Deals & Dollars: Real Estate Investors and Entrepreneurs
Welcome to the Deals & Dollars Podcast, hosted by David Choi and Eric Panecki, real estate executives from the New York City metro area and founders of Leverage Companies. Every week, they bring on the best real estate investors and entrepreneurs they know to learn about how they got started, how they source their deals, and -- most importantly-- how they make their dollars.
If you're interested in being on the show or want to receive exclusive invites to our networking events, you can reach out at (http://www.dealsndollars.com)
Deals & Dollars: Real Estate Investors and Entrepreneurs
How to Turn $5k into $5 Million by 26 Years Old w/ Aaron O'Flaherty
Use Left/Right to seek, Home/End to jump to start or end. Hold shift to jump forward or backward.
On today's show we have our very first international guest: Aaron O'Flaherty, owner of The Brokerage out of Ireland.
From a computer store employee to a successful real estate broker and eventually a house flipper, Aaron's journey into real estate is packed with crucial information and insight. He breaks down his initial foray into real estate at the tender age of 17, propelled by his father's challenge to secure a 'proper job' and his subsequent steps into flipping houses, a strategy that served him well. Providing a comparative view of the US and Irish real estate markets, Aaron emphasizes understanding the nuances of deal financing and the fierce competition among hard money lenders.
Aaron discusses his mission of mentoring the next generation of real estate professionals, his philosophy of providing free value, and the importance of resilience in overcoming challenges. His advice on finding quick money and the story of his global travels as a millionaire make for a riveting conversation, so let's get into it!
Join the Deals & Dollars community today. If you're interested in becoming a guest on the show or receiving exclusive invites to our networking events, sign up on our official website.
Official Website
Instagram
Youtube
you, you, you, you. 3, 2, 1, all right. Today we have Aaron Don't forget the O Flarity. That means you fought, that means the family fought in the war. We have a really special guest from Dublin Ireland. It's our first international guest and he's got a incredible story. I mean from a very, very young age he was able to turn $5,000, a very little amount of money into multi-millions by the age of 26. And you know the history between starting off into brokerage, getting into real estate investing is super unique. So real pleasure, real honor to have you on the show today, aaron, nice to go. Welcome aboard.
Speaker 2Thanks, a lot Thanks a lot Aaron, aaron O Flarity, yeah O Flarity. So that really means you fought the O means you fought I heard it off someone before and I just took it on You've just been going with it.
Speaker 3Yeah, I just rolled with it. Yeah, it sounds pretty cool, right.
Speaker 2It really does. It really does, I think it's my granddad.
Speaker 3My granddad actually told me that because his surname was Kelly, but there's Kelly and O Kelly, so I think that's what it was. Yeah, it's a classic Irish thing that was probably told drunk some nights somewhere and it just it grew legs and went with it. But here we are.
Speaker 2Everybody with the O's like, yeah, we fought in the war, everybody went out and was like shut up.
Speaker 1People change the names and all about there you know, so, Aaron, can you give us a little background who you are, what you do, your story?
Speaker 3Yeah, sweet, yeah, Thanks for having me again. My name is Aaron O Flarity. I'm 28 years old. I live and breathe real safe, which is cool. So I started as an estate agent or a real estate broker at 17, 18, just right at the bottom, doing rentals. So I would have done like rentals and like multi-families like studios, small one bed apartments it would have been like the lower end of the market and stuff. And I did that for a few years and then moved into sales, Would have done like investment stuff. So I would have sold some big blocks of apartments, purpose built stuff. I kind of enjoyed that but I suppose throughout the whole process I couldn't get ahead. Probably had shiny objects in Rome as well. So it's like the more earned, the more spent. Probably from the outside it was like damn you know, he's killing it.
Speaker 3But I couldn't ever gain any sort of wealth or what I would know now is like equity and as a result I'd no time. I actually couldn't do what I wanted to do and I was caught in the trap. Then earn money, spend money. Earn money in Ireland as well If you're an employee. As a tax structure it just doesn't work because the tax rate's so high on personal income. So for real estate broker you could do big numbers. Commissions are lower because it's salary and commission. It was really, really hard to get ahead. You know and bought on first property. It was a small single at house. I knew it was worth like 325, 330.
Speaker 3And I remember seeing it up for 200 and it didn't need that much work, bought it, rehabs it like on a major budget. Man Like I knocked out the money, like because I was living this lifestyle, I had a Mercedes but I'd not got money for a kitchen and floors. That's the truth. Like you know, that's where I was at with the car was worth like 35 on finance. The suit I'd not got 15 grand to do with this house, you know. So I put it down. I started to realize this is where I'm going wrong. I'm going wrong.
Speaker 3Got that deal done, flipped. It took like 100, 120 off the table and I was like, okay, now, this is, this is what I was, this is what I can do. I immediately rolled that money into another one that was a three story building. It was much more uplifted. It paid like isn't that? For like 424, 30 sold after like 730. Wow. Then I cashed up again. Then I bought a block of six apartments. I doubled my money on that and then I started rolling that into then buying hold stuff to create that kind of cash flow element to allow me to randomly come to New York and do a podcast, nice.
