Hey everybody! Flip and Dani here, as well as our special guest star, Ben, welcome to another episode of our podcasts and our podcast is called Freedom Through Passive Income. That's right. And welcome to another episode. And we were just talking about what to call this episode because this is something a little different. And the way Ben describes it is like, if you the listener or viewer, or however you're doing these. Consuming these episodes. If you were to take us to coffee, which would be me only because Dani doesn't do coffee. What would you ask us? And what would we talk about? So we're going to call this one Coffee Talk. And we might do a few of these. So this is coffee talk. Coffee talk. Now we're from the East Coast, northeast.
First question is financial success. Is it a matter of destiny? Is it that some people are kind of destined to do well in the financial arena and others are just kind of struggling through it, is it luck? How would you describe it? You want me to take this one? Okay. Flip and I actually talked about this last night, because you sent us some questions. You said, Hey, here's something, here's some ideas of questions that, and the very first one was this, and I went, that's a tough question. Because I would say financial success is absolutely not destiny. I don't believe you're destined to be successful in anything in life. I think you are, you are what you create. And if you work hard, and you bust butt and you are prepared for the opportunity that arises when it comes, then you're successful. I don't think it's destiny. And that, I don't know. I just, it was a long conversation. We went back and forth. Yeah, you know, and I just want to touch on this too, you know, because I was thinking, you know, what about the people and this is not necessarily for finances or business. But you know, what about people that and I just happen to think of LeBron James, you know, mega basketball star, he's got three boys, I think. And one is, you know, is going to be going into the pro soon. But like the second one, or the third one is supposed to be better than the other one. And then they say, these boys are destined to be in the NBA, as if they're not working their butts off. They're still working their butts off. They're not destined to be in anything. So it goes along to the same story. Nobody, that what you said, nobody is destined to do something, they have to work their butts off. I mean, I'm going to tell you, I betcha, if LeBron James is their dad, guess what? They have to work harder than everyone else. So it just made me think that. Yeah, it's an interesting conversation.
My next question kind of deals with that, because what is this relationship between hard work, preparation and external forces? How does that work together? You work hard, you're dedicated, you got grit. But do you have these external circumstances? Yeah, so I'm gonna use the example of us getting into syndications for the very first time, right? So we have been working hard in real estate, learning, hustling, and making tons of mistakes, learning from the mistakes and continuing to get better and better. And then we were getting really good at raising money, because people are seeing what we're doing, seeing our commitment and our dedication and who we are as people. And then suddenly, an apartment lands in our lap. And we're like, okay, not only have we been on this road, and we've worked really, really hard, we've also surrounded ourselves with people on similar paths, and kind of aligned ourselves and talk to them when there are struggles, talk to them when there are wins. And we had somebody to lean on when we bought that apartment. And then somebody saw us do that, who was also in our network and suddenly says, hey, Dani, I see that you're really good at raising money. Hey, Dani, I see that, you know, you've just bought your first multifamily apartment complex. I'm actually starting to raise money for this 384 unit in Lake Forest, or Daytona Beach, Florida. Are you interested in and I'm like, what's in syndication? You know. I know you said, Yes. What is that? So it very much became a, that opportunity wouldn't have landed if we weren't doing the other things. But doesn't that encapsulate a type of generic strategy of what you just said, where when you see opportunity. Yes. How do we figure this out? Yes. 100%. And I don't think people do that enough. Trusting your network, trusting yourself, that this person is a very good person, I trust him. I trust myself to figure it out, along with his help. And I'm just going to take the first step because without the first step, none of that happens. And that first step is the hardest. Isn't this something like, isn't the line of, isn't it called, building the parachute on the way down? Or something? We've jumped out of the airplane and we're building the parachute, as we're falling.
Now, the story that you just mentioned, is that in that example, would you say that momentum was a part of that, because you started with this part of the business and you grew and you have the confidence and the skills are growing. And through that you created a momentum? Yeah, 100%. I believe in that, because if we would have been given the same opportunity early on, I think we wouldn't have been ready for that opportunity, because that was a big step into that world. And it took us a lot to do the apartment complex. But we had done enough of the steps to create that snowball that we talked in a previous podcast, and that snowball builds the momentum that by the time we got there, we're like, Okay, well, we've done all this. So this is still a little bit scary, but it's not as scary as if we were doing it the very beginning stages of it, right? And then the 56 unit came, then the 384 came, I don't know, the 384 would have happened without the 56. You know, maybe it would have because we tend to be pretty bold, and we trust the people that we surround ourselves with. But to your point, especially in a couple of the last episodes, it's just building that, you know, that snowball and that momentum, that gives you more confidence to take bigger steps.
