Dallas Builders Club Ep 4 - Getting To Know The Guys

Why the podcast and who is Mathew Smith and Carl Dean. 

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:03

The drinking thing's hard because I feel like it's it's like an icebreaker. Oh, I agree. A hundred percent. Not to mention I don't want to go on a date and it's very awkward. What do you guys want to drink? You're like, yes, soda. You break the nerves. Yeah. Like I don't I don't I don't feel mature if I'm ordering like a Coke Zero. That's the thing. Like can I get a kid's meal?

SPEAKER_01 0:22

I'm not the type of person that has drinks in the house or like drinks when I get home or like I'm a social drinker. Like when I go to the wine club or whatever, and I have you know some wine or something like that. Like I do it because it makes me a social butterfly. It makes me shuck and jive, as I say. Like, you know, it's it brings out a funny version of myself that I and other people seem to do it. It loosens you up, it cuts the tension.

SPEAKER_00 0:43

But like what I'm trying to say is, you know, you take a girl out to a nice restaurant and the waiter comes over, he's like, Okay, like what's the cocktail order? And you're like, Yeah, let me get coke. Oh, sweet. Stephanie Morris, let me uh silence that. Um, when you make so, anyways, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 0:57

Being sober is cool, but uh I don't it's not it's not like I don't it's not like we're sober, like we'll have a drink, yeah. But like it's not something we do regularly, like, oh, I'm gonna have some beers this weekend, like, yeah, no, I want to because then I'm gonna be fat and then I'm gonna have to go to the run four extra miles and like yeah, and then I'm gonna sweat and my head's gonna hurt.

SPEAKER_00 1:17

Yeah, I'd be hungover, like just like do you remember when we were cool? I do. That was I mean 10, 15 years ago. Yeah, what a good time. Speaking of cool, I like this outfit. You look very well put together today. That's I appreciate it.

SPEAKER_01 1:29

Yeah, shout out, shout out to my designer or fashionista and also fresh haircut. Sydney Wy. Yeah, thanks. From Leo. I actually just got my haircut from Leo this morning. From Leo. Did a great job. What do you guys think? If you want a haircut near the area, Leo's part. I don't want him any more busy, okay? It's hard enough to book with him already. True. Never mind. Let's just leave that. Never mind. No good haircuts are there. You can use Sydney Wy because she's awesome and I don't use her enough because I can't afford her. Yeah. Um, but she does good style.

SPEAKER_00 1:55

What do you think she would think about uh you know my jeans and my uh Lulu shirt and it she'd say, hey dude, whatever suits your suits your, you know, floats your boat. I mean, that's not it, but if it makes you feel good, I think she'd walk into my closet and the like it'd be a record stopping. She'd probably vomit immediately. Yeah, yeah. Can I get help, please?

SPEAKER_01 2:14

Yeah, yeah. You need it for sure. You got a couple good outfits, anyways. Um, all right, so welcome to the show. We're babbling on for a couple minutes because here's the thing this show is not gonna be polished all the time or ever. It's not gonna be, you know. Sure, sure. I can take the water bottle off. It's not gonna be perfect. I'm gonna talk to the guy behind the camera sometimes. Um we just don't care, right? Like we I feel like we live in a world that's so full of shit and so politically driven and so politically correct that it drives me absolutely insane. And so I feel like the the reason that I I like to do the podcast is because I like to get on here and show my authentic self. Yeah, I like to be authentic. I don't like to be sugarcoated and overly polished. And, you know, I I want people to know who we are, who who I am as a person, who you are as a person, and have some fun, have some laughs, talk shop, talk business, talk life. Like we don't, I don't care if nobody watches this show. To be honest with you, it's something that we look forward to every week. It's brought some joy to us since we started doing it. It's fun, you know, the kids love to see it. Yes, it's it's it's it's just fun. And so if it brings you joy, do it. If you want to start a podcast, do it. I mean, it's a pretty substantial investment for all this shit we got here, but you know, it it whatever floats you both. Like if it's something that makes you happy and brings you joy, we build million dollar homes for for really nice people, and we do a great job, and the business is cool from the outside. Looking in, you're like, wow, that's so cool, that's the greatest life, and da-da-da. But it's it it becomes repetitive. I mean, we're just building houses over and over and over and over and over again. And so having something like this, an outlet to chop it up, talk shop with my buddy, have some good laughs, it's something that we look forward to. So that's why we're doing it. So nobody likes it kiss my ass.

SPEAKER_00 3:59

No, nobody likes to polish stuff, anyways. I mean, we we're just talking about this. We go on a job site site and spend 45 minutes going over things we've rehearsed and you know, wrote a little script for, and oh, how's this angle? How's that angle? And then as we're getting into your truck, you're like, hey, film a quick video about the porter potty and the mock-up. That thing gets 50,000 views in a week. No, dude. And I'm like, are you kidding me? We filmed eight videos that we were like, oh, yeah, we're gonna go. We're gonna make good X Stand in this corner, talk about this. You're out there shaking the plumbing rough in, talking about a huge, massive financial mistake if you don't make it. And it's like a video about the shitter. Yeah. Well, because it created rage bait.

