High School buds to Real Estate Moguls

In this episode of the Blue Cup podcast, hosts Russ Scheider, Hayden Albert, and Hunter Aldridge share their personal journeys from high school friends to successful professionals in the real estate and hospitality industries. They discuss the importance of consistency, adaptability, and building relationships in achieving success. The conversation also touches on mental health awareness, the power of optimism, and the lessons learned from their experiences in the hotel industry. As they reconnect after years apart, they reflect on how their paths have shaped their perspectives and careers. In this conversation, Hayden Albert and Russ Scheider discuss the importance of building human connections in real estate, overcoming personal and professional adversities, and the balance of ambition and empathy in sales. They share personal stories of growth, the challenges faced in their careers, and the strategies that have led to their success in the real estate business. The dialogue emphasizes the significance of mindset, relationships, and adaptability in navigating the complexities of entrepreneurship.

Takeaways

Consistency is key in any business venture.
Pivoting is essential in adapting to changing circumstances.
Building relationships is crucial for success.
Mental health awareness is important for personal growth.
Optimism can be learned and cultivated over time.
Facing fears head-on can reduce anxiety and procrastination.
Success often comes from stepping out of your comfort zone.
Networking can lead to unexpected opportunities.
Life experiences shape our perspectives and decisions.
Hard work and dedication are necessary for achieving goals. Building connections is crucial in real estate.
Overcoming adversity can lead to personal growth.
Mindset plays a significant role in success.
Ambition must be balanced with contentment.
Empathy is essential in sales and business.
Real-life experiences shape our professional paths.
Adaptability is key in changing business landscapes.
Team dynamics can greatly influence success.
Effective communication is vital in negotiations.
Learning from failures is part of the journey.

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Transcript

SPEAKER_07 0:00

The butt ass naked thing was crazy. I mean, you get cars stolen out of your parking lot and like people breaking and entering, you know. No, those are the tough parts about the business. Like, you don't have any control over that. But you know, and it's a business. Mental health's a big thing, you know, anxiety, depression, it's hard, but like you have to be that person that makes that change or wants that change in your life. You can't control circumstances, you can control your reaction to circumstances. Quote that people, we take life too serious sometimes, and all you can do at the end of the day is, you know, you go through it. I tell you that all the time because like Hayden's like, he gave me this opportunity.

SPEAKER_05 0:33

I've done the work, but like the rooms he's pushed me to be in, like Force Hunter takes some risk in his career now, but it's just we have to, we have to do it. And we took what we learned with I was in charge of a bunch of sailors and a nuclear reactor, and he was in charge of hotels. And we took those learnings and just doubled down, you know, and poured into it. And it's turned out phenomenal. I think one of the best parts about our story is I hired you the week that wholesaling became illegal.

SPEAKER_02 1:02

I think that's one of the craziest parts of the cup.

SPEAKER_03 1:28

Like, subscribe, and click the bell. You know what to do. Very excited for these guests today. These guys are so impressive, and some of the things that they're doing in real estate just amaze me. And it's consistency, it's doing the right thing at the right time and pivoting. We've had to pivot a lot, boys, right? The last couple of years since I've known you. There's been a lot of, well, let's go this way and that way until we find the way. So we're not going to talk a whole lot about real estate and strategy today, but I'm sure it'll leak into the conversation, and there's always something to learn from each other. But we really just want to get to know you because that's the most important thing. So start with Hunter, and maybe you can fill us in. I I think you guys went to high school together when you had the same graduating class, or no?

SPEAKER_07 2:18

Yeah, Hunter. Hunter tells this story pretty good. For sure. Yeah, my last name being Aldridge, you know, I was always that first chair in every class. And it was actually, we met starting freshman year of high school. I walked in and I thought it was like geography or something. I don't know, that's history or something, one of those. And uh, Mr. Burns was his name. Yeah, mean dude, mean dude. But anyways, I was the second seat, and I was like, what's going on with this, man? I'm always first seat. What's what's going on here? And dude walks in, and you know, that's kind of where the story was started. Um sits down. I'm like, hey man, what's your name? Where do you come from? He's like, Yeah, I just moved down from Pennsylvania. My name's Hayden, and uh, we actually got the same initials exactly too, H J A.

SPEAKER_03 2:56

But it was the ALP and the ranked you by one letter in the alphabet.

SPEAKER_07 3:00

That was it, man. That was it. Yeah, that was kind of and then it it carried on all through high school. We were in most of the same classes together. We uh we probably we were kind of smart, so we were in some pretty good classes together, and uh he was always right in front of me. So yeah, and I didn't shut up during class, probably bugged the bejesus out of him every day.

SPEAKER_03 3:19

I love it. Um, so we're looking for funny high school stories or adventures or troublemaking, whatever, whatever was happening.

SPEAKER_07 3:27

Probably mainly me not shutting up during class, man. A talker that that carried on in life for sure. That was the main reasons why I needed to get into a sales-focused position. I'm like, I can talk to a fence post, and most of the time it was me talking to uh the back of Hayden's head and uh him not being able to listen or something. We also played football together throughout high school, and then Hayden was a big wrestler. Um yeah, man, high school. It's like a blur. I like I joke around. I always say stuff to him from that being our hometown. He's like, I don't remember that. I don't remember. I don't remember. I'm like, how do you not remember that, dude? Come on, man. That's me.

SPEAKER_03 3:58

So what what's the hometown? Uh Hickory, North Carolina. Yeah, about an hour north of Charlotte.

SPEAKER_05 4:04

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 4:04

Furniture capital of the world. Furniture capital, that's right. My dad had a very brief um job in High Point. Yeah. In a furniture manufacturing uh he was a plant manager for a furniture factory in High Point for a very short time. And it was such a short time that my mother and I never even joined him living there because he burned out so fast before he could even get that. But he did he did a lot of that in the future. So Hickory, North Carolina, you're playing football together. What position did you play? I was center. Center, yeah. You you are a a full-size human. So I understand that. My my college roommate was a center on the football team, and he was a full-size human. And and Hayden, you played quarterback?

SPEAKER_05 4:51

No, no. I uh I didn't have very much hand-eye coordination. So I was that's why I was a I was a good wrestler. And so I I coordinated. And so I was a state champ wrestler, but I football was uh not my thing. I played tight end and defensive end, and um so I did do some training when we went and hit you know, hit the sled and stuff together.

SPEAKER_07 5:11

And they they locked us fat boys in a uh we actually had a a big lineman cage separate from the practice field. So that was it looked like a playground, but it was for the fat boys. And then unfortunately, since tight end, he had to go walking, etc.

SPEAKER_01 5:26

Yeah.

SPEAKER_07 5:26

He'd have to come over there with the fat boys sometimes and run through those drills and and stuff like that. But yeah, I was a late bloomer too, man. I I was shit. When I got my driver's license at 16, I looked like I was 10 years old. So I think I was like 5'9, 5'10. I looked like a tank, I had no neck. I was just this like I think I was like I was a big boy in middle school too, like 220. I love it. Yeah, that. And then my junior and a senior year, I think I I took I went, you know, hit a gross spur, got up to 6'2, and you know, a little bit later in life. Uh my brother's the same way. He was she's getting recruited, he was 6'3, and then his freshman year of college, he's 6'7 now. So like we're all late bloomers. Yeah, I had my driver's license, I'll pull up to like drive-throughs, and I'm like, hey uh, I need to get an order because I was always getting called yes, ma'am. I'm like, dang, this is killer.

SPEAKER_03 6:15

Um I love it. I love it. And Hunter, um, you and I have talked about before you had kind of an interesting college experience.

SPEAKER_07 6:23

Interesting high school. I was always wanting to be an engineer. I loved math and science. And uh I'm a huge Wolfpack fan. Go pack, baby. I grew up going to the games, you know, being a little kid, especially I wasn't as good as uh I didn't work the best. Uh I let talent, you know, hard work while I do talent all day. I kind of learned that in high school. Didn't I think being a label number too, lifting weights and stuff like that, muscle mass was difficult. But long story short, I was going into engineering is what I wanted to do. So I my dream was to go to NC State. You know, being a little kid, of course, the dream was to play football at NC State. I quickly found out that wasn't going to happen. But engineering was what I wanted to do. First time I went to an airport, I was fascinated with airplanes. I wanted to do aeronautical engineering. My dad had gone to school for engineering, had me, so he didn't finish. But he's like, you should do something a little more broad, like try mechanical engineering where you have, you know, more job opportunities. So that's what I did. I applied to like my whole ticket was NC State. Like I didn't want care for anything else, like NC State. So that's the number one engineering school in North Carolina. I applied to state, also applied to the like undeclared college because you had to apply to two different things. My parents both went to UNC Charlotte. That was an hour from the house. I had never been to Charlotte, did not care to go to Charlotte, but I just put in one other application. Just, you know, I didn't need backups, but that was my backup, so to speak. And uh yeah, I ended up getting waitlisted at state, was heartbroken. I was like, dude, this is this is bullshit, man. I I was pissed, you know, that was my dream. And like I grew up going to the state games. My aunt and uncle are heavily involved in in athletics and donors there. And we got a lot of good friends who were as well.

SPEAKER_03 8:03

Makes sense from Hickory to Raleigh. So my my father has an engineering degree from NC State. Okay. Yep. And he went straight to Vietnam as a helicopter pilot out of ROTC at NC State. And my mother went to E uh ECTC, which you don't know what that is, because it's now East Carolina University. Okay. It used to be East Carolina Teachers College. Okay. And now it's called East Carolina. So my my dad's from the Low Country, and my mother's from Rocky Mount, North Carolina, if you know where that is.

