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From W2 to Wealth Building Through Real Estate · The Academy Presents podcast

0:01
Did you know that 90 % of the world's millionaires
0:05
invest in real estate? Well, I'm Angel with the
0:09
Academy Presents Real Estate Investing Rocks,
0:11
and I'm here to help you if you want to go for
0:15
your piece of that pie. Are you new? Are you
0:19
new to this and you just don't know where to
0:20
start? It's okay. Are you someone that has invested,
0:25
but you feel stuck, you feel like you've lost
0:27
momentum, you don't know where to really head
0:30
from here? Are you a seasoned real estate investor
0:33
who is doing great but maybe you just want to
0:35
hone a few skills here and there? This is the
0:38
place for you. The Academy Presents Real Estate
0:41
Investing Rocks podcast will connect you with
0:44
industry experts so that you can save time, avoid
0:48
costly mistakes, and begin living the life you've
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dreamed of all through real estate investing.
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You're already taking the first step. just by
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joining us here today. Yeah, I think that there
1:04
are two things. So I talked about the comfort
1:08
zone, but I think that is in large part mindset,
1:10
right? So the people that successfully make this
1:15
transition, they either have or they adopt the
1:20
right mindset and If you kind of go into entrepreneurship,
1:26
kind of lamenting all that you've lost in the
1:29
corporate world or in whatever your career is,
1:33
that's not gonna make for the best transition.
1:36
You gotta keep in focus. Your North Star should
1:39
be, why are you doing this? And if part of your
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why is, in my case, it's creating generational
1:46
wealth and being the first in my family to do
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that. and impact the lives of my not yet conceived
1:52
grandchildren and shaping the success of their
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lives before they're even born. A W -2 can't
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do that for me. And I have a quote that I say
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that is, regardless of how high, highly compensated
2:09
you are, you cannot pass on a W -2 income to
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your ears. As soon as you stop showing up, that
2:19
income stops showing up. And I don't care if
2:22
you're making a million dollars a year, that
2:25
is not something that you can pass on to your
2:27
children. But the assets, the deals, the real
2:31
estate investments that we're making, that is
2:34
generating real cashflow, that is generating
2:37
real equity growth and appreciation. These are...
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kind of the ingredients of building wealth that
2:45
you can pass on to your children and grandchildren.
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And so you've got to make that shift of, you
2:52
know, wrapping yourself around a high income
2:55
and thinking that that's a safe place. One of
2:59
the things I tell people is that's actually fairly
3:03
risky because you have one source of income and
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people who or not your family members can dictate
3:15
whether or not you have a job tomorrow. Someone
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can come in and say, Angel, you've been such
3:21
a great worker. We really appreciate what you've
3:23
been doing over the last many years, but we're
3:26
eliminating your department or we're eliminating
3:29
your role. And you've got to scramble to figure
3:33
out how do I rebuild what I thought was my comfort
3:37
zone. And so what I say, me stepping away after
3:41
20 years and taking this leap of faith, it's
3:43
not as risky as some people might think it is.
3:47
Because I always thought, worst case scenario,
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if this leap of faith doesn't work out, I can
3:54
go find a six -figure job. I'm pretty sure with
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my skills, with my experience, with my education.
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the family's gonna be fine, we're gonna eat,
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the bills are gonna be paid. I may not be doing
4:06
something that I love, that I'm passionate about,
4:09
but at the end of the day, I'm taking care of
4:12
my responsibilities. So I think, at least early
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on, I thought of corporate as kind of a backup
4:20
plan to the entrepreneurial path that I was on.
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And fortunately, I'm in a place where... I no
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longer even think of it as a backup plan because
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I have no intention of returning to corporate
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life and being an employee for anyone other than
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myself. I'm self -directed. No, and I, you know,
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I really love that. And one of the conversations
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Jason and I had recently was, you know, we need
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to cut expenses. We need to tighten up when you
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do this, when you do that. And it was really
4:55
stressful to me. Because I tell you what, I kind
4:58
of got used to not having to look at my checkbook.
5:01
And for those of you that don't know what a checkbook
5:03
is, that's what we used to keep up with our bank
5:05
accounts with in the old ages. We had a checkbook
5:10
that we would reconcile every month. But I've
5:14
gotten used to not having to worry about that.
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And I'm listening to him talk and it's making
5:20
me stressed out because I'm like, I'm going to
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have to start making sure I'm paying attention,
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a lot of attention to this stuff again. And he
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could see me getting stressed out. He said, you
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know what? I'm just venting. This is a temporary
5:30
situation. And it was really cool to see him
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see that I was getting stressed out and realizing,
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wait a second. It's those inner saboteurs telling
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me I can't make this work. I can make this work.
