Overcoming Adversity with Rob Yuhanick

Summary

In this episode of the Blue Cup podcast, Rob Yuhanick shares his remarkable journey from being adopted into a unique family to navigating the challenges of military service, including the impact of 9/11 and Hurricane Katrina. He discusses his struggles with mental health and addiction, and how these experiences shaped his transition into the real estate industry. Rob emphasizes the importance of resilience, perseverance, and mental health awareness throughout his journey, ultimately leading to his success in building a real estate portfolio. In this engaging conversation, Rob Yuhanick and Russ Scheider explore various themes including fitness journeys, mental health, the transition from military to property management, and the challenges of evictions. They share personal stories about helping homeless veterans, the importance of finding one's 'why', and the balance between work and family life. The discussion also touches on business growth, learning from mistakes, and the significance of empowering others. Additionally, they celebrate musical talents within their families, highlighting the joy and connection that music brings.

Find Rob at:
Epicpmcharleston.com

Subscribe to his son: 
https://www.youtube.com/@MathyGames-Iwasforcedtoaddthis

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Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:00

There's about 5,000 people just camped out there. Alcohol starts taking effect. You're lucky if you're gonna make it past three weeks because your liver's about to go. And uh I use that car as a down payment for um uh laying contract on six on six properties. Why am I not proving to myself that I'm worth what I'm doing?

SPEAKER_02 0:17

I love that, Rob.

SPEAKER_01 0:28

It's an old robot. And now it's got a podcast to go.

SPEAKER_02 0:39

Hello and welcome to the Blue Cup Podcast. Be sure to like and subscribe, click the bell below. We have a guest today. I'm very excited for this conversation because Rob and I hang out all the time and we've done some crazy business together and just a crazy personal story. So this will be fun. Um and getting to know getting to know Rob personally and business wise, I think is gonna be quite an adventure. So we'll get into that. So tell us, Rob, who you are, where you come from, especially the childhood. Like where were you born?

SPEAKER_00 1:20

That's actually a good question. I'm not 100% sure. I was adopted somewhere outside of Youngstown, Ohio. I was adopted into this name, and I think it's because I lost the spelling bee in second grade when they gave me this name to spell, and I got stuck with it. So, but uh my my dad, adopted dad is a contractor. My mom was a stay-at-home mom, and the reason I was adopted was in 1970 they had gotten pregnant and she lost the baby because she had Crohn's disease. Um back then they would immediately start hacking out parts of your body uh so she couldn't have kids. Uh 1979 I was born. Um, so yes, I'm old. Um, not as old as Russ, but I'm old. Um not too far away. Uh however, uh I was adopted and um I am Greek, Italian, and Arabic born or adopted into a blonde-haired, blue-eyed family, so that was really strange. And it actually echoed in life growing up. I'd be called out for not one of these things, not like strange them strange in what way? Right. Uh well, um as soon as I step out in the sun, I turn about six shades darker. I am obviously not blonde-haired, blue-eyed, far from. And uh back when I actually had hair, before uh I had children and it all fell out, it was extremely thick, black, and curly wavy.

unknown 2:42

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 2:43

So yeah, it was an interesting dichotomy there uh within the family. Dad's a contractor on multiple on multiple rentals growing up, so I got to know the rental game from that standpoint. And now, Russ, you can you can understand how crazy this this would be. The tenants knew where we lived because they drove their rent checks to our house. They were pissed off, they drove to our house. Back in the time of Bieber's, if one of them showed up pounding on the door, all pissed off, we would have to call dad's a beaver from the landline and dial 911 into the beaver. Yeah. So that was life. So how many rentals did he have? I want to say 35 or so. Um his first one, so everybody's all about the house hacking. Uh his first one was a duplex. He he and my mom moved into this duplex that he bought and rented out the other side. It's crazy because he bought uh he bought all these things on seller finance, never taught me about seller finance at all. I just naturally got into it, and then later he was like, oh yeah, that's what I did. And I'm like, why the hell didn't you teach me this when I was a kid?

SPEAKER_04 3:52

Right.

SPEAKER_00 3:54

But he didn't want me in the business. He never thought I was smart enough or good enough or anything else, which we'll play into the story later on as we go along. I remember I um about 13, 14, 15 years old, I would actually take his truck because back then, you know, as long as you were driving relatively safe, the cops didn't care, especially in small town. Not really. Not really. If I'd throw a ladder in the back of the truck, uh a mower in the back of the truck, stuff like that, and I would go and mow lawns and paint houses, stuff like that as a kid. And since mom was always sick, I would always, you know, people are like, What well, do you root for Ohio State and you know, stuff like that? I've never really watched football. I never had time. I was always on the job site because mom was always sick, you know. So I was either at Fanley's house or I was on the job site building. So you're saying your your mom was always sick? Always sick because of Crohn's disease.

SPEAKER_03 4:46

Okay.

SPEAKER_00 4:46

Yep. So she spent, uh I mean, growing up, we were probably told she was gonna die no less than a dozen times. Uh that she was never she was not gonna make it home. So, you know, you grew up with that. And, you know, me being me, and you know, Russ, you know how hard-headed not only hard-headed can I be, but how hot my temper burns. Yes. I was that poster child for being shoved out the door and the doors locked, and don't come in until the sun comes down. Um I and honestly, I don't think they cared if I was broken and bleeding. You're still staying outside. Um get some duct tape. Uh, but no, it wasn't that bad. But no, I was I was um growing up in that environment, you really become independent very, very quickly. And um yeah, I was always just I don't know, just making money and hustling and stuff like that, uh, just because that's what everybody else was doing. You know, my dad, my dad's was born in 1950, his family was from that era. I I remember we used to call my my grandpa Oppo, he's Slowbok, or was Slowbock, sorry. I remember borrowing his coat because you know, mom mom had to be rushed to the ER and then was there for a couple weeks or something like that. But it's winter time, dad's like, all right, you gotta go to Oppo and Grandma's, and I didn't bring my coat, so Oppo gave me my his coat, and I'd shove my hand in my pockets, and I would find rolls of 20s. Okay. There had to have been three, four thousand dollars in this jacket. But that was Oppo's era, you know. He grew up around, you know, the Great Depression and everything else.

SPEAKER_03 6:24

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 6:25

So my dad was a product of that, never had debt, if he could help it. Um you know, so I grew up always hustling, always afraid of debt, which later on, funny story about that. Little side, I do these little tangents here and there. But um, I had a girlfriend that was like, hey, you know, you don't have to pay your credit card off right away. And that actually got me into a lot of freaking trouble. Yeah, exactly. So fast forward, found out mom uh mom ended up with leukemia when I was 16. And then um I will tell you a huge regret in my life. I don't have very many, but uh, we got into an argument. I went to bed, and when I woke up the next morning, I found out she had passed out. And dad rushed her to the hospital. She died four days later. Never got to say sorry, said a whole lot of shit in anger that tell you what, to this day I will cry my eyes out. Um, but yeah, I was I was 17 when I when I uh when I lost her and on tax day, coincidentally, she died on tax day, but then dad got married real quick uh to somebody not much older than me, which really went well, and then got kicked out of the house for wanting to wash my own laundry, which I have been doing since I was like six years old.

SPEAKER_03 7:42

Yes.

SPEAKER_00 7:44

And got kicked out of the house, was working in a factory, was going to Kent State University full-time, midnight shift from 7 p.m. to 7 a.m.

unknown 7:54

Yep.

SPEAKER_00 7:54

Seven days a week. I couldn't stay awake in class, so I got kicked out. Uh my uncle comes up to me and says, Hey, you are going absolutely nowhere. You're drunk every day, you're going into the military. But you're going into the Coast Guard because they don't go to war. So going into the Coast Guard because why? Because they they don't go to war.

SPEAKER_02 8:13

Which they don't go to war.

SPEAKER_00 8:15

Is not true. Is not true at all. We'll get to that.

unknown 8:21

Okay.

SPEAKER_02 8:24

So you're working a factory job, dropped out of college.

SPEAKER_00 8:28

Yep, no, kick kicked out of college, not dropped up, kicked up.

SPEAKER_02 8:31

Got kicked out of college, drunk every day, and your uncle says, You're going on the Coast Guard because they don't go to war.

SPEAKER_00 8:38

Yes. Gotcha. And uh, and so I go to uh, you know, I go to boot camp uh in March of 2001. We all will know what happens in no um later on in 2001.

SPEAKER_02 8:49

Yeah, there was a situation, wasn't there?

SPEAKER_00 8:52

Yep, yep. And I was on the ship and it was crazy. So my first duty station was a buoy tender in Port Huron, Michigan. I hate the cold. By the way, uh a little backstory to that. I used to drive in truck when I was 13, snow plowing. I still hated it. Those old Dodge trucks, uh 1970 trucks, the Dodge trucks could heat up like nobody's business.

SPEAKER_03 9:11

Oh yeah.

