Dragon's Gold: The Magic of Mindset

Facing Cancer, Finding Clarity: David Priest on Investing Boldly and Overcoming Mediocrity

• Justin Mills • Season 1 • Episode 21

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Episode Summary:

Sometimes it takes life’s hardest moments to reveal life’s greatest opportunities.

In this powerful episode of Dragon’s Gold: The Magic of Mindset, David Priest shares how a cancer diagnosis shattered his comfort zone, and became the catalyst for radical growth, gratitude, and generational impact.

Key Themes:

  • How a diagnosis redefined his understanding of wealth and freedom
  • The mindset shifts that unlocked a bold new career in capital raising
  • Why resilience and humility are the ultimate entrepreneurial skills
  • How to build trust, protect investors, and honor your word
  • Why financial freedom starts with passive investing—and intentional living

What You’ll Learn:

  • How to bounce back stronger after a failed deal
  • Why building a tribe accelerates your growth
  • The four types of wealth—and how to balance them
  • How clarity cuts out distraction and amplifies purpose
  • Why it’s never too late to reinvent yourself


Tools & Weapons

  • Who Not How by Dan Sullivan – Shifting from self-reliance to strategic collaboration
  • Rich Dad Poor Dad by Robert Kiyosaki – Foundational financial mindset
  • Focus on Passive Investing – Building generational wealth through leveraged freedom
  • Clarity over Distraction – Ruthless prioritization after life’s wake-up calls
  • Building a Tribe – Leveraging community for exponential growth

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About Gold Dragon Investments:
At Gold Dragon Investments, our mission is to bring joy to others by helping them win the game of investing — helping every client become the hero of their financial journey. We believe that wealth is a tool, but joy is the ultimate outcome.
Through meaningful partnerships, we strive to empower our investors to create freedom, and build lasting legacies of purpose, fulfillment, and wealth.

Join Us on the Adventure:

Ladies and gentlemen, welcome once again to another episode of Dragon's Gold:

The Magic of Mindset Today we have the pleasure of having the principal of Paratus Commercial Group, David Priest. David, welcome to the show. Good to be here. Thank you, my friend. Well, as I love to do, let's dive right in. Let's go to the origin story. How did it all begin for David? Well, I mean, it began in Texas. I'm a native Texan, native Houstonian. So I've always lived and been around Houston and in Texas. So I've kind of, this is kind of my, my ground that I stand on here in Texas. So I've been around here my whole life. I became an entrepreneur kind of by accident. I'd had been in sales for many years in the nineties and in the early two thousands got in the mortgage business in 2003. Did that for about five years, kind of learning my trade. It was kind of the wild west of that like subprime error. kind of came to be doing mortgages during that time. 2008, came along and I had a person I'd worked for that left the company and I had an agreement with the company and the person that took over the company just shredded my agreement and said, hey, we're not going to do this. We have a new agreement now because I'm running the company. So I said, okay, well, let me think about that. And I just walked out of the office that night and didn't make a big fuss about it. And I never came back. So I went and started my own company. was like, I need to go start my own company and just go do this myself. This is ridiculous. So I did that. It was kind of by accident. It just was one of those things. So I started a mortgage company in 2008. I always have impeccable timing and immediately I was getting married at the time. So it was a very like I was in love. I met my wife. I'm getting married. It's a great hopeful time. I'm going to start a company. We get married that summer and then, know, as soon as we get married, the whole world starts coming unglued. And so, you know, we're this hopeful, wonderful, newlywed honeymoon time and the world's kind of falling apart around us. So my mortgage company was doing really well because I was lucky. It was really small. I hadn't built up a big infrastructure. So it was just me and an assistant. And so we powered on and we did really good because about 90 % of our competition quit. So although the market for people needing loans was smaller, 90 % of people said, hey, this doesn't work anymore. This isn't any get rich quick scheme. It's not cool. Get out of the business and everybody quit. So we ended up doing really well. And my wife had a W2, so that helped a lot. And she was real successful working for a Fortune 100 company. And so we did that. We basically persevered and got through that. basically, jump in on something. we talk about trials and tribulations. We talk about moments in life that are difficult to overcome. And oftentimes we learn valuable lessons from them. What are some of those you've experienced? the financial crisis helped me learn a lot about investments because we'd just gotten married. had two incomes and we decided, hey, let's live off your income. And then on my business income, let's save a hundred percent of that. We'll budget off your income. So the stock market immediately crashed. I was a stock market investor, not a buy stocks, not a trader, but I was an index fund guy and mutual fund index funds. And way before it was cool. so We were throwing a ton of money into index funds when the market was at, you know, Dow 6,500 and people were telling me, oh, this is don't do this. Is the market, it's going to go to zero and it's all over and this, you know, the stock market's terrible. So we were, we were doing that and I was ignoring everyone because I was like, Hey, this is the greatest opportunity of a lifetime. And I see this guy named Warren Buffett. He's a pretty smart guy and he's going and buying everything in sight. So maybe, we should kind of just go out and buy index funds. And I wasn't. brilliant enough to buy individual stocks. I bought index funds and everyone told me no, and it worked out really well. One of the side effects of that is for about 15 years, my wife thought I was a financial genius because we had done so good. I've kind of explained her that, hey, we kind of bought it like the best time in history and had a long bull run. I was running my company. My wife's doing her corporate Fortune 100 and she's making great money and we're having kids and we're kind of living the American dream and we're following every rule that you're supposed to follow. When you talk about the fact you were at a point with Your wife had an amazing point in your life when you and she were starting your journey together And you had an excitement and a passion to go in and then the world started fall around you and in a situation like the economy starts to crumble and all these things You said that you stuck through it when so many other people quit and look how much opportunity came available to that And in so many times in many situations, people fail because they quit. And if they just keep going, there is a massive amount of success that is waiting for them if they can get over those hurdles. But getting past yourself, getting past those trials, those tribulations, learning from the experience, employing the things you've learned, and in many cases, just literally being there to be able to accept the opportunity when it arises, Then COVID comes along and during COVID I had all my money in the stock market. So luckily I didn't get pushed out because I didn't sell, but it got cut in half, you know, for a while for about three months. And seeing that I was like, wow, this sucks. This is really horrible. And I said, we got to get into some kind of real estate or do something different because we're not going to be able to retire. I mean, this is shaking my confidence and everything. So, at the same time, I wanted to get into real estate. I had never bought single families before because in my mortgage business, I had seen people with single family portfolios where they were managing eight or 10 properties and the cashflow was four or $500 a. property and it just didn't appeal to me and it seemed like a lot of work and you know, just I didn't want to deal with tenants I didn't want to manage anything. I didn't want to deal with the repairs, you know, they always call when you're on vacation my air conditioner is just broken, you know, so this kind of thing so I was averse to property management. So I was looking around trying to figure something about real estate and basically I went to lunch with my brother and there was a there and he was really big in the commercial real estate and he drove up in a really nice car and I'm kind of a car guy so he drives up in a super nice car and I'm like wow I want to listen what this guy's doing because you know he's got the nice car that I like so we sat down and he was talking about real estate syndications and I had no idea I'd been in single-family for years and I'd never heard anything about commercial I thought was all big companies he's talking about syndication with kind of a New York accent. I thought he was like in the mafia or I didn't know what he, I literally had no clue about what a syndication even was. So I decided to learn about it. And I was basically going to be a passive investor in the beginning. The whole idea was like, wow, I can go invest in these deals. I get with professional people on these big projects and I don't have to manage anything. I mean, I love passive investing. I'm totally passionate. I think for most people, it is the best way to get into real estate. Unless you're just really determined to do it yourself and you're really tough and you don't mind going through all the blood, sweat and tears and all the, becoming the better person, you know, so if you don't want to go through that, I think passive is great. you talked about when COVID hit. At this point, you've made investments, right? Warren Buffett, obviously he's doing well for a reason. Those buy and hold long-term investments. When you, despite the naysayers, despite what other people said and telling you that this is the wrong time, you followed your heart, you followed your gut, and you followed the knowledge of people that knew better. And what I mean by that is, is if Warren Buffett's doing this, obviously there's a reason. do your best to understand why someone's doing that, but sometimes you just have to take that leap, You have to be able to push yourself through and make the choice that's hard, even if other people don't support that decision. David, we talk about the darkest hour, a moment in your life that was incredibly difficult and where you thought you'd throw in the towel. What was a moment like that for you and how did you come through it? So we got detoured in 2022 because I was starting to research this stuff and I was like, man, I'm just really