Speaker 3You know so so that's it that I hate sometimes explaining that because it's like step one, step two, step three. I forgot to leave out that it was hell, in the middle of that, raising private money for the first time. You know, two year loan, real basic, 18 months in, guy blows his toys out of the prime, tries to take me out of the game. You know that type of stuff. You know how do you deal with that. If you don't know, you just got to deal with it. It's a. I remember listening to you said something before. You don't know the answer to everything. Maybe you know someone who does and I want to. When you said that on the part I was like damn, I just get that. Yeah, so it's like I don't have the answer to everything, but when you're back up against the wall, man, you better figure it out.
Speaker 2Figure it out.
Speaker 3You fucking, you know. So punch in the face. You guys talk about that as well. I was an oil age who all that. My first rehab, you know that went upside down on the building Electrician came in Reward the fucking place wrong. I had to get a reward again, like stuff like that. And then understand how cash flow works. You call for an employee to have them banks money, cash flow builders, money in, money out. You're learning that stuff the hard way, you know. So that's it's been.
Speaker 1it's been a good round and there we are, it's. It's been 11 years since you you got into business.
Speaker 3Yeah.
Speaker 1Wow.
Speaker 3Yeah, she has never looked like that.
Starting Real Estate at 17
Speaker 1Yeah, that's crazy. I'm waiting to hit the decade mark. How the hell did you get started at 17 years old? Yeah, it's really an interesting story.
Speaker 3Actually, my dad's a military and he's kind of hard up, you know, which is probably like the greatest thing you could have, right. So we weren't babied and he would have had me accountable and stuff and I was kind of finishing up in school. I wasn't, school wasn't for me. I was like, oh, this is a waste of time, I want to get into like doing business or whatever. Well, I didn't know, and I remember actually I was working in a computer store and I was kind of messing around. I was like buying like cars and stuff and just kind of floating around.
Speaker 3But for him he was like no, this is like bullshit. I remember he was like you need to get yourself a proper job and for me that was real estate. And I rang a guy in like a local real estate office, like clearly in my city, and he put me in touch with someone else and I went and met that guy and I actually told him. I said I'll work for you for free because I knew if I got into real estate I could do something. I didn't really know what, but I felt like I could do something here.
Speaker 3I remember watching a million dollar lessons with Ryan Serhan. I was like I could do that and it looks really cool as well. And then you see the commission. You're like I forgot you know.
Speaker 2Yeah.
Speaker 3So he gave me a job Nod Clark, great guy and I worked under him for two years and that was kind of my start. That's how I got in, but quickly, surely. But surely. Then I started to realize OK, if you want to make money in Ireland anyway in real estate, you've got to own the real estate. You must own the buildings, you know.
Speaker 2Is it? Is it? How much do you know about US real estate?
Speaker 3I'd be above average on for someone who doesn't live here.
Speaker 2OK, so like what are some of the big key differences between US? And besides the commission structure, it sounds like yeah, the commission structure is entirely different.
Speaker 3So in Ireland you work on a salary with minimal commission and you would generally work for one guy like real estate teams and hard to kind of break out into your own unless you set up your own business. You got bricks and mortar, you got all that stuff that comes with it. Convincing you know, if you buy a simple deal in Ireland it's going to take a minimum of eight weeks. That's a simple house on a road, no finance, no one crazy.
Speaker 2Like a cash deal oh yeah, yeah.
Speaker 3Yeah, I'm talking like the most straightforward one. You're looking at eight weeks. Just a convincing process takes a lot longer.
Speaker 2Solicitors take their time and like no digital records or something.
Speaker 3Evidence kind of hard copy. There's always going to be something missing. Quick queries I'm doing it. We just closed. We closed 19 units this week which was awesome.
Speaker 2Congrats.
Speaker 3And two of those buildings that make up the 19,. We're waiting over 12 months Wow, 12 months to get those close. So that's, that's normal.
Speaker 1Wait, wait, wait. There wasn't any like title issues.
Speaker 3Yeah, there was.
Speaker 1OK.
Speaker 3That's like nothing out of the ordinary. Title-wise it was relatively fine. It was probate.
Speaker 1I was a probate dealer. I was a probate dealer.
Speaker 3Yeah, congratulations, man. Well, probate, finished up in May, so you can probate all you want. I'm like what yeah? The probate was done in May. It's the game, it just it takes a lot longer. So I like to flip stuff, get some cash off the table, keep it going.
Speaker 2Yeah.
Speaker 3The fastest you can really ever flip it and from buy to rehab it to sell it Like two years. You can do that in 18 months.
Speaker 1Oh crap.
Speaker 2You are nailing it 18 months. Well, because we'll just say it takes nine months to rehab it.
Speaker 3Well, no, I'm talking about a four month rehab.
Speaker 2If it takes nine months, it's the two year thing.
Speaker 1Dude, there's eight months Because it takes that long to close.
Speaker 3Yeah, they were like if you buy a place, let's say, 16 weeks it takes to get it bought and, like the bank I use are quick, really hard money man, hard money ladders. They're like, yeah, go, so it's not the bank either. Is there a lot of those?
Speaker 2over there there's a lot of.
Speaker 3No, in relation to landing, you're talking maybe maximum of four kind of hardlanders, two bridges, four or five kind of five year long term guys and our banking is very, very weak Options. That's why I like I heard your guys on the phone there. They sound great, like those guys. That sounded awesome. But I was like god.
Speaker 2OK.
