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Value Add Podcast - From Zero to 9-Figure Portfolios! 🚀💎
Unlock the anatomy of success in real estate!
Welcome to Value Add Podcast - where we break down the ingredients needed to build real estate empires. This isn't just a podcast - it's your roadmap from scarcity mindset to abundance mindset!
🔥 What we do here:
• Unlock secrets of buying buildings with no money out of pocket
• Study the psychology of success and mental blocks
• Break down real cases from bankruptcy to financial freedom
• Learn to turn distressed assets into money-making machines
• Build passive income through value-add strategies
💰 Our guests are:
Former teachers who built 8-figure portfolios in 5 years
Young entrepreneurs running $100M+ portfolios by age 36
Artist-developers creating unique spaces that command premium rents
Investors who went from bankruptcy to luxury flipping
Mentors and coaches changing lives through real estate
Host: Rafik Moore - the guy who runs 5M+ sq ft of commercial real estate
🎯 For those who want to:
✅ Quit their salary job and jump into real estate
✅ Scale their business to the next level
✅ Invest in continuous growth and education
✅ Become a bankable asset for investors
✅ Build generational wealth
We believe: If you can find a deal that makes money - we'll find the capital! Because the hardest thing to find is the asset that generates profit, not the money.
Hit that subscribe button and start your journey to financial freedom right now!
It was about one and a half years worth of my teaching salary. She made me a lot of money. You're like, "Do it." Painting, cleaning, replacing toilets. I wanted to kind of unlock the anatomy of success. At 10 p.m., I'm getting a text from a lady. I'm going to call the cops on you for harassment. Alexander calls me crying, balling. Oh my god. We got robbed. I'm sorry, but I'm going to buy you out. I don't want to do business with you anymore.
[Music]
Welcome to Value Ad. I'm so excited to have Alexandra her on our podcast today. Thank you for coming, Alexandra. Thanks for having me. Excited to be here. So, let me tell you something about this young lady. Alexandra her has I met her in 2019. 2018. Yep. Yeah. She was a realtor then, brand new realtor about a year. Oh, she was in the real estate industry for a year. Before that, she was a high school teacher and and middle school. Yeah. Middle school teacher. What's interesting about Alexandra is in five years, she accomplished so much. It's absolutely amazing. And by the way, she she didn't grow up with a silver spoon in her mouth. Her parents didn't give her a lot of money or anything. She's a teacher struggling waitressing through school. Yeah. And today she runs 400 tenants in her eight figure portfolio with uh upper seven figure net worth only in five years. And I'm so glad to have met you and mentored you and partnered with you because she made me a lot of money and I made her a lot of money too. Right. But that's what we do here in value ad uh business is I partner up with talent and she was one of the talented people. We own multiple assets together. But um one of the reasons I wanted wanted to invite you is because a lot of ladies are not watching our stuff and they don't believe it's possible for them. Like no look, there it is. It's great being a lady in real estate. Yeah. Okay. Anyway, welcome to the podcast. Thank you so much. Yeah. Um it has been seven years since I've been in real estate now. So, but yeah, um the first we grew really fast after we started working together. So, it's it's been fun and and really mind-blowing um how you can do this business. So, before we met, how many houses have you flipped? Um, prior to us meeting, I was very new in real estate. Um, I had done two house flips and I was working on my third and living in it at the time. Basically living in a happy house and yeah, so not much. Nice. And, uh, after we met, Alexandra was a realtor who was going to find some houses. Yeah. I didn't really do a lot of houses, but one of our mutual friends who wanted to do houses and wanted me to invest in them said, "Hey, Alexander is going to be our realtor." And we did three or four houses with that particular individual, Alex. Great friend still. And uh Alexander is like, "Well, I can do stuff also." And I think we bought a forplex first or something. First we bought Yeah. A forex. You bought a forplex. You moved into it. You sold it for me. No, I was going to move into that one and you convinced me not to, thank God. And I moved into a different one. Right. So two forlexes. Anyhow, so I was a like a credit and capital partner. We kind of raised money together. There's a there's a levels of complexity to it. And one of the reasons why I invited you is I wanted to kind of unlock the anatomy of success in this business because when we talk to a lot of people and mentees, it's so difficult to envision running a you know eight figure portfolio and and all this and right now you have a management company, you have a brokerage. I mean you've really really done extremely well. But tell me what were the reasons? What were the things that unlocked your success? So, what I will say is um for a long time when I was a teacher, I was looking for my first investment property. So, I was