getting interested in real estate and maybe I'm doing the wrong kind of real estate. Maybe I could do something else. So I went in for a physical, just a normal 55 years old, go and get your physical, get your blood test. I had been feeling a little tired. I knew something was kind of off. I thought I'm just getting old. know, I'm just not as good a shape as I used to be. Maybe I'm working too much. Maybe I'm not taking care of myself. So my doctor calls the next day and says, hey, we're looking at your blood work here and you have cancer. And he goes, I don't know how bad it is. I'm not an oncologist, but you need to be down here at nine o'clock in the morning in oncology and we got to figure out, you got to some testing done and what's going on. So that was the shocker of like my life. Cause I thought, Hey, I'm doing everything right. I'm taking care of myself. I'm healthy. You think you're going to live to be 80 years old. All of a sudden you're told you have cancer. And the worst thing about getting a cancer diagnosis is I mean, there's a lot of horrible things about it, but I think for me, the worst was like there's two weeks in there where they tell you of cancer, but you're going and doing testing and stuff and you don't know what, how bad it is or what it is or you don't know what you're facing. It's a, it's a horrible fear of the unknown. So I went back in and I got real lucky and I had leukemia and I'd caught it very early with a blood test. So One advice I give to people is go over here for that physical and get that blood test and mark the day after your birthday. I always go the day after my birthday. So I don't forget to do the physical, but go do that. And if you need to buy some product that's depending on your health, like life insurance, do it now. Because once you get one of this diagnosis, you can't go out and buy this kind of products. So basically I went in and I had to deal with oncology. I had to do four rounds of chemo, a biopsy. I got very lucky. The cancer I have is very treatable and I caught it early and I was just blessed. And so it brought a real change in my mindset. My gratitude before might've been a four or five. Now my gratitude's a 10. And going in the chemo ward and being around people who were really sick and really unhealthy and really probably losing their fight, that made me have the gratitude and like, wow, I'm so lucky. I'm walking in here and I'm just, I looked about the way I look now. I'm the healthiest person in here and I'm not being wheeled in a wheelchair because I'm too weak to walk. So it showed me that side of it and I came out of it with like, wow, know, my oncologist is like, you're going to be okay. You've got a great mindset. She really liked my attitude and it helped a lot to go through that. And then it completely changed the way I was because I decided, hey, life is short, it's shorter than I thought. And maybe I don't have as much time as I think I do. And I feel like I'm a very mediocre person. And when I got that diagnosis, if I had, you know, if they'd said, Hey, you have two months to live or whatever, like some people get those kind of, you know, prognosis, what would my life have been? It would have been kind of mediocre. felt like I had a lot of unfinished business. So it was a real good kick in the butt to like, Hey, you need to do something better. At the same time, I took four months off work because I didn't know with the chemo how sick I was going to get. Luckily, I didn't get sick. I didn't throw up and lose my hair. The chemo, I kept joking with the nurses and say, this kind of like a placebo experiment or something? I'm not getting sick. I'm not losing my hair. What's going on here? And they said, no, this chemo is really light. You're just trying to get you healthy. So I went through that and I had time to start studying up on real estate. I started going to a few meetups and going to conferences and I was like, wow, this is, I went to a big conference in Houston in 2023 and I was like, hey, this is my tribe. This is the first time in my life I've run people that I feel like these are my people. I had never really had that. I'd been kind of a solopreneur doing the mortgage business by myself. I had an assistant for a while and then he left and did real estate. with technology, I could do it myself. And so I was a solopreneur basically. But I was like, I'm with these people and these people are like me. They're all kind of outliers in commercial real estate. It's a different set of people. So I came home from that and I told my wife, said, man, I think I want to do this full time. I want to jump in and I want to be a part of this world and I want to go out and start buying properties, you know? And my wife was like, oh, okay, let's go do that. And my wife at the same time, she had put 17 years at a Fortune 100 company and she was going up the corporate ladder and doing really well. And after COVID, she was very dissatisfied with, you know, she got a lot of time with her kids and she's like, hey, we have plenty of money. Let me just leave my job and I want to spend time with the kids and stay at home and I'll help you with your real estate business. And she had another business she wanted to start too. And we're both gonna do this at the same time. So I was like, okay, well, let's just, you know, we've got a safety net because if this doesn't work out, you can always go back and get your resume out and go back and get a job. mean, when you lose your W-2, you leave it, you can always go back. I think people don't think about that. It's not like you're burning the ships and you have no way to go back. You can always go back if it doesn't work. So we decided to do this at the same time. And then of course, have friends and family. They weren't really enthusiastic about that. You know, my family, some of them go like, hey, she's quitting her job and you're going to go out and do this, you know, real estate thing, which to them sounded really risky. compared to what we were doing, but we just felt like this was the right thing to do. And it gave us absolute freedom. It was just like, it brought back that spirit of we can go do whatever we want. And if we feel like we made a mistake or it doesn't work out, we'll make corrections and maybe I'll do more mortgages and maybe she'll go back and get another job with a different company. And she's highly educated MBA and it could go get a job instantly if we need it. So we had that big safety net and we'd saved a lot of money. So On the real estate journey, I jumped in and I started studying and I spent a year like looking for properties and studying and really just absorbing everything. I was talking to brokers, but the weakness that I had was I had brought my solopreneur ethic, for lack of a better word, into the commercial real estate world. And do it yourself does not work well on huge projects. So I had to find this out the hard way. Everyone told me, it's a team sport. You've got to build a team. You've got to bring people in and you've got to find people that are good at this and good at that. And my ethic was, yeah, then I find a huge deal and I've got to split my deal with all these people and I can make more money if I just do a deal myself. I had that ethic of I'm really smart guy. I'm going to go out and do this and I can I can kind of do it myself. This was my biggest mistake in the business. So we ended up going in. And going big the first time, I had a guy that I had met through my wife that was real big in real estate. And he said, I'll sign on a loan for you. So we need a loan signer because we had, you know, this is going to be a big loan. It's like a seven, eight million dollar loan. And I couldn't, you know, I didn't have the experience to it myself. And he said, I'll sign on the one to help you raise some money. So I was like, okay, I found a deal and he liked the deal. And I liked the deal. had like a two person syndication and, it was a pretty big deal for two people. And I was looking at it like, I'm going to make an amazing amount of money on this. Well, I didn't have the right team built and I didn't know what I was good at. I was trying to do kind of everything. So we get the deal under contract and you know, it's I'm writing the earnest money. I'm putting you know a lot of money into this deal. Some of it's hard. I'm doing all the pursuit cost all the due diligence. I'm trying to do everything. So we got that deal under contract and then we started having problems immediately. I mean I I'm at due diligence on the property. get a phone call from the lender. Hey, your key principal is going to sign on this loan. He's got a problem with Fannie Mae on one of his other deals and he can't sign on the loan. So immediately my loan signer that had really almost a billion dollars asset under management, which I thought this