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Own the Outcome with Tyler Deveraux
Own the Outcome dives deep into the real stories of resilience and triumph that arise from the depths of failure. Join Tyler Deveraux on a journey of inspiration, growth, and authentic conversation. Within every stumble lies a valuable lesson, a chance for transformation, and a path towards success. Each episode features compelling stories from a diverse range of guests, from entrepreneurs and artists to everyday heroes—all sharing one thing in common: their ability to turn adversity into an opportunity for growth. Because in the end, it's not about avoiding failure; it's about owning the outcome.
Own the Outcome with Tyler Deveraux
The Airbnb Strategic Shift: Rob Abasolo's Journey to More Freedom
What happens when achieving your real estate dreams doesn't deliver the freedom you expected? In this Own the Outcome episode, Rob Abasolo reveals why he's making the decision to sell his entire 40-unit Airbnb portfolio spanning across America.
Our conversation dives deep into the psychology of wealth and fulfillment. Rob discovered that money stopped making him happier after reaching a certain threshold, leading him to pursue properties that bring creative joy rather than just financial returns.
"We don't become real estate experts by everything going right," he reflects. "We become real estate experts by everything going wrong." His resilience and ability to find lessons in setbacks showcase why he's been successful across multiple ventures.
Whether you're just starting your investment journey or managing your own portfolio, this conversation offers crucial perspective on building wealth that serves your life rather than consumes it. Don't miss this conversation!
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All right, aloha and welcome to Own the Outcome podcast. My name is Tyler Devereaux and today, man, we have the one and only Rob Avasalo. Brother, thank you for being here. I'm excited to have you on the show.
Speaker 2:Howdy, thanks for having me on. I'm excited to be here.
Speaker 1:I wanted to take you to get the howdy down Once you moved from California to Tennessee, tennessee, right.
Speaker 2:Yeah, okay, so I've moved around. So I'm from Texas. I moved to Kansas City, then I moved to LA, then I moved to Tennessee and now I'm back in Texas. So I've lived in enough places To really solidify the howdy.
Speaker 1:I think Especially if you were born in Texas. The howdy comes for sure. Yeah, man, what part of Texas do you live in now? I'm from.
Speaker 2:Houston and yeah, I came back here three years ago and, yeah, lots of howdies and it's far hotter than LA and probably Hawaii too, I guess.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it's about perfect weather out here always, which is beautiful. I appreciate that Jealous. If y'all do not know Rob and you're one of a few who don't he has a great social media following great YouTube channel. He is some people dub you the Airbnb king.
Speaker 2:Honored. I'll take it. I don't know if I agree, but that's fine, keep going. What else you got? What other accolades can you assign?
Speaker 1:No, man, your content is so good, and I love how you just I love how you approach your content. First off, love it. Yeah, yeah, absolutely so. Let's talk about your businesses, though, cause you, you have a. How many businesses do you have right now?
Speaker 2:Uh, probably about six or seven. I would say Um, you know, of course 80, 20% of them make 80% of the income. I'd say I've got Airbnb. Uh, I've got host camp, which is my education company. Um, I've got funk, it I've got. I love the name of your design company, by the way. Thank you very much. I appreciate it. Cocasa, my pool dudes, I just bought a pool servicing company and then another one that I'm probably oh my, my brand.
Speaker 1:So yeah, seven, there you go, Seven, oh, an Airbnb, oh my gosh, I'm so dumb Did I say Airbnb? I don't think you did. Yeah, that's definitely a business. All right, there you go. There's the eighth. So how much real estate do you own? Because you've built up a pretty decent portfolio dude of Airbnbs, and I actually don't know if you know you have some tiny home stuff that you work on. What does your real estate portfolio look like as well?
Speaker 2:Yeah, so I've got about 40 units. Yeah, you know that doesn't really mean all that much. I've got 25 properties that I own or that I like, kind of that are single properties. And I've got a 20 unit motel that we're currently renovating right now, and those are all over the country. I have them in LA, joshua Tree, scottsdale, tennessee, a couple in the Smoky Mountains, sevierville, gatlinburg, wisconsin, new York, houston and Austin, and I think I think that covers sort of the portfolio across the country. And of those, yeah, I've got everything from tiny homes to mansions to just cabins and it was really fun for a long time, I think, buying these up. I think for me, when I got started in the world of Airbnb, my big goal was can I have one property per month? So can I get 12 properties where I can go and visit a property every single month whenever I quote, unquote, make it. And I surpassed that many, many years ago and I've gone to none of them. But that's okay. The dream still is, like deep in the heart.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that is how it works. You start to get the reality of what it actually means.
Speaker 2:So how do you get into it? Oh, that's right, I have children. I can't do that. What am I thinking?
Speaker 1:Yeah, it's a lot harder to leave when you have those kiddos. How many do you have now? I've got two.
Speaker 2:I've got a three-and-a-half-year-old and a five-year-old daughter Son three-and is five. She's great, she's expensive, she loves sushi, Um, and it's, it's, it's. I have, for the sake of uh, being like net positive from a cashflow perspective. I have to have an Airbnb business because my daughter's putting me out of business.
Speaker 1:Bro, I love that your kids love sushi. Do both of them, or just your daughter.
Speaker 2:Just my daughter, dude. She will pound like $15 worth of sashimi in like a minute and I'm like you don't even understand what you've done. I will never financially recover from this.
Speaker 1:That's little girls, brother, you're ruining whoever she ends up marrying, that's for sure yeah exactly.
Speaker 2:Or setting a high bar dude Not ruining setting a high bar dude, not ruining setting the high bar, which is beautiful I know we're gonna talk about real estate, but I will say I, I have legitimately undertaken the, the burden of learning how to make sashimi grade fish and like how to make sushi and and all that stuff.
