when you're thinking about adding, adding value to people and building trust and the longevity of that, you have to be okay being uncomfortable. Welcome back to the Art Connecting Podcast. This is your host here at Haydynn Fike, back with another episode for you. It's always funny because in real life like or in real life, I like, I'd do two podcasts today. Mm-hmm. And. It's so weird because like you guys aren't gonna hear this for like a week or two apart, but for me, I'm like, I just literally like reset the studio and like took all the footage off the cameras and stuff and then I'm like, all right, we're sitting down doing another interview. So here we are. I'm happy to be here. I'm glad you're here, Hannah. This is also the second time that Hannah and I have recorded this podcast episode. The, the computer wizards were not with me when I recorded the episode with us and it disappeared. I, it literally just vanished in the thin air. It was very disappointing, but blessing in disguise. We've got so many more things to talk about. That's it. Now we get to get to do this all over again, and honestly, it's probably gonna work out better because now we have like. A practice run so we can know exactly what to talk about. Yeah. So it'll be great. Awesome. Well, Hannah, why don't you go ahead and introduce yourself to the audience and tell people who you are. Yeah, thanks. Well, my name is Hannah Wharton. I work with a company called Easy, REI, closings that specializes in transactions coordinating specifically for investors. I'm also an investor and a landlord myself. I do quite a bit of speaking for. Easy. REI closings, just with various partners, coaching groups, webinars across the country and yeah, I have been with them for about four years now and we, I have moved positions pretty much every year. I've been a coordinator when we were first starting out and founded the company, moved into the management position last year. I worked. As a client relations manager and really built that portion of the company out, and most recently, within the last month, I have moved into business development and strategic partnerships. So a lot of what you do, I also get to do now. It's a lot of connecting with other people, other investors in the real estate world, and just making sure that we're adding value to one another as we build those partnerships. So I'm excited to be here and. Yeah, share a little bit about my story. Awesome. Well, I'm happy that you're here today. So I want to talk about how we met for the first time, because it was a while ago now. It was probably like almost three years ago. Yeah. Which is. Freaking nuts. We were just little blips on each other's radar. We didn't even, we didn't even know who each other was. And we crossed paths so many times. Right. Well, I think back to when David, your boss, used to have these really cool meetups at his office there would be. You know, 40, 50 people in a room designed for 20 people probably. And you know, we're fixing that. We have a new office coming next month. I've heard, I've heard, I'm excited. Yeah. In the old office, you know, you pull up a chair and you know, some of the experts in the community would come out and speak and that's where we first met each other way back in the day. So it's really funny because a lot of the people who I meet and the connections that I make. Somehow loop back to some event that I went to one day, you know, and it's just really cool to see everything come together. Slowly over time. Just like all the little connections that lead to where, where you are. Yeah. When, if I recall correctly, you were still finishing college. Mm-hmm. When we initially met at that meetup, and it's been really cool for me to see you kind of step into that. Base.'cause we don't, we are not hosting those anymore at our office locally. And you have kind of carried the baton in that regard for the rest of the, our local community. Just bringing people together in various fields and, and giving them the opportunity to connect with one another. So yeah, I very much give you credit for taking that and running with it in an even bigger and better capacity. Well, it's been really cool to just take what I saw that I really liked from everybody's different thing and turn it into. What I wanted and what other people wanted. So and an opportunity to educate and provide value in other things. Not everybody wants to hear about real estate, right? Some people wanna hear about taxes, some people wanna hear about insurance, some people wanna hear about, you know, philosophy, and you kind of bring a little bit of everything to the team. I really hope you guys bring yours back too, though,'cause it's, it's funny because, there was someone that I won't name that has apparently been talking trash. This is like gonna be a tea podcast episode, but God of Atlanta, that's saying that I copied his meetup concept and came to Atlanta and, and took his concept. I'm like, is a concept of a meetup really? That original list? He was not at all, but literally I'm like. I want as many meetups as possible. I love