Latest / Coffee Playdate Podcast with Dr. Olga Deengar / From ER Physician to Assisted Living Entrepreneur: Ep 35 Building Homes with Heart
Transcript
- Dr. Olga Deengar: Welcome to the Coffee Playdate podcast. I have a very special guest with me today, Dr. Alex Schloe Welcome. Dr. Alex Schloe: Thank you, Olga, so much for having me on the podcast. Thank you. Dr. Olga Deengar: It's a pleasure. I'm so excited for you to be here. I'd love to know how do you like your coffee? Dr. Alex Schloe: Absolutely, I got it right here. ⁓ little bit of vanilla creamer. That's it. Keep it simple ⁓ and I love it. Dr. Olga Deengar: How many cups a day do you drink? Dr. Alex Schloe: Way too many. Probably how many pots would be a better question. I drink about a pot of coffee a day and I do read all the research that says coffee is good for you and ignore all the research that may say it's bad. Dr. Olga Deengar: way to do it. Amazing. So first we're going to start off with playing a couple of games. The first one is called rapid fire questions game. I'm going to ask you to choose between one answer or the other, whichever, whichever one you like more. Just go with your gut instinct. You don't have to explain yourself. Ready? Dr. Alex Schloe: I'm ready. Dr. Olga Deengar: First one, own and lease or own and operate. Dr. Alex Schloe: Own and operate. Dr. Olga Deengar: How about zoning approval or investor approval? Dr. Alex Schloe: Zoning approval. Dr. Olga Deengar: earning active income or owning cash flowing assets. Dr. Alex Schloe: cash flowing assets all the way. Dr. Olga Deengar: And last one, Air Force discipline or entrepreneur flexibility? Dr. Alex Schloe: Now entrepreneurial flexibility. Dr. Olga Deengar: Some of these are tough. You want to choose both, right? It's just for fun. The take a sip game, same concept as rapid fire questions, but this time we both answer the question. And if our answers match, then we take a sip from our coffee cups. Here we go. First one, education first or action first when getting started? Dr. Alex Schloe: Absolutely, absolutely. Sounds good, I'm thirsty. Education first. Dr. Olga Deengar: ⁓ I'm going to say action first. I've been stuck in like analysis paralysis, you know, for too long. So I think if you just take that tiny, tiny action step first, you can always get the credentialing and the education, you know, whatever you need to do ⁓ to start the business later. So Dr. Alex Schloe: Okay. How about take the action for a little bit of education and we both win? Dr. Olga Deengar: Yeah, that's a great point! Sign up for that course! about this one? Freedom of time or freedom of income? Dr. Alex Schloe: Yeah, absolutely. time. Dr. Olga Deengar: Me too. Freedom of time all the way. Cheers. Campfire stories or surfing in the ocean? Dr. Alex Schloe: Campfire Stories. Dr. Olga Deengar: ⁓ I'd have to say surfing in the ocean. Dr. Alex Schloe: I love them both. I love them both. Dr. Olga Deengar: And the last one, Yellowstone camping or a Disney vacation with your family? Dr. Alex Schloe: Yellowstone all the way. Dr. Olga Deengar: Yeah, so I wanted to choose Yellowstone, but we haven't done a Disney vacation yet. So I'm going to go with Disney vacation because the kids are still pretty young and I think they would be really entertained. Dr. Alex Schloe: It is magical, we just went last November and it was so much fun. Very tiring, but so much fun and so cool to see the magic through their eyes, it was awesome. Dr. Olga Deengar: Did you go to California or Orlando? Dr. Alex Schloe: We were in Orlando. Yeah, we went to Magic Kingdom. Yeah, it was really fun. Dr. Olga Deengar: Yeah, I love that. So Alex, I know a little bit about you, but can you tell our listeners today a little bit about yourself and the amazing work that you do? Dr. Alex Schloe: I would love to. Thank you so much. Yeah, I'm Dr. Alex Schloe Most importantly, I'm a Christian. I'm a husband. I'm a father to two wild boys. I'm an entrepreneur, as we'll talk more about real estate investor and Air Force veteran. I practice medicine now part-time, just typically two days a week. I've been really fortunate to achieve financial freedom and have that flexibility. And I love teaching physicians how real estate and entrepreneurship can give you the freedom to practice medicine and live life how you want to. We really focus more on the assisted living space doing that. So really grateful for the opportunity and able to share a little bit of knowledge here. Dr. Olga Deengar: That's amazing. And that's such an interesting space to be in. mean, real estate investing, but doing it in the assisted living kind of niche. What sparked that interest? What got you into this? Dr. Alex