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It is just a temporary situation. And he and
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I have always discussed worst case scenario,
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one of us goes back to work. Would it be the
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end of the world? No. Would one of us be real
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unhappy? Yeah. But would we still be able to
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do what needs to be done to make this family
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stay afloat? Absolutely. Yeah, definitely. I
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think it's just key that folks wrap themselves
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around kind of the mindset shift that needs to
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take place. to improve your likelihood of success
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in making that transition. The other thing that
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I would say is that while mine was probably more
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abrupt than maybe even I intended, it doesn't
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have to be an abrupt transition or pivot. And
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the advice that I give to anyone who's sitting
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there at a corporate desk today is that give
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yourself a Give yourself credit for being able
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to do more than you are currently doing, even
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while you are full -time employed by your employer.
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So as I reflect back on my transition, I think
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to myself, man, I could have been going to some
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of these multifamily conferences. Many of them
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are on the weekends. I could have stole away
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maybe a Friday here or there to make it a three
7:13
-day weekend. So I could have been attending
7:15
these conferences, which is huge in kind of immersing
7:20
you in this world and in helping with you getting
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educated and oriented to these types of opportunities.
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Yeah, I could have been listening to the podcast.
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I didn't, I'm almost embarrassed to say before
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late 2016, I don't think I had listened to any
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podcasts start to finish. on any subject, let
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alone only specific to multifamily. In 2017,
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I was listening to two or three almost daily,
7:49
if not every other day, and strictly on multifamily,
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as I was just immersing myself in this world.
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But on the drive into work, I could have been
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doing that. On the drive home from work, I could
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have been doing it. So part of that educational
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journey that I embarked on, really aggressively
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when I did depart corporate, I could have started
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some of that a year or two prior. And that would
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have just made the transition easier for me.
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And so that's something that's advice I would
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give to anyone. Give yourself credit for being
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able to do more than you think you can do. Because
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I know I had convinced myself and part of the
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reason I decided to leave was I'm a busy person.
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I have a demanding job. I don't have time to
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meet with brokers. I don't have time to attend
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conferences. I don't have time to underwrite.
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I've got all of this stuff going on. And that's
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my excuse as to why I can't be an entrepreneur.
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I can't pursue this. And so I think that you've
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got to, again, disabuse yourself of the notion
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that, yes, your employer is paying you for your
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time. But even within that, there's an opportunity
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for you to devote time to things that are meaningful
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to you. And if one of those things is real estate
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investing and educating yourself and networking
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and doing some of the things that you need to
9:18
do ultimately to be successful, if it's important
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to you, you will find a time, you will make a
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way for it to happen. And if I have any regrets
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is that I wasn't doing more of that purposefully
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and intentionally before I kind of exited. No,
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and I think that my husband feels very similarly.
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We had talked several times about, you know,
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are we, you know, are you staying in this job
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because of those golden handcuffs? You know,
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is it because this is how we, we get the medical
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insurance that we need for Anson, which is our
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special needs son. And so one of the things we
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did was as soon as I left teaching, Was we just
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it was even before I left teaching we had found
10:05
our own insurance or LLC and in finding that
10:10
insurance what I've discovered is medical insurance
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is like the number one thing that ties you to
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a w -2 and So once we realized we could get it
10:20
now. It's expensive But once we realized we could
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get quality medical dental and vision outside
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of a w -2 There was really nothing tying us to
10:29
it anymore because we'll figure out how to make
10:32
it work. And I think that that's something that
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every entrepreneur out there has within them.
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You're going to figure it out. You are going
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to make it work. Because probably the hardest
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thing for an entrepreneur is, at least for me,
10:48
was listening to somebody else tell me what to
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do. Especially when I had my own ideas that were
10:56
working. you know, like in my classroom, what
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I was doing was working and our administrative
11:04
team, we weren't on the same page. And so that
11:07
made it very difficult. But at the same time,
11:11
we had already found our medical insurance. We
11:13
had actually replaced my income with other options.
11:17
And there really wasn't anything holding me back.
11:20
And that was when I left teaching. It was a toxic
11:23
environment. And I was like, I'm out. I miss
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my kiddos, but I can't do this to myself. And
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then with Jason, his company decided to go to
11:32
Houston. They didn't take him with them. They
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gave him a nice severance package and then hired
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him as a consultant. So he's still working for
11:41
the company, but he answers to himself. They
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are his client. So, yeah, I mean, he answers
11:47
to them too. But on the larger scale, he chose
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to take that. He chose to take them on as a client.
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And so he's really answering to himself. So it's,
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it's still, it's a way to like take control of
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the wheel and still make sure there's kind of
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a backup plan in place, but it still gets both
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of us over here full time in the real estate
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space. Yeah, absolutely. The, the other thing
12:13
that I would say, again, thinking about things
12:15
that you can do while you are still employed,
12:18
uh, beyond kind of the conferences that the podcasts
12:21
and things of that nature, the local real meetups.
