Wealth Made Simple
Wealth Made Simple is the podcast that breaks down the strategies the wealthy use to build, protect, and multiply their money—without the confusing jargon. Hosted by entrepreneur, tax strategist, and Enrolled Agent Karlton Dennis, each episode delivers practical insights on taxes, investing, real estate, business, entrepreneurship, AI, and personal finance to help you keep more of what you earn and create lasting wealth. Through conversations with successful entrepreneurs, investors, and industry experts, you'll learn the frameworks, habits, and financial strategies that separate those who build wealth from those who simply earn an income. Whether you're growing a business, investing for the future, or looking to make smarter financial decisions, Wealth Made Simple gives you actionable advice you can implement right away.
Wealth Made Simple
How a VA Loan Built His Real Estate Empire
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In this episode of Wealth Made Simple, host Karlton Dennis sits down with real estate investor and entrepreneur Josh Villareal to explore his incredible journey from military service to building a seven-figure coaching business. Josh shares how a chance Instagram DM sparked a deep friendship with Karlton, and how their early morning workouts became business masterminds in the steam room. He opens up about his humble beginnings, enlisting in the military at 17, and hustling through multiple business ventures—including marketing and dropshipping — before discovering his true calling in real estate.
Josh reveals how he leveraged his VA loan benefits to buy his first property with $0 down, turning a duplex into a co-living space that now cash flows over $2,000 a month — while he lives there for free. He breaks down the co-living strategy, the renovation process, and how he used credit cards and family support to make the deal happen. The conversation dives into financial literacy within the military, why so many veterans overlook the VA loan opportunity, and how Josh is now on a mission to educate others through his fast-growing coaching program, which has helped hundreds of service members become real estate investors.
The episode wraps with a candid discussion about entrepreneurship, mindset, and marketing. Josh and Karlton reflect on the power of discomfort, the importance of mentorship, and the lessons that come from failure and persistence. Whether you’re in the military, an aspiring real estate investor, or building your own business, this conversation is packed with actionable insights, heartfelt moments, and the kind of wisdom that only comes from experience.
#realestateinvesting #coliving #wealthmadesimple
We have a special guest with us here today, Josh Villarreal. Josh, how you doing, man? I'm doing great, man. Thanks for having me on. I'm super excited to have you on, man. Me and you are close butts now, but our relationship started, what, about three, three years ago now? Yeah, pretty much. You mind if I uh you tell the story?
SPEAKER_00No, no, go ahead. Go ahead.
SPEAKER_02All right, cool. So we saw each other on Instagram first. And I was with my video guide Leo, who's here right now, and I told Leo, I was like, dude, look the way this guy is creating his Instagram videos, and he's even he's even talking about tax knowledge. I'm like, bro, we should just copy some of the styles of the way in which he's doing these videos because his hooks are amazing. And so I sent you a DM saying, hey, bro, really appreciate your hooks. Shout out, I'm shouting you out right now. And you responded saying, Yo, bro, thank you so much. You know, love your stuff too. And I said, bro, if you're ever in Orange County, we I would love to link up with you. We got to catch a workout at Equinox. What was it, like 14 days later?
SPEAKER_00We know it was something like that.
SPEAKER_02And I was like, bro, what's up? And you're like, dude, what's going on? We exchanged numbers, and then 24 hours later, we did our first workout together. Yeah. No coffee, no nothing. Let's just go work out together. And I think if you want to really develop a relationship with somebody, just go to the gym together, bro.
SPEAKER_00It's the perfect way to start things off. So the crazy part about that, the first workout was actually the first one of a hundred and like twenty straight workouts every day. Yeah. We ended up working out every single day. Yeah. And then what we we spent, so we would go there at like five o'clock in the morning. Five o'clock a five. And then we would work out for like an hour, hour and a half to do sauna. Steam room. Steam room. Yep. And then what we would do.
SPEAKER_02We would talk business in the online steam room every day.
SPEAKER_00Every single day. Every day. So it kind of makes sense why our relationship uh like went went so fast, right?
SPEAKER_02We just spent so much time together. Bro, when you think about like how we got successful so fast, it was just because we were repeating the same things over again and we just stuck with each other. When you think about like when you go to college, you're showing up for 12 weeks in a row, maybe two or three times a week to learn a lesson. Yeah. Me and you were there five days out of the week working out with each other, and then in the sauna steam room, teaching each other's lessons about entrepreneurship, business, and marketing, bro. I personally think that's why we were starting to scale so fast.
SPEAKER_00Dude, I remember dude. I remember when um you you had your tax strategy company. You're like, dude, I have this company, I'm doing this, this, and this. And then you have these plans. And then I was starting my own real estate uh consulting company, and then you're like, dude, you gotta do this, this, and this. And bro, where we were three years ago compared to right now is absolutely insane. Yeah, I got to see your whole like uh trajectory just go explode. It was amazing.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, and vice versa, bro. So we gotta tell everybody how this all started. So, first things first is you know, tell everybody who you are, how did you get into entrepreneurship, and what are you passionate about right now?
SPEAKER_00Yeah, so um my name is Josh Villarreal, and um, so the story behind me is um so should I get into like my a little bit of my personal stuff?
SPEAKER_02Yeah, yeah, we want to know that.
SPEAKER_00Okay, okay, cool. So um, yeah, I was born to two hardworking immigrant parents from the Philippines, and uh yeah, we were just a normal immigrant family trying to make it into the land of opportunity. America, best, best country in the world, man. Amazing, right? That's right. So uh everything kind of changed when I was 14 years old, though. Um, my parents were forced out of the country, and uh they went back to the Philippines and I stayed here. I was moving between my grandma, my two aunts, and while that was happening, my parents continue continued to struggle. So I was like, okay, uh, I kind of have to be the breadwinner of my family, especially when my mom called me. She's like, Josh, there's there's no more money, and no one wants to hire old people in the third world country. So uh I was like, okay, what can I what can I do? Right? So I was I had a bright idea at 17 years old. Let me join the US military, and I signed my life away at 17 years old so I could financially support my family. Yes, of course. So that's how I uh got into the military, right? But the only thing was I uh I wasn't smart enough to think about how much I was getting paid in the military, and I was getting paid $1,200 a month to not only support myself in San Diego, right, where I was stationed at, yeah, but also support my family back home. So I was like, okay, uh I don't think $1,200 is gonna cut it. So that is how I got into entrepreneurship.
SPEAKER_01Yeah.
