Bobby Davidowitz: Building Wealth Beyond Money, From Bag Boy to CEO

Today we talk with a new friend, Bobby Davidowitz. Who started his career as a Publix Bag Boy, but pivoted to Real Estate in the early 2000's. Navigated the great financial crisis and is currently building the first of its kind, Culture Center. We talk through how a real estate brokerage wins on culture, not control, and why influence is the only thing you truly own as a leader. We trace the winding path from early jobs and career panic to mortgage lending, real estate investing, and building a community-first model inside eXp Realty while redefining what “wealth” really means. 

• Influence as the real asset in real estate leadership 
• Culture as a belief system built on sharing, growth and community 
• Why eXp Realty can help scale culture and residual income opportunities 
• First jobs, college drift and the pressure to follow a “logical” path 
• Faith, purpose and bringing spiritual principles into business 
• Mortgage lending before the financial crisis and choosing integrity 
• Real estate investing basics like phase-one pricing and built-in equity 
• Wholesaling versus listings and finding the right long-term lane 
• Entrepreneurship versus intrapreneurship and coaching versus managing 
• Building a culture center program with training, events and accountability 
• Redefining wealth beyond money and learning to own the progress 

Bobby's Website: https://investorseason.com/

Bobby's Email: bobby@investorseason.com

ABOUT PERSONAL BETS

Person Bets is a podcast for the people actually running the business, not the investors, not the board, not the consultants on the sideline. Hosted by Chance Sweat, business broker at FitzGibbon Alexander, Inc. and founder of Foundry Leadership.

🔗 Personal Site: chancesweat.com
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Transcript

Influence As The Real Currency

SPEAKER_00 0:02

Yes, we uh what uh as I pulled in, I I I struggled to find parking.

SPEAKER_02 0:08

Are we starting?

SPEAKER_00 0:09

Yeah, we're just gonna get right into it. We're just gonna get right into it.

SPEAKER_02 0:11

I was like, okay, this is more fun this way.

SPEAKER_00 0:14

Uh as I pulled in, and everyone's gonna see my mustache slowly melt over the course of this conversation. There's a lot of people here, man.

SPEAKER_02 0:22

Yeah, man. We got a, you know, we figured out a while back, especially in real estate, you know, that we uh we actually you don't own anything like as a broker or you know, as an organizational leader in real estate. You don't own anything. You literally only own influence. You know, that's that's all you can do. All you can do is add value because every single real estate agent is an independent contractor. They don't have to work for you and we don't pay them. Yeah, right? They make money when they close deals, right? So they expect to come to a place where they're getting something more than just being able to hang your license because there's a million of options where to hang your license. So um about 10 years, 10, 11 years ago, I came into a brokerage that my business partner owned, and um and he already had certain beliefs. I believe culture starts with a belief system. So we believe that you know we pay it forward, we don't cover our paper, we we share information, we help each other, um, and we're and we're very big in the personal growth. So we kind of had those as a foundation. And over the past 11 years, we just kept building and building and building. And uh what you're seeing now is actually we're in a big transition uh coming into a new building. That's why we're in this construction zone right now. But this was a vision that we had a long time ago to truly kind of control our own destiny and and create a space that wasn't didn't feel like an office that was more like this kind of, you know, we say we're a personal development company that happens to do real estate. You know, we're looking to build people, you know, and if we can build people, we know they're gonna build a great business and they're gonna become great real estate entrepreneurs. So, you know, uh probably about eight years ago, we stumbled across this EXP realty model. And the beautiful part about that model, it allowed us to scale culture, right? Because in a traditional brokerage model, it's very tough to scale, right? You know, you recruit, recruit, recruit, people leave, leave, leave. It's a revolving door type of model, right? And I always tell brokers, I was like, they leave you because they want to be you. You know, you they're they your best people want to take their business to the next level. And in a traditional brokerage model, that means you got to become a broker or you become a team leader and you're gonna do that somewhere else. So you spend all this time training these folks just for them to for your income to walk out the door. The cool thing about the exp Realty platform is that everybody's on the same plane, right? There's no different deal. I'm not actually a broker, I don't have to be, right? And every single agent has the same exact opportunity. If they want to build something like this, they can right now, today, by simply attracting people to the company.

SPEAKER_00 2:51

But they choose not to because of what the culture is like here.

SPEAKER_02 2:54

No, no, they they're building their own organizations within our culture, right? So that's part of that value add. Part of the value add is we're giving you a physical, you know, personal development space for you to be able to bring in people under you, your brokerage, but those people are also part of us, right? That's what a multi, it's a multi-level. Yeah, right. So for us, what we're doing is saying, hey, we're we're taking the risk of overhead, liability, all this stuff is a pure choice. Like exp reality doesn't pay for this. It's me and my business partner, Gil and our partner Veronica, that pay for this, right? But we're taking that chance because we feel like if we build community, we're gonna attract more and more agents, we're gonna be able to build a stronger and stronger culture, and we're gonna be giving them the resource to also bring people in, right? And that's the whole thing. The whole thing is to scale this. I mean, there's guys making a million dollars a month in residual income in this company, and they've done it all by inviting people to the company. And a lot of them don't even have office space, right? They don't have a local presence. You know, they live in Puerto Rico now for the tax advantages, you know what I mean? But they've got 20,000 people in their organization, right? They're a big chunk of the 90,000 agent company, but that's the whole point. I mean, if you're a business owner, what are you looking at? Essentially, if you're truly a business owner, what you really want to do is make money off the business and not be self-employed. You want to be the owner, yeah, and you want to be sleeping and money coming into your bank account. Well, this gives everybody the chance to do that here.

First Jobs And Fast Lessons

SPEAKER_02 4:17

Okay. Now, what was your first job though? First job. Um, I will I believe my first job was Publix. You know, a bagger? Bag boy? Bag boy. Uh, you know, I tend not to last very long at these jobs. Like I feel like three months is about my average on most most of those type of jobs. So uh never forget it. I was working at a Publix in Sanford, Florida. I don't know if you've ever been to Sanford, but uh Sanford's cool now. Um, it wasn't that cool back then. And um, so it was kind of a more ratchet Publix. It was like a ratchet publix. Um but yeah, man, that first job is bag boy. I just you know, I never had stood on my feet for that many hours straight, and like my knees were hurting and all this stuff. And I was like, man, this is-yeah, I was like, this is not what I thought it was gonna be. Plus, you know, listening because I was in a ratchet publix, like all my like coworkers were like had all these wild like stories, and all I thought to myself was like, I'm gonna end up like them. Like, I am like, I gotta get out of here as soon as possible. So that lasted about three months. Yeah, that was my first job. This what teenage years? Yeah, I would I think I would have been like 16.

SPEAKER_00 5:31

Okay. Yeah. So you really you're doing the job for gas money, go hang out with your friends.

SPEAKER_02 5:35

Yeah, uh, yeah, exactly. Gas money, hang out with friends, you know, maybe be able to get a car, a new car or something. But yeah, it wasn't, it was just what you thought you had to do. You know, like you're 16 now, you should make your own money and start making some money.

