Abundant Journey Podcast
I recently had the great privilege to join Nick James and Nick Aufenkamp on their podcast Abundant Journey Podcast. We discuss my time in the military as a Green Beret, the entrepreneur lifestyle, passive investing and becoming a sophisticated investor. During this insightful conversation, I highlight the significance of patience and wise decision-making as an entrepreneur. I stress the need for continuous learning, taking action even when you're not 100% ready, and the critical difference between debt and equity investments.
I also discusses the risks associated with investing in syndications and the necessity of proper education and due diligence. As you may know my ultimate goals are to be remembered for my generosity and to advance the gospel. My story is not just about achieving financial success, but also about making a meaningful impact.
Takeaways
- Education is crucial in real estate investing, particularly understanding the capital stack and the different markets and asset classes.
- Being comfortable with being uncomfortable is essential for success as an entrepreneur.
- Surrounding yourself with mentors and a supportive network is crucial for guidance and accountability.
- Grit and determination are necessary qualities for overcoming challenges and achieving goals. Patience and wisdom are crucial in decision-making as an entrepreneur.
- Continuous education and surrounding yourself with mentors are essential for success.
- Taking action, even when you're not 100% ready, is important for growth.
- Understanding the difference between debt and equity investments is crucial in real estate.
- Investing in syndications carries risks, and proper education and due diligence are necessary.
- Being remembered for generosity and pushing forward the gospel is a meaningful goal.
I trust this will add value to your and your journey to building, protecting, and preserving your families generational wealth.
Podcast Transcript
I see this all the time especially in the real estate space you know have investors that go through the training they go through a course they even have
they're going to Real Estate clubs they getting all this knowledge but knowledge is not going to be that that that factor
that pushes you out the door right it's not going to be knowledge it's going to be action there's so much bad knowledge
and information being pedal out there at the cost of investors so there are five categories of investing that that I'm a
big proponent of and the very first category and most important category which very few people people ever give
any consideration to is what's going on everybody and welcome back to another episode of The abunny Journey podcast as
always I'm your host Nick James with Nick offen camp and we got a special guest lined up today Edwin erson but
he's not the first or the second but the third so thank you Edwin for hanging out
with us how are you man I'm doing well thank you guys for having me on the uh podcast oh 100% so recently you and I
got connected with a another guest we had on and so our audience who have are
regular listeners Mark wadlington introduced us and he's just got an amazing story but he said hey I'm going
to bring my buddies along and uh get some of my buddies on the Abundant Journey podcast too so one Mark if
you're listening thank you but Edwin uh man again it's it's great to meet you great to be hanging out with you today
tell us a little bit about who you are where you are and what life looks like for you today absolutely Nick and Nick
thanks for having me on the podcast um I'm excited to be here it's always great to talk about our Journeys uh in
business life and uh and in faith and how it all works together uh for you
know the greater good if you will um where I'm at now so uh my wife and I
currently live in Tampa Florida I manage a private investment fund so we are
invested both in debt and Equity within the fund it's a customizable fund so it's a little bit unique in the in the
space of fund offerings um I am married to a Colombiana uh
beautiful woman from Colombia I met her while I was in the military and uh hit her over the head with the stick and drugg her back here no I'm joking um but
yeah she is a true truly truly blessing uh to myself and to the business I mean
she is just a an incredible spouse a a gift from God I have two boys uh that
live with their mom up in George and that's a whole story and and of itself which I'm sure we'll dive into today but
yeah that's uh looking uh grow the business we're looking at a lot of things that are happening in the real estate space I think I think that there
will be a lot of opportunities for those that are willing to put their head down and work through what's coming in the
Understanding Funds in Real Estate
next couple of years so yeah I'm excited to get into all manners of topics of discussion today y yeah love it I uh you
know for some of our listeners um we've had a lot of uh real estate folks on
we've had a handful of of lenders on I don't know that we've had too many fund
managers and so for somebody who's who's unfamiliar um what is a a fund how would
you define kind of what that is and the the primary benefit that you bring to I
would say um and and forgive me if I stepped on you Nick um not at all I
would say that the the differen is so
I'm big on I'm huge on education I believe in educating investors investors in today's world are bombarded with all
types of opportunities if you will so I believe education is the foundation for
making someone sophisticated in their investment decisions how they analyze risk how they analyze opportunities and
the first so there are five categories of investing that that I'm a big proponent of and the very first category
and most important category which very few people ever give any consideration to is which side of the capital stack
they are investing in and there's only two sides of the capital stack you are either investing your Capital into
Equity or into debt so there's only those two sides of the capital stack then underneath the capital stack you
have three primary markets you have your paper asset Market which would include
stocks anything on the stock market any stock market and now crypto I would consider crypto in the uh paper category
if you will um then you have your hard tangible asset market so those are all at real estate obviously is one of them
but that it could also include Collectibles um uh gold silver uh anything that is even vehicles and
Planes Trains and Automobiles right and then you have your third Market which is your business market and there are
specific uh you know nuances to each one of those markets but underneath each one
of those markets then you have your assets and typically for instance because I'm in the real estate space in
the real estate space people will say well are you invested in commercial multif family or a single family so
those would be your primary asset classes however within each asset class there are a lot of sub assets so you
have your uh single family you have duplex quadplex Triplex you have condos tow houses maybe mobile homes and the
The Importance of Education in Real Estate Investing
commercial side you have office uh light industrial heavy industrial you have raw land I mean the list goes on and on
right uh multif family typically multif family or apartment units which are five residential units or more um you would
also classify possibly uh mobile home parks within that multif family uh ass or sub asset class and then underneath
the sub assets you have your strategies and unfortunately most people they go to
a training a course a seminar um and they are taught the the strategy as it
pertains to a particular sub asset class but very rarely does anyone talk about
the actual markets and even less rarely or even more rarely does anyone even
talk about the the capital stack debt or Equity investing so that's number one
that's my first focus is I want to I want to educate people at the high level and then work themselves down instead of
reverse everybody works from the bottom which is the most it actually has very little to do with your success in your
investment strategy and diversification um instead I go from the top down so as
as far as funds go you have two primary way that people invest when they are
wanting to invest in a group or leveraging other people's knowledge time and experience so historically a fund
would be categorized as a debt fund you are investing in a debt fund uh and typically it's a blind pool fund which
means the fund manager goes out raises Capital uh I have my PPM a private
placement memorandum that describes what we're investing in how we are analyzing
our risk how we are mitigating our risk but then at the end of the day the investor says okay Ed here's my money
manage it well right and then it's really up to the fund manager to make all the decisions and at that point
uh the real the investor is sort of along for the ride right on the other
side you have syndications which are people that go out they file with the SEC which a fund should be filed with
the SEC and there's ways to confirm that uh but the uh syndicator goes out files with the SEC to legally raise Capital to
