From Battlefield to Boardroom: A Marine’s Journey to Freedom

What does it take to lead with purpose—whether in combat, business, or family life? In this raw and revealing episode, we sit down with a former Marine Corps infantry officer turned real estate powerhouse to unpack the lessons that shape a life of impact. From the discipline of military service to the chaos of entrepreneurship, he shares how embracing discomfort, owning your decisions, and serving others unlocks true freedom.

📌 Key Topics:

✅ How military leadership translates to business and family—and why empowering others is the ultimate force multiplier

✅ The unglamorous truth about transitioning from structured service to the "wild west" of entrepreneurship

✅ Why real estate isn’t just about transactions—it’s about stewarding life’s biggest decisions for your clients

✅ Balancing mission focus (success) with troop welfare (family)—practical wisdom for high-achievers

✅ The faith-driven framework for leading with humility, even when it costs you

"Discipline equals freedom—but only if it’s the right kind of discipline."

Listen now and ask yourself: Where am I avoiding short-term discomfort at the cost of long-term regret?

Chapters: 
00:00 From Small Town Roots to Military Service

13:12 Navigating Leadership in the Marine Corps

23:06 The Importance of Mentorship and Leading Men

35:52 Transitioning to Civilian Life and Real Estate

37:24 Transitioning from Military to Civilian Life

39:07 Navigating Real Estate Challenges

41:32 Building Relationships in Real Estate

43:57 Innovative Marketing Strategies

46:23 Embracing Learning and Growth

49:42 The Importance of Representation in Real Estate

52:08 Understanding Commission Dynamics

54:31 Balancing Personal Investing and Real Estate

01:00:14 Generalizing vs. Specializing in Real Estate

01:06:25 Future Outlook in Real Estate

01:09:25 Defining Freedom and Leadership

01:11:46 Leading by Example in Family and Faith

Transcript

Ryan Miller (00:00)

So Tyson, welcome. Appreciate you come and sit in with us and, uh, kind of give us a little bit of your story background and, kind of go over what freedom means to you as a person. So if you just kind of kick it off from the beginning, where you, where's life start for you? Yeah. Life started for me back small town, Nebraska, Kearney, Nebraska grew up middle America, um, went to a small school, graduated 45 kids in my class, a small Catholic school, Kearney Catholic and

Love that part of it. My parents, I'm super blessed that both my parents still here, but I actually had four amazing role models growing up. My mom, my dad, and my brother and sister are considerably older than I am, 13 and 14 years. So I kind had two sets of parents in a sense, always kind of keeping a watchful eye on me, but that was a blessing. So I just had two really mature, successful sets of folks to really kind of give me some tutelage and mentorship and support, encouragement, and also

Kind of disciplined too at times where, you need to kind of get track together and that kind of thing. From there, high school was great. Loved being in sports and has been involved in a bunch of stuff. And I ended up getting a football scholarship to play at Doane College. So I went there to play football. Right outside of Lincoln. Yeah. Yeah. A little small school at Crete, Nebraska, thousand students or so, Doane University. And played for two years and realized like, oh, you know,

This whole football thing really doesn't make a lot of sense. This is like glorified high school and it's gonna be done soon, which is cool for, it was wasn't for me. We had some coaching changes and I guess got really involved in academia and just what kind of extracurriculars had to offer for opportunity of growth. And I've always been interested in kind of just exploring the boundaries and limits of just different things to do with travel and extracurriculars like student government and fraternity, just a lot of different stuff. So then.

That was kind of crazy. But then 2008 kind of rolled around right when I was graduating. That's when the housing boom or housing crash kind of happened. It kind of was kind of crap. I wasn't thinking too much about it and was kind of planning on going to the military then. And then my buddy asked me to go to a career fair because he was nervous. I said, I'll go with you. I don't care. Ended up meeting a guy from a really well-known company here in Omaha. Got an interview, got the job.

Got in the job, hated the job. 11 months later, we decided to part ways from that job. And I was already planning on going to the military and the Marine Corps at that point in time anyways. And so my mind and focus was really elsewhere and really dedicated and called to go serve in the Marine Corps. that was in 2000. I graduated in 2008 and by 2009, end of 2009, October I...

When as an infantry officer, the officer can school in Columbia, Virginia, spent four years in the Marine Corps. And then my wife was in the middle of it, but she was from Nebraska too. So met her traveling from East coast to West coast duty station. Met back here in Omaha through some mutual friends. 11 months later, we were married three months after that I deployed. I don't recommend that for anybody. That whole timeline gets a little fuzzy. I guess, long was your deployment? Oh, we did eight months.

Yep. Eight months on and I was deployed with the Navy. Actually. We went to, what they call a Marine Expeditionary Unit. So we were tasked with kind of the whole hemisphere region in the Middle East as a kind of a quick reaction force. And we also trained foreign militaries that are allies. Based off the ship. Yes. Based off the ship USS Green Bay. And we would port and float and get into the landline. You know, train, you know, the guard for the, know,

the kingdoms in the Middle East or whatever, whatever you, uh, but it came back with all my fingers and toes and then took over, um, HNS company as a company commander, as a senior lieutenant. And then we were kind of all planning to get now I decided to get out. was like, well, if I want to stay married, we're not doing the deployment thing again. Right. You know, was just, it's just tax and it's just really hard. And especially for a new, uh, new marriage or just, you know, it doesn't, I didn't see a lot of fruit and the wars were winding down and it just really wasn't.

I didn't see a really great route there. Probably one of my regrets. I wish I would have stayed in one more tour and did a B bill at where you go and serve in an auxiliary capacity, teaching and something like that, or in the school houses. But moved back here to Omaha after that and got into real estate right away. So went from being government employee, consistent paycheck to a hundred percent commission. You what you kill, literally. And, she was straight into real estate. Yep. Right away. And you know,

lived with my in-laws for a few months before we could ever buy a house and buy a house. then I started taking off and we, uh, real estate was getting really well, going really well. And, uh, up having a daughter in 2000, when she's 16. And, um, yeah. And then we have, now we have two little girls, uh, Hazel and Nora. Nora's our oldest. She's eight and Hazel's three. And my wife had been married 13 years and gosh, she had an ounce of blur. Now it's just like, as you know,

Hate the saying but it's cliche as it as ever but older you get definitely time flies even faster and so you just Feel like you're hitting 40 here this year Start to kind of wrap your brain around mortality a little bit more and I try to okay How do I be present but still work, you know, so then there's that whole challenge, but been doing real estate for this be 11th year Dabble then I'd also do real estate investing

and stuff like that. know, the nice thing about.

saying for me kind of goes, there's enough sunshine for everybody. You you just got to figure out kind of your path and then make it your own and try to do God's will as much as possible, you know? So, yeah. What were your drawbacks in Marine Corps? Yeah, 2008 is probably not a good year to join the Marine Corps as an infantry officer. You know, I did an internship in college and for Senator Hagel at the time, he ran for president shortly after, didn't have a really successful run obviously, but

There was a general, was getting really interested in it I actually went on a special election committee down to Georgia with a guy who kind of ran it. He was 27 years old, 20 and he was training with the Navy SEALs. And I had a really strong interest in that as well. And so I saw him, like we were going out and partying with all the interns and stuff and he was up in the morning running. I was like, what are you doing? He said, well, I'm training with the, become a Navy SEAL. Really got, and I've always had an F.

affliction. I've always had an interest in the military. I tried to go out to high school a little bit. dad said, no, you're for all your scholarship. Try this. He's a Vietnam vet. He kind of saw the ins and outs, bads goods of war and government. he's very honored to serve, but just kind of gave me that kind of advice. And so I said, I respect his opinion. So I did that. But you could tell the rope was wearing thin on that.

