Real Life Investing With Jason & Rachel Wagner

62. Refusing To Be A Victim and Doing Whatever It Takes with Mike Bednarz

• Jason & Rachel Wagner

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Join us for one of the most inspirational conversations you can hear as we sit down with Mike Bednarz.  It was just another day quoting a job for his commercial HVAC company, Bedco Mechanical, when Mike suddenly lost control of a ladder and fell 25 feet onto concrete.  Mike suffered a severe brain injury and shattered many bones from that accident.  He shares his story of how he had always lived a life of discipline, and his choices leading up to his injury helped him bounce back even stronger and more resilient after doctors had doubted his remarkable recovery. 

Our conversation also dives into Mike's passion for entrepreneurship, real estate, fitness, and veganism. 

Join us for this impactful episode.

Jason Wagner:

Welcome back to another episode of the Real Life Investing Podcast with Jason and Rachel Wagner. Dude, we have a badass in the house today. Mike Bednarz is joining us. This guy is an entrepreneur. He's got the mindset of a champion. He is a real estate investor. He's young as hell and guess what, he's a vegan.

Mike Bednarz:

Wow, I feel like I should walk out after that introduction. I can't beat that.

Jason Wagner:

This is going to be a conversation that's going to be motivational as hell. You're going to hear Mike's story and Mike's got a just. I mean, mike's a guy. I feel like you are living on a whole nother level after what has happened in your life, and I think that you have such an inspirational story to really tell and I can't wait to get into it. But, mike, why don't you just tell us a little bit about who you are, what your business is, why you got into real estate and why are you a vegan too? Wow, I appreciate all that.

Mike Bednarz:

We'll start with the veganism that's top of mind. I grew up in the you know bodybuilding culture. I'm sure you did play soccer in college. Everything is like protein, protein, protein, you know. So I was brainwashed. I used to I don't want to say make fun of kids that were vegan or vegetarian, but not the best things to say about them and I read a book called how not to die in probably about 10 years ago, and it just exposed me to kind of separating yourself from all the marketing and things that you believe to be true. Like you need meat at every meal, you know you need milk, you need milk to grow your bones. And this book really educated me and I had that type of personality where I can like cut things out cold turkey if I know it's good or bad, like I'm all in no hesitation. So actually this Thanksgiving is nine or ten years I decided to try it. I cut out meat and I've never looked back since. I'm a type one diabetic too, so it's it's helped tremendously with my blood sugar, my regulation, my numbers, and I just feel like I've been exposed to a lot of stuff in this world that has made me believe that this is truly the right path that everyone should do. If you care about health and longevity, you know balance is certainly important in life. Like you need balance and I realized I've had a hard time. How would you say, like I apologize my brain. You know we could talk about the injury, but sometimes I miss the words and forget words. But just being like having that sort of discipline and exposure at the same time, it's like I'm all in, I'm on this. This is definitely going to going to help me get going and improve my life and my longevity and variance of fitness. So it's been huge in that regard. As far as the entrepreneur stuff, my brother and I own a commercial HVAC company, so heating and air conditioning, own a commercial HVAC company, so heating and air conditioning One. We could talk about my accident and second, it's actually the reason I haven't had an accident or fell, but when I fell, had my accident, we had it was my brother and I. He's just amazing. Like people say don't partner with your brother, don't partner with family, but like I'd be no one without this guy. He's amazing at what he does. We never fight like we're just such a great yin and yang. So we started the company when I went down in august 2023, we had two guys. Now we have nine trucks. We actually just bought our ninth truck yesterday. So we've just been I've been more exposed to like the business side of things you you know selling things like that since I went down, since I'm not cleared to be on a roof or anything, so we've just been able to grow exponentially in terms of that. So that's awesome.

Mike Bednarz:

I'm trying to remember your thought the real estate we can dive into whatever you want to after real estate. I'm that type of person kind of just built like the long-term goals, which is a huge struggle for me personally, because it's a hard time to find, not to say I don't enjoy life, but I'm so focused on the next couple of years, the next things where I'm like I'm in a very blessed financial situation, like I could pretty much do whatever I want, but like I'm like yo, I got to save this up, I got to get the next investment. So it's been hard to kind of balance that like short-term benefit versus the long-term mentality. But I always knew, since I was probably 20 years old, I wanted to to buy and get into real estate. 20 years old, I wanted to buy and get into real estate. So I had saved up for four, five, six years I was living at home where I grew up, in Des Plaines, and commuting to the city on the Metro every day. And all my friends are living in River North, lincoln Park, getting these apartments and I'm like you're just wasting cash. What are you doing? So my original plan was to save up. I was going to buy a condo and have two of my buddies like pay me rent. But I was like you know, real estate's all math. To me, it's all just simple math and a long term, a short term sacrifice for a long term gain. So I'm like you know what? I'm just going to buy a multifamily. I'm just going to buy a multifamily, I'm just going to go all in. So it was very hard to get to that mentality. You know you have like anxiety, like if this breaks, I'm like you know all these negative thoughts, but you just got to put those to rest and dive in. I believe. Like so I bought my first multifamily in 2020. I bought a three flat in Edison park on the Northwest side.

Mike Bednarz:

My dad's amazing too, like he, he knows. So you met him. Yeah, he's an interesting dude. You, he, uh, he knows so much about like fixing and building and all these things. So him and I literally spent an entire year gutting the garden apartment. So I moved into the garden apartment. I had enough cash flow to cover all my expenses on the first and second floor units for what I was doing. So we spent a year literally building that thing up in the basement and then I moved in there. I lived down there for probably two, three years and then my girlfriend Maddie and I we moved up to the first floor. So now I do a medium term rental, which is a minimum of 30 days. Yeah, there's a website called Furnished Finder. I'd highly recommend it. It's just like in that area. It's just they're both nodding their heads audience.

Mike Bednarz:

It's just like it's. I literally I don't know the exact number, but it's less than 1% vacancy for that thing and I get a premium. I just left all my stuff down there. So that building has been extremely lucrative and I got into you know I'm familiar, I'm sure you're familiar with bigger pockets Like they're all like one a year, one a year. So like that was like programmed in my mind. So 2020 bought the Edison park three flat, lived in the basement. 2021, or sorry, excuse me 2021 to kind of just renovated and did all our stuff, um, and then was living there and there. And then 2022, I bought a mixed use six unit in Norwood Park, right on the half circle. There's actually like kind of Instagram famous like a cafe in there. Now that's been really huge. The two girls are great. It's called October Cafe. They're in there.

Mike Bednarz:

So there's three units on the first floor and then three units on the second and third floor that are residences on the first floor and then three units on the second and third floor that are residences. So that was my first experience into commercial real estate. So, as you guys know, four units and less is residential. So anything above four is considered commercial. So people like you know, there's a lot of negativity surrounding that, like in the real estate community. Like it's scary, like I didn't really experience that. It's like it's a numbers game to me and I knew this thing was underperforming to the max. It was grossing in 2023, 2022. I think my gross rent was like $5,500-ish and right now I'm above, right above, $10,000 a month. Oh shit.

Jason Wagner:

Yeah, and right now I'm above right above 10 grand a month.

Mike Bednarz:

Oh shit, yeah, and I like doubled it. It's, it's pretty. The updates and things I've done have been fairly easy. And I have to. It's called a balloon loan. So in five years, so in August 2027, I have to refinance because they call the loan and it's due. So by then, you know, based on my math, you know I'm going to pull all my cash out and get a couple hundred grand. Knock on wood. Hopefully that's my plan. So that was 2022, 2023.

Mike Bednarz:

I purchased a mixed use commercial property in downtown Edison Park. It's a two unit. There's a right now Banana Nails is in there and then there's a residence in the back. As I'm analyzing and what happened to me and everything that doesn't perfectly fit my portfolio, like I want to eventually sell it and scale up we can talk about 1031s into something bigger, but that was my plan there. That building performs pretty well. Our original plan was to bring our company, the commercial HVAC company, into that and have that as our space. But I was just messing around posting it to see if I could get any traction. And this her name's Anastasia. She owns Banana Nails. There's one in Irving Park as well. She viewed the place loved it and you know we worked out a five-year deal, so so that one's been great and you know kind of managing that. And then actually, with the man on the other end of the podcast, he brought me a deal in. He brought me a deal in this year, 2024.