is going to be impeccable. is going to, this is going to breeze through. He can't sign on the loan. and so what, you know, what do we do now? I've got to go find another person. I'm shopping for key principles, which if you're really inexperienced and don't know people and you don't have a backup plan is very difficult. So the lender, I found someone else, the lender didn't like them, they're in Florida, we need somebody on the ground here in Houston where you're at, you're not experienced enough. And it was a loan assumption. So it made the loan so much harder to qualify for. Also, they didn't want to switch jockeys, they had someone that was paying the loan good and it made it much more difficult. So eventually, The deal went along. I did find another person would sign on the loan. We started raising money for the deal and I found out that was something I was pretty good at. I was good at raising money. We had brought money in. I was doing webinars. People were wiring money in. We're starting to get some traction on that. Other things were going wrong. The deal had deteriorated and at the time, my mindset had really changed. Like, I may be biting off here more than I can chew and this might be the wrong, I may be going the wrong direction here. So one morning I woke up and I basically told my wife, I said, we need to walk on this deal. I said, this, we're having a lot of problems here before we close and the problems are supposed to start after you close. That's when everything's supposed to hit the fan as far as operations and all the challenges start. we're, this is starting before and we're going to have to like, you know, basically take a loss and some of our pursuit costs and some of our money that went hard and It's going to be kind of a disappointment. I'm going to have to wire money back to our investors that have wired money in, but no one's going to lose money but me and I can handle it. And I said, I think if we let this go now, we can come back and I can raise money on another deal with somebody and I can make the money back in 90 days. But if we keep extending this and adding more money, we're throwing bad money after good money. And it may be more expensive and it might be, you know, it may end up not even closing anyway. It just wasted more time and money. And when you've had cancer before, your number one thing in life is time. You become very time efficient and worrying about time. So I basically, we let that deal go. I made the right decision at the time. You know, you kind of have this thing like you feel like you're quitting, but it was the right decision at the time. So I was kind of like, okay, so what am I gonna do now? And I thought, well, you I don't know what I'm gonna do. I'm gonna go out and find another deal. I'm gonna tell people I'm gonna raise capital for them. I'm gonna have to like reformat what I'm doing. So a few weeks went by and my last key principle on the deal, and when I decided to let it go, he kind of asked me, are you sure? I mean, are you sure? And I said, no, think this is the, my gut tells me this is right thing to do. My bank account tells me it's the wrong thing to do because I don't wanna lose money. My gut tells me this is right. I know it's right. It's a hard decision. Sometimes like doing the right thing is the hardest thing. It's much easier to have pride and keep going and fail even worse. David, when did you know that you were destined for greatness? We call this the leap of faith. When did you know that you were destined for more and you wanted more than just a basic W-2? Right. I think a lot of it came from when I had the failure on the property I had to walk on. It felt like I was able to bounce back a lot quicker than, you know, I thought it would be. It was like a major failure that was very, very difficult for me. But it seemed like in a day or two, I just bounced back once I made the decision, I said, well, when's money back? And it's like, okay, now I'm going to go do this other thing. And I had a really good attitude and a good mindset about it. Also, It seemed like once I made that decision, everything that I've been working for, for almost two years, I'm getting ready and preparing, you know, getting sick, going through the cancer, going through the mindset, having this deal that, you know, was a millstone that I had to let go. things brightened up immediately after that because a couple of weeks later, One of the people I've worked with, one of my key principals called me and said, Hey, I've got a 296 unit available that I'm under contract. Do you want to help be a general partner on this deal and raise money? So I was able to bounce back very quickly. And of course I said, sure, you know, I will. And it was just coming across like the biggest failure. was like you'd work so hard. You're trying to break in. You're trying to be aggressive. You're trying to have a great mindset and you have this massive failure. And then you go, okay, I'm going to bounce back. I'm going to be fine. And so I think that was the moment where I was like, I can do this because I can overcome a failure. Not that I want to make the same mistake again. I'm not going to go back and repeat it, but I'm going to basically be able to get right back into another deal. And so I jumped right on another deal and helped that person raise a pretty substantial amount of money. And it was like, I was able to come back within about 60 days and feel like I was back on track. That's incredible. The timeline to be able to cut back and learn from that experience to invest two years of time, effort, energy, look at how much faster it came back the second time you were able to bounce back and come back into that and to recoup losses. But beyond just a monetary loss, the idea about the mental gain, the opportunities that you learned about the, the mindset shifts that you experienced and the lessons you learn, right? The school hard knocks is a good teacher being able to, see the writing on the wall, feel and follow your gut to understand that despite the fact that this may have some opportunity when you're running into those trials, it must have been so incredibly difficult to have to call those investors and say, I'm sorry, this isn't working out. I'm gonna wire your money back and we're gonna look at the next opportunity. But 1000%, I think that is the right call because as operators, we have a fiduciary responsibility to protect the capital of the people that invest with us. right? And it's a very real thing that I know that I'm incredibly passionate about. And it sounds like you are as well, making the right choices to make sure that this plan that we put in place is one that will come to fruition in a proper way that will yield the appropriate return on investment for our investors and also have the benefit of whatever the impact, whatever the, whatever the, the investment we're making, whatever the vehicle, whether it be a multifamily home or a land development project or a mobile home transformation fund or whether it be senior living facilities or no matter what it is, the impact and difference that we make by making that investment is relevant, but absolutely protecting our investors is key and protecting your reputation for the long run. And having that foresight and that ability to see the writing on the wall before it became a bigger issue, that is an incredibly valuable and powerful lesson to learn. Yeah, it's interesting you say that. So like when I had to call the investors back and say I was going to send their money back, those were actually very easy calls. I didn't have a problem with it at all. I mean, I basically told people and it was the truth. I said, the investment that you were investing in, we have found this, this and this. And this is not the investment that we feel like we found originally. Time had gone by. There's been some deterioration. We found some things. and we don't feel comfortable with it and so we're going to give you your money back. And that was actually very easy. That was the easiest part of it. And I felt good that I don't like losing my own money, but I didn't lose the investor money. So I didn't feel, I didn't feel guilty about it. I think if you, if you have a high risk deal and you're going to bring four or five people in, you're all pros and you're putting a lot of money and you're going to get something high risk and you waste money on it, it's okay. But when you're raising money from people, that are passive investors, you have to have a whole lot higher level of care. So I didn't feel bad about it, it wasn't that hard. And in fact, it made it easier when I found this other deal because people trusted me. They knew like, if this deal changes or something's wrong, he's gonna send their money back, he's gonna protect us. So I felt like I was protecting my investor, I thought it