SPEAKER_00Was um it was just not having money, right? Especially I have to provide for my family. And from there, I was like, okay, what can I do? So I went to uh my first business was buying and selling iPhones, right? Oh, and then yeah, yeah. I made a couple hundred bucks from there a month, and then I got into uh drop shipping, bro. Yeah, uh I learned a whole bunch of uh business acumen from there, and then from there I learned a really, really great skill and it was marketing, right? But the only thing with dropshipping that I did was um it was so hard to find a product that was gonna scale really far. I probably only got one or two products, and then it it was pretty challenging, right? But what I had was that marketing skill. So, what did I do? Oh, wait, I could help other companies do this. So I started a marketing agency. So I did that for three years, and then I found my niche, and out of all things, it was auto body shops because it was an antique um niche that didn't didn't have online presence. There was no social media for auto body shops. There's no websites, dude. The first website that I worked on, it was like a newspaper online. It was just a new it was you can't even click it, it was just like a little paper thing. So, okay, I think I found my niche, and then we became like one of the number one um social media and digital market agencies for auto body shops. We we became number one in LA because no one else was doing it, so we just became number one, right? So you niche down immediately.
SPEAKER_02Niche down immediately. We found how long did it take you to figure that out when you started the marketing agency that you should niche down into autobody?
SPEAKER_00So unfortunately, uh well, fortunately, unfortunately, it took me about a year to do it. Uh I I uh my first dude, my first pitch was uh actually my dentist. It was so funny because this is my first time running like an actual real business. I did I created LLC and everything, right? And then dude, I remember my first pitch, I was so nervous. So um I was like, okay, I think this this uh dental office needs some presence or online presence, whatever it is. And I was like, oh man, I am so nervous right now, and I don't know how to pitch it, dude, out of all things, right? So she was working on my teeth, yeah, and then I was like, hey, hey there's out of getting into social media. Have you ever thought of uh uh doing SEO? And that was my first pitch ever. I did it while her hands were in my mouth, bro. I was sort of so nervous, but uh thank God she was like, Yeah, actually I am. So we spoke, and then she was my first client ever. It was uh dental office. Yeah, um, so from there I got a couple more, but it was uh it was pretty challenging. Um but then uh eventually I one of my good friends that I ran into, um, he had an auto body shop, and then he needed help. And from there, I was like, dude, this is so much simpler, and I could scale way faster. Yeah. And that's that's how I got into that.
SPEAKER_02Wow. Yeah, yeah. Okay. So auto body was the niche that you eventually chose after you started off with finding somebody that was a dentist that needed more SEO and social media, yeah. But now you're not running a marketing agency, is that correct? So when did you decide to give up on marketing? Like, well, you didn't give up on marketing, but you stopped running a marketing agency, so something happened.
SPEAKER_00Yes, okay. So that is a great question because um, do you remember what happened in 2020? Oh, pandemic. The pandemic, right? Yeah. So uh during the pandemic, uh, especially in California, there were now zero cars on the streets.
unknownOof.
SPEAKER_00Makes a lot of sense, right? Yeah, so we were the first one to go. Like uh, all my clients started to call me, I was like, hey man, I know you're doing good, but I gotta save money from my payroll for my employees. Yeah, and then I was like, I I couldn't say anything because I would do the same for mine, right? So uh long story short, we were doing really good until uh the pandemic happened, and then I was like, shoot, um what do I do now? But here's the thing though I took the right advice at the wrong time, so that can happen all the time in entrepreneurship that I figured out myself, and that advice was when no one's marketing, you should market, right? Yeah, but then I did that, so my my um niche was cars, right? Yeah, I was marketing to auto body shops, push as much as I can during the pandemic, but then I was literally just wasting money because no one no one could uh get it, afford it, and all that stuff, right? Yeah, so I kind of my not only did I lose the money and I was scaling as well, so I reinvested a large portion of my money back into the marketing company, and then I I used a lot of the money that I made for for my family, bought some uh assets, but the only thing was, dude, I was cash poor, bro. I will I barely had any money left because I reinvested and I did the wrong thing at the wrong time. Yep, right? So I was like, okay, I got I pretty much got like I think it was like less than $10,000 in my account, right? Woof. Yeah. During a pandemic, operating only $10K. Yes, bills to pay. Yes, bills to pay. This is scary. Um, but luckily, this whole time I was uh I was still in the military. So during this whole time, right? So I still had that paycheck, and then what I did was I kept using my military pay to fund my entrepreneurship dreams, my businesses, right? So uh from there, I'm like, okay, I only have less than 10,000 bucks in my account. What what can I do? And then I I was so discouraged, and the thing was when especially being the military, bro, it's so different than what other people are doing around you, especially leadership. Uh people in the military know that dude, uh leadership might not always be the best there. Yeah. Because um, one, the best people always leave. That's what people don't talk about. Uh-huh. The best military um leadership, they always leave because they know their value. Yeah, yeah, yeah. So uh yeah, everyone that knew I started a business, they all said, see, I told you. I knew you were gonna fail. Uh you should have just continued staying in the military, man, and played safe. Uh and dude, and one of my one of my chiefs, right? So that's an E7. Uh he was like, he he sat me down because he saw that I was doing some business stuff. Yeah. And then he was like, Josh, come here really quick. He looked in my face in all seriousness. He said, Josh, I don't think you have what it takes to run a business. Why don't you just play it safe and stay in the military? And I was like, what did this guy just say to me? Like, I'm just I'm just trying to do my. This was my superior. Top down. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah. So dude, like it still makes my blood boil to this day. Yeah. Uh after that, that that's when I kind of started pushing a little bit more. And like I said, um, by the grace of God, I found out that I have a zero percent down VA loan. And it was a perfect timing because uh the marketing agency just went down and I I had barely any money, and I need to get into a business that didn't need that much. Yeah. And then uh when I found that I was like, wait, you could buy properties for zero percent down, right? There's no way, there's no way, and then uh I looked into it more, it was like, oh shoot, this thing is real. But the only thing is, the reason why I didn't know it is that 94% of military members have not used the VA loan in the past five years. Whoa, so this is the data from 2019 from the VA.gov website. So of course I wouldn't know about that, yeah, right? Because one, the military only tells you about it twice once when you get it in boot camp and once when you're exiting, right? So nobody was familiar with it, yeah. But well, once I looked into it more, I was like, dude, I could do something with this, yeah, right? So I I found a $800,000 duplex, and then I was like, wait, if I put $30,000 into this thing, I can make $96,000 in profit. And I'm like, that that doesn't sound right. But the only thing was I didn't have $30,000, right? And I needed to have some kind of liquidity for my family and myself to to run the business. So I was like, okay, uh I knew this was for me, so I asked my my family for money, and my family is not rich at all, so I I was like, hey guys, I believe this is the thing, I think I could do it this time. Because they they saw what happened with my marketing agency, right? And then like fortunately, my my family believed in me, so they they came up with $15,000. They're not rich at all, so that was a lot for us. Yeah, and they lent me the money, and then for that extra $15,000, I found out about credit cards, and I used that fifteen thousand dollars for the rehab as well.
