Chad Bartlett: From Struggling Wholesaler to Living The Autopilot Life

Chad Bartlett started his real estate career while working long hours as an auto mechanic living in Anchorage, Alaska. Chad was struggling to find a way to quit the 9-5 life so he could spend more time with his growing family. Realizing he had replaced his mechanic's job for a real estate job, Chad decided he needed to put systems in place in order to automate his business so that he could truly have a freedom business. After hitting rock bottom, he finally started finding ways to replace himself within his real estate investing company. Chad currently runs a successful real estate and education company remotely while living and traveling internationally with his wife and four children.  His passion is to show others how they can be truly free to do what they love with the people they love. To find more out about Chad and his journey visit his website at http://www.theautopilot.life and download his book, The Book of Mistakes, for FREE! Remember, if you love the format of these episodes we don't know unless you leave us a 5 star review and click that subscribe button!

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Transcript

spk_0:   0:01
It's not real estate investors, entrepreneurs and agents. You're in the right place. Unlocking the secrets to real estate investing in entrepreneurship. Welcome to the Times Young vaults hosted by R. J. Bates The third years. Hey, guys, Welcome to the titanium vault. I'm your host, R J. Bates. Today I'm sitting down with Chad Bartlett. How you doing, man?

spk_1:   0:32
You're good, R j Sorry, man.

spk_0:   0:33
Oh, man. Just another day in paradise. We are getting prepared to go down to San Antonio, Texas, later. Either later this evening or tomorrow morning for the ground zero event with Quentin Flores. A super excited for that. But I want to give a backstory toe how this interview came about because ah, I just I think it's cool, you know? So ah, previous guest, Nathan Brooks Gil back cry 50 60 episodes ago. He was a guest on the show, and, uh, he posted on Facebook yesterday. Hey, I've got I've got my good buddy Chad. Um, he's got an incredible story, and he's looking to get on some podcasts. And, you know, I I look this morning, I think there's like, 50 or 60 comments on that post. People trying to get you on. And I told you this morning I'm super excited because I'm the 1st 1 that got you right. That's kind of like the speed is like the name of the game and real estate investing. So I was like, the first appointment I got that contract for. Anybody else could get

spk_1:   1:31
it. I'm

spk_0:   1:32
getting this. I'm getting this interview out before anybody else gives you. So, uh, but yeah, man, you've got an incredible stories. I kind of want just turn it over to you and tell everybody a little bit about you know, your

spk_1:   1:43
background and real estate investing. How you got started. Yeah, man. Happy to share my story with you. Grateful for Nathan for the introduction, man. And like you, like you said, it's a good analogy to the real estate world, man. Hungry, hungry, and be first, you know, with me My story and real estate started in Alaska. I was working as an auto mechanic, working 60 plus hours a week, and I had two kids at the time, and I was just trying to add more hours to my day, and I went to college for a little bit, actually, at the University of Alaska, Anchorage. And I know you have a connection to Alaska to you're crushing it there in Alaska. Doing

spk_0:   2:17
Yeah. Yeah. So I love Anchorage. I've been up there one time. We have a branch up there, and first and foremost, it's one of most beautiful places on the planet. I mean, just I love it. I fell in love with the people there. Um And to be honest with you, it's one of the easier markets to find good deals and rehab houses. So it's one of our top flip markets right now that we're focused in on. So I love you're gonna be the second guessed I've ever had that has any kind of connection to Anchorage, Alaska. So I'm super excited

spk_1:   2:49
about that. That's awesome, man. I don't know anybody else that was able to do it in Alaska, man. So that's awesome. And it is beautiful. Every day, the sunlight off of the mountains makes the sky look different every single day. Man, I'm not really living there, but I wasn't as smart as you are, J man. I couldn't make it work in the last guy was trying to figure it out you know, I went to I went to college to try to get free of my mechanic's job, and they told me that, you know, if I went to school and got my masters in my PhD and did unpaid internships, which didn't make any sense at all since I had two kids. I can't work free, right? I would equal my pay is a zoo mechanic. And so I was like, I gotta figure something else out And I started doing doing real estate deals, trying to figure out wholesale. I couldn't figure out Alaska, Man. I couldn't crack that night, and so I started shifting my focus to Kansas City. That's a place that I knew in my adult life, and I started just put marketing out there. It's funny, R. J. Because I was at a real estate of Van, and it seems like the simplest thing in the world now. But this guy said, Don't keep focusing on what's not working, and you know, when you're on the fox hole and you're in the trenches, it's hard to pick your head up sometimes and look around and say, Does any of this even matter? You know It's just working. But I was grinding in Alaska for six months and not doing anything, and I was like, I got it. I got to do something different. So 30 days later, after making the plans in Kansas City, I did my first deal and and three months later I was able to put my mechanics job. Just be ableto try to spend more time with my family and then stand up thing