SPEAKER_00 5:48

I applied at Publix when I when I turned 16, uh, actually a little bit before that. And I got turned down and I didn't realize that they did that. I thought that was just a rite of passage for every high schooler to be a bag boy at Publix. Is there this high demand for this job that you can hire me? There must have been. I had a couple I became a lifeguard, which was pretty fun. That's cool. Yeah, wet and wild. Remember when they were still around?

SPEAKER_02 6:10

Went Wild used to be it.

SPEAKER_00 6:11

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 6:12

We used to do, we when I played pop order football, we used to do our like end-of-the-year parties there, yeah, parties there, and it was like my favorite thing to do. Now, now all I think about is how many people have been in this pool. Yeah. Like back then it was like, yeah, lazy river. Like I'm swimming in urine. Yeah. That's what I'm thinking right now.

SPEAKER_00 6:31

I can tell you from working those parties, those buyouts, the things we would fish out of the lazy river. Oh.

SPEAKER_01 6:37

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 6:37

But so when you were a bad boy of Publix, did you have a uh kind of

College Drift And The Panic Point

SPEAKER_00 6:42

a goal in mind? Like, did you know what you wanted to be then?

SPEAKER_02 6:44

No, man. I I really, I really had no direction. I I I always tell people that I I just kind of followed the path of like what I was supposed to do, right? Like I I was, you know, it's almost like I was just making sure that everybody was happy with what I was doing. And when you're where you're in school, you're just trying to, if I could get, if I get good grades, I'm playing sports, I'm doing all the things, then everybody's like, dude, you're doing great. You're doing a great job. Just keep it up. Just keep it up, keep it up, buddy. And so I never really thought about like, okay, after all this is done, like, where what am I gonna do? Actually, it wasn't until actually like my last semester of college that I started to really freak out because I had really been riding this wave. Um, because I was a good student, so everybody always, you know, so you go into high school, you're a great student, you're an athlete, everybody thinks you're doing great. Next logical step is college. Go to University of Florida, I'm going to a major school, you know, uh, I'm and I got straight A's in college. You know, I was a smart kid. I knew how to at least regurgitate information. I was really good at that. So uh so and and once again, what when people ask you what you do in college, you're like, oh, I go to university, or you what do you do? I'm on the University of Florida. That's awesome, man. Like, great. And then so it was really last semester that I was like, wait, this is about to be over. Like, there is no other logical step here besides like, I guess I have to get a job, but like my major, I wasn't gonna do anything that I mean, I was in sports management in business, but like I thought sports management was gonna be like being Jerry Maguire. Like when like to Jeremy, when Jerry Maguire came out, I was like, oh, yeah, I was like, oh, I'm gonna take the sports management because then maybe I'll be a sports agent. But like the the curriculum was nothing about that. It was actually a lot of anatomy, physiology, you know, like more like sports training versus sports like business. I thought it was like the business of sports, you know? Yeah. So yeah, I was I was pretty lost until until I came out of college and then I had a panic moment.

SPEAKER_00 8:43

I could I could see you as an agent though. I'm trying I'm thinking of uh what was that, ballers?

SPEAKER_02 8:47

Oh yeah, yeah, yeah. 100%. I I wish I yes, I thought I'd thought this to myself because the only reason I picked sports management because I was really just like I was really flipping through the uh the majors in the book for the university, and I was like, dude, what do I actually like get excited about? And there was like, you know, I I did all the other subjects, but the only thing I was ever excited about really was sports, you know. Like I loved playing sports and being in that world, and and so I was like, dude, it makes uh this makes sense. Boom, let's do this. You know, there was just nobody, you know, I had great parents, but I I don't know that I had like, you know, a lot of mentorship, you know, when it came to to business and things like that. You know, I got the love, I got the support, but nobody was telling me about what was next or you know, putting me in different situations to kind of expose me to different things to guide to like really know like what would I do.

SPEAKER_00 9:44

Do you think that's why you get so excited about what you're building here?

SPEAKER_02 9:48

Um yeah, I mean, I I I really uh get a lot of energy from people, you know, and so like for me, this like real estate is actually one of the funniest, like okay, I'm very fun driven, right? Like, if I ain't having fun, I probably won't last in whatever I'm doing. Like if I really just dislike it. And then there's some people that I'm just gonna grind it out and push through. I'm like, you know, and and it's not always fun, but like I really need to be excited to do well. And so real estate is truly one of the most unique businesses in that realm because you attract a certain type of person, right? You know, you're basically attracting people who who don't want to be in the in the corporate world, that that that are finally stepping out and pay placing a bet on themselves and coming out into the industry, people who um who are usually great, you know, people who are great at real estate oftentimes come from bartending or hospitality or you know, or they were selling like insurance, which was like cool, and then they were making money but just didn't feel it. You come into real estate, now you're helping somebody get buy their first home. Now you now now you're getting good to go look at cool houses and and then and then real estate is heavily event driven, like there's a real estate event going on every single day of every week. Um, you know, and it's food and it's drinks and it's people and it's you know, it's almost like we we built um uh an industry around the party.

unknown 11:11

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 11:12

Yeah, you know, that's a great way to put it. Yeah, and so so I'm excited because I truly enjoy what we do, and now I'm in a position where I get to impact people, right? I get to, I get to not only educate them on real estate, investing, commercial real estate, all of it, but I also get to impact them spiritually. You know, you and I go to our business Bible study, and I re over the years, I think, I think what I realize is that um, and even my pastor says that you know, there's a big uh opening for business ministry, really. Like, it's not like you go to church and then it just that message stays in there. Like that message is here too. That that message is in business. Matter of fact, Bible is a business book. Like if you really, if you the business principles are in there, the investing principles are in there. Um, so now I'm looking at it more like okay, this could be one of the places where I make a lot of impact on people, right? And I've been able to, you know, I've been in it now technically 25, 26 years. I started, you know, uh in 2002 as a loan officer, but in real estate, uh like uh retail real estate since 2015.

SPEAKER_00 12:17

Okay. So you come out of college, panic moments, that's it. Panic. Panic. Did you just did you just start flailing?

