You Aren't Your First Job: Whit McCarthy on Career Evolution

In this episode of the Blue Cup Podcast, Russ Scheider interviews Whit McCarthy, who shares his journey from growing up in Connecticut to becoming a successful entrepreneur in the real estate and mortgage industry. Whit discusses his early life, the challenges of moving to California, and the lessons learned from both good and bad leaders. He emphasizes the importance of family support, building a positive company culture, and the significance of understanding the financial side of real estate. The conversation also touches on personal growth, mentorship, and the cultural differences in business practices. Whit's insights on competition, golf, and the value of being in the game resonate throughout the discussion, making it a rich and engaging episode for listeners interested in entrepreneurship and personal development.

Takeaways

Whit McCarthy's journey from Connecticut to California shaped his entrepreneurial spirit.
The importance of family support in personal and professional growth.
Transitioning from a granola business to real estate financing was a pivotal moment.
Understanding the financial side of real estate is crucial for success.
Building a positive company culture is essential for employee satisfaction.
Learning from both good and bad leaders can shape one's leadership style.
The significance of aligning personal values with business practices.
Golf serves as a metaphor for competition and personal improvement.
Navigating cultural differences can enhance business relationships.
Mentorship plays a vital role in professional development.

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Transcript

SPEAKER_03 0:00

Today we're diving into an inspiring journey with Rick McCarthy, a man who transformed his path from the cold winters of Connecticut to the sunny shores of California and now thrives in the world of real estate. This story is one of bold moves in entrepreneurial spirit from starting a granola company to leading a twenty million dollar startup. Join us as we explore how understanding the financial side of business can unlock success and build better relationships. Stay tuned for insights that could reshape your perspective on business and life.

SPEAKER_00 0:40

His name is Russ. And now he's got a podcast show.

SPEAKER_03 0:57

This guy has done some amazing things and is still up and coming and doing doing some incredible things in our business. And we're going to talk about life and business and stay with us through the whole thing because the good stuff's usually at the end. So don't click off too fast. So Blue Cut Podcast, make sure you like and subscribe and click the bell. So Whip McCarthy is with us today. And we spend a lot of time in each other's presence, but I feel like it I don't you know you very well. So it'll be a fun time for me today to get to know you a lot better. Look forward to it. Yeah, absolutely. So I first heard your name with Civic Mortgage a few years ago. And I'm gonna ask you to tell that story as we go along. But let's start at the beginning. You you grew up in Connecticut, is that right?

SPEAKER_01 1:48

Connecticut guy, born and raised pretty much through all elementary school, middle school, high school, and yeah, graduated from high school there and went to college up in Maine thereafter.

SPEAKER_03 1:59

Wow, okay. We couldn't be more different that way. Maine is I've been to 38 states, and Maine is a place I've never visited. So it's on my list. Just go when it's nice.

SPEAKER_01 2:11

Don't go when it's shitty. Maine when it's nice is hard to beat. I put it up against pretty much anywhere, but when it's gross, just avoid it, like the plate.

SPEAKER_03 2:22

Yeah, I had a carpenter that worked for me years ago from Maine, and he said we have we have three seasons. We have summer, winter, and mud. That's right.

SPEAKER_01 2:30

Yeah, it's exactly right. And it's so true. It all just turns this gross black, brown slush, and it is yeah, you're constantly just wearing uh like rain boots because uh you ruin everything else.

SPEAKER_03 2:43

Yeah, yeah, yeah. Doug Doug Godomsky was his name, Polish carpenter, fantastic carpenter. And he's he's like, I lived there for 45 years. We have summer, winter, and mud. So Connecticut, and then you went to school in Maine, and then you moved to California?

SPEAKER_01 2:58

Yeah, because of the mud season. I'd have enough, I'd add enough. I'd done my time with with cold weather. And um, my parents, right after they got married, they they spent five years out of Manhattan Beach in California, like southern Los Angeles area. And I'd been up there before and I said, you know what, I'm just gonna go do it. Like, this is the time to go and experiment and and explore. I didn't necessarily conform to the standard that a lot of my friends had as far as what the path was to success. A lot of them were like, obviously, being Northeast, you go to New York and you work on Wall Street, you work in finance, or you go to Boston, you work in you know, finance adjacent real estate stuff. And I I just I don't know, I wanted to do something different and go explore, do something new, knowing that those things would always be there for me if I wanted them. What so what was the different path? Well, I didn't know. I knew that I I wanted to be focused on Geo first, and then I'd figure out what the plan was. Uh and so I moved out, I I saved some money up over the summer, uh, working in you know, bars, restaurants, um, drove out west. Funny enough, like just total coincidence and happenstance that my family ended up moving out to California within the same, you know, 45-day stretch that I got out there. Wow. And so it was nice to have some support system out there, but not planned at all. My dad started working out there doing something, and it just lined up nicely that way to roll into a support system out there in California, but was more geofocused first and jumped in and just started looking for jobs, opportunities, meeting with everyone and anyone I could. And I got a couple opportunities and job offers. And the first offer I got was for a uh this marketing company, it was very focused on like the entertainment space. And I think the offer amount was twenty-six thousand five hundred dollars a year, living in Los Angeles, nonetheless.

SPEAKER_03 4:48

I was like, what is that starved?

SPEAKER_01 4:51

That's yeah, I mean, yes, it's it's wild. And so I I took a look at that offer. I was like, I could I know I could go out and figure out how to make twenty-six thousand five hundred dollars on my own terms, not working for someone like that. And so the weird little thing I got into is my my mom had this amazing granola recipe, right? It's something she had always made all of our lives. It's something everyone that she gave it as presents to everyone, everyone loved it. I was like, let's make a go at it. And so I started a granola company, just shelling out granola, selling it through all the local, you know, farmers markets, all the local produce, and just small specialty grocery stores in in Los Angeles and built that up over three years or so. I think at the peak, we're in like 50 locations throughout LA. Was making some money, I was paying myself every month, was making paying my rent, coaching some sports and lacrosse on the side, and um, it was going well. Eventually got to the point where I'd kind of immersed myself to the point where I just taught myself a lot of stuff about just business generally, not having really much support outside of just myself figuring it out. Um got to the point where I realized I need to align myself with folks that I can learn from, not just figuring it out by myself. Got to that point, made the decision that I was gonna try to find a way out of it, and was actually able to sell the company to um a group that uh was co-packing for us, someone that was producing the actual product. Um I sold them the company, was able to make a little bit of money, walk away, and figure out what was next.

SPEAKER_03 6:20

So weird little entrepreneurial entry point into a give me give me an example of who you would align with to make that happen.