SPEAKER_00 9:12

So uh you could boil coffee off the off the heater. But uh the ship was broke down. We couldn't go anywhere. The ship was built in 1944, was bombed at Bikini at hole with nuclear weapons to test the effects of nuclear weapons on on surface ships. So I'm pretty sure I gloated in the dark for a little bit. But it was broke down. We could we were stuck at the dock, and then they would put a chain across the buoy deck said, uh you can't leave. And it's like, this is stupid. They're like, Yeah, if we get a bomb threat, uh, we gotta sail out in the middle of Lake Huron so it doesn't hurt anybody else. I'm like, I'm swimming home. Are you kidding me? Um aside from that, the ship's not going anywhere, it's broke. And uh, so it was a very long, I don't know, 10 days. I want to say we were stuck, and our girlfriends would come down and they couldn't come onto the pier itself. So they'd sit on the hill and just wave at us. I'm like, this is just stupid. Um and then so then the Coast Guard goes to Homeland Security uh from Department of Department of Um of Transportation. We went to um homeless security and was actually the largest budget in homeless security. We got to do some fun stuff, um uh like flying out in helicopters, dropping down on the ships because somebody's name, I think the computer and homeless security that weren't supposed to be in our country. So we'd have to go find them on the ship and detain them and stuff like that.

SPEAKER_02 10:41

Um I know it's military, but I've I've also heard it described as law enforcement, too.

SPEAKER_00 10:48

Yes. That's why it's homeless security. That's we can actually bridge that divide. Got it. So we could actually do operations on US soil. Gotcha.

SPEAKER_03 10:58

Okay.

SPEAKER_00 10:58

Such as uh when I got to restationed to Michigan again, um, because the wife at the time was pregnant. Yes, I was doing like drunken voters and type of stuff. That's that's why we can do those those acts. So but back when I was in Texas, um, you know, you'd you'd have instances where uh you'd find somebody, have to detain them because we found some actually legitimate bad guys that while they were crucifying President Bush for all the stuff that was going on, which I'm not defending the guy by any stretch of the imagination, we did actually find l some legitimate bad guys that should not be in our country at all.

SPEAKER_02 11:37

So so you were in Port Huron, Michigan.

SPEAKER_00 11:40

Yep, then Port Arthur, Texas. Port Arthur, Texas, okay, yep, outside of uh Beaumont, which is kind of kind of a suburb of Eastern, I guess.

SPEAKER_02 11:50

Beaumont's a rough town. I've only spent two nights in Beaumont and it was scary.

SPEAKER_00 11:55

Double that and you'll get uh you'll get Port Arthur.

SPEAKER_02 11:58

Okay. Who were the bad guys?

SPEAKER_00 12:01

The uh most of them were coming from either like Nigeria or um uh Sudan. We had some people from I'm trying to think of some of those other Middle Eastern countries that we weren't all they weren't supposed to be even coming to our country at all. But um yeah, I mean just the different people that had terrorist associations uh was this before 9-11 or after?

SPEAKER_02 12:26

After okay, after 9-11, got it. That makes sense that makes sense. So then you're on the hunt for the bad guys.

SPEAKER_00 12:35

Yes. Yeah, okay. And I mean that's and to be honest, if I would have stuck doing just that, I would have actually been really, really happy. Uh because I I started falling too bored of an instructor role at towards the end of it, which I really loved. I really love I really enjoyed doing that. But then we also know during that time a hurricane Katrina happened, and I was first feet on the ground of that and got to see the ugly side of really, really ugly side of humanity, which I've never recovered from.

SPEAKER_02 13:04

Yeah. Um tell us about Katrina.

SPEAKER_00 13:09

So Katrina hit, and eight of us were the first eight to respond. Like we were the closest unit that was not affected by the hurricane. So we got there the night, the storm was still leaving. It was still raining when we got there, and we were literally going through with chainsaws and clippers, cutting the trees that were in the middle of the road and trimming out the wires. Like, it's like, okay, should we be trimming these at all or are they lying? I'm not gonna pee on it to find out. So that's but that's how we had to get there. And we stopped. I can't remember what the heck the name of that stupid town is. We just north of Lake Ponchet Train. And then we crossed over the bridge there, which we found out later on we weren't supposed to cross because integrally it was not safe. But we had our safe boats with us. And those are about I'm gonna I'm gonna get this wrong, and I know one of my coasties are gonna check me on this, but I want to say about 9,000 pounds. I know. It's about 9,000 pounds of boat, and it's a it's a deep vehicle. It's 25 foot, pretty deep, especially for anything other than Lake Ponch Tree. One of the craziest things in the world, by the way, during that hurricane, there were no bugs. None. Not a single mosquito until day night. It was it the hurricane wiped out all the mosquitoes until their nesting time, their hatching time. So we get there, and we can't go into the city because our boats are too deep of draft. So they send us across Lake Poncha train from the Coast Guard station there, which we were staying in little trailers, to the University of New Orleans, where the mayor told everybody to go. We get there, there's about 5,000 people just camped out there. We start bringing them back a little bit at a time. In the meantime, we find John boats, and then there's a couple of you know, old, you know, Cajun dudes. They're like, here's the keys to my John boat, just park the gear when you're done. Yeah, basically, is what they told us. So we'd go into the city. Um and that's when, you know, that's when things got really, really shitty. Um I described it as hell flooded over because you would be going through and you'd have gas lines that burst underwater and you'd have flames shooting up through the water. That's crazy. It was crazy, uh, absolutely insane. Um, I'm not gonna get into it completely, but recovery of dead children. We found out, by the way, you know, you know the affection I have towards dogs. Yes, it came from here because you would look under the water and you would see a dog tied to a lamppost under the water because they couldn't take the dogs with them and the dogs wouldn't stop following them. So I'm actually starting to get a little messy just because it's uh going back to that. Uh but you had all of that and it lasted 10 days. About to meet President Bush twice. Uh cool dude, actually, to meet him face to face, and he is small. He can't be he can't weigh more than a you know buck twenty. Uh dude is tiny. Yeah. But we ended up the six of us that went out uh got credited for saving 1,500 people. Um I know the count was higher than that, I don't care. Um because the what the thing is, you remember the ones you didn't save.

SPEAKER_04 16:25

Right.

SPEAKER_00 16:25

And that's what that's what plagues my mind.

SPEAKER_02 16:27

Um, that's what sticks with you, right?

SPEAKER_00 16:29

Yeah, that's what drives like to this day. I still have the nightmares, stuff like that. But then, so go back home to Port Arthur, and three weeks later, we get hit with Rita. Hurricane Rita goes right over my friggin' house. We come back down to Texas. Now in Texas, they do things a little differently. You start looting a business, they put your dead body right outside the door with a bullet hole still in your forehead to remind you not to loot their their business. Like, seriously, it was insane. So it wasn't as bad, but the wife, Jackie, she calls me up. You know, we're day three. She calls me up, she goes, if you don't come and get me, I'm I'm going back to my mom's house. And whenever you get restationed, you can come get me that. So uh I had a meeting with my chiefs, and I was like, I don't know what to do here. I'm newly married, I'm trying to start a family here. So they then you're gonna get you're gonna get hurt. We didn't have have guys shooting at us like we did in New Orleans by any stretch of the imagination. So they weren't quite as worried about that, but if that happened, they knew my brain wouldn't be in it, so they they sent me to get Jackie. And uh we came back to the house, and I loved one of my tenants complained about their AC being out or something like that, which is a problem. I went for three effing weeks with no electricity. Yeah. And 90, 100 degree weather. So it's like perspective, y'all, perspective. But we got through that, and you know, we it kind of got back to a normal schedule. Then Jackie gets pregnant, her family's up in Detroit, and I'm like, I'm not moving back to Detroit. I actually put Charleston on my on my dream sheet, but then they saw the Great Lakes, and they're like, Oh, you're going back up to Michigan.

SPEAKER_04 18:16

I'm like crap.

SPEAKER_00 18:18

Get up there, uh, start going through the times.

SPEAKER_02 18:21

Well, they said you can tolerate the cold, so we'll send you up there.

SPEAKER_00 18:24

Yeah, yeah. Let's let's put let's put a little gumby suit on you and throw you in the ice because you'd like that shit. Stupid. Um actually, that's a whole new level of stupid. Um fun story. Uh, we were in Saginaw Harbor uh doing ice rescue training, which is just an oxymoron because 90% of the time you didn't get there anyways before they were popsicle in the first place. And um we're out there on the ice and they're taking chainsaws to cut holes in the ice so we can jump in. Yeah. So um so we're on our way out to cut a new hole in the middle of the night. And there are you know, northern rednecks everywhere driving their trucks out on this ice, which to me baffles my baffles my mind why you'd think that'd be a good idea in the first place. Add in that you're putting a shanty out there with heat on the ice. Yeah. Anyway, looking past that stupidity. I remember this truck lashing right past. It's like not in care in the world. Next thing we see is taillight straight up in the air. We had an immediate ice rescue call while we were right there. It's like you guys are just just you know, highlighting the stupid. And uh the one the instructor said, There are more vehicles at the bottom of Saginaw Harbor than there are ships in Lake Huron. It it just it's just baffling to me.

SPEAKER_02 19:57

I love the term northern redneck.

