Rod Khleif - 48 Years in Real Estate and the Biggest Lessons Learned | Real Estate Educators Podcast with Kevin Amolsch

Description

Rod Khleif has been investing in real estate for 48 years. He's owned more than 2,000 single-family homes, thousands of multifamily units, and is now investing in senior housing. But one of the biggest lessons of his career came from losing an estimated $50 million during the 2008 financial crisis.

In this episode of the Real Estate Educators Podcast, Kevin Amolsch talks with Rod about the mindset that helped him build his success—and, perhaps more importantly, recover after losing so much. Rod shares why investors shouldn't fear failure, how setting meaningful goals creates the motivation to take action, and why making a real decision means committing instead of waiting until every box is checked.

They also dig into today's real estate market. Rod believes current distress in multifamily is creating significant opportunities as properties face rising expenses, capital calls, foreclosures, and values below previous purchase prices. He also explains why he's bullish on senior housing and why today's investors need to be much more conservative when underwriting multifamily expenses.

Rod also looks back at what went wrong with his own portfolio during the financial crisis—including why even a relatively low loan-to-value didn't protect him—and explains why he ultimately came to favor multifamily over scattered single-family rentals. He and Kevin discuss the importance of peer groups, playing to your strengths, finding partners who complement your weaknesses, and surrounding yourself with people who push you forward.

Whether you're just getting started or navigating your next market cycle, this episode is a reminder that real estate success isn't about avoiding every mistake. It's about learning from them, continuing to take action, surrounding yourself with the right people, and recognizing opportunity when others are afraid.

00:00 – 48 years of real estate investing experience
03:20 – From immigrant beginnings to real estate
07:25 – Losing $50 million in the 2008 crash
11:05 – Why your goals have to come first
15:05 – How to choose the right real estate strategy
21:35 – Where Rod sees opportunity in today's market
27:15 – Capital calls and struggling multifamily deals
33:10 – Single-family vs. multifamily investing
36:40 – Play to your strengths and partner for your weaknesses
38:10 – Achievement vs. fulfillment

Connect with Rod Khleif

Rod recommends Rod's Links as the central place to find his boot camps, goal-setting workshop, podcast, social media, books, and other resources. He also discusses his Warrior coaching program and multifamily investing community in the episode.

Rod Khleif's resources at http://www.rodslinks.com/.

Learn more about Pine Financial Group.

Hosted on Ausha. See ausha.co/privacy-policy for more information.