Mike Bednarz:

Since we could not move our business into the 2023 one Downtown Edison Park Banana Nails took it I was still on the hunt for a mixed use property. The reason I'm so gung ho on mixed uses is because there's a huge tax. A tax burden is alleviated once you have residences compared to a commercial property. So the taxes are more favorable and I knew we had a little you know card in our pocket that we can move our business there. So if there was an issue with one tenant or a vacancy, like that was kind of what I was looking for. So in this one was a pain to close. But in April we closed on mixed use five unit in downtown or not downtown, just Edison Park and we're moving our business there in the next month.

Mike Bednarz:

And then the other four are leased up and also through this process we were talking off air. Like you know, you save money, you save money, save money and then we're the type of people you just invest it. So, in the process, this past couple of years journey, I have a six unit with two other guys in Portage Park and then I'm a part of three syndication deals, I believe. So, like I'm all into real estate, like you know, based on my calculation numbers, like I could probably have the opportunity to retire in a couple years. But I'm like, so I don't want to say I'm addicted to work. My family and girlfriend will tell you I am. But like this is just, I just see the future so clearly and it just makes so much sense. It fits with my personality on the the short term sacrifices for the long term gains. Like, yeah, I could have taken that down payment and, you know, bought an awesome single family.

Mike Bednarz:

But you know, my girlfriend and I are living in a three bedroom apartment with, like, people below us and above us, which, you know, we're getting to the point where that might be a little too much, since we built the foundation. So, all right, all right.

Jason Wagner:

So this is we literally just heard everything you did within the last four years, and I mean. Correct me if my timeline is wrong, but, like you said, you started your HVAC business in 2023.

Mike Bednarz:

No, sorry, we started the HVAC. Has been six years, so what is that? 2018. Okay, all right.

Jason Wagner:

So 2018 is really when you started. That was kind of like the beginning of the timeline right so 2018 is when your HVAC business started, and then in 2020, that's kind of when you bought your first multifamily.

Mike Bednarz:

Correct started and then in 2020 that's kind of when you bought your first multifamily, correct? I was working a corporate job. Before that, I was working for iheart media. They own a bunch of radio station, you know. They said all that stuff and I was just like, looking at my boss's life, they're sending emails till 2, 3 am. All this stuff. They look I'm like that's not what I want to do. You know, this isn't for me. So my brother has been a technician pretty much since 17, 18 years old and he's like what are you doing? We can start this, we can grow this, we can build, you know. So it took me a year to get to that process, because I went to school in New York and I was just like brainwashed, like go work for a big firm, like climb the corporate ladder, do all these things, and I'm like I was so unhappy at my job and I had him whispering in my ear all the time, so it took me a year, but eventually I'm like, yeah, let's do it, and we did.

Jason Wagner:

So your brother was. He was working for another HVAC company prior to all that, and then you guys joined and started it from scratch.

Mike Bednarz:

I thought your dad had a little bit of hvac in him too. Right, my dad did hvac too, so like my brother, has that, you know, in his back pocket. For me I didn't have that.

Jason Wagner:

He's amazing, like technically, but your dad didn't did. Your dad own a company, my dad?

Mike Bednarz:

yeah, he worked for a company called hill mechanical. Okay, yeah, he started a company, so we were, then he started his own. Okay, yeah, we were also exposed to yeah, yeah, entrepreneur type of beautiful and this was always something you know.

Jason Wagner:

We, we skewed more towards yeah, yeah, okay, no, I love it. So what's what's really funny is that I think there was an article the other day that was talking about how the, the millionaires, are coming from the hvac companies did you see that one floating around Facebook?

Mike Bednarz:

I'm pretty sure that's a billion. No, I mean, I always tell people like it's not a sexy job but it's very lucrative, like I handle all of our margins, all our invoices. So I see it and you know, I know the margins involved and I'm very, you know. To the previous points, I would say money motivated, which is good.

Jason Wagner:

Would you say that there's a shortage of HVAC companies that are out there?

Mike Bednarz:

I think the biggest problem nowadays, while I've been hiring and trying to find people, is that you know our demographic, like they don't really want to work and they don't want to work in the trades. So as all those older guys get out of you know the field the 40, 50, 60 year old guys get out of the field, there's going to be no new influx of people. So right now we strictly do commercial and industrial. There is like, if you're a good company and you do good work and have fair prices, there's no issue at finding work, residential ones specifically. But, as I was mentioning, in 10, 15, 20 years, like there's, they're gonna lose a lot because all those old timers and the trades are gone yeah, yeah, yeah.

Jason Wagner:

There's a such a huge opportunity to be in the trades right now is a lot of your business. Are you doing like new installs or are you doing like just servicing?

Mike Bednarz:

Our bread and butter is service and maintenance. So we have a lot of contracts with municipalities, um, which are like obligated to do what's called perform like performative maintenance on their HVAC equipment and then that kind of gets us. Our strategy is then we we've been I don't want to say cheap, but like we come in competitively and affordable with that. But that leads to all the service work. When something breaks we're going to call Bedco you know they have our contract, they know the equipment. Like we've just been able to grow through that strategy and organically we don't spend anything on like advertising or marketing and we're actually like shattered the goals I had for this year. So it's been a really good year for us.

Jason Wagner:

That's incredible. That's like an awesome. That's an awesome business story and the entrepreneurship side of things. Rachel, I want you to kind of go into. Mike talked about so many things here.

Rachel Wagner:

Yeah, Well, one one thing that I want to ask you is you mentioned you knew from early age I think you said like 20 that you wanted to get into real estate and buy a bunch of properties, and I'm just curious if you can identify where that desire came from.

Mike Bednarz:

It's a good question Because that's young, I mean to have that clear of a vision.

Rachel Wagner:

I mean we were a lot older.

Jason Wagner:

Yeah, I mean 26.

Rachel Wagner:

Yeah, yeah.

Mike Bednarz:

Yeah. So yeah, I think everyone kind of said I don't know how many conversations I've had in my life where people, oh, you're in real estate, like teach me, and then they don't do anything. Like in this life you have to execute, like you have to be a doer. So I think I just always, oh, real estate was, and then you know the way I am, like my fitness, the way I eat, my fitness, the way I eat, the way I do things is such a prioritization on making the sacrifices now. So the future is much better and rewarding. And as I got more exposure to real estate, you know I read 15, 20 books, all those podcasts, everything. I was just like this is it, this is my plan, like this financially makes so much sense. And I just executed the plan.

Rachel Wagner:

I guess I would say in hindsight, so did you have like a mentor anybody who kind of like planted the seed for you, or it was just your internal?

Mike Bednarz:

drive. Yeah, no, no mentor and like that you also mentioned.

Rachel Wagner:

like that, that work ethic to like do the hard stuff now and like reward later. Like did that? Is that like from your dad's? Like I, my parents are divorced, so he came from a troubled childhood.

Mike Bednarz:

Like he was working when he was 13 years old, always had to help provide for the table. So like that's the way my brother and I grew up. Like I don't know and I think my brother would say the same I don't know anyone that works as hard as him, and he would say I don't know anyone that works as hard as Mike. Know anyone that works as hard as him and he would say I don't know anyone that works as hard as Mike. So we were just we were taught like my dad, this is work before pleasure. Like you came home you did. You couldn't play with the neighborhood kids until we did our homework. Like it was just like I think all those and so much is involved when you're a kid.

Mike Bednarz:

But I've like taken that to a different sort of spectrum, more aggressive and advanced. So I don't like I think that comes from like I just had the mentality that like I need to do things I don't want to every single day. Like I train every single day. Like I've missed five days this whole year, which is probably not smart in terms of quote-unquote gains, but like I, mentally, the reward I get and feel from training is way larger than you know. I don't really care about how I mean yeah, I care about how I look, but like that's just a side benefit, like mentally training is what I need. So doing like and to that point I don't want to train every day, but you see the clothes I'm wearing, like I put on these sliders and these tight every day because I'm committing to training that day, like that's in my mind, this is making that I, you know, wake up four or 5am like an idiot every day. So like I put this on, I'm like I have to do that, like that's on my list, it's getting done. So I think that's harnishing and developing that mentality.