Speaker 2:So I've been going to like fishmongers and I've been going into the entire theory. Honestly, honestly, this is important because real estate is such a fun side hustle when you get started and then when you quote, unquote make it and it becomes your full-time job, it is no longer fun, it is your job. And so I have had to force myself to to like learn hobbies because, you know, back in the day real estate was the hobby and now it's like well, it's not a hobby anymore, it's just it's where I love the job, I love my work, but it is not, it is not the hobby. It was once when I first started and I was making, you know, thousand bucks a month and I was like, oh my gosh, airbnb is the greatest.
Speaker 2:Now it's like oh yeah, you know, I gotta, I gotta tell my guests what the wifi code is, even though you know it's on the front door, on the, on a little placard.
Speaker 1:Oh my gosh, that is so true though, man. It is so true how it turns into, you know, whatever the job is, the job is the job. And then I would tell you that I fall in the same boat, where my wife is always, like you know, encouraging me to go do extracurricular activities. I'm like when, like well, I'm you guys, guys are my, my family, is that I want to? Just what do you guys want to do? Let's go to the beach. I want to do that.
Speaker 2:You know that sounds pretty fun. You know what? I go to the movies by myself and I'm okay with that. You know I am okay with that. 9 pm rolls around. Kids are down. I go, hey, babe, I'm gonna go watch. I'm gonna go watch mickey 17 tonight and she's like all right, right sounds good and I go.
Speaker 1:I just did this for the first time. I swear my life, and I know this isn't going to be the topic, but I legit just went to the movies for by myself. For the first time I went and saw Captain America and I go into this place to watch it and it's, you know, it has the nice recliners and they serve you food, and so I was like you know, I'm just going to go get some dinner there, but then I realized that they have you in like. You have to buy two or three tickets at a time because they kind of have you like in. I don't even know what you would call it, but oh, the pods.
Speaker 2:Yes, yeah, yeah, pod, there we go.
Speaker 1:Yeah, so I had, so I had to buy two tickets, and so I'm art now, I'm very committed. And then I fell asleep probably five seconds after I finished my meal, and you had to buy the ghost seat dinner, obviously because you couldn't eat alone.
Speaker 2:That's what I'm saying.
Speaker 1:You have to, you know, and dessert so real estate is cool.
Speaker 2:We like real estate, we buy real estate. Everyone listening is like what is this podcast about? Where are we going?
Speaker 1:with this. Yeah, but, dude, I do want to dive in, brother, because your journey and you know some of the things that we talked about, even off camera, I'm excited to chat about. But the first question that I have is your belief system, cause I watch your videos and you tell me, I mean, I look at how you are on camera and you're the same here. You're just, and I know that there's a camera here, but like you're the same, Right, and I love.
Speaker 1:I love that, cause you know it's not always like that, but when you look at a belief system like is there this belief system or a belief that you have that has been the primary belief system, that you'd say like this is why I've been able to do what I've been able to do.
Speaker 2:Um, I think so. Yeah, I would say my belief system probably just like never edit yourself and obviously, as a YouTuber, I mean I'm fully edited to be the best version of myself. However, um, I mess up a lot of things and I mess up my words and I really just I'm like leave that in.
Speaker 2:Uh, and I always do this on podcasts, cause I I always will troll a podcast host who's like hold on editor and I'm like no, no, we're keeping this because I just believe in in being as authentic as possible and I would say, on YouTube scale of one to 10, like, if you're, if you have that volume button, I'm an 11 and in real life I'm a 10, but sometimes I'm a 12, you know, and I would say, overall, I feel like the only difference between real life and like YouTube is I just have a camera in front of me, but I do genuinely try to. I don't portray a version of myself that I want to be, like I just am who I am, and then I also want to be who I am, like I don't want anyone to ever meet me and be a little bummed out.
Speaker 2:That's like hey, wait a minute, that's a little weird and I'm always like no, no, it's me, you know so, and I think I get that comment a lot out in the wild. They're like oh my gosh, I feel like I'm on YouTube and I'm like thank you, I appreciate that. I work hard for that.
Speaker 1:That is, though. That's a huge, that's a why people, so many people, resonate with you, dude, is because you are you. You know, like you, you are your greatest strength, you are your greatest resource, and that just comes out with just that authenticity and the genuineness, which I love.
Speaker 2:that yeah, it's a huge compliment when people say I feel like I already know you, I feel like we're friends. And then I'm always like, okay, all right, I'm doing something right, if people feel that way and there's an actual connection there. Because you know, I watch a lot of YouTube and I have met a lot of YouTubers. Most of the time I think everyone's pretty cool, but you know, every so often I'm kind of like okay, I see, you know, everyone's a little different and I just want to be me. Man, I don't want anyone, I don't want like.
Speaker 2:One time I had a conference and like this guy thought I blew him off and and he told my sister he didn't know she was my sister, he goes, man, rob totally blew me off and she came and found me and then she was like hey, what did you say to that guy? And I was like, oh my gosh. I was like I have to fix this. I was like dude, I am so sorry. I never want you to feel that way. So I guess it's probably a toxic trait to always like have to be a people pleaser. But I guess that's who I am. What am I going to do? I can't change that. Yeah, I'm far in, bro.
Speaker 1:You're too deep. Even the opening the doors. You're still opening doors for people, even though they jump in front of you in line when you open the door for them, dude.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I don't think I can do. It's too awkward yeah a little context.
Speaker 1:That video made me laugh out loud. It killed me, I, I triggered some people.
Speaker 2:I I for anyone listening I I get frustrated when I open the door for someone at a public place and then they proceed to walk through the door and then go into line in front of me, thus causing me to wait an extra five to 15 minutes for just being nice. And then everyone online was like well, don't do a good deed If you expect it to be reciprocated. I was like all right, you know what? I can't even complain on on the internet anymore.