I was really interested being around a lot of that community, just like, so he was beginning to get interested. So I started, read a couple of books and I was like, started to work it out more. I think that is something I want to do. This is after my, between my junior and senior college. Then fast forward, so talking with this guy, his name was Hans Hans Hans Hans Hansen or Hans Harrison, something weird, something very HH, really great guy. But I went to the center Hagel's office and there was a.

recon infantry officer in that office serving in his, had recently gotten out. He'd done three tours. And I had mentioned in kind of a round table with Senator Hagel, said, well, you should talk to this guy and he can give you some insight if you have any interest in it. So I did, and it was really interesting. He said, know, you're the only...

person here that isn't from Ivy League school. I was like, yeah, and you're also the only person here that doesn't sweat walking into a room and you feel completely comfortable in your skin. You can just tell by how you walk. goes, if I were, you know, my two cents of advice, you're the only guy that I could ever see in this room even going to the military because the way you carry yourself. never looked at it that way. You know, just like, this is just who I am, you know, just confident, put myself out there, not afraid to look stupid and try to learn something new.

not intimidated by rank or status. And he said, now, if you're looking between the Marine Corps or the Navy, I get that, but in the Marine Corps, everybody knows how to carry a rifle. he goes, you go to the Navy and you fall out of buds or your seal route, you have to go back and you're doing a support all the time.

And so the entire Marine Corps is built to support the infantry. I don't know that helps you at all, but it definitely puts you in a position. It sounds like there's some things you want to do. So that gave me a lot of just kind of fuel and also kind of some confidence in the sense that, somebody also recognizes this, like validates my kind of inner feelings and calling. Fast forward, went to college my senior year and got that job. And I told my dad before I got a job, like, no, you need to try this job out.

Well, you could just tell. At that point in my life, I was not ready to be confined to four walls of an office, and I still am not. And what did you go to school for? Just business. But I was so involved in extracurriculars. I had so much experience in other things, which was great, where all my other friends were having trouble getting jobs with better GPAs, but they had no applicable experience. so I about, I'd say,

four or five, six months into my job, I remember telling my mom, I had dinner, she was in town for work at the time. And I was like, I'm gonna go to the Marine Corps. And she was, I knew this time would come. And she was okay. She was a little nervous and scared, but she totally got it. I mean, she could see it. So that was really cool. Then told my dad, was like, all right, very well. And then still remember them coming. I remember driving across the country to go to officer camp school, is boot camp for officers. then them coming out to my graduation and.

Yeah, mean, that kind of rest is history and then get my going to California for my duties issued in the third time, fifth Marines. So it was kind of an accumulation of a just life of wanting to lead, feeling called to lead. Um, there was one thing that kind of resonated with me and my dad said, you know, a lot of guys came back pretty beat up and tore up from Vietnam. And I always kind of equated it to, you know, I think there's a lot of guys.

As you guys know, there's a vast wide array of people that join the military and there's a vast wide array of occupations. So there's a behind the scenes admin, logistics side, there's kind of direct support side and there's a direct action side. And I think every one of those kind of buckets attracts some different people. But for me, wanted to see if I had what it takes to go lead Marines in combat. And I never got that opportunity fully, but I do feel I felt I was fully prepared to do so.

But with that being said, anybody that joins the military, think to a certain extent, believe, hey, a lot of people are physically able to do it. A lot of people might be mentally able to do it. ⁓ then some very few people are emotionally able to do it. On top of that, even fewer have all three. And I felt like I had all three. And I said, well, if that's the case, I have to.

who else is supposed, I have to go. Like there's not only do I feel like I need to go, but I'm being called to go because maybe who else is gonna do it? And I felt not in a ego sense, but it's kind of my duty to do it, you know, or else who else? So that was kind of a big catalyst of like, yeah, I wanna know I can prove it to myself. Some times I knew I had a lot of the right makeup to do it at a very high level if I said, if I wanna put it to it, you know, and that's really what led me to that decision. ⁓

Yeah, I don't think I've ever been more driven for a certain amount of time in my life than I was preparing to go on the Marine Corps. How disciplined I was about doing the right things and being prepared mentally, emotionally, and physically for officer cadet school. was good. want to double tap on the leadership, first I want to... So working for Senator Hagel, how'd you do that? Because correct me if I'm wrong, but he's the only enlisted secretary of defense.

yeah, I think that's right. ⁓

Okay. Not only secretary of fans, but Senator. Yeah. He's a non veteran. Yeah. A Purple Heart recipient. Our college had some connections in Washington DC through alumni. And what had happened was I had received a scholarship or placement for a summer internship with Congress from Fortenberry out of Lincoln. Well, that was only through half the summer.

So I knew somebody that was on Hegel staff in Nebraska and I applied for an internship through there and I ended up getting it. So it paired up really well. So I saw the house side and the Senate side in one summer. What was really lucky was the thing that got me set up through the house side gave me lodging for the whole summer, which is awesome. I was right on Capitol Hill, which was a blast.

And that's all young people's a lot of fun metal either people but That's what kind of was a catalyst to get in there So I I needed something a gap filler and that's what this and senator was on the second half of summer But that's how I got into there. Yeah Yeah, how did you feel about the behind the scenes of Capitol Hill? Is it I mean, I know there's a lot of stuff in the media, but the most Common thing that I've heard through support staff. Yeah is that

The people you see on camera are completely different as soon as they walk off, you know, out those doors. Yeah, there's a polishness, I think, to the lights, right? The polishness. ⁓ And I always say lights cast shadows. So what's happened in the shadows is really what's kind of the inner workings. ⁓ So if someone's on camera, they've prepped and been fed and ⁓ are properly abreast to be able to handle the camera generally. Now, I think Capitol Hill is a lot of

It's like a duck, it kind of looks calm on the water, but their feet are just pedaling like crazy. And that's the whole support staff. And there's obviously, there's gonna be a lot of egos. So when you have a lot of egos, there's a lot of testosterone, there's a lot of just puffery. There's a lot of smart people though, man. mean, like there's some people that with, talking about like policy and legislation and inner workings of international politics. I mean, there's a ton of smart people.

These are people that do feel called, I think, to do something because the pay is not as good as the private sector, but they feel like the idea of influencing the geoeconomic policies is part of something that they can influence is awesome. So you say they're smart because they see the third and fourth effect of every decision? Yeah, the secondary, Trish here, yeah, for sure. They can map that out. That's their wheelhouse.

Every Senator and Congressman has a staff that specializes in a certain area, especially in terms of what that Senator or Congressman's committees are. So, you know, lot of Nebraskans have an ag specialist and they're seeing stuff on the international stage, local stage, national stage of how different commodities that are affecting their constituents ⁓ are. And it's pretty cool. I mean, you're talking about walking encyclopedias for that discipline.

which is pretty awesome. And they're having these panel meetings just internal to the office. Pretty cool. I mean, I think that's pretty neat how you're seeing ideas, thoughts, and being constructed behind the scenes and how it would take eight steps along the way and something might make policy, you never know. So that's pretty cool. Yeah, I think that's pretty neat. So what do you think is the biggest public misconception on what actually happens on Capitol Hill? Oh, that's interesting. That's been so long.

