The Blue Cup Podcast

I Am 1,000% Unemployable (And Why You Should Be Too)

• The Blue Cup Podcast • Episode 9

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0:00 | 57:14

In this episode of the Blue Cup podcast, host Russ Scheider interviews Chad Weeden, who shares his unique journey from military service to law enforcement and eventually to the car business and real estate. Chad discusses the challenges of balancing family life, especially with a special needs child, and the importance of creating a lifestyle that aligns with personal values. He emphasizes the role of mentorship in achieving sales success and the necessity of hands-on involvement in flipping houses. The conversation also touches on the significance of building a supportive team and adapting to market changes to ensure business growth.

Takeaways

Chad's diverse background includes military, law enforcement, and car sales.
Family life is a priority, especially with a special needs child.
Transitioning careers can lead to unexpected opportunities.
Sales success often comes from mentorship and learning from others.
Flipping houses requires hands-on involvement and strategic marketing.
Maintaining a work-life balance is crucial for family time.
Building a team can enhance business efficiency and personal freedom.
Learning from past experiences helps shape future decisions.
The importance of creating a lifestyle that aligns with personal values.
Success in business often requires adapting to market changes.

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SPEAKER_00

I am one thousand percent unemployable. What we do is risky, but having a job is risky too. You freaking slam your head against the wall in in business, and you learn the hard way. Um, and that was one of the hard things that we learned in our first business. There was an old microphone that tried it out for himself. His name is Russ. He on the mic.

SPEAKER_02

And now he's got a podcast show.

SPEAKER_01

Hello again and welcome to the Blue Cup Podcast. You know what to do. Like and subscribe. There's a little bell below. And most importantly, we love comments. So if Chad says something controversial today, which he probably will, um, I'd love to have your comments on it. And we'd love to hear what you'd like to learn or know or topics we could cover. So comments are very important. Like and subscribe. And I'm very excited to have my friend Chad on today. We've known each other for quite a while, and Chad's background could not possibly be more different from mine because he I'm a college boy and he was military and law enforcement and all, you know, all these things and the car business. And I can't wait to hear some of your story again and share that, and then talk about that, how how that rolls into the lifestyle and adventures between beautiful coastal South Carolina and beautiful Colorado. So let's get into it. Yeah. So what what do you want to know? Chad, Chad Whedon, let's talk about. We'll start with Will. Can we start with Will? Yeah. I love Will. Chad and Wendy, his wife. Wendy's also a rock star, and I think we need to have a separate podcast with her, although I think she'll never agree to it. So we'll see what happens. Good, good. Because she is also a rock star in a little different way. But Chad and Wendy have a special needs son who is awesome. His name's Will. He's almost as big as me now. And I I really enjoy spending time with Chad and Will.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah, so I mean, this morning we got up at the crack of dawn and he went to men's Bible study with me. So he was all about getting up this morning, and we just dropped him off at his uh first day of freshman year in high school. Oh wow. So I literally just walked in the door from from doing that. But uh, you know, just from with Will, you know, there's been obviously challenges just in life. We've kind of crafted our business around that. Neither one of us like to work in office or be tied down. And really it's not a matter of that we don't want an office, it's just it doesn't that doesn't right life.

SPEAKER_01

Right.

SPEAKER_00

I think we could probably get a lot more done if we both had offices, separate offices. Or offices with closed doors where we were in like separate, but that's just not how how it works. And you know, I'm downstairs in my office, I call it my dungeon, and she's got the nice office with uh a bunch of windows and a bunch of daylight, and I'm down here in in the dungeon trying to have daytime lights in here to feel like it's daytime.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah. You're in Colorado right now, right?

SPEAKER_00

Yeah, we're in Colorado.

SPEAKER_01

Okay.

SPEAKER_00

Um outside of Denver. So Yeah, we live in Denver proper, really. Um 20 minutes from downtown, 20 minutes to the airport, which fits everything we do. Uh you know, it works, it works for you know, last minute ball games, um and it works for all the travel that we do. But yeah, we just don't want to be in an office and we've crafted our businesses both both of our businesses. She's a real estate broker, a multi-state broker.

SPEAKER_01

And very successful. She's very successful with that. Yeah. And in two different markets, and two very different markets, very far apart. So far apart. We'll do that on Wendy's podcast.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah. Yeah. And that's, you know, kind of how I started. We just moved here and I had a I I took a uh finance director position at a automotive dealership. And long story short, I it was a SHIT show. I didn't even last there two and a half weeks before I packed my office up. I I literally just went away from my I literally was just kind of I already knew within a week. And unfortunately Wendy kind of was sensing that I was probably gonna bounce. But you know, I'd already had I already had flips going. I'd had done some flips, I'd already been wholesaling.

SPEAKER_01

So let's back up a few steps and talk about did you go right in the military out of high school?

SPEAKER_00

Yeah. Thirty days after I graduated, I made sure that I got my ear pit uh pierced, pissed off my dad, shaved my head, showed up with a ear pierced ear. I still have mine. Yeah. I did it when I went to California uh with my um high school girlfriend at the time. Showed back up at home and was kind of like, I'm rolling out in 30 days. I mean, what are you gonna what do you what do you you can't say nothing now type deal. So I was kind of a rebel in that sense, which you know translates to me being a rebel pretty much my whole life.

SPEAKER_01

And you were um you were MP, right? Military police? Yeah, I was a K9 Handler, MP, K9 Handler. I've seen pictures of you with your dog. I love we'll see if we can dig some of those up with your permission from social media of a very young Chad. That's right. Beautiful. Um I'm gonna call it a German police dog. Yeah, Belgian.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah. And you know what else I was you know what else was beautiful then? What? I had flowing beautiful hair.

SPEAKER_01

Well, you had some hair. All the pictures I've seen are buzz cut, but yeah, the the military police thing and the canine. I mean, that's such a small percentage of the population that people get to actually experience that. So I love that that's kind of part of your formation, as you're saying, talking about coming out of high school, get an earring, wander around for a minute, and then did you find a place in the military or did you feel out of place in the military?

