Parents Reach Financial Freedom and Buy... a Bus!?! | Lexie & Jeff Bodenmuller (Ep 155)

Summary

The BetterLife Podcast

Episode 155: Parents Reach Financial Freedom and Buy... a Bus!?! | Lexie & Jeff Bodenmuller
Hosts: Brandon Turner & Cam Cathcart
Guests: Lexie & Jeff Bodenmuller
Date: June 10, 2025

---

Episode Theme Overview

This episode is a deep dive into the journey of Lexie and Jeff Bodenmuller—a married couple who achieved financial freedom through real estate diversification, overcame life and health challenges, and discovered new meaning and purpose as both investors and mentors. Their story explores creative Airbnb projects (including their famous "beach bus"), scaling into self-storage, raising private capital, working together as a couple, and the power of accountability, faith, and community. The episode is brimming with practical insights and personal moments for anyone seeking a ‘better life’ through intentional lifestyle and investing.

---

Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. The Airbnb Beach Bus: Unique Stays for Financial Freedom

[01:03-07:35]

• The Bodenmullers bought and converted a bus into a unique, high-performing Airbnb near the beach in Sarasota, Florida.
• Lexie negotiated the bus (originally listed at $19,000) down to $15,000, invested another $5,000 in renovations (plumbing, solar, king bed, “jungle” landscaping), and started renting it at $150/night.
• Financial Performance: Since launch, the bus has generated $11,000, making it an exceptional cash-on-cash return (“the 20% rule,” joked Brandon).
• Key Takeaway: Unique, experience-driven Airbnb stays outperform “boring” properties, especially as traditional rentals face market saturation.

  “People are paying for experiences ... You can’t get that Instagram picture at the Marriott.” — Brandon Turner [06:05] “The experience ... is the win. The monetary is great, but hearing the feedback from families, that’s the win.” — Jeff [06:35]

2. Their Backstory: Family, Small-Town Roots, and Grit

[08:10-18:32]

• Both Lexie and Jeff grew up in rural California ("Calabama"), crediting strong work ethic to their parents—a German father with a quiet example for Jeff, and a loving, resilient Christian family for Lexie.
• Lexie’s brush with death (drowning at 22 months and again at 12, each time miraculously saved) played a profound role, instilling gratitude and a sense of divine purpose.

  “If anybody needs their life turned around, throw me in the water!” — Lexie [18:32]

3. From Struggles to Real Estate

[19:15-41:02]

• Lexie’s dad inspired her (and gave her “Rich Dad, Poor Dad” at 17), fueling her early passion for real estate. At 18, she bought her first rental for $28,500, ultimately gaining financial skills before meeting Jeff.
• Jeff, formerly a UPS worker and lifelong law enforcement hopeful, faced setbacks (multiple collapsed lungs and a long, winding journey to becoming, then leaving, the Highway Patrol due to PTSD).

  “I had a friend that shot himself… You don’t want to give up your badge and gun because you worked so hard for it.” — Jeff [39:15]

4. Overcoming Adversity Together

[41:02-47:24]

• The couple lost income and medical benefits for 18 months due to Jeff’s job loss and Lexie’s rheumatoid arthritis, relying on their small rental portfolio’s $1,500/month cash flow to survive.
• Lexie emphasizes the importance of reserves (“don’t run yourself so thin”) and having a strong support system.
• Despite hardship (snowy, DIY rehabs, even a meth-fueled helper destroying their truck), perseverance paid dividends, ultimately winning their benefit case and granting Jeff half his pension.

  “We just kept our nose to the grindstone, and then little things paid off…” — Jeff [46:53]

5. Strategic Relocation: Why Florida?

[47:24-50:13]

• Friends, hurricane adventures, and Lexie’s health all informed a move—Lexie’s autoimmune symptoms drastically improved with Florida’s warmth/humidity.

  “I felt so much better... I’ve stopped taking both medications.” — Lexie [48:56]

6. Scaling Up: Going Bigger with Storage

[53:41-63:29]

• Entry into the Better Life Tribe (Brandon’s community) was the catalyst for scaling. Jeff and Lexie leveraged tribe connections, mentorship, and goal-setting to look beyond “just cashflow houses” and into self-storage.
• A chance connection led them to a storage portfolio (three of four facilities, seller-financed at 4%). Conservative pro formas and honest investor relations helped secure private capital.

  “If we fully commit to this, we’ll be the guinea pigs... and prove it works.” — Lexie [57:54]

7. Lessons in Raising Private Capital

[65:45-67:41]

• Key advice: Build trust and relationships, and have the deal ready before seeking investors.
• Only work with people you know personally—align values and integrity.

8. The Power of Community & Coaching

[63:29-72:06]

• The Better Life Tribe provided not only education, but also a “colander” filtering for high-integrity, giving, and experienced investors as peers and accountability partners.
• Both Lexie and Jeff are now accountability coaches in the tribe, focusing not on giving step-by-step education, but on helping people set and execute on their goals.

  “You don’t need more education… What they need is to take action.” — Brandon [72:06] “If you do that, the outcome is there, because we did it.” — Jeff [73:48] “Comparison is the thief of joy.”— Brandon [71:09]

---

Notable Quotes / Memorable Moments

• “People are paying for experiences... You can’t get that Instagram picture at the Marriott.”
  — Brandon Turner [06:05]

• “If anybody needs their life turned around, throw me in the water!”
  — Lexie [18:32]

• “It took him 15, 16 years. So don’t give up.”
  — Lexie, on getting your spouse on board [87:40]

• “You don’t need more education, you need to take action.”
  — Brandon [72:06]

• “If we fully commit... We’ll be the guinea pigs, and prove it works.”
  — Lexie [57:54]

---

Noteworthy Segments & Timestamps

01:03-07:35 — The Airbnb Beach Bus Story & the Unique Airbnb Advantage
19:15-21:58 — Lexie’s Early Real Estate Lessons: Rich Dad, First Rental at 18
22:59-33:59 — Jeff’s Path: UPS, Law Enforcement, Medical & Emotional Struggles
41:02-46:53 — Living Off Rentals During Hardship, Lawsuit Victory
53:41-56:03 — Scaling Up Mindset: Tribe Influence & Setting Big Goals
59:00-61:36 — Finding & Negotiating the Self-Storage Portfolio
65:45-67:41 — Private Capital: It's About Relationships & Integrity
79:47-99:01 — Working as Spouses: The "SPOUSE" Acronym for Marital & Business Success
102:45-104:19 — Three Books, Two People, One Quote (“Be still and know that I am God.”)

---

Working Together as a Couple: The "SPOUSE" Framework

[89:22-101:36]

1. Set Goals Together – “If you’re not in agreement, you’re working against each other.”
2. Plan, Prepare & Pray – Vision, strategy, shared values, spiritual connection.
3. Open Communication – Directness, understand personality styles, intentional listening.
4. Understand Each Other – Context; know intentions behind words/actions.
5. Strategize for Success/Sex – Plan for intimacy and victory; don’t become just business partners.
6. Execute Efficiently – Delegate, play to strengths, set pride aside.

---

Book, People & Wisdom Recommendations

Three Life-Changing Books ([102:45])

• Rich Dad, Poor Dad by Robert Kiyosaki
• The 4-Hour Workweek by Tim Ferriss
• Man’s Search for Meaning by Viktor Frankl

Two Pivot People

• Each other (“pivot before Jeff me, after Jeff me” — Lexie)
• Lexie’s father (showed real estate and courage)
• Ben Humble for mission-driven perspective (“give a hand up, not a handout”)

One Quote

• “Be still and know that I am God.” — Psalm 46:10

  “We get so caught up in the hustle and bustle… Just take a moment.” — Jeff

---

Personal & Relationship Growth Practices

• Resilience through faith, gratitude, and community.
• Take action, don’t just acquire knowledge.
• Find your tribe: Peer group is everything.
• Work on yourself—the mountain you must conquer is yourself.

  “It’s not the mountain we conquer, but ourselves.” — Sir Edmund Hillary [108:21]

---

Charity Partner

• Donation from episode sponsors will go to a well-drilling ministry in India—just $1,500 maintains a village well for 10 years, supporting hundreds of lives.

  “It’s life-changing.” — Lexie [51:44]

---

Closing Reflections

• Legacy: Generational wealth, but more importantly, generational skills and core values.
• Actionable Habits: Early rising, coaching/giving back, prioritizing quality time and generational influence.
• Exciting Next Steps: Launching a campfire mastermind for families (Better Life Tribe event); ongoing scaling in self-storage and new ventures like PadSplit.
• Find Them: @jeffandlexi on Instagram, BowdenMuellerProperties.com

---

This episode is a testament to resilience, intentional living, and the powerful intersection of real estate, relationships, and legacy. Whether it’s your first rental, a creative Airbnb, or 60+ unit storage portfolios, the message is both simple and profound: It’s about action, purpose, and community.

---

Top Quotes Recap:

• “You get the results of what you repeatedly do.” — Brandon Turner [78:41]
• “You can do anything. You get to set the limits for yourself.” — Lexie [108:21]
• “Marriage is amazing… but only if you put in the work every single day.” — Jeff [85:43]

Transcript

[A]

This is the Better Life podcast where we talk about real estate investing, building wealth, and all in all, living a better life. My name is Brendan Turner and I've spent my life investing in real estate to achieve financial freedom. And alongside My co host, Mr. Cam Cathcart, we want to help you do the same. On the show, you're going to hear from world class guests who have been handpicked to help you level up your investing, your leadership, your goals, your habits and more to become the very best version of yourself. So join us as we explore the habits, the actions, the beliefs that it takes to build wealth through real estate investing without losing your soul. Lexi and Jeff Bodenmuller. Yes, I do. Bowden Mueller.

[B]

Yes.

[A]

Boden Mueller.

[B]

Bowden Mueller.

[A]

Bowden Mueller.

[C]

Nailed it.

[A]

I've seen your name online probably every day for the past, like three years, maybe two years. And I have always wondered how to say that last name. And I've never asked you until about five minutes before recording this episode.

[B]

Well done.

[A]

Thank you. We'll talk about more later, everybody. Why? I see their name online all the time. They're pretty involved in my life in a lot of ways with Better Life. But we'll get to that later. First, I want to ask a question. The beach bus.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

Do you have an Airbnb bus? Tell us about the Airbnb bus, then we'll get into your story.

[B]

But I want to know about that. Dude, that's pretty crazy because. Yeah, let's see. That started out moving to Florida, bought some property up there and we had a trailer, a 40 foot, 40 foot. Some toy hauler. And funny story with that was my wife's like, we need to sell it. It's not that cool. We wanted to Airbnb a trailer.

[C]

And I'm like, it was not cool.

[B]

No. Yeah, whatever. So anyway, I thought it was cool. Anyway, we. We did sell it and I was bad. I was bummed and I was super sad. Then she starts bringing up all these buses on Facebook. She's like, check out this bus. Check out this bus.

[C]

And I'm like, I'd already found the bus.

[A]

Just like teasing it, like, hey, yeah.

[B]

That'S the hidden story.

[C]

I was like, there we go.

[B]

Little hints, like, sneaky women.

[A]

Yeah, sneaky, sneaky, sneaky.

[B]

So anyway, so we ended up buying. We found this bus. These kids had it just down the road from us in Sarasota, and we bought it from them and we, they had it partially done and they actually took it and did stuff with it. But it had like a Self composting toilet and all this stuff that wasn't really cool for Airbnb. And so we took it and then we had a friend help us and we converted the rest of it, painted it, made it super cool. And I have an excavator, so I cleared an area on the property because there's all these palmettos and everything out there and it's like parked kind of in like this jungle and it just, it just looks super cool. So we put up a fence and there's all this like privacy and stuff out there. And we just started Airbnb it and we had a friend from church staying in it for a while and he needed a place to stay, so we put him in it. But then just recently he moved out and it's been going absolutely crazy.

[C]

Five minutes from a really nice beach, so that helps.

[A]

So people stay at the bus.

[C]

So it's.

[A]

And they just book it on Airbnb.

[B]

Yeah, yeah.

[A]

What do. What do nightly rates go for a bus that you rent? An Airbnb.

[B]

Right now? We're like 150 a night. Really?

[C]

Yeah.

[B]

For a bus? Yeah.

[D]

Is it on your property?

[B]

Yeah.

[C]

Yep.

[B]

Yeah, that's on our property.

[C]

It's got acre and a half.

[A]

I walk us through the numbers. Then like, how does. Like, what's the matter? I mean, what you buy it for? What do you like, what's it bring in a month?

[C]

Yeah. So we. I'm. I'm not a negotiator. Like, I feel bad chewing people down. Like. But. So I saw it on Facebook. It had been on there forever and they wanted like 19 for it. And I'm like, we had just sold the. So I saw it, then we saw the trailer. And I'm like, this is. Honestly, all we have is 15 cash. Like, promise I'm not trying to chew down. I don't want you to be offended. And they're like, we'll take it. So we're like, sweet shit.

[A]

Option 12.

[B]

That's my thoughts.

[C]

Your AC in your Suburban. So, so anyway, we get it for 15 and then we put another five.

[B]

Yeah, five into the bus and like the. Around there.

[D]

Into it for 20.

[C]

Yeah.

[D]

And then cleared. But does it. Like, what about the toilet, the shower? Like, is it all.

[B]

It's all plumbed.

[C]

Everything's in there. It's self contained and it has solar.

[B]

Like, and then it runs. So the tanks drain. They go into a septic tank and all that stuff. So it's got power. Yeah, yeah. We plumbed in all that stuff.

[C]

So The. And this young couple that did it, they put the whole story on Instagram.

[B]

Oh, that was so cool.

[C]

So we could see that it was done right. Because the school buses, they hose them out.

[B]

Yeah. Like with the kids. Cause kids are nasty.

[C]

Like, to clean them, they just hose them out. So if you don't, like, people come in, rip out the seats and then just throw LVP over. You can't do that. So they had ripped out everything. All the plywood he with like a hand grinder ground on the frame.

[B]

Yeah, yeah.

[C]

They showed it all. So we were like, this is done. We know this is good.

[B]

So the bones were good.

[C]

Yeah, yeah.

[B]

And from there we just. We added the tanks and. Or he had one tank. We added the black water tank and all that stuff. And then there's a king sized bed in the back and all that. And it's got like a regular shower, which she did the tiling in the.