Schloe: Yeah, absolutely. Well, it's a long, long story. So I'll give you the most brief and concise story I can. I've always been in the assisted living space and exposure to that. My first job as a W-2 employee, I was 15. I think I was making like $5.45 an hour, maybe six bucks. I thought I was rich. Was at an assisted living facility. And to be frank, it was decent, but I remember thinking even at that time, like there's gotta be something better than this in terms of providing good care to seniors. Fast forward to residency, we used to round on some assisted living facilities and round on patients there and had one interaction that really stuck out to me. And we walked into this facility, you're immediately hit with like that smell of urine and a little bit of bleach. And the place was completely full and there were residents laying on the ground on mattresses because they just didn't have enough space. And one of the patients we were gonna round on, she was laying on a mattress on the floor, covered in her urine, covered in her feces. clearly in late stages of dementia. And long story short, we couldn't find a caregiver. So my co-resident and I started cleaning her up. Caregiver comes running around the corner like her hair's on fire. She was like, I'm really sorry. I'm taking care of like 15 other residents. was coming here next. We're like, it's okay. We just want to help as best we can. But in that moment, I looked down and I saw this woman and what I pictured was my grandma that we call Gigi. And I was like, I would never want my Gigi or anyone else's Gigi to be in that situation. But at the time, I still didn't really know how to best like combat that. And then ⁓ fast forward a little bit more. And I'm in a mastermind called the war room, which is for military members who are ⁓ pursuing real estate and ⁓ entrepreneurship. And one of my now partners, Luke, was in that mastermind with me and we were in a squad. So we would meet every week, which is incredibly valuable. And Luke was like, Hey, have you guys heard of residential assisted living? I think I want to get started in this. And he told me all about it. And it's typically you know, a large single story home that's been renovated or retrofitted or repurposed to provide exceptional personalized care for seniors, usually anywhere from six to 16 residents. ⁓ And so he told me about this. was like, man, this is incredible. Like this is the answer to the resident who was laying on the floor on a mattress under urine and her feces. This is the answer for grandmas and grandpas all over the United States. And so since then, we decided to go all in and started purchasing some of these. And then we're really fortunate to be able now to start a mastermind over the last year and a half or teaching other people about it and bring in the experts in the space. And our goal is to open a thousand of these across the United States and empower entrepreneurs to do that. We're not personally opening a thousand and but it's been really, really cool to see that journey and see folks who are getting started. So it's been such a blessing. Dr. Olga Deengar: Wow, what a memorable moment. mean, looking at the patient on the floor, in the urine, in the feces, a horrible vision of this, and then trying to figure out how do you solve this problem? How do you find good care, get the patients into the right places, to the right residential facilities so that they can get the caregivers attending to them and really. being taken care of. I think there's so many people that are, you know, retiring and are elderly and the population just keeps growing and growing. So we need to find good homes for these folks. Dr. Alex Schloe: Yeah, I think the biggest thing right now is just awareness. So many people don't even know that residential assisted living homes exist or are an option for care. So I think that is huge. And then as a whole, just getting these open. I think physicians are really uniquely positioned to be able to open these homes because we really understand the care that needs to be provided. Now, the hard part is kind of the time and the flexibility, but there are some ways to invest in assisted living that don't necessarily require you to be the boots on the ground operator day to day. But the biggest thing I would say is just awareness. mean, if we look at the demographics of the nation and the silver tsunami, right now there's 77 million baby boomers in America. Seven out of 10 of them are projected to need long-term care, which is 59 million boomers. And it's projected right now that we're anywhere from 645,000 to a million beds short as is in the assisted living space. ⁓ And that's gonna continue to