going to meetups. I was gonna say, you don't even just host your own. You're co constantly going to one. I love going because it's way harder to host your own meetup than it is to go to one. So, you know, if you wanna start a meetup in Chattanooga or wherever you wanna start it at, I encourage you. To do it. There's more than enough room. You know, Randy Shelley started his deal maker Meetup back up. Yeah. And after the event, he called me and said, Haydynn, what'd you think? And I was just like completely honest with him. And I told him exactly like what I thought was good. Well, I was like, yeah, you could probably improve here. And he was like, thank you for telling me. And I'm like, dude. I, I wanna see everybody succeed. And I think that speaks volumes to a mindset that propels people further regardless of what industry they're in. If we're so focused on what other people have to offer us, or being the best then, and we're not focused on adding value, then. We're gonna be disappointed in ourselves and we're not actually gonna be creating something that people wanna be a part of. People wanna be a part of a community that brings them value, and our subconscious easily identifies people who don't align with that. Whether we realize it or not, there are meetups that I don't go to because. I don't align with what they're trying to push. They're trying to be bigger and better and all of the things are not focused on adding that value. And you can tell. Yeah, you can tell. Hmm. So I wanna talk with you about, in your role something that you started doing and I guess you've been doing for a while now, is. Talking to these big mastermind groups, traveling to different conferences, and I know that that's been a huge strategy for you guys to grow your company as you grow to be the largest transaction coordinating company in the United States for investors. And so I. I would love for you to just talk about in your experience and, and being with a startup from the ground up, what is, what, what does connections look like for you? Like what is the, what is like the, your go-to like way to grow business and how important have connections been in that? Connections are everything. I, I wouldn't say that there is a blanket answer to that because every connection is unique and individual. I work with, you know, various clients who are wholesalers, but I also work with, you know, 500 different title partners or 500 different affiliates. Or strategic partnership partners, and they're all, they all have very different needs. So when a client comes to me, the value that I might be adding to them is they don't want to do their paperwork on their deal. They don't wanna find the title company for their deal. They need help finding a transactional lender for foreclosing. Those are all areas where the value I'm providing them is not. Necessarily our service. Sometimes it is, but sometimes I'm just filling in the gaps for them and that makes them feel like I'm a valuable resource. It, I have people who are not even clients that reach out to me constantly because so and so told me that you helped them with this. I don't necessarily need something in return. And those, now, those are paying clients, so they do inadvertently, you know, give us something monetarily in return. But then that looks different with title companies. Title companies, their value is how much business can I bring them? Mm-hmm. So my conversations with them. Usually circulate around how many closings we have regularly, how many we have in that state. A lot of data, what kind of transactions we're doing. And then on the affiliate side, it, it's even different. It is way more value focused. You know, you have this group of students, they need somebody who can answer questions in their Facebook group. Cool. I'll go in their Facebook group. I'm not promoting my services at all. I'm. Adding value in the group. And in turn those people see the value of our company and they sign up for our services. The affiliates see that we are you know, adding value and, and because if we're closing more transactions for investors, then whoever's their coach is also getting subconscious credit because. If they're succeeding because we've helped them, then they're more likely to give that credit back to the coach or the affiliate. So the value add, it looks different in every conversation. But ultimately. I just wanna know people, we all have different things that we're going through. We all have different ways of communicating. I have some affiliates that are very to the point. They don't wanna sit there and chitchat. I've got other affiliates or clients where I know their kids' birthdays and I know when they're go, where they're going on their family vacation and, and so being able to pivot. To recognize somebody else's personality and what value means to them, and not just what I think value is. I think the service that I have to offer is the greatest thing out there. I think it's wonderful, but not everybody is looking at it the same way I am, and so if I'm not taking the time to focus on what. Value they need, then