SPEAKER_01 6:29

Yeah, I mean, at that point, it was really just wanting to be around other people in a working situation. It wasn't even necessarily specifically focused at something. I knew that from the whole experience that I, you know, running everything from product development to marketing to packaging to shipping logistics to the sales. Like sales is a thing that I I gravitated into. Like that was something that I was always passionate about of going and chatting with customers, chatting and trying to get our product on new shelves. Um, and so knowing I was going to gravitate towards sales was was always something that um that drove me. But mostly I just wanted human interaction, not working in a 250 square foot office by myself all day. I I would do like three or four trips to Starbucks just to see people. So wonderfully over caffeinated for those few years. Got into tech sales, was doing some ad sales stuff, and that was great to learn a higher um like an elevated product and trying to understand the ins and outs of that, really doing research and understanding the market and selling that, transitioned from that, and ultimately knew I'd always land in real estate. Um my my my pops was uh was in real estate and did some development stuff over his career. I always knew that's where I'd end up in one way, shape, or form, and it how that you know came to be. I wasn't exactly sure what sold you sold the granola company.

SPEAKER_03 7:53

Correct. Okay, and then got more into real estate after that.

SPEAKER_01 7:57

Yeah, it was this tech sales for a while, some kind of ad-ad sales stuff, and it was just it was a startup, right? Which, you know, most tech startups don't make it, and that one didn't, and uh transitioned out of that and really started to then bend the ears of the people, you know, who have found success in life and understanding real estate was the ultimate goal. Asking two separate people that I really respected, both very successful in their own right, did completely different things in the world of real estate, asking them like what where if you were to start over, where would you start getting into real estate? And they both completely independently told me that start from the financing side. When you're on the financing side, it's typically the most complicated component of any real estate transaction. Um and having exposure to the financing side, you see everything else as it works through the system. You pretty much see all the other pieces work themselves out, and so you get exposure to a lot of different things. You can learn a lot from that side of it, and then you could transition to any part of the business. And here I am, you know, 14 years later, still doing the same thing in the same industry, same space, because I just I love it. Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_03 9:04

Yeah, that's a gold nugget, Ryan tagged up to come at it from if you understand the financial side, the human side becomes pretty simple. And if if you don't understand the financial side, the human side doesn't really help you because the deal is going to break down on the back side. So I I love it. Absolutely love it. Granola business into real estate.

SPEAKER_01 9:25

Yeah, I mean, some the road less traveled, right? I mean, yeah. I was chatting with a kid who goes to where I went to college, I'm kind of working on a mentorship program with him and really sharp kid. And he asked me kind of what that path was. And it's like it's just it's non-traditional. Like I didn't go the route of having the summer internships with you know, JP Morgan, and you know, I live right outside of New York City. Right, right. So, what what was life like growing up with your parents? I mean, it was great. I mean, I like wildly supportive family. I'm the oldest of three. Okay. And yeah, I was fortunate that growing up, both my mom and dad were very present in all aspects. My dad, he found some success early in his career in the oil business and was able to transition out of that and into something much more entrepreneurial where he would do his his own thing on his own terms, which allowed him to be around a whole lot more than I think a lot of other kids have. Like he was always coaching my teens, and there is uh, you know, dad, mentor, friend, all the above, and um was able to kind of give me, I think, the confidence that I have today and be able to go and attack things from an you know entrepreneurial standpoint.

SPEAKER_03 10:38

Yeah, I'm the oldest of three, and I my father was an entrepreneur, he's eighty-one now, and we spoke yesterday and we exchanged spreadsheets yesterday because I have a conundrum, and I so I send him a spreadsheet, and he was like, Well, what about he kicks me back another, you know. So it's great to have my dad and I are very, very, very different, but I feel the support and the the um the interest to say uh and I value his perspective because it is so different from mine. Um, and I'll give you an example and tell a quick story. So my my dad uh loves boats, little boats, big boats, boats of all kinds. And we used to love fishing. So he calls me and he said, Hey, there's a a polling platform on Craigslist or Facebook Marketplace or somewhere. Uh I want to buy it. It's in Mount Pleasant. Oh, it's right by your house. And I said, Okay. And he sent me the link. So I looked at the link and I called him back and I said, What do you want to pay for it? And he said, Well, what do you mean? And I said, Well, it's listed for $250. Well, what do you want to pay for it? And he said, Well, $250. It's like, okay, this conversation's over. So I I go and meet the guy, and I I show the guy two $100 bills, and he throws it in my truck. Yeah. And I called my dad and said, Okay, I've got it. You know, I'm gonna come come to your house over the weekend, because they live in Bufort, which is about an hour drive, hour and 15 minutes. And I said, I'll bring it to you and you owe me 200 bucks. And he was like, Well, the price was 250. And I was like, Well, that's not the price. And he on the flip side of that, he bought a house in the Florida Keys 20 years ago and paid full price, but he spent five at the guy, the gentleman who was selling it was in a hospital build in the home. I mean, he was he was going down fast. And my dad spent five hours talking to him. They had six offers on the house, some above asking price. And the seller was like, No, I'm selling it to Bill, my dad. So we we have a very, very different way of negotiating things, so we can be very helpful to each other because I can respect the way he operates and he respects the way I operate.

SPEAKER_01 13:00

It's interesting though, because having that sort of support system that offers a completely different perspective is I think it's valuable. I think it helps you look at things from a different point of view, which I think in the world of business is is important because you're not dealing with people just like yourself all day, every day.

SPEAKER_03 13:16

That's right. That's right. I hope people listening can appreciate that that's the point. Yeah. Because you're you just nailed it. You're not dealing with people exactly like you all the time, and you have to factor that out. So I love that you're that your family's supportive. What about your mom?

SPEAKER_01 13:31

My mom, I mean, just a rock star, right? I mean, she raised, I think, three great kids. Um she uh she was an incredible gymnast growing up, got in a really bad car accident her senior year of of high school. Oh wow. Got some settlement money going into college and was able to um I mean she was in a wheelchair for her for her freshman year of of Oh wow. Oh yeah, bad, bad knee injury. And given her lifelong issues, but um, no, she's just the most generous person in the world. Go, yeah, where she lives, everyone everyone knows her, right? You go in any store, she loves shop. Everyone, every shit-up knows my mom. She's very well liked, um, just incredibly generous. But she, after she graduated from college, she moved to New York City and she had this settlement money, which at that point in time was a nice chunk of change. And I think she spent all of it, she said, in two years, because she just paid for everything for all of her friends. Like, yeah, she just wanted to live life and just has not really changed that much about her as far as just her ability to be so generous with the people that she loves.

SPEAKER_03 14:35

Yeah, I love it. That's you're very fortunate. Very yeah. It's um I I am also very fortunate, and I think it's important for us to count those blessings. And I've had some some pretty major angst with my parents at various points in life, but in the end, we're all in this together. So I hope I hope people listening will hear that. And if you're at odds with your parents, try to reconnect. It took me a while because I'm a pain in the ass. If you don't know that, you'll learn that with and I know that I'm the problem. I I understand that I'm the problem.

SPEAKER_01 15:12

At least you're self-aware. Most people aren't.

SPEAKER_03 15:14

Yeah, yeah. Exactly. I love it. So so tell me about um after the granola business. When did you get married?

SPEAKER_01 15:24

I got married in uh 2019. Okay. Yeah. You tested me on that one, Russ. That was that was a cheap shot.

SPEAKER_03 15:32

I don't have your wife's phone number, but I was gonna text her after.

