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74: A Bike Crash Built His Empire - Jens Nielsen | Our Family InvestsJens Nielsen left Denmark at 23 with a backpack and no particular plan. After 27 years building a career in IT and telecom, a mountain biking accident in Colorado put him in the ICU and forced a question he'd been avoiding: what do you actually want? By 2020, he walked away from corporate for good. Today he's a general partner on over 2,000 apartment units valued at more than $250 million, a Certified High Performance Coach, and one of the more candid voices on what syndication really looks like when the tide goes out.Mike and Jens talk through the real story behind leaving a 27-year career mid-pandemic, why Jens stopped doing multifamily deals for over two years while most syndicators kept pushing, and what he's building instead in industrial and flex-space real estate.What You'll Learn:How a near-fatal crash compressed a 10-year exit plan into two yearsWhat changes inside you when you're investing other people's moneyWhy Jens walked away from multifamily and what he found in flex-space and industrialThe $80K broker commission surprise and how to hedge tenant risk during due diligenceWhat to look for in a syndicator before you commit as an LPHow high performance coaching helped him stop talking himself out of his own next moveSubscribe to The Weekly Compass, our free weekly newsletter with short practical tips for building wealth, aligning your family, and living intentionally: https://OurFamilyInvests.com/newsletter

What does it actually take to build a marriage that thrives? Lee Baucom has spent 30 years answering that question for thousands of couples, and he's been testing his answers inside his own 38-year marriage the whole time.Lee is a PhD, marriage coach, author of seven books, and host of the Save The Marriage Podcast and Thriveology Podcast. In this episode he breaks down the Pause Button Marriage, the three levels of connection every relationship needs, and what it genuinely looks like to move from surviving to thriving as a couple.He also shares the question his wife Kathy stopped him mid-argument with. Short, direct, and worth stealing.What You'll Learn• What the Pause Button Marriage is and why it sneaks up on couples with the best intentions• The three levels of connection (physical, emotional, spiritual) and how to rebuild them• Why "you and me" becomes "you vs. me" and how to build a real "we"• The difference between understanding your spouse and agreeing with them• How to lead with your values instead of your emotions in conflict• What a genuinely thriving marriage actually looks likeSubscribe to The Weekly Compass, our free weekly newsletter with short practical tips for building wealth, aligning your family, and living intentionally: https://OurFamilyInvests.com/newsletter

Jeffrey Holst hasn't had a bad day since he was 17. Not through leukemia. Not through personal bankruptcy. Not through a divorce he didn't see coming. If that sounds like a bumper sticker, this episode will change your mind.Jeff is an entrepreneur, real estate investor, and author of No Bad Days. He went from negative net worth to financially retired in six and a half years, has visited all seven continents, climbed Kilimanjaro, and built a life most people only postpone. He did it through a framework he calls the Extraordinary Life Formula, and in this conversation he breaks it down from the ground up.We cover the night he was 17 with a knife in his hand and made a decision that changed everything, what happened when he nearly broke his 30-year streak while packing suitcases in Puerto Rico, and why he says the bankruptcy hit harder than the cancer diagnosis.What You'll Learn:The real origin of "no bad days" and why it has nothing to do with toxic positivityHow Jeff rebuilt from negative net worth to retired in 6.5 yearsThe Extraordinary Life Formula: EXT + RA + ordinaryThe "Morocco Moment" filter for saying yes before you're readyWhy integrity is alignment between thought, word, and actionHow to start living more intentionally without blowing up your lifeSubscribe to The Weekly Compass, our free weekly newsletter with short practical tips for building wealth, aligning your family, and living intentionally: https://OurFamilyInvests.com/newsletter

Susan Obrant is a Grammy-nominated illustrator, fine artist, and creator of wearable crochet sculptures so original they're unreproducible even by her. She built her career as a single mother, showed in galleries and museums, and dressed a New York City dance company. Through it all, including the years her husband Robert's Alzheimer's has quietly progressed, she hasn't stopped creating.Every morning she carries cappuccino up two flights of stairs to Robert. He used to make it for her. That ritual says everything about what this episode is really about: what commitment looks like when circumstances change and love doesn't.What you'll learn:Why Susan never stopped creating even as Robert's Alzheimer's progressedHow a single crochet stitch at age 8 became a decades-long creative legacyWhat it means to have a partner who believes in your work more than you doHow to stay focused on building when caregiving demands everything elseThe one word Susan says is the foundation of everything she has ever createdSubscribe to The Weekly Compass, our free weekly newsletter with short practical tips for building wealth, aligning your family, and living intentionally: https://OurFamilyInvests.com/newsletter