SPEAKER_01 4:35

Pearguing. It was it was clicked. Oh, what a waste of money. Oh no, this is a great idea. Oh, as a customer, I'd love this. Oh, I can my club my customers do the selections ahead of time. Like, cool, dude. Don't care. Uh, this is what we do, this is how we do it. We're awesome and good at what we do. And you know, a lot of the cities we work in make us do that anyways. They don't want to see the sugar, you're not allowed to show it. You have to have a mock-up because they want to make sure you're not building an ugly house in their neighborhood. I mean, this is what it is in Westlake and South Lake. So the comments are great. And yes, we have continued to use that whole you know structure of that mock-up deal in other cities where it's not required because it works for us. Yeah. The last thing I want to do is go and put up a ton of stone on a house, and then the sun starts to set and it changes the color of the stone and it doesn't match the fascia, and the customer's like, I hate this, blah, blah, blah, blah. And then, yeah, it's a change order. Yes, but it's a pain in the ass. It slows down the job, it slows down the production, and it it just, you know, I'm just trying to avoid liability. I want you to see this with the with the designs, the textures, the colors, and everything in the morning, at night, when the sun sets, in the middle of the sun. Like it just, it just you're eliminating liability. So, to those who didn't like it, well, you're pretty you're probably dumb.

SPEAKER_00 5:44

Point being is don't focus too hard on the polished stuff because I don't know, I don't know what it is about the algorithms and the comments. People just love the raw, uncut. Don't stop the video if you misspeak or you you know, because it it just doesn't matter.

SPEAKER_01 5:57

I think life isn't perfect, people aren't perfect, they can relate to it more. Yeah, exactly.

SPEAKER_00 6:01

Um which I think that's kind of like that's why we're doing the podcast, right? We wanted people to see uh uh an up close view of us and understand who we actually are. I mean, of course, you can see our product and our clients deal with us on the business side, but I think that there is an aspect of this where it's like I I do want people to know how I truly am, especially me. I think about it. I'm like, man, I feel like you're so close to order. Yeah, I feel like everybody misinterprets me and what I say and all that kind of stuff. So it's nice to get on here and let people know, like, hey, I do smile.

SPEAKER_01 6:36

I have a sense of humor.

SPEAKER_02 6:37

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 6:38

Yeah. I do smile, I like to have fun. Yeah. It's just, you know, business brings out a different side of you. And this isn't really business. This is just two guys chopping it up, which is refreshing, right?

SPEAKER_01 6:48

It's part of business. It it helps feed the business, it helps bring awareness. And honestly, for me, I love to teach. I love to help people, I love to coach people. I love to see somebody who really wants it go out and get it. And if I can help those guys do that, that is the most rewarding feeling. I grew up poor as hell in a trailer park, just like you did. You know, there were so many times in my life where all I needed was somebody to believe in me and help me and help me see something or learn something, and I would take the reins and go. And a lot of times there was nobody there to do that. So as I became successful and kicking, clawing, and scratching to get there, it's nice to see myself and some of these other people who want it bad enough and will take it serious enough to be able to say, okay, let me help you do that because I can show you how to do it. If you got the access, you got the brains, you got the intelligence, and you got the wherewithal, I can help you get there. So that's that's fulfilling. But um, this is really our first production of the podcast that's like legit, right? We got the cameras dialed in, we got the lights dialed in, um, we've got all the back-end stuff dialed in. And so I really wanted to take this time for this episode and kind of introduce ourselves and a little bit about our background, how we got here. Uh, if you don't know, Matt and I have been friends for about 25 years. We met in college. I was a rough kid, uh, oldest of four brothers, and I was very rough around the edges. Uh, just a tough son of a bitch. And that's how I was raised. My dad was like that, my grandfather was like that, he was a green beret. Like we were just tough, tough, tough, hardcore guys. And that's all I knew. And then I met Matt, and he was a much more polished, polished, you know, good member of society, and he rubbed off on me, and and I started hanging out with him versus hanging out with kind of some of the bad kids I was hanging out with. And it really changed my life. And I've said this a million times at meetings and whatnot. Like, I owe a lot of my success in my life to meeting you and the impact you had on my life. So we were roommates at one time back in Macomb Township and Mount Clemens in a 700 square foot rental house. Yep. And we actually had like a little business building things in the garage. We we built like creative realities and more. Yeah, bring your pins to life. It was when Pinterest just took off. Yeah, when everyone was making everything out of pallet wood. Yes, we were making wine racks, we were making all kinds of like rustic, antique mason jar lights. Yeah, the mason jar uh shaping.

SPEAKER_02 9:13

Chevron wall. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 9:14

Hey, that listen, that Chevron wall was the fireplace mantle? Yeah, with the with the recessed uh TV box in it.

SPEAKER_01 9:22

The TV box was in the mantletop, which we we painted and made it look like old gray wood, and we put it fireproofed it and put the box in there with a little piece of glass. We had like the railroad uh tie, like look it up on Pinterest. It's creative realities and more. Literally, we we did this out of the garage. I even built that bed for that lady for like five grand. I had the metal fabricated legs, we had it in the apartment in the house, in the 700-square foot house. The whole dining room was this bed, and it smelled so bad because of the the damn stain. We brought it in right after I stained it, and it was heavy as shit.

