Andrew Abernathy. What's up, buddy? How you doing? Good. Good. Appreciate have me on man. I'm so pumped to have you on.. Let's go ahead and start with an intro of where you are and how this concept's kind of applying in your life, because I'm super interested about everything that you're doing. No, I appreciate it. Yeah, so I grew up in North Dakota. Got involved in real estate, pretty young. My family's been in the farming business, so egg land since 1901. So it's in the blood and 2009 or so I started diversifying any different real estate and started raising capital. I I couldn't afford a lawyer to drop a legit PPM memorandum. I went and printed off Warren Buffet's 1956 operating agreement was my first one and I whited the names out 10 raised 200,000 bucks off that when I was like 15 and oh wait, what? Yeah. okay. So you're 15 years old. And what do you do? I raised about 300 grand when I was 15 to start buying real estate in North Dakota. Okay. How . Yeah. Is that legal question? Yeah, that's what I was wondering. So I, I have I saved 4,000 bucks up working on the family farm five bucks an hour when I was like 10 years old to 15 years old, 14 years old, somewhere in there. And I spent, I had six grand, but I spent 2000 on a red go-kart. You can't blame me. Can you? It's pretty young. And so anyways, I put 4,000 in the stock market in oh luckily it was when it bottom, it was March 23rd, my birthday, I think he hit the bottom, like March 5th turned the 4,000 into 80,000. And then I went to my buddy's dad banker when I was 15 in Mo hall town of 800. And I'm like, Hey, I need a loan for 1.2 million bucks to buy these apartments. And he is Andrew. it's pretty cool. You got 80 grand, you need a personal guarantee. You need a balance sheet, you need something more, for down payment and collateral. So that's when I printed off that agreement and farming was good and I just started knocking on doors, and I went to one guy and I said, Hey, you gimme the 300,000 bucks. I'll work for free. And we'll just be pro outta share. And he did it and it worked out 15 years old, North Dakota at the time. All right. I know it's weird. So let's pit let's stick there for a second, because I don't think that there's been a period of time where I've even been necessarily liquid, like $80,000. Every single time I get up to about $50,000 of liquidity of just like pure cash in the bank. Yep. I have to go deploy it on something. And and that I'm just thinking back to me in high school, working a minimum wage job. I'm thinking back to college when I had a DJ company and I was still like paying for my school and everything. Okay. So walk us back with, how are you raised to be able to have, cause what the hell I was blessed with the best parents in the world. There's six of us and one is six. Okay. We ran the farm. We had a couple guys, mostly just a family and my dad was very. Analytical. And both my parents were amazing, but we used to sit at the dinner table and my dad would throw out topics. And when he noticed one of us, six heads kids' heads turn and sparkle in our eye and changing our voice, he knew that was something of interest. And then he would spend one on one time with us to nurture that. So for me, Whenever he threw out grain markets or anything to do with money or business, since I was before I can remember I was so intrigued. So he spent a lot of one on one time with me and gave me every opportunity. He could give me to make that five an hour, whether it was helping market grain, run, grain cart combine. I worked at a local John Deere place, washing equipment. He flew me out to Rohoboth beach Delaware. When I was 14, 15 in the summers to work at a Chinese restaurant in a bed and breakfast to get some culture. And anyways, for all these experiences, I raised money lucky timing in the stock market. And then when that hit the 80,000, I decided I wanted to do something bigger. And that's when I cashed it out and went and started to raise money for real estate. And Abernathy holdings was born that year. So walk me through how you. Idea of buying apartments at 15, because right now I talk with grown men who are 42. And they're talking about how they can't mentally get past the idea of just one house at a time, two houses, duplex quad at 16 unit. Then finally get up there. Yeah. There's like this imaginary hierarchy in. To success that they find yet you were 15 years old and you're like okay. Yeah. I'll grab a PG, I'll throw ADK down and then let's rock and roll, man. Where's your broker. Yeah, I Jared night at the time, cause we, we started our own farm operation when I was in 10th grade. So I was about 16 and we started renting my grandpa's land. And then we also we rented my grandpa's and dad's farm equipment and we hauled to South Dakota and custom combine to make a little arbitrage. And anyways, when I was coming back through Bismark, back to the farm. That's when I found the apartment sign, they were for sale. And that's what triggered my idea. Wasn't even a, it was just kinda man, those are for sale. Those look nice, just driving back and that's and me, when I get my mind on something it's game over. So when I got home, I bought those things within 30 days and I found the money, got the bank loan and did the whole thing. So what was the purchase? Walk us through that purchase. So it was a 1.2, 5 million. We bought a 16 Plex. It was eight, eight units and two buildings side by side. And then it was before the oil boom hit the reasoning behind it. I'm a history buff nerd and in the eighties, when the oil boom hit first time in North Dakota wheel Liston, real estate inflated, then Bismark. Excuse me then may not inflated. And then Bismark was the third. In 2010 2009 Bismark was hanging out like nothing was going on. And as the Bach and oil boom was roaring. Williston was crazy. Mine at real estate was 90% inflated. So I just thought if history repeats itself, Bismarck will be next. So we bought 'em and two years later, the