SPEAKER_00

No, I I was totally in place in the military. I love the military. I just hated working for senior NCOs that couldn't spell three and four letter words. Right. Right. So that that was that was for me, you know, from just a leadership standpoint. Most of my officers were were were pretty good. And I'm I mean, I had many NCOs, you know, that were that were good leaders, but my last few kept winding down my last duty station, it w it was horrendous. And you know, that was kind of about the point that I was like, do do I re-enlist or do I go and chase a law enforcement career in the in the civilian world? And you know, ultimately that's what made my decision was I'm just I I cannot work for freaking idiots.

SPEAKER_01

Right.

SPEAKER_00

Particularly idiots that can't spell anything, yeah, it seemed like.

SPEAKER_01

So that's kind of not universal in the military, but it is not out of the realm of possibility either.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah. And again, I had a lot of great leaders, a lot of great times, but just that last like 18 months, you know, you're coming, you got 18 months to go, you need you're trying to figure out do I you know the reenlistment thing, and then you're just slapped with a bunch of stupid NCOs. I was like, all right, I'm out. I gotta go. I gotta do my own thing. Which again has translated to me why I work for myself.

SPEAKER_01

Right. And that's your your attitude today too.

SPEAKER_00

So I can be the idiot.

SPEAKER_01

Right. Exactly. Yeah, I I I did um I did not join the military. My dad was an army aviator in Vietnam. Um, and he chose a path of going to college first and then graduated from college with a um engineering degree. I was born a month later, and then he went to Vietnam for a 13-month rotation. So he was hardcore is I mean, he's still he's 81 years old, and yeah, you know, he's making ammunition in his garage right now. Um and I had a similar experience when I I joined ROTC in college. I did not enjoy the people in that particular group. And it doesn't mean the whole military is that way or any anything's anything that my particular class, I was like, I don't want to spend years with these people. So I opted out because I had a choice, and my dad was like, There's no war, you don't have to do it. He didn't have a choice. So it it's nice that we have choices, and I know you've made some pretty incredible choices in your life with let's talk about the right after the military, did you go straight into law enforcement or something else?

SPEAKER_00

Yeah, I went straight in and into uh law enforcement. I started working with uh uh county sheriff's department in Columbia. Okay. So I end up at Richland County right when I got out of the military. So I actually started working while I was still I still had like forty-five or sixty days of terminal leave. Right. So I actually started my job when I was on leave. I actually really didn't even take a break. I I was out and then two weeks later started at the sheriff's office.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah, that's great.

SPEAKER_00

Yep. So but yeah, that's that's that was the that was the beginning to so kind of where I'm at now, really.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah, and how did you get from so you were with the Richland County Sheriff's Department in South Carolina? And um then how did you transition from that to the car business?

SPEAKER_00

So I had a buddy that was uh uh finance manager in the car business that um I actually knew from my military days. He dated um he dated somebody that I knew in the through the military. We just were we were workout buddies and would would see each other somewhat regularly. And I just remember just leaving we I was went to work out one day with him. He you know, I was aggravated because I had to go to IA and it was over, just some BS. And I was like, I was just bitching. Like, this is I mean, I've been on nights. You have to write a distinct statement for this stupidness, you know, didn't do anything wrong. And he was like, Man, you need to go into the car business. He's like, You need to get into car business now, you'll get into management pretty quick. Oh, okay. And I'm like, Yeah, right. Yeah, okay, sure. And that was kind of how it started. And then like months later, I was like the same situation back in IA writing a statement, you know, we're we're paid to go out and fight crime and uh dealing with frivolous, you know, BS. And so of course, I'm like, I call him like, hey, I'm on the way. I just left IA. What is IA? Internal affairs for complaints. So yeah, so I'm like I get I get there and he says, Hey man, you need to I'm telling you, you need to come, you need to get the car business, you'll you'll quadruple your salary. Yeah. Just selling cars. Right. So he kind of got my kind of got my attention. And just, you know, one day I just called him like, hey, get who's that you're wanted to tell me to talk to at Dick Smith, which ended up being a a very good mentor of mine. And so I made the phone call to Eddie, and that's how I started. I started on the sales floor and just learned the sales game, was very successful at that.

SPEAKER_02

Yep.

SPEAKER_00

And then um it wasn't long after after I started that I was, you know, in Eddie's office one evening and he said, you know, you'll stick with me, your neighbors will be doctors and lawyers. And yeah, I knew that to be the fact because I'd become friends with a lot of the other managers. I you when you talk about not f like feeling like you're not fitting in, boy, coming from law military law enforcement onto the sales floor of uh in the car business. Right. I think I had like I would think I had some things in common with maybe like two out of twenty some salespeople.

SPEAKER_01

Like they're not exactly buttoned up to put together, squared away.

SPEAKER_00

I mean, you know, I didn't have the drinking problems and like the you know, the like all of these things that people have got going on, and not that all car salesmen are that way.

SPEAKER_01

No, no, no. Cole Beaver was in c in um car sales, Grant Cardone was in car sales, and then Chad Whedon was in car sales. I mean there are there are exceptions to the rule, but there's a lot of I love Grant Cardone in Seller Be Sold. Yeah, talks about the furniture.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01

And you know what the furniture is? Yeah, the furniture is the guys who have been there for 10 years. Yes. And he said, so I come in and I do my thing and I look over and the furniture's still there, yeah, being furniture. Speaking of human beings being furniture, I've I've never worked in the car business, but I've worked in some pretty similar industries where I was like, I recognize who are the go-getters and who's the furniture.