[C]

Shower that wasn't finished. So we did that.

[B]

It's so cool.

[D]

How can people find this on Airbnb?

[B]

Just. Yeah, just beach bus. Airbnb is the title. Yeah.

[C]

Yeah. We're in. Yeah.

[B]

Super cool.

[A]

So how many nights a month typically, do you think it'll be rent or has it been rented?

[C]

Oh, well, as soon as. So our friend moved out early and we put it on Airbnb the next day at a booking. And it's been. It's been, you know, like, so. So we just looked yesterday and it's. It was, like I said, finished right before hurricane season. Excellent timing. And then we got slammed this year.

[B]

Yeah.

[C]

So since it's been open, we've made 11,000, honestly. So that was really. Since September.

[B]

Wow. Yeah.

[A]

But we did have several thousand a month on something. You spent 20 grand?

[B]

Yeah.

[C]

Yeah.

[A]

You know, there's like the 1% rule and the 2% rule. You guys have like the 20 rule.

[B]

It's crazy.

[C]

And I told him that. He's like, we need to get more buses.

[B]

Yeah, that's my next big thing is I'm like, we.

[A]

She.

[B]

Would you call the bus stop the bus stop or the bus yard? And we're just gonna have a bunch of buses. And like the.

[A]

The thing that the. The point to illustrate here though is, like, normal Airbnb is not doing well nationwide right now. Like, if you have a boring Airbnb, you're not good. You're just a lot of people struggling. But everybody I know that has a super unique Airbnb are doing well. People are paying for experiences. But when you go stay In a normal, like just kind of crappy house. And you're paying more than you would at the Marriott. Like, people are going back to the Marriott, but you can't get that, that Instagram picture on at the Marriott. So people stay for the Instagram picture and experience the memory, the story.

[B]

Yeah. And that's the big thing is like creating an experience. Right. And you're totally right with that. Like, the, the hotels were. They're coming back and they're starting to take this back on and then the Airbnbs are starting to go away. But the ones that do have an experience or even again, like, are in good areas, help. But like, the experience, I feel is key. And like with us, with our Airbnbs, that's the way when we set out to do it, we were like, we just want to make it. Like, we want people to give us reviews, but we want to read the reviews. And they're like, oh, my gosh, we had such a good time just playing board games or doing things with our kids or we got to play on this thing. Or the bus was so fun. The experience, you know, like, it's. If we can pour to the lives of families and, and the monetary thing is great, but like getting that from. From families and hearing the feedback from them and just time they had with their children, that's the win. I really feel like that's super cool.

[C]

And you're dead on too, because the second best performer is. It's a tiny house.

[B]

Oh, yeah.

[C]

So.

[B]

Oh, yeah, totally.

[C]

And it's like our daughter painted a section of the fence. It's like this awesome mural.

[B]

Oh.

[C]

You know, like, just unique. That's different. Yeah, yeah.

[B]

Good stuff.

[A]

Well, let's fill it. Let's fill in the missing story so far. So I know you two as members of the Better Life tribe since the beginning. I know you as now coaching. You're helping like actually hold people accountable in the tribe, which is awesome. I know you as real estate investors who do short term rentals, you have long term rentals, you've got a bus, Airbnb, you've got a self storage facility. I want to talk about that later. And kind of the, the challenges in trying to scale and what you did and how to get there. But walk us through way before all that, like, if that's who you are today. Who was Lexi and Jeff Bowden Mueller.

[B]

Wow. Do I go?

[C]

Yeah, yeah, go.

[B]

All right, I'll go, I'll go. So, yeah. I grew up in a small town of Angels camp in California. I Grew up on, on a ranch. My, my dad's from Germany, so he came over here. He's 87.

[A]

How old are you?

[B]

I'm, I'm 45.

[A]

Really? Yeah, you look, you're good.

[D]

When you said you had a 24.

[A]

Year old, I was like, I was a little shocked. You looked like 31.

[B]

Like. Oh, really?

[A]

Yeah, 31. So you're doing something right?

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

Older than me.

[B]

That's great. Oh, stop. Yeah, no, I, I, yeah, that. Anyway, but so, yeah, my dad, 87 years old, still around. He's got dementia now, but he's, he's still doing awesome. And he, he just taught us, my brother and I at a young age. Like, just like through. Not like a lot of words being German, my dad just very like stoic. Right. So it's like, you did good. That's all you get. You don't get much more than that. You know, there wasn't like. But by his actions and how he led is really what influenced me. And I didn't know that at the time as a kid growing up, but as I got older, I started to realize, like, wow, man, I'm so much. Matter of fact, that Snapchat thing, My daughter and I were playing on the plane one time as we were bored and. And it like, you know, you put it up your face and it'll like make you older or something. Yeah.

[D]

Are you, Is it too much like your dad?

[B]

It was exactly, exactly like my dad. I'm like, that is weird because he has a mustache too. And it just was weird. So anyway, just how much my dad's poured into my life as a kid quietly has been amazing. My mom as well. And I have a brother, he's older than me. He's what, 5, 48 or something? 49. He's good guy. He's got wonderful kids and stuff like that. But yeah, we just grew up like everything on the, on the ranch, you know, we had cows, chickens, pigs, goats, you name it, we had all that stuff. My mom like pretty much made our clothes for us. Like, we were those kids, you know. And it's weird. Like, I go to school and I'm like, I want to have a stussy shirt. Like, that didn't happen because my mom's like, well, I can make you one. I'm like, that's not cool, mom. Anyway, so that's just growing up like that out in the country. Lived out along dirt road and all that. So later on, my wife and she didn't live too far from me, so we Met. Yeah.

[A]

Where's me?

[C]

Yeah, through mutual friend.

[B]

Yeah.

[C]

Funny, funny story.

[B]

Oh, please.

[C]

So we had a mutual friend. He knew their family. And then he met my dad working on one of the fires. So he's like, oh, yeah. Trying to get me together with his brother.

[B]

So my brother was trying to date. And at the time. I should say that too, at the time, I was going through divorce.

[C]

Yeah.

[B]

With my ex wife. And at that time, I had my daughter. And my daughter was just turned three. Yeah. Just turned three years old. So I. We live down in la and I moved back up to, let's say, with my parents during that whole situation and working and all this stuff. And then she kind of walks into my life.

[C]

Yeah. And it was so weird. His mom's like, you shouldn't be dating Franz, you should be dating Jeff. And I'm like, hey, weird lady. Like, nice to meet you.

[A]

Did you fight? Did you fight your brother for her?

[B]

No.

[C]

Yeah, they got on horses. Yeah.

[B]

No. Yeah, I just pretty much stole her. I'm like, yeah, so, yeah, she's mine now. Mine now. No.

[C]

Yeah, no, it was more like, nah, you know, you're cool. But like, we're way too similar.

[A]

Yeah.

[C]

We're both like, super chill.

[B]

Yeah. So he's got a good wife now, but mine's better. Yeah.

[C]

Thank you.

[B]

Sorry.

[A]

What about you? Like, your background? Where'd you come from?

[C]

Yeah. So if you can believe it, even more rural than Jeff.

[B]

That's debatable.

[C]

Wait, we, like, people don't understand. They think California, you live on the beach, you surf, but there's California girls.

[A]

Undeniable.

[B]

Oh, yeah. All day.

[C]

So now, like, where was I going? So the country, right? Yeah. Yeah. So there's actually like a part of California we've, you know, lovingly dubbed Calabama. It's like the Vatican to Italy.

[B]

So that's a good one. I like.

[C]

Yeah. So we're. It was rural. Like, we lived down, like, Until I was 28, we lived down a mile and a half or longer, dirt or gravel road.

[A]

Wow.

[C]

Yeah.

[B]

Yeah.

[C]

So we were. We were out there. So growing up, I went to, like a tiny private Christian school. But what led to that really is when I was 22 months old, we were. My dad had saved and bought the property, you know, before you have the family like, you do, and there's a single wide on it. Well, we were moving up in the world, so we were moving from the single wide to the double wide.

[A]

Ooh, yeah. Moving up.

[C]

Yeah, yeah. So we're. Yeah. So I've always been, you know, wealthy.

[B]

Wealth to do.

[C]

So all the power's cut, phone's cut, and my mom's finishing up packing stuff. She had me, I was 22 months. And then she had my baby sister who's three months. She's packing up stuff. And then she's like, huh, Where's Lexi? So she goes outside looking for me. Walks outside and it's quiet. And she starts walking down. She sees the two black labs, just like statues staring out at the pond.

[A]

Oh, geez.

[C]

And then she says, then she looks out and she just saw like the top of my diaper sticking out of the water.

[B]

Whoa.

[C]

So it was super cold, you know, it was March. And she just runs into the water and drags me out. And she said, she looks down, she's, you're not breathing. Totally blue. Well, then she's like, now I have this decision to make. I have my 3 month old baby, no phone, no car, and then closest neighbor's a mile away. So she just starts running with me. So she said, I'm like trying to. I'm running, I'm patting you on the back. And I'm just like, you know, like, my baby's dead. She thinks so she's like, I, not a Christian, just like cry out to God, like, if you'll save her, then like, I dedicate her to you. Just like, please let her live. So she runs to the first neighbor. Nobody's there, so she has to run to the next neighbor. So she gets their calls. Ambulance, you know, flies down and they wouldn't let her on the ambulance to go to the hospital with me. Because you're like, this kid's dead. Like, yeah. You know, and she's. Then she's like, wait, I gotta run back to the house and get my 3 month old baby that I just left all by herself. So she, you know, neighbor runs her back and I go to the hospital. And when they get there, the doctor meets her and is like, hey. Like, there's almost no chance of her living, like, but if she does, by some miracle live, then she'll be a total vegetable. So fast forward. I lived.

[A]

Surprise.

[C]

So I was in ICU for six days. You know, obviously, like some residual, like, you know, double pneumonia, chronic bronchitis as a kid, all those issues. But everybody in the hospital's like, called me the miracle baby.

[B]

Wow.

[C]

So then after my mom takes me home, she, you know, good on her promise and she just starts going to church with me and my sister and. Yeah. And praying for my dad and eventually Even that wild man ended up in church.

[B]

Yeah, that's pretty amazing.

[C]

So then we just lived kind of pretty quiet.

[B]

But the miracle of that too is where you went from there. Like the next thing, your next drowning incident was another miracle.

[C]

Like keep me away from water?

[B]

No, that was, that's a huge deal.

[A]

You almost drowned again.

[C]

Yeah. So when I was 12, yeah, we, we go to visit my grandma in San Diego, go to the beach with friends. They, they lived in south Southern California too. So there's six of us kids. My mom goes with her mom and we stayed with our friend's mom. So we're out playing in the water, everything's awesome. And then this, our six year old friend, he is like, man, he keeps going further and further and I'm like, get back here, get back here. He's not listening. So then all of a sudden he starts screaming and I thought, oh, okay. He can't touch. So I go out, I'm like, I'll just help him and pull him back. No rip current is what was going on. So it just sucked me out past the jetty. I'm like panicked and I'm just remember, face down. And of course the water's not like it is here. Yeah, I'm like, shark going to bite my feet before I drown. Like, oh no. So then it's just dark and I'm just trying to swim and thinking I'm going to die. And all of a sudden somebody grabs my arm and then just like pull. And it's like it was so long that I felt like I was under. But then it happened so quick. Pulls me out of the water and we get back to the jetty and walk back. Well, it was just this 21 year old local surfer that he said, I went down to the beach for one last time because I was gonna kill myself that day.

[B]

Wow.

[C]

Yeah. And so he says, then I look up and I'm like, oh my gosh, there's a kid drowning. So then he just went out and obviously, you know, totally turned his life around. So if anybody needs their life turned around, throw me the water.

[A]

You got this.

[B]

Big things happen. Yeah.

[D]

Do you, do you ever get scared of your pool?

[A]

About the kids going? Yeah, for sure.

[B]

Yeah. As, as.

[A]

I mean that's why we put them in swimming lessons early. But now as we have Gilly, now who's our three month old, so we're planning to put up the glass around.

[B]

Are you gonna do that? Yeah.

[A]

And at your house? My house. Now at your house we had two gates, one the top one at the bottom to try to make sure the kids don't get down there. Yeah. Scary proposal.

[D]

It is. And Cade's wild.

[A]

Cade is wild. Maybe more worried about him crying over the edge and jumping off.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

All right, let's go. Let's go to your real estate real quick. Who, who first got excited about real estate? Who was the impetus there?

[C]

By far, I got excited first.

[A]

Okay, where'd that come from?

[C]

So when I was 15, my dad, we lived, you know, in California. He. He went up to Oregon to go and look at buying a different ranch. So Wally's up there, he's in the. The office looking at properties, and he's like, what you wait, how much your rent's here? How much your house is here? Because it was crazy cheap. And then he's like, what you mean? Like, I can make money off of this. So then him and a close friend of his started buying single family homes. So. And then his friend gives him rich dad, poor dad, of course. Right?

[B]

Yeah.

[C]

So then at 17, he gives it to me and he goes, you need to read this. So I'm like, awesome. So I read it and it's like, whoa, light bulb. So I was just saving my money, working, and one night I'm in the kitchen and my dad went up to Oregon without my mom. And he comes back and he's like, basically he had figured out a loophole in the whole four loan maximum. And he was like, if I can close these 11 houses in one weekend, they won't even know it. It'll be all done. My mom was so upset. So I'm sitting in the kitchen and they're arguing about this, and I was just like, well, can I buy one of them? And my dad. And that's where I get like my elevens from. Like, I tried an offer him, but he looks over, how much money do you have? And then I told him and I was like, yeah, I got like six grand saved up. Yeah.

[A]

Yeah.

[C]

So you can't afford one of these houses. And that was. Yeah, how it started.

[D]

So you bought your first house at 17?

[C]

At 18.

[B]

18.

[A]

That's.

[C]

I was saving my money for a year. Yeah.

[D]

Do you still have that one? To this day.

[C]

So that one we just sold last year.

[B]

Really? Yeah.

[C]

And it was super weird because, like, I feel like part of the real estate thing is you cannot have an emotional attachment, you know, especially with live in flips. I feel like, oh, all my blood, sweat and tears.

[B]

Yeah.

[C]

And then. So that one was kind of interesting though, because you Know, I'm like, oh, I am attached to this little.

[D]

You know, I don't think I could ever sell my first rental.

