Think You Need a Bank Loan? Here’s How to Build Your Empire Without One!

"Think You Need a Bank Loan? Here’s How to Build Your Empire Without One!"

In this episode, we dive deep into the game-changing strategies of Carlos "Los" Calahan, a Chicago entrepreneur who built a real estate empire with over 80 properties—all without relying on traditional bank loans. From launching Smoothie Rx to creating Around The World Coffee, Los reveals how he leveraged alternative lending and strategic credit to dominate in real estate, fitness, and the coffee industry.

What You’ll Learn:

• 🚀 Alternative Lending Secrets: How to secure funding without a bank loan.
• 🏠 Real Estate Mastery: The steps Los took to build an 80+ door real estate portfolio.
• 💡 Business Credit Hacks: How to turn credit into a wealth-building tool for your business.
• 🌟 Entrepreneurial Resilience: The mindset needed to overcome challenges and scale.

Why Watch:
Whether you're a new entrepreneur or looking to expand, this episode is packed with actionable insights that can help you build your empire—no traditional bank loan required.

💡 Subscribe to @keithdterry for more interviews with top entrepreneurs and game-changing business strategies!

Join the Conversation:

• Like & Share: Found this valuable? Give it a thumbs up and share it!
• Comment Below: What questions do you have about alternative lending? Let us know!

Hashtags:
#AlternativeLending #KeithDTerry #TheNextBigThingPodcast #Entrepreneurship #RealEstateInvesting #CarlosCalahan #FinancialFreedom #BusinessCredit #NoBankLoan #BuildYourEmpire

Chapters

00:00
Introduction to Building Your Future

02:48
The Journey of Carlos 'Los' Callahan

06:01
Early Challenges and Entrepreneurial Spirit

09:00
Navigating Real Estate and Funding Challenges

12:02
Partnerships and Aligning Principles

15:06
Alternative Financing Strategies

17:52
Mistakes and Lessons Learned

20:53
Expanding into New Ventures

24:01
Diversifying Business Strategies

27:08
Advice for Aspiring Real Estate Investors

29:42
Emotional vs. Financial Decisions in Real Estate

32:22
Alternative Financing and Education

34:36
Masterclass on Accessing Credit

36:57
Utilizing Lines of Credit

38:41
Vetting Participants for Success

40:51
SmoothieRx: A Health Journey

44:06
Future Business Ventures and Growth

47:54
Investment Strategies and Market Outlook

52:57
Advice for Aspiring Entrepreneurs

Transcript

Keith D Terry (00:00.241)
Hello everyone and welcome to the next big thing. Here we aim to teach, inspire and motivate by sharing the journeys of successful entrepreneurs, industry pioneers and change makers. I'm your host, Keith Terry. And on this podcast, aim to, our mission is to dive deep into the stories behind the success, uncovering lessons and challenges and insights that can empower you to live your own big dreams. I want to apologize for the little technical difficulty that we had in the beginning, you know, as this world.

continues to expand, technical glitches happen, but we've surpassed them and I'm delighted that you're here. And I wanna thank you for tuning in. If you're interested in following my other episodes, we can be found on Apple, iHeartRadio, and Spotify. And I have a special request. If you can join my family on the YouTube channel, you can find me at at KeithDTerry. But today's episode is all about building your future.

You know, as we emerge from the global challenges of COVID-19 and we wrestle with inflation, rising prices, and general uncertainty, people across the country are seeking stability and growth. The upcoming presidential election has heightened the sense of urgency for change, whether it's in leadership, economic reform, or just simply business opportunities. Many small business owners and aspiring entrepreneurs

are asking themselves, can I navigate these uncertain times and secure my financial future? Today, we're gonna answer those questions. And I'm delighted that our special guest is Carlos and he goes by Los Callahan. He's a master at leveraging business lending alternatives strategies, and he has built a business empire. But before I formally introduce you to him, let me set the stage with a little bit of background on alternative financing.

In the world of business, securing capital has long been a challenge, especially for small business owners and entrepreneurs. Traditional bank loans come with many restrictions, and more often than not, many small businesses are turned away. In fact, 80 % of small business owners are denied through traditional financial institutions. This gap has given rise to some financial methods that people have used.

Keith D Terry (02:22.523)
And over the last two decades, the landscape has dramatically changed and given rise to peer-to-peer lending, crowdfunding platforms, business credit strategies, platforms like Kickstarter, Lending Club, Kiva have paved the way for everyday entrepreneurs to get access to funds that they previously was unimaginable and very difficult to get to.

And now there are other more diverse options like cryptocurrency backed loans and real estate collateral loans. And this is why I'm delighted to talk to, to Los Callahan. So let me introduce you to this special guest. Our special guest is Carlos Los Callahan. Carlos is a real estate investor. He's a Med Spa owner. He's an Airbnb investor. He's a serial entrepreneur with a portfolio. Check this out of 80 real estate properties.

and businesses such as Around the World Coffee and Smoothie RX. Loss has mastered the balance between leveraging business credit and diversifying his investment portfolio. He doesn't only just do it for himself, he's helping others. And he's helped mentor hundreds of entrepreneurs, helping them unlock, check this out, over $3 million of credit through his strategic financial planning methods. Carlos, welcome to the show, how are you?

Los Callahan (03:47.928)
Good. Thank you. Thank you. What's going on? I mean, Keith, we had a nice time when we met initially and, you know, it's been a couple of months, but we made this happen. I appreciate it.

Keith D Terry (03:57.507)
I totally am looking forward to it. I'm delighted. You know, as we get into this conversation, and he's right for those folks that are listening, I met this gentleman at the Black Chamber of Commerce event through our good friend, S.J. Gardner. And I just was very impressed with what he has achieved. And as we get ready to have this conversation, Carlos, where did you come from? Tell us a little bit about your background.

Los Callahan (04:25.764)
I come from the South side of Chicago. I'm from 103rd area. I went to Corliss High School, went through Smith, you know, and that's where I started from, you know, in public housing. know, our rent was $26 a month. And boy, I wish I could have $26 a month rent now. But yeah, you know, I come from one of the worst parts of the city of Chicago where people see on the news, they're, you if they're not from here.

Keith D Terry (04:41.21)
Okay.

Keith D Terry (04:44.836)
I know you do.