looking to find a duplex or up to a fourunit property so I could get the right type of loan and move into one of the units and then work on the others and do house hacking. Yep. I worked with a realtor and I probably offered um I don't know, poor guy, like 25 times. I never got accepted. I never had an accepted offer. I was offering way over asking every single time I get excited. It never happened. I think for a lot of people it's it's hard getting started and it was the same for me. It was really difficult getting that first deal. The first deal I ever got was a $16,000 house that I bought in cash which I had to borrow about 8,000 of that. It must have been a very bad neighborhood. So it was in such a small um township. There wasn't Wi-Fi there. There was no cell phone service. Uh the across the street neighbor was a methhead that like was swinging on his swing all the time. But it was my first flip and I was so excited about it and was able to get rolling with that. Now once I got that and sold it, I saw how much there was in potential to be made. Right. You may ask how much you made on the first flip as opposed to how much you made annually as a teacher? It was about one and a half years worth of my teaching salary. All right. So in that first flip. And then how long did it take for you to flip that house? I worked on it. Um if you take hours Yeah. weekend. I probably worked on it for 4 months. Um basically everything that was put into that was almost everything was free. I probably only put like $4,000 into it because I was going around and trying to find everything free and I just didn't have any money at the time. As I was doing that though, I started really picking up with my real estate career and getting a lot more clients and and a lot more business there. So after this one, I was feeling a little bit better financially, but still not financable because I didn't have two years of tax returns as an independent contractor or an investor. And so then anyways, I got my next investment that was on a contract for deed um for somebody who I I had worked with for acquiring his homes. Contract for deed is a type of financing where seller finances your acquisition when you're not financable. Yep. So I put 16,000 of my own money down and the rest of it was financed by this seller. Um, and then, you know, worked on that house. And basically what I think was the most crazy minds shift or mindset shift was when I met you and um, you know, I had been doing these flips and I was really proud of them and I was really proud of my career as a real estate agent as well and I still am. Like I'm not discounting that at all. It was really good for me at the time. Um, but I saw this forplex that I was like this is an amazing deal. And I showed it to you and you were like, "Yeah, I agree." And you know, that was the one I was going to be moving into. And so I had my half of the down payment. You had your half, but I had your confidence where you're like, do it. Let's do it. You can do it. And so then we got that under contract. Simultaneously, I found two other forplexes, which you like better. Which I liked better. And then I was like, gosh, I I really like these. And you're like, do it. You know, it's kind of like a mindset shift. I pushed you out of comfort zone cuz you're like too much. You're putting too much on my plate. I'm like, this nothing three forlexes. Yeah. And it was just like having somebody who has the confidence with you to do those things. Um, and I'm not going to discount how difficult it was. Like my husband and I were there working late at night with we called ourselves slum lord Mike and Alexandra because we were always stuck working there at like 10 at night until midnight painting, cleaning power tools, like replacing toilets. First time I got toilet water sprayed all over my face. We had some real like doozies of bites in there. But it was so awesome then like seeing momentum building and basically just having somebody who I knew has has done this before such as yourself and to you this was like not a big deal, right? I remember my first sale. This was the one that Yes. My first sale I think we each made um like $80,000 I think on it. So it was like around 160. And I remember actually feeling super guilty about it. Um because it it took me a few months and it was really hard work and I'm not discounting that but that wouldn't have ever been possible in my previous career. And to you, I was like amazed by this and you were like, "Oh, yeah, that's great." And I like, "Why are you not so excited like this is insane money and it still is like I still understand um that." But it was it was a crazy mindset shift. I would say meeting somebody like yourself and partnering with you and then also seeing like the the possibilities that were there. Yeah, that's amazing. Well, I'm really really glad that I had that impact on you. Bring me back to your school days. You're a teacher. Yep. You have a salary. You need the salary to pay the bills, the rents, and you know, gas and whatever. How do you quit your salary job and jump off the cliff into a real estate agent position where, yeah, there's no guarantee. That's the biggest issue I think everybody struggles with. And I did struggle with that myself in the beginning when I had a job