Transcription

Speaker #0
We fail our way to success. Don't fear failure, my friends. Fear regret. Fear being in the same freaking place you are right now, a year or two from now, unless you love where you are right now. And that's just where it is. That's where we are in the market cycle. But again, with crisis comes opportunity. So don't get scared. Get excited. Get, you know, if you're, if there was ever a freaking time, it's right now. Don't try to build your weaknesses. Hire a line or partner for your weaknesses. Again, that's why a group like my warrior group is so successful because You put people together that have different skill sets and they kill it. We were in negotiations. We're investing in real estate. They're winning. They're making money.
Speaker #1
What's up, everyone? Welcome to the Real Estate Educators Podcast, where we provide the education you can build on. I am your host, Kevin Amos. I have a really exciting special guest with me today, Mr. Rod Khleif. You've been in this business a really long time, and I know you have a vast amount of experience, mostly in the multifamily space, over 2,000 units. And you've helped thousands and thousands of other real estate investors. So I'm dying to get into your experience. It sounds like over 20 years of experience here, man. So I'm really excited to have you on the show. Welcome.
Speaker #0
Okay. Well, let's clarify a couple of things. Thank you. It's 48 years in the business. Yes, I'm old as freaking dirt. And 2,000 houses that I've owned. I've owned thousands of apartments as well. And I'm buying senior housing now. But who's counting? But anyway, but yeah, I'm a legend in my own mind. So. Anyway, yeah, let's have some fun today, brother. I appreciate you having me on the show.
Speaker #1
Yeah, let's do it. And we need to update this one sheet here because it definitely says 2,000, which I was impressed with that.
Speaker #0
Yeah, 2,000 houses is accurate. I've had thousands of multifamily units as well. I'm down to about 1,000 now because I've gotten rid of some. Slowing down,
Speaker #1
yeah. I think that's the progression as an investor, right? You accumulate, you accumulate, and at some point you just got to slow down a little bit.
Speaker #0
Well, it's not even slowing down. and it's market rep. market condition related. It's partner related. It's a, you know, there's a lot of factors that come into play as you get into this business and it's a team sport. So you're very often going to have partners. So, yeah.
Speaker #1
All right. Well, I want to get your story first and maybe we can do that quickly and get that out of the way, because I really want to dive into like how you've had so much success. What have you done? What are the strategies? And then you just mentioned the market. So I want to touch on that as well. So take me back 40, what'd you say? 40. 48 years.
Speaker #0
So let me go even further, because it'll lend some framework to what we'll talk about here. So I'm a Dutch immigrant. Think wooden shoes and windmills. I immigrated to this country when I was six years old. My brother Albert and my mother's Vantje. We ended up in Denver, Colorado. We didn't have much growing up. In fact, we actually shopped at an expired food store. They had that back then. And we drank powdered milk with our cereal in the morning, which was cheaper than real milk. And trust me, sounds better than it is. And I wore hand-me-down clothes from the Goodwill and the Salvation Army all the way through junior high school until when I was 14. I lied about my age at Burger King and said I was 15 so I could get a job flipping burgers and buy my own damn clothes. Now, I'm sure you've got listeners who had it harder than I did, but I knew I wanted more. Luckily, my mom had an incredible work ethic, so she babysat kids so we'd have enough money to eat. With her babysitting money, she invested in real estate. The first real estate acquisition was the house right across the street from us. She bought when I was about 14 for 30 grand. And then when I was 17, she told me she'd made $20,000 in her sleep, that it had gone up in value $20,000. And mind you, this is when $20,000 was a lot of money. This is 1977. And I said, what? You made $20,000? You didn't do anything? Screw college. I'm getting into real estate. So I went and got into real estate. My first year in real estate, I made about $8,000. Still living at home, $10,000 the second year. But my third year, I made over $100,000. which back in 1980 was some pretty decent change. And so what happened between year two and three that caused me to 10X my income? Well, what happened was I met a guy that I was working for him. He was a real estate broker I was working for that taught me about the importance of mindset and psychology. How really 80 to 90% of your success in anything is your mindset and psychology. And so fast forward to today, I've owned over 2000 houses that I've rented long-term. I've owned thousands of apartment units, buying senior housing. And in 2006, my net worth went up $17 million while I slept. And you might say, wow. And I said, wow. And I got a head so big I could barely fit it through a door. I thought I was a real estate god. You know when that happens, god of the universe will give you a nice little smack? Well, that was 2008. I had conservatively lost $50 million in 2008. And so what I'm known for talking about on my podcast and, you know, at my events is really the mindset it took to have $50 million to lose in the first place. And probably maybe even more important is the mindset I took to recover from that to the success that I'm blessed to have today. So I'm happy to drill down on some of those strategies, if you like, because they're the same strategy someone who's listening who hasn't started yet would want to utilize to get started.
Speaker #1
Okay, yeah, I do want to dig into that. But are you still in Denver by chance?
Speaker #0
No, no, no. I used to name every street from Kipling to Havana because I owned houses on most of them. I had 500 houses in Denver at one time. Okay,
Speaker #1
I'm in Denver.
Speaker #0
I saw the 303 on your phone number, so I knew that. I had frozen yogurt shops at 6th and Wadsworth and Hamden and Wadsworth. I had a solar business and satellite business in the tech center in Denver. I lived in Parker for a while. I mean, I know Denver like the back of my hand because every street's alphabetical. So I can still name every street across the whole city because I used to run foreclosures. That's what I do. I'd knock on doors of people in foreclosure. And that's how I bought 500 houses there, which I wish I still had. I sold those 500 houses to buy 1300 houses in Florida and a couple hundred houses in Memphis. But if I still had those 500 in Denver, I would be netting a million dollars a month. Bottom line net. So would it, could it, should it? but. Anyway, yeah.
Speaker #1
All right. Well, I want to get into the lessons from the $50 million loss. But you've had so much experience in different asset classes, it sounds like. And obviously, you just said different businesses. So you're a true entrepreneur. And you still love real estate. You still go to the real estate. Why?
Speaker #0
I love real estate. Every time I've gotten out of real estate, for the most part, I get spanked. Okay? I call them seminars. That was a $50 million seminar. And that was an expensive freaking seminar. Don't get me wrong. I've built 30 businesses so far in my lifetime. In fact, I had gold buying stores in the Aurora Mall where they had that horrible shooting in the movie theater and then a mall out in Lakewood somewhere. But yeah, anyway, I'm sorry. You said Denver is triggering all these memories. But, you know, I've built 30 businesses. Several were tens of millions of dollars. Two right now are. But most were spectacular flaming seminars. OK, we fail our way to success. Don't fear failure, my friends. Fear regret. Fear being in the same freaking place you are right now a year or two from now, unless you love where you are right now. You know, Kevin, there was this nurse in Australia, this hospice nurse that took care of patients when they were about to die. And she asked him a question. And the question was, do you have any regrets? And she wrote a book about it. It's a bestseller, something like The Five Regrets of Dying. Her name was Bronnie Ware. You know what the number one regret was? Not living the life I could have lived, living someone else's life, not doing what I know I'm capable of. Fear that. Don't fear failure. Failure is no big deal. Again, I failed so many times I can't even count them. So the success strategies I utilized, Kevin, are the first thing. If you come to one of my boot camps, I do these virtual boot camps literally every four weeks or so now. And I don't sell anything there. But the first thing we do is goal setting on steroids because that's the first piece. You've got to figure out what it is you want and why you want it. And that's the first thing I did after I lost everything. I mean, after I... crawled out from under the rock I was hiding under for a couple of months feeling sorry for myself, but then I reassociated with my goals. And so that's the first piece because you've got to create that hunger, you know, that burning desire, because that's how you push through the fear. That's how you push through any limiting beliefs that you may have. And that's how you get uncomfortable. And, you know, we all know that comfort zone is a nice warm place. We also know nothing freaking grows there, right? So you got to get uncomfortable. So that's the first piece is reassociating with the goals. I can keep going if you like. Yeah, let's go. I mean,
Speaker #1
I wrote down, I'm taking little notes. I usually don't tell you I'm taking notes until the end.
Speaker #0
Yeah. The next piece, you got to make a decision. Okay. And I don't mean dip your toe in the water. And I don't mean one foot in, one foot out. I mean, it's freaking done. Okay. You make a decision. It's done. The Latin root for the word decision means to cut off. So like, for example, if you're going to attack the island, you burn your ships because you're taking their damn ships home. That's a decision. It's done. And so. That's the next thing I did. So I decided, okay, not feeling sorry for yourself. And it's the same thing you've got to do if you're, if you haven't started yet, if you're in a W2 job, you know, you want more, you don't have the freedom and time you and your family deserve. You're not spending the time with your kids that you want to, you got to make a decision. Okay. And so that's the next piece. And then you got to take that.
Speaker #1
I want to stop right there because I want to dig into that one because I know a lot of our listeners struggle with this and you probably in your coaching and mentoring, you probably go through this, but. So I have our goals. That's great. I want these things. And we talk about that a lot. But how do I make a decision on which asset class, which real estate strategy is going to be a fit for me? Well, you don't have to be that specific. I'll tell you what.
Speaker #0
Get your ass to Rod's Boot Camp. It's 17 freaking dollars and it's two days of training with nothing being sold. Sorry, that was a layup, Kevin. Yeah. But but, you know, then you'll know what. Because I teach multifamily and senior housing there. So that's that's a no brainer. Okay, it's $17 and nothing being sold. But regardless, you got to figure it out. I mean, you got to get in there, you know, get curious, figure out what you might like. If it's multifamily, I'm your guy. If it's senior housing, I'm your guy. You know, and let me brag for a minute. Sounds like a sales pitch, but I got to brag because we just found this out. My students now own 305,000 units under my tutelage. That's more than everybody else combined by a lot. It's really proud of that.
Speaker #1
So you should be proud of that.
Speaker #0
Yeah. Thank you.
Speaker #1
I do want to dig in there a little bit because look here, let me tell you a little bit about my story and you could help me. Maybe that'll help me help our listener. So when I was getting started, I had no idea how to make money in real estate. So I went to a seminar, like maybe this one. And I learned, Oh, short sales. That's the best way to make money in real estate. Go out and negotiate these short sales. So I started chasing foreclosures. I'm knocking on doors.
Speaker #0
I'm just starting on I
Speaker #1
I started, no, I was in 2003. I bought my first investment. Okay,
Speaker #0
because there were a lot of short sales after the foreclosure crisis in 2009. Oh, yeah. And then I'm coming back. Sorry to interrupt. I'm sorry.
Speaker #1
Yeah. So anyway, that was a seminar for me, Rod. I did not do well in that business at all. So I gave it maybe six-ish months. And I was like, man, this isn't working. I got to shift. And then I shifted and I started doing lease options. And that's where the success came. Started buying a house or two houses every month with no cash or credit. You know the story. But how do I know when to make that shift? Because I agree with you. You've got to decide and focus. But how do you know when there's so many options?
Speaker #0
It's a very subjective question, honestly, because there's so many factors involved. You can do this business on the side with kids, with soccer, with church, with a full consuming W-2 job. You just got to want it. That's the bottom line. So at my boot camp, the first thing we do is goals. Because I got to create that hunger so someone actually takes action and pushes through the fear. Because everybody's got a story for why they're not successful and why they haven't done it. You know, I don't, I'm too old. I'm too young. I don't have enough time. I don't have enough money. I'm not analytical enough. That was one of mine. You know, I'm not courageous enough. Whatever it is, we all have these stories. And you've got to create that hunger to push through those stories. But again, back to your question about where to go and what asset class, you just got to dip your toe in the water and start checking them out. And again, two days, full days with me, literally 12 hours for 17 bucks. So there's no excuse at all if you want to learn this. OK, but whatever it is, there's incredible opportunity right now, Kevin. It's not just real estate. Hell, there's 10,000 people a day turning 65 in this country and they have businesses they need to sell. Hell, you can buy businesses, you know. But what I teach you to do is how to raise money for these things through syndications, through joint ventures, which applies to businesses as well. So even if that interests you, you'd get value from spending some time with me. But regardless, the bottom line is you got to, you know, make some choices, try some different things. That's what I tell my kids. Try different things. And when something feels good, you double down on it. And it's the same way in, you know, deciding on your vehicle, whatever your vehicle is going to be. Now, let me say this, though. You know, your vehicle is your choice of your side hustle. What you're going to do is going to be real estate, buy businesses, stock market, Bitcoin, whatever. And you need to learn it. You need to embrace it, but make sure it stays your vehicle, not your identity. I've had numerous failures. Now, if I had made any of those my identity, I could be one of those guys that jumps off a building like they did in the great crash. And even in 2008, 2009, people killed themselves, losing everything. Hell, that Bitcoin guy shot himself in the head in his Lambo about a year ago. I mean, those are people that made their vehicle their identity. So never do that. I just want to throw that in there. But there's so much opportunity right now, man. And so. it starts with getting your goals done. Then you got to make a decision and then you got to take that first step. You know, Dr. Martin Luther King says, you take that first step in faith, the next step will be revealed. And a lot of people in my business, because it's primarily empirical, it's numbers. You got to get the numbers down and you get my software with my $17 ticket to do the numbers, but you got to do the numbers. But I get a lot of analytical people and you know who you are if you're listening and I love you. But you also know how you're going to check off every single freaking box before you make a move. You can't do that, okay? You just got to take that first step and recognize that, you know, I can give you a great analogy. You can drive all the way across the United States at night with your headlight only seeing 50 feet in front of you. You know you can make it. You know other people have done it before you. You may have obstacles, but you can make it. It's the same way with this business. You got to take that first step. So, you know, that's the next piece.