city offered us 2 million for 'em and we sold them. So we made a million dollars profit after equity. Off of the 300,000 down. And that was between you and your partner. Yeah. But your brother or my brother a little bit. And then this other guy that I drove, I had a beat up Lumina. I just had my permit and I drove an hour and a half to Crosby. That's the guy that I convinced to gimme the money. Okay. So walk us through your pitch to this guy. And also did this. In apartments and was able to say, Hey, this is a good deal. This is a bad deal. Or were you just come hell or high water? I'm buying this because I can see, the trends and from history, it doesn't always repeat itself, but it rhymes. Yeah. So you were just come hell or high water. You're like, I'm making this happen. Yeah, he's a farmer. It does well. And I met him a couple times and anyway, so I went to his place and I was always the kid from 10 years old on whenever there was a dinner. I would always. Run ahead and sit right in the middle. And I would ask everybody at that table that was older. What did you do? What's your biggest mistake and how did you become successful? So that was like my thing for five years before this. So he was one of those guys that I did that with at our lake place. And so he, you could tell he was intrigued by my interests. So I drove out there and I just said I won't even say his name, but we'll just call him. Bob Bob and Bob said I have $80,000. I already put $20,000 down as earnest money. And it's non-refundable so I'm gonna buy these apartments. I need 300,000 more dollars and a personal guarantee, but here's what I'll do for you. I'm gonna come in with my $80,000. I'm gonna work for free. And the, if we lose 80 grand, it's mine, not yours. So the first 80,000 loss is mine. So basically this is a no risk situation. It's real estate, your name's on the loan and worst case scenario, you probably break even, or make a little money, but you get me to work for free. And if you don't wanna do it, then I'll ask, I'll go ask someone else. It was probably more polished than that. It's been a long time, but he just said, was it more polished than that? Yeah, maybe. I don't remember. That's terrifying to think of a 15 year old being more polished than that at a dinner table. Sorry. I need to get fast this okay. For people listening. If you ever think that you're. Or that you're different or that you're, you've got things a little bit figured out, start a podcast and meet new people from North Dakota because will change how you think because holy crap, man, this is freaking awesome. So you make a million, so you're 16 sitting on a million dollars. Yeah, I think by the time we sold, I was about 17. Oh, okay. So you were ancient by that point. Okay. What happens next? I was getting old. So then I got the bug, man. I was in sure. So we sold these apartments and I went back to my buddy, Bob and I said he's you know what? That was amazing. I wanna put out all back in. I'm gonna give you. 500,000 of it, even though you only, probably, I think I should have only got two 50 or 300 of my, from my 80. So he gave me 500 of it and he said, I'm gonna leave my other 500 in and I want you to charge me this time, so I went and I set up a legit PPM to cost me about $15,000. And I had no idea what that was private placement memorandum. I just said, what do I need? I was clueless. I was 16, 17. And I, he said, okay how much do you wanna raise? And I said, I'm gonna put a million into the account and I wanna go raise another 10 million bucks. And he's okay. The lawyer he's okay, like what the heck's happening? I just go start knocking on doors. Farming was good. I raised 10 million in about eight months knocking farmers. Yeah. 50 to a hundred North Dakota. Yeah. Okay. Yeah. And then I graduated high. All right. So anybody okay. So people that listening right now, if you're driving in your car to work and we talk about mindset and we talk about law of attraction and talk about all that good stuff. And so yeah, anything is possible. You just have to be dumb enough to believe in yourself and stupid enough to act towards. Yes, I was I didn't even think a second of what was, what could have happened then. Oh, so walk us. Okay. So let's zoom out a bit. So now you're already murdering it and you just graduated high school. So now I'm terrified to even ask you what the rest of your life looks like. You're probably doing triathlon. For breakfast. So now , I'm like, what the hell I get in better shape? Yeah, I should do that. so where are you at today? What is your asset class? What's your flavor of the month? And let's walk backwards from that, because now I'm extremely interested in everything or you can finish you can keep going Chron, whatever your preference is. Yeah. I'm gonna just, I'm gonna throw out, I'm gonna throw out a few peaks. I'm not gonna be too detailed. Got it. When I was 20. So a couple years after this I got sent an article from my uncle and it was about the North Dakota billionaire at the time he was 70 roughly Gary Thedson, he built hotels, sold him for billions of dollars, started with nothing in Daisy, North Dakota anyways. So my uncle said you should reach out to this guy. And again, he doesn't know me from Adam. I'm from Western North Dakota. This guy's in Fargo. Never doesn't know anything about me or anything at all. Yeah. So I call his office. I just Google his address. I call his office and the secretary says, hello. I'm like, Hey, just Andrew Abernathy calling his Gary the around. And she says no, Uhuh who is this's Andrew, really? Just call him to pick his brain. Can I leave the message? So I left a message. Thinking, he's never gonna call me back. Two months later, I get a call from a cell phone. There's a Vegas number. So I answered it. I thought it was a telemarketer. So I was literally about to cuss him out, lose my number. But before I could say that a voice came and says, this is Gary. So I was like, Oh, Gary, this