So some of our listeners got a lot of great things going on in real estate, they've already got momentum, they've already got confidence. Other viewers are very intrigued, very interested in real estate, they have no momentum. What would you say to them, as far as the first steps of them as an investor, building momentum. What will be some of the first steps for them? Well, number one is getting comfortable, we talk about this a lot. We always say don't do anything that you're not actually comfortable with. And very recently, we've done podcasts about your personality type, and what that means to investing and the type of investing you want to do. So the very first thing is questions, right? And for me, it would be jumping on the phone with you and just say, Hey, Ben, I want to understand investing. And I want to understand the different types that you have to see if I'm comfortable with it. And if I'm comfortable with it, I'm going to ask you a bunch of questions. And I'm a little bit, even though I don't talk about my left brain a whole lot. I will have you answer my questions. I will go and have dinner with Flip. We'll talk about it. And we'll come up with a whole new list. And then I'm gonna come back to you and go okay, Ben, I talked to my husband. And so here's the questions that came out of that, because some of the questions you don't know to ask, right? You don't know. Good one, very good. So that's what I would be doing as the first step. And that would make me feel good about taking the next step. When I say, okay, then you've made me feel comfortable, I feel comfortable, Flip feels comfortable. Now, what is the next step? And then it will depend on that next step as to okay. Is that something easy for me to do? Or did you just ask a whole lot of me, you know, if you do ask me for a million dollars, or did you ask me for 50? And that is going to gauge, you know, how comfortable I am in taking the next step of actually saying, I'm gonna give you my money. And I'm gonna test this out. And we've literally said this story tons and tons of times about investors never, never ever count on the number that they give you on that first phone call. Because if I'm talking to you, I'm probably not telling you I have a million dollars. I'm probably telling you, I have $25,000. Because I don't know you yet. Sure, that makes sense. I don't know if I trust you yet, right? And so many times when I was one doing the calls, they would say, okay, so $50,000 is the minimum? And I'd say yes, they'd say okay, all right. Well, I think that I can do that. And they wouldn't tell me how much they have. But after they did the first investment, they said, well, now that I understand the process, I actually got $300,000 over here. And that's where the relationship really blossomed. Right? And as they needed to take those small steps to get to the momentum that allowed them to go, okay, Dani, I'm gonna tell you about the other one that I have stopped over here in the corner.
And that's true for all forms of financial advice by the way. Until I trust you, you only get a little bit, that's natural for all of us. Right. And with what you just said, and you said, well, if Flip's okay with it. But you didn't ask me if I was okay with it. So, this is very important, because actually, we've had investors call and say, hey, you know what, the gentleman calls up and says, Hey, I'm ready to go. My wife is still on the fence, can she talk to you? Yes. Because they both need to and you need to make sure that your spouse is okay with this and comfortable with this. Because this is gasoline for a fight you don't want to have, if anything goes south or worse or whatever, you know, so it's something that you would definitely want to have both people, but I was fine with it just letting you know. And quite frankly, it's hard for if this was truly a real life example, it would have been hard for me to explain to Flip what you explained to me, because you have all the knowledge. And so I asked you a bunch of questions. And I'm trying to remember how you phrased it, or exactly what you said, and I might get it wrong. But that was the point of me and the second phone call. So I think it's better and I've had husbands and wives, you and I have been on calls where the husband and wife they're both there. They both have different questions, right? Sure. And it's a much easier discussion for us as a couple to have if we were both present on the first call. And just think of all those doctors, they're gonna give you X percent. That's a scam. That's right.
We brought a couple of interesting things in this discussion just now. One, is this matter of trust. And the other is this matter of education. If you're not educated, one of the key principles that's true in every area of life is a confused mind says? No. And it's true for all of us. So why would you say yes to something that you don't fully understand? So there's the education piece to answer your questions, as you just mentioned, it's very interesting. When you do talk to a couple, they have different questions, different types of questions, the same couple, their same situation, and yet they're concerned with different values within that situation. So being able to do that to trust comes, as you said, starting getting with education, getting to know, also starting small, watching the performance we talked about, and these are two ways I think to be able to build momentum is one of the first ways is you just start off with education. Find out what it is, how it works and through your podcast, you give a lot of different good questions they ask. You've done entire podcasts about that. So a great start to our series here.
I like it, coffee talk one is done. Yes and thank you for joining us for coffee talk. But again, thank you again, make sure you head on over to our website, www.FreedomCapitalInvestments.com to join the investor club. And I think we're going to need to put like a coffee talk on the website. Oh, I like it! And make sure you're checking us out on all the social media platforms. That's right.
But we like to end all of our episodes with Invest Smart, Live Happy. Bye Everybody!
Nothing on the show should be considered specific, personal or professional advice. Please consult an appropriate tax, legal, real estate, financial or business professional for individualized advice. Opinions and information in the show are not guaranteed, all investment strategies have the potential for profit or loss.
Transcribed by https://otter.ai