SPEAKER_00

That was very that was very that's very, very true because in the car business there's this thing called 90 Day Wonder. And you know, when I started, um I actually was I was actually probably the opposite of some 90-day wonders because I was there for three weeks and never even sold a car. And I started I started in July of oh three, and uh I went three weeks without selling a car. I had a week and a half left in the month. And you know, I've got Eddie, who's my mentor now, telling me, man, that I don't know that you're gonna make it, man. You're you're running through my ups, you're not logging in, like, you know, right. You need to get something sold. I I normally don't hire green peas, and this is why. So like the pressure was on. And then what happened? And I sold eight cars in in a week and a half. Right. And I love it. I made more than what I was would have made from my whole month's paycheck at the sheriff's department. So then I was like, Yeah, because I'm telling you, I was about to go back to the sheriff's office. Yeah, I was like, ready. I'm like, all right, I'm gonna give it. So then when that happened, I was like, all right, I'm going to give this another month. So then in in August, I sold 12 and a half cars and I made $6,500 on 12 and a half cars, not knowing anything what I was doing. And this is back in 03, so that was pretty dang good. Um then I was like, oh, okay. Oh now I'll I think I'll stay another month. And then the furniture that you're talking about were those same people saying, You you might be doing it now, but guess what? Winter months are coming, right? Fall months, the slow months, same problem for every solution. Yeah, that's when you wash out. And I actually how do you sell half a car? Uh you had a split with another salesperson. Okay. That's okay. So I guess somebody came on my day off and something like that. Yeah. So if like I can't, you came in, I somebody came in on my day off, and me and you are take each other help each other out. You know, you you do the do the deal and you you So it's twelve and a half commissions, really.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah. Yeah. Okay.

SPEAKER_00

Yep.

SPEAKER_01

But I could see why that would would excite you. Yeah. At that stage of life. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00

So it wasn't all that it wasn't long after that that that's kind of how I was like, you know, Eddie really taught me this the sales game and how to make money. Yeah. And then when you talk about Grant Cardone, I was immersed in Grant Cardone. He would come to the his people would come to the dealerships. I went to his gatherings four or five times. And the last time that I went to one of his events was in Charlotte, and it was specifically on leasing. And our company was not big on leasing. And man, I I did that month after I came back from that event, I did like 25 cars, and freaking like 70% of them were leases. Wow. I mean, I literally paid for me and Wendy's wedding and all of that. So you paid attention is what you said. Yeah. I like I used everything on that. And it was like, I mean, I we you know, our company had at the time, I think we had eight stores, and you know, as far as leases go, I had done as many leases as the whole company had done. Yeah. So it was that was pretty cool. So like Grant Cardone, when you're talking about mentorship and people and going to events, you know, anybody that's new in the real estate investing game, you've got to go to those things. That's how me and you really met. Yeah. That's true. In um Asheville. Right. That was the first time I met you. That's right. That was what, seven years ago? Eight years ago. And you're like, I live in Charleston, I do stuff in Columbia. And I'm like, I like just quit my job and I live in Denver and I'm got some flips going. So I mean, you would check on my stuff when I would fli when I was here, and then when I would fly in, and you were in Charleston, I would I would check on your stuff. So that's right.

SPEAKER_01

You called me me a week or two ago and said, Hey, do you have anything I need to check on? I'm in Columbia. Yeah. And I was like, No, actually, I was just up there. I'm good. But I mean, I'd you have checked on things for me before, and we we do that teamwork. So tell us tell us a story about military police or law enforcement or something crazy, scary, funny, just just some sort of story about that.

SPEAKER_00

Oh gosh. Oh man, we got so many. Now you put me on the spot. Crazy or funny? Uh how about how about how about crazy? Because I tell my kids this crazy's good. I I I tell my kids about this quite a bit. Every time I I'm on shop road driving by Abbott Street, I think it was on Abbott Street, going to the going towards the stadium. I always I always laugh. But I can remember I had first I had it was first at the sheriff's when I first started at the sheriff's office, I was on night, so I was in Region 1. And uh I'm on, I think it was at Abb Abbott Street, I'm just cruising down Abbots, pitch black, and uh just some little street some streetlights. See this lady walking down down the road walking towards me, and I'm like, is that blood running down her face? So she's got like blood running down her face, and then I get I get next to her, I roll my window down to talk to her, and she's got a fork stuck right in her right in her head. Oh my god. Yeah, like literally right in her temple. Bam! And so I'm like, oh my gosh, what what what in the world? Her and her brother, this happens all the time, got into a big Thanksgiving argument and fight, like a whole family fight a couple doors down, and she was just walking back to to her house with a fork stuck in her stuck in her head or a temple. Of course, I call EMS and of course nobody wanted to press charges or anything. So of course that that's probably one of the funniest stories. So whenever we're together for holidays, you know, I always Yeah, that's funny and scary at the same time.

SPEAKER_01

I love it. I always tell my kids, hey, be careful, might have might have a fork stuck in your head, like I seen before. I have I have a similar story that happened over Thanksgiving where I had a um a seller that I had a contract for four houses and five lots that he had inherited and he was alcoholic drug addict. And I I really got to like the guy, but I had to I had to like through the whole process, I would drive him to his accountant's office. I would drive and then I'd stop at the gas station and buy him a couple of beers on the way home so he could he could survive the night and then to the lawyer's office to the and I lost him on Thanksgiving. We were supposed to close a week after Thanksgiving. Totally lost him. I bought him a cell phone, like a burner phone that he could use and put them in a in a extended stay hotel. So I'm knocking on the door of the extended stay hotel and he opens a door with a big bandage on his head. And his wife is just out of her mind on drugs or alcohol or whatever in the back of the hotel room. He said, Can you believe that bitch threw a can of corn at me? And I said, What are you talking about? And he pulled the bandage back and my stomach turned because there's this gash in his head. And he said, I just got out of jail. Bitch hit me with a can of corn and I go to jail. I was like, Oh, I have no idea what's happening right now. We have a closing in two days. What do you need? I mean, please put that bandage back. I mean, it was gnarly, and she had thrown a can of corn and split his head open, and then of course he flipped out and went to jail for a couple of days. So I couldn't find him. Oh my god. So it's it's kind of like a fork stuck in the temple. I mean, it was very similar. Thanksgiving brings out the best in families. That's right, especially nowadays. Yeah. Yep. Yeah, they they had been to the food pantry and gotten a bunch of stuff for Thanksgiving, and she threw a can of corn at him. So that's good. Say so. Um I love the lifestyle that you and your family live. And uh you're from Colorado originally, right? And Wendy's from beautiful Eastover, South Carolina.

SPEAKER_00

Is that right? Oh, she's gonna be so mad that that's actually live on video. She's actually from Hopkins, but I just messed with her. I'm sorry. I just mess with her that she's from Eastover.