it doesn't matter what I'm talking about in the first place. So that's kind of how I've approached all of my conversations with everyone is, you know, the what, what is the value that I can add to your group or your community or your company? And at the end of the day, people always come back to that. They feel heard and seen. And I think that's ultimately what we all crave in, in our personal lives as well, is to feel seen. Yeah. Yeah, absolutely. So what does a typical day look like for you? That's a, that's a loaded question because I am definitely still a little bit in between client relations and strategic partnerships roles, but no day is the same by any means. I. Some days I come in and I'm following up on people whose bills that are passed due and trying to make sure we get updated information. Some days we're filming a lot of content. Some days it's, you know, back to back Zoom calls with people who are signing up as affiliate partnerships, just making sure the proper expectations are set and that they have all the steps to follow. Sometimes it's answering title questions or posting on social media, so it, it's a great job for someone like me who's a little bit a DHD because I am. You know, constantly switching, switching the gears in my head from one task to another. But yeah, lots of collaboration in our office, we have an all in-house team. And so, you know, if I need something from the owner, he's got something going on. He needs me to come in and sit in on a webinar, I'm right there. So it's always a surprise. Yeah. You never know what you're gonna get. Huh? I like it that way. I do. Me too. I was just on the episode with Matt, I was talking about, I started reading this book called a DH. ADHD is Awesome. Yeah. And it's been really fun to like read and you know, just kinda realize some of the tendencies that I have to, like, I. Bounce between different subjects and like it can be a superpower if we let it be, right? Obviously there has to be mindfulness as well. I know my limits. I know that sometimes I have to step away for 30 minutes. Like today I was, you know, working on creating a new SOP and I was just kind of like hitting a wall where I felt like it was. Glitching out, and I was like you know what? I'm gonna create a new Facebook banner for my Facebook page. I didn't really need to do that. It only took me 15 minutes. But by switching gears to something a little more creative for a little while, I was able to then go back to the SOP and be like, okay, now I know what I need to do. Yeah. So you have to know yourself well enough to know your boundaries, but it really can be a superpower. Yeah. Yeah. I, I definitely see it as like a superpower some days and then like. It's, it's kind of like not at all superpower on other days, you know, where there's, like my, for example, my CRM like our welcome series for when there's a new investor in the pipeline where we're sending out six weeks of personalized content to our investors. But I need to build the content and like. I really don't want to do it. And so it's like it's easy to fill your calendar with like all the other things. Yeah. Because you don't want to do something, but I'm like, I know it needs to be done. So I like work on it just a little bit more every day to try to get a little bit closer to getting that ready And, and it's good to have people in your corner too that can, you know, that's one of my favorite parts about having a team is there are days where, hey, I'm really struggling with creating social media content, but somebody else in my office has, has space for that. Like, how can we capitalize on each other's strengths, not just as a whole, but in the day to day, because we're all human and there are days where we can't perform at 110%. Right. And that's okay. Yeah. Yeah. So I wanna talk about like in-person. Events. I know you guys spend a lot of time, energy, and effort on going to in-person events. What are some impacts that going to those events have had like that you can think of going to an event and maybe a person you met in a store you could tell about, about like an event that you've gone to and how cool that was? Yeah. I, I would say that some of my closest friendships in the real estate space have. Been the result of attending some of these events. I remember my very first real estate event was three years ago in Houston with Ricardo Rosales, and I met. Probably three or four people there that just, I keep seeing at every other event and just the progression of, of our conversation. A a couple of them were not my ideal client. They were not my avatar. I. And that's okay. Sometimes I go to those events and like I'm searching for my ideal avatar, but when I'm not, sometimes I'm able to just create organic relationships that become other things as well. So, for example I. Alex Ottawa is, he's an oil in, in the oil and gas industry now, but he was in real estate and has been for many years. Wonderful guy has just really resilient, built something from the ground up, and he was one of the very first people I met at my very first event. I, I sat, it