spk_0:   4:20
back in touch on the fact that you said it wasn't working in Alaska. And for those people that might be in random locations. And as the podcast host, I have the benefit of seeing where people actually listen to the podcast and we have people I've got. I've got one guy in Sweden. He listens to every episode. I got one guy in Spain. He listens every or girl. I guess it could be a woman. Somebody listens in Sweden, Spain. We've got Montana, Vermont, Maine, all these random locations that I see him on every single up so they listen. So if you're listening, I love for you to reach out to me and tell me who you are. But some of these random locations. You know, we were blessed to have a branch in Hawaii and Alaska, and I have to agree with you. Wholesaling is really difficult in those markets, and I think it has to do with the fact that there's just not a lot of wholesalers and the buyers, the investors that you would try to sell to. They don't understand what you're doing. It's kind of like, Are you a realtor? Like why are you telling me you have to put nonrefundable, earnest money down? I'm supposed to have an inspection period. They just don't really understand it. And thats why we primarily flip in those two markets. So I just want to throw that out there. That this is the I don't blame you for struggling the wholesale in Alaska because trust me, man, we've tried a couple of times and we've fallen flat on her face when he comes the whole ceiling as well, specifically in Anchorage. So I understand where you're coming

spk_1:   5:55
from. Dude, I hear you 100% man. And and I was so new to I didn't really know. I thought, you know, Emma less all. I was looking for a semi less deals. And as my business progresses, I know that that's not really where the cream of the crop is. So I was just so young, and I just I couldn't figure it out, man. But, you know, case in point, I have a similar story in Alaska. When I was trying to get started, there was, ah, Shark, a real estate agent. I saw him on the billboards and I saw him on TV commercials and stuff, and I reached out to him and I said, Hey, I'm doing real estate. I'm kind of new to it. What? I'm searching for deals, and I know that you've got a probably a great buyer's list of people that are looking for deals. And as soon as I could a deal under contract, I'd love that. Kind of send it your way, and you could bring some buyers across. And maybe I can give you $500. Um, re Brophy or something. You know, I didn't know that. This sounds like a real newbie talking, Right?

spk_0:   6:44
Right. Right.

spk_1:   6:46
So this is what he said to me. I remember the longest pause on the phone. You know, you're nervous talking to a new buyer when your brand new anyway, right? And then as soon as he starts talking, it was like, um, let me tell you how real estate works. Like dropped. He was like, I get 3% commission on every house that I sell. Why would I take $500 to bring buyers? And I was like, Okay, the bone lick, lick my wounds and a justice. We always do, man, But yeah, Alaska is a different animal, man. That's

spk_0:   7:14
that's hilarious, man. And look, if you're newer and you've recently had one of those conversations, just understand that we've all had those conversations like, I remember getting schooled on my 1st 3 or four contracts by buyers. But do you even know what you're trying to sell? Let me explain the numbers to you. This is the way it's supposed to go, and and you do you almost want to, like, quit right where it's like, man. Maybe this just isn't for me. This isn't what I was taught. I was taught that this is how this is supposed to go. So I'm sure someone told you two to offer the $500 to the realtor rest right, that s o. And it doesn't work, you know. But in some markets, it does. For some Realtors, it works. Maybe not the guy that's on all the billboards on the commercial, says the top dog. But maybe a new realtor. That does work, you know? So it's crazy. So let's talk about Kansas City. So you get down to Kansas City. Are you virtually wholesaling from Alaska, or did you move

spk_1:   8:13
to Kansas City? Best right, man, I was just doing my first deals in Alaska, in Kansas City from Alaska. I didn't know about the term virtual wholesaling, remote investing. I didn't know what other any of that really meant. I never heard those words before, and so much later. But my whole business was built on me out of necessity, just grinding to try to find deals so I could spend more time with my family and just build the lifestyle that I wanted to get away from from the mechanics job. So it was just me putting out marketing and trying to build a small team of boots on the ground out there that could help me look. ATT deals take pictures of deals show deals for me, and that's really how the birth of my real estate investment companies started. It was until after I did enough deals that I was able to put my mechanic's job, that I decided that we pack up everything that we have and moved to Kansas City and just be closer to my business

spk_0:   9:06
when you were first getting started. What former marketing were you doing was a direct mail cold calling. What were you doing there?

spk_1:   9:12
This was Super Budget 2000 and 11. I don't know that cold calling was mentioned in 2011. Man, I was. I'll tell you a sight that you probably haven't thought about in a while was Craigslist. That's Sakis turning hurted. My first deal was just blitzing breaks list. Um, every hour I was checking it. I was refreshing the page for sale by owner. I was going to be the 1st 1 to reach out to these people, and I was just focused on that and refreshing the page, refreshing the page, you know, call whatever I could do to try to get a hold of them and set up appointments so that I can have my boots on the ground. Check it out. Get deals.

spk_0:   9:48
That's a slow grind when you're first getting started. But, man, Hey, looking back at it, I think we've all had these moments. I remember a moment where there was, like, one day where, you know, we were probably strapped for cash, whatever. And we were just getting started. And I remember I went to Barnes and Noble here in Fort Worth, Texas, and I was like, I am going to contact every single deal on Craigslist. That's how I'm gonna get a deal to day. And you know what? At the time, it was so frustrating because, like, 95% of them were wholesalers. And then finally, I found the one, you know, a motivated seller that needed the cell. And the reason why they're on Craigslist is because they had been shot down by realtors. They were lying at Your house is in too bad a condition. The list it. So they just went to what they knew, which was Craigslist, and we were able actually to solve that problem, and it turned out to be a great wholesale deal. So, you know, a There's nothing wrong when you're first getting started that Craigslist grind, you know? So that And that was in 2015. So I was four years after you on the on the Craigslist grind there. So once you move the Casey, you started building up a team. What did