SPEAKER_01

Oh, okay.

SPEAKER_00

When she gets mad, she goes Eastover.

SPEAKER_01

Okay. South Carolinians will understand those, the rest won't, but well, I mean, here's even better.

SPEAKER_00

She can you get her really mad, which takes a lot, but when you get her to that point, not only is she from Eastover, but she can speak geachy. Is she gonna go geechy on you? You can go geechee. And those that live down around the low country, Charleston, they know about that. Yeah, yeah, we do.

SPEAKER_01

We know about we know about going geechy. I love it. Um so you guys did you meet in law enforcement? How how did you meet?

SPEAKER_00

So we met through we met through some friends and started dating from there. Okay. Um I ended up getting out, left the sheriff's office and started working in the car business.

SPEAKER_01

So that was and so now you split your time or you you spend almost all your time in Colorado now. But you have a you have businesses. I mean, Wendy has a business and you have a business in Columbia, South Carolina.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah, so we we um the the kids go to school during the school year here, and then you know, our oldest is a senior this year here in Denver. Here in Denver, yeah. So our our our kids go to school here in in Denver, and then we spend as a family all together. We're in we're in South Carolina for four months total of the year. Usually we're doing like we'll do two weeks for Thanksgiving, we're doing two weeks for Christmas, we do spring break. Pretty much all of summer. And then I actually spend probably about half of my time or more than half of my time in in South Carolina, because I I travel back and forth more than Wendy does. I think that's probably one good thing about Wendy's business, and she's a much better business person than I am, which is really probably why she don't need to go as much. But she um she doesn't go back as much as I do. Um and I you know when you're in the flipping game, you know, you you gotta be you you can't be completely absent.

SPEAKER_01

Right.

SPEAKER_00

Um and all these people selling this that we do this virtually and I don't ever travel to my market and blah, blah, blah. You know, percentage-wise, there's only a few of those people that can do that. I I could do that, but hell, I've already lost money. Every time I do that, I lose money. Right. So I mean, it's like, okay, maybe maybe these people just either they have way better systems. I know some of these people, I they don't have as better systems than I've got. Or B, their threshold to losing money is just much higher than than mine, which is usually the case. So I I would say, you know, flipping, if you're if you're flipping, I think you definitely have to be somewhat hands-on. I I just don't think you can be 100% virtual flipping.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah. So you guys, so you do a lot of marketing direct to seller, and you and I've had this conversation many times. You you've never really wholesaled much of anything.

SPEAKER_00

No, I I stopped wholesaling and I stopped wholesaling completely in 2020.

SPEAKER_01

Mm-hmm.

SPEAKER_00

Actually, I stopped wholesaling completely in 2018 when I moved here.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah, that's what I was thinking.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah. As far as yeah, and when I that's about the time I got into Columbia. Yeah, I mean, I guess I'll preface like I started out my business wholesaling. Not saying that I haven't done any wholesale deals. The last wholesale deal I did was probably back in 2022 or 2021.

SPEAKER_01

Is it the last but you you generate the leads to create your own flops and they uh do you create some listings for Wendy?

SPEAKER_00

Yeah, we create listings for Wendy, and that's kind of always been the case, even when I first started wholesaling. But when I started looking, when I mean I hadn't I had a pro I had a pretty high income to replace walking away from the car business. And so when I was looking at my income, you know, if I was gonna make if I wanted to make 200 grand a year, to back into the and at the time when I was wholesaling, a average deal in Columbia was like five to seven grand. Right. Wholesal. A lot of volume. Yeah, it was that would be in a lot of volume. I mean, fortunately, when I was wholesaling, my average was much, much more than that. That's just because I had a lot more sales experience than pretty much everybody else out there at the time. So, I mean, when I when I backed into my numbers, I was our average wholesale deal was twelve to fifteen grand.

SPEAKER_01

Right.

SPEAKER_00

So when I when I backed into those numbers, it was still a lot of deals to get that done for you. Well, and you have a lot of marketing expense to subtract from out, too. Marketing expense and and all of that. But you know, when you're when you're just working off, all right, these are the averages. Maybe I'm just getting lucky on some of these because these lower averages, being in the car business, averages are averages. Yeah. So I mean, I'm like, I based everything off of, all right, if I was gonna do $10,000 average assignment fee and I wanted to make $500 grand a year, man, that's a lot of damn work to do that, is is how I felt. Especially when I was wholesaling these deals to the end buyers, and then I'm looking at what they were making at the end. And I mean, some of these were just softball deals too, right? They're just on a pig. I mean, you know that they b at the time, you know they didn't spend more than you know, 20 grand, maybe 25 grand to do the repair. You know, they're making another 70,000 on top of what I made. Yeah, so why wouldn't you keep the town and the 70? So that's kind of how that that's kind of how that how that started. And I was like, you know what? I think I with wholesaling, I actually didn't really like at the time wholesaling was kind of just getting fired up. I didn't like the fact that I was sitting there telling somebody, I'm going to close, I'm the one that's closing. Even if when we're doing it the other way, hey, I've got a I've got a list of buyers and I'm gonna find somebody to to assign your contract to, all of those things. I just didn't like that. So I was like, you know what? And then when you start thinking about building a team out, I'm like, all right, I've got to have a transaction coordinator, I've got to have a dispo, I've got to have acquisitions, I've got to have all these people that actually directly work for me. And I didn't like the idea of that either. Yeah, I've been through that in our other business. Right. So I was like, how how can I build this where I have just a small core team and we can make the income that we want to make?

SPEAKER_01

That's really the gold nugget, and I have Ryan tagged these gold nugget, is build the team you want and build the life you want and not what's what we should do. Right. Because Tony Robbins, a favorite Tony Robbins quote of mine is don't shoot all over yourself. And I feel like a lot of times I've been there too. I had a team of five a couple of years ago, and you know, it's well, we should, and we have to, I mean, you have to do this. You have to, and at some point, it doesn't fit our goals, our plan, or the lifestyle that we want. And you're able to accomplish that because I I know you pretty well.