SPEAKER_00 20:00

They're different, they're a different inbred. They're a different type of inbred. They really are.

SPEAKER_02 20:04

Yeah, oh yeah, I I get.

SPEAKER_00 20:06

But anyway, get back and so I'm going through my time. Uh, you know, New Orleans is still really bubbling in my mind. It was a nine hit, and I become suicidal. I couldn't, I couldn't deal with it anymore. Home life was falling apart because I couldn't deal with the mental side of it. I wasn't getting any help. Part of it, you know, it it's the thing to hide. You hide this, you know, you're not support the speech. Of course none of us are gonna ever admit to feel that way. And, you know, alcohol starts taking effect, home life takes effect, and then I start getting suicidal, and I have the keys, the armory, on my waist. I'm standing duty at the station. Uh duty station duty was like uh they they describe it kind of like firefighter hours, too on, too off, and every other weekend.

SPEAKER_03 20:57

Yep.

SPEAKER_00 20:58

Um, so I'm officer of the day, I've got the keys on me. I'm already having a rough time um at that station because it's very, very political. I was stationing at Station Grand Haven, which is they call it Coast Guard USA. So, Coast Guard Day every year, biggest festivals at Grand Haven. So it's extremely political. Stations in and of themselves are very political, and I am not a political character. I am I am the hammer, I smash things, and that's the way it goes.

SPEAKER_02 21:31

Yeah, I I had lunch today with a Marine. I said, What did you do in the core? He said I was a door kicker.

SPEAKER_00 21:38

Yep.

SPEAKER_02 21:40

You're kind of a door kicker, too.

SPEAKER_00 21:42

Yeah, yeah, I sort of am. Didn't definitely go through what he went through, but definitely nowadays I am definitely a door kicker. Um so but I was actually so in the middle of the night, I'd be hanging onto my rack crying because in my brain, I was getting up out of that rack, I was I was going down to the armory. I was unlocking it. I was loading up one of the nines. I was putting it under my chin, pulling the trigger. It was so real, I could hear the if you've ever fired a gun without hearing protection, you go deaf instantaneously. The ringing. That pop. I had that pop. I could smell the cordite. I could feel the bullet going through my head. I could feel the back of my head lifting off my skull.

unknown 22:19

Oh my god.

SPEAKER_00 22:20

Last picture in my brain was my daughter, which kept me anchored to that rack. So finally, somebody heard me and they're like, you need to talk to somebody. So I go in and all of it just spills out in front of my senior chief. They commit me to uh mental health for four days, which was surreal in and of itself. You you want a reality check, go into there for four days. You're normal, trust me. Um but uh you know they they diagnosed me with bipolar, which was a weird one, um, because it was obviously not a bipolar in you know spell that I was going through. Um so that and clinical depression, severe clinical depression. Yes. And in the meantime, the Coast Guard decides to throw a charge at me for sexual misconduct.

SPEAKER_03 23:21

What?

SPEAKER_00 23:22

Yes. I'm like, where the hell did this even come from? So next thing I know, I'm I'm standing in a captain's mast as an E6, and they're trying to charge me for kicking this girl in the ass and then like stalking her throughout the station. And one of the incidents that they were talking about, I'm like, well, I could pull up the receipts on my phone. One of my grandparents passed away. I was at the funeral the day that in Ohio that that supposedly happened. Wow. So it was weird, and I found out later on that for some weird reason, when you go through a med board, because that's what I ended up going through, for some reason they they don't like you. They think you're you're scamming the system and you're true.

SPEAKER_04 24:06

Right.

SPEAKER_00 24:06

Right.

SPEAKER_04 24:06

Wow.

SPEAKER_00 24:07

And I still got bumped down for conduct not becoming a petty officer because I had to go to Mast. And so they bumped me down from E6 to E5. And I am pissed. Like I have a chip on my shoulder at the time. And I remember the E the other E6 was, I'm still a BM1. I punched him right in the face. Like I wasn't having it. I hit him, I just knocked him down. And the senior chief comes running out. What are you doing? I said, I'm not putting up with this shit anymore. And we had another station, uh, uh the sector field office was across the street, so they shuffled me over there to do ready for operations, which was a perfect place for me to go because you go to all these stations inspecting their search and rescue gear and stuff, yeah. Which would take all morning. And then in this in the summers, you hung out at the golf courses, and in the winters, you were snowboarded. I loved it. It was great. Um, and so that was 2010. Uh, at the beginning of 2010, I'd been reading Robert uh Robert Kiyosaki books, Donald Trump books, um, any uh some Ron Le Grand books, anything I could grab. I knew real estate because my dad. Yep. I had a realtor that found a it was a three-unit, like one of those old, you know, old chopped-up three units, you know, single-family house. They had a mother-in-law suite in the detached garage, and they they they separated the second floor.

SPEAKER_03 25:35

Yep.

SPEAKER_00 25:36

So I got it under contract, and um, they were like, well, you know, we changed everything to single family residential back in 20 uh 2005. And this house had been chopped up in the 90s. And uh they said it has a four-year, you know, if it's not occupied in four years, it goes back to single family. This had been vacant for a lot longer than four years. But since it had the separate mother-in-law suite, it could still be a duplex. I had to buy the land next to it. And um, you know, I borrowed money from my father-in-law for all of this. And um the land next to it was going up for auction, tax auction. I bought that for 900 bucks, and then the guy that I was in contract with for the house uh went into bankruptcy, which completely screwed that deal. So I had this piece of land, the vacant piece of land I couldn't do no. Well, finally, about four months later, another realtor that I know, actually also a property manager, came up to me and said, Hey Rob, I know you got this land. We just got this property uh off of this seller we got through uh bankruptcy court and everything else. Can you sell us a land? I bought the land for 900 bucks, I sold it to him for 1500 four months later. Um first time, you know, technically called that wholesale, I guess. Um but then I also got under contract, I found a six uh six unit apartment building that uh the bank owned um that was running into this four-year vacant problem. I see, and they wanted the city wanted to tear this thing down. Now this turned out to be the first hospital in West Michigan. Yeah. Uh I found this out after I sold it, it was pretty cool. Um still had the tin ceilings in the storefront.

SPEAKER_03 27:26

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 27:27

In the huge crown molding. Oh man, I couldn't do anything with that one because it, you know, because it had been vacant, I couldn't turn it back into a commercial. Right. And they wouldn't let me turn it into a residential without creating a parking lot that was never going to be big enough to convert it. Um stipulations. But anyway, um, I walked into the bank in my suit and everything. I go, I'll tell you what, I'll give you $20,000 for this. I had no idea where the money was coming from. They go, We we're not doing $20,000.

unknown 27:52

I'm like, damn it.

SPEAKER_00 27:54

Okay, what will you do? So we we settled on $40,000, and I said, okay, we'll do $40, but you're writing the loan, and I'll give you $4,000 down. By the way, if you don't do this in the next four months, it turns back into single-family residential, and they're gonna tear it down. Here's all the paperwork for that, so you see it so you know I'm not full of shit. I'm gonna agree to that, and a $30,000 construction loan. Uh renovated this thing within those four months, had it fully occupied. Um so six units fully occupied. Uh five of the six. I couldn't occupy the six months. Yep. I wasn't allowed to, I can only use that six months for storage. So from there, I'm like, oh, this is kind of cool. And then, you know, I'm reading some of the Ron LeGrand and some of the Robert Kiyosaki stuff. So I'm learning about land contracts.

SPEAKER_03 28:40

Right.

SPEAKER_00 28:40

So I started buying the land contracts. I can't make your price, I'm sorry, but I'll tell you what, I could I can start making payments to you for the next 10 years. Hopefully I could pay out sooner than that. But over the next 10 years, you know, you don't have to worry about, as uh Larry Gones used to say, termites, trash, toilets, and tenants. You don't have to worry about any of those. Um because I took one of his courses too, of course. But I started buying doing all that, ended up with a grand total of 35 doors by the time I left West Michigan. Uh, not without being stupid um and developing a drug problem in the meantime. Um so while I'm doing all this, and it's kind of funny when I get out of the Coast Guard, I'm I know I'm bouncing a little bit, but when I'm getting out of the Coast Guard in 2010, uh in October 2010, it's my final day of duty, about to leave, and I basically tell the uh the commanding officer, I was like, hey, I gotta go. I gotta c I got a closing on two properties here in about an hour. I need to leave. He looks at me and I literally told him, I said, My life is going on beyond the Coast Guard. You can stay here as long as you want. I got shit to do. I'm leaving. So yeah. My chief's looking at me like, dude, what the hell? And uh wait a way to wait to leave out on your last day. But uh after that, you know.

SPEAKER_02 29:57

I think that's a great way to check out.

SPEAKER_00 30:00

Oh, I know.

SPEAKER_02 30:00

Uh, two closings, are you kidding me? With forward, with forward motion. Was this drug-fueled forward motion?