[C]

Yeah.

[D]

Even if it doesn't perform somebody Well, I would for the right number, but there's such an emotional attachment to it.

[A]

Yeah. It took me way too long to sell my first one.

[B]

Yeah.

[C]

Yeah. And it was like, rent was almost 900, and I bought it for 28. 5.

[B]

Oh, wow.

[C]

Yeah.

[A]

What'd you sell it for?

[C]

Well, I just. Yeah, it was. I mean, that. This might be fast forwarding too much, but we had a tenant in there for years and years and years and years, and it was beat. So my dad's like, I'll just buy it from you and I'll put the money into flip, you know, fixing it. Because we're in Florida by this time and he's still.

[B]

Yeah.

[C]

You know, doing stuff. So. Yeah, we just sold it for 75, 000 to him. Then there was room for him to sell it, but that's, like. It's tough.

[B]

Yeah. That area did not appreciate at all. Really. No.

[C]

I mean, obviously it was. Yeah. Total cash flow market.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

This is in Portland.

[B]

No. Yeah.

[C]

This is rural, you know.

[B]

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

[A]

Wow. All right, so let's. Let's go back to Jeff real quick. I know you got a job at some point, you became a cop, and you had a little bit lengthier commute than I've ever had. Tell us about that.

[B]

Well, I didn't really ever think of it like that, but, yeah, like, no. So, yeah, we got married and everything, and then we had our daughter Aubrey. And then in between there, I was working at UPS where my brother works, and we were delivering packages and all that, and it was a good job. He still does it. And for the longest time, I wanted to be a cop, but I'm like, I can't be a cop because as a juvenile, I was a troublemaker. I was always, always in trouble. So I'm like, I have a record. Well, I didn't know that record go. It doesn't exist. Right. So, anyway, long story short, I would go to the. The CHP Academy with my buddy because they had a media day there, and we were filming their academy, all this stuff, and I'm like, dude, this is super cool. I'm gonna do this. So I sign up. And it took years to get into the academy in that process. And when I was going through the. The testing, all that, the written test, I failed at, like, six times. Like, seriously, it was the hardest thing, and that was the hardest thing to get through for me, it was so tough because obviously, like, I have major adhd. So I'm sitting in there and you just have to focus. And I'm like, there's. Oh, my gosh, why did they give us this test? It's nonsense. Anyway, pass the test, get into the backgrounds. It takes a long time to get there and literally get the invitation to go. And my lung collapses. And I got.

[C]

For the third time.

[B]

That was the third. Yeah. Second or third time?

[C]

Third time.

[B]

Yeah. But just how.

[D]

How does it.

[B]

Oh, yeah, real quick. So that story, I. When I was working at ups, one day, I was finishing up, I worked the morning's loading trucks when I first started. Had like a major chest pain. I'm like, what the heck? Like, I got a sideache. And I'm like sitting there trying to like, deal with it not going away. So I'm like, well, I'm at work, I should tell my supervisor. So I tell him and he's like, okay, we'll go see the doc in the box or, you know, whatever. Work comp doc. All right. So I go down there and he see him and he does an X ray and he's like, no, you're fine, dude. You take some ibuprofen, go home. I'm like, all right. So I went home that night, slept, and I was hard to sleep. I could barely breathe. My chest just killing me. And I'm popping these pills like nothing's fixing it. Make it through the night. And then in the morning, I have to go back to the work dock to get released for work with my supervisor. So we go in, the doctor's like, how you feel? I'm like, I don't know, not any better. I actually feel worse. He's like, really? So he like puts the X ray in there and he's like, holy bleep. He goes, dude, he's like, that's your lung. And I'm like, yeah, I. I guess I don't know what you're looking at. And he goes, dude, it's like super collapsed. You need to go to the hospital right now. And I'm like, what are you talking about? And I'm like, I'm like tripping out now. My supervisor's like, I thought you're going to work. And I'm like, me too. So anyway, they take me to the hospital, they have a gurney out there waiting for me. They bring me inside. I. She's my girlfriend at the time. I'm texting her and I'm like, I have to go have emergency surgery because my lung collapsed. So anyway, they do the surgery, which was insane, by the way. Doctor comes in. He's like, I just want to let you know I've never done the surgery before. It's like, that's. And we live in, like, Podunkville, right? So it's like, what are we doing here? So, yay. Yeah.

[A]

I'm not even a doctor. I'm a vet.

[B]

That's what I. At that point, I'm like, yeah, whatever, man. So he, he. So she, she's in, she gets there. So she's in the room with me. There's a nurse. Nurse practitioner. A doctor. Right.

[C]

There was three of us.

[B]

Three of us. And he's like, I, I, I thought they're going to put me out for this. I'm wide awake. And he's like, starts, like, digging in my chest with a little scalpel thing. And he injects some Novocaine or whatever in there to numb it. And he's digging away and poking. He's like, hey, I got to stick this needle. And it was huge. It was like the size of a pin in through your chest. So I need you to relax. Yeah, he might have been. And so this is all going on. The nurse practitioner chick, like, almost passes out.

[C]

Two nurses left.

[B]

Yeah. And she, like, it just. It's a mess. I got blood all over the top of me. And he's trying to poke this needle in there, and he's like, look, you're gonna have to just relax. You're tensing up, and the muscles are tight, and I can't get the needle. And I'm like, dude, you're, like, stabbing me. At this point, he's literally on top of me on this bed, and he's, like, pushing into my chest. And I'm, like, looking at him and I'm like, what is going on? This is crazy. So I just remember at that point, I clo. Because I'm like, I'm going to die either way, or something's going to happen or something. Just close my eyes and I just said a prayer. And I'm like, God, just whatever happens, like, I, I'm. I know where I'm going. So I just breathed out, like, whatever I could. I'm like. And, like, just released everything I had. And it just. I felt this, like, funk going in my chest. And, like, right away, I can feel almost like, air, just, like, something filling up. And I was like, I can breathe. And then he's like, suck. He puts this thing on There. He's, like, sucking air out of my chest with this pump thing. And, like, right away, I'm like, all right, let's go to work. Like, that's awesome. I'm good. So that's how that all happened. It turned out to be a spontaneous pneumothorax, which is the spontaneous collapse of a lung. And it's apparently. I can't believe you didn't get it. Thank God you're past the age now, but it's between tall, slender, white males between the ages of, like, 25 to 35. So you're outside.

[A]

Yeah, I'm outside of it now.

[B]

I'm good. So that they can get this. And basically what it is real quick. Just. It's a. A bunch of cysts can develop on your lung, and we all get them, but I get like. Like, they get, like, a cluster of them. And when those cysts pop, just like a zit, it'll pop. And then a bunch of my cluster, this. It opens up. Well, my lung can't fix it. Lungs can, like, repair themselves very quickly. Well, it makes such a big hole that the lung can't gather up and repair, and so it just starts. Air starts escaping, and then there it is. So what they ended up doing.

[C]

Yeah. So good, I was gonna say. So. So this happened. They're like, this is really rare. This won't happen again.

[B]

Happened three times.

[C]

Whoa. That's even more rare. Like, it for sure never happened again.

[B]

So then the third.

[C]

The third time, he had gotten his invitation to go to the academy that we'd been waiting for for, like, three years at this point.

[B]

And so I may or may not have said a little lie to the chp. I'm sorry. God forgive me. The lady, like, I. This is so stupid. And she, like, now, like, she's like, what did you do that for? So I call on the phone and to this hiring unit with this really nice lady that. What was her name? She was amazing. Anyway, she answers the phone, and I'm like, hi. I just have a question. I'm asking for a friend of mine. If they have, like, a medical issue, and it's. They already got the invite to the academy, do they need to report it? And she goes, is this Jeff or something? And I'm like, click.

[C]

And I'm, like, hung up on her.

[B]

Yeah. And then she calls me right back. She's like, don't you think they have, like, call tracing? Like, this is the chp.

[C]

I'm like, what are you doing? Like, obviously, they have caller I.D.

[B]

Yeah. So she calls back, oh, Tina Kwong. Tina, if you're out there, I love you. You were so good to me. And she goes, is this Jeff? And I'm like, yes. And she goes, jeff, what's going on? And I just told her. I'm like, I'm sorry. Like, I'm straight up lying. I said, I don't want to lose this. I've waited for years to get in, and now. Now I have my chance, and I don't want to lose it. She's like, look, I'll go to the doctor, but let's see what they say. The state doctor gets hold of me, and he goes, we can't have you. Like, you can't join the highway patrol. And I'm like, why? And he's like, look, that's a risk. He's like, if you're out there just doing your job, and you're like, my lung collapsed. Then you're trying to arrest somebody. Like, that can go bad. And he's like, and you've had three, dude, so it's not looking good. And I'm like. He's like, well, can't you. I was like, is there a procedure I can get done? Because I don't know. Again, we're in Podunkville. Nobody knows anything. And he goes, yeah, you. He's like, you can go get a paradesis done. I'm like, I don't know what that is. I'll do it. So I ended up having that done by this doctor. And basically all they do is attach your. Your lung to your chest wall. Oh. And so my right lung.

[C]

Yeah.

[B]

Is attached to my chest while my left lung's normal. So after that, it was really, like, weird to breathe. I used to love to run and stuff, and I. It was hard to run because after so much running, it just. Fatigue just hurt. And I had to run a lot in the academy. That's all we did. So I kind of had to retrain all that getting into the academy, graduated the first time. I said, first time. We moved the family and everything, way away from everything. And I don't make it off a break in, which is like, you're an officer. I got my badge and gun, everything. I'm good to go. And they run you through training? Right Field training, and I didn't make it. They just said, hey, you're not. You're not. You can't do the job, whatever. And that fired me up. So they. They. We had it. They moved me. They said, look, in. In lieu of this, you can either get terminated or you can demote to another job, which is a civilian job for the highway patrol. I'm like, I'm going to do that because I'm not going to get fired. And I said, I'm going to come back because I want this job. So I fought like crazy. I actually stirred up a lot with High Patrol. They probably all know me pretty well still. And I emailed the commissioner of the highway patrol and I said, I need to be back in there because I deserve to be, you know, on the road. This is what I trained for. Well, that got heads rolling. And you never do that. Like the High patrol is like the military. It's chain of command. You always go to the next guy. Well, I knew if I did that, honestly it would get snuffed out. So I went to the man and the man went down to all the other men below him was like, who is this guy? And then they interviewed me, talked to me, ended up getting my way back in. But at that point, it was so many years later that they said, look, you have to literally go through the entire process again. So I had to go to the hiring process again. Backgrounds again, all this stuff. Make it back to the Academy. Another 27 weeks of the academy. Taste pepper sprayed tear gas, all the fun stuff. Get out. And then my journey starts as a cop or. Yeah, commuted back and forth, five, five hours release, five hours on the weekends, would come home. Geez. Yeah.

[C]

I just told him, like, I'm supporting you. This is what you want to do. I don't understand why, like I didn't have the same attitude.

[B]

It's just that, that's the amazing part of that.

[C]

I tried to be supportive, but I said, but. Because when you graduate, they will send you anywhere in California. And it's always the crappy places. Yeah, it's all, I'm like, I'm not moving the kids to Death Valley. Sorry. So. So he said, when I graduate again, I'll commute.

[B]

Wow. And I did that for five years. So at that point I was 10 years in with the higher patrol, or almost 10. And during that time, yeah, just commuting back and forth. So I lived down there. I work graveyards. And then I would come home and get off at six in the morning and I'd drive back up five, six hours home and then stay a day or so with my family. So I just stay up the whole day and go to sleep. So I was a moody jerk probably. I know now you're just true. You know, I'm Trying to be nice. Go to bed at like nine or so with the kids and everything. Put them to bed, get up in the morning, I take my girls, get donuts, and then spend the day with them, my wife and stuff. And then that night, about midnight, she would go to bed. I'd get up and drive back to work in six hours and do that whole routine. So it's around like, 20, 15, 16. I. I was really struggling mentally, like, going crazy, and I just felt like a lot of stress just from work and all this stuff. So she's like, go see your doctor. So I do. And he goes, you've got post traumatic stress. And I'm like, dude, I. I didn't buy into that. And I. At the time, I just felt like a lot of people are using that as like, a scapegoat to get out of it.

[A]

Sure.

[B]

I honestly did. I just. And it's sad now. I know that that's so not true. And I'm not bashing anybody out there with post traumatic stress, because it is for real. So years go by and I just dealt with it because I'm like, I didn't buy into that. Finally got my transfer to be back home, closer to my wife and kids, actually live at home. And during that time, by the way, we did two live in flips. The first one.

[D]

So were you coming back on the weekends and working on the house?

[C]

Yeah, that was mainly me.

[D]

Oh, that was you doing that?

[C]

Yeah, that was. Yeah, I did mo. I did most of the work on. Well, the first live and flip, it was very cosmetic, so I. All I really had to do was like, paint tile. Yeah, you know, kind of easier stuff, like refinish the kitchen cabinets.

[B]

She says, but I'm like, tile. Like, let's not. Like, tile is not exactly easy.

[C]

Right?

[B]

Yeah. She is the best Thai lady ever. She just finished a tile job at her house right now. Yeah. So she was doing that. I was commuting also. At that time, she was fighting through fibromyalgia, which she had, and she overcame. And then something else was going on. We didn't know what it was at the time. And it was quite a process.

[C]

Yeah.

[B]

Diagnosing and figuring that out.

[C]

Doing tile, like, one day of work took me three days because I do tile. My hands would hurt so bad after that. I have to take a couple days off. So it was a slow process.

[B]

Yeah, yeah. But.

[A]

So how'd you overcome fibromyalgia? Like, was that the medicine you take or you.

[C]

So I. Yeah, I basically, you know, with the. With the rheumatoid arthritis, which is, you know, later in the story, and the fibromyalgia, really, when you don't know what it is because it's. It took over a year in both instances to get a diagnosis. And just doing, you know, going in for blood tests every week and going to doctors. And with invisible illness, a lot of them, you know, try to brush you off like there's nothing wrong with you. And then especially when they can't find it in a blood test or imaging. So it can be super frustrating. I think that's why it's the hardest part when you don't have an answer in the beginning. So then once you finally get that answer, then it's like, okay, now what do we do? So with the fibromyalgia, I tried different medications that didn't work. It was very early in them diagnosing it. But staying physically active is one of the best helps for it. And then also getting enough rest. So my beginning of my physical activity was remember Billy Blanks? Tao guy?