12:26
You know, one of the things I counsel some people
12:29
in my circle is that every deal that you ultimately
12:33
will do is going to require capital. And one
12:37
of the best sources for raising capital are people
12:41
within your network. And so I tell people that's
12:44
anyone that you went to college and had a meaningful
12:46
relationship with, anyone that you went to grad
12:49
school, your first employer, your first job,
12:52
all of the, whether it's five years ago, 10,
12:55
15, 20, all of these people within your circumference
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who hopefully knew you, know you, like you, trust
13:03
you, are potential investors in an opportunity
13:07
that you may have. But you don't want to wait
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until you have the opportunity to start, start
13:16
nurturing the relationship and educating your
13:19
community. And so I tell people about the importance
13:23
of putting yourself out there and associating
13:26
yourself with the thing that it is that you want
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to do. Don't wait until you are a success at
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it. In order to become a success or to have a
13:35
shot at being a success, you've got to kind of
13:38
bring your community along with you. And so I
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talk about the importance of social media. And
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one of the things I mentor a few people and one
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of the things that I hear from them is Well,
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Clive, I'm still, you know, I'm employed by company
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ABC. And if I put that in my profile, you know,
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I don't necessarily want my coworkers to know
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that it's kind of hush, you know, I'm a real
14:05
estate investor on the side. And I'm like, they
14:09
don't own your time. There's no, you know, you
14:14
have a life outside of the employment. relationship
14:18
that you have with them. And absolutely, your
14:22
friends and family and network should know the
14:26
holistic you. And if that's an important piece
14:30
of you, but you feel you've got to hide it, then
14:34
that kind of speaks to the situation that you're
14:37
in and whether or not that's the ideal situation
14:40
when you can't kind of share your whole self.
14:44
I think most people who knew me for the 20 years,
14:48
they all kind of knew, yeah, Clive, he's into
14:51
real estate. He's got some real estate property
14:54
here and there. They may not know details, but
14:57
they knew enough to know, yeah, he still has
15:00
a place in New York City that he rents out, I
15:02
think. He bought this duplex years ago. So they
15:08
knew about that. And I would not shy away from
15:12
sharing that. But even in that, you can be more
15:14
purposeful. And so you attend a good multifamily
15:18
conference. Share on social media, hey, I attended
15:23
this great conference. Here were the nuggets.
15:25
Here were the takeaways. I'm really looking forward
15:27
to investing in my first deal or my third deal.
15:31
You can share your journey. And your journey
15:35
is much broader and wider than kind of I am a
15:39
corporate citizen, and this is my title, this
15:41
is my role, and this is my stamp. We're bigger
15:46
than our jobs. Our jobs are just that. Who we
15:50
are is comprised of all of the things that make
15:53
us up. And that's the holistic picture that I
15:57
and I think you and we all should be striving
15:59
to bring anywhere we go, online or offline. Yeah,
16:04
I do get it. I did just have a friend that he
16:08
actually had to stop his meetup because his company
16:11
said that he couldn't advertise for it. Because
16:14
he was doing to me, I said, well, I certainly
16:16
need to talk to him, but as his friends, we can
16:19
absolutely still promote his event and just not
16:22
tag him in it and he can still hold it. I think
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there's a way around it. But I also had a situation
16:28
where as a teacher, I was told, wait, you invest
16:32
in real estate. Oh, that's something we have
16:34
to know more about, because that sounds like
16:36
a business. It's no different than you investing
16:38
in stocks and bonds. Why do I need to disclose
16:42
anything more about it to you? It's my chosen
16:45
method of investment. I'll show you mine if you
16:48
show me yours. Oh, it was really frustrating,
16:52
though, because they were like, oh, no, this
16:53
is different. And I'm like, no, it's really not.
16:55
It's my chosen investment vehicle. you're choosing
16:58
something different, you're choosing something
17:00
the district offers, some 503B, whatever it is,
17:03
and I'm choosing to invest in real estate, you've
17:06
got your vehicle, I've got mine, I shouldn't
17:08
have to disclose anything more than this is what
17:10
I have. But again, my income had already been
17:16
replaced, we already had another form of insurance,
17:20
and I had wiggle room that my colleagues did
17:23
not. and they weren't in the same position to
17:26
have those conversations that I could have. And
17:29
so I get that and I get the fear of of the golden
17:34
handcuffs. I do get it and and it is it is a
17:39
scary situation, but the freedom of like today
17:43
we needed to go to parent -teacher conferences.
17:46
We found out on Friday. We didn't take our time.