Mike Bednarz:

For the past, with training 10 to 15 years, has led to so much discipline and progression in work that like since we could talk about my accent. But I've had a lot of time to reflect to myself and when I was in the hospital, like my families, they kept reiterating like now do you see that you work too much? And like now is it? And like I agreed in that point. But I've realized now in the past couple of months that the only reason I've progressed so well in my recovery is because I have that discipline and drive, like I don't want to go to therapy, I don't want to work, I don't want to. You know I don't want to do a million things, but it's in my mind and it's already like done. I'm just like have to. How do you say like put down those intrusive thoughts partially for a second and boom, I'm going, like it's just on my list, it's done.

Rachel Wagner:

So can we go into your injury a little bit, your accident of what happened.

Mike Bednarz:

Yeah, so my brother and I own the commercial HVAC company. So in August 11th 2023, so about 14, 15 months ago I was quoting a job and luckily you know, 99% of the time we work, we're by ourselves where you know, we go on a roof, we go on a ladder, we fix. You know the situation. But luckily, there was a general contractor there with me and I was quoting a job, so we worked on extension ladders. You know the ladders that you pull up and clamp down. So to this day, I don't know what happened. I don't choose or want to think about you know what happened, but I was about 25 feet up on the ladder and I guess it gave out and it was. I was falling and it was about to hit the general contractor and I don't know if this helped or hurt me, but I pushed it out of the way and just fell 25 feet onto concrete.

Rachel Wagner:

You pushed the ladder away.

Mike Bednarz:

Yeah, every yeah, cause everyone's like, why didn't you just write it down? I'm like I have no memory of the week before, let alone the day of. So I had what they call a traumatic brain injury, which was my biggest hurdle. With that, my vestibular system has been damaged, I'm legally blind. I cracked 11 ribs, broke bones in my feet, my legs and arms. So any injury you can think of, I've probably had it. So the past 14, 15 months I've had speech, ot, vision therapy, driving therapy, physical, all these different types of therapies. So that happened to me.

Mike Bednarz:

And at this point you know I don't like or respect people who play the victim. Like to me. To me, the only way I can get past this is like I did something wrong, like I didn't, I did something with the ladder that wasn't correct, like it's not, like oh, the wind was blowing. Like I did something wrong. It's on me. So I've accepted that. I'm disappointed in myself, but I've accepted that.

Mike Bednarz:

And then at this point, you know I'm like I needed that to happen, like I was working way too fast, doing too much, like not appreciating my time with my family, my girlfriend, my friends, like, cause I'm always that long-term mentality is is to me.

Mike Bednarz:

It's, it's partially damaging because, like you know, my girlfriend and I are having dinner and like I'm just thinking, oh, like we're going to be done, and I'm going to send this email and I'm going to do it, and it's just like I'm not present and like I'm not.

Mike Bednarz:

I'm not an expert now, by no, by no reason, but I am like more present in my life, you know, and that's like truly a blessing. Unfortunately, you don't realize how fragile and short it all is until something negative happens to you. And I was fortunate enough that that happened to me when I was 32 years old and, like I've changed my outlook, but thank God for the business and the real estate, because I had put down those fundamentals where, financially, like I'm fine, you know I'm going to be fine, I'm still executing the plan. So I like to say, you know, with my fitness, with the veganism, with the real estate, the business, like I had prepared 32 years for this moment and you know, I'm succeeding now because of what I did in the past. So, like my mentality's locked and I'm gonna keep, keep going and keep pushing this is what I was talking about the mentality of a champion like dude, I've never.

Jason Wagner:

I've never heard of anybody that has done so much in a short period of time and has had such a traumatic injury happen to them. And he gets up and says I don't play the victim card, you know it was my fault with the ladder and like continues to push forward and that wasn't that long.

Mike Bednarz:

I mean 14 months ago, like that's not that long ago yeah, I've had, uh, pretty much every neurologist, doctor, therapist I see is they're just like in awe aware on that and what I've done you. I forgot that there's some sort of scale where when you go and I went to the icu job was in homewood, illinois, so I was at christ hospital on the south side when you come into the icu they rank you. I believe it's three to thirteen, meaning three is like your brain dead and 13, you walk out of here just fine and I got ranked a five. So like they told my family this and they still bring it up to this day that they inquired with the doctor more information out this and all this guy said was we don't see too many fives walk out of here. So you know that was very getting emotional thinking about the way I affected my family and loved ones.

Mike Bednarz:

So that was very challenging for them because they didn't know. You know I was going to. They don't know is like Mike's going to come out. He might be a different person, he might not remember who you are, you might not know anything and you know real estate story. The first thing I was I had a medium term rental that was expiring around that day and the first thing I woke up and said I was like did Sharnavi move out? So they're like he's back, he's back.

Rachel Wagner:

He's still in there.

Mike Bednarz:

Yeah. So I like to attribute my success from up until that point, because I'm so health conscious whole food, plant-based vegan, no processed, like all that stuff so I like to I don't want to toot my own horn, I guess you would say, but I like to think that, like, the reason I've done so well and survived is because of that. You know, maybe it's true, maybe it's not, but I do kind of believe that and that's why I continue to act and you know, with the habits I do, and I try to influence as many people as I can in regards to that.

Rachel Wagner:

I think that makes a lot of sense. I haven't really ever heard anybody put it that way, but it's like you had such a strong foundation of health and strong mental acuity and so going into that accident, you were going to rebound so much better than somebody who wasn't already training and eating healthy and had strong mental mindset Right. Like that makes a lot of sense.

Jason Wagner:

That's a lot of reason to do that and practice that.

Jason Wagner:

Yeah, totally Well. It's just like anybody that does go into. Like if you have surgery or something, somebody tears like an ACL in their knee or something it's. It's always like the, the people that are usually the athletes or just more fit and disciplined, that are going to like probably recover from that injury better than somebody who is not right, and they, you know, they sit at a desk all day and they don't work out and they don't take care of themselves.

Jason Wagner:

It just, it just seems like having these types of disciplines and putting it into your everyday practice for for the unexpected. It's almost like saving for a rainy day fund type thing. It's like you're preparing your body for something that could happen in the future. You don't know if it will, but it could happen in the future and I just love like you have the discipline to do that and you've done it every single day. You've only missed five days this year. We just got into that. I mean, I've totally tapped into that. Working out every single day is such a superpower. But let's see, when did we start? 2021.

Rachel Wagner:

Yeah, it's only been three years.

Jason Wagner:

Yeah, so we, we've been doing it for about three years and but but I recognize it is. It is tapping into a superpower If you can be disciplined and you wake up. You know you called it silly, waking up at 4.30, 5 o'clock every day, but that's what I do, yeah, that makes two of us.

Jason Wagner:

Yeah, you know, it's like you do it early, you get it done and then you've got the rest of the day to take on the remaining tasks and you're already sharp and you're ready to go. And a lot of people kind of get to the point where like, ah, I don't want to drag on throughout the entire day because I wake up early, but actually once you do it over and over again, you actually your energy, like you have endurance right, and you don't really get tired.

Mike Bednarz:

I would imagine that you don't really get tired until like into the late in the evening right, yeah, but I crash like late into the but then this is like 10, 11 PM, you know. But. But I mean this is like 10, 11 pm, you know. But my girlfriend and I, you know you say F words where we have the D word and the D word is discipline, like so much, and everything I'm trying to articulate now all comes back to discipline. It's consciously choosing to do something that, like you don't necessarily want to do but like it's going to get done. You know you have to do it. Like most of the time when I train I'm like tired, I have paperwork, all this stuff, but like it, you know, I put on the sliders in the morning, it's done, I'm already getting it done yeah, dude, that's it's so good, it's so good, all right, so what is the like?

Jason Wagner:

so? So what happened? So is your girlfriend a vegan too?

Mike Bednarz:

She, I would say 98%. She was a vegetarian before we met and now she's a vegan, and now she's vegan, yeah.

Jason Wagner:

Yeah, yeah. Do you try to influence others to become vegans, or is it just kind of like this is what I do and like you know what's what's kind of the the thought process there a little bit?

Mike Bednarz:

I actually have struggled this, struggled with this throughout the past 10 years, because I articulate these types of thoughts because I care about the people in my life. So I see my brother eating a cheeseburger and beer. I I'm like yo, what are you doing? And like to him it's probably super annoying and I get that, but in my mind my sole goal is like hit in this example, his health and his longevity. So, like every time you know, when you get free, he's like oh, I didn't get the fries because I was thinking about you. Like check, I won, you know. Know, like selfishly I won. Like my annoyance is what I believe to be positively impacted someone I care and love about I love. So, like people in you know my life at this point, like I don't drink alcohol either, I haven't had a sip in I think, six, seven years. That's years. That's another like, so it's. I'm such an anomaly, right, like most of my friends, like I love them to death, but on the weekends they're going out and having drinks and doing stuff like that and that's just not me. And that's been challenging personally, because it's harder to relate to people that don't have the same characteristics and not to say one is right or one is wrong. This is just what I believe in to my core. So I am going to attempt and maybe annoying, but attempt to positively what I believe impact the people around me. But attempt to positively what I believe impact the people around me.

