111. From Accidental Landlord to Massive Success with Whitney Elkins-Hutten

Connect with the host:
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/brandon-e-jenkins/
Website: https://www.birchprosper.com/
Schedule a call with me → https://calendly.com/birch-prosper/intro-meeting-15-min-clone
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About the guest:
Whitney Elkins-Hutten began her real estate career with a successful rental in 2002, but her second deal nearly cost her everything, shaping her journey. Studying the greatest real estate juggernauts, she replicated their strategies to achieve financial freedom. Since then, Whitney has partnered in over $800M+ of real estate, including 6,500+ residential units and 2,200+ self-storage units, and flipped over $5M in residential properties. Through ASH Wealth and the Investor Accelerator Mentorship Program, she helps budding investors develop clear, workable plans to achieve their real estate and financial goals. When she’s not working, you can find her trail running with her pup, mountain biking, camping, and spending time with her family.


Connect with Whitney Elkins - Hutten:
Email: whitney@passiveinvesting.com
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/whitneyelkinshutten/


Episode Highlights:
✔️ Applying the BRRRR strategy to multifamily syndication
✔️ Private money lending 
✔️ Preferred equity deals, rescue funds, and high-quality assets
✔️ Express car wash investment opportunities
✔️Building equity vs cash flow
✔️The five freedoms of wealth
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Transcript

SPEAKER_02 0:00

You know, if you're wanting out of your day job, um, or if you're wanting to pay off some looming debt, um, you know, or you're just wanting to spend more time with family because you don't see like your kids or your spouse enough, those pains are going to keep you motivated day to day, but you have to have that north star to know what you're running to. And that north star is generally gonna be one of those five freedoms.

SPEAKER_00 0:22

How successful would you be if you had the blueprint for building wealth as a real estate investor or as someone who acquires small businesses? If you want to move the needle financially in your life, then you need to understand one thing the capital stack. I'm your host, Brandon Jenkins, and this is where your journey to financial freedom begins. Hello everyone, what's up, and welcome back to the Capital Stack. So I'm really excited to introduce our guests for today because one of the things that really excites me about these conversations is when a guest has a real mission uh behind what they do. And so we'll talk about the importance of having a purpose, a vision, you know, behind your business and so much more. We'll talk about different strategies that uh you can use in the commercial real estate space. And we'll also talk about a little bit about kind of where we're at in the marketplace. So we have a lot to cover, but I'm looking forward to it. So our guest for today is Whitney Elkins Hutton. Whitney, how are you doing today?

SPEAKER_02 1:15

I'm doing great. Thank you so much for having me on.

SPEAKER_00 1:17

Outstanding, outstanding. Thanks for being here. Happy to have you here. So Whitney is the director of investor education at passiveinvesting.com and the founder of Ash Wealth, where she launched the Investor Accelerator Mentorship Program, which helps budding real estate investors develop a clear workable plan, which is important, that drives massive progress toward not only their real estate and financial goals, but their lifestyle goals. We talk a lot about lifestyle design here. So that's a very important uh topic. Um she's been investing in real estate since 2002 and then has gone on to partner in um, where she learned some vital lessons early on in investment careers, so I'm sure we'll dig into that. She's gone on to partner in over$800 million of real estate, including 6,500 plus residential units, multifamily mobile home parks, uh, single-family rentals, assisted living deals, so just a ton of experience, and more than 2,200 plus um self-storage units across 11 states, um, and experience in flipping over$5 million in residential real estate. So that's a lot of experience there. And also, she's been on Bigger Pockets Podcast. So she was on episode 340. You can learn more about kind of her story, including how she managed to grow her empire using the Burr strategy, which we'll talk about today. And um, so I'm looking forward to kind of digging deep into that. But before we get too far down the path of kind of the background, Whitney, just um again, welcome, welcome to the show. Happy to have you here. Why don't you kind of share just a little bit about your journey with us?