increase as more and more of these baby boomers age. The first boomers just turned 80 and the median age for assisted living is 82. So we still haven't seen that really huge influx over the next couple of decades of boomers that are aging into these homes. So there's gonna be a massive senior housing crisis if we don't do something about it. So this mission is massive. That's why we're so passionate about it because there's so many grandmas and grandpas who need really great care. who don't even know that this is an opportunity or an option for them. Dr. Olga Deengar: Yeah, so what's your plan? How are you going to do this? Dr. Alex Schloe: Well, first I'll take a sip of coffee. ⁓ So the big thing is just education. It's just really getting the word out there on awesome podcasts like this, talking to a bunch of doctors who are interested in the space. And then of course our mastermind called the Railroad Assisted Living Masterminds where we're educating folks. And that's the way that we're going to be able to do this, right? It's like bringing an incredible community of people together who are action takers who want to get started, who want to open these homes. and given them the tools, the resources, the insights, the community, the accountability to do that. And as the mastermind grows, more and more homes are going to be able to be opened. And as I mentioned, we're shooting for a thousand homes here and along the way, empowering entrepreneurs to do that, but also to create financial freedom with those homes. And so that's the way that we're going to be able to do it. And then hopefully get a little bit more involved on the policy and education side at a larger level, which I think will be helpful to educate folks on. ⁓ A ⁓ lot of things that we're doing, a lot of different projects, but I'm grateful to have the time and the opportunity to do it now. Dr. Olga Deengar: sounds so exciting and I love that you've built this mastermind and are getting more physicians aware and involved as part of the project. Now, has there been a mindset shift that you needed to have when you're pursuing this entrepreneurial journey? Dr. Alex Schloe: Absolutely. There's been a ton of them. And I remember thinking when I first kind of started in this journey, I was a lot more focused on how do I do it? Like, hey, just tell me how to buy the rental property and make some cash flow. And I would hear people say mindset and be like, ⁓ my gosh, here we go again. this, don't want to hear anything else about mindset. I just want the tactical. What I've realized over time is the mindset piece is so incredibly important. Tons of different mindset shifts for me that the things that really stick out is the importance of like having a vision whether that's like a vivid vision a one-year three-year five-year plan whatever that works best for you and Having that having that available for you reading it after you write it Because a lot of folks will like write their vivid vision and never look at it again And they wonder why it doesn't happen but trying to read it as frequently as you can having different ways to remind you like on my podcast we were talking about it and My phone background is basically like my vivid vision come to life. So every time I pick up my phone, I'm seeing that my word of the year is abide, because I'm trying to focus on being a lot more ⁓ present and mindful of being like just with the people that really matter most. And ⁓ those are the big things that really come top of mind. And I promise you, if you take the time to do that and put the effort in to like really build a fantastic vision. and you follow that, you're going to achieve things you could never imagine. It's like that Tony Robbins quote where he says, most people overestimate what they can achieve in a year, but underestimate what they can achieve in a decade. And when I sit back and look at my journey, I'm like, holy cow, that is so true. I can't believe what has happened in the last five years compared to just what's happened in the last year. And it's been an amazing journey. Dr. Olga Deengar: Yeah, I love that you have to have your vision, you have to have your purpose, and those are really the key mindset tools to help you get through this. Now, what if a challenge comes along the way? Have you had any challenges that you can share with us and how did you overcome those challenges? Dr. Alex Schloe: So many, so many challenges. And I think we all will. We're all going to hit different stumbling blocks and roadblocks in our entrepreneurial journey. I think the biggest challenge for folks listening to this podcast though, is the challenge of taking action and getting started, as you