Speaker 1:Don't filter it, bro, keep it out there. So those are your beliefs. Your number one belief system, which I absolutely love it, is to never filter yourself. What is a belief that you've had to change along the way, that you've had this belief that you had when you started the journey, that along the journey you're like you know what that belief was not serving. I had to change it.
Speaker 2:Uh, probably that. Uh, money is like the answer to happiness, and I mean this in that, like it's not. I'm not saying that money, I'm not saying that I'm unhappy. So every time I say this, it feels like. It's like I'm like, oh, money doesn't make you happier. And everyone's like, oh, my gosh, is everything okay? I'm like, no, no, it's just, I stopped being happy after X amount of money and I think that was kind of weird because I was like, well, I spent my whole life trying to make it, uh, make money.
Speaker 2:And then there was a very short stint in that Ascension where I actually was making money and and I was like, happier I genuinely was. I was like, oh, I can like my goal. When I like, when I was in corporate and all that stuff, I just wanted to take my wife out to eat sushi and like, not worry about it being like $8 per per piece of nigiri, right? Or like I wanted to go to Chipotle and order the walk, without being like, oh, it's a dollar 50, you know. And so there is this sweet spot where when you make an extra $10,000 to $15,000 a month on top of what you're making at your full-time job, and it doesn't matter how you make that $10,000 to $15,000, it just matters that you're making it on top of your full-time job. There is a sweet spot in there where you're like, man, I can do anything because this is house money.
Speaker 2:And then very quickly after that, I think the happiness kind of line pretty much plateaus for a very, very long time.
Speaker 2:I don't know when it I'm sure it goes back up at some point, but I don't think so.
Speaker 2:I just kind of feel like for me it was a little disappointing to be like oh, all right, I guess I guess I'm not all that much happier. I got, I got to find happiness doing other things, like pursuing parts of real estate that creatively fulfill me. I think that was one thing where I was just chasing the dollar and then I realized, okay, I got all these properties but I don't love them, and I feel like I should love the things that I buy and I should be inspired by them, and so I really started focusing on properties that would bring me creative joy. And that's kind of where I am now, like I'm now pruning my entire portfolio. I'm sure we can talk about this for a long time, but now I'm kind of like trying to find happiness and doing things that I actually enjoy doing, versus yeah, I don't know kind of feeling like I'm a I'm beholden to my own success, which is kind of what it's like, honestly, very, very often in this position.
Speaker 1:I absolutely relate to all those things you said the money plateau, the beholden to it, the you know what fuels you. I can do. I can relate to that so much. So that would be my question, because one of the things that you told me right as we were going to come on here was that you're offloading your Airbnb portfolio which is pretty big news.
Speaker 2:Yeah, cause I'm doing everything, yeah.
Speaker 1:So let's talk about that, like what brings you joy now and why? What made you decide like, yep, I'm doing it?
Speaker 2:Well, I think Airbnb is dead, and no, I'm just kidding Everyone. Listening is like what?
Speaker 1:I was like shit. I was going to say like damn.
Speaker 2:Yeah, no, no.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:So I bought 40 properties right, or 40 doors everywhere, and for a long time. That was cool. Except when you run an Airbnb business, you have who I call your Airbnb Avengers. Every single property has a team. They've got the cleaner, your handyman, your contractor, your pest control person, your landscaper and then your pool maintenance person probably. So that's like six people. Multiply that times we'll call it 40 properties. Well, for me I guess it's closer to like 25. So six times 25 is 150 people that I employ all over the world.
Speaker 2:And guess what? Those specific people are never business oriented, rarely are they organized. 50% of the time they're reliable, right, and so, to scale up, while it all sounds cool, it's actually spreading you very thin because you're just dying death by a thousand paper cuts. And I don't mean financially, I just mean operationally right. You know, five minutes here handling this bad cleaner, seven minutes here handling this right, and then across the country I have amazing cleaners and amazing handymen. I just don't have them all in one consolidated place, and so I think for me I was just kind of like I've got basically 40 jobs. That's what it feels like sometimes and that's fine, but I am trying to really live out what I think a scaling host should do, because we get this thing called door disease, where we buy one property, we make 1000 or 2000 bucks a month and we say, holy crap, how can I do that 10 times? Okay, check, I did that. How do I do that 20 times? How do I do that 30 times? How do I do that 40 times? Right, and so that was me for a long time.
Speaker 2:But then as I started to kind of reshape how I launched my properties, my my last three or four properties that I've launched with my company Funkit, they've all double or tripled what the competition are doing. They make so much more money compared to like the first 37 doors. And so I was just like holy moly, like if I just really focused on a small amount of properties and put everything I have into them, they will make so much more than everything else. And so that kind of really led me to this decision of like, well, what if I just got rid of everything and I consolidated it into one awesome property, like one compound or one resort or development? And so, interestingly, I have a host con which is my short-term rental conference.
Speaker 2:I threw that three years ago and this guy came, got really inspired and decided to build a development. And he came back the second host con and he goes hey, dude, like I'm building it and it's like cool, dude, I'm glad that you took action at my conference. And then on the third conference he said, hey, I built it. And I was like we're like great, he goes and I want to sell it to you. And we were like sure, and you know, that always sounds great. It's like you got to go through the underwriting process, you got to do that whole thing. It never really works out, but we went through the underwriting process and it's like the deal of a lifetime not just the deal of a lifetime, but it's the deal of my lifetime. And so I was like okay, this property is making really good money.
Speaker 2:I want to prune the portfolio and so I've decided to sell everything to put into this 13 unit development that I can really just own and focus on and cut my operations from 150 people to five, and I think I'm going to be a lot happier doing it.
