The Titanium Vault hosted by RJ Bates III
RJ Bates III, affectionately referred to as the Viking Wizard by his students, started his real estate investing career in 2014 after attending a real estate education program that put him $65,000 in debt. RJ contracted his first deal he found on the MLS and wholesaled it for a $7,500 assignment fee. That was the end of his former life and the beginning of his venture into becoming a real estate investor. Since that moment, RJ has become an influential figurehead in the real estate investing industry. He has successfully purchased and sold over 2,000 properties all across the USA including wholesale deals, rehabs, rentals, owner finances and short term rentals. One of his passions is being the host of The Titanium Vault Podcast where he interviews the top real estate investors and finally, RJ has won back to back Closers Olympics earning him the reputation as the King Closer!
The Titanium Vault hosted by RJ Bates III
Between Two Belts with Steve Trang
Steve Trang sits down on Between Two Belts with RJ Bates III to discuss how he started the war on wholesaling, identifies as a realtor and why he chose sales training as a new career despite not being as good as a closer than RJ.
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Hello and welcome to the second season of Between Two Belts. Thank you to YouTube for extending us a second season. It means the world to me. We actually have sponsors. We'll get to that in a little bit. Today's guest is Mr Steve Trang. Hi, steve, hey RJ, where are you coming from?
Speaker 2:Coming in from Phoenix.
Speaker 1:Didn't you originally come here from North Korea?
Speaker 2:No, I get that a lot. It's not North Korea. Let's see, I mean, how far back you want to go. Where did you come from? Then, I was born in Italy, italy, italy, but you're Asian, I know it's very confusing. I was born in a refugee camp.
Speaker 1:I want to address something Was that during the war.
Speaker 2:It was after the war, after the Vietnam War, vietnam yeah.
Speaker 1:You started a lot of wars, don't you?
Speaker 2:I have some beef, but it's mostly from insignificant people, right, irrelevant people that start the. They have to. If you look at 50 Cent, you have to insult people more prestigious than you to make yourself relevant. I got this trangling thing going on by this guy. That's not significant, which I respect. The 50 cent business model is good.
Speaker 1:You're saying because I called you trangling, I wasn't implying you, that's because you're more significant than me, I wasn't implying you, I'm just saying the guy that was talking about trangling. I'm actually just talking about the fact that you started the war on wholesaling.
Speaker 2:Oh, the war on wholesaling, did you?
Speaker 1:start the war on wholesaling.
Speaker 2:I mean I started a podcast about wholesaling to bring it to the masses.
Speaker 1:We're not talking about your podcasting.
Speaker 2:Right, and then all my clients are wholesalers. So of course, of course, I would start a war against wholesaling. That is the most logical thing to do. How do I burn?
Speaker 1:my base, were you a realtor before a wholesaler. Yes, okay. So technically speaking, you were on the bad side of the war before being on the good side.
Speaker 2:I don't know which side is good, which side is bad. I was a realtor.
Speaker 1:Realtors NAR.
Speaker 2:I'm still technically a realtor.
Speaker 1:Your organization, nar, my organization. God, I wish that were true. God, I wish I owned it. You've been a member of the National Association of Realtors for how long? 17 years. 17 years, and you're saying that you would never be against wholesaling.
Speaker 2:Why would I be against wholesaling?
Speaker 1:I don't know why did you ban wholesaling in South Carolina?
Speaker 2:I got involved after the whole process started, so, unlike you, I'm an innovator, so when someone comes along with a good idea, I listen to it.
Speaker 1:So you created the implementation method, installment method, implementation installment, whatever yeah.
Speaker 2:So when they came along, I was like steve, here's this thing we're working on. Like what do you think? I was like this thing is brilliant, we need to bring it to the masses, we need to be able to pivot so you created a course I did not create the course. I consulted with them on how to get the course out there, so you are an affiliate marketer. Yeah, but that's not so. You get paid. I get paid a consulting fee.