Speaker 1I knew you were going to say that.
Speaker 3If I had one of them ringing me I'd be like what's up?
Speaker 1Three week closing.
Speaker 3let's go, Thanks so much for the call, brother. I'm on my way. So it's to complete opposite. We're ringing those guys, we're hounding those guys, trying to put the us together and stuff. We're driving it. The fact that your guys are calling out having good conversations, that's awesome.
Speaker 2Wow, that's crazy. That's crazy. I mean, is that an advantage? Then? If you're one of the people that gets it and knows how to do it, I could see that being an advantage or a disadvantage, I guess, depending how you look, because over here I don't know what it's like in Ireland, but it's like the hot thing, right, like flip houses, make money in real estate, get rich quick. There's everybody's a hard money lender, everybody does so there's a lot of competition 100%.
Speaker 3I built out we but my trading company the four funds which we advertise as the brokerage. So we're just trying to. I started to realize myself that I know education no college degree, nothing like that. But I started to realize that, ok, I didn't need a leader. And you know, when I was in school I was like Aaron's not good at this, aaron's not good at that, but I'm a little kid man. You can't say that to a kid. Then it becomes habitual to start to believe Maybe I'm not able for the world.
Speaker 2Right.
Speaker 3Real estate gave me an opportunity to prove to myself that, oh no, I can't live the way I want. I can express myself, I can do deals, I can meet people Like look where I am now with you guys, that's thanks to real estate. That's awesome. I would never have got that opportunity. So with the brokerage we tried to explain to people that we cut the bullshit out of real estate. Man, you know, there's these nine second TikTok videos and people think, ah, that's what I've been doing wrong all along.
Speaker 1It's going to point to us.
Speaker 3Go do a warning, come back to me. So I built a brokerage where we bring it to people and we educate them on the truth and the false. And I show my scars and I show everything and we've had great results with these guys out buying real estate and stuff. But like not, you know, if we only got rich in three weeks, we haven't got a product for you, Right? But if you want a big long-term wealth, enjoy yourself, give back and help your family and people around you, hang out with us for two, three, four years and we got something cool for you. That's the way we say it. Look, you know, that's great. If I knew how to get rich quick, I'd just deal with myself.
Speaker 1Yeah, once you figure that one out, let me know.
Speaker 3I'll call you guys straight away.
Speaker 2Well, what is it? It's not get rich quick, it's get rich for sure. That's what they say about real estate. I guess in Ireland it's get rich for sure a little bit longer, yeah like you can do it fast.
Speaker 3You know you can do it fast, so I rolled up pretty quick. I went from kind of nothing to something quite fast but I went to All-In. I didn't have like a plan B. I had a couple of different ways to do plan A but I went All-In. But you know, when you break it down, what is it? You raise some cash, you get a bank on board. You understand real estate to the point where that's garbage because it's worth that. When I fix it up and you rent some repeat and try and stay in the game in the middle of it, what are you? How many units do you own now? So I kind of buy, sell, buy, sell. So I think at the minute now we're holding about 36, 37. Fantastic, just sold off at 3 plus 3 plus 2 and then 6 before that. So by refurbish, holding for like two years, flog it. But now we bought 17 this week and then 15.
Speaker 2What was that term? You just said Flog it, flog it, yeah. What does that mean?
Speaker 3Well, flog it, buy it, fix it up, move it.
Speaker 2Flog it. Yeah, Ha ha, ha ha ha, flog it. That's hilarious. Everybody that comes on the show has scars like battle scars, and it sounds like you're no different.
Speaker 1No.
Speaker 2Take us through. I mean, I want to hear the transition from you're the real estate broker and to me that's like I guess it's kind of the employee thing, Like you got the white picket fence type thing, you probably got the nice car, you look good, but you're living paycheck to paycheck.
Speaker 2And you're like this isn't it, and then you want to make that switch. I would love to hear that mindset shift. And then also, I'm sure when that happened you had some trials and tribulations your second guessing like maybe I should have just stuck with what I was doing.
Speaker 3Yeah, I suppose the big thing was the big thing what you said about the mind shift, mind shift the way on the internet to just believe in yourself. I don't think that's really the truth, because I kind of look at it in the way where I always say to lads don't believe in yourself, Believe in the world, and if the world can do it for someone else, it could do it for you too, and I always believe that we're all naked every morning in the shower. You know everyone. I presume you're shared small naked right.
Speaker 2Absolutely. There you go, so we're all.
Speaker 1Like extra naked.
Speaker 3Yeah, I look at it from that point of view. I'm like you know Believe it, believe that it can do for someone else, can do for you too.
Challenges in Real Estate Deal Financing
Speaker 2No, that's really good.
Speaker 3Well for me when I was my big one with this, with the scars, and so if that first deal, when I look back, it was rather be straightforward. The second one was where the money was. I knew that thing was worth 7, 750 and I was buying for three. Wow, there was a twist on it. There was a. This was wrong. That was wrong. There's ten and up hand rent in the commercial. She was living upstairs the old classic. She'd full control. I was okay, there's about 400 minus cost in rehab. If I can go in and fix that, there's 300 grand. That's all I could see. I needed to get there and I hadn't got the money. The bank were coming in. I was like 120 short game on and then that. But then that brought the scars. That was like the hardest. I was like four months, four months trying to raise that money 120 grand.