Speaker #1
And the first step can be very simple for the listener. It could be just going to a boot camp like this. And you have to go out there and buy a property necessarily. We want to get to that point.
Speaker #0
But you need to study it first so you don't make mistakes. And it's like how to eat a whale, right? A bite at a time. That's it. And here's the thing. I bought 2,000 houses mostly by myself. I had my brothers involved for some of it. I had employees. It was mostly myself. You're not going to buy apartment complexes by yourself. It is a team sport. And you're not going to wear every hat. and there's multiple hats. You can be the person that finds the deals, underwrites them if you're analytical. You can be the one that builds the relationships with the brokers. You can be the one that raises the money with investors. My students have raised, I don't know, somewhere between one and three billion. We don't know. What we've tracked on just the few deals we've tracked, it's about 800 million or something like that. So, you know, you can... You raise the money for these deals. Yes, they take money, but it doesn't have to be your own money. I teach you how to raise it. And there's so much money out there looking for a home that's gotten beat up in the stock market or, God forbid, Bitcoin, that wants a more secure investment. And so I completely lost my train of thought. It kind of went off.
Speaker #1
That's right. Let me ask you this while you're thinking about that. You did say that there's a lot of opportunity here or coming. And you also said you're slowing down because of economic factors.
Speaker #0
So tell me, man. I'm not slowing down.
Speaker #1
You were liquidating, I thought you said, at the very beginning of the conversation.
Speaker #0
I got rid of some partner and some other stuff. No, no. I'm an acquisition. You're an acquisition. I'm hosting your housing facilities today. I'm not slowing down at all.
Speaker #1
Talk to me, Rod. Talk to me then. What's got you excited about the market? Well,
Speaker #0
I'll tell you what's got me excited. Multifamily is in a meltdown right now. There's a lot of deals in trouble because a lot of operators have bought in 21 and 22 overpaid. And I'll give you an example. I've got a 200-unit asset, call them assets, apartment complex in San Antonio. And right next door is a 300-unit that in late 21 sold for $43 million. Okay? Bank got it back, offered it for $28 million. I wasn't interested unless I could get it for $24 because of where the interest rates were. $43 to $28 to $24. Now, I didn't get it. Somebody bought it, pissed me off because I really wanted it. But anyway, that's what's out there right now. My SEC attorney that does my syndications, what you do, and I teach you how to do this in my book, is you pool money in what's called a syndication, and you raise the money. And the attorney that helps me with that is now helping people that are in trouble. He got six apartment complex foreclosures in one day. OK, that's what's out there right now is a lot of deals in trouble, a lot of deals being sold for less than they cost to build. OK, so, you know, so incredible opportunity apartments, but also incredible opportunity in senior housing. There's 10,000 people a day turning 80 in this country. OK, and there's a huge 10,000 a day, every day turning 80 for the next two decades. OK, so there's a huge shortage of beds. And and so incredible opportunity there. And I'm buying facilities for less than they cost to build as well. So. You just got to pick your vehicle. I think you need to love the elderly if you're going to get into senior housing, but I teach all of that. Try to decide on your vehicle. If it's going to be real estate, I hope you'll consider checking me out. If it's something else, go learn it. Go to YouTube, university, whatever. Learn how to buy businesses or whatever it is you want to do because the opportunity is here. See, on the business front, there's businesses that have never embraced social media. We don't want to talk about AI. I mean, I got AI. Literally, I am cloned at this point. We've got videos that look just like me talking to somebody.
Speaker #1
I was wondering if I was talking to a human head today.
Speaker #0
It's crazy. I literally have videos on my phone that's not me, okay? And it looks just like me. And the mannerisms are there and the passion and the excitement is there. It's hilarious. And so, I mean, that's what's out there, right? So there's opportunities to bring AI and social media and social media marketing to businesses as well. You know, and so. decide on your vehicle and get busy.
Speaker #1
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Speaker #0
I'm 66 years old, but I have socks that have a couple of decades on you. But I am, I, you know, when you love what you do, work is play, right, Kev? Yeah,
Speaker #1
yeah, yeah. I love it.
Speaker #0
Yeah, when you love it, you clearly love it. And they really never work another day in your life. And I freaking love this shit. So there you go.
Speaker #1
Yeah. So the point I was going to make is I'm more on the passive side now. So I would invest in a syndication like you have. I prefer the LP side. And I could tell you on the multifamily, I've kind of shied away from that. I prefer other asset classes at this point because there's so many capital calls going on on these syndications.
Speaker #0
Oh, yeah. Oh, no. There's a lot of deals in trouble, buddy. They're doing capital calls. I've got a deal in trouble right now. I literally, I have a deal with 3% debt that's in trouble. Now I'm suing the management company we had And literally. It's so egregious that the attorney took it on contingency. I don't have to pay the attorney. That's how bad it was. But I teach this stuff, and I've got to deal with this problem right now. And so it's tough times out there because expenses have gone through the roof. But again, I don't want to scare you. With crisis comes opportunity. There's deals that are being sold for a portion of what they cost to build. I mean, it's it's incredible. So, you know, it's like Warren Buffett's famous quote, be greedy when others are fearful, be fearful when others are greedy. I've been a lot of greed these last couple of years. OK, so, you know, be fearful then. But now the fear is here. Now's the time to be greedy. It's contrarian investing. This is when the most money is made. So, you know, there you go. But yes, I agree with you about apartment complexes because there's a lot of them struggling. I used to pay my maintenance supervisor $28 an hour and I'm paying $40 now. And so, you know, I used to teach a 50% expense ratio. Income from all sources, less property-related expenses, 50%. I teach 60% to 65% now.
Speaker #1
Whoa, you're not seeing that in underwriting anywhere.
Speaker #0
Right. Well, you should because that's really the reality.
Speaker #1
I totally agree with you.
Speaker #0
Yeah. And so, you know, it will reach equilibrium. Rents will go back up. Rents will keep going back up. It's a beautiful thing. Inflation causes everything to go through risk.
Speaker #1
What you just said is something I think the listener needs to make sure that this sinks in, you guys, because what he's saying with the underwriting expenses, no offering memorandum is going to say this. No broker is going to tell you this. When you're looking at these deals, they're going to lie. to your face.
Speaker #0
That's it. That's why, listen, even if you're going to invest passively, get your ass to my boot camp because I'll teach you what to look for, okay? Because, you know, keep you out of trouble because a lot of investors, sadly, are losing their money right now, a lot of them. And I'm sure you saw Barry from Fingal Pockets. He was all over the news with his 15 million lost to investors. He's a great guy. I love him. And so... There's a lot of that out there right now.
Speaker #1
I hate hearing anytime someone loses money,
Speaker #0
I hate it. Especially people that really have their shit together like him. I mean, I know people with jets that are losing properties, okay? I mean, literally super sophisticated, very reputable, solid operators that are struggling right now. And it's just where it is. That's where we are in the market cycle. But again, with crisis comes opportunity. So don't get scared. Get excited. If there was ever a freaking time, it's right now. You know? But smarter people than me say this could be the greatest transfer of wealth we see in our lifetimes. Oh,
Speaker #1
it's happening. It's happening whether it's a transfer from one family to another or just through a family.
Speaker #0
The family thing is happening because of the aging baby boomers. That's happening right now. Businesses are changing.
Speaker #1
And that creates opportunity because people don't want apartment buildings. They don't want their parents' inheritance. They want to get rid of it.
Speaker #0
The kids don't want to do that. They want the cash. So there's opportunity there. I teach my students, talk to probate attorneys because they have deals. That's the opportunity, I think. Yeah.
Speaker #1
So you made a comment that's kind of stuck with me. The 500 houses in Denver you wish you still had. Now you move that into different assets and it didn't go as well as you were hoping.
Speaker #0
I had 800 houses in Florida when I crashed and burned. Okay. And I used the money from the sale of the Denver houses to buy those 800 that I kept. I was at a 30% loan to value. Okay. And I still crashed and burned.
Speaker #1
People are like, oh,
Speaker #0
you were over leveraged. No. I was at a 30% loan to value. It still crashed and burned. You know, what killed me here, I'll tell you, on my 800 houses, I'll just tell you, was I had houses. I didn't logistically do it the best way, full disclosure. I had houses two hours north of me, two hours south of me, and everywhere in between. And so, you know, and I had property. There's no state income tax in Florida. So the property taxes are a little bit higher. Although, Santa says, he's going to eliminate property taxes. It's crazy. But anyway, not that.
Speaker #1
We'll see. We'll see.
Speaker #0
No, it's going through right now. Okay. It's going through. I think it's going to happen.
Speaker #1
Money's got to come from somewhere. So what's the solution? I don't know.
Speaker #0
He's got, there's revenue. They've got such a revenue surplus that he's, I mean, anyway, we don't have to debate that. I love that freaking guy. But anyway, but I have properties in wind and flood zones that, you know, that, you know, causes higher insurance, impacts cash flow. So the taxes and the insurance impact the cash flow. But what killed me was the maintenance. So I had mostly C-class houses, okay? A, B, C, and D. A is the new stuff. D is the hood. Stay out of the hood. I had properties. Just since you're in Denver, I'll tell you. In Aurora North, I bought a whole block. I think it was Chester, if I recall. Chester.
Speaker #1
I know. Exactly. I have a lot of houses out there.
Speaker #0
Okay. And the drug traffic was so bad that they put pilings at the end of the street to slow down the drug traffic. Not stop it. Just slow it down. I bought a house that had a hole cut in the front door to pass the crack through. People killed in it, around it, behind it. Yeah, you do not want D-class houses. But anyway, my houses were C-class, okay? Tougher demographic, older, a lot more maintenance, okay? And so... You know, if I sent a maintenance guy to one of my apartment complexes that I had back then, we could stockpile parts, plumbing parts, appliance parts, window locks, door locks, you name it. And so the maintenance guy's in and out in an hour. If I had to send him to one of my houses, and let's say it's an hour, hour and a half away, they got to go see what's wrong because they can't stockpile for every house. Then they got to go find a Home Depot or Lowe's where we have an account. I don't know about you, but when Rod's happy ass tries to fix something, he ends up going to Home Depot more than once. And so, you know, this happens with maintenance guys as well. And so what took an hour at one of my apartment complexes to call a day at one of my 800 houses. So they never really cash flowed that well. What killed me was I didn't pay attention to tenant demographics. And I don't think it would have made a difference, honestly, because the economy got so bad. But I had a lot of contractors in my houses, plumbers, electricians, drywallers, painters, roofers, and they just flat-ass didn't have work. So it was like the perfect storm. Now you want to know what else is crazy. I was at a 30% loan to value. By the end of 2009, my portfolio was upside down. That's how much it dropped. Yeah.
Speaker #1
Yeah. I can relate. Now, all of my stuff was in Denver at the time, and Denver didn't have quite the same. It wasn't as bad. Yeah, it wasn't as bad. Florida was at the top of the worst, if that makes any sense, for a long time. I think 10 out of 12 months or something.
Speaker #0
Florida, Arizona, and California.
Speaker #1
got decimated just fucking decimated so back to my question you you wish you still had those five houses but you also really love multi-family so if you had to do it all over again which direction would you here's the thing i started my podcast
Speaker #0
10 years ago to tell because i would still have my multi-family from that i had here in florida if i hadn't cross collateralized it with packages of houses to save you know 50 basis points half percent interest because i did that thinking i I'm smart. And so I... cross-collateralize my houses with my apartment complexes. I would still have those complexes if I had done that because they pulled back about 11%, but they could have easily survived. And so I started my podcast about 10 years ago to tell people, if you're going to buy and hold real estate, for God's sakes, do multifamily, don't do single family. Ask me how I know. And now it's the largest real estate podcast really in the world for commercial real estate, which just blows my mind. But So. You know, it's what you want to make God laugh. You tell me your plans. My first episodes, I used to tell people, I'm never going to sell you anything. I just want to add value, which was the truth. I just want to tell you what I went through. And now I'm a liar because I sell everything, but I never planned to, you know, it's just, uh,