Mike Bednarz:

My mom had been on blood pressure regulation medicine for 30, 40 years. The doctor said, hey, this is hereditary. Like you can't do anything about it. So when I began my vegan journey I was like mom, just try this. Like, please, she's no, no, it's not going to work. That's voodoo. Like I'm like just just try this. Like, please, she's no, no, it's not going to work. That's voodoo. Like I'm like, just try this, please. So eventually got her to try it scale back her medicine 50%, regularly testing her blood pressure. Perfect, just in line About six months of doing that, we got her off the blood pressure medication completely and exhibiting a vegan diet and her blood pressure has never been better.

Mike Bednarz:

And this was seven or eight years ago. So once I see, like that, that that's my mom, like I'm going to die for that woman. So like, like what I um emphasized her to do, like work to a core. So I just see these types of examples and I'm like you know I'm doing a disservice by not sharing my knowledge to the people I love and care about. In regards to that, I love it.

Jason Wagner:

The guy loves to share. Yeah, I try. The thing that I know and that's why I wanted you to come on, because you got such a great story, man and the thing that I I always like get kind of upset about with with some really successful people or people that have found things that work for them, is that they keep it internal and they don't really share it with the world. Because I feel like a lot of these are kind of secrets, you know, and they're they're not complex, but they're just they're like discipline secrets, and I feel like we need to hear more of these stories of people that have hey, this is what I've been doing every single day for the last so many years and it's actually really benefited me, and like we just need to hear some of these stories and like for me to be well, could we ever go vegan?

Rachel Wagner:

We've talked about this a lot. Actually, you know I'm. The whole thing is like you know I'm, I'm.

Jason Wagner:

Uh, the whole thing is like. You know, I eat a lot of protein and I feel like meat has the protein, chicken has the protein, right, oh, what do you like? What's your combat to, bro? You don't need so much protein. Or like what's the I'm?

Mike Bednarz:

always curious Like why do you feel like you need so much protein? Or like what's the? I'm always curious like why do you feel like you need so much protein? Because you grew up on bodybuildingcom and it said like I mean maybe protein, yeah, maybe, I think so probably like it's like your weight, like yeah yeah, and it keeps me full.

Jason Wagner:

You know, I take, I have a protein shake every day too, and a lot of that is placebo in the mind though.

Mike Bednarz:

So I fast as well. I we eat one meal. That one meal is like insane, like a lot of stuff, but I'll fast for every day, depending on work, typically, you know, 20 ish hours, and I just pack, which may or may not be the healthiest thing to do, because I have, like I would guess you know, I don know two to four thousand calories in like a small window, but I'm constricting myself of these desires I have. And then when I'm just like, oh my God, this is, I'm so happy, this is amazing. You know, you get a dopamine rush, all these positive brain effects.

Mike Bednarz:

So, like, fasting is another thing. Like, as a diabetic, every single doctor I have says don't fast, don't fast, don't do this, you know. But I've chosen to experiment with my body and I've realized, like the, the longevity benefits with that are certainly there. But like this, I'm like obsessed with that D word discipline, like this just creates. Like I see people going into McDonald's and not 10, 9, 10.

Mike Bednarz:

I'm like what are you doing? Like, do you have it in other aspects of life? Like, how are you just giving up like this? So I think, with with the fasting, that helps tremendously to create if that's something that you want, that like level of discipline, you know, because you're just not giving yourself what you want, you know, and it's very hard, trust me. I used to like, look at the clock, oh, I've been at it for 16, 20, 16 hours and 23 minutes, like I. But now it's just like I'm just booming work, real estate, working out that like sometimes I get home and I'm like, oh shit, I haven't ate for 26 hours, like nice, and I'll usually have, like you know, two workouts. Now that I'm not on job sites, I usually train twice a day like an animal.

Jason Wagner:

Dude, this guy's been doing 75 hard like his entire life and just hasn't really realized that he was doing the program.

Rachel Wagner:

Right Cause you've never done that.

Mike Bednarz:

No, I never heard about it until you, yeah, but it was basically your entire life.

Rachel Wagner:

Yeah, yeah.

Jason Wagner:

Um, but yeah, no, it's, it's. It's two 45 minute workouts per day. One of them has to be outside. You got to drink a gallon of water, which you brought a giant half gallon water with me like we're, we're again, we're brothers, we're like the same. Yeah, I was like oh another parallel yeah, you gotta follow a diet. Obviously you've got that checked um. You have to read a book. You have to read 10 pages of a book and okay big reader.

Jason Wagner:

See, already pretty easy for you to do on that. What's the other thing? Oh, progress picture. Yeah, take a picture of yourself every day. That is probably where it might get you. But you've got the discipline to to know. Hey, if I, you know, I got to do this every single day for the next 75 days. I mean, you basically have done the program yeah, maybe I'll try it.

Mike Bednarz:

Then the easy accomplishment january 1st.

Rachel Wagner:

January 1st is probably when I'll start again so you mentioned you haven't had a sip of alcohol for six or seven years.

Jason Wagner:

That was another thing, right? That's the other part. You can't have alcohol.

Rachel Wagner:

Yeah, poison.

Mike Bednarz:

By the way, I know it's just ingrained in culture and it's very sad to me. I grew up in a family of alcoholics, so I've been exposed to some not the best, but still still I drank in high school every weekend, college every weekend. And then it's like, why am I doing this? Like I don't need what is society like? I don't need to do this to have enjoyment per se and engagement socializations. So, like, stepping out of that hurdle is challenging from a social perspective, but I think you need to be around very like-minded individuals if you decide to pursue that route, because, like, even just having you know wine at the house, I'm going to come home, I'm going to see the wine, I'm going to grab the wine.

Mike Bednarz:

You know I'm a human being. But, like you, you need to be around people that aren't like that and are trying to achieve what you want to achieve and then also not have those things in your household. Like it all starts at the, at the grocery store, to be honest, like I would love, like there's vegan ice cream and if I haven't, like I'm going for it. You know I'm going for it, but like I don't buy that purposefully because then I'll just go for it so do you eat any treats?

Mike Bednarz:

yeah, my girlfriend, she's really good at, you know, baking and cooking and trying vegan stuff, so what? But it's interesting. I think that your palate adjusts tremendously over time. So, like I'll see people like I'll have, you know, a vegan cookie that's made with like almond flour, like a couple of dates and like bananas, and I'll be like, oh my God, this is amazing. And then someone who's not a vegan will eat and be like, oh, this sucks, what do you mean? This is amazing.

Mike Bednarz:

So, like it's the the with all the previous points we've been saying, like you know, training your body, training your mind, like training your mouth and palate, like what I think is amazing. You know people don't think is amazing. And I'm sure if I ate like a Reese's or I'd be like yo, this is like killing my teeth right now, like how do you eat this? But yeah, I try to.

Mike Bednarz:

Like my family and girlfriend will say I don't like have enjoyment in that regards because I'm so how do you say regimented. But like the diabetes plays a big role into that, because if I do have something unconventional, like my numbers will see it. But I do find enjoyment in what I do and enjoyment is different to every single person and I've had the, as I mentioned, the challenge of like relating to people, because this is, you know, a bit of an anomaly, a difference, but like having that, that I guess you would say discipline again to to choose to eat. In regards to that way, it's just like it's the only way. To me, you know it's, it's the only way, like I survived. What I did, work, you know, I made it so you were diagnosed type 1 diabetic.

Jason Wagner:

Was that like at birth or?

Mike Bednarz:

I was was 11, 12 years old, I think I was in like sixth or seventh grade, maybe around there. So not at birth, it's a hereditary. That's why, like diabetes you hear in the media all the time but that's primarily in regards to type 2 diabetes, which you can control in terms of diet, regulate, you know all these things you typically just have some sort of blockage on your pancreas so your cells can't get the insulin, typically because you're overweight or something. So type one is completely different. My pancreas shut down.

