Carolina Commercial Real Estate Connection

Transcending the 9-5: Jamie Gruber's Secrets to Real Estate Success and Lifestyle Revolution

May 06, 2024 Tony Johnson and Cameron Pearson Season 2 Episode 35
Transcending the 9-5: Jamie Gruber's Secrets to Real Estate Success and Lifestyle Revolution
Carolina Commercial Real Estate Connection
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Carolina Commercial Real Estate Connection
Transcending the 9-5: Jamie Gruber's Secrets to Real Estate Success and Lifestyle Revolution
May 06, 2024 Season 2 Episode 35
Tony Johnson and Cameron Pearson

Have you ever envisioned a life where your days are not dictated by the corporate grind, where your family adventures across the globe are not just a vacation but a lifestyle? Jamie Gruber did, and he made it a reality. As a guiding light within the GoBundance community, Jamie joins us to share his extraordinary leap from a secure corporate position to a life of autonomy and travel in the Dominican Republic. His journey is not merely about change; it's a profound lesson in the transformational power of mindset and the magnetic influence of a community that mirrors the future you seek.

Embarking on the multifaceted world of multifamily real estate, Jamie's story is one of organic growth and brand-building — from launching his own meetup group while still employed to podcast hosting and creating a nationwide chapter model. Our conversation traverses the challenges of scaling such a community-driven initiative, the importance of taking the first step, and the richness that comes from genuinely helping others. But beyond real estate, Jamie's tale dives into the creation of GoBundance's Emerge program and Partner Portal, nurturing the aspirations of budding achievers and fostering connections that catalyze both personal and professional growth.

As we navigate the nuances of Jamie's entrepreneurial voyage, we examine the intricacies of purchasing real estate in the Dominican Republic and his endeavors in podcasting and content production. His strategic approach to hosting a show, cultivating relationships with high-profile guests, and launching BGD Productions encapsulates the spirit of creativity and attention to detail pivotal in building successful ventures. Jamie's experiences not only serve as a roadmap for aspiring entrepreneurs but also as an inspiration to anyone daring to pursue a life beyond the conventional.

Reach out to Jamie
jamie@jamiegruber.com

Go Bundance Emerge
https://www.gobundanceemerge.com/

BGD Productions
https://bgdproductions.com/

Tony Johnson is a Commercial General Contractor.  Timeless Properties Construction Co. has been in business since 2007.  He does all things commercial.  Developing, Building, Upfits, and Renovations for Retail, Office, Industrial, and Multi-family.  Timeless Properties is licensed in North and South Carolina.  Contact them today for your construction needs.  www.timelesspropertiescc.com
info@timelesspropertiescc.com

Discovering his passion for construction when entering the industry over 20 years ago, Tony obtained his general contractor license and created Timeless Properties Construction Co in 2007. The company has performed an Proving that grit and passion can overcome any challenge, Timeless Properties Construction Co navigated the worst real estate collapse in our lifetimes under his leadership. Coming out of the recession Tony made sure he kept a strong focus on building relationships, quality work, honesty, and integrity.  With over 160 million on construction volume to date Timeless Properties Construction Co has grown to an area leader of Commercial Construction in eastern North Carolina.

Tony launched Timeless Capital Investments LLC in 2022.  This company was formed to create an avenue for partners to invest alongside Tony Johnson on commercial development and value add of existing commercial buildings.  Tony aims to help fellow investors take part in profitable projects that they otherwise would not feel comfortable undertaking.  By leveraging his construction and development knowledge Tony offers his partners a leg up against less ex

To learn more about Tony Johnson and Timeless visit us at:
https://timelessci.com/
https://timelesspropertiescc.com/

If you would like to discuss investing in Commercial Properties create a profile and schedule a call:
https://timelessci.investnext.com/

Reach out to us directly at:
info@timelessci.com

Show Notes Transcript Chapter Markers

Have you ever envisioned a life where your days are not dictated by the corporate grind, where your family adventures across the globe are not just a vacation but a lifestyle? Jamie Gruber did, and he made it a reality. As a guiding light within the GoBundance community, Jamie joins us to share his extraordinary leap from a secure corporate position to a life of autonomy and travel in the Dominican Republic. His journey is not merely about change; it's a profound lesson in the transformational power of mindset and the magnetic influence of a community that mirrors the future you seek.

Embarking on the multifaceted world of multifamily real estate, Jamie's story is one of organic growth and brand-building — from launching his own meetup group while still employed to podcast hosting and creating a nationwide chapter model. Our conversation traverses the challenges of scaling such a community-driven initiative, the importance of taking the first step, and the richness that comes from genuinely helping others. But beyond real estate, Jamie's tale dives into the creation of GoBundance's Emerge program and Partner Portal, nurturing the aspirations of budding achievers and fostering connections that catalyze both personal and professional growth.

As we navigate the nuances of Jamie's entrepreneurial voyage, we examine the intricacies of purchasing real estate in the Dominican Republic and his endeavors in podcasting and content production. His strategic approach to hosting a show, cultivating relationships with high-profile guests, and launching BGD Productions encapsulates the spirit of creativity and attention to detail pivotal in building successful ventures. Jamie's experiences not only serve as a roadmap for aspiring entrepreneurs but also as an inspiration to anyone daring to pursue a life beyond the conventional.

Reach out to Jamie
jamie@jamiegruber.com

Go Bundance Emerge
https://www.gobundanceemerge.com/

BGD Productions
https://bgdproductions.com/

Tony Johnson is a Commercial General Contractor.  Timeless Properties Construction Co. has been in business since 2007.  He does all things commercial.  Developing, Building, Upfits, and Renovations for Retail, Office, Industrial, and Multi-family.  Timeless Properties is licensed in North and South Carolina.  Contact them today for your construction needs.  www.timelesspropertiescc.com
info@timelesspropertiescc.com

Discovering his passion for construction when entering the industry over 20 years ago, Tony obtained his general contractor license and created Timeless Properties Construction Co in 2007. The company has performed an Proving that grit and passion can overcome any challenge, Timeless Properties Construction Co navigated the worst real estate collapse in our lifetimes under his leadership. Coming out of the recession Tony made sure he kept a strong focus on building relationships, quality work, honesty, and integrity.  With over 160 million on construction volume to date Timeless Properties Construction Co has grown to an area leader of Commercial Construction in eastern North Carolina.