Speaker 1:Yes, so why would you want wholesaling to die in South Carolina so you could get paid for the installment? Of course that's where you would go with this.
Speaker 2:Well, I'm just Right. No one ever gets paid for good work. No one profits for a living. We all do this shit for free. You sound like? A realtor right now. Yeah, we wholesale for free too all right, we'll we'll move on from it. Let's, before we move forward, we got to talk about this. Okay, this is the dumbest title I've ever heard. What between two belts? There's literally belts between us. We're not between two belts that belts Like between the two ferns. The ferns are outside.
Speaker 1:It's called an onomatopoeia. You wouldn't know about it. It's podcasting. Speaking of podcasting, you've been doing that for six years. Why do you keep doing it?
Speaker 2:Because people learn from it and we're helping create wealth, or preaching capitalism and entrepreneurship. No one listens to your podcast. I would strongly disagree.
Speaker 1:I have been on hundreds of podcasts, Right, Every podcast I go on, people go man. When you were on Brent Daniels' podcast, that was amazing. When you were on Vestralist's podcast, that was amazing. No one has ever said that about real estate disruptors.
Speaker 2:I mean, I don't know how to say this without hurting your feelings, right? So normally when people come and watch my show, they're learning something. There's value From the guests, yeah.
Speaker 1:Right.
Speaker 2:So you bring zero value to the show Of course I bring zero value, and so when you came on, I was like, should I post this, not post this? I want to always provide value to my audience.
Speaker 1:I've been on the show more than any other guest ever. True, except for those people that you have not been on more what is the biggest thing that you have gained from being a podcast host?
Speaker 2:the biggest thing, uh, gain, which is, I think, completely undue, is uh, um, authority, right, it opens doors that I wouldn't be able to open before, right, so I don't think I think I get a lot more recognition and respect from the podcast than I really deserve, so I shouldn't have said that to you. This is just. This is bad.
Speaker 1:Speaking of. You've never actually had to do this before, but we're going to pause for a word from our sponsors. All right, this episode is sponsored by Titanium University, where we are driven by results, so forget about that high time. Just sign up for Titanium University.
Speaker 2:Would you suggest? Perhaps you're results driven.
Speaker 1:Yeah, driven by results, okay.
Speaker 2:All right, I was just curious how did you end?
Speaker 1:up, retiring from wholesaling and going to sales training.
Speaker 2:So you know, you learn along the way. You hear this a lot. You got to focus, focus and focus and focus right, but it takes 17 years in the business for it to actually land. So, finally, focusing on if I want to build a business I can sell, I should probably work on the business that's sellable.
Speaker 1:But you're the trainer, yeah, today.
Speaker 2:How is that sellable Today? We have a three-year plan.
Speaker 1:Are you good at sales?
Speaker 2:I don't know. I did this cage match a few weeks ago and I crushed the host. Here we go. I think it was 5-3. But I mean, it doesn't really matter who won. Like the audience won. It wasn't about me and the host that the people that watch want. Both teams played hard, uh-huh, that's all it really mattered. It didn't matter the host loss by a significant margin, with a 3-0 lead. They're up 3-0 when the show started and they lost 5-3. But that's not what this is about. It's about the oddies.
Speaker 1:It's about you right now and me wanting to understand how you landed on sales training. Is that something you're passionate about?
Speaker 2:Absolutely passionate about. You know, the reason why I landed on it is because I sucked at it, right, I was one of the worst salespeople you would have ever met. Because, like I would accept I need to think about it. I would accept you need to talk to your wife, of course you need to, right. I would accept that the price is too low and I would just completely like be too understanding and empathetic. But you, you're still working on that, right? Uh, well, I've become a lot less patient. Uh, I, I've become, I've understood human psychology to a much deeper level, right, or where I believe them and I still believe that they believe they need to think about it, right, but then we just, you know, overcome that objection now in a way where they feel good.