SPEAKER_07 8:36

I think we talked about that because that's where my dad went to law school, it was in Rocky Mount. Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 8:40

Yeah. Yeah. I mean, small, small. I mean, I can't think of a smaller town. Good barbecue, baby. Good barbecue. Bob Melton's was my favorite. Well, the real barbecue that Venegar Base. That's great. So you're in college. The football dreams are not happening. No. So what was the next? There was a new dream though. I know about it a little bit.

SPEAKER_07 8:59

Yeah, well, I got weightlisted at state, and then I got directly into UNC Charlotte for mechanical engineering. So I was, you know, I ended up later on. I got double weight listed at state. And then I kind of got excited. You know, you're you're 18 years old. You've been brainwashed to college is the way to go for your whole life. So I'm like, you know, I was actually funny enough, I've never been to Charlotte's campus. And when I got accepted, I got a little excited because I'm like, okay, well, I got accepted somewhere. And I pulled up online. They had a virtual tour. And I remember looking at it, I'm like, this is a pretty school. This is nice, you know, kind of deal. And ultimately getting straight into mechanical engineering, I was like, heck yeah. Well, I got hurt in football my sophomore year. I had to have a screw put in my hip at, I think I was 15. It was that summer. Um, so I missed my sophomore year. Football. I always loved to sing, man. I wasn't shut up as a kid, you know, MP3 player, backstreet boys, whatever it is. You know, my dad was always like, Will you shut the hell up? Because I just would, you know, the worst times in the car, I just I don't stop talking. He knows this.

SPEAKER_05 10:01

I have to walk away frequently. I'm late, I'm late, I'm leaving, I'm walking away. Hunter, I'm walking, I'm okay, bye. And he's still talking.

SPEAKER_07 10:07

Like yelling down the hallway. I love singing. I I did it. It was kind of a joke. Like it really was. Me and my it was our fullback, Brandon Owensby, actually. We were good buddies since we were little kids. And you know, deep down, I think I wanted to. I had never done a choir before, and I was like, yeah, I'm thinking about we should take a choir, bro. And here I am, I'm going into sophomore year. I'm I'm on crutches forever. And I signed up, Brandon bailed on me. He totally dropped the class and got in there, and I did not really fit in, so to speak. I was very uncomfortable. There was tons of kids, man. This this dude had been building apparently like a lot of people. I guess he was going down to the middle school, long story short. There was like a hundred plus kids in this choir one class, and a little bit, you know, off from the jock world of like how I grew up and people I was around, and I felt super uncomfortable. And I'm on crutches and yeah, in a vulnerable position, anyways. And I ended up one chick was a cheerleader, and it took that one conversation to where I met her and I was like, Yeah, I'll stay in here, I'll stick it out. And uh, yeah, it was it was weird at first. Like, obviously, I could sing, but I had never been, you know, my grandfather was a pastor. We weren't in church like as much as we should have been. I played travel baseball growing up, so a lot of weekends were were baseball, so we weren't heavily in that. I never sang in a church choir, so I didn't have very good skills at like sight reading and things like that. So I was probably timid in there. You know, you got to get comfortable until you really show how you can sing. And uh, it was kind of a joke to me until I found out there were two choirs for the high school that you had to audition for. They were going to New York City, and I had never traveled before, and I was like, oh dude, I'm gonna do that just to go to New York City. And I remember the guy, I was not a good, I talked a lot. So I I was always kind of that class clown figure, so to speak. But long story short, man, I ended up singing and and doing it, and I did enjoy singing, and I was very talented. I don't know what it is. Something I decided, I looked into it. I'm like, maybe I should minor in music. Uh the teacher at the high school actually had a conference with my parents and was like, listen, he's the most talented like male singer I've probably come across, and like he really would be wasting his you know, given talents if he doesn't do something with it. So I looked at I was like, okay, well, maybe I'll minor in music. Man, I didn't even know a damn key on the piano, brother. I didn't know anything. I'm sitting here, I'm like, music's gonna be a joke. This will be super easy. And I had my first solo in my senior year, and I remember like got up there, kicked ass, took names, felt like a beast, so to speak. And that was the time where my dad's brother was there, and he like looks at my dad and he's like, if he wants to do this, you need to let him do it. Like he's that was crazy. Like, we had no idea he could do that. I had no idea. I ended up being an opera singer. I had no idea that I could sing opera at that time. I like I said, I was a late bloomer, so I kind of had this like soft tenor, Irish tenor voice, so to speak. Yeah, to make a long story short, I went in, got accepted for my minor, thought about it, and was like, maybe I like this music thing. I changed my major from mechanical engineering to majoring in vocal performance the day before my freshman year of college. You know, first class was piano, man. I sit down and we're all in front of our own piano. And I'm like, this is gonna be a joke, and this is gonna be super easy. And she's like, put your right thumb on middle C. And I'm like, I don't know, I don't know what middle C is. I don't know anything. You know, I looked at the girl beside me, I'm like, hey, what's middle C? And she listened to me, she's like, Are you serious? I'm like, I wouldn't ask if I didn't know, you know, type of deal. And man, it came quick where I was like, I'm gonna funk out of fucking college. Like, here I am in music thinking this is gonna be easy. And boy, I was wrong, man. Like, it was certain aspects of it I I was really good at because of math, like writing like the theory. Right up right, because music is math. Yeah, but like the hearing part, and like, you know, piano's tough, man.

SPEAKER_05 14:03

You're doing two different things with your hands, like two rhythms, and yeah, it wasn't easy, but I was uh playing my son, my son's 10 months old, and I was playing his piano this morning. There's only five keys on it, and I couldn't even get it to any type of sound out of it.

SPEAKER_07 14:16

I love it. We both have little babies right now, so we're yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_03 14:20

You both are young fathers at this point, or young fathers of young children.

SPEAKER_07 14:25

I quickly I I was always competitive, so you know, I I was very good at singing. And I met my teacher up there at Charlotte. He was an opera singer, and he had he was fairly new, been there a few years. His wife was the uh doctoral cello professor there, super smart people, but he kind of took me under his wing and uh, you know, started teaching me how to sing. And uh I told you I was a late bloomer, probably fast forward. So there's this competition called NATS, which is like all the colleges get together. It starts out at like a state level, and then you know, it goes to regional and then ultimately to like a national thing. And it was my freshman year, and I, you know, I knew I was talented in comparison to a lot of kids at Charlotte, but like Charlotte had a music school, right? But not like a you know renowned one or anything like popular. Like the only reason I was there was because it was a good engineering school, and I just happened to switch and they had you know, it was convenient that they had a music school. And uh I went to that competition though, and they put freshmen because we're all 18 years old, in like a small, like and I'd been taking lessons with this guy, and I had a big, big voice for my eight. And I'll never forget I was you know, I was super competitive, so I'm here. I was the first person of the day, and they put me in this little room, like a practice room, and I got four teachers, the judges right in front of me, and they're like writing stuff on their paper, so all their heads are down, and my piano starts playing, and the minute the first note comes out, all their heads are like like popped up, and you know, I went through my three pieces, smashed it, and the one I'll never forget the one lady like looks at the person beside her and she's like, I'm not supposed to talk to you right now, she said. She's like, But how old are you? And I was like, I'm 18. She's like, holy cow! She was like, What? And I was like, Yeah, no. I remember calling my dad immediately, and I was like, Yeah, I'm the first person to win today, but like something tells me they've never heard anything like that from the reaction, like they weren't supposed to talk to me, like all this. And then, you know, calls I call him, and then I did. I won first place in North Carolina, and I thought that was pretty cool. And then I went to got to go to Maryland at the University of Maryland, and I won, I think, first place in the regional, and this competition started growing because ultimately I ended up winning first place in the United States. I think I was my teacher made me, I was an underclassman, made me compete against the upperclassman division because of my talent, and I ended up taking first place, and it was so funny because they were all going to grad school and you know, saying, and they're like, Where are you going to grad school next year? I'm like, hey man, I'm a sophomore, baby. And they're like, dude, shut up. I'm like, yeah. So I ended up uh went through some hardships in college, man. I I just I just wasn't in the right mindset. I I don't know, I just wasn't, I'm not the I wasn't the positive person I am now. I've learned a lot through my experience and kind of going through hell, so to speak, and not not being in the best head place to get to who I am today. That's why I finally believe you know, mental health's a big thing, you know, anxiety, depression, it's hard, but like you have to be that person that makes that change or wants that change in your life. And I met a great mentor later on in my journey who really taught me like optimism and and positivity and the fact that you can't control circumstances, you can control your reaction to circumstances. Quote that people circumstances are a hundred percent uncontrollable, but your reaction to circumstances is a hundred percent controllable. You take life too serious sometimes, and all you can do at the end of the day, no matter what. Just got a big thumbs up from Ryan. He's gonna tell you you go through it. So that was a big deal um getting through. But I wasn't doing good. I I my teacher was pushing, you know, pushing me for grad school, and I ended up um I had a lot of auditions. I sang for somebody with Juilliard, and they're like, you know, no, no questions asked. Juilliard, ironically, is not like a huge opera school, even though it's on Manhattan. The Metropolitan Opera's great, but the college is there, Manis, Manhattan School of Music, and the Juilliard aren't the best for opera. So Indiana University, which is out in the middle of the cornfields, the Hoosiers, you wouldn't think, but they've got probably the top opera program. They spend a lot of money. Like the campus is incredible. I mean, it's like a four-tiered or three-tiered mezzanine stage. It's the second largest performing arts center in the United States behind the Metropolitan Opera. And uh I went out there to sing for the guy. Is that the one no, it's in Bloomington. Yeah. Bloomington. Okay. But they do have like branches like IUP UI or something like that. I don't remember. Gotcha. Yeah, I went out there and sang with a guy uh named Andreas Polimenos. He's like 70-something years old. He's a beast. Yeah. And I went out there and we just knocked it off, man. And I'm like, this is obviously like the best place you can be. And and when you're in opera, like the school's important, but like who you're studying with and who you're, you know, as males, our voices aren't really mature until we're in our 30s. So you need to be in like a good position of someone who's teaching you, you know, healthy, you know, style or technique and really getting that foundation set for when your voice is a hundred percent mature. School's just a in opera, like a I like to say it's a bridge to your professional career, you know, staying busy, learning music, doing all those things that, you know, get you to that career path where you get paid ultimately. But yeah, audition there ended up being the number one audition at the school. I I got a full scholarship. I mean, that was out of state was like something like it's close to a hundred thousand dollar education out of state for your grad school. Oh, yeah. I mean, I got like the highest scholarship was like 99.5% or some craziness. And I was a teacher, so I got a paycheck. I got, you know, insurance coverage through the school. Um, but man, I talk talk about the mindset. I wasn't in, I almost didn't go. I worked in hotels as well. My dad's been a GM for my entire life. And I was thinking about like I really wasn't doing good. I I mean, I barely got through undergrad. It felt like it was never ending. I I'm not a school person, I I hate school. And uh and even opera, man, there's so much more. It's not just singing.