SPEAKER_02 2:44

Oh, absolutely. My pleasure. Well, um, my name, as you guys know, Whitney Elkins Hutton. Um, you know, I'm the director of investor education and passiveinvesting.com, um, also the founder of Ashwealth. That is not where I started. I started off in um, you know, in real estate investing completely by accident back in 2002. Um, bought a house with a significant other relationship fell apart. But I had a house and like, what do I do? I had psychedelic daisies painted on the walls, and you know, every piece of that house needed to be redone. And um, that was the value that my partner was supposed to bring to the project. I was essentially kind of the capital partner. Um, you know, everything was under my name. And uh, you know, when that relationship dissolved, I had this house and figure out how to get it done. So um, if you remember, YouTube did not exist back then. So I went to Home Depot and bought a book and taught myself a lot of things um, you know, that I should I could do in real estate. And there was a lot of things that I shouldn't be doing, like my own electrical emplumbing. Um, but I paid my you know friends and you know, sushi beer and pizza, and we got a lot of the projects done around the house. Um, and then about 11 months later, I sold it and made a significant profit more than I made in my day job that had me traveling sometimes 80 hours a week. And I was completely bitten by the real estate bug. I'm like, how many more of these projects could I possibly do? Um, you know, to keep there's a wealth that there's there there's a lot of ground to cover here, but um, you know, did uh a couple more projects on my own. Um, not everything went as swimmingly well as the first project. Um, you know, and then uh met my husband and we did a couple projects together. And then we found we were really good at building equity, really bad at building cash flow. So if you want to break those golden handcuffs, um you know, flipping was not the way to do it. And so uh somebody mentioned, like, hey, why don't you keep one of those properties and put a tenant in it? And it was like a slap in the forehead. We're like, oh my gosh, why didn't we think of that? And so uh build up a portfolio uh single family rentals, um, 36 rentals, continuing to do about 10 flips a year to replenish our capital so we can continue to build our portfolio. And we hit our next level of ceiling of achievement, which is we needed to scale further faster. We were both still in our day jobs taking care of family. We had a baby girl at home now, and um, that's when we transitioned into uh multifamily investing, both actively and passively. And we weren't, it was kind of, you know, and when I say we, it was mostly me. My husband, you know, you know, definitely, you know, was one a partner in all this. Um, but I'm like, do I want to do it actively passively? I wasn't quite sure and which one was actually gonna give us the freedoms in life, like time freedom, financial freedom, choice freedom that we so desired. And it turns out that the passive investing, we did a lot of things actively. I went into partnership on several deals um as a general partner, but it was actually the passive investments, the you know, the ones where I was vetting the operator, the market, and the deal, writing the check, and then sitting back. And you know, that was you know the real turning point in scaling our portfolio. Now, I know I covered a lot of things in about two minutes, and people would love to learn more. I actually have a book coming out with Bigger Pockets in February called Money for Tomorrow, a sensible guide to uh building uh lasting wealth, um, that you know chronicles this journey, but also is the action plan that people can take to really replicate a lot of what I did in um my wealth journey, my wealth, you know, scaling my portfolio. And you don't have to be like bitten by the real estate bug in order to get an immense value from that bug. So you can be, you know, built scaling your own business, investing in the stock market. Um, you know, most people here are investing in real estate. So um, but you know, you can check that out as well.

SPEAKER_00 6:46

Awesome, awesome, awesome. Thank you so much for sharing um your your journey. And you're right, there's a lot to to kind of um unpack in that. And and um, but one of the things that's interesting to me, so you started off, you mentioned kind of as an accidental landlord. And you you had you didn't have any kind of experience or exposure to it before that first uh while you kind of took that leap and and and took it on even from from from early on.

SPEAKER_02 7:07

I just I I thought I was buying a house with um, you know, you know, my partner, you know, hoping that, you know, it, you know, we did things a little bit out of order, right? Like went to school, got a good education, you know, bought a house, then thinking that, you know, someday we might get married. And we did just did things out of order, you know, like let's let's partner and try to like, you know, start scaling our wealth together. And the funny thing was is um, you know, my realtor actually put the book Rich Dad, Poor Dad, in my hands before buying that that first property. And uh I have to say I kind of mucked it up. I mean, I was like, sweet, you know, uh, I skinned the book and I'm like, sweet, buy real estate. That's all I got from that book the first time, first go-around. And then, you know, when I got through my second project, I'm like, why didn't real estate work out for me? And I read the book again. And it turns out that my second deal, even though as, you know, off-the-walls bonkers of a situation as it ended up being, I thought I like lost my shirt, it actually ended up still being a decent deal. Um, real estate, you know, can be fairly forgiving if you can weather the ups and downs, you know, of the environment around you. And you know, we you know, we were talking a little bit before the show, like what can an investor do in this type of market? Gosh, you know, aside from having the right debt on the property, you need to have reserves, lots and lots of reserves in place and essentially have a fortress balance sheet built.

SPEAKER_00 8:39

Yeah, you really do. I mean, having reserves, that's one thing that I think a lot of people go uh who step into this business not fully understanding. It's not just, it's not just the having the capital to buy the property and the capital to uh do some of the capex work. It's it's the having some additional capital to absorb some of the ebbs and flows of this business. Um, and naturally it depends on you know whether you're kind of starting off in single family, small, multi-family, or large multifamily. So the scale does impact how much you want to have in reserves, but regardless of the size, you you have to have reserves. Um sometimes lenders lenders will require it, but um, but it's it's just best practice, you know. I think it gives you peace of mind, you know.

SPEAKER_02 9:21

Um I yeah, I think it does I call it the sleep well at night factor, right? I love sleeping well at night. I mean, some people can get away with three months of reserves and they do just fine, maybe even less. You know, lenders generally require three to six months of reserves. Um, but for me, I I want nine to twelve months of reserves. Um, you know, it and it really depends on where I'm at, you know, you know, how's the portfolio performing? You know, what income do I have coming in on the horizon? How comfortable I'm I I let my reserves, you know, ebb and flow between that nine to 12 months. You know, certainly it's not all sitting in the bank, you know, it's even, you know, in you know, different stages uh of investment itself. Um very liquid. Um but you know, some people do better with you know smaller reserves. And I will say though, um, you know, if you've never been through job loss, you know, your assets not performing and the market turning down to where you can't even sell the asset, even if you wanted to, if that trifecta hits, you you must have like a healthy reserve set aside. And that's where we're seeing a lot of um operators, but even just individual investors, you know, are having trouble right now because that trifacta is hitting for a lot of people.

