Standing on New Shoulders:The Polite’s Path to Financial Freedom

Summary

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Episode Overview:

Podcast: Mick Unplugged
Host: Mick Hunt
Episode: Standing on New Shoulders: The Polite’s Path to Financial Freedom
Guests: Crystal and Dedrick Polite
Air Date: November 17, 2025

This episode dives deep into the journey of Crystal and Dedrick Polite—stars of A&E's "5050 Flip" and founders of Be Polite Properties—as they discuss overcoming generational poverty, intentional partnerships, building generational wealth through real estate, the importance of mentorship, and their surprising path to reality TV. The conversation highlights actionable advice for emerging entrepreneurs, the power of investing in yourself, and how leaving a legacy is about the impact made on others.

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Key Discussion Points and Insights

1. The Power of “Because” – Finding Your Deeper Purpose

• [03:55] Mick introduces the concept of your “Because”—a purpose deeper than your “Why.”
  • Crystal’s Because: “Because I came from generational poverty… we understand what it was like. So we do what we do now to help someone else try to change the trajectory of their family tree.” ([04:32], Crystal)
  • Dedrick’s Because: “Because we’ve been the underdogs… we started from the bottom and we want to serve as an example… of what’s possible.” ([06:05], Dedrick)
• Both Polites reflect on standing on the shoulders of prior generations and taking their turn to offer shoulders to others in their community. “You now are those shoulders that people are standing on.” [06:46], Mick

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2. Intentional Beginnings – The Famous First Date

• [08:04] The story of their intentional first date at Joe’s Grill:
  • Crystal approached the date as a business meeting, asking pointed questions about Dedrick’s career, credit score, and life goals.
  • Memorable Moment:
    • Crystal: “What’s your credit score?”
    • Dedrick: “I said, well, damn, we get right to it, huh?” ([10:42], Crystal & Dedrick)
    • “I didn’t ask him his credit score as a factor… I asked so I knew how much work we needed to do.” ([10:57], Crystal)
  • Their early honesty set the tone for a powerful partnership, summarized by Crystal: “Start how you want to finish.” ([13:24], Crystal)

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3. Early Challenges: Risk, Adversity, and Opposing Mindsets

• [18:35] No mentors, no guides: They candidly discuss starting and failing multiple businesses without blueprints or safety nets.
  • Crystal was never afraid to fail, while Dedrick, more risk-averse, preferred planning and stability due to his background.
  • Crystal benefited from her mother's advice: “Come back home, live with me… Don’t rush to get out there and put the weight of the world on your shoulders.” ([19:57], Crystal)
  • Quote: “You can’t work on the business if you’re working in it.” ([41:23], Dedrick)

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4. The Role of Mentorship and Paid Coaching

• [21:26] The Polites became passionate mentors after having to self-navigate the real estate world.
  • Their breakthrough came after investing $16,000 to get mentorship and join a mastermind group—showing the value of "paying to pay attention."
  • Mick's Take [23:24]: “People need to invest in themselves… The people that invested were more accountable to the results and do the actual work.”
  • Crystal: “We’ve learned just giving information to individuals, it drained us… The people who pay, pay attention.” ([24:46], Crystal)
  • The impact of their coaching and media visibility even reached those in prison, inspiring accountability and hope.

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5. Path to TV: From Social Media to A&E's “5050 Flip”

• [28:47] The opportunity for their own TV show came after years sharing their process on social media (at the urging of a mastermind leader).
  • Surprising Turn: Initially, Crystal ignored A&E casting DMs as spam.
  • Once selected, the journey was more demanding than expected: Filming nearly full-time and learning hard lessons about delegation and team-building.
  • “The first season… it broke us. After that last day, we sat in bed and looked at each other and said, we will never come back for season two.” ([38:04], Crystal)
  • Growth: Season two returned only with a larger, properly delegated team.

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6. Delegation and Growth

• [40:15] Running a TV show, their flipping business, rental properties, and coaching program forced them to master delegation.
  • “You can’t scale if it’s just me, I can’t scale up. All the major responsibilities can’t just be mine.” ([41:09], Mick)
  • Lesson Shared: Surround yourself with a capable team to grow sustainably.

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7. Legacy, Impact, and Community

• [44:35] On their legacy:
  • “With us, it’s about impact. It’s not about how many doors we own… Crystal always says it’s about how many doors we can open for others to walk through.” ([44:35], Dedrick)
  • Crystal’s lifelong motto: “You make a living by what you get. You make a life by what you give.” ([45:02], Crystal)
  • Their goal is to equip their children and others with resilience and the drive to uplift those around them.

