Latest / AHA Podcast / The Choice Is Always Ours: Dr. Erin Hudson on Turning Pain Into Purpose (ep 13)

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The Choice Is Always Ours: Dr. Erin Hudson on Turning Pain Into Purpose (ep 13) · AHA Podcast

• erin hudson: What good can I find in this situation? Like it's so easy to go to the negative and write down 25 things that are just not going well in your world and how it's going to affect you. And then you go to bed and you've got that on your mind, and then that's what you wake up with. But imagine if you change the mindset just a wee bit. And you said, What is the good that I can find in this right now? What I'm battling right now, how can I find the good? And just for a couple scenarios, like my gosh, when I was going through and they weren't sure if it was melanoma or cancer, whatnot, is our family came together so tight, loving on each other, having just that level of love of what if, right? And it's just you can't explain it, but that level of closeness and tightness with your family, Had that not happened, we would have never been able to experience the level of love from each child in my family to each other, to their mom, right? Ali Andrus - AHA Podcast: So welcome to the AHA podcast. And I am your host, Allie Andris. I am so so excited. we have Erin Hudson here, and I just thought she would be the perfect guest for today because she has some incredible stories about resilience and turning pain into purpose and The beautiful things that can come out of grief and loss and building it into something incredible. And she just has such a very magnetic beautiful energy that speaks for itself. I know that you're going to love her. And she's also a mom of five. She's a grandma. She's run like sixteen marathons, I think. At least she does it all. I don't know how she does it all. she's done service in Nicaragua and other countries. you'll probably have to fill me in there. But yeah, welcome Erin. So happy to have you here. Thank you. erin hudson: How are you, my friend? I'm so good to see you. Ali Andrus - AHA Podcast: I'm good. this is the highlight of my day is seeing your face. erin hudson: You're the sweetest in the whole entire universe. Let me tell Ali Andrus - AHA Podcast: Thanks. erin hudson: you. It's been a crazy, wild, busy day. I'm so excited to be here. I would just say, look, I met Allie at a conference and how many of you for listeners have ever met someone and you just feel like you've known them for forever? That's exactly what it was with Allie and I. Like our souls just connected and the rest was history and it felt like we were just best friends forever and ever and ever. So it's an absolute pleasure to be here and I hope I add some value to your listeners today. Ali Andrus - AHA Podcast: You absolutely will. Yes. So okay, tell us a little bit about your story, where you came from, and I know that you have some stories of totally shifting direction in your career. What led you to that? Let's start back there. erin hudson: Woolly smokes. Well, tell me where you would like to start. I'd I'm happy to share a little bit about my childhood that will help level set. How's that sound? Ali Andrus - AHA Podcast: Let's go let's go to little girl erin, yeah. erin hudson: Okay, well, I love it. I love that we're here, you know, together and we're getting to have this chat. And look, I think from grief to purpose, my gosh, I've had my share of stories. And the thing that's really cool is there's nothing more beautiful than vulnerability. And vulnerability is what builds trust and what's deepens relationships. So I hope by the time that we're done here that you feel not so alone because the truth of the matter is we're all dealing with our own little issues, and anyone that says they're not. Is full of crap. So that's super cool. Well, listen, I will level set just a little bit about my, if I may, share my story about growing up and kind of what that looked like and how Ali Andrus - AHA Podcast: Yeah. erin hudson: things have been along the way with my journey and where I'm at today, right? So let's go there. So I think I will start off with look, I wasn't born amongst a family where we talked about cash flow. Passive income, retirement, like those terms were not flung around my household. And I was raised by blue-collar parents, five children, and my parents worked very, very hard, but money was not a strategy for them. It truly was survival. And I think from a very young age, I was just the odd duck in my family. There was, like I said, five kids, and my brothers and my sister used to Always I can remember this for as far as I could even go back that they would say, what kind of Kool-Aid is Aaron drinking today? Because truly back then and still I feel like I'm the girl that just sees things differently. And from there it went on to, you know, growing up in a household where, you know, when I came running home from school, knocking on my mom's bedroom door. She had gotten home from work. It was five o'clock. I was 12 years old, and I'll never forget knocking on her door and saying, Mom, you know, I really want to share what happened at school today. And her response back was, Erin, I'm tired. It's been a long day. I just need a little breather. I'll be out in a little bit. And if I'm truthful with myself, that was her response on the regular. And it was, you know, I don't remember back then how I responded, but I will tell you, I would have never forgotten. How I how I felt. My gosh, it like makes me get emotional right now just talking about it. Because as a 12 year old, you just don't understand. And gold, that's wild. You just don't, you know, at that time, like I said, I don't remember how I responded, but you just don't forget that feeling, right? You just feel, geez, I'm just starting off and we're already getting emotional. Ali Andrus - AHA Podcast: What? We get real here. erin hudson: Think as a 12-year-old, like I just remember feeling unseen, unwanted, not important. And you know, look, still clearly issues. 49 years old, and it still makes me teary just thinking about it. But I don't have issues, it just takes you right there as you start to give the feelings and so on and so forth. But, anyways, I will never forget that feeling of just being unwanted and unseen and And truthfully, it's not me sharing this because my parents were bad parents. I think that you know, they were actually very loving and kind, wonderful parents. But the thing of it is, is that they were doing what they knew. That was all that they knew at the time, right? Is they were doing what most people were doing. Let's just be frank. They would get up in the morning, go, you know, wake up, have breakfast, go to work, come back home. have dinner shower up to wake up the next day and do it all over again. And here's the thing: it was really they were just so busy building somebody else's dream, not because they wanted to, but that's the only path and the way that they knew, because they were just following what their parents' parents did, right? So it was called a generational curse, my view. And so look, it's really interesting because when I look at it. And I go through it now in my head, or I have over the years, that is the time that it really planted a seed in my head and in my heart that over the years, I just really all I wanted, it wasn't like a lot of people are like, look, it's it wasn't about the money. It was about time, it was about presence, it was about just feeling like having that love that you needed, right? And so for me, it was in due time from that. seed being planted, I realized that I wanted my life to be a little bit different. And so as I journeyed on, I began just to ask myself