Dragon's Gold: The Magic of Mindset

You Can’t Lead If You Can’t Let Go: Lessons From a Marine Turned CEO with Wayne Courreges III

• Justin Mills • Season 1 • Episode 24

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Episode Summary:

Some people leap without looking. Others prepare, persist, and earn the right to jump.

Wayne Courreges III did the latter. In this episode of Dragon’s Gold: The Magic of Mindset, Wayne shares the story of his transition from Marine to corporate real estate executive to full-time investor. 

What started with a single rental at 19 evolved into a $50M+ portfolio, built on late nights, time-blocked mornings, and relentless personal growth.

From navigating risk to managing team dynamics to staying present with his family, Wayne reveals what it takes to build something meaningful, one disciplined step at a time.

Key Themes:

  • From military service to multifamily investing
  • Earning the right to scale: systems, hires, and mindset
  • The mental shift that comes with buying back your time
  • What it means to lead with clarity, courage, and calm
  • How “just live” became a family mantra

What You’ll Learn:

  • How Wayne scaled CREI Partners from side hustle to full-time firm
  • The strategic framework behind buffer, focus, and free days
  • Why mindset coaching helped him rewire anxiety into action
  • The hidden cost of trying to do it all—and how to let go
  • Why real leaders teach their team to “land the plane”


Tools & Weapons Mentioned

  • Buy Back Your Time by Dan Martell – Time-blocking and team-building for growth
  • Strategic Coach (Dan Sullivan) – Buffer, focus, and free days
  • Daily KPI Reports – Real-time performance tracking across the portfolio
  • Slack – Communication system for distributed teams
  • Mindset Coaching – From anxiety and scarcity to focus and abundance
  • “Land the Plane” Mentality – Training team members to own the next-level role