SPEAKER_00 30:06

No, no, it wasn't. The drugs, the drug, the drug prop actually didn't happen until it was actually I operate best when we're back up against the wall, which is not a healthy thing to do, by the way, by any stretch of the imagination. Um I that was definitely spurred by like, I have a family, I have to support a family. And we're in West Michigan in 2010. I have a degree in business marketing, I'm a disabled vet. And one of the first questions they'd ask, okay, well, how do we know that you don't have PTSD and you're not gonna shoot up the office? That's exactly like one of the just an assumption right out the bat. And I'm sure I could have won lawsuits, whatever. But, you know, that was that that would be a kick in a kick in the balls. I mean, it dude, I just served the country, and now you're gonna treat me like a piece of crap. So, anyway, um, I would go and, you know, they would they would give me all these pills to be taking for what they called bipolar, which wasn't helping because that's not exactly what I had. And all of a sudden, I was starting to get really sick. They were starting to tell me my liver was dying. Uh, I needed to stop drinking. And I got to the point where I couldn't even keep down water. So it's like, I'm not drinking. I'm not drinking, I can't drink alcohol. You know, I've been I've been dry for a while, everything else, uh, just cause I couldn't keep it down. And they the doctor literally told me, You got three weeks. You're lucky if you're gonna make it past three weeks because your liver's about to go. And we'll see you back in the street.

SPEAKER_02 31:46

Three weeks, your liver has three weeks.

SPEAKER_00 31:49

Yeah. So I went home so damn depressed, and I didn't even I couldn't even tell my wife. Like, I'm like shattered. I don't know what to say. I my life insurance policy was with the military. I couldn't afford one because I was actually losing a company at the time. Because, by the way, the stuff they had me on was called Risperdol. Um, it's a drug that I cannot give platelets to this day because of that. It's a forever drug. I will get what they call Risperdol brain, where once once in a great while, my brain will fog out for a day. I cannot function. It is a forever drug. And they had me on this stuff, and I would not be able to function within my company because of this stuff. I was in a fog most of the time.

SPEAKER_02 32:34

Yeah, because you could, you couldn't you couldn't.

SPEAKER_00 32:36

You couldn't at all. Now that uh it happens every eight months now, maybe nine months, but even that one day that I'm off, like I tell every I tell my staff, I'm I'm staying home. Don't ask me to make a decision today.

SPEAKER_03 32:48

Right.

SPEAKER_00 32:49

This is not a day for me to make a decision. It's called a mental health day. Exactly, exactly, which are which is more important than I realized, especially nowadays. But I go back, I go back home, depressed, I take that pill and I throw it up. And I'm like, you know what, eff it. I'm gonna die anyway. I'm just gonna get drunk. So I went to the store. I never took another one of those pills. I went to the store, I just bought a case of beer and drank the whole thing that day. Did the next the same thing. And it's funny when when you're an alcoholic, it's funny how you're broke, but you can always find money for the alcohol. But I would literally get trashed every day. And I went back to the VA, they ran a blood test. I said, Oh, we're glad to see you're you're still with us, blah, blah, blah. Like, yeah, whatever. And blood results came back, and they go, You must have stopped drinking because your liver's improved.

SPEAKER_02 33:42

So it was the medication that was pounding your liver.

SPEAKER_00 33:45

I told him, I said, I quit your medication, I started getting drunk every day. And they started freaking out. They threaten to, you know, commit me to an insane asylum or something like that. And like that's not really what's happening. But that actually led to a pill problem. I'm not exactly sure how it got to that point. But, you know, when you're when you quit something like that, cold turkey, your brain just if you weren't bipolar before, you're bipolar now. At least for a little bit. So I started crushing like Vicanin and Percocet and like in all at the same time. Uh started doing that, got really, really bad about it. I was drunk by nine o'clock in the morning, stuff like that. And then the wake-up call came when I'm working on a buddy's house, uh, four doors down from me. And I crushed a bunch of pills, I'm drinking like crazy, working on the house, take a hit of a hit of his bowl. I grab a beer, jump in the truck, even though it's four doors down from my house, pop the beer, I said, and I hear, Daddy, why are you opening up beer in your truck? I forgot my daughter was with me. Oh, like totally forgot. That beer went out the window. I didn't touch a thing for four months. The only thing I picked back up was beer, you know, or it was alcohol. Um and it was it was such a life-altering situation. And what's funny with that is right after that happened, my business picked back up. Because I was doing side jobs because my business wasn't doing good because I was crushing pills and everything else. But yeah, that um, but there's a lot of fun stuff that happened during that time too. We mentioned before about some of the houses I purchased, which I know we want to we want to cover. Yeah, definitely. So we can jump into that real quick. And actually, those happened right after the whole the um, you know, quit and all the quitting everything happened. Uh it was funny how like God stacked this stuff up. Um He's like, okay, we're I'm going to put something glaring because you're stupid. I'm gonna put something glaring in your life, stupid. So it's very obvious I want you to stop a certain behavior, and then I'm gonna show you what your reward is for getting better. And I stopped all this stuff. The next thing I know, and I'm doing wholesales at the time, by the way, um, as I'm trying to get because uh as I'm trying to get clean, I'm trying to make money. I got introduced uh to Keg Clovier and started following his system. And in the meantime, I'm getting good with city inspections because in West Michigan, your property is undergoing inspection every every four years, but you also have to pay a rental fee per door every year of $70 per door.

SPEAKER_02 36:25

Okay.

SPEAKER_00 36:26

Um so is this for Section 8 or just no, this is for any rental you owned. This was yeah, you you had to you had to work for about six to seven months between the taxes and the fees with the city before you got to see any profit, and that's if you didn't have a mortgage.

SPEAKER_03 36:46

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 36:47

So um they I got really good with a with a girl in there, the girl at the front desk. In city inspections, the girl at the front desk is your friend. I would get phone calls, hey, are here to buy houses? I'm I'm getting rid of my house. I had this dude owned a trucking company, very soon like multimillionaire, like this dude would walk around with a thousand dollars in his wallet any given time in cash. And um I met him once in at a bar while we were talking about his three unit. Um and I just watched him throw down and back then, and we're and we're talking, you know, early 2000s, um, or not early 2000s, uh early 2017s. Um I I'd watch him throw down just a hundred dollars worth of alcohol and like nothing and just cash every single time. It's like geez. Um but he had called me up, he goes, Hey, I hear or I heard you buy houses. I said, Yeah, and I just bought one, or I just bought a package, uh, which we'll get into, um, which was a fun deal too. But I said, Yeah, uh, he goes, I got three. You want it? I said, sure. I said, How much? He goes, No, just take it. I'm like, okay. He goes, Do you want to see it? I'm thinking, you just told me I can take it. I don't give a shit what it looks like. Um, but I went out and looked at it. Uh his brother lived in one, his daughter lived in another, and then he had a veteran that lived in the background. Sure. We went to the closing table that day. I handed him a dollar to make it official. We got notarized and everything else.

SPEAKER_02 38:24

Ah, and you bond his headache.

SPEAKER_00 38:26

Uh, you know what? His his brother and daughter moved out the next week.

SPEAKER_03 38:30

Okay.

SPEAKER_00 38:31

I rehabbed I because I used to do all the rehab stuff myself. I rehabbed it and got it reoccupied for above market rents, which back then, you know, for a one bedroom, you're still talking about $4.50 a month. But that thing, I I should never have sold that damn thing. When it did sell it, I ended up selling it for uh $55,000. Um but um at the same time, I just wholesale the house in Detroit um because I couldn't get anything in West Michigan to sell for more than five bucks. Um and they're like, Well, okay, well, you'll I'll I'll take the ten thousand dollar offer, but what what about the car in the garage? And I go, the car in the garage, what is it? They said a 1955 Ford Fairlane. I said, I'll give you 11,000, you include the car. They said sold. I had to snail mail everything. They snail mailed back the title and the keys. And I'm like, oh, this is a liability. I wanna I went on uh Craigslist that night and got the house sold for 14. Uh haul had to haul to uh Detroit to get my car, and uh I used that car as a down payment for um uh laying contract on six on six properties, uh two duplexes, four single family houses.

SPEAKER_02 39:42

Really? Okay.

SPEAKER_00 39:44

So those are the those are fun times.

SPEAKER_02 39:46

Um so did you sell the car and convert it to cash, or you just gave the seller the car?

SPEAKER_00 39:51

Just gave him the car.

SPEAKER_02 39:52

I love it.

SPEAKER_00 39:54

Yep. Uh but that's what happened after the drugs. So Yeah. Yeah. But yeah. Um and then uh what else was fun at that period of time? I had a real uh realtor call me up and said, Hey Rob, um I've got a I got this kid in my office uh in in West Michigan. Um you had to pay the realtors um fifteen hundred dollars minimum. You because otherwise the houses were so cheap that there's no reason. And the kid owed taxes on it. He had injured himself, was trying to get social security. And I'm like, sure, I'll check it out. And it's this roach-filled house with some squatters in it. We're walking around, and kid's like, Well, I just really just need the taxes. So if you just want to pay the taxes, and you know, I'm still broke, um, still trying to feed a family and still trying to recover from a drug addiction. I'm like, Well, I'll tell you what, you can just quit claiming to me and I'll assume responsibility for the taxes. Okay, cool. He goes, by the way, my daughter or my uh wife just or my girlfriend just had uh my baby six days ago. Can you bring a baby swing to the closing table? Sure. So I contacted a friend who uh she's like, yeah, I uh um I have a baby swing for 25 bucks. I'm like, sure, I'll buy it for 25 bucks. So I bought this baby swing, gave it to the kid at closing. So I call it the baby swing house. Sold the house four months later, I want to say, for like eight grand. It wasn't worth it, I think.

unknown 41:16

Right.