[B]

Let's go.

[C]

So.

[A]

That's right. I used to do that. I forgot all about. Yeah, yeah. Fitness program. Yeah, that was. Yeah, that was like before P90X was like.

[C]

Because there's no way I could have done P90X. So I started out with the warm up.

[B]

Yeah. Snaz.

[C]

So, like, the, like five to ten minute warm up was all I could do. And then I'd be so hurting for days after. Then it was like day four, like, do it again. Then it was just like, add a little bit. Like, add the first, you know, move and then add the second move. And it was a slow process, I bet.

[B]

No quit.

[C]

Yeah.

[B]

So when did the.

[A]

When did that transition into real estate more heavily happen then in all this?

[C]

Oh, thanks to you, Brandon, because.

[B]

Yeah, you're talking about how I got involved.

[C]

It's so true. Yeah. So I was like, full on board, like, yeah, we got to do this. Real estate's awesome. And Jeff's like, yeah, that's cool. I want to be a cop. You can do that. That's fine. You have my blessing. Just as I gave him my blessing. It's like, yeah, I'll support you, but that's all you. So when he found. When he got the PTSD diagnosis, it was the end of February 2020. So we all know what happened in March.

[B]

So that's about. Yes.

[C]

So we had bought that live in flip, September of 2019. We had ordered all of our materials. We'd ordered all this Is a huge house, too.

[B]

Like 4,000 square feet.

[C]

All the windows, all the siding, tons of redwood for the deck, the metal for the roof. And so we had all this stuff. So Covid hits and we're like, all right, we're stuck at home.

[B]

We're working on the house, and we're.

[C]

Just, you know, like, it. It. That was crazy, too. And that's why I feel like if we can go from hardly seeing each other for five years to, boom, you're home 24 7. And we're working together like any couple, you know, if you. If you'll look inward and go, okay, what do I need to do? And how. You know, how can I give to them? Like, you can do it, but.

[B]

But not only just, like, working together and all that. Like, she was running through rheumatoid arthritis. I'm struggling with post traumatic stress. I'm going and getting treatment. I lost my job because at that point, when I didn't lose my job, but I told work and all cops know this. Anybody the first responder space knows, like, if you. If you tell them something like that is going on, like, the chances of you coming back are not good. It's just because you're a liability. You're just. And it was. That was the hardest thing. I. I had a friend that shot himself under an overpass because he didn't want it. And a lot of them do that because they don't want to. We don't. As cops, you don't want to give up your badge and gun because you work so hard for it. So I was struggling with that. She's going through, like, a pin cushion, right? Like, doctors were going, like, try this, try that, and we can't get anything figured out. And then on top of that, when I. When I notify the department, they immediately basically come at me. They tell me that I'm making this whole thing up. They deny my claims. I lose my insurance. I can't go to work. I can't do any of that.

[C]

So I got diagnosed with rheumatoid arthritis that September in 2019. He gets diagnosed in March. We lose our medical benefits and quit getting paychecks.

[B]

Yeah. The only thing this is. Okay, so here's so. So Brandon, listening to you on bigger pockets and all that, but really, like, what turned the leaf for me was, like, we. We barely made it every month. And obviously, that's all God. God just always has a way of just making little things happen to keep us alive and keep us going. I feel like in those Times like that. But the real estate that we had, the little rental properties we just got, got the one that she had in Oregon. Those are what, like, they kept us. They just barely kept us going.

[C]

We had three. We had three properties at the time. And we were getting 1500amonth in cash flow. So he was kind of like, yeah, that's. That's really great. That's your thing. So then when he saw, like, for one, we had reserves, which is, you know, don't run yourself so thin. You have no backup.

[B]

Yeah. Yeah.

[C]

And then we had that cash flow to live off of.

[B]

Yeah.

[C]

So we did not get a paycheck for a year and a half.

[B]

And we had a fight.

[C]

And we were fighting the state of California insurance fund, which is not during that time.

[B]

You're not going to win that battle because why?

[C]

Because like, what is. What percentage of Americans have $400 in savings?

[B]

Yeah.

[C]

So what happens is they back people into a corner who can go one month without a paycheck.

[B]

Yeah.

[C]

So people will bury it and go.

[B]

To work and figure it out.

[C]

And we were like, hope, like, we're not. Like, this is. This is legitimate. We're gonna fight it.

[B]

I honestly got to the point of being like. I even told our attorney, I'm like, look, let's just. I'm good. I don't care anymore. I'm done with this. This is eating me up. My wife's suffering. Like, my family's like, I can't do this anymore. And he just said, look, you gotta stay with it. You gotta trust me. And we. So here's the funny thing. This was the biggest turn the day. Oh, my gosh. So we're in Oregon. We're working on this house, her first house that she got. And it's snowing on us. It's cold out. We're like rehabbing this house because we got to get it done. We got to get a renter in there.

[C]

We were loading the dump trailer. My dad let us use this big dump trailer. There was this like two car size, like, shop on the property. So this tenant had been there for like eight years and just filled it with all their trash, of course.

[A]

So nice.

[C]

So we're getting snowed on and we're doing it because we're like living off of nothing. And that just cut.

[B]

That just cut us our income.

[C]

So my dad had found us a helper.

[B]

Oh, this is dope. So he. Yeah, so he. Anyway, this. There's this homeless guy, lives back in the back, like, street.

[C]

He meets him because he Gets a call from his tenant, and he's like, there's a homeless guy sleeping on my front porch. So my dad goes over and he's like, hey, man, like, you can't stay here. So he obviously is a little bit of a meth problem. And, like, he has one glass eye, and, like, you can't make this up. So my dad's like, I know who can help you. So he comes over one day. It's awesome. He loaded the trailer so fast.

[B]

Yeah.

[C]

And we're.

[A]

People have meth. Yeah.

[B]

He worked very quick. He was super nice. So our way to the house that morning, we're leaving. We stayed at her dad's ranch, and we're driving there, and we had a call or our attorney, because it's Covid time still. So our attorney was like, hey, I have a call, you know, virtual call, whatever, with the judge and everything to find out what's going on with your case. It looks like we're going to get it, you know? And I'm like, man, that would be awesome. Because right now we're literally, like, beating our heads into the wall. This house, everything's falling apart. Right. Get to town. He calls us back and he goes, hey, you won't believe us, but unfortunately, it's not good news. He's like, they're not going to back away. Matter of fact, they're coming at you even more now. They're saying they have all these acquis against you, saying that you. You were getting in trouble at work like this crazy. And I'm like, what in the heck? So I'm like, whatever, move on. So we're in the house, I'm laying floors, she's doing stuff in the house. And then this guy, he shows up. And I'm like, hey, man, listen, I just need you to load my truck. And I had a newer truck. It was like a 20, 15 or 16 Dodge. Nice. It's my dream truck at the time. And I'm like, please just be careful when you're loading it right. Oh, yeah, yeah. Okay. And I'm like, take your time. Just don't scratch anything. Okay. So I'm inside laying floors, and everything comes. He knocks on the door and he's like, hey, I'm done. And I'm like, dang, that was quick, dude. Awesome.

[C]

And he's like, five minutes.

[B]

He's like. He's like, I just want to tell you, though, that I broke your back window of your truck.

[C]

He threw a board through the back.

[B]

Yeah, he just, like, chucked it. And Broke the back window out. And I'm like, all right, well, that's what I get. I mean, whatever. So I'm like, here's your. Here's your money. See you. Well, I'll come back. I'm like, no, we don't need you, man. It's all good. I appreciate your help. Thank you. So we go. We're. I'm like, now I'm, like, furious. It's snowing in my truck. I'm like, dude, what the heck? Like, really? And at that point, we were like, we're going to sell this truck because we need to, because we can't make payments on it anymore. And now it's all messed up. Like, this is ridiculous. So we take. We had to go take these doors down to this place. So I'm on the. On the phone with the insurance company, and. Oh, she said, is there any other damage besides the broken window? I'm like, no, it's a broken window. And she's like, hang on. So we get to the place, and she gets out, walks around the truck, and she's like, you're not going to be happy. And I'm like, what? She's like, there are scratches all over this truck. Like, 360 degrees. The roof.

[C]

He scratched the cab.

[B]

The cab of the truck. I'm like, dude, really?

[C]

Yeah.

[B]

So. Yeah, so.

[C]

So bad day, right? So. But. But then what happens?

[B]

This is the best part of the whole thing, is it was the same day, wasn't it?

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

Yeah, dude. Right? My attorney. My attorney calls me, calls me right back, and he goes, it was a. Like, maybe an hour or two. All that happened is crazy. Calls me back, and he goes, hey, man, I just want to let you know this is crazy, but that. The attorney just called me back and just said that they're good. They're going to settle on the case, and they're going to pay you out. And you. We got. I got half my retirement, which is better than nothing, right? Yeah. And it's tax free. So it ended up settling. I mean, God, just. It was all. It was so crazy because we just stuck to what we had. We knew we had to get things done. We just kept our nose to the grindstone, and then little things paid off. So, yeah. Yeah.

[C]

So then that created the opportunity to. We stayed. We worked together, which was it. You know, it took us a while to. To renovate that house because it was so extensive. But then with him being freed from working for the state, then it opened up the door to, okay, if we're Going to do real estate. California is not the best place, you know, so now we had opportunity. So then that was why we went from California to Florida.

[A]

Why'd you pick Florida?

[B]

Oh, please say this. This is so good. Oh, why? And not only Florida. Why a certain area of Florida.

[C]

Okay, so we had friends that we lived in a tiny town in Northern California, and our kids went to this charter school together. They moved to Florida. They had done a ton of research. I'm like, okay, well, let's just buy an Airbnb out there so when we want, we can go out with them. And don't worry, I'll get to the. I'll get to the best part. So. So we get the list. We, we, you know, purchase. There's two units that we purchase. We get our whole, like, stagger all the Amazon orders. And we're like, hey, we're gonna fly out, furnish this place. This was August of 2022 and beginning of September 22nd. I don't know if you heard of Hurricane Ian. Yeah, it welcomed us. And I had told him, he's like, we're not going to Florida. Hurricanes. Yeah, but don't worry, babe.

[B]

This area never gets hit.

[C]

Florida hardly ever gets hurricanes. Never do, and they hardly do. And so we had more to do on the house than we thought. So I fly back with my daughter. Jeff stays to work on it. And while he's there, it's like the day he's leaving. Well, for one, he got Covid while he was there and he.

[B]

Right after I dropped him off at the airport. And I get like, Covid. I'm like, you have to laugh.

[C]

But so then the days flying out is like Governor DeSantis declares a state of emergency. So we sold our house in California. We had to go back to Florida to fix what we had just fixed. So but while we were there, so I'd been on. It's actually like a low dose chemo pills, what they typically give you for rheumatoid arthritis. And I probably felt about. I was on two medications. I felt about 80% better, but, like, my joints still hurt all the time. While we were there, like, I felt so much better. I was like, oh, my gosh, Jeff. Like, I can't even believe this. And so since then, like, I've stopped taking both of those, like, slowly weaned off both, both medications. So we were planning on, like, Tennessee or South Carolina. But then, you know, it's like, God laughs at our plans.

[D]

Is it just the humidity there that I.

[C]

So I think it's a few things like the humidity, warmth, and then being at sea level.

[B]

Barometric pressure.

[A]

Yeah, yeah, yeah, I bet you helps. And yeah, so I want to. I want to get a little bit into the self storage here in a second. Oh, but before we do, one thing we do on the show is that the sponsors of this show, all the money that comes in, we take the profit and we donate it towards a charity of the guest choosing. So the question is, before we air this week's sponsor, where are we sending money from today's episode?

[B]

You say it.

[C]

You say it. You pick.

[B]

I have some good ones.

[C]

Okay, go for it then if you got a good one.

[B]

It's hard to pick so many. There's so many. We, we have. We. We're. We obviously love charities and stuff, but we like ones that like, put their money to work. Right. Because so many. I'm gonna say some have a cross. It's red. They don't really do that much for charity, but anyway, they do. But Samaritan's purse is great. Good grief. Compassion International.

[C]

So can we.

[B]

Yeah.

[C]

So we had this couple come to our church. We were still in California. They have their Steven Brenda Hines. They go back and forth to India. They have a school. They support local pastors. They have like a widow's ministry. But the craziest thing to us is when they told us about the wells that they. They go out into villages and they drill a well and maintain it for 10 years, and it's $1500.

[B]

Wow. Yeah.

[C]

And hundreds of people don't have to.

[A]

Isn't that wild?

[C]

Yeah, it's crazy. It's so.

[B]

It's life changing.

[C]

I would like to.

[B]

Yeah. Us. I might. Me too. Can I join that?

[C]

Yeah, I guess.

[A]

All right, well, we'll throw our money that way. Yeah, I'm a bit. I'm a big fan of that. In fact, we're at Better Life. Part of what we give to is a group called Charity Water, which we had Scott Harrison on the podcast, and they build wells all over the country, all over the world. Same similar scenario, right. They go in and they dig these wells and just gives life to so many people. And, you know, a lot. You know, obviously the Better Life tribe, we fight all the money goes towards charities that in, you know, decrease human trafficking. So the question might be, well, why would that matters? Because when women like. This is what Scott Harrison explained to me is, like, when women have water, they can now, like, they don't have to spend their entire day traveling. You know, 8, 10, 15, 20 miles of great water. Now they can get jobs, now they can work, now they can provide for their family and it changes. They don't sell themselves into slavery or their families don't sell them into slavery because they've got water. So it's actually one of the, one of the primary leading ways to stop human trafficking is just give people basic things like water and education. So we will do that. And with that said, so I know I'm fairly well off financially, right. But did you know I still house hack? That's right. I've got an extra couple units at my house here in Maui and I decided to actually rent one of them out because, hey, it's like almost 2,000 bucks a month and I'm an investor, so why not? You know, the first thing I did when I decided to rent that out, I went to turbotenant.com because there I can advertise the unit screen for potential tenant, sign the state specific lease, get automatic rent payments set up, track my income and expenses, and even communicate with my new tenant via the app. It literally made the process so much easier. So whether you've got, you know, one unit or a ton of units, check out turbo tenant.com. i love it and I know you will too. Let them know I sent you. All right, and we're back. Lexi, Jeff, let's talk about how you, you, you scaled up at some point. I mean, I know you got some Airbnbs, you got some long term rentals still in California and Oregon, and. But then you got, you got, you went big. So walk us through that process. Why did you think I'm gonna go and scale up my operation?