SPEAKER_01 15:35

October October 2019. Um, yeah, we've been together for a while now. We've been together for over 10 years, uh both like together, dating and married. Um each other at this point, that's for sure.

SPEAKER_03 15:45

I I um I met your wife in the parking lot of the office here when I was cursing and swearing at the at the lock with the with the phone app and the old man, you know, old gray-haired man cursing at the lock, and your wife was very kind. She touched it and it opened. I was like, Well, thank you. And your little boy was here, and he is adorable. I'm not gonna use their names to protect privacy, but appreciate it.

SPEAKER_01 16:10

Yeah, no.

SPEAKER_03 16:11

Your wife was very gracious. Your little boy is absolutely adorable. He looks like a gap kid model or a Jake Crew model.

SPEAKER_01 16:20

He's a little stud. He's a and he'll if he hears this at some point later in his life, he's a stud, but he's a crazy little man. Just turned three this last weekend. His sister is gonna turn five in March. We had a nice tight grouping there. They can either be best friends or mortal enemies depending on the second. But it's it's fun. We're we're we're in the middle of it, and they're uh So there's a reason why we do this, right? I mean, there's a reason why we worked hard and why we try to create legacy. It's for uh ultimately for them. So you have a five-year-old daughter as well? She'll be five in March.

SPEAKER_03 16:52

Okay, yeah, I didn't meet her, but you know, around the office I saw you playing with the little boy, and he, you know, his grin was ear to ear. Yeah. Just seeing his dad in the middle of the day.

SPEAKER_02 17:04

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 17:05

And it's so cool that you have the freedom to take, and I know you work very, very hard. When I get here, you're here. When I leave here, you're here. I know you work very hard and you run a great team. And I I love and respect a lot of people on your team and have known them longer than I've known you in a lot of cases. But seeing you with your little boy, you know, running around the office space in here, I mean, that was a a joyful moment for me because my youngest is 17. Um, and I have grandchildren, and your your boy's more in the age group of my grandchildren. I haven't met your daughter, but I love it. I love it for you that you can take, even if it's 10 or 15 minutes and just just play with your kid. Yeah. In the middle of the day. It's that's an awesome thing.

SPEAKER_01 17:52

It's fun. My uh unfortunately, my daughter broke her leg this last weekend. Oh no. Birthday party. So this is the first broken bone in the family. Broke her leg. It's called a trampoline fracture, which is not something I was aware of, but one of these damn trampoline parks. She's running we're on bounce and twist, and yeah, it's a hard cast for three weeks. But no, I came into the office today, but I've been at home just trying to help as much as I can. I got a you know, office space there that uh nice to be able to pop out and get a little vitamin kid throughout the day as far as just uh a little shot of a j of energy. It's always nice to be able to fix that in throughout the day.

SPEAKER_03 18:27

Well, I hope she recovers quickly. Kids heal up pretty quickly. So there is yoga. So talk about your dogs.

SPEAKER_01 18:33

Tell me about your dogs. These dogs. We got our first dog when we were dating. His name is Yogi. He's an Australian shepherd. Um, so he's got this Napoleonic complex. And for those that he knows and loves, he is a sweet boy. For those that he does not know, he is a vicious bastard. Um just is he's one of these small dogs, he's yappy, he's just very intelligent, though. The problem, he watches TV very intently. If there's ever if there's an animal on the TV, he's losing his mind. Uh well, and that coupled with having young children, there's a lot of animals on the TV. So that dog is bouncing up and down all day long trying to get to the TV. And then we've got just a a beautiful Australian labberdoodle um girl, a couple years younger than him. That um she's just a a beautiful idiot, just uh a wonderful, lovable dog, but more beauty than brains, I'll tell her.

SPEAKER_03 19:29

It's a doodle, that sounds like a doodle prescription is more beauty than brains. Um Australian shepherds are almost too smart. I mean, it's scary. They are uh how smart those dogs are.

SPEAKER_01 19:41

I know, I know, but they're they're good dogs. They uh they certainly, you know, you have a dog, you get a dog first as a as a couple, and then you have a kid, and all of a sudden you kind of forget you have a dog for a while. We're going out of that haze a little bit where the dogs are becoming more like present within our day-to-day lives as opposed to just you know walking around or the house, but it's uh stuffed when you when you're trying to work and you got a business and you got a team and you got a family, you got all this stuff going on, you oftentimes forget that you got these dogs too. Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_03 20:12

Yeah, I have two miniature dachshunds, and I I come to the office at the helm to get away from them because they will be whining and barking and trying to get in my lap all day long, which some days is okay, and some days I need to get shit done. So we're gonna leave the boys at home.

SPEAKER_01 20:31

I don't know what it is, but they they got nothing else to do, man.

SPEAKER_03 20:35

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 20:36

Yappy, yappy little dogs.

SPEAKER_03 20:38

Yeah, I love it. Uh, Australian Shepherds are one of my favorite. Uh I used to take when I just had the one Docshon. So one of my Dachshunds is very laid-back introvert, and my daughter and I joked about making a our car our cartoon strip about my two dogs, Dennis and Doug. So Dennis is in a bow tie and a vest, you know, like a college professor. And Doug is in a Clemson sweatshirt with the sleeves cut off, and that's their personalities. Um, because Doug is wild, and he is wildly he loves people. He's never met a person he doesn't like, and he will attack any dog bigger than him. If they're the same size, he's fine. Yeah. If it's a German Shepherd, he will jump up and bite them on the face.

SPEAKER_01 21:27

Like the first day go and punch the biggest dude in the yard.

SPEAKER_03 21:31

That's what I said. That that was me in college. I would look for the biggest guy in the room and go pick a fight with him. It's like you're a pretty big guy yourself. Well, I am, but I would try to find somebody bigger. Um, because you don't want to punch down. Right. Because then you're the day. I'm like, God damn it, Doug. Why are you, you know, what is wrong with you? Um, and the German Shepherd is, you know, sitting, the people are walking him, German Shepherd is sitting. At perfect attention, like military precision. And I I had a little too much slack in the leash, and Doug jumps up and takes a chunk out of his fur on his face. And the shepherd looked at him like, what the dude? I dragged him away and I'm saying, that dog, you're 11 pounds, dude. That dog will crush you, but he he doesn't understand. They're fine, they're a lot of fun. So your dad was in the oil business. Can you tell me a little bit more about that? I'm I'm not sure I understand what that means.

SPEAKER_01 22:34

He was um he worked for a company. We lived in actually for a period of time in Houston, Texas. Okay. My brother was born, and he worked for an oil trading company. Uh so they were trading oil, and um they uh it was a lot of right place, right time, small company, and they you know, they did well during the Gulf War, right? They kind of hit it at the right time. Um he was one of the early employees at this company that got pretty big and um after a period of time left and took a payout and moved on and started pursuing some more entrepreneurial endeavors, including a bunch of you know, spec and development real estate.

SPEAKER_03 23:15

Wow, okay, very cool. Well, that makes sense with Houston.

SPEAKER_01 23:19

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 23:20

Yeah, I I've spent two nights in Houston and I don't care to ever go back. You don't need to. It's not really a beautiful place like Manhattan Beach, California. A little different, a little different.