Tony launched Timeless Capital Investments LLC in 2022.  This company was formed to create an avenue for partners to invest alongside Tony Johnson on commercial development and value add of existing commercial buildings.  Tony aims to help fellow investors take part in profitable projects that they otherwise would not feel comfortable undertaking.  By leveraging his construction and development knowledge Tony offers his partners a leg up against less ex

To learn more about Tony Johnson and Timeless visit us at:
https://timelessci.com/
https://timelesspropertiescc.com/

If you would like to discuss investing in Commercial Properties create a profile and schedule a call:
https://timelessci.investnext.com/

Reach out to us directly at:
info@timelessci.com

Tony Johnson:

Welcome to another episode of Carolina Commercial Real Estate Connection. Today we have Jamie Gruber on with us. Jamie, thank you so much for joining us today. Thanks for having me, matt. Good to see you. Good to see you too, sir. So, jamie, you've got a ton of different things I could bring up to introduce you. The main way I've met you is I've joined GoBundance over the past six months and you are a leader in GoBundance up and coming within the GoBundance over the past six months, and you are a leader in GoBundance up and coming within the GoBundance community, and I see you everywhere. You make your way to events and everyone seems to know you. So you've gone around. You're obviously inspirational to many people. So thank you for joining us. Do you want to tell me anything special about yourself or what you've got going on these days?

Jamie Gruber:

Sure. So I think the thing that's very unique about me not very unique but that a lot of people are drawn to and I've learned this as I've shared my story over the years is sort of being this guy that went the tried and true path and climbed the ladder corporate ladder, to get to a certain level 400 grand a year, equity, the whole nine and then just kind of quitting and leaving, not having a wife that's a doctor In fact she doesn't work, she stayed home. Mom, having a couple of kids, like all the circumstances that feel like it's impossible to get out of a high paying job when you're the breadwinner. I actually did it. I it's crazy to think about now, but I actually did it. And then to double down on that, making a move out of country to the Dominican Republic, where we live now in Punta Cana, just because we could People like well, why there? Well, my wife's from here originally. So that gave us incentive to choose this country to start.

Jamie Gruber:

But my entire vision that anchored me in on the idea of maybe quitting this big job one day was man, I want the flexibility to travel three plus months with my family anywhere in the world. So we ended up coming down here for a year, ended up staying past a year, and now we're talking about more of an indefinite stay, as we've sort of fallen in love with some of the features of this country that we believe are better than the US. For us right now and you just said it, man normal to do what I'm doing right now being around other guys where, yeah, everybody does that, you know whereas my, my friends at work, this was like an impossibility. It was a big, crazy, stupid dream, irresponsible even so, just getting around other people that represent who you're becoming it just it changed everything for me.

Tony Johnson:

That's. There's a ton of tidbits just in there. Yeah, let's break it down we're going to talk about but, yeah, that's fantastic. Yeah, it really starts with that change in mindset, and it sounds like your change in mindset was, yeah, taking all of the self-doubt and the doubters around you in taking that leap of faith from the 400,000 a year after you climbed the corporate ladder. Now, for those that don't know, how long ago was that leap? What's the timeline on that?

Jamie Gruber:

Three years ago. So, as we record, it was March, april of 2021. So we're recording, you know, late winter, early spring of 2024. So about three years ago.

Tony Johnson:

Now. So just so, from what I understand and I just want to make sure I'm correct on this, because we haven't spoken a ton I've met you just a few times in passing. Very nice guy. It's hard to catch your attention because 15 people are grabbing on you all the time when you're around. So that's okay, perfectly fine. So, as far as I understand it, you had a group called Multifamily and More. Am I correct on that? Yeah, okay, so that you started that while you were still in your corporate career, is that right?

Jamie Gruber:

Yeah, okay.

Tony Johnson:

So could you give us a little background on that? So you were in your corporate career and that was your first kind of dive in on creating something where you were out there, right?

Jamie Gruber:

A hundred percent. I love this. Yeah, so go ahead. Did you have a follow-up question? Do you want me to kind of dissect?

Tony Johnson:

My question was can you walk me through the creation of the multifamily and more and kind of how that sparked everything for you?

Jamie Gruber:

100%. Yeah, I love this. So I make this declaration that you know what I'm going to quit my job one day here, soon and again. The anchor was the vision travel three plus months with my family anywhere in the world. So I had that really, really present in front of mine and it was what kept me going initially, when things seemed bleak. So I had a small single family portfolio, two duplexes and a single family property Kind of got into it when I had the initial idea of, like, I want to leave my job, I don't know what to do. Let me go buy some real estate. Hadn't made enough money, so bird a couple of properties and had a single family as well. And it was hard. It was too. You know. I closed on those two duplexes at the same time. It was two tax bills, two closing documents, two mortgages. It was just a. That's insane.

Jamie Gruber:

So, whatever got my head around, it met a guy that I ended up partnering with and we started saying, okay, we both had I think we both had five single family units and we're like great, we can leverage this experience, go to brokers and present ourselves as wanting to buy certain types of multifamily property. So we put together a pitch deck, a buy box, all of this stuff really, really well organized and we start meeting with brokers. That's what you're supposed to do in the commercial multifamily space. And then we realized very quickly that, even though we had a portfolio in the commercial world, we were nothing. So whatever we told the broker we wanted, they would send us nothing like it. And whatever we did get had passed through six, seven lists of buyers that they had already before it got to us. So we weren't being taken seriously and in my mind I didn't know how. It's almost chicken and egg.

Jamie Gruber:

In order to become a priority to a commercial broker, you have to have closed on something in the commercial real estate space, but in order to close in the commercial real estate space, you've got to have a broker willing to send you stuff. And it's like, well, how are we going to do this? So because we weren't getting the attention of the brokers, we said you know what? We have to become more of a face in the multifamily space, and this was in Michigan at the time. So we created a meetup. We called it Multifamily and More, and it was born out of the idea that one, we'd have a brand in multifamily, but two.

Jamie Gruber:

At the time there were no multifamily REIA meetings. Every REIA meeting I went to it was flippers and wholesalers or wannabe flippers and wholesalers, two, three ballers and then maybe a multifamily guy or gal, maybe one. So when we called it multifamily and more, the idea was, okay, either this hasn't been done a multifamily specific meetup or every time it's been tried it's failed. So we're going to call it multifamily and more. So in case no one comes for the multifamily, well, we can talk about more. So that was the idea.

Jamie Gruber:

But when we had our first meeting, we just threw together a meeting at like an insurance office locally. A friend's insurance agency had a conference room in it and we put it out on meetupcom and like 15 people showed up, all of them for multifamily. They wanted to either be in it or they were in it. So it was like, okay, we're onto something and that just sort of grew. Mind you, we had no multifamily experience at this point right, all we had was some education. We had learned how to analyze a deal. So we just shared our journey with the room and kind of create a community around it, and that brand got us the recognition and the partnerships to buy deals from that point forward. So the idea of the brand was really how do we overcome or circumvent brokers in our market so that we can get attention around buying multifamily property, raise capital, meet partners, whatever it might be, and it worked.

Tony Johnson:

That's amazing. So this, this boils down to something that I think a lot about, and you know it's just a quick analysis of something that you're going through. So everything starts with quick you create the vision, right. So then you create the goal of what you're wanting. Vision, right? So then you create the goal of what you're wanting, Then you clarify that goal, change your mindset around it and then you take action.