actually go out and purchase so most syndications and funds are they're simply a a colloquial term to raise
capital and how do you raise capital and then really what the capital is being used as how is it being deployed and in
debt or equity and so my that would be a very high level overview of the differences between a fund and and a
syndication but primarily a fund normally is in debt and it's typically
structured as a blind pool fund it's an immensely helpful
explanation I really appreciate the the breakdown uh there and also I mean the
uh definitely a high level of trust then that you're cultivating with your
clients and investors that are going into the fund I mean I can see the value of the education but you're uh it sounds
like being as a fund manager being given a lot more autonomy and trust with your investors money than even like a
Edwin's Journey from the Military to Real Estate
syndication deal which generally is is highly specific to a specific property
or something like that which is is pretty amazing I am curious just um you
know kind of getting now into your story how did you find yourself uh becoming a fund
manager you know was this uh your 5-year-old dream and vision for life and you just you know finally realized it or
uh you know yeah I was I was in the crib you know drawing on the wall like all the uh risk mitigation
analysis um yeah my my story is probably unique so um and I struggle a lot I'm
I'm sure some of your listeners are in the running businesses or entrepreneurs and I would say that anybody that
especially steps in the entrepreneurial space they're taking that risk of saying I have a vision I have a dream of what I
want to become or what I want to offer to society to the people around me uh
there is always this underlying um impostor syndrome there's always this fear of do I am I smart enough do I know
enough uh do I have enough experience like all these things can come flooding in and in my opinion can be one of the
greatest hurdles to to building a successful business is overcoming that impostor syndrome uh I really struggled
with that because I was not good at educ I was not good in the uh the educational sphere I struggled all the way through
high school I was a c minus D+ student um I I did not fit in the mold of
sitting in a classroom having somebody lecture me and and being able to retain that information the way that I learn is
through my hands uh by actually doing something so I did very poorly in high
school I graduated by the grace of God in 1999 and um I tried College because of
course that's what everybody says go to college get a degree get a high paying job work your way at the corporate ladder and then you'll be able to retire
and sell off into the sunset so I took a English 101 class at a local community
college cuz my father said I am not paying for you to go to college CU you clearly proved that you do not have the
ability to do well I said okay I resp respect that so I uh I was working two
full-time jobs actually at the time um uh at UPS I was I grew up in louville
Kentucky worked at a UPS as a you know loading the planes and then the during
my day I would work at a distribution plant in on Green Belt a Parkway and so
uh I wanted to go to college uh I ended up uh bowing out of the UPS job and I
kept the distribution job so that I could go to college so I went to English 101 I was like okay I'll get some of
these basic courses out that first semester was absolutely miserable I was reminded of how horrible I hated uh
formal education and so after that I think I I won't even say I graduated I
passed that semester with the c minus and I was like yeah this is not for me I'm not going to waste my money either
so uh 9911 happened and um I like many Americans at the time uh I I was very
became very patriotic and and so I joined the military I had dreams of going into Special Operations but I was
Bamboozled by my recruiter and uh he said oh yeah if you sign here then after
basic you know you'll have Rangers you have Green Berets everybody will come to uh the basic training graduation and you
just raise your hand and say you want to volunteer and I said oh that's awesome so graduation comes I excelled by the
way I excelled in basic I really found my groove if you will and then
graduation happens and I'm like where are the special ops nobody was coming nobody was asking a a graduate hey do
you want to come join special ops so I was like I just got Bamboozled and then in the world of so I was an infantryman
I was a a bullet stopper I mean we a knuckle dragger you have all types of names for us but um I was an infantryman
and I I joined because I wanted to fight I wanted to fight I wanted to defend our country as well as go after those that
have attacked our country and so um here I am and in the world of the Infantry
there are specific units that have much more Prestige and then other units that don't and now this is just I mean the
grand scheme of things if you if You' joined the military I mean it's a fantastic way to serve your country and
it doesn't matter if you are a tow tag uh person in the morg all the way to a
special operator right on the front lines uh conducting Black Ops it doesn't matter everybody in between has if
they're served then they are serving a purpose and they are contributing to the overall security and success of our
nation so but that didn't stop like I wanted you know during basic at the
graduation the reading off orders so man I heard some of my buddies they were getting orders to Venza Italy I was like
oh man the 183rd I was like yes I want to go to Italy and then the others were getting orders to Hawaii I was like yes
who wants to I would love to go to Hawaii right we had people going to uh Korea which H that was everybody was
like H Korea but I was like it's a foreign country that's awesome so BAS basic training happened for me at uh at
Fort Benning Georgia which I now think is renamed Fort Moore uh I believe and
um and sure enough I got stuck right there in Fort bidding Georgia third infantry division third Brigade and I
was like you gotta be kidding me so I got stuck stuck I got stuck with a uh
mechanized unit and I just thought I was like man this is ridiculous the very first day that I showed up to my my unit
U my squad leader was a staff sergeant and he had just gone to forces selection
and within one week after I got on uh was on boarding and getting used to military life he pulled me aside he said
Ed you look like you've got a lot of potential I want to encourage you to cross the we call it crossing the fence
cross the fence go to Special Operations uh and he gave me his long tab which is what you call the Special Forces Tab and
he said keep this in your in your cap and uh and and have this a dream I would I would encourage you to go that route
so I was like okay that's cool and then like so that was uh October of
2002 November of 2002 we get told that hey everybody needs to prepare you may
not get a Christmas break we're all deploying to Kuwait beond standby and I was like oh man of course the whole
world knew like everything was moving with Saddam Hussein uh you know the pieces were starting to put into place
so it was it was pretty well known that there could be conflict on the horizon and so we deployed a Kuwait in uh
January of 2003 uh we we jumped around a couple of camps if any of your listeners were in
the military at that time then I'm sure they've heard like Camp New York camp Philadelphia so we were jumping around
these camps and every Camp inched us closer to the border and um we were
conducting we were conducting training for World War II style conflicts so
there were trench clearing operations we were training in case we got gas because the expectation was Saddam had chemical
weapons and he would use them so there was just this unbelievable um just this expectation of
man all excuse you uh the the language but all hell could break loose and sure enough uh March
21st at Actually March 20th at 11 p.m. we started our our border crossing and
so we were lined up on the uh on the border of Kuwait and Iraq and uh at like
12: in the morning 1 in the morning uh we got a alerted this Humvees is flying
down Route One and the guy was on the back saying gas gas he's doing the universal hand and that's like you know
what we were trained for and we watch videos I mean they were sure to inundate us with the absolute importance of if
there's gas or any type of chemical warfare you have like six seconds to get on your uh mask uh your suit you have
six seconds to get on your mask and then like 30 seconds to get on your suit that gives you the highest chance of survival
and like you you you think you're prepared for that but when it actually happens is the most oh man it was crazy
and so finally get your mask on and you're like B where are the explosions and you we looked up and we saw the scuds heading into Kuwait and uh they
were like uh get on get load up into the Bradley so we were in Bradley Fighting
Vehicles we loaded into the ramp and that started a 36-hour uh non-stop Sprint from Kuwait all the way to uh
najaf Iraq and then from NF we went from NF aliim and uh Samara um all the way to