SPEAKER_01Got it.
SPEAKER_00So I had the total of thirty thousand dollars, and what I didn't know at that time was I was doing this super powerful skill called OPM, yes, using other people's money to invest in real estate that I didn't have to put any of my own money. Right. So I got I got that duplex, uh, I did the rehab, and so you got the duplex without putting up any of your own money, zero, so zero percent down from the VA loan, and then zero dollars for the rehab. Okay, so everything was funded without my own money. It was it was great. So uh the only thing was uh I didn't have enough money to hire a bunch of contractors, so I kind of dragged my girlfriend into it, right? We were we were only dating for like a year, but then dude, she I I love that girl, man. She she was a right, right, she was a writer for me, and people thought that we were crazy because dude, you're you're punting $30,000 on what something that you've never done before. Crazy. What are you doing? And you're bringing your girl into this, but we were like, okay, but everyone thinks you're crazy until it works, right? Yeah, so that's right. After the rehab, the $30,000 is now gone. We ended up cash flowing $2,000 a month on that property, and I got a $96,000 check seven months later. So I was only $4,000 off of what I projected, right?
SPEAKER_02Okay. So this is this is a lot to unpack. First thing is you did this deal with zero money down. Can you talk about why you're allowed to buy real estate with zero money down? Like, yeah, yeah. What is it about being in the military that gives you this benefit?
SPEAKER_00So one, it is one of the benefits that the government gives you for sacrificing your life for the country. Yeah. Right. And then there the reason why it's zero percent down is because the VA, the the government backs the loan up to 25% of the whole property. So if it goes to default, that money's going to them anyways, right? So that's why um military members could get zero percent down. Got it.
SPEAKER_02Okay. Yeah, yeah. And so you did this deal bringing in your your family and then using credit card, a credit card. Talk to us about how you're able to take the money off of the credit card. Did you have to convert it into actual cash, or are you able to use credit as a part of the down payment?
SPEAKER_00I use uh so there was no down payment at all. So I used an extra $15,000 for or just renovation costs. Just renovation costs. So I used it for Lowe's, Home Depot. Dude, I was going there like three times a day, bro. I sucked at getting all the supplies. That's right. Okay. Yeah, yeah. Yeah.
SPEAKER_02Okay. And so you spent the money, you got the renovations going, you decided to hire your girlfriend, you guys worked on this together. Talk about some of the struggles that you had putting together your first your first project. Like, was it as smooth as you thought it was gonna be? Did it go better than you thought it was gonna be? Did you run into any hiccups?
SPEAKER_00Yes, I definitely ran into hiccups, and probably the biggest one was contractors. So there were some things that I I I probably did 80% of the work uh with me and my girlfriend, and some of my friends ended up helping too. Yeah. Uh uh, and uh one of them was uh for the contractors was the flooring, and I made the mistake of hiring the cheapest person. Uh oh. Yeah. So I uh I this was my first time doing real estate, and of course, you always hear uh never go with the cheapest person. And I've already done business for three years at this point, right? And so I should know, but then I was also in a box where I didn't have that much money to get the the the best person and pay the best price, right? So I'm like, maybe this guy's different. I'm gonna do it, right? So instead of like two dollars and fifty cents a square foot, this guy was charging a dollar and fifty cents, right? That's almost 50% off the best one. I was like, dude, I think I found my guy. Yeah.
SPEAKER_0250% off.
SPEAKER_00That's definitely my guy. That's my guy. So um yeah, the the project was like $3,000. And then I um I was like, okay, how much do I have to give you? He's like, oh, you just have to give me half night right now, and then I'll I'll I'll pay out the or you can pay me half later. Yeah. So okay, that sounds that sounds right.
SPEAKER_01Yeah.
SPEAKER_00So they showed up, they demoed uh after I gave them the $1,500, and then they worked for two days, and they never showed up again. Yeah, so they took my $1,500 and destroyed the whole property. So not only I was out $1,500 that I didn't have, yeah, now I am pressed on time because once I purchased the property, dude, I have a mortgage to pay now. Of course. So I'm like, dude, where's that money come from coming from? Yeah. So now I got all this pressure like to get this thing done. And then luckily I found a contractor that was way better and an okay price. It wasn't $2.50, but it was now $2. Right. And great, great review. So you don't have to always go for the top, top, top, but you know, usually in the middle is where you're gonna find like some kind of balance. Yeah. At least for me during that time. Yeah. Right.
SPEAKER_02Yeah. So would you say ultimately it costs you more in the long run, like going this route, like trying to go the cheaper route first, then getting delayed, and then having to go find somebody else, and then also then betting somebody else and then moving forward with somebody else.
SPEAKER_00It's always that cliche, right? I'm I'm sure you run into with your clients sometimes. Oh wait, this guy could do it cheaper. But now you're like, Yeah, go ahead.
SPEAKER_02Yep, cheaper is not always better. Oh no, especially when it comes to tax and accounting.
SPEAKER_00Heck no, heck no. Yeah, there's so many mistakes that can happen, especially if it's your first time. Yeah, dude.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, so all right, so you got the rehab done. Now the property is ready to go. How did you get somebody in there that's willing to pay you 2,000 cash flow on like how are you cash flowing $2,000 when you put 0% down?
SPEAKER_00Yeah, that sounds nuts, man.
SPEAKER_02That's crazy, yeah. And because you don't even see people cash flowing like that putting 20% down on some residential.
SPEAKER_00Oh, dude, and this is in San Diego, California, the most expensive real estate in America, yeah, right? It's it's been uh the average appreciation has been like 7.2% for like the past 20 years. Crazy, right? Super expensive real estate. So uh, and a lot of people think I would be lying when I say, dude, I was cash flowing $2,000 a month on a San Diego property. They're like, no, there's no way. But in reality, if you look closer, I did a strategy that not a lot of people knew at that time in 2020. And that strategy is co living. You familiar with that strategy? Dude, so dude, I was getting a 773% rate. Return on my money every single year during the co-living strategy. So if you guys, if you guys don't know what that is, it is REM by the room but on steroids, right? So uh explain to us what co-living is. So co-living is that it's rent by the room, but on steroids. So it's your traditional rent by the room model, but then you convert the living room and dining room into extra cash cows. Uh some some unutilized space that were that was making you zero dollars. So the living room and dining room, yeah, zero dollars now after you pay like $900 to $3,000 to create a bedroom, where you could rent it out for twelve hundred, fifteen hundred dollars a month, meaning you get a full return within 60 days.