SPEAKER_02 12:25

Just like start throwing stuff at the wall and see what's stuck, or well, yeah. You know, I was thinking about this earlier when you were saying like place bets on yourself. So, you know, I get out of college and I'm literally so a lot of things were happening at once. So I was graduating college. Literally the month before I left to go do my internship, which was my last semester of college, I meet a girl. Like, I I had never been in love with anybody. Like, this is I I've re I liked girls, messed around with girls before that. It was like nothing ever serious. Literally, the month before I leave Gainesville, this girl comes into my life, and I'm just like head over heels for this person. Smitten. Smitten. And um, to the point where like I used to be the guy that my boys are like, dude, Bobby's like, Bobby, you're never gonna say it, like, bro. You, you, you've never like You were that guy in the group. I stuck to I see yeah, I was that guy in the group, and now I meet this girl, and I'm suddenly like, all I want to do is be with her, right? And like a month later, uh, I was leaving, and I literally like sat her down. I was like, hey, you know, you know, I'm leaving, you know, Gainesville, whatever. And she's like, Well, what do you want to do? I was like, we're gonna make it work. Like, we're gonna do long distance, like I'll be up here every weekend. Like, it was that easy. I went from like being the guy that was super hardcore to being like, yeah, we're gonna make this. I'm gonna commit it long distance relationships. So that was happening. So there was a certain pull to come back to school. Okay, because I thought to myself, well, maybe I can just, you know, get my master's and something, you know. And um, I re and then I reached out to some professors that I had, and I was really just like hoping for a lifeline. And I think that this is where the placing the bet on yourself when when I realized like nobody's coming to save you. You know, I was talking to people and I was trying to figure it out and I was freaking out, but at the end of the day, nobody was coming to save me. I had to figure this thing out, like what I was gonna do. So um, in that process, I really thought about getting my master's, but I realized that it was a cop out. Like I was just scared, and and if I would have gone back to school, I would it would have just purely been because I didn't have the balls to figure out what I really wanted to do. So uh funny enough, I I wasn't working for a little bit. I was living with my mother, and the first job I had after college, after graduating with a 4.0, was being a barback at a club. Like that's the first thing that I did. And the other thing I had a big fear uh that I, you know, business to me sounded boring. Like no, like I said, nobody really taught me about business. All I knew is that my dad never talked about his job, and my mom never seemed excited about working, so it just seemed like this that sucks, right? And then like my dad used to go by Bob, and I'm like, dude, I'm gonna be some guy 40, 50 years old in a cubicle named Bob, like miserable, you know, like and so everything in my mind was not even thinking business world. Um, and then you know, I'm sure you got some questions after that, but um that's what happened after college.

SPEAKER_00 15:21

You're just trying to figure out what to do. And I feel like I've seen this too with like friends who like they didn't really know what they wanted to do, so they're like, Well, I'll just continue on this college ride for a while. Yes, and they go and get a master's and a PhD, and then they're like, Oh, I'm I'm sitting in a lab every day. I didn't want to do this. Yes, well, you they never deviated from that path.

SPEAKER_02 15:40

Right, right. And I'm actually listening to a listening to a book called Range, and it's talks specifically about that. How you know we tend to tell kids, you know, figure out what you want to do, specialize, you know, do that the earlier you can figure it out, the better. And they tend to have good results in the short term, right? Those those kids. But the kids that tried a bunch of things, yeah, and then specialized later because they found the thing, long game they win, right? So, you know, but nobody teaches you this, right? This is what I'm reading now at 47, you know, like that's what I'm reading now. But like, I feel a lot like that.

Barback To Mortgage Breakthrough

SPEAKER_02 16:15

Like I was, I I was trying, I tried some different things, and you know, um my buddy came, so my so I was living with my mother after college, and uh my buddy comes to me one day and says, Hey, listen, I'm live, I'm living with my dad, I need to get out of that house. You should probably move out of your mom, your mom's place. Um, he's like, uh, let's get an apartment together. You know, and we had a buddy that was a manager at an apartment complex in Maitland, so we were gonna get a discount. I was like, Yeah, cool. He goes, but but you gotta get a job. Yeah, like because we gotta pay for the apartment. I'm like, oh. I'm like, well, uh, I don't even know where to start. And he's like, Well, buddy Jason just got a job at this new club called Antigua that was opening up in downtown Orlando. Antigua. Antigua. You remember that? Oh man, that's old. That's old, that's old school, bro. You you know how old that is? Like, I actually was painting the place before it opened. Like, I was there at the very beginning of Antigua. Like, I was at the beginning. So I went in there and you know, went for a job interview to be a bar back. Which basically just show up.

SPEAKER_00 17:15

Are you sober? Right? Or at least sober at the moment. Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 17:19

Sober right now. It's okay if you drink on the job, we don't care. Just show up on time.

SPEAKER_00 17:23

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 17:24

So ended up doing that. Uh worked there for a year. We were just close to a little bit over a year, but basically, you know, you can't stay if you have bigger goals, you just can't stay in a job. Like, I just knew, like, I did try to be like, will they make me a bartender? You know, uh, but they really were just hiring hot girls as bartenders. Like, if you weren't a hot girl, you weren't you weren't getting it the bartending job, right? And and I was like, okay, so I was bar back and I was like, you know what? I'm like not using my brain here. Like I'm literally just chucking bottles and trash cans and doing all that stuff. And um I'm like, I and I just set a marker like by my birthday, I'm gonna I'm gonna be out of here. One way or the other, I gotta figure something out. And by the grace of God, I met a guy who was opening up a branch of a mortgage company. Like literally during the during the time I said, God, I'm gonna I'm gonna I'm gonna figure it out like we're gonna figure this out. Yeah, like I'm getting out of here. Like I know I can't stay here. Um the opportunity came.

SPEAKER_00 18:18

Were you a believer then?

SPEAKER_02 18:20

Always been a believer. I think um just more lukewarm, you know. I you know, uh I grew up, you know, mom was a Bible reader, and and and we, you know, we went to church. We weren't like a crazy church family. Like, like my dad, if I said I don't want to go to church, my dad'd be like, cool, don't don't go. Like uh he wasn't he wasn't like a big you know pusher of that. Um we did go to church and stuff like that. And I would I would read the Bible as a young kid, you know. I I I enjoyed it actually. Um, but I got into the world, you know, like I got into the world, I got into all the stuff that I'm you know basically cleaning out of my spirit now, you know what I'm saying? Because, you know, there wasn't I didn't have a like a lot of direction in that sense. Like I was a good person and I believed in God, but I was still doing all these other things that were contrary to that. So I've been a believer uh in that sense. I always have faith that like God would always come through, but I'm really now like in the past like three, four years diving in.

SPEAKER_00 19:20

I feel like a lot of people either have like this moment where everything's falling apart, yeah, and that and then suddenly the right thing presents itself. Yep. Or there's a bunch of these like little nudges, and it's like just get back on track. Like just this is the route I need you to go, right? Like you you're talking specifically in the spiritual, like Yeah, I feel like people, you know, when they when they finally think really bad and then they come, they come to God. Yeah, or or there's these little nudges where it's like if you would you're you're almost there, little guy. Just you know, stay on the path, you know? Yep. And so I feel like this was one of those moments your your buddy trying to move out of his dad's house, yep, moves you in, and then hey, I've been doing this bar back thing, but hey, I'm not a hot girl. Sorry, right. Can't change that. Right. Right. And so then it's like, okay, well, hey, why don't you, I'm opening this office, why don't you come work with me?

SPEAKER_02 20:04

Yeah, it was basically it was basically that, you know, get you know, got a really answer to prayer, and and and and even prayers that I didn't know I really wanted because like I said, I didn't know anything about business and and I thought it was boring. So you know, I told you I'm very fun-driven. So home loans didn't sound no, no, so I was like, I was like, okay, so when I started in the mortgage business, I was like, this is actually kind of fun. There's a massive amount of variety. I'm using my brain, like there's numbers involved, but there's people involved, and it was a fun industry, you know. It was a it was the same thing. Like the real estate side is probably even more fun, but like the lending side, same. It's like we're in the same family, right? And so I was like, man, there's a lot of variety in this job, it keeps you on your toes. You learn something new with every deal. You you're you're working with people and you're helping them, you know, make one of the biggest purchases that most people ever make in their life. And I was like, it was the first time that it hit me. I was like, oh, okay, this is a this is a sport too. This is a sport. Like I'm it's a game, right? There's rules to the game, there's ways you win the game. Um, and and and I just and I started to enjoy it. And that that was a prayer answer because that that got me down the entrepreneurial path. And I realized, okay, actually, I I this is a game I can play, you know. But it was all by pure, you know, chance, God, right? You know, that's providing me the opportunity.