I mean, I follow politics pretty heavily for about 60 % of the year. I get dry. get overloaded. I got to decompress and dry out. you know, I think misconception is, I mean, there's two, like, I think there's a group of people that want to do good. And I know there's a few that want to look good and those kind of, and both people kind of battle these two personalities like, Oh,

know, perception is it's sometimes easier to do or to take away old things versus always doing something new. I think that's the hardest thing is like, okay, why don't, instead of always adding something in, what if we just keep removing things out to go simpler? Simpler, I mean, I know, I think in my own life, simpler is usually the 90 % solution. So it's not always easy, but simpler is probably usually the best way, and it's the easiest accomplished. And I think because they're so,

many people vying for the attention, simple is exceptionally difficult. So if you're always working for votes and the simplest answer is yours, but then I still care about who gets credit, that throws a wrench in the entire system. I mean, you can accomplish a lot of things if you don't care who gets the credit. And it's always about reelection, right? And that's how it's built right now with no term limits and stuff like that. Like it's all about reelection.

Well, then you always hear who gets credit. So then you have to throw in some kind of new idea to get credit. And that's hard. I that's really a challenge. So I think that's probably, I don't know if it's a misconception. I don't know if that really answered your question, but I think that's probably one of the problems is I think our leaders really care about who gets the credit. think that means too much right now. So. And then I want to get back to your story, but I am fascinated by this experience. I've heard stories of, you know, the unwritten rules, like, know, if congressman walks into a coffee shop, they get to skip the line and you know,

secret kind of... had a... there's a couple interesting...

Okay, so like one what's most recent was I thought this was the most Politician moment I've seen personally I was a volunteer escort on a Korean war flight to DC and so we were escorting 150 200 Korean war vets to Washington DC through patriarchal actually was an exceptional experience. I loved it and

Congressman Fortenberry walks on the bus. And this is like, I don't know what time of day it was, but it was daylight. And I haven't, I hadn't been in DC for, geez, I don't know, almost 10 years maybe, six, seven years at least. And I recognized him, obviously I would. I actually wouldn't necessarily, I I saw him, I said, you doing? I always said, how you doing, Congressman Fortenberry? I reintroduced myself and he,

And it was like the weirdest feeling. goes, Oh, good to see you. was just thinking about you the other day. And I'm like, you were? I go, Oh, interesting. Cause I just know, I knew how he got, was like, Oh, interesting. What were you thinking about? And he was like, don't doubt it. Cause no one had ever pushed back. Right. I'm like, you're so full of prep. I was like, that was the most political as the most politician answer or response. I mean, Oh, was good to see you. was just thinking about you the other day. Come on, dude.

Tell me, that is the most distant. You were not. I'm so far, you don't even remember my name. You know I mean? Cause I, cause I go, you remember my intern for you back in 2007. Oh yeah, yeah. I was just thinking about you there. Okay. Right. So that was interesting. But you know, that there's two things like cutting line. I think that that happens for sure.

There's a lot of errands being, there's a lot of errand boys, know, my, ⁓ lot of drivers, know, people going to pick up their Senator Congress and daily in the morning and driving home at night, that kind of stuff. But a lot of them definitely bootstrap it. It's expensive to have a place. So there's a lot of guys that roommate a lot of Congressman, because the Congressman doesn't make him what I mean, the Senator is, and you know, they're, you know, they'll room it up in a blackstone with four or five other senators or congressmen. So they have a place to stay and they spend most of their time in.

back to their home and their home state. So that's interesting. I you don't think about that. Like I met you over 50%, probably 50 % of congressmen share a place with another congressman. I bet that's kind of interesting. thought so at the end of the day, you go back to your place of residence that you were staying there for a short period of time. And what do you talk about? You know, obviously you're probably somewhat friends or at least amicable with each other, but that's a real thing. And, um, you know, there's a separate elevator for

congressmen or senators to take so they can talk business, you you're not allowed on. Or it's not uncommon to say, hey, can you please get off, we gotta talk about something. So you just get off and take the stairs or whatever. You know, so there's that decorum that is kind of just, you know, I get it. Cause there's some talks here or stuff that's held in the meetings, you know, I get that. I mean, you just kind of know, I read them file, like, are we all equally as important? Yeah, but do you have a different job to do? Absolutely. That's good way to put it. You know, yeah, we're both equal, but you're doing a different job.

We're in a support role. goes back to your three buckets in the military. all equal. Yeah. Just different. Different. Yeah. Yeah. So, but that was cool. It was cool. There's more little things, um, I know narcissism, nepotism, know, egotism. It's all there. So I like to go back to the leadership portion. So, I mean, I guess we met a few years ago passing, but

last couple months, talked more. And it's apparent through talking to you that leadership, especially leading men or leading Christian men, to be even more specific, is very important to you. You've recently started a men's group three, four weeks ago, or kicked off three, four weeks ago. It was in the planning before that. ⁓ Marine Corps, obviously infantry officer leading men. ⁓

a lot of stuff circles around leading men for you. Yeah. From what I, from what I know. Talk about that. Talk about that passion. Talk about what you've learned. Just kind of unpack that. Great question. Uh, it's a lot there.

⁓

So I think a lot of it starts with, well, I had really good men to look up to. My brother, my dad, I had an exceptional mentor in high school that, there's a void, I think, that I kind of saw subconsciously happening with young men, my own. I didn't party in high school, I didn't drink. I was always the in crowd, but just kind of saw a lot of guys, I just like,

kind of succumbing to the ways of society that really weren't really fruitful. And I think by the fact that I was around so much more older, more mature people for all my life, I've always been an old soul. So I've always felt like there's like, gosh, I always had a really great ⁓ introduction to perspective, even though maybe I haven't had the experience yet. And so I think that really started it.

you understood a few things that you couldn't, that you always had and no one could take away from you. was ⁓ attitude and effort. And I think that those two things really come with perspective. you, your attitude is something you choose. Your effort can always be relentless, right? And I thought I saw that in young men from a young age getting tied up in, you know, partying in high school or college or dealing with challenges the wrong way or, you know, on that same thread.

their ability was far greater maybe than they'd ever realized. It just takes the attitude and the effort and then layer that with consistency and discipline. You have a pretty strong recipe for success in about anything you wanna do. So those couple things really just hit home for me in terms of legis of values, like strong values of principles of how you wanna live, like unyielding. If you fall back on those, you're gonna be okay.

So that was a huge deal. I saw my dad work that way. I saw my brother work that way. I saw other young men that maybe I looked up to at certain times work that way. And then also I saw other people that were in leadership positions that didn't operate that way. And you saw the lack of influence they carried. And you're like, that's not really fruitful. And we talk about the Bible about how be fruitful in nature. We wanna be able to

pass things on, we want to be able to give things away in terms of this pathesis, this joy that exists that's kind of beyond our own comprehension. And so I was always just trying to look for where's the best way and the hardest way to see if that was available. serving in the Marine, in the military was something that was very, very high on my priority list because I think I checked a lot of those boxes.