Functional medicine practitioner Ryan Kennedy breaks down the real reasons behind brain fog, chronic fatigue, and poor sleep and what you can actually do about them. This episode covers the gap between a standard 30-marker blood panel and the 120+ markers that reveal what's really going on in your body, plus why some of your "healthy" foods might be working against you.Ryan explains how stress, gut health, meal timing, and your breathing mechanics are all connected, and why the biggest needle movers are usually simpler than people expect. He also gets into breathwork as a nervous system reset, the truth about longevity supplements, and what it means to show up fully as a parent and partner when your own tank is running low.What You'll Learn:Why your annual blood panel is missing the markers that matter mostThe root causes of brain fog and fatigue that have nothing to do with agingHow meal timing and sleep environment affect your recovery more than most supplementsWhy kale, spinach, and kombucha may not belong on your superfood listThe breathwork technique that calms your nervous system in under three minutesHow to track your sleep data and actually use it to change your habitsSubscribe to The Weekly Compass, our free weekly newsletter with short practical tips for building wealth, aligning your family, and living intentionally: https://OurFamilyInvests.com/newsletter

Jay Papasan co-authored one of the best-selling business books of the last decade. Wendy leads one of Austin's top real estate teams and co-founded Her Best Life. Together they have 18 rental properties, six businesses, and 26 years of building wealth as a couple.It started with a net worth of $2,200, including a Toyota Tercel. Six and a half years later, they crossed the millionaire threshold. This episode is the honest story of how they did it: tracking the number that matters, staying aligned across multiple businesses, surviving 2008 with their conviction intact, and the one mistake Jay says most couples make when they think they're building wealth together.They also get into Wendy's take on why women stepping out of the workforce is one of the most underestimated financial decisions a couple can make, and why Jay, at this stage of life, is deliberately re-engineering his friendships from scratch.What You'll Learn:How a $2,200 net worth became the starting line, not an obstacleThe ONE Thing framework applied to marriage, time, and investingWhy most couples building wealth together are more siloed than they realizeWhat Wendy would tell women about earning, stepping back, and financial independenceHow Jay and Wendy stayed aligned across 18 rentals and six businessesJay's "missing persons report" for re-engineering community on purposeSubscribe to The Weekly Compass, our free weekly newsletter with short practical tips for building wealth, aligning your family, and living intentionally: https://OurFamilyInvests.com/newsletterWatch on YouTube: https://youtu.be/G57N6ERMdjo

Bob Andersen woke up from a car accident with five dollars in his bank account and spent the next 40 years building over $1.3 billion in completed property developments. Hilary Saxton raised her kids alone, renovated her way out of survival mode, and eventually built a mentoring program that helps everyday people step into property development from wherever they are starting. They met on a plane, argued over a taxi, and built a life and a business so integrated they can't always tell where one ends and the other begins.This is a conversation about property development, partnership, and what it actually looks like to build something real together. No prerequisites required. Their oldest active mentoring student is 85 and currently running three deals at once.What You Will LearnWhy Bob believes property development is open to anyone regardless of background or starting capitalHow a car accident with $5 left in the bank became the catalyst for a 40-year careerWhat Hilary brought into the business that Bob's operation was missing and why the combination worksHow they structure their intentionally small 20-client mentoring program and what unlimited access really meansThe common thread Bob and Hilary see in every student who succeedsWhat Bob would tell his younger self about moving at a thousand miles an hour with no time to breatheSubscribe to The Weekly Compass our free weekly newsletter with short practical tips for building wealth, aligning your family and living intentionally: https://OurFamilyInvests.com/newsletter