SPEAKER_00 9:55

Yeah, it was no one was ever moving that again.

SPEAKER_01 9:57

It was so heavy. I mean, I didn't, I was building it out of solid wood, and it was stained, and we brought it in, and the stain just filled the whole house up. What I mean, we just we've been through trenches. So, uh, you know, my history. So I went to college around the same time Matt did, even though I'm older, I decided not to go to college initially, and then I went to college. Um, studied business and marketing, and then kind of got I was I was working construction. My dad was a roofer, my stepdad was a roofer. So I obviously being suspended from school all the time, I was a roofer. I was cleaning up, I was lumping shingles, I was on two-story roofs doing stuff kids nowadays should never do uh since the age of about 14. My first job at 14 was Burger King. Uh, I mean, I've had a hundred jobs, I feel like, honestly.

SPEAKER_00 10:38

That doesn't surprise me.

SPEAKER_01 10:39

Yeah. Um, but I got into the fire, flood, and mold restoration. Then I got into just doing like little remodel projects on small little trinket houses and back in Detroit. And then I met two guys that were basically selling wholesaling houses. And that's when I got introduced to the wholesaling business with Sean and Al. And they taught me this business. That's the first time I ever got on a flight. I was 23 years old. They took me to Vegas because I was killing it for them. They bought me a brand new Ford truck and they gave me the first bite of the apple of like, hey, this real estate stuff has a big future, you know? And so I took the bull by the horns and we kicked ass. And we were selling to a company called By PD. Shout out to Buy Boys at Buy PD. You guys were awesome, rusty. Took us on the best trip ever to Moab, doing the off-road deal. Um, and yeah, so I kind of catapulted that. Went and worked for another fund that was I was basically the acquisitions manager. So I was looking at deals, underwriting deals. What's it gonna take to fix this house? What can we sell it for? Does it make sense? If it made sense, then I would manage the construction. So did that, ended up finding a guy in Kansas City. Uh, interesting story. So this BY PD group who was buying from me in Detroit, I would go and have these renovators basically make these houses look exactly how I wanted. I want oil rub bronze fixtures, I want this, that, and the other. You got to finish it like this, this carpet, that tile. And then I would put like basically put those in a spreadsheet with photos and send them to this buyer group. I did that and I was doing it with houses in St. Louis, with houses in Kansas City, all over the United States and Indianapolis. And this guy calls me one day and he's like, hey, dude, how the hell did you just sell 10 of my houses to the guy that I've been selling to for three years? And you sold them for $10,000 more a door than I offered them to him last month. I'm like, Well, I sent in a cleaning crew and a photographer, and I had them move everything from one side, all the trash and bullshit from your shitty tenants to one side of the room to the other side of the room, and I presented it well and marketed it well. And he's like, Why don't you come down here? I think we have something to talk about. I went down to Kansas City, we ended up partnering up. I liquidated the rest of his inventory in Kansas City. Uh, this is in 2014, and it was to buy PD again. Shout out Buy PD. And then we started selling the hedge funds. All of a sudden, there was all these REITs, you know, 2014, everything hit the bricks, and then people started buying rentals again, and you can buy them for dirt cheap. And the hedge funds, like American Homes for Rent, and um, there's a couple different ones. Um, Silver Bay Realty Trust, there's a couple different ones. They started buying from us. Uh, and so they said we want this Texas product, this South Dallas product. So I moved to Texas with the firm January 1st of 2015 with me and about 10 guys, and we started hauling ass on this on this product down here in Texas. Killing. And we knocked it out of the park. Yeah, we sold 300 homes a year, we were doing 30 deals a month, and good times, yeah. And we had tons of good times, bro. I was a peak. That was the peak of of my living. I mean, I was in my like 30, 27 to 32 in that time.

SPEAKER_00 13:31

I saw the pictures.

SPEAKER_01 13:32

Oh, bro. I mean, we were partying, living a lavish lifestyle, had the penthouses.

SPEAKER_00 13:36

It was like Wolf, it was like Wolf Wall Street.