SPEAKER_00 10:40

It it really is. Um, and and the thing is it's it's one of those things that that that conversation sometimes can be challenging to have with newer investors because um, you know, when you when when people first kind of step into the business, they want to have a uh be overly optimistic. And it's good to be, I think there's a healthy bit of optimism that's required um in in entrepreneurship, in my in my opinion. But but once this spills over into absorbing risk, you know, then I think it becomes dangerous. And so, so there's this thought that, well, you know, let me go in, let me get my first deal, because if I wait to, you know, store up tons of reserves, then that could prevent me from maybe getting a second deal or something, or it could prevent me from acting now. But but but it's that's wise counsel, you know, it it that's wisdom and saying I need to have reserves because when that trifecta hits, and it's hitting now for a lot of people. Um and it's not it's not as if it's uncommon for it to hit. That's the other thing. Um, it happens. And so uh it you have to prepare for it if you want to be in this for the long uh for the long haul.

SPEAKER_02 11:41

Absolutely.

SPEAKER_00 11:42

You you said something too that um I actually wanted to highlight that I think is a is a really great point for people to fully understand. You said that you were good at building equity, but bad at building cash flow. Can you kind of elaborate on that a little bit? Because I like that point.

SPEAKER_02 11:55

Yeah, uh, so you know it this is what I help investors us understand, both at passivinvesting.com but also at Ashwealth, is you know, understanding their goals, their risks, and their timeline. And so many, how many times have you? I I know I've done this like in my early investing years, and I'm sure some people will resonate with it. You you you see somebody on a podcast, you read a book, and you're like, oh, I they made money at this, I'm gonna go do that. It has to work for me. I can do that. But um what do you need your portfolio to do for you? What is, you know, if you cast that vision for yourself five, 10, 15, 20 years from now, like, and you're building towards that vision, what is it that you want? Right? That's the first question. And most people are after one of five freedoms. They're after financial freedom, time freedom, freedom of location, freedom um to create impact, freedom of choice, right? Um, and most, you know, people who want that financial freedom, they don't necessarily want the largest bank account or the most net worth. They want the cash flow.

SPEAKER_01 13:02

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 13:02

So they are they're they don't have to trade time for money anymore. And that is very different than how we are trained. I know I was trained growing up. I was trained to get a job, stuff as much as you can in your savings account, in your retirement accounts, and for hopefully for one day for you to retire. And that's the exact opposite strategy. If you want to retire early, you need to create cash flow um in order to, you know, to to offset, you know, unlock those golden handcuffs. And so that's really like what you know, I'm I meant by that. Like, um, you know, I had when I I started investing in real estate, I was, you know, doing these projects and getting nice healthy checks at the end. But you know, if you're only getting like a$20,000,$30,000,$40,000 check every like two or three years, that doesn't buy your groceries next week.

SPEAKER_01 13:54

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 13:55

It's the cash flow. The cash flow, you know, a lot of people say cash is king. Uh-uh, cash flow is queen in my butt.

SPEAKER_00 14:05

Yeah, yeah, I I would agree. And that's and I appreciate you kind of um elaborating on that a bit because I'm I'm I also was guilty of that, like you know, in my when I first got started, is I didn't focus enough on building cash flow. And um, and I didn't I didn't make that sort of the at the top of the list in terms of my criteria. Um, and so you know, so it's something that it's it's important to focus on because I love that you phrase it that way too, right? That that's how you unlock those golden handcuffs. Um, really that the key is cash flow.

SPEAKER_02 14:35

And so um, so yeah, I actually have a couple of examples to share for people that you know, uh, you know, a lot of times I talk to investors and they're like, I don't need the cash flow right now, I just want the the highest return asset. You know, even when they come to me to talk about, you know, building scaling their passive portfolio or investing in a deal, and you know, we'll get in a little bit of conversation about what do you do, what are your goals, all that sort of stuff. And I'm like, the cash flow, you know, even if you don't feel like you need the cash flow right now, it gives you optionality, right? Because you can always take that cash flow and reinvest it back into the next investment. And you know, this what became abundantly apparent for me in 2018 was an extremely challenging year for me. And like at the end of March um 2018, my husband suffered a huge mountain biking accident and broke his neck. Fortunately, he's fine, totally fine now. I'll go to the end of the story. Um, you know, he's mountain biking, like he just left to go, you know, mountain bike biking right now in Arizona. But long story short, you know, I had to step away for you know from managing, you know, working, but also managing our projects for like two or three weeks. And then two weeks later, we found out my mom passed away. So that two or three weeks turned into six months. Had we not had cash flow coming in, I wouldn't have had that ability to continue to not only support our family, but feel comfortable with it, right? Like I was taking on that cash flow and just stuffing it right back in the business, but I was able to flip that switch for six months and give myself breathing room to handle these things that life was throwing at me. And then, you know, once we kind of made it through that, you know, got through, you know, my husband was healing fine. Um, and then, you know, we got through a large part of the settlement, settlement of my mom's assets, you know, probate just sucks. You know, I talk a lot about in my book, Money for Tomorrow, how to avoid probate at all possible. But, you know, we were able to then just divert the cash flow right back into, you know, investing in more assets, but it gives you optionality, and you just never know when that that life is going to throw you that curveball.