SPEAKER_02

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01

We we uh socialize a lot, and I know that spending time in Denver, I mean, I see your social media, you and Will going skiing, you and Ava Grace going skiing, the whole family going skiing, you know, and Denver's an hour and a half from Denver. I understand that. Yeah. And it feels like you can ski in Denver, but you can ski about two hours away. I get that. But you guys, I mean, you you enjoyed that, and then you know, I know you spend some time in the Florida Keys, which we have. My family has a house in Key Largo, and we have been going to the Keys for about 30 years. So I know you enjoy the Keys. And then my parents live in Beaufort, South Carolina, and your in-laws live in Beaufort, South Carolina, so you enjoy the low country waters. But the lifestyle thing to me is what you were just slogging through in this conversation about the team, and you have to have this and you have to have that. And for some people, that's very energizing.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01

And for other people, and I'm more on on your team, that's team is demoralizing to me in a lot of ways. So, um, you know, the motivation is to find what works for Chad and Wendy and Willow Ava Grace for the family, yeah. And that's Colorado, South Carolina. I mean, I I love the way I doesn't mean it's easy and it's always fun, but you know you've engineered this for yourselves. Yeah. You and you and Wendy as a team, I I feel like tell me.

SPEAKER_00

Oh, I see you doing this, you see you doing that. Like, yeah, I tell you the challenges that I've had the last 18 months, I promise you, nobody listening to this, and people I know personally would never want to go through what we've gone through. They most people probably wouldn't even make it through it. Right. You know, like just from the market shift and you know, all the money that we've lost. Right. Like you know, all of those things. And then all of that, I still cannot do anything what we do without the team that I have. Right. So like my team where we're at now is like I'm good, I'm I'm good with that. I'm energized. I like I like that. So talk about your team, talk about the team that does work for you. So I've got uh I was in I I joined Investor Fuel in and at that time I had been just kind of a I was basically a one-man show. I had had some acquisitions people doubling as project managers. Like I had I had tried I had tried that, and then um I had then I had no acquisition project manager at one meeting that I went to, one of the meetings I went to, and I was talking about that, and Mike Ambrite, I'll never forget, he was just like, every meeting for I mean this went on for like a year, he's like, every meeting, he said, you have got to have uh an assistant, like an executive assistant. You need an assistant, you don't need somebody to go and close deals for you, and you can do that in your sleep. Right. You don't need anybody to manage the contractors because it sounds like you have good contractors, you have people that you know, like, and trust that yeah, you they need to be managed, but you don't need a person managing them. You can do that from afar and you like to travel back to your market, like you have all those things in place. You have got to hire an assistant, otherwise you're gonna be in the same um circle. And so if finally I listened to somebody and I hired an assistant, she she's got all my credit card numbers, she handles all of our company bills. Like the only thing that I the the only thing I I took back and handle personally still to this day, um, and I've pretty much always handled is just paying contractor invoices. But you know, outside of that, the only the only bills that I handle for our company is just, you know, our marketing spin, which is it's that's automatic with you know, I do TV and Google ads. So all that's automated, pretty much.

SPEAKER_01

Well, that's that's one of the advantages of our gray beards is you learn you learn to hire people who do things who enjoy doing things that we don't enjoy doing and are exceptionally good at the things that need to be done that I'm gonna keep pushing over to the corner of my desk and say, you know, this is more important. It's not more important, I just enjoy it more. So I'm gonna push the important stuff to the side and having someone having someone, Ryan's giving me no like like publishing the podcast. Yes, like publishing the podcast. That's a job for Ryan. That is not a job for us, because what would happen is we'd record a hundred podcasts and you would never see them because I'm gonna push it over to the corner of my desk and go buy properties or you know, go to an event or something. Yes, yes, having having a podcast producer is definitely an example or an executive assistant like you have.

SPEAKER_00

I mean, I the assistant is and I we I still hear this in in fuel meetings, folks struggling with that, with the same thing, and it's the an assistant was like the number one thing. That's when we really started increasing our business. And it allowed me to take because I mean Lauren handled, like so not only is she handled, but she handles all the everything with closing. Like our closing attorney doesn't even they don't even talk to me. Half the time they don't even cue me in on emails. Like Lauren So transaction coordination, yeah. She's handled all of that for a very long time. So so that like she handles all of that. So that that's a pretty busy part of a business when you're when you've got a bunch of properties.

SPEAKER_01

It is, but it's also repetitive. It's repetitive, right? It's not exactly the same every time, but it's pretty damn similar every time.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah, it is. And so for her, it's great. She is uh works with us and she's stay-at-home, you know. Okay. It works. It works for it works for all of us. So and that's and then so from there I've got uh project manager.

SPEAKER_01

I don't want to interrupt you. Do you and Wendy share this assistant?

SPEAKER_00

No, no. Wendy's got her own.

SPEAKER_01

She has her own.

SPEAKER_00

So a lot of people think that Wendy and I are the same business. We are in fact completely opposite businesses.

SPEAKER_01

Well, that's the reason I asked, because I get the impression that you're two different businesses. And I wanted to make that clear to our listeners and watchers, whatever we call viewers.

SPEAKER_00

Viewers, yeah.

SPEAKER_01

That that even though you and Wendy, I think one of the secrets to your success, and this was a failure for me in my marriage and business partnership, is we were all up, we were stepping on each other's feet all the time. And that can be really hard on a marriage and hard on a business. But I feel like you, especially because I I know Wendy and she has a has a good per good strong personality. Yeah. And so do you. Yeah. And you can say, do your thing, I'll do my thing, and you respect each other. So I love the fact you're not trying to share an assistant. I feel like that was Yeah. That can be a dangerous game for a married couple.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah, no, we don't like as far as um people on our teams, we don't share anything. I've got my team, she's got she's got hers. We have our we have our good months. She seems to always have good months now. You know, we have our bad months, she's always having a good month. It seems like that's been the way it's been going. Uh you know, that that's but that's gr that's the great thing about it, right? I mean, the reality is is the reality is is if if something happened to me tomorrow, she can still flip houses. She like she knows everything that we do. And I have I have people in place that could still make it happen. And then she's a killer at she's killer at sales, but she's also very good at business. But if something happened to her I on her side of the business, I know that business, but not like she knows that that side the retail side of the business. We could keep people in place and you know, her assistant's also a broker. Like we could we could structure things to stay stay in business that way. But that's the retail side of the business. I don't know that I would have anything to do with it.