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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 Wayne Courageous III, managing principal of CREI Partners. Wayne, welcome to the show. Hey, thanks for having me on, Justin. Absolutely, my friend. Thank you. Well, as I love to do, let's dive right in. Let's go to the origin story, my friend. Tell us where it all began. Yep. So really began in high school for me, I was dating someone whose dad was a developer in Austin and really looked up to him and the family that they were obviously part of. And so I was really intrigued with the real estate investing and developing. But at that point as well, had a strong urge to serve our country. I went into the Marine Corps two days out of high school. But I started my real estate journey while in the Marine Corps. So one of my first duty station at 29 Palms when I was 19, I bought a two bed, one bath, single family rental in 29 Palms, California. And that really spurred my interest in obviously continuing the real estate. When I got out of the Marine Corps in 2007, I joined CBRE, a large Fortune 125 firm and was there about 16 years, but doing a lot of asset managing, property management of institutional client assets, a high rise commercial office, some industrial, some retail. So my whole background has been in commercial real estate. In 2019 though, I started CREI Partners as a way to grow our friends and family, our personal wealth, because I had been doing it with the W-2 for all those years. And so I just wanted to build something of our own. And so we started that in 2019 and here we are in 2025 full-time real estate investments. We've got about 50 million assets under management that we're primarily the lead on. And that spans from multifamily, build to rent communities. And then we have this RV boat storage asset class that we're very bullish on. That's awesome, Wayne. Congratulations to you and all the people you've been able to help along the way. When you started this, is there a moment, is there any point where in your life that you knew that you wanted more, that you were hungry for something greater? We call this the leap of faith, right? When you stepped into action, when did you know that you wanted more? I mean, I've always been an entrepreneur at heart. mean, that's, I don't know if everybody has the entrepreneurial spirit, but I definitely knew I had the entrepreneurial drive at an early age. I was the guy in high school that was setting up meetings with CEOs of companies and learning, their strategies and their business, reading a bunch of business books and such. I loved, growing, money and really leading and creating businesses. When I worked for CBRE, especially after 16 years, it's a fantastic company, they do extremely well with systematically doing their processes the same no matter where you are in the world. So like if you're a MetLife and Vesco, you hire a CBRE and the same for, you know, JLL and these other companies. But my experience was heavy with CBRE, no matter where your property was located. we were managing and delivering the same reports and everything across the board. So there was consistency. But in doing that, when you have a lot of standard operating procedures, your entrepreneurial spirit sort of gets buried a little bit. you're just following procedures, you're leading your team to make sure that we're staying consistent with our client expectations. But I went back for my MBA and that's where like though the entrepreneurial spirit was still there, it had been buried, by working with the big company for all those years. And then when I went back from my MBA, it really started opening that up and like, okay, I've always wanted to do real estate, which I was doing real estate, but I wanted it to actually be the one, sourcing and finding the deals and operating the deals and being more on the driver's seat. And so I would say that would apply the time. mean, I was doing really well with CBRE. I was making very good money, great benefits. We were investing. We've always been part of real estate in some sort of fashion. But that entrepreneurial drive really came back, I don't know what year it was, probably 2017, 2018. And then in 2019, I took action to start CREI Partners. I love it. And what you said right there, taking action. That's it, right? You have the fire, you have the flame, right? But you gotta do something with it. You gotta channel it, you gotta focus it. you gotta take those steps. And sometimes it's not comfortable easy, right? Sometimes you have a comfortable W-2 and you're making good money or you have the benefits, you have the security that comes along with that. And so to take that leap and take the actions that are required to step outside that comfort zone. with no guarantee of success. Right, no one's gonna do it for you and there's no guarantee that it's gonna happen. But you believe in yourself, you take that action and you keep going forward. Yeah. And for us, for me personally, real estate investing and we do developments is there's risk. I always like to dilute risk as much as possible and same to be told with CREI partners. I started the company in 2019. I didn't leave my W2 employment until middle of 2023. And so that was several years of my nine to five paying for my five to nine. And so a lot of hours worked. after hours on the weekend, sacrificing, building up a portfolio, while also, you care of my family. And so that was something that was really important to me. June 30th, 2023 was my last day and I gave a three week note. So it must've been early June. Like I showed up to work and my wife and I hadn't really been planning. mean, I sorta knew like my time. may be coming up, where I was just going to go all in, but I really strongly one day of, this is the time to go all in. I call my wife and we've been married at that time, 13 years where we've been married 15 now. But I was like, you know, if we lose everything, are we still good? You know, and she's like, yep. And then I told her, okay, well, this is what I'm planning on doing. And, yep, there we go. I call my boss and after that, and I mean, that was a big step, Justin, because I was 16 years of working and having You know, and again, it was, it was a great, great career and very grateful for my experiences, but it was a big, big leap of faith to