and I had to like quit the job. I'm like, how am I going to pay the bills? Well, I think um some people have, you know, like the golden handcuffs. I didn't. I had like plastic broken handcuffs. Like I was not making very much money. Like I said, I had to I waitressed in the summers and I always made as much or more in the summer as I did um as a teacher as a teacher. So I knew that there was a lot more potential there and also I was raised um with parents who had student rentals and so I saw them doing that um on the side of their other business. But really, it was it was um scary, but it was exciting. And completely quitting. I was still working as a teacher um part time part-time during summer. I did summer school um and I got my real estate license. And just during that time, I was like, there's no question in my mind that this is what I want to do. Luckily, as teachers, you do get paid through the summer. And so, my first commission check came exactly two weeks after my last paycheck. Oh my. So, I really didn't have a gap, which is lucky. And thank God because I didn't have money really to cover like any long period of time. Well, that's that's fascinating. I've never worked with another woman in a partnership. And when I met you, you were so prompt like the communication style. You have the same type of a fastpaced communication. And the other thing that was very uh exciting about you, you're always available. Yeah. And of course, I'm married. I love my wife. You had a boyfriend. You married her family. Now, at 10:00 p.m., I'm getting a text from a lady and she's talking about a Forplex and I'm texting back and whatever and then my wife is like, "Who are you talking to?" Me annoying me. Oh, she didn't. No, she didn't know you then. Okay. Yeah. Yeah. So, and so I'm like, "Um, and I mean I don't want to say Alexandra 10:00. She's sleeping." And so I'm like, "Oh, um, this is a realtor. Her and her husband want to meet us for lunch. She's so awesome. I think we got to do some business together. I remember wor being worried about that becoming an issue because, you know, partnering up with another female or a person of opposite sex is is uh could be misconstrued as, you know, whatever people could, but for me, it's always always impressional. I'm very respectful. Obviously, you've been very respectful. I think it was great. Um, but I remember that kind of a tense situation with my wife and after she met you and Mike, we invited you for the pool party. I think it was awesome. Let's talk about you being a female in the male dominated world. Many times I hear from my friends and my mentees, students like, well, um, it's easy for you because you're a guy and it's a guy's world. Uh, what do you have to say about that? I really think being a female is a huge advantage. Actually, I've I've said this before in real estate investment business. In commercial real estate, interesting. In residential, I think there's a lot of ladies in there. Um I think actually like the majority of realtors are residential for um I mean are females um in residential I think residential flippers there's a lot of women in there um but commercial is significantly more males in my experience either a it doesn't matter they don't care they treat you just like anybody else or occasionally they do care and if they do care or they they think that you know possibly you're not as competent or maybe they're a little bit misogynist. That's a huge advantage because then you're underestimated which is like the dream. I remember thinking wow I mean if you're a lady and whimp men are constantly hitting on you how's that it's uncomfortable right? How do you deal with that situation? Yeah it it is difficult sometimes because you also like you were saying like you don't want somebody to be inappropriate to you and you to ignore it because that's almost like leading them on. So I'm just straight up like hey just so you know like this is strictly professional. Also, you don't want to be like, I'm gonna call the cops on you for harassment, but basically just clear boundaries and um males typically like chase females more and so it's easier for you to get a client than me with another guy. But also like I want to be very clear what's there's nothing Yeah. nothing going on like that. But I do think once you lay down the the boundary, they're more um respectful of respectful and then treat you more like possibly they would treat a male. Now I am a father of three beautiful girls and I want my girls to be successful. Now I've I've always been a guy you know in you know doing this business and now having seen you right uh and having seen many other female leaders uh I realized that it's very important to have female leaders like you because these little girls need to look up to you and I was so blessed to have you adopt my Julie Julie is my daughter she's 20 years old now as a mentee because Julie didn't want to do do business with me I'm boring I'm not cool but tell us about your experience on the first flip you did with Julie. Yeah, this is funny because you know you were my mentor and then you mentioned your daughter and working with her and you said she was 14 at the time or maybe she was even 13. So she was around 15, couldn't drive. Yeah, 15, 16. Yep. She couldn't drive. I know