Los Callahan (04:54.932)
The Roseland, Rosemead area has kind of always been plagued with violence and drug and gang activity and all of that type of stuff.

Keith D Terry (05:03.825)
Well, that's cool, which makes it that much more impressive. So you've built an impressive portfolio, real estate, fitness, coffee. When did you realize entrepreneurship was your path?

Los Callahan (05:18.308)
I was a shorty. I was young. I think, you know, when you come from places like where we come from, and you don't have some of the things that you wish you had, you kind of put yourself in position. I wish, I wish, I wish. And then so back then, you know, I used to sell icy cups, you know, we used to, you know, and all that type of stuff. then, you know, coming up in school, you know, they used to ask you like what you want to be when you grow up, what you want to be.

Keith D Terry (05:37.927)
Okay.

Los Callahan (05:46.468)
The term entrepreneur wasn't even out yet. You know, it was before that time. So I should say a businessman. I wanted to be a businessman. And here you go. I'm a businessman. I manifested a businessman out of myself.

Keith D Terry (05:54.971)
Okay.

Keith D Terry (06:01.423)
Now, and that's good. Was there an early role model that you followed or you just knew this was what you wanted to do?

Los Callahan (06:08.312)
Yeah, I mean, it was just in me because I didn't have any role models. My mother was a bartender. She wasn't on this path at all. And I remember specifically growing up in the house and I got some books in the house. And I just don't know where my mother got the books from, how they ended up in my house. But I read How to Win Friends and Influence People at like seven or eight years old.

I also read The Power of Your Subconscious Mind by Joseph Murphy at like seven, eight, nine, 10 years old, because it was in the house. And I don't even understand how that book was in the house. Those books were in the house, because that wasn't my mother's energy at the time. So it was like, I don't know. They're supposed to be here for me to read. And I think those books kind of shaped what I wanted to do with myself.

Keith D Terry (06:52.058)
Okay.

Keith D Terry (06:59.077)
Okay. And so what were some of the early challenges? know, when the, you know, I, what I'd love to do is a step-by-step approach, you know, cause what you've built right now is quite an extensive portfolio. How did you begin? What was your, was it real estate or was it something else?

Los Callahan (07:14.044)
Yeah, yeah, no, it was real estate. Man, this journey has, you know, we got a thing now, the journey been journeying, you know what I'm saying? It took a long time to get where I am today. And I personally wouldn't even think that I would be where I am today, looking back where it started from. But at the end of the day, it started through real estate from me looking at...

some infomercials. We all probably familiar with Carlton Sheets and there's no down payment system that we've seen on TV for years and years and years and years. That's really how it started for me. So I used to see that all the time. then I'm just like that, man. Well, if they could do it, I could do it because I'm looking at them and I'm looking at their story. I'm looking at them show what they buying and all this stuff. And I'm like, well,

Keith D Terry (07:49.755)
Right? No doubt.

Los Callahan (08:09.582)
they look like they come from trailer trash. if the trailer trash can do it because I'm the equivalent of trailer trash coming from the projects in the ghetto. I'm like, so if they could do it, then we could do it. So that was really my motivation. Like, man, if they could do it, then I could do it. I didn't know what some of those terms that they was using at the time, balance sheets and networks and all that stuff.

Keith D Terry (08:22.682)
Okay.

Los Callahan (08:33.954)
credit and all that stuff. you know, that kind of opened my eyes to like this whole realm of business. That was like the first time that I kind of dug into any of that. So going through its course and reading that and all of that, that's really what kind of started it.

Keith D Terry (08:49.319)
And you know, in my opening monologue, I talked a little bit about the difficulty of getting funding. Was that an early challenge for you?

Los Callahan (08:59.172)
Listen.

Keith D Terry (09:02.021)
Okay.

Los Callahan (09:02.752)
Real estate, you know, it I say it fucked my life up. Right. And the reason why I say that is because when I first started real estate, I was 17 years old, 18 years old, coming into 18.

Keith D Terry (09:07.558)
Okay.

Keith D Terry (09:16.689)
That's when you got your first property.

Los Callahan (09:18.678)
No, that's when I first started doing real estate deals, started what we call farming, real estate deals and things of that sort. So at 17, 18 years old, it was kind of difficult. And I'm going through Carlton Sheets and it's creative financing. It's different type of offers that's to be made. That's what he teach. So when I go to the marketplace at 18 years old to make these creative offers,

Keith D Terry (09:25.988)
Okay.

Los Callahan (09:45.284)
They laugh at me. Like there's no way that this 18 year old is about to be able to do a balloon payment of $90,000 in five years or whatever that looked like. So what, and this is why I say real estate fucked my life up because from there, it's like, you know, I didn't want to keep getting denied, keep getting denied. So, okay, well I'm gonna go get the money. So it took me to the only way that I could even possibly foresee getting some money in that type of manner. And that was from the streets. I was in the South side of Chicago.

Keith D Terry (10:05.137)
Okay.

Los Callahan (10:15.138)
seeing people make money. I got people in my neighborhood driving Lexuses and all kind of shit. know, I, hey man, let me see what I could do. Let me see if I could get me some money. So even though I did take to the streets to get myself started and well, I would say get myself started because maybe even about six months later, I ended up getting my first deal at 18. And when I say my first deal, I didn't buy a property as an investor. I wholesale it. So I was able to get it on the contract.

Keith D Terry (10:37.095)
Okay.

Los Callahan (10:44.726)
sell it to someone else and make a spread. So I did that, took my $4,000 check and went and bought like two pounds of weed. And here it is, I'm taking good money, making it bad and kind of perpetuated that process for a while, kind of had some success with the other money and kind of got me away from real estate a little bit more.

but I knew I needed more money to do so. So it was kind of like a cycle of let me get this money so I could do this and get this money so I could do that. So yeah, I played seesaw for years.

Keith D Terry (11:23.078)
Okay, and then when did you venture away from real estate and add to your portfolio Med Spa, Smoothie RX, walk us through that, that path.

Los Callahan (11:34.948)
Man, you know, I've done all kinds of things in business. know, I had a, well, we had a restaurant back in like 2015 with a partner that partnership didn't work out so well. The business was great, man. We was on track to do about a million and half of revenue the first year. It was really good, but the partnership was bad. So, you know,

Keith D Terry (11:56.907)
wow.