is two months later. Yeah. Two months later. And anyways, we got to know each other. I don't know what it is. You took a liking to me. It, we just, for years just got to know each other. Finally, and I raised another, I don't know, 20, 30 million in my early twenties, I guess kept building real estate. But I made my first loss in 2017. I I had 15% of our portfolio into an in. And at that time of my life, I like to say I was good at a lot of things, but not great at anything. I hadn't really no identity. So generalist. Yeah. Yeah. I was in retail apartments, insurance company, equipment dealership. I just didn't know who I was. And we were making money. All was great. But in 17, we lost our, on our first investment, we lost 10% of 10 or 15% of our portfolio had our first down year. And I was having a pie with Gary at the village in our usual stop. And he just said, Andrew, you're good at a lot of things, not great at anything. He said, you need to focus. Wow. And it hurt, but it was honestly the turning point of my life. I went back home and I just had my first kid, I had my first kid at no, I had my first kid in 18. So it was about that time. And sitting with my wife and I was just thinking hard, it was a, it was one of the low points in my life and it was that low first world problems, but it was low point. And I started thinking about, what do I wanna do? Real estate. I know I wanna do real estate. I have a knack for it. And but so I said assisted living, maybe I should do hotels like Gary did or all these. I brought him all to Gary and he's just eh, so finally I remember hearing Gary all billionaires say, find a fragmented industry and consolidate it. So I went out and I said, what real estate industries are fragmented? And the biggest one that popped up was self storage. Self storage of the time was 95% owned and only 5% was run by the REITs, the public storage, the extra space storage, the big guys, the Marriott's Hiltons of. So I reached out to public storage and extra space, and I found out that they just started a month before that allowing people to use their brands for the first time in history. So you could literally own a facility and it could be run and branded by the re just like Marriott did in the eighties and the seventies. And that's what Gary did. That's what Gary made as well. It wasn't the, to hotels, it was Marriott hotels. So I went to Gary and I said, Gary, here's my. He said, Andrew, that's your billion dollar idea. He said it right after my son's. So I went back and I sold everything and I went all into self storage in 17. Wow. So when you went all in on self storage, you didn't have any mentors, anybody that you knew that was actually in self storage, you're just like, again, come hell or high water. I'm gonna figure it out. I've got the capital. Let's figure it out. Yep. So we liquidated everything we had about a 40 million cash pile. And we started building and then I said, okay, I need metrics. Gary said, you need metrics. And I figured North Dakota didn't have the metrics I needed. I wanted to build class a self storage with the public storage brand and the biggest cities in the us. I needed a hundred thousand people, three mile. I needed a hundred thousand household income. I needed traffic. So I moved to Scottsdale Arizona that year or the year after my whole family. And here we are. Okay. So then what does that first, what are those first couple acquisitions look like from someone that is sitting on a $40 million war chest? And you have no idea about self storage or how to operate it? Yep. What does that situation look like? Who do you call phone calls are made? What processes are followed at that point? I pulled out the Warren buffet. It's not the how it's the who? The who . Yep. And so I went out and I found a guy that's been in construction for 40 50 years, built 250 burger Kings for corporate. And I asked if he wanted to come on board and start and I could take his company over and we could build him. He'd run that. I brought in a guy that's been in storage for 15 years to run our development arm. And I kept our equipment dealership. Cause my goal is vertical integration. Henry Ford. All these billionaires, they own the process. So I own, we have an equipment dealership, so we supply the equipment. We have our own construction company. We have our own garage door dealership, and I found a who for each of these. So our first acquisitions, I found my who's. I set my five step metric and I acquired some lots in Arizona, which I would've bought a hundred more with way prices of gun. And we started building and we only developed ground up and we were and so to fast forward, a little. This next year will be the largest self storage, private self storage developers in the world. We've got a, I think we've got over a million square feet that we're gonna be adding to our portfolio just in this next year alone on, on development, not acquisition. What was the five step metric? It's a very simple monkey can follow it. Cause it's makes, for me, it's easy. a hundred thousand population, three mile radius, a hundred thousand household. Three mile radius. We need 35 to 40,000 vehicles per day on the road with visibility to the site. We need about a two and a half, three acre site. We don't like to waste big to go vertical. And we need rates of about a buck, 70 to a buck, 80 a foot or more know, those were the main metrics we looked at. And there were smaller things, competition per foot. We like landlocked. I'm willing to pay, we're paying two, 3 million per site. Yeah. And these are two baker sites. And. So we're building these things with owning the whole process. Like next year we've got next year, we've got over a hundred million dollars in development in the works ground breaks. And I think we're gonna net on the savings net of my 50 employees and everything to run our vertical companies. I think we're gonna save about 7 million so on that. So we'll make it our 7 million and