It was something to me that I held, I can hold on to for the rest of my life. And I got a tattoo of it on my back, right? Like there's that on top of that. There's just a bunch of crayons. Just crayons. Like you do with your left hands and left hand off hand and maybe a few fingers, finger painting, right? But you know, and then on top of that, like I still hold onto that as a very big achievement in my life. And so then, you know, sports obviously played a huge role into that. You want to succeed in sports.

I saw a lot of our, before we got into high school, there was a lot of our teams that weren't very good. And the problem was, cause there was really big egos in the room that weren't willing to lead and grow the younger players. And we changed all that, you know? And so that was awesome, you know, in terms of showing up every day. And I think it just manifests. I think it's just super important. If you want to change the world, you start by changing one man, you know?

A man changes a family, a family changes a church, a church changes a community, community changes a state, a state can change the nation, a nation can change the world. And that's literally how it works. And you don't go the other way. It just doesn't work the other way. So it has to happen organically, has to happen from the bottom, and it has to garner support through the right things. think men are the catalyst in that, and that's the way God ordered it to be.

So my father-in-law was a SEAL. He did 21 years and he got out as an E6. My dad did 29 years, he got out as an E6. And the biggest commonality I've seen, I got out as an E5 and was that they wanted to directly work with people. And so I got my degree, I've been considering for years going the officer route, but I feel like there is a disconnect where you have to be at, know, Lieutenant up through captain.

you're more paying attention to controlling the chaos and less involved with the direct hands on leadership. As a company commander, can assume that you got a little bit of that, but how disconnected did you feel from the, especially junior Marines? Yeah. There's a couple of things there as a leader. You still want to be really present, but in certain leadership capacities, you are doing a disservice to not elevating your younger leaders to take, to take control of that influence.

If you circumvent that, can really erode some of that chain of command and leadership. Similarly within a family, if you're married and you go around your wife or she goes around you and goes to the kids in a different manner, you can really erode the order and structure of a home and family. Okay, so first and foremost, in the leadership role, it's a lonely, lonely place. There's not as many people, especially as you start to get higher. The higher up you get in leadership, the more lonely it gets. ⁓

And you have to understand that people need to, they need to respect you and trust you and be able to know that it's okay to come to you with things. But the other part of that is you're making tough decisions and it's not going to bode well for everybody all the time. You know, and I think that's really a challenge. The, in the Marine Corps, talked about troop welfare and mission accomplishment. We're constantly like this. If we constantly focus on troop welfare, mission accomplished takes a back seat. It might not be happy.

happening. If we constantly think about mission accomplishment, our Marines are going to get, our soldiers are going get degraded and eventually become untenable. then mission accomplishment goes that way side too, eventually. So this is, it's a harmony for sure. And ⁓ I think, you know, as a, as as a, as the above leader, the more you can empower

your younger leadership, the more lethal you can be. Whether that be in direct action, but also in business, the more you can make this your thing, and the more I can facilitate that, the better leader I can be. And I think that's really, really hard, because it takes a lot of selflessness. We're always battling our own sin, we're always battling our own accolades, you sometimes you want to put yourself on the back. That's just a challenge. I we're sinful people of nature.

And that's hard. And that's something that, you know, we talk about iron sharpens iron as one man sharpens another, having a one, two, three, four people that you can rub shoulders with and say, did you check your ego on this? Like they're right. That's hard to do. You know, there's a, there's a quote from CS Lewis about a good, I just talked about this morning, essentially it says, a good man wants to hear the truth to do glory and honor.

knowing there's even something greater behind that, even though it might be tough. A weak man wants to hear a lie, though he knows, because he knows it's comfortable, even though it's hollow. Dude, like that, that makes me not want to be a weak man. That sounds terrible. And that sounds like a really, really fast end to a good thing. So I always equate leadership, it's a lonely place. you have to be able to, it's a, there's a book called The Burden of Leadership.

And it's by Lieutenant Colonel of Marine Corps McCoy, I believe. And that it is, ⁓ it's a responsibility, but ⁓ I think it's called burden of leadership. Anyways, ⁓ he talked to us about that and how you, if you show that you care by being present, do what you say, say what you do, but also empower your junior leaders. I mean, that's a rest. I mean, you can, you can be pretty impactful that way. Now the role of a commander.

is to facilitate, not to kick down doors. I'm kicking down doors, shit has hit the fan and things have gotten pretty bad. So that's a challenge. And that proverbial civilian life, that's also, hey, if I'm having to go talk to an account when my sales guys can't handle the problem.

things either got really bad or maybe I had the wrong sales guy in position to able to handle the work, or I have actually failed as a leader to help train and guide and mentor that person to be able to handle the challenge and conflict. And it's about keeping that in your head about yourself and just knowing that you care by showing up. think that's part of that, but I mean, that's a long-winded answer. It's just, think it's really important that you have made the tough decisions and not everyone will like it. Oh, that's great. And we love Jocko. Yeah, yeah. Doing the extreme ownership. hear a lot of principles in that. Yeah, yeah.

And I see a lot of similarities in the dynamic from a commander and first sergeant to husband and wife or even the visionary and the implement. Absolutely. So have you found working dynamics from your experience as a commander that now you can apply to business? You know, parenting. Yeah, parenting for sure. I am definitely visionary guy. Like I've read Rocket Fuel. I walk through, I'm like 100 % visionary. And what's the challenge with that is

you can become extremely ineffective because you lost the cloud and I'm guilty at some times. So it's really important. I'm really lucky and blessed to have a wife that can kind of keep me on the rails at times. and, ⁓ now it keeps, keeps the water on filling the cup as I just keep pouring more water, right? She just keeps, you know, managing, which is great, but I think it's really important that your ego doesn't get in the way for somebody else to help you. That's, that's understanding how to ask for help is a big part of that.

And I think in ⁓ the military, it's okay to say, I don't quite understand this and help me understand what you want and need or, know what, I'm not really sure what are your thoughts. mean, I constantly, hey, I would always push command and control down to my juniors. How would you handle this situation? Okay. Take it from a couple of different people. And maybe I have the percentage to kind of fine tune that.

But now they understand have ownership of the process and that's great. my staff sergeant or first sergeant will be able to, Hey sir, we can get that done. That's wait. Okay. We can do that. Now I have buy-in from everybody. I think it's really hard. You got to learn how to identify those kinds of people and depending on your relationship to them or their current, their current involvement and what are they doing? Might not show that. And I think that's really hard. you're identifying talent, right? You're identifying people that can be effective in certain amount of ways. And then.

As a visionary, you gotta be like cast a vision they can dive into too and own and get behind. And now you're interlocking. Now you're having some synergies. But if you can't paint the vision for them, they're gonna continue to on with what they're doing. Or maybe you are trying to tell them something they've never heard before, but you can see it. Well, now you're fighting different animals there and you're trying to.

kind of understand how we can get them implemented. Cause you want to make sure there's a bigger picture that they can be helpful to. And I see that in the dynamic with the first sign and the commander too is biblically speaking when you're not controlling of the wife and nowhere in there to say you are the it's the, your wife is your partner. Right. And God created a helper. Right. And the same with the first sign, you don't ⁓ control the first sign, but they carry out the decisions. Cause ultimately, like you said, you're taking responsibility of the outcome. Right.