got seated next to him at a dinner table and he made some really off the wall comment and I laughed and added him on Facebook and we just kind of stayed in touch and over personal things, over, over moves, over, breakups, over, you know, spinning ideas off of each other and, and that was really cool. I didn't need anything from him and he didn't need anything from me, but we valued the connection that we shared in accompanying each other through some day-to-day things and just like getting to talk about it. And I actually just saw him at. Our Family Mastermind event a couple of weeks ago in Tampa, and I was reflecting on just how, how far we had come, how well we, we knew each other, how our conversations had shifted, they were different. And he ended up introducing me to Dolmar Cross, who runs the a and e shows on house flippers and just kind of teed me up for a conversation with him about an affiliate partnership that we launched last week. So, you know, Alex May not have been my ideal avatar, but. We became friends. And in that friendship I was able to make connections with other people that were my ideal avatar. So that's one of my favorite things about getting to go to those events is I'm not sitting there focused on making sales, and I'm not necessarily sitting there trying to have conversations with people at the event about signing up as an affiliate or signing up as a client. I'm able to utilize those events to form deeper connections or accompany them on an adventure like try to wrangle. 20 people to go to dinner the last night of family and like ended up kind of being a bust. But we all kinda looked back on it, back on it and laughed.'cause I was like, Hey, you know, like we gotta have an experience together. Like we had fun, we laughed. Like it wasn't like a perfect fancy dinner, but like we did the thing. And so those really set the stage for, you know, people. Trusting, building trust so that if we do enter a business agreement, we already have a really solid foundation. Yeah. And one of my favorite memories like a different mastermind trips I've been on, I was in, costa Rica. Yeah. I was in Costa Rica with action Academy. And that's Brian's group. Yeah, yeah, yeah. We, we went zip lining in Costa Rica and I was in the back of the pack with Aaron, eg. And Aaron was like one of the speakers for the event, and I didn't even like do it on purpose, but I was just in the back with Aaron and, and his wife at the time, and, I just remember it was so cool because we were just like walking along and I got to ask him whatever I wanted, you know, and like it. You know, he's a speaker. Everybody I knew, like by the time he spoke, everyone was gonna be asking him all this stuff. And so I took the opportunity to get to know Aaron A. Little bit better and Kle. And it was just really cool to like get to have that one-on-one time. And not that they're any different than I am, we're all human. I. Right, but to get to, to hear their experiences and the in-person events really allow that to happen. Like you never know what lunch you're gonna get invited to, or you know who you might meet at. Dinner just doesn't happen on video meetings. Like you stay so surface level. Whereas with the in-person, you always, it's, I always just end up getting a little bit deeper. I feel like, and I, I agree, and I think we get deeper because we get to accompany each other in real life and not just, oh, 20 minutes over video. That's great. I've got people that I'm, I call them my video game friends, right? Because we only interact over Zoom and that's cool. Those relationship took much longer to build to the point that they are now versus someone I met in. In person and even in my personal life, my, some of my strongest friendships are the ones where we have gone through something together. Sometimes that's something difficult. Sometimes it's just a life change, like somebody got married or had a baby. It, I think. In our day and age, a lot of people have lost sight of the importance of cultivating those relationships. And instead of just walking away when they get hard or walking away, when somebody doesn't produce something for you, we're almost treating people like transactions and they're not. And when people feel like they're being treated with a relational component, they respond really, really well to that. Yeah. And so when I was selling life insurance, I learned that. When you're on a call with someone like a phone call, I think they're only receiving like four or 5% of what you're, you know, they're, it's only four or 5% of the intimacy that it is like with the in person. But yeah, so it's like only four or 5% of the receptors are active, whereas when you meet someone person, it's a hundred percent right. So it's like, man, what a one up you have. If you can get in front of someone. I was talking with a guy. He was in sales for one of the companies at the office here. And he was saying like, yeah, I do like nine thou, I've done 9,000 cold calls and I've gotten 80 meetings. And I'm like, okay, that's cool. But like, what if you just got in front of