SPEAKER_00 16:49

Yeah, and I'm certainly um, you know, glad that everything turned turned out all right. And you but you but you're right, it's that you you you never know. And this this again is something that is it's very common, and uh meaning that life kind of throws us all, you know, these curve these curveballs. And so it makes it it it makes perfect sense to say, well, you know, what if this happens? Uh also you know, there's something that you've you've said a few times now that that I think is important to highlight. Because typically when people talk about the freedoms that um that uh people want and you know, and and the reason why they pursue real estate investing, they typically will say time freedom, financial freedom. I love that you've added a few there that are really what people are after. I love choice freedom. I like that a lot because it gives you the option, uh, it gives you options, it gives you options, period, right? You you now have the choice to decide what you want to do with your time and with your life. Once you reach the point of that financial freedom, that time freedom. I love location freedom, right? Because you can literally, um, once you understand the principles of this business, uh, and once you reach that financial freedom and time freedom and choice freedom, you can live where you want. You can be where you want with whom you want for however long, as long as you have the systems in place to handle uh your business. And then that freedom to create impact. Um, you know, just those those things to me are so important because that's the driver behind why we do what we do. We we have all these ups and downs where the market does what it's going to do. And, you know, we're in a tough spot now. And um there's almost this culling of the herd where the people who have who don't have their their their uh sights set on one of those five freedoms, uh, and that's not motivating them, you know, then they might be wiped out because they'll be so you know hurt by what's going on in the market that they lose sight of, hey, here's the reason why I'm doing this in the first place. Um so I just thought that was really, really cool to highlight um there.

SPEAKER_02 18:36

Yeah, yeah. And you know, they don't, they're not necessarily mutually exclusive. And I didn't necessarily name them in order, right? It it because one person, you know, might be pursuing financial freedom. And initially that's what I was pursuing was financial freedom. We've since attained it. But what I landed on is that I wanted the choice. Yeah, I wanted I wanted to wake up every single day and be able to decide what I was gonna do for that day. Was I gonna spend time with my daughter? Was I, you know, was I gonna spend time with my family? Was I going to balance that with work? Um, you know, what type of work am I gonna be doing? Um, you know, I honestly am the type of person if I had total utter time freedom, I would go nuts. That's not me. I'm I don't sit well on the couch, I'm not the the the endless vacationer. That just isn't me. Yeah, but my husband's the complete opposite. He wants time freedom. That's his thing. But for me, it's more choice freedom and freedom to create that impact in the world. Like, what is my higher calling? And you know, how can I step into that? Um, so you know, I really challenge everybody to kind of sit with that. I mean, certainly being financially free or being on some sort of path towards financial freedom, whether it's like financial vitality, financial independence, financial freedom, that generally does make attaining the other freedoms a little easier. Um, but you know, really sit down and think what it is that you want. And then also why do you want it? Because there's a, you know, people we are honestly more motivated by pain than we are by pleasure.

SPEAKER_01 20:14

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 20:15

So, you know, if you're wanting out of your day job, um, or if you're wanting to pay off some looming debt, um, you know, or you're just wanting to spend more time with family because you don't see like your kids or your spouse enough, those pains are going to keep you motivated day to day, but you have to have that north star to know what you're running to. And that north star is generally gonna be one of those five freedoms.

SPEAKER_00 20:36

Yeah, absolutely, absolutely. And you're right. I mean, that we are motivated by pain, or and certainly the avoidance of it is even a greater motivator. And so um have having that as a goal or one of those as a goal is of the utmost important uh importance. And this is actually a good uh opportunity to kind of dig into how you help your clients do that, right? Because so I want to talk a bit about um Ash Wealth. And I I like that you mentioned kind of uh you mentioned a workable plan, an actionable plan. Because I, you know, in my past uh life as a petroleum engineer, you know, I had this target that where I wanted to go professionally, but at no point did I stop and say, well, here's my plan to get to get there. And needless to say, I didn't, I fell short of that. Um, so without a without without an actionable plan, a workable plan, it's difficult to really to reach these goals. So how do you help your clients um do that?