was the ethical thing to do and it really wasn't that difficult. And then also, I kind of had a bank of trust for when I had this other deal that came up and I was able to perform well on that deal because I a lot of trust with my investors. Absolutely and trust is hard to gain but easy to lose it's so relevant to make sure that you are being honest with everybody including yourself and knowing when to push forward or when to not So having such a impactful diagnosis like cancer completely changes your mindset and your perspective. Suddenly everything that was important to you before takes a backseat, Everything suddenly shifts. The things that were important or you thought were relevant, whether it be material or even mindset-wise. It rocks your world. It shakes everything. And it could be whether it's for you or if it happens to a loved one or someone who's important in your life. Being able to have a shift in your perspective and recognize the gratitude to go to level 10 gratitude. What a wonderful gift. It may have been veiled in something that was very difficult and raw. the mindset shift that you experienced because of the situation is something that you will have and will follow you for the rest of your days. And not just you, but who else you interact with. The people that you share stories with, just like on this podcast. To be able to share your story and that perspective. will potentially help to have ripples that will make someone else look at things different lens. And I'm grateful for you sharing that perspective. Yeah, I mean, the main thing it does is it clarifies what's important to you. So you start cutting out things that are unimportant. Like I cut out a lot of things like don't watch the news. You know, I don't watch TV news at all or any kind of cable news or anything. Sports, you know, unless the Astros are in the World Series, I don't watch baseball. I don't watch any sports at all. If there's something I really don't want to do, I just won't do it. You know, it's invited to a party or something. I don't want to go. I don't like these people. I'm not going. So you kind of clarify what's important and you figure out what in your life is essential and what is a distraction. So it eliminates a lot of distractions. So it was kind of for me, like the finishing touches, I did do what I needed to do that needed to happen. And also too, I'm, I'm real sympathetic for people that have cancer that really suffer. because I felt like my experience was very gentle and easy compared to what most people go to. I caught it very early, my chemo was not so bad. I got some of the mindset shift without having a lot of the physical pain and misery that people go through. I didn't really have any of those kind of problems. So I was blessed that I was able to get some of the benefits of going through that. without having the horrible experience that many people have with their family members. And it just could have been so much worse. And I remember I had a thing with my wife during it, something would happen, you the house, something, you drop a jar and it breaks on the floor and it makes a mess or you have a flat tire. And I was like, could be worse. It could be worse. I just set the chemo ward yesterday, believe me, it can be a lot worse. And it was kind of annoying for a while, but I think after a while she kind of got it like, hey, we need to not focus on these little things. and not be distracted by things. And we take these little things we hold onto and we think our life isn't so good. And you realize they're really small, minor things that you need to not focus on. You need to focus on what's important. So it's a clarifier in that way. I completely agree and I respect that perspective. it's unfortunate when we have moments in our lives that are difficult. Regardless of the degree of the pain, it gives you the vision of what could be. And when you have that opportunity to see through a new perspective or to have that clarity, that's a gift. Yeah. And so that started shifting everything where I saw what was important. It really gave me the guts to go out and go for it because I was trying to get rid of my mediocre self, for lack of a better word, that kind of just been amblin along. we, you know, it was, it was really easy. had my wife, you know, had a job where she made a lot of money. My business was going good. It wasn't very hard. I've been doing it 20 years. can, you know, I can close mortgages in my sleep. So it was really easy. I wasn't being challenged at all. It was just like, okay, it's this kind of routine. And so getting in the commercial real estate world, that was extremely challenging. And I had that one initial failure. Then I started to help go as a capital raiser. And then I bounced back. then in that, in that same calendar year, in about seven months, I did three GP deals, like right in a row, two with one operator and one with a different operator. And you know, we did about about 600 units. in seven months, that was, that was pretty good. I was pretty happy with that. And it felt like a bounce back and it, like, was redemption after having that tough time earlier in the year and doing it myself. And so one thing, whenever you're getting into a new business or multifamily or whatever business you choose, the people that have been doing a long time, listen to them when they say like it's a team sport and try to be a small part of a big team. There's a reason they're telling you that they may no more than you. And so don't try to like, you know, don't try to disrupt the people that have been in the business a long time until you've been in the business a while. Maybe you can be a disruptor at some point, but I think coming in and immediately thinking, Hey, these people are wrong. I can do it different. And they're very experienced. That's a way to make some big mistakes. So I had to get some humility. And I think that's another thing in any kind of business or in real estate, you need humility. I mean, this business, it'll eat your lunch if you think you're better than everybody else. people that get over their skis, they end up getting humbled. And so, humility is a real important element of it. It's a lesson that is painful to learn but incredibly important to have, I think. We talk about the fellowship. No one goes it alone, The mentors, the allies, the people that have gone on this journey with us, because it is a team sport. Who would you cite as being inspirational or helpful that has gone along the journey with you? Yeah, I'm gonna name some people I know personally. So I'm gonna do some shout outs here. So I mean, I think first my wife, which I mean, she's been super supportive of me, even when things weren't going well, she was always there, very supportive of me, believed in me. So that's been obviously a huge help. And when you're married and you have the support of a spouse, and even when things didn't go well you made some mistakes and you lost money, it really, really, really helps. I've had people in the business that I've, partnered with that have allowed me to be on their teams. There's a capital raiser here in Houston named Anjou Martinez that I met really early and she's been an inspiration to me. We both do kind of the same thing in different ways and she got in the business about a year before I did. So I always feel like she's a year ahead of me. So I'm watching what she does and then I kind of go and I kind of, well, okay, well, I pick up some ideas on what I want to do the next year. So she's an inspiration to me. There's people that I've seen online that I love their philosophy. People like Ken McElroy, who I've never actually met, but I love the way he looks at multifamily and his philosophy of how he does deals, and he's got a big portfolio, obviously. People in here in Houston I've partnered with that have been big helps. Headway Capital, so Sid Chimman was the first person I partnered with on a big deal. And he let me be on his deal and he's taught me a lot. That's been a huge help. Brian Alfaro, who were also works for headway capital is a capital raiser for them. I've learned a lot from him. And then I jumped on another deal that was a smaller deal with Anju and someone in here in Houston named Wayne Courreges And you know, and that's been like a really great team where I've been able to like, you know, I've been on the asset management calls and watching what's doing and trying to learn some of this stuff and improve some of my skills. So a lot of it's people I've met in person. So going out and networking and meeting people and being social is really important. And when I was doing the mortgages and doing the solopreneur, I wasn't really, it was just me and my clients. And when you're doing business with clients doing mortgages, it's a very transactional thing. I've done thousands of deals. I don't