Speaker 1Yeah, that was your second deal ever. Yeah for you. Tell me about how miserable that was.
Speaker 3Look, you know I jern and it was actually. It was quite bleak the I had a guy lined up for the money, that was all good. I'm also again, I had no experience doing this. I didn't know what the red flags were. Looking back, I'm like.
Speaker 3Come on, if someone tries to play like that. Now I'm like no, I'm okay, man, thanks, I'll move on. Someone else. I didn't know all in it was. This guy had it, I might be able to get it. I'm going to get it. I'm hammering, I'm hammering, I'm hammering. Like one week before pulled out.
Speaker 2No.
Speaker 3I had a contract signed. Yes, that's all my money, like right. So I'm not. What were the red flags? Well, if it takes four months to get 120, it's a huge red flag, right? What I look for now and someone is hey, hey man, you're interested in this. Yeah, 100%, let's do it. It shouldn't take longer than seven days. Okay, there's some backing for it, yeah send me the wire.
Speaker 2What the info is the?
Speaker 3info, you know, and it's 120 a small money now, right yeah, at the time it was everything. So I hung in there for four months. Thanks so much. But you know what I remember during this. Well, I knew I was like I'm getting my ass beaten here.
Speaker 3Yeah but just keep staying there. Wow, it's fucking. Stay in man, because I get this one break. I knew that building would lead to another one and that's all I needed. You know, I'm my solicitor as well. Stay in there. She's telling me, stay in there. But like we got, we got, we got beaten and then we eventually got it and got the deal done. And then we're in mid rehab and then he closed in on the low Like. So not only did I get the fucking thing over the line, a mid rehab, three-story build never be your guy backed out.
Speaker 2Sorry, I got you off.
Speaker 3Yeah, your guy backed out, backed out, put them back in again. Oh, he came back night before what Like come on, what is this guy's like?
Speaker 1just wants to, did he just? Did he like take you for an extra couple bucks or something?
Speaker 2No, he just wanted to make you go crazy.
Speaker 3There was power by Because you know, you know, you know what I'm talking about the level of wealth. Some of these guys have 120. Come on, it's not about the money, right? It's got nothing to do with the money. I can see that now. Wow, yeah. So if I compare it to if I'm helping, like a few people have maybe came to me and could you help, yeah, sure, man, and I Like same day, I just fucking send the money. If you know, I'd never send something that's gonna detrimental. You have an impact on me. But if it's something that I don't mind, like if I don't get this back in the meantime, it's cool, yeah, so I compare it to that. I'm like what was the issue? But I didn't understand. So I'm in there, like Please just send me like.
Speaker 3I was getting like guys, I'll show you after the pot emails are like six, seven, like Insane, but but I had no option. It was too late. Wait, was it no lack of experience? Right, if I had the experience all around, boom, I could have even like Ryan, david or you guys. You got experience in this. So, okay, can I ask you a question? Yeah, my network was limited. Man, I was in. You didn't know, I didn't know. But now that I come out of it, come out of it now, when my guys come to me I do a module on private learning. I'm like, look out for this, look out for this, and they're like, but I'm like no butts.
Speaker 3Yeah that is the requirement, and a few guys have been like man, maybe you said that shit that Happened. I'm like get out there. Yeah say thanks so much. Appreciate your time. It was nothing me.
Navigating Challenges and Pursuing Dreams
Speaker 2Yeah so.
Speaker 3So we got the loan the night before, like yeah game on game nice. Mid rehab he pulled it. He gave me 30 days to pay it back. What couldn't do it? But we got it on, but like battle scars. I was in London.
Speaker 2How did you get it done? Oh my gosh.
Speaker 3Geez, I was in London, my mentor Garth, who just joined CG, to get out of here.
Speaker 1Oh, so I'm not win that competition. I'm taking home that Mexico trip. I'm taking home that Mexico trip. I got $2,000. Let's put that, eric, don't worry.
Speaker 2I got a referral.
Speaker 1Oh, go door I coming. I think I'm gonna get like $10,000 in commissions from CG. What is it for referrals?
Speaker 2yeah.
Speaker 1I'm Don't do it. I'm gonna win that bad boy. I got a whole list of 60 people I'm calling. No. Way I made it. I time-blocked 30 minutes every week just to make introductions.
Speaker 3No, I'm winning that thing, dude. You don't see Gina?
Speaker 2I'm in CG. Yeah, he goes most of time. I didn't see it the last yeah.
Speaker 1Eric, lets me be the prom queen over there.
Speaker 2Yeah, he runs, he runs.
Speaker 1He goes in smart. Yeah, he just goes. He goes into. He has a bunch of different Masterminds that he goes to, and this, this one's. Yeah, but anyway, you're in London. You got a mentor, garrett.
Speaker 3Yeah, so the guy pulled alone. Day before I was where I was, I was in Paris and then I was getting the train from Paris to London. I was just doing a little trip and I'm we're coming like near the end of that rehab, kind of couple of weeks away, and I kind of needed a break. So I was over there. And then the long off hold, which is like you had 30 day you called it in.
Speaker 2You know that means what yeah, yeah, you can just do. You just do that. There's no term.
Speaker 3Well, you can make up something, man. Like these guys always have something?
Speaker 1Yeah, it was just, it was. It was like a heavy-hitter, yeah, yeah yeah, to the long shark.