because I actually remember um when she had her attempts having her drive my car and her driving us in through the ditch and back out and being like, "All right, we're done." Like I always think it be so fun having her like learning to drive and me being able to take phone calls. That was very good idea. But no, when you said her age, um you're like what are you talking about? Don't waste my time. I um she was very mature for her age, I would say. So I was like this is going to be more difficult and like it's okay. I was I was willing to do it for sure, but then when I actually met her, I was so impressed because she's so mature and so smart and like on it and she was excited. I actually loved working with Julie and she's still we still like are good friends and office together and everything and um but what I told Julie um I said Julie what what you want to do is find people in your life who represent what you want to be like and offer them value. Work with them and you know collaborate with them. You know of course I made the situation to where you guys flip a house together. I could have flipped that house together just as easily. But when you guys got this, she saw what it like to be a successful lady and now she's uh running her own little portfolio. But anyhow, that's that was a very interesting thing. It was a fun flip. It was pretty difficult. It was pretty It was the longest flip. I kept giving you grief about very well on it. Um and it turned out beautifully, but yeah, it was it was a major major rehab and and some things took on the first on the first deal. the person who wasn't involved at all thought it took too long, but it was a fun experience. And then also to see Julie picked up really quickly. So, you know, once she learned, she's able to continue. And um honestly, like we her and I started a housing company. We did a ton of house slips together. She is currently in Poria, Illinois. Yep. On a shopping center that she picked up on an auction. She was Yep. Telling me about that. Yeah, that's awesome. Um, I was so mad because we never seen it until we gave 10% down in front of earnest money. I think we we're going to be okay in it, but it's too small and there's a lot of hair on it. Okay. But I said, even if you break even, I think it's going to be a good lesson for you to understand how this thing works. So, you and I are selling hopefully tomorrow our property right next to there and I have a really good like hour maintenance guy that can help her a ton, too. Awesome. Awesome. what one relationship habit or principle you believe helped you scale your business to the level that it is because you have an amazing huge business for how you know seven years you've been in the business. I don't even know if it was like anything intentional. You know, it's not like I was like every morning I'm going to wake up and I'm going to read this book and I'm going to, you know, do all these things. For me, it was just that I loved it and it was and I still do and it's still really exciting. Um, I'm very competitive and so I think if you have like more of a competitive nature, you you really want to get things done and you really want to um see the wins. I guess it was just so fun. Like I literally went from a life where I didn't even ever have a window. I was in a classroom teaching um back to back toback classes. Back toback classes. Literally didn't see daylight a lot of days. And then I went to something. I remember like my first time when I was completely done teaching and I wanted to go to lunch and I was like this is crazy that I can just go to lunch and like I'm not on a 25m minute period where I'm trying to like go back shovel food into my mouth and grade essays. And I think if you realize the privilege that that you do have and how how fun it actually is and even like the crappy things cuz there's always like a lot of crappy things. It's not perfect and and to be able to like laugh at how insane some of the things are that happen too. But but for me it was just more being able to scale was just that I loved it. It was fun to me. I would and then I would find something just like you like you find something you're like this has a ton of potential and then you get excited and then you you don't let it go. One of the things that I want to mention is uh as much as it's fun and exciting and smiles and high fives, this one time Alexander calls me crying, balling. Oh my god, we got robbed. This guy that I h we I hired, it's my contact, hired to do work on a 45 unit apartment building that we bought, took $300,000 from us, said he's going to do the construction work. This property is in Montio. Montido, so it's a couple hours away. and we I'm busy. I thought she's checking on the work. She did. She thought I'm checking on the work. Basically gave this guy $300,000 and he probably spent 10 and he stole all the money. He provided fake invoices from real companies. He was, you know, talking the talk, but then every time I would try to come to look, he was like, "Oh, my daughter's in the hospital." Or, you know, all these lies. And so, yeah. So, she's crying. I feel like at first, if you remember, I was very stoic about the whole situation. Like, don't worry about it. It'll be fine. you're like a business. Oh my god. What? To me, I