SPEAKER_00 41:16

This was a house when you opened it up, uh, because I still have the law enforcement in in my brain. I'll open a door from the side and you'd open it, and it was a cascade of cockroaches. You would you would act like clearing a house, like like the Marine you had a lunch with. Yeah. Open the door, toss a grenade. I would do that with bug bombs. Oh my god. Oh, it was so bad. And it was that bad. Like you could not step on that floor without crushing a roach. That's why you couldn't enter the property.

SPEAKER_02 41:49

So so you and you and I have a mutual friend, and I don't want to say your name. I think I already know. She and I did a lot of business together, and I swear to you, windows down on my truck, we pull up in front of a house, and she said, This house has fleas. I was like, How do you know that? She said, I can smell them. So we're in the fucking driveway. You can't smell the fleas, and Rob, I swear to God, I opened that door, took one step in, and I'm stripping my socks and shoes off because the fleas were just and she could smell cockroaches and she could smell fleas from the fucking driveway.

SPEAKER_00 42:29

Well, that's that's why I have bug spray in my truck. Like I will go, like when I go walk a unit, I will not walk a unit without spraying down with bug spray first.

SPEAKER_02 42:37

Yeah, the the roaches are gross, but the fleas are brutal. I mean, if they jump on you like that, it's like stripping off socks and shoes and go home and take a shower.

SPEAKER_00 42:48

I've had I've had my jeans completely black.

unknown 42:51

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 42:52

Yep. Never never enter a property again without bug spray.

SPEAKER_02 42:56

So so here's a story for you. We live in Charleston, you and I both, and I used to do really high-end remodeling. So um I had just gone to work with a new company, so the boss was kind of accompanying me on deals and on meetings with people, because we're sitting in a you know, four or five, six million dollar historic home in Charleston, beautiful oriental rugs, a couple of cocker spaniels or whatever they are. And so we sit down at this gorgeous dining room table, and about two or three minutes into it, I'm scratching one leg with the other leg. And then I see my boss fidgeting. And so we wrapped up the meeting real quick, and we both went out in the driveway and again ripped our socks and shoes off. Look up at this, like I mean, it's that house is probably at least six million dollars today. Yeah, and those those dogs had fleas and they were in the carpet under the dining room table. How in the world the home owners could sit there and endure it. Look, I'm scratching my scratching the I know I'm like checking my leg right now and with the dad. The cascade of cockroaches or the army of fleas. That's what we deal with, right?

SPEAKER_00 44:14

It's price of business. It's funny because I'll I'll tell I'll tell Tennessee I'm like, I'm gonna have to charge you a pet fee for all for all these roaches. Yeah. But no, it's uh it's it's crazy some of the conditions some of these people live in. I I can't I can't fathom it. It's yeah like um you know I've been I've been separated from my wife for nine months now eight months something like that. And I'm not happy with the condition of my house by any search and imagination because I'm working all the time. You know I have uh um my cleaning company every a couple of months I'll be like hey I need help catching this thing up sure you know so I'll come out no they'll hit up the house real quick um you know because I have a 13 year old son that is like when he's there he's like but I just did chores at mom's I don't care you're doing chores of mine's now too right price of living in my house too but uh no it's it some of the some of these things make me feel so damn normal. Yeah yeah but yeah so uh while while in Michigan uh I end up deciding that I am not the best owner operator at one point I get really burned out because I'm yeah I'm actually literally going to houses and collecting rent which we both know is never a smart move. I am working on every single house myself. Yeah you know it's it's I'm literally going I mean I'd I'd get up take my kids to school which is cool because the school is right down the street so I could walk from the school when it was a when it was good weather. Then I go to the gym workout for two hours you know so honestly I didn't get to work till about 10. That explains the biceps so yes you know what I can actually say this live now because uh the CNBX heard it I call it the divorced ad bot she's not happy about that one i i always to the audience I always introduce Rob as my bodyguard whenever we're together it's like I'm Russ this is Rob he's my bodyguard yep well and that and now now with Danielle she's my bodyguard so that's funny I could see her kicking some butt too good lord she is jacked so this is how I like running my office I love physical health because it helps the mental health right she's going for a bikini contest yep and she is busting her ass and I am so proud of her for everything she's doing uh you know I'm supporting her in every possible way I can so I'm I'm really really happy about that progress which is actually driving me to be better. Yeah yeah and the girl up up front Gina she's like wanting to get healthier now because she sees what Danielle and I are doing. Right right right it's it's it's pretty awesome. I mean meal prepping sucks I absolutely hate it as a matter of fact you saw me eating the beef jerky because I missed a meal I am starving I could eat damn near anything right now um uh and but at the same time if I miss if I miss a gym day I'm off mentally like my mental health is not you know because especially property management it is such a taxing job to do um I I make a joke that you know I went from military to property management I didn't have to transition into civilian life because it still sucks is it the same level of suck?

SPEAKER_02 47:38

I'm not getting shot at as much not as much I mean occasionally not as much not as much although that mutual friend if I if we're thinking about the same person almost got me shot yeah that was I almost I almost got you shot as well oh yes you did we'll get to that one let's tell both those stories so we'll get to that one I bought a house in a little town called Sumter South Carolina remember it's right after you and I met we hadn't known each other very long and um it was a foreclosure and in my experience of foreclosures in the past when we take possession of the home there's nobody living there because they've been removed by the court right it's a foreclosure you haven't paid your mortgage you don't live here anymore so my construction crew shows up to clean out the house and there are people living there and so Rob comes to my rescue and I'll let you pick it up from there.

SPEAKER_00 48:45

So I I sent noticed her uh notice of non-renewal and like you got to get out you know because uh the the courts weren't doing anything about it they didn't they didn't give a shit um it was it was the craziest thing in the world and she contacts well I want to meet face to face I'm older I just do business face to face I'm like okay this is a great idea not um that's when a well back then you remember I was a little chunkier um I was probably about 220 230 at the time um a little chunkier so concealed carry was definitely a problem uh with the waistband I get it yeah yeah yeah uh just for reference I'm now 178 as of this morning um a little small for my taste but um that just means I need to eat more protein looking fast the last time I saw you in person I appreciate that I appreciate that um I still need bigger muscles um but uh more testosterone baby um but uh anyway so I go down I go out to Sumter I did not want to drive out there I drive out there and I meet her and as soon as we step into the house she sits down right next to her shotgun and I'm like okay this is gonna get interesting yeah I really got to bring my negotiating skills to my to the table because I really don't want to shoot a 60 something year old lady as soon she grabs and she had one bum arm she couldn't lift the damn thing in the first place. Right you know so it turned into I want to say like a two hour conversation yeah and she gives me a tour of the house and I'm like why are you still living here? Because you're missing a floor over here in your son's room you're missing a ceiling over here. Yep I don't get it but anyway yeah so I what I ended up making two other trips out to that house I want to say one like the last one's to verify that it was vacant but oh my god and she just laid the subtle hints that she had no problem picking up that shotgun and um giving me an extra hole to breathe out of didn't she say at one point I'm gonna shoot you or shoot myself yep yep she did say that and she said she told the cops at one point if there's ever a 911 call out to her house just bring the body bags and the cops verified that by the way yeah yeah and I'm like this lady is fucking nuts one of the crazier people other than that she's pretty cool it would have been really interesting you go drinking homicidal insanity she's pretty cool god she would have been a good drinking buddy she definitely would have got uh that would have been uh the story that would have came out of her mouth would have been interesting but yeah that was that was a funny definitely want to do that one on a on a zoom call with not her not in the same room with me yeah right right but I mean honestly so I mean to backtrack a little bit I mean this this is what got me into property management like really got my company going because you know when I moved down here I had to sell everything because the property management company I had ran me out of business. So I wanted to do things differently and um my buddy got me into property management because I did not want to buy and sell houses I already knew I didn't like that from wholesaling. So I started up the company and then you reached out and asked with me if I just do evictions. So for a while there I had that commercial building old me and just did evictions just to make ends meet. And um it was it really spurred something it was really kind of cool.

SPEAKER_02 52:06

Well and one of the things if I if I can kind of speak for myself is that eviction that we're talking about on Sumter. I mean Sumter's two hours of driving from here hour and a half two hours. Yep and then you're there for two or three hours and you need to eat while you're you know here or there you got to put gas in your truck etc and you send me a bill for like $102 and I called you and said Rob you you can't work for $100 a day because that pretty much shot your whole day. So well I was phone by about three I was like yeah but you're I mean you're mentally your day is shot. I mean that was even though you have the the car ride on the way back to kind of you know get centered again. And so we had a conversation there and we kind of came up with an a an eviction plan. I was like if it's an easy one it should be this kind of a package price. And if it's a really difficult one it should be the package price plus expenses and mostly just your time and your fuel and um I think some of it's a mental space too because if I had had that experience I would get back to the office and I wouldn't get anything done for the next two hours because you have to kind of decompress.