[B]

Wow. So, yeah, let's talk about joining Better Life because I feel like that's one piece of it. All right. Yeah, dude, that was.

[A]

Why'd you join Better Life?

[C]

It would not have happened.

[B]

No, it wouldn't have.

[C]

Because I originally told him 10 good cash flowing houses. That is all like, that is our limit. And then, you know, like the way things worked out as we went, it's like, you know, doors open. Like Jeff's at home during COVID listening to Brandon. So he listens to Brandon and thinks real estate's a good idea because I don't know what I'm talking about. But so then also though, but it goes both ways because then he's telling me about, saw this thing that Brandon's doing and he's gonna do this, you know, it's Better Life tribe. I'm like, I don't know. But really, what sold Me on even doing it was that the money went to charity. Yeah, that was.

[B]

That was powerful.

[C]

You know, I'm like, think about it. Like, even if we try this and it totally fails, like, the money went to charity anyway. You know, like, it's.

[A]

Which it almost did fail as. You know, we almost ran out of money halfway through the year, and then God came through and just rescued the better tribe from inadequacies.

[C]

But I love. No, that's. See, like, we. We always make plans. Then God's like, oh, it's funny. Yeah, let's do this instead.

[B]

But that was my thing is I came like, dude, I just became a fanboy of you on it sounds so gross. But like, seriously, dude.

[C]

Then I was jealous for a while.

[B]

Yeah. She was like, dude, wait a second. We just got our marriage back together again and now you're out looking at this guy.

[C]

No, seriously, like, no, I was thankful for br. And I'm like, I don't care.

[B]

Yeah. Yeah, good. I just went crazy. Oh, yeah, man. My passion just went crazy. And I'm not like the numbers guy. I'm not like the guy. I can tell you cap rates and all this stuff. That's this lady. And that's why I feel so good too with the spouse is like, we work and we know, like, okay, you're good at this. You go do that. Like, she always tells me I'm the motivator. And I don't know if you ever watch that show with Wipeout or whatever. Wipeout, where they're like literally standing on.

[C]

The edge and I'm like, I got all the plans, all the education, and I'm like, I don't know if I can do it. And then the. Yeah, the motivator Jeff comes and knocks me off. So the scaling up happened because of better life.

[B]

Yeah.

[C]

So we're setting goals, right? And I'm like, get one more long term rental. And he's like, my goal for this year is add 60 units. And I was like, oh, gosh.

[B]

I just went crazy.

[C]

Because we went.

[B]

So that's where we'll start is with this is. I went. We went to the. The summit in Vegas. 23. And I met you. And you.

[C]

You.

[B]

Like I said, I don't know if you remember this, but it was our whole.

[A]

I remember meeting you, but I don't remember us.

[B]

Okay, so our whole podcast that you don't remember. It was weird. It was so awkward. Yeah. And that's my. That's my mo. I guess I'm just do a weird st. Like, what the heck? So, yeah, so we go, we show up there in our whole pod, which was so amazing. We all came. Derek was the only one couldn't make it. Sick. But he got his flights and everything and just last minute couldn't make it. But we all had our, like, goal crusher shirts on and all this stuff. We got a picture with you and all that. And then when I met you, I said to you, I said, man, I said, my goal at the end of 24 is to be on your podcast. Oh, that's cool. And you were like, oh, that's cool, man. And I thought you're gonna be like, yeah, whatever, guy.

[C]

But that wasn't enough. So he needed 60 units of some sort also.

[B]

Ye. We just went like, so. So the reason why I wanted to be on your podcast was, was. And she didn't even know I was going to say this was because I believed in what your processes were and how to get there. Like, I really. And I knew you put a lot of work and effort into it, a ton of time. And it was one of those moments. If anything, it clicked with me is I. We started going through. And I tell all the people I coach too now, I always say, like, you need to buy into this. Like, you got. You got to buy the hype. And I. It's not hype, but it is in some ways. Like when he tells you, look at your five year, look at it and really, really believe in what you're doing. If you don't do that, the outcome's not going to be what you want, but if you really buy into it. So that's what I did.

[C]

So he was like, if we fully commit to doing this, basically we'll be the guinea pigs, right? And if we can commit to it and actually do it and prove that it works, really. So he's like, yeah, throw 60 units out there. So we basically thought we were going to get 60 units of multi Family. I don't know if you've heard about multifamily lately, but yeah, I'm underwriting for months and months and months. Like, nothing's working. We actually, we found our mentor through Better Life also, which is cool because, like, all these different people we found and connected with through Better Life. So. So our mentor, Christy Keaton, she's like, you know, the multifamily queens were like, that's who we need then just struggling through it, struggling through it. And then this self storage opportunity came up and it was like, that's crazy. That's what we need to do.

[B]

Yeah.

[D]

How did you find it?

[B]

That's what's so crazy too, is like. So we were talking to our mentor and she goes, hey, there's a. I found this, this wholesaler that has this property and it's self storage. Are you guys interested in that? I'm like, actually I've been for a while. Because I'm like, self storage is going crazy. We need to get into this. And I'm that guy. I'll jump for anything. I don't care. I'm like, yeah, multifamily, self storage, whatever. So yeah, so we found the. We found the phone number of the guy. We stalked him, you know, and whatever. Found his phone number.

[C]

You notice a trend here?

[A]

Yeah, great.

[B]

Yeah, I know. Find his number. And I call him and he answers the phone and that like, how many times does that happen? Like, right, you guys have done that? And he answers the phone. I'm like, hey, are you, you have self storage property, Jim. I'm like, hey, Jim, this is Jeff. I said, do you have some self storage properties you want to sell? I said, I, I saw one that you had. Like, it was a wholesaler. And he's like, yeah, actually I do. And he goes, matter of fact, I have four of them and I'm trying to sell them right now. It's a partnership and we own them outright and all that. And I was like, well, would you be interest maybe owner financing those? Actually, yeah, I would. And I was like, oh my gosh. Right. So the ball just started rolling. Well, he owner finance him at 4% interest. We took, we took three of the four properties, ran the numbers on them. They were just like so good.

[C]

Yeah, like that's what was crazy is like we're running multifamily, not working. And then we're like this self storage as is like it like the return was like 9.2. And as it sat, as it sat. So the pro forma was like ridiculous. Which obviously when we showed it to our potential investors, it's like super conservative numbers. And I think that was one reason why our investor believed us and went with us is for one, she'd seen, you know, like we've been doing it for a while. But also when you present, like you always say, you know, like under promise and over perform.

[B]

Yeah.

[C]

Her financial advisor was like, okay, I want you to run it at this because basically I want to see that this actually is what they're saying. And it came back significantly higher than. Than we told her the pro forma was. So. And I even you know, like, wrote in the email to both of them, like. Like, what you're wanting me to put is, like, grossly overestimated. Like, we were super, super conservative in our numbers. And I think, like, you know, being honest is. Is just the key. Really.

[B]

Yeah, yeah, that. That's what got us into the whole. The whole thing. And we, With Better Life, we started the raising private capital show, or call. I don't even know what we call it. Call, show, whatever. We have like, 180 members or something on there now from the tribe. And we did that because we didn't know we ran into the situation. I posted on the tribe, like, hey, we're cash poor. Like, what the heck do we do? Like, where do we go from here eventually? And I was like, I'm thinking about, like, raising capital, but I don't know how to do it. And then all these people on Better Life just dropped. Like, it went crazy. That. And then as Alex Felice reached out to me, he's like, dude, he's like, you, like, crashed the Internet, like, with all these people on. On Circle or whatever, on the community were asking about it, what are you going to do about this? And I'm like, what am I going to do about it? I don't know.

[C]

I want. I wanted an answer to a question. What do you mean, what am I going to do about it?

[B]

But it's just like, God, just kind of like grooming that out to happen. And next thing you know, I met Alex and you and all that in Vegas, and we were talking and he's like, you should do like a show, like, like a weekly show. And I'm like, I don't know how to host anything. And so we did. And. And from that, we learned really how to raise capital. We learned how to I The whole way of doing it and then meeting people and building, like, just in community and stuff like that. And that paid off. That's investing.

[C]

So, like, for instance, you know, like, you have a question and it's like, oh, I know. So and so in the tribe knows how to do this, and you can just ask. Like, I try to drill into all my clients. Like, the coaching part is huge, right? But going in and being a part of the community is, like, even bigger huge once you get that foundation. And then you're like, okay, now I'm ready to move forward, like, knowing all of those other people that can help you. And that's the thing, too, is like, you take the general population and how many, you know, are real estate investors of like, average friends.

[B]

Y.

[C]

And then, like, you know, you hear your vibe attracts your tribe. So the people that are attracted to Brandon typically are givers and helpful. And so you have, like, their porn, you know, like, poured through a colander. I tell people. So the tribe is like, he's taken the general population for you and filtered them down, and they're in.

[A]

Hopefully good people who, like, real.

[C]

Oh, yeah, yeah. No, that's what it is, too, Is, like, so amazing. They're good people.

[A]

Yeah. I was gonna say, like, a lot of people don't realize it, and I don't want this to just be a giant ad for the Better Life tribe, but I will say this. The average net worth in the tribe is over $4 million. The average number of units, not counting me, we took mine out of the equation because I probably skew it upwards with whatever, 15,000, but, like, without me, I think the average is like 35 or 40 rental units.

[D]

That's crazy.

[A]

Yeah. Which means that, like, out of a thousand people in the tribe, like, these are real investors, real people that are every day that are doing this stuff to give. Like, how could that not pay off when you're in a room, when you're basically in a room 24 7, anytime you need it. Of a thousand people actively doing this that all have the same mindset, like, it's just so stinking powerful. And then you throw in the coaching, which we can talk about a little bit.

[C]

Yeah.

[A]

And the accountability with that, it's. It's awesome.

[B]

Yeah, yeah. It's huge, man. Like, that whole thing, like, get. Like, that was the next thing, like, so the end of the year last year, right. Was our biggest year. Like, it was crazy. We're getting to the end of this year, and we've hit, like, a ton of goals. I gained, like 15 pounds of muscle. She lost how many inches off your. If you waist and how much weight.

[C]

Yeah, like.

[B]

And just like, fitness in general has just been a huge struggle for her with rheumatoid arthritis and all that. And for me, I could never gain weight. I was always a little guy, you know? Matter of fact, I could never grow a mustache as a cop. Just a little known fact. I could never do it. And then I read. Because we always had, like.

[A]

You joined the Better Life tribe.

[B]

Exactly. Yeah. Yeah.

[C]

Next is the beard.

[B]

Yeah, yeah.

[A]

Wait, wait.

[B]

So what's the trick? Yeah, yeah.

[A]

I mean, how'd you like the mustache?

[B]

Yeah. I don't know.

[D]

It just started.

[B]

It just.

[A]

Your vibe attracts your tribe, right? Yeah.

[C]

If you join the tribe.

[A]

If you join the tribe, you'll grow mustache, facial hair.

[B]

Yeah. That's a rule. Yeah. So it looks.

[A]

Damn. He was a clean shaven a while ago.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

Now he's got.

[B]

We're talking.

[C]

I know, right?

[B]

That man Too funny.

[D]

It's a little too thin.

[A]

Let me ask. Let me go back to the. The raising capital thing. What did you. What have you learned about raising capital? What you share advice wise.

[C]

Okay, so one thing that I. Sorry if I. Oh, please. Okay, so one thing that I noticed is that people, I think they try to put the cart before the horse where they try to find investors and they don't have a deal. But as soon as you have a good deal, like, you know, obviously it's way easier to find people when you're like, hey, this is what I have and this is, you know, what you can get. I think that part. But then also, yeah, the trust factor is another huge part of it. And then also it's gonna be tougher if, like you just started doing it last week but sticking with it. That's another big, big part of it.

[B]

And then like relationships, like, I feel like that was my thing is I feel like I'm pretty decent at like building relationships with people and getting to know people and building trust with them. And I, I told her, I'm like, I don't want to work with other investors or anybody or use other people's money if I don't know them. Like, I want to know their family, their kids. Like, I want them to know who I am because I feel like there's. There's. That's an important part of this, you know, not just. This is not just a business deal like it is, but it's like, I want you to know that you can trust me. And I feel like trust comes with like just getting to know each other like your kids and your. How you are as a person and all that. So that was my. My big goal is when I started really getting into this and having these calls with people and stuff, I started to realize, like, the community side and where's the community side? It's better life tribe. There's so many people on there. Like, we go on tribe talk all the time or they're. Every time they have it, we want to have it more. I keep telling Caleb, like, come on, man, like weekly, like, let's go see.

[A]

Hard to get people to show up to that.

[B]

It's. But it's so crazy because I'm like, it's so powerful. Everybody.

[A]

What is Tribe talk for those who don't know. What's tribe talk.

[B]

Okay, so, dude, tribe talk is literally speed dating for real estate.

[A]

Yeah, it is.

[B]

It's so crazy.

[C]

Not directly on topic, but what I would like to do might as well go right to the head guy.

[B]

Let's go.

[C]

So I've talked to three or four women that are like, I don't want to go on tribe talk because it's all men. And then I was telling Jeff, like, I just heard this statistic the other day. Only 3% of women invest in real estate, and of that 3%, 1 1/2 percent, do so with their spouse. There's only like 1 1/2% of women investing in real estate alone. So I'd reached out to Caleb. I'm like, hey, Caleb, like, can I do just like a women's only, Like, I don't know, build your confidence or at least connect with other women, you.

[B]

Know, because to start the process.

[C]

Yeah. To get, you know that.

[B]

To get people engaged, because that's a big thing. Like you said, the tribe talk is just. The idea is amazing. Like, you have five minutes of that person and they pop on, and you're like, hey, oh, my gosh. Like, you just real quick get stuff out. But once you learn it, it's so amazing. You learn so much about these people, and then they're gone. And then another person comes and it's like, what's so cool about it is, like, they're from all over the place, and you just learn so much from each person just for that five minutes. How so Cool.

[A]

Once a month.

[B]

It's about once a month right now.

[C]

Yeah, it's once a month. First Friday.

[A]

Yeah, first Friday.

[C]

People complain about Friday nights.