was like, if I made a mistake of putting that guy, worst case scenario, I'll just write $150,000 check for that mistake. That was my to me, it was $150,000 mistake on my side because I could lose money, you know, but I didn't want to lose your money. So, that's how I internalized it. For me, we ultimately got the money back. Most of it, the guy's in jail now, unfortunately. Not because of the situation, but long story. He thinks unfortunately. I think fortunately, long story short, um when you go through these episodes, maintaining a relationship and going forward and we had multiple other projects going on and not completely breaking down and losing using your shoes. Well, one thing I appreciated cuz I'm more like I was more of the hands-on type partner and we were so we bought so much at one time and so we we created him as a master tenant. he's supposed to be kind of taking care of things, but really I should have been demanding to see um like a lot more work and like not trusting him. Um but you didn't turn on me and I didn't turn on you and like we just figured it out together. And so I think that's a really good So one of the advice I want to give you guys is that being in partners is like being in a boat in the ocean, right? And ocean is not always calm. Sometimes there's going to be waves. Sometimes it's going to be storms. And if there's a storm in the ocean and you're in the boat and all you do is bicker and complain about who may made made a mistake, wrong turn or whatever, you sink. All you have to do when there's a storm, hunker down and keep rowing as much as possible to get to the other side, to get to the shore. And so to me, uh, you were a trooper. Obviously, we've done really well together. We still own a lot of shopping centers, industrial properties. we still have housing units, but uh I very I appreciate your partnership and I'm glad that we we work together. But outside of like I've done so much without you since uh you Alexander got pregnant and she had a baby, a beautiful baby and we have a baby too. So she sort of take took a hiatus uh she hasn't bought anything focused a lot on management just a couple of things I thought. Yeah. So my my point is one of the things that I'll tell you is it's not always smooth and uh uh sunny skies. Sometimes it's distressful and you need to understand not to point fingers. And many times in the past, similar situations, my partners would say, "Oh, well, you put that tenant in there and that tenant didn't pay. It's your responsibility. You're going to eat it." And that was the end of the relationship. Now we have seven, eight properties going on together. But when that happened because the I was like, "All right, if that's how it is, I will take the responsibility. I'm sorry, but I'm going to buy you out. I don't want to do bit with you anymore." Not with me. That was not with you, but with somebody else. My point is we've had a lot of issues happening and we were kind of stuck together and it it was great. And uh uh so I'm really appreciate that. I agree. Um, I think even if like whether in a partnership or even if you're doing yourself, like it doesn't really matter either who's as long as everyone's not malicious with anything and trying to do anything wrong. Like everyone has a million things going on and is doing their best and like their portion of the partnership. And so the fact that I mean we didn't turn on each other at all. We're both like crap and then worked through it. And yeah,
let me ask you another question. Yep. What is your Do you have a like a fiveyear plan or goal or are you sort of coasting through life? So, that's an interesting question because I I feel like my um Greg has asked me that a few times. My real estate coach um I've created a few goals and then reach them pretty quickly. Um, and now where I'm at right now, I would say that as long as I continue to like it and enjoy it, that's what I hope to do. I don't have like I want to get to a certain amount of square feet. Um, what I what I want is to be able to be around my son a lot. I will probably once he gets a little older start flipping crappy houses again because I want him in there doing that with me like I was with my parents. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. as a 10-year-old, like I'm going to buy some really ugly, disgusting properties that he's going to get to deal with. Um, just like you wanted with Julie, right? I mean, my biggest thing now is I want him to grow up to be an awesome, responsible adult that's happy in his life. I want him to see his mom doing well. And so, I also want to I'm still very driven. I still want to continue growing. I just like like I said, I've been putting in LOIs and stuff. I I feel like my management is much more stable now, but I don't have like a financial goal so much or um square footage. I just because you are content. You're happy. Yeah, I am very happy with where I am. I never thought I would be where I am to be honest. Like can you believe it? It's unbelievable. It's unbelievable. Yeah. I mean I have everything that I could have wanted in my life. Um, and the biggest thing was my son and now I have him. And so that's so beautiful and it's so beautiful to see how you were excited and you lit up about that because uh people take