SPEAKER_02So you're turning non-habitable space in the house into habitable space by construction. Exactly. And by doing so, you're turning a single family home that may have supported three people into a co-living space that could support three separate individual families, possibly.
SPEAKER_00Not not individual families, it was just uh individuals. So the so here's here's some quick stats for you. Why so people uh that's listening to your podcast right now, they're probably like, why is this 773% return? Yeah, like why so first of all, I didn't have to put a lot of money down. So the total money uh that was out of the collective pocket was sixty five hundred dollars to control eight hundred thousand dollar property, yeah, right? So $6,500 and then that's $773,000. So that's how you get the 2,000% or uh $2,000 uh dollar uh cash flow, yeah, right? So it's not that crazy, but that's still $24,000 a year, right? So uh the reason why co-living works so well is because 14 million renters make less than $35,000 a year, and that is 40% of the renting population. So what does that mean, dude? People can't afford a studio apartment themselves, people can't afford a one-bedroom apartment, dude. Yeah, so what do they do? They have to make a living, right? And they they have to save for their future. So what do they do? They get roommates. So here's another stat that um one out of four millennials live with roommates right now. So this is based on the US Census Bureau. Really? Yeah, so there's um one out of four, and then you want to guess how many millennials there are in America? Ooh, probably like 30 million. 72 million. Okay. There's 72 million millennials right now, one out of four. So that is 18 million millennials living with roommates right now. Just because you're not or a millennial that you know is not living with a roommate doesn't mean the rest of the US isn't.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, that's 25% then.
SPEAKER_00Dude, yeah, it's exactly 25%.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_00So it actually went up during COVID because people went back to their family places, so it's actually at 28% right now. Wow. Uh for the for the latest data that came out. So now there's a huge demand for people going back home or uh renting with roommates so they could afford uh to live the life that they eventually want to have, right? So living below their means, which is great. Looks like a lot of people want to live below their means. So uh the only thing with that is uh there's not enough supply for that demand. That's 18 million individuals. Yeah, that's 18 million rooms. You want to guess what uh well I'll I'll tell you, right? So you don't have to guess. Well, the the supply right now, so one of the top platforms for for these co-living units is Pad Split. Have you ever heard of that? Yeah, I've heard of Pad Split. So they're they're worth a lot of money right now because of the supply and demand, right? So with Pad Split, there's only 10,000 units, 10,000 rooms.
SPEAKER_02There are 18 million millennials living with somebody else right now.
SPEAKER_00Yes, so that's why basic economics, supply, demand, demand. So that's why people are making hand over fist right now, yeah, doing Pad Split or doing co-living. Yeah, yeah. So that's why like the the logic is pretty simple of how you can cash flow so much. So there is that um the other side of management and all that stuff, but dude, it's it's pretty simple where even in the worst places to cash flow, you could still get a really good return doing these advantages.
SPEAKER_02So most people who think about the VA loan, they think about it as a loan that you can use personally for themselves. Yeah. But you can use the VA loan to become an investor, and then you could take it a step further and even do co-living spaces, turning around making way more cash flow than someone who would have got into traditional duplex just renting out to one one tenant.
SPEAKER_00Oh, yeah, dude. So with so well, it's going back to the the knowledge part, right? 94% of military members have not used the VA lump, right? Right.
SPEAKER_02So Which is insane to me as a stat. That's crazy. How many military people are there? Would you say, like just ballpark?
SPEAKER_00So as of right, so military members in general, there's 23 million right now.
SPEAKER_0223 million, and 94% of the 23 million have not used the VA loan, have not used the VA loan in the past five years.
SPEAKER_00Wow, yeah, yeah. So uh how many times are you allowed to use a VA loan? So here's the thing with that that was back in 2019 when that stack came out. Yeah, but what has happened since 2019 to now? What's the interest rate? It's gone skyrocket. Double.
SPEAKER_01Yeah.
SPEAKER_00So what do you what do you think it is now? Less, even less, dude. It's probably like 97% of military members are not even using the VA loan now. Yeah, yeah. So uh and that is absolutely nuts.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, yeah. So, yeah, bro, I'm I'm still stuck on the fact that you can turn around and convert this into a co-living space. So, talk to me about how many people have you seen use the VA loan and turn around and become investors versus people who are just using the VA loan and just choosing to live in the property and just make it a primary residence. Because I would be using that as an opportunity to create passive income.
SPEAKER_00It's too much to count. Like, first of all, like I said, like there's no education on, there's no knowledge of first of all, not enough people are actually doing it. So for people to know that it's real, yeah. If if you ever see my content, if you go to the comments, they're like, dude, this this thing's a scam. Like, there's no way you could create co-living or buy four units using the VA loan. There's no way. But I'm like, dude, it's it's literally says it on the VA guidelines. Like, you can use this for a four unit and you could rent out your rooms, you could do all that, just as long as you're living in the property. But then, dude, if you could buy a four unit, live in one unit and rent out the other three, right? Basic uh co-living or uh the um basic house hacking, right? Yeah, but then what I did was uh so I actually coined it on TikTok. If you go on TikTok right now, super house hacking, you'll see my face. So I coined this strategy called super house hacking, where instead of getting um a duplex, triplex, fourplex, and living in one unit and renting out the other three or four or uh two or three, it's that you live in one room and rent out every single room individually and add those extra bedrooms, and that is super house hacking. That's how you could live for free. I forgot to add that. I was living for free and making $2,000 a month in cash flow doing that because I did the super house hacking strategy.
SPEAKER_02What in the world, bro? Yeah, you used a VA loan to do co-living to cash flow two thousand dollars a month in your living completely free. Did you did you discover this? When did you figure out that you could do this?
SPEAKER_00So I was 23 years old.
SPEAKER_02Okay, when I figured it out. How is it showing up to like the naval base and being around all your brothers and like talking to them about like your living situation? Like, did people even believe what you were doing was real? Like, did people start trying to copy you?