[A]

Yeah, we need to change the time. Friday nights is not necessarily the best time for speed dating because people are. People are really dating.

[B]

Yeah, I know. Yeah, yeah, yeah, we'll work on that, too.

[C]

Funny.

[A]

Oh, well, anyway, I appreciate you guys being part of the tribe, being in the beginning and now helping out with the accountability coaching stuff.

[D]

I want to hear about that.

[A]

The coaching stuff.

[B]

Yeah, yeah.

[A]

What is the accountability coaching?

[B]

Yeah. So that started we were talking to Jason last year, and we were like, hey, like, oh, Ryan Brooks, he's amazing. Tribe member. He's so good. And he told us, he's like, you guys should be coaches. Like, we need. We need people that have been in the tribe to be coaches. And I'm like, sweet. So I, like, sent out the application to Jason. He was like, dude, you guys want to be Coaches, oh, my God. We want to have you. Let's do it.

[C]

But he's all, wait, do you have time for that? We're like, not really.

[B]

We'll make it work.

[C]

Hey, you want something done, ask the busiest person.

[B]

Exactly. Yeah. But I just felt like we talked about and prayed about it, and we're like, if we can just in the beginning, commit a little bit of time to this, get some people on board and just try it out and see how it goes for us. Because again, I say all the time, like, I can't believe I get paid to do it. Like, I'm like, why? Because it's so much fun to like. And again, that comes from our passion, and that's why I told Jason, like, when we. When we decided to do it, we're like, the reason we want to do it is because the tribe changed our lives.

[C]

Yeah.

[B]

The steps that we did and things like that. We know that it's possible. As long as you put the work in right, you can't sit around and just pray about it. You got to take action. And so we took action. And then this year, it's like, we have clients. How many you have? You have, like, like, 18. 18? I've got, like, 11 or 12.

[C]

So it's really like, you know, giving back, trying to help. I know. Like, I've talked to one of my clients, and he's, you know, he was like, oh, I thought I'd be farther along, you know, kind of down, like. Yeah, but think about it. Like, we're always like, help the person two steps behind you. You know, don't just look at where, you know, somebody else has gotten to. Like, everybody's on their own journey. Journey.

[A]

Yeah. Comparison is a thief of joy.

[C]

Yes. Yes, exactly.

[B]

That's good. Yeah, that's really good.

[A]

I didn't bet that somebody else says that.

[B]

Oh, my gosh.

[A]

Steve Jobs.

[C]

I'll just put. I'm just gonna start putting quotes and, like, attributing them to you.

[A]

A wise man once said. Yeah, well, so explain real quick if you could, like, yeah, our coaching is not people. Actually, people have come in into better life coaching thinking it's one thing and it's not, and then they. They. We have not. Maybe. Maybe what? They're. I don't think we've miscommunicated it. We've. We've said it's accountability since the beginning. I think people just want something more. Like, they want us to give them a piece of property and say, here you go. Here's the property sign Here on the dot. Like, they want complete hand holding.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

This is very different. It's based on my belief. I don't want to have you guys explain that what you do on a coaching call, but that people don't need more education. The education is out there. It's free, it's in a 20 book, it's in a course, whatever. What they need is to take action.

[C]

Yes.

[A]

And that's what we do. So how do you do that on a coaching call?

[B]

That's exactly like, for me, it's like, like seeing where the person's at right. When you get that first call with them. And it's like just getting to know them, getting to know their goals and all that stuff. Like, my thing is, is like I'm. I'm again, I'm not the. What do you call it? The ball, the white, the motivator. I'm like, hey, that's my job. And then I'll ask him. I'm like, hey, look, where do you want to be? Like, where are your goals? Where are we at? You know? And then are those big to you? Because once they get into it and they set the goals and they do like your goal setting summit and all that stuff, and they work through them. Like I tell them, like, it's like my wife and I will go to the beach and we make it very, very, like something to remember. Right. Because this is important. You're changing your life. Like, you're doing something completely different than you've ever done before. So just getting into that with them and helping them understand that, I feel is key. And then once they start, they get their habits lined out. They got their three goals, all that stuff. Like, do you start to see sometimes struggles? Right. That's when these things start to show up. You'll be like, okay, you're doing good on this one and this one. But this one you keep missing. You keep missing what's going on here. Well, and it's, it'll be the excuse stuff we have tossed back and forth, like, oh, well, I couldn't made the gym. I was sick or I couldn't do this. And I'm like, like, okay. What I say to him is this. I go, are these three goals important to you? Like, whatever. And they're like, yeah, well, for sure. And I said, okay, do you have a normal job? Yeah, I do. Okay. I was like, your job now is to check off those habits every single day. Your job is not to be a cop or whatever it is. It's not your job anymore. Your job is to make sure those habits get done. Because if that's the most important thing to you, the only way you're going to get there is to check those habits. And I said, if you do that, the outcome is there because we know we did it. Yeah.

[C]

I think to answer, part of what Brandon was talking about is so a lot of people sign up thinking it's like, first deal. So in that initial call, it's like, okay, you know, I'm going to explain to you, this is about your performance and accountability, and I cannot guide you, even though I love real estate and I want everyone to do it, and I want to make suggestions like, you know, that's not what this is about. But what's cool is that when we identify a problem, like, there's so many tools that I can say, hey, go use this calculator.

[A]

Check this out.

[C]

Yeah, yeah. And I'm like, oh, your Airbnb's not making money, huh? Well, why don't you go on here? You know, like, guess what? We have this masterclass, and so you can go through that.

[A]

We struggle with the idea of using the word coach because in the real estate world, a real estate coach is probably actually a lot like you do with deal flow. You know, deal flow, real estate. Like, you people pay a lot of money to go in, and you, like, you literally are there on these calls every week, and you're guiding people. Your program is a lot more like a lot different than what mine is. So all we do is accountability, like holding people to those things and then giving them resources as they need them. And we struggled with the word coach, but the reason I ended up sticking with it is. Well, I think we call it results. Coaching is because think of like a coach if you're. If you're a NBA player, NFL player, whatever. Like, I think NBA, because, well, they probably all have a lot of coaches, right? There's different coaches for different things. Yeah, the coach and an NBA team is not. Or one of the, like, whatever, shooting coaches. I don't know what's the name for a coach, but they have special coaches, right?

[B]

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

[A]

Those guys are not teaching the NFL, NBA player, Major League baseball player. They're not teaching them anything. Right. They're not saying, okay, so when you get to the bat, you're going to get three chances to hit the ball. Like, these people already know that. They wouldn't be in the big leagues if they didn't already know that. So why, what's the coach doing? They're just holding Them to the standard that the the athlete has already set for themselves. That's the coach. And the coach's job is to see little things and ask little questions to tweak it. We are that coach. We are not. Let me tell you what a duplex is and why it can cash flow. Like we don't. You don't need to know that if you do join first deal or join deal full real estate. If you want to do a do do a big it's like yeah, what we want to do is make sure when you say I'm going to analyze five deals this week, we're going to say did you analyze five deals this week? And if you're like I don't know what actions I should do to to get a real estate deal, fine. We can offer some advice or give you a pointers on how to do it. But yeah, it's way more performance based.

[B]

And at the end of the day.

[D]

That'S by far the. I mean that's what I tell everybody in Deal.

[A]

I know you do the same thing.

[D]

Hey, hey. Everything that that I teach you you can learn on a podcast. You can learn reading the right books, watching enough YouTube videos. I think with both like my first deal and deal flow it it's streamlined and so it's easier to to access that but you can learn it all via just putting in the work and finding it chat GPT. Good project.

[B]

Yeah, yeah, really good.

[D]

But the, the difference is like or the only way you're going to be successful is by doing trusting the process like what you guys said, doing the right actions every single day and then surrounding yourself with a community which is what you guys have and better life. It's incredible is the community and then the performance coaching. Because I truly do believe anybody can be successful in real estate. I think it's harder right now but at the same time if you do the right things every single day you are, you can't not be successful. I truly do believe that. And so like even in our business there's a guy who is had been struggling and we just went through like here are the things that you have to do every single day and I promise you if you do that you will buy a good deal. And four weeks can't be that easy, Cam.

[A]

It can't be that easy.

[D]

But and I think so many people they give up before, before they get there because like if you're just cold calling for instance, that sucks. I hate cold calling. And you get cussed out a lot and you get told Never call me back and hung up on. And you can do it for 10 hours in one day and not get any good leads. And it's, it's just that you can do that for a month and you might only get one deal, but on that one deal you can make $75,000. On like I remember when we interviewed Cole. Cole John, yeah. He was talking about like if I told you that you could buy the house next door and you're going to make $200,000 on it when you flipped it, but it's going to take you four years of follow up to do it. Most people would say yes, but the problem is, is a lot of people have those deals out there, but they only do two months of follow up. Yeah, yeah, exactly. For me, sometimes it's, yeah, I talk to you once and I'm never talking again if you don't say yes.

[B]

So yeah, yeah.

[A]

It's all in the actions. Like the kind of the, the key, like pillar of the Better Life Tribe, I said all the time is you get the results of what you repeatedly do.

[C]

You.

[A]

Right. It's like if you repeatedly, like, we all know how to get a six pack, but knowing doesn't give you a six pack. The only thing that gives you a six pack is looking like Cam. That's it.

[D]

Yeah, I wish that it was just knowing because I would have a six pack.

[A]

Yeah, we all know how to do it. We all know how to get in shape. We all know how to run a marathon. We all know how to buy rental property. We all know how to be good husbands and wives and fathers and mothers. And yet we are continually struggling to be the kind of person we want to become. And so if, instead if we stop focusing on the outcome and the output and start focusing on the inputs. The entire Better Life Tribe methodology was built off of what business owners do to grow their business. They have KPIs, they have meetings, they have metrics and they have like, yeah, what are your lead measures in a business that give you the lag measure that you want or the leg output? We just said, why don't we apply that to our whole life? So in the Better Life Tribe, we do that with, you can have a goal for real estate, a goal for personal, a goal for whatever. And we're going to help you hit your three goals every quarter and then kind of align it with annual goals, quarterly goals, weekly ones and habits. And we just hold you to it on a 20 minute, 30 minute call. And yeah, it's a beautiful thing.

[D]

It's amazing.

[C]

Yeah.

[A]

All right, guys, question for you. Let's talk about working together as a spouse. Not many people can pull this off. People try to work with their spouse. And, Cam, you actually do a good job of it, too.

[B]

Heather and I did it back in.

[A]

The day, but you guys seem to be amazing at it. And so what is. What is the secret to working with your spouse and not killing one another?

[C]

Prayer.

[A]

And that was the Better Life podcast.

[B]

Drop the mic. That's it.

[C]

So we were kind of talking about this. I don't know how long ago, but, like, yeah, as you go through and you figure out how to solve a problem, like, it's not like you're journaling it on the way. So we've been together over 20 years now. That's pretty.

[B]

Let's go.

[C]

It's pretty crazy.

[B]

I mean, I'm not gonna ask your.

[A]

Age, but you also look about 31. So that means you guys met at 11. 11 years old.

[C]

Yeah.

[B]

Well done.

[C]

Got signed off on that early marriage. So what we say those, like, if. If we could work through this, going through that, gone for five years, and then home 24 7, then. Then anybody can do it. But, I mean, I think it's basically for one, like, so basically, when I was in second grade, I'd always get my report card. And going to a Christian school, they don't just give you grades on, you know, like, math and English. They would give you character.

[A]

Really?

[C]

Yeah. Yeah. So I just remember. This is why I remember it, because grades would all be good. All these being nice to others and all this other stuff. Awesome. Doing good, but accepts criticism cheerfully every time I got dinged on it. So, like, actually taking, like, you know what he said to heart and go, okay, yeah, maybe I do need to look inward and change things. And then also both putting effort in. That's huge. So we were kind of thinking, like, how do we kind of, you know, like, make it easier and summarize? So we were like, okay, why don't we use the acronym spouse and fit in? Like, these things that we figured out working together and. Because initially, like, when he came home, he would not go outside and work by himself because his. His brain was so I couldn't do any injured. Like, he couldn't even measure and cut something. He was.

[B]

So I remember one time we're was building the deck and I was cutting a spot for the. The 4x4 post to come through the deck, right? So just measuring out. I got my square, measured it, and I cut it, and it was Like, I don't even know how I was like, this is not even close.

[C]

Yeah.

[B]

And I did it again and I messed it up. And I went through two pieces of redwood.

[C]

And I'm like, yeah.

[B]

And I'm like, why is. What is going on with me?

[C]

So it was like, really, I couldn't even process. But I mean, thankfully, but not thankfully, I had a medical incident. Imagine that, me having a medical incident. So I had one of the complicated migraines where it's like stroke, like, symptoms. And I had to stay in the hospital, did all these tests. But what happened was I. My short term memory, my personality, like for probably two weeks, my brain was not functioning. So I remember I had called the incident on. On a Tuesday. And then I was going back to school at 30 years old the following Tuesday. I couldn't even remember my schedule or what I was supposed to bring. So I had to write everything down. Like, looking online and I was driving to the school, like, no, no hunger. Nothing was funny. Like my brain and was just not functioning. And I remember thinking, like, I cannot live this way if this is a long term, you know, way that I'm going to be. But what happened was that was just temporary. And it allowed me to have the patience and understanding that he needed because I could kind of relate in a small way to what, you know, he was going through. So, yeah, a lot, A lot of it is, you know, putting yourself in that other person's shoes.

[B]

Yeah.

[C]

So that's why I think, you know, we could work well together.

[B]

Yeah. Well. And, and so, yeah, with that said, we really feel called now to write a book because we, we know and we talk to so many people that are in, you know, married or, or struggling in marriage, or married and trying to get into business together, or they're doing real estate together and one does it or the other one doesn't, or they both do it and they fight or, you know, like, they're all this stuff. Like, I want to paint it this color. I want to paint it this color, all that stuff. And we get this all the time. And I'm like, man, like, we need to do something about this. We just feel like whatever we can do to maybe help marriage or help people realize, like, first of all, marriage is an amazing thing. Like, there's so much to it. But. But it's only amazing if you put in the work every single day. And as humans, we're super selfish. So I'm like, yeah, like, I'll commit to you. Like, what are your needs right and then, like, I'm good with that for like, a day or two. And then I'm onto my needs. I'm like, well, Jeff's got to drive his new car. He just got, like, that's what Jeff needs to do.