Football, Weight Limits, Identity Shifts

SPEAKER_02 21:27

Because you were a football player, right? Wide receiver? Wide receiver, did a little research. Yeah, little wide receiver, defensive back. Um, but but but that was a crazy story. That was a crazy put a bet story, too. So I was actually when I first started playing football, I was in fourth grade and I was a chunky kid, right? And they have weight limits in Pop Warner. So when I I'm very familiar, yeah. I've been there. Um I remember having to cut make cut just a couple pounds just so I wouldn't get it. Yeah, well, in fourth grade I had to cut ten pounds, and if you know how much kids weigh in fourth grade, that was a big chunk of my. Weight and so I really that's actually how I got in the health stuff. Like I literally told my mom in fourth grade, yeah, because my mom had to start cooking healthier. She like I had an I had a goal. I needed to lose 10 pounds in order to they wouldn't let me play. I literally missed half the season because I was still overweight. Like I just couldn't make, I mean, uh, you know, 10 pounds was a lot, like we were little, you know, whatever. So uh where do they put the chunky kids? Like, so my goal, my dream, you know, I'm playing in sandlot, I was crushing, right? And so in Sandlot, you're either quarterback or receiver, like you're playing all the fun positions, you know. Um, and so I wanted to play like running back, receiver, whatever, but where do they put the chunky kids when they play football? On the line, on the line, on the offensive line. And so I was like, oh, this is great. So, like, so I get to move these people out of the way so the people there can score touchdowns and get all the glory. Like, that's my job now. Um and I gotta wear the stretchy pants and look like this. Yeah, and look like this. And uh, yeah, and and and it was um it was a challenge at first. I was really like unhappy with the position. Um, and I thought about quitting, especially the first time I got hit uh hard, and I was like, oh, this is a different than San Lot. Um, you know, but I'm very glad I stuck with it. I think I really just enjoyed being a part of something, like being a part of this club and this group of people. And um, and I it was it was something that I'm glad I stuck with, but I ended up playing offensive line for four years, even after I lost the weight. So I became a skinny kid. Like by the time I was in sixth grade, like you wouldn't look at me and think offensive lineman. And I would beg the coaches to let me play something different. Like, hey man, like look at me. Like, I'm I got a six pack now. Like, I'm like, I am not, you know, I'm not a super tall guy, I'm not fat anymore. Like, they're like, Yeah, but you're the best offensive lineman we got now. And I'm like, dang, so they would let me play a couple of little different things here and there, maybe some defense once in a while, just to kind of try to keep me happy. Um but when I transitioned from uh from middle school to high school, I knew I would never play offensive line in high school. Like, once you made that transition from eighth grade to ninth grade, and I was going to high school football, like I said, I was what five, six, 145 pounds. Like, I'm not playing offensive line. So I literally, the coach first day comes in, he's like, What position you play, son? And I was like, running back. And he's like, Well, we got too many of those. How about receiver? I'm like, fine. Sign me up, sign me up, and ended up becoming uh all conference revive receiver. Wow. Yeah, it was like, and and it was it was it was just like literally went from like hating my position to changing my position to becoming a receiver. The varsity team, the varsity team in high school was had their worst season ever that year. So they brought up 11 freshmen from the freshman team to varsity. Like we skipped JV. We actually went up there for the last four games or like last few games of their season, and I was one of the 11 players chosen as a wide receiver to go to go uh to the thing. That's all happened in a one-year span.

SPEAKER_00 25:08

Jeez, man. And just just literally just because you're like, no, that's what I do. Yeah, even though you had yeah, you probably played the position before, but I played on the street.

SPEAKER_02 25:17

You know what I mean? Like, listen, I knew how to run, I knew how to do all these different things. I'm just and I knew how to catch a ball. Like, that's what I'm saying. Like, I felt like inside I was always like like an offensive type of player. Like, I that's what I when in when I played Sandlaw, like I was pretty good, you know. But like, you know, full contact sports, totally, you know, when it's full contact, it was a totally different ball game.

Pre Crash Lending And Integrity

SPEAKER_00 25:37

Yeah. So you get into mortgage lending. Yep. That's early 2000s, right? So that's pre-financial. Pre-financial crisis. I've heard some stories, and we'll I don't know what the statute of limitations are, so we don't have to go there. But I've heard some stories from other friends who are MLOs about some of the things that would happen. Yeah. And how you would like, I had a friend of mine who was an MLO, and you know, they would open up financial reports in Microsoft Paint and just to I was like, oh, there you go.

SPEAKER_02 26:04

You know, so so I would say that I was on the um more um uh conscientious side of like I I didn't do stuff like that per se. There was one incident that I got in trouble for doing something, but it was because I was trying to help a friend. Like it wasn't like that was what I did. Matter of fact, I didn't get in trouble because they knew that's not who I was. Yeah, it was it was like something complete, like it was something stupid. Like it was a you know, when you re-pull a credit report, sometimes you lose points. And literally these people were like two points above the right marker, and they had and then because just because they re-pulled it, it dropped them to like two points under the marker, which kick would kick them out of the loan, right? So um that's all I'll say about that, what happened there, but but I didn't get in trouble for that. But but but honestly, what was crazy was is that everything was incentivizing people to do that. The whole this is why the whole system crashed, because you know, people were getting pushed to do more loans. They were doing 100% loans, no money down, stated income loans. You just literally like just tell me what you make. And you might be like 5,000, and you'd be like, that's not gonna cover it. How about 10,000 a month? Just say you're in sales. I mean, it was like that. Like, it was like that, and it was that easy to get uh a deal passed through. And the and the lenders wanted, they they were they were making a ton of money. Yeah, they were selling these these mortgages off, they're making a ton of money, so they're incentivizing their underwriters to be lenient, they're incentivizing us with these products. There was over 100%. I I remember like picking up flyers that said 125% loan. I'm like, and back then, you know, that was all I knew. So I was like, oh man, this is great this way the game works. Yeah, and and and and to be quite honest, I benefited from it in the sense of like I got to buy my first house with no money down because like I knew how to do it. Like I was doing it for other people, and like so at 23 years old, I was able to buy my first house. I'm like, no money down, whatever. I was like, it was wild back then, bro. It was so wild, but yeah, there's definitely some people doing really shady stuff. I would be the guy, like, I would really talk people out of dumb things. Like, I I I wouldn't want to do a loan and put you in a bad position unless you truly insisted this is what you wanted to do, you know. And that happened a couple times where I was like, bro, what are you doing, man? I'm like, you you know, people everybody became an investor back then because everybody was making so much money, and there were some people making some bad decisions, and I would tell them, I would be like, Listen, man, I'd love to do this loan for you, but like, that's not a good idea, George. Like, it's just not, yeah. But then they would be like, no, but I definitely want to do it. I'm gonna do it. And then I'd be like, Well, you're gonna go to somebody else and get the loan. So I'll do the loan for you, but I already told you, like, you're, you know, you're you're overpaying for this thing. Yeah, you know, it's already gained 60 grand in equity. How much more in three months? How much more do you plan to get in the next six? Like, you know, it's wild, wild stuff happening.