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• Crystal: “Grow wings on the way down is what I tell him.” ([21:04])
• Dedrick: “We’re equally yolked.” ([13:12], on finding a soulmate/business partner)
• Mick: “Your because is your superpower. Go unleash it.” ([47:39], closing)
• Dedrick: “We still have mentors, because we’re not done… but we do believe in lifting as we rise… people who pay, pay attention.” ([24:46])
• Prison Letter Impact: “Watching your show… has, for the first time, shown a light on myself and said, why could I have not done what you’ve done?” ([26:29], Dedrick reading fan mail)

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Rapid Fire “Quick 5” ([42:03]-[46:27])

1. Credit Score Nerves:
   • Dedrick: “No, I wasn’t nervous at all. I had the 8 10. I’m good.”
2. Favorite Comfort Meal:
   • Dedrick: “Soul food. Smothered pork chop, baked mac & cheese, yams.”
   • Crystal: “Whatever my wife cooks… her cooking is amazing.”
3. Best Dish:
   • Crystal: “Baked macaroni and cheese. Four cheeses, has to be baked.”
4. One Word to Describe Partnership:
   • Crystal: “Powerful” | Dedrick: “Intentional”
5. Legacy:
   • “It’s about how many doors we can open for others to walk through.”
   • “You make a living by what you get. You make a life by what you give.”

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Key Takeaways

• Don’t just have a “why”—find your “because” for deeply rooted drive.
• Intentionality in relationships and business sets the foundation for long-term success.
• Accept risk as part of the journey, but supplement bold moves with clear communication and teamwork.
• Mentorship—especially paid—creates accountability and accelerates progress.
• No solo act: Sustainable growth requires trust, delegation, and building strong teams.
• True legacy is measured by the doors you open for others, not just personal accumulation.

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Where to Find the Polites

• Instagram & YouTube: @bepoliteproperties
• Website: bepoliteproperties.com
• Watch: "5050 Flip" on A&E and Hulu

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Final Message

“You are now those shoulders. You are those shoulders that people are standing on… Your ‘because’ is your superpower—go unleash it.”
— Mick Hunt ([47:39])

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Transcript

[A]

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[B]

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[A]

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[B]

From flipping houses to flipping the script on generational wealth, this dynamic duo turned.

[A]

A first date credit check into a.

[B]

Multi million dollar real estate empire. Stars of A E's 5050 flip and founders of Be Polite Property. They blend faith, family and financial freedom. Into a blueprint of success. Please join me in welcoming the visionary, the resilient, the trail blazing Crystal and Dedrick Polite. How you both doing today?

[C]

Mick, we are doing awesome, man. Appreciate you having us.

[B]

I am the honored one. You know, we were talking offline about all the cool things that we have in common, but what I wanted to tell you both, and I wanted to look you both in the eye and tell you this, is that I'm just so freaking proud of both of you and. And not just the work that you do, and we'll get into that, but more importantly, the human beings that you are. You know, I. I'm a. I'm a man of faith, and I believe that that good is rewarded in good. And I just wanted you both to know just how freaking proud I am of the human beings that you are.

[D]

Thank you so much. We really appreciate that.

[C]

Yeah, I definitely appreciate that, man. I know that's from the heart, so we appreciate that.

[B]

Absolutely. It's the Carolina way, right?

[D]

Absolutely.

[B]

I usually start the episode by asking my guests, like, what's your because? That thing that's deeper than your why? You know, Simon Sinek wrote a book called Start with why. And while I believe that's really important, I also believe we have a deeper mission. And I call it your because. Right. Like, if I were to say, you know, Crystal, Dedrick, what's your why? You're probably going to tell me, your kids, your family, your community. But when I say why are they your why? That response is what I call your because. So if I were to ask both of you individually, like, what's your because today? What's that deeper purpose and mission that you have?

[D]

Wow, that's a great question. And the first time we've ever been asked that. So because my because. And it's. It's easy. But now I'm trying to figure out how to frame it around my why. How do they correlate with each other? So I would say my because is because I came from generational poverty. Because we both came from generational poverty. We understand what it was like. So we do what we do now to help someone else try to change the trajectory of their family tree. Even if it's giving them a nice place to stay, even if it's a rental, even if it's providing affordable housing to a single mother or a single father. Everything we do is really centered around because it's something that we experience directly in our lifetime, that we're trying to literally make it a little better for that next generation. And my mother always told me every generation should go one step further at least than the previous. So for her it was like, my kids can just go one step further than I did. She would have done her job. So for us, that's what I always keep in mind. If I can go one step further and lead my children to do the same. So I think that would be my.

[C]

Because I think you've gone a few more than one step further than your mom. But you know, we stand on the shoulders of giants, you know, like the previous generation. Mick, what I would say is my because is similar to Crystal. It's. It's because we've been the underdogs, right? Because we came from living on Section 8 housing, right? Because I used to have food stamps as a kid and go to the grocery store because we've been evicted. So we've been on the bottom and people see us now like, oh, you guys must always had it going on. No, we started from the bottom and because we started from the bottom, we want to serve as an example to others who are starting from zero or less than zero of what's possible.