SPEAKER_01 23:31

Manhattan Beach, Remotes Beach, which was a nice place to be for a period of time there. That's right.

SPEAKER_03 23:36

Charleston's beautiful, Manhattan Beach is beautiful. Oh, yeah. Houston, not so much for me.

SPEAKER_02 23:41

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 23:42

Um, yeah, fair enough. So your dad transitioned into real estate. Tell me about how what his path was in the real estate.

SPEAKER_01 23:52

Really no how I think he just saw opportunity. He took on a handful of projects and and early on my parents, and this is before it became like a really popular place, they started spending a lot of time and bought a place on Nantucket up in Massachusetts. Um, you know, small island off the coast of of Cape Cod. And it's it's turning into something completely different these days, but you know, long time ago, he saw opportunity just to start building some houses out there. And so I for a period of time, he must have built a house every year. We would spend one summer in it and then move and he'd sell it and do it again. Yeah. And so he did that a a bunch of times. He did some development projects in in Connecticut as well, where he grew up. And I think his big development project was out in Tucket. He built a yacht club, which was oh wow, just the second on the island. Big, big undertaking, and it all happened during the crash. So they were underway with you know, entitlements, permits, and all that. The crash happened, things went a little sideways. People tried to, you know, fight in lawsuits, eminent domain claims, fought through all that eight years and eventually got this place built. And it's one of the nicest yacht clubs in the country. I mean, it's incredible.

SPEAKER_03 25:08

Oh, very cool. So the by the crash, you mean 2008, 2009?

SPEAKER_01 25:13

Yep. Yeah, yeah. They lost a lot of you know initial people that were gonna be members and and had money involved, and it was just a juggle act. And I mean, it's it's crazy that they were able to actually pull it off. Yeah, that was a a big crowning achievement for his development career for sure.

SPEAKER_03 25:29

And eight years, I heard you say eight years. Oh yeah, right. Yep. So that's important that for the listeners and people joining us. You know, a lot of these real estate deals don't happen in you know, six months, they take seven or eight years if it's that kind of undertake.

SPEAKER_01 25:45

Yeah, this was uh this is a big and timing was not great with the market itself, but it's but you never you never know what that's gonna be. Yeah, no, they um they they pulled it off rabbit out of the hat situation with with that whole deal, but it's uh it's turned into something really, really incredible. Amazing.

SPEAKER_03 26:02

And what's the name of that yacht club? Can you share that?

SPEAKER_01 26:04

Or yeah, it's called Great Harbor Yacht Club.

SPEAKER_03 26:06

Okay, yeah, yeah. And so that's on Nantucket? Nantucket, Massachusetts. Okay. Yep. Very cool. It's another place I've yet to visit, so it's on my list. Yeah. It's a nice car.

SPEAKER_01 26:19

It's beautiful. I mean, it's it's gotten so popular and crowded during peak times that you know, when we go up with the kids, we we typically try to avoid the last couple weeks of July, first couple weeks of August, just because it's so the island is so packed. Getting into a restaurant, getting into you know, finding good space on the beach is just hard. So we try to go times when we can.

SPEAKER_03 26:41

Yeah, so what's the best time to go?

SPEAKER_01 26:43

I would say early September. Okay. When kids are back in school and the weather is perfect, the water's warm, all the restaurants are still open. Um, I think that's the best time to be there.

SPEAKER_03 26:55

Yeah, that makes sense. Yeah, very cool. So tell me uh how about how you went from the granola business into the mortgage business.

SPEAKER_01 27:04

Yeah. Again, understanding the entry point of wanting to get into real estate and financing, the finance side of things being a good place to start. Um, my pops is actually working out in California, doing some real estate stuff as well. They were buying non-performing loans, um, buying, you know, uh pools of loans from HUD, repositioning those and whatnot. And there was this affiliated company that they're working with that was one of the larger fix and flip organizations in the country. And they were flipping at that point, they had flipped, I think, 30,000 properties. Um I mean, pretty much every house that went to foreclosure auction for a period of time on the West Coast, and they wanted to start a mortgage division to support, in that they're turnaround flipping and reselling all these properties. They wanted to start a mortgage company to support with the financing, right? And just another fight at the apple as far as revenue through the real estate transaction. And I wanted to make that switch, understanding that real estate was what I want to get into, and linked up with this group and supporting just building out a conventional mortgage operation, not knowing anything about mortgage, but knowing how to connect with folks, the sales side of it, and we're just going to interact with real estate agents throughout California at that point, trying to get them to send their business to our loan officer crew that we had inside of that group, and very quickly realized that that business was really hard and not razor-thin margins. And the you're essentially partnered with the government, right? With with first-time home buyers, with FHA, and so much regulation, red tape, approvals are impossible. And so that we was deciding to wind down that business, sell that to an affiliate company. And the opportunity that we're looking in front of us was myself and a couple other people like, well, what do we do now? And like, what do you what do you guys know about hard money loans? Hold on, Google, a hard money loan. It's an asset based. Like, I didn't know anything. Um, but like, do you think you guys can figure out how to do those? And we said, Yeah, we'll figure it out. And so that's where Civic uh financial services came from. So Civic was a a group that was formed inside of a real estate investment company that was focused on providing real estate investor loans. So at that point, it was pretty much just fixing flip loans. Yes, one, two-year loans, just easy acquisition, rehab money, and the loans were being originated and sold, right, into the secondary market. Win balance sheet, a bunch of stuff, but mostly originated and sold. And we started that business with just the three of us in a conference room. We got some momentum. We were able to being that we were aligned with the biggest investor in the West Coast, we were able to get into some rooms and have some conversations to get build up that business. And we got to a solid run rate of about, I would say, $20 million a month of originations after 18 months, two years in that range. And we were able to attract, you know, a real CEO to come in to support us with continuing to build that business. And it was game-changing for our whole group. And they just poured gasoline on the fire of what was already like a strong foundation for the company because this was right at the point of kind of the institutionalization of the hard money lending or business purpose lending space, you know, right prior to that, it's it's very much just like country club money. Like you go out and borrow money from Peter to go do this project. And there was this massive of the lending space for investor loans, really starting in 2014 to 2017, is kind of where it's really started to get some attention from the institutional world. And we were kind of on the forefront of that, and we were able to build that company up over the course of eight, nine years, and we were the number two lender in the country um for a stretch. I mean, we we originated $10 billion worth of loans over eight years. So yeah, yeah, we did three billion dollars of loans, and we had, you know, sold the company to a bank. A bank bought us. We had a deal to get paid out there and an earnout process and the ability to stay on and continue to build the business up inside of that infrastructure, and it was going great until it didn't. They got tied up in the whole regional bank run with with Silicon Valley Bank, you know, with SVB, that went down. They were a domino to follow. So they decided to wind down that business, which is when I stepped out and formed my now company, Consistent Capital.