people? Like, like what if you use video messages? And he's like, yeah, you know, it's, there's a, it, an idea, but it's like my metric is cold calls. I was like, so do your cold calls and then do video, you know, figure out. A way to do it. If your metrics don't allow you to do that, like figure it out. A reason that like TikTok and Instagram and reels and all of the things are, are so high performing for people is because not only are they hearing the tonality of someone, they're getting to see their body language and their facial expressions, and that builds trust as well. Yeah, and there's all these little subconscious things that we can see too. Like I can tell when someone's losing interest in what I'm saying, if I'm like on. If I'm sitting next to them, right, they check out, right. And it's like, okay, this person's checked out. It was good to meet you. Like, you know, you say your goodbyes and sometimes not on purpose. Yeah. It's just, it's okay. Like it's just human nature. Right. And there's other times where you can tell someone's like super engaged and like really like. One of my favorite things is when a young person comes up to me and has seen what I've done and starts asking me about it, and they're fully attentive. They're not worried about their phone, they're not worried about what's going on, rather than they're listening intensely to what I say. And then they come back to me and they say, Hey, I did this thing. And sometimes it happens like a year or two later, I'll have people come back and say, oh, hey. By the way, that conversation we had completely changed my business. I had that happen like a, a few weeks ago. It's like, oh, by the way, and yeah, one time you told me that thing that I should do that completely changed my business. It's the best feeling. I'm like, what if you're focused on that, then you almost don't ever need to like. Sell yourself. You're not selling yourself, right? None of us are selling ourselves or our products. We're adding value and people are deciding for themselves that that's worth something to them. And it becomes more about how do we present ourselves in a way that make people feel like they can trust us? Yeah, trust is a big one that's hard to overcome in business relationships. Yeah, man, it's just so interesting'cause I was like, I was with a good friend of mine. He owns a large business in town, like a really large business and he's like, Hey, nothing you told me one time. It really stuck with me. And I, I feel like in my head a lot of times, and this is kind of like one of those things that I've had to learn, like again, we're all human but he was like, that thing really stuck with me. And it's like sometimes I just talk so much, I don't even think about it. And then people come back to me and they're like, that thing you said really stuck with me. And I'm like, oh, I thought. You know, I just kind of ramble, you know? And then so I do too sometimes. Yeah. So it happens to me as well. Yeah. And people come back and they're like, I was like, oh, thank you. Like I was just rambling, you know? But it was valuable to them. And so that's a really satisfying feeling. I don't know where I was going with that. I was probably on a ramble right then. That's pretty up our alley. I'll take it. I mean, you and I have sat down and talked for, what, four or five hours at a time before. Yeah. So I'm not surprised by any means, but, yeah. I think with, with that topic too, like you, when you're, when you're thinking about adding, adding value to people and building trust and. The longevity of that, you have to be okay being uncomfortable too, because I think one of my biggest fears when I came into this industry was, oh, what are other people gonna think of me? I don't have all this credibility behind my name and you know, I don't wanna be that cringey person on the internet that's just like constantly promoting her service or product. And I had to, one, quit caring so much about what people thought, but two remind myself that the room that I need to be in is the one where I'm not the smartest person in the room. And that is scary for a lot of people. I would, I still get scared when I go to events and I have to speak on stage, you know? But, but I think then if you go one step further, it, it's about. The people that you have in your corner, the table that you sit at, I wouldn't feel like I had anything to offer the world if it wasn't for the people in my corner reminding me that I do. Because there are days where it gets hard to remember. It gets lonely. Yeah. So, you know, the table that you sit at matters. The room that you put yourself in should be uncomfortable. And just as much as we're looking to provide value to other people, we also have to be building ourselves and who we wanna be in that is affected by the people that we let into our inner circle. You get to be, you are somebody in my inner circle. David's somebody in my inner circle. You know, those people have made me feel like I'm capable of doing something so much bigger than I ever thought was possible. Yeah, yeah. Something that I admire