Speaker 3guys are lawyers. Well, right, but it was like what? What? I was there a reason? Yeah, you know what? The specific I can't remember was something insane, yeah he's just like whatever, wants his money back. Yeah, I think he actually genuinely had the power to be like Colin.
Speaker 2Yep.
Speaker 3And so that. So that was it anyway. So I'm walking around London trying to figure a solution and there was one guy I remember talking to this one guy like two, three months before, never met him, spoke to him. A friend put me in torture. He was in real estate, but like not in a big way. I really cool guy, whatever. I just picked up the phone I was okay, man, can I just explain the situation to you, explain the whole thing to him? Well, and you guys spoke about authenticity, right?
Speaker 3Yeah, I just told him what was going on, but then where I told him what I was looking to do as well, and the reason why I was calling them and why I was doing all this in the first place. Anyway, I told them what my goals were, what my dreams were and what I wanted to do. And, there's no joke, three hours later you wanted the money out of here Plus interest to get rid of the other guy get out of here and I still with that guy today.
Speaker 1That's it, tell. Tell me what you said.
Speaker 3What is your?
Speaker 1your goals. What is the reason? Like what are those things?
Speaker 3I'm just looking to do better in life. If I'm if I'm being perfect honest with you, I thought I wanted more money. Until I got more money and I was like damn, that's not doing it for me. You know the kind of way. So I want to just improve my life and do a little bit better. I suppose for me it is probably a thing with the education system, where I didn't go that way. I went the entrepreneurial route and for me it's been an opportunity to be able to express myself. Me people, you know, what I want is the power of choice. I want time. I always explain to people in the simplest form God forbid I ever have kids. I want to be able to drop into school. I Want to be at the football of football match screaming.
Speaker 2Yeah.
Speaker 3I want that freedom, that time. Money won't bring that, but but money will allow me to free myself and create the life that I want.
Speaker 3Amen and that is what I want and then, you know, be able to support. We support some kind of charities and small organizations back home and I just really enjoy that, you know. So, if I can keep going to real estate, enjoy that process, enjoy our work there and the creative element of it. It allows me to do that and I've proven that of being on 20, 20 trips this year traveling around Wow, you know, it was a guy who was a year of travel.
Speaker 1He's like yeah, she's like yo, we, we chill it off. That's amazing.
Speaker 2You can gradually 20 trips is a lot.
Speaker 1That's a lot of trips.
Speaker 3This year was year traveling Wow.
Speaker 2Was the best place you went to.
Speaker 3You know where I was right and it was actually so. To go trip went to Istanbul, turkey, at the end of January.
Speaker 1Oh yeah, there are balls on you. You know what I had a layover in Istanbul.
Speaker 2What an airport, what an airport you, the best airport I've ever seen in my life.
Speaker 3I swear.
Speaker 2It wasn't seen. It wasn't seen. I was like I think I need to come back here. I didn't, but you know.
Speaker 3I'm not going to.
Speaker 1What happened in Istanbul that you said wow man, it's just crazy.
Speaker 3I heard it's great You've never seen a place like this. Yeah, it's like lawless all this down. I was going for. It's reckless, they're loose, it's like laws and stuff, but that's kind of non-existent. You kind of do as you please. A little bit chaotic. Really that's cool I remember my taxi dude from the airport. I was like slow down. He was like, ah, slow down. He's like smoking a cigarette in the car. It's like they just don't know shit they just don't give up.
Speaker 1Dude, you know what's pretty cool. I saw I was on Instagram. I'm just a little drunk right now, but I thought I saw that Irish whiskey. I thought I saw Like there was. It was like the devil city.
Speaker 2Istanbul yeah. It will be a pretty.
Speaker 3I've heard yeah sorry.
Speaker 2I've heard very good things about Istanbul.
Speaker 1I heard it was. It's just like I've never heard about like the cultural, like how crazy it is. But I saw I fall. He's a Christian, like Instagram Accounts and it was like this the devil city because of like something, like historical thing, and then the written in the Bible Wild huh. Yeah, it's it must be crazy over there.
Speaker 3It's chaos. Yeah, yeah, it's all the markets. Hmm, all the streets are like does I don't know how many how people fit down the street, but you kind of just got to go with it what it's like a day in life over there in Istanbul. Just like busy and jam packed in markets and it was cold when we were there. Like it was, like the wind was cold and but we just kind of tipped around, kind of you don't drink?
Speaker 1you told me no. What do you do like?
Speaker 2Like you know. You know what I noticed about you is you. You are very authentic. Like you are you yeah. Like a hundred percent and like I feel like just on this podcast we just met, but I know you, I feel like I know you and that's I. I feel like that has to have Something to do with your, your success, and it sounds like with that guy too, for sure.
Speaker 3Yeah, so I had some challenge in times in life too, so I made a decision back in 2020 that me and alcohol would no longer be friends. And so good for you, and it's funny when you come out to America. Everyone's like Come on.
Speaker 1You want a shot of whiskey brother? Come on.
Speaker 3So I had to, I had to let some teams go to, so to be able to find iron, I had to kind of strip off somebody outside, and you know the kind of way and I I remember figuring out one time I said it's much easier to To be myself because I don't have to be anything. You know what I mean? I think it's human beings. It's just so much out there and Instagram and oh God that I have to be this person. I have to be that person. When, when, when, really a lot of people are actually afraid to live as themselves.