Los Callahan (12:02.764)
I learned a lot during that relationship because again, although like our goals could be aligned, we may want the same things, it may sound like we want the same things, but if we don't have the same principles and things of that sort, man, it's just not gonna work out. So that particular partnership didn't work out. So, you know, was back to real estate. Real estate has always been the bread and butter.

Keith D Terry (12:27.761)
So let's slow it down a little bit. you talked, I loved what you just said about having aligned principles. Can you, in a step-wide fashion kind of lay out what you think entrepreneurs, how they should go about aligning their principles with a potential partner?

Los Callahan (12:45.578)
sure, you know, I think that...

When we talk about faith, think that one should, even if you don't believe in the same God, I think that you should be aligned and know that there is a higher power and that, you know, it's someone else that the architect of all these things that give us the power to move and so forth. I think that, you know, we need to be, at least for me, you know, we need to be aligned, especially like on roles. Because in my mind, I may have a role that I think that works well for me and works well for you.

Keith D Terry (13:13.596)
Okay.

Los Callahan (13:19.768)
But in your mind, you maybe wanna do something totally different. And if we don't have these things defined and laid out, these things get convoluted down the line and could pose a bigger problem when someone feels that they should be doing something else. And that was probably one of the biggest things with my partnership because it was a restaurant. We partnered with a cook, a chef. So, from what we spoke about,

Keith D Terry (13:44.965)
Okay.

Los Callahan (13:49.252)
it was her job to run the back of the house, run the kitchen, make sure everything is moving and everything got the kitchen. And we was going to do everything else, front of the house, bring customers in, marketing, do everything. But they weren't content with that role as time persisted. And because of that, feelings got in the way and certain things were said.

And I'm just the type of person to you eat those words, boy, you're gonna eat that sandwich. you know, we end up leaving. We kind of recouped our investment. We left and took our business acumen elsewhere. And about, not even 90 days later, that business closed. She closed. She couldn't keep it up no

Keith D Terry (14:20.89)
Okay.

Keith D Terry (14:38.087)
Okay, okay, okay, okay. So you've taken the principles you learned from that one and you've moved on. I love that. And so as we talk about funding, was your funding organic from that point? we're going to get into it, because you teach other people and you have an alternative strategy, but just staying with the early part of your portfolio, when did you start, when did you pivot towards using alternative funding sources?

Los Callahan (15:06.532)
maybe about as far as for real estate acquisitions and business expansion and things like that. So it may be about 2012, about 2012, 2013.

Keith D Terry (15:17.647)
Okay. And that was because the traditional sources weren't playing along?

Los Callahan (15:23.524)
It's not that they was playing along. I just don't necessarily like the way that they played. They take a long time. They want a whole lot of paperwork, real estate, especially the way that I do real estate. These deals need to be closed rather quickly. at the time, the banks that I was using at the time, they moved too slow. So alternative funding became a better source.

Keith D Terry (15:44.027)
Okay.

Keith D Terry (15:48.399)
Okay, so let's get into that. So take me through how quickly your deals close, what alternative sources you use so that you educate the listening public.

Los Callahan (16:00.898)
Okay, so typically, you know, if you go to the bank, especially for like an investment property of the magnitude that I buy, it's gonna be at least 60 days for the bank to close unless you got like a revolving line of credit or something like with the bank, but that's still not gonna give you long-term financing. That's just gonna give you acquisition and time to get in the deal, which is fine. But typically, the average person don't have what it takes to get that type of funding from the bank.

in the manner of time that you need to kind of get it done. So you got private sources of money. You got people who've been working their whole life, did well in their job, know that the bank only gonna give them 0.0025 % on their money. And they don't mind with someone, investing their money with someone like me who got a real estate track record of winning. And they can get

Keith D Terry (16:36.743)
You're right.

Los Callahan (16:58.372)
15 % of their money, 10 % of their money, 8 % of their money, depending on the deal. So, you know, I use private funds. I also use hard money. You know, you hear probably some misconceptions about hard money lenders, but I use a lot of hard money lenders. I do use the bank for traditional, but not for traditional financing. have lines of credit with the bank and I kind of use all of these things congruently to get a deal done. So I may take a deal down.

and do acquisitions with the line of credit. And then, you know, I may get, you know, a construction loan to finish the work and then sell it or refinance it and pay the line off and do all kinds of, it just depends on the deal. Like no two deals are alike. So I try not to approach these deals the same way. I kind of look and see.

Keith D Terry (17:46.129)
So when you say hard money, explain that. I wanna make sure I'm understanding what you mean by that.

Los Callahan (17:52.42)
So hard money is just a form of alternative financing where it's private individuals, private companies with money and they got their own terms on which they lend. Sometimes the terms are hard, sometimes they a lot easier. You can kind of get in and get out and rather quickly, I get lenders that I can close in three to seven days with depending on what the deal is and the magnitude of the deal. So, know.

making an offer with a seller telling them I can close in seven days and really close in seven days when they having some sort of hardship, that's a good bullet to have in your gun.

Keith D Terry (18:26.758)
Yes.

Keith D Terry (18:31.097)
It really is. mean, the closing three to five days is a remarkable timeline. It allows you to do a whole lot of creative things. Based on that, have you made any mistakes?

Los Callahan (18:42.452)
yeah, yeah, I some mistakes. Definitely, yeah, but I ain't made a whole lot. I, I ain't made a whole lot.

Keith D Terry (18:47.033)
Okay. So go ahead. Go ahead.

Los Callahan (18:52.822)
No, why don't you talk about what kind of mistakes, what kind of mistakes you're looking for?

Keith D Terry (18:56.731)
Well, I'm not really looking for anything. It's just, you know, for those, for those aspiring entrepreneurs who are looking to use alternative financing, you know, what counsel do you give them? Because, you know, a mistake is a lesson, right?

Los Callahan (19:10.264)
Read, read, read, read, read. It's like the Bible say, seek ye out of the book and read. You know what saying? Read the term sheet. If it's something that you don't understand, talk to the account manager. Get a finance dictionary if you need to. If it's some terms or stuff that you don't know, but read, read. Don't just allow someone to say these are the terms.

what we call a LOI or a term sheet over and don't read it through because it may not reflect what you talked about. And then you go and move forward with the deal and you sign and then here it is, you you get a deal that you don't necessarily like the terms. So I would say read not, I haven't had a problem like that at all, but those are some problems that happens traditionally in finance, especially with hard money.