about you is you, you stay on the mission.'cause there've been several times where I talked with you about different opportunities that are out there and you're like, no, I'm building easy to be. Where I'm building, I'm building easy. That's what I do. You know, we're, we're building it to be where we want it to go. Something that I admire about you is the fact that you're mission focused and you know where you want to go. Right. And you know the direction that you want to take a company in. And something that's really fascinating to me, and, and great to have you on the show is that. You know, a lot of the people that I have on here, they're the entrepreneurs, right? They're the, the ones who are, have started the company and are building it, but the people like you are equally, if not more important than the entrepreneur that are carrying the torch from the beginning of a company to build it. The entrepreneur alongside. Yeah, the entrepreneur. But someone like you is an intrapreneur inside the company and. As an entrepreneur myself, we need people like you. You know, like my assistant Autumn, she like, we meet together and we talk about the problems, and she brings such amazing perspective into my business and things that I never would've thought of. And so having that like person to bounce things off of and bring other ideas to the table is so, so important inside of an organization. It is, and I think it forces us to recognize each other's strengths. So I work with David Olds, he's very much a visionary. He's a wonderful visionary. So, yeah, one of, I mean, I think recognizing each other's strengths is a really important thing. So my boss, David Olds, he's very much a visionary. He's an entrepreneur. He's built lots and lots of different companies and coaching programs. He has his own podcasts. He's a visionary. He has. Put these ideas out there and brought them to fruition. And then you have people like me who are more integrators, who like to look at the things and say, how can we better optimize this process to make it profitable or to make it flow better? Where can we fit this in? How do people respond to the. Emails versus calls, you know, whatever it is. We ha we just have different strengths and so he very much has given me a platform to be able to run with that. Here is my idea, let's make it better. And I think that's a big reason that I have, like you said, stayed so dedicated to the task at hand and haven't left easy. I'd like to also add to that by saying that you know, part of that is also that I desire to build a skill and once I started building that skill, I didn't necessarily have a desire to build another one yet. I'm constantly building new skills within that job. I'm learning new things, new systems, new methods, but by. By being the one who said, Hey, this is what I'm gonna do and I'm gonna do it to the best of my ability. And then doing it makes me a lot less likely to ever leave because I have that internal gratification of doing something. And I think that's something a lot of entrepreneurs, entrepreneurs, whoever can apply. If we are constantly learning new things, then we are always gonna feel better about what we're bringing to the table and, and how to make that bigger and better. Hmm. Yeah. That's great. So as far as your experience in business and you know, really building a company from the ground up, what would you say that the most important part of, I, I am trying to figure out how to phrase this, like. What would you say the most important aspect has been to keep on the front of your brain of like going into work every day. Like what is something that is super important to you every single day when you go in to work? I felt like fished it out of there. What I wanted to ask a couple of things. I. I think overarching would be how do I best optimize our systems operations and teams? But more importantly than that, how do I make sure that the people I'm working with feel valued? I consider myself very much a cheerleader in my office space. Every time we have a meeting, it's not over till I yoga team and do a little upper hand clap. Like I want people to feel celebrated. I want their wins to be acknowledged, and I want them to feel like they can come to me at any time with any problem and I'm going to help them. I'm not just gonna tell them how to fix it. There are times where. I need to encourage my employee to do it themselves and then ask for help fixing it later. There are other times where they really need somebody to step in right then. And so that's just kind of the mindset that I like to take to the table every day is how can I, how can I be what other people need me to be today so that they can perform their best? And in turn, I end up performing my best because I'm able to create value. Awesome. And. Within your real estate. I wanna talk about something that we forgot to mention actually in the last episode. So I'm glad that we have the chance to do this. I wanna talk about like how connections have helped you in your own personal real estate investing journey, and maybe you can tell a story about how