Speaker #1
at least you're honest about it. Yeah. All right. We, I got a couple more questions, but I wanted to ask you about, um, now where was that? You have a charity that year.
Speaker #0
Let me interject a couple of quick things. The other things as it relates to the success strategies, the next one is get around people that want more. Get your peer group. So freaking important. OK, you know, most people default to a peer group that they work with or went to school with. And those people may have their own limiting beliefs and fears and they'll hold you back. So, you know, be careful who you allow to influence you. You want to be around people that think what you think is hard is easy. You know, when I was losing everything, I was in Tony Robbins Platinum Partnership, which is a high level mastermind. I bought 100 grand back then. And, uh, I was around people that were killing it in that crash. They were thriving. And they're like, get up, you puss, 50 million schmillion. Get up and make something happen. That's who you want to be around, okay? You want to be around people that will push you. That's why my coaching program is so freaking successful, my warriors. Because everybody's lifting everybody else up, praising, validating, supporting, encouraging. And that's it. So be very, very careful who you're around. Peer group is super important. The last piece is play to your strengths. Don't try to build your weaknesses. Hire, align, or partner for your weaknesses. Again, that's why a group like my warrior group is so successful because you put people together that have different skill sets and they kill it. The most common successful partnership I see is an analytical introverted person with an outgoing extroverted person. That's a match made in heaven because you need to build relationships. You also need to do the numbers.
Speaker #1
Tell us about the warrior group.
Speaker #0
My coaching program, I was just bragging about it. They own 305,000 units. that we know of. You can't see it behind me, but I've got a wall back here with hundreds of thank you cards for my students, which is just a real blessing. It makes me feel good every time I see it. But yeah, 305,000 units that we know of, it's probably 350,000 candidly, because not everybody responds to us, but you know. They have tons of, that's all multifamily, have tons of self-sports, tons of senior housing, tons of mobile home parks, industrial flex space, mixed-use retail. They're developing stuff. I mean, it's got a life of its own. It's insane. We had a lawyer event here in Sarasota where I had a few hundred of my warriors show up just because we discovered the more they get together, the more successful they are. They network. Like those 305,000 units, 95% of them are done between warriors.
Speaker #1
Yeah.
Speaker #0
So, you know, our warriors are all involved. up So we try to facilitate those connections. But this last warrior event, I taught senior housing. I taught industrial flex base. And of course, multifamily as well, syndication, raising the money. So yeah, now I'm really proud of it. Like I said, the student success eclipses everybody else combined, including big names you'd recognize. Yeah, so really proud.
Speaker #1
Have you heard of the group Commercial Academy?
Speaker #0
Yes, I have.
Speaker #1
The group is pretty spectacular. And it's probably very similar to the warrior group. I was in it for about six years and I've made it too.
Speaker #0
I was in his, his, his, his, his thing just because I was studying retail, but I offline, we can have a conversation.
Speaker #1
Okay. My point is for the listeners benefit here, if you could find a group like that or the warriors group and, and maybe the price tag is a little bit higher than some of the others, but that's what, and I have no idea. I have no idea what yours is.
Speaker #0
Mine is the lowest out. How much is it? I don't usually talk about it, but the, It's $22,000. Yeah, see, that's perfect. Yeah, and it includes one-on-one coaching, unlimited. It includes all my courses. It includes 15 coaching calls a month. You have my cell phone number. It includes high-performance coaching, which is probably one of the linchpins because people actually do the work. They actually do it because we're keeping them motivated and excited through high-performance coaching and a lot more. Yeah,
Speaker #1
if I can get this out, I think that there's an absolute tremendous amount of value in that. And that price tag is low.
Speaker #0
If somebody's interested in my warrior program, text the word crush to 72345, crush to 72345. If you're interested in my bootcamp, you need to go to rodslinks.com. That's my link tree, rods, plural, links, plural.com, rodslinks.com. And by the way, my goal setting workshop is there. Even if you're not interested in what I do. Told you the goal setting, have your spouse do it, have your kids, if they're over 10 years old, do it. It's an hour long. There's a guide you can download. Not going to try to sell you anything. People spend more time planning a freaking birthday party than they do designing their lives. That'll help you design your life. And it's free. And it's at Rod's Links. And my bootcamp site is there. A bunch of free resources there. There's a free book section. It's got best in class books. These aren't crappy books. They're really good. So yes, and my social media is there. My podcast link and all that is at Rod's links.
Speaker #1
I think this is all great. Thank you. I love what you're doing. Bringing high-level commercial investors together or a resident. If you could find a group like that and do business with each other, friendships are made.
Speaker #0
Even locally. Go to a local meetup. Go to your real estate investor social meetings. You'll meet some there will be some guys there that just want to shoot the shit, but there will be young people there wanting to grow. Yes. You'll meet people for sure. Absolutely. But the price,
Speaker #1
if you have a little bit higher price, it does create a little bit of separation. And now you're putting yourself in a room with people that actually want to be there.
Speaker #0
Fair enough. Fair. I completely agree. A hundred percent agree. Yeah. Yeah. You know, you shorten the learning curve, bottom line. I mean, can you do it on your own in five, seven years? Sure. You can do it in one or two with me. So, you know, that's, that's it. Bottom line.
Speaker #1
And my guess is your students make, if you want to call them students or members, they make far more than the $22,000. You would make that in not even.
Speaker #0
I get love every single freaking day. I mean, it's my greatest gift. I get DMs. I get emails. I get gifts. I get cards every single day. I get hate too. You know, no one should have owned 800 houses.
Speaker #1
We don't need to talk about that.
Speaker #0
No one should have owned 800 houses. You're the reason I can't buy a house. No, the reason is you won't get out of your mom's freaking basement and go do something. Yeah. Anyway, but I get tons of love. Oh, that's sad.
Speaker #1
I have heard that from other coaches as well. And that is sad. You have to actually do what you're told to get results.
Speaker #0
Thank you.
Speaker #1
Okay, here's what I'd like to do, Rod. If you're cool with it, I'll make it real fast, but I'd like to go through the notes, what I learned from this episode. And then if you want to add any color to it, that'd be fantastic. And then if you don't mind, one final piece of advice, maybe something that you would do differently in your career that would help our listener out. And then once again, I'd love to give you contact information. If you want to throw one more pitch for the $17 bootcamp, that would be great. But for my notes, you said fear, regret, not failure. Love that. Set your goals as number one. And what... that does is creates the fire. It's the why we talk about that a lot. If your why is big enough, it has to be bigger than you. It's got to be bigger than the planes and the cars and the jewelry. It's got to be something bigger, like maybe your foundation that we never even got to. But that why is what's going to keep you going when things get a little bit tougher. So you got to make decisions. The best way to make a decision on what direction it goes to go to your bootcamp. What does this one say? Stay vehicle, not identity. I don't know what I wrote down there.
Speaker #0
Don't have your vehicle be your identity. Oh, don't have your vehicle.
Speaker #1
Stay your vehicle. Yeah, exactly. Take the first step by when there's pain. I wrote down that because we did talk about when there's some uncertainty, that's when the best opportunities are. Look at senior housing. I don't know why I wrote that down, but that was interesting that you were very passionate about that one. 60% of expense ratios on multifamily. Stay out of your own head. Get around people who want more and play to your strengths. Yes, sir.
Speaker #0
Yes, sir. I love it. Love it. But I suppose one final piece of advice. Let me let me talk about something. Let me give a little framework. So 20 years ago, I lived in Denver, but I knew I wanted to live on the beach. And of course, there's no beach in Denver, maybe a Cherry Creek Reservoir, but not much of a beach. But but anyway, so so I visualized it. And I manifested and I built this mansion on the beach here. It's about a $12 million place. Gulf to bay on the beach on one side, boats on the backside. Place was spectacular. Spiral staircase up through the middle. Big waterfall from the second floor balcony to the pool. Pools and magazines. Wine cellar elevator on the second floor. I had aquariums built around the staircase. Cost me almost 200 grand. So this gives you an idea of the house. Two months after I moved in. So I worked for this thing for 20 years. Two months after I moved in. I'm floating in the pool at night. My family's inside sleeping. I had all the toys, the Maserati and the stupid shit I thought was important, boats and jet skis and all that. And I got depressed. And I don't mean a little depressed. I'm looking up at this testament to my ego to prove the world I was good enough. I didn't talk about some of the stuff that I went through in childhood that caused me to think I wasn't good enough, but that had to prove it, right? And I got depressed. I don't mean a little depressed. I mean, I got really depressed. I'm like, what the hell? I've just achieved success like times 10,000. There were three things happening that I want to share with your listeners as a final thing here. The first thing is you never achieve a big goal without having other goals lined up behind it. Like the good book says, without a vision, the people perish. You need a vision for the future. I didn't know what I was going to do next. The second thing is it's never about the goals. You got to have them to create that burning desire and hunger to get off your ass and go make something happen for yourself and your family. But it's never about the goals. Happiness comes from progress and growth. And if you go to my Rod's links and you do my goal setting workshop, At the tail end of that, I do a planning process that's really, really powerful. It's how I manage two large companies at the same time. And one of the pieces of that is being grateful for what you got done and patting yourself on the back. So that was the second piece. Happiness comes from progress. I didn't know what I was going to do to progress. But the third thing was I'd been totally focused on proving the world I was good enough. Blah, And that's the year I met Tony Robbins. And I spent 26 years with Tony. I was on his team for eight years. But. I found out that he fed families for the holidays and he just had the largest food drive in history in Canada literally two or three days ago. It was extraordinary. But anyway, I was like, what a concept. Do something for someone else. I'm embarrassed to say I had to be 40 to get that memo. But I called my brother in Denver. I'm like, bro, let's feed five families because I was going to see him for Thanksgiving. He called his church for five families that really needed help. Third family changed my life, man. We had bought toys and food and frozen turkeys and all this for these families. This woman comes out of this shack. It was like a one-bedroom shack. It was a Hispanic woman. It was on, oh, you know, Denver. It was right there by North High School, if North is still there, off of Spear, North of Spear. Okay. Anyway, but she comes out. She sees the food on the porch, and she starts crying. Her kids come out. Two of the older ones start crying. I start crying, and I was hooked. Now, there's no ego in this. There's a real message in this, so don't tune me out if you're listening, okay? In the last 26 years, I've fed over 160,000 children. at-risk children in my area here for the holidays. I've provided tens of thousands of backpacks filled with school supplies to local kids that don't have basic supplies for school. Don't get me started on that. I've done thousands and thousands of teddy bears to local police departments for officers to keep in their vehicles if they encounter a child in a traumatic situation. Now again, I'm not bragging here. Tony Robbins calls it the science of achievement versus the art of fulfillment. Achievements of science. If you want to learn real estate, get your ass to my boot camp. I'll give you the blueprint. You just got to do it. But fulfillment is an art, okay? You got to figure out what juices you. For me, it's kids. It's also the elderly. Maybe for you, it's animals, the environment, whatever it is, give back right now. Now, don't say, well, you have money. That's why you give back. You want the money? Give back. That's how God works, okay? What you give, you get back tenfold, a hundredfold, a thousandfold sometimes. Even if it's just your time, that's how you succeed. And just leave you with that.
Speaker #1
It's pretty powerful. My, my passion is kids as well.
Speaker #0
Nice.
Speaker #1
So we, we shared that. So, all right. How do we, how do we get ahold of you? How do we join your bootcamp?
Speaker #0
Rod's links, man. Just Rod's links is the best thing. If you're driving, text links to 72345 links. We'll send that link to you. Rod's links.com. My bootcamp site is there for 17 bucks for two days. Nothing being sold. No excuses. Okay. I talk about my coaching for about 30 minutes. That's it. And, and my podcast link is there again. I think you'll really get value. I do a clip every week called own your power. It's a five minute motivational clip. I'll juice you. You give me five minutes a week, I'll juice you. Free book section is there. Goal setting workshop is there. My social media is there. So Rod's links is everything. But thanks for having me on, brother.
Speaker #1
Man, it was great. And man, you got your wedding. I don't know who's getting married. You never even told me, but somebody.
Speaker #0
No, my son. My son, they're in there getting things ready.
Speaker #1
Your son's getting married and you're super busy. And still you come and hung out with me for what is it, 45 minutes. And Rod, man, this was really, really great. Thank you.
Speaker #0
Thank you, bud. Thank you, brother.
Speaker #1
All right. To the listener. If you didn't get value from this one, you were not listening. I know you got a lot of value. Assuming you did, please help me out. Five-star review, share it with a friend, and I hope you make this day a great one. I really hope you enjoyed this episode as much as I did. If you did, please be sure to follow and leave a five-star review. Oh, yeah, and tell a friend.