myself and my partners just by owning the process. And then we get to own the asset too, when it's. So that's why you're gonna continue to build the ground up as opposed to acquiring the mom and pop like taking over and helping consolidate previous, like actually built shops. Correct. My actually goal is to build next to those. Cause our facilities are insane. It's gonna dwarf him. Yeah. I'll build my own problems.. Yeah, exactly. Okay. Let's take a pause here before we talk about your next plan of world dominat because at this point, like what can't you do? Oh, okay. So let's break down this process a little bit. I wanna dissect you mentally to a degree because you're a product of a perfect storm, essentially. You're a product of Added the parents that came in and they scratched the entrepreneurial itch. You had conversations about money, you had all that. And that's awesome. But people that are listening to this right now, like that's not a crush. They can apply that and they can simply change how they operate right now. So what's. Sense that you can give people listening to the show and I'll tell you who they are. They're people that are listening to the show are rock stars, they're killing it in their W2 and they are on their way to work. They've already got some investments, but they're looking to make that next move to get pure financial freedom and be able to leave that job, or it's that person that just a company. And maybe this is an area that we can go on. They built the company, they left the job, but now their company is a job. Now they're working a hundred hours a week as opposed to 40, and they also don't have freedom. So it all comes back to freedom. Yeah. Talk to these people that are starting out and they can't fathom what you're even talking mindset perspective. Let's talk a little bit about the mindset and break that down a bit and then we'll get back into the business. What's some advice you can give there. The biggest thing that I see is a lot of people spend their whole lives searching for the idea, right?, they're looking for the idea and what people need to real realize is there, isn't the idea. There is hundreds of ideas and it's up to you to grab one of them and make it the idea. So that's what they always wait for. They wait for that, just the wind's gotta be blowing just right. And it falls in their lap. That's not the case. So make a list of a hundred ideas, close your eyes and just pick. And make it your idea. Okay. Once you do that, obviously you just need to start. And if that is a capital intensive idea, you can create engines. I think that's a rich dad, poor dad, idea. Basically you need to create engines as a stepping stone. What I mean by that is I didn't jump into building a hundred million dollars in storage every year. Heck each of our facilities is 15 million and I need 5 million cash down on each. I didn't just start with that. I started out raising money and doing apartments. I started out with doing arbitrage for my grandparents' equipment and my dad's equipment. I had apparel thing. I had, some single family. So start your engine and it doesn't need to be your end goal because these are stepping stones, but you need a long term vision. So that's how you get started. And then the, what happens is when you do get that engine started and you are in the rut, like you just explained on the ladder part of your question, you're in the rut, you're working 50 hours a week or whatever it may be, and you are, so there's working in your business, on your business and above your business. You're still sitting there, still working in it. You're not even on it yet. Let alone above it. So what happens there is your vision got capped. Rockefeller once said the, who works all day has no time to make money. Damn. I want that one to sink in. Andrew, that was right. You looked me right in the eyes, man. Why don't you have that twinkle in your eye? You like that at me? Why repeat it? Yeah, for the people, Rockefeller said the, who works all day does not have time to actually make money. And that is what happens when you get caught in that rut, whether it's working for the man or working for yourself, you get caught. And a lot of people says, gosh, how do you sleep at night? What a big business you must be so stressed out. And I said, actually, my belief is people that run and own smaller businesses are more stressed out work harder than people that run larger businesses. It's a fact. So it is a miscontrued conception and getting bigger actually means working less. Now I know there's risks and I know all of that. But also you need to make sure that you do what's right for you. I know people that run businesses that are in it a hundred percent all the time, and if they were to work on it or above it, like I do, they would be bored. And that kind of leads back into. Our topic earlier. Yeah. You and I were talking and it's just there's so much free time that I guess I'm actually a pretty good case study for people that are listening, because I'm essentially a newly fledged entrepreneur. Like I've got real estate and I did all the side hustle stuff while I was in corporate America, but I left corporate America in March. For my corporate job. And now I'm traveling around the world full time working and building my media company, working on building this podcast and the whole brain around it. So it's different because you become you start running in aren't necessarily Googleable anymore. Like how do I work on my business? Not in my business. What does that look like? So maybe give us some examples of what it looks like to work on your business, or like you alluded to above your business. Yeah. It's especially coming from the farm and I'm just gonna do that example. So when I grew up, if you weren't doing something, you grab a, B it's busy work. You do use busy work have to work. Yeah. And what I've learned is actually my. My best ideas, most creative ideas all come from boredom. I call it