SPEAKER_00 53:25

There are days or there had been days where I'd go home and I'd be like okay that bottle of makers mark is getting opened right now. And you know it was it's just there are there there's ones that are super easy. Like I had I had a beautiful one that a mutual friend of ours Patrick had and I was able to re-home this girl and she rented from me for like three years. Yep.

SPEAKER_02 53:49

It was beautiful I love those ones those ones come together really feel good they're they're we've been kind of focused on the scary and the negative yeah they're definitely feel good moments.

SPEAKER_00 53:57

Well and and the thing is I mean I got into this because I was almost a homeless veteran. Yeah yeah I was fucking up so bad and I'm really good at it the fucking up part that I had the foreclosure notice on my door and my wife and my daughter and I were going to be out on the street. And by the way she was pregnant at the time and that's scary as hell. Yeah I had I had one guy in West Michigan this is where I found out about homeless veterans I get a call and he's in Grand Rapids I had that that property I got for for for a dollar and I was like yeah we have a homeless veteran I'm like I didn't realize there was there were any oh yeah there's 1400 in Muskegon County I'm like why the hell are they homeless? I got angry well he's living under a bridge right now and he's on air he's like on a ventilator or on on an air machine or whatever. I'm like get him into my house well we have to go through the process I just I don't give a shit about your process get his ass into my house today or I'm gonna find you go pick him up. Yeah that's exactly what happened I wouldn't pick his ass up and I'd probably like this ain't happening no uh uh but that's why that's why I'm in this business for things like that um right I can't I can't stand the bureaucracy behind the shit right you can probably see I'm getting angry about it because I can it's all racked again you're bowing you're bowing as we say in the South you're bowing up yeah yep I'm ready to punch somebody in the face because these guys should not be homeless at all like period there's no goddamn excuse for this and that just I mean it boils my blood that's why I do this um and those stories are just I I had a lady in here the other day she came up and I worked with her because she's trying to move out in the apartment complex wouldn't give her keys and all this other stuff she gave me a huge hug and she's like I've never worked with somebody like you and she handed me a $20 bill and I'm like I don't need your money it's it's okay. She goes no please take this and I was I like I was almost in tears yeah yeah and by the way I when I went to church Sunday I I put that one right in the offering basket you know I was like what made her feel good to give it to you yeah and it was just it that's those are the stories why we do this. Yeah um you know I've through my time every time almost every time I screwed up my company was because when I wasn't true to myself yeah and which I just went through I I got sidetracked I got bloated I got stupid and my company started suffering and I know you've you've heard some of the stories from the other side of it uh because we talked about it um but it's because I lost the sight I lost the reason I lost the why the why and let's talk about the why yeah let's dig into the why absolutely so before it's always all of us with kids are gonna say I do it because of my kids that's the most bullshit reason to give I love my kids and yes I do it for them and I know you do it for yours but that's the most bullshit reason to give that's not that's not your only why the why that why goes deeper. You know I've already mentioned the homeless vets and everything else and you know Justin Colby I'm I I I became friends with Justin through uh the boardroom mastermind and he had something that really really rocked me on his Instagram and for the longest time what I would enjoy doing was I would enjoy calling my dad and because he didn't think I could do this. And I would love to tell him how good my company's doing even when my company's just stagnant. Hey my by the way my company did this this month and it became like this the most pettiest bullshit you can imagine. And Justin literally said something to the effect of you know I used to do this to prove myself to everybody else but I've never proven it to myself I never felt myself worthy because I mean I know I haven't you know because of that argument with my mom Rob right before she died I always thought I was the biggest piece of shit in the world uh hated myself for the longest time um and finally I heard that and it just clicked and this was only about a month ago and I'm like why am I not proving to myself that I'm worth what I'm doing.

SPEAKER_02 58:10

I love that Rob I nobody does Brian tag that's a gold nugget I mean that's the gold of golden nuggets right there is to do it for you.

SPEAKER_00 58:21

Yeah and I mean you're worth it. You gotta you don't nobody proves it to themselves. I am the biggest giver I I will give the shirt off my own back and when I don't have anything left to give I'm going to find a way to give more um I had a friend whose car got reboat and I'm broke but I found a way to find money for that person to get their vehicle back. I mean I had another friend uh that went to visit her family and she couldn't make it back and she needed to get back to work. So I sent her gas money.

SPEAKER_02 58:56

I'm like here you go I don't expect it back but at the same time I'm always giving I never give to myself right you know so there's a there's an old if you think about it when you fly on an airliner they do the safety you know the seatbelt and the if the cabin loses pressure and the mask drops what's the face first thing you do? You're supposed to put it on yourself first then help your person next to you're gonna own mask on first then you help others because if you don't and you're passed out you can't help anybody. So put your own mask on first and take care of you and then you can take care of other people. So that I think that's a really a key point.

SPEAKER_00 59:40

Yeah and my uh my pastor up north Michigan uh the one I used to play guitar for um he and I were talking uh because it was back back when I was losing companies and trying to get out of the drug addiction and everything else right and losing the house or almost losing the house um we never had enough food for all of us to eat. Um I'd cook up dinner for Jackie and Shannon my daughter and I'd let them eat and I'd go over to my buddy's house to have dinner because there was enough food for me. And my pastor's like yeah no he goes I don't care how small of a plate you've got to get yourself you get yourself that plate and you eat first. Yeah let them have the majority of it but you eat first.

SPEAKER_03 1:00:22

Right.

SPEAKER_00 1:00:24

And you know that lesson kind of kind of came back to me when I heard Justin talk about it. So now you know that plays in more to the change of the why because now I'm actually taking time to relearn my guitar or not relearn it but get back to where I was and starting to play out more things I enjoy doing. Yeah God I I'm going fishing with my daughter my daughter just went off to college now she's only at Charleston Southern so she's not far away thank God it's enough of a heartbreak she's not living with me anymore. But she's like Dad let's not go to church on Sunday we're going fishing. Oh love it I'm like sign me up I'm going so you know if you know those those those times are so precious. So let me share with you another thing that just happened not very long ago Mike I I had a set of clients that were um very taxing very very very taxing uh and I'm actually learning to let clients that are very taxing go. Yeah um now there's a balance to it because you don't want to crash a company. But I almost passed out from my blood pressure getting so high. Now I went in for an MRI on my shoulder I've always had shoulder problems. So uh thank God that they're giving me a steroid shot so I can actually get back up to you know 315 pound bench press on a regular um until I have to have uh shoulder surgery because I'm an idiot. But anyway um I I'm at the VA and the nurse comes up to me like the my doctor my main doctor's nurse is down in the area she stops and talks to me and she stops for a second she grabs my wrist takes my blood pressure right then and there she looks at me just like my mom would she goes get in my office now like oh shit they wouldn't let me leave uh they had to give me a shot and they wouldn't let me leave she goes I don't know how you didn't have a stroke oh my god your blood pressure was so high that you were over the the the line for a stroke wow she goes whatever you're doing you need to stop and now I'm not taking my blood pressure meds like I should be everything else and drinking black rifle frickin' yeah yeah I I see the energy drinks um or first form first form got a little bit first form I buy so much first form they send me free shirts that's actually how I pay Danielle by the way I just buy first form but anyway but no that it was a huge hell I'm 46. You know that shit shouldn't be happening and it was a bad enough scare that I'm like what if I don't get to walk my daughter down the aisle you know my son uh you know I he's not even in high school yet I'm about to miss out on the best years if I don't start taking care of myself so you know it's it's kind of retooling life you know the money part's important because the money is the tool to get you through life.

SPEAKER_03 1:03:21

Right.

SPEAKER_00 1:03:22

It's not the end all be all you know when my doctor asked me what I wanted out of my life I said I want to live till I'm 95 so I get to see my great grandkids and play with them God willing and then die peacefully in my sleep. I don't want to quite make a hundred because that's when shit really starts to hurt. I mean I've already got arthritis in the back from from from the military um you know and stuff like that and it's like you know and it's funny because I was actually looking at the company I'm like in property management you don't make a whole lot of like there's a whole lot of overhead without a whole lot of income right and you hit certain levels so when I was at 120 doors let's say um I was doing pretty damn good I cash like cash well then what's the next thing you what's what's the next thing you get that takes all your money the platform employees yeah so um may you know all of a sudden next thing you know you know we're at 200 doors then 300 doors and it's like okay now I've got this big office we're actually gonna downscale the office next month because we don't need this big office we're gonna work virtually we're gonna have one small office cut my rent by three quarters the phone bill goes down all these bills go down there there's no point to it um but I mean you got to look at it like okay what's what's the longevity plan and it's not just for the company because if you're not around what's the point right what are you doing?