SPEAKER_01 13:38

Yeah, I was track, I was on all kinds of panels speaking with Robert Kiyosaki. We went to Africa and I was speaking on stage because the thing was, oh, we we were selling to you know the hedge funds, and then the hedge funds stopped buying immediately, cold turkey. So then we had to pivot. So then we started getting into the speaking engagements because we were selling to like think realty clients, we were selling to fortune builders' clients, okay, we were selling to anybody we could find. You know, there's guys called safe future investments out of Israel, there's guys in Africa. Everybody has these groups where they basically teach you how to invest in real estate, and then we would provide the product. And so, but that was a pivot. And so I was in charge of making sure that the company stayed alive and I pivoted. Well, it was doing great, and then we just kept buying and selling so much product that we were pushing up the value so much that the rentals really didn't make sense anymore. By the time we got it, flipped it, did our thing, you know, the guys that we were selling through were taking such a big chunk that it was hard for us to make good money. Right. So this is like 2016. I said, okay, I'm done with this. I took a buyout. Uh, they kept going and they got into proper property management, which I wanted nothing to do with. I'm not a big HR guy, I'm not a big OSHA guy. I don't want a bunch of employees. I moved to Belize and worked uh on that Hilton Curio collection product. That was cool. Mahogany Bay Village, uh, with Beth Clifford, who's one of the greatest inspirations and and uh what's the word I'm looking for? Mentor. Mentor, one of the best mentors and inspirations I've ever met. I mean, this woman with her today. Love her. She's she's a bulldog, and I love her to death. Taught me a lot. Um, did that for about a year, and that was the average daily rate. So I went from the rentals to the average daily rate, and I was selling that. And every weekend I was snorkeling with clients and bringing clients down. I lived down there and I was, you know, teaching them what's about Belize. And it's, you know, dollars pegged to the American dollar two to one, and it's English speaking. Contracts are in English. You can buy uh and have 100% title, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. So I did that about a year until um my videographer guy passed away, overdose, unfortunately. Hit me really hard. I went back to Dallas and then I got into the apartment space. So one of the guys that I used to work with on the bus tours doing the single family stuff, he was in the apartment space. His name's Michael Becker with SPI. Great dude. And he said, Look, I'll teach you the apartment space. You'll be my asset manager. I did that for about two years, crushed it. We did great. Uh, the numbers were insane. I became known as a really good asset manager in this apartment guru space with like the Sum Rocks and all these guys. Right. So I was capped out as being an asset manager, and I said, Okay, well, here I go again. Like, I'm gonna go teach this stuff. So I created a course on asset management, took it to Brad Sumrock, did really well with it, re restructured his whole uh mentorship program as far as the sponsorships, his stuff skyrocketed. It was great, but again, you know, I'm I've just never been a good employee. So, you know, that kind of ran its course. Yeah, I went and did the same thing for this apartment rock star guy down in Houston, and then he turns out to be selling just dog shit assets. So I that ran its course. That's kind of a that that business is yeah, it's but but I've always kind of been in that coaching space. I always have loved to coach and teach people. I want to go in and learn it, I'll roll up my sleeves, and then I want to teach other people.

SPEAKER_00 16:44

Yeah, I think where the friction came about, though, is like you wanted to do it like the ethical way and be honest with people. And with that is some in some aspects of that business, it's not the most ethical.

SPEAKER_01 16:54

Yeah, well, well, especially with the apartment rock star. But again, at the same time, one of his biggest investors was now is now one of our biggest investors because I was honest with and said that deal's dog shit. Don't do that deal. Um, so then again, came back, was out of the apartment, guru space. I was getting married, I was having kids, I was doing all that song and dance. So I decided I want to do something else. I pivoted back to my roots, which is construction and started working for a custom home builder, which is Atwood in South Lake. And, you know, changed the logo, helped build the company, kind of restructured some things, and I loved it. And it was back to my roots. I was designing again. I had my artistic, you know, ness uh again. I like to paint, I like to draw, I like to design. Like I'm a very I love art. I appreciate art. I love art museums, I love history, I love architecture. Those are really things that I'm passionate about. So I loved it. I felt like, you know what, this is something I could hang my hat on. At the end of the day, I would love to be a custom home builder in one of the nicest neighborhoods in America, towns, cities, whatever. Yeah. And that I could, you know, that's something I'd be really proud of. And so did that for four years and then decided that I was gonna go off on my own when the twins were getting ready to be born. Started the business, gave you a call, said, Hey, I need some help. I quit my job. We're going off our own.

SPEAKER_00 18:08

This is 2023, I think it was. Uh yeah, yeah. I came down April of 24, so that would have been end of 2023. Yeah. So right, because you broke ground on uh Falcon. Yeah. That slab was January.

SPEAKER_01 18:22

I did want to point this out because we're people, well, why should I buy coaching from you? Matt had no experience. You had no experience at all. I mean, other than the stuff we were building in the garage, which I was the one using the power tool.

unknown 18:33

True.

SPEAKER_00 18:34

Uh the whole time you're telling about your story, I'm like, oh man, I'm like, none of my previous story involves anything with construction. No, exactly.

SPEAKER_01 18:40

Um, but we sat in that trailer and I taught you the ropes, and we get I gave you the blueprint, and we met every week and we went through the stuff, and you learned it and you run everything now. You run the whole thing.

SPEAKER_00 18:48

Well, you can either learn things or you're not gonna learn things, right? I mean, I've always considered myself a person like you know, I don't know anything about space, but if you give me six months at NASA, I'll figure it out.

SPEAKER_01 18:56

That's that's the thing, right? There's certain people who are just go getters. Right. If you want it bad enough, you're gonna go get it.

SPEAKER_00 19:01

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 19:01

And I know how to spot those people. I'm really good at in your obviously.

SPEAKER_00 19:05

Yeah, you didn't, you didn't, when you were mentioning that what I was thinking, you're talking about all your artistic stuff, and I was thinking to myself, well, you you also excelled at like just managing people, right? I mean, really, that's what home building is all your subs and your trades and just making sure that you're pushing that ball and talking to them and coordinating things. I mean, that's an aspect of the business all in itself.