SPEAKER_00 29:06

You got that same conversation in 2020, 2021 with homes and equity. It's insane. So, but I mean there's a piece of integrity there, right? So you obviously had something that you you weren't willing to give that up, right? Well, I'm willing to play the game and I'm willing to play within the bounds and the rule book that I'm given, but at the same time, there's you're looking at these plays, if you will, if we're making this sports analogy, you're like, I just don't, I don't feel good about that.

SPEAKER_02 29:30

Right. Yeah, you don't, you know, and and I think that's important. I think it I think you want to have integrity in business. Um, you know, I just I did a I do an investor event, I did one last night, I interviewed this guy, uh Felipe with Northwestern Mutual, and I work with him, but I was with another financial advisor prior to meeting with him, and I and I met him at an event, really liked him, kind of like you met you. I was like, Oh, I like this guy. And um we started talking, and he's like, Well, let's do a discovery, like let me see what you got going on. And I showed him like the portfolio that my other financial advisor put me in, and he's like, That's pretty good. Like, I I would do something very similar for you. So you don't you don't have to move that over to me or anything like that, you know. Like, yeah, like keep it where you have it. You know, he's like, let's just, you know, let's do some future business together. And just him saying like that, you know, instead of just trying to sell me on something and just telling me the truth, like, hey man, he's actually doing pretty good for you. Like, that's what I kind of disrupt. I might do a couple of things different, but that's really good. You can stay there. And then I was like, oh, okay. And then I ended up, I'm like, well, I'll just start a life insurance policy with you. Like, I let me start something with you. Yeah. And, you know, like a year or two late, I switched everything over to him. You know what I mean? But it was because of that integrity that he had.

SPEAKER_00 30:40

People want to work with people that we we've had this conversation over breakfast. People want to work with people that they like, no, most importantly, trust. Yep. Right. And and you know, we've had the conversation, but I don't want to do deals with people that I just I don't want to work with. Right. Right. If every single day the world's on fire and it's burning down, I I don't I don't want that. I don't need that in my life.

SPEAKER_02 31:00

Yeah, and the older you get, the more t the more the tighter your box gets, you know, like your buy box is like it's like wait, I because time becomes such a more valuable asset, you know. And so if you're spending your time stressing out because this person's like an a-hole or they're you know, they're not listening to you and this deal's wild, and you know, it's just like it's just not worth it. Yeah, like somebody else can do the deal, it's fine. Like, I I I have faith that I'll make just as much more money or even more working with people I actually like and that I actually like to

Love, Long Distance, Hard Pivots

SPEAKER_02 31:31

work with.

SPEAKER_00 31:31

So I know there's gonna be some people who would be very upset with me if I didn't go back for a second. Yeah, your long distance relationship. I can't leave that. I can't leave that thread. We're gonna go back to the the market crash. I can't leave that thread un unpulled there. Yeah. Well, so the significance of that, right? The you you turn on the dime to a committed man.

SPEAKER_02 31:51

You know, you know, it was really important. I I think it was a very important thing to just learn that I could feel that kind of feeling. Okay. Because I had never really felt it like that. You know what I'm saying? Like, you know, because you know, in high school, people are like, oh, I'm in love with this girl, I'm in love with this guy, and it's like everybody's like, and then and then they break up and then they're in love with somebody else, like the week later. Like, I'm like, how do you guys? I'm like, maybe I I lacked this gene. Yeah. Like I don't feel the same things people feel, you know. Uh but that relationship, I was like, oh I get it now. I get it. I'm like, this is a different vibe, you know. So that was a very important, I think, inflection point for me, uh, relationship-wise. But it also taught me that I was willing to pivot, right? Like, it wasn't I was never uh so hardcore that I didn't think I could be in a relationship. I was just kind of like, nothing is exciting me enough.

SPEAKER_00 32:45

Yeah, you hadn't felt that spark, right?

SPEAKER_02 32:48

Right. So that was that was big. Um and it wasn't like it lasted forever either. You know, it was it was um, you know, we we um you know, I used to say that we we dated for six months and she broke up with that I broke up with her and then we dated for another six months and then she broke up with me. But technically she broke up with me twice, like because the reason I broke up with her the first time was because something had happened where she literally ghosted me for like three days. Like, you know, we used to talk every single day, and like I said, it was long distance, and then she just disappeared for like three days, and then when I asked her what was up, like I could just hear something in her voice, and and it was like there was no good explanation for what, and I was like, Oh, I don't know what happened, but I think I gotta get out of this thing. You know what I'm saying? But I used to tell myself that I broke, I was like, no, actually, she did it twice because it was her actions that caused me to say, Okay, I'm not gonna do that. But obviously, she came, you know, she came back a few days later, apologized, whatever, and I was in love with the girl, so I was like, I think I'll give you an you know, I'm definitely willing to give you a second chance because I've never felt this before. And then a year later she broke it off. So and we're still actually still friends. We're we're she's right downstairs. She works for me now. Um no, no, no, no. She uh she was Puerto Rican and uh she went back to Puerto Rico for years, she got married, she had some kids and stuff like that. But we um we reconnected actually last year, like we had connected like one or tw once or twice in the 25 years, you know, in between, um, but never really stayed in touch. And then she reached out to me last year when I was heading to Puerto Rico and she's like, Oh, I see that you're going to Puerto Rico, I'm gonna be down here, blah, blah, blah. And it was cool. So, and and and honestly, still super cool part, like fun to hang out with. Like, yeah, it was the same, we you know, we we have great conversations, she's a fun person, we have a good time together, all that stuff, but you know, 25 years have passed, and there's a lot of baggage there, so it is what it is.

SPEAKER_00 34:42

I had to I had to ask because you brought it up, and I'm like, there's a there's a lesson learned here. 100%. Okay. So when

Real Estate Bets And Finding A Home

SPEAKER_00 34:49

do you get into real estate? Like true, like true real estate.

SPEAKER_02 34:53

So so obviously I consider lending real estate. So, you know, I'm I'm financing real estate. So I I started mortgages, I start to uh to do some investments on my own. You know, I had uh had um at that time they were doing a lot of uh apartment to condo conversions downtown. Um this post-financial crisis? This is before. Okay. This is before. So this is leading up to it. This is from like 2002 to 2006 that that everything was going down.

SPEAKER_00 35:21

So you're starting to make some actual financial bets in your life, right? Because you'd been making good money. Obviously, you've had great commissions, I'm sure, from being a loan originator, and now you're starting to put some of that equity or that that that uh reward to work for you.

SPEAKER_02 35:34

And that's part of what I love about real estate and financing because it's such an important piece of the investment game and the wealth building game. And I just happen to be that I'm in the industry. Like I like I like we preach it here. Like, if you're in real estate, you're not buying real estate, like what are you doing? Like you understand this better than most people.