SPEAKER_02 1:04:51

Yeah that's why you have to take care of yourself first. Yeah and in reference to the in reference to the growth we went to a Grant Cardone um Brandon Dawson training like high level we're talking about those plateaus and what you're what you're describing whether it's hundreds of thousands or millions of tens of millions is at each plateau your profit drops for a while. Yeah and then you have to you have to get back up to level because when you go to that next level your profit goes down and then you have to get it up and then you ratchet up and ratchet up. But a lot of times we don't expect that. I mean I didn't expect it in my business like I'm gonna hire some people and I'm gonna make even more and then one day it's like I'm actually making less yeah but but there that's the next plateau.

SPEAKER_00 1:05:46

I literally cut my pay to have another employee and yeah no it's like it's it's the up there's another component to that though because we get complacent. Things are good. You saw how fast my my company grew Yeah. You get you get comfortable. You think you're really good. I know people some people love Donald Trump, some people hate him. I love a lot of the stuff he writes in his books. Plus, I love his humor. I think the dude is like the ultimate troll.

SPEAKER_02 1:06:11

No politics or religion.

SPEAKER_00 1:06:13

No, no. But in one of his books, he talks about thinking he had the mightest touch.

SPEAKER_03 1:06:19

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 1:06:20

And then he said that's exactly how he lost almost everything. Yeah. Back in the 90s. He thought he had the mightest touch. He lost touch with reality. So you stop losing that drive and that hustle. And it's in shit just spirals spirals. It does. And we don't get smarter. We just get harder with age. And we do we do some of the dumbest shit that we knew we weren't supposed to be doing, or we don't do what we know we were supposed to be doing. And we end up in the same look. Why did why? Why did I do this all over again? Because I saw this coming six months ago. Why did I still do the same actions?

SPEAKER_02 1:06:54

I love I loved how vulnerable you are, and that's why I wanted to have you on here. And you and I have had some real heart-to-heart conversations. And I think we have kind of similar emotional calluses talking about getting not really smarter with age, you just get harder, and then you get softer in different ways. I mean I'm much softer today with caring for people and loving people and taking care of people than I was at 20, 30, or 40 years old. But in other ways, I'm I'm much harder. Yeah. As far as the resilience goes. So I I love the way you describe that. Um because I'm am I hearing that right? Is that kind of how you would describe it?

SPEAKER_00 1:07:38

That's exactly it. But I mean, it's it's also learning your bullshit meter, like what you're willing to put up with. And yeah. Like I mentioned a couple clients earlier, and like I got off a phone call with them, and I'm like ready to fight them. Like I am ready to throw down. And it's like I shouldn't be this way. Which is once again, you know, starting to work with the people I want to work with, and you know, getting back to getting back to that harmony, I guess.

SPEAKER_02 1:08:05

Work with people you want to work with. That is such a critical statement. That's a gold nugget for Ryan to tag right there. Working with people we want to work with and enjoy work with working with. Yeah, doesn't mean it's gonna be easy all the time, but it shouldn't be like, what is his name? Sypheus, a guy who pushes the rock up the hill. Yep.

SPEAKER_00 1:08:25

Yep. You shouldn't feel like that all the time. No, it shouldn't. It really shouldn't. And it's for a while there, I was I was adding doors just to add doors. Like, yeah, I have this set number of doors in my head, and it's like, that's not the way you do this. I could have 300 doors and be perfectly happy, and I could have 900 doors and be absolutely frickin' miserable. But I mean, at the same time, and you know, kind of going off of that, as well as what we mentioned earlier, I'm also trying to figure out how to get myself out of this company. Like just not be so, you know, I want to be more present with my kids because when, you know, one and I know you went through this. Once your kid moves out, you realize how much time you didn't spend with them. Like really fast. And it's heartbreaking. It really is. Because I mean, like I like I said, my daughter saved my life when I was suicidal. That picture of her face in my head, right before I went to get that pistol, saved my life. And I'm like, did I not, I didn't spend enough time with her, you know, when she moved out. And she has different memories of that.

SPEAKER_03 1:09:28

Right.

SPEAKER_00 1:09:28

Of course. You know, dad's dads are dads are that one that's we have to be out there, we have to be in the thick of it, we have to be supporting the family because I'm a provider.

SPEAKER_04 1:09:37

Right.

SPEAKER_00 1:09:37

That's that's my per that's who I am. That's what I do. I will provide. But at the same time, her mom spent more time with her than I did. What the hell? You know, so but you know, along the way, I mean, the life I'm building has provided me with the opportunity to um, like my son's off school today. I went home and had lunch with him. I'm like, I'm my own boss. So yeah, exactly. And it's funny because uh side note how proud I am of him. He started up his YouTube channel, is now earned uh 60 bucks through Timu for his affiliate, which his mom's got a blog with a couple of different affiliates, and she made like 10 bucks a fun.

SPEAKER_02 1:10:13

That's amazing.

SPEAKER_00 1:10:14

Yes, I love it, and uh yeah, so he's he's like now he's like fired up. Is he excited? He is fired up, like he just bought a whole bunch of shit because him and his friends are film doing a short film, yeah, and it's uh some horror thing. So he bought like this fake arm and fake blood, so he's gonna rip off one of his friends' arms or some crap like that. Yeah, he's gonna film it, and he's like, Dad, I can do this and send it to Amazon and send it to this and send it to that, and I can actually get paid every time somebody watches that.

SPEAKER_02 1:10:42

That's crazy. I love it. So um, do you want to plug his channel?

SPEAKER_00 1:10:48

You can yeah, um Matthew it's Matthew the gamer that games. Matthew the gamer that Matthew, Matthew, M-A-T-H-Walky. Yeah, his name is Matthew, but he went by Matthew the gamer that games. Yep.

SPEAKER_02 1:11:03

Because there's a million people named Matthew.

SPEAKER_00 1:11:05

Yeah, exactly. Exactly. Um he's a but he's a kid.

SPEAKER_02 1:11:12

Well, y'all, if you're listening or watching, check out his channel. I have a a a friend who he describes his son like I I don't understand him at all. He's doesn't have any friends, he's socially awkward, blah, blah, blah, and he's making thirteen thousand dollars a month online. Yep. And he said, I guess I'll just leave him alone and let him do his thing, because his you know, his he goes to school every day. He said then he comes home at night and he he said, I looked at his um bank account and he made like seven thousand, ten thousand, thirteen thousand. Um, and he's uh it sounds like something similar to what Matthew's doing.

SPEAKER_00 1:11:57

Yeah. Um and Matt Matthew's always wanted to do stuff like he we found videos on on his mom's old iPad where he was actually practicing this at like six. Love it. It's crazy. He's he's all into it.

SPEAKER_02 1:12:12

That sixty dollars could turn into a lot more very quickly.

SPEAKER_00 1:12:15

Yeah, this is Timu. So if Timu's sending you 60 bucks, that's a lot of sales for Timu.

SPEAKER_02 1:12:21

Yeah, that's true. That's true.

SPEAKER_00 1:12:25

Yep, yeah. Because I know I know the trouble I get into for on Timu for like 80 bucks, and it's like Christmas every other week because it takes them five years to send you everything. Yeah. So, but not I mean, but it it's it's really cool that because I in the military you are stuck sometimes from nine to five, sometimes I've been gone a full month, you know. This, I mean, my daughter, my daughter was actually just with me right right before we started. And she comes in and um, she wanted some of the whiteboards since we're downsizing, so I gave her some of the whiteboards. We went down and did a showing. We're just hanging out, and it it's so cool. She's like, hey dad, I'm in town, let's go for lunch. So we'll go out to lunch. Like, I'm dieting, so let's be careful. But um, daddy can't get fat again. Um, but she's I I mean it's it's super cool to be able to be able to be able to take that time, you know. Um we all have the schedules, but we can all figure it out. Um, we're not stuck at nine to five. So I love that.

SPEAKER_02 1:13:32

Well, and that that's that's kind of the theme we talk about is anybody could do the things that you do if they're willing to do the things you do.

SPEAKER_00 1:13:42

Yeah. It's it's literally just hustle and find somebody smarter than you to continue implementing that so you don't have to hustle as hard. Because I am not smart. I will never say I'm smart. I just figured out a system. I'm still figuring it out.

unknown 1:13:58

Right.

SPEAKER_00 1:13:58

But I have somebody, I have Danielle. Danielle can outshow me on any frickin' house I've got. And now she's actually finding clients. And she's doing a way better job than I am.

SPEAKER_02 1:14:08

Yeah, we had that we had that conversation a couple of weeks ago, and I love hearing that. Yeah. That you've identified, and Danielle's with been with you for a while now. Uh 18 months, 19 months. You've identified a skill set where you need to pull back and let her run with that. And she's very, she's very capable.