SPEAKER_01 19:21

Well, and it's because I've been there. I've been that guy who's sweeping the floor, I've been the guy who's installing the floor, doing the trim. And so I know what it feels like when someone comes in and you feel appreciated and that relationship and like what I will do for the guy who's writing my check but also appreciates me and shows that appreciation, brings us lunch or whatever. You know what I mean? So I I've been on both sides of that fence. So for me, I feel like I do really well managing those relationships and cultivating those relationships with people who try hard, are prideful about their product and that sort of thing. If you don't, then I'll call you out real quick. Yeah, it can go south quick. But yeah, so that's that's my story, right? Here we are, we've got a successful business. We've built 12 or 15 homes on our own so far in the first two or three years. We've got a whole pipeline of of new stuff coming. Uh, South Lake neighborhood with 10 homes, uh, trophy club neighborhood with seven homes, and stuff kind of spurred all around. So that's my story for those of you who don't know. Uh, I've been around the block, love to coach, love to teach, love to inspire people. Hell, I'll even be a life coach. I mean, I love to just get up someone's ass and give them some tough love and like, yeah, you know what I'm saying though? Like, that's I really genuinely like that. It doesn't matter. Like, kids will call me.

SPEAKER_00 20:26

I remember if you did a life coach, I'd be like boot camp.

SPEAKER_01 20:28

When I was doing the speaking gigs a lot, right? Like, I'd go to these events and it would be all these big name speakers, and like these kids would come up to me and they're like, Oh, I follow you on Instagram, da-da-da-da. Can I ask you a few questions? And there's nothing that was more rewarding to me than those kids who came up to me and like knew me, even though they didn't know me. They knew me from online and they're asking me how to do this or how to do that. Like, I genuinely love that. That is that is the best feeling in the world to me, knowing that someone saw me here and and looks at what I do and wants to learn and really has the uh ability and and want to learn. I can only help you if you want to help yourself.

SPEAKER_00 21:01

Recognition feels good when it's because of the hard work that you've put in. Absolutely. Yeah. So that's my story. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 21:06

What tell the people a little bit about you and your background and all that.

SPEAKER_00 21:10

So uh, well, you already started off no construction knowledge, right? Um, I mean, I I built Legos when I was a kid. I did not. But you you started off kind of right when we were in college. Um, so same thing for me. You know, I I uh hometown boy, grew up 20 minutes from the hospital I was born at, high school, all that kind of stuff. Did the standard, you know, college right out of high school.

SPEAKER_01 21:30

This is in Michigan, by the way. We both in the same same city of Michigan.

SPEAKER_00 21:33

Verners, Lay's potato chips, yeah, Fago. Love Fago, shout out Fago, baby. Um, but yeah, did the college thing and uh I have a bachelor's in science in and in criminal justice. I thought I wanted to do something with law enforcement.

SPEAKER_01 21:46

Which I didn't want to be your friend because I'm kidding.

SPEAKER_00 21:48

Yeah, right. Um I'd have been arresting you. Um but uh you know, I I was basically just coming out of college and I had a a high school friend of mine at the time who had opened an insurance agency and hit me up, and I had a Bunch of retail experience. In fact, I think that's where we actually met, is when I was working retail at the skate shop. Uh, and he was kind of like, you know, I I got an insurance agency, you want to come do this? And uh I'm I'm a clearly a yes guy. So I was like, Yeah, you know, I'll I'll do it. Um, he was one of my best friends, uh, Steve. Steve, hope you're doing well. Um, so yeah, we rocked it out. We killed it for X amount of time, and then I just got to a spot I think with some people do where you get to the crossroads, you're like, Am I gonna, I'm, am I gonna work for someone the rest of my life or am I gonna do this on my own? Um, I remember like mentally, a moment for me is like, man, I I do not want to ask anybody for time off. I'm like, I want to go relax, I want to go spend time with my family, and I got to stroll into someone's office and be like, hey, uh, can I have Friday off? It just didn't sit well with me. It was a pride thing. So I could be getting the years wrong, but I feel like right around 2016, 2017, an opportunity came my way and I opened up my own insurance agency. Did well with that. Um, ended up partnering up with another really close friend of mine, Leo. We kind of rocked it out for a while. Um, but also it it was just one of those things where I was like, okay, I've I've done it. Like I'm I think I'm I'm ready for something else. The company that I was under kind of did some stuff during COVID where it was like a hey, get on board, or if you don't get on board, and and there was a lot of bad feedback about that. People felt it was like wrong place, wrong time. That kind of put a bad taste in a lot of people's mouth, and and eventually I was like, all right, you know, this isn't this isn't the direction I want to go in. Not sure what I'm gonna do next, but as with any insurance agency, when you go ahead and sell it, there's residuals there. So I was like, I got a degree, I got a little bit of spare change, like I'll figure it out. God's timing is that's kind of right around where you landed. Um Trophy Club. Yeah. So you hit me up and um, you know, you're like, I you're like, I need help with this.

SPEAKER_01 23:48

At first, you were like, no, it's you weren't taking it serious.

SPEAKER_00 23:50

You're like, no, I think I'm gonna move to this wild, dude. You call me up and you're like, I got this land, I'm gonna build eight two plus million dollar houses and this, that, and the other. I'm like, I'm like, you're fucking crazy, dude. Like, what?

unknown 23:59

I am.