Keith D Terry (20:02.887)
And who's part of your team? I mean, I know that you have a wonderful wife who is part of your team, but I would assume you have a lawyer and a financial advisor or do you?

Los Callahan (20:13.652)
So I do have a lawyer, but I don't I kind of only use him to Negotiate things of that sort because for some odd reason, you know attorneys only like attorneys to talk to them You know, they act like they ears don't work when someone else is speaking to him So I kind of talked to my attorney but

I don't really use my attorney much. I'm kind of my own attorney. I go over my own contracts. I write up my own contracts. I do my own taxes and so forth and then just allow the CPA to file them. So in case I need to use his errors and omissions insurance in case something I messed up on, I use the E &O insurance, but I kind of do my own taxes and so forth.

Keith D Terry (20:53.255)
I hear you. I hear you. Okay. I love that. So now you, you, you built this, real estate portfolio. At what point did you decide to expand into Airbnb, Med Spa? mean, what, what's your recipe for how you plan to grow your or how you have grown your portfolio?

Los Callahan (21:11.812)
Well, the Med Spa, that ain't have nothing to do with me. I was a supporter of that. That was my lady thing. She kind of liked that. She got friends that was in the Med, well, they're still in the Med Spa business. And you you got friends saying, hey man, y'all need to do this. You make this much amount of money. You do this and we do that. Y'all got a network of people. You got a customer base instantly. And it's like, you know what? All right, we can give that a try.

We gave it a try and we realized that we didn't have a customer base instantly. We thought we did. We thought that all those followers and all those people that we knew that wasn't going to come through, but they didn't. And it's great because it taught us how to take a new business with zero foot traffic, with zero customers and grow it to a multimillion dollar business. So I'm grateful for not having our customer base, our real estate customer base.

and all that stuff come into the mayor's spotlight that don't get me wrong. I definitely had some friends that the Gatt services and things of that sort. But when we think about the real estate following that we have in Chicago from our meetups and things of that sort, clients and things of that sort and friends, we would have thought that we had a lot more of those people coming through, but we didn't. And again, it was great because it taught me, it taught us, should I say, online marketing, getting people in the door and all that stuff.

Keith D Terry (22:35.655)
Okay. So you've built up on it and I'd love to hear that, that you have several multimillion dollar businesses. And so, as we move on to the Airbnb, what was the, was it just taking a part of your real estate portfolio and making it available through that Airbnb channel? Is that the logic behind it?

Los Callahan (22:37.336)
So it worked out.

Los Callahan (22:58.532)
I mean, at the end of the day, that's our real estate. So, you know, it's just a different exit strategy when it comes to real estate. know, I'm a buy and hold investor. I'm a fix and flipper. Like, I'm a real estate entrepreneur. So I'm not like limited to what I do in real estate. If an opportunity that comes and that property makes sense to do Airbnb, then that's what we gonna do. If that property, if that valuation, it makes sense to sell it, then that's what we gonna do. If it makes sense to keep it, then that's what we gonna do.

Keith D Terry (23:01.169)
Okay.

Los Callahan (23:27.716)
It's kind of all deals is a case by case basis. I don't kind of just buy real estate to say, yeah, I'm buying a property over here because this is I want to do. I let the deal come my way, let the numbers do what the numbers say. And if the numbers is the best case uses for Airbnb, that's what we're going to do. If the best use case is for just long term rent, then that's what we're going to do.

Keith D Terry (23:48.645)
Okay, so as you have grown into real estate and fitness, is there a recipe you use to diversify your business?

Los Callahan (24:01.721)
I want to say a recipe. It's definitely maybe a basic groundwork that I kind of look for. Industry, is it growing? Is it stagnant? Is it declining? Is it talkable? Because, you know, a lot of people get businesses and things of that sort, but is it talkable to the average person when I'm sitting in line talking to someone? Is it something I can talk about?

So I try to have businesses like that where it don't offend no one to talk about it if I wanted to talk to them about it. If the average person could see themselves as a customer of my business or somewhat. So that's kind of what I do. I kind of like to have, you know, businesses that I can talk to people about that I'm comfortable talking to people about that people will be comfortable talking with me about. When I was in the mayor's bar business.

Keith D Terry (24:37.457)
Okay.

Los Callahan (24:56.356)
It was kind of easy to get ladies to come to the med spa because they always get something waxed. know, whatever that something is, they get something waxed. Yeah. They need a facial or they come get facials and things of that sort. So it was kind of easy to segue into conversations with strangers about, you know, things of that sort. Same thing, like when I was in the car business, you you want to offend nobody telling them they...

Keith D Terry (25:04.039)
Be careful now.

Los Callahan (25:25.956)
can come trade their car in with me, I give them top dollar. So I like to have a conversational approach about my businesses. Everybody needs somewhere to live. And if you got somewhere to live, how about investment real estate? Do you own any investment real estate?

Keith D Terry (25:28.731)
OK.

Keith D Terry (25:40.935)
So are all your businesses original startups or do you acquire them from individuals?

Los Callahan (25:48.822)
Nah, they all original startups, but I'm open to acquiring business, but they all have been original startups.

Keith D Terry (25:54.811)
Are you interested in franchising any of your concepts?

Los Callahan (25:58.358)
I am, actually in the process of, I wouldn't necessarily say franchising right now, but we are, I would say, getting down to the nitty gritty and honing in our processes so we can franchise. So right now, again, the coffee brand only been open for four months. So we still trying to figure out what coffee blends work better than others and so forth, scaling the menu up or down.

So yeah, think that, you know, probably within the next 12 months, 12 to 18 months, we'll have enough data to kind of move forward with a franchise. But right now it's not ready for franchise and we still working things out. But it is a plan.

Keith D Terry (26:38.543)
Okay. Yeah. I play on the franchise side too. I'm franchise consultant, but that's interesting. I love this concept. And so before we get into kind of your philosophy on alternative of financing, any advice you want to give to those folks listening who are interested in getting into real estate, what's your filter? How do you look at the market? should, you know, because you know, people are always thinking about buying a home.

But we're not talking about buying a home now. We're talking about an investment real estate piece of property. How would you guide them? What advice would you give them?