go out on my own. fantastic and and it's really amazing that you have the support right of your wife to be able to have to be able to say are we still good and hear the yes yeah All right. Yeah. mean, honestly, her preference would be living in an RV down by a river. you know, she's she would much prefer a more simpler life than what we have. good to have support. Absolutely. awesome. so tell me what made you want to join military? Well, I I graduated high school in 2003 2001 was obviously 9-eleven Going in 2002, you know shock and awe Iraq So, you know, I've just felt the strong sense of service so my family's really into genealogy and history and we can track really every major Battle war our family has fought in Other than the Korean War, we cannot find anyone that did the Korean War. But all the way back from American Revolution, Civil War, the family has served, my dad served in Vietnam. My grandfather was World War II. And so it just, I just really felt like service was something I needed to do. I'm very proud American and someone's gotta do it. So like a lot of my friends, they were planning their colleges stuff. I was a little more relaxed because like in September of my senior year, I signed up and I knew I was going to bootcamp two days after high school graduation. And so, yeah, just went in and I was very, very fortunate. I served with the first tank battalion and 29 palms that battalion had just gotten back from Iraq. And then at that point they were just sending line companies, Alpha, Bravo, Charlie, Delta companies, rotating them in Iraq. And so I was always at headquarters. So I was there and then I spent about two years in Okinawa, Japan with the first Marine Air Wing. And so got to experience both the division life and the air wing, but it was a great experience. And I always like to say, Justin, like not as lean, not as mean, but still a Marine. is so true for me. I love that. I've never heard that before and it's incredibly cool. Thanks for sharing, right? And yeah, it's still marine, right? Like absolutely, still made the dedicated service and still could be called upon for action. So thank you for your service. Absolutely. So along the journey, it's never a straight line. And there are oftentimes hurdles that we have to overcome. We call these trials and tribulations running the gauntlet. So in your experiences and on your path, what are some of the challenges that you faced? There's always been challenges through life and you know, personal stuff, but I would say with CREI partners really you know, of determining like, Hey, are you doing the right things? Are you, you're being conservative enough? Are you, is it time to grow the team? Like when I was building the company, I was doing majority of the hats. had some part-time team members and they were amazing. helping with investor relations and such. But, you know, for the majority of the work, I was all hats and you sort of have to be when you're running the company and it's fine when you have maybe three or four properties that you're, asset managing, you're working through, but at some point you do have to go full all in. Right. And, and so that was, you know, one of those forking the roads where it's like, Hey, I'm, if I'm going to do anything well, like it's now's the time to go all in. And then when you go all in and you start building the business even further and you got, you know, you have this time to, you know, double down and make more strides and it's like, okay, well, if I'm to continue growing the company and for us to continue doing quality, now it's time to hire the right person or like hire, you know, a team member and then determining like what team members that going to be, once you get that person, okay, well now you have two families to feed. You're feeding a family of yourself and then you have another person and these are full time team members. cause I went the VA route. I've done, I've done all those things and it works great, but at some point, you need the full time support. Uh, and then for me, I you know, proximity. I like to be able to go to that person's office and work directly with them. So there's that. Then you, you then added another person. So at some point, you know, the tribulations, from the action standpoint as an entrepreneur, you just take the next step based on the information that you know, and based on the resources you have, all that good stuff. But it's still a scary step when you're adding more growth on the expense side to the company, because then you're, needing to offset it with other income. So anyway, so that was, that was always the biggest step. And then I hired a mindset coach last year and you know, I went to a conference and she spoke and I never really thought about a mindset coach. I don't really go into my feelings, my emotions. That's my wife's a therapist and she would probably prefer me to speak more of my emotions and be more open with that. I, maybe it's the Marine to me. I don't know, but I can talk to my mindset coach about the business side. So, you know, we can talk through, those things that may be limiting beliefs, some scarcity mindset and turning those to abundance, especially with anxiety. I think that's definitely something we can all relate to in some form of fashion of, being anxious and really, what I had to work on over the last year is controlling, when I'm feeling those feelings, being able to, shut it down and realize that, all the anxiety is, It's your thoughts. So the moment you can change your thoughts, so the moment you can, see more of an abundant picture, for me, it just really helped. And so I've added onto the team, we've grown, we've been finding opportunities, investments that others have not been able to find. And I'm talking about like loan assumption, 3.82 % fixed rate debt and multifamily, a seller financing deal at 6 % fixed rate. So we've been growing and buying deals and not, would say listening to what's going on in the outside environment, and finding our own deals and finding our own opportunities. So that's, that's sort of been my biggest thing of the last, I say a year and a half is just mindset and working through that and, growing the company systematically where we're, growing and we're taking care of our current investors, we're taking care of our properties, and continuing to provide