SPEAKER_01

It's good to think about those things. I mean, we don't want to think about it. My my wife has a birthday today. You know, we're all getting older. A good friend of mine died not long ago at all, two years younger than I am. And I mean, you don't see that coming and having some sort of a plan. And I I have uh I have a Google Drive file that's every password, it's protected, but it's everything, everything, every bank account. Because it god, I thought about it this morning. I have nine bank accounts. I mean, you need to that stuff needs to be clear to somebody who can pass that on to the spouse from both directions, should something happen, which it won't, it's gonna be a long time, but who knows?

SPEAKER_00

Right.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah, you could go elk go elk hunting and get trampled and eaten by a bear. I mean, just it could happen, knowing you. Yeah. That's the way you would go.

SPEAKER_00

We're falling hit my head on some of this crazy stuff that we hike up, like you know. Right. But the beautiful thing about how we have things set up is like I'm I'm gonna be bow hunting for 10 days in September, and yeah, where we're going, I literally I don't have any signal. I'll just be on my guard.

SPEAKER_01

I know, I tried to call you one time and a couple of years ago, I was like, Chad, Chad, and it was Yeah, yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_00

I'll call you back like way down a year, right? It's it's like, all right, hey, um, to our contractors, if you have any invoices that need to be paid, you need to you need to have them to me by this date. Because if you send me an invoice during this time period, I'm not ignoring you. I'm just not gonna have signal, but I do, I do tech, I can text, I can't talk on a phone, but I can text back and forth. So like our contractors I'll I'll text and have have they'll have my Garmin, my in-reach number to be able to get in touch with me.

SPEAKER_01

Because you're gonna be on horse, you're gonna be horseback, one horseback bow hunting for what, like ten days?

SPEAKER_00

Yeah, ten days. Like I'm accessible, but I can't get on a phone, I don't have internet, I can't go and wire or transfer money or you know, anything like that.

SPEAKER_01

So But you prepare you prepare the contractors ahead of time. Your business runs. It's not like your business closes and doesn't operate. I mean it operates differently while you're gone.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah, I mean I like I've I mean I've got an operations manager, so I don't need to worry about really um, you know, pens on deals and reviewing deals, and are we gonna buy this? Now we I do review everything with them still. Right. Um, you know, it's just what we do. But if it's like a sign and deal, if it's not something that he's worried about, like they can buy the house. They they can do it and get it done and contracted. Um, you know, and closings, you know, I'll know if we're gonna have a closing coming up. So I'll have things, you know, I'll know if I'm gonna have a closing with that ten within that 10-day or 14-day period. So I can make arrangements to make sure that we are still able to perform on on closings.

SPEAKER_01

I know you and Wendy live that lifestyle. And when uh I took my family on a nine-week RV trip, we had four closings during that nine weeks. And I was an idiot about the West. You know, I'm an East Coast guy. I've I know the Southeast. I was born in Texas, but I was an infant, so I don't know about that. But the I know the Southeast. And so we get an RV, I go to ATD, I buy this little hotspot thing. This was like eight years ago, seven years ago, and I was like, cool, so I'm gonna be able to work from the road, wrong. Yeah, because in Montana, Wyoming, Utah, there's no cell phone signal and a hotspot. I was a dumbass. I didn't realize a hotspot had to have cell phone activity to be able to link my computer to it. And so I remember standing on a park bench outside Yellowstone Lodge, hadn't showered in two days, right? Standing on a park bench, trying to listen to a repair addendum because I couldn't open my email. Yep. And finally I went into the Yellowstone Lodge, which was gorgeous if you've ever been there. And Yellowstone National Park was just incredible. And we were dirty bomb staying in the campground across the road. But I went in and I said, Is there any possible way that you have a business center with a scanner and a printer and a and and I'll pay whatever? Because I just have to get this deal done. And it's like an hour and a half drive to get out of the parking club, and you know, and so they were so gracious. And the guy gave me a room key. He said, To get in the business center, you have to be a guest of the lodge. He said, Don't go to this room, but you can go to the business center. And I spent a couple of hours in there. There was cell signal and there were you know this and was able to get it done. And then we go to the Grand Canyon of Yellowstone that afternoon and watch the waterfall. So that lifestyle, and I know you guys do similar things. And I mean, I think I think about you on a horse packing out an elk. I mean, I've seen the pictures, yeah. And and during our RV trip, we closed four sales. It wasn't easy. Yeah. Got uh I've got a story for all four of how difficult it was. The other thing we learned is that truck starts truck stops in New Mexico will print for you and scan for you, but it's like a dollar fifty a page.

SPEAKER_00

It can get expensive, especially when you're doing a closing packet. You know? And so any track. I have uh I've been I've been elk hunting, horseback, yeah, but it's called hunting for a reason. And unfortunately, I've not packed anything out. I've just worked my ass off uh for days and days and days on end to not get anything. So hopefully that'll change this year. Right. Yeah, we're going early in the season, but bow seasons, or later in the bow season this year.

SPEAKER_01

So that's only a couple of months away. Well, send pictures. I love it.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah, that'd be that'd be great. That'd be a good time.

SPEAKER_01

So yeah, so so you have your you have your team that has evolved over the past few years. Wendy has her team. I really not not that you need my advice or any input, but I really like the way you kind of keep things parallel but separate. Yeah, right. And you're not stepping on each other's feet.

SPEAKER_00

You know, when and I'll say that's that's the wonderful thing about like my wife having her own business, her own thing. She don't need me.

unknown

Right.

SPEAKER_00

Other than maybe help raise the kids. You spend a ton of time with your kids. A lot, yeah.