think anybody's ever invited me to go out to lunch after they got their mortgage closed. And then they move on and. They don't need you for five years until they're buying another house. They call, Hey, we need to work on this right now. I've got to, you know, I got to deal under contract. So I think going into meeting people and finding people that you naturally associate with, and, also you've got to bring value to whatever that is. You've got to figure out what you're good at and then eliminate all the other things. And for me, that was doing it yourself. I was trying to like work on all these different things. And some of them I wasn't very good at. And once I found I had pretty good at capital raising, said, I'm just going to capital raise. It's all I'm going to do. I'm going to help people, let them find the deals, let them put their money at risk, let them do what they do best as far as managing the properties afterwards. And I'm just going to help them raise the money and I'm going bring my passive investors in on that journey also. Also, I'm really, I'm basically passionate about passive investing because someday I want to be in a position where I'm a hundred percent passive on everything. I call that retirement. And if you have enough money where you can invest passively in everything and you never have to do any of the blood, sweat, and tears the operators do, that's nirvana as far as an investment thesis. So I'm working toward getting to that. And I'm trying to help other people get to that first. That's fantastic, David. I respect that completely and I align with it greatly from a mindset aspect and an action aspect. We talk about legacy, right? And what we leave behind. But one thing in particular I like to call the hall of heroes. There was a giant statue of David Priest and it had a plaque on there and a message that you could share with people. What would you want it to say? I would say like at the end of my life, mean, my next thing I'm going to do after like about 10 years of actively investing, I want to be the world's greatest passive investor. So if I had a tombstone, I would love it to say David Priest. He was the world's greatest passive investor. And I want to teach how to be better passive investors. And I'll pass that down to my family, my kids, my wife, if I'm not here, because they may not want to actively be involved in real estate, but I want them to be able to passively invest so they can have financial freedom. So it's like I told my daughter, I don't know what she wants to do when she grows up. She can kind of do anything. But I said, you know, if you learn how to passively invest and how to take care of your money, it opens up the avenue where you can kind of do whatever you want. So let's say you want to be a teacher and you want to teach special needs children. And a lot of people are like, well, I want to do that, but they don't make any money. Teachers are underpaid and I really can't do that. Well, if you develop wealth and develop skills as a passive investor, you never have to make a decision based on money. So you can do what you're really passionate about without having to worry about, well, they don't make any money. There's people I've met that are doctors and lawyers and high income people and they're miserable because they're not doing something that they want. They're just doing it for the money. So you have to have that purpose. But the passive investing side gives you the financial freedom where you can kind of work on whatever you want. It might be a charity. Might be something you're passionate about, but there's a lot of people going to their daily grinds and everyone from the outset says, wow, they're making a lot of money. They live in a nice house or driving great cars and they're miserable. So having that freedom and doing what you want is what you, that's the ultimate goal. It's, you know, the, what the greatest type of wealth is doing whatever you want, whenever you want Fantastic, very wise words. So what is the next quest for David Priest? Well, right now on the real estate on the commercial multifamily side, I feel like I'm just getting started. So I mean, I just really started in 2024 doing general partner deals. did three of them, but I'm really still kind of a beginner in a lot of ways. And so I want to work on that for about 10 years and really focus really hard, work super hard, build up that portfolio, the resume, build up the, the wealth, for lack of a better word, then during that time be teaching other people, teaching my wife, the what I can teach her, she's smarter than I am most of the time, and teaching my kids. So this is a legacy I can pass down to them. And you don't think about it that much. You don't really think about legacy much. I'm gonna do an estate planning, I'm gonna do a will. When you get cancer, you start really thinking about the legacy and what you're gonna pass down. And it's more knowledge than wealth. You're trying to pass down principles and knowledge to your children that they can go out and do amazing things, not just, well, we're going to give you a bunch of money when I die. And the legacy is more of the knowledge and wealth, and that's what you think about more. doing that, and then at a certain point, I'll transition everything to passive investing and be the world's greatest passive investor. And I'll be able to really have the total time freedom. Because when you're active in real estate, you don't have total time freedom. There's still demands on your time and you're doing what you need to do. Passive investing gives you that time freedom where you can really do whatever you want. And you've got people out there hustling and working and property managers and employees at the property and they're working to make you rich while you sleep or you go do whatever you want. And that's the ultimate freedom. It's one of the four types of wealth. I have another person, Toby Mathis, that I've never met, but I watch him a lot online and he's really inspirational. And he talks about four types of wealth. And the first is financial, which is what everyone thinks about. The second is health wealth. So your health, and I've experienced that before. If you're not healthy, you don't, you're not wealthy. And if you're sick, that's the only thing you think about. The third is social wealth. How are you thought of in your community? What are your relationships with your wife and children, your friends? Are you well thought or are you respected? I mean, you can be a rich person and be a real jerk and have no friends and have a horrible family life. Your kids hate you. You can have that. And so that social wealth is very important for your happiness. And then the ultimate is time wealth. And he defines it as, can you do whatever you want, whenever you want, with whoever you want, for as long as you want. And it's the ultimate amount of freedom where you can just go do whatever you want. You've got no limitations on your time or your wealth. You can support whatever activities you want to do. And so that's what I'm striving toward is having balance in all four types and working on that every day. That's amazing. I love it. David, we talk about Dragon's Gold, the achievements, the accolades, the things we've gained, but also the mindset shifts that we've achieved. If you were to share what you feel is your Dragon's Gold, what would it be? I think it's the person you become. I mean, like for me, it's very internal. So I mean, people say, well, to achieve these goals, you're going to become a better person, but that's what really makes you happy. So it's not, it's not going in closing on the bigger property or the bigger real estate or wow, I made a big check or whatever. It's really feeling like you're becoming the best person you can. And I had lost that for about 10 years, I think. before I got sick and before I decided to really go full-time into real estate and dive head deep into it. So it's about coming the better person. I'm gonna work out, I'm going to fast, I'm going to do this, I'm going to read 50 books a year, know, whatever I can do. But it's about saying that goals, I feel like you're becoming the best person you can. Now, one thing that happens when you do that, you may isolate yourself from people. And that can be difficult. I mean, you're gonna go on a journey and not everybody's gonna go with you. And it doesn't mean you have to cut people off, but you'll find that people kind of fall away. They're not really into what you're doing and you have to make adjustments, but you find new people. You find new friends, you find people that inspire you. And now it's like going out and meeting people that inspire me and that I go out and meet people. And in my real estate world, I... feel like I constantly meet people that totally amaze me. And it's like my tribe and