Los Callahan (27:18.34)
A couple of things, right? Understand your temperament. If you scary, you know, people be scary and people know they scary. People know how to yaw with their money. You got people who are, I would never go to the casino. I would never gamble. I'm just scared to lose a dollar. And you got those types of people. So if you are that type of person, I would say deal with a property that don't need any work.

Keith D Terry (27:30.42)
That's true. Yeah.

Keith D Terry (27:35.195)
Right, right.

Los Callahan (27:46.116)
You can go in and find a nice property that needs a tenant. I would say buy a two to four unit. It's gonna pay for itself. You're gonna make a little money. You can get your ears wet and hopefully you don't have a experience that's gonna scare you out for buying you another one. Because, know, typically you gotta get over that fear and then if you have a pleasurable experience,

then you will go and go try it again. A lot of times people have bad experiences in real estate because they don't think it's a business. They think it's just something that you can just buy and it's gonna work out. But you need to have some education. If you didn't learn how to landlord properly, if you didn't learn how to evaluate the deal and to look for certain things, then you're probably gonna have a bad experience in real estate. So most people don't educate themselves. So first and foremost, you need to educate yourself. Like that's the most important thing.

Keith D Terry (28:24.87)
see.

Los Callahan (28:43.072)
And that's reading, that's YouTube University, that's podcasts like this one. Get around people who do it. In any, I don't care what metropolitan you are, it's always a group of investors that are doing some meetups and regroups in that area. Go tap in with them, ask them questions, go shadow them, and get involved.

Keith D Terry (29:02.981)
Are there any kind of real estate deals that you would walk away from? I because I love what you just said.

Los Callahan (29:08.302)
I walk away from all kinds of deals all the time.

Keith D Terry (29:11.111)
And why is that? Because the math doesn't work?

Los Callahan (29:14.552)
Yeah, the math don't work if it's too risky. If it, if it, it don't make sense, then, then, then I'm not buying. it's, it's easy, especially here in Chicago to get caught up in buying a property in Bronzeville, buying property in North line deal because it's hot and so forth. But you know, you, you can get a very bad deal and screw yourself because you didn't let the emotions of having a house in Bronzeville or building in Bronzeville.

make you make an emotional decision as opposed to an educated financial decision. So, you know, that's important.

Keith D Terry (29:48.933)
Okay. And a couple more questions on real estate because are there kinds of ... I mean, I'm not a real estate investor. I invest in businesses. And so when I look at the real estate market, I know you have two flats, multiple units. When you look at Chicago, is your portfolio strictly in Chicago or across the country?

Los Callahan (30:14.948)
Nah, my portfolio is Chicago. We got arguably the best real estate market in the country. So I probably wouldn't venture out unless it was like a large multifamily deal or something like that. Like I'm open to large commercial deals, three, 400 units or more or something like that in other areas. But outside of that, I got too much going on. We got too much opportunity in Chicago to be looking anywhere else.

Keith D Terry (30:37.713)
Well, help me with that. I want to understand the way Los Callahan looks at the real estate market. That's a big statement. Arguably one of the best real estate markets in the country. Why do you say that?

Los Callahan (30:48.964)
we got, we got good property values. Right. You got a lot of neighborhoods in Chicago, even right now, like right now, simultaneously, we got about five neighborhoods gentrifying right now. you familiar with 79th street? You know, you know, years ago, you, wouldn't buy a nothing on 79th street for a hundred thousand dollars. they got two units for 450 on 79th right now.

Keith D Terry (30:53.287)
Mm-hmm.

Keith D Terry (31:06.491)
Yes, I am.

Keith D Terry (31:12.913)
Right.

Keith D Terry (31:18.577)
Okay.

Los Callahan (31:19.012)
450,000 that I can pick up for 80,000, put $150,000 into it and sell it for 450 or keep it and retain the equity of, you know what saying? And there's so many areas in Chicago that I can do something like that with, or even greater. Probably one of my best deals that I'm working on right now. I bought a property in Washington Park for 132,000.

Keith D Terry (31:43.3)
Okay.

Los Callahan (31:46.276)
for 132 is worth 800,000. Where in America can I get into something for 132,000 and it have a value of 800,000? It's not been put.

Keith D Terry (31:58.447)
And do you worry you will be able to get that money out? I mean, it's worth 800, but you bought it for 132. Is that because it's not being kept up or? Okay. Okay.

Los Callahan (32:05.956)
Yeah, it needed some love. It needed some love, not a whole lot, but it needed some love. I'm gonna put probably another 250, 270 in there. So yeah, I'm great with that.

Keith D Terry (32:19.256)
Okay.

Keith D Terry (32:22.725)
Okay, so now let's get into the alternative. I mean, you teach people. I mean, I love that you have this, I won't call it a big heart, but you clearly are an educator. You wanna bring your tribe along with you. What got you into that? And first, the reason I say that people may not know that this brother has is a clubhouse.

He teaches on clubhouse. He, when I did my background investigation, he just came back from teaching folks having a masterclass in Jamaica. And I think that's just one of the locations that you, that you go to. What stimulated you to do that? Because you know, you're not, you're busy.

Los Callahan (33:09.4)
Yeah, so that one was kind of twofold, the retreats. The retreats actually spawn from my wife and I traveling every month. We try our hardest to travel once a month. And when we travel, we kind of travel in some of the best places the world got to offer. And when you stay at the best places the world got to offer, it ain't many people that look like us there, right? And then if they are,

Keith D Terry (33:29.274)
Okay?

Los Callahan (33:37.55)
they don't turn up the way we want to turn up there. So this was a way for me to travel with a group of like-minded individuals and we can take our party with us to the best places on earth. So it made sense for me to kind of target business owners where I could teach them something and now it's the business experience that they can write off and they can trick their wife into coming and all of this stuff. So.

Keith D Terry (33:40.634)
Okay, true.

Los Callahan (34:06.02)
it kind of worked out.

Keith D Terry (34:09.532)
So when you, I love that. And so when you talk about alternative financing, some people show, someone shows up to one of your little master classes, you retreats.

Los Callahan (34:22.786)
Not a little master, it's big master class, big retreat.

Keith D Terry (34:27.011)
Okay. And so what do you teach them when it comes to alternative financing? mean, walk us through that.