Tony Johnson:

And it's amazing what things spark out of these things. So you just kind of envision it in your head. You say like, yeah, we don't know anything, We've got a little bit of education, Maybe we're listening to some podcasts or whatever. All of a sudden you turn from something of nothing into creating something and this has sparked that. Really, that move in your life, if we would go back, is probably what has sparked the momentum that has just continued all the way forward to where you are now. So you eliminate those limiting beliefs off of the one step and then it becribs the next step and you keep on resetting those goals. So that is awesome. So can you tell me and go through kind of, some of the goals and mindsets that you set back then and where you are now based on that?

Jamie Gruber:

Yeah, the goal was can we get deals, can we raise capital? That was really it. We didn't have a specific number of deals or amount of capital raised or whatever. And very shortly I think two months after we started the meetup we got our first deal under contract from the meetup. So a couple married couple had an eight unit under contract. The owner had two eight units that were sort of non-contiguous and they said, hey, if you guys want to come on, then we can get both eight units and put this 16 unit portfolio together, and that's what we did. So the goal was to be able to get a deal, and we did. Then, shortly after that, we had a 22-unit that we were small partners on in Cleveland with a person that was running the Cleveland chapter. So our multifamily and more little Michigan meetup became a chapter model after a while and so, yeah, so we were starting to get deals.

Jamie Gruber:

The interesting thing for me personally was it was this exploration that I think a lot of people that are in W-2s especially are unwilling to do, me included because you get afraid if you make the wrong decision in whatever this side hustle or plan is to get out of your job. If you make the wrong decision, then, oh my God, I'm going to be judged for that, I'm going to fail, and we just don't like failure in W2 world. So the lesson in it was I went all in multifamily, that was my thing. I was okay, I'm going to be a multifamily investor and I really love multifamily. I still do some multifamily investing today. We could talk about that. But the brand part, like by going out and creating a meetup off of the multifamily going out and creating a meetup off of the multifamily that was really the joy. I really enjoyed the conversations around this, the types of people that you meet, the mindset shifts that you had, the community that you built around what real estate investors typically are.

Jamie Gruber:

Most of us don't want to buy real estate for the sake of buying real estate. There's a purpose involved in it. I want freedom, I want to be able to travel, I want to take care of my family, I want to build wealth, whatever it might be. So for me, the lesson in this was wow, okay, without taking step one, which is I'm going to go buy multifamily and I pictured I'd have a hundred doors and I would just be operating my multifamily. That was my image back then. That was what I wanted to do. But if I didn't go down that path and learn, like maybe that's not quite what I quite what I want to do, like I want to have multifamily representing my portfolio and my wealth, but my active work and what I love doing is brand podcast, all of that Wouldn't have learned that by not starting in multifamily and then creating a meetup and then getting to know that, wow, you know, getting on podcast or whatever is a lot of fun and I enjoy that.

Tony Johnson:

All right. Well, yeah, we got to get. We got to get into how that transpired. So first going back real quick, so you brought up and I did want to get in, so you got the multifamily and more and kind of created a chapter model and it grew beyond just your location. So could you quickly kind of just overview how that happened and how that grew?

Jamie Gruber:

you how that happened and how that grew. When I so we started this meetup, you know we would talk about it, I would post it on social and friends would see it. Go abundance members, people, I was at this point in the go abundance community and be like, hey man, that's really cool. Like I see this meetup that you're doing, like how'd you do that? And I got that question enough times where I wrote it out, I was like, let me just make a sheet like a SOP, what platforms to be on, how to start it, how to build it, whatever, just like a two-page document, just bullets on a page, essentially, and I would send it to them and many of them would say this is great.

Jamie Gruber:

Have you ever considered could I just call it multifamily and more in my market? I forget the first one, it might've been Cleveland and I was like you know what? Yeah, why not, why not? And again, completely disorganized. There was no contract signed, there was no nothing behind it. Yeah, sure, cool, like this, we'll open a facebook group and, and you know, this way we at least own the facebook group uh, you can have this process. You'll call a multi-family and more, we'll give you our branding and, yeah, we got this chapter and that just kind of went, you know, untamed. We got like the 21 chapters like, yeah, whoever wanted one could have one kind of thing.

Jamie Gruber:

Um, so, yeah it, we started having like chapter leader meetings. So we'd have like 20 people show up on a call and I would talk about things that I learned in terms of facilitating the meeting. So it wasn't even about multifamily, these leader meetings. It was how do you, how do you structure an event? Then COVID happened. How do you structure a virtual event? What about this? What about that happen? How do you structure a virtual event? What about this? What about that? And we'd had kind of a central meeting, virtually before COVID ever happened, for every member of every community they could come into. We called it a virtual mastermind and then every chapter would have their own in-person meeting locally before they had to pivot to virtual.

Jamie Gruber:

So yeah, we just sort of expanded. It had no organization or structure behind it to the point where, flashing forward, when we finally got to a point where it was like, okay, we could probably really structure this and do something with it, I had moved on to other things, honestly, and it was like you know what Great learning. It's too heavy, it feels too heavy to unturn the grinding wheels that are already in place. Let's just set this down and move on to the next thing. Move on to the next thing with the lessons that we took, or I took, from multifamily and more. But that's how it was just an organic sort of like I really like what you're doing. How do I do it? Okay, cool, I'd love to do it with your support. Can I do that? By calling it my chapter, multifamily more. And you're there to guide me and I said, yeah, sure, let's do it, and kind of learned along the way.

Tony Johnson:

Me and I said, yeah, sure, let's do it, and kind of learned along the way. Yeah Well, you know, good things happen to those who are good to others. So obviously you know you've gotten paid back tenfold for doing that and helping others, um, mindless and, you know, with no motivation behind it, just helping others and leading groups. So that's great that you've done that. So in this three year timeframe right, we're're talking April 2021 to now you're and I know you've been in DR, I think you're on year two or almost at year two. You started for one year and now you're at about a year or two. So this happened pretty quickly. If we're backtracking for only a three year backtrack, then it's really one year in and you're already. You know you had clarified that you wanted to get out, get that freedom and move to the Dominican Republic.

Jamie Gruber:

What enacted and how? How did you move so quickly on that? Every it's like an iceberg, right? You see the ever see those images of an iceberg and like you see the tip of it, and the tip of it is the outcome. But then underneath the surface, is the base of the iceberg, most of the iceberg, and all that happens.

Jamie Gruber:

All the foundation was set while I had my job, and that's not even intentionally trying to leverage my job. But today, if you were to ask me, what do you do? So I have a podcast Tribe of Millionaires that's growing and become top 1%. I have GoBundance Emerge, which is my partnership with GoBundance for, call it, future millionaires. So for those that don't qualify for GoBundance men or women, they can join GoBundance Emerge. So I have that as a business Off the podcast. I created a production company recently and that's starting to kind of spin up and it's a lot of fun to. We're learning a lot, a lot of fun to build that. I've got the commercial real estate syndication business that I'm partners with called Quantum Capital. Again, partners are all GoBundance people. All of those things are what's happening today.