spk_1:   10:59
that look like? Yeah, I'll tell you, I actually did the opposite. R j man, I am. I made a big mistake of turning into the everybody guy. You know, when I got to Kansas City, I decided that I do everything myself Nice. You know, I kind of took a step backwards. I didn't realize it was step backwards, but I would just be in chief in trying to save some money. Aren't day. So what I did was I I was doing literally everything in my business and my business at that time struggled more than anything, right? I with myself Now that I can quit my mechanics job, I can dedicate 100% of myself to real estate and really rode this thing up. But what I did was I was just replacing replacing the hours worked as a mechanic with these hours trying to get these deals, and I was doing everything myself, man. So I actually made a big mistake and things got kind of tough for me in the beginning before I realized that I need to duplicate myself and get back to what made me successful. And that was delegation and put in some systems in place that could really help me grow my business. Is

spk_0:   11:56
that also because you felt like you were the best at each individual activity? Or was it also because, as you know, visionary CEOs, I think we all have a little bit of a control freak problem where those kind of some of the issues that led to that decision

spk_1:   12:16
R. J. You know me? You know, that's like, That's it exactly, R j man. It's all of those things, you know, One nobody cares about the business. The way that I care about it, to nobody can do is good of a job inside my businesses. Aiken D'oh! You know, and exactly I was afraid to let go of those pieces in my business, and that's what really makes you go slow.

spk_0:   12:39
But again, going back to this, I did they at some point time. It's natural toe. Have that realization that? Sure. Maybe if your sole responsibility was acquisitions, then, yeah, you might be the best acquisitions manager for your company. Or even for some things like me that took me a really long time to light release. Two other people were bookkeeping and accounting. I know this sounds stupid, right? It's like, What are you talking about? Why I don't even like it. I don't even understand accounting. Let's start with that, Okay? I don't even know why I thought I was the best. But it was just like, Hey, I don't want to spend the money to turn that over to somebody. I don't want them looking at my books, you know? And so I kept these things, and then it realized, Hey, I'm making some really bad mistakes for my company because I don't have the time, the knowledge or the band with to actually take care of these things. So you talked about that was a really bad decision for your company. How bad did it get before you realize? Hey, what was like the breaking point for you, where you're like, they have to make a change here.

spk_1:   13:51
R j, You're going deep, man. I gotta tell you, man, it was like one of the low points in my life was working in real estate and then realizing that the deal flow is inconsistent because of your efforts. I mean, when I started, I was just on a streak and I thought I was untouchable and it felt like somebody just turn the faucet off R J. And I was like, I I gotta figure out something different increased my marketing. Brian, Brian Grind, grind some more, Hustle some more. And it's like I was stuck in this hamster will, no matter what I was doing, was helping me growing any bigger R J. So I had to bite the bullet. I had to have a tough conversation with myself and my wife and say, Look, I know that I can crush it in real estate, but I just need some more money coming in. I'm gonna take a job interview to see if I get this mechanics job. Let me just go back to mechanics of working during the weekday, but I'll crush real estate in the weekend, and I freaking humbled myself, man. And I took that job interview and R J Man that's the worst experience in the world. Listen, when you're a mechanic, your mechanic and there's nothing wrong with that, it's amazing or machinist in the office job, Man, there's nothing wrong with that. But once you make a shift to start working for yourself and you're doing okay and then happen to go back to that life man, that's the hardest thing in the world. Man, that was such a humbling periods for me, and I would just sit in there in the interview. No. One. I had to get this job, but I didn't want this job. And that was on a Friday when a Saturday R. J. My wife was teaching childbirth education classes because that's her passion. And I was hanging out with my two little girls at the house, and I got a call from a buyer who wanted to see one of these houses that I had under contract that nobody wanted, right? And he said, Hey, man, do you wantto show me this house? I'm interested in it. It was on a lockbox, R. J. He could've went t open it up himself, But I was like, Man, if you want to be there, I'm gonna be there. And he was like, I was like, I got kids, you know? You okay if I bring him and probably some of your listeners are like, Yeah, that's a That's a horrible idea. You don't want tears to a big house, a fixer upper, but that's what I did, man, when you need the money, just kind of figure out a way to make it happen to do any family. So I met this by or at the house, and my kids are I am running up this hallway and it's all echoey cause it's a vacant house. But I was able to work out a deal with the buyer where I followed him over to his house and got the assignment be that day nice. And at that, on that day, it's like it was like a lifeline. You know, when you're running low on money and then you get a cash infusion, it's like oxygen. It's like you could breathe again for a little bit. And I told my wife in that moment I said, You know, I feel like God has blessed us with a second chance to reevaluate this business and what my priorities are. And that's when I made the decision R J. That you know I can only do so much myself. I need to get rid of my ego. I need to shed that and say, I need some help. I can't do everything myself. You know, I'm one person. There's no way that I can grow my business with any consistency if I'm the person that's doing it all. So that's when I made a big shift in the way that my business was run R. J was that low point in my life.

spk_0:   16:56
So when you were doing everything and I talked about this all the time, So if you've heard me talk about this before the broadcast, you can roll your eyes and be like R. J always says this, but I'm trying to beat it into your head because, you know, Chad, my already paid the dumb tax write like we've already done this. So we're tryingto teach you guys to not make the same mistakes that we made. Did you see that? There was like a roller coaster to your business where it was like acquisitions, and then you have to stop acquisitions to do dispositions. And then when you did this positions, you had a ton of money. But then you spent all the money because then you had to go back into the acquisitions.