Los Callahan (34:36.43)
So it's more about how to go to the bank and access large lines of credit from the bank. So I kind of teach people how to systematically identify banks that's gonna give you the large lines of credit and then go in there and have the conversations and present the documents and things that you're gonna need to walk out with those large lines of credit. So we can go on Instagram right now, TikTok and all that stuff. You're gonna see all types of people talking about some.

Yeah, I can get you 50K and all this stuff and all this business funding and all this stuff, but they just talking credit cards. And then they talking, you know, that first round of, you know, business line of credit that almost every bank could give you undocumented, you know, $50,000 or less. So yeah, if you get five LLCs, you go get 50,000 from all five of them. Yeah, can get 50,000. You have $250,000, yes. But I teach you how to take your one LLC, go to the bank and go get millions from it, you know.

Keith D Terry (35:04.945)
Be well.

Los Callahan (35:32.644)
And even if you don't get millions from it, you're going to get a few hundred thousand. Everybody like 100 % of the people that has went and applied and applied themselves has got to prove. I don't have nobody that come to my retreats or my mentorship that's went to the bank and got declined. got a hundred percent.

Keith D Terry (35:32.689)
Okay.

Keith D Terry (35:37.125)
Okay.

Keith D Terry (35:51.569)
Now that, not lost, that's a big statement. That's a big, now, now, now it, it because you vet them before they even get into the group? Okay, okay, okay.

Los Callahan (35:54.54)
It is and I say with my chest out, I say with my chest out because you'd like to say that.

Los Callahan (36:05.42)
Absolutely. Absolutely. Absolutely. I don't got a sales page where you can just, yeah, I want that right now. And then you win. No, it don't work like that.

Keith D Terry (36:14.937)
Okay. So they clearly got to have their act together, the business together. Okay. That makes sense. And so it's all about going towards the bank. So you talked earlier about hard money. Do you ever tap hard money sources for you folks?

Los Callahan (36:19.204)
That's a loop. That's a loop.

Los Callahan (36:28.228)
Absolutely. what we do is we learn how to go and systematically get the money from the bank, know, large lines of credit. So now we get access to three, four, five, six, seven hundred thousand dollars of lines of credit. So then I can use the lines of credit as a down payment with the hard money lenders and so forth. So now I can get into these deals with none of my money. I may use, you know, forty thousand dollars or a hundred thousand dollars or two hundred thousand dollars from the line of credit just to get to put the 10 percent down from the lender.

The lender's gonna give me the money for the acquisition and the money for the construction to bring it back up to the standards of 2024. And then once at the end, I'll either refinance it or sell it, pay the line of credit off, and we back doing it again.

Keith D Terry (37:13.551)
Okay. And so I am curious. So for the folks to come into your masterclass, can I call it a masterclass? Okay. How should they look? What do they need to, you know, cause I'm here, here's what I'm looking at. There are going to be some small business owners that are going to be listening to this and getting, how should they look before they come talking to somebody like you? Should they obviously been in business for five years?

Los Callahan (37:23.235)
can.

Los Callahan (37:43.364)
I ain't gotta be in business that long. 12 months is good enough for me. We can get busy. But you know, any time, any history is always great, you know? So if they've been in business for a while, that's cool. Ideally, you know, I would like them to have a 700 plus credit score, ideally. But if they don't, but their business has revenue, we good with that. No, the bank like money.

So they don't necessarily care about credit if you can show them that you make money.

Keith D Terry (38:15.496)
And I guess what I'm trying to understand, are these businesses hardcore, their products versus services or it doesn't matter?

Los Callahan (38:21.668)
It don't matter. It don't matter. I'm gonna show you how your business can buy your apartment building. My Med Spa bought me a couple of apartment buildings. My real estate business bought me a couple of apartment buildings. I'm gonna show you how to make your business buy you a building or two or few.

Keith D Terry (38:37.455)
Okay. And how do these folks get involved in your master?

Los Callahan (38:41.578)
they typically tap in with me one shape and some way shape or my fashion. They either come through my Clubhouse channel, Instagram, or maybe the website, maybe word of mouth from a friend or something like that. Yeah, I had one of my retreats in Columbia, man. I had about six people that was just from word of mouth. And it was great. The energy was great. They passed the initial conversation and it was great. I'm glad they did.

Keith D Terry (39:08.785)
So what's the vetting process? They just need to have a conversation with you and the wife or you and your, I mean, what's the...

Los Callahan (39:14.37)
No, me personally, I don't even pass it off to nobody. I speak with everyone because first and foremost, I want to make sure that they got realistic expectations. You know, I want to make sure that what they come in here to do, that they get it painted realistically in their head because sometimes they think that they're going come and leave and be a billionaire and things of that sort. So, you know, I just want to see, you know, make sure that our goals in line, make sure that what even that I can even help you with is if you're looking to accomplish it.

Because although I am a real estate investor, been doing it for so long, you may have some real estate goals that's outside of my purview. You may have some business goals that I may or may not be able to help you with. So I just want to make sure that everybody come, they get the value that they're looking for. So I don't have nobody with buyer's remorse. And once they get back and all this stuff, they feel some type of way. So I just make sure that I get exactly what they're looking to get, and then I over-deliver.

Keith D Terry (40:12.996)
And so, you know, as you have built your portfolio, how did you end up getting into SmoothieRx? I love that name. Okay, let's do that.

Los Callahan (40:22.12)
I'm gonna go back though because I didn't properly finish answering that question because it ain't just that phone call. I do a certain line of questioning in that phone call to make sure that you really have a life mind. I double down on character questions. You may not even know that it's a character question. I kind of make sure that you're not a professional course taker.

Keith D Terry (40:39.569)
Okay.

Keith D Terry (40:45.67)
Hmm.

Los Callahan (40:51.672)
Because you got people who just in everybody program and just part of that person program, part of that person program and not really an action taker. So, you know, I ask questions to make sure that I'm not inviting any of those people in. Because I don't want you in to get the information and don't use it. Like that's not what I'm doing this for. This is for us to empower each other. And ain't no power if you don't flip the switch. So.