Speaker 1:Seeing that you're 17 years into your career and you're changing career paths, yes, and everything that your family sacrificed for you. How do you live with yourself that you know you've let your entire family down?
Speaker 2:I sleep fucking good.
Speaker 1:Sleep, fucking good, speaking of you sleeping. You're married. Yes, she's very attractive. How did that happen?
Speaker 2:You know, some of the best business in real estate is done through referral.
Speaker 1:That's how you got your wife Referral. You have three kids. Yeah, would you agree that they're all smarter than you?
Speaker 2:Yes, yeah, they are all much further ahead than I was at that age. They remind me all the time your oldest, is she going to take over the business? She's told me that I don't know if she will, because I don't want to force anything on her. I want her to choose her destiny. But she told me because my best friend from middle school. We were accountability partners from 2011. We were friends, I guess, from 2011,. We've been accountability partners.
Speaker 2:We meet every month, and so we were out to visit him and my youngest doesn't know who he is because he already moved to California by this point. And so she's like who's Uncle Paige? And I was like, oh, he sold his business. And so when I said that we were still accountability partners, my oldest daughter asked me like why are you talking to him? He sold his business. It's like because he's helping me sell my business. And she's like no, like that's my business. Like what? We've never once had this conversation. She just assumed the sale. She just assumed she was going to take over the business. If she can earn it, great, but she has to earn it.
Speaker 1:Could you think of anything more miserable than being your accountability partner for 11?
Speaker 2:years. I tested him. He built a lot of character. He became a better man.
Speaker 1:Because of it, you've owned a lot of businesses I have. Like some of them, I don't even know what do you currently own?
Speaker 2:uh, right now I currently own a sales training organization, that's it. You got rid of everything else. Uh, I mean still technically a licensed realtor, so that llc is still active, but closed, the brokerage closed, the title company stopped wholesaling, stopped flipping.
Speaker 1:Yeah, just all in on sales the other thing you gave up on was pardon the disruption.
Speaker 2:I mean, did I give up on it, or were we just listening to the audience?
Speaker 1:so you're saying pardon, the disruption was not a good show.
Speaker 2:I mean, I thought it was an amazing show don't worry about that, we'll edit it out, yeah yeah, it was pardon. The disruption goofballs of the disruption, goofballs, part of the disruption was an amazing show.
Speaker 1:Fuck out.
Speaker 2:Don't worry, we'll edit it out yeah, so um part of the disruption was an amazing show. Part of the disruption was an amazing show. But it doesn't matter what you think is good or what I think is good. What matters is what the audience believes. It's like Shark Tank, right. When they go in, it's like here's my product, it's going to change the world, right, but no one's bought your product yet.
Speaker 1:Do you think it was because you forced the show to be politically correct by having an Asian and a black guy?
Speaker 2:If we had just gone with all white people, it probably would have succeeded. I'm not sure. If you pay attention to social media today, that's actually accurate. I think people like diversity. I mean think about it.
Speaker 1:Me Potter, eric Brewer, all of the value. Every time you spoke, audience just dipped.
Speaker 2:Well, you were definitely much more entertaining, but I always gave more value.
Speaker 1:You never said anything valuable ever.
Speaker 2:CJ was preaching the religion of affordable housing and if he didn't speak up, you would have destroyed all the poor people. Right, cj is religious. The church of affordable housing. It's true, right, whereas you were like screw the poor people.
Speaker 1:Well, yeah, I mean, dude, what do we do as wholesalers? We buy houses and fix them up and sell them to people with money, Right? Fuck the tiny guy.
Speaker 2:The tiny guy is the wholesaler.
Speaker 1:That's who I care about, you're calling us back to the war on wholesalers.
Speaker 2:I don't care about that guy.
Speaker 1:No, you're saying they're tiny, insignificant minions of the real estate industry.