Jamie Gruber:

Right, I'm probably missing something that I can't think of. It's too many things, but most, if not all, of that was formalized or the foundation was, while I had my job. It was go try to buy multifamily. That leads to multifamily and more Multifamily and more starts to get recognition as like a unique way to network and get results in real estate. So I was being platformed by conferences, podcasts, not on multifamily per se, but how do you network effectively in the multifamily space? That was kind of the niche I carved out. I kept being asked to come back and speak at these, speak at these events, and that culminated while I had my job with Brandon Turner again a go abundance connection saying hey, dude, you haven't been on the podcast, like no, I thought you had, let's get you on. So that all happened late 2021. I'm sorry, late 2020. The episode releases early 2021.

Jamie Gruber:

Emerge had started right around that time as well. So all of this is happening before I quit the job. Once I quit the job, to be honest with you, in my mind it took me a year, a year and a half, which was about how long it was, before we moved down here to just make sure I wasn't going to go broke. So it felt like for that year, year and a half, it was duck and cover. Okay, I don't want to do anything crazy right now because I just left this job. Am I going to have to go back? Was that the right move? Is this actually sustainable, like, are what I believe to be the case of what's going to happen? Going to happen Is Emerge going to grow? All of that was the questions I was asking myself for a solid year. And then at that point, we said you know what we're actually we're doing, ok, we can make this move doing okay, we can make this move. Six months later, we made the move. But yeah, it was, I think, once you make the leap.

Jamie Gruber:

Once I made the leap, it took a year to really figure out a cadence, a structure for my day, what I should be doing, what I shouldn't be doing, who I need to hire if I can even afford to hire anybody. So, yeah, it's, I think, all of what I'm doing today. The foundation was built while I had the W2. And I'm I'm in a place now, honestly, three years later, where I think it's like okay, now I have to think about what is the next phase, what do I want next for my life? What do I want to? You know, what do? I want to break and throw away now so that I can I can sort of create the next level of success, whatever that means for me.

Tony Johnson:

So what does that look like for you? What does that mean for you? So what does that look?

Jamie Gruber:

like for you. What does that mean for you?

Tony Johnson:

It's, it's what is your, what is your big, hairy, audacious goal right now?

Jamie Gruber:

My bigger is to be a top 10 podcast in the world. That's my number one, that's my top, my top goal to do that. To do that, I need to stand even more on my own two feet. So I left my job yes, investing in multifamily and I had a partner. We've dissolved that partnership and I've sold my active holding. So I partnered up with the syndication group, which is great. I'm very tied to GoBundance, which is awesome, meaning I have a merge that pays me well and I do some other stuff for GoBundance that I'm able to generate income from.

Jamie Gruber:

But my personal brand like standing truly on my own two feet at some point, I believe is the next level. So whether that's I didn't say tribe of millionaires necessarily needs to be a top 10 podcast, but I want to be a top 10 podcaster. So is that what tribe of millionaires is with my own? For me, it's like I went from within the structure of W2 to leaving and being an entrepreneur and partnering with brands quantum, gobundance, so on and now it's can Jamie Gruber, the brand, be just Jamie Gruber and earn income and build wealth just by being on my own, without the need to be partnered or the need to lean on any other brands. That's for me the next step.

Tony Johnson:

So let me ask you this is your, I know. The most recent thing you've started is this um podcast thing, right when you're doing uh, you're, you're helping other people I think you know figure out how to get in the podcasting world, and then you're working on editing and helping. Is that solely on your own?

Jamie Gruber:

Yeah, it is. So the, the, the. I partnered with a. It's funny, I partnered with a guy that I used to work with and, um, the objective for me is to get him out because he doesn't want to be in his job either and he's an amazing operator. So, this guy, he does all the backend. That's a lesson from starting Emerge Like I was trying to do it all. I'm not good at it. So, yeah, this is all on my own. Um, gobundance is a client, so I host the GoBundance podcast and GoBundance is a client that pays my production company to produce the podcast that I host, and then we produce for other podcasts as well. So, completely on my own. That is the first true standalone business that I've started.

Tony Johnson:

Awesome, and that's been going on for it's like six months.

Jamie Gruber:

Less yeah, about three or four months at this point, three or four, okay, yeah, well, that's fantastic, all right.

Tony Johnson:

And so the goal long-term is to be top 10 podcaster in the world. So, based on you're doing the Tribe of Millionaires now and that is a top 1% podcast, where would we say that is in the top, like thousand or how?

Jamie Gruber:

Oh, it's a great question. I don't know, I don't know. There's so many different cuts of that. It's like entrepreneur podcast, self-improvement, top, this top that We've been. We've hit top like top hundred, I think, in entrepreneurship. Once or twice I feel like we hit top 100 in self-improvement. So the category matters and I'm looking to be more globally top 10. So, like Rogan Lex Friedman, school of Greatness, that kind of level, what's his name? Diary of a CEO, that sort of thing that is hairy and audacious Big hairy and audacious.

Tony Johnson:

What is your timeline on this, Jamie? What's your timeline?

Jamie Gruber:

I don't have one. I actually learned to put timelines down a little bit and here's what I mean Like, do I want to do it in the next three years? Yes, I mean, sure that's to me is a reasonable amount of time to achieve that with the right focus. That said, I remember being coached by somebody and they said hey, if you didn't achieve that goal in three years but you did in four, do you consider it a failure? I was like, oh no, they're like okay, like timelines are good. You should have something kind of a mindset around. But you know, don't get so locked in that you know if you're not right where you want to be in two or three years. Like you got to check progress and that's where I am right now. Like I didn't.

Jamie Gruber:

I, you know, I, I my, my big, hairy, audacious goal is to be a top 10 podcast. I don't think I had that goal. I know I didn't have that goal when I left. I just wanted to be able to leave my job and move abroad and we did that. So did I think we could do it in a year, two, three. I didn't really have a tight timeline on it, but the fact that we did it was like, wow, anything's possible, so why not go for something even bigger now? And the same thing. What if I am top 20 in a year or two, or top 50 in the world? It's a pretty good life, like that's I'd be. I'd be solely podcasting, which is the essence of it, right, I would just all I would need to do is podcast. I could earn income, which would allow me to do what I do buy real estate, buy companies. I can earn a significant income if I'm a top 50 podcast, right? So top 10 isn't even like, if I don't hit that, it's not successful, but that's the aim. I want to go as high as I possibly can. That's awesome. Okay, real quick on that. Real quick on that.

Jamie Gruber:

I heard Grant Cardone tell you that and his wife. I interviewed both of them, grant and Elena, and they're like we want to impact 8 billion people. They're like there's no way adage of if you shoot for the moon and miss, you'll land amongst the stars, but they're going to go for impacting every human on the planet, which is crazy. And they know it's not achievable. I don't think top 10% is not, or top 10 is not achievable. I believe it's achievable. It's going to take a lot of work and effort, obviously, but if they can set the target at 8 billion people, no excuse for me not to set my target at top 10 and then be honest with myself If it's top 15 or 20 or 30 or 50, I'm still doing pretty well.