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Transcription

Speaker #0
We fail our way to success. Don't fear failure, my friends. Fear regret. Fear being in the same freaking place you are right now, a year or two from now, unless you love where you are right now. And that's just where it is. That's where we are in the market cycle. But again, with crisis comes opportunity. So don't get scared. Get excited. Get, you know, if you're, if there was ever a freaking time, it's right now. Don't try to build your weaknesses. Hire a line or partner for your weaknesses. Again, that's why a group like my warrior group is so successful because You put people together that have different skill sets and they kill it. We were in negotiations. We're investing in real estate. They're winning. They're making money.
Speaker #1
What's up, everyone? Welcome to the Real Estate Educators Podcast, where we provide the education you can build on. I am your host, Kevin Amos. I have a really exciting special guest with me today, Mr. Rod Khleif. You've been in this business a really long time, and I know you have a vast amount of experience, mostly in the multifamily space, over 2,000 units. And you've helped thousands and thousands of other real estate investors. So I'm dying to get into your experience. It sounds like over 20 years of experience here, man. So I'm really excited to have you on the show. Welcome.
Speaker #0
Okay. Well, let's clarify a couple of things. Thank you. It's 48 years in the business. Yes, I'm old as freaking dirt. And 2,000 houses that I've owned. I've owned thousands of apartments as well. And I'm buying senior housing now. But who's counting? But anyway, but yeah, I'm a legend in my own mind. So. Anyway, yeah, let's have some fun today, brother. I appreciate you having me on the show.
Speaker #1
Yeah, let's do it. And we need to update this one sheet here because it definitely says 2,000, which I was impressed with that.
Speaker #0
Yeah, 2,000 houses is accurate. I've had thousands of multifamily units as well. I'm down to about 1,000 now because I've gotten rid of some. Slowing down,
Speaker #1
yeah. I think that's the progression as an investor, right? You accumulate, you accumulate, and at some point you just got to slow down a little bit.
Speaker #0
Well, it's not even slowing down. and it's market rep. market condition related. It's partner related. It's a, you know, there's a lot of factors that come into play as you get into this business and it's a team sport. So you're very often going to have partners. So, yeah.
Speaker #1
All right. Well, I want to get your story first and maybe we can do that quickly and get that out of the way, because I really want to dive into like how you've had so much success. What have you done? What are the strategies? And then you just mentioned the market. So I want to touch on that as well. So take me back 40, what'd you say? 40. 48 years.
Speaker #0
So let me go even further, because it'll lend some framework to what we'll talk about here. So I'm a Dutch immigrant. Think wooden shoes and windmills. I immigrated to this country when I was six years old. My brother Albert and my mother's Vantje. We ended up in Denver, Colorado. We didn't have much growing up. In fact, we actually shopped at an expired food store. They had that back then. And we drank powdered milk with our cereal in the morning, which was cheaper than real milk. And trust me, sounds better than it is. And I wore hand-me-down clothes from the Goodwill and the Salvation Army all the way through junior high school until when I was 14. I lied about my age at Burger King and said I was 15 so I could get a job flipping burgers and buy my own damn clothes. Now, I'm sure you've got listeners who had it harder than I did, but I knew I wanted more. Luckily, my mom had an incredible work ethic, so she babysat kids so we'd have enough money to eat. With her babysitting money, she invested in real estate. The first real estate acquisition was the house right across the street from us. She bought when I was about 14 for 30 grand. And then when I was 17, she told me she'd made $20,000 in her sleep, that it had gone up in value $20,000. And mind you, this is when $20,000 was a lot of money. This is 1977. And I said, what? You made $20,000? You didn't do anything? Screw college. I'm getting into real estate. So I went and got into real estate. My first year in real estate, I made about $8,000. Still living at home, $10,000 the second year. But my third year, I made over $100,000. which back in 1980 was some pretty decent change. And so what happened between year two and three that caused me to 10X my income? Well, what happened was I met a guy that I was working for him. He was a real estate broker I was working for that taught me about the importance of mindset and psychology. How really 80 to 90% of your success in anything is your mindset and psychology. And so fast forward to today, I've owned over 2000 houses that I've rented long-term. I've owned thousands of apartment units, buying senior housing. And in 2006, my net worth went up $17 million while I slept. And you might say, wow. And I said, wow. And I got a head so big I could barely fit it through a door. I thought I was a real estate god. You know when that happens, god of the universe will give you a nice little smack? Well, that was 2008. I had conservatively lost $50 million in 2008. And so what I'm known for talking about on my podcast and, you know, at my events is really the mindset it took to have $50 million to lose in the first place. And probably maybe even more important is the mindset I took to recover from that to the success that I'm blessed to have today. So I'm happy to drill down on some of those strategies, if you like, because they're the same strategy someone who's listening who hasn't started yet would want to utilize to get started.
Speaker #1
Okay, yeah, I do want to dig into that. But are you still in Denver by chance?
Speaker #0
No, no, no. I used to name every street from Kipling to Havana because I owned houses on most of them. I had 500 houses in Denver at one time. Okay,
Speaker #1
I'm in Denver.
Speaker #0
I saw the 303 on your phone number, so I knew that. I had frozen yogurt shops at 6th and Wadsworth and Hamden and Wadsworth. I had a solar business and satellite business in the tech center in Denver. I lived in Parker for a while. I mean, I know Denver like the back of my hand because every street's alphabetical. So I can still name every street across the whole city because I used to run foreclosures. That's what I do. I'd knock on doors of people in foreclosure. And that's how I bought 500 houses there, which I wish I still had. I sold those 500 houses to buy 1300 houses in Florida and a couple hundred houses in Memphis. But if I still had those 500 in Denver, I would be netting a million dollars a month. Bottom line net. So would it, could it, should it? but. Anyway, yeah.
Speaker #1
All right. Well, I want to get into the lessons from the $50 million loss. But you've had so much experience in different asset classes, it sounds like. And obviously, you just said different businesses. So you're a true entrepreneur. And you still love real estate. You still go to the real estate. Why?
Speaker #0
I love real estate. Every time I've gotten out of real estate, for the most part, I get spanked. Okay? I call them seminars. That was a $50 million seminar. And that was an expensive freaking seminar. Don't get me wrong. I've built 30 businesses so far in my lifetime. In fact, I had gold buying stores in the Aurora Mall where they had that horrible shooting in the movie theater and then a mall out in Lakewood somewhere. But yeah, anyway, I'm sorry. You said Denver is triggering all these memories. But, you know, I've built 30 businesses. Several were tens of millions of dollars. Two right now are. But most were spectacular flaming seminars. OK, we fail our way to success. Don't fear failure, my friends. Fear regret. Fear being in the same freaking place you are right now a year or two from now, unless you love where you are right now. You know, Kevin, there was this nurse in Australia, this hospice nurse that took care of patients when they were about to die. And she asked him a question. And the question was, do you have any regrets? And she wrote a book about it. It's a bestseller, something like The Five Regrets of Dying. Her name was Bronnie Ware. You know what the number one regret was? Not living the life I could have lived, living someone else's life, not doing what I know I'm capable of. Fear that. Don't fear failure. Failure is no big deal. Again, I failed so many times I can't even count them. So the success strategies I utilized, Kevin, are the first thing. If you come to one of my boot camps, I do these virtual boot camps literally every four weeks or so now. And I don't sell anything there. But the first thing we do is goal setting on steroids because that's the first piece. You've got to figure out what it is you want and why you want it. And that's the first thing I did after I lost everything. I mean, after I... crawled out from under the rock I was hiding under for a couple of months feeling sorry for myself, but then I reassociated with my goals. And so that's the first piece because you've got to create that hunger, you know, that burning desire, because that's how you push through the fear. That's how you push through any limiting beliefs that you may have. And that's how you get uncomfortable. And, you know, we all know that comfort zone is a nice warm place. We also know nothing freaking grows there, right? So you got to get uncomfortable. So that's the first piece is reassociating with the goals. I can keep going if you like. Yeah, let's go. I mean,
Speaker #1
I wrote down, I'm taking little notes. I usually don't tell you I'm taking notes until the end.
Speaker #0
Yeah. The next piece, you got to make a decision. Okay. And I don't mean dip your toe in the water. And I don't mean one foot in, one foot out. I mean, it's freaking done. Okay. You make a decision. It's done. The Latin root for the word decision means to cut off. So like, for example, if you're going to attack the island, you burn your ships because you're taking their damn ships home. That's a decision. It's done. And so. That's the next thing I did. So I decided, okay, not feeling sorry for yourself. And it's the same thing you've got to do if you're, if you haven't started yet, if you're in a W2 job, you know, you want more, you don't have the freedom and time you and your family deserve. You're not spending the time with your kids that you want to, you got to make a decision. Okay. And so that's the next piece. And then you got to take that.
Speaker #1
I want to stop right there because I want to dig into that one because I know a lot of our listeners struggle with this and you probably in your coaching and mentoring, you probably go through this, but. So I have our goals. That's great. I want these things. And we talk about that a lot. But how do I make a decision on which asset class, which real estate strategy is going to be a fit for me? Well, you don't have to be that specific. I'll tell you what.
Speaker #0
Get your ass to Rod's Boot Camp. It's 17 freaking dollars and it's two days of training with nothing being sold. Sorry, that was a layup, Kevin. Yeah. But but, you know, then you'll know what. Because I teach multifamily and senior housing there. So that's that's a no brainer. Okay, it's $17 and nothing being sold. But regardless, you got to figure it out. I mean, you got to get in there, you know, get curious, figure out what you might like. If it's multifamily, I'm your guy. If it's senior housing, I'm your guy. You know, and let me brag for a minute. Sounds like a sales pitch, but I got to brag because we just found this out. My students now own 305,000 units under my tutelage. That's more than everybody else combined by a lot. It's really proud of that.