spk_1:   17:33
That's 100% R J Man is What I classify is the roller coaster effect, and it's the highs and the lows because you're giving yourself. You're putting your attention in places that are kind of low level and not really the highest and best use of your time. I really, really love this quote by Tim Ferriss, and he said, You know it if you're worth, is 20 to $25 an hour, and we know that everybody in our real estate business will work a lot more than that. But you know, to paraphrase Tim, he said, If you're if you're worth, is 20 to $25 an hour and you're doing some tasks that you could pay somebody in $10 an hour to do, you're not being at the best use of business. Resource is, and that's the thing, man. If I'm a CEO in my business, why am I why my formatting? A spreadsheet for cold calls, Why no You know that doesn't make any sense, right? If Bill Gates is running his business, he's not answering the phone. When somebody wants to buy Microsoft products, does it make sense that we do that in our business to R. J?

spk_0:   18:34
Absolutely. So all right, you talk to your wife, you said, Hey, we need to make some changes. This is our second lifeline. What changes did you make right away?

spk_1:   18:44
I had to ask myself some questions because it was an opportunity from for me to disassemble my business. And so I said, If I could rebuild my business exactly how I wanted to be, what would what would that ideal business be? And so the first question had to start with what I hate doing what I just dislike doing the most. And it was phone calls and phone calls. Rob so many hours with my with my kids, you know, whenever that thing buzz their beef or made any kind of a sound, my attention shifted immediately to give it 100% to the phone instead of my kids. If I met the dinner table and phone rings, I got excuse myself cause I can't miss a deal. I gotta catch every call, right? What's said, man, If I could outsource one thing, it's gotta be called. Mike was not attached to my phone. I'll be happier. And that was the first thing that I that I got off of my plate was phone calls and it was tough, man, I had a lot of beer, you know, going back to what you were saying before nobody could do it like me and how silly that sounds now, right? Nobody could. Nobody could ask yourself these questions as good as I asked. Nobody can prep the sellers, but but that's what my mindset waas. But I said, You know what? If I if I want to make a change, I got to do it, you know? I got to get rid of something, and so that was calls for me, man. I got a call center. I was able to give them a script. I check up on him to make sure that they're doing what I wanted him to do. And once I got rid of that first piece R J. It was like the same thing you feel when you do your first field If you get one deal, that's proof of concept that it works and you could get 100 deals right by me, letting go with that one thing inside my business. It was proof of concept that I didn't go bankrupt. I didn't fall flat on my face. My business was a front to the ground because I let somebody take my phone calls, and it was proof of concept that I could do it over and over again. So that's really where it started for me.

spk_0:   20:30
So I'm the call center. Was that V A's or was it a local in in house? It was

spk_1:   20:36
local. My very first call center that I used was Pat Live, and I and I like their gimmick because no matter who answered the phone, if it was a guy or a girl, they answered the phone call. Hey, this is Pat.

spk_0:   20:50
Yeah, So a lot of people I Pat Live was a big deal a couple years ago. I haven't heard many people talk about it now. Do you still use them now? No,

spk_1:   20:58
I don't use them anymore, man. I use and I need another call center man. Do you want to give him a blood.

spk_0:   21:03
Yeah, go ahead.

spk_1:   21:04
So I use a call center called next. Uh, they used to be called Answer one, and they shift over to Mexia. And the reason why I shifted over to that call center is because they make outbound calls to One of the things that was important to me is when somebody is searching the internet and it come across my website that filling out my form. But I'm not egotistical to think that I have the world's best website and after they fill out the form is just gonna sit there and wait for me to contact. As soon as they fill out my form, they're gonna go to the next website and the next website in the next website. And I wanted to disrupt that pattern. So this call center next they get ah notified when somebody fills out one of my forms and they reach out to them within the 1st 5 minutes and it disrupts that pattern of them just going on the website, filling out forms.

spk_0:   21:48
So you said 1st 5 minutes and that is something that we that's a rule of thumb for our company as Well, um, that's something we learned from investor Carrot. You know, Trevor, Mark. He kind of preaches that investor carrot. And it's something that we implemented. And our highest close rate on a lead is from going our website because we're hitting them immediately before they can find somebody else. Websites go too, just like you're talking about. Because inevitably, that's gonna be what they're doing. Right? So, um, it's very important that you hit them. You know, I start screaming literally. If I see it, I'm like, five minutes. Who's on the phone? You know, uh, in And those are the most fun leads, to be honest with you because they're super motivated. So we love those leads more than anything. So you hired a call, so go ahead. Because

spk_1:   22:40
you didn't go hunting for them. They stop you. And that's why those are the most valuable.

spk_0:   22:44
Absolutely. So you hired the call center? What else did you kind of do? The transition, your business. After that?

spk_1:   22:49
The next thing that I transition was a virtual assistant. I said, look at all these low level data day tasks that really aren't good. Good use of my time. Right? You could be doing these things. And this is when I started understanding virtual assistance and all the help that they can provide. So that next step was hiring B A and just taking off those day to day activities. And my business had shifted to me now doing the sales and doing closing on home. That's that's where my business had shifted after I got rid of those things.