Speaker 3Yeah you know, and the unfortunate reality is, if you're not yourself, no one ever get to meet you. You know the kind of way like we could end up not liking each other, but at least we know yeah but it just happens to be. I do like you guys because you're being yourself as well. I love that.
Speaker 2That's for found. Yeah, it's really good.
Speaker 1I I have a hard time with that personally because I'm a chameleon Like if I go, if I go in front of like a white client, like a, like a stand-up, typical Caucasian, I'm like hello sir.
Speaker 2Well, how you doing. Today.
Speaker 1It's sales, though, and like but then I grew up, I went up to corporate America I'm just so proper, you know and then meet with with like you know our brother and I'm like what's going on?
Recruiting Mentees for Brokering Success
Speaker 1But I, you know, I'll grab a cigarette, but you got a lighter and I'll smoke it. I'll just be whoever the crowd is, and I just wasn't. I found myself not being authentically myself, and it wasn't until this year I was like you know what, I don't give a fuck, yeah, I'm just gonna be me. Wherever I go, it does not matter. And let me tell you this is you're just so much happier. People respect you more, you make more money and that's that. That's really. I gotta ask you a question there. So you're doing this education business and and you're recruiting, I'm sure, young, hungry, talent, talented brokers, realtors that want to join your company. Yeah, by the way, the name of your company is really cool the broker right, brokerage, the brokerage.
Speaker 3I don't like what names I really like leverage core, I think that's all brokerages.
Speaker 2It's cool. Yeah, I like that the brokerage is good, it's a little bit on Irish.
Speaker 3Everything Narlan's like oh, florida, he's real estate. God, don't put the family name up there. You know what I mean? My mom and my mom and dad like get that off, he's fucking crazy. So just clean open. We can branch out, we can start doing brokering, we can start doing some landing. Still for that.
Speaker 2Right, that sounds really cool.
Speaker 1So what it like? You got these young guys coming in and Like, dude, I? I've always been mentoring because, like, if it wasn't for the mentors in my life, was willing to give their time to me and just and just help me out.
Speaker 1I really would have been so lost I wouldn't have gotten anywhere. And so whenever I see a kid, that that Puts us down, that has his hand down and says, hey, like I want to do this, I always every Saturday, dude, I got like two calls with with a mentor at mentee every single, every single week and I always give him like. It's always that, like I always say, there's like 60% of the people just are Lambs, like just sheep. Yes, they just will never figure out that there is something better, right. And then there's like that 39% that see they have, they see the vision, they have the goals, they know the dreams and they want more for themselves for the same reasons we all do, right, and then, but they never take that massive fucking action, right, it's that 1% that that differentiates you from the boys to the men, the ones that are willing to Go to Starbucks on Saturday. Sure, right, stick it out.
Speaker 1Everyone's at a at a birthday brunch, drinking, smoking, and you're there being like the weird guy at 22 years old. What else is is having fun, right, but you're willing to put in the extra work. You get out of work, you're nine to five, you eat dinner, you work out, you come back home and then you're on your computer busting your ass, learning, reading, doing the extra work till one o'clock in the morning, right, instead of listening to music With Khalifa. I don't even listen to music anymore. I listen to Christian music. I wish I wasn't so so, uh, so sinful, but uh, but I do right. Um, oh, where's this going?
Speaker 2I don't know. This was Khalifa.
Speaker 1In on the drives in, right, you're, you're listening, you're you're, you're listening to podcasts, you're reading a book, right? It's that extra effort that makes that 1% Actually succeed. So, like, I'm sure you have so many mentees, right, you have so many people coming to your brokerage. What do you tell, like, how'd like, how would you tell them to elevate to the next level?
Finding Purpose, Overcoming Challenges for Freedom
Speaker 3Yeah. So one thing I stopped doing is to stop selling our courses and our programs, because the moment I have to sell what we do to someone who wants what we have is the moment that loses everything that they're there for in the first place. Because we're not, we don't necessarily advertise. Hey look, do this and we'll give you that Kind of word them out Instagram and people come. But I ask people first question on the call what do you want? And they're like I want to get a real say. I'm like, no, what do you want? I want more money. I'm like, no, that's not what you want here, what do you want?
Speaker 3And we all, everyone, no matter who they are male, female, whatever you are, and they all want freedom and the power of choice. That's the big thing we have with everyone coming in. So for me to get people to that point, we then offer what we have as a solution. But in relation to people pulling the trigger, well, the unfortunate reality is some people won't. What I see with my guys is the guys who succeed versus the guys who don't pull the trigger. The guys who succeed generally have a little bit more frustration, more pain, they're being a little bit more hard up and there's maybe something to prove. I know with me anyways, it's a fair failure. I was scared of my life. I'm fucking terrified man, absolutely terrified of failure, absolutely terrified of going broke. And I try to get as honest as I can about my stuff with the guys. And then you start seeing maybe the body language changes a little bit on the chair and they're like yeah, yeah, me too, and if you can get the, me too is going in the room and the identification. I start and realize to guys that we're all here to do the same thing. I kind of drive them up that way, and then what we do is we lay out the plan. But the worst thing you can do is start throwing information at people, because if someone doesn't know what they want, information is not going to get there. You can't bring external stuff in to figure out the internal.