Mike Bednarz:

So I have right now they have crazy technologies. I have what's called the CGM continuous glucose monitor plugged into me that tells me about my blood sugar Not always accurate, but it helps and then I also have an insulin pump. So throughout the day and every time I eat, like I need to manually inject insulin. So when I was first diagnosed, this was like literally a vial and a syringe and you're pulling up the insulin. And then they had pens, which is like a little cap on a smaller device, and then they had insulin pumps, which is like a little cap on a smaller device, and then they had insulin pumps.

Mike Bednarz:

So, like the technology, the technology is certainly there, but I was having this conversation with my girlfriend the other day, like she thinks that, like diabetes, is so challenging. It's 24, seven it's. I'm literally trying to replicate. You know what a human organ is doing and it's very hard because everything affects it your stress level, the lights, what you eat. You know what an a human organ is doing and it's very hard because everything affects it your stress level, the lights, what you wait. You know drink, everything really the lights like sunlight, everything like it's.

Mike Bednarz:

It's everything, not so much these artificial lights, but sunlight drastically. Me personally affects me like if we were just had a vacation a couple weeks ago. Like if I get sunburn or too much sun exposure, boom, my blood sugar spikes because your body, it's a foreign agent, it dumps cortisol, so then you know sugar in there, like your body fight or flight mode, so you're just, it's just hard to navigate things. You don't even think about that, like I believed has hard to navigate things. You don't even think about that, like I believed has helped me achieve a more grateful mindset because, like our bodies are amazing, like it's literally amazing and I've seen this so much with my injury too like the amount that we as human beings take for granted, it's just like embarrassing. Like just embarrassing I, I don't, like I used to.

Mike Bednarz:

You know we're sitting down in chairs. Right now I'll get up and I'll like partially lose my balance. Before I couldn't even get up because my vestibular situation, my vestibular system from my accident was so damaged. But that's something you don't even think about, like you literally don't even think about until something negative happens to you. So this is all in regards to like I I feel like I know like too much about what the body and what the body does, without us even having a conscious thought about it. That, like you have to treat it right, you just have to take care of it.

Jason Wagner:

It's the only option do you put a lot of priority into your sleep or like any other things, cold plunges or saunas or any types of uh, the red light therapy the more popular things that are kind of hot right now?

Mike Bednarz:

I've experienced with them cryotherapy. I try to do a cold shower, like finish my shower every day with cold Like. To me that's more of like a mental thing. You know, I don't know how. I've seen, read, seen some of the research and it's kind of hit or miss. But it could be very good for dopamine and everything. But that's more of the things like I don't want to do this, like I'm going to do it and then after, like I'm going to be present with Maddie, we're going to have food, like it's going to be great, and it just creates that sort of mindset.

Mike Bednarz:

As far as sleep, I used to be in the mindset in high school and go, oh, you sleep when you're dead. Like no sleep is everything you want to be healthy like prioritize sleep. I read this book called why we Sleep. Same was doctor I'm forgetting his name, but it was just like exposed me to this different viewpoint on what your body does during sleep and how necessary it is. So like I've always struggled with sleeping. I shoot for seven hours every night and doesn't always happen, and because of the diabetes, I frequently get woken up a couple times throughout the night. So that's damaging to me mentally because I know how much that that hurts, but I would highly recommend everyone, like whether you care about fitness, general health, longevity, like you need to sleep, that's, that's everything you go to bed at a specific time every night yeah, one of the things I learned from this book was the importance of a wind down routine.

Mike Bednarz:

so we talked about reading. Like you know, we'll usually watch some shows, some tv, like while we eat, but then after that we try to read and then that kind of winds your body down because it's just like you know you wake up, you're sluggish, you're lethargic, it's just like going to sleep, like you can't be in this high state of mindset or activity and then just expect to fall asleep. So we do have a little bit of a wind down routine. I'm a big meditator. I try to meditate. I'm not that good at it per se in terms of the action of doing it and the schedule, but I try to do it every single day. So in an ideal world, you know, 9, 30, 10, we'll start the wind down routine, get some reading in, some meditation, some breathing and things like that, and to me and I understand it may not work for everyone, but from my personal experience it's helped tremendously.

Jason Wagner:

Since your accident, there's obviously, obviously there's a lot from within. Have you grown closer in anything spiritually that you can kind of talk about, or do you subscribe to anything that's more spiritual?

Mike Bednarz:

It's a hard question for me. I grew up technically as like a Catholic, but religion was never a high priority in my upbringing, so I've never had those sorts of thoughts and I see so much like it's very hard for me, like I would like to think I'm a solidly good human being. And this happened to me. Or the three year old that has cancer and may or may not make it like how do you justify those sorts of things that happen every day in life? I wouldn't even know how to communicate these thoughts Like not that I'm on, it's so much to me is in your mind and in yourself.

Mike Bednarz:

You know if that's what, if you need something spiritual to get you to a good place, I'm 100% in support of it, whatever it takes for you. But you need to do the internal reflection and soul searching to find out what exactly that is and then just execute it. You know I'm a big proponent like you. Just gotta execute in this life. You just gotta do what makes you feel good and what's good for the long term and whatnot. So I guess, in summation, like me personally I don't some of the meditation is really nice to just like slow down and breathe and and exhale and like feel something else, but that's the the closest I've ever felt to something like that yeah, yeah, you're just kind of getting a lot more presence with like with yourself and when you're in the moments and yeah, yeah, no, I, you know I respect that.

Jason Wagner:

What else you got?

Rachel Wagner:

well, I was going to ask you you, you've already accomplished so much in many different areas in your life so far. What, what type of goals or vision do you have for the future? You kind of mentioned you could retire, but you don't think that you will. What's on your vision board?

Mike Bednarz:

definitely kind of have one. But to take a step back like that's like you know I I to your first point that you made. Like when I take a step back and reflect like, yeah, I'm killing it, but I can't have that mindset like to me, I, I could always do more. I could always do more. You know my brother and I have these conversations a lot. You know we have our best year and I just got a big account a couple of weeks ago and I didn't tell him about it. He's like what are you doing, dude? I'm just, I can't stop and you know it's.

Mike Bednarz:

I'm getting to the point where I don't want to say it's like unhealthy. But I need to kind of reconcile with myself and see like where I want to personally go, because it's going to be a very hard challenge for me mentally to stop and slow down because I'm always go, go, go, go. But bigger, larger goals is that now that I'm out of the field? I really want to get my brother out of the field like being a technician. He's on the job site every single day. I want to get like what they call in the industry a sales manager that would like manage our guys and we're just him and I just step in when we need. It's very hard relinquishing that trust, though, like it's it's extremely hard. Like these accounts, these are our babies. It's even hard like trusting employees to do stuff they're like why is this person going to do it when I could just do it in half the time?

Jason Wagner:

Um, so yeah, I was going to say you, you probably do struggle with that, which a lot of entrepreneurs struggle with. That, too, is relinquishing responsibility and and whatnot. Yeah, and control. Yeah, I do want to ask you more questions about like scaling and and what do you think how can you continue to grow your business or what are some of the bottlenecks that you really have, that you think that you can implement some some different things in the future to to make your life a little bit easier on some of that?

Mike Bednarz:

The biggest thing with that is we both, him and I, need to come to terms that we cannot and should do everything which is it's very, very hard to do. So that's currently where, and he just had the baby. So I want to give him more more presence with with that. So our biggest thing, I mean I read the book who, not how. That one hit me pretty hard and it's great, but it's just like it's hard. You know, it's really hard. Especially we grew.

Mike Bednarz:

I literally did. You know I, last Friday I was, I had a tenant but she had a bad toilet. I had to go change, I had to go fix her toilet. It's like, and then I don't tell my brother he's like, what are you doing? Like you know I could. I need to realize that, like, had I been working on you know the business and growing the business, I could have made, you know us, two, three $400 an hour. But I'm changing a toilet where I could have charged a plumber. It costs me, you know, a hundred bucks an hour. So it's it's very, it's very me personally mentally challenging to do that. I want, that's my biggest goal. Looking forward is to do that and then just keep scaling up the real estate, because I think that that is our true his family and my family, like that's my brother, that that's our way, you know out, and our way to have a nice cashflow and still live the life that we live, while hopefully not knock on wood like not working nearly as hard as we are.