you ended up buying your duplex. Yes. Well, connections had everything to do with that. I, I would almost. Venture to say that every opportunity I've had in my life has been because I've made a connection. And I always say that luck is preparation, meeting opportunity. Sometimes those opportunities are connections, like we still have to pay attention to them, right? We have to prepare for all the things that we wanna do in life, but we also have to be paying attention to those people that, you know, we wanna bring in or might add value to ours as well. And so, yeah. Goodness. I think it was. The beginning of December, 2024, just a few months ago, and I came to your local real estate meetup and I was sitting in the back, I was sitting next to Megan Huggins with key title, and I was scrolling on Zillow. I. And she just kind of leaned over to me and said like, are you looking for a house? And I was like, I'm not really looking for anything. She was like, are you looking for a duplex? I was like, I'm just like scrolling. I don't know. And she's like, let me introduce you to someone. So afterwards she introduced me to Cory Ballou. I. Agent investor, local lender, he's phenomenal. And I just kind of jokingly said, hi, I'm Hannah. Do you have any duplexes for sale? And he was like, yeah, actually I do. And so he sent it to me and we couldn't look at it until we went under contract. So went ahead and made an offer. It got accepted. Ended up going over there and it was in a lot. Worst condition than was described. And thankfully I have enough of a background in real estate that I knew what the seller was in at it, in he was gonna be in the hole if he went any lower, and there was no way I could make him an offer at that price. And it worked in my favor with the work that needed to be done. So kindly backed out of that deal, and the next day Corey sent me another duplex. And I said, let's go look at it this afternoon, I think it's, this is a Monday morning. We went and looked at it. Monday afternoon, we drew up an offer to submit Monday night, and by Tuesday afternoon, they had accepted my offer. The craziest thing about this is that I offered slightly less than the asking price, but. The duplex is in a neighborhood of other duplexes, and for anybody that owns multi-families, usually they understand that if there are doors on the street that you already own doors on, you're gonna try to buy those doors because it's easier to have multiple of your rentals in one place. So I was fully expecting based on what I knew about the property, for there to be lots and lots of. Bids way over asking. And there were, come to find out after the fact, but I made an offer, first day, only 3000, all over asking and they accepted it. And I had prayed. When I submitted the offer, I was like, God, if, if this is the house for me, my offer will get accepted. And if it's not, like I wasn't even looking in the first place and I will move on. But it just felt like the snowball effect, like things kept happening and so they accepted my offer. Went in everything was, was pretty smooth throughout the whole process. I did find out later they had offers higher than mine that they didn't accept. I got my inspection back and they actually conceded on the price in lieu of some repairs, which was phenomenal. And yeah, it just felt like thing after thing after thing kept aligning. And then we get to closing and there's a tenant in one side of the duplex and he. I basically told him, you know, Hey, are you like I have to increase your rent? Here are your options. Again, prayed On the way over there when I'm dropping off this notice form to him, I was like, if I'm supposed to live in this property, he is going to. Move out and if I'm not supposed to live in this property, he's gonna stay. And he accepted my rent increase. So that was really cool. And then on top of that, my younger brother who had been who was in a, like a program through a local church, had finished the program and was looking for a place to live. This was like right at the beginning of January. And I closed at the end of January and he reached out to me. You know, asking if I had a place. That he could live. And I just had this aha moment because I remembered a year prior driving him out to this program and asking him in the car like, what are you most excited or nervous about for a year from now? And one of the things he was most worried about was having a place to live. And I had jokingly said to him a year prior, well, you never know. This time next year I could have a duplex and you could rent it. And so, you know, my plan originally was to move into it until, you know, he, he needed. A place to live. And so it, it just felt like everything aligned and I had so much peace. And I know myself, I have, I get a little bit anxious about things I have never done before. This was my first investment property, so I was nervous, but I had like this. Inner sense of peace. And as somebody who works on real estate closings for a living, it was the easiest closing I've ever worked on. Like there were no issues. Everything happened