SPEAKER_03 20:05

A lot of you didn't hit you didn't hate school when it was something that you were passionate about. Yeah, even then when other when other people are telling you what to study, but when you're passionate about it, you loved it.

SPEAKER_07 20:18

Yeah, that was the thing with operas. Like, I loved singing, yes, but I didn't love all the shit that like went into it. Like foreign languages, like you know, we I have a funny joke because I was a goofball in undergrad. Like, we'd be singing in Italian and we were doing this big opera, La Bohem, and I was playing Rodolfo, and I was notorious, like all of us were. We were undergrad, we're young, we weren't learning what everybody sang, but you're acting, so you have to like how am I supposed to, you know, even in English, like, how am I supposed to act with you if I don't know what you're saying? But we didn't. We just we faked it till you make it. And uh, I remember my teacher stopped me because I was I was singing La Fiama, which is the flame or fire, and I was holding up a water bottle, and he's like, Stop. He's like, What are you saying right now? I was like, that is a good question. And he's like, You're seeing the flame, man, like fire. You're supposed to be pointing at the fireplace, and you're picking up a you know, I'm like, I'm putting out the fire, baby. You know, it was I had a tremendous talent. I I didn't hear many kids that were singing like me at that age, but I I struggled, I loved the whole process of like singing, and I I was super talented, but that that worked to be really great. I didn't, I wasn't doing it, I wasn't passionate enough about it to where I was, you know, studying the languages, really learning, you know, this is 400, 500 pages of music that you need to be learning a foreign language. And oh wow. I never was in acting, I didn't do plays and stuff like that. So I was a little bit out of my comfort zone, but ultimately, like it was a love hate relationship because I did love it. I can't sit here and lie and say I did it. My mindset, I ran from fear. Anxiety, I believe, is procrastination and fear. Instead of if I was in the headspace I'm in now and like how I see things, different person. But at that time, I had to go through that path realizing I was super. Super anxious, not handling it well because I wasn't doing what I was supposed to do. I was avoiding it and I was scared. And instead of hitting it head on, I talk big about eating the frog and we make these tough phone calls and what we do on a daily basis. You're gonna feel so much better if you just hit it head on that day. Be courageous. But if you avoid those things and you're scared and you have fear and you don't take those chances, you're gonna that's where anxiety, I believe, is heavily built built up. And then it's just gonna go downhill from there, sad. Be courageous, man. That's the big thing.

SPEAKER_03 22:31

Yeah, I like what you said about, and I'm gonna put a label on it, learned optimism. Like somebody had to teach me how to be optimistic.

SPEAKER_00 22:39

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 22:39

Speaking on for myself, and it's kind of what I heard from you. And uh the mindset of what I think is who I am. And it's funny because when when my wife and I got married, we each have a bunch of books, and we only own two books in common. And one was called Mindset and one was called Learned Optimism. Because she's a an educator and I'm a business person. So we had really different novels and things, but that learned the concept of learned optimism is something I really appreciate you bringing into this conversation, Hunter. And what a cool story. So we're gonna talk about how the two of you re intersected. So what happened after college and why are you sitting here with Hayden?

SPEAKER_07 23:23

Yeah. I I left school and I I decided after one year at Indiana, I uh I wasn't doing well. And I I knew if I wanted to, I was at a really bad place, and I ended up writing my my parents a two-page letter and mailed it to them, letting them know like I had made my decision up. Ultimately, if they if I still wanted to be on this planet, I needed to make a change and I had to take it. I was I was really lost at that time. And I I moved home, did it. I haven't lived with my parents since I mean when I was went to college, I moved out. So I'm very independent and and always paid my bills and you know, learned all that stuff. And so I'm moving back home for the first time, you know. One year in Indiana, I'm telling you, I I got the hell out of there. I packed my my car up and I drove the last day of school. And it wasn't right. I didn't handle some of those. That goes back on mindset and kind of relationships and like my teacher. I thought a lot of him, and I just I didn't handle that right. And I didn't treat people the way I should have, and that's on me, and that's just something I can't change it. So all I did do is move forward and uh yeah, I changed myself, let's put it that way. I'm a completely different person. Um, but I moved back. I had called already while I was in Indiana. I was in hotels, like I said, I almost didn't go to grad school. I was gonna go into management with the company I was working at in hot um hotels and college in Charlotte. So I called him and I was like, they love me. You know, I kept working at hotels while I was in grad school part-time, front desk, just because I enjoyed it. Love talking to people and called them. They opened up a management position for me at a Hilton property at the uh in Charlotte near the airport. So I'm living with my parents, you know, they were awesome. Uh it's just I need to live by myself. So I quickly moved back to Charlotte, probably I don't know, one to two months, maybe three months after coming back and started my management career in and hotels. And that was that was big. I mean, I think I was they created a new role for me, guest service manager. I was in that for like maybe three to six months. I can't remember at this point. And I got promoted to assistant general manager, was that for for a little while. And then my dad's buddy, my dad's been in hotels my whole life. He had uh he was out of Utah, he had bought a portfolio, and one of those hotels was the courtyard at the Charlotte Airport, and he called my dad asking if he knew anybody who, you know, could be a good general manager, they were looking to hire somebody. And my dad's like, well, my son's an AGM in that market. So I interviewed for that. I was 25 years old, got the job, thought I was rich, you know, $87,000, $500 salary, you know, 30% bonus. And I'm like, oh, I'm rich, baby, and I got it. And then that wasn't the case by all means, and the stress and stuff that well, you could be. I mean, you could choose to make that rich. Yeah, 100%. Maybe if I was more financially literate when I was younger, coming with decisions on vehicles and things like that.

SPEAKER_03 26:03

That's not a bad way to get rich right there.

SPEAKER_07 26:05

Yeah. It was not so. That was I ended up getting a call back from the guy that I went to that hotel for two years. Get this big thing that just blew everybody's lives up, it was called COVID-19. So GM was awesome for the first three months, and then COVID started, and and it was rough. But I I got through it, ran that hotel right at two years, and got a call from the the guy I worked for in college, and he's like, I got an opportunity in Charleston, South Carolina. I want to move you down there. And at first I was like, nah, man, I'm you know, I'm in Charlotte, I'm an hour away from my my family, my my parents, my my brothers come up every weekend, watch, you know, football or the fights with me. Like I really missed a lot of that with Undergirl in Vienna. But ultimately, he gave me more money and I uh I made the pack, which was the best decision I ever made because I was all part of this process of me growing mentally, hands down. You know, I told that hotel was at for two years in Charlotte. My regional manager was the most optimistic man I've ever met. Zachary Peck is a phenomenal guy. Um, he would just come to the hotel, and I'm struggling. You know, we have no staff, we're, you know, cut all our vendors out. I'm I'm doing the damn landscaping of the Marriott, I'm cleaning runes, I'm doing everything. Like it was a it was a struggle. And I remember one day, like the sliding glass doors at the beginning of the at the front of the hotel broke. And I'm like, that is my night auditor, is the one position they let me keep, the overnight person. But we're near the airport, right off Billy Graham Parkway, not a good area in Charlotte. And they're not gonna want to work if the their one security source, you know, structure is broken. And I was just Zach was flying in. I went and like ripped the sensor off. I'm trying to wire it. I'm on Google, you know, YouTube trying to figure out how to rewire this thing and see if I can fix it. And I remember Zach would just walk in always, like things would be so hectic, and he had the biggest smile. And he's just like, hey guys, and I'm like, dude, why are you smiling right now? This shit is bad, dude. Like, why are you gonna do that? And he's like, he's the one that told me that circumstances are uncontrollable. And then he told me, he said, you should read a book called As a Man Thinketh. And I looked up the book. I respected him so much that I actually went home that night. I didn't like reread it. I had done the audio book. We were going somewhere, and it was so funny because I heard the that phrase I said about circumstances being uncontrollable. It was in that book. Yeah, and that was really when I it was a lot about it was like a pocket book, like a for survival guide for men. It was written in like 1902. Yeah, and that's when I started like understanding. I'm like, you know, nothing's changed here, maybe surroundings in life. You know, we got a lot of negative stuff around us. But at that point, when I read that book, I would wake up in these moods where you just you don't want to tackle the day, you know, you're being negative already. My whole thing was let me blast some music and get pumped up in the morning, you know? And I'd be like rocking, I'm like, you know, like screaming, getting some good music going. And then it was so fun. It took a few months, but being consistent with that, next thing you know, I'm like looking back and I'm like, but I've been waking up in some some pretty good moods here lately, you know. Like, nah, going there, I think I say that because you know, people go through different things and it's tough, but like you can rewire how you think, and you can control and change. And a lot of that goes with like really looking at your life. Like, what are you what are you procrastinating on? What are you fear on? And sometimes, like, what's the worst thing that can happen? You know, like that's the same thing that goes in sales. I think Russ, you had uh go for no great book, but it's essentially what it's talking about. Like you're scared of failure or rejection. You're gonna let two letters hold you back from all you want in life? Like, no, like you but it's it's scary, you know, easier said than done. But it's all about the mindset, like kind of getting in there. But sorry for that. I ended up moving to Charleston. So funny story. This is, I mean, when we uh like yeah, where does Satan come into the story?