SPEAKER_03 31:37

Okay. Wow. Um, so you were in the thick of it. So it's interesting you say that because I'm I'm I'm thinking I started flipping houses in 2013 and buying rental properties and you know, all the things I do, and I used private money until 2019 or 2020. When you say country club money, I I've only belonged to one country club and that lasted about two months. So, but it's it's friends and family, and I'll give an example for people who are listening to this. I went into a um a sign shop and I wanted to put graphics on my car that said, We buy houses cash, you know, the whole the whole thing. And the guy who owned the sign company saw was in the shop and he came in the waiting room and he said, Is that your black truck out there? It's like come in my office. So I went to the office and he said, Where do you get your money for your deals? And I said, Well, I, you know, we have various private lenders that and he became a private lender for me. And he said, I've I've done that before. And he said, Show me, you know, show me some history. And I said, I have a presentation binder, I don't have it with me, but I can I can come back tomorrow morning and show you, you know, my and so he became a private money lender right on the spot. And I say that to people all the time, not to take anything away from rehab wallet or consistent capital or anybody else, but there are so many people around you who would love to invest with you if you just ask and if you can present it in the right way. And it's important that we say for the Blue Cup Podcast, we don't sponsor consistent capital. I forgot to wear my hat. I was gonna wear the hat that Cole gave me. But I loved I love you guys and consistent capital. It's a great business. Rehab wallet is a a sister company for you, more or less. And I've used rehab wallet quite a bit. And I, you know, I honor and respect that, but for people listening, you've got lenders, you're you're you're stumbling over lenders when you say the country club. How about the sign shop? Exactly. Yeah. Or the family, and and I had have an uncle who loaned to me on a couple of projects and then he invested his money differently. And I sent him an email. I have a list of people that I email when I get a deal. And I send it to all of them and say, look, it's an opportunity to invest. There's no pressure, but here's an opportunity for you to make 12% on your money. And my uncle Craig called me and he said, My money's all tied up, but my brother has some money to invest, and I've never met his brother. He's my uncle by my my aunt, my mother's sister uncle by marriage. And of course, I've known him all his life, all my life, and I've never met his brother. And so we got on the phone, and uh Chuck, his brother, was like, Yeah, that sounds perfect. Craig told me how it works, and that you always pay your bills, and what's roll. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 34:33

I mean it's it's it's a good point. Like I there's people all around you in your in your life, if you're within a supporting system that are there not only to to invest and make money, but to invest in you. As long as you're a good person and do what you say and say what you do, I think that will reap rewards for you in your professional life. You just need to be consistent in the way that you you manage that. I've had people that have come to me and have asked, like, hey, will you help me put money together for my first project? And I'm always a little nervous on that side. I do think that there from a standpoint of you know cutting your teeth a little bit, I do think you, if you have the ability from just either your your own capital or immediate family people who, you know, are your ride or dies, I think before you start raising money outside of your immediate inner circle, do it yourself. Prove to people that you can do it, don't risk other people's money before you risk your own, is my is my advice to anyone that's trying to break into it.

SPEAKER_03 35:33

Or I'm gonna give you an option to that. I I agree with you, but there's another way to do it if the somebody doesn't have money, but they're really good at finding deals, and that's to partner with somebody like me. Exactly 100%.

SPEAKER_01 35:46

That that that so that and I think changes the structure of that.

SPEAKER_03 35:50

Well, and I I'm not disagreeing with you. What you just said is absolutely true. That's one way to do it. But if somebody's listening and says, I don't have money, my family doesn't have money, there's nobody I can go ask. First of all, that's not true because your former employer might be a great investor. A former customer of yours, if you sell cars or you clean houses, or it doesn't matter what you do. A former customer, one of my best lenders was a former customer of mine, not family, not friends, a customer, but trusted me because when I did business with her, I kept my word and I delivered more than was expected. And so when when I went into house flipping, she actually called me because I had I'd written all my former customers a letter saying, Hey, I'm I'm leaving the renovation business and I'm gonna be investing in real estate full time. And three different people called me and said, Tell me about that. So not friends or family, these these are Was that your first deal? It wasn't my very first deal, but it was at a point where the lenders, the private lenders I had were tapped out and I needed more sources.

SPEAKER_02 37:01

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 37:02

But I had written a letter just as a courtesy. It wasn't even wasn't even a sales pitch.

SPEAKER_02 37:07

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 37:08

But it was interesting how people came hunting, and I've helped a lot of I can give you a list of people that say, I've got a deal, but I don't know how to get the money. And this this lender doesn't trust me. I said, Well, they'll trust me because I have a track record and we'll do we'll do the deal, and I I'll take you know 80% of the risk and do 80% of the work for 50% of the profits because you brought the deal. And I've kick started four or five people and two or three deals to come to a lender like rehab wallet or somebody and and say, you know, not only I'm gonna I'm not vouching for this person, I'm actually taking on the responsibility for it. But I that's a really good way for people to get started. I agree if you have some money or you have access to family money, it's a great way to start. But if you don't, it's not necessary. But you can find somebody like me who will sponsor you.

SPEAKER_01 38:03

Yeah. And if you have someone that has that experience that you can lean on, if you're trying to go out and you're just a DIY guy, want to figure it out yourself. Yeah, now I'm not gonna go and ask someone else to risk their own money before I risk my own. But you have that experience and you have the reputation as someone who, like I said, does what they do, say what they do and do what they say. That's the great equalizer in these situations that allows you to actually go and access deals in a significant way when you've got someone like you in their corner.

SPEAKER_03 38:29

So let's talk about culture shock, Mr. Connecticut boy living in California and then moving to the deep south. What's the culture shock level?

SPEAKER_01 38:37

It's uh so it's interesting. Going from Connecticut, Maine to California was it's interesting. I mean, you just you kind of get used to a certain pace of things when it comes to the time in which things need to get done on the East Coast for whatever reason. I think Northeast, I think, has its own way about that. And going to Southern California, where you're walking around, you know, at at 1 p.m. on a Tuesday and the beach is full. It's like, does anybody work here? I'm I'm confused as to what's going on. But that was a little bit of a a culture shock, but one that was on, I think was was nice to see that there's there's multiple ways to skin the cat. And rather than just getting yourself directly into an environment that you're just gonna stress out about every single day of your life, I think that allowed me to gain some perspective on just balance in life, going from understanding kind of what the Northeast offered to what Southern California offered. And then I think being those two very different worlds coming to the the South here, it was, I mean, we were at that point where we were ready to make a move. We'd been in LA a long time and we loved it. We had all of our best friends there. But we had our daughter, we figured we needed more space, we wanted something that was a little more scalable as a family. Her family's in and around here. We uh we were already investing with Dan. Dan was helping us buy some rentals and we're doing some projects here. So the investing from afar made it easy to make this our home because we were already becoming familiar with the place and we knew we loved it. So the culture shock, I still would say, was lesser than going from Maine to California, but maybe I was just more ready for the culture shock this time.

SPEAKER_03 40:16

Okay, that makes sense.

SPEAKER_01 40:17

Yeah. And maybe I was just ready for it, I think. Maybe that's what it comes down to.