Speaker 2:I think I'm going to become a lot wealthier as a result. I think my exit's going to be massive if I hit my marks, and I'll be able to. It's like two and a half hours away from me, so I'll be able to actually go and enjoy it and make content about it. And that's all I really want to do in life is make content about my Airbnb things. And for as much as I have going on and a lot of people are like, oh my gosh, it's so cool, you have this YouTube thing. That must be so fun. I wish I had that. I'm like dude. Youtube is like less than 1% of my life. Turning on my camera and recording it is but a fraction of my time and I would love to figure out how to get that 1% to 99% and 1% of operations handed off to my team.
Speaker 2:That's kind of where I'm at. I'm selling everything to 1031 it into one amazing property. I guess I could have just said that, but that's not as cool.
Speaker 1:No, you said it is great dude, and I love the reasoning behind it. Man, like I think that what people miss in what you just said, or I don't know I assume that maybe people miss it and so I'm going to pretend like people miss it, but really I'm just making sure people don't miss it.
Speaker 2:Yeah, which is?
Speaker 1:that you have the fricking stones to do that. Like that you have, like I'm going to sell all this and go this because I believe it's going to bring me more fulfillment. And who knows, maybe it doesn't, maybe you hate it. You can pivot from there too, because that's what life is about A whole bunch of pivots to figure this life out. And that is beautiful, dude. I've just more people. It inspires me to do those kinds of things.
Speaker 2:I mean, you know, here's what I think about it Like I'm pretty good at real estate, I'm pretty good at what I've done. I can just do it again If it goes belly up and I fail. I mean that would suck, it's unlikely. I feel like I've gained the skills to, you know, bounce back. I think at this point for some of the stuff that I've gone through in the last year, I do kind of feel like I'm like, yeah, I think I. I don't think I could ever like you know, mike tyson's always like everyone's got a plan until they got get punched in the face. I have gotten pummeled, I have gotten destroyed. You know the, the scene, uh, in lion king when mufasa falls, and then the Stampede District. That's been me, I think, over the past year. I'm good, I've risen from that and I'm like anything at this point I think I could handle.
Speaker 2:And you know, back in the day when I was younger, I was so upset. I would always like when I was buying a car or something, I would get so fixated and then it would sell and I'd be like so bummed. I'm like dad, it's sold and he goes. Son, he's like. Let me tell you something there are millions of cars in the US. He's like there will always be a new deal, there will always be a better deal. You just have to wait like a day. And I think that's kind of like my philosophy with real estate, where I stopped getting sad about selling stuff or losing out on offers. I'm just like. There are 300 million homes in the US. Millions of them hit the market every single year. They're out there and so if this one doesn't work out, it's unlikely, but guess what? It'd be cool to start over, and I'm cool with that.
Speaker 1:That's such a great perspective, that's such a beautiful perspective, it's such a serving perspective of like man, miss out on this thing that one doesn't go through. There's so many more. You know, that's the. That's the epitome of an abundant mentality. So let's talk about this, because the the name of the podcast is own the outcome, right. So, first, because I would love to talk about the past year, but first, when you hear own the outcome, like, what does that mean to you? How would you define that? What does that mean to you? I guess?
Speaker 2:I guess I'd probably say only. Outcome means like be in control of, like what your, what your happiness or what your Zen is, versus allowing your situation that you've put yourself in be the one that controls you. And, truthfully, I have been controlled by my, you know, seven, eight businesses over the past three or four years, which, like, I didn't mind. But now I have just really, in the last two or three months, something has just really changed with me, where I'm like, yeah, you know, I do want to make a lot of money, but not really, like I think I just want to pay my bills and like make really good income, like make a solid income. I don't want to make nothing, but I think I'm good with like, what if I, what if I worked less and got to hang out with my kids more? And so I would say owning the outcome is just really living life on your terms and doing whatever it takes to live on those terms.
Speaker 1:That's nobody has ever answered it the way you just answered it.
Speaker 2:Oh, nice Okay.
Speaker 1:I was nervous.
Speaker 2:I was like well, I bought. Sometimes I speak and I don't know where the sentence is going until I wind up there, you know.
Speaker 1:I mean you're. You're wrong. It's a horrible answer, but so don't get too excited about it.
Speaker 2:But you're like. You're like I didn't say it was a good answer, I just said no one has ever answered it that way.
Speaker 1:No, it was so good, bro, because I do agree with that. Like you, you think about living life on your terms. That's the outcome that you want, you know, and so it's, you know. When I look at it, it's very similar. It's similar, though, where it's just like dude, focusing on the things that you can control, but towards the outcome that you want. Like, if the things you're doing aren't getting you to the outcome you want, you've got to do new things and you've got to be willing to do that, you know, so that you can get to the outcome that you actually actually want. So talk about the past year.
Speaker 2:What's happened over the past year and why has it been so challenging and why have you been, you know, trampled by a bunch of yeah, man, well, first and foremost, I think like I'm a serial entrepreneur, so I always just start stuff or start new businesses or buy business. You know I haven't bought that many, but like, oh, I'll get into businesses that I have that I don't need to do Right, and I think I like I have eight now or seven now, but if I could like push a button, you know, maybe three is all I actually need, right, um, but you get so you get very. You get in deep on some of the things that you're. You get in deep on your businesses. You hire people, you have people that depend on you. You depend on those people and so it's really not all that easy to to do and, um, I think that that's kind of like the hard thing for me is like I can't just walk away and I, and, and also because so many of my businesses rely on me and my marketing and the success of my content, um, I don't really ever get to go on vacation and then enjoy the vacation. It's always like, well, I got to post this Instagram reel, I got to make a video and that's cool. I enjoy the content, like I said, but knowing that I am the only person that can actively be that marketer for my businesses. That's really tough at scale times seven. So I think that was like really, really hard for me because I found myself like, okay, what am I actually trying to do? And I think it was a lot of self-reflection of like man, do I actually want to do some of the things that I'm doing? I think that's one.