Tony Johnson:

Or if it takes 10 years instead of three, you're still doing it, right.

Jamie Gruber:

I'm having a lot of fun doing it, so yeah, and you're having a lot of fun doing it.

Tony Johnson:

So, all right, let's jump back. I know because you're going forward and I'm going to catch you on some of your stuff a little bit more. So, going back, you were in Michigan and had the goal to move to the DR, which a lot of people have goals to do that or get a second home or whatever, and a lot of them don't take action. So you actually took action, moving out of the country. Now your wife is from the DR.

Jamie Gruber:

How many times had you been to the Dominican Republic prior to doing that 30. We've gone a bunch, yeah.

Tony Johnson:

Okay, you'd go quite a bit, all right. So now, how is it different? Getting a property in the Dominican from the U? S is what is the how would? How would you get a loan on that? Do you even get a loan? Is it all cash purchases when you're buying down there?

Jamie Gruber:

You can purchase cash. That's the best way to do it. It's. It's very similar, um, the only different meaning mortgage processes are very similar. It's a little bit more paperwork here, just by virtue of the uh, of the uh, the, the I don't know the. The culture here is much more like chill, you know, there's not as much of a um, uh, of an organization like. They'll give you the list of things you need and then, once you show up with the list of things you need, like, oh, you also need this kind of come back and people here don't get mad at that, right, like americans do, like what the hell? You gave me the list so very similar.

Jamie Gruber:

You can get loans 80, 20, uh, you know, 20% loan, that sort of thing. The differences are the interest rate's a bit higher depending on if you're buying in dollars or pesos. So if you're buying in dollars, probably you get 8%, 7% as a loan rate, 30-year amortization, but there's typically a fixed period and then it becomes it's almost like an arm. So it's typically like a five-year fixed period and then it becomes variable after that. So that's one, I guess two differences. One is the percentage of the interest rate is higher and the interest rate becomes variable after a certain amount of time.

Jamie Gruber:

The other thing here is construction. So buying pre-construction properties is typically it's something like $1,000 to hold it. 20% is due within 30 days once the purchase and sale is signed and then the construction timeline is probably about two years to build your unit, two to three, and in that time you have to pay another 30%. So people will they would like I'm buying a $200,000 property. They'll put 40,000 down, essentially within 30 days, and then $60,000 needs to be paid over the course of the construction, say over two to three years. At that point you owe the other 50%, which could mean you go get a loan, a mortgage, and that pays it, or you've got the cash, the 100 grand, and you buy it.

Jamie Gruber:

So that's a little bit different or unique. What's surprising down here is, I think for most is the cost. So we're looking right now to buy a property in the community that we live in and I mean to get anything under $700,000 is nearly impossible. It is impossible unless you're buying a complete gut job rehab. So most people associate someplace like the Dominican with like, ah, $30,000, you buy a mansion? No, not in the places you want to live. So that's a little unique or different, or maybe a surprise for some is how expensive real estate is down here.

Tony Johnson:

Yeah, I think we all missed the boat on that a while back. Now are you in the Puerto Plata, Punta Cana area. Which side are you on?

Jamie Gruber:

Yeah, we're Punta Cana, so southeastern part of the island Beautiful.

Tony Johnson:

That's amazing. All right, okay, that's awesome. Yeah, I think you know these days, you know you can look at it in multiple fashions. I'm really a believer at this point that I've got, you know, four young children. I would like to have dual citizenship out of a different country, just because I'm not positive where the US is really going these days. So I think it's a fantastic idea for someone to do that right now is get residency in another country where, when you don't know what's going on, you can be able to move your finances pretty easily and you can get your family to another country pretty easily if things hit the fan. 100 percent.

Jamie Gruber:

That's the nice part. My wife was born here, immigrated at 12. So our kids got citizenship with like a couple of pieces of paper. I'm in the process of getting citizenship, but I completely agree A second passport I mean, is the Dominican passport like the most ideal one? No, but it's a second passport and the easiest path for me is to get a here, cause I'm married to a Dominican woman. So an attorney signed some paperwork I fingerprinted, sent to the FBI so they can do background checks on me, send it back here and you know, voila, I'm a citizen and I can get a passport. So, yeah, so right now I'm technically, I guess, an illegal immigrant in the Dominican Republic, but they don't really disincentivize Americans, canadians, that sort of thing, from living here for a while.

Tony Johnson:

So and just and so you can still, just to be clear for anybody listen you can still get these, the loans terms you're talking about, when you're not a citizen, so it doesn't have to be that your wife is Dominican and that's why you're getting these terms.

Jamie Gruber:

Anyone could get these terms right, anyone can, and more than that. Honestly, again, if you're buying in pesos, it's worse term. So, like US dollars, get you better terms. So if you're from the US and there's a lot of incentivizing for investors to buy down here. So just a couple of little quick things about DR. One is if you buy property in what they call the confotor zone, that's an acronym C-O-N-F-O-T-U-R, c-o-n-f-o-t-u-r, confotur.

Jamie Gruber:

Let me take it a step back. If you went to buy a property today, the way it works is it's a 3% transfer tax on the price of the property. So you buy a $500,000 property, there's a $15,000 transfer tax due upfront once you transfer the property and then you're paying 1% annually for property tax. Above it's about 170,000. So under 170,000 is tax-free, over 170,000 in value you pay 100%. So in our example if it's 500,000, you have a $370,000 amount that you have to pay taxes on. 1% is 3,700 bucks a year. Not bad, you15,000 to get into it. You pay $300 a month in taxes, essentially to own this half-million-dollar home.

Jamie Gruber:

But if you find a property in a conflator zone and there are many, especially in the two places you mentioned Punta Cana, puerto Plata if you buy in the conflator zone, the transfer tax is waived, so that 3% is waived and your property tax is waived for 15 years. And if you buy this is important too if you buy that inside of an LLC essentially I think a Dominican version of an LLC then when you go to sell, whatever's remaining of your exemption status transfers to the new owner. So it's a really great sellable proposition. If in five years you want to sell to the next person, if it's in your name, it's gone, the confrator is gone. That new person has to buy and pay the transfer tax and pay the 1%. But if it's in an LLC and you sell it to the next seller, you can say hey, you buy my property, you get the 10 years remaining of no taxes essentially. So there's some benefits to buying and then buying in an LLC so you can transfer that over if and if and when you decide to sell it.

Tony Johnson:

That's awesome. Yeah, that's great information. Thanks so much for sharing. Sure Me, I'm, I'm looking. So that's good information for me personally. So that's awesome. All right, I want to jump in to something else now, outside of this. So within GoBundance you mentioned briefly you have been leading and growing the Emerge side of GoBundance. For those who don't know, could you briefly explain the Emerge, what it means inside GoBundance, and kind of tell us your background within the Emerge and how you have grown it?