[B]

I love that. I love that. And I want to hit on something that you said talking about standing on the shoulders of giants. And this is a part of what I feel like I need to tell you both too. You now are those shoulders that people are standing on, right. And I want you to always know that and remember that. And again, it's part of the reason I'm proud of you because I have family members that look up to both of you. I have friends that are die hard followers of all the things that you do and you now are those shoulders. So again, kudos to you both for all the things that you do and I love.

[C]

Thank you.

[B]

Your because.

[C]

Thank you. I appreciate that. And sometimes I'm just amazed, like you standing on the shoulders of giants just living in North Carolina, living in South Carolina. Look how far we've come in 50 years, 100 years where our parents and our grandparents weren't allowed to even buy properties in certain neighborhoods back in the 1950s, 1960s and before. And before. Now we're buying properties on TV, right? So it's just amazing. Again, I appreciate the sacrifices of the previous generations to allow us to do what we're doing, to be an example.

[B]

Absolutely. Absolutely.

[A]

All right, so we're going to go.

[B]

To where this started with you both. We're going to talk about that first date. But, but, but maybe we call it.

[A]

The first business meeting.

[B]

Right? So I'm going to let you tell the story, but I'm going to frame it up a little bit for the viewers and listeners. So first date, you know, everybody's going in casual. We're at a dinner, getting to know each other, and Crystal's like, what's your credit score? What's your business plan? What you're trying to be when you grow up?

[C]

I love you on the hot seat, man.

[B]

But you got to flip it a little bit.

[A]

So we're going to talk about that.

[B]

So I don't know. Who wants to start first? Probably Crystal.

[C]

Let's.

[B]

Let's talk through what this first date was like. Let's set that stage.

[D]

Well, it definitely was intentional, right? And I always tell people, intentionality can take you a lot of far ways, right? When knowing and going into it with a purpose, a reason. So for me, at that point in time in my life, I wasn't dating just to date, right? And I've done that, been there. At this point, I was looking to build, and I had already started in that trajectory. So when I met Dedrick at a gas station in Boston. In Boston. And Random asked me out for lunch, I said, okay, not a problem. We exchanged business cards and we met at Joe's Grill.

[C]

Joe's Grill in denim at off Route 1.

[D]

And we sat down. I he thought, you know, oh, she cute. About to have a real look. You know, I thought it was just.

[C]

Gonna be a little bubble gum conversation, you know, first date.

[D]

No, he thought he was gonna get this slide in some lines and be real smooth with it.

[B]

Right.

[D]

And tell me about all on surface level and what he was doing. Well, you know, I went to a really nice university and I got a really nice job. I got a nice. I got the company car. I knew he gonna slide all that little stuff in there. And I said, we, you ain't about to waste my time. So as soon as we sat down and started talking, it was just told me where he's from and stuff like that. I said, oh, okay. And then I said, he asked me same little service level, where are you originally from? And I said, oh, North Carolina, stuff like that. And I said, oh, okay. So what do you do for work? He said, you know, told me what he does for work. And I said, okay, do you plan on doing that forever? And he was like, no. I said, well, I said, are you an entrepreneur? Have you done anything? The entrepreneurial realm? He was like, oh, absolutely. And then he started telling me about some of the stuff he did, which was a bunch of MLMs. And I said, oh, okay. And I said, okay, well, what's your credit score?

[C]

I said, well, damn, we get right to it, huh?

[B]

Let's go.

[D]

Let's go. And he told me his credit score was like a 8, 10, 8:15.

[C]

Hey, I had that Halle Berry credit.

[D]

And I always like to tell people I didn't ask him his credit score as a factor in determining whether or not I would give him a second date or I would continue to talk to him or give him a shot. I asked him his credit score so I knew how. How much work we needed to do. Right. Where are we going to start from?

[B]

That's what you say today, Crystal.

[A]

This credit score was a 510 and not an 8 10.

[B]

We don't even know if there would have been a second date.

[D]

It would have been a second date. It just would have been. I'd have been like, okay, so we're going to do some credit.

[C]

We both need credit repair.

[D]

We both need some credit repair.

[C]

Because you would just clean up your credit.

[D]

I just cleaned up mine. So I was on the track. I know the importance. And, you know, you do the first thing you do, your parents tell you not to do when you get to college, get these credit cards. So of course I did exactly that. So I literally just cleaned up my credit score. My credit score was climbing back up, and I was in the 600s. Told dead Drake he was like, 8, 10. I said, oh, okay, okay. So we ain't got to do work with that. Boom. We ain't got to do no credit repair.

[C]

Excellent.

[D]

But it just been like, okay, so we're gonna. While I'm already done do. Done did mine. I know what I need to do for yours, so we just gonna pull that report and we gonna get to work. But he knew that. So I said, okay. I said, well, do you plan on living in Boston forever? And he said, well, I mean, I. I ain't got to. I ain't got no kids. I ain't really got nothing tying me the boss. And I said, okay, so anyone who's planning to be with me must be willing to move within the next year or two because I won't be staying here forever.