SPEAKER_02 21:26

Yeah, so starting with some of these core questions that we've already talked about, you know, what is it that you want? Which of those five freedoms are you going after? Um, you know, truly sitting with it. Yeah, I think a lot of people ask that question once and they they go, check, I don't need to ask it again. No, this is think of it like a spiral, like you know, you know, continue to ask yourself these questions every like two to four months until you know, and maybe two, you know, after like a year, year and a half, you'll really have like landed on the core essence, right? You know, small little tweaks here. But what do You want, why do you want it? Right. And when it, you know, why do you want it? You have to get really clear still clearer of what that day-to-day motivation is going to be. Like I say, motivated by pain, or the what you said, avoidance of pain. And then um, you know, uh, what type of freedom are you running towards? Right. And that is super the the creating that alignment is super valuable because um a lot of investors that I work with are unaligned, right? They got into business to achieve financial freedom and then they pick their head up five days, five years, not five days, I wish five days, but five years later, and they're like, I've built the wrong business. I'm just right back in the same mix.

SPEAKER_01 22:41

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 22:41

And so we're we're solving scaling issues. You know, how do they scale appropriately to where you know it actually fits their long-term goals? So um, you know, if you're just starting out right now, that is a huge question to ask. Because if you know that long-term vision, that five, 10, 15-year vision, you might have to do some short-term like fix and flipping, something that's more time intensive now in order to get the capital, but you now know what kind of business, what kind of portfolio you need to build. So we get really clear on the want, the why, and then we talk, you know, then it's a matter of the execution. Who do you have to become to get it? Like what kind of mindset do we have to build here? What kind of saboteurs do we need to overcome? You know, traps, you know, uh, and failure thinking do we need to work through? What kind of skills do we need to build? Is it you? Is it somebody else that we need to bring into your world? Um, and then, you know, what kind of networks do you need to have? Who who are the you know, people that we can bring in that can kind of help level you up? Uh also, like with that, like what are the processes that you need to have in place? And I really help investors think through um not only like automating their current business as a solopreneur, but like with the mindset that at some point in time they're gonna scale. Like, even, you know, if it's a passive investor and you bring on a virtual assistant to help, you know, track your assets, right? And and you know, keep, you know, keep your inbox, you know, obtained, um, like what my um virtual assistant does. Or if you're more on the active side of real estate, like, you know, do we need to bring people in there to help manage projects, source deals, stuff like that? Um, and then just you know, all the, you know, busting through all the obstacles, you know, there's a lot of trials and tribulations that I've walked in my, you know, 20 years of investing, and I help people do that. In a nutshell, what we're doing is I'm helping people understand that multi-generational wealth game. What's the objective? What are the strategies you need to understand, or the rules, I should say, that you need to know in order that the game operates by. So the rules have been the same for a very long time. The thing is the tactics have changed. And we so much get into the tactics. So, but if we understand the objective, we understand the rules, and then we learn the strategies on how to win this wealth game, be it just straight finances or real estate or passive investing, you know, it makes us a far more effective player at this game.

SPEAKER_00 25:13

Absolutely, absolutely. It is definitely about coming up with a strategy to win the wealth game. I love that you that you phrase it that way. Um, and that's and that's important, you know, to approach it like that, because it is about, you know, winning, not being not being sort of uh uh uh I'll say passive, not passive investing, but being passive about coming up with an actionable plan. Um, but but it's it's about taking action, taking those steps to say, here's where I want to go, and here's how um, here's how here's what it will take to get there. And so I'm curious, um, the the mechanism, is it more kind of a community um type of environment or is it one-on-one? Sounds sounds almost like a combination of customized and and uh a community type. Is that kind of what the mechanism is?

SPEAKER_02 25:53

Yeah, so there's three different ways that I engage with investors, you know, whether it's just working with their financial situation to get them in a solid position so they can either be a better investor or get to the point where they can start investing. You know, that's um and I can work with any investor in a group or um a, you know, uh what a group plus type situation, you know, with a little bit of one-on-one guidance. Then I also work with passive investors, you know, helping them level up and put all the systems in place so they can feel one, you know, comfortable about their goals, risk, and timeline. They have a solid um uh strategy approach to investing, you know, you know, for lack of a better word, like a plan. Um, but like they understand the strategy on how they want to want to invest over the next, say, like five, 15, 20 years. And then um, you know, and then I work a one-on-one with just like a couple of different, you know, um active, you know, uh people that are wanting to do burr investing and stuff like that. Um, but the bulk of my um, you know, work is, you know, really centered on that foundational core around the financial piece. So people can one win the wealth gain whether they invested in real estate or not.

SPEAKER_00 27:10

Okay, yeah, I love that. I I think that's that's very important because that foundation, you know, it's so so many times we've seen people who step in and they they think they kind of have a firm foundation, but it ends up being based solely on, you know, these uh principles that are kind of off and then that foundation crumbles. But having someone come in and say, no, no, these are things you need to need to focus on based on your goals and let's lay a nice clean, even foundation so that we can begin to build uh on that and build real legacy wealth, generational wealth from that. Um, I think it's just a beautiful thing.