I definitely appreciate it. I never thought of that passage, head of the household as Christ is head of church, yada, yada, and then using that military concept of it. you bring up the first sergeant commander, it makes a lot of sense from that. I wouldn't suggest calling first sergeant mommy. Well, I would if you called for dignity. But yeah, it's an interesting concept.

What up?

So you went from leading Muse and stuff like that and to coming back and being a real estate agent. not, mean, you're leading yourself, I guess, but that's it. Like you're an army at one. What was that like? Well, one of the hardest things was working in a coed workspace. That was different, the different personalities. Did you have any support people that were? Yeah, I joined up with a team early.

and kind of had a little bit there. It wasn't a good fit, left that team and went to a different team, which was a lot better. But I think the hardest part was just getting out of the military and having such a...

I would call it, civilians would call it like you were just kind of a razor edge. You're just really sharp, like rough and like calloused, less pleasantries. I don't have time for kind of the drama, that kind of stuff. Where in the civilian life that really exists heavily and people get bogged down by the minutia. The military, you know, it is what it is. You just keep moving. That doesn't really happen. So you have to really have a lot more patience. Kid gloves, they kind of, you know, honey attracts a lot more.

bees and vinegar kind of thing. And that's a tough lesson to learn, know, working with. But for as magnified as that has been, has also allowed me to learn about who I work best with. So it's a blessing and a curse. Like, wasn't, you get immersed in this new culture when you get out. I have, I know where I want to go, but now it's about finding the right place where that can be held to the highest level of efficiency and work with the right people. ⁓

And that's a challenge, know, some, you know, think that's just really hard. I think you get to learn to kind of cope with that, be patient, um, and just find your kind of your tribe that, that relates well, kind of fills your gaps a little bit that you can respect, but it was hard. Yeah. My wife would attest that too. I was like, what does it, you know, it was hard. you part of a team now or you're just by myself. So, so, so agent, I've done the team thing a couple of times. Real estate is just really interesting or difficult.

When you're kind of a hard charger, having expectations of level of work to the same capacity and I've learned, more grace, like real estate works really well as an individual with some minor attachments for some support. I think it works as a team, it might work, but on a certain level of different scale that I don't have interest in pursuing. So you came into real estate around 2016, is that right? 14. 14. So 2014 to 2022. Yeah.

winds at your back, things are going well, rates are down. How was that transition as far as your ability to convert effort into income from 2014 to 22, from 22 to 25? I think there's a couple of things at play. I think that those first six years, ⁓ have less responsibilities in a sense like I didn't have kids or they were really young. Well, now you're

you want to be, I have a calling to want to be the best dad possible. Well, that's sometimes in juxtaposition of going and doing work and amongst their hours of doing things. I think that's one of biggest challenges is the time balance and making sure I'm present. you know, that's how hard I built some good habits and great relationships because of the book of business you build. that's, that helps and also provide some confidence and knowing tactically what you do, then it's, ⁓

Now you're trying to get into the kind of philosophy, making sure, do we need to change philosophy, how we approach people because of the climate's different? think at the end of the day, it's still about consisting about doing some very, very simple actions of, you know, talking about real estate and how to serve people. People are still getting married. People are still having kids. People are still getting divorced. They're still downsizing and getting out of their big family homes. That's not changing. It might be changing at the rate.

what's happening or, but you just need to find those people. And you know, there's 3000 agents in Omaha and out of 3000, less than 10 % are doing 90 % of the business. luckily I'm in that 10%, but I think that's really missed by the public that, know, you get a lot of part-timers or you know, we did this full time. I'm doing this full time. You have me all the time and I'm here to not just necessarily be your

help you find a home. I'm here to help you grow, educate, and be better, stronger, and ⁓ more ready for the next transaction through the process. it's hard though, because not everybody looks at buying a house that way. And I kind of do. think the buying a house is a snapshot and a glimpse into your life about how your family operates, what your goals are as a family, how you want to live your life, and what you see it looking like down the road. Well, the house provides a contract

where that starts and ends every day. So, well, let's help you get there. And on top of that, I'm gonna be your resource for anything you might need that is a one-off from your home for the rest of your life if you want it. Validated resources, tested and tried, and ⁓ also a secondary level of accountability for you that you know whoever you're gonna call through my referral network, you're gonna trust and know that they have a secondary person to be held accountable by. And that's really important. So, ⁓

I still get excited about helping people. Maybe first time home buyers or you know, Mr. and Mrs. Smith on the downsides from their house that they've owned for the last 40 years. So I think it was last week. He texted me a video. Uh huh. I get two questions on the video. One. What video? You sent me a video of you like basically by being an agent. Why you, know, Yeah. Emotional. Yeah. Whatever you want to work. Yeah. Okay. One. My first question is.

Where'd you get that idea? Cause I've seen somebody, I've only heard one other person talk about it and you're the first person I've ever seen do it. Um, and so kind of unpack, I guess what the video was and why you did it. then, um, in it, like you talk about kind of what you just said right here about being a different agent about being like, I'm not asking you for your work right now. I'm, know, kind of planting the seed if you will, know, you're, you're sewing ahead of time.

⁓ So kind of unpack both those things. Where'd you steal that from? Cause I know you didn't come up with it yourself. But I think I know where you got it from. then, know, kind of, what did you say there? So what it was, was basically a call to action, a sense of like, I'm here. I'm still working. I'd love to help you if possible. And I love to serve you in capacity. Right. So that's, but I got that from Gary Vanderchuck. Yeah. He's kind of an out of the box thinker.

And he's pretty intense. So he's not for everybody, but he's got a lot of great ideas and it's been validated time and time again, a lot of his endeavors. So it was a little out of the comfort zone for me. My one of my biggest challenges is I don't want to be a burden on other people when I'm trying to just see how I can help them. So calling them is sometimes a lot for me in terms of diving into their day. Uh, how can I help you serve you? What kind of value can I bring to you? Um, but that was a really good way for me.

to interject into their day at their pace. So meet them right where they're at. They can watch it now or later. If they know my face and might not know me well, they're probably gonna watch it. If they don't know me, they'll probably think it's spam. And that's okay too. ⁓ But really it was like, it helped me kind of, was kind of getting over the fear of like, it's okay to like put yourself out there. I go to Ebb and Flow and stuff on social media too. Like, it's a thing.

I I just feel so, so, so I don't love the way it feels. It's an emotional thing. That's fleeting itself, but that's why I did. just want to say, Hey, I'm here. I want to make sure, you know, I'm active in the sense that like, I don't know where you're at with your world. It's hard to reach everybody. Uh, but just want to kind of get in their ear to see how I can help them serve. two things you said that, or one thing that you said there that kind of reminds me of what you said earlier, you said, you know, 10 % of agents sell 9%.

And I think in that same video where Gary talks about doing this, he's like, I can pull whatever I want out on the internet because only a small handful of people are going to actually do it. And so you saw that video, you took action on that video. And I think just that one snapshot in time shows why you're in the upper echelon of selling real estate in Omaha. cause how many times do people watch hours and hours of YouTube of

how to do, I don't care if it's how to build a bookshelf or how to build a business. They watch all this stuff and then they take no action on it. One thing that was really interesting in the Marine Corps, always said, as a leader, especially lower level, like troop leader, you're pretty close to your subordinates, right? Was always place yourself at the point of influence.