[C]

Yeah.

[B]

But if I remember, like, why I got that car, because I have a lovely wife that told me, like, you get enough assets, you can buy your dream car. That's what matters to me. And, like, catering to her needs and taking care of her and stuff like that is, I feel like what builds and got and grows your relationship. And then with that, taking it into. Into business, like, you can become bulletproof business partners. But it literally just takes, like, commitment all the time, humbling yourself, learning, like, when. When you're not good at something. Hey, I'm not the best at this. You are. You show me how to do this. Because sometimes we let our egos get in the way, and I'm like, like, you're not going to tell me how to do this.

[C]

Right?

[B]

You know?

[C]

Yeah.

[A]

What advice would you have for somebody who says, I can't get my spouse on board with real estate? They don't seem to care about my. You know, I'm excited about this. I got the bug. I can't get them excited.

[C]

Oh, man. Well, I don't know if you've ever had this happen where you tell your, you know, like, your wife's like, hey, let's. Let's go over to this restaurant. It's really good. And you're like, oh, I think that's, like, vegan. I don't want to. And then Cam comes up and Cam's.

[A]

Like, you gotta go to this.

[C]

They had this amazing, like, portobello mushroom burger. And you're like, oh, we gotta go with him.

[D]

I will never suggest vegan restaurant.

[A]

Burger from. Oh, shoot, that place over in Lahaina.

[B]

No.

[A]

Oh, my gosh. It's like, the best. Anyway, taro burger. It's one of the best burgers I've had in my life. Anyways, total vegan restaurant.

[B]

Yeah.

[C]

That's crazy.

[A]

Anyway, shout out to the name of the vegan restaurant. I can't remember. That wasn't Lahaina. Now they moved up country and I don't remember their name.

[B]

Name.

[A]

Anyway, great. I love vegans, not vegan restaurants. So in other words, get. Get somebody else. So get them around other people. Send them a better life.

[C]

Yeah, the. And it's hard, too, when you're educating and they're not. But, yeah, what I tell people is like, oh, you've been doing it for three years, and your spouse is not on board. Like, don't give up. Like, keep with it, because it took him, like, 15, 16 years.

[A]

Yeah.

[C]

And then also, like, I don't know about you, but when somebody's, like, pressuring me to do something, then of course I resist.

[A]

Yeah, yeah. You got to see this movie. I'm like, no, I don't.

[C]

Yeah, yeah, right.

[D]

I failed the fitness challenge because I was told that I had to do it.

[C]

And you're like, oh, yeah, watch me.

[D]

I'm gonna sit at home and eat potato chips and not do Totally stuff.

[C]

Yeah, Yeah.

[A]

I also. I also encourage people a lot when they ask that question to me. Like, I like to find out why they want their spouse involved. Like, if their spouse is, like, actively, like, you should not invest in real estate. I don't feel comfortable. We shouldn't do it. That's not usually the case. Usually just like, they just don't care. It's not their passion. And then people use that as an excuse of why they're not. Because they don't want to admit that I'm just afraid of taking action. So they just say, oh, yeah, my spouse is on board, therefore I'm not doing it. Like, do it anyway. I mean, like, don't go against your spouse, but.

[B]

Right.

[C]

Yeah.

[A]

Don't use your spouse as an excuse not to take action.

[C]

Yeah, absolutely.

[A]

It's like, oh, I can't lose weight because my spouse likes to eat Oreos. It's like, they always have Oreos in the house. It's my wife's fault. She always has Oreos. Like, literally, my wife makes cookies every other day. And I. For years, I blame. I'm like, well, she. I mean, I. I can't get a six pack. My wife makes cookies. And then. Yeah. I don't actually think with Jason, my.

[B]

Better life, you know, better life coach.

[A]

Was just like, what's that got to do with you? Why are you blaming her? You're just the kids eating, like, oh, dang it, you're right. Shut up.

[D]

I think a lot of times it's an ego issue. They're afraid of failure if they don't have their spouse on board with them and they just fail. It's. This is all on me. But if their spouse is with them.

[A]

We probably their fault.

[D]

Yeah, exactly.

[B]

Exactly.

[A]

My wife's fault.

[D]

I mean, but that's what the root of procrastination is.

[B]

I think where it's.

[D]

There's afraid of failure 100%.

[A]

What is the spouse an acronym you alluded to. What is that?

[C]

So, so we were kind of like, okay, what are the big, you know, like, what are the. The biggest parts of this that we can kind of help people, you know, easily remember and fit in, and then hopefully we'll be able to, like, build on these as we go. But, like, so the first one is set goals together. So basically, I'm like, yeah, if you're side by side in a rowboat and you're not in agreement with what your vision is and where you're going, you're going to be working against each other. But like you said, it's not necessarily that they have to be, you know, equally as passionate, but just as long as you're not fighting each other, you know, like, you can still move in the same direction. And I think, like, also, maybe a spouse is not super excited about, hey, we can, you know, do all this hard work or we can live in a. Live and flip. But if you present them with, like, hey, where do you want us to be in 10 years?

[B]

Yeah. Yeah.

[C]

You know, like, because I. And it's weird because typically, I think it's. From what I hear, it's the wives that are not really usually the conquerors and the. You know what I mean? It's like, so.

[A]

Yeah. What do most women want.

[C]

Yeah.

[A]

Is stability.

[C]

Right.

[A]

And so therefore, like. And so then men sell it to their wives of like, we could live in a dump and we could be, like, really broke for, like, the next 10 years. Like, that's how.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

That doesn't sound stable. But if you're like, hey, we can have freedom from our job, and that's going to give us stability, all of a sudden. That's a way better sales pitch.

[C]

Exactly. Yeah.

[B]

And then plan, prepare, and pray. We added to that. Yeah, I love that one. Because, I mean, there's to plan. Like, that's when you set goals together. That's the big part of it is you got to plan things out. You got to prepare for where you're going to go. You got to know where. What. What. What the outcome is, how you're going to get there. And then, like, we. We love praying together.

[A]

Couples who pray together stay together.

[C]

That's exactly. Brandon Turner said that.

[B]

He did. Yeah. And actually, that's kind of where we started doing it. We heard you. Like, I'm praying with my. With my wife Heather and all that stuff, and I'm like, we need to do that. And as the. I guess we'll say the spiritual leader of the home or Whatever. For me, like, it was important for me to go to my wife and say, you know, we need to do that. So we do that. And like, last year especially, we prayed a lot over our goals and stuff that we set. We feel like it's very important to us just to talk to God and be like, here, God, this is where we're headed. This is the direction we're going. You already know where we're going to end up, but we're just telling you, like, this is what we have planned out. This is where we would love to go. We're going to make the steps and all the things happen. So prayer is just a big part of it. And. And he opens those doors. We noticed that last year with so many things, like, he just opens the door up and it's like, there you go, that. Lining people up, dropping them right in your lap, saying, this is what you're going to do. And it was just amazing. So prayer, by the way, big part of it.

[A]

A 1997 Gallup poll conducted by the national association of Marriage Enhancement reported that among couples who pray together daily, the divorce rate is 1 in 1152, less than 0.1%. That's not wild. Yet only 11% of couples actually pretty.

[B]

11%.

[A]

11% of couples pray together daily. But of those that do, the chance of divorce is 1 in 1152.

[C]

That's crazy.

[A]

That is wild.

[B]

Yeah. Married couples pray together.

[C]

Yeah. Like, and obviously, like, for that five years when we were never together, like, yeah, I don't really. We're not praying together.

[B]

Yeah.

[C]

Funny thing is, our relationship kind of suffered during that time.

[B]

It really did. So true. But, yeah, prayer is a big one. And then, like, the O is open communication. Like, we know as dudes. Like, you gotta communicate, and it's so tough. Like, like, open communities.

[C]

Exactly. Totally. I told you this three times. Remember where we were? We were sitting in the car.

[B]

Yeah.

[C]

Yeah.

[B]

And.

[C]

Yeah. And I would always, like, women think it's so obvious. And they're like, well, yeah, I told you. You know, like, oh, I don't think so. And, you know, like, no, thanks. That's how, like, I was so shy and quiet when I met him. Like, where do you want to eat? Wherever. I don't care. And then once I realized, like, his communication style is, like, that's not going to get through to him. I need to be very direct and to the point, but not be mean about it. So just sometimes I can be a little, like, overboard. But knowing how to communicate with each other and usually Married people are opposites, you know, like, tend to, you know, attract. So it makes communicating really difficult. But once you learn how to, you know, it's. It makes things so much better.

[B]

It's just. It's just a powerful. It's. It's. I feel like that's one of the most powerful things in a relationship, is how you communicate. And for me, like, I've learned in the last probably year or two, I feel. I hope I'm getting better at. This is, like, intentional communication. Like, when either my kids are talking to me or my wife's talking to me or anybody, like, just really in being intent and, like, listening to what they're saying, repeating what they're saying. And that doesn't happen all the time, right? Especially with us. With both of us having add, we're like, you know, she's talking to me, and I'm like, yeah. And I'm like, yeah, I totally heard you. And I'm like, I didn't hear anything. She's. So now I'll like. If. If she says something, and I'm like, I'll just, like, go, okay, don't say you heard her, because you didn't. And I just go to her and be like, I didn't hear anything. I'm sorry.

[A]

I do have to.

[B]

Heather all the time.

[A]

I'm like, I'm so sorry. I have no idea what you just said. Like, my mind was somewhere totally.

[B]

And it's embarrassing, but you just got. You got to own it and be like, I'm sorry. You know, like, let's. Let's try that again. Ready? Here we go. And then, like, let her say it. So. So.

[C]

And then I think, yeah. Not getting upset.

[B]

Yeah.

[C]

You know about it.

[B]

That's not the you, though. What is the.

[C]

Oh, you. Yeah. Understanding each other.

[B]

Yeah.

[C]

So this was. This was funny. I have to share this. So we both get Better Life T shirts, right?

[B]

Oh, no.

[C]

Yeah, I'm gonna say it. So we get these. When I was bigger and he was smaller. And so what did you get? A small. And I got a medium in the. And a couple weeks ago, he's like, is that your Better Life shirt? Because it looks small, but, like, you know, like, most women would. Like. And me, 20 years ago, like, I would go cry. And I'm like, dude, you jerk. Like, no, this is my shirt. Like, but thank you for calling me, like, burly. So. But knowing where he comes from, the where. Like, he's not trying to cut me down. Like, you know, he loves me and unconditionally whether I'm in the small or medium.

[B]

I gotta say, another one is funny too. I have, I have some good ones. Oh, Lord. So she played softball grown up. She was like the Nolan Ryan of softball pitchers. She had a full scholarship ride and all that. Like, well, whatever. You were awesome. She was amazing at it. You spent your whole, almost your whole senior year in bed too. From fibromyalgia, by the way. But anyway, like, I just like, her arms are like, awesome, right? And I'm like, dude, you have like awesome arms. Or like they remind. Like they're like Paul. You know, Paul Senior is from American Chopper. Remember that show? It was like, yeah. And I'm like, you got like paul. See, we were watching maybe at the time, but I was like, you got like paul Senior arms. And she's like, like, what the. Dude? Really? And I'm like.

[C]

I know, right? Like, how could you resist that?

[B]

Yeah. Understanding each other. Like, we felt that one fit perfect. Cuz that's, that's a big part of it. Like, I'm very unique at how I communicate.

[C]

Yeah.

[B]

A lot of that I feel, comes from my dad. Like, my dad would always say, like, because he's German, it's just all this like, brutal stuff. He's like, you're sick. I'll take you out back and shoot you. That's how like, Germans are. Right?

[C]

So. So our daughter, our 17 year old, that she's. She's actually home all by herself taking care of the dogs right now.

[B]

Love you. Odds are doing awesome.

[C]

Yeah, we miss you. So we, like, he'll make a joke and I'm like, oh, it's his German humor, you know, like, it's not funny. The rest of us, it's really brutal. But like, identifying it.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

All right, so we got P O, U. We have another S and an E.

[C]

This one kind of. We disagreed on what this should be. We're. We.

[B]

We voted.

[C]

We. Oh, did we? Like, the. The four of us voted. It was three to one.

[B]

Three to one? I think it was. Yeah. I don't know.

[C]

I. I thought it was. We're gonna keep that strategized strategy strategized.

[B]

So we're debating on this one.

[C]

Success.

[B]

I think sex is very important. I think sex, relationship.

[A]

If you're not doing that, you're not.

[B]

And it's weird now because my daughters are probably going like, oh my God, so gross. You sicko.

[A]

So I would, I would. You can combine these two. Strategize for success and strategize for sex. Because it is easy when you're working with your spouse to go too far into. We. All we do is business. All we talk about is business. And therefore, it's not a good way to, like, romance your wife if all you do is talk about business. And so you have to strategize for sex.

[B]

There we go. There it is. Deliver, scheduling, schedule it all.

[C]

Like, it's time.

[B]

Women love this.

[C]

That.

[B]

That's prob.

[C]

No, we'll be. Yeah, it's like 11 o' clock at night. I'm like, hey, can you stop talking about your ideas?

[B]

Yeah, that's probably.

[C]

Yeah, we. We have. We're working on that.

[B]

But that is. I feel like that's key, like, for men, especially women. There's. There's a. There's a special thing for women too, in that. That deal, obviously, like, emotionally, so bonding together. That's. That's. I mean, I told people this, like, a while back, like, if Christian or not, right? And they'd be like, like, I don't know this Jesus stuff, blah, blah. It's so, so weird. And I'm like, do you like having sex? What does that have to do with Jesus? And I'm like, he created sex.

[A]

Good point.

[B]

And I'm like, if it was, it was for reproducing. Right. But there's. We have such a good feeling from doing it. We enjoy doing it. Like, there's something very, very amazing about that. Yeah. Like, let's remember that, like, God created that for a reason. It's not just to reproduce, but there's more to it than that. It's. It's the time you share together. Having that moment, like, that's very special. And I feel like that's. Thank you, guys for Cam. For. For adding that in there. Because that's a win for the men. Right there.

[C]

For the men.

[B]

Yes.

[C]

So E. E. Yeah.

[B]

So E. Which is weird. My kids have now turned it off.

[A]

Yeah.

[C]

Everyone's tuned out.

[B]

Yeah. No, so E. Efficiency. Execute.

[C]

Execute efficiently.

[B]

Yes.