Rob and Alexia Hoffman built an 80-door rental portfolio in four years, including a converted elementary school turned into 10 apartments and a 13-bedroom fraternity house that cashflows better than most conventional rentals. They had four daughters in 30 months. And somewhere in the middle of building all of it, their marriage hit rock bottom.This episode is an honest conversation about what happens when ambitious couples build so fast that alignment gets left behind, and what it actually takes to find your way back without burning down everything you have built together.Rob and Alexia talk about the moment their marriage broke open, the decision to briefly separate, and the deliberate choices they made to rebuild, not just the relationship, but the entire structure of their life and businesses around what actually matters. They also get into the real estate strategy most investors overlook: student housing, fraternity properties, and small-town multifamily deals hiding in plain sight.If you and your partner are building hard and starting to feel like you are doing it in separate lanes, this one is for you.💡 What You Will LearnWhy success quietly erodes alignment before most couples realize it is happeningThe 8-to-4 rule Rob and Alexia use to protect family time across five businessesHow Alexia cut her workweek from 60 hours to under 10 without losing revenueWhy fraternity houses and student housing outperform conventional rentalsHow to delegate and build systems so your business runs without you at the centerWhat it looks like to move your family across the country on pure faith with four kids under fourGet the Weekly Compass, our free newsletter for couples looking to grow boldly, stay aligned and live intentionally at OurFamilyInvests.com/newsletter

Ben Gottfredson started with a pickup truck and a trailer in St. George, Utah. Less than a decade later, Big Storage Ventures manages 15 self-storage facilities across the Mountain West and Southeast, and Big Ben's Moving has scaled into a regional fleet operation. The business is real. So was every rejection, depleted savings account, and moment of not knowing what came next.But this episode isn't really about storage. It's about what it costs to build something this big while keeping your family, your faith, and your marriage intact. Lauren, a former college basketball player and entrepreneur who built her own healthy cookie business, made the deliberate choice to anchor the home when the growth demanded it. That tension is honest and worth hearing.There's a moment in this conversation, out on a boat at Lake Powell, when Lauren asked Ben a question every couple building something will eventually face: when is enough enough? His answer, and how she responded to it, is one of the most grounded exchanges we've had on this show.What You'll Learn:How Ben scaled from one moving truck to 15 storage facilities in under a decadeWhy staying in your lane, not diversifying, drove the exponential growthWhat questions every passive investor should ask before writing a check to a syndicatorHow Ben and Lauren navigated a two-year breakup, a spot proposal, and building a business togetherWhy massive imperfect action beats waiting for the perfect planHow they keep family and faith centered in a business that's still scaling fastGet the Weekly Compass, our free newsletter for couples building wealth and a life worth showing up for: https://OurFamilyInvests.com/newsletter

What does it actually take to build wealth without sacrificing your marriage, family, or peace of mind?In this episode of the Our Family Invests Podcast, Mike and Caroline Neubauer sit down with Robert Fukui and Kay Lee Fukui, founders of Thriving in Tandem and advisors to married entrepreneurs who want to grow their business without destroying their relationships.Robert spent 25 years launching major brands with companies like Coca-Cola, Novartis, and Bristol-Myers Squibb before a life-changing event forced him to rethink everything he believed about success, money, and ambition. Together, Robert and Kay Lee now help entrepreneur couples and married business owners scale their companies while protecting the most important asset they have: their marriage.They call it the Lazy Millionaire Strategy, a philosophy built around simplicity, long-term investing, disciplined systems, and building wealth without hustle culture or burnout.In this conversation we explore:• Why hustle culture quietly destroys many entrepreneur marriages• The Lazy Millionaire mindset and how it applies to business and investing• How married entrepreneurs can grow a business without losing family alignment• The role of passive income, long-term investing, and financial discipline in building wealth• Why automation, delegation, and simplifying your business can unlock growth• Weekly rhythms and boundaries that protect both business and marriageIf you are building a business, investing for financial freedom, or navigating entrepreneurship as a couple, this episode will challenge how you think about success.You’ll walk away with practical insights on business systems, wealth building, marriage alignment, and long-term thinking.Learn more and explore free resources at:OurFamilyInvests.comJoin the free Weekly Compass Newsletter for insights on investing, family alignment, and building long-term wealth:OurFamilyInvests.comFollow Our Family Invests on Instagram:@OurFamilyInvests