Speaker #1
So you should be proud of that.
Speaker #0
Yeah. Thank you.
Speaker #1
I do want to dig in there a little bit because look here, let me tell you a little bit about my story and you could help me. Maybe that'll help me help our listener. So when I was getting started, I had no idea how to make money in real estate. So I went to a seminar, like maybe this one. And I learned, Oh, short sales. That's the best way to make money in real estate. Go out and negotiate these short sales. So I started chasing foreclosures. I'm knocking on doors.
Speaker #0
I'm just starting on I
Speaker #1
I started, no, I was in 2003. I bought my first investment. Okay,
Speaker #0
because there were a lot of short sales after the foreclosure crisis in 2009. Oh, yeah. And then I'm coming back. Sorry to interrupt. I'm sorry.
Speaker #1
Yeah. So anyway, that was a seminar for me, Rod. I did not do well in that business at all. So I gave it maybe six-ish months. And I was like, man, this isn't working. I got to shift. And then I shifted and I started doing lease options. And that's where the success came. Started buying a house or two houses every month with no cash or credit. You know the story. But how do I know when to make that shift? Because I agree with you. You've got to decide and focus. But how do you know when there's so many options?
Speaker #0
It's a very subjective question, honestly, because there's so many factors involved. You can do this business on the side with kids, with soccer, with church, with a full consuming W-2 job. You just got to want it. That's the bottom line. So at my boot camp, the first thing we do is goals. Because I got to create that hunger so someone actually takes action and pushes through the fear. Because everybody's got a story for why they're not successful and why they haven't done it. You know, I don't, I'm too old. I'm too young. I don't have enough time. I don't have enough money. I'm not analytical enough. That was one of mine. You know, I'm not courageous enough. Whatever it is, we all have these stories. And you've got to create that hunger to push through those stories. But again, back to your question about where to go and what asset class, you just got to dip your toe in the water and start checking them out. And again, two days, full days with me, literally 12 hours for 17 bucks. So there's no excuse at all if you want to learn this. OK, but whatever it is, there's incredible opportunity right now, Kevin. It's not just real estate. Hell, there's 10,000 people a day turning 65 in this country and they have businesses they need to sell. Hell, you can buy businesses, you know. But what I teach you to do is how to raise money for these things through syndications, through joint ventures, which applies to businesses as well. So even if that interests you, you'd get value from spending some time with me. But regardless, the bottom line is you got to, you know, make some choices, try some different things. That's what I tell my kids. Try different things. And when something feels good, you double down on it. And it's the same way in, you know, deciding on your vehicle, whatever your vehicle is going to be. Now, let me say this, though. You know, your vehicle is your choice of your side hustle. What you're going to do is going to be real estate, buy businesses, stock market, Bitcoin, whatever. And you need to learn it. You need to embrace it, but make sure it stays your vehicle, not your identity. I've had numerous failures. Now, if I had made any of those my identity, I could be one of those guys that jumps off a building like they did in the great crash. And even in 2008, 2009, people killed themselves, losing everything. Hell, that Bitcoin guy shot himself in the head in his Lambo about a year ago. I mean, those are people that made their vehicle their identity. So never do that. I just want to throw that in there. But there's so much opportunity right now, man. And so. it starts with getting your goals done. Then you got to make a decision and then you got to take that first step. You know, Dr. Martin Luther King says, you take that first step in faith, the next step will be revealed. And a lot of people in my business, because it's primarily empirical, it's numbers. You got to get the numbers down and you get my software with my $17 ticket to do the numbers, but you got to do the numbers. But I get a lot of analytical people and you know who you are if you're listening and I love you. But you also know how you're going to check off every single freaking box before you make a move. You can't do that, okay? You just got to take that first step and recognize that, you know, I can give you a great analogy. You can drive all the way across the United States at night with your headlight only seeing 50 feet in front of you. You know you can make it. You know other people have done it before you. You may have obstacles, but you can make it. It's the same way with this business. You got to take that first step. So, you know, that's the next piece.
Speaker #1
And the first step can be very simple for the listener. It could be just going to a boot camp like this. And you have to go out there and buy a property necessarily. We want to get to that point.
Speaker #0
But you need to study it first so you don't make mistakes. And it's like how to eat a whale, right? A bite at a time. That's it. And here's the thing. I bought 2,000 houses mostly by myself. I had my brothers involved for some of it. I had employees. It was mostly myself. You're not going to buy apartment complexes by yourself. It is a team sport. And you're not going to wear every hat. and there's multiple hats. You can be the person that finds the deals, underwrites them if you're analytical. You can be the one that builds the relationships with the brokers. You can be the one that raises the money with investors. My students have raised, I don't know, somewhere between one and three billion. We don't know. What we've tracked on just the few deals we've tracked, it's about 800 million or something like that. So, you know, you can... You raise the money for these deals. Yes, they take money, but it doesn't have to be your own money. I teach you how to raise it. And there's so much money out there looking for a home that's gotten beat up in the stock market or, God forbid, Bitcoin, that wants a more secure investment. And so I completely lost my train of thought. It kind of went off.
Speaker #1
That's right. Let me ask you this while you're thinking about that. You did say that there's a lot of opportunity here or coming. And you also said you're slowing down because of economic factors.
Speaker #0
So tell me, man. I'm not slowing down.
Speaker #1
You were liquidating, I thought you said, at the very beginning of the conversation.
Speaker #0
I got rid of some partner and some other stuff. No, no. I'm an acquisition. You're an acquisition. I'm hosting your housing facilities today. I'm not slowing down at all.
Speaker #1
Talk to me, Rod. Talk to me then. What's got you excited about the market? Well,
Speaker #0
I'll tell you what's got me excited. Multifamily is in a meltdown right now. There's a lot of deals in trouble because a lot of operators have bought in 21 and 22 overpaid. And I'll give you an example. I've got a 200-unit asset, call them assets, apartment complex in San Antonio. And right next door is a 300-unit that in late 21 sold for $43 million. Okay? Bank got it back, offered it for $28 million. I wasn't interested unless I could get it for $24 because of where the interest rates were. $43 to $28 to $24. Now, I didn't get it. Somebody bought it, pissed me off because I really wanted it. But anyway, that's what's out there right now. My SEC attorney that does my syndications, what you do, and I teach you how to do this in my book, is you pool money in what's called a syndication, and you raise the money. And the attorney that helps me with that is now helping people that are in trouble. He got six apartment complex foreclosures in one day. OK, that's what's out there right now is a lot of deals in trouble, a lot of deals being sold for less than they cost to build. OK, so, you know, so incredible opportunity apartments, but also incredible opportunity in senior housing. There's 10,000 people a day turning 80 in this country. OK, and there's a huge 10,000 a day, every day turning 80 for the next two decades. OK, so there's a huge shortage of beds. And and so incredible opportunity there. And I'm buying facilities for less than they cost to build as well. So. You just got to pick your vehicle. I think you need to love the elderly if you're going to get into senior housing, but I teach all of that. Try to decide on your vehicle. If it's going to be real estate, I hope you'll consider checking me out. If it's something else, go learn it. Go to YouTube, university, whatever. Learn how to buy businesses or whatever it is you want to do because the opportunity is here. See, on the business front, there's businesses that have never embraced social media. We don't want to talk about AI. I mean, I got AI. Literally, I am cloned at this point. We've got videos that look just like me talking to somebody.
Speaker #1
I was wondering if I was talking to a human head today.
Speaker #0
It's crazy. I literally have videos on my phone that's not me, okay? And it looks just like me. And the mannerisms are there and the passion and the excitement is there. It's hilarious. And so, I mean, that's what's out there, right? So there's opportunities to bring AI and social media and social media marketing to businesses as well. You know, and so. decide on your vehicle and get busy.
Speaker #1
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Speaker #0
I'm 66 years old, but I have socks that have a couple of decades on you. But I am, I, you know, when you love what you do, work is play, right, Kev? Yeah,
Speaker #1
yeah, yeah. I love it.
Speaker #0
Yeah, when you love it, you clearly love it. And they really never work another day in your life. And I freaking love this shit. So there you go.
Speaker #1
Yeah. So the point I was going to make is I'm more on the passive side now. So I would invest in a syndication like you have. I prefer the LP side. And I could tell you on the multifamily, I've kind of shied away from that. I prefer other asset classes at this point because there's so many capital calls going on on these syndications.
Speaker #0
Oh, yeah. Oh, no. There's a lot of deals in trouble, buddy. They're doing capital calls. I've got a deal in trouble right now. I literally, I have a deal with 3% debt that's in trouble. Now I'm suing the management company we had And literally. It's so egregious that the attorney took it on contingency. I don't have to pay the attorney. That's how bad it was. But I teach this stuff, and I've got to deal with this problem right now. And so it's tough times out there because expenses have gone through the roof. But again, I don't want to scare you. With crisis comes opportunity. There's deals that are being sold for a portion of what they cost to build. I mean, it's it's incredible. So, you know, it's like Warren Buffett's famous quote, be greedy when others are fearful, be fearful when others are greedy. I've been a lot of greed these last couple of years. OK, so, you know, be fearful then. But now the fear is here. Now's the time to be greedy. It's contrarian investing. This is when the most money is made. So, you know, there you go. But yes, I agree with you about apartment complexes because there's a lot of them struggling. I used to pay my maintenance supervisor $28 an hour and I'm paying $40 now. And so, you know, I used to teach a 50% expense ratio. Income from all sources, less property-related expenses, 50%. I teach 60% to 65% now.