opportunities for the future. That's awesome. what you said there made me think about so often we listen to what other people say and and that's not always right. And sometimes we need to shut that out. And it's not about what other people tell us. It's about what we tell ourselves. And to that same point, sometimes we're not always saying the nicest things or the best things to ourselves. And oftentimes we can limit our own beliefs in our own mind. I think of it in regards to perspective and perception. And in regards to the perception aspect, the lens that we see it through, sometimes we have to change that lens, right? Sometimes it's foggy or sometimes it's just the wrong prescription. have to switch it. Right. I think that being able to recognize an example, uh, hiring a mindset coach, realizing that no matter how far you've come, you can keep moving further. You can keep growing. You can keep learning. And so oftentimes we have to bring people onto our team. whether it's an employee or whether it's someone who's helping us in a mentor role and allows us to grow and shares with us insights that even if we know we may not be applying or employing internally, and it takes someone to bring that up to us to allow us to grow and then move on to the next chapter. When it talks about growth and the people that do go along this journey with us, we call it the fellowship. Who are some of the people that have gone along this journey with you, helped you, mentors, allies? Yeah. So, on my CBRE career, I had several, some names that kind of mind, you know, David Ayers, uh, he was my first general manager when I was in Washington, DC. And he, really opened, the spigot of knowledge on managing, trophy assets. so grateful for him. He would always, Always be willing to talk, always be willing to show up to the properties if they were having any issue and he would teach me and just mentor me quite a bit. Now I took opportunities to go see projects after hours. There's a lot of people that are like, I work eight to five and a lot of the projects and big learning opportunities come after hours. And so I took advantage of that and he was always willing to assist. And then when I... I got an opportunity in Houston, you know, there was a named Martin Nicholson who I was 27 years old at that time, taking on a 1.2 million 52 square foot or 52 story high rise in downtown Houston. And I was a kid. just, you know, I had, I had experience obviously for my Washington DC experience. But he took a risk on me and I was so grateful for him and really, you know, propelled my career with CBRE by taking on that big assignment and doing well. And then, you know, there's, you know, Stuart Guize, I mean, there's so many people in my journey that have just been guiding me. so I had a lot of experience with asset managing and operating commercial real estate. You know, that's what I did for all those years. But what I wanted to learn more on was underwriting multifamily and how to find deals off market and such. so, a hired, you know, a mentor in that, and, know, his name was James Kandasamy and he was, you know, every week we'd be on calls and every time I would underwrite deals, would run it by him. mean, it was, you know, a couple of years of, of being mentored by him and that really helps set a foundation. were a lot of deals that I had turned down during 21, 22, when other people's were, other people were buying and they were being extremely aggressive on underwriting. I, I, you know, reviewed it with him and I was like, Hey, this is not, this doesn't, this isn't good. You know, this is, and so I'm so grateful for that. Right. and then, after that, we've joined a mastermind that's been a really great tool for us as we raise capital and grow our deals. but there's so many people, I mean, between brokers and lenders, I mean, think about like, This deal that I closed, it was a 3.82 % fixed rate deal on 128 unit in Houston. This was a loan assumption and that group that had the loan was a very strong net worth group. Like they did really well on that property operating it and they have a large portfolio. So from a lender perspective in this tough market to take that loan from a proven, you know, not that we're not proven, we've done a good job, but a much more experienced group, many more years, bigger portfolio, and assigned that loan now to CREI partners. And, you know, it just was, it was massive. Like, I'm just so grateful that, you know, one, we showed our competence and our experience for them to get comfortable, but ultimately they had to make that decision. even on the lender standpoint, investors that, you know, trust us and also there's just so many people, yeah. I never want to be the smartest guy in the room. surround myself with smarter people. mean, everything, even on the art developments, much more important on our developments, but just in general, I pay high dollar for people that elevate the room, right? Cause they're not cheap. The people that have experience, your architects, your structural engineers, civil engineers. attorneys, know, list goes on. They're not cheap, if you're, if you're serious about this business, you'll, you'll pay and surround yourself with the best. Absolutely, making an investment in yourself, right? If it was easy, everyone would do it, And surrounding yourself with people who have the experience, the knowledge that will exponentially increase your growth, It will accelerate that and speed is the currency of business. Unfortunately, it also costs. So There's a moment we call it the darkest hour, where you think all is lost or am I crazy for putting up with all this? Is there a moment in your life that you would call the darkest hour? And how did you come through it? What is the mindset that helped you to overcome the obstacles? Yeah, I mean, honestly, I don't know if I've had like a darkest hour. I do think the Marine Corps put me through some dark times. And what I've told people, and I tell my son this all the time, I've got a son and two daughters, but I told him recently, I'm like, you know, whenever you think things are bad, just know it can always be worse. And I I've reminded myself that so many times. when we feel ungrateful, we start feeling stressed or whatever. mean, our problems could always be worse. And, my wife views that as like false motivation, because