Jamie Gruber:

Sure, I joined GoBundance, so we have these levels. We have Elite and Champion. Back then it was 1 to 5 million Elite, five to ten, five plus million champion. That's updated recently. So I've been an elite member for about five years now. At a certain point a couple of years ago it bumped to two million for elite and 10 million for champion and I went to the founders the elders, we call them so goofy.

Jamie Gruber:

But I went to the founders at one point when, honestly, all of this stuff in my life was happening. I was building this multifamily portfolio and my pod is holding me accountable to bigger things and all of this stuff and I said, guys, look, I've gotten such value from this community. What is the number one thing you're working on right now? They're like you know what? We would love to have a GoBundance just like we have it now elite, champion for people that are not yet at that level but structured the same way, looks the same way. And they had the name Emerge. That was not my name. They came up with Emerge and they said do you want to partner on it? I said, sure, I'll partner, I'll build it. I'm an insurance executive and I'm going to build a mastermind. So again, it's kind of taken that leap. So I go, I go in and I'm looking at it. You know we're at the time it was like, well, how do we want to structure this? We did like a course and a community and we just sort of tested it out and tried it and everything. This was in late 2020.

Jamie Gruber:

And the first 30 people that joined they were like we went through the first three months as like our test phase and they're like man, this has been amazing. They got connection to GoBundance Elite and Champion members. They got the content essentially of GoBundance without you know like not the same content, but they got the same structure of content. They get to build these communities. They get an accountability. They're using the one sheet, all these tools we have within GoBundance. So what Emerge looks like honestly is exactly what elite and champion look like. So anybody that joins those communities it's you know. You've got an accountability group. You've got content. You've got local chapters. You've got content. You've got local chapters. You've got events. You've got all these things that you get to participate in. And we built that the same way for Emerge.

Jamie Gruber:

Only differences are one the first six weeks we structure is onboarding, so we do kind of a module weekly, with a live call with me each week to make sure people are clear on everything you talked about. Week one is vision. Week two is goals and creating the one sheet. Week three is planning. Week four is getting into how to leverage the tribe. Week five is how to have a great go pot or accountability pot. So we use that first six weeks for onboarding. That's the one key difference. The other one is that we're co-ed, so there's GoBundance men, there's GoBundance women, gobundance Emerge is co-ed, so it kind of feeds either one. So the best way, join GoBundance. It's like, okay, where's your net worth? Depending on where your net worth is, you either come in at Emerge, at Elite or at Champion, and obviously if you're Elite you're going to be a Champion, if you're Emerge, you're going to be Elite, and that's kind of what it's all about.

Tony Johnson:

That's awesome, yeah, and the other thing that I find great as a business owner and that you've kind of enacted within Emerge is this ability to look for a number two, so someone that's within that community. A lot of times you know you would love the ability to meet someone that is a little farther along in business than you. You might just be younger, newer to business, and you have the ability then to interact with successful business people being in that emerge. You can interact with people that are in elite and champion, and we're looking constantly. People that are successful are looking for the next and the greatest, and who is up and coming, who is motivated out there, looking to make a difference and looking to grow individually and help out a team to grow, and that offers them a humongous opportunity. In my opinion, that's one of the biggest opportunities of being in a merge, and so you've enacted something within that, haven't you? Could you expand a little bit more on how you've kind of worked with that?

Jamie Gruber:

Yeah, yeah, we've fits and starts, but we built what we call the partner portal, the go abundance partner portal. So, um, to give you an idea real quick of the of the avatar of an emerged person, because when we started we were thinking this was going to be like you're young and up in kind of like 22, just getting started. But what it really is is like 35 to 45, mostly men that are making maybe 150 grand a year, married to kids. But, to your point, they're just getting exposed to the idea that, oh, I don't have to just work a job and put the company match into a 401k. So they haven't built a ton of net worth, but they make a good living and they're like well, how do I get myself to another place with this?

Jamie Gruber:

So those folks often are perfect candidates to go work for or with, or be mentored by, or whatever, or partner with a member of elite, member of champion that is, like you just said, further ahead in business, maybe a natural born entrepreneur has been doing it since 20 or whatever. So, yeah, so the partner portal is essentially a system we built or a marketplace you could say that we're building or built that showcases the skills, abilities, desires of the emerged folks. So it's like, here's what I do, here's what I can offer and here's what I'd love to be able to gain from a relationship with an elite or champion member. And the ideal is that and we've had this happen a few times and a leader, champion member says, hey, I'm looking for somebody to run this, or I wanna give back and I wanna mentor five people this year. That's part of my contribution goal this year. I wanna mentor five people in this sort of avatar that they can use this partner portal and we've gotta do a better job of communicating it but they can use this partner portal to dip in like a marketplace and say, okay, steve, steve, is you know doing this, doing that? He's got this skill that's ideal for my company and I would absolutely love to mentor him.

Jamie Gruber:

In exchange for that, maybe some side hustle work with me. Or I'm looking for my number two. I'm willing to pay a hundred, 150, 200 grand because I need that great number two. Let me dip into this group and find the person that maybe becomes that. So that's one thing.

Jamie Gruber:

The other thing is that we've had a lot of members who have a number two that they want to develop and get sort of common language around, gobundance sort of terms, right.

Jamie Gruber:

The pillars you mentioned, the one sheet, all of that that have their number two, go in and be part of Emerge. They're not at the elite or champion level, so as a perk they pay for their number two go in and be part of Emerge. They're not at the elite or champion level, so as a perk they pay for their number two or number three person to come in and be part of Emerge and get all of that education, all of that exposure, the exposure to community. And those folks who have done that the elite and champion members have said to me like man, just our conversations are better, we're speaking a common language, we understand, you know, they understand what I've been working on forever now and I can have these discussions with them so kind of two-pronged. We're making sure that our folks get exposure to elite and champion members for potential partnership opportunities. But also elite and champion members are putting their folks in a merge for their own personal development.

Tony Johnson:

I love that. I wasn't aware that it was that crystal clear and that you had that opportunity. So me, I'm hiring personally an integrator, right? So we're always looking. So I need to dip in there and look, now that you're saying that you're kind of showcasing people's skills and ability through there and see if you've got any matches for that. That's a great option. I wasn't even aware you were doing it that in-depth. That's fantastic. And I love the idea of getting that number two if they're not in there and putting them in there because you want them to understand that mindset and that growth that normally a business owner has. And it's hard to kind of relay that when you get somebody and kind of get them more accustomed to how we're thinking and how we are constantly trying to grow, grow, grow, grow, grow, you know, if you don't have the time to sit and spend all that time with them, getting them around like-minded individuals that are all looking to grow is nothing but helpful to anyone in that type of situation.

Jamie Gruber:

So that's awesome. Agreed I appreciate it.

Tony Johnson:

So let's go on to the next piece of you. You got so many pieces I just got. I'm trying to get through everything in a timely fashion here.