[C]

And that again, most people might be taken aback, like, damn, she interviewed you. She grilled you. But it was refreshing to me. It was exciting because it wasn't the norm when you're in your late 20s, early 30s dating, first date. So I was like, wow, this woman is ambitious. She's driven. She knows what she wants. That was like this is what I'm looking for in a wife. Now, I knew from the first time I saw that I was going to marry her. Right. She didn't know that yet. Like, and again, when we met, I wasn't ready for marriage at that time, but I, I was. That just further cemented, like, man, she is a dynamic woman. This is the type of person that I would want to be with because we're equally yolked.

[B]

So I'm going to summarize this. First date, though. So first date, you already know you're going in business together, you know you're moving, you know you're getting married, all in the first 30 minutes of this.

[C]

Start how you want to finish. That's one of our models. Is start how you want to finish. And that's exactly what we did on that first date.

[D]

Yep. We knew everything new. If you wanted kids, we knew. I asked about pre existing conditions in the family. Like all of that came out at Joe's.

[B]

There it is. There it is. So. So, Dedrick, you were in, you were doing several mlms as, as Crystal was saying, right? When did you know that real estate was going to be a jam for you? And then more importantly, what made that that move happened, that switch happened for you?

[C]

Yeah. So I went to college, graduated from Ivy League school, Amherst College, you know, got good grades, got a corporate job doing sales, pharmaceutical sales, big pharma. Had the company car, had the company Amex, all that good stuff. Wore suit and tie to work. But I knew that wasn't for me as a career corporate guy. I just knew I didn't want that. Right. But really, I got the bug for real estate when I read Rich dad, poor dad in 2001. Matter of fact, it happened earlier than 2001. I got two VHS tapes right here in the 90s. My mom had these VHS is no money down, right? And late night infomercials. And it was these guys who get on there. Yeah, you can make millions of real estate and you can drive a Rolls Royce, you can have mansions, but none of them look like me. But I was like, man, one day I want to do what they're doing. I want to own properties, I want to drive a Rolls Royce, all that stuff. And 25 years later, I'm doing exactly that. Right? That's the power of, of, you know, intuition and planting a seed in someone. So I always knew I wanted to get in the real estate. I just didn't know how. When Crystal and I met, she's the one who saw the entrepreneurial dreams and visions in me. Right. But at that time, I was more of a entrepreneur because I had a safe corporate job. I grew up broke. I didn't want to go back to that. So I was afraid of jumping out and taking a risk. So I would dibble and dabble in little network marketing here and there, make a few dollars. But I didn't make enough money, allow me to leave my job until I met her.

[B]

I love that. I love that. So. So Crystal, you. You both start business together. Talk through. And Dedrick, I love that you brought up the. The entrepreneur because a lot of people don't understand the challenges and the adversity that. That we face as entrepreneurs and growing a business. So I'd love for you, Crystal, talk to us about some of those initial challenges that you. You had to break through to to get to where you are today.

[A]

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[B]

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[A]

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[B]

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[A]

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[D]

Some challenges. What wasn't a challenge?

[C]

How many businesses have we started and failed?

[A]

That's what people don't understand, right?

[B]

Like. Like they see the end result. They see the visibility, but they don't see the grind.

[A]

And they don't see.

[B]

I think to. To what you're saying now is it's a continual.

[A]

Maybe not a struggle, but it's continual challenges. And sometimes the more successful you get, the challenges become bigger.

[C]

Absolutely.

[D]

More money, more problems. Right. Like they say, the challenges do get bigger. And for us, it was a struggle figuring it out. Right. And especially when we got together early 2000s, mid 2000s, it was really. You didn't have a lot of coaches and mentors out there, though. For us, it was trying to figure it out, figure out what we want to do.

[C]

No mentors, no guides.

[D]

Figure out where we want to go, starting and failing. The difference was, I was never afraid to fail, ever. Dedrick, not so much. Dedrick was not trying to go back broke. My mentality was, I'll lose it and I'll get it back again.

[C]

But you were still living at home, right. So you had a little more of a safety net. I had a house, I had a mortgage. I had a new car, I had a car note. So I had some bills.

[D]

Yes. And I'll tell you what, one of the best things, and I always try to tell this to young college students, high school students, especially parents. One of the best things my mother ever said to me was, once you got out of college, come back home, live with me. Don't rush to jump out there on your own. Come back home, figure out what you want to do. While your headaches are my headaches, your worries and my worries, don't rush to get out there and put the weight of the world on your shoulders before it's time to. So out of her four kids, I was the one that listened. I came back home.

[C]

You had a safety net.