Baghdad we were responsible for securing the northern uh Bridges outside of Baghdad and uh my very first uh my very
first I have my cherry popped uh and when we were securing I want to say the
very first Target before we got to our the first city was which was nja we
secured which be uh which became known as the George Bush interational Airfield
something like that and uh yeah they uh that was our first my cherot was pop my
first engagement first time firing a rifle first time actually I wasn't had the rifle I was a big guy so they're
like hey you got the machine gun I had the machine gun I had M249 and um yeah
man it was uh it was a wild wild ride and so for the next uh 13 years I served
so I got out in October 2015 and uh so during that time uh uh eight years in
the regular infantry uh four years with third infantry division out of Fort uh Fort Benning and then my I reenlisted
went up to Fort Campbell Kentucky and at Fort Campbell Kentucky the whole reason I reenlisted because it was the 101st
Screaming Eagles and historically you know I was looking back in World War II like they jumped out of planes like they were had a huge hand and with 82 and in
The Invasion I was like man who who wants to who wouldn't want to go to an Airborne unit but little did I know that
the 101st is not an Airborne unit it is an air assult unit which was transformed
another reason they renamed Fort binning uh to Fort Moore was Colonel Hal Moore if you've ever seen uh We Were Soldiers
that depicted uh that that unit the first c unit and they did a lot of their training at Fort binning so um at that
point the 100 first was redesignated as an air assault unit especially through the Vietnam conflict and so I showed up
expecting to go to Airborne school and jump out of planes and nope I was I was assign
Air Assault unit so it was another disappointment but then I found a unit called a longrange reconnaissance Detachment l d and they actually had
people that would they would send a couple of recruits down to uh the um impr processing barracks and they asked
he anybody want to go to Airborne School Ranger school and Pathfinder School come join us we're a small unit uh we have a
try out so I was like man that would be awesome that was two weeks a hell getting my butt smoked uh const I mean
just punishment for two weeks just to try out for this unit and uh I passed
with flying colors and I just really found my groove um went to a couple of really great military schools and then
having my tast of small units we went to Afghanistan we our mission in Afghanistan in 2009 was small uh small
unit uh reconnaissance as well as down to aircraft and Personnel recovery so it was just an incredible time got a lot a
lot of different experience but I got back from that and I went ahead and threw my hat in the ring uh went to uh
the special for's qualifications course so before that I had to go to selection which was like 3 weeks again of hell um
you're getting your butt punished uh before that I went to Ranger school which is like three months of hell I was like man my life is just a miserable I
was sucking and uh and so yeah we uh uh went through a a year and a half of
qualifications just to earn my graen Beret and in the summer of 2011 earned
my Green Beret got stationed with seventh Special Forces Group on operational detachment
Oda uh operational Detachment Alpha 7325 or also named before it was uh three
number so was 785 but it was a dive team and so I got introduced to the world of
combat divers and uh and I I went down to combat dive School in Key West and
it's a it is a smokefest uh you are it is almost a
guarantee that you are going to black out under the water and you're probably going to drown at least once and and uh
there's a huge and like that school is for special operators so these are men that have already attained like the
Pinnacle of their career like these are men that are battle hardened uh they are they are alpha mels to the tea and we
had a wash out rate of like 75% like these were hard men and we had guys from
Delta Force uh marine marso marine uh Special Operations Command we had guys
that ccts PJs Green Berets Rangers and we had a wash out rate of about 75%
still even in that school and so the by far the hardest but the best training
that I've ever been through was in KY West going through combat dve school so that was sort of an overview of my
military career I've been to Iraq multiple times co uh Afghanistan multiple times I've been to Egypt
Colombia multiple times uh all through my career and I thoroughly enjoyed it but I started I read Rich Dad Poor Dad
in 2008 and uh this was in my transition from the 101st to Fort Brag and I said
man I want to I want to learn how to invest in real estate and I'll do this on the side right it's going to be a side hustle and so I thought you know I
read Rich Dad Poor Dad and then I read another book by um oh man I can't remember his name is called Millionaire
Next Door um but I was gon I'm gonna put some paint carpet I'm gonna make a
million dollars and that didn't work out I did I think I did two wholesale
deals and I didn't like the whol selling space and so I was sort of still trying to figure my way way around like where
do I want to focus and again I was focused on the strategy and the sub asset class that's that's all I knew like that's what my focus was on and I
get out to Fort Bragg going through this uh qualifications course and there's a few stages phases they call them where
it's more like a gentleman's course you have the evenings off you have the weekends off a lot of classwork like when you're going through language
school which my language was Spanish so it was like easy like there was no hard
you woke up and did PT but there was no really hard uh phys IAL or mental aspect
to that regard and so I would go to these local real estate clubs in feville North Carolina and there would be this
guy at the back of the room he's an older gentleman and he would say any of you Real Estate Investors that need money for your uh projects come talk to
me I'm a private lender well who doesn't want to know the private lender so I get in line with everybody else in the room
get back there and I have a I had a lot more arrogance a lot more Spitfire and vinegar in me uh than I have now maybe
maybe maybe not the spit fire and vinegar but definitely a lot less arrogance than I had back then so I get
up there and introduce my myself I shake his hand I said my name is Edwin erson I'm training to become a Green Beret and
basically uh my attitude was there's nobody else in this room you need a Lin tube just invest with me and so he heard
me out and he said well Mr erson I I appreciate what you're doing for your country and what you're doing for your family but I wouldn't loan you money if
you're the last person on Earth and I sat there and I was like and that pretty bold for him but I think he clearly had
an end goal to help correct my viewpoint and thank God I had just enough humility
to ask him what well why not and he said first off there's three things that you need to be successful in life you need
to have the knowledge the time and the experience and right now you don't have the time to gain the knowledge much less
even the more time to put that knowledge to work to gain the experience and it's for those reasons that I wouldn't loan
you money I said okay all right I I can I can accept that and so over the next couple of months when was able to attend
I would talk to him because this guy was clear he knew his stuff like this guy knew like he was he was the guy in the
room that everybody came to like people looked up to him like there was this level of authority that he had that I
had not seen in the real estate space and he wasn't braggadocious about it he wasn't arrogant he was a very humble man
and so we got to talking and uh he said he asked me a question that radically I mean it's it's shaped my life up to this
point um he said have you ever considered Ed investing like the bank and I said no that's a novel idea I
didn't come from money I'm not a trust fund baby my mom worked at a church as a women's uh in the women's ministry
department and my dad was a restaurant tour um hardworking um we we never
really wanted for anything in life uh however we also did not we never vacationed we never went anywhere so it
was you know a good life but it it wasn't the typical American Dream if you
will and so he said don't worry about the money if you will learn how to find
quality deals learn how to process underwrite mitigate your risk people with money will come and want to work
with you that's a given so don't worry about the money focus on creating safer Investments I said okay so he introduced
me to six I guess for lack of a better word mentors I've had people tell me oh these were mentors in your life and I
never really considered that I considered it a blessing that I met them or he introduced me to them but they
would get on Skype calls Zoom wasn't a big thing back then so it was Skype and uh and I would sit in with these six
private lenders all across the United States they were small they were lending in their local economy so there was no