17:48
We didn't put it in the calendar for yesterday
17:50
and my husband and I both went and we went and
17:53
met my two youngest daughter's teachers, which
17:55
I mean, we already knew them, but we went and
17:57
spent some time with them. And we spent some
17:59
time with my daughter's algebra teacher because
18:00
she has she's having problems in algebra. And
18:03
we got to do that together. I don't know any
18:07
other way we would have been able to do that
18:09
than if we were both not sitting here full time
18:11
in real estate. And so there's a lot of freedoms
18:16
that come with going ahead and taking the nose
18:20
dive in. and taking control of your financial
18:23
future, because that's really what we're doing.
18:25
Yeah. And there's a value to that, that we, you
18:31
know, you may say it's intangible, but it's not
18:34
always which one pays the most is the one that
18:39
I'm going with. You know, if you value having
18:42
that freedom and ability to control your time
18:47
and what you do within that time, then, you know,
18:52
yeah, it may not equal the dollar amount that
18:55
you were making, but I would say that it probably
18:59
exceeds that dollar amount value because you
19:03
just can't buy your time. You can't buy that
19:08
time back. I mean, you know, once your child
19:11
moves on to the next grade and then they're on
19:14
to middle school and high school, you can't go
19:17
back and say, I wish I had. you know been there
19:20
to do that or I wish I'd been there to see that
19:22
game or I wish I'd you know you know again the
19:26
money that you were holding on to clinging to
19:30
is gonna have long been spent um but you missed
19:35
out on those opportunities so I I for me it comes
19:38
back to what's your why and you gotta ask yourself
19:43
is my why worth the sacrifice that I'm gonna
19:46
need to make to make this transition And if the
19:49
answer is yes, then, you know, it's easy from
19:52
there. Yeah. When I, I mean, I think me and Jason
19:55
both think the answer is yes, because I know
19:56
he's working right now with Julianne on the worksheets.
19:59
She didn't turn in because her teacher gave them
20:02
to us because I was like, look, did our son tear
20:05
them up? I don't know. Does our son roam the
20:08
house in the middle of the night and tear up
20:09
everything you can find? He absolutely does.
20:12
I am not dismissing what she's done. She might,
20:14
she may be threw it away. I don't know, but.
20:18
The conversation we had on January 19th did not
20:21
prepare me for the grade I was going to see today.
20:26
So there's been some disconnect. We ultimately
20:32
we got off. We got the cause of everything. And
20:34
yesterday she and Jason worked on her project.
20:37
I took pictures of it on my phone. I sent it
20:40
to him and he was like, this is awesome. Because
20:42
what I did was I explained to him, I said, you
20:43
know, In her English class, her brother really
20:47
did rip up everything. Now, could she have been
20:50
working on that workbook for the last month and
20:53
a half? She could have been. Did we do it in
20:55
two days? We absolutely did. Did she still make
20:58
100? Yes, she did. But to me, that showed her,
21:03
you just crammed six weeks work of work into
21:07
two nights that were horrible. We were both exhausted
21:12
the next day. And it shouldn't have been that
21:14
way. And but by being able to share that story
21:18
with her algebra teacher, he understood that
21:20
we are the kind of parents that we're going to
21:22
stay on top of her and make sure she's getting
21:24
her work done. But we got to know there's work
21:26
that has to be done. And so that was something
21:30
that got to happen because Jason and I were able
21:32
to go to that meeting and we had 1140. Not everybody
21:37
can just go at 1140 and drop everything they're
21:40
doing and show up there. and take care of things
21:43
because they've got other jobs. And if I was
21:45
still a teacher, I wouldn't have been able to
21:46
go today because today became a school day because
21:50
of an inclement weather day that we used in January.
21:53
Yeah, again, something beyond your control. Yeah.
21:58
And so, I mean, you know, number one, thank you
22:00
for being here and thank you for sharing how
22:03
you went from a full time job to full time real
22:05
estate. And hopefully. people out there are listening
22:09
to it and they're listening to our experiences
22:11
and Realizing that it doesn't have to be something
22:16
grandiose that you're waiting for It doesn't
22:20
have to be this. Hey, I just scored. I you know,
22:23
we just took down a hundred million dollar deal.
22:25
No maybe it's maybe it's a couple of quads and
22:29
The cash flow from that couple of quads gives
22:31
you the wiggle room. You need to get out and
22:34
Then to pursue something else It's a journey.
22:38
You just got to step on the path. If you don't
22:42
step on the path, you're definitely not going
22:44
to reach your destination. No, not at all. So
22:48
again, Clive, thank you so much. I'm really glad
22:51
that you are a part of my circle and that you
22:54
pushed me to be a better person. And I will do
22:56
that best tour. It's going to happen in 2023.
23:00
I'm doing it. I'm looking forward to seeing the
23:03
announcement. Thanks for having me on, Angel.
23:05
I appreciate it. Absolutely. Thank you so much.
23:07
And guys, whether you want to stay on this side
23:09
or you want to join us on the live side, remember
23:11
it's only a subscription away to get over to
23:13
the live side. And until we see each other again.