questions along the way, like there's gotta be another way. I want a different life. Like, and so that's what really led me into that journey and passion for becoming a doctor and opening opening up my own practice. And from there, you know, moving on to I was doing single family rentals while I was in practice. And then I'll never forget, one day I had a friend that said, Hey, listen, I would love to have you come with me to this multifamily presentation. And I remember thinking and saying out loud actually, multifamily, that's for billionaires, and I'm certainly not one of them. And I ended up going to the event, I sat in the front row, and I'll be honest, my arms were crossed. I sat in the corner. And in the front row, and I probably had a really bad looking scowl on my face because I was the skeptic in the room, right? And then all of a sudden it was as if the Red Sea had parted and I could see I could see a completely different, like it was like Monopoly, I like to say it was like playing the game of Monopoly because I had already had a handful of single family rentals, 26 to be exact at that time. And I had been playing the game on Vermont and we all know that Vermont is like the cheapest rent on the board, right? And then all of a sudden I realized that I was worthy and capable of landing on boardwalk and I could see a totally different level of the game. And so I made the jump and I pivoted and I literally reinvented myself at the ripe age of forty and went all in on multifamily and burned the boats in California, moved to Texas to jump in and I took down my first deal after being in an education. I joined actually a mentorship for a $40,000 price tag. And it took me almost two years before I actually got my first deal. And I'll pause. That's where I'm at right now. And we can go into the crazy story that unfolded, but I'll just see if you have questions before we go there. Ali Andrus - AHA Podcast: Yeah, as you're talking, I'm just thinking about how much courage that took to reinvent things at the ripe old age of 40, which now sounds young to me. I'm close to your age, but I mean, to be the one that breaks the mold, it also takes so much courage. And it's so much about seeing your worth and shifting your mindset that you are worthy and capable of these things and being able to envision it and then actually start acting on it through the fear. I mean, I would assume that there was fear involved when you took these jumps, erin hudson: 'Cause I left my, you know, I had a nice salary, so to speak, that was gone, right? I hired other doctors to come into my practice and I was no longer treating patients. Ali Andrus - AHA Podcast: Yeah. erin hudson: but I'm also the girl that can't have one foot in and one foot out. I gotta be all the way out and get focused if I'm truly going after the other thing, right? So it was what I had to do. Ali Andrus - AHA Podcast: Yeah, absolutely. Yeah, so beautiful. erin hudson: Yeah. Ali Andrus - AHA Podcast: Okay. So yeah, let's hop into what was next. erin hudson: Yeah. So I did jump into the multifamily space. And like I said, it was actually 18 months to the date from when I had joined the mentorship group to be able to purchase my first apartment building. And I ended up partnering with a husband and wife. They were part of the mentorship group. And they found the deal and it was a little over five million dollars. And they asked if I wanted to partner with them. I found out what they needed and they said you know, if you could raise the money, that would be great. So I raised $2 million and let's just put it this way, we closed on the apartment building. And three days after we closed, I went to go into the bank account. And sure enough, there was money missing from the bank account. And to some, it may not be a big deal. It was $35,000, which is a lot, but it's more the principal than it is the dollar amount. And all of the sudden, every fear, scare, thought, every emotion you could imagine just went through my head. And All of a sudden I realized I was in bed with frauds. And when I called them to find out as to why they took that, the wife said, well, my husband found the deal. So he's a broker. He should be compensated. And I said, I hear you, but we talked about this beforehand. As a matter of fact, the purchase contract said zero dollars for the buyer's agent. And so that was that. And I had to hire attorneys to get them off. But there was a lot of self-reflection of what in the heck were you thinking? How in the world did you end up partnering with these people? Like you're a good judgment of character, like how in the world, right? So there was a little bit of you're such an idiot. What were you thinking? And when you have something like that that comes over you, the next best thing to do is to go into self-reflection. Like where did it go wrong? And literally walk through what could have possibly happened there. And let me tell you something. There's something that you can do to vet an individual that you can get a pretty good reading. And I always say it's just the lunch date. You go on a date, you go to lunch, and it's super important to see how a male or a female treats the waitress and how courteous they are and kind and welcoming and all the things. And I'll never forget when I went back to go analyze as to where I had dropped the ball and where I did a U-turn or a not a U-turn, but a 90-degree turn in the wrong direction, it was just You know, the husband wasn't courteous to the waitress. He wasn't a jerk, but he wasn't kind. He wasn't Ali Andrus - AHA Podcast: Yeah. erin hudson: go out of his way at all. it was like he wanted to be served. And then another time the husband and the wife, when I was at their home, they had gotten into a little tiff. And how dare I allow that? That's just not respectful whatsoever. But here was the reason. I was so eager to do the deal, and I had been in the blocks for so long trying to get Like I thought I was close with one and then it would go to the wayside and didn't work out. And then another one I'd get so close and then it didn't work out. And I let down my guard and I allowed it. Well, that's the horrible story of it. I will tell you that I had to hire attorneys. I had to get them out of my company. And I wish that I could just say that that was the end of it. But how many of you have ever had a cut like You've had a cut before on your arm, and you just know if any salt touches that little wound there, you are gonna jump out of your seat because it hurts so bad if it hasn't healed all the way. Well, clearly there was a long time of trying to heal, but it was prolonged and prolonged and prolonged. So let me pause here and I'm gonna come back to the story as to what unfolded, but let me just fast-forward you for a moment. So that was that. I thought, what in the heck am I gonna do? This is crazy. If this is what multifamily is like. And I want nothing to do with them or it because I had come from being in private practice. I had two wellness centers, 30 employees. I didn't have any partners. I didn't have any money partners. I did not have any debt in my practices, more partners. So I didn't know what that was like. At the same time, I owned 26 single family rentals, free and clear. I did not have any partners and I did not borrow any money. Conversation for another time. We can we can go there, but. I guess let me just say this much. For those that are wondering how in the world does one acquire 26 properties in two years, was there just this massive amount of cash to do so? No, it was really where I'm a girl that likes a discount. I love finding deals. And I got started in the real estate space and I would buy three homes. I would turn