she's a therapist, she like, she wants to talk through the feelings in the back, like really get deep in all that. And so like, I'll go through something, but I can always be worse, just to like, you know, falsely tell myself like, hey, it's gonna be okay, which it always ends up being okay. So I think that really from that foundation of the Marine Corps, really has helped me throughout my life. I would say, I got one property on my portfolio that has aged me by 30 years, I've learned so much, but more so the grit and the not putting your head under a pillow, when things get tough, you just get more sharper and more. you're ready to take on more that may come your way. And so I had this property, bought it in 2022 and everything that could possibly go wrong. I I've invited all different types of religions, people like, hey, pray for it. Do your smoke. Do whatever you got to do to like get us there. But we we worked so hard and most recently we modified the loan, which was fantastic because it put us in a position where we're continuing to execute the business plan and such. But you know, that's hard. when you're dealing with investors and such and you're explaining to them, they count on you to, make the best decisions and work hard and all that good stuff. fortunately, that's our one, we've got many success projects and we haven't lost any investor capital. Thank goodness. but big part of that is like, Hey, when things are tough and who's the jockey and the horse has to fight through. And so. yeah, I would say that was, on the investment side, if, if people don't at least have one story, they haven't been in real estate long enough. Right. And so, maybe that's why one story, hopefully forever, I won't have to go through as much challenge, but we're still, we're still going through it and, we've modified the loan, like I said, and, executing the business plan. So I'm very optimistic about that property in the future. Yeah, that was I mean, I didn't have, one dark hour. There's there's just moments in life where you either get up, put your shoes on and go to work and, keep going. And it's okay. Some days, Justin, like it's okay to stay in bed, be like, I sleep like when I get really stressed. I'm like, okay, I just need to sleep a little bit more. But then at some point, though, it can be weeks, maybe a day or so like, all right, now it's time to get up, lick your wounds and move forward. So that's it. Isn't it interesting that when things are going great, that's awesome. But we don't always learn as much from those moments when things are not going well and we have to find that grit and we do have to get up out of bed and put on our shoes and go keep pushing forward. Those are the moments that oftentimes teach us the best lessons and the ones that we remember. They force us to look at what we're doing, to make changes where appropriate, and to recognize our resolve. Ultimately, how bad do you want it? hard are you willing to work? Early you commented on about putting the time after hours, right? You work that nine to five, and then you go out and you see those properties after the fact, working your nine to five to cover the five to nine. I've never heard it said that way, and I like it. to the idea ultimately being that you're putting in the time, you're putting in the reps, you're putting in the effort, right? And there's no guarantee of success, but in the work, And that ultimately very commonly turns out that the people who succeed are the ones who don't quit. They're the ones who give extra, So Napoleon Hill in the book, Think and Grow Rich, talks about doing more than what you're paid for, It's not just about what you're making on an hourly wage or a salary wage. What matters is how much of yourself are you really giving? Are you really giving your best? Are you giving your all? And if you're putting yourself in a bookend or boundary of, well, I don't get paid for that, that's not my job, you've already got the wrong mentality. You have to look at it from a different lens and add the value you can. Keep adding that value, keep pushing forward. And suddenly when you look back and you see how far you've come in all that time, and you recognize that it didn't come from nothing, you put in the work, you put in those reps. And so congratulations to you for becoming successful putting in the work. Yeah, and I love what you said there. reminds me of like in the Marine Corps, you're always doing the next person's job, right? Because if you're ever in a combat situation, you're corporal sergeant, lieutenant, whoever goes down, that next person has to step up and be just as competent and just as confident in the job and being able to execute. And so all my career, whenever I was, you know, managing people, I always had them, even if they were an administrator. doing heavily administrative tasks, they were always doing the next person's job. And there's a saying that I always like to say to my team members everybody needs to know how to land the plane. You don't want to take on a job. You don't want to go up on a plane as a captain and not know how to land the plane. So where that analogy was really headed was like my administrator before they became a manager, before they became, whatever the next position was, they had to do that person's job so they can land the plane safely. The idea of like, I'm gonna get promoted and then learn the job. To me, it's just nonsense. it just, if you can learn it, doing the next person's job, whether it's a military setting or, commercial setting and just in personal life, it makes you sharper and much more ready to take on bigger things if you're doing things that are, not maybe your pay grade or what you're. asked or responsible for. But that's how people really move ahead and ultimately, back to the analogy of landing the plane, able to land the plane when they take that next opportunity. Absolutely. When you were talking about it makes me think about the book by Jocko Willink, Extreme Ownership, Like he applies so many, he walks through combat scenarios and then he applies those to real world business situations in the boardroom, et cetera. And it's very interesting how that dynamic, how the rules that apply in one certainly apply in the other. It's got a different skin, but the root, the base of it is the same. And it's interesting. that