SPEAKER_03 40:25

Yeah, and as you said, you had experienced a major move. So another major move is less impactful. And I haven't spent much time in California, but I feel like we we have a little more. I have spent time in the Northeast, and it's definitely a different pace of life here. Um, but I don't think it's quite as laid back as California. You could answer that better than I can. Yeah, I um my only exodus was I lived in St. Louis for five years in the mid in the Midwest is very, very different. And the thing that I admire about the Midwest is everything's on the table all the time. Everything's out in the open. Okay. So working with working with clients, I did the same job there that I did here in the remodeling business. And in St. Louis, they call it the show-me state, meaning, you know, tell me the truth. And in the South, we use subterfuge, and you know, bless your heart. And that's not real I'm I'm saying that, but that's not really what I mean. And the Midwest was like, no, I I mean, I'm saying exactly what I mean. You can take every word. So it's interesting to to especially spending a couple of years in different parts of the country. We're all Americans, but we operate pretty differently.

SPEAKER_02 41:46

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 41:47

Depending on where you are. Midwest folk are just they're so nice.

SPEAKER_01 41:51

I don't know. Yeah. Yeah, it it seems fun. Yeah. Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 42:00

Yeah. I I said I in five years I probably had 60 clients, and there was one person that I had a conflict with. I mean, that that the the percentages there are just phenomenal. And there was something wrong with her or me. Something was wrong there. But all the others were like, I can't believe how how I can relax, and when I hear something, I can absolutely believe it, and I don't have to look for the subtext. So I don't know how that is in the northeast, but I know in the south there's subtext. You have to watch for the subtext.

SPEAKER_01 42:34

I think, yeah, northeast is probably just a little more aggressive and in your face. All right. I think there's less some text, more aggression, potentially.

SPEAKER_03 42:41

Right. And the Midwest is just direct. It's not, it's not aggressive and it's not passive, it's just direct. And it I learned a lot from that. Very helpful for me. Again, it's good to move if you're listening to this, it's good to move around and get to know other perspectives. I think it's good for us as humans to have those experiences.

SPEAKER_01 43:00

Talking to kids that are are coming out of school, whether it be family friends that reach out or kids from my my my Oma, they always ask me, so like what industries do you see as like the best, you know, opportunities out there right now? And my honest response to them is like, I don't I don't know what like how your brain works and and what it is you ultimately gravitate to as far as work. My honest recommendation is change your geo. Like focus on a geo first. I think your first job is not gonna be your last job, but go somewhere where you can gain some perspective. Don't just fall into a uh a predetermined path as to how your life is gonna go and what career you're gonna fall into, because I think it's good to have multiple jobs in multiple industries before you figure out what it is you want to do and how you want to do it, or where you want to do it and who you want to do it with. I think those are all important things that you gain through perspective. And perspective, I think, is only gained by doing something different.

SPEAKER_03 43:53

Yeah. Yeah, no question. I mean, we've had people on the podcast who are in the military and the police force. You know, all sorts of different industries and different experiences. And one of the things that I share with my adult children is looking back on my life, it seems like things occur in a five-year block. So instead of saying, you know, worrying about go to college, get a job, and work the same job for 40 years, nobody does that anymore. But my life has proceeded in little five-year chunks. And every five years there's some sort of radical change in the economy, in my relationships, and me. I mean, so be prepared to to bounce a little bit and try not to get a trampoline fracture while you're at it. I could call that. Yeah. Oh, that's once that sounds painful. So, what did you learn from Civic that you carry into what you do today?

SPEAKER_01 44:49

Yeah, I I think we had my mentor there, our CEO that we were able to bring in. I just gained incredible, I think, education by seeing what he did as far as how to treat your people and how to create a culture with intention and making sure that you are transparent with your people and try to build something that you know people want to be a part of. Not because they want to be a part of because they get paid as being a result or as a result of being there, but because they want to actually make an impact and add value to the organization as a whole. So I I was able to, I think, learn from one of the best in the world as to how to create a culture that people just give a shit about.

SPEAKER_03 45:32

And yeah, and I love it. We're doing that. Ryan, Ryan, tag, tag, tag that. That's gold. Say it again. Just give them the gas. Give a shit. I love it. Absolutely love it. So tell me more about that. Continue with that, because this is gold.

SPEAKER_01 45:52

You know, I think I've adopted a few different kinds of business practices in the way that I operate. And I really carried that over from everything that I learned at Civic, utilizing different kind of business methodologies, you know, being scaling up, you know, the Rockefeller habits, the you know, EOS, entrepreneur operating system, X, four disciplines of execution. I think there's all these different systems and and business practices out there that you kind of can create your own. If you if you start to gain some perspective from utilizing and and reviewing and understanding multiple different um systems, you kind of get to create something that is intentionally yours. And so I think, again, I think from my days at Civic, I was able to see how a business kind of really came together from its infancy, being three of us in a conference room to having 500 full-time employees by the end of it. Like we were in the trenches the entire time and helping build this company. But even when we were at 500 people, we still had a culture that people were just ecstatic about and constantly voted year after year from the best places to work. And it was something that we felt really, really proud of. Um, and it's something that I just vowed to continue to always have my finger on the pulse of inside of my organizations is ensuring that my people are happy, they feel like they're making an impact, that they're they're well paid. Um and there's a balance, right? I think we can't just be there being that we spend more time with the people that we work with than we do our actual families. And that's a crazy thing to say, but it's true. You gotta want to be around each other and you gotta wanna be able to support each other. And I think just making sure you've got a culture that allows for that and gives people, you know, room to be themselves and room to grow is just super important. So that's something that we just we focus on very intentionally in our business.

SPEAKER_03 47:39

Yeah, I love it. The intentionality that's I hope people listening are are catching that that you do sit things so intentionally and the culture that you've created. And I know your partners with Kelly Garrett on some things, and Kelly's huge on culture and huge on intentionality. And I know Cole Beaver and Brandon Bartley and some of your employees I've known longer than I've known you, and they're um they're just the right kind of people. I mean, they're the kind of people I would want to spend the day with under any circumstance, whether we're working or playing or, you know, sitting in a hospital room, sitting in the hospital waiting room, which is an unpleasant experience. I mean, they're people I would want to spend time with under any circumstance. So I think you've attracted, I think your energy, because I saw you this morning and I see you all the time, but your your energy just attracts people like you who want to get shit done and make a pleasant experience for your customer and your fellow employees. It's it's pretty awesome. I love it.

SPEAKER_01 48:47

I appreciate that. Yeah, it's um it's important, I think. Like you said, everyone that you have met or interacted with a part of our team is someone that you want to spend time with because it's someone that I want to spend time with, right? Right. And making sure that you just continue to get the right butts and the right seats is just so critically important because you have one person as a detractor, one person as an anchor weighing down morale. It's felt by everyone. And I just am so confident in every single person on my team. I've got my entire team coming to town on Sunday. We got 22 people coming in. Okay. On Sunday, we're gonna be all together Monday, Tuesday, early part of Wednesday. I couldn't be more excited about it. Not because I know we're gonna get in the room and get shit done business wise, but because we get to spend time together, and that's uh that's a gift that we all get to have together, which is great.