around and sell two of them and keep one for free. I would turn around and sell two of them for the same price. I bought all three. And then I would. One for free and I would rinse and repeat. And the last thing I'll say is these were not five hundred thousand dollar homes. These were forty thousand dollar homes in Indianapolis, Indiana. So there's that. So Ali Andrus - AHA Podcast: Mm. erin hudson: fast forward, I end up this three weeks after this whole thing has unfolded. My education company that I had paid the forty thousand dollars to be a part of, they were putting on a big annual conference. For all of their students and all of the people out there that could be prospects to joining. And I'll never forget, they called me up to the stage and they said, Listen, we want to give you an award for closing on your first deal in the first 18 months of our program. Let me just tell you, I had never experienced imposter syndrome in my life. And as I walked up to the stage, all I could feel was this tail between what felt like a tail between my legs. Ali Andrus - AHA Podcast: Mm-hmm. erin hudson: So foolish coming up and getting this award after what had unfolded just weeks prior. And I get up to the stage and the MC goes, You've got to tell everyone what you did. And I'm a deer in headlights, like, I didn't tell Ali Andrus - AHA Podcast: Mm-hmm. erin hudson: anyone. Like, what are you talking about? And I sat there stunned, which felt like was forever. And finally she says, No, what you did in Nicaragua. It went around the office and everybody was just in awe. And of course, all of the fear, all of the pain, all of the frustration, all the sadness and the scaredness all just dissipated. And out of my mouth, I said, listen, I said, I take my kids and we travel around the world to places like Haiti, Belize, Nicaragua, Israel, and we just go love on the poor, the hurting, the orphaned. And we've gone to orphanages and brought Christmas to them, and we've built an orphanage and we fed the poor and the kids in Haiti eating. You know, pancakes of mud and for sustenance and all the things. And so my kids had gotten to explore all this. And I said, Listen, if you ever have a chance to serve those that have far less than you do, your heart will never be the same. And as Ali Andrus - AHA Podcast: Yeah. erin hudson: I stood on this stage, I started to get tears coming down my eyes. And I felt this burning in my belly and I couldn't kick it. And all of a sudden, out of my mouth, I said, I'd love to build two more homes. Hold on, scratch, rewind. So after I closed on that first property, what I said while I was under contract is if I close on this property, I'm gonna build my 12th home. We had funded 11 of them. I was gonna build my 12th home. It cost five, $5,500 to build a cinder block, 250 square foot home for these mamas. They were actually moms living in the trash dump with their children. And so I had built 11 of them. I said, after I close on my first property, I'm going to build a 12th one. I did that. It went and funneled through the whole office. And so that's what she was referring to. So as I was standing there on the stage, I felt that burning in my belly and I couldn't kick it. And all of a sudden, out of my mouth, I said, I'd love to build two more homes if I can get two people to match me. And I'll never forget. I felt like 10 minutes went by. I felt like, what in the world did I just do? I'm at a multifamily event and I'm slinging my philanthropic cause. And all of a sudden, this man, strapping man from the back of the room says, I'm in for 5,500. And a woman in the front row says, I'm in for 5,500 to build a home. And within 10 minutes, all these people started popping up everywhere. And I had raised $55,000 and was able to build 10 homes for the single mamas in Nicaragua. And I got off the stage and I felt like paparazzi was all around me, Allie. It was people just saying, Look, I don't have 5,500, but I have 500. And this woman said, I have a hundred. And I'll never forget taking my hand and putting it across her heart and saying, Ma'am, the Lord doesn't care the amount. It's the desire of the heart. Literally, she starts bawling. I end up going into my hotel room that night and I was like, Lord, why did you put that on my heart? I could have got dejected off the stage. And as clear as day as night, he says, those that rise to the occasion to pour in such a great a cause as this are the exact caliber of people that you need to link arms with. I thought it was a weird response that I felt in my being. And wild story six months later. Remember, I was gonna leave multifamily. I stayed the course, I went to the event, I get this download, and six months later. Quattro Capital, my equity real estate firm was birthed. And the fire starter from the back of the room at that event six months prior became my partner. And the woman in the front row who raised her hand to build the second home became my partner. And so the net of it is this: when you link arms with people that are on a mission to soak goodness into the world, you cannot help but to have massive amount of success. And I feel like that's exactly. what happened. I mean, within three years we acquired two hundred million dollars in real estate and provided not a house but a home to over two thousand families. And that is enough to get my goat and just be excited because we're not just changing people's lives. We're changing communities at the same time. So Ali Andrus - AHA Podcast: Gosh. Erin, that's so good. That's erin hudson: Okay. Ali Andrus - AHA Podcast: so beautiful. It's so cool. And I've heard it like when you're in alignment with your assignment, like that's when you get in the flow state and the right people just start magnetizing towards you. And erin hudson: Yeah. Ali Andrus - AHA Podcast: like I know that had to come when you're doing something that's gonna benefit so many people and do so much good, the God or the universe, whatever, will move mountains to help you get there. And and the fact that you kept going to erin hudson: Yes. Amen. Absolutely. So let me let me close that loop. Remember, I told you I would come back. So that Ali Andrus - AHA Podcast: Yeah, let's do it. erin hudson: work with that couple that I started with, it was a long three year process. Three years that they would file, you know, something with the court, and then I'd have to hire an attorney and go fight bad. And then I went to go sell the property. We bought it for five, five point two, sold it. I think it was for seven point eight million. And I'll never forget they had put a Liz pendens on the property when I went to go sell it so that it couldn't sell and I had to hire an attorney for that. Okay, are you ready? This is the tip of the iceberg. This one is really deep. So Ali Andrus - AHA Podcast: Mm, yeah. erin hudson: all of the sudden, mind you, conversation that maybe we'll hit in a minute, but I went through a really treacherous divorce as well. I'll Ali Andrus - AHA Podcast: Yeah. erin hudson: never forget at the very beginning of my divorce. I was maybe two months in and My ex was living in one house across the way and I was living in the other house. And unfortunately, he was pretty upset that I had left. And so there was no talking. He didn't want to communicate with me. I was like the devil, right? So Ali Andrus - AHA Podcast: Yeah. erin hudson: I'll never forget one night at ten o'clock PM, I get a phone call and I see it's his name on the phone. And I'm like, why is he calling me? This is crazy. Like he won't even talk to me. No way. So I Through the phone and he says, Hello. And I could hear fear in his voice. And I said, What's the matter? He goes, You're not gonna believe