constructive boredom. So I do a lot of walks. Actually they say walks help you think and think more efficiently. And so I don't fill my schedule. There's reason Warren buffet bill gates Gary Thedson they do not feel their schedules full that you don't need to make a thousand decisions a day. You just need to make a couple. And so my day is spent on ideas and I work with my who's. I have six who's Jesus had 12 disciples. I'm not as good as him. So I have six and that's my max. And then they have their who's. I do not govern their management. They all manage their employees differently, but I do think I lead with a good example and and they all have great teams that I'm honored to know that they all love their. And so I guess to answer your question, there really is no formula. It's something you have to live to understand. And my biggest thing for two years was feeling very lazy unproductive because of what I was used to. And then after two years I looked back and I realized that the most growth I've ever experienced came from those two years of boredom. I'm still learning it myself. So I'm not saying I have the answer, but it's. You've got some kind of answer, man.. I could tell you that. So when you're walking so th these are all things that I'm experimenting with as well now. Yeah. Because I'm actually going in like pretty deep into psychological principles, like talking to your inner child, going through and deconstructing belief, stuff like that. That's the type of work I'm doing right now. And you're smiling. So I'm sure that's probably something that you're doing as well. Yes. And I am. Realizing that there is, and this phrase keeps popping up in all these books that I'm reading. So there's a reason that the phrase keeps popping up and I'll share it with everyone here. And it's that we all have this story that was told to us in childhood that work hard. Like an honest man that deserves, deserve is a hard worker. Like you work hard, you get success, you don't work hard, you don't get success. And that's a belief that. Been ingrained with, for our entire childhood. And then the question, I forget what book this is, but it's a reframing question to say what if all of this was easy? Yep. What if making millions and millions of dollars and running a multimillion dollar company was easy? What would that look like? Yeah. And I agree. And another thing I always like to say and I wanna say this correctly in my mind, I'm trying to, I'm trying to explain some thoughts, but what I've realized is that there is no billion dollar company that's been created with two hands. What happens is never these billion dollar companies have thousands of sets of hands. And one brain without with the hands idle at the top. And so the hard thing is being able to have idle hands because the contradiction of that is my grandpa always said the idle hands of the devil. So there is a, you are flirting with a tough thing. Whether it's alcohol or addictions or, people with our kind of energies, they, that's why you see a lot of these wealthy people go into these, vice. Is because they're trying, I think, trying to fill the void. Yeah. So if you, but if you can master it, it's the strongest thing in the world. It's an amazing power. And that's what I'm trying to master. I'm trying to learn how to just be happy with being, just being, waking up and being, and, and floors to sweep. You might say. I love that quote that you said from Rockefeller. That was so good. And so when you're taking these walks I, like I said I've been implementing that now. I'm walking like an hour in the mornings and, but I find myself gravitating back towards podcasts and stuff like that. Like I'm listening to the all in podcast was showing all of them now. And. I hope you guys are listening to the action academy. That'd be fantastic. Oh, I am. Yeah, but it's do you, are you still, is that cheating almost or do you walk in silence and just ponder and be with your thoughts? Is it more meditative for you curious? Cause I'm trying to. And trying to deconstruct what you're doing, because you're so good at what you do that you're not able to deconstruct it. So that's my job now. yeah, there you go. I appreciate that. It's a mixture. And every day's different I don't put myself in a box, so there's some days that I'm just like, I just need, and I, for sure, always spend 50 to 60, 70% of my walks silent. I love being with myself and I say that out loud, cuz a lot of people are afraid of being with themselves. I love it. And then the other 30%, 40%, I'm usually on the phone with my who's throwing out a bunch of ideas. Most of them are stupid, I'll get that one genius one and implementers and then podcasts and audio books. I, I can't. I can read, but my problem is I'll read, you already hear first. I'm not, I'm gonna put that as the cold open in the show. Andrea Abernathy. I can't read welcome to the action academy podcast. Yeah. Welcome. I have an issue with reading. I'll read a pager two and then I'll forget what I read, cuz my mind is on a thousand things, but I'm really good with, if I watch a movie, I watch a lot of documentaries to learn. And I do a lot of auditory and visual. Yeah. Very visual learning. That's why I was such a bad student in school. I one, I didn't like school and two, I just, I couldn't understand how to study. So I was very bad at school, but so yeah, that's my walks. It is mostly though being with myself meditating and then just thinking, dissecting thinking. And I don't even go on my walks with a predetermined thought. I just, whatever comes to me and. Sometimes it's just me just in silence, hearing the birds. Yeah, I was gonna be my next question is, do you have any questions that you're trying to answer? I try my best to go on each walk with a, with so clean slate answer, but I don't make it mandatory cuz usually in my walk, something will come up and and so my, my job too though is trying not to get in the way of my, who. When you have such