SPEAKER_00 24:00

I'm like, you know, like if I got something wrong, like I'm calling a construction guy. Like, yeah, but it wasn't about that, it was just about the business acumen, you know, um, just knowing how to run a business, the marketing aspect of it, all that good stuff. Um, you know, so I came down here full, I had a discussion with my family, and we decided to move down here. Um, I was looking to get out of Michigan anyways. My entire family has always been kind of from the hometown. No one's really wrote a chapter like that of picking up and moving halfway across the country. And honestly, it was just like YOLO. Yeah. Um, what's the worst that can happen? It doesn't work out. At least I still have a chapter in the book that says, you know, move to Texas. Yep. Um, so that's what kind of got me down here. It, you know, consequently or coincidentally, I don't even know what to say about it. I I had I've had a wild three years.

SPEAKER_01 24:47

You know, that's the biggest understatement.

SPEAKER_00 24:49

I've had a wild three years. So, so right before I moved down here, um, you know, my my dad passed away in August of 2023. I came down here, April of 2024.

SPEAKER_01 24:58

Yep.

SPEAKER_00 24:58

My dad passing away was was kind of another thing for me where I was like, man, I, you know, I need something new. I was ready for a change. So my dad passes away. I moved down here, we start the business, Falcon Estates took everything out of me. I mean, I remember sitting in my car filming a video, talking about my mental state at that time when we were building all those houses was if I can just make it to my morning coffee because I was so taxed. Yeah. This was my first year building. You know, you're you as a teacher, you're just like throw you're like the John Wayne scene when he throws the kid in the river and is like, he'll either swing, you know, swim.

SPEAKER_01 25:34

That's it, dude. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 25:35

I it Falcon Estates took me for everything. I'm I'm I love that development. I'll never forget that development, but I was Cortisol was peaked. Yeah. Um, so you know, shortly after that, um, you know, my stepdad died then like January of 25, and uh he was really close with my kids, and that was tough on my mom. Yeah, I remember. Um and then your brother, yeah, and then June of 2025, uh, we went out to dinner, and I I, you know, I remember being with you and and my wife at the time, and I I got a call from uh, you know, my stepmom who I'm really close with, and and and she just said, you know, Vince is no longer with us. And that was just wild because um your little brother, yeah. Yeah, it was my little brother. Yeah. So um, yeah, lost my dad, lost my stepdad, lost my brother. Um, and then, you know, uh in in November of last year, you know, my my wife and I decided to go our our separate ways. Um, so yeah. Yeah. Most guys would be hiding under a rock. What a ride. Um, but that's it, it's one of those things I was kind of thinking about this morning. I knew I was gonna touch on it a little bit today, and I didn't want to get into all the details, but you know, whatever that saying is is like God chooses his toughest battles for his strongest soldiers. It's like, take me off the list. Yeah, I don't want to be on the strongest soldiers list anymore. Yeah, give me a break. Yeah, yeah. Put me, bench me or give me an intermission. Um, I don't want to fight any more battles. I'm good on that. Uh, I just need like a little I need a little break.

SPEAKER_01 27:07

Yeah, no, I get it, dude. It's it's it's a lot. I mean, the personal life, the business life, all the things. Um we're good? Okay. Uh yeah, dude. And and you know, it's I've I've always been in your corner because I've always loved you like a brother. And, you know, it's it's one of those things where I'm a tough love guy. So it's like I've been through the shit too. My dad's passed, my my you know, my videographer, I found him, you know, like that. Like um, life comes at you fast, and sometimes it's not pretty. And and you just it just we're warriors. At the end of the day, it's like there ain't nothing to there ain't crying about it, being sad about it. None of that shit's gonna dwell in on it, none of that shit's gonna help, right? It's just like make them proud. Yeah, you know what I mean. At the end of the day, it's like Father's Day was special for me this year. My kids are three, they're pretty, they got personalities. It's also a little sad for me. You know what I mean? You miss your dad, you wish that he could be here, and that kind of thing. And I know you you share that with me. Yep, 100%. It's it's weird because both of our dads passed when they're my dad was in his 50s, your dad was just turned 60. Um, both of our mom's name is Don Marie, which is the weirdest, probably the weirdest coincidence. Yep. Um, and we've been inseparable best friends since day one. And I've always wanted to, I've always had this vision of me eventually starting my own thing and getting you down here, and it's just crazy that this has come to fruition now. And you know, we run a really cool business and we do what we love and we get to hang out with her. I was talking to a friend last night, and she's like, wait, so you and Matt are like, you know, you guys spend holidays? I'm like, Yeah, I mean, we we really don't have like a big, big family. Like we spent holidays. My father's day cards were from your kids, and your father's day card was from my kids. And that's and we we lean on each other, right? We that's that's what we that's the only thing we have, right? I don't come from a family who's having big parties on holidays, that's damn sure. Um, and you know, it we live in the same neighborhood. We couldn't be more opposite, although we're very similar, right? With the fitness stuff, and you know, we have to make sure we're not wearing the same outfit all the time.