SPEAKER_01

I mean I mean you spend a lot of time, you and Wendy both, but I know you know, every time I see you, I see Will, unless he's in school.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01

And you know, if he's out of school, he's with you. Uh and I've hung out with Ava Grace too. And it's just uh I love the fact that you're so available for your family.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah, here's what's crazy is you you learn, you freaking slam your head against the wall in in business, and you learn the hard way. Um, and that was one of the hard things that we learned in our first business when we owned a bunch of gyms and had a bunch of people run around, and that was a very personal business. It wasn't a a it wasn't a globo gym, it was a bunch of CrossFit gyms. And that's a very personal business. So when you tried to get out of your business, you know, that it was not easy to have multiple locations. You had a lot of people. And the one that suffered in the most of that was our oldest daughter, Savannah, who's now almost 26 years old, because you know, she was a teenager, she's in like seventh, eight, seventh grade um when we first opened our business, it might even have been sixth grade when we first opened our business. And then we've got Will's diagnosis, he's a little guy. You know, we've got all of that going on, being business owners, and you know, really she's the one that she's the one that if there's anybody out of our kids that says, I never want to be my own business owner, it probably could be Savannah. She's she had she got the short end of the stick when in when you're talking about time, yes, and family traveling, because she says that all the time now. She's like, My God, why didn't you guys do this with me? I mean, you take Will and you guys are going everywhere. I mean, you know, it that's that's the hard part, right? That hurts, that hurts. Yeah, that one hurts, man. You know, it's like you didn't know then what you know now. No, it's like, hey, that just wasn't that was we had to learn the hard way. That was not like we just bought ourselves another, we just bought ourselves another three full time jobs. Yeah. You know, when we when we did that. So I mean, things are you know, there was not that kind of flexibility. So that's kind of how we've crafted that. And when you talk about family time. Here's a gold nugget. We we um this was been talked about in the men's Bible study and in in church a couple weeks ago. Uh our pastor said, You will sp you will spend um seventy percent I think it was seventy percent of your time with your children, or it might have been seventy-five percent of your time with your children the first thirteen years. After that, actually spending time with them, if you think about that, after they're thirteen, you only have twenty-five percent of your time on our trip to spend with them. And that is and that is very true. That doesn't mean that you're not talking to them on the phone, but that means like spending time with them, going places and doing things together and just being as a as a as a family. So when you talk about that, I do feel like we've done a fairly decent job with that with this second go-around with Will and with Will and Ava. And because now she's got her wheels and her car, and you know, we hardly ever see her. You know, she's a senior in high school, she don't really want to hang out with us.

unknown

Right.

SPEAKER_00

So that's very true.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah. I have a 26-year-old daughter as well.

SPEAKER_00

Yep.

SPEAKER_01

And I know what you're saying. I just dropped her off at USC, University of South Carolina, and I've called her twice and texted her twice, and I haven't heard Jack. But she is talking to my wife and two her siblings, but she's like, Dad, I'll call you right back. And of course, I haven't heard. Right.

SPEAKER_00

That's because she thinks that you're the least the one that's least worried about her. Everybody else is more worried about her. So she's she's not even worried about you.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah, no, I I just wanted I just wanted to hear how she's doing. I'm not worried about her. She's she's a smart, she's a smart human and very capable, and she knows that if she needs something, she can call me.

SPEAKER_02

But yeah.

SPEAKER_01

It is it is precious the time that you and I have been able to have with our kids when they're in elementary and middle school, and not like like Savannah or my older daughter Kat, where it's, you know, just head down in the grindstone, and you can't do the things that we're able to do now, or at least you don't think you can. So if you're watching this or listening to this, and if you can craft a lifestyle that includes the things that are important to you, in our case, kids, I think are really important, and some of the experiences are just remarkable, and being able to do business at the same time.

SPEAKER_02

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01

What we do is risky, but having a job is fucking risky too. Oh, without a doubt. Because especially when you get to be my age and you show up for work. I mean, I just had a conversation with somebody a few days ago off the air, and they were like, Yeah, my d my dad was 56, and they just said, you know, you don't work here anymore. And he said, I've been here 30 years, and they said, Well, that was a good 30 years, you don't work here anymore. Right. And you're you're 56, you know, then and have to this this man had to go and you know, it was heartbreaking for him. And you know, we struggle. We you and I sometimes it's hard to pay the bills, sometimes it's hard to figure out situations, but nobody can say you don't have this you don't have a job anymore.

SPEAKER_00

Right. Right. Here's what I tell everybody. I am one thousand percent unemployable. Right. Right. I no matter right how low the valleys are in our businesses. Yeah, it I am unemployable. Yeah, I will I will never go back to the car business. Right. I will I will never go and work for anybody ever again. Like I mean, that's just not gonna not gonna happen. And you talking about this reminds me of the convers the short conversation we had the other day um about doing this podcast was you're talking about my experience in the car business and other people, you know, what they were doing in the car business while I was doing what I was doing. And that was that that's really come full circle because the company that I that I left, every manager there had been there for a very, very long time. Like, you know, there was like literally no manager turnover at our company. I mean, people thought that I came back a second time for a couple years, and people thought I was just absolutely insane for leaving a second like walking away a second time. And why did I leave? Because ultimately I realized that it was like a it's like a domestic violence relationship. It's like the there was a there's a cycle in domestic violence relationships, and you learn this and when you're in law enforcement and whatever, right? But you have what's called the honeymoon phase, like all the bad shit goes down, and then you're in this honeymoon phase. And for the first, you know, we had we literally in our first business bought our bought ourselves a whole full-time job. Like, we did that business for five years, and we've like, okay, we need to renew leases, we're not doing this. Can you do this another five years? No, the answer is no. So I went back to what I know and had a great opportunity to go back and and do that and just worry about what's in front of my screen and how many deals I got on my desk and talking to some customers here and there. And that was the honeymoon phase. I was back just only focused on that, making really good money. I was back in the kill. I loved sales, I loved I loved the throwers and the deals, like I loved all of that. I loved finance. I I loved all of that. I loved the going to lunch with bankruptcy. I loved going to the NASCAR races with bankruptcy. I'm like, I loved that job. I really loved it. What I hated was one family time, which I had experience in our first business, even though we I I didn't have to ask to go on vacation. I didn't have to, like, and I we had a lot of family time. So that was missing. That was the number, that was number one. And then um number two, I just hated working every weekend. Like I we we crafted our other business to where we were, we just would have like a Saturday morning class, but on I was off on Saturdays and Sundays, and then Fridays I pretty much didn't work because I had other members covering classes for us. So I mean I kind of had like this built-in three-day week. So I didn't care if I worked 15 hours a day Monday through Thursday. I had three-day weekends and that poof went away. So once the money wore off, that's that's when the honeymoon phase was over. And that that lasted, you know, for that took a little while, a couple of years, like a year and a half. So that's kind of that's kind of how I ended up leaving a second time. And but our conversation going back to that that we had was all my buddies were while they were playing Clash of Clans and watching all these stupid YouTube videos and just effing off and the hurry up and wait game, because that's what the car business is when you're in management.