it for granted. Many people have 20 kids, well five kids, seven kids, whatever. But um it's so important to compartmentalize your life and and not be focused too much on one thing which is financial freedom. There's health, there's family, there's uh you know capital. Yeah. And and actually since having him too, I've always wanted to exercise and be healthy and everything, but um I'm trying to prioritize that as well because if you get really seriously sick, you're going to spend every single penny that you have to make sure that you continue living and you have a and you're healthy and happy. Um so I I want to focus on on that as well. I'm training for a marathon right now. Awesome. Yeah. Just ran a half marathon, hopefully a full one as long as everything is good. The problem with marathons for me is I have a back pain and every time I run, my back pain gets worse. So, I'm a biker now as a result. Okay. But, uh, as far as health is concerned, my wife Maria is um much younger than me. Uh, I think we have a 10 year difference. And as a result of that, I had her um start a longevity clinic. Yeah. For um to to keep me young and we've done some procedures and stuff. It's absolutely amazing. So, little plug for Maria. Uh, if you guys want to stay healthy, please find Ever Youth and uh uh reach out to her. She's going to hook you up with uh lots of uh really cutting edge. She knows a lot about Yeah. I mean, anything any question I have with health or like exactly like you're saying, longevity or when I was pregnant, everything, she's really into all of it. Do you have a goal? I used to have a goal until I got to my, you know, portfolio size and then I sort of kind of lost my bearings because I didn't want to like more I uh just for the sake of more. One thing I realized, and you'll see that too, when you have a lot going on, you got to stay on top of everything. It's just more work. And after you get, I don't know, $200,000 a month or $300,000 a month. You don't even need that money. What's the point? Yeah. It's just it's like it Yeah. Yeah. And and uh I'm very frugal and humble and I grew up with, you know, uh in a small town without any financial means. So I live beyond any kind of an imagination, imaginary lifestyle, you know, with the flying planes. And so for me, uh I don't have a specific destination as to like I want to have a billion dollar portfolio, whatever. That's not what I do. But I poured my a purpose into creating this mentorship program because what really feeds my soul is guys like you. I you are my product. like when I see a person like you do really really well outside of my having financial means that sort of fulfills my purpose. And so what I want to do for the rest of my life is just coach and help and and elevate others but not just teach economics of deals. One of the things that many of our mentors don't uh uh focus on is being a good human being first and foremost. Yeah. being selfless and considerate and uh generous and contribute to the lives of others. So that's what I'm working on. And of course it's a lot of work on me to contain my enthusiasm but also grow and and and one of my biggest frustrations right now too busy. No, I want everyone to be like Alexandra and they're not. And I'm like okay let's figure out what's missing. What's the missing ingredient? So much of it is an internal like a block. A lot of people first and foremost they don't believe in the possibility and so they see it with us. Oh Rafie got lucky. Oh Alexandra got lucky or this guy. No it's not luck you know it's just it's it's a combination of work continuous growth and uh and self-confidence but you can borrow the confidence. Yeah. So one of the things that I want to ask you how much of what you've accomplished is a byproduct of continuous growth. Tell us about that journey. You you mean like continuing to grow in my real estate career? like how well learning like uh pineo like commercial academy all that yeah yeah yeah real quick speaking of um learning and what you were just talking about I've seen studies and like the it was like a huge portion of CEOs are sociopaths like lack empathy and so having more people such as yourself who who do care to do the right thing because you can go really far with doing the right thing but a lot of times people some people end up getting there because they don't care about nothing else going on. Yes, they strictly care about business. They don't have any other onedimensional and I I think probably those um that could be generational wealth or it could be people who are like eventually I think it's going to catch up to them. I don't know, maybe not. But um maybe on the other side, maybe on the other side. Yeah. I think being very successful and still empathetic and understanding like all of our decisions we make in this are directly impacting people's lives. So all of our tenants, we literally own their house and that's where they live. And like all of our our retail tenants, that's their business. Business. They make a living. That's how they make their living. And so you got to be sensitive to it, not act like a Yes. Because like the numbers are numbers to us, but they really matter to these tenants. And so like keeping that in mind. But back to what you were saying as far as like what percentage