Speaker #1
Whoa, you're not seeing that in underwriting anywhere.
Speaker #0
Right. Well, you should because that's really the reality.
Speaker #1
I totally agree with you.
Speaker #0
Yeah. And so, you know, it will reach equilibrium. Rents will go back up. Rents will keep going back up. It's a beautiful thing. Inflation causes everything to go through risk.
Speaker #1
What you just said is something I think the listener needs to make sure that this sinks in, you guys, because what he's saying with the underwriting expenses, no offering memorandum is going to say this. No broker is going to tell you this. When you're looking at these deals, they're going to lie. to your face.
Speaker #0
That's it. That's why, listen, even if you're going to invest passively, get your ass to my boot camp because I'll teach you what to look for, okay? Because, you know, keep you out of trouble because a lot of investors, sadly, are losing their money right now, a lot of them. And I'm sure you saw Barry from Fingal Pockets. He was all over the news with his 15 million lost to investors. He's a great guy. I love him. And so... There's a lot of that out there right now.
Speaker #1
I hate hearing anytime someone loses money,
Speaker #0
I hate it. Especially people that really have their shit together like him. I mean, I know people with jets that are losing properties, okay? I mean, literally super sophisticated, very reputable, solid operators that are struggling right now. And it's just where it is. That's where we are in the market cycle. But again, with crisis comes opportunity. So don't get scared. Get excited. If there was ever a freaking time, it's right now. You know? But smarter people than me say this could be the greatest transfer of wealth we see in our lifetimes. Oh,
Speaker #1
it's happening. It's happening whether it's a transfer from one family to another or just through a family.
Speaker #0
The family thing is happening because of the aging baby boomers. That's happening right now. Businesses are changing.
Speaker #1
And that creates opportunity because people don't want apartment buildings. They don't want their parents' inheritance. They want to get rid of it.
Speaker #0
The kids don't want to do that. They want the cash. So there's opportunity there. I teach my students, talk to probate attorneys because they have deals. That's the opportunity, I think. Yeah.
Speaker #1
So you made a comment that's kind of stuck with me. The 500 houses in Denver you wish you still had. Now you move that into different assets and it didn't go as well as you were hoping.
Speaker #0
I had 800 houses in Florida when I crashed and burned. Okay. And I used the money from the sale of the Denver houses to buy those 800 that I kept. I was at a 30% loan to value. Okay. And I still crashed and burned.
Speaker #1
People are like, oh,
Speaker #0
you were over leveraged. No. I was at a 30% loan to value. It still crashed and burned. You know, what killed me here, I'll tell you, on my 800 houses, I'll just tell you, was I had houses. I didn't logistically do it the best way, full disclosure. I had houses two hours north of me, two hours south of me, and everywhere in between. And so, you know, and I had property. There's no state income tax in Florida. So the property taxes are a little bit higher. Although, Santa says, he's going to eliminate property taxes. It's crazy. But anyway, not that.
Speaker #1
We'll see. We'll see.
Speaker #0
No, it's going through right now. Okay. It's going through. I think it's going to happen.
Speaker #1
Money's got to come from somewhere. So what's the solution? I don't know.
Speaker #0
He's got, there's revenue. They've got such a revenue surplus that he's, I mean, anyway, we don't have to debate that. I love that freaking guy. But anyway, but I have properties in wind and flood zones that, you know, that, you know, causes higher insurance, impacts cash flow. So the taxes and the insurance impact the cash flow. But what killed me was the maintenance. So I had mostly C-class houses, okay? A, B, C, and D. A is the new stuff. D is the hood. Stay out of the hood. I had properties. Just since you're in Denver, I'll tell you. In Aurora North, I bought a whole block. I think it was Chester, if I recall. Chester.
Speaker #1
I know. Exactly. I have a lot of houses out there.
Speaker #0
Okay. And the drug traffic was so bad that they put pilings at the end of the street to slow down the drug traffic. Not stop it. Just slow it down. I bought a house that had a hole cut in the front door to pass the crack through. People killed in it, around it, behind it. Yeah, you do not want D-class houses. But anyway, my houses were C-class, okay? Tougher demographic, older, a lot more maintenance, okay? And so... You know, if I sent a maintenance guy to one of my apartment complexes that I had back then, we could stockpile parts, plumbing parts, appliance parts, window locks, door locks, you name it. And so the maintenance guy's in and out in an hour. If I had to send him to one of my houses, and let's say it's an hour, hour and a half away, they got to go see what's wrong because they can't stockpile for every house. Then they got to go find a Home Depot or Lowe's where we have an account. I don't know about you, but when Rod's happy ass tries to fix something, he ends up going to Home Depot more than once. And so, you know, this happens with maintenance guys as well. And so what took an hour at one of my apartment complexes to call a day at one of my 800 houses. So they never really cash flowed that well. What killed me was I didn't pay attention to tenant demographics. And I don't think it would have made a difference, honestly, because the economy got so bad. But I had a lot of contractors in my houses, plumbers, electricians, drywallers, painters, roofers, and they just flat-ass didn't have work. So it was like the perfect storm. Now you want to know what else is crazy. I was at a 30% loan to value. By the end of 2009, my portfolio was upside down. That's how much it dropped. Yeah.
Speaker #1
Yeah. I can relate. Now, all of my stuff was in Denver at the time, and Denver didn't have quite the same. It wasn't as bad. Yeah, it wasn't as bad. Florida was at the top of the worst, if that makes any sense, for a long time. I think 10 out of 12 months or something.
Speaker #0
Florida, Arizona, and California.
Speaker #1
got decimated just fucking decimated so back to my question you you wish you still had those five houses but you also really love multi-family so if you had to do it all over again which direction would you here's the thing i started my podcast
Speaker #0
10 years ago to tell because i would still have my multi-family from that i had here in florida if i hadn't cross collateralized it with packages of houses to save you know 50 basis points half percent interest because i did that thinking i I'm smart. And so I... cross-collateralize my houses with my apartment complexes. I would still have those complexes if I had done that because they pulled back about 11%, but they could have easily survived. And so I started my podcast about 10 years ago to tell people, if you're going to buy and hold real estate, for God's sakes, do multifamily, don't do single family. Ask me how I know. And now it's the largest real estate podcast really in the world for commercial real estate, which just blows my mind. But So. You know, it's what you want to make God laugh. You tell me your plans. My first episodes, I used to tell people, I'm never going to sell you anything. I just want to add value, which was the truth. I just want to tell you what I went through. And now I'm a liar because I sell everything, but I never planned to, you know, it's just, uh,
Speaker #1
at least you're honest about it. Yeah. All right. We, I got a couple more questions, but I wanted to ask you about, um, now where was that? You have a charity that year.
Speaker #0
Let me interject a couple of quick things. The other things as it relates to the success strategies, the next one is get around people that want more. Get your peer group. So freaking important. OK, you know, most people default to a peer group that they work with or went to school with. And those people may have their own limiting beliefs and fears and they'll hold you back. So, you know, be careful who you allow to influence you. You want to be around people that think what you think is hard is easy. You know, when I was losing everything, I was in Tony Robbins Platinum Partnership, which is a high level mastermind. I bought 100 grand back then. And, uh, I was around people that were killing it in that crash. They were thriving. And they're like, get up, you puss, 50 million schmillion. Get up and make something happen. That's who you want to be around, okay? You want to be around people that will push you. That's why my coaching program is so freaking successful, my warriors. Because everybody's lifting everybody else up, praising, validating, supporting, encouraging. And that's it. So be very, very careful who you're around. Peer group is super important. The last piece is play to your strengths. Don't try to build your weaknesses. Hire, align, or partner for your weaknesses. Again, that's why a group like my warrior group is so successful because you put people together that have different skill sets and they kill it. The most common successful partnership I see is an analytical introverted person with an outgoing extroverted person. That's a match made in heaven because you need to build relationships. You also need to do the numbers.
Speaker #1
Tell us about the warrior group.
Speaker #0
My coaching program, I was just bragging about it. They own 305,000 units. that we know of. You can't see it behind me, but I've got a wall back here with hundreds of thank you cards for my students, which is just a real blessing. It makes me feel good every time I see it. But yeah, 305,000 units that we know of, it's probably 350,000 candidly, because not everybody responds to us, but you know. They have tons of, that's all multifamily, have tons of self-sports, tons of senior housing, tons of mobile home parks, industrial flex space, mixed-use retail. They're developing stuff. I mean, it's got a life of its own. It's insane. We had a lawyer event here in Sarasota where I had a few hundred of my warriors show up just because we discovered the more they get together, the more successful they are. They network. Like those 305,000 units, 95% of them are done between warriors.
Speaker #1
Yeah.
Speaker #0
So, you know, our warriors are all involved. up So we try to facilitate those connections. But this last warrior event, I taught senior housing. I taught industrial flex base. And of course, multifamily as well, syndication, raising the money. So yeah, now I'm really proud of it. Like I said, the student success eclipses everybody else combined, including big names you'd recognize. Yeah, so really proud.
Speaker #1
Have you heard of the group Commercial Academy?
Speaker #0
Yes, I have.
Speaker #1
The group is pretty spectacular. And it's probably very similar to the warrior group. I was in it for about six years and I've made it too.
Speaker #0
I was in his, his, his, his, his thing just because I was studying retail, but I offline, we can have a conversation.
Speaker #1
Okay. My point is for the listeners benefit here, if you could find a group like that or the warriors group and, and maybe the price tag is a little bit higher than some of the others, but that's what, and I have no idea. I have no idea what yours is.
Speaker #0