Speaker 2:We're also just like in a tough time where I feel like I have to really consistently remind people that real estate is like a slow game. It's like a slow game and you know it's really hard to get people on board because, like, I think now is a good time to buy real estate if you know what you're doing. But that's not what people want to hear. People want to hear, hey, it's always easy, it's super easy to get into real estate, it's not hard. You should do it right now. And I feel like almost being too honest about the state of real estate, which is like, hey, it's great, but you have to do this exactly like this or you will fail almost hurts business in some capacity. You know what I mean. So that's pretty tough. I also had a really big model shift in how I of my education company. I was very into high ticket sales and education for a very long time and I switched that model to go more monthly membership, which is like a huge, massive change to how I did everything. And that's not easy to do because employees are tied to certain models and I had to let go of people because of shifts that I decided to make for things that I think would be better. But you know, it's never fun letting, letting employees go, and then, uh, that's all kind of business entrepreneurial stuff.
Speaker 2:The last one is I have this motel in New York. That dude has been like everything that could go wrong did go wrong, from having a bad contractor to having a bad innkeeper, to going over budget by three or four hundred thousand. Like there's a lot that that motel really kind of took out of us. But the nice thing is I think we're on the other side. I think I see the light at the end of the tunnel. We just had to like really adapt and pivot and figure out like, okay, well, hey, plan a didn't work, Uh, maybe it is plan M, but most people don't ever make it there, they like give up at plan C, and so I think so many pivots, even with that motel project. But now I'm like, dude, finally, like I.
Speaker 2:For a long time I was like we're going to lose hundreds of thousands on this and now I'm like, eh, maybe we'll make a million, you know, but maybe and honestly not worth it, but at least it will be like positive at the end of it.
Speaker 2:So I think, uh, now that I'm on the other side of it, though, I feel a lot chirpier about everything. I'm like, okay, cool, I did it, I figured it out. So that's kind of where I'm like I've learned so much from that. And I think the positive of kind of like having just a tougher year in general is this my philosophy and my mindset is every mistake will make you a million. And that's kind of how I live life in real estate, where I'm like look, I made a lot of mistakes on that deal, I'm never going to make those mistakes again and every deal that I buy after this one, cause I'm not giving up on motels or anything I actually love the model now, especially what I learned. But I'm like there is no failing after this. I think I've everything. I've been tested and I managed to pass it, I think, but I guess we'll see once I actually sell it in the next year.
Speaker 1:Yeah, but, dude, I I. Success leaves clues, and what you said is you know to get to point M, but most people give up at point B or C, that's all it is Like. The past year for me has been also very challenging past probably a year and a half, and you know when I? But I'm like I'll put my head down and I'll go, go, go and then I'll look up. And it's funny, I was just having my conversation with my wife, like two days ago, where I was like man, I feel like I feel like I feel like I'm on the other side of this thing, you know. So, to hear you talk about it, I can relate to it a ton, but the key is there's no should I just quit or give up? Like it's not even in me at all. It's never been in me.
Speaker 1:So it's just like cause the whole time I'm thinking of this perspective of dude, I'm learning so much. I'm going to be a business owner my whole life for sure, like I love business. I love business, so I'm going to be a business owner my whole life. So I look at some of the mistakes that I've made and I'm like man. I can't help but think that I created those because I did. You know, ultimately, like you know, I own that outcome right, own that, take ownership of it. But I look, and it's because I've never ran a business this size, like I'm trying to figure that out the entire way through, and so everything is so serving as I go, as long as I continue to go, you know, and I just if more people could just adopt that, embrace that, and it's not easy, but it's. You do it because you see this longer term, longer picture. You know it's all. Yeah, put your head down and just get into work.
Speaker 2:I hired people too. Put your head down and just get into work. I hired people too, and I've formerly like never hired people and so I actually have like a full team now and I, I'm I'm like I've always heard the who, not how, right like everyone's like, hey, yeah, you should replace yourself, blah, blah, blah. I think I've been so um, anti like guru in the real estate, in the air Airbnb space. The guru that's like all right, airbnb, you can get 20 apartments and arbitrage them and live on a beach and make 10,000. And it's passive. And I'm just like no, it's not, dude, you're lying. You're a liar if you say that Airbnb is passive and if it actually is passive for you, your Airbnbs are horrible. I'm going on record and saying your Airbnbs are horrible if they are passive to you unless you have, like an amazing property manager.
Speaker 2:But the reason I'm saying this is because that kind of anti guru sentiment and feeling that I have, uh, I think I'm just so like all right, well, I actually believe that my Airbnb business should be not passive and I think I kind of let that philosophy guide how I ran my other businesses, where I'm like no, I have to do everything. No one will ever be as good as me at the things that I do for my businesses. And then, slowly, I just started hiring different people and placing them in my businesses. And now, you know, in the last year I've hired 10 people for all my businesses. And I'm like, oh, this is what it's like when other people like like work for me and enjoy their job and do things for me without me asking, like it's been really cool. So I think that was another thing that allowed me to kind of get on the other side of of sort of like the funk that I was in, where I'm like oh, I don't have to.
Speaker 1:I don't have to, I don't have to take on the world by myself, I could have like a good team that helps. Yeah, massive, it's a big, it's a huge thing. It's funny because you know, when my side of the investing side we call it active investing versus passive investing have passive investors on deals, I want to talk to you about this. But then I have active investing, which is what my education business teaches people to do is to be an active investor. And so the thought of the passive side, it's like no, no, you're building up the active side to invest passively, to be in a position to then just invest passively, like it can be passive if you make enough to invest and then have passive. But it's like so that's yeah, that is the thing, like you, but it takes a while, like all it definitely does.