Jason Wagner:

Hell yeah, hell yeah, man. Real estate's the ticket, it's the retirement, it's the retirement strategy for us, do you think?

Rachel Wagner:

you'll stick with the mixed use investments or will you go full-blown commercial and will you stay just in this area or will you branch?

Mike Bednarz:

out to other markets? Yeah, so, as far as the area, I've definitely built my portfolio in Edison and Norwood Park because I self-manage and do everything like that. It's just tremendously easier. Every time I go, I can ride my bike or walk to a building and get eyes to something or fix something. I go, I can ride my bike or walk to a building and, you know, get eyes to something or fix something. So I definitely see the benefits of keeping things confined in that area.

Mike Bednarz:

Once I, if I do ever get to a point with like massive scale, I'll have to branch out. Like I am partners with two other guys but that's in Portage Park and that's amazing. Like I don't do anything. You know he just handles everything. I love those investments. So that's kind of the goal in terms of the real estate portfolio. As far as the mixed uses, I'm definitely not like that's kind of the little niche that I've, you know, not on purpose built, but that's kind of what has happened with what's been provided to me and what I've seen. I'm not married to them. I do eventually want to. You know 1031, the downtown Edison park property, the mixed use, two unit into a you know a larger apartment building, but it's, you know. Now it's I haven't. I I'm actively looking every day, like you know. It's just if I see something I'm going to go for it. You know, I'll figure it out.

Jason Wagner:

You mentioned the midterm rental does extremely well for you and I can. I can also second that is that we went a whole year and we didn't have any vacancy and we had we'd probably changed out five or six different people. Is that probably like pretty similar to what your story was too?

Mike Bednarz:

Yeah, yeah, I I started the actually in eight, so it's been about a year and a half because Maddie and I we lived in the garden apartment, or I did, and then she moved in and we moved up to the first floor, so at that point it would have been April 2023.

Mike Bednarz:

I started doing the medium term rental and I've gotten a wide variety of people. Like that furnish finder we spoke about is catered towards people working in the medical industry, traveling nurses, things like that but I've gotten, you know, my best tenant was a mom whose daughter lived in edison park and she's from pennsylvania and she stayed like eight months and she was amazing, like yeah, treated the property like it's her own. That's another thing. Like with you know, you think airbnb, vrbo, like you can probably, if you're very active, get maybe a slightly higher cash flow, but people that come into those don't typically treat your property like it's their home and there's a value to that. I certainly believe there's a value to that. So I've been, knock on wood, very blessed with the tenants that I've had in terms of the medium term rental and I'm living above them, so I see everything.

Mike Bednarz:

But, they're just going in and out to work every day, like you know, maybe experiencing the city, checking things out, but they're they're great tenants, they're great people.

Jason Wagner:

They just want a place to live how much of a premium do you think it is compared to long term?

Mike Bednarz:

percent wise or even just dollar wise yeah, so with the one bedroom garden in Edison Park I could probably, with the finishes we have, get around $1,300 a month. It is a garden, but it's a nice you know?

Jason Wagner:

Yeah, I would definitely say that.

Mike Bednarz:

And I've had zero. Probably need to reflect on this and maybe go a little higher, but I've had 0% vacancy at $2,000 a month.

Jason Wagner:

For sure, yep.

Mike Bednarz:

And these were all my old, like I just use this couch and this bed for, you know, two, three years when I was living down there. I'm like what am I just going to sit in storage? I'm going to try this out and you know, I tried it and it worked. Yeah it's working so yeah for sure.

Jason Wagner:

So yeah, so like 700 bucks too. My experience on it is we have a thousand dollar premium. We have a two-bed, one-bath garden garden apartment and yeah, we were at, we were at 1600 a month long term and then we bumped it up to 2600 for the midterm and it's and it's people it's being rented you know, the funny. Here's the thing. You've probably seen some of this too.

Mike Bednarz:

How did you guys furnish it?

Jason Wagner:

Like through Amazon.

Rachel Wagner:

Yeah, right, Most of it, yeah so we had a tenant who moved out. She was a long-term tenant who moved out and was moving like across the country, and so she actually sold some of her stuff that was already there for us, which was nice whole bedroom that way and even part of the living room and then everything else in the entire kitchen. Yeah, we bought all of her kitchen supplies which is amazing. It's like a great a great setup.

Mike Bednarz:

yeah, are you guys familiar with or have you encountered anyone that is experienced what they call it rental arbitrage, where, like, you'll get a long-term lease and then they, in turn that tenant, will then rent it out as a short-term rental?

Jason Wagner:

Oh, yeah, yeah. So I know of people that have done that, but why Are you?

Mike Bednarz:

No, no, I just like think, because so many people in my life are like yo, how do you do what you do? Real estate, and I'm like you know this idea is very interesting to me. If you find the right property, the right landlord that doesn't want to matter, you can collect a healthy spread and it's a way to maybe get a little extra cash and afford a down payment.

Jason Wagner:

Yeah, so I did arbitrage, but not from the perspective of property.

Rachel Wagner:

I was going to bring this up too.

Jason Wagner:

Yeah, so right before the and this is a brilliant idea and I don't know why I haven't gone back to it, because it was working really quite well.

Jason Wagner:

And so I went and dude, I went on Craigslist and every day I would just check Craigslist and I would look for parking spaces that were on a business corridor and like off of Milwaukee or just any off of any busy, busy road that had shops around it and like people would rent their little. You know, it'd be in a condo building and somebody was renting their one spot for like $75 to $100. And so what I would do is that I would sign a month-to-month lease with them. I'd never meet the person, I'm just an inquiry from Craigslist, but I would get them to sign a month-to-month lease and then I would put it up on Spot Hero and ParkWiz, so it's like the airbnb and vrbo. But yeah, it's just like people would then rent those spaces and I would go and drive by the space, I'd take a couple pictures of the space, you know, put the description of how to get there and the person that was always renting it to me.

Jason Wagner:

Sometimes they would ask hey, you know, what vehicle do you drive? And I would tell them the vehicle that I drive, but I didn would tell them the vehicle that I drive, but I didn't tell them the vehicle that was going to be parking there, because most of the time, the leases were just handshake agreements. There was nothing in stone. If they ever sent me like a contract that said this is the only vehicle that can be parked there, then you know, then it wasn't going to work and I wouldn't, and I wouldn't do it. But anyways, I ended up getting to the point where I had like 12 parking spaces and I was making at least a hundred bucks a month on each one.

Jason Wagner:

It was really fun and and this was kind of- this was pre COVID. And then COVID hit and everybody stopped driving and I'm like oh no, at least you're on just month leases.

Mike Bednarz:

Oh, I know, and yeah, that was.

Jason Wagner:

The brilliance of it is that I didn't have these. You know, I wasn't stuck on a 12 month lease. It was like I could try it for a couple of months and the investment was $100, right, it wasn't that big of a risk and and I could accumulate these spaces actually relatively quickly. And uh, but yeah, that's the idea, it's the rental arbitrage. You sign a long-term lease and then you do the short-term to capture really the market upside on that part and I don't know why I haven't gone back to that, but it was it was just like the one thing in the world where everybody stops driving is COVID. And then it just kind of killed my mojo on, like wanting to go after that again.

Mike Bednarz:

So see, like, as you're sharing that story, like people look at you now you're like, oh, you're so successful, you're so lucky. Like they don't hear about this story. Like, how did you get here? You work, you put your head down and work. You thought that's an to me, an innovative idea and you executed it and you got a, you know, maybe 12, a thousand bucks a month. Like, yeah, that's huge. You know people like they, they want the easy route. You know, like, how you gonna do it. Like, at the end of the day, to me, all of this is two things it's discipline and hard work. That that's all it is. You can get whatever you want in life with discipline and hard work.

Jason Wagner:

Yeah, and it's taking a little risk too right.

Mike Bednarz:

But it's more of a calculated risk.

Jason Wagner:

You said, you're a very numbers-driven guy and once you see the risk amount and what the potential is, then it kind of makes a lot more sense and the risk is a lot easier to swallow.

Mike Bednarz:

Oh, yeah, but with that said, every single deal I've closed or like bigger investment I've made, I still have anxiety, you know, are you still freaking out? Like you're still, but you just learn. Like, you learn to put those thoughts aside and like I'm the type of person, like I'm gonna figure it out. You know that. That that's all that, matt. Like I just had an issue at Pratt a leaking pipe was leaking in one of my commercial tenants, but like it's unfortunate, you know, but I'm gonna figure it out and I'm gonna speaking with the tenant now and how, you know, I can rectify the situation because I want to make him whole. You know, his carpet got ruined, so you just have to have that mental like everyone's going to get a curve ball in every single aspect of life. There are many curve balls.