SPEAKER_05 29:46

Was insane because we I had just moved down there myself. I was in the Navy. Um, we had just gotten married. Similar thing with COVID. We just moved into our house, and I had just lost my dad. So my dad had just passed away, and so my mom was like, Hey, you know, I would I would like to move down um to Charleston to be around you because there's not really anybody else that she knew up in uh Hickory where we were at. And so um, we're looking at houses, and just for the heck of it, we're gonna go tour this um other neighborhood. And lo and behold, we walk into the model home and we're looking at through the stuff, and then Hunter walks in with his people, and we're just like, oh my god, we haven't seen each other since high school, you know. And so it's been what nine years?

SPEAKER_07 30:29

It's been almost ten years, yeah.

SPEAKER_05 30:30

Like it had been almost nine, ten years since we had seen each other, and then we're both, you know, shopping for homes. You know, I was looking for my mom and he's looking for himself, and um, it just we just re-collided. And so we I was like, oh, what do you do? What do you do? And just kind of like follow each other again and just got plugged back in. And then I knew you were doing hotels.

SPEAKER_07 30:49

I thought it was four years ago. I had to be four because I've been in the 2020, yeah.

SPEAKER_05 30:53

And so I knew you were uh doing hotels and you know you had probably been seeing me online, and then I was like, you know, you're like, oh man, I'd love to you know join you, I'd love to work together. And I was like, dude, I he's here telling me like I need a hundred thousand, he's I need a hundred thousand dollars a year. I was like, I I know you're the best salesman. Like you can you listen to him talk. He's been taught, like he's got uh the gift of connecting with people, and so I was like, he will be the best salesman in Charleston. Like I just know it. I just need to get him, I need to get him on the team. And so I told him, I was like, hey, when I have a hundred grand of your salary, uh, I'm gonna set it aside in a bank account. And whenever I have that, um, you can know that you can, you know, uproot your life. You know, you're not net physically moving, but you're gonna change everything you're doing, and you just take this leap of faith with me. Um, but in order to feel secure, I was like, I need to make sure I have your salary set aside because that's all that's a decent salary to pay when um, you know, on a gamble. Someone who knows nothing about real estate. Yeah, and so, you know, and so yeah, Hunter didn't, you know, didn't really know anything about real estate. And so um a couple years have passed, we continue to just kind of you know tiptoe around that conversation, connected a few more times. And then uh Hunter just calls me one day. He's like, dude, I'm done. I said he said, I don't, I don't care what you pay me. Um, I just need to change what I'm doing right now. And so he was having a rough go with the hotels, didn't like it, and wanted a change.

SPEAKER_07 32:15

Yeah, I think I told you you give me this to cover my my mortgage and my my car payment, and I'll start in two weeks, or I'm coming over to you. Yeah, he was like, shut up. I think I remember you're like, dude, I lose sleep over this, trying to figure out how to get you in here. Yeah. And um yeah, we went and got drinks literally that afternoon, like met it, and I'm like, oh dude, I'm on. And it was scary as shit. Because how I come from, I mean, that was my comfort, you know. But my wife had started, she's an attorney, and that was the hard part is like I always relied on my job, and you have that fear of losing your job, and so on, did because you're getting by by the you know, pair of your ass through everything. And finally, when she started working, that was a big lift because I'm like, you know, if I lose my job, because hotels are, you know, there is they don't have to have a reason to fire you ultimately. Um that actually happened to me once. I mean, I went through, I'd never been written up, nothing, and then I don't know what the politics were of it, but I got a one-week notice of improvement, and I was like, it it really shocked me, you know. I was like, what the hell? And it kind of sticks in the back of your head sometimes, you know. It's a big fuel and drive for me. Because I know who I was as a manager, you know, I was very optimistic and I was working on growing people too, and you know, staffs like that, but it's we went through some hell with some shit. Hotels I took over that I was cleaning up and going through some stuff, and you know, it was rough. And I got to a point where I just I couldn't do it anymore. That's what I sat down, I had one last altercation at work, and I I was literally shaking, so I was so pissed off. And I was like, dude, screw this. And and we had been talking, and you know, I was like, he talked to me, you know, selling me. You got the sales too, brother. Steve was always I saw myself.

SPEAKER_03 33:50

We need some funny hotel stories, some crazy hotel stories.

SPEAKER_05 33:54

Tell him the one. I mean, this was kind of opened my eyes.

SPEAKER_07 33:56

Uh, what was it, Christmas with the the big freeze that happened? Oh, dude, just stuff like that. We went to North Carolina, my wife and I, for Christmas. And that's the hard part. My wife hated it. She's like, you know, my wife's from New York, so all of her friends are up there and say a wedding, and she's like, you know, we're going to this wedding. I'm like, I can't go to that wedding. And she's like, What do you mean you're off on the weekend? I'm like, I might be off from not going in the office, but if that hotel, that's my asset, if it catches on fire and my ass is in New York, I'm not gonna have a job. And there were so many things where like she started getting upset, you know, she's that's not funny, that's horrible.

SPEAKER_01 34:27

Yeah, it sucked, yeah.

SPEAKER_07 34:30

It was awful, dude. Yeah, that's hard. And I ended up uh, yeah, we were home for Christmas. It was Christmas Eve, I think it was. Yeah, yeah. And I'm just trying, I'm already anxious because I'm out of town, man.

SPEAKER_03 34:39

Even being you never had any drunk guests doing weird shit in the lobby. I mean, come on.

SPEAKER_07 34:44

Oh, dude, there's tons of more so batshit for that. That's what I'm that's what I'm looking for. People dying everything out in those crazy gods. Okay. It's insane. But no, like water bust. I get a call and like three floors of the hotel are flooded because we had that freeze here in Charleston a few years ago that was real big, right around 15 years. Yeah, yeah. Yeah, my rank ass hotel damn copper just snapped. I think it was copper line. I don't know, but dude, flooded three rooms out. I mean, we get shit like downtown Charleston, you get drunk kids. Like, here's a funny one. All right, so okay, here we go. So we're at the front desk, and I got cameras, and this chick calls me working overnight. She's like totally shook, and she's like, You just need to go check the camera at this time. And so I pull the camera up, and like you got this like angled down camera, like front desk, and then like the elevator, and those two bathrooms. This dude comes off the elevator butt-ass naked. I mean, I call her back. I'm like, was that dude? Did I just see that right? Is he like butt ass naked? And she's like, Hunter, that and he was just in the bathroom. She's like, he's still in the bathroom because he couldn't come out. I don't know if he was like sleepwalking, like drunk, like what. And then that butt-ass naked man, like, you see him walk out, like, throws a towel at him because he like cracks the door. You know, they're scared because they're the only ones there at that time. She doesn't know what's going on, but I'm like, get hurt by the crazy man naked guy. It was always that stuff. Like the butt-ass naked thing was crazy. I mean, you get cars stolen out of your parking lot and like people breaking and entering, you know. Those are the tough parts about the business. Like, you don't have any control over that, but you know, and it's a business, you know. And it was that was a tough life, man. 24-7, 365. I mean, I remember I went on my honeymoon, we were on a cruise actually, and I'm like dying because I wasn't talking to people and I didn't know what was going on. The minute we pulled into wherever we were going, like, I got cell reception. I'm like, calling did not help because I call this kid and because my my AGM didn't answer. I call this kid who was not the most positive person. Good kid, but I'm like, hey, how's everything going? He's like, not good. And then I lose reception and I'm like, oh my God, I'm not gonna do it. No, so you're cut off at the end of not good. Oh, yeah, that was it. Like, no more cell reception. So I'm like, oh man, like this is awful. Like, bad. And uh, I got a lot of respect for that stuff, though, man. Like, that's a that is a very underpaid position. I watched my dad, he's a beast, you know. We connected a lot on that too. We got to go to Vegas together for the Hilton convention, which was really cool. Actually, him and my middle brother are both GMs for the same company, so they're flying to Orlando right now to go to that together. So we always connected, you know. I got a lot of that was able to carry in though, like customer service. I know a lot about operations.

SPEAKER_03 37:18

I worked on Yeah, tie that tie that into what you do now as far as the lessons learned from being the best of the best.

SPEAKER_01 37:26

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 37:27

So you were a great football player, and an injury ended up. You were a great singer, actually one would argue the best singer from the things that you won. And then you go into the hotel business and you're in the weeds and you're in the mud and you're in the shit. Yeah. And so then you transition over to working with Hayden. And I've been fortunate enough to watch that. So tell us real quick about the lessons you've learned there, and then let's let's get Hayden's backstory too.