Speaker 2:it's not a hundred percent and this, this one, that that cody like I interviewed her on on bigger pockets about a year ago, I want to say, and like I think our thumbnail was like passive income is a scam and it's kind of like yeah, I mean it is because you have to actively work so hard to create a passive income stream. It can become passive, but the activation of that income is like a tough hill to climb to do it correctly and I think that Airbnb can eventually become passive in the right context. But I think people are like speeding to make their real estate portfolio passive out the gate and that's where I'm like no, no, you haven't earned it yet. You don't deserve passive. You must suffer for five years at a minimum, but probably like 10. Cause I mean I'm, I'm seven, eight years into this Airbnb thing and I still got years before I'm going to be like yeah, no, it's passive for me. I got years before I feel like I can get there. So when someone's like yeah, I want.
Speaker 1:I want to make a passive 10,000 a month. I'm like someone has lied to you, my friend, and I am sorry Cause. Think about the first five years. You are figuring it out, man, like you're not figuring it out in the year. Two years, no, no, first five years, is you're? It's that five years? At least this was for me five year mark where I was like, oh shit, I actually didn't know anything when I was building this thing up. Now I'm seeing some cycles, now I'm seeing some things happen and now you start to learn more and more and more. But guess what? That's going to continue to go as you go, you know. That's why it's a long-term game. I love that. It's exactly it. There's no sugarcoating it.
Speaker 1:It's a long-term game.
Speaker 2:I mean, and even this whole like pruning season that I'm in with selling the portfolio so that I can go and buy this, I mean I'll have a whole team, I'll have VAs, I'll have an on-site person, like it's not going to be the most active property for me, but it will be like I will have to to it's.
Speaker 2:It's just like when you, when you're on a boat, like one degree off of course, and you could wind up in a completely different part of the world, right, that's your airbnb portfolio is no different. And so I think for me, I had 40 boats across the country that all were just kind of drifting off in different directions and I could save some and I could not save others. And so now, just putting my focus on one, I can really like make sure that I'm actually having a human touch to this property that keeps it on course. So it's like not going to be passive, but it does require me to be actively overseeing it so that it can be successful. But it'll it's 13 units, so it's like I'll still probably get calls at 2 AM every so often, I'm sure.
Speaker 1:Sure, I will say I do like that about the apartment side where we do have onsite employees and things like that, but it doesn't mean that I don't deal with dude. My whole morning today was actually just dealing with attorneys and things for a property that you know a tenant is suing. And then it went to you know the insurance and then it gets to me and it's like there's always stuff Like the stuff is just different. Right and it's not a tenant, it's. It's somebody else, but it's the same type of problems, right?
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah. And then also I think, um, one thing to, to kind of go back to the idea of like owning the outcome, one reason that I'm selling my portfolio, because I think I've posted about this on Instagram and a lot of people are like, you know, I have to come up with one and a half million basically to to buy that, to put the down payment on and stuff, and like a lot of people are like I'm like, yeah, I'm selling everything. I'm at 1031, at blah, blah blah, and then a lot of people are like, dude, why don't you just raise it? Like, just raise it. Are you kidding me? Like leverage, leverage, like scale, scale and part of, for me, like owning the outcome is like, well, I want to really live life on my terms, especially with this property and how I do Airbnb, and I don't want to raise, because I don't want to have to go in and raise it raised from 10, 15, because I don't want to have to go in and raise it raised from 10, 15 investors and then have to report to the investors and have to be by the book on every little detail. Because, like the moment you take someone else's dollar, a level of um, like of, of what's it called Like, of a level of, of there's a fiduciary duty, but of a accuracy, there you go.
Speaker 2:You have to be completely by the book and accurate about everything, whereas if I, if I own it, if I want to just kind of like change how I handle the bit hey, let's, let's take it from here, let's put here, hey, let's swap this out. I don't want to have to explain myself or my philosophies or why I do things to other investors just for this deal. Right, like I. I'm like that I'm above board for for all investors that I work with, but for this I'm like I just want to like be my own boss. I don't want to have 20. I don't want 20 bosses on this deal, and so I think this is sort of my way of being like yep, I'm going to own all of this, I'm going to get all the upside. Yes, I could raise for it. Maybe I will if some of these properties don't sell. But I really liked the idea of just kind of owning this all by myself.
Speaker 1:But how beautiful do that? You put yourself in a position that that's even a possibility. Yeah, like that. That's the thing. That's where money is beautiful, because it provides options, and if you can exit these and then have the options to do that, well then you can do whatever you want to do. That's the beautiful part of it, exactly, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 2:And I don't have to worry about distributions Like it's just I'm the distribution. If we make 10 grand or 20 grand one month, I can be like yoink, it's fine Like dude, it's great.
Speaker 2:I love it, man, and I think it's like it's so not stressful to me. I'm like, and I'm I'm actually like I'm going to have less units than I did before this, like I'm going to have less doors than the doors that I'm selling. So I'm like I'm trying to figure out. It's almost like a little nerve wracking because I'm like it's almost too good to be true. So I guess I'll have to come on for a follow-up episode in a year to let you know if it was, but like it just feels pretty dang good.
Speaker 2:I'm like how can this be so legit? But it just feels pretty dang good. I'm like how can this be so legit? But you know, you know hindsight's 2020. So I'll let you know, I'll report back.
Speaker 1:I'll follow up with you, brother for sure. So I have a question with the YouTube stuff Cause you said that not you know, 1% of the you know your time goes to that, but you, you would love it to be 99% Tell me about your YouTube.