spk_0:   23:23
And when you say you were doing the closings on the phone, were you still where you going on appointments as acquisitions? Or were you trying to close over the phone?

spk_1:   23:32
Yeah, actually, early on in my business, I was still going on appointments and closing them and then and then shifted. We've had so many different life, so I look at my business and life cycles. There's been so many different life cycles and versions of my business to get me to where I am now. But at that point in time, a lot of windshield time, a lot of wind, showtime going to appointments and meeting face to face. I said, Man, I could get in front of the sellers that got to do a deal with me. I need. I just need to get my foot in the door. You know, that's why I was at that point in my business.

spk_0:   24:01
You know what? But a lot of newer people feel that way, right? They feel like they have to go to the house. Yeah, and that's gonna give them a better chance. And I think that comes from lack of experience and confidence in yourself. Because personally, for me, if if you had to say, R j, uh, we're gonna give you a lead right now. How are you gonna close it? Um, I want to close it right now. I I don't want any barriers of entry to come along the way. And one of those biggest barriers of entry is ah, the time in between setting the appointment and then showing up to the appointment because I learned that the hard way, where there were so many times where it was I talked to somebody Thursday morning and they say my first availability is Saturday morning, and I'm like, Okay, we'll see you Saturday morning, and then they called me Friday afternoon and they're like, Hey, we're gonna have to cancel. Why's that? Oh, I sold the house of someone else. Yeah, and I just started scratching my head on Mike, But you said you didn't have any availability. Oh, yeah, they did it all over the phone. They made me an offer, and I accepted it. And I signed the contract, and then it kind of like the light bulb went off. What did I do that? Why did I feel like I had to go to the house? I actually would have made them a little bit more for the house. You know, it was just those crazy feelings that I had and just realizing that I wasn't doing a very good job of asking the right questions and getting down to solving the problem. Right? So when you made that change and you started closing things over the phone, uh, did you Did you continue to do that? Or did you start building in acquisitions team for yourself?

spk_1:   25:45
At first I did it myself. And then I realized that I'm on the phone again, right? That's not what I wanted in my business. I don't want to be the guy on the phone again. So then I did. I transitioned out of that, and I just I knew that I was good and on the phone, but I didn't have any disillusion that I was the best. I knew that there was people that were absolute savages at sales and that that was never really comfortable for me. I did it out of necessity our day I did it because my business needed the deal's closed. But I It was never really super comfortable for me to be the person that was closing the deals. And so the next evolution for my business was to outsource that toe acquisitions. And now I have a dedicated negotiations team. That's all they do is give him the offer range, and they go out and try to close it.

spk_0:   26:33
So one of the biggest I shouldn't say this, but a debate amongst wholesalers operations. Okay, do acquisitions also do dispositions? Or is that two separate positions

spk_1:   26:48
in my business is to separate positions positions for

spk_0:   26:51
Why did you made that decision? Because

spk_1:   26:53
I wanted somebody that was specialized in their specific area, and I didn't want them to be doing more than what they were the best that you know, it's the same thing for me. You know, I don't want to do more than what is my niche. If somebody's acquisitions, that means that they're really good at getting deals under constant getting feels under contract, right? Why do I want them to be in charge of, you know, showings for buyers and getting it down the road when it's taking time away from other things that they could be doing to get me more deals under contract? There's somebody else that could be just fine with scheduling showings and coordinating the closing at the type of company. All that other stuff R. J um, you know, one of the things that I learned along the way is when you say no to something, you're saying yes to something else or vice versa. When you say yes to something, you're saying no to something else, you know, if you're saying yes, I'm gonna do dispositions. In addition to acquisitions, you have the same time. It's logical to say that you're in that moment also saying no to your workload in acquisitions because you're taking time away from from that Brian's to it, it just didn't make sense. So for me, it was important to segment and break down every single, you know, role inside my business so I could get the best of the best in that. What about you, R J? How do you have your set up?

spk_0:   28:05
So we do have dispositions, do some acquisitions. Unless there there is. Let me rephrase that they will do acquisitions, that they have nothing to this boat. If there is a property disposed, their sole focus is on dispositions. Um, and that's just due to volume, you know? I mean, we we do a lot of more flips than we do wholesaling Andi. We're kind of shifting that back to a lot more wholesaling. So there for a while, it was like there wasn't a whole lot of dispositions there on the wholesale side of things. Um, but, you know, while you were answering, I was like a I think I'm gonna play Devil's Advocate here on why dispositions and acquisitions can be interchangeable. And then I started thinking about it, and it's like the point I want to make here is Is that that roller coaster effect that you have when you're doing it all, you can actually create that exact same roller coaster effect for your acquisitions managers if you expect them to also do dispositions, because that's the whole reason why we struggle right is that we do acquisitions, and now we have to focus on dispositions. So we take our focus off of acquisitions, and that's what causes that roller coaster effect. And you could do that to your employees as well. And we don't want to do that because then they're just frustrated with their job. So I actually like the fact that you have it separated there. Um, at what point time did you hire dispositions managers and you're

spk_1:   29:40
coming? I do want to take a step back to R. J and just go back to that as well. One of the things that's amazing about real estate is there so many different routes, and they're so exactly it worked for people's businesses. You know, there's not like one hard and fast, and I know it's newbies that so much gray area can be confusing for them. But you know, there's there's a lot of different ways to be successful, man. Not every successful business looks exactly the same. But I also agree with you, man, when you find somebody that's killing it in your business. It's easy for you to want to give them. Or when you find that absolute stud a player you're like, man, this person is killing it at this. I bet you they could also kill it at that. And that's something that's really easy to do as well. Have you seen that in your business as well?