[D]

I had that safety net. I was able to Start a nonprofit. I was able to start my own business. I was able to fail at everything. And my mother was right there. Keep going, Keep going. Okay. I'm here to support you. And it allowed me to spread my wings. It allowed me to get out there and do things that made me truly uncomfortable with it. So when I met. By the time I met Dedrick, and Dedrick was very risk averse, it was.

[C]

Just like her mindset was totally the opposite. She's like, oh, we don't need a business plan. Let's just do it. Let's figure it out.

[D]

Well, hold up. Grow wings on the way down is what I tell him.

[B]

Dedrick is like, we need the structured plan. We need the details. We need step one and step two, and we can't go to step two.

[C]

We need a SWAT analysis. We need a business plan for the business plan. Because, again, that's how I was trained in going to college. Right. In school.

[D]

Yep.

[B]

I love that. And you know, Crystal, you brought up not having mentors, not having coaches. And I would say for me, one of the things that later in my business career, because early on, I was just like you. Like, I didn't necessarily have a blueprint or a person or people I could really talk to. But then as I got older in business, I was able to be mentored by a Damon John, a Robert Irvine, a Les Brown. And I know that you're so passionate, both of you, about mentorship and being those resources and allies for others that you turn it into a coaching program. So talk a little bit about what you do in your coaching program and who a good mentee might look like for you as well, too.

[C]

Yeah, I mean, we figured out we solved real estate investing. Right. We became very successful from real estate investing. Then we got our own TV show. Right. And then so many people would reach out to us, like, hey, how can we do what you guys are doing? We're inspired by watching you. How can we duplicate it? That's what made us start the coaching program. And the reason is, is because we didn't have that rich uncle. We didn't have that rich dad. We can call when we were coming up to be like, all right, what do I do? How do I do it? It wasn't until we were in our 30s that we met our rich dad, which is our. One of our mentors who lives right in Winston Salem, who had already achieved what we wanted to achieve. And we were able to pay him for his time and expertise. And he gave us the blueprint. He gave us the roadmap. So we were like, hey, when we become successful, we want to turn around and do the same thing. We thought obligation to turn around and do the same thing for others.

[B]

Yeah. And you hit on something. I want to double down on. I want to unplug. No pun intended. This because I did the same thing. You paid for coaching. You invested in yourself.

[A]

I'm going to hurt some feelings today.

[B]

And I don't want this to come across from Crystal and Dedrick. This is purely the commentary of Mick and Mick only.

[A]

People need to invest in themselves, and.

[B]

Here'S why I say that. And I want you to talk a little bit more about your coaching program, too. When I first started coaching and helping people, I was willing. And sometimes today, I still do it for free. But the people that invested were more accountable to the success, to the results, and do the actual work. And so this is my message. This isn't coming from Crystal and Dedrick. So don't at them. Don't yell at them. Yell at me.

[A]

If you're not willing to invest in.

[B]

Yourself, don't always ask for free advice. Don't always ask for free mentorship, because it's draining. I'm not gonna lie.

[A]

People that.

[B]

That want it for free over and over and over again are the ones who aren't gonna be willing to commit to do the actual work required to get where they're trying to go. They're always gonna think there's an easy button that you can press, and there's no such thing as an easy button. Right.

[A]

And then I'm also gonna say this.

[B]

They want people to invest in their dreams, but they don't want to put that same investment into their own. So I. I said that so you didn't have to say a dead dream.

[C]

Listen, well, we. We. We keep it real. We're gonna agree with you a thousand percent, because we have been there. We've been on both sides. We've been the mentee, and we've been the mentor.

[D]

We there now. Let me tell you, we are there now, like today, and we tell people we still have mentors, literally, that always have, because we're not done, right? We are still building, we're still climbing. But we do believe in lifting as we rise. But it goes back to that saying, people who pay, pay attention. And we've learned just giving information to individuals, it drained us. It was a waste of our time. No one ever acted on that information. And then you don't hear from them. They come back around in six months. Hey, I Got a question real quick, like, we ain't got time for all that. And then the people who pay, they pay attention. They're at every coaching session, they are emailing, they are actively taking action. And those are the ones who are constantly hitting us and DMing us like, Hey, I just got my first deal locked up. I just bought my first rental property that I'll be passing on to my kids within two months time. And it's just as simple. Listening, sitting down, listening, following instruction and getting out of your own way. And I tell that you're. One of the best things about that TV show was for me is the exposure to people who said they'd never seen one. A show like ours where it was attainable as well as inspirational. So it was at a price point where people who worked at grocery stores who were secretaries with reaching out and was like, people in prison. Prison, Wow.

[C]

A lot of brothers in prison have.