Sometimes that means getting shoulder to shoulder to a PFC or Lance Corporal and literally physically moving him if he doesn't know where to go. One, he might be scared. Two, he might not know. Or three, he made the wrong decision. And you need a change. Or whatever that might be. Similarly, I've never been scared of looking like a fool to try to learn something new. Like I have just, it's a...

blessing that I have that don't mind walking in front of people. don't mind talking in front of people. Do I get nervous sometimes? Yes. if you don't, you're never going to learn and grow. would rather sacrifice the two minutes of discomfort than the years of regret. Right? Like it just isn't worth it for me. So I would never want to walk away something from somewhere and saying, wish I would have raised my hand for that. You know, would it be

So, and that actually changed how I even approached going to class. I wasn't an exceptional student. I was a good worker as a student, but I wasn't, I wasn't, I'm not like a book nerd, that just, school came easy. As soon as I started sitting in front of class, my level to retain and my level of attention skyrocketed. As soon as I wasn't scared to be in front and really understand why I'm here and take what I can, all the distractions, the girls, the gossip, it all went away. So,

That in itself was kind of the catalyst of understanding. like, hey, you gotta take ownership of your own learning, growth, challenges, whatever it may be. Never be, you know, a lot of my teachers didn't like me because I asked so many questions. It's just that I was so curious. So, you know, I try to instill in my own kids, don't ever be scared to ask a question. Don't ever ask, if you wanna know anything, you you can never be scared to ask a question. You should always feel empowered by knowing you have questions.

And I think that's really important. So I think that kind of that fact of just putting yourself out there sounds great. You know, my youngest daughter is really inquisitive. Yeah, the double-edged sword because it annoys the hell out of me. Quit asking me questions. But in the same token, like I don't want her to stop. Right. Because I don't want to stifle that and keep her from ⁓ asking questions. But yeah, it's like, ⁓ When I get really tired, I'm always like, that's a great question. What do you think? I always, that way.

Okay, I gotta work through it. You know, because I am like, yeah, if you want an answer and opinion, I'm ready for it. Here we go. Yeah, our 14 year old is like that. She's very on top of it. She knows we have a list of house projects, we want to finish the basement and do this and the other and so she'll ask. And I'm constantly fighting the urge to be offended by the questions, right? Because sometimes it's the accountability that I need. So the kids are the best accountability partners.

But she'll be, so which contract are we going to use? Have you got any bids? back on the topic of, you said 3000 agents, 10 % are doing most of the volume. We talked about this probably a year ago. I brought up the exact same point. And I said that going into a high interest rate environment, and this is true when you're going from a strong buyer's market or a strong seller's market.

any agent with a pulse is going to close a deal. Right. When it goes into a balanced market, the only ones that reach that 10 % of the ones that are willing to put the effort in. And what I found is, is when I came in in 2020 or 21, the wind was at my back. I was closing, you know, for every ounce of effort, I was closing three deals. And then when that shifts and you're putting in three ounces of effort for one deal, the, the agent pool drops significantly. We always have new people getting licensed, like you the part timers, but

the shift from putting three times as much effort to close one deal because I didn't have that pipeline. I mean, I have investors that still buy deals, but I wasn't getting new business. And I think KW Elite did a good job of teaching on this. think their teaching is phenomenal when it comes from internet leads, sphere of influence and ⁓ referrals or prospects. Where have you found that you excel further than your peers to keep you in that 10 %? Yeah, mean, mine is still relationship driven.

with past clients and relationships. People are gonna do business with people they know, like and trust. And that conversation is just a lot easier in terms of seeing where you can be inserted to be able to serve them. You get an internet lead, there's no loyalty. And if there's very little loyalty, actually any bucket, really. In real estate, I've had friends, my own siblings.

I I helped them. I've never, I don't know if I've ever had to refer from my own family, from my own siblings. They've got a lot of other contacts and family and they don't want to, whatever, for whatever reason, but it's the other, I mean, you build those relationships, you build your own network. And as long as you're staying top of mind, cause there's, can throw a shoe at your front door and hit a real estate agent. know what mean? And you just want to make sure that.

The shoe says your name on it. So when they throw it, you know, go pick it up. But I think that you need to know that doors are always open and bridges aren't burned. that you can kind of just reach out to people. Even if you have tough, even if you have tough transactions, the fact that you stay around and, and if you set clear expectations in the front end, you know, I had a client that was like, how, you know, really what's the benefit of even using an agent? Okay. Fair question.

million dollar question. Right? One, we are a luxury item. You don't have to 100%. However, that being said, if I've looked at 1000s of contracts, and if you're questioning where I might be effective, my question is, it's not about if I'm effective, it's just about where I'll be effective for you. It might be pre sale might be while we're under contract, it might be post closing. I don't know, even though there's a kind of set process of things.

But something's gonna come up either now or down the road that you're gonna need and I wanna be your go-to for that. And that's what I'm trying to provide. A holistic or a whole resource on every level. Hey, your brother also wants to invest in real estate. Well, he doesn't know where to go. You're calling me and that's okay. I want you to do that. Hey, all of a sudden my air conditioner goes out. I take pride in knowing a lot of the inner workings of a home.

So I'm gonna help you troubleshoot that before you have to call the air conditioning guy. So you're gonna waste $150 house call. Okay, let's work, hey, first and foremost, is your filter clogged? No, okay, we're going through the checklist. I have no problem with that, right? Oh, I wanna get, know. So my, know, that idea is that we need to be more than just opening doors and seeing houses. Children can do that.

You know, I want to bring another level of, Hey, I have a supreme confidence in, in buying this house because I know it's a strong sturdy house where I can grow a family or do my next goal. That's what, that's what's really important. And let's get you there. then some, gonna come in and check calling about interest rates or calling about, you know, if you have vendor partners that are offering a sale on servicing of, you know, mechanical of your home, stuff like that. They don't have anywhere else to go for that.

somebody else will fill that void or something. And if it's not you, that means that their attention has been elsewhere. Now they're not thinking about you for the next thing they might need. So have you, have you had to change or alter your standards of practice at all since then they are lawsuit or is it business as normal? Still business as normal. Our negotiations any different? No. The only thing that I have changed is saying if they bring it up and say, I'm so glad you brought it up.

This sounds like, I always say, hey, know, it sounds like commission's a big concern for you. And they either say yes or no. Yes, we want to make sure that it's not an added expense. Perfect. Let me address that. No, no big deal. We just heard about it on the news. Wanted know what it was about. Okay, so now I know I've identified the problem. Identified their concern or where that came from. And then I say, what's great about that is actually nothing has changed. The only thing that's changed is how we disclose

fully on paper how we're getting paid. The commission agreement that you signed with me, even though it says if we buy a house that's not gonna pay commission, you're gonna pay it. That doesn't happen without you knowing it in a prior discussion of us even wanting to see the house. Oh, okay, this is exactly what happened when software was sold by owner. And they're like, oh, okay, that makes sense. All right, end of deal. Go forward. So that's it. And ultimately, and I have a little bit of a contrarian perspective on this compared to a lot of

agents. I saw people crying, oh, they're trying to steal our money and all this stuff and they don't realize how hard we work. it's like, nobody cares. You're a business owner. So, but I think that it does a good thing for the general public. And all these rules are to protect the general public for the simple fact of price fixing is that in the commercial side, your commission is not implied. You negotiate it.