Speaker 1:I don't know if it's a strategy or your or your process. Well, actually you know. I'm gonna ask you a specific question. When you think about the videos that you record for YouTube, how do you determine what to record, and do you have the same structure for each of your videos, or what's your process there?
Speaker 2:Um, I try to. Uh, I guess part of the authentic kind of desire that I have is to tell the good, the bad and the ugly, um, and so I think I just like to talk about what I'm going through or something that I solved. Um, I don't typically talk about what I'm going through although we're we're actually going to be changing this a little bit but I don't typically talk about what I'm going through until I've kind of figured out how, how I'm getting out of it or what the resolution is going to be. Only because I just hate the YouTube audience being like ha ha, see Rob's stupid and blah, blah, blah. Like I always am very confident that I will figure out whatever it is that I'm doing, like this motel deal, for example. Like I haven't talked about it very much because I have a plan and I know exactly what I'm going to do to pull it off.
Speaker 2:But talk is cheap and so I don't really want to talk about it and then not fulfill on it.
Speaker 2:So I'm like let me just get through it and then I'll tell everybody like, oh, I am more than happy to divulge the ugly, but I want there to always be a lesson, and sometimes brutal honesty is not that great If there isn't like a lesson or kind of an upside or a resolve, and so I always just want to have some kind of resolve so that my audience can watch a video and say, oh okay, I get it.
Speaker 2:Now I see what I must do. Although, you know, talking to Caleb, who's my editor and really our YouTube strategist, I think we, you know, maybe overthink that a little bit and I probably should get into some of the hey, oh, here's what I'm dealing with, because the audience does that actually builds more trust than always having like a happy answer. So I think, over the years, though I will say more than most of the Airbnb people, I feel like I can confidently say that I talk about the ugly side of Airbnb more than any other Airbnb content creator, influencer, because you know, when you talk about the ugly stuff, truth is it doesn't sell coaching.
Speaker 2:Uh it really, really does it, and so that's why I kind of see trends on it.
Speaker 1:You know what, bro, I'd?
Speaker 2:all right, I totally yeah, my bad dude.
Speaker 1:No, that's it, that was it. That's like yeah, what I was gonna say in some capacity.
Speaker 2:But I'm like I really I just need to tell the truth, you know yeah.
Speaker 1:So it's interesting because I have I foreclosed on two deals last year and, dude, I never thought in my life I'd foreclose on a deal. You know, it's always like it's huge, like it's a hit to your pride, you know it's a hit to your ego, I mean. But more than that, it's like, brother, geez, dude, I got investor money in that. I got a lot of my own money in that. It's like it kind of took a knock and I was like, you know, I don't know how to, I don't, so I just started talking about it, I just talk about it. I talk about it. Every event I do, I will talk about it. And it's funny because, um, what I've realized is that people realize that stuff happens and the whole thing is exactly what you just mentioned.
Speaker 1:I've learned so many lessons from it. I have learned those two deals have made me the operator that I am today, way more than any of the 17 others that were a success. You know 17 full cycle deals that were success, or 15, I guess because I've done 17 total and the two that didn't, you know, work the way I wanted or exit the way I wanted. I've learned more out of those than any of them. So I talk about those learning lessons a ton and it dude. I don't think it's hurt at all and if it does listen, that's probably not the right person to be in there anyway, because they got to realize that there's dude. It's not all just roses and green fields and successes. Like it's ugly.
Speaker 2:Things get ugly sometimes and that's you know uh, roses really smell like boo boo, you know, as, as my friend Andre 3000 would say. Well, here's my thought, here's kind of my how I always say this. I say we don't become real estate experts by everything going right, we become real estate experts by everything going wrong. And so that really is what I believe. I'm like, yeah, you know, I say this because everyone thinks oh my gosh, you're so smart, you bought at the right time like this, and that I'm like no, no, no, no, I failed up many, many times. I just happened to get started when I got started, but like I'd still would fail just as much if I got started five years later or five years before, it doesn't really matter.
Speaker 2:But so much has gone wrong. And it's like everyone's always like hey, if you could go back and I hate this, this question, and sorry if you haven't prepared but like if you could go back and tell younger rob, like, what would you do differently? And I'm always like you know this is the lamest answer in the world, but I would like never go and talk to younger me. I'm like just let rob figure it out, because if I were to let him avoid, like whatever mistake it is that I'm so petrified of, then literally I wouldn't be as successful, or future success wouldn't be there without it. So it's like I kind of need the battle scars to to really become a warrior, you know.
Speaker 1:Fact Dude. Yes, think about your kids. You know you want to take all the pain and all the you want to take it away from your kids, but you're not going to and nor will you, because you know that once again, that's what made you. My little dude, paxton, just had a baseball game a couple days ago and they put him in the last inning. He gets in you know pitches. They hit a ball to him, bases are loaded, he kind of fumbles, it overthrows. First they lose the game because they scored two runs.
Speaker 1:And on the drive home probably one of my proudest dad moments to date, I'll be honest with you because he's beat up. He was so beat up about it. But on the drive home he tells me I was like I can't remember the question that I asked, but it led to it. But he's like man, you know, what I learned is this I learned that, even though I feel there's lots of pressure and I feel this rush and I bobbled it and I knew I bobbled it, I let me bobbling it and this isn't exactly how it said, but this is what he was saying how I bobbled it made me rush my throw and then I overthrew. So next time, if that happens, I'm just going to take a breath and then throw to make sure my throw is good and I was like buddy. Like buddy, that is amazing, like that is what's one of my most proud dad moments in this time that he's just so bummed that he can find the learning lesson and realize that it's going to make him better tomorrow. Oh my, gosh.