[D]

Reached out to us, saying so many letters from prison. One guy, the most humbling letter I've ever read was from a guy in prison who wrote and specifically spoke about Dedrick. And he said, for the first time watching your show has. I've held myself accountable for my actions that got me here. He said, because looking at you, we're the same age, we look the same, we come from the same neighborhood. And to see where you have gotten, my brother has for the first time shown a light on myself and said, why could I have not done what you've done? And we came from the same place, we came from the same background, we're the same age. You look like me. He said, so he really just wrote the letter thanking us and thanking the team, the network for actually showing someone that he could relate to. He said. So for him, it was a mind shift where he's now, like, he won't. He can accept responsibility that he and he alone got him to where he's at. And now he's prepared to do better even while there to get out to one day be able to do what we're doing for the family that he still has out there. And that's what I tell people the TV show did that was. That was powerful to me.

[C]

Yeah.

[D]

It's just the fact that people can see themselves flipping a property or buying real estate and aren't millionaires.

[B]

Yeah. And again, I go back to what I said earlier when I wanted to give you both praise. You are now those shoulders. Right. And that's why I'm proud of you. You are those shoulders that people are standing on. And looking to. So that's awesome. So thank you. Let's talk about the show 5050 flip on A and E. First off, A and E is a big network, right? Like it's, it's a real legit network. So. So now it's on Hulu. And Hulu, right, Bought the rights and even bigger, even more distribution. Right. More, more views. Let's go back to the beginning of the show. How did you get the call? What was it like when it was like a. Yes, we're gonna do it. Like, I'd love. Personally, I just want to hear this story.

[C]

Well, yeah, let's go all the way back, Mick. It actually started because we invested in ourselves. What do I mean? We joined a mastermind. We had not closed the deal. We were trying to figure out how to wholesale, make money wholesaling. We joined a Mastermind. We spent 16,000 joining a group of high level real estate investors. And the leader, that mastermind said, hey. We were like, hey, we're having trouble raising money to buy our first rental property. What do we do? He was like, document your process. What do you mean? Go on social media, show people what you're doing. Every time you do a walkthrough, every time you meet with a contractor, document what you're doing. So we started doing that, right. 2017, 2018. So we built a following. And as a result of that following, we started a YouTube channel. And that's where the producers from A and E found us. They were looking for a couple in North Carolina.

[D]

They were just looking for people, period. They were green lighting. They were getting back into the home space, which they were originally. Before everyone knew about hgtv, it was A and E with F Merrill fan.

[C]

Merrill flipped 2008, the first one.

[D]

So they were looking to now get back into the home space. And they were looking for a three show. They were green lighting three shows. So they was looking and searching all over and they were looking at hundreds of people. They had ended up DMing us. I don't. I. At a certain point I just stopped going into the DMs. I wasn't really looking at them. So one of the executives the casting company contacted called our 800 number, got our secretary, made our secretary promise to give me the message and to promise to get me to call her back. So they had been DMing us for a year.

[B]

Wow.

[D]

Which we had known and I had seen it in there, but I one time, but I think it's spam. So, you know, I rolled by that. And so as soon As I walked in, our secretary sound was like, hey, a lady named, I think it's Ally from Annie. She said, if you could please give her a call back, she really wants to speak to you. And I said, oh, okay. And I kept going on, kept walking to go into the office. And she came in, she was like, no, she made me promise to have you please give her a call back. And I looked at, I said, and you promised? And she was like, yeah. And I said, well, don't promise nobody else unless you calling them back. And she was like, please, I don't want, I don't want to be made out a liar. Could you please call her back? So I was like, all right, fine. I called her back and she was like, first off, I want to say I am not a casting company. She was like, I work exclusively for.

[B]

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[D]

And I had no idea what that meant, so it didn't impress me. I was just like, oh, okay, all right. What can I do for you? And she was like, and we've been following you guys. I've been trying to get a hold of you for a year past year now. This is during COVID right after Covid. No, we started right after Covid. They had started hitting us about a year during COVID and stuff. Then I was like, okay. She was like, we love your YouTube. We love your Instagram. We're looking for a couple to do a show. We're interviewing hundreds of people. So we was like. At that point, I told Dedrick, I was like, okay, well, we ain't gonna really do it. Let's just see how far we can get.

[C]

We didn't think they was gonna pick us.

[D]

And I'm super private. Like, extremely. If they had a TV show on extreme people who were private, I would.

[C]

Definitely FBI meet CIA. Yes, that's Crystal.

[B]

Hey, I'm right there with you, Crystal.

[D]

I really am. So it wasn't even a thought in My mind to do something like this. So I, me and daddy was like, yeah, we just gonna get. See how far we can go so then we can tell people, like, you know, we won the finalist.

[C]

It'll be a cool story at the dinner party.

[D]

Yeah. All of a sudden, maybe six, seven months later, at Zoom, after Zoom, after Zoom, they call us. And it was just like, hey, can we get on another Zoom sent us an email. We like to hop on another Zoom with you guys. We was like, yeah, sure. And we got on the Zoom and it was even more people on this one. And it was like, hey, we wanted to offer you guys a slot for this upcoming season for one of the TV shows. And me and Dedrick looked at each other, was just like, oh, like, literally a fake smile and everything. Like, we gotta get a copy of.