And both sides are responsible for sharing the net sheets with their respective parties. So they know what the impact is on their bottom line. If the buyer is paying the commission, then it increases their cost of close. If the seller is paying it, it decreases their funds from the closing. That's all it is. And so many times I deal with on the residential side for investments where you're dealing with inexperienced agents that I can just change and say, okay, for example, I had a deal.

submitted on a duplex. I had an out of state buyer. ⁓ we asked for, it was like ⁓ a $380,000 purchase seller pays commissions. They said no. So I, in the fall of offer, talked to the buyer and I said, ⁓ I, I charged 3 % just for my services and said, will you agree to sign this for 3 % with me? I'm going to ask the seller to pay towards closing costs. They took the deal. They wound up giving up.

like an extra $4,500 because of the way that it was framed because they weren't focusing on their net sheet. They were just focusing on, they don't want to pay the commission, but they were fine paying closing costs. So it didn't, it didn't change my, my buyer's capital or what he called cash to close. benefited them more. And I think that that's just inexperience. And so I, part of why I think it's beneficial is it needs to operate more like commercial where it's a negotiating point.

No, no commission should be implied. You're, you're compensated relative to the value you're providing to a transaction. Absolutely. And unfortunately buyers have been really conditioned to not have to pay that. Well, they are, you are, you're paying, you're financing it. So it's even worse. Yeah. Yeah. so now like it's masquerading. It's like, don't like that. But I think that the misconception in the news is that they believe by not forcing people to

pay buyers commission that the prices are going to decrease 3%. That's not the case. It just means the seller is netting more or the listing agents taking the full commission. Yes. So, and I've seen the biggest change I've seen is there's a lot more unrepresented people walking open houses, going direct to the listing agent. And I mean, I think that dynamic is going to shift. It's going to, people are going to have to specialize more than just buyer's agent. know a guy I've seen previous

so many people that you get them to the closing table and they go, ⁓ my cousin's gonna represent the sale. it drives me nuts. But I think it just comes from a lack of ⁓ transparency and knowledge. So. Yeah, that's work. mean, you gotta teaching somebody about what you're doing so they have a full understanding is work and it puts yourself out there for somebody to ask questions.

People don't like to be questioned. You said it by yourself, your own daughter is holding you accountable. And you're like, this feels awkward. This shirt doesn't fit quite right, right? Let alone somebody that you're trying to get paid from. So I think that's, know, we're kind of dealing with it. You know, I don't know if you remember going into like some kind of garage store or garage sale or swap meet or anything with your dad. My dad would go over these. There was no problem haggling. Not one bit, no emotion whatsoever, or selling a car in your driveway that you were upgrading.

It's just what it was. think that's a lot that's been lost because we're so worried about how it's gonna feel. I it's just part of what we're doing, you know? And even on, I'm still an advocate for representation. think that even an ⁓ attorney, if they were on trial, they would have someone else represent them. At the very least it offers an outside perspective. And we're experiencing, we flipped the house, we're licensed agents. We can go publish it. We've done it a couple of times, but hiring an agent,

paying their commission is proving more valuable because we got an offer last night and they called out things that I probably wouldn't have paid attention to. Like we didn't, there's no washer and dryer in the unit, but they checked the boxes. I mean, it's not a big deal. There's another thousand dollars that if I was just looking at the offer price, I would have missed that. Yes. And that's a big deal in investment properties. Every thousand dollars means something because you're trying to work on margins for sure. Yep. Absolutely. So how, how have you balanced

Being an agent and your personal investing in business buying so yeah Well, I see about the investment on the real estate side things are kind of just come and you kind of work symbiotic, know It's like ⁓ there's just kind of a one-off and it's an easy conversation and stuff like that So that's cool, you know and and your circles of overlap are pretty similar you know, the the investing world is not too far away from either a business owners or other realtors because they're all kind of

Familiar and have contacts. So that was really that's been really easy the other side of it is if you're trying to make a shift in a rate I want to say shift maybe just acquiring and Getting into the business world. Well now you're saying now I would like to understand how I'm time blocking I think it's a big thing. I'll say, you know, whether it be morning and afternoon a.m. P.m. But you have to designate more time or not time You have to be does a specific time to active in these activities and then specific time to act

and those activities so you can be both efficient in both. If you're trying to do X, Y, Z over here, but A, B, and C over here, it gets really hard and you're kind of a 32 masters and that's really hard. So I think fine tuning how you manage your day and making sure if you have a business that has people with it, they all are gainfully employed on what they're supposed to be doing. Commanders intent is very clear ⁓ and you guys can go about and do your, you know, be.

fully effective in their jobs. really important. So how do you discern the time value of whether you're going to just buy a property or if it's better just finding someone to buy it, get in the commission? Great question. ⁓ This question is for investing. ⁓

think it comes down to the seller, what their goals are. And if I can meet those personally and we both win, it's a win. If it's more beneficial to the seller to put it on the market, do that. But if you're looking for a different solution, well, let me provide you one and see if we can find one. Okay. So then it's really kind of a, does the shoe fit? Every time that I invested in a house, it's a hold, it would not have done very well.

or vice versa, hey, you would not get the right kind of offers. We can help solve this problem. You're going to get exactly what I'm going offer if you put this in the market. It just will, because of the condition or state of the home. It needs a lot of work. It's ⁓ heavy lifting there, the market. And your buyer pool is very, very limited. It's investor-centric, it ⁓ doesn't match up. So I think it really, for me, the message is really about, hey, what solution works best for you?

Here's a couple options. Which one would you prefer? And I have to be okay with both of those, you know? So that was kind of how I approached it personally. Yeah. I was like, oh, uh, people just get in their head. Wazila says my house is worth 350,000. Yeah. But you have no kitchen, no bathroom, no carpet. Yeah. And you're in, you're in, you're in, you're in Omaha. Sorry guys. So it's, uh, always interesting bridging those, uh, those, uh, expectations, Yeah.

So whether it's generally or specifically in real estate, what are your thoughts on generalizing versus specializing, whether it's residential properties, investments, commercial? I think that the kind of that's a kind of a good question. think that the investing part can happen from a commercial side or the residential side. That's a very that's that's simple. I think we can make that bridge really easily. ⁓ I looked at going into commercial real estate a couple of years ago.

I think it's really hard, especially if you're starting to do larger commercial deals. If you're working specifically in like a smaller multifamily, you could probably do both pretty easily. Like, and put a couple of duplexes up, triplen. But when you start getting into like, you know, rental spaces and filling gaps before sale and EPA regulations, and like trying to do, there's like a zoning issue. It's a whole other volume in commercial. And most commercial guys and most residential, it's really hard to do both.

Cause you're serving, again, you're serving to master. It's hard to lead Jen in commercial and then go lead Jen in residential and make a lot, and make a good living. So there's enough sunshine in both worlds for you, but you got to make sure that you're, what you just decide what beach you want to be on. Right. And I that's, think for, I think somebody that comes out of personality too, I would probably work maybe better as a commercial agent now than I would have when I was younger, ⁓ earlier in the business. I'm more emotionally, ⁓

to more emotional capital commercials a little more, these are the numbers as a worker, not let's put the offer in there. Here's the build out costs doesn't work. Right. But the lead time is so much longer on commercial deals, residential deals, you know, 30 to 90 days and you have a check, know, real side commercial can be 90 to a year, you know, just dependent. Does that make sense? I mean, it just depends on what you, gotta, but go and go deep into that niche. That'll be, that'll be like,

or you didn't try to do kind of both. Yeah, absolutely. And I started a residential brokerage doing commercial deals and it was very difficult. All the support was residential focused and it's like I did a few residential transactions helping primary home buyers and it was after a few times of someone saying they're not gonna buy a house because they don't like the color of the paint. I'd lose my mind because I think very, you know, black and white. Yeah. Or that's a very big hurdle to get over, get over Exactly. It's changeable.