SPEAKER_03 49:33

Yeah, that's uh that's the intentional design that you're speaking of. And I can think of companies where I worked where I love the company, I love the company owners, but there was always somebody in the company who was that drag. I mean, in the in the 70s and 80s, we said it's a drag, right? An anchor, like somebody, I almost want to call out the name, but I'm not going to. But somebody who just is like, why is she so unpleasant and hates being here? Uh I mean, she serves a vital role in the company, but she hates being here. You know, a different company is like uh he's like the furniture. I mean, he doesn't he doesn't do anything, he's just here. The fact that you're intentionally creating an organization where you don't have anchors and furniture as humans in your company, I think is awesome.

SPEAKER_02 50:27

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 50:28

No, it's uh it's been fun. We're just a couple years into it, and you know, we we feel great about where we're at, but we know we got a whole lot more to do. So it's um it's fun. It's fun building it, it's it's stressful as hell, as you know, right? Running your own business. But yeah. Oh yeah. It's it's so rewarding because you know this is this is your your second family, right? And being able to see your family have success, there's nothing greater than that.

SPEAKER_03 50:54

Yeah. Well, the first of the month is either very exciting or very terrifying. So when you have your own business. That's right.

SPEAKER_02 51:01

That's right.

SPEAKER_03 51:02

Yeah, there was something else I wanted to ask you. What had something very specific and I've lost it. Let me look at my notes real quick. What is the relationship between consistent capital and rehab wallet?

SPEAKER_01 51:13

Yeah, so when I was still at Civic, I got to know Kelly, uh Kelly Garrett and and Danny Rivazo. Yes. Pretty well. So Danny and Kelly are partners, and Dan Hanford, who is in Columbia. Um, but Danny and Kelly uh they're partners in Rehab Wallet, which is, you know, for those that don't know, Southeast based hard money lender focusing on on deploying capital out to real estate investors for fix and flips. Short-term loans, it's operated out of a fund structure. And so I got to know Danny and Kelly pretty well and talked to them about opportunities of providing additional capital for other loan programs to my old company. And when that business wound down at Civic and I was going to go out and start my own thing, Kelly simultaneously and I had just gotten to know Kelly through the world here. Actually, originally introduced by Dan Rivers, our good old friend Dan, who was helping me buy some real estate and introduced me to Kelly. We got together and obviously we immediately closed. Um, just kind of that she's a you know, fierce competitor, right? And um yeah, she owes I'm a competitive club myself. So I saw that in her and and loved that um that about her. So we just started chatting and and we got to that point where we realized that our efforts in in continuing to build lending opportunities in Charleston and beyond are better together than they are separate. So we came together and developed the concept originally about consistent capital, just being a you know lender that does things just a little bit differently in how Rehab Wallet does it, both in the way it's it's capitalized and the way in the types of products we offer to our customers.

SPEAKER_03 52:48

Yeah, we've we've had Kelly on on the podcast, and I've known Kelly since the very beginning, my introduction to this business. And it's funny because when she started Rehab Wallet, they had like a VIP program and a regular program and whatever. And I came to kind of came to her with my hat in hand and said, Could I possibly qualify for the VIP program? And she was like, Russ, you have borrowed and repaid over two million dollars to me over the past five years. Just in she said, I've I've watched you, but of course, you're you know, you're there because I really was intimidated by the thing because it's so it's so huge what you guys have done. So let's talk about golf for a minute. Okay. So we had a lot of golf jokes flying around this morning because I'm a terrible golfer because I picked up a golf club for the first time at 51 years old.

SPEAKER_00 53:39

Is that right?

SPEAKER_03 53:42

Yeah. Yeah. And uh people like Dan Rivers and Chris Lamb and Dusty Keefe and Dusty's dad Chuck, who's hilarious, have have have dragged me around the golf course. I told I reminded Dusty this morning when I played golf with Chuck Keefe, his dad, I think it was literally the fourth time I had ever been on a golf course. And so Chuck, you know, Chuck hits, you know, he's wearing a knee brace and cargo shorts. And I was like, You're pretty good at this, Chuck. Do you play a lot of golf? He said, five days a week.

SPEAKER_00 54:18

Yeah. He lost.

SPEAKER_03 54:19

And I went, I went, oh shit. Okay. And so by the third hole, he came over to me, and of course, he comes up to about hero me, and he's looking up at me, and he goes, He pulls out a nine-iron, a putter, and a driver. And he said, Don't touch anything else. You're playing with these three clubs the rest of the day. Smart. Well, it's not only smart, but he was frustrated with me, like, God damn it, this is gonna take all day. I hear you're a scratch golfer. No, no, no, no, no, no. You don't want to play with me.

SPEAKER_01 54:47

I'm I'm 10 over five. Not right. Um yeah, friggin' manic in 89.

SPEAKER_03 54:52

Well, why is it fun? Although I I love it, it's so frustrating, and I love it.

SPEAKER_01 54:58

You know, and I think I'm a glutton for punishment when it comes to it because I love to compete. Like I grew up and I played hockey and across my entire life growing up, and Macross was my main thing, and played for a long time at very competitive levels, and and when that wound down, just I got into a little bit of beach volleyball scene out in California. It was great so compete in anything that I do, whether it's a drinking game or playing cards, I don't care. I'm gonna go out there trying to try to dust everyone on the court. And so I don't know. The golf thing is it's less about competing externally, it's all internally. And like how do you compete against yourself? And that's something that I've I've learned is is extremely difficult um to keep that focused for entire golf rounds so you can actually score well. But it's it's so fun because it's just a game that you're never gonna be perfect, right? And you always have to figure out ways to just get better, right? And it's just a constant game of trying to improve, which I can respect because I like that there's no there's no finish line, right? This is just a thing I'm gonna do stupidly for the rest of my life. It's gonna be a a total waste of money, but it's gonna be fun.

SPEAKER_03 56:13

Yeah, yeah, yeah. It's expensive and painful, and we love it. I mean, yeah, and I hear what you're saying that I'm not good enough to compete against somebody else. So I'm just competing against my what's my best shot of the day. I just celebrate. I mean, I'll play 18 holes and think I had three good shots today, and the rest were maybe okay. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 56:36

Um well, I think I think you answered my question that I ask every person when I interview them. Yeah. Would you say that you love to win or hate to lose more?

SPEAKER_03 56:46

That is a great interview question. So I was asked that question by a headhunter when I moved to Charleston when I was interviewing for various jobs. And he said, he asked me that question. And I said, My answer is I don't love to win and I don't hate to lose. I like to play. Oh, okay. I just enjoy I enjoyed the game. So I'm not sure I got the job, but I'm not sure he knew what to do with that answer. Yeah, because most people say I hate to lose, or most people say I love to win. And I was like, honestly, dude, I I like to play. I just I like the fact that I'm even on the court, on the field, in the game, and I said I I like to watch other people play. I don't hate to win or love to uh hate to lose or love to win. Interesting.