[C]

That recording, get our reaction.

[D]

Oh, like, couldn't. We were literally like stone faced, like, oh. And then we got off and Dedic was like, we're not really doing the TV show, are we? I was like, we kind of have to now. He was like, why? I was like, because, like, they've already chosen us. He was like, so now I'm having second thoughts.

[C]

I'm like, we really want to do this.

[D]

I was like, okay, we can't go back on our word. Like, we done got this far. They done eliminated all these other people. Like, we. We got to do what we say we were going to. He was like, babe, I never said. So we were just here to see how far we were going to get. I said, I know. We gonna have to just do it. We gonna have to do it. I know, I know. We don't. And it was really us. Like, we didn't think, because, you know.

[C]

You dream about being on TV one day, but you don't think it's gonna actually happen. So we were shocked. I mean, we were just like, man, God, God works in mysterious ways.

[D]

And after, like months of contract negotiations, we had to, you know, you got to remind the TV show, a network that you ain't a starving artist when you ain't starving.

[C]

We're already successful. We have a successful real estate company. We own a bunch of rentals.

[D]

They sent over the starving artist contract.

[C]

It took a while.

[B]

Yeah.

[C]

But what we did was we went straight to. We called straight to series, where most people would get a TV show, they'll do like a sizzle reel, which is.

[D]

Like a 5, 10 minute episode pilot.

[C]

But we went straight to series, which mean they, they, as soon as that.

[D]

Contract was signed, they had boots on the ground within two weeks and started.

[C]

Filming, which never happens in the industry, literally.

[D]

And there was like. Ought to be like two or three days a week. It went to. From two or three days a week to five days a week. Filming, Filming ten hours a day straight for like seven months. Seven, eight months.

[B]

Wow.

[D]

And the first season, you don't know what you don't know. So first season brokers, when I tell you, it broke us. It broke us after that last day. We rapped. We sat in that bed and looked at each other and said, we will never come back for season two.

[A]

But look at you now.

[B]

What are some of those things really quick that you learned after or during the first season that you now know what to do differently? Better ask for, say no to. What are some of those things that you learned?

[C]

Well, the first thing we learned is that we had to do 10 houses. We ended up doing six because our team just wasn't big enough at the time to handle 10 houses. But I want. I. I wanted to. I didn't want to do it because we'd have to raise about 2 or 3 million dollars in investment capital in order to pull it off. And I didn't think we could do that because I'd never raised that much money before. But when you stretch yourself and you challenge yourself, it's amazing what you can accomplish. And we ended up getting it done. So that was a big thing for me is like doing something I was afraid of doing. I was terrified. But we got it done and I grew in immense ways.

[D]

Yeah. And understanding that, we definitely Learned from season one. It was literally three of us doing the work of 10 people. So we understood that we couldn't do everything. We learned that we couldn't do everything ourselves. Like, we needed a. I think I lost 15 pounds that season.

[C]

We both lost a lot of weight.

[D]

I went from, like two grades hairs to like, 10. It was crazy. And we learned that we had to find a team and delegate some of these responsibilities and tasks. And I remember we had talked to a couple people who had already had TV shows in flipping, and they had said, oh, yeah, the TV show is going to be your new business. So it. All that other stuff is going to fall by the wayside. This is going to become your every day. And we was like, yeah, all right. They don't know. We. We can handle this. They don't know what. When I tell you, baby, we were up there, like what I told you. Remember what they said? Because we was. We were suffocating because we still had.

[C]

Wholesale and flipping company. We still have a rental company. We have an Airbnb division. We had all these divisions of real estate going, plus you add a TV show, which is another 50, 60 hours a week. So it was intense. So season two, the only condition we came back on is that we had a team. We had project managers, we had designers. We had 10 people doing the work of 10 people versus three who are overstretched.

[B]

There you go. That's what's up. That's what's up.

[A]

So that's.

[B]

That's awesome to hear, and that's great insight. I think that also correlates into the business world too, that I think a lot of leaders, we tend to put everything on our shoulders.

[D]

Yep.

[C]

Right.

[B]

And I would say, for me, the hardest lesson I had to learn was delegation, because I want it all, but I can't scale. If it's just me, I can't scale up. All the major responsibilities. And I'll be honest to the major headaches can't just be mine.

[C]

Right.

[B]

Like, I need other people to deal with those two.

[D]

Yeah.

[C]

You got to have a team. That's one of the big things we've learned is that again, you know, as an entrepreneur, self employed, you feel like, hey, if it has to be done, if it is to be, it's up to me.

[D]

And you can't work on the business if you're working in it.

[B]

Amen to that. One of my mentors said you can't read the ingredients when you're inside the box.

[D]

Right. There you go.

[C]

That's a good one.

[D]

I love that.