I need people who gonna really go and get to it. So, no, I ask questions. I can tell if you would go get a better way that you answer these questions. I'm not gonna tell y'all what these questions are right here in case y'all wanna tap in with me, but your answers will be under scrutiny because I'm looking for a certain type of person. Just to give you a synopsis, right? Look, my very first retreat,

I had an issue with payment with the the we travel the platform that was connected that was taking the payment. They end up refunding every last attendee of the retreat. We refunded them after the retreat. So we've been to Tulum had our fun had the education to get their book and everything they got. They got their money back after the retreat. Every last person sent me my money back within 48 hours and I'm getting it.

Keith D Terry (41:53.67)
Okay.

Keith D Terry (42:02.336)
wow.

Los Callahan (42:15.756)
every last one of them. I can't say I would have got that if I just had an open sales page to anybody that's able to come and any of that. I vet my people. I'm looking for a specific type of person, a specific character of person, the same type of energy that I give because we got business owners and we all got something unique to give. So it's not just a take, take, take type of energy. If you're not willing to reciprocate any information that you get and give, then I don't want you.

Keith D Terry (42:17.176)
Good.

Keith D Terry (42:43.833)
Okay, okay, okay, that makes sense. So your retreats are typically how long and is it exclusively built on alternative financing?

Los Callahan (42:55.296)
no, no, we, yeah, you know, it's kind of equal. We, we, kind of go over three, three topics at my retreat is it's the funding is the real estate acquisitions as I know it, the way that it's worked for me and the way I underwrite properties and so forth. And then how to protect all these assets and trust and even our existing assets. So even if you've got existing real estate assets or even existing businesses, you want to, you know, protect those things through trust. we teach you how to do those.

Keith D Terry (42:57.777)
But that's a good portion of it.

Los Callahan (43:24.708)
We bussed down the trust, the history of the Illinois Land Trust, why it's the greatest trust to do and so forth. And then we teach the people how to do it for themselves. you know, it's not.

Keith D Terry (43:35.631)
And you sound like an avid reader. I would have

Los Callahan (43:38.784)
yeah, yeah, yeah, so that.

Keith D Terry (43:41.519)
Okay, and because in talking about that, you don't use a lawyer. You said you don't use a lawyer for any of this. Okay, okay, okay, I love that. And so, as you get into this, my question, I'm gonna go back to it, Smoothie RX, how did you come up with this concept?

Los Callahan (44:06.382)
So I've been in the health for a long time as, know, as again, you say I'm an avid reader. So as I read and learn more and more about health and things of that sort and the lies that they told us about the food pyramid and things of that sort, it started to make sense to start to do some alternative things or I'm probably gonna have the same type of outcome that most of our people have to eat the standard American diet. So, you know,

Candice's father, which is my wife, he passed of cancer a couple of years ago. But we kind of wanted to have a spot to where he can go and get his juices and things of that sort. Candice and I, we frequented juice bars and all that stuff kind of like daily. juices for me, juices for her, acai bowls for you know it, it's 60 bucks, 60 bucks, 60 bucks, 60 bucks. Man, we spending thousands of dollars at somebody else's establishment.

We might as well do our own. So that kind of was the motivation to kind of stop spending money in everybody else's juice bar and then also provide a spot where, you know, we can kind of try to help, I mean, I'm sorry, help her father back to health. So COVID kind of slowed us down on the opening of the spot with business licenses and inspection services was closed. So

we weren't able to open. that kind of slowed us down on the open. We were sitting there ready on 15th and Michigan for almost two years ready to open, just couldn't because we had no business license and so forth. So.

Keith D Terry (45:44.665)
Okay, okay. So this was startup. This was an organic. This was not a franchise. Okay.

Los Callahan (45:50.946)
No, no, it looked like a franchise, but but no, it's not a franchise that people think is a franchise when they walk in because we do a lot of branding. I got a mascot. I'm trademarked. If any of y'all try me, I'm trademarked. I got it. So don't don't don't try me. But yeah, because of that, know, people people think that it's already a franchise.

Keith D Terry (46:11.205)
Now, and I gotta ask, because I come out of healthcare, the RX is because you're focused on health? Is that where that comes from?

Los Callahan (46:17.784)
So the RX comes from, you our smoothies are probably the best in the market. And the reason why I say that is because we don't have fruit purees and syrups and ice. Our smoothies are comprised of all 100 % frozen fruits. ours are totally different than, you know, the competition. Ours are full of fruit and the RX come from, you we put

Keith D Terry (46:31.943)
Los Callahan (46:46.826)
Seamoth in all of our smoothies, they come standard like a seatbelt. And then we also put, we put herb powders in all of our smoothies. So some of our smoothies may have some ashwagandha, some moringa powder, so no, no, whatever we got to kind of boost them additional properties of the smoothie. So that's why it's SmoothieRx, because we using the Lord's prescriptions in these smoothies, SmoothieRx.

Keith D Terry (46:54.065)
Okay.

Los Callahan (47:15.914)
all natural herb powders

Keith D Terry (47:17.721)
Okay. And so I love this because you know, you know, as we get ready to close this thing out here, you started in real estate. love the journey. And then you got in, you, you've been able to use your real estate to do Airbnb, Med Spa. You have around the world coffee, which I love the name of that. What's next for you and your portfolio.

What do you, how do you think about this? Cause it's almost like you're a mad scientist thinking about some things, but so how do you think about these? What's the future hope?

Los Callahan (47:53.476)
I like the coffee concept, a smoothie RX and around the real coffee. It's been well received in River North. I do get people that's looking to franchise it. Like I I got my own community of people and they looking to franchise it. This will not be a public company. I won't be franchising to just anybody.

is only gonna be open to friends and family and employees. I'm being employee-owned company. I will allow outstanding team members and I partner with them and let them open up their own store. But yeah, so that's the goal. I'm looking to keep this a small, close-knit company. I got friends that's in real estate nationwide, that's commercial real estate. So I'll be opening another store in one of my friends developments in Wisconsin.

Keith D Terry (48:18.086)
Mm-hmm.

Los Callahan (48:45.636)
I got another store on the horizon in Atlanta and another one of my friends developments. And then we also open in a kiosk right now in the Godfrey Hotel right over here in River Nort. So we'll have around a real coffee kiosk in the Godfrey Hotel right now.

Keith D Terry (49:01.979)
So how did you end up picking River North? That's a wonderful location, but how do you look at Chicago? Because clearly a large part of your portfolio is right here in the Chicagoland area. I love how people look at the marketplace. Let me into your mindset on this.