great who's genius, who's smarter than you in each of their fields. My job is to make sure that, now I'm managing people, not really processes. So that's another thing I think about is, what can I do to make, that guy's day? Or what can I do to say, to spark something? How can I keep his energy up? I'm basically just a cheerleader. Yeah. And I'm fun to be around. I've been told, I try to. I try to be very optimistic upbeat. I don't see it. I don't see it. Yeah. I don't see it there. Yeah. And that, but that's why I've never had somebody leave and I think that's really important. I actually did the same thing as you. With my, one of my mentors, David Osborne is I cold emailed him. Dude was worth over a hundred million dollars and love it. He was lived across the country and I cold emailed him and said, I would do anything he hated doing for free. Then I ended up getting an invite to a GoBundance event, which mastermind group. I went to the GoBundance event and then that started a whole life changing transformation for me. So I completely understand what you're saying. And now I've got the privilege to have some friendships with some other big hitters, like Jeff Hoffman, like founder of price. He was on this show. He is billionaire. Wow. And so there's so much Value and having that level of mentor because they can talk to you at this level. And isn't it ironic that this is the advice that they give. Yes. What we're talking about right here. It's so simple. So I forgot to mention too. I think this is important. Two years ago, Gary finally invested with me. I finally convinced him big, very big R AUMs gonna be a over a billion dollars here soon. That's a bank leverage. So about quarter billion cash. I've raised to date to give you an update. So I raised 250 million to date at 28 and we'll have about 750 to 800 million in bank debt on that all in self storage. but one thing I do wanna share is I asked when I was trying to figure out a model that I could get, Gary to invest in. And I wanna share this with people. If you're looking to get a very wealthy individual, a hundred million plus invested there's things that they look for and I wanna share it is something that's scalable, something that is simple and easy to understand. So what I mean by that is Gary. Would've never invested in me. If I was building storage, that was called Andrew storage. Gary wanted me to be with the biggest and the best brands possible. So public storage, it was the largest by two to the second. Gary wanted me to be focused. So I said, I'm gonna be the best at building developing and owning. And we will pass the management to public storage and use their brand. And then the third thing was you didn't want any distractions. I hear a lot of people are always over complicating things. I'm gonna, for example, I'm gonna start a storage. We're gonna do certain cell propane. We're gonna sell trailers. We're gonna do this for that. No. My model to Gary was simple. We are just gonna do self storage. Our offices will be the smallest in the industry kiosk soon, and we will print these things out. It's a printable scalable, easy model. And that's, I know it sounds simple, but I just wanted to bring it up. If you are gonna go do a pitch, make sure it's scalable and simple. Yeah, because the irony is everything, everybody that goes to those people tries to present them with the sexiest newest thing. Yeah. And it's just, there's no point like simplicity, and kills stupidity, because it's hard to mess up. Yes. And that's the difference because guys like that are in a different season than we are. Yeah. So we are in, what's called the. Guys like that are in preservation. Correct. Morgan, Hazel quote, I met him he should, I'm talking with him. He should be hopefully coming on the show. He wrote the book psychology of money. And he talks about in the book where he's don't invest money that you have and need for things that you don't have and don't need. Yes. I'm that makes so much sense. Yep. And to wrap back to circle back to the walk conversation that you and I were just having, David told me a quote that sticks with me and the quote is this he goes, if you continue asking the right questions to the right people, you will get the answers that you're looking for. Yep. When the time is correct. But the key is to ask the right questions because you have to be careful with the questions you ask, because if you're asking the wrong questions, you'll get answers to those. Yep. And so you're asking the right questions and the other interesting thing too, is the biggest, my biggest enemy. And it's funny to say is actually now at this point in my life, it's my entrepreneurial self. And what I mean by that is when you find the formula. You don't feel like you're gambling cause it's not there's gambling and there is investing. There's speculating, there's investing, there's two different things. So my biggest issue right now, and it's not even an issue, but is I need to make sure that I focus on the formula. That's working for the rest of my life. And that's the toughest thing as an entrepreneur, cuz we are born to notice every opportunity. In everyday life. And it's hard for me to put the blinders up. I'm not saying there isn't any other good ideas I'm not, but what I'm saying is when you pick your idea to make it, the idea, that'll be your biggest issue. And that's when people fail. My biggest mistake in 17 was from being unfocused outta my knitting. No, I didn't have a purpose. No, no focus. And that's what I never wanna go back to. So I literally spend every day making sure that I don't do that ever again. And that's hard. Yeah, but you had to act your way to that. Oh yeah. Don't skip steps. I'm just saying when you do get there and get that formula down, stick with it. Good. And you have your who's then all of a sudden the devil starts tapping at your door again. Hey, look at this, look at that. Look at this. And. Get it's hard. You gotta say gotta get a