analogy. to that point, I think about tools and weapons, resources, things that we've used or that you've used over time. And is there anything you can share with the listeners that has been helpful for you and perhaps can be helpful for them? would say the tools change over time as we're growing the company and there's more things for me to see and do. for our properties, as an example, I'll get a daily report of KPIs that's generated by extracting data from our management software that we use. And it provides reports where I can just at a high level every day, just see. how we're doing on move-ins, how we're doing on our lease-ups, if there's any market differences between rent and our actual rents, what's the difference between budget per forma? I see this every day. It's one of the first emails I open up, because it comes to me first thing in the morning. We have a full-time senior portfolio manager that runs day-to-day asset management. for me, just getting a high-level picture of how the properties are doing from a day-to-day basis. has been helpful. Communication, you know, when you've got multiple team members, we've used, you know, Slack has been a great tool for us. I think, especially if you've got team members in more than one location, just being able to use, you know, something like Slack, there's monday.com, there's Asana, there's other resources for tracking, who's doing what and completion and such. So, You know, those have been good tools. I think time management, however you can, block time, I think is massive. So if those out there listening, and I talk a lot about real estate investing because that's what I do, but you may have a different passion about, some other entrepreneurial business idea and you need your nine to five, to pay for your five to nine, right. And time is limited, but you know, just time blocking and just maximizing those hours while also Justin focusing on family because you only get those years once as well. So, I would say those are the big, but the tools continue changing. Like this year, for example, I joined strategic coaching, Dan Sullivan's program and that program, I've only done one quarter of it. But in that one quarter, one of the things we've implemented are these days called buffer focus and free days. And so my free days, or I'll start with my buffer days in my case are Tuesday, Thursdays. do majority of my calls, majority of my podcasts. If the scheduling lines up correctly, a lot of my investor calls, all my team meetings, it's pretty much, you know, a fill in and I've got time blocks like from 10 to one. Those are the times where I send my Calendly link out to people. to schedule, right? So I'm controlling more of my schedule. Then I've got focus days. Focus days for me are Monday, Wednesday, and every other Friday. Those are days that I'm focusing only on underwriting, broker relationships, maybe some investor calls, anything that grows the future pipeline. I'm also working on developments, things like that, where, it has dedicated time, Justin, where I'm able to grow the business financially. Because if not, other people are to be coming at you constantly asking for things, wanting things. And then you're like at the end of the week, many weeks, I'm like, man, I didn't do anything to grow the business. So those are my focus days. And then I have free days, which are every other Fridays for me. And so every other Fridays I take off and I have a longer weekend. That's a tool. And that's something that I've been able to create and my team knows about it they can respect my focus buffer and free days. But my whole point on this is as you grow a business, whether you're a solo entrepreneur or you've got other partners and such, tools are going to change based on what you need go to the next step and to continue growing as a person in business and family person. hopefully some of those ideas were helpful to the audience. But it goes back to education and just being adaptable and flexible to different things that may pop up to make your life a little easier. Absolutely. And to enjoy it, right? And to enjoy the journey, right? one of the other great books, forgetting the author's name, but buy back your time. mean, I, it's like a damn workout to me. I implemented everything in that book, including my email management and all the different folders and my 15 minute meetings with one of my team members every morning. that, that book right there, if you're looking for, you know, a tool, yeah. book. I agree. Yeah, great, great book. Yeah. If I'm not mistaken, the quote from that is 80 % done by someone else is 100 % freaking awesome. Right? And like, there's just a there's the aspect of delegation, right? The 80 20 rule and, you know, finding what is your 20 %? What fills your bucket? What are you passionate about? Do that? What are you good at? Like, and you enjoy it, do that. And finally, people that can support you in the roles that are not your passion that you perhaps are not great at, but they are Right, let them do their 20%. You do your 20 % and really lean in on that focus. I think there's a lot of value. I may be mixing a couple books there, but there's just so much to research. Yeah. mean, ultimately you're like the 80 % that I pass on. I'm filling my bucket with other things that are growing the business, but the things that are growing my business are things I really enjoy. And that's like mixed use developments, finding raw land, turning them into storage facilities or a hotel apartment community. Like those are things that I really enjoy or finding off market deals. Uh, you know, yeah, it's like treasure hunting. But those things are important. And if I'm in the business, if I'm doing the day-to-day stuff, which is so important, it is the backbone. And what will make the business survive and do well is having a strong backbone and that foundation. it's putting people want to enjoy whatever that task is, because we're all different, putting people in their best. So that way, everybody is performing to the maximum. Yeah, yeah, like people lean in to their role that makes them excited, right? Being excited, you were talking this free days, right? So everyone's got something that they love to do. I have an incredible passion for board games. I love playing board games. Just the strategy, the resource management, but also