SPEAKER_00So it did inspire some people that first of all, owning a property in general in the military is not common, unfortunately. So they're like, dude, you're you own real estate? That's really cool. And then I did the same thing, right? Uh when I when I heard someone, so one of those the stories that I remember was uh I was in entrepreneurship, right? So I was always fascinated uh about millionaires, yeah. So I want to learn what they did, uh what they do to get there, and all that stuff. So I was going on watch, right? So I was going to watch um while I was in the military. So somebody was like, hey Josh, the person that you're gonna be on watch with is actually a millionaire. So you probably want to ask him some questions. I'm like, wait, what? This guy's a millionaire in the military? Yeah. Okay, I'm gonna ask him. And then I started talking to him, hey man, I heard uh you're a millionaire, bro. Talk to me. So he was like, Yeah, I am. It's like, so what'd you do? And then he just said, dude, every station that I went, I just bought one property and I kept it. And then he's been in the military for 10 years and he became an automatic millionaire doing nothing but buying one property at every station. So we ended up having four properties, and we all know, like during the long term, real estate always goes up. It does, it always appreciates, right? Just as long as you're you're not doing anything dumb. Yeah, it's a very hard or very easy game to make a lot of money in, yeah. As long as you're patient, right? So that's all he did. I was like, what do you how'd you do that? That's a lot of money. You have to put 20% down, and that's how I found out about the zero percent down VA loan was from him.
SPEAKER_02So he he used the VA loan and then used it over and over again.
SPEAKER_00Yes, so that is another thing that you can use the VA loan more than one time. Everyone thinks you can only use it, you can only use it one time, you have to live in the property for two, three years. Yeah, dude. Here's okay, this is gonna blow your mind, okay? You can actually have two operating VA loans at the same time. So I'm talking about if you buy a property right at your duty station, and then you somehow get shipped to another station in the US, dude. There's nothing stopping you to getting another VA loan property at the other station. So you could essentially get two properties, multi-unit properties, yeah, uh in about a year. In the same calendar year, essentially. Pretty much. Yeah. So a lot of people don't even know that. Uh of course, there's uh some caveats to that. There's so there's a lot of confusion, right? To use the the VA loan correctly, yeah. Right. That's why we we have the consulting company because, dude, there no one knows how to even use it to its fullest extent. Yeah, right. So one of the things is here's the confusion. A lot of military members think that there is no or there is a loan limit. Like there's a limit to how much you can get a loan for. And that is absolutely wrong. They actually took it out in 2020 and they said there's no more loan limit for the military VA loan, right? So you can get a loan of any size. So, dude, nope. My team and I have uh approved a an individual for four million dollars, zero percent now. Yeah, four million bucks, right? And banks are lending on this. Banks are lending on this. Uh, of course, you do have to financially qualify, all the all the regular stuff, but it's still super powerful, especially okay. Here's this is for not only military members, but for people that want to get into real estate and do something similar, right? So the VA loan, the FHA loan, the 5% conventional loan, right? 5% or below. Yeah, the rules are pretty much all the same, and it's this, right? So people are like, dude, $800,000 for that you got approved for, but dude, you're not making that much money. How did you get qualified for that much money for 0% down? That's always someone's question. But what a lot of people don't know is sometimes that it's easier to buy a fourplex than a single family home. And that's because you can use 70%, 75% of the gross income of the property and use it towards your own income to qualify for the loan. For the loan. Yes, exactly. Because you're buying a business. I love that. I love that. So that's what people don't get.
SPEAKER_02So so okay, so I might have if I'm in, if I'm, you know, in the military, I want to use a VA, I might have a better likelihood of getting qualified, coming off of credit history, you know, having personal funds. I might have a better likelihood of getting a four-unit that I'm gonna live in versus a potentially single-family home or even a duplex because of the fact of the rent rule. There's there could be other people that are paying the mortgage, and that has to be factored in to when you're giving me a loan.
SPEAKER_00Exactly.
SPEAKER_02That's absolutely incredible, man.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, yeah. So as you can see, there's layers to this. That's why a lot of military members or even people in the US don't even know about this. No.
SPEAKER_02So okay, so let's let's jump into your coaching program. So I met you and then we started working out together. At the time, you were doing um, you were running a real estate uh syndication. You also had um your personal brand. And from what I noticed, many people were following you off of your education around real estate, but it wasn't like you had solely focused on VAs at that time. So kind of talk about the progression into focusing on just VAs, what was the big aha moment? And since then, what are you doing right now to help out other VAs?
SPEAKER_00Yeah, so like you said, I uh my my content was around real estate and business, and I wasn't focusing on the VA loan, right? Or military members. And the moment clicked, right when all of my very smart friends that are doing way better than me all said the same thing. Why aren't you helping out military members? Because a lot of people would love to know how you did it and how they can do it too. Yeah, right. So I was like, you know what? I uh during during the whole time, of course, I was still in the military. I was in the military for seven years. Yeah, so I did that on my fifth year, so I still had two years of people asking me, dude, how are you doing this? How how how'd you get the property? All that stuff. So I helped a bunch of people, uh even outside of the military, up until that point. And I'm like, dude, I don't know. I don't know if if I could do it, like, I don't know what to do. But then all my friends, including you, yeah. One of our workouts, you're like, dude, why don't you help military members do what you're doing? Because you're killing it right now, right? I'm like, uh, I don't know.
SPEAKER_02But well, I saw I saw what I I loved about you, and what initially attracted me to you was the fact that one, you're incredible with your marketing skills and what you're doing on social media. And two, dude, you're a young hustler that had gotten into real estate way younger than I did. Like I'm sitting there like 28, 29 years old when I was looking at your Instagram stuff, and I'm like, dang, this guy got into real estate five, six years before I did, right? And he has such a dense understanding around what to do and what not to do in the real estate space. I want to listen to him. And I can only imagine what other people would would gain value from that are trying to jump into the real estate space as well.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, and from from you telling me that, I was like, okay, time to do it. And then back in November, I started trying to figure out, okay, should I even so I I I want to create a consulting company. Yeah. Right. I w I would love to help military members, but I didn't want to jump fully in. So I did uh like a regular uh feed campaign on social media just to see just to gauge what happened, what what was happening with the demand for it, right? Because marketing, you always want to check the demand first before you go full out, right? Absolutely. So I got the MVP, and then with the with the angle that I I I did, it was nine to fivers versus military members. Nine to fivers was get uh nine to fivers was a um was giving me a $20 per lead, right? And the military side was giving me 50 cents per lead. And then I was like this is when you were trying to find leads on Facebook?
SPEAKER_02Yeah, this is um so uh so when you spend money for ads to try to get people to show up, yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_00So I wanted to see what communicates better with with my audience and also the US, yeah, right? And that's how you can also gauge the supply and demand, and dude, there was so much demand for military members needing help, yeah. And then I kept running that that campaign, I ended up getting 4,000 DMs, bro, that wanted help. And I'm like, okay. Obviously, you can't respond to 4,000 DMs.
SPEAKER_02So now you got another problem. Yeah, so how am I gonna get all these people responded to?