Speaker 3I go in with my guys Wow, I'm like what is it in you? What happened? What's going on? Nice, I've got one guy there at the minute and I can see straight away. First time I met him I was like this kid wants it, but he just doesn't know it just yet what it is. We had to dig in and we went in and found that pain. We identified where it came from.
Speaker 3I was like now, what you want for your life? He's like that's what I want. You want that freedom. You want to be able to prove it. Prove it to yourself, prove it to you. So let's go and do it. And then it's lock and load. We find a simple product that we advise all our guys to buy. We show them the funding model, we support them. 12 long programs and guys just start hammering out the deals and then it gets tricky in between. So then we have to go back in and remind them why you're doing this in the first place, because everyone I want to get rich and real, same animal. But it's not like that. It's going to come a time where your why is so important? What do you actually want for your life? Hell yeah, you know what do you actually want and then, when you know what you want, you'll also remove people who aren't fitting to what you want. Right Makes evidence more straightforward.
Speaker 1You do that right, I do that. I have guys crying on my one-on-one sometimes.
Speaker 3Yeah, sure Me too, man, Honestly yeah.
Speaker 1I go, why they go. Oh, I want this. I said, but why? And they go this and this? I said, but brother, why, why do you want that? And then they start telling you and then they're like you see the emotion, and the more emotion that they have, the more power that they have, because there's pain there and with that pain comes a reason for being. There's a reason to solve a bigger issue. There's a reason beyond yourself. There's someone to take care of, there's people that you want to support, there's a community that you want to change. What was that for you? Because a motherfucker that changes other people's lives has a powerful past.
Speaker 3Yeah, my whole. I don't play the blame game. I lift my head high and I'm very grateful for all the opportunities go down bad in my life. So it's not a blame game. But when I was in school I was told it wasn't good enough. You know, aaron's this, aaron's that. Aaron's not nothing. Aaron's 11 years old. He's a human being. He's really really good at some things sports and stuff, great communicator, great energy in the class. I was a messer, so what. So what? I have no interest in that. So don't put me down and remove it from the classroom.
Speaker 3I'm no different to any of the other kids. Some people can regurgitate information. Maybe I can't, but maybe you haven't put something for me that I'm interested in again. Right, you get what I'm saying, yeah. So, the whole education system, and then that would have had an impact at home as well.
Speaker 3Yeah, my parents were awesome. My parents were in real estate too and they would have dealt with some challenges. So I suppose, to answer your question, really the recession hit very hard in Ireland 2008, 2009. My parents would have been very heavily impacted by that. I would have been at that age where you started to realize and understand things that had a heavy enough impact on me and I started to realize how your life circumstances can change really overnight and how money is relatively important for some things and that developed like a painting in me. And it was at that time as well, when I was in school and I wasn't performing at all and the teachers were hammering down on me You're never going to make it, I remember telling the teacher I want to be a bricklayer in Canada because they were paying $100,000 for Irish people to go out and be bricklayers and I was like I'll just do that.
Speaker 3That's $100,000, like 80,000 euros. Sure, that's double the highest salary here. What's the problem? That's where I was kind of thinking about I was not good enough, you're not good enough, you're not going to make anything yourself. And I just remember thinking. I was like who is anyone else to tell me that?
Speaker 3It's my life and my dad. My dad, no education. That was school like 13, 14. Military guy, he started buying some houses. He did gray for himself. I was like I could just do that right. No, no, you can't do that. Why? Why not? Because as human beings, we can do what we want. So I had that internal pain and then I found a way to kind of express that, do you know? And when I started seeing the results, I was like my god, I don't have to go and pass this on to other people. And I said let's build a company around it. And then I said so I tell you what we do. We'll build a company, we'll start talking about it and if people are interested they might join us. And then we go. We start with three guys. Then the next program, we were up to 12. Another 10, another 10. I think people like what we do because we're dishonest. Wow.
Speaker 1I love that I appreciate the transparency there, man, and congratulations. Yeah, it's amazing.
Speaker 2I feel like everybody in this room has had that. The teachers that are like you never come out to anything. But what is it like Looking back? It's so crazy that we're taking advice from people making a little bit above minimum wage that are all miserable. Mostly I had a couple good teachers. I did, I did. I had a couple really good teachers, but a lot of them were just miserable Like making no money, and that's who's raising our youth. It's pretty sad if you think about it.
Speaker 3Yeah, I had some great teachers as well, some really cool people, but it was like they knew their role as a teacher. And then it's some other guys who felt like a power play and I would have answered back no problem, like you don't speak to me, like that kind of thing. And then when I got into real estate, I started meeting my real educators, these guys who were doing deals. I was meeting other people, entrepreneurs. I'm 20 years of age, rent apartments for like 60-year-old multimillionaire guy. Those guys are educating me. Then I met my mentor, gareth, and then we flicked the switch. We just turned the blinds open and I went from employee to entrepreneur.
Speaker 1And off.
Speaker 3We went Because that guy had similar pain to me and he'd done it and he identified with me and that's what I needed. So I believe, as individuals anyone watching this podcast there is simply someone out there who's been through what you've been through. I know it seems like hell. I've been there, you're in it Wonders of way out to someone who's not only got out but done unbelievable from getting out. Just keep your head up. You're going to find that person. If you can't find them, ask everyone around you. Who is that guy that put you in touch? Absolutely, I'm welcome to the world, baby, rock and load.