Jason Wagner:

And I want to. I want to talk on this. So your investment company is called WIT properties, right?

Mike Bednarz:

Oh yeah.

Jason Wagner:

Yeah, what is WIT? What does that stand for?

Mike Bednarz:

I think you've said it a few times today, 20, 30 years. I wanted that name to be a reminder of like where I came from and especially with you know my accident and recovery and the things I deal with in life. Like you could play the victim, you can complain, but ultimately you got to put your head down and do whatever it takes. You know that that's, I believe that, to a core like that's who I am and that's why I named the LLCc wit properties yeah, dude, I fucking love that.

Jason Wagner:

There's another one that you uh, what is it? Someone, some or some don't. What's right, is that the other?

Mike Bednarz:

one someone and some don't someone yeah yeah, I I jokingly say that to people in my life when we're working out and they're struggling, and I just scream out like someone and some don't, and then they get a little extra push dude.

Jason Wagner:

I, rachel, I have to tell you about okay. So mike and I we did a workout right. So okay, two guys that work out every single day. But I will tell you, mike kicked my ass. I think I kicked him. He's like, hey, we're gonna do some pull-ups and I'm like, oh, you would have done. I'm gonna smoke you in the props but then he's like yeah, but then we to do? What do they call it? The ski rig, ski erg, the ski erg. What's that Describe?

Mike Bednarz:

it? How would you say? It's kind of like the rower machine, in a sense that you have a chain and you have tension, but the poles are up top. You're on a how do you say, long-term ski? What do they do Like ski? So, it's a cardiovascular activity, but it's not just like running, like you're using muscles and stuff. Oh yeah, I just moved it to Pratt this morning so you guys can come by.

Jason Wagner:

I don't even want to touch that thing, man. Yeah, all right, so we did, we did the skier workout and he's like we're going to do the skier and then you're going to do some kettlebell swings and we're just going to go back and forth on this. And you said the meters and I was like, all right, I don't really know how far we're going, but all right, sounds good, lock and loaded, dude. So we were trying to do, I think, probably what 90 seconds apiece in the skier, where you just kept going as hard as you can for 90 seconds apiece and like, all right, you know, the first couple of times you're like, all right, I can do this, like like yeah, and then and he just blows me out of the water and no longer can I do the kettlebell swings, but I'm like I'm like dying over my knees. Because here's the problem with me is that I haven't done any cardio in a long time.

Mike Bednarz:

All I do yeah.

Jason Wagner:

All I do is work on the heart. Yeah, that's and that's. I was talking with Rachel about this the other day and that's just like a big hole that's missing in my, in my fitness regimen and it's just like, dude, I need to need to focus on my cardio. But you really exposed it and you really kicked my ass and so but it was, it was, let's see, we worked out probably at like 9am that day and then, dude, I was like, I was like smoked the rest of the day, I couldn't do shit. I couldn't do shit.

Rachel Wagner:

It's true. He came home and he's like I think my lungs are bleeding.

Mike Bednarz:

He said that too, and I was like, yeah, this guy's pretty jacked, but I want something in his lungs.

Rachel Wagner:

I think he took a nap. Yeah, exactly.

Mike Bednarz:

Like he was really. It's like it's those types of lifts because they're very humbling. No matter how hard I work every day, when I like get to that component of the workout, I'm gassed Like. I'm like how do I'm gassed, like it's a different level and then it just like makes you think like I have so much to work on. You know I got to keep going. I use it as motivation.

Rachel Wagner:

You know I score myself every day Do you do those in the morning, like before your day even starts?

Mike Bednarz:

Typically, since my therapy schedule is a little whack now, but typically our office is in Glenview until we move, I'll go to Glenview. I'll usually sip I love black coffee Like that's my one vice. I'll sit by my black coffee and do work for an hour or two and then I'll train. That's where we have the gym and my brother and I built it at our shop and then I'll train there and then, depending on my schedule and my therapy, I'll try to do. I've gotten more into, like they call it, zone two cardio because since my accident, like I, I can't get after it nearly as much as I could, so I have to slow it down a little and I I've realized, like zone two cardio, as I've done, the research is is very important too, so I tried to hit a second time of like a minimum of 60 minutes. Either I'll run or hop on the air bike or the rower.

Rachel Wagner:

I typically listen to CNBC too. I'm a big like stock guy.

Jason Wagner:

I I'm kind of as I'm talking out loud kind of I seem like a robot. My name is.

Mike Bednarz:

Mike, I work out every day. My voice is Menendez too. My girlfriend gets a little obsessed upset with me because everything is just like about productivity, Like if I can't just sit on the couch because I'm not like producing something. So I'm struggling with that internally and how to chill a little. And, like you know, especially you guys have like be more present in all areas of life.

Rachel Wagner:

You struggled with that for a long time.

Jason Wagner:

Yeah, man.

Rachel Wagner:

Just recently. The last couple of years have really been a big shift, yeah.

Jason Wagner:

I would say it was my children that really did it for me. You know, when it was just me and Rachel, it was pretty easy to just get lost.

Rachel Wagner:

Thank you, yeah, I'm on Instagram Facebook. Yeah, rachel, it was pretty easy to just get lost. Thank you, yeah.

Mike Bednarz:

I'm on Instagram, Facebook.

Rachel Wagner:

Yeah, no, it's okay. No, that's true, it's true, though I mean you were.

Jason Wagner:

It's just like when you have kids and like even when they're really young and stuff, like you know they're still pretty easy to manage, it's a big change in your life. But the moment that they just they want to come, that you know they come home and they want to play man, it's just, it's a whole nother level of just get to the point where they're like dad, put your phone away they tell you.

Jason Wagner:

They tell you that yeah, they tell you that I want to harp on this because when I was struggling, when we were doing the skierg at your place, you said do it for your kids. Man, Like you were yelling these motivational things at me. I'm like, dude, shut up, man. No, I loved it, Honestly. I loved it because I I I haven't had that in a fucking long time.

Jason Wagner:

But you said something to me that I, just like it, unlocked a whole nother level of energy, dude. And you hit it and you found, you found the piece which was it was my kids man. And you said, dude, your kids are watching you.

Mike Bednarz:

Uh, what an asshole I was.

Jason Wagner:

That's what you said.

Rachel Wagner:

And I'm like ah, fuck, I'm going, I'm going, I'm going, I can see that working, though, because Scarlett will say things now where she's like Daddy's the strongest guy in the world. Oh yeah, you know, he's like carrying both girls upstairs. That's awesome, that makes me so proud. That makes me so proud. Then he's like all right, I'm carrying you both.

Jason Wagner:

You know, it makes me so damn proud Because you know what and that's why I work out every day is so that my kids can crawl all over. And Scarlett's five, Layla's three, Scarlett's what? Maybe 50 pounds.

Rachel Wagner:

Yeah, they're a solid 70, 75 pounds together. Yeah, okay.

Jason Wagner:

So to be able to carry them in any way, shape or form and to take them up the stairs. At both times I still got a lot more weight that I can put on there at another third kid. You know what? That's the fun stuff and that's kind of I. You know I got to stay strong for my kids, man.

Mike Bednarz:

Yeah, and you're creating those memories like they'll have those forever, like dad, dad used to carry us up the stairs. You know, and you'll have those too, and you'll never get those back. You know, and one day knock on wood, you know we're not going to be able to have those types of memories, so keep doing what you're doing.

Jason Wagner:

Yeah, yeah, no man. Well, I love your story, bro. Thanks for coming in and sharing that stuff Inspirational and humbling, I think. You know, you, you, you said that a couple of times. You know, some of the experiences you've had have been really humbling and sometimes we need, we need some of that is, you know, we can really hit a high horse and then, you know, maybe we get a little bit too far over our skis, right, and it's nice to kind of have a humbling experience and a humbling conversation sometimes to you know, just bring the balance back, and I think we did that today. I think we really accomplished that today. We kind of wrap up with what's your biggest takeaway from the conversation, rach? What do you think from everything you heard here? What's your biggest takeaway?