conflict of interest or nothing like that but there's two gentlemen in California a gentleman in Colorado
husband and wife down in Texas and a gentleman in Alabama and they would get on and talk about the deals they were
underwriting how they were mitigating risk issues that were arising uh all these things and then after a couple of
sessions that I was on they would start asking me so Ed what are the laws for Lending can you do a loan do you need a
license what type of borrowers are you going to lend to what type of projects are you going to lend to uh show us in
the law where you are where you know if you got approached by an attorney or a judge that says what you're doing is
illegal like can you defend and do you know that what you're doing is legal and so they forced me to do the research
which was interesting because I was never that type of guy so now here I am implementing skills that I probably
should have learned and implemented did back in high school and even in my brief college life um but now I was doing and
it was it was easy for me because I had a passion for it I said this is something I want to do and so for four
years I studied and you know in this space you know when especially as entrepreneurs we think that we've got
man don't wait like just keep pushing action action action and there's something to be said about approaching
business decisions especially when we're talking massive business decisions that are going to affect your life affect the
life of your family affect the life of the vision that you have of patience is
actually a virtue and it is a tremendous virtue and so for four years I studied
and I tell people all the time don't knock the time that don't think that you're wasting time by not taking action
in the in the sense that action to where other people can see that you're taking action if you're not taking that action
definitely be taking action of educating yourself learning networking building that Network surrounding yourself with
mentors people that are uh pouring into your life to help you reach that actionable step in your business to
where now everybody else can see what you're doing and so uh study for four years I at this time I was obviously
going through um the Green Beret training and then in uh when I got into
as a Green Beret uh my focus was really operations and it's very very intensive like if you're an operator on a Oda I
mean it it is 110% of your life is dedicated it's a very hard life as I mentioned earlier I I was married I had
two boys and that life uh broke that marriage um there were a lot of personal
decisions that I made that broke that marriage a lot of sin that uh was in my life um that I had violated my Covenant
my vows with my wife and just a lot of things so it wasn't just the military it was a lot of more personal decisions
than the military but um so we we had gotten a divorce I was I was deep I I
thought I was going to be in I was going to be a 20-year like I goal and my team Sergeant my my uh Commander everybody
was like Ed you're you're going to make SAR major you definitely need to stay in and uh and in
2014 my last deployment to Afghanistan we were deployed to shaali cot uh
District of kand Kandahar we are doing a lot of operations so we are running operations at night come back get a
couple hours of rest prepare for the next operation and in between that preparation when I had downtime uh had a
gentleman reach out to me cuz I was going to a club A Real Estate club in Pensacola Florida so we were station
seventh group of station down in Eggland and I was going to a club in Pensacola Florida and I was doing the same thing
that the gentleman that I had met many years before had done and so I was like I'm a private lender if anybody needs money come talk to me I had no money I
didn't know if somebody did say hey I need a load where in the world am i g to get that money yeah trusting that the
money will come if you can find the deal right right that that's what I believed I was like I I I trust that this is
going to be the process and and um and so a gentleman reached out to me via email he didn't know I had deployed but
he reached out to me via email on the side of a mountain in Afghanistan he said hey I've got a deal will you fund it I said yeah and by by this point I
had already created my underwriting guidelines I knew my processes and so I sent an email to the title company
ordered title I sent an email to an appraiser ordered an appraisal uh specters my real estate attorney ordered
the loan binder the documents real estate attorney reviewed all the doc from the title and two weeks later I
made a loan and I remotely and I at that moment I had this epiphany of man like
if I could do this in Afghanistan while in combat I could literally do this
anywhere this is crazy and so uh I'm sure some people's question like well
how how did you do the loan if you didn't have any money and so there were a couple of friends we did a fractional note uh I had a couple of I had an uncle
that put in about 60,000 it was a small loan it was1 10,000 had an uncle that put in 60,000 I had 15,000 and uh and I
had a couple of military buddies that were sitting on some money and and so we I put together a fractional note and uh
we were all part owners I collected what I later Learned was a yield spread so um
I paid my investors at the time was like 75% I was charging the borrower like
11.5% so on their money my money I made the 112% my 15,000 I earned 112% but on
their money I made like a 42% yield spread on their money and I was like this is crazy and so yeah I'll get back
and my girlfriend wife now but my girlfriend at the time she was on a Skype call with me and our little bitty
compound we had a little bitty compound we weren't in a big base and we got attacked mortars RPGs and machine guns
so we were under attack in the middle of our Skype call so she hears these deafening boom boom boom dust is falling
lights are flickering and one of the mortars hit our satcom antenna destroyed it so immediately everything goes out on
her end and so we had we neutralized the threat we secured the area secured our base carried the perimeter and then uh
we had to call in a replacement satellite so they they flew that out and uh we get I was a my primary job as a
green breay was after kicking IND doors and neutralizing threats was to for communications so that was my job so I
got satcom back up and uh immediately called my girlfriend and her face was
puffy red eyes were super red I mean for 10 hours she was just she thought I was
done and she had no like nothing and so after that she said if there is anything
that you can do outside of the military I don't care if we live under a bridge in a cardboard box I am with you but
you've got to get out and really at that time in my life I really felt that God
was leading me out I always I always believed that God had led me into the military for such a time as this and
then when it was his timing I would be led out of the military and I saw this door and the door was wide open and so
we got out I got out in the military in 2015 after we got back from Afghanistan in the summer of 14 so from the summer
of 14 all the way to uh October of 2015 I made another 21 loans deployed
about $3 million and I had found my groove I I knew exactly I could take
what I learn in the military and apply it to this business and then that of course you start again it's all about
your Network it's about continuing your education you are never there you've never arrived it's always about
improving and uh I actually fell in love with educating myself and so I learned about uh fund creation uh management of
capital understanding Capital stack like everything that I teach now it is it is information that I've learned firsthand
The Power of Mentors and a Supportive Network
uh through my journey if you will well man holy cow what a you've lived
multiple lives and I think we could unpack that for hours just the story and
and the experiences one thank you for your service I mean volunteering back in in 01 and and the the patriotism it's
still there but we need more of it today so yeah one thank you for that but I I think you know man I got a hundred
questions that come from your story and your journey but one that I think is unique to you compared to other guest
we've had on is the mindset and you alluded to it a little bit in the fact that if you can do a loan on the side of
the mountain if you could do a guy who hates High School ha hated College jumped in started learning by by doing
it you know you shared that if I can do this from the side of the mountain what
can't I do and so talk a little bit about the mindset one that you've had to grow and
learn through your journey but maybe the mindset somebody who's sitting maybe listening or somebody who wants to jump
in and don't doesn't know how or has never been willing to take a chance you
know I think you have to mentally get yourself to that point so what did that look like for you so it it the Jour your
your journey of a Thousand Miles begins with one step right so I would say that from from the very first entry into the
military one of the things that the military taught me was uh grit and determination what we called stick