it. I've got this guy on the other line. I can't even believe I'm sharing this story, but listen, it's for people to really, it sounds crazy, but just hear me for a second. he goes, I've got this guy on the other line, and he actually was hired by this couple that I had done business with to take out our family. And I said, You've got to be kidding me. That doesn't even sound real. I said, Well, how do you know? He goes, Well, he's on the other line. I said, Well, great, patch him in. So he gets patched in on the call. And I said, Can what in the world? What are you talking about? How are we supposed to know this is real? And he goes, Well, I'm looking at your driver's license right now. You live at da da da da da. And he said, And I have a picture of you and your husband at the gym. And I know all your kids' names and says all five of my kids' names on the phone. And then I said, Well, text those over to me. And he texts them over to me. Sure enough. And I said, Can I just ask you something? If you were hired or about to be hired for this, why are you calling me? And I'm telling you, I could get teary again just hearing this. He goes, listen, he goes, first of all, I was told that you stole $7.8 million from this person. Well, what was the $7.8 million? That was the purchase price of what we were selling it for. And I said, so why are you calling me versus moving forward with this deal? He goes, Well, I've got your driver's license here. And I looked at your picture and I could see in your eyes, and I knew that there was no way you were someone of that nature that would go steal from somebody. I said, Well, then I appreciate that, but why have you not gone to the cops? And he goes, Ma'am, I will tell you I'm an ex-convict and I'm tattooed from head to toe. I've already tried to go to the cops. And they won't do anything about it because there was never an exchange of money. So, of course, we called the cops. The cops came to my ex's house and put in a whole police report. They went to the other party and went and took computers and everything out of their house. And because truly there was no exchange of money, there was nothing they could do, but they brought them in and said, if anything happens to this family, we've already got a tag on you guys. But talk about crazy that somebody would be so upset that they would go to That extreme, right? So what I'm getting at, it was a wound for three years. And and mind you, I'm sitting here having a panic attack as I'm talking to this guy. And of course, my voice is loud. So I get off the phone, and all my kids had had their ear to the door and are like, Who's coming to kill us? What's happening? So imagine having to ex explain that to a little six-year-old all the way up, right? To my five children. So Anyways, it was just a really hairy hard time. And but it turned into a great story with the outcome of what came from it. And because I went through all of that, every morning when I wake up, it's very easy to like pinch me. Do I really get the pleasure with working with the most insane, incredible souls who have a heart for people and want to sew goodness into the world? And my love for them is so much more great. than they are for me because I've experienced what bad partnership is like and and all the things that came with it. So here's the bottom line. When things happen to us, we can either be the victim or we can be the victor. And the choice is ours, right? Ali Andrus - AHA Podcast: Yeah. Exactly. Exactly. That's beautifully said. Yeah. Holy cow. I don't know if I knew that part about your story. erin hudson: You probably didn't. You don't share it to be honest. I sound Ali Andrus - AHA Podcast: Like erin hudson: like a whack job. You know, most people don't have thirty minutes to hear a story like that. So I don't want to scare someone by sharing it, but it's the real truth. You just don't know that anyone can be could go to that level, right? But they're out there. Ali Andrus - AHA Podcast: yeah. erin hudson: My thing was I wanna believe everybody is good and great, right? Well, you prove Ali Andrus - AHA Podcast: Yeah, same. erin hudson: me otherwise. And I'm very much a handshake kind of girl and always have been my whole life. But that's not the world works. Contracts are important more than just a handshake. Background, ooh, I learned hard lessons, friend. Like all the things that I needed to do, which is I dropped the ball. I didn't do a background check. I didn't even know. I didn't even think about that. Right. So you better believe round two. I already had my fillers and everything up because I'd been so jaded. And so my new partners that I had coalesced and brought together, I was like, look, I couldn't tell them what I was going through. It's embarrassing, right? So I literally said, look, you know, I've done done partnerships before. And I, if it's okay with you, like I'm happy to do my own background check, but I'd really like to have a background check on all of you. And then from there, it's like you learn so much from the crap that you go through. So then the first deal, instead of me going and raising all this money with this new partnership of the five of us, guess what I said? I said, let's try each other on for size. Let's go do a deal together. And then when we go do a deal together, let's bring our own money to the table and let's all play full out. Let's see if we really like each other. And then we can go from there. And really, it was that one deal turned into two to three to four. But I was so jaded. It wasn't till our fifth deal that we came together as Quattro Capital. And then it was like from there. So really powerful. You just have to be willing to really. Dig in to see where you screwed up because we're all flogged, right? We just have to have set our ego aside and be willing to really decompress, debrief, open up and see where we went wrong because it was so painful. And I never want to have to go there again. Do I still make mistakes? Absolutely, but I'm never gonna wait, make one like of that caliber, right? Yeah. Ali Andrus - AHA Podcast: Yeah, yeah. my gosh. and it's so amazing too that you didn't let that jade you. Like you still kept going and you're still big, beautiful, loving heart is still there and you're not like bitter towards I mean that that's giving into the victimhood is letting that jade you you definitely didn't do that. You're still trying bright, you know. erin hudson: Yeah. I mean there's multiple stories of things and everyone always is like, you're in real like it's just like the same thing, like being in practice. And I had a couple of wellness centers and they're just like, you're like, you've got the gold, like everything's great for you, but they don't understand the pain and the things that we go through that are heavy as an owner, right? The last to get paid. We got to make sure our staff is taken care of. Same thing in the Single family space, they think, my gosh, you've got 26 and you've done 231 buy and sell transactions with your turnkey company. It just must be easy breezy for you. No, it's not. As a matter of fact, can I share one more story? This one won't be as monkey, but it's really, it's really a cool story. I think that there's so much that you can learn about people through their trials if they're willing to be vulnerable, but not everybody goes there. And it's just life lessons. Like, how can we not? The reason I share is because it's not that I want to air my dirty laundry. It's like I want to help other people so they can avoid the pitfalls and not have to go what I go through what I went through, right? So, for example, I started to invest in Toledo, Ohio when I was doing my single family rental properties