spk_0:   30:24
Oh, yeah, for sure. And that was probably the biggest mistakes we made from 2018 to 2019 is continuing to increase the workload of the eight players and to the point where we made it a player, a deep layer. And they lost confidence. And as a company, we lost confidence because it was like, what would change dear? You know what? How did we go from, You know, we were just killing it, too. Then we kind of plateau owed to them. We even started taking a dip. And what we saw was is what we went from solely being whole Sally to. Then we were going to flip to them. We were gonna buy rentals, too. We were going to do, and B and B's they were gonna do on the financing and oh, hey, let's start a multi family And they all said it was like, Hold on. We're not good at anything. Why? We're just really mediocre at a bunch of different strategies here. Let's slim down and refocus on the aspects of our business that we know we could be good at. And that was mainly flips a small volume of flips, mainly one or two at a time for market and then a whole lot of wholesale way. And that's kind of the re shift that we have because of the team that we knew we had. And we had previously had success. Um, we knew that we could do that, but yeah, I mean, I I as the visionary in the CEO I mean, I literally almost killed titanium investments just because I just want to run as fast as I could, because exactly what you just said. Hey, I've got some eight players. We could do more, and so we just tried to I just drown everybody. So, yes, that's a great point. You're the first person that's asking that. So sorry I went on a little bit right there. But I appreciate it, man, because I think people need to hear that because we also live in a world where everybody tells you how great you are when you're really doing just kind of average things, right? You can go do, like, 5 10 15 deals a month, and people treat you like you're some kind of rock star. Like you're the next Warren buffet or something, you know, And and the next thing you know, you try to act that way, and you can you can severely hinder your business and hurt people on the way. So I appreciate you bringing that up for sure.

spk_1:   32:46
Yeah, man, that that resonates with me a lot, man. So I appreciate that.

spk_0:   32:51
Yeah. So at what point I'm going back to my question was, uh what boy time did you actually add dispositions people to your team was a right simultaneous with acquisitions or a little bit after

spk_1:   33:03
simultaneously acquisitions was what negotiation with

spk_0:   33:06
No, no. When did you add dispositions to your team? So

spk_1:   33:09
dispositions came later. Um, you know, I was still taking things off of my plate that I was just, you know, I started from doing everything and then over time, piece by piece, brick by brick, This man of my business. So, you know, acquisitions was one thing that I took off my plate, and I was doing dispositions. You know, I still had that mindset. I'm a slow learner, R J thing. Smartest guy in the world. You know, I have a thick skull, so, you know. Yeah, I took. I took acquisitions off my plate, and I was doing dispositions cause I was like, I can't give up those buyers, right? But the access to my buyer's list that's the lifeblood of my business. I know. I don't want to give that up. So that didn't come so later that I realized, like, these people don't need me. These people don't need to need to be creating the spreadsheet, these thes e mail blasts and answering the phone call, you know. So that's when I decided that I'd get rid of this positions as well. Man, if it wasn't an overnight thing was a slow, slow burn.

spk_0:   34:05
So I know the gist of your story is that eventually you got to the point where you were hands off on your business. So how many years did it take to get to that point where you were completely. Hands off

spk_1:   34:19
R J. I got started in 2011. My first deal was done in June 7th, 2012. And 2017 is when I really, really felt like I had built my business the way that I wanted it to be built. If I look back, I know that I had replaced my time spent in real estate, you know, as a mechanic, I replaced it with real estate. And in 2017 I looked up and I was like, Man, this is This is cool. You know, Like I said, when you're on the ground, you don't you don't know that You don't know where you're at Its hard to check the pulse of your business. But 20 and I looked back and I said, You know what? This is cool. And then in 2018 my wife and I made the decision that you know what? The business is good, you know, without us. You know I check in on it. You know you can't be an absentee parent, right? Check in on it. Make sure the siblings aren't killing each other. But you know it. Didn't it didn't need me to survive. And so we decided. Let's go see the world, man. Like we made the decision in 2018 that we were just gonna start traveling full time and give culture to our kids and just see the world. And that's and that's when we made decisions. June June 1st 2018. So what is that, like, six, six years after my first deal is when I felt like my business was ready for me to get o break free.

spk_0:   35:41
So you made the decision to start traveling. What did that look like? You just started traveling the world Or did you decide to move? Howto added that turn about where you are today?