Speaker 2:Yeah, dude, that's amazing. Good on you. Yeah, you're doing something right, that's him.
Speaker 2:And this is what it is Expect failure. Be grateful for the lessons that come from it. You know, and I don't know sometimes that motel deal. Sometimes I'm like you know, should I have stopped, younger Rob? But then I'm like no, no, like, really. Why would I truly like, would I love for that deal to have gone better? Yeah, but I'm actually. I think I'll have far more pride selling that deal and making a profit now that I went through what I went through. Like I think when I, when I'm at the closing table and I get that check, I think I'm going to be like ah, this is I made. I made $4 an hour on this, but it was great. You know, I learned a lot, but it felt like I made more you know we're going to wrap this up.
Speaker 1:I want to be, I want to be, uh, just respectful of your time, but I think that if I could give guidance to anybody listening, I just want you to listen to how Rob talks about things. He's talking about experiences, but he he like if the narrative in his head is always a positive narrative. What's coming down in the future, it doesn't matter what's what's going on. He's like oh man, I'm going to be at the closing table doing this. Oh man, I'm going to be doing this. Or man, this 13, I'm going to be. It's this positive narrative that he's spinning which keeps him going and keeps him doing everything that he's done, which is why he's done all the things that he's done and will continue to do the things that you do, bro, and thank you for sharing your story. Thank you for sharing it out there, the way that you do and you know, being you and not editing yourself, it makes it once again, man, it inspires me to do those kind of things. And so my last question is going to be this Not.
Speaker 2:what would you tell If I could go back and tell younger Rob, damn it.
Speaker 1:That was going to be my last question. Now I don't even know what to ask. You know I was going to be my last question. Now I don't even know what to ask. You know I was going to gear it and this is more um, selfish a little bit, because I know that you've had to put yourself out there on social media. I've known you've had to put yourself out there on on YouTube and I actually just taught a coaching call to my community that um was about this stuff like social media and putting yourself out there, and I didn't realize how much fear was around it. I mean, I have fear around it, like sure, like I. You know it's not the most comfortable thing to record yourself, but like I didn't realize how much fear around it was in my community, I guess I should say and so if you were to talk to somebody who's new starting the investment journey and they're nervous to put themselves out there on social media, what would you tell that person? What high level readers digest advice would you give them?
Speaker 2:Yeah, um, I would say it's pretty easy, pretty easy. Uh, the the best thing you can accept as an upcoming content creator or as an inspiring content creator is that your first 20 videos or are going to suck horribly. 20 videos are going to suck horribly, like they're so bad and they won't. They won't get better for a while. But if you can just make the content and say, all right, one of 22, of 23 of 20, like if you can get through those 20 videos, then on 21 and on, you can at least say all right, I kind of got the jitters out. Now I'm going to work on getting 1% better every single video, and that was really my philosophy. Like I told that to myself. I'm like, all right, first one you're going to suck, and that's honestly, probably naive. Probably the first 50 are going to suck.
Speaker 2:But for me, like I had no idea what I was doing, I shot on an iPhone. You know, the best camera on the market is the one that you have in your pocket. You know, like you don't need to buy a fancy camera. My first viral video was on an iPhone and I had no idea what I was going to do. It was my second video, or is my third? And I was like all right, I'm going to go outside and talk. And I was like had my tripod and I was walking outside and my wife's like what are you gonna, what are you doing? I was like I'm gonna be a vlogger. And she was like okay, weirdo. And I was like, all right, bye. And so I went to my backyard. I'm like all right, what could I talk about? And I look behind me and I had my tiny house in my backyard in LA and I was like all right, I'll talk about this.
Speaker 2:So I was like this is my tiny house, blah, blah, blah. And it was really bad and I would love for I don't ever take these videos off, I would never want any. I would never want to take my my glow up off. Go watch my first videos and it was kind of funny because that video was so bad. But that was the first video that went viral for me. Like six months later I was getting like 10 views a day and then one day I had 2000 views an hour and I was like what is this? And I looked in that third video that I posted was getting 2000 views an hour and I was like what is this? And I looked in that third video that I posted was getting 2000 views an hour and I was like what is happening? I don't understand.
Speaker 2:And then all of a sudden it just kept picking up and picking up and picking up and it turns out that people really like tiny houses who knew, and I remember being really, really bummed.
Speaker 2:But, um, because my channel, the raw built channel, actually started as a DIY channel and that, like I accidentally did a tiny house video cause I didn't have any DIY projects to do. And so when that video went viral, I was kind of bummed because all my other tiny house and Airbnb videos kept hitting and I was like dude, what the heck. I was like I spent so much time doing this DIY stuff. Like why don't people like that? And I just remember I was like you know what, if this is what people like, I'm going to double down and I hope it works out. And I doubled down and it worked out, and so I think it's like you know, we all kind of never be so precious or married to like what you think you're supposed to do. Just like go with it, figure out what's working, follow the pattern, double down on it, but understand even before all that you're going to suck for 20 videos, just crap them out and then get excited to come to work.
Speaker 1:That's so good. That's such good advice, man. That's such a great framework. I appreciate you breaking it down. I'm so excited to share that.
Speaker 2:Like, obviously my community will listen to this, but I will share that within the community, uh, and literally, I'm so pumped to share it because that is, uh, it's, it's golden advice, dude, and it is it's like have me on, anytime I'll come in and talk about social to your group.
Speaker 1:I would love to do that with you, brother. I'm done. We'll talk about that off camera. I'd love to make that happen, dude. Thank you so much, man. We'll put all the links and everything in the notes. Go follow Rob. Go follow his journey on YouTube and Instagram and everywhere he's at. Go make sure that if he does this next event, his host con, that you get there. It's a great event as well, and y'all live always with loha, as per usual. Peace.