SPEAKER_00 35:50

Well, have you ever seen those TikToks where the guys going around like, hey, I see you're driving this Ferrari, what do you do for work? Uh nine times out of ten, they're in real estate. In real estate, some way, shape, or form. Right. Or that they're in software, they built some sort of tech startup, but a majority of the time, a big bulk of their And even if they're not in it, part of their portfolio is real estate.

SPEAKER_02 36:07

Like they understand that this is an important thing. So um I started to figure out, okay, well, I understand the money part. That's how I bought my first home. I I'm starting to understand this investment thing because I'm seeing these apartment Nicondo conversions and like whenever it same thing happens in a new construction community. You know, if you ever if you ever if you ever bought new construction, no, never bought new construction. Every new construction community works the same. Like, let's say there's 300 homes. Well, the first ones start at this price, once they sell five of them, the price goes up. Once they sell five more, the price goes up, and and it keeps going, right? So if you're the first one in, you almost have built-in equity. Yeah. If you're in phase one of a project, and that's what these apartment to condo conversions were. What I was I had knew a girl that worked for back then it was called Caldwell Bank or Condo Store. They were like a specific group that was specifically for condos. And I knew a girl that worked for them, and so she would tell me in advance, we're about to, we're about to go to this building. And in advance, I would be like, I want to be the first deposit. By the time they sold out the building, my unit was already 30, 40, 50, 60, sometimes 100 grand over what I had paid for it. So that was like my first thing. So I was in real estate investing at that time, but in 2006, I got my license. I was watching all these realtors make more money than me. So and you know, because I because in in mortgages, you maybe make one to two percent. Uh you make one to two percent. Sorry guys, we're in a construction zone. Um, you know, we make one to two percent maybe on on um on the loan amount, they're making three percent on the purchase price. And I was like, wait a minute.

SPEAKER_00 37:47

You hear that a lot from people who've made the jump.

SPEAKER_02 37:49

Yeah, yeah. I was like, okay, the math ain't mathing. And I'm like, and a lot of people back then, especially before the crash, would do both. So I could actually do the real estate deal for you and also finance you. And you could still do that now, but they put a lot more regulations in place after the market crash for kind of that double dip, you know. Um, so I got my license in 06, really just for me. I would maybe do a deal or two a year for friend, but I it it it wasn't like what I was trying to do. It was really 2014 when I when I got in. Um, I had gone through a lot of different stages. I had tried to get an entertainment company off the ground. I I had uh I had filed bankruptcy at age 29, like I had gone through a lot of different things. Um and I was working for my buddy's uh PR agency, making good money again. But most people, you know, like everybody, when you're not progressing, like I'm like, okay, well, what's next though? Like I I could do this, but this is not like a lifelong thing. Like, is there another position for me? When I realized it wasn't another position, I was like, okay, I gotta find what's next. And the next thing I choose needs to be it. And literally, I waited six months. I did I didn't do anything for six months. I had saved money, so I was just like, dude, I'm not gonna push this. I'm gonna let God truly like I gotta feel it. Like, this is the route. And got a call from a buddy, said he was starting a wholesaling company, which is just basically flipping contracts on real estate. Um, and he's like, Would you want to do this with me? And I'm like, dude, I think I've been waiting for this call. Like, real estate makes a lot of sense. I'm like, I already got my license. I was like, uh, I'm like, I can control my time, control my destiny. Uh it's a wealth-building type of industry. So I started with the wholesaling, figured out that was a bit grimier like game, and it was cool, but like probably not where I wanted to stay. But what I figured out was that I could turn a lot of these uh wholesale deals into listings. And when I figured that out, it got me on the track to find a realtor who would help partner with me. And in that process, I found the realtor. She's in this building right now, actually. Uh, she's still with us. This is last this is 11 years ago. And um, and I found her. I went to do a deal with her, and she told me when I I met her at her office, and she told me you need to meet my broker. And I was like, I don't need to meet any broker. I'm like, I just just listen, I just want 25% from the deals I'm sending you. Like, yeah, we don't need to. Um I had my hanging my license with a friend of mine. Just she's like, No, I think you really need to meet my broker. I'm like, all right, well, um maybe one day, but let's do this. But I got such a great vibe talking about culture. The culture was already good. I think it's great now, but it was good enough then that I literally walked out and I was driving home and I'm like, I think I'm gonna hang my license here. Like it feels good in this place. Like I love the people. I just felt warm in this place, like the people I met, the lady at the front, the the vibe. And that's how I got into real estate. And then I hung my license with with them, and the broker that she was talking about is my current business partner. Look at that. Just just the way God works. Just look at that. Look at that, man. It was wild. It's wild. It's wild, like it's just gonna, it's like you're following this like rabbit hole and you don't know exactly where it goes, but you're just making these moves, you know?

SPEAKER_00 40:48

Yeah. Well, you're just you're taking a step of there's there's a step of faith there, right? I'm at the end of the sidewalk, the piece that's paved, and I'm just like, I guess we'll take another step. I'm not gonna go all the way back. Yeah, I'm gonna take another step and just see is this, is there's is there more sidewalk underneath this darkness here, or is this the clip? I don't know. But I'm I'm taking another step.

SPEAKER_02 41:07

God nudges you, you know, like you know, and you got to follow the nudges, you know, like you might not, he doesn't always give you the entire plan, you know, because there's he wants you to have faith in the plan, right? Yeah, and oftentimes, you know, well, 100% of the time, his plan's better. Yeah, right. So you've got all these visions of what it's supposed to look like, but he's like, wait, wait, see what I do, right? So yeah, I was just kind of following these little steps and you know, kept progressing from there.

SPEAKER_00 41:32

I can't remember if I shared this with you, but when I met with my broker when I was joining the business uh brokerage, Fitzgibbon Alexander, I sat down with Matt and uh over the course of the next couple of hours, he told me every reason why I shouldn't become a business broker. Just, I mean, he just rattled off all the reasons why I shouldn't do it. And then at the end, I was like, well then why should I? He goes, freedom of time and you control your destiny. And I was like, why don't you lead with that? To his point, you know, to his credit, he was making sure that there was no disillusionment of what was gonna come, right? Yeah, he's like, you could go and become a real estate agent and you probably have up your first listing in a couple months, right? It probably sooner, you get a really good place. He goes, You might go without a paycheck for a year as a business broker, right? And when he led about that the very end, I was like, sign me up, let's go. That's amazing. And there's so many reasons I got nudged in that direction. That's uh a podcast, I'll have my wife interview me one day or something like that.

SPEAKER_02 42:26

Yeah, but it's important to set expectations like that because then once somebody gets disappointed, they won't stick with it. You know, we do the same thing here with real estate. I tell people, like, this is not a job, this is not a career, this is real estate entrepreneurship. Meaning you're starting a business and you're not gonna talk to any entrepreneur or business owner who won't tell you that it's gonna be a heavy lift. Matter of fact, you're gonna do more work to get this thing off the ground than you would at any job or anything like that. All you have to have faith is it's gonna be worth it. Right? It's gonna be worth it. Like if you stick with it, you're gonna get to the other side. But don't come in here thinking because you saw, you know, your homeboy or homegirl on Instagram, like they're selling on like go look up their numbers. Let's see how much they're actually closing. It's not that easy.