Tony Johnson:

So the next thing that you're doing and you kind of went through it with Grant Cardone and his wife you've been hosting the tribe of millionaires podcast. So in that tribe of millionaires podcast you've gone from, you know, interviewing some of the normal people today to now interviewing people like Grant Cardone and you get this large list of all these humongous people that are in the business world and you've really taken it almost to another level. So could you kind of walk us through how you've gotten to a position where you're in contact with all of these people and I know you put in a ton of work and so kind of give us an understanding of how one you've contacted a bunch of these people and all of the work you put in prior to interviewing someone.

Jamie Gruber:

Sure, yeah, the the. I think that the understated value of podcast being a podcast host whether your ambition, like me, is to be top 10 in the world or if you just want to, you know, serve a small audience or no audience, just meet people in a way that, um, that they're, that, they're not, um, you know, that's, that's fun. Like the podcast is the relationships you build with the guests. So there's a few different ways that I go for the guests that I want to get. Honestly, sometimes it's cold outreach, it's going on Instagram, it's somebody you follow and you just make the ask, and every so often one of those people they have a book, they have something coming out they say, yes, I'll talk about the next step here in a second, because it applies to all of these guests. That's one. The second thing I've done is I go for the number two. So an example of that might be Kale Owen. You ever heard of Kale Owen? No, right. Have you ever heard of Alex Hormozy? Yes, okay. So Kale Owen runs all of Alex Hormozy's businesses. He's essentially his number two. Now, I didn't necessarily go after Kale solely for access to Hormozy, but because Kale's got a great brand and I really enjoyed his stuff. Like that's got to be part of it. If you're overly transactional or if you're overly tactical, it's just that inauthenticity comes through. But Kale is truly interesting to me, so I interviewed him. But there's, of course, a part of me that's like boy. This is a great step one to being in the world of Hormozzi and maybe getting that guy to be on the podcast. So that's an example of something that I'll do. I'll go for the number two.

Jamie Gruber:

The other one is it's really the other podcast hosts that you get to meet while being on podcast or whatever. So I've got one or two other people, one in particular. His name is Dennis Meralda. He and I started really around the same time. He has had Building Men, I've got Tribe of Millionaires and we just started talking about these interesting guests that we had and we started sharing them and swapping them. And those swaps sometimes are for him at the next level than what he's had, or for me at the next level from what I've had, depending on our own networks, and then by being the host of that person that's maybe at that next level, they give you exposure to the person at the level above them, and so on and so forth. So all of that are the different ways of going about meeting people and getting people on the podcast, but what I think is at the core of it is step two, which is what you mentioned is, I think, the preparation, which you're obviously well-prepared for this podcast, which is not the norm Usually it's hey.

Jamie Gruber:

So, jamie, let's give us your five minute backstory, right, like that question right there tells me that a host isn't prepared for the guest. And I've done it. I'm not saying I would never, of course. I've done it and I probably in some way, shape or form still do it sometimes today. But I'll go through, especially depending on the guests and how much information there is about them. I'll listen to multiple podcasts that they've been on. If they have a podcast, I'll listen to their podcast multiple of them of who they've interviewed. I'll go back and look at or listen to books that they've written I will look at. If they have a spouse that has a profile, I'll go listen to their spouse's stuff and hear what that spouse is saying about this guest, so on, so forth. So I'll just do a sort of a 360 all the way around approach.

Jamie Gruber:

I keep notes in my Apple notes thing. I have a folder for podcast prep. And even if I haven't booked the guest, like I've got guests like Mike Tyson that I've nowhere near booking Mike Tyson yet. Jordan Peterson there's a bunch of them. Elon Musk I have Michael Jordan, I have questions already for them now, before I ever get to them and book them, just because I consume their content and I put questions there. But for my own guests, the same thing. I just take a whole bunch of notes and then a day before I go through my notes and organize it a bit. But that's that preparation.

Jamie Gruber:

Once you have the guest, whether you got it from a cold outreach and they're like, yeah, I'll jump on this guy's podcast. Or you get it from going to a number two and they're like, yeah, I'll jump on this guy's podcast. Or when Dennis, miralda or somebody else sends me a guest and they're like, well, dennis said this guy's cool. Okay, yeah, I'll jump on his podcast. What differentiates me? Or the host is first question Wow, okay, this guy's not asking me about my backstory, he just summarized my entire life in a sentence and then asked me a very deep question. I had to think about game on, I'm here, this guy's prepped. If you listen to the Cardone interview. He said it two, three, four times in it Like damn man, you know that's a good question, right?

Jamie Gruber:

I aim for that. That's my goal is to get that, not because of ah, not only because of vanity Of course there's always a little bit of ego in that but it's more because that person now looks at me as credible. I know I can get Grant Cardone again. I know I can. So that's the way that guests at the next level refer you to guests at the next level above them, because they can trust that whoever they refer is gonna get some shitty podcast experience from you. This guy's prepared. I'm willing to share guests with him.

Jamie Gruber:

The last thing sorry to go into it, the last thing I do is for the guests that really speak to me, like the ones I really resonate with and it tends to be those I do in person. It's just, I don't know, there's a, there's a natural connection you build in person there's before, there's after, there's during, whereas on a zoom call or whatever it's like, it's on, it's off. But I like to send gifts to those folks and I'm very specific with how I do that. One, it's a custom gift. Two, it's specific to their desires and likes or whatever that I learned about them. And three, it has nothing to do with my brand. So I don't send them a Tribe of Millionaires t-shirt or one of those like bracelets that say tribe millionaires on them. I send them something that is specific to them and it's not always the person. Sometimes it's somebody within the organization that really impresses me. So the quick example I give is for Grant Cardone. Sherry Hamilton is his number two. One of his two number twos is Jared and Sherry. Sherry was amazing in connecting me to who I need to be connected to to get on the show. She connected me to Atlanta Cardone's people to get me on her show. I'm sorry to get her on my show so honestly. She was just very, very helpful.

Jamie Gruber:

So I stalk Sherry Hamilton on Instagram and what I learned about her is she's the chairwoman and people love calling her that. She had so many things tagged. The chairwoman spoke today. We love our chairwoman, the chairwoman, the chairwoman. Okay, so that's something she goes by. And second, there was not three posts go by without her being at some sort of concert, live music, everything from Lil Wayne to like Garth Brooks. She loves live music.

Jamie Gruber:

Obviously, I go on Etsy that's my favorite platform Cause you can buy custom stuff there and I had a wooden engraved plaque sent to her that said Sherry Hamilton, the chairwoman, rocks and had a little musical note at that rocks thing. So you can see the double entendre on that she rocks because that's what they say about her, but she rocks because she loves music and had that sent to her as a thank you gift. So those little things leave an impression and keep in mind it's not a bottle of wine that they're going to drink and forget about. It's not a gift basket of food they're going to drink and forget about. It's not a gift basket of food they're going to eat and forget about. It's something that they're going to hang on their wall.

