I think I'm allowed to let the cat out of the bag. I just can't tell the terms. But I signed for three month. It's a trial period to make sure I don't suck as the co-host of the money show.

Alex:

Oh you didn't tell me that?

David:

Yeah, so it's kind of been going this week.

Scott really likes doing the finance Friday episodes, but doesn't have time to do both episodes a week. So Mindy, and I will host the Monday episodes. And then Scott and Mindy will host the Friday episodes.

Alex:

Congratulations!

David:

Yeah, I'm excited. That's kind of crazy.

I told my wife, I was like, now I can say I'm a professional podcaster because I'm going to get a paycheck, kind of.

Alex:

When am I going to get paid for this show?

David:

I'm working on it. One of these days.

Alex:

I want to sit here and demand money.

David:

This podcast has cost me so much money over the last few years. But the intangible benefit is, it's fun, and we get to know a lot of people.

Alex:

I don’t get any intangible benefits. I don't even think people think of me as the co-host of this podcast. They think of it as your podcast. Nobody reaches out to me about this podcast. Oh my god.

David:

Have you heard that intro earlier?

Alex:

Yeah, this is my show.

David, you're welcome. You're welcome to also please, please keep paying for production for my show.

David:

Oh, speaking of, I did go ahead and set up a Friday night meetup in Phoenix for the community. So I told Shelby, I was like, why don't..

Alex:

Yeah, the cool kids meetup!

David:

We just all come to the same place in time.

Alex:

The cool kids meetup plus, David.

David:

Yeah.

Alex:

Actually I told Shelby, I said, it's the cool kids meetup plus David.

David:

Well, I saw. She screenshot. She shared it. She shared it. And I was like, on a run. And I texted back something to the effect of like, wait, so I should not host my own meetup, so that I can host one for Alex where I'm not the cool kid. Pass.

Alex:

If I show up at the meetup you will not be the cool kid.

David:

That's fine. That's totally cool.

Alex:

I’ll have my camera. So I'll make you look cool.

David:

I was gonna say you've got the camera and everyone who's I've been telling people to use your link so they can get a photo.

Alex:

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

David:

I don't know that anyone has but.

Alex:

Yeah, also did they announce the bigger pockets conference?

David:

Not officially, but in October, right?

Alex:

I'm pretty sure they..

David:

The rumor says San Diego in October.

Alex:

The rumor mill is saying San Diego in October.

David:

Unofficial, not affiliated whatsoever with that answer.

Alex:

Yeah, me neither. I thought it was out. I thought it came out already. But I guess not.

David:

You're gonna take photos again?

Alex:

Oh, no, it's 2021 New Orleans. I am the photographer for the..

David:

Unofficial event.

Alex:

I am the official photographer. Agreed. I don't have a contract yet. But that will come. But I don't know. I don't know where it's gonna be.

David:

You know, it's crazy. If you think about it. Like, I was thinking about this the other day, think back like three years ago, right. Three, four years ago, you and I were driving around wherever we were listening to BiggerPockets Podcast trying to figure out how to invest in real estate. Now we're both kind of crazy how things work over the years.

50:00 - 55:00

Alex:

Yeah, in 2016 I bought my first rental. Yeah, I should have been more in the last few years. But whatever, such as life, 16, I bought my first rental 17, about a few 18 about a few 19 about a 24 unit 20 I bought a 52 unit at 21 I didn't buy much, did a couple flips, but I sort of took the year off. That's kind of.
David:

You positioned yourself though. Now you're working with climb.

Alex:

Yeah, that's true. I joined Climb Capital in 2021. I positioned myself well. And I learn how to use this bad boy. And I traveled a lot. And that was fun.

I thought the bigger pockets media investor series is going to do more than it was. But they changed, they changed us in charge, like halfway through my production. So and then the next person just didn't have the same vision. And so that kind of ended up whatever, it's whatever. If I didn't hadn't done that I couldn't have done Iceland.

David:

It opened some doors.

Alex:

It opened some doors.

Andrew:

I think people should drive around in cars with their friends and dream about changing their futures.

Alex:

Yeah, well, yeah, they should.

Andrew:

That's how I got into real estate. I was driving back from a baseball game with a good buddy of mine, St. Louis. And we were just talking about the futures we wanted for our kids and like, college and whatever would it be cool if we had like a business to hand down to him. And we both did some, like DIY projects we thought were badass, right? Like, oh, we can flip houses and this is great. Well, three years later, I'm doing this full time, and he doesn't understand what it's like. He's still terrified of buying a rental property and hasn't done anything. And I love him dearly. Great, great guy. But you know, I, you know, it's just different, take action, you do it, you dive in if you want to make it happen. Or you can look back and go, Oh, I've been talking about this for the last three or four years and have done shit with it.

Alex:

It's hard to go all in.