SPEAKER_01 43:10

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 43:10

You know, right? Yeah.

Entrepreneur Or Coach At Heart

SPEAKER_00 43:12

When did you start seeing yourself as an entrepreneur? Or do you see yourself? I mean, obviously you see yourself as an entrepreneur because you're setting that expectation.

SPEAKER_02 43:18

Yeah, you know, I think we throw that term around pretty loosely, you know. Uh and and I I honestly, like, I don't necessarily even think that way of myself. I I just feel like I'm following a path. Um, but everything I've done is pretty much entrepreneurship in some way, shape, or form in the past 25 years, right? Like being a mortgage, you know, me and a uh loan officer, mortgage broker is just, you know, you're 100% commissioned, so you essentially have your own business, right? Uh then I opened up a mortgage company, so I had my own mortgage company from 03 to 07 until the market crashed. So I was not, but I never at that point thought like I'm an entrepreneur. I just thought like this is just the next logical progression of what I'm doing. And And uh so I don't walk around thinking like, you know, I'm this or that, you know what I'm saying? I'm just kind of like, um, and and and maybe I'm not even a good entrepreneur, you know. That's I think that to myself sometimes. I'm like, you know what? Am I even a good entrepreneur? Like, because I'm like, maybe I'm a better intrapreneur. Like, maybe I'm better working within a system than creating the system.

SPEAKER_00 44:21

Honest question. Have you watched a single episode of this? Of this podcast? You gotta be honest. No. Entrepreneur versus entrepreneur has come up on every single episode. Really? Almost almost every single episode, that topic has come up. That's weird. And I think it's because none of the people I've interviewed, both the the episodes that have been shown and the ones that are pre-recorded, I don't think anyone really sees themselves that way, but they also don't take themselves too seriously. Right. And I think they're just, hey, I I just want to be bigger and better. I want to be 1% better every day. Which I get from you from top conversations. You haven't used that phrase with me, but you just seem to be like, all right, it's where I'm at now, and I I I want to be better tomorrow. So I'm gonna, whatever that next logical step is. Yeah. I think that's entrepreneurship.

SPEAKER_02 45:09

Yeah, it it probably it is. It is entrepreneurship, but but I didn't the term entrepreneur wasn't really a term even growing up. Like that wasn't used, and it and it, but I like that it exists now because I think that that there's a lot of people that feel that they like, like I think it has a lot to do with me, like managing people. Like I feel like my business partner is way better at managing people and organizations because he's he's worked for corporate America and he's done all those different things where like I'm more of a free spirit in a sense, like I don't actually enjoy telling people what to do. I just don't, you know what I mean? Like I like being my own boss, but I don't necessarily get excited about managing people, right? Yeah, because I don't like to be told what to do. So like why would I tell other people, right? But but obviously I do, right? I I we have employees and and and uh but I think of myself more of like a coach, you know, than necessarily like I'm a manager or whatever the case may be. I'm like, dude, that you know, like obviously we're running a business, we gotta do stuff, but I think that sometimes that's why I feel like there's some people that want to like own this massive corporation, and all I think about is headaches and liability when they talk about like like if you told me like Bobby you could have a 30,000 employee organization and and be a multi billionaire, I was like, you can have that. Yeah, like I uh as long as I'm made enough money, like what I what I really want is to be a full-time investor, so I don't have you know, I get the least amount of liability and the least amount of adult daycare. Yeah, like if I if I can pull those things off, I won, you know?

SPEAKER_00 46:35

Well, they say in every good business you have a visionary and you have an operator, yeah, right? So you have the person who's driving the ship and then the person who's the jet or the driving the plane, flying the plane, and the person who's the jet fuel, right? And so it almost sounds like in your dynamic with your business partners that you're not necessarily the the the chief visionary, but like that that culture piece I think rolls into that visionary and you enjoy that piece, whereas your sounds like your business partner enjoys the operations and the the moving of things around.

SPEAKER_02 47:02

Yeah, I I I you know I think we both we're both a hybrid, you know. He he definitely is visionary, like he sees things in the future a lot of times that I I can't see. Um I'm very more people the people's champ, and I see things in the human realm that he probably doesn't see sometimes, right? Because he's you know a hard, you know, deep personality, right? So he's just he's just this and that, and uh, and and you know, and my job is to kind of he balances me out and I balance him out. Like, hey man, like I understand that on paper that sounds good, but there's human collateral damage to that, which means that it's gonna be a long-term loss, you know, if this happens. So let's let's figure out how to make it in a way that that still gets the job done, but we also take account, let's say, people's feelings, yeah, right, and things like that. So I think we're a little bit of both, you know. I I definitely we we definitely do both, you know, we do visionary and operational stuff, and I don't know if that's the way at all. Like eventually we I'd love to just have like a pure operations person, you know, a pure marketing person, and then just have me and Gil kind of just you know steer the ship.

SPEAKER_00 48:12

Yeah. So

Scaling Community With A Culture Center

SPEAKER_00 48:14

now we're kind of fast forwarding here. So this building, you talked about it in the the beginning, but downstairs I saw, I don't know, 30, 40 people sitting down there right now. But the goal is that this building is packed to the gills. Packed, yeah. 260, is that what you see?

SPEAKER_02 48:30

Yeah, so we we've got about we've got two about 260 people that are are members of our culture.

SPEAKER_00 48:36

Okay.

SPEAKER_02 48:36

Um they're already here. Oh yeah. They're already here. We're in we're you hear construction in the back. Like this is literally like we soft opened a week and a half ago because there's some people that really want to want it to be inside the office. Now, 260 people never show up at the same time, right? So it's the way I wait the way you gotta look at it is that to truly grow this big, it's kind of like a gym membership, right? Like there's thousands of people that are signed up to Crunch Fitness, but only a fraction of people show up to the gym. Yeah, right. That's kind of how it is. There's some people that do like to work from home or maybe a little bit farther away from the office and things like that. Um, but the reason people really love joining us is because of the energy. People want to be around other growers. You know, you become who you're around, and we are heavily personal, I mean, and and we we stay heavily training, coaching, personal development heavy. Like we're gonna take 100 people to Tony Robbins, unleash the power within. We're we're doing a real estate mastermind called Build That Sea on a cru on a cruise ship in in June. We do classes every Tuesday, every Thursday, every second Wednesday. We have a major rally every every single month. Every other month we do a three-day boot camp. Like activity, coaching, training, level growth. Earlier before this podcast, we were doing something called the coaches and council meeting. So we have coaches, like we we uh like indirectly have built basically a speaker's bureau. Like, I've got people here that have spoken all over the country that I would put on any stage and they like I go to conferences and I was like, Oh, I got people in my office better than this. You know what I mean? Like because we give them stages to get on, we expect you to lead. Like, that's the what culture like our culture is like you're not coming here just to be an agent, you're not coming here to be an entrepreneur. We want you to become a leader, and we want you to become a leader that creates leaders. Like, this is who we are. Like, is this what you want? And we tend to attract that person because that's that's what we tell them we want, and that's what we get. So um so yeah, so there's 260 now. The goal is to get the 500 to a thousand agents, you know, signed up out of out of this uh office. Um, and then we've actually become kind of a um uh like a flagship for so EXP Realty was built as a virtual company. Yeah, um, we were one of the first ones to decide that we were gonna keep our office space, that we were gonna that we were gonna try to run this like a hybrid, just like a regular brokerage, because we couldn't see ourselves being 100% virtual. And we started that, you know, eight years ago, but it was a struggle. Through that struggle, we were able to build a system to uh be able to fund places like this, and really for us first, but I needed EXP's help to do it, and they helped me do it. So we ended up creating the system that has now been rolled out company-wide, uh, which is called the Culture Center Program. And the culture center program allows somebody who wants to have a space and wants to build community and wants this kind of energy and all that kind of stuff to be able to fund it. And there's a just it the actual system is just boring. It's really just a way of collecting a transaction fee or what we call a culture fee from each transaction. But because everybody is independent at EXP, like they have their own back-end system, we were having a problem tracking and collecting. And that will that's what was killing us. Like I I can't, you know, there's too many people dependent on figuring out who closed what when, did they charge the thing, did the title company cut the check? Like it was a problem. Now the system's directly with EXP. EXP is the one that actually knows every transaction that goes through the brokerage. So they have a whole department now that has our roster and they know when a deal closes, they take that transaction fee just like they take their transaction fees, and then they pay us directly. And that's the culture center program. We teach everybody else how to actually build the culture, right? But the culture center program is really just a logistic logistics. Yeah. Like, how do we make sure you guys can collect this so you can know what kind of space you can afford so you can and and what kind of budget you can have? So it's it's it's been a wild ride, man. And like I said, you're at you're at like the beginning of our like the flagship culture center and the entire nation. Like, literally, you're sitting in it.