mentioned. Like so often we get stuck in this analysis paralysis mode, especially as physicians, because the physician mind is like such an amazing thing, but we're used to like taking in so much data and information and synthesizing that going from there. And the hard part is when we don't get all that data or information, then we're like, ⁓ no, I'm not really sure what to do. And so I think that's where education is really important. But I also think just having that willingness to take action is really important. is like the biggest stumbling block to get through initially, especially as I talk to more and more physicians who are looking for some degree of financial freedom or time freedom and they... they just need to get started and they're kind of stuck in this like, I want to analyze every single asset class and have all the information before I even take that first step. ⁓ I like to talk about it kind of looking at, you know, shiny object syndrome or picking your asset as a, go into an ice cream shop and you walk in and there's all these different flavors and maybe each flavor of ice cream is a different asset class, like multifamily, short-term rentals, long-term rentals, assisted living. And in the beginning, you don't really know necessarily what you want. So just go in and just ask for a sample. So maybe that's doing a little bit more education, joining a mastermind, investing a small amount of capital to figure out like, Hey, do I like this sample of ice cream? And then once you do go ahead and just get the full scoop and just get after it. And so for anyone wondering, my favorite flavor is chocolate chip cookie dough, but also assisted living. But I think just understanding that and understanding it's okay to take those free samples until you figure out what you want. and then go all in and go from there. So that's, that's how I would answer that question. I know there's a lot probably to unpack in that, but I think just really having the willingness to get started and take action will get you through the biggest roadblocks initially. Dr. Olga Deengar: That's such an important point. What was that first maybe tiny action step for you as you're getting started? Dr. Alex Schloe: Yeah, absolutely. ⁓ First for me was realizing that I had the time to start educating myself. And I first first read Rich Dad Poor Dad, which is like a lot of people probably got started in that space like Rich Dad Poor Dad, the White Coat Investor started listening to like the OG Bigger Pockets podcast when that got started. And this was all while I was a fourth year med school intern in residency. And then from that, was like, Hey, I'm just gonna have to find time. know, residency is a crazy time. We're working so much, like just got to find time to educate myself in the space. And fortunate for me, I really love that. I've always loved learning. All of us typically love learning. And so it wasn't like a burden. I was like, Hey, I'm gonna go for a run and listen to this bigger pockets podcast episode and learn more about real estate investing and go from there. So just finding that extra little bit of time that you have in your busy day to learn a little bit more is going to compound. so much over time and really helped me succeed. Dr. Olga Deengar: Yeah, and I'm glad that you kind of started on this journey so early on in your medical career because a lot of people kind of stumble upon entrepreneurship later on in their lives. And now that you've grown your business, I would love to hear, is there a time when you've gone above and beyond for your teammates, your clients, your loved ones, just creating extraordinary, meaningful experience for them without kind of breaking the bank? Dr. Alex Schloe: Yeah, absolutely. Well, the one that comes top of mind is probably it hasn't happened yet, but it's one I'm most excited for. I am breaking the bank, but there's a reason why and I'll explain that. But my dad has been the most influential person in my life by far. He's just absolutely incredible. And he always works so hard as we're growing up. He'd go to work at six in the morning so he could get off at two thirty so he could come. to all our baseball games and our wrestling matches and all our events. Like I don't remember a time when my dad didn't show up. And so he really, really just poured into us. And I love that so much. He worked incredibly hard. He got his GED and then ultimately did really well for himself, but he never had the opportunity to travel a whole lot, both from financial reasons, but also just time reasons because he was working a lot. And so he just recently retired. So my brother and I over the last couple of years, as he's been... ⁓ getting