Jamie Gruber:

And when somebody says, oh, where'd you get that? You know what? This guy, jamie Gruber he sent that to me, isn't that cool. He had him on Grant's podcast and dah, dah, dah dah. So I do those gifts without any expectation from anybody. I don't need to thank you, I don't need to know that they got it, but I do those and that leaves an impression with a lot of people.

Tony Johnson:

That that alone is a masterclass. It's a masterclass, yes, that. That is what makes all the difference. So there was one. So I was in sales. Um, you know, before I did construction, which is what I am now as a general contractor.

Tony Johnson:

So I sold building materials and I had this builder that I could not get in touch with. I mean, I called this guy over and over and I was constantly blocked. So he had an admin that would not let me through. He's basically number two. I could not, could not, could not get in. So it took me seven or eight months of trying every workaround. I got his cell phone number. I would text him, I'd go by his house, I would do try and knock on the door. He wouldn't ever answer. I mean, I did everything to try and get in touch with this guy. Finally, I went, bought a pair of shoes and just took the pair of shoes, dropped it off at his office, inside the box, I put a note and it was like I'm just trying to get my foot in the door with you and your company, can you please take my call? He called me within 15 minutes of me leaving his office in there.

Tony Johnson:

So when you get creative and do something like that.

Tony Johnson:

That's how you make an impression, something that you don't see every day. So when you're making these long-term impressions with people and that's what you're doing specifically with guests by, yeah, putting, saying that they're gonna put on a wall not a glass of wine they're going to drink, and then throw away or get them a liquor bottle of liquor they don't even drink, which is what people drop me off all the time I get these. I don't even drink liquor. I mean, all I do is give it away to somebody and forget about it. It's like I don't even remember to tell them thank you half the time, stuff like that. So that's amazing. So congrats to you for doing that and following through with that and not expecting anything in return. But the returns are exponential when you're doing something like that, because it's thought out, and you're doing things that are differentiating you from the 40 other podcasts that they've been on, that have even given them junk that they do nothing with or nothing at all and probably, like you say, not be prepared All right.

Tony Johnson:

Last thing I want to hit. And then you know I feel like we've we've done very good here. So this thing that's so awesome is you are starting your own thing. You've got a partner from your old business and you started this production company. So I want to make sure that we let you kind of promote this, take this off the ground and kind of tell us what you could do Somebody like me I don't, I don't, obviously I don't have a big following in in podcasts, so my following to you would be like a minuscule nothing but. So you're a big step up for me to get somebody on a podcast. So what could you help someone like me with? With my podcast? So everyone else that's in the same boat as me. We're still trying to get our feet off the ground. What do you do with someone like us?

Jamie Gruber:

Yeah, so we do a full launch strategy. So the company is called BGD Productions BGD I can explain that if we have a second, it's actually a cool story, but BGD Productions and the idea is sort of podcast social media and taking it off your plate. So our core client that we're targeting as we're building this is somebody that has, say, a weekly podcast that they want edited, posted and managed for them, along with some clips that maybe get taken from that podcast. Or they can do their own clips that aren't taken from that podcast that are also posted and managed for them on a weekly basis. So we take all of that off their plate. We'll do a full launch strategy. If they need to be launched or they're already launched, we can just take the editing burden, the posting burden, the captions, the titling, all of that stuff off of their plate.

Jamie Gruber:

So the perfect package, or the core package, is one podcast episode a week that also goes on YouTube with thumbnails and all of that.

Jamie Gruber:

A social media manager is assigned to post all of this for that podcast host. All the editing is taken off their plate, obviously and then doing three short form clips per week that are also posted and captioned and everything else by our team on behalf of the podcast host or the person that wants their content posted. We can also do that for YouTube only, meaning if it's not a podcast but you do like a weekly vlog on YouTube, we could do it there as well. The idea is hey, I got a. I got a long form piece of content I want to put out every week, but editing it and all of that is such a burden and I don't want to have to post it and manage all of that. We can do all of that. Take it and then cut it into three short form per week as well, that we manage for you and get all of your content out for you. That's the idea behind BGD.

Tony Johnson:

And what is BGD? Here's the background.

Jamie Gruber:

I was standing at a JetBlue counter to board in Fort Lauderdale to come back here to Punta Cana, and I paid for the even more space seat. So it's the upgrade on JetBlue. It's like 50 bucks or whatever, is that much better?

Jamie Gruber:

I love it. The only reason it's not the only reason I wanted it was I wanted to make sure I was going to get my bag on the plane so that I could just deplane and not have to worry about it on the other end, cause it takes forever Once you get down to Punta.

Tony Johnson:

Cana, I was in boarding.

Jamie Gruber:

I was in boarding group D and I wanted to be in boarding group A. So I upgrade the seat, I get to the airport and I'm like, hey, I paid for the upgraded seat. And the JetBlue attendant's like I see that you're in it, but I don't see that it was paid for. I'm like well, how am I in it if it didn't get paid for? She's like oh, I don't know, cause, yeah, you would have had to pay for it. I'm like no, you have to come up during boarding group D. I'm like but I paid for boarding group H. Like, but it says boarding group D. I won't allow that.

Jamie Gruber:

I was talking to the guy that's now my partner just kind of complaining about it, and it was like you know what? It's just a reminder that you're always, always, always going to make sure, always, always, always going to have to overcome the challenges of whatever else is out there. Like you're never better than boarding group d. Never forget that you're never too big for boarding group d. So bgd became bgd productions, but boarding group d, um, that's the.

Tony Johnson:

That was the idea behind it, kind of a gritty backstory to what we're trying to accomplish with boarding group d and for someone like me you know that this type of thing is is perfect for someone like me, because we, you know, you're just when you're doing a podcast like this, you're just a solo person and you normally this is just like a side thing that you're doing. So this is not. You know, I'm not making a ton of income on my podcast, nor do I foresee, but I do like to get my podcasts out. So, but you know, if I'm getting it out, it's me doing the editing, me doing the snippets, me doing the posting, me doing the thumbnail, you know, and that stuff takes a bunch of time. So you know, it's a fantastic thing that you're offering and I think that's fantastic that you've done so well that it should take right off, because people see you, you're, you're becoming a leader in the podcasting world already and continuing to grow it. So I wish you all the best and I think it'll be highly successful.

Jamie Gruber:

I appreciate that.

Tony Johnson:

So I think it's a good thing that you started. Thank you, jamie. Thanks so much for jumping on today. I have sincerely enjoyed getting to know you a little bit better. Hopefully I represented you pretty well today and you had an okay time. We didn't bore you to death.

Jamie Gruber:

Not at all, man. This was great.

Tony Johnson:

So thank you so much for coming on. Hopefully we'll get you on as you continue to grow and expand your empire in the coming months and years ahead. But thank you so much for joining us and we hope to have you again soon, sir.

Jamie Gruber:

Appreciate you, thank you.

Tony Johnson:

Have a great afternoon.

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