on time, everything was communicated. And so, yeah, I just, one, it was just a really beautiful testament to how putting what I'm looking for out there in the universe kind of brings those things back to me to just the importance of connections I was able to get. My home inspector referred by someone. I was able to make repairs post-closing because I think you referred me to someone. David referred me to someone. Everything was just a. Just a big conglomerate of connections that ultimately led me to make a step that I had been too afraid to make before I had all the tools, I had all the resources before, but I didn't have the peace of mind that that inner circle brought me. The community, the support, the, okay, I have an agent, I have a lender, I have a. I have a general contractor, I have an inspector, you know, all of the things. And it felt like those just landed in my, in right in my lap. Yeah. And once you've done one, it makes it way easier to do more too, right? Yeah. I'm sure you can tell me all about that when I buy my next one and I call you. Yeah, yeah. No, you'll see it. It's, it's been really interesting and my investing career is like, you get your first and then it's like, oh. Oh, I can do this. Right? You can do this again. And then once you do, you know, once you're like, oh, I can do this. Like you're looking at other houses, you're like, yeah, I might buy that. And it's so funny because a lot of people in the, in the you talk to, it's like, I'm like, yeah, I almost bought a hotel. Yeah, but once you get it, a real estate deal under your belt, I'm like, oh, I might buy a hotel. And people are like, what are you talking about? I'm like, yeah, I know the right people. And like, did I buy the hotel? No. But could I buy a hotel? Yeah. Because even though like I don't have any money, but you don't need to have money. You just need to know the right people. You do. And that's the whole reason for this whole entire show. If I could boil the show down to like one thing, it's like. And that's the real definition of success in my opinion, is not how much money you make or how big your company, but the day that your name becomes a solution to a problem.'cause other people recognize the value that you have to bring, that's when you're successful. Hmm. That's it. Well, I don't see a better place to ask the last question, and that is, what is the connection to a person or group of people that changed the trajectory of your life or business? That one is such an easy answer for me because it is. My current company and David Olds and Heather Anderson they have provided me with a wonderful platform where I've been able to expand my personal and professional goals to. Challenge. They've challenged me to do harder, bigger, better things, and they've listened to me and supported me in endeavors, even outside of business in the nonprofit that I work for in buying my first investment property in hiring a mover. When I moved into my apartment like they have been like my family and. When I say like the people that sit at your table matter, they matter because I would not be who I am without them. Amazing. Well thank you so much for coming on the show. Thanks for having me. If people want to connect with you, what is the best place to do that? So they can find us at easy. REI closings.com. That's the letter E and the letter Z. They can find me on Instagram. Hannah Easy. REI closings and pretty much. Look up David Olds. He's way more prominent on the internet than I am these days. He's got lots of value to add in any and all areas of business. Awesome. Well thanks so much for coming on the show guys. If you're still here, I just wanna tell you, thank you so much for being here and listening to the show. It's such an honor to get to be able to do this. Also, I just realized in the last two episodes I didn't even mention the sponsor of my podcast. So why don't I just roll out right now? Oh, hey there. It's me again. I know you expected Morgan Freeman to come on and talk about the biggest company in the world. Well, I'm sorry, but you get the next best thing. This show is sponsored by the company that I co founded, Acadia Capital, and acadia is a hard money lending fund originating loans in Southeast Tennessee and Northern Georgia on residential one to four unit renovation properties. We are regulation D five Oh six C fund and are actively seeking accredited investors. We provide fantastic first position real estate back returns. If you're ready to get your tired and lazy capital to work with a minimum 8 percent return, go to Acadia loans. com backslash invest. Not only do we accept standard investments, but we can also accept self directed IRAs and other self directed retirement accounts to take advantage of tax advantage investing. Thank you so much for listening to art connecting now back to the show. Okay. Well now that we're back, thank you so much for listening to the show. Please share this episode with a friend. If you got value out of it, it would mean so much to me and leave a five star review and I will catch you guys on the next episode.