SPEAKER_02 27:42

I would say, like, you know, out of you know, every 10 investors I speak to, maybe one actually has all the foundational pieces in place.

SPEAKER_01 27:52

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 27:52

Um, and so then you scratch your head. How did the other nine become successful, you know, or experience some sort of success? Well, they they landed on a tactic in a good market, right? Yeah, and they never had to experience that trifecta of like, you know, you know, decrease in income, interest rates rising, and like, you know, unsteady assets. They didn't have to then that that trifecta hasn't hit in a while. Um, so long story short, you know, one out of maybe one out of 10 investors actually has is is on you know solid footing. So how can we get the other nine back on solid footing? So when this they can either weather the current situation or they're better prepared for the next situation. And so, you know, even if there's an investor here that is like, oh, I'm fine, you know, it's worthwhile to you know either pick up that book or you know, you know, let's you know hop on the phone and do like a quick one-on-one consult to just you know see where the holes are. Um that way you're aware, right? Because knowledge is power. Um, and and and some people argue argue potential power. And I would agree with that. Um, you know, how can we make people not just more financially knowledgeable, but financially capable?

SPEAKER_00 29:07

Yeah, I like that. I I would agree with that as well, that it's potential power because it's it's having kind of the knowledge is is is a great, it obviously is great, but the application of the knowledge is the thing that will kind of put you over the line. And and I did want to ask you um about about your book and just in a moment too. Um one question I have is um something that's fascinating about your background is that you have had success in a number of different asset classes. Um and I was kind of wondering if you had like how were you able to navigate kind of through evaluating opportunities with um different asset classes and any kind of tips that you might uh give for people who are looking to do the same.

SPEAKER_02 29:42

Absolutely. Um, don't so that goes back to like the who do you need to become to get what you want? I wanted a um a performing portfolio that was uh diversified across uncorrelated asset classes. That was part of what I wanted. So who did I need to become to get that? Well, you know, one, you know, skills. Um, and that and then two, network. Did I need so one methodology that I could have taken is that I built the portfolio of multifamily assets, and then I pivoted and would learn about self-storage, and then I would pivot and learn about residential assisted living. That is actually um, I could do that. Um, but I think you know, to get further faster, you have to, you know, learn how to bring people into your world that are already professionals at that. And so that's where I learned how to partner with other operators in order to um, you know, pay either play a passive role in their projects or a larger, a minor, um, more active role in their projects. And so not pretending um the real estate is really a team sport. And so that's where I was like, okay, for me, you know, I'm you know, uh a recovering hyperachiever. So it was really for me to slide back into like, ah, I got to do everything myself. But that's really not how you win this game. It's getting really good at, you know, vetting out those operators, those partnerships, um, you know, uh in scaling that way.

SPEAKER_00 31:18

Yeah, I think that's very important. Like one of the things that I share with um with my clients, I call it partnering up, you know, because um but one of the ways that you really move the needle is being able to add value um to an experienced operator, um, especially if you can do things like, you know, if you have some underwriting or or maybe if you have uh you can help with investor relations or something like that. But most importantly, if you can uh help help attract private capital, and then you can partner with someone who has the experience and then and then it would work really well. But I tend to think it's it's the same. I mean, you know, partnering with someone who has experience, focusing on, you know, hey, how how can I learn and add value, but how can I also then learn uh from this uh person or this team? It just to me is just a huge uh a huge benefit for anyone on the active side at the very least.

SPEAKER_02 32:04

Absolutely. Yeah, and and you know, don't I think a lot of investors, you know, it I guess the question is first of all, you have to understand like what do you want to do with your time? Do you want to be a more active role or you know, do you want to just be per purely passive and you have a higher and better use in your own day job, right? But for those people who do want to take, you know, a more active component, um, you know, potentially for some sort of compensation with that, like, and you're just kind of scratching your head and you're like, I don't know where to start. Start with your current skill set because just as you are looking for a who, an operator is looking for a who. And that was kind of my first foray into um, you know, uh, you know, general partnership is I had an operational background and you know, was able to, you know, uh had all those business building skills. And the operator that I was partnering with, um, you know, the team that I was partnering with, they were looking for an operator, right? They were like, hey, listen, we're great at marketing, we're great at investor relations, but we need somebody to like pick up this business, systematize it, scale it, and like run with it. And so for me, like initially when they handed me the the job announcement, I was like, okay, let me see who in my network like has these skills. And all of a sudden I was like sitting there, I'm like, wait a second.

SPEAKER_00 33:28

This is me.

SPEAKER_02 33:29

Why can't I do this?

SPEAKER_00 33:30

Yeah, right.

SPEAKER_02 33:31

And so, you know, don't just count like those skills that you currently have. Um, you know, if you're sitting here and you have amazing marketing and social media skills and brand building skills, and especially if you're willing to hold yourself to KPIs, you know, that there are teams looking for that. Um, you know, so you know, if you're an operator, there are teams looking for that. If you're financial whiz, there are teams looking for that, you know, so um, or other partners that are looking for that. Just, you know, you're not looking for somebody like yourself, you're looking for somebody who's looking for a skill set that's complement to you or, you know, that needs the skill set that you offer.