tutiven so for me quitting was absolutely not an option if I began
something something I would not quit like my Approach was I will literally
have to be either somebody else will have to come to me and kick me out um or I'm GNA die like that was really uh and
I hate to be I hate I I I don't want to sound uh dark or or gruesome but that
was my mindset now that was trained like that was imputed into me over many
different trainings and the training that I went through in the military I went through Ranger school as I mentioned uh super hard uh 3 months of
hell I went through the small two week selection to get into uh into the lurd
uh I went through several very hard military schools such as Pathfinder which is not a physically hard school
but it is a very mental school it is very very mental um then I went through
uh selection which is another two to three weeks depends on how they're they're doing in selection is you are getting selected to go into special
forces in my selection class we started with 4 like 21
students 140 made it to the end so those were students that had made two weeks
like there people were dropping out like flies 140 made it to the end out of that 140 only 41 were selected so you could
make it through two weeks of hell and still not even get selected and so there
was just this determination to continue to push forward continue to push forward no matter
there the ability to be comfortable with uncomfortableness if that's a word um is
an absolute must if you're an entrepreneur you have to be comfortable with the fact that you're driving a car
that is embarrassing you have to be comfortable with the fact that you're living in a place that you know you
might be embarrassed to show your mom and dad you might be you will have to be uncomfortable with the fact of you're
eating ramen noodles and beans every day for months on end you have to become
comfortable with being uncomfortable um one of the biggest one of the biggest
uh factors for me in that and really solidifying was actually going to dive school I had to be uncomfortable with
the fact of being underwater no no air to breathe in um and blacking out to
accomplish the task like I that was literally like and you had faith that the instructors uh they had everything
around necessary to take care of you but the expectation was you were to accomplish the task before you no matter
what even if that means you pass out underwater um and that will take care of you so there was that man I had to
really become comfortable with being uncomfortable and then once you get to that stage where you are comfortable
being uncomfortable life becomes a lot easier and you're not you're not focused so
much on what other people say what other people think you have your lane you have your mission and you are driving towards
that and again like in in Entre in the entrepreneurial life we may not have like I don't have the same type of you
know I don't have the dive soups or dive supervisors like watching me but I do have mentors around me I have people
that I can turn to and say hey am I looking at this correctly am I approaching this problem correctly uh do
is a solution that I'm presenting in my mind to myself and eventually to my investors does this make sense so if you
are not surrounding yourself if you think you are a man on Al loone Island you you will you will be bound to
fail and that was probably even in the military even in your top top tier units nothing is a lone wolf operation nothing
is a lone wolf operation and if you are an entrepreneur and you're thinking you're going to go about and build a successful company by yourself um you're
wrong you're absolutely dead wrong uh you may think in your pride and arrogance that you have but anybody else
looking around on the outside would say well you had this person to help you had this person to hold you accountable you had this person to pour into you and so
yeah I would say that would be one of the things is be comfortable with being
uncomfortable have that grit determination that you're going to do what absolutely whatever is necessary to
be successful and then surround yourself with mentors people that will pour into you and guide you on that path to help
you make right decisions that's a really good word and uh I mean I can definitely thinking
about your military experience and training I mean it sounds like getting
comfortable being uncomfortable was kind of the uh the the air you breathed for for many many years and and prepared you
The Importance of Patience and Wise Decision-Making
well and I think that uh for a lot of civilians especially for younger Generations I mean life is so much about
uh you know preserving your comfort being as comfortable as you possibly can um and so that's a really good message
especially to young entrepreneurs that like hey it's it's going to be uncomfortable don't don't expect that
you're just going to show up at your first investor meeting and be handed the million dollars to go out invest and you
get to take half of that to buy yourself a new house and a new car you know which is uh kind of the the uh the Instagram
Tik Tock uh message to a lot of young investors so this is really sobering one
of the other things that you shared in your story um that was really impressive and I think a good counterbalance to a
lot of the advice that's out there today is being patient uh and I'd love to
unpack that a bit more um I think it's it's easy to hear like you waited four
years in terms of getting education learning talking with mentors before you
actually did a deal and uh in hindsight I'm sure that four years doesn't feel
that long but in the moment you know four years can feel like forever when you're waiting to do your your first
deal and so um maybe just unpack that a little bit further what what that looked
like how you wrestled with uh did you feel like you were dragging your feet at all what were kind of some of the
metrics that you were looking for as far as knowing whether or not you were ready and uh and how would you encourage you
know somebody who's who's early on uh thinking through okay am I just being scared and not jumping or am I being
wise and being patient man that is a really good
question Nick and and I have to be honest I don't know if there's ever a clear line of delineation that says okay
uh now you're you're you're being fearful and and the opportunity presents itself compared to okay I'm being wise
impatient um that is very convoluted it's a very gray area and that gray area
is pretty wide right it's not a very narrow it's pretty wide so you can find yourself anywhere in there at any moment
I would say I would contribute that a large part of me waiting four years probably was that fear of am I doing
this right like is is this am I making wise decisions am I adequately and
accurately assessing the risk and putting in Risk mitigation procedures um
a lot of that f back to your training so we have this saying in in the military especially in spe Special Operations uh
in the in the moment of all hell breaks loose you always fall back to your your base level of training that's like
that's what you will fall back to so you train as you fight and so that's the attitude is you always train as you
fight you never take the easy route you never take uh well we're just we're not going to sweat too much today we're not
going to put any effort no it's like full full balls through the wall excuse of euphan ism uh guns blazing at 100% of
the time and so in the world of the entrepreneur how does that how does that convey over how does that transfer I
would say that a large part of it again is uh your your education how you're
educating yourself a large part of it is your mentors who you're surrounding yourself with you need to have people behind you that are not just yes people
but people that will challenge your your thought processes uh that will challenge the way that you're looking at things
and also push you uh to push you to take that next step no matter what but even in uh one of the very first schools I
ever went to was an Airborne school you're jumping out of a plane that is not a natural a natural thing that
people do people don't just get onto a plane like ah you know what I want to jump out of this thing at 10,000 feet right um or actually an airb scho is
like, 1500 to 2,000 ft but uh nobody does that and especially when you're standing at the door and you see the
Earth and everything going by and the plane's doing 110 knots in the air it's just like it's not a natural reaction
and so you have jump master ERS who are there instructing and guiding but in the in the case necessary when you're
standing at the door and you're blocking because in Airborne school you have this limited time that you have to get
everybody out of the door so that they can all get on the ground secure the objective and then move on with the mission if you have somebody that in the
moment and the door they're standing there they're looking out and they freeze you could actually hold up everybody behind you and so these jump
Masters are there for besides safety and organization there are there for a third purpose and that is to ensure that every