SPEAKER_07 38:00

Yeah. No, I I think that you have to work hard in hotels, you know, and that's something with the customer relations. Uh, that's that was always my bread and butter. I mean, I could have a talk with anybody and sit there and, you know, I extended stay hotels. Man, I was like, I had them cooking food for me and as a college and you know, kid in college. It's it's relationships.

SPEAKER_03 38:18

You worked at an extended stay? Yeah, home with sweets.

SPEAKER_07 38:22

Well, I'm familiar with that. That's a yeah. Which those people were awesome, man. I mean, you have some weird stuff. You got like like Jitsi families that were in the asphalt business that, you know, the kids don't go to school and they're just you know, they're five years old laying some asphalt, but they cook some good damn food, so they'll run this for me and things like that. But it was, you know, I know how to problem solve too. I think that was the biggest thing when I joined Hayden. He had this group of people that were, you know, they wanted everything done for them. They weren't willing to fix they figure stuff out. Because ultimately, when I joined Hayden, I didn't have training. You know, Hayden was running around with his stuff. It's, you know, here's this, and essentially figure it out. And luckily I wasn't, you know, from what I had, I was the person who figured stuff out at hotels. I was responsible for that business. I made the decisions for that business. And that what carried in here, and I knew, you know, I wasn't one that, you know, they pay me to manage a business. They look at my PL. If I'm not meeting their standards on what we, you know, our KPIs for, you know, whether flex and flows or performance-based, then you fire me. You know, but I don't need to call my regional manager to ask him something that I can look up on a system or learn how to set up myself by calling somebody else. So when I got in here, that was the biggest thing. Obviously, my sales and my ability. I think that's just a natural thing for me is people trust me very quickly when I have conversations with them, with my outgoing personality. I'm a chameleon, so I get along with everybody. But really coming into this, and and I'm not, I do a lot of reading, I do a lot of podcasts, educating myself. So it was really hard in the beginning stages of like setting everything up, and then I hear things, and I'm like, yo, we should put this into action. This psycho some bitch right here, like he is crazy. He's exactly gonna do it. Well, I'm like, I'm not a huge risk taker. Like I he's grown me so much, I owe I owe you a lot. And you know that. I tell you that all the time. Because like Hayden is like, he gave me this opportunity. I've done the work, but like the rooms he's pushed me to be in, like the first time I met you, Russ, man, that that was scary as shit. I went into real estate, you know, REI with him. I didn't know anything about real estate. I still decided I'm like, I go up to Russ and like start talking, and I hear one little thing about him being from Rocky Mount. I don't know where I heard it from. So I went over there and that's how I start my conversation. It's exactly what I do when I go and meet sellers for the first time. I don't talk about the deal. I don't. It's a big development deal. We got on the case.

SPEAKER_03 40:35

It's all about the human connection. That's it. And I I I putting words in your mouth, but I feel like working in the hospitality industry, especially a hotel, it's that human connection. Oh, yeah. You know, what what's happening with this person, what's happening with all the people around. And I think that's been extremely valuable for you in talking to sellers. So let's talk about Hayden a bit and get to know. I mean, we kind of heard some of your high school experience. Did you go straight from high school to the Navy or Yeah?

SPEAKER_05 41:06

So uh basically I, you know, we did football, we did wrestling, wrestling was my was my thing. I uh I was, you know, when when when I started at that program, we had a new Marine. He was uh he was our coach. He was a Marine, super hard-headed, just absolute stud, just like a great man, you know, like up there was Steve Irwin. You know, like there's there's a couple people in my life. There's my dad, there's Steve Irwin, and there's Coach Kerry. You know, like that's fucking it for me. You know, like I have uh I very few people do I hold to a high standard. I love it. This this guy was such a good good man that there were seven dudes on the wrestling team when we started. He comes in. It was my first year at that school and his first year at the school. And then it kind of felt like we built the program from there to where like every single year we like I was from Pennsylvania, which is a big wrestling state, and so I come in and I'm automatically like one of the top guys. I was decent, you know, but I come in and I'm a freshman and I'm winning. And that was unheard of, especially with a team of uh, you know, seven dudes, you know, like we didn't have a program at all. And so we built it from scratch, started up a program in the middle school, had them coming up, did you know by by our junior year? I was wrestling for the a state championship. So in three years, our team had grown to over like 50 some people. We were we win, we won states, you know, as as a junior, which was insane. I was I was wrestling for first and second place as a junior, which was and and you know, like I I didn't have it paved our way. We kind of built it. It wasn't like I walked into some big program. We walked in and we were the underdogs until we weren't, and then we won state, and then I broke my hand my senior year, and I went to this is a funny story. It was in practice. I was ranked I was ranked number one in the state. I was arguably the best in the state. I was like 50 and uh and nobody could even touch me. And I break my hand in practice. Well, uh, I hit my I hit my hand on Nick Rottenberry's foot. Uh literally, and so I broke my yeah, I broke my finger in my hand, and there's only a couple weeks or months left to uh states and stuff. And so I'm like, I'm out for the season, my senior year best. Uh at that really, really sucks. And so it's it's like a week before the regional tournament to actually go to like to actually go to states, and I look at my coach, I was like, I think I can do it, you know. Like, I don't know. Like, I like he's like, Do you want to do this? I was like, let's let's do this. And so he takes me to a I called it uh a cowboy doctor. And so he had a cowboy hat on. So we in order for me to get approved, I had to get the school board's approval to actually wrestle with an unhealed broken hand. And so I go to this cowboy doctor and we walk in, he's like, What do you need me to sign? I'm like, oh boy, you know, and like he and I was like, Oh my gosh. So I get this slip, this medical clearance slip that this guy just signed, didn't even look at me, and then my dad. Dad fashions up this cast out of like some type of you know synthetic material. Like he kind of molds a cast for me essentially. Yeah. And so I have like this little like thing that I make and it's bandaged up. It's essentially a club. My whole hand was a club. And so I go in and we go to the regional tournament and I win the regional tournament with one hand, which was like for me, like literally with one hand tied behind your back. Yeah. So the the I'm I'm going into the finals at this tournament, and this this guy, my opponent, grabs my broken hand and twists it. And the ref is like, whoa, like what the hell? Like, and so that's like what I had to overcome. And so you talk about mindset and different things. I think I was supposed to go through that experience. Instead of me just sweeping it and winning winning first and you know, can having a a cakewalk all the way to the podium. I had this obstacle in my way. I always say that was one of the best things to happen to me because in order to like get ready for that tournament, I had to lose 18 pounds in three days. Oh, wow. So in wrestling, like you're it's all about weight. And you were already constantly fit.

SPEAKER_03 45:08

So it's not, you know, like you were a fat guy who had to lose weight.

SPEAKER_05 45:12

They put a plastic bag on me, they roll me up into the mat like a hot dog, and they put cheers on both ends and they bake me. And so I'm getting cooked alive so that I can lose all this weight. And so I lost 18 pounds in three days. I win first at regionals, I go on, I ended up placing like third in the state with one hand, which was so humbling. And it was, it was such a better, so so much of like a better experience for me. Cause I I sat there when they were doing the Parade Champions, and I was naming every single person out on the uh, you know, on the podium that I had beaten or pinned or like severely won against. And I was like, oh, like I clearly would have won, but it's okay. Like this was this is how it was supposed to be.

SPEAKER_03 45:52

Yeah, sometimes circumstances prevent us from being exactly where we want to be. And that's where this learned optimism and the determination comes on. Yeah. Um, I love that. Thank you so much for sharing that. That's awesome.

SPEAKER_05 46:04

And I needed that. I think I needed that to humble me, you know, and then set me up for the next stage in my life. And so then I, you know, I also wanted to go to NC State. I wanted to be a landscape architect. And that the year I went to apply, it was my whole plan. I like that was my only plan. Landscape architecture, NC State. Everything was good. I had decent grades, you know, whatever. And uh the year I applied, they dropped my major. And so I'm like, okay. So that was the only college in North Carolina that offered that major. Um so I was like, well, now I have to go out of state. So I went to Clemson here in South Carolina. I went to uh Virginia Tet. I love Virginia Tech. But turns out, like we said, $100,000 uh to go to school. And I wasn't smart enough to get a full ride. I wasn't poor enough to get any type of assistance, but I didn't make enough money to actually be able to afford it. So I was right there in the middle class sweet spot where I I looked up, I couldn't do it. And so I were like, well, let's do community college for two years. And so I get I go, I apply, I get my books, I and then I go to the first day of class and I walk in, and there's this probably 35-year-old Hispanic lady sitting next to me with grass on her sneakers that she clearly like just got off of a job. Like she might have been a landscaper, I don't know. But I I judged her. I was like, and for me, I was like, I wanted the the college experience, and I felt like I got slighted in life. I was like, I I I I was supposed to do this, I can't do that. Like I was so mad. And so I saw this, I saw everybody around me. It seemed like a lot of people I like wouldn't connect with. Uh I was like, I all these people just to go to a community college, it just wasn't for me. I got really upset and I was like, I I was expecting to go to like go around and be like around a bunch of you know 18-year-old kids just like me that you know, and but I wasn't. I was around kind of like the dropouts of high school, it felt like maybe I'm sure they're all great people, but I I was pissed. And so that day I dropped out, I go to my dad and I was like, I'm joining the military. I was like, I don't care. Not I'm not doing that. And so I made that decision one day with zero plan. I was like, I'm gonna join the military. So I just thought to myself, I don't want to get shot at. And so I'm not gonna go to the Marines or the Army. And I was like, well, let's go walk in. I walked into the called the Air Force, called the Navy. Air Force didn't call me back, but the Navy did. And so I tested, got there's a nugget.