SPEAKER_00Exactly. So I didn't have a uh a team to help uh respond to it. I was doing everything myself, yeah. And also, dude, the following up, leads were getting lost, yeah. Just to put it plainly, of course, yeah. So, but that told me, okay, there's something here. So I scratched the nine to five thing and I solely focused on military members, and then uh in January, we finally started, right? And out of that 4,000, we got four people.
SPEAKER_02Well, there you go. Those are your first paying customers.
SPEAKER_00Yes, the four first four paying customers, and when I did it, I wanted to do it right, yeah. Because I I see a lot of um companies out there that don't uh uh that don't do it to its fullest extent that you could really help an individual, right? So for me, I wanted to make sure that my team was the best that they can be. Yeah. So what did I do? I hired the best people that I knew. So one of the uh uh one of the people on my team, he's he's worked with VA loans for 25 years and has done over a billion dollars. It's over a billion dollars right now in VA loans specifically. And then the rest of my so that's the big dog, and the rest of my team collectively has done over a quarter billion. So we're we're like, I think like 1.3 now in accumulated um transactions, yeah, transactions, and a bulk of it is for military members. So now we have this backing, we have 25 years of experience that a lot of people go through all these challenges. Now we know a lot of situations where we can solve that problem for almost anyone, really.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, so so you're not the only coach anymore in your platform, it sounds like.
SPEAKER_00So well, with a good, good product, a good business, of course, there's gonna be people that are gonna try to model and emulate you. Yeah. Uh, which is which is okay because that's what I love to see. Yeah. All like the biggest thing for me, especially working with military members now, like one-on-one, is dude, like once they get a property, like it literally changes their life. Yeah, imagine someone that went into the military, one, because they weren't in the best financial situation, because that's that's the reality of it. Right. When I when uh back in 2014, people that went into the military that I was working with, it was their choice for the military was either going to jail or going to the military. That's the type of people that that was my co-work. They're great guys, right? But they weren't always in the bad best financial space, right? And now giving them an opportunity to build wealth, giving them strategies, helping them along their journey, and once they get that property, their whole mindset shifts. Yeah, and now they believe that this can not only happen for them, but for everyone in their family, their circle, and that one little thing that that person that I helped now gets to help so many other people because of that one mindset shift. That is unreal.
SPEAKER_02How many people are inside of your guys' program now? Uh we're over a thousand right now. And how many people would you say have already bought real estate through your program?
SPEAKER_00I I I don't have the exact number, but our average person gets a property within 120 days or less. Wow.
SPEAKER_02Okay. So most people are coming in and then utilizing the VA program within the first six months of being inside of the program. So you probably see this now a ton of times, but what leads to somebody running a successful real estate business? What leads to somebody kind of wanting to give up and not wanting to do this?
SPEAKER_00A lot of it is mindset because if you're always gonna suck for your for your first time doing anything, that's what people don't get, especially if they've never started a business like me and you, bro. You mean their first property is not gonna cash for $2,000? Well, it it is, dude. So okay. So unfortunately, I cannot make some income claims, but there are so there is a number out there that the for the person that gets into our program, it's uh I can't even so I don't want to get in trouble with saying the numbers, but let's say in an individual key it it's usually twelve hundred dollars in cash flow.
SPEAKER_02So ballparking somewhere around 1200 has been somewhat of the average you started to see with your students. Yes. Yes, yes.
SPEAKER_01It's not bad. Yeah, it's not bad.
SPEAKER_02Bad your first property cash flowing $1,200 a month. Are you kidding me? And then all I have to do is just repeat this. So, question Do you have people that are just repeating this now? Just year over year? And if so, is it as simple as just saying, I just want to go use the VA loan again? And do I have to go move it into the next property that I'm living in too? Or can they just turn around and run it as an investment property and stay in the first property that they bought?
SPEAKER_00So uh you do have to fulfill the 12-month requirement. Okay, but after the 12 months, you can go ahead and buy another property. Like after you fulfill it, that can turn turn into a real investment property where you could fully rent it out, you don't have to live on the property anymore and buy the next property and do that over and over again every single year. And the cool thing with being a military member is that okay, so another game for uh actually this could work for civilians too, so non-military members, right? Is that Navy Federal actually gets it gives you another VA loan? It's called the military choice loan. So you get multiple properties for zero percent down, right? And the cool thing is is that as long as you're a member for Navy Federal, and a lot of people can like any almost anyone can qualify to be part of the Navy Federal family, dude. You could get a property for zero percent down with the home buyer's choice. So now there's a lot of like you don't have to be a military member now to get zero percent down. Yeah.
SPEAKER_02Wow.
SPEAKER_00Does Navy Credit Union like advertise this? Is it like well known? Just like everything else with the military to do, they they don't advertise that good, especially about the benefits. Like you hear about the 9-11 GI bill for going to school, but then that's pretty much the only thing that people know about with your benefits. Yeah. So yeah, there's no no one really knows about it.
SPEAKER_02It seems to me like the government has decided to become your business partner, and if you utilize them as your business partner, they can work with you every single year to help you get into more and more real estate that could help break the generational curses that your family might have had, help set your family up for cash flow and sustained growth, and better yet, pass on some assets to your beneficiaries because at the end of the day, these VA loans, even though you got the loan, it's still underneath your name, you're still on title. It's not the government that's on title. So when you pass away, God forbid, something happens, those assets are being transferred over to your family. So why do veterans not spend time talking about this at the military base? I mean, if you're going into the military, most people that go into the military, from what from my experience, went in either because they're one, dead set on wanting to help our company, or they they just did they had certain circumstances that required them to do this, right? So if you're there because either one, you just really want to be there, you love serving our country, or two, your circumstances required you to make a decision that was in the best interest of your family. Wouldn't you be utilizing the government's assistance to do everything you possibly can to get yourself out and to take care of your family and to use this system to your advantage? Like what's what what am I missing?
SPEAKER_00Yeah, so it's an obvious answer. Of course you would. But first you would have to be around that information. Yep. And the other thing is people have to believe that information. Yep. And the only so for a lot of people to see is to believe, right? To believe is to see. Yeah.
SPEAKER_02And if they're not seeing Well, I don't even have to take no risk, bro. When I when I go into real estate, bro, I'm coming to the table with 20% down. You coming to the table with 0% down. When we're talking about what's riskier, I got more risk. I got to put up 20%, and the the the banks are putting up 80%. So really the banks are taking on more risk, right? Yeah. The government's coming through and saying, hey, don't even worry about it. I got you, dog. I'm gonna go work with the lenders and make sure we can give you this loan. You assume zero risk.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, essentially 25% is the VA, the VA's backing. Yeah, yeah. So it's really that. It's that's why I am so passionate about the the company that we have. We have to help military members every day. And unfortunately, even if there's even more and more companies, like I said, I love to see it. I I love to see more VA loan hackers in this country. That's what I want. Yeah. Right. Just because I understand the opportunity and how many people it can help. So I all I want to do is just spread this opportunity as much as possible. Yeah. And as of right now, we're we're still the the biggest and the only one doing it right now. So you just want to grow.