body leaves the plane so in Airborne school we had a guy he gets there and he's he's got his lanyard he's got his
hand on his uh Reserve parachute and his right foot is forward and it's like he
he he can't he can't take that step to take that left foot over the door over that threshold and jump out and the jump
master's like he's right next to his face and he says go go they say it three times go the
green lights green we're all standing like oh my gosh what's going to happen and that that instructor reaches up
grabs a bar swings back and Donkey kicks him right out the back and right out the
plane everybody was leaving that plane and then of course everybody behind that dude was like I'm not getting kicked out
of this plane so after that it was like everybody's Bam Bam Bam right out the door so I say that because uh you know
we can struggle with that is this the right time uh is the light really green am I really prepared do I have the right
training and it really boils down to if you have not been deal ENT in training yourself in the education uh training
yourself in your processes or your systems that you're implementing in your business and doing it yourself I think
there's so much and you mentioned this Nick there's so much bad advice out there to where oh you and I teach this
like Leverage other people's time knowledge and experience that if you're going to be in in especially on the lending side thinking analyzing and
investing like the banks do it's all about leverage not just leverage of money but leverage of time knowledge and
experience um but even then you have to have somebody there that's saying go
like you're ready go and so that's why we can't we cannot as entrepreneurs be
on an island by ourself we have to have and if if the entrepreneur is not focused on building a board of advisors
for lack of a better word Board of advisors around you that can that can hold you back encourage you hold up now
let's let's look at this a little bit longer let's look at this a little bit slower um or at that moment the where hey it's ready go go go um if you don't
have if you're not intentional about surrounding yourself with people like that then you will struggle with am I
ready and you and you I see this all the time especially in the real estate space you know have investors that go through
the training they go through a course they even have they're going to Real Estate clubs or getting all this knowledge but knowledge is not going to
be that that that factor that pushes you out the door right it's not going to be knowledge it's going to be action and so
there's there's so much time to where you know you you have to you've got enough knowledge now it's about making
that decision and you know I I have to be honest Nick there's not a magic formula it's really an internal ability
and if you don't have that ability it can be trained it's not something that you're born with it can be trained but
if you're not willing to train yourself to be honest you're probably not uh well suited as an entrepreneur go work for
somebody um and help them build a successful company but I I'm very Frank
with that not everybody is geared to be an entrepreneur it sounds great it looks see on Instagram and you know Tik Tok
and all these social media posts where you're driving a nice car and they've got freedom of time let me tell you being an entrepreneur is not freedom of
time that is the biggest lie out there if you're building a company you do not have freedom of
anything so um yeah that that would be my encouragement as well as exhortation
to young entrepreneurs is don't get caught up in the Tik Tock lifestyle don't get caught up in the uh Instagram
photos be diligent about gaining the knowledge be diligent about surrounding yourself and then train yourself to take
action uh train yourself to take that step even when you're at a 75% solution
you're never going to be at 100% And if you're waiting for that 100% uh opportunities are going to pass you by
and you're going to look down 10 years 20 years later and think man how much did I miss out on so there has to be
that time that you take that step out the door just make sure that you've surrounded yourself with the right mentors the right people that will help
ensure that you're making as best a decision as possible or donkey kick you out the
[Laughter] door oh man that's that's so helpful and
I think just the nuggets of wisdom it's funny because I'm looking at my questions we typically ask both with bogus advice and Secret Sauce to being
an entrepreneur and I think you hit both of them just there so that uh I wouldn't say it any any better way and ask
anything more there Edwin let's transition here just a little bit to
today and what you're doing the fund we talked a little bit about it early on
but I'm curious for you who are you looking for in terms of investors how
are you looking to Steward and serve them and and manage their money well what what makes I mean what gets you
excited uh on top of that you know maybe what uh what do you feel like you have to offer I I this is kind of an
opportunity I think just to pitch what you're doing and and you know for our audience who may be interested in doing
something similar or maybe partnering with you so so talk talk a little there well thank you for that um I again I I I
am huge about education I love the educational space I love teaching training uh coming alongside investors
and helping them see not every investor is suited to invest in real estate so don't like I I do believe in
diversification I believe that you should have and and let me let me be clear there's two types of investors you
have an active investor and you have a passive investor the problem with real estate is that it h it holds out the
lure of passive income or passive investing however if you are actively involved it's not a passive investment
right so unlike stocks like when you invest in a stock you're not going out to actually run a company to create an
IPO in like Elon Musk or or Bill Gates or any of these large massive companies right you're just simply buying stocks
and then you ride the market in the same way in real estate you have active investors and passive investors and I
think it's really critical that investors understand which side of the aisle they want to play in so do you
want to be an active investor do you want to be passive if you're passive then you need to identify those uh for
lack of a better word sponsors or managers that you can invest by with and through which is a Green Beret uh
phraseology um by with and through to be successful and so that you can have the freedom of your time and to pursue the
things that you want to pursue there are other investors that are looking for a career change like I was well don't be a
passive investor if that's what your goal is like you want to be an active investor so start learning learning the
capital stack first which side you want to play on identify the market whether it's real estate whether it's stocks
crypto whether it's building a business identify the market identify your asset
your primary asset category under that your sub asset and then identify your strategy then you can step in and now
you can be very hyperfocused on what's the what's the education and the training that I need to acquire and
plugging yourself in with the right mentors and groups so for Passive investors that's who I'm looking for so
in our fund we raise I raise capital from investors that don't have the time
the knowledge or the experience I I'm adamant about repeating that because too many times people think that they have
to have the time knowledge and experience in adequate Supply before they can even passively invest and
that's not the case what you're really doing is you are investing in the jockey not the horse so you want to identify
those managers those sponsors that are in the space that you want to be invested in and they are knowledgeable
they are uh they're they've been through the fire I cannot speak enough about this um they have experienced loss
they've experienced deals go south uh I have had my fair share uh one of the
biggest lessons I'm actually doing a mini course right now with the very select group of people teaching transactional funding and one of the
very first loans that I ever had go bad was a transactional deal we lost we were scammed out of
$340,000 and then we put in another $50,000 $52,000 in pursuing this
borrower uh in civil litigation at the end of the day they had nothing and we
got nothing so $500,000 plus down the drain gone vanished unsecured I and that
in the class I'm I'm going through and teaching them how to adequately look at investment opportunities as an active
investor But ultimately what that does is it it really separates somebody's mind like I don't want to I don't want
to be in that position like I I want to find somebody that I can just like they've been through the fire I want to
invest by with and through them so ultimately through that class I'm sure I'm going to have some investors that
Understanding the Difference Between Debt and Equity Investments
you know what I don't want to do this as a job like I'm okay investing in someone else and then hopefully you know I've