SPEAKER_01 57:35

I just want to I just want to be in the game. I don't hate the response. If someone had given that to me in an interview, for me, I can tell you I hate to lose. I just I framing hate it. Um and the winning's fun, but like you're talking about when when you're playing golf, you remembering your your best shot. I remember shots. I'm constantly playing it back in my head as I'm falling asleep of me just shanking that iron into the water from a hundred and I'm sorry, I'm sorry for you, Witt, that you have to have to deliver with yourself.

SPEAKER_03 58:04

I know.

SPEAKER_01 58:05

Oh, I'm so is my wife, yeah. A hundred percent.

SPEAKER_03 58:08

Well, that yeah, it was a sales position. Somebody asked me that question, but he was a headhunter interviewer, and he said there were several questions that he asked like that. He said, Nobody's ever answered the way you answered. And I said, Well, I'm I'm not built like other people. And I said, I said, but if you listen to my answer interviewing as a salesperson, I'm not in it to win or lose. I want to make sure that that everybody has a good time. I just want to play the game. And the fact that I can be there for the whole I want to be there for the whole game before, after, you know, and I want to, you know, make sure everybody has a good time. And if we I like to win and I hate to lose, but mostly I just am grateful to be in the game.

SPEAKER_01 58:51

Yeah, I like it. That's that's deep, Russ.

SPEAKER_03 58:53

Yeah, it's I mean, that's who I am. And he he just shook his head and I don't know what he wrote down, but I got the job eventually. So I guess it worked out. But that's uh it it I've used that interview question in you know since then. Um, and nobody's ever answered it the way I did. Uh because I'm weird. So there we go.

SPEAKER_02 59:13

Weird as yeah.

SPEAKER_03 59:14

Yeah, yeah. So cool. I'm glad you asked me that question. So we like to share some motivation with our audience. You've done some pretty amazing things. And from my notes and from what I know of you, if you want to go fast, go alone. If you want to go far, have the right people with you. And you're talking about going from three people in a conference room to a 500 employee, highly successful business. And I I feel like you've had some mentors and some help along the way.

SPEAKER_01 59:42

Is that accurate? Absolutely. Yeah, I mean, I think it started with my mom and dad growing up. It then we moved into my coaches, a handful of teachers that had some real impact on me. Um, college lacroft coach, you know, all the way through, you know, having, I think the perspective is interesting in that I think some of the most valuable lessons I've learned are from shitty leaders, people that I think were not good at what they did and leading organizations. And I've learned a lot, probably more honestly, uh how not to treat people and how not to manage through certain situations based on what I've seen other people do. And I remember them handling situations in certain ways. Like, I just I can't ever imagine myself handling something in the way that you in the way that you're doing this, because it doesn't make any sense to me. So I uh I've I had some great mentors and my mentor at Civic, his name is Bill Tesser. Um, I think he he showed me the way of like how to blaze this trail for myself and and what is now consistent capital. I think learning a lot by great leaders and learning maybe even more by shitty leaders.

SPEAKER_03 1:00:53

Yeah, I love that. But that only works because you have an internal compass, right? So you you can recognize, you know, this is the path, and I'm I'm seeing this happen, and it's not right.

SPEAKER_01 1:01:05

But you can only recognize that because you at that time truly understand why you think that or why you believe that, but you know in your core that that's that's not right or that is right, and allows you to, I think, continue to calibrate that compass to ensure that you not only stay your own path, but you bring the other people with you on that path with you.

SPEAKER_03 1:01:25

Yeah, I love that. Thank you for sharing that. That's a that's a gold nugget. I told you people to listen to the end of the episode, it always gets better at the end. I don't know why, but it always just builds up. I I think it gets better and better the longer you listen. And I I'll repeat that your parents, your family, somebody in your life set your compass and you adopted that compass. And then when you see somebody who's not on the same moral compass heading, same behavior that you find acceptable, you can say, you know, that that's messed up. We're not doing that. We're gonna we're gonna go this way. And that's a you're a leader. I mean, there's um you're a leader in the best way, in that I don't think, and I haven't been in your board meetings or anything, but just being around you, it's not like you're a dictator, but you're a leader. It's like, come on, guys, you know, guys and girls, we're going this way. And people follow you because they can trust you, because you have that compass to recognize, and I love the way you said like you learn more from the people who had poor leadership to say, no, we're we're not gonna be like that. Exactly. Love it, absolutely love it.

SPEAKER_01 1:02:39

Thank you. No, I appreciate the kind words. You know, it's it's uh it's nice to be able to have people that want to walk that path with you and people you don't have to drag or push. Right. That makes making that journey a whole lot easier. So, you know, if there's a nugget inside of that, is just align yourself with people of of like mind and the same core values. The whole exercise of generating and producing core values for an organization should be replicating the core values that you have for yourself and in your own life and your own family. And you just gotta make sure that when you bring people in and you bring them on for the on that journey, that they they have the same compass, they've got the same values that align with who you are and what you want to be.

SPEAKER_03 1:03:20

So, would you hire me with my weird answer to that question?

SPEAKER_01 1:03:23

It's a good question, Russ. And I'm gonna have to get back to you on that one.

SPEAKER_03 1:03:28

I do, I did like the response, and I had not gotten that before. Yeah, that happens to me a lot. So Ryan's furiously nodding his head in the background. It's like, yeah, you're weird as hell, man. It's not it's not normal. Weird is good. Yeah, I hope it's a good kind of weird, but yeah, I can't help it. There's too many normal people in this world. Normal is boring, man.

SPEAKER_02 1:03:51

Can't stand it.

SPEAKER_01 1:03:52

Boring.

SPEAKER_03 1:03:52

I appreciate your time. I appreciate everybody for listening. Any final thoughts before we sign off?

SPEAKER_01 1:03:59

No, I mean, I like the the format, man. I think being able to really drill in on the the nuanced items of of people's journeys and lives is is exciting. Um, right. I think as opposed to just walking the path of understanding the progression, you you dig in on the the nuggets, the the things that are actually the gold in the hills, not just walking the hills themselves. I like it.

SPEAKER_03 1:04:21

Yeah. Well, the the whole purpose of the podcast is to help people live better lives. And the business success is very important to all of us. But your beautiful wife and your beautiful kids, and your crazy dogs, and your frustration with golf, and so those are that's humanity, and that's my weird answer to interview questions. It's you know, that's part of life. So I I appreciate you spending a couple of hours of life with me today. And I hope everybody has gotten something out of this. If you haven't, you're not paying attention because this was a great episode. Thank you, Wit McCarthy, for being here. This has been the Blue Cup Podcast. You can find us on Instagram, Twitter, or X or whatever it's called now, YouTube, of course, and on our websites, which are associated with good faith property solutions. And we will see you next time.

SPEAKER_01 1:05:15

Thank you for having me.

SPEAKER_03 1:05:16

Ed, make sure you comment. We want comments. I want you to agree, disagree, drop the comments, talk about what we should be talking about. Tell us what we should be talking about. What are we missing? Um, that's that's my favorite part of the comments is when when somebody points out what we're doing wrong so I could get better. Thank you for being on the Blue Cut Podcast, and we'll talk soon.