SPEAKER_02Yeah. Well, you've definitely helped me. And probably what people don't see is, bro, you're a wizard in real estate, but you're a wizard when it comes to marketing. So for those of you guys that are listening right now, uh part of you know, my training with Josh and learning from him was understanding marketing. Because as you know, my background was sales, bro. When I went into my mom's office, I committed to studying Grant Cardone's sales training program. I got on Cardone University, and I read the Bible and I read Cardone University. That was pretty much all Carlton did. And I got my sales skills up. And I would say sales got me through a lot of doors in life. It definitely got me to my first seven figures. But I hit a freaking ceiling, bro, to where I was tapping out organic. I was screaming from the rooftops that you need to do tax strategy, but my message wasn't going as far as I wanted it to go. And then linking up with you, I started learning about marketing and you started throwing all these words at it. Hack and, you know, what is your return on ads been? And I'm like, bro, I'm not even spending money on ads, right? Fast forward to 2025. Like, you know, we spent seven figures on ads last year in 2024. We've already spent seven figures on ads here in 2025, and it's having such a dramatic impact on our business. But I've always been doubled down on, you know, organic content. I'm never gonna get rid of that. But can you talk about like some of the skills that you developed in marketing? Was it sitting at a conference one day? Was it picking up a book? What allowed for you to become one of the best in your space? Because when you think about coaches today, most coaches are, you know, in my opinion, in their 40s and their 50s, you know, they've they've been doing this for the last 15, 20 years. Bro, you've been doing this for the last five years and you're the top dog in your space. So talk about how marketing has helped you get to that plateau you're at.
SPEAKER_00Marketing, it's always sales and marketing. That that's what drives the business. And then to get recurring business is the fulfillment. But none of the fulfillment can happen if there's no marketing and sales. Right. So, really, for me, it was just trying to survive in business. That's how I got my my skills in marketing. Uh, first, of course, uh, I don't know if you can see it, but I'm I'm a pretty introverted guy, right? Yeah, so I'm not the guy to do sales, even though I had to do sales for my marketing company. I was the guy trying to sell people, yeah, right. So I did learn that skill and the communication skill. But really, what I like to do is being that guy on the computer, you know, writing the scripts, launching the campaigns. That's what I love to do. And for me, I I just wanted to double down on my strength, which is doing that. Yeah, it's how to communicate with without me physically talking. So with business, there's so many challenges that come up. So you always have to continue to learn. Yeah, and at this point, I I've been pretty much obsessed with progress. Yeah. And part of that progress is getting better at marketing, getting better at business. So everything that I could learn, it all of probably all of well, I would say 90% of the top people that are doing marketing right now, I probably talked to them, taken their course, uh, read their books or something like that. So all I do is download and consume as much information as possible so I could be the best that I could be.
SPEAKER_02I'm the exact same way. I go find the people that are the best and that are shouting from the rooftops that they're the best. And I double down and triple down on what they are doing and what they are learning. When it comes to your success, do you feel like you've mimicked people or you've adopted traits from one particular person or any particular person that's led to your success? I know for me early on it was Grant Cardone and then kind of adopting some of my mother's language and lingo until I developed my own voice. But was there anybody that you were kind of mimicking or kind of copy after that kind of helped you develop your voice in entrepreneurship?
SPEAKER_00Yeah, so uh I believe it was Picasso. I got this from J. Cole actually. Really? So Jay Cole talked about Picasso. He was like, good artists borrow, great artists steal. So I have stolen. So I I got inspired and modeled a lot after a whole bunch of people. Yeah. And I see what works with our company because the thing with marketing and sales, like there's so many ways to sell someone, or the straight line method with uh the wolf, yeah. Yeah, yeah. There's the Grand Cardone method, there's a whole bunch of other ones, right? And for marketing, and just like sales, there's so many ways to cut the pie. Yeah, and then the only way that you're gonna figure out is if you keep doing it. And I found the style that I like. Yeah, so I just take little bits and pieces, and then you essentially create your own thing, which becomes more powerful because it's now you, yeah. And you can operate in you all the time.
SPEAKER_02Yep. All right, so now we want to talk a little bit about where you're at today, man. You went through the struggles, you went through the tribulations and the trials. Now we're running a seven-figure coaching business. So talk to me about some of the challenges you're having right now and how are you trying to solve them?
SPEAKER_00Uh, so the the challenges that I'm going through right now, one is uh finding the best players. Because what I really want is like hands down when they go through our our consulting company, like, oh my gosh, like this is not what I expected, but in a good way, that's what I want them to say. Yeah, so I want to make then that that the only way that could happen is if I hire the best people, right? So that is really hard. Getting the best of the best is one of the hardest things that you can do. One is that you have to be someone to be followed because they're now following you. So, me as a 28-year-old, dude, like the guy with the the billion dollars worth of experience, I had to sell them on the the vision. Yeah, on the vision of me, on the vision of the company, where we're going. It's it's a huge thing. So now I have to learn sales just like you, yeah. Of like, how do I do that? And a lot of it is leadership and making sure, like, dude, you're that guy. Like people want to believe in your comp, believe in your vision. Yeah, and uh I've learned so much from there. And the challenge with that is is really that it's finding the best people, and right now I think we're in a good spot. We we have a good sales team. Uh actually, we have an amazing sales team. Yeah, we have a we have an amazing fulfillment team, we have an amazing marketer right now. We just hired one of the best marketers in in the US, I believe. So yeah, I I'm super ready for everything to come. But actually, my challenges isn't really in the business side because I know that there's gonna be ebbs and flows, but we all know what the long-term vision is is to help as many military members as possible to build wealth. Absolutely. That's all it is, right? And I know there's gonna be some challenges, and I'm you know, eight years, you know, from 2017 to now, 2025. I've I I feel like I I know what to expect, I know what I don't know, and I know there's a lot of things that I don't know that I don't know. Yeah, that's right.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, and that sentiment right there is the beautiful part of leveling up, bro. Is if you keep that aura about you, there's so much that I don't know, and I know that I don't know, and you stay focused on trying to continue to be better every single day. You you said it earlier, you're focused on um, you said it was a word. Um, is it not growth? Um, it's not excellence. Oh, it's gonna kill me. It was a word that you said that you're focusing on right now. Um, not achievement. Uh, it'll come back to but that is how I look at life, bro. It's like we're not going to get to our destination. We're just gonna continue to fall in love with this journey that we're on. And this journey that we're on is realizing that we never really know shit. Dude, that can uh be a realer statement. We just never really know shit. We we all we we stop sometimes and think we do know, but there's always somebody that knows more. There's always something new that we find out, there's always a different way to do it, a different way to clip it, a different way to upload it. And I think that's probably what I love the most about entrepreneurship.