SPEAKER_00 29:04

You know, I think that's that's something funny and we should touch on. So the people who don't truly know us, like like we just had Maria here, our designer, she's very close to us and she knows like this is true. But the people who don't know us will look at us and think like those are two carbon copies of one another. And the funniest thing is anybody who has an intimate relationship with us knows we are the most black and white, north and south, yin, yin and yin.

SPEAKER_01 29:26

Couldn't be more opposite. I like the drumsticks, you like the flats of every single thing on earth.

SPEAKER_00 29:31

Couldn't be more opposite as far as the individuals go, but I I I suppose like that's just one of those things.

SPEAKER_01 29:38

Complement each other well, especially in the partnership, right? We do different things very well. The things I'm not good at, you're good at, right? And vice versa, you know. So it's you know, it's a blessing from God. Honestly, the fact that we are where we are, we've been through the shit we've been through, and that we have each other and we're so close, and you can say what you want to say about it, but I tell you what, you you'd be blessed by God to have a friend like I have in you and you have in me. Like, not everybody has that. And I mean, it's just you know, it's just our friends, period.

SPEAKER_00 30:05

I mean, you think about it. Oh, absolutely, yeah. I there's I feel I do feel bad. I I was touching on this a couple weeks ago on social media, but I I feel bad for guys who don't have like a guy's group. Yeah. Um, because not everybody has a white picket fence family, and I feel like you know, people are dealing with problems, whether it be with their family or whether it be with their wives, and it's like, man, to have a have a group of guys where you can either get together or just text and and they're kind of like, oh yeah, man, I've been there, I've done that. Like, I that's so important. I don't know where society kind of got away from it. Yeah, but it seems it seems rare. I hold it in very high regard. I love my friends.

SPEAKER_01 30:39

I mean, honestly, if you think about it, like if it weren't for this for the fantasy football group chat, I mean, which is based around fantasy football, obviously, yeah, there probably wouldn't be a big group chat like that. Like, who knows like what that friend group would be like. But now we it's 12 guys who all year long we're in the same group chat and we're talking about lives and we're sharing each other's kids, and you know, there's professional basketball players in the group chat. There's freaking, you know, entrepreneurs that are doing all kinds of crazy stuff you wouldn't even believe. I mean, it's a cool group of guys. Some are fathers, some are not fathers. You know, a lot of them are business owners, and we all have struggles and issues, and we're all very open and sharing that kind of stuff.

SPEAKER_00 31:13

And we all really value that conversation. I mean, and beat the shit out of each other, too.

SPEAKER_01 31:18

We banter, I mean, we roast each other to the moon. And that's how it should be. That's how real friends are. You know what I mean? It's I think about like Leo. I love you, dude, but that's those jeans look stupid as hell right now. You need to go change.

SPEAKER_00 31:28

I think about like Leo and everything, you know, his his mom's been going through. And I mean, he said multiple times to me in private, and I think in the group chat, he's like, Man, he's like, this has been such an outlet.

SPEAKER_01 31:37

Which is which is great, dude. You know, when you think what it has been.

SPEAKER_00 31:40

I what we just are we still in it, or was that a thing last month? They had like men's mental health month or whatever and made up stuff, but but still, it's like that's the kind of stuff that if I feel like if guys don't have that outlet.

SPEAKER_01 31:50

Yeah, it's gotta be tough, dude. It's gotta be real tough, honestly. And there's there's a lot of guys who feel like they're just such an up, you know, so different from all their friends because they're successful and some of their friends are kind of, you know, we have play fantasy football. I mean, I don't know what else, I don't know how really I don't know how else to cultivate those kind of like really close knit talking everyday kind of group chats, but like fantasy football has been it, right? Like we're we're buddies with J.R. Smith and and Al Harrington, right? Al Harrington's in the group chat. I just saw on Instagram there's things blowing up because J.R. Smith is hanging out with LeBron and all the guys who won the title, I guess, in 2016. Yeah, all the all the cavaliers together, and they and he he posts, he's like the group chat finally got together and they're all having a good old time. It's like those group chats, dude. You get you keep those group chats alive, they are a lifeline. I know.

SPEAKER_00 32:36

You know what I mean? And and you know, I see this too. You have to think about we're not always gonna be like young and full of energy, and and our our loved ones won't always be around us. And and for me personally, I do have a fear of like getting older and not having any friends. You know, we're always we're focused on 30s, 40s, and 50s. You know what I'm saying? But it's like you want to be 70, 80 years old and still that that that's like stuff that's like gonna keep you young. Yeah, yeah, I agree.