built that again because of the knowledge the education that I I am passionate about they will see me as
somebody that is knowledgeable that they I have built that trust not only in my
previous background in my previous life but also the fires that I've walked through in the current job so my ideal
investor Avatar investor right is somebody who is uh they are s they've got a business they're they they're
sitting on money they don't know what to do with it they're not necessarily comfortable having in the stock market and they're looking for a passive way to
invest one of the things that makes my fund different than other funds speaking in the debt space is that we're not a
blind pool fund so what I do is my management company actually makes the loans so we actually go out we create
the investment and we invest 100% of my my Capital into these loans first after
that loan is made we then make it available to the fund investors so the fund investors they have their own portal they log in uh it's almost like
uh have you ever heard of um Cadre or any one of these crowdfunding sources where you log in and you can I want to
buy a little bit we do the same thing on our fund so you have the ability to invest in debt you know exactly which
property your money is secured to uh you get updates on that property as uh as it makes progress you get monthly payments
and then at the end you get your principal back uh you've earned your interest and then because we have that
fractional ability uh so when we make the loan the investor and the fund can say well I want to put $1,000 here or
5,000 here here and as you're earning interest you can actually redeploy that interest into additional loans so it it
creates that unique opportunity that is very rare in the space of earning compounding interest on your interest
right um the other thing that's unique about the fund is it's not just debt we
also offer Equity Investments so we do joint ventures we invest in syndications
which are we're buying apartments or M commercial properties whatever that looks like and so the investors can
fractionally participate in an equity position and so there's a lot of nuances that makes my fund different than a lot
of other funds um I am excited which is probably again going to the gruesome
aspect you know in the military we have dark humor it's just it's the way you can survive uh when you've lost buddies
um in uh in in you know in operations and then you come back you're reset and
then 24 hours later you're expected to get back out there and continue operations you have to have a way to deal with that and for for a lot of us
it's dark humor uh and so it can be very off-putting for the civilian population but it's not it's not that we're
disrespectful of life or that we don't have any uh we don't hold life in value it's just our way of dealing with uh
those those uh tragic circumstances but one of the things that
I am expecting is and I'm sure many of your uh listeners have invested or are
considering investing in a syndication which is a syndication again is a sponsor is saying hey we're going to buy
this apartment building we're going to buy this office space we're going to buy some big project we don't have the money necessary we're going to get a loan from
A bank so let's say it's a 10 million purchase we're going to get a loan from A bank for 7 million we need 3 million
uh to as a down payment and then maybe another million in operational Opex as well as maybe an improvement cost so
they're going to go out and raise $4 million the problem in the space of real estate you have uh sponsors also called
GPS that are going out there saying and I I I actually it it lights a fire under
my butt when I hear this because it's a lie they say your money is secured to real estate no it's not it is backed by
real estate when you invest in a syndication when you invest in equity it is backed by that real estate the only
secured position in real estate is debt you are secured because you have a mortgage or a deed of trust recorded
that's the only security if you are investing in equity you are not secured you're backed now your investment is
backed you own you are you are part owner of that asset but you're not secure to the asset um and what we have
going on right now in the commercial multif family space I'm sure if anybody follows anything on on social media at
all uh you have seen the reports of these big office spaces uh Los Angeles
San Francisco Austin Texas even here in Florida where you've got these New York
for sure Chicago these massive uh office space buildings you know 60,000 square
The Risks of Investing in Syndications
foot a million square foot that you know a few years ago were being sold that $300 $400 a square foot now they're
being sold for $12 a square foot $15 a square foot like the the
tsunami of deals that are going south are going to rock a lot of people world
and there are a lot of investors that because they think they're uh on the and people assume because you're a passive
investor investing in a passive investment which is what syndications hold themselves out to be that it is a
safer investment it's a more secure investment and that's why I'm absolutely I am passionate about
teaching you need to understand the capital stack that is where everything begins if you do not understand the
difference between debt and Equity Investments and the inherent risk that come with each one of those you are
going to be investing in primarily Equity because that's what everybody talks about and you have the
misconception that you are safe and secured like you would only be in debt but you're not because you're in equity
uh you have the higher promise of potential returns but that also comes with a lot of risk and so um my
expectation is in the next couple of quarters uh uh fully I would say the the other shoe will have completely dropped
in the commercial and multif family Space by Q2 of 2025 you've got and there's a I mean we could dive into all
the nuances of why I believe that is the case but there are a lot of indicators that would indicate it could happen sooner um for the sake of a lot of
investors I hope that it doesn't um but it could it could happen sooner but from mid 25 all the way through probably the
end of 26 or even longer we are going to be in a complete freef fall in the commercial multif family space um and
there are a lot of investors unfortunately that have invested into syndications and they think that they're
secured they think that they are in a safe for investment and in reality they are the most exposed investor out there
like their investment is completely exposed to risk it's like being on an operation and you're pulling security
and you think your buddy has your six a firefight breaks out you turn around and there's nobody there that's that is the
absolute worst feeling in the world uh and that's happening going to be H it's currently happening and it will be
happening to a lot of investors that have invested in syndications so I see see that and I I say that like that's
the dark side coming out but there is going to be tremendous opportunity for those who have been patient who have
stood back they're looking at what's happening they're like okay I want to find an operator I want to find somebody
that I can invest by with and through to take advantage of what's coming because is is is the economy in the United
States are we becoming you know is it Venezuela or Cuba right now no it's not um there are we have a lot of laws in
the books which make our country unique we can't just have somebody come in and dict dictor like erase everything could
it happen I guess you know I mean there's nothing that is out of the out of the bounds but historically speaking
and just the way our country is has been created and founded we have laws on the books so real estate is not going
anywhere and there will be a rise and a fall as all markets have Cycles so I see
we are in the fall in the next couple of years we're going to be at the bottom especially in the multif family commercial space and there is going to
be tremendous opportunity for those who have been wise that have been patient uh that have been properly educated in
understanding these categories of investing sobering man and uh and I I
appreciate uh the education on on both sides I mean uh it's it's helpful for
listeners even for Nick and I as we think about different opportunities syndications uh to to look at as well as
again just the the virtue of of patience and uh really being able to take a look
at okay where we're at and I I appreciate the clarification too I think that you're right there is a real misconception of like oh I'm I'm a I'm
an owner of this real estate real estate never goes to zero real estate's the the safest asset there is but um making that
key distinction between are you on the equity side or the debt side because it's only the debt side that's truly
secured so that's that's super helpful as you were saying that the banker and me was giving a Hardy here here because
Banks always are in a first position and always get their money back first oh man
guys man I tell you what so there's so much bad knowledge and