Speaker 2:No, they're the disenfranchised community, the people that schooling system has failed. What have you ever done to help the wholesalers? I started this podcast. It was real estate disruptors. There's a lot of information.
Speaker 1:You provide zero value. You've already said that you bring a guest to provide value.
Speaker 2:Yes, Really what you did was so I paid no to produce this thing. You don't know that people got value you don't pay shit everyone else.
Speaker 1:If you've ever been a guest on real estate disruptors you pay, pay you. You pay to travel. You get a rental car, a hotel, shitty phoenix food and then shitty production I drawed the line in the shitty fitting suite All right. So really, what I think happened with real estate disruptors I mean, think about the title you wanted to disrupt the real estate industry. I think we did, you did, you absolutely did. What you did was Made wholesaling great again.
Speaker 2:Okay, you're not Trump, okay, so I was thinking about this. I'm in the middle of breaking that, I know, but it's not important. I was thinking about this earlier. I think. If I could think about how we can just but the essence of RJ Bates we were talking about this earlier. Right Is a white redneck, kamala Harris. You can say things for like five minutes and it was like what did RJ just say? Like the reason why your engagement is so good is because no one knows what the fuck you're talking about. They have to watch it over and over again. Someone mute his mic again to get all the views.
Speaker 2:It takes six views to understand what RJ just said, let me go back to what I was saying.
Speaker 1:No one knows what you're talking about, it's just word selling after word selling.
Speaker 2:This is not about politics.
Speaker 1:This is about the fact. For six years, you paid the industry greats to come to you. Actually, you made them pay to come to you and you learned everything that you could about the wholesaling industry to figure out how to crumble it from within.
Speaker 2:Man, if I had that kind of power you do, you did it in.
Speaker 1:South.
Speaker 2:Carolina.
Speaker 1:You did it in Pennsylvania, you and Eric Brewer, you and Eric Brewer. Me and Eric Brewer, of course, yeah, I don't know what whack job you did it with. I know.
Speaker 2:Eric Brewer is tired of innovations. He's trying to kill the innovations industry.
Speaker 1:Yeah, probably. What's your greatest achievement in life, Steve, besides ruining wholesaling?
Speaker 2:The greatest achievement, I would say say, is creating millionaires. We have a lot of people that have had a lot of success.
Speaker 1:Thank god, you didn't say create your kids.
Speaker 2:I hate that one. Oh, I watched season one, yeah, so I knew for sure not to say that so you've created millionaires.
Speaker 1:How many have you created? You want to create 100 in your lifetime I'll create 100.
Speaker 2:I want to create more than that in my lifetime, but that's like the bare minimum, right?
Speaker 1:Yeah, you give a little award away, right? How many have you?
Speaker 2:given away. Unfortunately, we've given about. I want to say 13, 14 of them, 13?.
Speaker 1:Who's the most famous millionaire that you've created?
Speaker 2:The most famous. I mean, I guess it would be Pace. So you created Pace Morby.
Speaker 1:I didn't create Pace Morby? No, but that's what you said.
Speaker 2:You said you created millionaires. That was part of his journey. That made you fucking famous. Look at this gratitude I get.
Speaker 1:Pace Morby was created by Steve Trang. Did Pace Morby create creative finance?
Speaker 2:Pace Morby was heavily involved in getting it out there. You call me Harris. What kind of answer is that? He?
Speaker 1:was heavily involved in making it famous, making it common. Are you ever going to run for politics? Absolutely, you are A hundred percent In North Korea.
Speaker 2:Probably Arizona. Probably Arizona, where I live.
Speaker 1:This is our episode of Between Two Belts with Steve Trang. Let me know if you like this and thank you, YouTube, for extending us for a second season.
Speaker 2:Thanks, Steve, yeah, so go to Real Estate Disruptors if you want to watch a real quality show.
Speaker 1:Fucking episode's over, bro. No one's listening. Good stuff bro.