being around it. I had the experience a few months ago of going out and I'd been conferences all summer. I was a conference junkie. I was going to every conference and being seen everywhere and talking to people and raising money and doing deals. And I was dealing with investors and real estate people almost like completely. That was all I was doing for three, three or four months. So I had an opportunity to go out with my wife and kind of, we're gonna go on a sunset cruise on a lake with just some normal people. was, know, one couple was retired. They were super nice. Another couple, think one of them worked in HR at a company and they just had kind of like regular W2 or retired. They were very normal people. They were wonderful, wonderful people. And I'd been around so many like outliers for a few months that were on this cruise. And I was sitting there and I was kind of talking to them and I just realized like, my goodness. like, I felt like really weird. Like I'm really like an outlier. I'm not normal. I'm not, know, the real estate people I hang around are not normal. And I've started hanging around with them for so long. I started thinking it's normal. And then I get around normal people and they're wonderful people, but I had very little in common with them. So that was, that was kind of difficult. That was a difficult night where I was just sitting around, I didn't want to say too much. I just kind of felt uncomfortable. And so if you go on that journey, there can be some loneliness associated with it. So you've got to be ready to deal with that, you know? Absolutely. recognizing the growth that you've achieved and recognizing that not everyone is on the same path as you and they don't have the same lessons you do, but they do have their own stories and they have their own lessons. And if you can talk with them and learn from them, share the positives that you can, but learn the experiences because wisdom is learning from other people's mistakes, But also finding joy and being able to share moments that they've experienced and to be able to enjoy creating new memories, like going on that cruise or being able to share those interactions with new people, even if they don't always fit your tribe. Yeah. I mean, I think also too, don't judge people that are kind of coasting because I coasted for years. So I can't, I can't judge them. They're just in a different place than I am. And so you have, you have to like realize that everyone's on a different journey. They're in a different place. And some people are just, that's what they're going to do. And I did it for a long time. So I don't, I don't, I'm not judgmental toward them at all. I think a lot of it is though, To get to that next level, you've got to hang out with people that are totally inspirational to you. And if they're not inspirational or if they're like, well, you know, I don't like that or I don't like what you're doing or it sounds risky or, you know, those people, just don't hang out with them anymore. I'm just, off on my people that are, it's like gravity, you know? And I want to be around people that are Jupiter, that are just pulling me with tons of gravity to where they're going because they're where I want to be. You so it's like if you look at people that are where you want to be in five years and that's what you want to hang out with. And so you've got to make some decisions, but once you do that, you feel more comfortable and also you feel happier. You you feel, you you want to be in a room and you want to be kind of the least qualified, least experienced, least wealthy around all these like superstars and they'll help you. And the amazing to me has been in my journey in real estate with one exception, which I'm not going to bring up. I, over hundreds of people, everybody's been super amazing and super helpful. Like, you know, I've got a problem. Have you tried this? Or you should talk to this person. Or hang on, I'm gonna send you this contact. Call this person. Everybody is so helpful and everybody's trying to, you know, rah rah you and help you. And that's the most amazing thing about that community. Cause you think it'd be like, you know, we're all competing and we're sharks and we're trying to all buy the same properties and. There's some of that that goes on for the most part, people are extremely helpful and people have been so generous with their time and with their advice and you get so much free mentoring just listening to people. It's amazing. I think that's a powerful lesson, recognizing that in an abundance mindset, that there is more than enough to go around. And when you share freely and you give, whether it be knowledge, time, helping people with, in regards to education, or just being an ear to listen, I think that by giving, you get. And when you find people that align with that, when you surround yourself, with people of similar mindset that have that type of positive attitude and that giving mentality, you all become enriched because of that. And I think that growth mindset, that giving mindset is such a powerful thing. It's unfortunate that not everyone aligns with that. As you mentioned, there's that outlier, that one-off that we're not talking about. The point being, there will always be those people. There will always be those moments. You can't control how other people act or the choices that they make. What you can control is yourself. And if you are on a constant journey of growth and becoming a better version of yourself, right, that that really is the gift, right? Enjoying the journey and giving to others along the way. Yeah, I I think in some cases I've been able to help people that are a little further behind in their journey than I am. And it's always great to give that out. I'm big on mentorship and coaching, but like I don't, I like being in mentoring and coaching programs and learning from other people that are more experienced, but I have no desire to coach other people. I love just giving stuff out for free. And I hope it's valuable and good. And I hope that I help people. try to, know, well, you know. this is what I would do or this is what, maybe you should try this. I try to help people whenever I can and it makes you feel really good. You know, it just makes you feel good that you're, you're, helping people or maybe you're just encouraging them. You know, everyone needs like encouragement, needs like little feedback that, I'm on the right track. I'm doing the right thing. I belong here. A lot of people get into real estate with kind of an imposter syndrome and they're like, wow, they were on these amazing people. And you know, you're, know, when you don't have any properties, it's really hard. You're going people, yeah, I've got 15 deals and 300 million assets are in management and you're like, I'm just looking for my first deal. And so I've been there, I've been in that situation before. So you wanna help people and encourage them the most you can. And you never know what they're gonna do. The person that you think isn't gonna make it, you never know 10 years from now, they could be totally amazing. I saw a story one time with Rodney Dangerfield, he's a very famous comedian and- He saw Eddie Murphy when he was in a club, he was 16 years old, know, telling jokes and Rodney Dangerfield didn't like his act. He said, well, you're, don't like your act and you're not that funny. And you you use too many curse words. And you know, he thought, you know, that he was going to give him advice. He didn't think Eddie Murphy was going to make it. And so 10 years went by and Eddie Murphy was like on Saturday Night Live and big movie star and doing. You know, he had the number one album at one time, like a record, because he did a single in the 80s and he was just super successful. And he said, you know, because I ran into like Rodney Dangerfield like 10 years later in Las Vegas at the casino and Rodney just came in, he looked at me just said, who knew? You know, like who knew you were going to be, you know, because I didn't know, you know, I didn't think you were going to be that good, you know, so who knows? So you never know. And so you want to encourage people and get people a chance and not judge people because that people you think aren't gonna make it, you might be working for them in five years. Huh? Perspective. Yeah, no, absolutely. And oftentimes, as with many things, it takes time, Nothing happens overnight or very rarely does it. And the idea is that putting in that time, that effort, that energy, recognizing that other people are going on a different path or a different journey, it doesn't mean that they won't become successful in what they're doing, right? If they're passionate to what they want, if they're true to what they want and they keep taking consistent action towards it, It's amazing the miracles that will come from that. David, we