SPEAKER_03 48:24

There's a nugget right there. Yeah. You joined the Navy because the recruiter called you back. You called the Air Force and the Navy, and you joined the one that called you back. Exactly. And you were smart enough to go in the Air Force, you were strong enough to go in the Air Force. I mean, there's no difference in you. It's a difference in the response from you went with the guy that called you back. In our business, that's so critical. And I know I'm preaching to the choir here, but that's so critical about seizing opportunities. The Navy recruiter, I assume it was a recruiter, called you and said, Hey man, let's talk.

SPEAKER_05 49:00

Exactly.

SPEAKER_03 49:01

Air Force is silent.

SPEAKER_05 49:02

That's exactly what it was. Just just call me back. So I went in, um, tested like a 90-something, probably like 96 on the ASVAB, which is they're like, oh my God, you know, because they're used to a bunch of brain dead kids walking in there. And so um got a high, a high score. They're like, hey, you could be uh a Navy SEAL or you could be uh nuclear uh a nuclear rate, you know, a nuke is what we used to slang call them. So um I was like, I I had my fun as a wrestler. I don't want to do a Navy SEAL. I don't have I don't need to that's not for me. I have hung those shoes up literally and figuratively. I am I am done with the the torture some days and it was so tough. And but I'm I made it through. I was lucky enough to push it through. There's some touch and go moments where I was like, I don't know if I'm gonna pass this test or whatever it is. And uh I graduate and then we go to I go to my first duty station, which was on the West Coast. I essentially just looked at, you know, my family. I was like, well, I haven't experienced the West Coast, I've only been on the East Coast, and I know what that, I know what that's like. I would love to, you know, explore, see it.

SPEAKER_03 50:10

Join the Navy, see the world, right?

SPEAKER_05 50:11

I mean, maybe on like California, maybe on like Washington or Seattle or who knows, you know. So um oh well, we uh I go to I get stationed in basically Seattle, Washington on the USS Nimitz, which is the area, went there and it's the oldest aircraft carrier in this class, you know, it's like 50, 60 years old or some shit. And so I go there, we train on that, we get her fixed up, and then we go on some deployments, drop some bombs, you know, go to war. It was super fun. I mean, I absolutely loved going out and and you know, launching war, doing what we're supposed to do. Yeah, I thought that was I did that and then came back here, and then I could talk for hours on kind of you know what that went like from there. But I I came back and got a knack for real estate. So, yeah.

SPEAKER_03 50:57

So, what's fun in the Navy look like or funny stories about Navy?

SPEAKER_05 51:02

Uh life apparently beating the shit out of each other is bad. Yeah, no, like you're not supposed to talk about hazing, but we hazed each other, you know. So it's like there's uh let's decide why I'm gonna draw the line here. Um so basically for any any major event for in our little community, people we would celebrate. And so like if you somebody graduated or somebody had a a birthday, we would um would beat them up essentially, you know, like not not literally beat them up, but we'd like punch their legs and you know, just just rough them up a little bit, you know. So um it was it was definitely on the borderline of like camaraderie versus knots, you know, and so hey and in college I I got accidentally put in the hockey dorm. Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 51:56

And my roommate was a center on the football team, and he and I were random, and it was like a war. And we didn't really hurt each other, but pretty close. I mean, it was as you said, rough roughing somebody up. Um and I love the military. I mean, we just did it as a blind ambush, but the the fact that it was done for a purpose, like, oh, you've made this accomplish accomplishment, you're gonna get roughed up. Yeah. Um, I I like that. I mean, that's a it's a weird nail weird nail bonding thing.

SPEAKER_05 52:29

It was definitely we made we we were extremely tight with each other. We had some of the best relationships I've ever forged, or obviously are there. The one takeaway from deployment among all of the crazy shit that happened was connection. I think was being there was there's no such thing as phones and like social media. I mean, there was, but like you could you had to go to the office, and then us enlisted folk only had certain hours of usage for the internet. I mean, we're out at war. We're dropping bombs, so you're not just right log into Facebook, you know. And so they we did have internet access, but it would you'd have to log in at like midnight or something. And and so like you're fighting everybody in your division to go log in. And so you didn't. You like did you just you everybody's disconnected. Moral of the story is everybody was just disconnected from their phones and they were forced to interact with each other, and which I I love that. And I loved um, you know, connecting with people that you were uh fortunately or unfortunately, you were forced to talk to. And so I'd be on a I was the senior person on uh like my watch station, and I was in charge of you know 10 10 different kits, and I'm I have to sit there for four to six hours and talk to these people, you know, so nothing else to do but talk about whatever we can talk about for six months straight, you know, or we're the same watch team for six months, or sitting there sometimes twice a day for six hours a day, uh, you know, on watch together, or just looking at a gauge, you know, looking at a couple things, you know, like we're doing our log set, whatever it is. And so you make really, really deep relationships with people. You you create games, you you do these fun things. You know, we we sit there and we play poker. We, you know, we we did so I learned how to cut hair. I became a barber, you know.

SPEAKER_03 54:16

So it is not I did not know that about true Hayden.

SPEAKER_05 54:20

Yeah, so you need a you need a nice little fade, I can I can fade you up and give it a few. I love a good fade. Oh yeah, that's right in my wheelhouse.

SPEAKER_01 54:27

But I love it.

SPEAKER_05 54:29

But that's one of the things I think in society we'll lack in the days is just the personal connection. I think that's gonna be the the downfall of our society is just the de like detaching from human connection. And so that's what I loved about being in the military was just, you know, hey, we were unplugged the whole time.

SPEAKER_03 54:46

Yeah, I love it. So I'm hearing from both of you a lot of excellence, a lot of struggle, a lot of things that you thought were gonna work out that didn't work out. And that's real life, folks. It's a lot of shit that I hoped would work out, didn't work out. And how do you carry that into what you do today? All the let's tie it all together. So Hayden leading you first, talking about spending hours on watch with somebody and making that connection and learning how to talk to people and learning skills like cutting hair, or how do you tie that into what you do now?

SPEAKER_05 55:21

I think not necessarily military, but for me, and I think a little bit of Hunter as well for his story is um we our backs was that we're against the wall. We kind of, you know, we we we had to make some some big decision in our life. Like it was either like we kind of burned the ships, you know, like we had to I had to be successful or there was no other option. And so for for my story, one of the major pieces of uh who I am today is the loss of my father, and I saw him essentially work a W-2 style job until he passed away young, you know, and so he passed away young, and I I feel like I missed out on I feel like he missed out on what his what he deserved, you know. He he deserved time, he never got to meet grandkids, and you know, like all of these things.

SPEAKER_03 56:09

How old was your father, Hayden?

SPEAKER_05 56:11

Low 50s, I think maybe like 52, you know.

SPEAKER_03 56:14

Okay, wow, okay.

SPEAKER_05 56:15

Yeah, and so for me, it was sudden. It was sudden, it was unexpected, and so we, you know, okay. It was a great relationship, and just have that yanked out for me was really tough. And I looked at the way his life kind of played out was working at W2, and I was like, I cannot, I I feel like I want to have as much quality time and be able to provide everything I want for my family and have nobody be able to dictate how my life is gonna go. So I I did I didn't want to rely on somebody's retirement account for some job I've worked under 40 years, and then I'm working away for somebody else. I wanted to create my own thing, and so I had to force me to like I there's no other way. I have to pave my own path. I could I can be bankrupt three times by the time I'm 50 and I still be ahead, you know. So it's like I I have I don't care. Like I when he says I'm crazy, that's the psycho part.

SPEAKER_03 57:04

Like I'll just That's completely unreasonable.

SPEAKER_05 57:07

Yeah, yeah, yeah. I just will figure it out. There's no I'm not scared.

SPEAKER_03 57:11

Like that gets to be a running theme in this podcast is we're we're not reasonable people, you know. That's completely unreasonable. And I totally agree. So continue. I interrupted you.

SPEAKER_05 57:23

Yeah. So I I know I just like Hunter had his uh realization with with hotels and his his story that he told where he kind of just had to make a decision. And I think for both of us, it was just, you know, we there's no other way. There's no other option for us. The risk that we I forced Hunter to take some risk in his career now, but it's just we have to we have to do it. And we took what we learned with I was in charge of a bunch of safe sailors and a nuclear reactor, and he was in charge of hotels, and we took those learnings and just doubled down, you know, and poured into it. And it's turned out phenomenal. I think one of the best parts about our story is I hired you the week that wholesaling became illegal. I think that's one of the craziest parts of how this all worked out is that the biggest change in our industry in the last 30 years happened the week that he got hired. And he's sitting there like, and I'm like, uh, you know, we're we were figuring it out together. And that makes our story that much.

SPEAKER_07 58:21

I'm at the gym before the first day. I'm listening to the wholesale hotline, and uh I'll saw the elliptical. And uh, I'm listening to the newest the episode that dropped on Sunday, and I'll start that was Monday morning, and like, yeah, states are starting to crack down. Like South Carolina just put, you know, made it illegal. I'm like, oh shit. Like, I just uh it's like your new job just became illegal was totally like it took so much, it was a huge like I was proud of myself once it was done, but I was scared shitless because like I just wasn't, you know, secure salary, know what I make every two weeks, not knowing like to do that. I knew I wasn't happy. I knew and I also I'm when I think both of us are the type of people we're never happy with what we have. I speak for myself, I always want more, and I always I battle like these two people in my head because like part of me is like you know, old southern foyer who's you know, I just want to be able to take care of the family and you know do that, but at the same time, that's not true because I am I always want more, and that's the truth. And what that looks like, I don't know. It might kill me. I don't know if going through. I'm gonna stop you there.