spk_1:   35:52
Yeah, R. J. What happened was we decided that we wanted to travel the world. We want to go to different countries. We want to spend at least a month in each country that we visit because we wanted to really understand the people. We didn't want to be on a lifelong vacation. We wanted to be on a cultural experience and really meet new people and just give our kids give our kids these experiences over things, right? Right. We did was we? We We had this house and we and we packed it up, you know, and we made the decision. We could keep it as a long term rental, weaken Airbnb it or we can sell it. And, you know, he said, it be a lot of work to actually get rid of everything inside this house to sell it or to long term. It's a less short term in Let's turn it into an Airbnb that we've got to sell the furniture. We could keep a lot of stuff. I had my contractor frame out the basement so we could keep that a storage to all the momentos keep in there and we sold everything else. R J. We just got rid of everything else and we were free. We were like, Why do we have so much, so much stuff inside here? We just accumulated all these things and we didn't even recognize him, you know? And the ship and what our life would become. It wasn't what we wanted. I'm a simple guy, man. I don't need fancy things. I don't. My goal is not to get a Lambo. My goal is just to spend time with my family and get them experiences. So for me to have a house full of stuff, I was like, Man, my my priorities were wrong for what was important to me. So, man, we turn the air, we turn the house into an Airbnb, which has been amazing. That's working out great on. And then we just we decided to travel through South America and Central America. And that's what we've been doing since 2018.

spk_0:   37:31
Gotcha. So do you officially live in South or Central America? Or you just staying there for a little bit?

spk_1:   37:40
Man R J I'm so noncommittal, man. Like always. It's enough this travelers, it's that I want to keep going and keep building. But to be honest with you, we've been in Colombia for over a year, year and 1/2. I think that well, we've been here for a while, man. What happened? Waas. We just found a place that we love. You know, we were doing home schooling with the kids and I have four. So 24 7 with the kids. We were like, well, about some other schools that we could send him to and get a little break But no man in all seriousness has been great. We've got home base here in Colombia. The kids were at this private school That's bilingual, and all four of our kids are bilingual. Now, my three year old speaks Spanish better than me. I have to ask my wife to translate some stuff, sometimes out of them. The school teaches them technology and entrepreneurship and ethics. And based on how good this school is and how much we like where we are, this is kind of our home base, and we do other traveling from here. But this is where we're posted up for now.

spk_0:   38:42
So for anybody that knows me personally, I have, like, this love affair with Iceland. Is Iceland ever gonna be on the Bartlett family trip?

spk_1:   38:55
Uh, we've been toe Iceland on bits and it's beautiful, and I would love to go back and spend some time there. Man, if anybody gets a chance to go to Iceland, it's Ah, it's my top two most beautiful places I've ever seen in my entire life. And I would love to get that into

spk_0:   39:11
you, man. I have never been, Which is funny to say, because I have I literally have, like an Iceland soccer shirt that I wear. Um, I don't know why I called the motherland. I'm not add. I don't know if I have any bloodlines that Iceland got the motherland. Eso Anytime I have a guest on it says they won't travel. And I always want acid. That's what place is that they've been s. So that's that's incredible, man. So you do basically, in six years you built your business brick by bury, you know, decomposed. It replaced yourself in it. And now you're in a place where you travel around and you're teaching your kids about culture. And you know, you have a three year old whose bilingual which is amazing. Eso Where do you go from from here? What's your goals? Moving forward.

spk_1:   40:01
R. J For me, it was a shift in my consciousness because when I first got it started, got started in real estate and for the longest time in real estate, I was I was achievement driven. You know, there's two different types of real estate investors. There's achievement drift, and I want to see how big I could make this. I want to know how much I can grow. I want to know how big my talent is. What can I turn this into? And then there's the lifestyle real estate investor, you know, I just want to reach to a level where I'm comfortable. And then that's it. And for the longest time I was a chip. I was achievement based man. I was grinding. I was growing, you know, I want to see where I can take this thing. But as I get older, I realized that my goals have shifted, and now I'm just lifestyle driven. I built this thing where I without me and I want to make sure that it always is consistent and does good for me. But I don't have the pedal to the metal anymore, trying to see how big I can grow it, because that's not my goal anymore. My goals is the have predictable income and at the same time have an opportunity to share these moments with my kids. Man, I I know that life is short. There's been a series of moments in my life to remind me that over and over again, and you know, I don't want to trade these moments for a few more deals, you know, I just I just want to be present. So where I go from here, man, is is is where I'm at, You know, just trying t o be more mindful and be more connected and just share more. When I got started in real estate and as I was getting my bumps and bruises, there wasn't really a road map for what I've done. You know, I don't know any other trainer that is operating for enough from another country. Arjun. You might know somebody, but for me, I don't know any other trainers that are operating their business from another country pretty much hands off while they're doing deals in Kansas City. So for those listeners that are listening to you from sweet and all these other places around the country like it's, it's not impossible for you to be able to do those deals in the United States as well, man. So So that's just kind of where I'm at.

spk_0:   42:06
Yeah, man. And I want to touch base on that because you're actually the first guest that I've ever had that's actually recording from an international location. I've had people that are from Australia and Canada and other places. They've always been in the United States when they were recording. So you're the first person that's international guests right now. But I did go back, and I added it up the other day. This party to three weeks ago, Um, and as of two or three weeks ago, this podcast has been listened to in 97 different countries which blew. Blew my mind, man. I mean, there were some countries I didn't even know existed. It was funny because I did a little post on Facebook where I put the flag emoji for each country, all 97 of them that I was like, These are all the countries that the Titania involves been listed in two. And I didn't even know what some of those flights where I was like this in school. Um, so