ready to retire, we've been saving some money to take him on an epic trip. So we were able to text him and call him after he retired and asked him we were on the phone with him. He's like, Dad, if you could go anywhere in the world, wherever it be. And he said Iceland. said, Great, you're going to Iceland and we're going with you. So ⁓ in September, we're going for 10 days to Iceland with my dad, my brother and I are paying for everything. We're gonna go for 10 days around the whole ring road of Iceland. It's going to be absolutely incredible, like bucket list trip for him, but also bucket list trip for us. It's just going to be such a cool time to all be together. so super, super excited about that. It's breaking the bank a little bit, but it's been safe for over time. And we're so excited for it. Dr. Olga Deengar: ⁓ I'm so excited for you. That will be a trip of a lifetime, an unforgettable experience. And I'm so glad that you'll also get to come with your brother and of course your dad on that trip. Dr. Alex Schloe: Yeah. Yeah, we're so excited too. And I think like that's something that's so beautiful about entrepreneurship, right? And like having some time freedom and some financial freedom and being able to kind of chip away at this over time, you know, and be able to do this trip and just not worry about like, hey, I'm just going to go for 10 days in September. And I'm lucky to have the flexibility to do that. So just really, really grateful for that. It took a lot of work and time, but gosh, it's going to be so worth it. cannot wait. Dr. Olga Deengar: That's for sure. And then I wanted to ask, is there one piece of advice that you would give someone who may be starting out in a similar space as you? Dr. Alex Schloe: Yeah, absolutely. think advice I give often, especially to residents is consider house hacking. And for people who don't know what house hacking is, that's basically utilizing some living space in your house to rent that out. So how it works perfectly for residents is once you become a resident, you can get a physician loan, which is a no money down primary residence loan product. So you can buy a house with no money down. And this is how I bought my first now rental property. It cost me $58 out of pocket. It was no money down. But what you can do is, rent out those rooms to your resident mates, right? Like you buy a four or five bedroom house, rent out each of those rooms to one of your resident mates. You're going to be working like crazy anyways. And then pocket that cashflow or at least live for free while you're in residency. And that will really set you up for success going forward, whether that's paying off student loans or jumpstarting, you know, your road ⁓ to success in terms of financial freedom. So house hacking is a really big one. Dr. Olga Deengar: That's a great tip. We also actually got a physician loan for our primary residence and it was 0 % down payments. ⁓ Dr. Alex Schloe: Yeah, it's amazing. I've done it a couple of times now, which is really, really cool. Our house here in Colorado Springs is nobody down. We still house hack it. Actually, we have a separate basement apartment where we do short term rentals and midterm rentals there in the basement. And if you average it out over the whole year, it comes close to paying all our mortgage taxes and insurance. So we almost live for free in Colorado Springs. So it's just a really, really fantastic opportunity. Dr. Olga Deengar: That's incredible. Cool. Alex, I'm curious to know how has your definition of success changed over time? Dr. Alex Schloe: That's a great question. I think for me, it's freedom. ⁓ I think we all kind of go through these stages of freedom in our journey that we're trying to achieve. the first one is financial freedom. I think a lot of times people think financial freedom means like I have to replace all of my doctor income in like the next six months. That's not it. It just baby steps going forward. Like start investing, start getting some alternative income coming in so that you can start having a little bit of time freedom. And as that stacks, you're going to be able to have more and more freedom over time. So first would be that time ⁓ or sorry, would be financial freedom. Then that's going to buy you that time freedom. And then ultimately that's going to lead to like mental freedom over time and freedom of giving, which is like the most exciting thing for me is like, Hey, how can I honestly make as much money as possible? So I can give as much money as possible and like go on these trips with my dad and bring friends along and, ⁓ you know, donate to different causes and all those sorts of things. So I think that's what success means