SPEAKER_03 59:26

I'm gonna stop you there for a minute because this is in our masterminds and in our coaching, you know, listening to my coach or coaching other people and in the masterminds when we spend the day together. One of the most difficult things can be we're so ambitious. Can we be content? Can you be content and ambitious at the same time? And I met a few people that I can see them turn it on and off. So the ambition has a place, and the ambition is critical, and and none of us on this call can exist without the ambition. I mean, you take away the ambition, I'll just go jump off the bridge. I mean, we're just we're not doing that. But but can we find contentment with ambition and switch it on and off? And you guys have little kids.

SPEAKER_05 1:00:18

I think that's to that point. I think that's one of the biggest things for me is I I listened to Brandon Turter on Bigger Pockets podcasts, which I think is kind of every real estate investor's like first go-to. And one of the things he said, I remember it from years later, is he's like, when I had kids, it forced me to scale up. It forced me to actually look at what was going on, be really cognizant of my time, and my business grew after I had kids. And I always thought I was like, there's no freaking way. I was like, I I am an animal. You tell me that I'm gonna work less and I'm gonna grow the company, there's no way. And I think that's one of the it kind of played out. You know, I have a 10-month-old, Hunter's got a three-month-old, and I it forced me to look at how I'm spending my time and looking at who's around me and putting the right people in the place. I'm I'm like Hunter's stepping up, and we're, you know, he's growing the team. And, you know, we're I'm hired some assistants, you know. I hired another executive assistant. We hired a, you know, we're all of these people that I'm bringing to my life are because so that I can I can delegate it correctly. I have to trust people, I have to allow them to have that runway. And it's allowed me to now we're scaling up, you know. We just hired three people this week. And so it's uh that was a very big takeaway on like it actually was came to fruition on like now I'm allowed to spend more time. I take Fridays off, you know, to spend time with the kids. I love it.

SPEAKER_03 1:01:40

Well, and I think we need to schedule a a second podcast at some point in the future and maybe get more into things like these boundaries.

SPEAKER_00 1:01:48

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 1:01:49

And how can you just, you know, run run at full speed and then turn it off. It's hard. That's a hard thing, yeah. And here's here's an example of when my girls were little, I I have a bunch of kids, but my youngest two were little. I would get up at 5 30 in the morning, do my workout, do my meditation, and I would work until about 10. And then I was off at 10. And then I would come back on at about four and work a couple of hours. And I was with my kids, and then my ex-wife who was in the business with me, she took that, she would get her workout in, and she would do the middle of the day, and then we had dinner together every night. But then there were some emails and things to answer after the kids went to bed. So we sectioned our days off, and I'm not saying that's what I'm not a it's not a prescription, it's an example of one way you can do it. Taking Fridays off. I mean, that's another way to do it. So there's just all kinds of ways to balance that so we don't lose our minds. Well, tell us about what you're doing in the business now. What's your primary focus? What we've talked about 90% about personal stuff, so let's actually talk about the business that you you guys are running together.

SPEAKER_05 1:03:13

Yeah, so right when Hunter joins, wholesale law becomes illegal. I had a team of people that are gaslighting me. If you're familiar with the term gaslighting, you know, they they just uh they were they were saying this, we need to do it.

SPEAKER_03 1:03:26

It's not getting dark. What do you mean it's getting dark in here? It's not getting dark in here. Yeah, it's not getting dark in here.

SPEAKER_05 1:03:31

Yeah, and so they're like, oh, we need this. And you know, I I it, you know, you walk in the office every day, it just was the atmosphere was wrong. It was just the wrong people in those seats. Um, nothing against them, but it's just they weren't the right players for where we were headed. And so when I brought Hunter in, um, he redid everything. He looks at our marketing spend, he looks at what our how we're doing marketing. He's like, hey, here's my here's my idea. It'll be $8,000 a month. I was like, cool, here you go. Here's eight grand, you know, and so hey, I think we should do this. It's gonna be six months of a six months minimum spend for this marketing channel. It's gonna be ten thousand dollars every single month. I was like, cool, there's sixty grand, you know, and so he's uh he's giving me these ideas, and then I see it start to play out, and I look at you know, what he was able to do, and I I just kept pushing into it, leaning into it, let him take charge of how we ran essentially. I mean, to boil this all down, we have an I have an acquisitions company. You know, we're always looking for deals. So we're in real estate and looking for deals. Hunter's the spearhead of that. And so he's running that, he's got some people underneath him now, and he's built out these marketing channels and has refined them and continue to uh make sure they're operating at peak efficiency. And now we you know we went from doing, I don't know, like maybe 30 deals total in the last three years to we did a hundred deals in the last like couple more in like the last like 12 months or something.

SPEAKER_07 1:04:53

Like we just took off a couple months, took off. Yeah, that's the future, baby.

SPEAKER_05 1:04:58

Yeah. So um now we have what how many people do you have under?

SPEAKER_07 1:05:03

We got four under me. Is it four? No, no, no. They got three guys in acquisitions, we got two dispo, we're working on hiring transaction out now, too. It's um it's really I mean, the whole thing we're trying to do is we're building our brand. I mean, Hayden's done a good job. I mean, uh all this, and you go to these events and they talk about building a brand, which is primarily why we're putting a lot into like Google and building our things, because a lot of the marketing we're doing it builds our competition. You know, paper lead, we're pouring money into a company doing Google and Facebook and all this. But if our competitors are using that, we're helping fund this company and it's getting bigger and bigger, and then they're gonna get better options. So the whole thing is like we're trying to, we're in a big pivot still. I mean, we we've pivoted to we did a lot of virtual stuff coming into Charleston more. We kind of Aiden's like, dude, we, you know, our biggest rips, we're here. And the ability of Hayden to raise money as he builds his brand, it's amazing because we are at a point to where. If we need to buy something, whether that's it doesn't matter what it is, he'll raise money like that and we can close on it. And that opens you up because like a lot of these, I love the wholetails now. I mean, some of our biggest things of you know, something that maybe we would have done a a good rip, a $50,000 assignment, but we buy it, get enough, you know, private money, he's raised, put $20, $30K into it in seven days, like the one we did, and make a hundred some thousand dollars, you know, like that ability, like a little bit more time, but shit, I'd rather make six-figure profit than 50 grand. You know, there is a fine line between fast money and, you know, but that's the ability is to be able to raise money. And we're buying more stuff now, which is I'm in a transitional period because I like fast money, but it's like it just makes sense where it's like, you know, there's not as much equity in deals as there, you know, even in the last year, stuff's been difficult. I don't know the reason why. But pivoting, we we moved everything kind of to our home base, which is a lot more in-person appointments. The type of we're an inbound, you know, acquisitions company most for. So we're usually the first person these people are talking to. So I have to be very cautious about giving prices out because if people aren't educated on what a cash offer is, and I go spit something that's, you know, $400,000 off of what they expect they're gonna get, they're not gonna talk to me anymore. So it's really, I'm finding myself having to schedule probably five to six in-person, you know, good leads that I'm actually, I'm not gonna go waste my time and go somewhere if it doesn't, you know, pencil out and we're, you know, a good opportunity.

SPEAKER_05 1:07:26

It kind of comes down to the way, like what Hunter does really well is he can analyze a deal, underwrite a deal, and the architecture, there's no script, there's no magic pill. It's he's got he builds a relationship and he can very quickly decipher if there's an any opportunity there or not. And so he's always maximizing his effort with people of hey, like I'm just on the phone with this person that's clueless motivated, doesn't want to sell. And you can, I can hear him. I listen in the office all day while the conversations, and he'll be like, hey, you know, I think you really should list with a real estate agent, you know, and he he's constantly educated.

SPEAKER_07 1:08:03

That's the thing. It's it's on to the next big time, filtering through what's worth your time and what's not. And when I first started out, you know, I was nervous, I wanted to have conversations, and you'll you'll stay on the phone for an hour with something that is nowhere near your, you know, not gonna be a deal. So now it's like I'll look at something extra big because you're not gonna change somebody's mind. Depends on motivation, you know, those key pillars on a deal, if it's gonna be good or not. But I told my guys, I'm like, listen, like this is something I figured this out. You know, Hayden gave me a script, I threw that fucker in the trash can within like 10 minutes, right? And I was like, I feel like insubordination. I was cold calling at the time when I first started, and I'm like, you know, trying to read this script. I'm like, no, I wanted that, yeah. I'm like, no. So I just started like some like chill, like, I'm like, I who am I? I'm Hunter Aldridge.

SPEAKER_03 1:08:48

I'm gonna delete this part of the podcast because we can never train acquisitions people.