the camaraderie, right? The friends around the table, the jokes, the friendship, the stories that are shared. And so Friday nights are my game night. And that's the one thing that I block off every Friday for us to play board games. And that's the way that I decompress. good times. My friend, want to ask, we call this the Hall of Heroes, right? If there was a giant statue of Wayne Courageous III and there was a plaque on it and it said anything you wanted to share with whoever read it, what would you want it to say? There's a couple of things, Well, I would say just live. To me, that's such a an important statement. You know, just live. no matter what, what you're going through, any challenges or any risk taking or maybe you're you're at a point in your life where you're just enjoying the moment. my daughter, funny, she was, I told her the other day, was like, it's hard being a girl. How do you do it? And they really extend from like, she's like eating, we're at a restaurant, she's eating and her hair is just all in her enchiladas. And I'm like, babe, like, move your hair back. And I was like, it's hard to be a girl. And she's like, I was like, how do you do it? She's like, just live. I love it. So that's sort of top of mind for me right now. They do, they do. I'm like, all right, cool. That's good. Yeah, I posted on my Facebook, I was like, you know, well said Emma, well said. that's... So powerful. also like I, I'm anybody that knows me and I'll put it on record on this, um, podcast, but I always told my assistant, like my team members are like, Hey, if you love me, like, if you think I'm a good leader, I don't ask for much, but I do ask for Dr. Pepper's to be in the fridge. Like if I ever go to a fridge and there's not a Dr. Pepper, like I know that I'm not doing a good job as a leader. And so, when I worked for my W2 and even now, like one of my team members, keeps the fridge stocked. so I always tell people like, when I, when I'm dead, like in my casket and I don't want to be burned, I want to be, you know, I want to be in a casket. I want, uh, my Dr. Pepper. So that's, uh, you know, give me a 12 pack, but, yeah. That's awesome. Everyone's got something they love, man. And I think it's great. Yeah. Coffee's my jam. Yeah. Like I love coffee. So what is the next quest for Wayne Courageous III and CREI partners? Well, I would say for Wayne Courreges III, it's showing up for my family this afternoon. one of my daughters has a school event and so I really try to be present as much as I can. It's hard when you have three kids, cause they all have so many different things going on and you're dividing and conquering. but you know, that's really important in my chapter in life. Like I've got about five more years with all my kids are all pretty close in age. So that's a big focus for me personally. the other side of that is, you know, our business CREI partners. And so we are continuing to source and find cashflow and, deals day one. That's important for us. want to have some value add multifamily component to it. But within that multifamily, we want to have, you know, cashflow and it doesn't have to be crazy cashflow. It just has to be. You know, 4%, 5 % because we can push a value add plan and, know, get that. 18 to 20 % average annual return over that five year period. Where I'm going with that is, you know, some deals previously, you you had to like feed the property initially, just to push the business plan. So we've shifted from CREI partners to more day one, high DSCR debt service coverage ratio, so we can, give back to our investors with cashflow. On the other side of that, Justin, we're been focusing on a new development and Bryan College station and that is 150 unit multifamily. And we've got a hotel, Spring Hill suites, it's going to be coming in and an office retail. that has been so much fun working through that process. So we're providing investors upside, know, equity upside through what I view as the most opportunistic, value-add play, is a raw land development. And then you have, you know, your cash flowing, you know, multifamily, storage. that's what we'll continue doing. We'll continue finding those development opportunities and cash flowing and growing as a team as we grow and we buy more properties, we're going to add more team members. Right. And so that to me, investing back into the company is so important. cause I could take, I could take the, the monies that we've earned. And go buy a new car or buy a new house or get that pool. really want it, but instead I'm like, no, like we need to invest in the company, build a company. Cause if we can take care of our investors, the investors will keep with us and. You know, spreading the good word of what we're doing. Absolutely, give them back, right? When you give, you get. Absolutely. All right, Wayne, one last question, and my friend, this is my favorite one to ask. If you could be any mythical creature, what would it be and why? This was such a hard question because I really don't know much about creatures and all this stuff. But doing some little research, I would choose a griffin. And I don't know if that's a common one on your show. I'd actually be curious if it is. But I love the look of it. I've looked online and was looking through all the different ones. A lion's body with an eagle head. I love that it reflects wisdom and success and such. I think that is, that's one that I wouldn't mind being able to fly above others. So I like the eagle aspect and then having that lion's body of strength. I'm like, that would be pretty awesome. I would choose a Griffin. Is that a common one? I'm curious. Like, do you get that a lot? one of the only people who has chosen Griffin actually was my executive assistant. So yeah, so definitely good taste, right? Like I, I, I dig it too. Like I'm right there with you. Wayne, if anyone wants to reach out to you, how can they connect with you? Yeah. So, um, CREIpartners.com there's a lot of our information on our website, to reach out to us directly. again, Justin thanks for having me on man. I really enjoyed it. Enjoyed meeting you in person the other day at a conference and excited to just continue growing the relationship. Absolutely brother. 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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Wayne Courreges III

Guest