while I was in practice. I was slinging deals in between, see adjusting patients. And I actually was doing another one of those. I bought three properties. I was gonna sell all three of these properties, right? So I had them with the title company. They were all set to be sold. All three of my buyers went and put their money. I had already bought them. They put their money in escrow. I had already done six transactions with the same escrow company. I wake up the next day, the transactions are done. I call the title company and I'm inquiring about my funds. When can I expect for those to be wired into my account? They said, they should be coming today. The next day I wake up. They said, there was an error with the account number. can you please correct that? Send it back our way. Okay, no problem. It's going to be there tomorrow morning. And I woke up the next morning and I felt the pit in my stomach and I knew something was the matter. And I tried to get a hold of them, get a hold of them. The phone rang, phone rang, phone rang. It ended up being a fraudulent title company. And who would have ever thought, right? Like, do your due diligence, but with a title company? and I had been referred to them from another friend who had already used them or a colleague that had already used them. Well, long story short. Those funds that were put in there were from my three investors. They weren't my direct family, but they were friends, right? So we called them family. I had a little inner battle. It was like, well, I never got the money. Those are my homes. I'm not just gonna eat. I think it was $125,000 for all three of the homes. I'm not gonna eat it. I didn't screw up. And literally, I had to say it was like some serious self-talk. I ended up giving those homes. To each of those individuals that sent their money to title. And I never got my hands on the $125,000. So it was a massive loss for me. And I think that, you know, look, we can say what words are cheap. Actions are so powerful. And you want to be with the right people that know you, like you, and trust you. And you do good, sound business without manipulation. And that was the biggest lessons learned. It was so painful. And then in the back of my head, it's like, look, it's just money. It's easy Ali Andrus - AHA Podcast: Yeah. erin hudson: to make. And then in the Bible, it talks about what the locust stole, you're gonna get an infinite amount later. And so I've always just had that. It's all gonna work out. He's gonna bless me abundantly in the future. Maybe not now, but it's gonna be coming, right? So, anyways, come to find out that title company with the previous, I think it was six or seven homes that I had closed with them. Yes, I got the money, everything happened, but. The titles were never transferred to the new owners because remember it ended up being a fraudulent company, but we didn't know at the time. And so I had all these tax bills in my name and all these water bills in my like it was a it was a mess anyhow. Cause they were supposed to have done all the things. It didn't happen. But the bottom line is that He ended up going to prison and he took other investors like myself, millions and millions of dollars and had all the transactions closing on the same day. So he could go grab all that money and send it off to the Cayman Islands or something. Yeah. Right. So it doesn't come without its little ups and downs, right? But it's not linear, right? There's ups, downs, and we have to take, you know, what we learn and know that we're never gonna go there again and mitigate as much as possible. So hard lessons, but I feel like in life as I start to have these hardships and trials and tribulations, the next trial and tribulation is a little bit heavier and it's a little bit harder. And then I go back and I look at all the little things that I've walked through that have been like game stoppers and I thought I was gonna die at the time. And how am I ever gonna survive? And now I look at it and I'm like, that's a blippet. Like that's not even a big deal, right? But I think the biggest thing is this is like, look, if we cave under pressure, shame on us, because when we posture ourselves in the right way, he blesses us beyond measure. And so I just I choose to just believe that that's how it works. He's gonna promote us to the next level if we hold strong and do what's right. So Ali Andrus - AHA Podcast: I a hundred percent agree. That's erin hudson: Yeah. Ali Andrus - AHA Podcast: all so beautifully said. my gosh. Yeah. erin hudson: Okay. Ali Andrus - AHA Podcast: yeah, you've been through it in the business world, haven't you? And personally. I mean, yeah. erin hudson: Pretty wild. Ali Andrus - AHA Podcast: You have such a resilience. And yeah, yeah. erin hudson: Thanks. I appreciate it. Ali Andrus - AHA Podcast: And it is about sharing your story because that really gives so much hope and inspiration to other people because everyone feels those same things. Everyone feels the disappointments or the imposter syndrome that you talked about. And especially hearing it from someone who has found such success, like you have. to hear where you came from and where you've gotten to and that you even feel the same things. I mean that's so helpful to know. Yeah. erin hudson: Yeah. No, for sure. Absolutely. Ali Andrus - AHA Podcast: I mean the I think the the thing that benefits people the most really is turning turning that pain into purpose and do you want to take it like a personal story maybe maybe your divorce erin hudson: Let's go there then. Let's go there with the divorce. And the reason I say that is because let's think about it for a second, Allie, the divorce rate's above 50% right now. I mean, that's Ali Andrus - AHA Podcast: Yeah. erin hudson: that's mind blowing, right? And I think Ali Andrus - AHA Podcast: Yeah. erin hudson: there's a lot of people that unfortunate divorce is just it's a sad thing. I feel for anyone having to go through it. And I think I feel for it, it's more painful for me when I think about it because I think of what it does to children, right? More than just the this husband and wife. it's the effects of the children, right? I think are the most painful. And I applaud the husbands and wives that are nice and amicably can sever the relationship and have it be as amicable as possible for children, but I know that that's not reality all the time. Right. And so I Ali Andrus - AHA Podcast: Right. Right. erin hudson: feel like my story is, you know, my what mine was is is I think that a lot of people are afraid to share about Ali Andrus - AHA Podcast: Yeah. erin hudson: know things going wrong, but I also feel like that there's a lot of women, and I'll speak to the women that can relate to this is I have to be careful of how I say my words, but I don't want to be too disrespectful, but let's just be real here, right? You can snip out whatever you want is that, you know, I was married for 19 years and my ex was a a secret alcoholic. So any time that I would leave to go out on business because I traveled a lot for work, that is when it would happen, right? And then I got it just started to escalate, you know, it was not often. And then all of a sudden when I was traveling, it would go on and then I would get calls from call it my kids, and you know, that they would be like, Dad's at it again, he's really drunk. And and then you just have to think for a moment, like put yourself in my shoes as a mom that's trying to go out and provide. For her family as the breadwinner in the family, the guilt and the shame that follows knowing that I'm out of town and there's nothing I can do, right? So that's really how it escalated. And we just got to a point I can share with