was from continual growth. Um yeah, I mean I I've always loved learning. I I went I as a teacher I went and got a way more than a masters. Um and then in real estate like there's so much you can listen to um podcast. But you paid so much money to go I paid for co I still pay $1,700 a month for my coaching. Um you know I I like to go to masterminds and um events. How much of that contributed to your success? Do you think one of the biggest things that coaching and mentorship provides is they stop you from making mistakes that take you backwards. You can be super confident and buy a bunch of things but make a lot of mistakes and make a lot of mistakes and end up backwards. And so I think my coaching and mentorship and people who I listen to um even like books, stuff like that has really just helped me where I'll I'll hear something I'm like, "Oh, oh, I was just about to make that mistake." So, like I'm so glad that I sat here for three days to hear that one thing that I was about to make a mistake on. Yeah. As I'm building this new strategy system blueprint, I'm trying to extract the ingredients necessary for success. And um as I'm listening to you and I I've talked to Daniel Kowski who I met in 2018 and who's really super successful today and many of my other students I realize that it's a combination and of course this is a work in progress for me combination of the right mindset mindset of believing in the possibility because if you don't believe you will precipitate um the reality that you you're in kind of like Confucious uh when when confusious said he who says he can and he who says he can't are both usually right. Yeah. And if you say it can't I cannot or it's not possible you will essentially through confirmation bias through through some other uh ways will create the reality which will satisfy or or or um uh ultimately prove to you that you're right about the fact it's not possible. So mindset is very important. And how do you shift your mindset is by being around people like Alexandra, people who've made it and they will basically show you uh the way uh of how it's possible what to do. So mindset is number one. Number two, continuous growth and continuous improvement. I've noticed it in my masterminds at commercial academy with Greg Pino with um many many other things I've gone to. I feel like there's a group of people that constantly show up at these events. Y I'm like, "Oh man, this is great." And that's that's the result of him owning a $100 million portfolio or whatever is because of this continuous growth. Yeah. The other thing I noticed, uh maybe it's my personal experience, um generosity and integrity. those combination of those two aspects at least maybe in my circles I hear a lot of about a lot of people who are re really rich and pompous and I've when I was poor I've always thought that rich people are you know uh disingenuous and got there because they step on other people's necks and I and I'm sure that reality exists somewhere maybe in New York Miami I don't know but every time I meet some wealthy people at least the people that I associate with I see those trades hates and then they attract me and so maybe that's that's why I created the group of a lot of good people around me but my point is generosity kindness contribution are a big part of success in my opinion at least in Midwest and then action many people read a lot study a lot have a good mindset but they're so scared to take action y and I think that that's why you need to be a part of the mastermind or go to these events because you can borrow that confidence like Alexander borrowed confidence from me 100% that seeing other people doing it and and knowing that they a year ago were right where you were is like huge. I can do that too. And and you're not going to know what you're doing, but neither did they when they started. Like nobody knows what they're doing until they're in it. I feel like um you have partners and everything like that, but mistakes or trials, they're all unique, right? So you're going to run into issues and that's just like the only known thing. Mhm. So, if we're going to create this sort of a pie chart of things necessary for to unlock success in your life and build financial freedom or whatever outside of success, by the way, if you're not healthy, well, it all doesn't matter. Doesn't make it doesn't matter. If you are not in tune with the relationships in your life and you're mean to your wife or children or whatever and you have all this money and they don't want to have nothing to do with you, then you're lonely and that's not good either. And there's many, many other aspects to it, but that's what I'm learning. And I'm a student myself, so I'm constantly reading books and going to seminars and go to masterminds. So, you know, that's another thing. And I I've noticed that in you, too. Like I said, hey, do you want to go to this power players and it's $8,000? And you didn't flinch. You're like, "Well, it's expensive, but if you believe in it, I'll do it." Yeah. You know, that was really, really And I'm so thankful. Like I would say a huge thing that you did to help me too is recommending things such as that because they're I think if you can see somebody who's doing what you want to do and they recommend you spending money