say and no it's hard. It's really hard. And that's why you have the Warren buffets, where they're like, Hey, they have all these new things like technology. He won't invest in crypto. He won't invest in and he must out in a lot of stuff, but that was like, his is where his bread and butter. Yeah. Circle competence and I guarantee you're gonna miss out on a lot of good stuff, you see so many people that. Keep and there are people out there that are good at it, and again, I'm just talking about me. I'm a Gary Thedson Warren buffet type. That's my mentality. When I was invested in seven things, I was less happy than I am now invested in one thing. So that's me. So again, there are formulas for each and every personality out there, and mine may not be fit for you, but if you're like me then this works. I'm happiest. I've ever been with one thing, but there are temptations and it's. I think your way is the way to do it. I think everyone else is just beaten around on their journey to figure out how to get to where you're at right now, philosophically. Because Brandon, Turner's got a really good quote where he's talking about building that bridge to success island, and you've got success island out there and you're working really hard on that bridge. And you go back to start building another bridge and then go back to start building another bridge. And all of a sudden you've got last bridges out in the middle of the ocean that don't do. I like that a lot. That really summarizes what I said very well. That's great guys. Five star rating and review on the podcast. Five star rating. Yeah, that was good. I like that. Yeah. Let's finish up this conversation. Cause I'm, if I, to ask you what your next three year vision is, because by hell I'll vote for you for president, but what, give some advice on. Attracting and partnering with rockstar who's because that's the million, that's the billion dollar question that people need to isn't what should I invest in? What should I do? Because you didn't know any of that. You didn't know how to invest in apartments, or you didn't even really care. You just really cared about capital in the game of acquiring capital and then finding the people that were really good once you had the capital to deploy it with yep. For them to. Correct. And there's a lot of rock stars out there. Most of the rockstar who's out there are missing one thing and that's a capability to have access to capital. And that is something that I was very good at. And how I found my who's was back when I said my dad would parents would sit at the table and look for passion spark on your eye, changing your voice, that's in me. So I look for passion. You cannot teach passion. Passion only comes with it. So when I was looking for a storage guy, I wanted the guy that would be at a dinner table and prefer to talk about storage over anything else. And I wanted to see. I wanted to see and feel what what I feel with what I do. I wanted to see and feel that with that construction equipment garage doors. So passion's number one. And then the other thing is I really wanted to find someone in their forties. I think that the forties they've made some mistakes. They're ready to focus and they've still got 20 plus years left. So all of my who's or most of them are on their forties. And then the other thing was daily can leave the ego at the door. Our team is very, we can walk into a room, we can all leave our egos out the door, come up with the decision together, whether it's yours or not, and be happy. So those were my main things. I wanna be able to hang out with these people and not, think they're douches. And so passion. But passion was huge. I want them to love what they do. So where did you find the guy that was super passionate about self storage? Were you going self storage facilities and seeing who was just like laying out in the bench outside or. No, that's a good, that's a good point. So my my partner, Matt Halverson he knew this guy's sister babysat him when he was younger. He Matt's 32, so not much older than me. And he's Hey this guy Nate's his name? His sister used to babysit. He's been in storage. He's 40 at the time, he was like 30, late thirties. He's been in storage for 15 years, Andrew. And I know that we're getting into storage when we meet a who I'm like, he's you might be it. So we go and meet up at this freaking rundown Chinese restaurant. I don't know why, but anyways, we meet with him and, oh, I saw it right away. It was easiest thing ever. I offered him a job after it was done. I said, you wanna come work with us? And he did part-time and he became full-time a year later. Passion is easiest thing to see for me, it is. I think it's just so easy. So it, that one fell into place. So that's pretty cool. Yeah, the irony is for me, like I, I used to view myself as a real estate guy that happened to start up a podcast that started up this podcast. And then I realized I'm a podcast guy that happens to do real estate. I love it. Because this is my thing. Like I'm gonna make this show one of the largest, if not the largest podcasts in the world, that's what I'm gonna do. Let's go. That's what I say. Think big. There's nobody. So here's my thing. And this is exact, the reason I'm saying this and using this as an example is because of a demonstration of the principles that you're talking about. So I look at and I look at all these shows, right? There's a business show for. Like everywhere. There's a business show. There's, it's the most saturated category that there is in podcasting. And I look at it and 80% of the shows are a side project. That's true. They're a throwaway. It's just something that they do just to do because it's cool. And it's sexy right now. But for me, like this is like everything for me. I love it. I love this. So I'll do. And, but here's the cool thing. Mike. So everyone goes through all this effort and energy to attract, get guests of super high caliber and quality, but like exactly what you