for me is just really boils down to freedom, freedom of money, freedom of time, and then that mental freedom as well. And the freedom to give like crazy. Dr. Olga Deengar: Yeah, and the freedom to spend the time with your family and maybe take them on these big adventures, it all comes together. And I think that's a really great philosophy to live by. Dr. Alex Schloe: Yeah, absolutely. Spending time with my family is like what this is all about. Like we have about two and a half months of camping like already lined up in the calendar that we're doing. Now we have a little camper. Last year we did three months in like Yellowstone, Tetons, Glacier, Rocky Mountain National Park, a bunch of stuff. And it's just like such a beautiful time and experience. And for folks who are listening, like if you have young kids and you have the ability to get a camper and travel, it is the best because you're like forced in a small. area, you're forced to hang out around the campfire and chat and the kids are forced to get outside without electronics and go to these like absolutely amazing places together. Like that's by far the like the best money I've ever spent was buying our camper. So so grateful for that in that time. And just the ability to have some flexible time with the family's just so great. Dr. Olga Deengar: ⁓ I love that. I have to try and get a camper like to rent one because we've never done a camping trip yet. Our youngest is one year old, but maybe in a year or two we'll be able to take him. Dr. Alex Schloe: Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, it's, it's the best Olga. Yep, you can do it. We, ⁓ we started taking Jack our oldest probably he was probably about a year year and a half. ⁓ and our youngest ⁓ was six weeks. And we started taking him camping and we're like, Hey, if he's just gonna cry and be upset, we might as well do it camping. So he actually slept way better in the camper and still does than he does at home. It's really interesting. I think it's just like that tight confined space, but ⁓ it's, it's so much fun. Dr. Olga Deengar: Put them in there every night. That's it. Dr. Alex Schloe: I know, seriously, put the baby monitor in, toss him in the camper, yep. Dr. Olga Deengar: And Alex, I'd like to finish off by asking if there's one book that you would recommend for listeners today, what would it be? Dr. Alex Schloe: Well, I'm Christian, I'd say the Bible. But if it's just getting started in entrepreneurship, I would say Rich Dad Poor Dad. It just really changes your mindset. And so that's Rich Dad Poor Dad by Robert Kiyosaki. Great book. Dr. Olga Deengar: That's one of my favorite books as well. There's just so many different perspectives there. And it helps you really understand that you could have a different life if you have a different mindset around it. Dr. Alex Schloe: Yep, 100%. And it's very fitting for physicians because sometimes we get stuck in that trap of like that, the lifestyle creep and you know, we make more money, but we spend way more money and we never feel like we get out of the rat race. And so it's a really, really great book for folks. Dr. Olga Deengar: And Alex, if our listeners want to learn more about you, where can they find you? Dr. Alex Schloe: Absolutely. If you want to learn more about assisted living, the ralroom.com is a great way to do that. We have a podcast, have more about the mastermind, we do a free webinar every Tuesday night. So feel free to join that. And then if you want to find me, I'm the only ⁓ Dr. Alex Schloe who's in assisted living space. And you can find me on Google or anywhere more than happy to connect and help anybody out. Also have a podcast called Physicians and Properties that Olga was just on and it was awesome. to have her there. So give that episode a listen. And for folks who are listening to this, ⁓ Olga's incredible giver, a five star rating and review on your podcast platform of choice, because it's so hard to grow a podcast and she deserves it. Dr. Olga Deengar: Thank you, Alex. That really means a lot. I appreciate that. And I love being on your podcast. We had such an insightful conversation. It was just a lot of fun. So physicians and properties, check out Alex's podcast there. We'll have everything in the show notes, of course. Dr. Alex Schloe: Awesome. Dr. Olga Deengar: Well, thanks for joining us today, Alex. This was a lot of fun and I'm so happy that you were able to share such incredible insights onto your entrepreneurial journey and hopefully even inspire some of our listeners to pursue their own journey into the real estate world. So ⁓ thank you so much again and I'll see you next time. Dr. Alex Schloe: Thank you so much, this was great.