SPEAKER_00 34:07

Yeah, yeah, that's that's right. That's why one of the reasons why I tell people, you know, if you're if you're working a full-time job, it's it's a strength. There are skill sets that you are building every single day. You've been building over the years that you can then leverage um to help you in in this aspect. Like you mentioned, if you're good with operations and you know, setting up uh SLPs or whatever it is, or if you're someone who's good with spreadsheets, or if you're someone who's a project manager, you know, or maybe you you work in uh construction or whatever it is, construction management. So all these things we can kind of leverage your personal, your professional background um to help you in this aspect. And it's also uh you mentioned a who uh uh a few times there. Uh it's kind of a nod to who, not how, which I always always recommend to people as well. Um, I I I struggled with that as well initially. It was, you know, I went from the single family style wearing all the hats and then now to the multi-family syndication style where we spread uh the load a bit. And it was initially difficult for me because I was, you know, I could I I my thought process was always if you want it done right, you do it yourself. And that's actually not how business works at all. It's an easy, that's an easy way to slow yourself down or even ruin your business. But um being able to effectively put the people, put people in the right place or join a team that has the uh functions, the roles filled already, and then you find where you fit, you know, that's a better way to kind of go about it. So I just uh wanted to call that out. But I wanted to talk quickly about your uh not quickly, but to talk about your book. Um and uh so money, I want to make sure I I'm gonna put it in the show notes, but money for tomorrow, a sensible guide to building wealth. Is that the full title? I think I might have might have might have truncated the uh in there.

SPEAKER_02 35:42

Build building wealth at last. You know, and uh it's shockingly, um, writing the book was the easy part, editing the book and getting through all the marketing reasons. Um for somebody who likes to have plans, right? Like plan the work worth of plan. Um, this has been such an interesting process because that they'll be like, hey, here's art. I'm like, can I post it?

SPEAKER_01 36:04

And they're like, we're still doing changes.

SPEAKER_02 36:07

I'm like, guys, we're like two months away from launch. How are we still changing things? But um, such is the life. Uh this has been such an amazing journey, and I'm learning so much. Um and so uh uh I couldn't be more thankful to have um partners at bigger pockets that really believe in this book and um want to get it out in the world.

SPEAKER_00 36:28

Yeah, no, we're we're we're um we'll definitely include some details in the show notes um for that. And who's kind of the who's the book for? Maybe it's a a good a good question. Who's the best kind of ideal reader?

SPEAKER_02 36:40

I wrote the book for my daughter, to be perfectly honest. I wrote it, you know, originally it was a um a concept of I wanted to record my journey and all those principles I would want my daughter to have know and embody um to be the best investor possible. You know, um, you know, not to not that I'm going anywhere, but in the off case I did, like, you know, what what could she pick up and read? And then when I started drafting the book, um I'm you know, talked with some people uh, you know, within my network, one of them being, you know, um one of the edit edit somebody on the editorial team at Bigger Pockets, and they were like, why just your daughter? Like, look around, look at all these people that could benefit from it. I'm like, you know what? Let's yes, yes, like absolutely. And so um I feel that anybody I would wish nothing more that this book was studied in high school classrooms and people would, you know, you know, embody these principles from day one before they got into college, they would probably, you know, avoid a lot of like debt and heartache, steal their portfolio faster, you know. Um, but even if somebody um, you know, is probably like in their late 20s or early 30s or even in their 40s, that are just like, you know, kind of realizing, hey, it's time that I start buckling down and I want to, you know, either start investing or start um learning how to scale my investments and want to make be the best investor possible, I need to know that I have my financial note in place. I need to know that I created my wealth, you know, effectively and efficiently, that I understand all the different ways that my wealth can be eroded and that I stop that erosion now because it's it's uh it's compounded growth, right? If you can stop eroding your wealth now and you know, that time value money is realized, you get it invested, you're just gonna go further faster. Then, you know, um I really go through a section on how to invest based on principles, right? We get away from the clicky headlines, we get away from all the tactics that people love doing podcasts about, and I do them too. I do the podcast and just filthy guys, but we get away from the tactics and really boil it down to brass tacks. What are those seven principles you must master? And what are the three at all? There's only three assets that actually adhere to all seven principles. Okay. We stream strip it down to you know to to first principles here, um, to borrow a term from Ray Dalio. And then we understand how to pass it on. And we go beyond just having a will, having a trust. We talk about all the different ways you could be incapacitated. How do we shore up, you know, your wealth being eroded through incapacitation? We talk about like if you have a family, if you have heirs, how can you shore up that knowledge base? You're in, you know, um that that they understand what you intended with this wealth. And maybe, maybe you don't ever ever actually want to pass on the dollars. Maybe you just want to pass on the knowledge. We talk about all those different ways to to shore up that plan um and and really make sure that this wealth transfer occurs to your family, to your heirs, and doesn't just get eroded um by the system that we have in place.