and doing something you should always do it because well it's not I wasn't trying to ask I was not asking her to spend money on me because I I I wasn't in that role now that I'm doing it. One of the issues I have and this is like a I'm not sure it's going to be off record or on record but here's what I have. Yeah. All these people they don't have any money right and so I feel bad. I don't want to charge them any money. They don't have any money. But what I realize is that when they don't spend any money, there's no energy exchange. They're not committed. And so I remember Greg Pinño's words like, "Dude, if you're serious about it and you drop $8,000, you will take it seriously the subject matter and you will really go and will this reality into I think that's true. You know what I mean?" And so as far as like part of me I'm like, "Oh, I don't want to charge anything." At the same time, it I will I was I almost quit the thing. I was like, "I don't want to do it anymore because these guys are just not doing anything." Yeah. So as far as we as soon as we started charging a couple of guys made offer the guy there's less people in the coaching but they're doing things and it's excites me. So I think I'll continue doing it. I'm going to focus probably on building the portfolio more but uh I I think there's a lot of value. It's them um showing some initiative to pay a little bit. You don't care like $500 a month or whatever. Like that's not going to change your life in any way. But I completely agree. I've done like a few things um for free like podcasts where people have heard me or like I had one event and I've had quite a few people reach out and then I've I've spent so much of my energy. I can think of one person in particular. I literally like negotiated a deal where he didn't have to put anything down for him. He was so excited and then he got scared and backed out and I was like, I should have charged him. Like he wouldn't have we wouldn't have gotten the deal then or he would have done it but but he got too scared and he had no skin in the game and then I look like this loser like vouching for this guy. I I think you're completely on to something with that. Yeah. So I I don't know. My goal right now in the next phase of my life is to really uncover the ingredients of success because you see one thing I know how to do is how to buy a property, infuse it with life and unlock value and make a lot of money with the properties. I want to create a system of doing that with people. And my goal is to get a hundred people to get to like a hundred million dollar portfolio. Yeah. And the most frustrating thing is to talk to 100 people and they don't make any do anything. Yeah. So, I'm like, "What the hell is going on?" I tend to believe that people are people. Everyone is the same except for the pains they've experienced and environment they are in. Also, maybe they're not in the right career, right? Like, if you don't find excitement in in getting a good deal, maybe this is not the right thing for you. Because to me, even seeing something like getting a listing or an OM and it's a the numbers really work is super exciting. So, you got a dopamine rush. Yeah, it is. Or I don't know. I don't know. Maybe they're just not in the right career. They want the money. They think real estate's the way to get there, but they don't enjoy the actual. And so maybe the advice to those guys who just want the result. You got to find a different industry because you want to wake up every day excited about going to work, walking to these properties, you know, you know, talking to tenants and contractors, whatever. At least that that really excites me. I'm excited to visit these properties and stuff. Well, Alexandra, uh, thank you for coming. How can our audience reach you if they wanted to meet with you? And Alexandra is very easy going. You can call her and get a couple she, you know, give her a cup of coffee or lunch or whatever. She's uh she lives right here in uh Twin Cities. Yep. Yeah. So, how can they reach you? Um so, you guys, you can email me um Alexandra financially freelc.org or um social media. Social media. Yeah. But I might not accept you because I have a child now. Don't do social media. I'm like really private on it now. Good. Um, if you message me and you tell me like why your friend requesting me, then I'll accept you. But otherwise, I'm Yeah. Yeah. Otherwise, yeah, I would say probably email is the best way and then we can meet for a cup of coffee and then that would be that. So, one thing about Alexandra and many of many of my friends and students is because of the way I received my mentorship from Alex and Greg and whatever, it's all a paying forward and I think we are excited about sharing and giving and and elevating others. And I think you are the same way. Yeah, it's it's really fun seeing somebody that you helped be successful. Yeah. Yeah. Well, thank you very much for coming. It was a pleasure to see you. I We should do a double date or triple date now. Triple with kids and stuff. Uh maybe pool date. Well, thank you very much. Um if you're interested in learning more about our coaching, please DM me. Otherwise, I'll see you guys on the next podcast. Thank you. Thank you. [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music]