SPEAKER_00Dude, so from outside looking in, when they see Carlton Dennis, oh man, this guy's so clean, the good looking guy. Like this guy's super slow. Right? Yeah. But I'm sure you know you're probably like, dude, there's so much more I could be better at. Oh, 100%. There's so much that I don't know. And I I just came from a mastermind where, dude, these are all top dogs in their space. And then guess what they all talked about? They all talked about how there's so much more they they don't know. Yeah, and these are oh man, that's that's one of the things that I see with a bunch of successful people is that they know they know, they don't know anything. Yeah, so I think it was Plato that said the wisest man is the person that knows nothing. I love that. Isn't that funny? I love that. It's such a crazy quote, right? So uh that's what I I I like to um like instill in myself is that wherever I'm at, I still know nothing. Yeah. Compared to everything that we can do in this world. And the thing with entrepreneurship that I would love to talk to you about is do the pressures of entrepreneurship. Yeah, bro. Because, dude, like for me, like I have a I have a good side, I have two dozen people full time now working in my company. Yeah, not including the real estate side, too, which is yeah, that that's that's pretty crazy, right? And then you're thinking about now you have a kid, yeah. You have a beautiful, beautiful crippery, right? And now you have to think about that, and then everyone, dude. I know this might scare you right now, but everyone is depending on you to produce. That's right. I don't know, you probably have like a hundred people working under you now, dude. They're all depending on you. How do you manage all that pressure and success at the same time?
SPEAKER_02Um, I'll be honest with you, bro. Growing up, my mother did a lot to shape my understanding. I think my personality was a little bit different than my older brother, and she could sense that. I was the type of person that always wanted the attention on me. I wanted to be the line leader. I wanted to raise my hand first. I was just that kid that just wanted to just excel, but didn't really know which direction I was going in. And what my mom told me, she was always, she always told me the statement. She's like, Carlton, accept your role in life. Accept your role in life. You're not gonna do things the way Kenny does things or the way your younger brothers do things. It's gonna be harder for you. You're gonna take on more responsibility. But guess what? That's your role in life. That's my role for our family right now. And I look at my mom because she's like the nucleus amongst her brothers and sisters. Everybody comes to our house for Thanksgiving. When family situations are popping off, it's Carla's word. That's the last word. That's my mom. And I look at the way me and my brothers are, and like, you know, when we're having family uh get-togethers, birthday parties for mom or celebrations, they are looking to Carlton Dennis to kind of come come up with the solution, the plan. It's because I've accepted that role so long ago, though. You know what I mean? Before I had money, before I had, you know, an idea and real intentions, it was inside of me to be this leader, to be this person, to be dependent upon. So naturally, as I stepped into entrepreneurship and I started, you know, biting on bigger and bigger opportunities, naturally, more and more pressure started to build up. But I'm reminded of what I was taught. Oh, this is the role you were meant to be. She taught you this. Accept your role, man, because your role is to be the person with all that pressure on you. Because if you were in a different role, would you feel less satisfied? Would you feel less happy? And although you may not have that pressure, is that really what you would want? Is that the life that you would really would want? A life of more comfort? I have always thrived in being in uncomfortable situations, bro. It was uncomfortable when I had to leave all of my best friends and go from one school to a different grade school when I was 12 years old. It was uncomfortable at 14 years old to tell my mom, I don't want to go to an all-boys Catholic high school because none of my friends are going there, but then still had to end up going there and meet all brand new friends again. It was uncomfortable being in a school surrounded by all Catholic people when I'm a Christian, all boys when I like girls. It was uncomfortable going to college and then having to be, you know, six on the death chart when I'm used to being the starter on the death chart. It's uncomfortable, you know, coming out of college and having a little bit of debt and realizing that you want to be an entrepreneur, but no one's gonna build your business for you but you. So you have to work from five until nine o'clock after your work schedule to build this shit. So yeah, but at the end of the day, damn, what's on the other side of all this, man? Look at all this opportunity. Because I kept doing all this uncomfortable ass shit. I'm in this beautiful, comfortable chair having this beautiful, comfortable podcast with one of my beautiful, comfortable homies that we've we've been grinding over the last couple of years. And I'm sitting here like, damn, what other sacrifices do I need to make to continue building on top of what we are already building on? Because I'm willing to get even more uncomfortable than I already am right now. Yeah.
SPEAKER_00Dude, that is such an incredible answer. Because the thing that I I found out about entrepreneurship is the people that go through the hardest things has the easiest life. Every single time, if you're willing to go through that grit, bro, like uh as you know, for for me, it was it wasn't too easy, right? Growing up in a immigrant family that that just came over here and dude, all that struggle, everything always comes to fruition, and that's just like what you said. You're you're a Christian, right? I uh I believe in God with all my heart. Yeah, so the thing that got me the most from what you said was you were called to do this for whatever reason God called you, God called me to do specific things in life. There's a reason why you're the number one tax strategist in the US. There's a reason why I am doing this thing for the military members right now. Every single thing that ever happened in your life, I believe that life happens for you, not to you. And a lot of people believe the opposite. So as long as we continue believing that life does happen for us, dude, we can live an amazing life. And that guy up there is gonna bless us with a whole bunch of stuff and it's gonna be fun.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, this life has been a blessing, man. This podcast has been a blessing. This moment has been a blessing, bro. Oh, yeah. I appreciate you coming on, ripping with me for an hour. I think it's been almost over an hour. Yeah. And uh now I got some people I need to call to make sure that they're utilizing their VA system correctly. I mean, that was absolutely incredible. I didn't even know that you can just jump right back into another VA loan within 12 months, let alone do co-living spaces. That should be something I talk about on tax strategy because it's a definite tax play that people can leverage, especially if they're managing the property themselves. That's a whole nother business in itself. Josh, I appreciate you coming on. If you don't mind, tell everybody where they can follow you from.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, uh, you can follow me on Josh Villarreal. It's on all uh social media handles.
SPEAKER_02Guys, it's been an absolute pleasure. Thank you so much, Josh, for joining us here today. And if you guys are trying to save more money on your taxes, be sure to subscribe to Taxes Made Simple. Josh Villarreal blessed us today with another segment. We'll be bringing him back soon. We'll see you guys on the next one.