[C]

So this one. For a long time, I didn't listen to you, Brandon. I'm gonna admit this now, of, like, delegating. Like, that's also slowed our progress. Trying to do everything ourselves. And then there's only so much that you can do yourself. So you get to a certain point, it's like running out of your own money, where you're gonna run out of your own time. And so being efficient in your plan, a big part is delegating, but then also it's strengths that each one of you have. Like, why would I work 10 times harder at something he's awesome at and admitting that I'm not as good? A lot of it comes down to, like you said, the ego and the pride. So another thing is, I'm like, yeah, it's kind of weird, like. Like some of the things that we do, like him with, like, dishes vacuuming, like these, like, gender roles, whatever you call them. And I'm like, yeah, I'm gonna go do tile while you vacuum, honey.

[B]

We do everything.

[C]

It's like not having that ego and just doing what needs to be done. Whoever's better at it and can do it.

[B]

Yeah.

[C]

More efficiently.

[B]

The efficiency. And then, like, like you just said, that's a big one. That's. Our goal for the first part of this year is to automate our businesses and our Airbnbs, because we did everything. We were cleaning them. I mean, when I say everything, we did everything. And it was so tough, I'm like, what are we doing? Like, this is crazy. But it was so hard for us to. To really trust other people. Right. When you want it done right, you do it yourself, that whole mentality. And that's. It works for a while, but then there's a point where you have to start trusting others.

[A]

You gotta level up and.

[C]

Yeah, yeah, exactly.

[A]

Yes. I always say, like, the. I don't always say, but I've often said, like, sometimes the best way out is actually up.

[B]

Up.

[A]

In other words, like, the way out of your business is not to do smaller or to do more. It's to elevate your mindset, elevate your leadership. That's how you get out. That's how you go play golf on random afternoons because you've got people doing the Airbnb, so you can go golf and network, which is a higher level event.

[C]

Yeah.

[A]

At least that's what we tell ourselves when we go. Exactly.

[D]

I'm sticking to that.

[B]

Right.

[A]

All right, guys, this has been amazing. We've got to start moving towards the end. It's going to be one of our longest shows ever. But before we get there, let's get to the 3, 2, 1, pivot. So these are things that have changed your life, the direction of your life, made you pivot. We'll start with three books that have changed the direction of your life.

[C]

Oh, well, I mean, everyone says it, you know, what's coming. Rich dad, poor dad.

[B]

Yeah.

[C]

That, you know, started it all 20 years ago for both of us. And then one that I had that was different than Jeff had, which was kind of what we were Just talking about is a four hour work week.

[B]

Yeah.

[C]

Which I'm like, like, oh, that's possible.

[A]

Yeah.

[C]

Like, huge. And then you had a more recent.

[B]

Well, Victor Frankl. Yeah, man. Search for meaning. Like that. I read that when I was. I was going through my post traumatic stress like that. Just the mindset that guy had, like, when he went through all that, I'm like, what the heck? Right? I felt like that was just an eye opener for me. And then rich dad, poor dad was just the whole, like, make money work for you. Yeah. And I'm like, that's like, what the heck? What have I been doing this whole time? I just, like, my mind immediately picked up, like, little dollar bills that go into work for me. Like, okay, here's one. Go get them, guy. And that's really what it is. And it just opened my mind to a whole nother world. So. Yeah, let's book number three.

[C]

We gave three.

[A]

Oh, yeah, that was three.

[B]

All right. Three. All right, cool.

[D]

Two pivot people who are two people of his. Change the direction of your life.

[B]

Yeah, that's good.

[C]

They're. There's like, the before Jeff me, and there's the after Jeff me. And I'm like, yeah, I would still be, you know, like, safely moving along if he didn't push me. You know, like the motivator. Yeah, exactly. Where he's like, you have all these good ideas and you're not doing them. Like, you need to do them. So that encouragement and then. Yeah, I get. Do I get a second person?

[B]

You can try.

[C]

Okay, I'll get a second person. So I guess, like, after becoming a mom, that was a really change in my level of competitiveness and increased my compassion. So thanks to Aubrey for that.

[B]

Yeah. That's amazing. Yeah. I feel like for me, there's people. This is pivot. Right. So, like, I just want to say, like, my dad, I spoke about earlier, he's grounded me. Me and my wife has grounded me. Like, consistent. They're both very similar, like, very quiet, and they just go about their business. And she led by example. The things I would see her do changed my life. Like, it just made me know, like, consistency and just doing what you need to do and just no complaints. Just keep working. And the same with my dad. So those two, like, grounded me for sure. Pivot, though. This is good. Like, her dad, he showed me real estate. I used to go with him, and he was like, we were like, flipping houses, all these. He had crazy stuff going. He's just buying, like, how many in a Weekend or whatever, right? All this crazy stuff. And he. He's the guy that's like. Goes all in. He's like, we're gonna buy the whole country. Like, right? Like that kind of guy. And. And just like, I didn't really know a lot about it, but working with him and helping him flip houses and learning just. I was like, man, this is so cool. Like, this is just a crazy. What the heck? This is not like any other business, Right? So that was a big part for me. And then Ben, Humble. He probably doesn't know this, but I saw him in Vegas.

[A]

I love Ben.

[B]

Yeah. And it was. So he said to me, he just, like, walked. He, like, threw a water bottle at me or something. Like, what's that guy? What the heck are you doing? And he's like, hey. And we started talking. We're on our way back to the event, and. And he goes. He's like, oh, what are you guys doing? Like, real estate, blah, blah. And he's like, that's cool, man. I've had all that stuff, too. And I said, man, I said, we want to really grow this year because that was our first big year of growth and everything. And he goes, like, give people a hand up, not a handout. He's like, just go help people. Like, do for others. And it was so funny because that was something I loved doing as a cop. I love being a cop because I wanted to, like, do for others. I really wanted to, like, when I show up at scenes and like, look, I know you lost your car, and I know all this stuff's so bad, but you didn't lose you. You know, you're not replaceable. Like, God made you unique. Your car, that's a Honda. They have a hundred of them, thousands, millions, whatever. Can get another one. So when he said that to me, that really changed my focus when I was like, I want to go get all these things and do all this stuff, but it's not about me. I wanted to go and change other people's lives. And if I can implement that with my wife, too, and just go help other people and contribute and pour into other people's lives, we'll see the outcome of it and that through better life tribe and all that. The outcome was like, like, so many blessings coming back towards us.

[D]

It's amazing.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

What about a pivot quote? Any quote that you live by.

[B]

Yeah. In the Bible, be still and know that I am God. And I don't know. I don't know why that is, but I take my daughter hunting and when we're out, like, I tell her, Adam, like, hey, look, like, you have to tune into nature. You have to just sit quiet and like, listen. You're not going to find the deer or anything like that. If you're making noise, like, you really have to be quiet. And I, I told her that verse. I'm like, be still and know that I'm that one. It's just short and easy, easier to remember for me, which I love. But there's so much power in that to me, because when you go out in nature, you just look out there and see what God's created. That's what it's where it's at. Like, we get so caught up in the hustle and bustle and all this stuff going on. But if you just take a moment, like when I was walking up on your deck and as I took a step and looked out over the. I just stopped for a second and I'm like, this is God. Like, not just the view, but this whole thing lining up. Being on this, on this podcast, it's like, yeah, we have to remember all this stuff is, it's not ours, it's God's. And we, if we just be still and look at and pay attention to that, that moment, like, it's cool.

[D]

That's awesome.

[C]

So mine's a little, a little different. Sir Edmund Hillary. The. It's not the mountain we conquer, but ourselves. I think that that has been something we've really learned, you know, like before you can go do the things, it's work on you, you know, you're what's stopping you. You can do anything.

[B]

But yeah, amazing.

[D]

Awesome. So the next little segment, we're going to go into your past, present, future, and we're going to start with the past. So if you go back in time and tell 20 year old Lexi or Jeff a bit of information, what would that be?

[B]

Get into real estate sooner.

[A]

Good.

[B]

Listen to your wife.

[C]

Totally. Yeah. Actually, yeah. No, I wish, like, I could just say, like, don't care about what other people think sooner. Just go and be confident, you know, earlier.

[A]

What about in the present? What's an action or habit or something you've done recently in your life, you've enacted and it's made your life a little better.

[C]

Oh, it. I hate it, but it does make my life better. Getting up early.

[B]

Yeah. Dang.

[C]

Yeah. That was, you know, like one of the. Oh, I want financial freedom so I can sleep in.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

Yeah.

[C]

Oh, just kidding. So I can get up earlier.

[B]

Yeah, that's good for Me, I would say, honestly, it's been coaching because you're talking recent. Yeah. And the other big one to me is we have a granddaughter.

[D]

That's awesome.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

The 31 year old grandpa. Good job.

[C]

Yeah.

[B]

Yes. Yeah. I'm like, dude, like. And it's so crazy to look back at me like, we're grandparents. Like, that's so cool. So we just celebrated her one year birthday and it's cool. That's just amazing.

[A]

Super cool.

[D]

Okay, so last question. Looking into the future.

[B]

How.

[D]

How do you guys want to be remembered? Like, what do you want your legacy to be?

[B]

Oh, man, I just. Talking about my granddaughter. We're. I'm big in like generational wealth building. I want my, my, my, my granddaughter, my kids and all that to, to have something to, to continue on in their lives. But I want, I want to teach that to him. Yeah. I don't want to just give it to him. I feel like there's so much that we think as parents, like save up, give them money or make sure they have something when we pass away, because it can happen at any moment and that's good, but that's not where the value is at. Right. I go back to. Both of us grew up on farms and ranches and stuff like that, and our parents taught us how to work the soil, how to plant, how to harvest. We did all that stuff. And even in real estate or whatever it is. And it's not to like guide your kids down that path and say you're going to do real estate, but teaching them that if they want to be doctors or whatever or be the next Elon Musk, go for it. Right. But like, teaching them the foundations of what you do is key because when you pass on someday, you want them to carry that on. Know, like, hey, mom and dad have all this, you know, real estate and stuff. We can sell it and buy a house on the beach and lose it all in, in two years or we can continue this on and pass this on to our kids and grandkids. So I really love like generational wealth building. That's been a very big passion of mine. So it's awesome.

[C]

Yeah. I think for me it's. I want everyone to think that their life was better by having me in it, you know, like, like just helping everyone that I can.

[B]

My life's better with you in it. Good.

[C]

I'm glad to hear that.

[B]

That's better than the pulse in your shirt. Yeah.

[A]

All right, let's close things up. Two quick questions. First, what are you excited for what's coming up in your life? Life.

[C]

O.

[B]

Let's go. I'm going to go all in on this campfire mastermind. I am like.

[A]

So let's explain what that is real quick.

[B]

Yeah, yeah, Just real quick.

[A]

I know it'll be passed by the time this episode airs, but you'll do it again.

[B]

Yeah, we're going to continue it. So March 5th through the 8th. Kevin Thon is also going to be he. It's his campground. He's got a bunch of koas. And that's another amazing thing to invest in, by the way.

[A]

He's going to come on the podcast. Solid.

[B]

He's so amazing. But you and I were just talking. We were talking about the Better Life events and stuff like that, and they cost a lot of money and blah, blah. And I wanted to do. I just thought, like, if you could do something, we can bring our kids. Right? Like you bring your kids and they're awesome running around and stuff like that. But for a lot of families, it's tough to do that and like, the events are a little costly and some of them. And we just thought of, like, camping. And so we're going to do this event. It's only 20 better life members and their families. And we're going to be really tight group right. Where it's going to be very, very focused. We already have a lot of questions and things that people are going to be. We're going to be working while we're there. But the greatest part of this whole thing is it's going to be like, around the campfire, like, community building. We're going to be cooking together, dinners, lunch, everything. We're going to be doing it as a community together and playing games, going on all this stuff together. So I feel like. I just think that's another part where we're going to pave in this generational wealth. Building to teach parents and like, look, enjoy your kids. And then again, like that. Be still and know that I am God, like in nature and being out and camping is like round of fires. There's so much there. So I'm excited about that.

[C]

Now I feel bad about saying mine more realistic. No, I. So we want to. We're working on getting our processes and turning over, like these three facilities and self storage. But we want to, you know, grow more in that. And then also pad split.

[B]

Yeah.

[C]

Really want to. You really want to do that. He's trying to make me stay focused. But, you know, maybe toward the end of the year once we get.

[B]

Yeah, you're Always. And I love it, though. I'm good with that. We'll jump wherever. Yeah. Real estate's an adventure. Like, investing is an adventure. Like, don't just. A lot of people stick with one thing. Like, if you want to do things, go do it. That's what I think. There's a lot of passion with. With the husband and wife, too. Like, get into that stuff. Do it. You know, there's a lot there. It's. It's awesome.

[D]

Cool. Love it. Where can people find you at?

[B]

Jeff and Lexi on Instagram. We're so big on there, it's crazy. We did a live today, and I don't even know. I didn't know how to turn off the live. See that anyway. But yeah, Jeff and Lexi on Instagram. Stash investor on Instagram for me, and then Bowden Mueller Properties. Okay. I know it's hard. I told him Bowden.

[C]

Too hard of a name.

[B]

I know, but it's there now. It's all done. It's Bowden B O D E N Mueller. M U L L E R. Bowden Mueller. That's it. It's easy. Properties.com is. It has all of our stuff. We have a book coming out working on right now and all that, too, and in circle. Yeah.

[A]

This is our community for the Better Life Tribe. So come hang out. Better Life Tribe, a Better life dot com. If you want to sign up, we'd love to have you all day. All right, guys, thanks so much.

[B]

Amazing. Appreciate it. Oh, yeah, there it is.

[A]

Thank you for tuning in to another episode of the Better Life podcast. We hope you enjoy the show. I hope you got some valuable insights to help you lead a better life for you and your family. Now, hey, if you found value in this episode, please consider leaving us a rating and review on your favorite podcast platform. Your feedback helps us to improve the show, helps us reach more people with this message of living that better life. And be sure to subscribe to the podcast so you never miss an episode. And hey, before I go, this show is all about the habits, actions, beliefs, and strategies that can give you a better life. But in case you're interested and you want to know my opinion on what it takes to live the best life, not just better. And that's from, like, a more spiritual and faith standpoint. Check out abetterlife.com bestlife. Thanks again for listening, and we'll see you next time on the Better Life podcast.