SPEAKER_00 52:54

The guy who doesn't classify himself as an entrepreneur. You're gonna be an entrepreneur, you're gonna be a leader. Yeah, hey, I just took this massive, there's 90,000 agents at EXP. Yeah, this massive company, right? And we built something that they didn't have that they're now implementing elsewhere.

SPEAKER_02 53:14

I don't see myself as a you know, uh that's that's something that I've tried to like I'm actually I'm actually bad at is a humility thing.

Redefining Wealth And Owning Your Wins

SPEAKER_02 53:25

Is it is it is it it is it's it I actually You're a team player. I I love humility and I I like being humble. I think I actually like I've been working on this, like don't I don't give enough credit to the things that I do. It's almost like I'm a really tough coach on myself, and and I always tell people I'm like I'm not easily impressed, which is a blessing and a curse, because I'm not impressed with myself either. And it doesn't allow me sometimes to really see like like from the outside looking in, you're like, oh my gosh, like that's that's have you been reading my diary?

SPEAKER_00 54:00

I don't know. Is that is that what you've been going through?

SPEAKER_02 54:03

It's tough, you know. It's like you know, I just I don't know why it's been so tough for me to be like like I'm like I just recently I realized that like because you know it's like you're always chasing something and you're always trying to get to this next level, and you and then you know there's people around you that are you know, there's agents in this office that make more money than me, hands down, you know what I'm saying? And you're watching this happen before your face, but I'm the entrepreneur, right? I'm the owner, but you're making more money than me, right? So it can really mess with your psyche. Yeah, like like am I a good entrepreneur? Am I failing? Like, am I failing at this? Like, is this like whatever? Um, but what I but what I realize is funny because I teach a lot about investing, and I realized that you know, wealth is many things, right? You know, people think of wealth as money, and that's the only measure that they use. But there's relationship wealth, there's emotional wealth, there's spiritual wealth, um, you know, uh physical wealth, there's all these other wealths out there. If you truly want to live a great life, so what I realized lately was I'm extremely wealthy. Like I might, this guy might have a lot more money than him, but if I want his money, I gotta take his life, and I don't want his life because his wife hates him and his kids don't talk to him, and he's and he's completely overweight and out of shape, and I don't know if he's gonna make it another 10 years. So the reality is, do I want that kind of wealth? No, I actually don't. I can continue to work on the money part and build that up, but I really gotta thank God for the wealth that I got.

SPEAKER_01 55:29

Yeah, right?

SPEAKER_02 55:30

I'm sitting here for you, 47 years old, I feel good, you know, I'm healthy, I've got incredible friends like you, and meeting them all the time now that I'm like diving deeper and deeper into faith. I'm getting all these awesome faith-based, you know, friends and business partners like PJ. Like, my life is rich, you know, like it's rich, but it takes a lot to kind of like because society will tell you that these are the things that only things that matter. And um, so yeah, like just now I'm starting to understand that, like, okay, you know, actually, I've been in this for a long time, and like literally one of my mantras this year was just like be him, be this, be this person that you've always thought you could be, that that God thinks you can be, that other people from the outside looking in are telling you you are, instead of like kind of saying, like, no, that's no, I'm not there yet. I'm not there yet. I'm like, I'm like, dude, just step into it, like just be this guy. And and so maybe you write that in your own diary, because that's what that's what we all need to do, you know.

Gratitude, Energy, And Closing

SPEAKER_00 56:32

Dude, I there's nothing I can say to to wrap this up because that was amazing. All I can say is that the space you're building here is impressive. You can feel the energy when you walk in downstairs, and I think that's a testament to you and your business partner and what you guys have been building. And I appreciate you. Uh, I joined you know the Citrus Club and started going to the business Bible study on Thursday mornings, and first morning or second time you sat down next to me and introduced yourself, and we got breakfast, and it's like it's exactly what I'm here for, right? To meet like-minded individuals who are trying to build something.

SPEAKER_02 57:03

Well, you have great energy, man. And like, and I I've done and I've told you that a lot of times before, and but people were watching, it's like, you know, that's one of your superpowers is energy, you know, and and everybody has the ability to walk into a room and raise the energy level and elevate spirits and elevate minds, you know what I mean? And so when we sat down, what I noticed initially from you was one, you you you smile, you know, like you you you radiate happiness and joy, but you also contributed to the Bible study. Like when there was time, you know, you would because you know, a lot of people come and they're a little bit shyer about like, you know, because we discuss, you know, we ask questions and discuss the Bible verse and stuff like that, and we go around the table and see who wants to speak. And a lot of times for weeks, people will say nothing.

SPEAKER_01 57:43

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 57:43

They just, you know, getting, but you were like one of the, you know, you you hopped right in and then started giving some really insightful stuff. And I was like, I like this dude. Like this this dude, I'm glad this dude joined the Bible study. Like, this guy's cool.

SPEAKER_00 57:56

Well, you know what I appreciate is when someone, when someone says something and like they tell a personal story, and you and I will be like, Yeah, we we we keep it like hard. Like that was a little personal, right? Or like I I love when uh this just past week. I'm blinking our name, but uh someone asked, Does anyone want to uh to read for us? And she raised her hand, and I was like, We're not those kind of people here, like you don't have to raise your hand, you could you could just say um I'm I'll do it. Right. So I appreciate that sense of humor, man. But I appreciate your time, man. Yes. Uh you got a lot of people downstairs looking looking for your direction. Yeah, no, but this is this is way more fun. I appreciate it. Thank you.