Los Callahan (49:20.368)
You know, in my mind, Chicago is the most beautiful place in America. I've been to all the major cities. I love our town, downtown 20 times better than everybody else's. It's walkable, it's clean. It's a lot of people. So I pick River North because it is that neighborhood. It's a lot of hustle and bustle. It's a lot of coffee shops in the area.

It's a lot of fitness in the area. So lets me know that the people are health conscious. So the average rent down there is like $2,800 for a one bedroom. So they got the income that would kind of fit my avatar. I'm kind of located, well not kind of, I'm located in a building, a residential building that has 440 units above.

Keith D Terry (50:15.632)
Okay.

Los Callahan (50:15.716)
So, you know, the goal was to have a built-in customer base that come right downstairs and get coffee and smoothies and so forth. So that was one of the main reasons to be there in that particular building. But I liked that neighborhood because like I said, it's a lot of hustling bustle. The demographic got disposable income. And then like I say, it's a lot of workout, fitness, gyms and boxing and all that stuff in the neighborhood.

Keith D Terry (50:44.517)
And so as you look at the economy, we're about to have a presidential election. I'm not going to get into, it's not going to be a political question, but as you think about the future and real estate and these organic businesses that you start, do you put more your money towards the organic business startups and franchises or real estate? I mean, how do you think about the future of your investment portfolio?

Los Callahan (51:12.77)
I think that the spaces that I'm in, I think I'm pretty safe. I think that real estate is gonna be something that we always need. So I think I'm pretty solid there. Coffee, if we look around, man, coffee outside of cigarettes is another legal drug. It's everywhere. You can go to...

Keith D Terry (51:22.319)
Yes.

Keith D Terry (51:36.849)
Okay.

Los Callahan (51:39.63)
country after country is coffee shops on every corner. You can go to almost every major city in America is coffee shops on every corner. So I feel like, you know, people always want a cup of Joe. So long as you you give a nice cup of Joe at a reasonable price, people gonna come in. I feel confident that we get some of the best coffee in Chicago. Our main brew is the Jamaican Blue Mountain coffee, which arguably one of the best coffees in the world.

Keith D Terry (51:53.243)
Okay.

Los Callahan (52:08.822)
It's typically around 75 or more per pound, $75 or more per pound. We able to sell it in the store for $45 a pound because I go to Jamaica myself and get it. And we able to brew that and keep a nice brew of coffee on brew. And most people don't have that type of coffee is like they house brew. So I think that, know, giving people, you know, coffee, better coffee than what they use for cheaper.

Keith D Terry (52:19.365)
and get it. Okay.

Los Callahan (52:38.116)
better smoothies and better quality. I'm pretty confident in that.

Keith D Terry (52:43.591)
Okay, last question. So as you look towards 2025, what's in store? How do you look at your business and the future? Let me in and talk to us a little bit about 2025 for you.

Los Callahan (52:57.092)
2025, you know, we're gonna have a new president in. Real estate is gonna work well, whether it's Trump or real estate investors. So he's gonna make sure that taxes and everything are great for real estate investors. I listened to Harris and they kind of hear the cries of the people about affordable housing. So I'm sure they'll be incentivizing us to do more affordable housing and things of that sort.

So I'm fine either way with either president. I know I'm be straight with the real estate market. And as long as my demographic of people still continue to make $140,000 or more and care about their health, they're gonna still come get their smoothies. So I think that, know, given where I am, as far as downtown location, that business will be fine. And being here in Chicago with some of the opportunities, foreclosures and things that stuff we hit in the market, you know, we got

know over trillion dollars of bad debt that's coming back to the market we will find some of those here in Chicago and I plan on taking them down some of them so you know taking some of that stuff.

Keith D Terry (54:02.471)
And it's interesting that you know your demographic. You're looking for those folks that are making $140,000 a year.

Los Callahan (54:12.1)
Yeah, because most people just not gonna stomach a $13 smoothie or more. When they used to getting syrup and ice at the other place for $5.99.

Keith D Terry (54:20.569)
Well, I love that you've done the math on that. And I wish we had more time to get into how you know that. But I want to give you the last word. Any advice you want to give to aspiring entrepreneurs to follow your success, because coming from your meager means to where you are right now, you must be pretty happy with the journey and the outcome.

Los Callahan (54:44.046)
man, well, you know, this journey ain't over. So, you know, where it is right now, I'm pleased that where we are right now, you know, I think that for me, that the biggest thing is to know that honestly, I know it's sound cliche, but you really can do whatever it is that you put your mind to. You're talking to somebody who got five felonies, been to the penitentiary four times, and I'm able to have this conversation that we having.

Keith D Terry (54:48.035)
I didn't say it was. I didn't say it was.

Los Callahan (55:11.812)
so a lot of times people will allow others and the influence of others to stop them from doing what they really want to do. If, if, if I were to listen to my mom, I wouldn't be where I am today. If I were to listen to other people, I wouldn't be where I am today because they would call this a protecting me. They didn't want me to be let down. But you know, if I were to listen to them, I would have let myself down by not even trying. So for me, educate yourself and whatever industry you want to get in, it don't necessarily gotta be real estate.

Keith D Terry (55:29.479)
Bye.

Los Callahan (55:40.214)
educate yourself and stand ten toes down and give it your all and you're going win.

Keith D Terry (55:45.177)
Okay. Well, thank you for being on the show. I really appreciate it. You know, what an amazing conversation we've just had with Carlos Los Callahan. He's shown that if you have the right mindset and strategies, you can unlock a great future for yourself. Let me end by saying this. If you found this episode inspiring and you want to hear more, please turn into the next big thing and share it with your friends. Again,

I'm gonna ask that you follow me on my YouTube channel at Keith D. Terry. You look it up, Keith D. Terry, follow me on the YouTube channel. I wanna thank you again for joining us. Stay inspired, stay motivated and keep pushing towards the next big thing. So thank you for attending this. I'm Keith D. Terry and I just wanna say thank you. Los, have a great day.

Los Callahan (56:39.352)
And thank you and thank all of my friends and family that pulled up, man. They've been burning your chat down, I appreciate them, my community members and friends that pulled up. Thank you all.

Keith D Terry (56:46.543)
I appreciate them too. All right. Take care, brother. Great conversation, man. All right.

Los Callahan (56:49.55)
Alright now.

Thank you, likewise.