Rachel Wagner:

Yeah, I think I love the, whatever it takes. I think that is so cool and I think that came through in so many different areas of what you talked about. Like you, you know you're not going to be the victim or anything like that Like you're just so focused on keep moving forward, right, keep moving forward, don't get stagnant. And there's a little bit of a criticism of like you're not being present but, at the same time, you're not getting stagnant, right, like you're continuing to push forward and whatever happens, just keep moving and don't let it bring you down. You know, just keep moving forward. And I think I think that's so great and I think that, like, we've seen that theme pop up in different areas of our life, so it just felt really applicable, like really relatable too. I like that.

Jason Wagner:

Yeah for sure, my big takeaway here was your preparedness and your preparedness for the unknown. You know and it's, it's, it's done through discipline and it's done through discipline. But from your accident and from your fall and your tremendous recovery tremendous recovery, and it was all because you were able to be ready for the unexpected moment. And I think a lot of times we forget about the unknown and what could happen, and it there's a lot of fear that can build up and we really don't do anything about. How do we, how do we mitigate some of that fear? And I think you really kind of showed like dude I'm, I've kind of always been this way and I was able to bounce back. No matter what life throws at me, I've been able to bounce back and just continue moving forward with whatever it takes, and like all that stuff, man, it's just dude.

Jason Wagner:

it's like it's such a good message.

Mike Bednarz:

Yeah.

Jason Wagner:

And it's so motivational. Yeah, you really got a lot like. You're so admirable, you know.

Mike Bednarz:

Thank you. I appreciate that you really are. Yeah, thank you.

Jason Wagner:

And also, at the same time, you've also recognized hey, I'm an entrepreneur, I'm a business owner. I went out and started it not long ago. It's doing quite well. It's with a family member, Like I like that messaging where it's like you partner with people you can really trust, and even though you know there's a risk of ruining the relationship or whatnot. But, like you know, I like that message and you've, you've, you've mixed it with I'm a business owner and I do real estate. Those two pieces go hand in hand. One creates the cash, the cash is then used to invest in your future for the long term, and one feeds the other and that whole system is such a beautiful thing and you're doing it and it's proven to work for you and, like you can think about real estate is like it's available for everybody.

Mike Bednarz:

Yeah, it's available for everybody. I tell people you know, maybe you're not going to hit a an amazing deal the first time per se a home run, but like, get started. Like, real estate is very forgiving. Maybe it takes seven years, maybe it takes 12 on the long end, but one day you will say damn, I wish I bought more.

Jason Wagner:

I'm happy I did this yeah, what's your big takeaway from today's conversation?

Mike Bednarz:

my biggest takeaway. I think that, like in regards to specifically you guys or what, no, just whatever, man, yeah whatever I'm jealous of.

Mike Bednarz:

You know what you guys have and how you've come together as one and, like you know, that's why I'm so interested and my girlfriend and I are there too, but it's it's so hard to. You know, you mentioned you didn't have as much real estate exposure in the beginning and j Jason, you had all that stuff and, like you know, you had this plan and you executed the hell of it. You know you have Greystone, you have your company, you have you have a house here. You got real estate. You guys are doing it together and like maybe you're doing more than 50% of the kids and you know he's not as, but like it all evens out because you guys are one.

Mike Bednarz:

And when you have a partner, like look at this podcast, you guys both, you know it's. I'm just like, wow, this is amazing. I walked in, wow, this is amazing. So, like you guys are a true partnership and not a lot of people have that, and I know 75 Hard was big on your relationship and everything. Like you guys are doing it and it's admirable too. Like it's, it's awesome. You know good stuff, thank you.

Jason Wagner:

Yeah, thank you very much it's. It's why we started the podcast was because I really like talking to rachel. Why don't we, why don't we also talk to other people like at the same time?

Mike Bednarz:

that's kind of cool, I remember when we, uh, when we had the workout, we were actually speaking about the love languages and as a man, how that is like an epiphany. I'm like oh, and he was like, you know, I could get my walk in and you're, I think, your time, like you could walk together quality time yeah it's at this check so many boxes and like everyone's getting better and it's's like so.

Mike Bednarz:

Humans are very difficult to interact and be with and you got to understand that. You know I receive love through acts of service, but my girlfriend, maddie, doesn't at all. But my natural inclination is like yo, I just cut the grass. What do you mean? You know it's like, but she doesn't. You didn't tell me you love me. I'm like oh, so it's like me understanding, like I could. I don't have to kill myself of doing these services. I could just be present and articulate these thoughts and that's what she needs and wants, you know, and that's great. You know I, I just need and want something else. So it's about I think you guys have understood each other and it's honestly I don't say this word a lot but beautiful, like it's really cool, you know.

Jason Wagner:

Thanks, man, thank you, thank you, we really appreciate that. Yeah, it's like you know, finding a partner is super important and it's all about communication.

Rachel Wagner:

Yeah, it's been a work in progress.

Jason Wagner:

For sure, For sure. Like weird.

Mike Bednarz:

Well, you guys were so young too. I'm like shocked, you're still young, but like wow.

Jason Wagner:

Yeah, yeah.

Rachel Wagner:

You mentioned something about how, like we had this plan and we executed and I think, big picture-wise, yes, but looking at like the details of the plan, so many things changed along the way and I think it was like both of us needing to have a willingness to adjust and make changes. And you know, because the initial plan was to flip houses, you know you never had this vision of having a brokerage. Like there's just so many things that changed and like just the willingness to like, adjust to of like how we contributed.

Rachel Wagner:

You know it's changed a lot. I mean I used to work full time to help support you. Now you do all the work and support me. You know, it's like just this constant evolution and communication is key and I think yeah, and nothing's ever set in stone.

Jason Wagner:

You know a lot of people, they, they struggle with the whole. I can't start a business type thing because what if it fails? Yeah, it might it, it will fail, probably the first time, right, we, you know, I want to do the whole house flip thing and then I realized boy, there's not a lot of like efficiencies that are kind of going on right now. I'm still really learning it. And well, why don't I get my real estate license and like kind of help my friends like buy and sell real estate? While I'm doing that stuff at the same time, oh shit, all of a sudden I started generating, started generating cash. Well then, well, wait a second. Actually I'm pretty good at this and big people actually kind of trust me with their you know, big financial decision. Oh shit, I'm actually doing a lot more sales. Hey, this is a lot easier selling houses to my friends than actually flipping houses on the South side of Chicago and potentially seeing drive-by shootings in which that'm like you know.

Jason Wagner:

I just I'll never forget I was like I was eating lunch in my truck that one day and I'm I'm eating them like I'm eating the mcdonald's man this was before 75 hard came into our life.

Jason Wagner:

I'm eating the mcdonald's and all of a sudden I'm looking straight ahead and I'm like, boy, there's a, you know, there's a blacked out car that just ran like, zoomed by me, so it's a one-way street. It zoomed by me, it made a left and then and I was like, oh my god, and I'm like, what am I doing right now, in this moment? Right, is this what I want to be doing? Yeah, and you just kind of, you know, when something like that happens, you just kind of get to another level of like, okay, maybe we shift a little bit and and it's okay, you know, shifting is good and then you usually will end up you learn from the last experience and you find something a little bit better that keeps you moving forward, and that's the key.

Mike Bednarz:

You kept moving forward Like you didn't quit you know, you didn't quit the, the shooting, whatever the McDonald's like, you didn't quit. You didn't quit the shooting. You didn't quit. You could have quit, A lot of people would have quit. But you adapted, you made change and you found something arguably better and more lucrative.

Rachel Wagner:

Yeah, it's that. Whatever it takes, I really it's so applicable. Yeah, it's cool, all right.

Jason Wagner:

Well, this was an awesome conversation, yeah, this was All right. Well, this was an awesome conversation, yeah this was so fun.

Jason Wagner:

Yeah, mike, if anybody wants to get in touch with you, maybe if you get an email or if you got something that you want to share, feel free. Yeah, I'll share the WIT one. I got a couple emails, but it's witproperties1 at gmailcom, so W-I-T properties, the number one at gmailcom. Cool, Awesome, all right. Well, thanks to everyone for listening. I know you got a ass ton of inspiration out of this one. If you found any value in the show, please share it. Mike's got a hell of a story and I know that you've got some friends that could definitely hear hear this one, so please share the show. And actually, hey, we're out on YouTube now, so you, you will find us there, which is kind of cool. All right, thanks for listening. We'll catch you later.