talk about tools and weapons, resources, books, things that have helped you along the way in the journey and possibly could help some of our listeners. What would you share has been helpful in your journey? Okay, I'm gonna share something recent that I recently read, because this is like what's happening to me right now, and that's the book right here, Who Not How. And if you've not read this book, you need to read it, and if you read this book, you need to read it again. And you need to study it and really apply it. I think that, like in real estate, I would have done so much sooner, better, faster if I had read that book. So that's one, so reading books is obviously a big part of it. And that book to me is really revolutionary because people think, okay, well, I've got to achieve these goals. How can I do this? What I have to do? And it's a how, how, how, and I need to be a better person, which there's nothing wrong with that. You want to improve, but who, not how really goes into like basically collaboration, teamwork, networking. So instead of like asking, like, how do I do this? who do I need to get involved in my organization or who do I need to partner with that can make this happen? And so the whole idea is instead of taking three years doing it on your own, you can do it in three months collaborating with somebody else. And it's a little bit of like having humility and knowing when, maybe I'm doing something so big, this is kind of beyond me, I need to find somebody to help me. And I think for me, that's been a huge mindset change. And I think if I'd read the book three or four years ago, would be way beyond where I'm at now. So I'm trying to play catch up by applying that book. So that's one book I would recommend right now that everyone reads. And if you don't agree with the book, I just think you're wrong. I mean, I think it's that good of a book. mean, it's really a that everybody can learn from. And I'm not going to spoil it, but there's some stuff in the first chapter when you're reading and it just sucks you in. It's a mind blowing, amazing book and it's a good mindset change for everybody. Fantastic. Thank you for sharing that. I agree. Amazing book. David, I've got one final question I want to ask and I'll tell you this is my favorite one to ask. If you could be any mythical creature, what would you be and why? So my favorite mythical creature would be the phoenix, most likely, because it rises from the ashes. Because I felt like I rose from the ashes when I got cancer, even though I didn't, it was never like life threatening. didn't have to go in the hospital or anything like that. But I felt like my life was ending as far as the way it was. So in a way, it was like a regeneration and coming up. from that. So that was it. And also just being a better version of yourself. Like you kind of have to shed. It let me shed my mediocre self and also gave me the courage to go in and do commercial real estate. I felt like I had nothing to lose. I had just come from something where I thought I was going to lose everything possibly. And so you get it and you kind of feel like, OK, I'm mediocre here. I need to take more risk. I need to be going doing this. And then once I started getting on the road of doing things, I'm getting feedback. I'm becoming a better person. I'm learning more. reading books. I'm able to network with people. And the networking thing was not something that was natural for me. It still isn't. I still have to work at it. I still have to be, I'm kind of introverted and I have to work on that. So it's becoming a better person. So I think, yeah, that the mythical going down and it's destroyed and it rises from the ashes and everyone has like a regeneration. And you know, it could be different things. Some people have a traumatic experience. Some people have a midlife crisis. For me, it was cancer. Some people have something that's a life-changing experience that happens and that turns everything around. So I think you have to go through that and you also have to realize what lessons did you learn from this and then really just embrace that and embrace the good, not the bad. It's always the good things that you get out of something. Like at the time things, seemed like a mistake. look later on years later, like, wow, I was so lucky. didn't, you know, didn't go the other way. It seemed like a mistake, but now this is, this is the way that got me. So there's no wrong path. There's just the path you're on and you try to make course corrections as you go along. It's like, what's the Japanese saying? I think they have a saying that, you know, if you're on the wrong train, get off of the next station. So don't just keep going the wrong way. So once you figure you're making a mistake, stop, but don't make the same mistake again. But Yeah, it's about regeneration and renewal and you can reinvent yourself at any time. mean, you know, I get inspired by people that do things that are older because I'm in my 50s now. So it's like Ray Kroc, he didn't found McDonald's, he was 55 and he had never done anything. He was out selling, I think milkshake machines and he decided, hey, I'm going to start this thing and franchise it and I'm going to be, you know, this is going to be the thing. And he found a McDonald's in his 50s. So to me, things like that are inspirational. It's never too late to reinvent yourself. David, I think that that comment is so powerful that at no matter what point you are at in your life, no matter where you're at in your journey, you have a choice to be able to make a change. And oftentimes it comes initially just with a mindset shift. Now, whether that was caused or instigated by a pivotal moment in your life, whether it was a traumatic experience or a lesson, something you were able to witness, something that was close to you. Whatever the real or maybe it's just that you were tired Maybe you're tired of doing the same thing and you want to shake things up whatever it may be whether you're 30 or or 60 or 80 or a hundred years old you have an opportunity to make a choice every day and Do something that helps you to grow that expands your mind that expands your spirit right that allows you to be the best version of yourself I think that if everybody operates with that kind of mindset, that kind of intention and takes action, you can literally achieve anything. Yeah, the key is taking action. And I would say to people that are younger, don't put it off till you're older. So don't put it off and say, well, I've got time. I need to get more experience. can wait till I'm older. You don't know how much time you have. And also, as you get older, you become more set in your ways. And the mindset can shift back. And you can say, I can't do that. I'm too old. I can't change. I'm just this is the way I am. I'm not making any differences. So for me, I had to have that like, mindset altering, which was cancer. And then I'm just going to jump in this business and try to see if I can do this or not. But if you're younger, don't put it off. You really have a dream because as you get older, it does get more difficult, I think, to have that mind. Fewer people make those kind of shifts as they get older. So I would tell my younger self, or I would tell anyone that's younger, don't put it off and say you're not, you're too young because it's easier when you're younger. there's less baggage, there's less things you've got to throw off. Maybe there's less responsibilities. And as soon as people have, you know, they've got a family and they've got a house and they've got a mortgage and they've got car payments and it's harder to go jump out and do things because they're really in some kind of a, you know, a debt prison or they can't put their family in a situation where they could go through poverty because they've got to go to work or whatever. So I would encourage people that are younger to follow those dreams when you're younger. I think it's a little bit easier. Also, you have a lot more time. You don't know how much time you have, but you have a lot more time today than you have tomorrow. You have one day less every day, so don't put it off. Yeah, I love it. David, thank you so much for taking the time today with myself and with the listeners. Really appreciate the lessons you've shared. That was fun. I enjoyed it. was glad to be here and it was just amazing. had a lot of fun. Thank you for having me. My pleasure. My friends, thank you for joining us once again on our quest to inspire, educate, and empower you to turn your dreams into reality, one mindset shift at a time. We'll see you next time.

People on this episode

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Justin Mills

Host
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Aaron Iler

Producer
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David Priest

Guest