just said. It's like when you have on the flip side of the equation, when you have the passion, there's a magnetism. That attracts other people that have a passion. It doesn't ne necessarily need to be in the same thing. Yeah. Your passion is self storage and, or who's, and my passion is podcasting, but there's a gravity there. There's a magnetism that pulls us together cuz you're kindred spirits. Yes. And then all of a sudden, so now I don't have any problems with this show. That's why I can do five episodes a week and have every single thing be quality. Yep because of that. And I'm not saying this just cuz I'm on your show, but I do mean this you by far have, I've been one of the best podcasts, if not the, so keep the, that I've ever been on. Oh, I'll mess it up. Don't worry. no, when it comes to, when it comes to the balance of questions each of us talking. When it comes to how you pull the story out of someone, when it comes to your voice, your likability, your energy and your passion, like you just said. And that, and I really do, and I don't just say that. So I have no doubt you will be the largest podcast ever. And I'm just honored. I get to be in your show. And that appreciate that, buddy. I'll send you that $30 on Venmo. We talked about. Yeah, there you go. I hate to say that Aw, man. So what am I not asking you? That I should. Yeah, no, I appreciate that's a good question. You know what I'm really trying to figure out because success is more than just money. Success is a balance of health family, maybe religion, if that's your thing and all of it. So I'm really trying to make sure that I've got three boys under five and a beautiful life. And I am trying to make sure that I can be everything I need to be to them present and everything I need to be to my whos. And everything. I need to be everybody around me and that's hard and that's a lot, so I'm trying to figure out how to live a balanced life. And again, I really don't have any point to that, that ramble. I'm just saying, I think that's what I'm of working on next and that's step number two. Cause I think the formula's set now the engine now I just need to not touch any buttons. Ah, gosh. Again, there really wasn't a point there, but that's kinda what I'm working on next. Every ramble has a point. Yeah. We just don't know what it is in the moment, correct? Yeah. So yeah, what I keep seeing over and over again is I get the privilege of seeing commonalities between people that come on cuz. This is what I do all the time is just talk to people that are super successful. And it's just how we're wired is to solve problems and to grow. So it's not really a monetary thing. It's about just progressing towards a goal. That's the challenge that you're running into right now, because you have accomplished all these things, but now it's getting simple to use some type of stimulus. But it has to be something outside of your business for you to avoid self sabotaging your business. Oh boy, you are amazing. We gotta talk way more, dude. We can be best friends. It's okay with me. We're gonna be you just nailed it. Like I am not kidding. My gosh. I'm turning red. That was amazing. I've never, so that's where I'm at in my life. Yeah, you just nailed it. It's crazy because it's Wow. Like I'm over here in paradise and I have anxiety. Yeah. So people listen in the show. I talk about everything that we go through and it's oh, must be nice to be in Barcelona to be finishing up a month in the Greek islands. And talk about your anxiety. There's a lot of anxiety, man, because it's you're like, The comparison starts coming up where it's not even necessarily with others. It's the comparison with the best version of you to where there's a fear that if you aren't working all the time, that you will have had wasted potential. Yeah, , you're awesome. Yeah sorry, we're getting off hope. Hopefully you guys are resonating with this because we're just gonna leave it in the show because of how much this is resonating between us. It was wrong. It's Ron real. It's insane. It's insane because it's at the end of the day, I think what we're really all pursuing. If you really break it down and boil it. No matter what you're doing. And what you're building, it's just really, are you laying your head on the pillow at night, every single night and saying I did the best that I could do today. Exactly. That's what it comes down to. Exactly. And I, everything you said is accurate and that's my new goal is to find the answer. I'm not saying I don't have it. Like life is good. I'm great. It's just, some days like this morning, I'll be honest this morning. I went on the treadmill and just ran as quick as I could, because I have this in my I'm like, I need, I wanna be, bigger and like just this energy, but there's nothing I can do. We are growing great. And everything's perfect, but I don't know. The, I don't know, I don't know. Looks like you are in a season of navigation. My friend, I am, and I'm excited to, I'm excited to figure it out and hopefully come out. The other side. I know I'll come on the other side, a better person. I know I will. There we go. I think we'll, I think there, I think we've said everything we need to say, man, I think this is it. So what we'll do is we'll just continue having checkpoints with your world domination because every single person that's listening to this I know that there's no way in hell that they've logged. Or logged out of this conversation. Let's just keep doing checkpoints and keep seeing what happens and now how it's growing and what works, what doesn't work. And let's just keep in touch and stay on this show, because this is super interesting, especially with both of our time horizon, cuz we're the same age. Yes. And we need to touch more outside of this. We could be some kindred spirits cool. Cool. With that we will leave it. This has been Andrew Abernathy taking over the world and Brian Lubin with the action academy podcast signing off. Thank you.