SPEAKER_01 33:01

So uh that's that's about us, right? That's that's who we are, that's our background, that's our history. We wanted you guys to just know this because again, some of you might stumble on the podcast and go, who the hell are these guys? Why should I take advice from these guys? You know, I don't know anything about these guys because again, we it's not like we're putting it out there on social media every day. We don't talk about our personal lives very much. We post our kids, we post our projects, we post some funny memes or whatever. Fitness content. Uh, fitness content. Speaking of fitness content, I just real quick before we wrap this thing up, we are we we we are big firm believers on do hard things and don't complain. That's like my motto, right? Like, and so uh my eye is on a uh Iron Man, at least a 70, maybe next year. Half Iron Man, yeah. But this year we're doing our first high rocks, which is a big deal. Yeah, let's just focus on the high rocks before we go half Iron Man. Let's backpedal. The high rocks is a big deal, right? Like it's a very, very difficult, uh, challenging uh fitness thing. Um fitness thing, we'll call it. Anyone look up high rocks, you'll figure it out. It's yeah, look up high rocks, right? It's hard as hell. They happen all over the world. It's a super cool community to be a part of, and it's something that, again, I'm competitive as hell. So for me, just going to the gym is like, I don't really care. Like, uh whoop-de-doo, I got big muscles. You want something to work towards. I want something to work towards. But you give me a competition, so me and you are doing the doubles, and it's like, I gotta be able to hang with Matt. That's my my mentality. I gotta be able to hang with Matt. We got to get a good time, which means I gotta run, which means I gotta work harder. Yeah, that's what motivates me to work harder. So this high rocks thing is like honestly, it's a game changer. It's it's been something that's lit a fire under my ass in the gym. Um, and just health-wise, helping me eat better and doing all these different things.

SPEAKER_00 34:37

So yeah, because you don't want to get out there in front of like, you know, a couple thousand people and look like an idiot.

SPEAKER_01 34:42

No, or be flabby and you're like, oh, why didn't I finish under an hour? Like, no, bro, I gotta be, I gotta be chiseled. You know what I mean? I gotta be ready to go. I gotta be able to run 10 miles. I gotta, you know, yeah, and that's cool, right? Because that's something that is outside of work, that is something that's hard as hell that we're committing to and we're gonna do with a couple other friends, and then we've known several people from the gym at F-45 doing it. It's it's one of those things where it's like you gotta find something to do to challenge yourself, right? I yeah, per personally, yeah, personally. It doesn't have to be hieron, it doesn't always have to be work-related. Find something hard as hell that you want to do, climb Mount Everest or you know what I mean? Doesn't matter, bike across America, whatever. Just find something that's hard to do that can help you find community and also inspire you to have a competitive nature, right? Yeah, because it's good for the soul, right? And it's you can only benefit from getting fit, I promise you that.

SPEAKER_00 35:35

Well, we were just talking about friends earlier, and it's like your your hobbies will end up creating your friends, right? I mean, you you if you go and you find a hobby and whatever that may be golf or the gym or just name whatever hobby, I mean, you're gonna meet other like-minded individuals. Yeah, because really it's like, where are your opportunities to meet friends? You want similar interests. Um the fitness community has always been very welcoming. I think there's a lot of people in the fitness community that also share some of the day-to-day mental struggles, whether that be from past trauma or big stress at work. Yeah. So you find a lot of like-minded people that are just in there, not only trying to achieve something physically and make themselves healthier, but just the mental benefits from it. In there blowing off steam.

SPEAKER_01 36:15

Um you look at the F-45 groups at at there's a 4 15 a.m., yeah, there's a 5 a.m., there's a 6 a.m.

SPEAKER_00 36:21

Your cycle if you train everything.

SPEAKER_01 36:22

Not only cycles, but like, but we did this forever, right? Like business owners, the lady who owns Christina's Mexican restaurant, there's what's his face who owns the high low company that's a billion-dollar company, Joe sold this company for. I mean, the people that are there at those times early in the morning working out are some of the most successful people that we know.

SPEAKER_00 36:39

And they're grinding their own.

SPEAKER_01 36:42

Yeah. So it's like that's what you want to surround yourself with. I want to be the dumbest person at the table, right? I have a vision, I'm a woo guy, I'm a, you know, I can see it, I can make it happen, but I don't know everything that you know, and I don't know everything that this guy knows, that guy knows. I just know that I can get the table together and I can orchestrate this band. But like, I I don't ever want to be the smartest person in in my circle, right? Like, you want to be surrounded by people who inspire you to be better. So that's it. I mean, there's not a there's not a lot of shop talk today. Uh, we've got a bunch of stuff going on, slabs getting poured, houses getting framed, new developments on the rise. Um, but yeah, that's it, dude. Um, that was today's show. And hopefully you guys enjoyed it. Hopefully you got to know a little bit more about both Matt and I. And uh hopefully you guys follow the podcast on Spotify, give it five stars, uh, do all that fun stuff. Follow us on Instagram.

SPEAKER_00 37:30

What's the what's the revised date of the webinar? We had to move it. I think it's July 9th. Okay.

SPEAKER_01 37:35

So July 9th, we're gonna do a webinar.

SPEAKER_00 37:36

So we'll have to get some more out, some more marketing out on that to make sure that everybody can see.

SPEAKER_01 37:40

Because it's gonna be a case study about how we did Falcon Estates, the eight houses, got the values, made a bunch of money, blah, blah. Uh, it'll be cool.

SPEAKER_00 37:46

We were gonna do it Thursday, but we're going fishing.

SPEAKER_01 37:48

Yeah, we're going fishing. I forgot about that. So that's okay. We'll see you guys next week. Hopefully, you enjoy the show. Hit us up on Instagram, uh Dallas Builders Club. Yep. And that's it. That's it for now.