spk_1:   43:05
I It's amazing

spk_0:   43:07
it is, and it's amazing what you've been able to accomplish, man. So for anybody out there that's listening in an international location, um, or even in a remote location, you know, are even a major city like Kansas City. Um, what chat is is talking about today and what he's been able to accomplish with his business. You can replicate, and it doesn't really matter. Don't Don't set barriers on yourself because of location or some some kind of setback. Um, obviously, you had a major barrier at the beginning. Which was Anchorage, Alaska, Right? Wholesaling just wasn't working there. You found a solution. You found, Ah, market that would work for you. And then you broke down yourself and and you eventually replace yourself. And now you're living a much better life. So, uh, congrats to you, man. I know you've got a couple of things out there that you want people to check out. You've got a website. You've got a book, you've got a core. So here's your time to be sells. Pitch you what? What you got for

spk_1:   44:08
everybody? Thanks, R J man, I've been blessed to be able to do a lot of coaching. I used to travel the country and do these events and spoken on a few stages and actually did some international things in the Caribbean and Australia and all around. So I do have this education collection of my business. You know, my businesses is called the autopilot life escape the grind on your time and finally be free. And the autopilot principles are all about how to set up your business on autopilot so you can live the life that you want. And I know for everybody that's not necessarily or traveling the world. But maybe it's just a few extra hours for you to spend time with your loved ones or whatever whatever freedom means to you, you know, that's that time. Is that one thing that we can't really buy? You know we have to make it a priority. And so my website, the autopilot dot life that has a little bit more about myself. I've got a book there for all your listeners that can download it for free. It's about the book of mistakes, you know, on social media. Sometimes it looks like it's all good 24 7 and I think for real estate investors, I think that gives us a false perception of off what it looks like. You know, some glad r J that you took the time to talk about the grind and what my life used to be like, and all the mistakes that I made and the lessons that I learned along the way because I think it's easy for a lot of students to look at where we're at right now in our business and and think that we have the special gifts. And it's just that now we've we made a lot of mistakes along the way that we've learned from and grown from. So, you know, I've got the book of mistakes that they can download. And also I've got my education course That is literally my business. It's my exact business that I use right now live in South America and do deals in the United States. Every single aspect of my business from dispositions acquisitions, you know, lead management broken down into bite sized pieces and shown howto delegate it just help people get hours of their life back. R j.

spk_0:   46:01
I love it, man. Well, I'm gonna tell a quick story based off the way you just said. Well, you think about your final thoughts. Okay, so we have ah company based out of the d f w Here. Calm propel. Leo. Um, great company. We're really good friends with the owners. Um, basically, they have Emma last calm since you're not Realtor Lied list websites all kinds of different stuff. So check out, propel yo dot com if you want to know more about them. But they host an event here, and it turned out to be one of the best really state investing events that I've ever been a part of. Originally it was monthly, and then they kind of cut it down to quarterly and the first time we ever went I think there was, like, 7 800 people there. And you know, Cassie and I, you know, we post regularly in the local groups all over social media. We got to podcasts of people knew us. And but this is like the first large event in the F W where there is that many people when we show up to it. And so maybe we're like, Holy shit, like titanium investments. You guys are amazing and they're like pumping us up and for like, three or four hours. And by the way, there's an open bar. At this event, which is far, I what helps with the attendance. But you know, as people get more more drunk, they continue to get louder and louder. And I remember Cassie and I got in the car when we left and I looked at her and I said, Holy shit, these people, they were running like the perfect business. We better go home and figure out how to run the perfect business. Think if they only knew and and that's the reality of 2020 social media, You know, you want to talk about your successes, but I think it's also very important to talk about the mistakes you made. Let people learn from those, um, and just be riel, be who you are. Some of the best responses I've ever gotten from people is like when I talk about a man. Today was a tough day or hey, we closed on a deal today and we lost money. That's a reality. When you flip 100 houses like, Hey, guess what? Your problem. Whose money? I'm deal. Um, if not, then you know, congrats to you. I'm not as good as you. I've lost money on deals. So with that being said Jed Final dots,

spk_1:   48:22
you know, for all those investors, maybe it's important if you haven't thought about it before, is understanding what is your hourly rate worth inside of your business? And then once you really figure out what your hourly rate is, look at what your workload is and see if you're allocating the company. Resource is appropriately, your time is valuable, and you should treat it like that.

spk_0:   48:41
Awesome man. Record breaking show. First ever international guest on here. You'll forever be the first international guests on the titanium. I'm now going to go get this produced and released today so I could beat all those other people that want to have you on their on their podcast now, Chad Day. So much for taking the time to sit down with me today. Guys, If you're listening on iTunes, remember, we like five star reviews. If you want to get less less than five stars, give it someone else. We don't like those. We only like five stars. Um, if you were watching on you to make sure you thumbs up, hit the subscribe in the notifications for us so you can get all the future episodes and all the other fun stuff that we release on there. Behind the scenes interviews, Dutch Jackson, mood music videos and all kinds of crazy stuff also are other broadcasts. A titanium underground, short little episodes. They were playing 5 10 minutes. So subscribe to our YouTube channel. That's our episode for this week, Guys. We'll see y'all next week. Thanks so much for listening to the titanium vault with your host R J base that they're more imposing. To stamp the date, visit www dot podcast on the titanium vault dot com and on facebook dot com slash the titanium vault. He enjoyed the episode. Please rate in review. Well, can't you next time on that time? No.