I told them I will paint this wall if you buy the house. Yes, yes, yeah. But what I can't do is I can't move to a new neighborhood. You love the neighborhood. So we're cool with the things that we can. And so I just found that my personality does not work well in the residential because I don't have the patience for the emotions. But I realize a lot of these people, it is their biggest purchase. But what I found is I like the analytical of commercial because it's binary. Does it work or does it not? Yeah, that's good. So what's next for you as you move on to

Finished off 25 moving to 26. I want to close out 25 strong real estate You know, I think it's a really good time to be in the market. I think people are underestimating this the the opportunity right now the market soften I think more of a neutral market I think that but I say that in a sense that sellers are not at a disadvantage Because they're still capitalizing off a great appreciation of last three to five years So they're in a great position But buyers is if we when we get when the interest rates drop

it's going to be a seller's market again because there are so many people sitting on the sidelines because the interest rates are so high. Do you think they're going to drop? I Yeah. think we're going to level out somewhere around mid to high fives. think if we can drop, there's a statistic, for every half a point, just in Omaha, national interest rate drops half a point, 5,000 more people will go talk to a lender. Okay. We have less than 2,000 houses on the market. It's a problem.

Okay, when demand goes up, what happens to prices? Price goes up, If we get down, Redfin says the tipping point is 5.85. If we get to an entry at 5.85, get ready to get the, Katie bar the door so they're gonna be barnstorming. So that's a big deal. I would rather be buying now and have leverage with a seller of inspections, closing costs, points buy down, whatever it may be, time, then wait and now I'm competing against.

buyer A, B, C, and D, and the seller holds all the cards. I do not want that situation. You can always refinance. You can always refinance. And that's really hard for conservative community. Omaha, by and large, is conservative community, wrapping their brain around buying higher now and refinancing later. It's hard for them to conceptualize versus waiting, thinking the price is going to down because interest rates will go down because that just isn't the case. So it's just understanding the- Avoiding the lender cliche of date the rate.

Yeah, I know. it's a real thing. ⁓ But then also getting into business with a good friend, trusted business advisor.

with the window innovations as we start ⁓ kind of going into that business. He just purchased it. We're to partner together on that and helping grow that business, a trusted name in the window space, providing exceptional quality products across Omaha and the surrounding area with Marvin windows. And excited to see that grow too and provide any other toolage and leadership I can there so they can grow and yeah, put more stickers in houses and help that as well. So I'm excited about that.

Gotcha. If we're to let you go, what does freedom mean to you? Obviously you've touched on your religious background, financial, through real estate, ⁓ leadership, the military. What's all that mean to you? Well, I think there's probably a couple different levels. ⁓

I don't want to leave our family. Yeah, no, no idea. there's one part of you, like in the nuclear, hey, I was with my family and I want to do what I want, when I want with who I want for as long as I want. Right. That's there's that element right there. And that's really personal freedom of like, of movement and time from a time, which I think is really important. And then on top of that, think having the freedom, obviously, that, you know, that our constitution has and

That's super important too, to able to talk about what I want, where I want with who I want, and how I want to talk about it. That's really important too. So, and I think those are two separate things. One you're in complete control of, and one you're being administered that freedom. So those are two kind of ⁓ in juxtaposition to each other at times. And the other piece of it is being a Christian and hoping that I finish this life.

was pretty freeing if I know that Jesus, the Prolegate says, you ran a good race, faithful son. There's some freedom in that. When you have the discipline to put the correct guardrails up in your life, discipline does equal freedom. And it's not the discipline in terms of coercive discipline. It's the discipline of daily disciplines to have the right focus on the right purpose that other things are not weighing you down.

It's it's the it's streamlining your life that the little things are not going to affect you. There is massive freedom in that. And that's where the six inches between your ears. Mental freedom to be able to act properly, treat people with kindness and respect until they don't deserve otherwise and be able to lead appropriately and also make a mistake and get back up. That's that's that's a lot of freedom in that too. So you're kind of looking at the triumvirate of freedom.

overarching national freedom in terms of just a holistically, but then personal and religious freedom of how you think about your own life, but also in how you your family. That's kind of what fear freedom leads to me. It means to me. My closing question is on that. When it comes to leading the family, how do you in daily practice balance troop welfare with mission success? If mission success is provided tight all in. Yeah. So

troop welfare, the well-being of our family, right? So like, what does that look like? And then also mission success, what's the mission? One, how do you, you gotta lead by example that you have a relationship with Christ. That is openly praying with your family, openly talking about God's plan for us or something bigger to us daily. I tell my daughter every night, God has a plan for you. That is not me, that is not me putting that on her. She knows there's something bigger outside of our family that's at work, you know?

There is something with that that I think is also freeing, but understanding that this is only temporary. Everything that's tangible here will eventually go away. And we're trying to look for eternal freedom. That's a big concept for a little kid. And I sometimes think little kids get it better than adults do. We get clouded, jaded, wronged, mistreated. Our ego gets bruised, whatever. It's really cool when...

your kids realize, Oh, that's okay. God's got me. And they say something like that. Like I need to have that, you know, God tells us it's like, I want you to have a, a joyful joy, like a child for, for your faith. You know, it's important. Um, so leading by example, humility. and then the other part of that is you are preparing the child for the path, not the path of the child. And I think that's super important to understand that.

that means you're gonna have to make some tough decisions that they don't really comprehend at the time. You know, just like, you you as a parent have to discipline your child and there's times that your child doesn't really understand that discipline. Hey, there's some corrective action here. They might not understand. God acts in the same way. Sometimes we don't even understand why things are going on in our life, but it might be a corrective discipline that he is, as a father, is working on for us.

So we have to have the patience to see that come to fruition and see what that looks like at the end. As a parent, we do the same thing. The relationship is never lost as long as you're still able to come together. I love you no matter what. Trust me, we will get through this together. And they come back. So far, my kids are young still. We've had some hard times at itself, whether it health issues or disciplinary issues, but we're still young.

the other day you're still learning and ⁓ I haven't met a parent yet that hasn't learned just as much from their kids, if not more than they've learned from you. So I think that humility of understanding that God works through every way around us and we're just trying to help them out and be good leaders for them as stewards of faith, but lead by action. Action more than every model, everything. Kids get what is, ⁓ what I say kids, not what's taught, it's what's caught and they catch it.

I'm catching from you about what they're saying. How you treat your wife, how you handle arguments and disagreements, knowing how to forgive and apologize, knowing how to tell somebody you were wrong. That's all seen. It's all seen. And the grace of God's at work every so long time that happens. know? Awesome. You're recording words and he... No, this has been great. I love it, man. Thanks for having me on. I'm excited to see it in production value.

Does it help? your breath. It's great. Thank you so much. Thank you. you coming. Absolutely. Thank you.