SPEAKER_00 1:14:28

Oh, extremely very smart, very uh, and no nonsense. Like, she'll put up with bullshit up to a certain point, but when she shuts that filter off, you better step back. Uh, like I I take I take risks. That's not a risk I'm gonna take. So um I like to keep my balls where they're at. Um but um she she literally um I just I remember she used to work for the Call Space Medic and they restructured or something like that. She called me up, hey Rob, I need a job. Yeah, sure. I just fired my my leasing manager. I was like, yeah, come on in. I didn't expect it to stick, and I didn't expect it to go the way it went. And I because I never hire friends, friends and family, uh-uh, never.

SPEAKER_03 1:15:11

Right.

SPEAKER_00 1:15:11

This is one exception that actually worked out.

SPEAKER_02 1:15:14

Yeah, that's awesome. So so before we wrap it up, I want to talk about steel drums.

SPEAKER_01 1:15:21

Yes.

SPEAKER_02 1:15:22

Because that's so cool that your daughter, of all the musical instruments to gravitate towards, I've never known, and I mean, I just listed a house for two friends from college, and one is a flautist, that means she plays the flute, and the other one is the best bass player I've ever met in my life. Yep. And so I listed a house with them the other day. So I know a lot of musicians, just from being a very poor musician myself and dabbling in it, but I don't know anybody who plays the steel drums except your daughter.

SPEAKER_00 1:15:54

It was it was a course at River Oaks Middle School, and she's like, Yeah, I'll try it. During COVID, you know, I've got what, 14 guitars? I got one behind me right now. The other one just in case the other one went to uh open mic with me uh because uh my Ibanez, the uh the pickup's out, so I had to grab that one. But yeah, I got like 14 guitars, and during COVID, before they locked down the apartment complex uh that I was working at at the time before I started up Epic, my guitar planking when I get home. I'm like, what in the hell is going on? She's teaching herself how to play my damn guitar. Yeah. Yep. That's I've been playing since I was 15. You know, the way I grew up, never watched TV, nothing like that. So I started, you know, my my mom bought me my guitar, got me 10 lessons, whatever. My girlfriend's mom loved Elvis Presley, so I would learn old Elvis Presley tunes to impress her to keep me in good graces. The reason you learn guitars for the women, believe me. Um especially with a face like mine. Um, but anyway, uh um, yeah, she taught herself how to play. She actually tested out at college of guitar one. She didn't even have to take it. Um, but yeah, she started playing steel pan. Uh, she took off on steel pan her senior year in high school. She gets invited to College of Charleston to play for the College of Charleston. And I'm like, and she's helping some of the students at College of Charleston learn how to play steel drums.

SPEAKER_02 1:17:21

Like, this is freaking awesome. I've seen I haven't seen her live, but I've seen videos and my jaws dropping. Like, yeah, it's amazing. It's amazing how well she plays.

SPEAKER_00 1:17:31

It's an instrument I could not figure out how to play. And I I'm a drummer, I'm a guitar player. I used to be able to play piano. Uh, I actually just picked up a new keyboard because she can play piano. I picked up a good one to bribe her to come to my house more often. Between that and smoke and brisket, that's two ways to get her home. Um, but no, I I can't believe how talented she is. It's just, and you know, all dads are gonna say that. All dads are gonna say that. I can truly, honestly say that, right, and not bullshit anybody. Like anybody walks up to her and hears her playing, will uh will agree with me. I mean, it's just it's amazing. She's played next to uh international artists on stage. Very nice. Who have all complimented her skills. Yes. She sold right next to the last one. I can't remember what the lady's name is, straight out of uh Trinidad. It was it's just oh my gosh, it's so amazing. I'm just yeah. And I'll I'll I'll she'll be home. She'll bring her steel steel pan home. I'll grab my acoustic and we'll start playing Margaritaville.

SPEAKER_04 1:18:30

Perfect.

unknown 1:18:31

Love it.

SPEAKER_02 1:18:31

Little Bob Marley, little Jimmy Buffett, we'll bring it down. So my uh I had a similar experience where my Bianca is my youngest daughter, and she took ukulele lessons and when she was really little and got pretty good at it, and her music teacher was like, she has a beautiful voice and she can sing and play at the same time, which is a pretty good skill for like a seven-year-old kid. I mean, that's a and so I came home one day and she's sitting on my sofa and she's just playing a whole song on one of my guitars. I said, Where'd you learn to do that? She was like, YouTube. You just watch YouTube, and they and she she has gotten to be very good. And then Skylar, my daughter who's in college, sent me a text and said, When you come to visit, could you bring me a good guitar? This one I have is garbage. And so Bianca has my Paul Reed Smith guitar and Skylar has my Dodario custom guitar. And I'm left with old beat up um equif uh, what is it called? An epiphone.

SPEAKER_00 1:19:37

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 1:19:37

Which I love. It's actually my favorite guitar because it's like 60 years old.

SPEAKER_00 1:19:43

Nice. Uh the one when they're really good.

SPEAKER_02 1:19:46

Well, yeah, that that didario is pretty sweet to play.

SPEAKER_00 1:19:52

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 1:19:53

I didn't love the Prol Reed Smith.

SPEAKER_00 1:19:55

I'm not yeah, I'm not big in a inner.

SPEAKER_02 1:19:57

Yeah, that one didn't thrill me. So it's a really nice guitar, but my my daughter has it.

SPEAKER_00 1:20:04

We've we found uh we found a 1970 Harmony for my daughter, back when they made good harmonies. And it is a stellar guitar. Very nice. I mean, as far as ep I mean, I I picked up uh an Epiphone Les Paul um a couple months ago. Yeah. And I'd prefer that over a Gibson right now because Gibson's are just clunky, they're heavy. Um they play they play great, but so does the Epiphone.

SPEAKER_02 1:20:27

So I have a Gibson Les Paul studio and it is like 40 pounds.

SPEAKER_00 1:20:34

Yeah, it's heavy.

SPEAKER_02 1:20:36

It's crazy how heavy that I I'm exaggerating. I don't know how much it weighs, but it's it weighs it's definitely heavier.

SPEAKER_00 1:20:44

Yep.

SPEAKER_02 1:20:45

That's a good tone though. It's a nice, yeah, nice thick tone. So we'll get together and play some music again soon.

SPEAKER_00 1:20:53

We can do that soon.

SPEAKER_02 1:20:54

Yeah, I bought a uh you talked about the pickup going out on your ibonos, and I could either take my music man bass to get fixed, or I just bought a stingray and put it right next to it in the rack because the same same kind of thing happened.

SPEAKER_00 1:21:11

So I got got that uh what the hell is it called? The uh same one Paul McCartney played on in the Beatles.

SPEAKER_02 1:21:17

Oh, Rickenbacher. No, no, the own the The base.

SPEAKER_00 1:21:21

Yeah, uh yeah, the the violin bass.

SPEAKER_02 1:21:23

Yeah, the violin bass.

SPEAKER_00 1:21:24

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 1:21:25

Um oh you got that on a house sale. See, I'm so fucking jealous of that. I've gotten guitars from houses and they're that one came out of a house.

SPEAKER_00 1:21:35

Yeah, I know that came out of a house. Five of my guitars came out of houses. Out of evictions.

SPEAKER_02 1:21:40

Five cool guitars you got from houses.

SPEAKER_00 1:21:42

Yep.

SPEAKER_02 1:21:43

All the ones I have ended up in the with like look at them go, let's just put this in the dump.

SPEAKER_00 1:21:48

Yeah. Oh, and I ended up with uh a kid's flying V.

SPEAKER_02 1:21:52

Nice.

SPEAKER_00 1:21:53

So uh fun story. I was uh they call me hairband minus the hair up in Michigan when I played for that church. Yeah, and my plaster was Big In the Guns N' Roses, Love Creed. We'd uh we were playing uh one of the Creed songs, I can't remember which one.

SPEAKER_02 1:22:05

Okay, they all sound the same.

SPEAKER_00 1:22:07

Pretty much, yeah. Uh, and they're all tuned weird. But I was learning it, and I walked away for a little bit, and they're here playing because my son was playing like love playing, and he's just standing with that flying V, not actually playing, like he was just pretending he was and dancing back and forth. I'm like, I gotta film this. I gotta find that video. It was funnier in hell.

SPEAKER_02 1:22:28

Perfect. Well, thank you so much for joining us, Rob. Yeah, and thank you to the audience. I hope you enjoyed this episode. We didn't even get to the methamphetamine stories. We'll do that on we'll do another one because we have some very recent methy, methy victims, because there were methy methamphetamines all over the place.

SPEAKER_00 1:22:51

We can't call them drug addicts anymore. We call we gotta call them methicon Americans. Gotta call them what? Methican Americans.

SPEAKER_02 1:22:59

Brian, you can edit that out if you want, or we can leave it in. Uh all right. So next time we'll talk about the methamphetamines at home invasions. But we had some fun. So thanks for being here. Thanks to everybody who's listening or watching. Find us on YouTube, Instagram, Twitter, and our website. Ryan will post those for me because I'm not smart enough to do it myself. And we will see you next time, or hear you next time, or talk to you on the podcast. Hey, and don't forget to comment. Comment on what you heard today and tell us we're full of it, or that you enjoyed it, or there's something you'd like to hear more about. So thank you for listening to the Blue Cup Podcast. Thank you for having me.