you, you know, for those that are faith driven, I'm very much a prayer warrior, whether it's the universe or whatnot, but I'm very much a prayer warrior and I feel like I am just. such a nice person and I forgive and I forget and I forgive and I forget and hold on, I forgive and I forget, right? If any of you listeners can feel that, Ali Andrus - AHA Podcast: Yep. erin hudson: and can relate. And so, you know, I felt like I just needed to keep giving it a try and just be kind and it's gonna, he's gonna change and all the things, right? And here's Ali Andrus - AHA Podcast: Yeah. Yeah. erin hudson: where it all came down. I actually was building a brand new house and we were getting ready to close on it. And about two months before we closed on this house, he had one of his little episodes when I was away. And I was done. I said, you know what? I said to him, I filed for divorce. And by the way, divorce never was a word that was flung around our household. Never. And I had had it. And I filed for divorce. And he came to me. With a Word document. And he said, because he never thought I would do that. And he said, you can have our kids full time and you can have our whole entire estate if I drink again. And I'll never forget. And then we went to therapy and we were going to go to a marriage conference. And I remember bawling. I was like, he hit rock bottom. He really knows I'm serious. Like, my gosh, this is amazing. I was like, Lord, hallelujah. Right. So Anyways, what happened was is it was time to close on our house. And I was driving to the title company and I said, Text, I'm on my way. I think I'm gonna beat you. I'm little bit early, super excited to turn over a new leaf. And that was it. We built this beautiful house in our neighborhood. And I got to the title office and I went to go walk in the door. no, hold on, rewind. Sorry, I gotta get this in. So two weeks before close, he says to me, Hey, listen. I've got to have my parents on the loan of this house because if we have your name on it, it opens up Pandora's box with all the real estate that we own. And I said, No problem. I said, as long as they're not on my deed, on our deed, then that's let me say that again. No problem. As long as they are not on our deed and they're just the guarantors, great. Okay. And he said, Yeah, no problem. So we get to the title company. He's already there. It was very clear when I walked in that room, I could cut the air with a razor blade. Something was off. And the parents were sitting there, he was there, and I got the documents and I said, Hey, to the notary, I just want to confirm that Hank and Marnie Hudson, they're just on the docks for the loan, not on the home. And I turned the page and sure enough, there's their names on my home on the deed. And I said, ma'am, do you mind stepping out for a second? And she steps out and I said, and the mom, his mom had already left. And I said, I feel like I'm being bamboozled right now. What's going on here? You were just supposed to be on the loan and you're on the documents of my house. And they both said, the loan person must have screwed it up. And the dad says, Well, it's okay. We'll just quit claim you afterwards. Well, quick claim myself off. And mind you, this was a Friday. Monday was Memorial Day. And Tuesday, our rate lock expires. So I begrudgingly signed the documents. Clearly, they were all dog eared. And so they thought that I would be the idiot that because I'm always in a hurry. Go, go, go. You know that about me, Allie, that I'm just a go girl, high energy. So they just thought, okay, Erin's gonna come inside and then she'll be on to the next. So when I was in the room and I said you could cut the air with a razor blade, my ex asked me a really weird question because he was uncomfortable and he was trying to understand. sidetrack me and I got it right away. So clearly they had been there an hour before and signed all the documents. So I sign the documents, I get in the car, I'm driving home and I start bawling. And I get enough courage to get on the phone and I called the title company and I said, Miss Jennifer, this is Dr. Hudson. I said, listen, I need you to stop funding on blah, blah, blah address. She goes, you've got to be kidding me. they're not gonna extend one more time because the build kept taking forever. And mind you, here's how it went down. I got gaslit as I was driving home with my ex saying, like beep, beep, beep, beep, beep, you're gonna make us lose our house. You can tell our kids what the blank are you thinking? All this out of the middle of nowhere, right? Mind you, he then doesn't come home until late at night on Friday night. Saturday morning, he leaves and doesn't come home. Sunday is our daughter's baby shower. He doesn't make it to the baby shower. And I can't even believe I'm saying this, but it's okay. It's all good. He calls me on Sunday at 4 p.m. and I can hear the fear in his voice. And he said, I'm so sorry. And I said, What is the matter? And sure enough, he got pulled over and got a DUI. So within 24 hours, the house issue, lack of integrity, and he gets a DUI. He tells me this. I I feel like I'm reliving it right now, goosebumps, because he tells me this and a download comes in. And it was honestly, Aaron, you've done all you can. You have been released. You are done. Way to fight the good fight. It's time to move on. And I was on the phone with him and I said, Did anyone get killed? Did you crash our car? No. Okay. I'm glad you're all right. I'll see you at home. And I hung up and I knew it was over. So It was just an unfortunate time, but you know, sometimes we sometimes I hate to say it, that's a horrible thing that happened, but you know, two two things in a 24 to 48 hour time period, it was my message of Aaron, you are better than that. You were meant for greatness. And how I describe it is I am an eagle that's flying, but I've had a ball and chain down at my leg pulling me down. And inside my heart and my soul, I said, imagine my greatness when I release. Three year divorce. but my goodness, I try again, look for the goodness from the things that arise. And when I look at the relationships with my children that I have with them, they're so much tighter. They're just beautiful. Because as mothers, we think, my gosh, did I ruin my kids? How am I ever Ali Andrus - AHA Podcast: Yeah. erin hudson: gonna be able to make things right? Am I gonna have to compensate while they're over here? I'm gonna have to retrain them when they come back. Like all the things. Or over the years, right? And I'll never forget my daughter. at the time she was 16, and she came up to me and she said, Mom, can I tell you something? And I said, Yeah. She goes, Listen, I think the divorce was the greatest thing ever for you. And I said, Well, why? And she said, You know what? We have such a wonderful relationship that has aspired to a whole different level than it ever had been before. And she said, You know, you're an amazing human being and you deserve greatness. I'm like, hold on. Ali Andrus - AHA Podcast: well. erin hudson: And so you think that the kids, you know, that have this idea in our head we say, gosh, mom's a screw up. What the hell was she thinking? Like, how dare her? Like, those are the things that run through. I've messed up my kids for life. We're never gonna have unity. How are they ever gonna get in a relationship with anyone when we haven't been great examples of what that should look like with all the things like so all that stuff runs through your head, but those are just stories that are not true. Right. They're not true. We just choose to take on the label. And when you get rid of that, there's empowerment that comes. Right. Ali Andrus - AHA Podcast: Mm, my gosh. There's so much to get from that. Like I'm just thinking of how important it is to trust your gut because you kept having those nudges and finally it all became clear the reason why you were having those feelings and how important it is to listen to that inner voice and that feeling that really knew that you were being like strangled, kinda pulled down how you described it and erin hudson: Listen, I think that I that's why I say every trial and tribulation we have, we have to find the good in it. You know, as I was going through that divorce, there were wild crazy things that happened and I'll spare you because I feel like I've given so much negative on this call. But look, you Ali Andrus - AHA Podcast: Yeah. erin hudson: know, there was, I think I was two years in and I don't take my kids to the doctors. We don't go to the doctors. We let their body heal. The body is innate, amazing, and it heals if you give it what it needs. It will absolutely, it's meant to heal itself, right? But I kid Ali Andrus - AHA Podcast: Right. erin hudson: you not. In a five-month time period in 2023. In five months, every single one of my kids. It started with my kid. my five-year-old fell back and hit his head on a cinder block, went in and had a concussion. My next boy ended up being in the hospital with a burst appendix. My daughter ended up having a fluke accident at the gym. Her coach had put 100 pounds on her back and told her to drop it like she was hot or drop it like it's hot. And she did, and she had a major lumbar back injury, a spinal injury that she had to go in for emergency surgery. A month later, after that, find out I have cancer. Thank God it ended up being melanoma cancer on my arm, but it was a scary, scary time. And so, man, talk about being hit down and hit down and hit down and being able to rise again. Ali Andrus - AHA Podcast: Yeah. erin hudson: Goll, there's so much power in that. It just reminds us of how capable we are. And how when we do get hit down, we have to choose to stand as quick as lightning. Because when you stay down, Satan and the devil wins. And we will not, we will not go there. We are more than enough and are meant to rise like queens and kings. And so I just have to try and remember all of that that we were put on this earth for greatness. And it's our responsibility to not get sucked in and to choose to find the J-O-Y and life because it's there, but you have to be cognizant to want it in your life, right? Ali Andrus - AHA Podcast: Yeah, you know you're really making progress, I think, when you start to see those knockdowns as lessons and gifts, because that's certainly not something that I think to pray for, like, yeah, give me this hard thing because that's gonna help me to rise above that and get confidence and be able to help other people get through these hard things and certainly never things you ask for, and it's never things that are the way that you have in your mind of how your life should go. And these things come out of nowhere and you're like, no, I had this all planned out, how I thought it was gonna go, and they get thrown at you. And then but that's what makes you feel empowered is when you overcome them. So it's so hard to get to that point. erin hudson: Amen. Amen. And and truly we look back at him and we're like, gosh, why did I freak out about that? That thing over there that I've just got through over here is like an avalanche waiting to happen. And I was freaking out back then. So we have to remember that It's just really hard at the time, but just like seasons, they don't last for forever. And so that's the most beautiful part when you're going through a hard time. It's not gonna last for forever. And that's what gives me the hope and the courage to continue on when things feel so heavy that I feel like I have a rock on me. And I'm like, okay, I can do it. Just stand tall, like rise, rise, right? And it's just a matter of being able to cheer each other on and help each other through the fight because we all have it. And Ali Andrus - AHA Podcast: Yeah, yeah. erin hudson: we just gotta bring it on out. Right. Ali Andrus - AHA Podcast: Yep. Yep. It's so true. I tell myself like this is an experience. everything will pass. Everything. It's ebb and flows. It's the waves of life. It's a roller coaster. And I really think we came here to experience it all. And so what a gift it is to be alive and be able to feel. Whether you're feeling the hard times, that's just gonna elevate you that much more when you're rising up. erin hudson: I agreed. I think the other thing is, is it sounds crazy, but when you're going through the hard is asking the question, what is it you want me to see? What good can I find in this situation? Like it's so easy to go to the negative and write down 25 things that are just not going well in your world and how it's going to affect you. And then you go to bed and you've got that on your mind, and then that's what you wake up with. But imagine if you change the mindset just a wee bit. And you said, What is the good that I can find in this right now? What I'm battling right now, how can I find the good? And just for a couple scenarios, like my gosh, when I was going through and they weren't sure if if it was melanoma or cancer, whatnot, our family came together so tight, loving on each other, having that just level of love of what if, right? And it's just you can't explain it, but that level of closeness and tightness with your family, like. Had that not happened, I we would have never been able to experience the level of love from each child in my family to each other, to their mom, right? So that's like one perfect example. And then the other thing that I will tell you that comes to mind is look, being in the real estate space, the whole market shut down from 2022 and it's still having hard times. It's still, we're getting to a place where it's about to, we're at the bottom. I really believe we are truly at the bottom. And it's getting ready to go up. But then I look at it and I'm like, when did I file for divorce? In 2022. And I don't know about you, but I live in Texas. And in Texas, everything that you acquire until the divorce is final, final, final, you have to split 50-50 with your spouse. And I'm a girl that's got a lot of grit that doesn't stop. And I go, go, go, but we were truly put in this place with this market compression. That it didn't make any sense. And so as I was going through that, I remember writing that down as a blessing. Because how Ali Andrus - AHA Podcast: Yeah. erin hudson: dare and how sad if we were acquiring and I had to make a big kerfluffle with my team and be like, great, if I do this, then I'm gonna have to worry about this and you're gonna have to solve all this with my ex over here. And like what a beautiful thing that I wasn't the one that had to stop all that and make a big problem over here. I found the good and I said, you know what? Now's not the right timing. But in 2021, Ali Andrus - AHA Podcast: Yeah. erin hudson: our team purchased 17 apartment buildings in one year. So I know what our capabilities are. So I feel like we're just getting in the blocks and it's getting ready to be launch time. And I'm done with my divorce and that's over. And Ali Andrus - AHA Podcast: Yeah. erin hudson: goodness is on the other side. Ali Andrus - AHA Podcast: Absolutely. Yeah. Yeah. We just see the blessings in that. it's awesome somehow. you don't always know what's working behind the scenes for your greatest good. But somehow after all of it and you look back, you go, that's why it happened that way and like I was actually being divinely guided and there were things working in my favor, but it's hard to see it working. erin hudson: Yeah. Isn't that wild? Yeah. Just depends on the way that you look at it and the interpretation and the perception and the meaning you give it, right? Ali Andrus - AHA Podcast: Mm. erin hudson: You know, it's so interesting. I'll say this one last thing because I feel like I just keep going. But look, I shared Ali Andrus - AHA Podcast: No, but erin hudson: with you how I grew up in my home of five kids. And I, even though like we didn't have everything that all of the friends had the cars and these big beautiful mansions they lived in, we were just okay, right? And we weren't like dying over here and didn't get, you know. Fed or anything like that. But it's really interesting to me because I went on to have, when I was in college, three different jobs. And it's my work ethic and all of that, I think comes, you know, clearly from how I was raised and just working hard and knowing that I didn't want to have a life per se like that. And it's just interesting because I look at life and I'm like, I love my parents so much. They're the most amazing people, filled with so much love, and they did the best they could. Whereas my sister sees it differently. She sees it Ali Andrus - AHA Podcast: Yeah, erin hudson: through a different lens. Ali Andrus - AHA Podcast: yeah. erin hudson: She feels like she was abandoned and that she didn't get all the attention and the things that she needed, and they she wasn't cared for the right way. So it's all about the lens that you look at life through. Are you gonna choose again to be the victim or the victor? Are you gonna choose to say, My gosh, I had a beautiful full life? Are you gonna choose to focus on the stuff that went wrong? I'm sure things went wrong, but I didn't focus on them, nor have I ever. I shared my story in the beginning and it brought a little emotion to me. but I knew that my heart parents' heart was to love us and they did the best they could, and that's the bottom line of it, right? So it's just two totally different, it's the meaning you give it, right? And so we all have control of that. So I just Ali Andrus - AHA Podcast: Yeah. erin hudson: encourage you listeners, whatever you're going through, to remember it's all about the meaning you give it. Are you gonna choose to get stuck in that hole and get defeated and be on the ground? Are you gonna continue to rise with the eagles and fly? Ali Andrus - AHA Podcast: I love that. It's so good. Yeah, it makes me think of a thing that we had put into a rock at Mikel's Memorial because she my daughter had this on her planner and it was a quote that said, If you focus on what you have in life, you'll always have enough. If you focus on what you don't don't have, then you'll always be wanting. And erin hudson: I love it. Ali Andrus - AHA Podcast: your perspective on how you see things that lens does create your reality. You have so much more power than you think. And it's all in the stories you tell yourself inside. Yeah. erin hudson: Amen. Yeah, it's the same thing, it's where focus goes, energy flows. So if Ali Andrus - AHA Podcast: Yes. erin hudson: you want to stay in that negative arena, go there. no thank you. I choose to put myself in environments for growth, not for being dragged down. It's easy to go there, right? Especially with all going on in our world. Love it. Yeah. Ali Andrus - AHA Podcast: yeah. Love it, love it. Okay, I'm gonna ask one final question that I ask all my guests because it's the AHA podcast. through your journey, what has been your biggest aha moment that you would like to share? erin hudson: so good. I'll try not to make it so long. I didn't know you were gonna ask this, but I'll go there. Ali Andrus - AHA Podcast: Yeah. erin hudson: you know, it's really interesting, as I just told you, going through that whole divorce, and everything's just kind of been cut off, and it's just there's been a lot of pruning going on, and I'm just waiting for that sprout to just come and fly up, right? and it's so interesting, the opportunity that has just been placed before me and I had a media company reach out to me as they were referred to me from another individual in the space. And they had reached out to him and said, Hey, listen, we want to take on another individual that's in the multifamily space, but we have one request. We'd like a female. Do you know anyone? And this particular individual said, I only know one person. She would be perfect. And sure enough, the media company came in, they interviewed me. And they did all of my backgrounds and checked all my socials and they're like, she is our girl. So long story short, I brought my team on and literally today we launched our company, it's aligned multifamily network and it's an education company to help other people have success in the multifamily space. And so we're we're just launching that and I head to DC in two weeks to go speak and share with other people. And I just feel like there's no better time than right now. And I know that it was saved for the right time with the right place with the right person and I'm just thrilled and excited for where we're about to go with this and help people create legacies and jump into the space and place where remember when I got invited to go hear this talk on multifamily I thought it was for billionaires and then I found out that I'm capable and worthy to do so and now once you know that you can't unlearn it. Ali Andrus - AHA Podcast: Yeah. erin hudson: And so now it's my job to go inspire and encourage other people that they are worthy, that they are capable, and that we're gonna help them ride the wave and have success in the space. And so I'm super excited for what's to come. Ali Andrus - AHA Podcast: Mm. Yeah, so beautiful. And you're the perfect person to do that. You're gonna inspire so many people. erin hudson: thank you for coming here. Ali Andrus - AHA Podcast: It's all it's all divinely orchestrated. erin hudson: Amen to that. I receive that for sure. Wow, wow, Ali Andrus - AHA Podcast: Thank you. erin hudson: wow. So that's my aha moment. Like who would have thought? I never thought that anything like that would come and be placed before me. But I'm riding the wave and going for it. Am I afraid? Absolutely. But nothing grows in comfort. So let's go. Yeah. Ali Andrus - AHA Podcast: Yeah. Yeah. Let's go. Thank you, Erin. my gosh. let erin hudson: You're so welcome, Christopher. Ali Andrus - AHA Podcast: me add, what's the best place for people to reach out? How can people find you if they want to connect? erin hudson: Sure. Listen, you can find me at Aaron underscore Hudson underscore the number seven on Instagram or Aaron Christiansen Hudson on Facebook, or you can certainly, you know what, to heck with it. I'm gonna give you my number. You can text me and I'll send you a calendar link. And I'm way Ali Andrus - AHA Podcast: Yeah. erin hudson: more than happy to connect with you because here's the thing if I can help you rise up and solve a problem for you. Then good on me. It's really about having one hand down and one hand up and let's go make this a better world together. So my number is nine four nine five one zero three three five one. And any friends of Allie's is a friend of mine. So happy to help. Ali Andrus - AHA Podcast: I love it. Thank you, Erin, so much. And I'll put erin hudson: Well Ali Andrus - AHA Podcast: all that in the description too. So thank you so much for doing. erin hudson: Perfect. Well, thank you so much for having me. If I can help in any way or help any of your listeners, please let me know. Reach out. I'm happy to help in any way I can. Ali Andrus - AHA Podcast: Thank you, Erin. You're the best. You're the best. erin hudson: yourself. I love you. Ali Andrus - AHA Podcast: You love you. Okay.