SPEAKER_01

Right, right.

SPEAKER_00

Or even in sales, it's hurry up and wait. So there's a lot of downtime. And so in that downtime, I was teaching myself real estate, wholesale and acting, really investing and digging into that. Started listening to podcasts and and uh started digging into that. So of course, most of the people that I worked with thought I was an idiot because I'm like, oh yeah, I'm gonna start flipping houses and I'm gonna use OPM. And they're like, What's OPM? OP other people's money. So I'd have salesmen, other managers coming by and like, hey, how's that OPM? How's that OPM going? And and then I started wholesaling houses and I started making as much as I was to in my office, not even trying. Like doing literally like 10, 20% of my time doing that. That's really how it started. So when it comes to force full circle, our company, the company I was with, literally none of those managers and none of those salespeople, none of those finance, like nobody is there anymore. They've had a change in they had a change in the top. The this this long term long time COO is with the company, retired, and somebody else is in there running that company as a COO and has come in and just cleaned house.

SPEAKER_01

There's a gold, there's a gold nugget here, and I remember this one of the first times I ever hung out with you years ago, and you told me that story about working in the car dealership. And I I've worked in a um a different kind of retail. I was a kitchen and bath designer, and we had an appliance showroom, and it was the same thing you had to wait for clients to come in. The difference was I usually had drawings and estimates to do in between. But when you told me the story about, you know, everybody's playing video games on their phones or you know, watching YouTube videos, waiting for the next customer to come in. Instead, you're educating yourself on how to do marketing for the real estate, off-market real estate business, direct-to-seller marketing. And you gave me at that time, this was seven, eight years ago, a pretty detailed description of what you studied and what you learned and what you implemented. Sitting at your desk in the car dealership and nobody cares because you you've got nothing else to do. And and a customer comes in, right? You make the switch and you're all on for the customer. But for people watching this that have, I didn't hate my W-2 job. I didn't either. I actually I actually enjoyed a lot of aspects of it. But when presented with the freedom of spending a lot more time with my kids and working hours that I selected, I also became unemployable pretty quickly after after that sinks in. But I love love in particular the way because I shortcut it and paid a coach and said, just teach me. You taught yourself. I know other people who have taught themselves. I'm not sure I could do that. I don't really have the right personality for that. But well, I uh I really respect what you did by taking your time at and you still did your W-2 job, but there's just so much downtime that you could use.

SPEAKER_00

So that when you say I taught myself, it's like what's crazy is the verticals in the car business and the flipping, wholesaling, that the verticals literally are the same. Like when I was doing finance, you know, we had loan to value. We could advance X amount percent over MSRP with some banks to cover up negative equity. Like you could draw so much on, you know, to cover negative equity. You could all the things that I was doing, assigning contracts, we would assign contracts to banks for financing. So somebody comes in and we would, you know, finance them at 5.99 and we don't know what bank we're gonna send it to. And then we just work the banks for who's gonna give the lower rate that's gonna pay us the most money. And then assign that contract. So it could be Bank of America one day, it could be All South the next day, or you know.

SPEAKER_01

So so if you're listening or watching right now, don't leave the podcast because Chad just dropped a gold nugget bomb here. You can assign contracts for all sorts of things. Um, this very morning I had to drive to East Cooper Cooper Boatyard and pick something up for my dad. And my buddy Andy used to own East Cooper Boatyard. He sold it and moved to Florida, but he would assign contracts for boats all the time. And he learned that from the real estate business. He came in that way. And then, yeah, we can you can assign contracts. My buddy Jonathan um owns a landscaping company. And if you know Charleston geography, he lived in Mount Pleasant and he was mowing lawns all over the three counties. And he was like, I have enough business that I can only work in Mount Pleasant and never have to cross the bridge. And so he assigned his commercial landscaping contracts to two buddies in other parts of the city and got a little got a little, you know, paycheck, and they and then they assigned theirs in Mount Pleasant to him. So he and so that assignment of contract, a lot of times in real estate, we act like it's this weird, mysterious, you know, maybe it's legal, maybe it's not, whatever. It's happening in industries of all kinds. So I hope you held into the end of the podcast because that is a giant gold nugget that Chad just dropped about learning how similar other businesses are to this, and especially the assignment of contracting. I mean, that's a that blew my mind the first time Andy told me, and I'll I'll tell the story in another podcast, maybe even have Andy on, to talk about assigning contracts for boats because it's remarkable. It's a service to the seller, it's a service to the buyer, and he makes money in the middle. Let's go. You know, why not? Yep.

SPEAKER_00

I mean, that's that's how I started. I'm like, oh hey, yeah, this is cars, houses, like it's very similar. You know, actual cash value on a trade in a car and what somebody's house is really worth, and how much do we have to put in it, and how much can I get financed by the bank? Like it's just very similar.

SPEAKER_01

Thank you so much for joining us, Chad. This I knew it would be fun, and it has been a lot of fun. I appreciate you having me. And if you're watching this, like, subscribe, ring the bell on YouTube, and leave us some comments, questions, questions for Chad, questions for me, questions for Ryan, our producer, about how this shit actually happens in the um virtual world.

SPEAKER_00

That's right.

SPEAKER_01

But join us again. This has been great, Chad. And uh tell Wendy, I'd love to have her on at some point. Yeah, um, get her scheduled. She'll be around uh she'll be around when I'm hunting. Okay. All right. Sounds good, man. Y'all enjoy your afternoon and go buy something or sell something. That's right. That's the name of the game. I appreciate it, brother. All right, bud. Take care. Bye.