Real estate takes a little bit of an all in, it takes a good chunk of your day focus. And then now unfortunately, I think it's harder now than it has been in the last five years. Not to say that you can't do it. And if you have momentum already and you've been doing it then it's not as hard but starting now is definitely harder than it has been in the past.

David:

You said it. I mean, I tell people the reason that we're doing the wholesaling. I use the word wholesaling because universally people understand that but we're less wholesaler, more house flipper slash brrrr, we just do the marketing ourselves in house rather than having to pay an assignment to a wholesaler. Because we want to hold everything. But like I tell people, that's why we're doing it so that we can buy houses for 60-70 cents on the dollar and then renovate them and still have, you know, some equity. So if things correct where we've got, you know, a decent amount of equity, we're getting cash flow, like the numbers are all better. But holy crap, man, if I didn't spend I mean between paying him because I told him like we did a ramp up for the commission because he's got a family of five to feed or five kids. And you know, like, I couldn't just be like, alright, buddy, I hope this works. Can you just not get any money for four months and fingers crossed? Like there was some pay there between paying him and marketing I probably 50 I think we ended up with like 55 grand in the first quarter, we work together with zero deals. And then we landed six in a like six day period. And those made all that money back with three renovations. So it worked out. But that's a huge amount of like, that's not like oh, yeah, just go do this. It'll work out.

Andrew:

Just so I don't seem like a total freeloader piece of crap. There were not zero deals in that time. There were five deals at that time. One of which we're still working on a long term rehab.

David:

Zero income.

Andrew:

And a bunch of them that fell apart because of bankruptcies and other nonsense that was completely out of my control. I just want everybody to know.

Alex:

That's how it goes.

David:

So $0 Back in the bank.

Andrew:

Didn't make you any money, but I cost him money. While I was still, I'm working. I'm doing something.

David:

So alright, Alex, somebody wants to reach out to you. What is one thing you need in your life right now? I know you said SEO. Is that the thing? Is that the ask?

Alex:

Yeah, I don't know. It's hard. I don't know. I need somebody who's gonna buy in and say, Okay, I can do it. I just can't do it and I'll buy in the long term, which is a hard ask because I have no income to give up right now.

Andrew:

You’d be like that job ad you posted the other day with a guy looking for the..

Alex:

Yeah, I need a 25 year old smoking hot living you know assistant is going to do my stuff. And you know, maybe give it up once in a while and there's no money in it. And yeah, and you should be and you should enjoy every moment of it.

Andrew:

That's the guy who will always need to be good at hiring because he sucks at being a person.

Alex:

Yeah, I'm a good bet. I just don't know how to. I don't have the funds yet to pay. I think what I'll do is actually when this house sells I'm going to try to hire a VA to do a bunch of what I need to get done. So if somebody wants to come help me with that, what I don't need is somebody who shows up and is like, hey, what do you need? And how can you teach me how to do it? It's like I need somebody who can look at my problems kind of after, even if it's a few conversations and be like, Okay, I can help you do dissemination, kind of like David does, right? Where it's like, I have a machine. So YouTube, Instagram, MailChimp, and tagging, SEO, blogging, like, I'll do the content, but I need to help. I need help getting it out. Because I'll post it at like 11. My problem is I'll just post at like 11 o'clock at night. I'm like, look at this cool thing. And it's like, Dude, you're actually not helping. I know that when I do it. I'm like this, actually, there's a better way to do this. And I just don't care. I'm too busy being cool. And so if somebody can take my cool and make it marketable, there's a lot of money for both of us.

55:00 - 57:42

David:

So if you're a D Rock, come work with Alex and make him guarantee.

Alex:

When I go to Charlotte, I think it'd be really easy.

David:

Yeah, I feel like you'll, there's a lot of things over the last year and a half for you that have changed that I think puts you in alignment with a much better course than where you were two years ago. As far as like, just I feel like you feel in alignment. I think Charlotte's like the next step. I think you'll..

Alex:

It's coming, coming so fast.

David:

I see good things.

Alex:

So and that's the thing, like I'll hire this out eventually. So if somebody wants to get in on the ground floor, you know, if I can find someone who wants to work with me, then it's easy. Otherwise, I'll end up paying somebody and that's fine too.

David:

Sweet.

Alex:

Everybody subscribe to my YouTube channel and watch the final American political broadcast that aired last night.

David:

Shoot me an email with the links that I'll put in the show notes.

Alex:

That is heavy, but it was informative. Should I do an outro?

David:

Yeah!

Alex:

Where can people find you David? How do we people know who you are?

David:

Nobody knows who I am.

Alex:

Thank you for listening to my show The From Military to Millionaire show. My lovely co hosts David and Andrew.

David you can find him at frommilitarytomillionaire.com/podcast, YouTube channel, Instagram. He's Tik Tok famous as well. Thank you so much for having us. Make sure you leave a review on iTunes or Apple podcasts, whatever they call it these days.

My name is Alex Felice. Thank you for listening.