Speaker 1I love that, brother. I love that Listen, because you are the blueprint guy right Like. People come to you and say hey, aaron, how do I get financial freedom, how do I earn in a big way? What kind of advice would you give to someone that wants to do this?
Speaker 3Like buy real estate. Is that the?
Speaker 1thing. Yeah, yeah, like get in the game.
Speaker 2Buy real estate or become an entrepreneur or become successful in general and break out of the mold and do their own thing.
Speaker 3It's a value play. You know it's a value play. You can't sell a product unless anyone knows about the product or knows what value the product provides. So if you look at I'll just explain the two types of value I provide and someone might be able to identify it. I provide value to people through education. What we charge for the education they make like 20 X on that.
Speaker 2Right.
Speaker 3There's value, right, we give them experience. We charge for it. That's cool. In relation to the property I provide value on, we pay the bank interest. It makes them money. We provide private investors we pay them interest. That makes them money. So I provide value in those areas. If someone is out there, whether they have a product or service or whatever it is, you need to get to the point where people want it Seem, to prove the value. Does that make sense?
Speaker 2Yeah.
Speaker 3So I give it. I'm working with a guy at the minute. I'm gonna buy a piece of this company. He does like the reals. The guy makes reals, but it's really cool and it's a cool space. I'm like here, let me buy some of this, let me help you with it, get some of the new equipment and ramp it up. And I said to him I go look for the next two months. I just gave him some money. I was like that'll cover you for the next two months. The next two months was go reach out to these people and give them free reals. He's like what I'm like.
Speaker 3Your employee mindset is scared as fuck because Christmas is coming up and you want to buy presents. There's some money. I shouldn't have given it, but there you go. You don't worry about money, let me worry about that. Go identify top 10 guys in fitness, pt's, all that. Tell them I'm coming to your gym what day suits two o'clock bomb. I'll be there and video reals and give them to them and let them post them and watch the phone ring back, because these guys you gotta provide them value and then they're gonna pay for it. Do you get what I'm saying? Really good. So if anyone's out there. If you've got a product, service and idea, whatever it is, find a way to give it away for free. Give it away for free. Give it away for free. Grow your audience, them, people who want it, and you just turn the gas on. Everyone's trying to charge and sell stuff. Stop selling me. Please. Give me some value and I'll just buy you the crazy off you.
Speaker 2You get me. That's great. I love that. That's great. I listened to this podcast this morning Hermosi. It was amazing. And he's talking about selling when he's like you could be terrible at sales, but if you're convicted in what you're selling, then you're gonna sell. You could be a one at sales One out of 10, but if you know he's using an example, he said you go back to your previous self 10 years ago and say buy Bitcoin, right, but you can't tell them who you are, why, where, where you came from. But you want this person to buy Bitcoin or Tesla or whatever it is right. He's like how often would you follow up with that guy, with yourself, to make sure that you bought the Bitcoin a million times? Because you'd be convicted, like if you buy Bitcoin, it's gonna go up right, or Tesla or whatever it is. And it's the conviction right that you know what you're selling is good or that you have what you said value.
Speaker 1You need if any dude this is, that's freaking great advice. If you're listening to this podcast, if you're watching this, you need to take Aaron's advice just now and you need to take Eric's advice, because that is absolute freaking bombs.
Speaker 3Last thing I'll say right, and this guy was like oh man, we gotta get paid. I'm like we don't get paid, no more, man, entrepreneur, white value in companies, right. And I said I would say to people, I would say to you I started giving your product away for free. Like, what about the money? I'm like, well, you haven't got any. So what are you worried about? And people laugh Like you're worried about money, but you haven't got any. So I'm telling you to give away for free. And now you're worried again. What's the difference? No money, no money. One will work the other one. So if you haven't got money, stop worrying about it. Go ask family member for 10 grand, pay you back in like four or five years and just there's your spending money for the next four months. But you gotta make the move. I was afraid.
Speaker 2Yeah.
Getting Quick Money and Free Value
Speaker 3You know you don't gotta get rid of that car, man. Seven hundred bucks man, you curved the wheel. It was cool the day you bought it, but just give it back. Get the payment back. Get a backpack. Hang out in Starbucks, man. Provide free value for six months. Watch your whole life change, man. No one's willing to wait. Have a month of money? Yeah, give me the money quick. If you find a way to get quick money, call me.
Speaker 1You gotta call King Kong man. Yeah, king Kong, figure that one out. Give me the money, give me the money. That's awesome, aaron brother. I love you man. Thank you so much, my thanks so much for having me. If the people want to find you, the people want to reach you. What's the best way to get in contact?
Speaker 3Instagram Aaron FLA or check us out at thebrokridgeie Amen.
Speaker 2Thebrokridgewhat.
Speaker 3Thebrokridgeie IE On Instagram.
Speaker 2IE.
Speaker 3That's our dot com. Oh, okay, the Ireland dot com Thebrokridge.
Speaker 2So good, so good, brother, awesome.
Speaker 3Awesome advice.
Speaker 2Great avenue bro.
Speaker 3You too, man. Thanks a lot. Make sure to follow reass editor.