SPEAKER_07 1:08:52

So I switched up the script shit, and then I'm calling people and like the answer. I'm like, hey, how are you doing today? You know, I'm doing good, you know, is this blah, blah, blah, whatever name on it. Yeah, hey, you know, my name's Hunter Aldridge. I'm actually a local investor here in Somerville. I just wanted to call and see if you had any property or land you're looking to sell today. Nice country accent. And I started going from, you know, F you go die reactions to, you know, even if they're saying no, I started getting a lot more like better conversations and stuff. And that's why I teach these guys when they come in. I'm like, you the most benefit you're gonna get is being around me and the sledge, being in the office, seeing us talk to people. Because that was the thing about like when Rob started, Rob is super hungry, comes out of the army as well. He's not somebody that you have to micromanage, like he's hungry and he's ready to go. Didn't spend a lot of time. It was him being beside me. And I've learned this in hotels too, because I was very good at talking to people. People that worked with me, I would start hearing them reciprocate things that they heard me saying and interactions. And I knew that that's where I came through. I'm like, okay, you're not gonna get a script. We got another new guy. My brother just joined us actually Monday. He's in North Carolina. He joined the team, so he's coming in. He was doing life insurance sales. Um, but he's the same way. It it's it's the ability to have a conversation. You it's no one can teach you how to do this or have an interaction. It's not gonna be good the first time. You have to learn, you know? No one can prep you on scripts and stuff like all day, even having a conversation in the office practice makes better. But at the end of the day, you have to go through these circumstances to learn how to navigate that and figure it out. Because that's exactly what I did. And it sucks for them because they get a little bit of tough love because that's exactly what I did when you I didn't have, you know, you weren't training me. You know, I bugged the shit out of them how to underwrite at first for like the first month. And then what changed my point and more contracts, Aiden looks at me and goes, brother, he's like, just get it under contract. We've done enough examples, like just go and do it. And I needed that empowerment because I had this whole thought process of, you know, this isn't my company. I'm not gonna go get a contract sign. He's like, There's a reason why, you know, it's better you got to learn. So when that I started, and underwriting is a huge key in this, you know. I get a lot of people that tell me, F you, I'm not taking that offer, and then a month later they call me back because they took, you know, an offer higher russ. I'm sure you've been through this, but they call me back and they're like, you were right. Like, how much are you interested in? And I'm like, well, let me take a look. I'm still right here, it will work. I know I can get it done right here.

SPEAKER_03 1:11:16

The other buyer wasn't legit, and you are legit. And I think that's a good thing.

SPEAKER_05 1:11:19

How much fun are the biggest thing for you to kind of take like take off on the ramp and just go for it? Is you, yeah, you were you were coming to me. He was coming to me a lot saying, hey, like, can you underwrite this deal? What about this? He was nervous because it wasn't his own money, and I had to kind of force him to think of like, these are the numbers, like trust yourself. And I had to give him the power. I said, You you do do not come to me to underwrite a deal that's that's taking away, like, I don't need to yank the rug out. I don't need that control. I need him to be able to underwrite a deal himself, and now he's amazing at it and he gets good deals, and we don't have to terminate contracts, we don't got to get reductions because he underwrites it correctly, he sets the expectations, and I've given, you know, empowered him to like train himself over these many deals, and now he has that power, and so now he doesn't have to, and now it's faster and everything works smoother. You know, I could have made into where as a as a business owner that I was like all the deals have to run through me, I gotta approve all the offers. No, like no, the second hunter sends me a contract, I make sure it is formatted correctly and I sign it. I don't need to comp it because I know he did it right. Right.

SPEAKER_03 1:12:22

Can anybody do this?

SPEAKER_07 1:12:25

It goes through me usually. What do you mean?

SPEAKER_03 1:12:27

Talking about every anybody under I mean, can you train can you train anybody to do this?

SPEAKER_05 1:12:33

Uh I I think well, so I I I guess I don't know how you want me to answer that. I'll answer how I think you want me to answer it. I think when I when I first I don't have an agenda, it's an honest question. Well, I when I first started um as a business owner, I just hired anybody I was that would work for me. I was like, if anybody says that they raise their hand, they say, hey, I'll work for you. I hired anybody, it didn't matter, they just had a heartbeat. And I didn't have the the track record to be able to hire an A player like Hunter. Hunter is like a player, like the definition, you know, ambition. That's clear. You know, and so that's once I had built the track record and I brought in a players, I only bring in other A players at this point, you know. And then I the newest guy we just hired, I said, go have a meeting with Hunter. You know, if if you don't fit with the team, if Hunter doesn't feel good about it, you know, I did my interview with him, and now he met with Hunter and Hunter's like, hey, this guy's the next this guy's it. This is I think this is who we need. And so it's it's you're able to train the people once you once we kind of figured out what that person looked like. You know, once I fit once I knew who who had the sauce, yes, they can be trained. And if you want something bad enough, you know, you'll go and do it. Yeah, you gotta be willing to.

SPEAKER_07 1:13:47

I think that's the with this type of job is when I first started, Hayden was out of town. And I got in the office and I'm I had I had to make money, you know. I'm like, my base, it ain't, it ain't where I I can be, you know, I'll get by for six months or so, but I need to make money. And I got in here and these dudes were doing absolutely nothing. I mean, I I sat here, I I literally sat at my desk and I was like, what the hell is my job? What the what am I doing right now? And I'm messaging him, he's like, I'll be back Wednesday. And then he gets back, and you know, we did nothing. And then finally, when he gets back, you know, daddy's home. We start turning on the dialer. Um, I remember they made one dial and weren't training me or nothing. I just said, I'm gonna do this. I jumped in because I'm like, I need to learn what I'm doing. And, you know, there was no guidance and that stuff didn't last long because of the laws and stuff the team reduced pretty heavily pretty quickly. I figured it out, and I that's what I tell all my guys, I'm like, listen, this is you work for yourself essentially. You've been given the tools, which is a lot of money for these good leads that are coming through and things like this. This is something that it's the experience and the education you're gonna get from this process, but I can't call for you by yourself. We had a guy that was gonna help us out from another area, and I spent two hours of my time on web calls telling them how to pull foreclosures, you know, doing some stuff. And I'm like, you got to make the phone call. Daddy can't do the phone call for you. You gotta do it. And you gotta learn, you're gonna learn by doing. I call him every day. I'm like, hey, did you make them calls? I still can't make my first call. I'm like, dude, I went to town, I'm like, this guy ain't got it, man. He can't. You have to be self-motivated to want to make money and to go in here and to talk. And that that's the good thing about like, like freaking sledge is is that was my coolest thing. Is like, and Russ, this is one of the big reasons I wanted to get out of hotels. I saw my own capabilities. And I would I worked for a big company, my last company. I would we would have was out of Alabama, and I'm in the room with like 200 GMs and director of sales. And I'm that guy working the crowd, like talking to like the hotel staff, like the next morning at breakfast, I'm like, hey, blah, blah, blah, by their name, like, how are you doing? You know, and they're joking with me, like talking to everybody. And I would see my abilities to to you know, converse with people and communication. And I I caught myself a lot of times, like, I said the point, I always think want more. And there's a fine line of that. But I said, I think I'm destined to do more. What can I do? More. I need to be in sales, I need to be doing something to where I can go use my gift of the jab to go talk to people. I'm a great connector and doing that, that was the the big reason kind of going in there. But you got to be able to go in here and be and self-motivated. I can't do it for you. And I that was what I was connecting at. The people that worked for me were amazing people in hotels. But there is a difference of people, you know, who making $10 to you know $15 an hour for their entire life. You got some very rare people who just enjoy cleaning rooms or, you know, working breakfast, things like that. Yeah. But you don't have like overall, you're not talking about very motivated people who have big goals. You know, I tried to actually teach that in the hotels of having goals, you know, don't compare yourself to other people. You know, whatever you want to do in life, go do it. But I liked, I wanted people that were like me. You know, loyalty was hard to find because you're not paying people to be loyal in businesses like that. A lot of turnover, roller coaster, things might go good. You get a good, you know, golden star who really helps out for a few months, but then they want more money. You can't do it because you're on a tight budget. Um, hotels don't, you know, they don't cash flow as much as people think they do. When, you know, it's really like a rental property on steroids, and a lot of that goes back into the effects. That's it. Yeah. So I uh I I I was interested in sales because I was like, you know, you look at a salesperson like how you have to be to make money, because if you can come into work and not do anything, you ain't gonna make no money. So you gotta you already got a driven person who they're not gonna last very long.

SPEAKER_03 1:17:33

Have you heard Tony Robbins explain a great salesperson? No, great, great salesperson. Tony Robin, I was a sales manager for a little for a little bit. A great salesperson is the right mix of ego and empathy. If you have too much ego, everybody's gonna say, This guy's a dick, I'm not working with him. If you have too much empathy, you're gonna take no for an answer when you should not take no for an answer. If you can balance that ego and empathy, and I hear that from both of you, like crystal clear that you care about people, you have empathy for people, but you also care about yourself, your organization, your partner, your business, your family. You know, there's that that balance of ego and empathy is one of the best things I ever heard when I was learning to sell and teaching other people to sell.

SPEAKER_10 1:18:32

Yeah, that's pretty much it.

SPEAKER_03 1:18:33

And and keeping that as a I like formulas. I like, I mean, to me, that's a it's not a formula I can write on a blackboard, but it you understand that that's a balance of things. So those those kinds of things are really exciting to me. And I've I've heard this through the whole podcast today, is you know, the the opera and the wrestling and the broken hand and the kind of broken dreams with the you know, things didn't quite go the way. And there's that ego and empathy working together because if you have no empathy, nobody's gonna work with you. Okay. So I love it. Um, we're gonna wrap it up. We're going to do this again because this has been fantastic and um would love to catch up with you guys in the future. So it is time. Ryan's signaling to me. Ryan keeps me on track with everything. You don't know Ryan's here, Ryan is with me every time, and he's doing hand signals and all sorts of things to keep this thing rolling. And you printed it on the back of the paper, so I have to flip the page over. You're gonna have to edit a bunch of shit out on this one, dude. So I want to thank Hunter Aldridge and Hayden Albert for being with us today. This has been incredible. I've enjoyed it, I've learned a lot. You can find the Blue Cup podcast on YouTube, Instagram, Twitter, or X or whatever it's called now. Our website is goodfaithproperty solutions.com. And we'd love to have your comments positive, negative things that you'd like to hear in the future. So if you're if you're with us and you're watching, I want to thank the audience for sticking with us. Uh I hope you had as much fun as I did. And let's do some business. Thank you for for joining the Blue Cup podcast, and we'll see you next time.

SPEAKER_04 1:20:30

Thank you, thank you.