Mine is the lowest out. How much is it? I don't usually talk about it, but the, It's $22,000. Yeah, see, that's perfect. Yeah, and it includes one-on-one coaching, unlimited. It includes all my courses. It includes 15 coaching calls a month. You have my cell phone number. It includes high-performance coaching, which is probably one of the linchpins because people actually do the work. They actually do it because we're keeping them motivated and excited through high-performance coaching and a lot more. Yeah,
Speaker #1
if I can get this out, I think that there's an absolute tremendous amount of value in that. And that price tag is low.
Speaker #0
If somebody's interested in my warrior program, text the word crush to 72345, crush to 72345. If you're interested in my bootcamp, you need to go to rodslinks.com. That's my link tree, rods, plural, links, plural.com, rodslinks.com. And by the way, my goal setting workshop is there. Even if you're not interested in what I do. Told you the goal setting, have your spouse do it, have your kids, if they're over 10 years old, do it. It's an hour long. There's a guide you can download. Not going to try to sell you anything. People spend more time planning a freaking birthday party than they do designing their lives. That'll help you design your life. And it's free. And it's at Rod's Links. And my bootcamp site is there. A bunch of free resources there. There's a free book section. It's got best in class books. These aren't crappy books. They're really good. So yes, and my social media is there. My podcast link and all that is at Rod's links.
Speaker #1
I think this is all great. Thank you. I love what you're doing. Bringing high-level commercial investors together or a resident. If you could find a group like that and do business with each other, friendships are made.
Speaker #0
Even locally. Go to a local meetup. Go to your real estate investor social meetings. You'll meet some there will be some guys there that just want to shoot the shit, but there will be young people there wanting to grow. Yes. You'll meet people for sure. Absolutely. But the price,
Speaker #1
if you have a little bit higher price, it does create a little bit of separation. And now you're putting yourself in a room with people that actually want to be there.
Speaker #0
Fair enough. Fair. I completely agree. A hundred percent agree. Yeah. Yeah. You know, you shorten the learning curve, bottom line. I mean, can you do it on your own in five, seven years? Sure. You can do it in one or two with me. So, you know, that's, that's it. Bottom line.
Speaker #1
And my guess is your students make, if you want to call them students or members, they make far more than the $22,000. You would make that in not even.
Speaker #0
I get love every single freaking day. I mean, it's my greatest gift. I get DMs. I get emails. I get gifts. I get cards every single day. I get hate too. You know, no one should have owned 800 houses.
Speaker #1
We don't need to talk about that.
Speaker #0
No one should have owned 800 houses. You're the reason I can't buy a house. No, the reason is you won't get out of your mom's freaking basement and go do something. Yeah. Anyway, but I get tons of love. Oh, that's sad.
Speaker #1
I have heard that from other coaches as well. And that is sad. You have to actually do what you're told to get results.
Speaker #0
Thank you.
Speaker #1
Okay, here's what I'd like to do, Rod. If you're cool with it, I'll make it real fast, but I'd like to go through the notes, what I learned from this episode. And then if you want to add any color to it, that'd be fantastic. And then if you don't mind, one final piece of advice, maybe something that you would do differently in your career that would help our listener out. And then once again, I'd love to give you contact information. If you want to throw one more pitch for the $17 bootcamp, that would be great. But for my notes, you said fear, regret, not failure. Love that. Set your goals as number one. And what... that does is creates the fire. It's the why we talk about that a lot. If your why is big enough, it has to be bigger than you. It's got to be bigger than the planes and the cars and the jewelry. It's got to be something bigger, like maybe your foundation that we never even got to. But that why is what's going to keep you going when things get a little bit tougher. So you got to make decisions. The best way to make a decision on what direction it goes to go to your bootcamp. What does this one say? Stay vehicle, not identity. I don't know what I wrote down there.
Speaker #0
Don't have your vehicle be your identity. Oh, don't have your vehicle.
Speaker #1
Stay your vehicle. Yeah, exactly. Take the first step by when there's pain. I wrote down that because we did talk about when there's some uncertainty, that's when the best opportunities are. Look at senior housing. I don't know why I wrote that down, but that was interesting that you were very passionate about that one. 60% of expense ratios on multifamily. Stay out of your own head. Get around people who want more and play to your strengths. Yes, sir.
Speaker #0
Yes, sir. I love it. Love it. But I suppose one final piece of advice. Let me let me talk about something. Let me give a little framework. So 20 years ago, I lived in Denver, but I knew I wanted to live on the beach. And of course, there's no beach in Denver, maybe a Cherry Creek Reservoir, but not much of a beach. But but anyway, so so I visualized it. And I manifested and I built this mansion on the beach here. It's about a $12 million place. Gulf to bay on the beach on one side, boats on the backside. Place was spectacular. Spiral staircase up through the middle. Big waterfall from the second floor balcony to the pool. Pools and magazines. Wine cellar elevator on the second floor. I had aquariums built around the staircase. Cost me almost 200 grand. So this gives you an idea of the house. Two months after I moved in. So I worked for this thing for 20 years. Two months after I moved in. I'm floating in the pool at night. My family's inside sleeping. I had all the toys, the Maserati and the stupid shit I thought was important, boats and jet skis and all that. And I got depressed. And I don't mean a little depressed. I'm looking up at this testament to my ego to prove the world I was good enough. I didn't talk about some of the stuff that I went through in childhood that caused me to think I wasn't good enough, but that had to prove it, right? And I got depressed. I don't mean a little depressed. I mean, I got really depressed. I'm like, what the hell? I've just achieved success like times 10,000. There were three things happening that I want to share with your listeners as a final thing here. The first thing is you never achieve a big goal without having other goals lined up behind it. Like the good book says, without a vision, the people perish. You need a vision for the future. I didn't know what I was going to do next. The second thing is it's never about the goals. You got to have them to create that burning desire and hunger to get off your ass and go make something happen for yourself and your family. But it's never about the goals. Happiness comes from progress and growth. And if you go to my Rod's links and you do my goal setting workshop, At the tail end of that, I do a planning process that's really, really powerful. It's how I manage two large companies at the same time. And one of the pieces of that is being grateful for what you got done and patting yourself on the back. So that was the second piece. Happiness comes from progress. I didn't know what I was going to do to progress. But the third thing was I'd been totally focused on proving the world I was good enough. Blah, And that's the year I met Tony Robbins. And I spent 26 years with Tony. I was on his team for eight years. But. I found out that he fed families for the holidays and he just had the largest food drive in history in Canada literally two or three days ago. It was extraordinary. But anyway, I was like, what a concept. Do something for someone else. I'm embarrassed to say I had to be 40 to get that memo. But I called my brother in Denver. I'm like, bro, let's feed five families because I was going to see him for Thanksgiving. He called his church for five families that really needed help. Third family changed my life, man. We had bought toys and food and frozen turkeys and all this for these families. This woman comes out of this shack. It was like a one-bedroom shack. It was a Hispanic woman. It was on, oh, you know, Denver. It was right there by North High School, if North is still there, off of Spear, North of Spear. Okay. Anyway, but she comes out. She sees the food on the porch, and she starts crying. Her kids come out. Two of the older ones start crying. I start crying, and I was hooked. Now, there's no ego in this. There's a real message in this, so don't tune me out if you're listening, okay? In the last 26 years, I've fed over 160,000 children. at-risk children in my area here for the holidays. I've provided tens of thousands of backpacks filled with school supplies to local kids that don't have basic supplies for school. Don't get me started on that. I've done thousands and thousands of teddy bears to local police departments for officers to keep in their vehicles if they encounter a child in a traumatic situation. Now again, I'm not bragging here. Tony Robbins calls it the science of achievement versus the art of fulfillment. Achievements of science. If you want to learn real estate, get your ass to my boot camp. I'll give you the blueprint. You just got to do it. But fulfillment is an art, okay? You got to figure out what juices you. For me, it's kids. It's also the elderly. Maybe for you, it's animals, the environment, whatever it is, give back right now. Now, don't say, well, you have money. That's why you give back. You want the money? Give back. That's how God works, okay? What you give, you get back tenfold, a hundredfold, a thousandfold sometimes. Even if it's just your time, that's how you succeed. And just leave you with that.
Speaker #1
It's pretty powerful. My, my passion is kids as well.
Speaker #0
Nice.
Speaker #1
So we, we shared that. So, all right. How do we, how do we get ahold of you? How do we join your bootcamp?
Speaker #0
Rod's links, man. Just Rod's links is the best thing. If you're driving, text links to 72345 links. We'll send that link to you. Rod's links.com. My bootcamp site is there for 17 bucks for two days. Nothing being sold. No excuses. Okay. I talk about my coaching for about 30 minutes. That's it. And, and my podcast link is there again. I think you'll really get value. I do a clip every week called own your power. It's a five minute motivational clip. I'll juice you. You give me five minutes a week, I'll juice you. Free book section is there. Goal setting workshop is there. My social media is there. So Rod's links is everything. But thanks for having me on, brother.
Speaker #1
Man, it was great. And man, you got your wedding. I don't know who's getting married. You never even told me, but somebody.
Speaker #0
No, my son. My son, they're in there getting things ready.
Speaker #1
Your son's getting married and you're super busy. And still you come and hung out with me for what is it, 45 minutes. And Rod, man, this was really, really great. Thank you.
Speaker #0
Thank you, bud. Thank you, brother.
Speaker #1
All right. To the listener. If you didn't get value from this one, you were not listening. I know you got a lot of value. Assuming you did, please help me out. Five-star review, share it with a friend, and I hope you make this day a great one. I really hope you enjoyed this episode as much as I did. If you did, please be sure to follow and leave a five-star review. Oh, yeah, and tell a friend.

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