SPEAKER_00 40:08

But that is really powerful and it's very timely as well, right? Because we're undergoing this uh the great uh wealth transfer. And um, and that that's something that is very essential is how can you pass on the principles because because once you pass those things on, then um it becomes significantly easier to then not erode away at uh or not have some of the wealth at store um get eroded away because of a lack of principles. And so once you teach, here are the things you have to focus on, here are some of the things that really matter, um, then I think that's far more important because then even if something gets lost, they have the foundation to then get it, gain it back. Um so I just think that's a very powerful. I love the word, I love the word sensible, uh sensible guide, you know, kind of being placed in there because that way it gets away from sort of like the flashy lights of chasing this, chasing that. It's like here's a sensible approach, here's some of the foundational principles, here's the philosophy behind it. And I think that will then drive kind of a longer-term view of hey, how can I build real legacy wealth and then how can I continue that if I'm the person who's on the receiving end. So um very powerful uh book, and looking forward to uh to reading that. And so I'll make sure I put that in the show notes for the uh listeners here. So um, Whitney, we're getting kind of close to wrapping. And I wanted to make sure that uh we're kind of getting to the actionable tip portion of the show. So I wanted to ask you if there's someone who's listening to this and they're inspired, they're motivated, but um, they are kind of not sure that they want to act or they're ready to act. What's something that you could share with them to maybe encourage them to take some action today?

SPEAKER_02 41:44

Um, well, I mean, I we've talked about so much. So uh, you know, I I think the the first actionable step is you know, really writing down the answers to those three questions that I shared. What do you want? Why do you want it? And who do you need to become to get it? Because that gives you a little bit of clarity. Because now, when you get to the who do you need to become to get it, you know what you need to pursue. Is it you know, developing a growth mindset, you know, all the things that go into there? Is it a skill that you need to pick up? Or is it somebody you need to add into your network, right? Um, a who, right? So um, I would though, so we had to give one piece of actional advice. Sit down with those questions and get and even if you just have five minutes, that'll give you so much more clarity than you had before. I actually was on a phone with a friend of mine yesterday morning. He was asking me a bunch of questions. Uh, he's at a pivotal point in his career. And I just simply asked him, Well, what do you want? And I mean, this, I mean, I've worked alongside this gentleman for years, and he was like, Oh, yeah, it's in my head. I'm like, Well, is it written down anywhere? What are your non-negotiables? And he was like, uh, no, it's not written down, it's all in my head. And I'm like, get that puppy on paper and send it to me. Because you know, just the act of writing it down, answering those questions, even if you just take five minutes, is so powerful because you can continue to come back to it.

SPEAKER_00 43:15

Yeah, yeah, it really is kind of put putting it on paper, it kind of takes it out of it, like puts it into kind of a physical form, tangible form. Um, and it it really, it really does do something for you. And I I like that, you know, thinking about who the person, who you need to become in order to get what you want, because um, you know, so many people need to kind of embrace the fact that, hey, this will require some change. If you want something you you've never had before, you have to become someone you've never been before. So um very, very powerful. So, how can the listeners um reach out to you and maybe hear more about you?

SPEAKER_02 43:46

Yeah. Before I answer that, I want to add in one more thing there. The the really powerful point about writing that all down and putting it in visible place is you overcome the forgetting curve. Okay. I'm a previous instructional. Designer, and that is the very 72 hours information is out. I would actually even challenge most of it's gone within 24 hours. So for people that are listening to those podcasts, you know, hit save, go back, write down the answer to those three questions. I guarantee just doing that action is going to be one of the most powerful things you've done for yourself this year because you're helping yourself overcome that forgetting curve. I can't tell you how many podcasts I've saved and on my like phone. And then like I like go back six months later. I'm like, oh yeah, I did learn that concept. It's in my podcast. How can people learn more about me? Um, you can find me at passiveinvesting with whitney.com. Um, there uh you um fill out a quick little form, we get to know each other a little bit better, especially if you're looking for passive investments like in multifamily self-storage and express car washes or real estate debt. Um, we get to know each other better. You can also we can also hop on a one-on-one phone call um and talk about things real estate. And if you're looking for more financial support, you can reach out to me at ashwealth.com, ashwealth.com.

SPEAKER_00 45:10

All right, all right, awesome. I will include all that in the show notes. And um just uh once again, Whitney, wanted to really, really thank you, let you know that I appreciate the value that you've added. Um, we've gone over tons of content and information here that the listeners I know have gotten value from. I know I have. So I really, really appreciate uh your time.

SPEAKER_02 45:28

Awesome. Thank you so much, Brandon.

SPEAKER_00 45:32

As always, thank you so much for tuning in to the show today, brought to you by Bridge Prosper. If you enjoyed today's episode and you'd like to learn more about commercial real estate investing, please like, subscribe, and share. And we'll see you again next week. I'm Brandon Jenkins, and this is the Capital Stack, where we help you learn, apply, and prosper.