[B]

One thing I had to learn. All right, so you both are very busy. You've been gracious with your time. I'm going to get you out of here with my Quick 5 rapid fire, so you can determine who wants to answer the question. Okay, so after the credit score reveal from Crystal, I guess the first one's gonna be for Kedrick. Were you nervous at all? Did you get nervous when yours was a 810 and hers was a 6 something?

[C]

No, I wasn't nervous at all. And I had the 8 10.

[D]

I'm good.

[B]

That's it. All right, you've had a long day of filming, a long day in the office. What's your favorite comfort meal?

[D]

Favorite comfort meal for me other than mine would be soul food. So smothered pork chop, baked macaroni and cheese, yams is definitely soul food.

[C]

Making me hungry. Mine is whatever my wife cooks. She is an amazing cook. Now, when we first started dating, my baby couldn't boil water when we first started.

[D]

Right, Right.

[C]

But her condition was. She said, until you put a ring on it, that's when I'm gonna start cooking. And that's exactly what happened once I put a on and really, once we got our first child. Her cooking is amazing. So that's my. My favorite comfort.

[D]

Okay.

[A]

All right, so then let me parlay.

[B]

That into question number three for you, Crystal. What's your favorite dish that you make?

[D]

Well, my kids would definitely say baked macaroni and cheese. It's like, every week, things. Every day, we gotta have it. I would say I'm the same way.

[B]

I'm a Mac and cheese snob.

[D]

Oh, yeah. Like, and it has to be baked four cheeses. Ain't no. Out the box. Like, it has to be baked macaroni and cheese.

[B]

Yep.

[C]

Okay.

[B]

I love it. What's one word that you would use to describe your partnership?

[C]

That's the first.

[D]

Yeah.

[C]

My word would just be powerful.

[B]

I like that.

[D]

I like that one word. Mine would be intentional. I think everything we do with each other from the day we met has been very intentional. You know, dating him from the beginning, I made it so that he understood. He never had to lie to me. We can work through whatever we got to work through. Be intentional. Be respectful of my time. I'm. Be respectful your time. He don't be late. Like, I. We've been very intentional with each other along our entire journey.

[B]

You know, intentional. Intentional and powerful. Sounds like a great book title for you too. I'm just gonna. I like that. All right, last one. When the story is written for the polites, what do you want that legacy to be described as?

[C]

I mean, I would say people look at us and think, you know, we've accomplished everything. I would say we're in, like, our second inning out of nine innings. We're just getting started. With us, it's about impact. It's not about how many doors we own. Crystal always likes to say it's about how many doors can we open for others to walk through. Right. How big of an impact can we have? So that's really. Our goal, is to marshal enough resources so that we can give massive amounts of resources away.

[D]

Yeah, I definitely would say, saying that I learned 10th grade, I read it somewhere on something, and it is literally been the whole basis of my existence. From 10th grade in high school all the way through, I've had it written on everything. All books, you name it is. You make a living by what you get. You make a life by what you give. And I've lived my life that way my entire life. And my mother tell people from 4 years old it's been what can I do for others? So I think for us that's what we try to embody. How can we be of service? How can we open a door for some other family, some other individual to be able to walk through to change the trajectory of their family tree? Because like I tell people, our children are going to be okay because we're going to teach them not only how to live in today's society, but get it out the mud if they got to all over again. Right? We're not raising those privileged children. They're going to learn how to get it out the mud just the same way we did as well as responsibility for what they have now. But also and more so to be a blessing is what we're teaching them to be a be a blessing means to be blessed and you are blessed. So it's more important for us to teach them how now to be a blessing to others.

[B]

Wow. I love that. I love that. You two are so awesome.

[D]

Thank you.

[C]

Thank you.

[B]

You are the epitome of good. You're the epitome of like who we all should strive to be. So just again, thank you for being who you are. Means the world to me to have you on the show. Where can people find and follow you?

[C]

Be polite. So be polite. Properties on Instagram, on YouTube. Also our website.com thing as well has all our information. Anyone who has questions about real estate, how to get into real estate, how to build wealth, feel free to reach out to us and our team and we'll be glad to help. And we appreciate you. Thank you for having us on Mick. And we got to do this again.

[D]

Make sure you guys go and watch the TV show season one two before we we hit you with a third one.

[B]

There it is. We will make sure we have links to all that in the show notes. I'm going to make sure weekly I'm promoting the show and when it comes on, I'm going to also promote the coaching program that you all have because I think that's amazing and it's honorable that you are mentors to to so many. So again, thank you from the bottom of my soul for all that you do.

[D]

Thank you for having us Ma.

[C]

We appreciate you.

[B]

You got it. For all the viewers and listeners, remember your because is your superpower. Go unleash it.

[A]

You've been plugged into MC Unplugged. Don't just listen. Take action, rate and subscribe Follow me on social and get the full [e-mail] keep building, keep leading, and most importantly, keep dominating.

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