information being pedal out there at the cost of investors um I there's a
investor here in Tampa and thankfully he's not act he did not act and he is not acting with bad intent or bad malice
he is acting from a place of ignorance and uh so we did a loan with him several years ago great he paid every month he's
a young guy he's got a big Vision he's he's buying up these lots to then develop properties but he was also
taking investor Capital which is fine but he wasn't legally able to do that he
didn't have a filing even with the state so there's when you're raising Capital there are several levels you can do a a
a state filing which you basically say hey I'm filing with the state of Florida or New York or wherever you're at I'm
going to raise x amount of capital and every state has a sort of a limit right I think in Florida it's uh $5 million
you can file for this state to raise up to $5 million and then after that you actually have to file you're required to
file with the federal government the SEC so he had no filing with either the state or the SEC to raise but in his
mind he was doing right by the investors and I I trust I believe him because I've worked with him before uh he honestly
believed that he was doing right because he was giving a promisory note to the investors he's like okay you're you're
investing $100,000 uh your money is tied to this property via this promisory note and on
the promisory note it had the property address had the property legal description like in all intents and purposes I mean yeah for for somebody
who is ignorant of what true security is that looks like it's like I'm secured my money is tied and I was and so over the
past couple of years he's taken investor Capital this way he sold some of the properties that are listed on the notes
and the investors were like hey investor the capital investors were talking to the real estate investor we believe you
we trust you we're behind you you just keep rolling our money over and so in their mind their money was and and what
he promised them was he was promising them between 25 and
35% annually on their money there is not an investment out there that makes you
25 to 35% annually it doesn't exist and so I I I attribute that to his ignorance
um his desire to really because he was trying to build a business so he's trying to take investor Capital he didn't do it the right way um and then
honestly also attributed to the real these capital investors some of them were were wise that they know what
they're doing and they saw an ability to take advantage of of a real estate investor so there was wrong done on all
sides so we've come in and I've been negotiating with him and the capital investors and I pretty much laid down like if I'm going to step in and provide
a capital infusion I'm number one I'm taking all the collateral like you will collateralize every single asset that
you own free and clear even if it was bought by your Investor's Capital all your Investor's capital is truly going
to equity which means their capital is going to be tied to a specific spe ific asset and then when you sell that asset
whatever you make real estate investor you have to determine with them what percentage of your profit they are going
to share in I and your company will have an agreement as a profit split so because I'm coming to the table with
this money I'm going to take 40 to 45% of the profit on every deal until I'm paid back and I have a first position
plain and simple um so I don't think his investors are on board with that they're like no no no the problem is over the
years he's he's tried to uh plate them you know hey we're doing well so he's paid interest he's paid a money to them
but it wasn't properly categorized it wasn't properly accounted for and uh and
to make payments to them he did not make payments on his taxes and so what he has his multiple
assets that he owns free and clear that have unpaid taxes and in his mind it was
justified because he wanted to do right by his investors his intentions were good but the the road to hell is paved
with lots of good intentions and and so now he is at risk of losing all of these
assets to a tax deed sell because he hasn't paid the taxes now I would I would challenge anybody who thinks that
investing in syndications hey we own the asset no not really even if you own it
free and clear the government still technically owns that because of taxes and if you don't pay your taxes guess what the government can come in and take
your property and then guess what you have nothing there's there's no legal action you can take against the state or
the federal government because you didn't pay your taxes right or wrong whatever your thoughts about that you know I leave that for individual
discussion but at the end of the day it is unsecured investment and so yeah that's the good intentions bad execution
and unfortunately a lot of his investors are in a in a position to where they have to give up the expected returns for
something that in as high a risk position that they are that they should be earning High returns they're probably
going to get very very minimal returns and that's just a and they have to make that decision so so yeah I I appreciate
you sharing that story and and others that you've shared because I think to
your point we often glamorize and talk about all the beauty of real estate and
syndication and driving the nice cars but there is such an underbelly to it as well and I I think we've similarly heard
that caution from other guests that we've had on either deals for themselves that have gone South or they've watched
people crumble and you know and so I think you're right the right mentors the
right education patience those are some of those ingredients to to making this pie
successful so absolutely I I love that well hey man this has been awesome Edwin
let's let's transition I'm going to say we're going to land the plane it brings new meaning with you since you've jumped out of planes but I would not be on that
plane right now I don't know what plane you guys are on let's uh let's jump over to our gold
nugget round questions and I'm going to do something little different than I have with other guests we we have a
couple sets of gold nugget questions I'm going to kind of merge them together and throw them at you rapid fire and uh you
hit me with what uh what comes to mind so first one here and I'm I'm curious
reflecting on your story do you find yourself to be a being a journey person or a destination person and how does
that impact where you're at today I love the journey I love the you
have to have a destination you have to have a goal but I love the journey and I think too many times and this sort of speaks to the patience aspect too many
times we want to jump forward over I just want to get through you know this hardship or whatever that is just to get to the destination and the problem with
that is when you get to the destination you realize that it wasn't at all what you thought it was it's the journey that
gets you there and along the journey you're going to find that wow there's another destination there's another
destination and if if your goal is just to get to that destination I just need to get to evaluation of uh 3x multiplier
like I need I need to get to a valuation of 100 million and that's all you're working for you get to the valuation of 100 million it's like okay what now and
yeah you could go and find a different destination but man that Journey offers it offers growth it offers maturity it
offers opportunities that you would have otherwise just missed and so yes I am definitely a journey guy love it what's
a quote from a book or Mentor that's stuck with you along your journey so one of the quotes uh I've mentioned earlier
is uh do you have the time the knowledge or the experience to be successful because that's what you need another
quote that I love because of my banker mindset is you've heard this saying that
he who owns the gold makes the rules that's patently false that is patently
false it is the one who controls the gold that makes the rules just like the banks control when you deposit yeah it's
your gold but you put it into the bank guess what the bank makes all the terms for when you borrow money from them for
a house for a car for credit doesn't matter you're playing by their rules and they control your gold so U my it's so
not necessarily a quote from a specific individual but I've repurposed as he who controls the gold makes the rules and it
really fits within that Banker mindset that's good I haven't heard that one before I like that next one here why is
it important to have an abundance mindset versus scarcity mindset oh man Nick I tell you what uh
especially coming up and in the next couple of uh months quarters and even years uh that's going to be a
challenging mindset because people are going to start seeing you know the quote proverbial World fall apart around them
and if your mindset is scarcity then that would indicate that when you see
this happening like that's the end of the road like there's nothing else whereas an abundant mindset starts to look at the problems that are before us
and saying okay how can I reposition myself to actually take not take advantage of other people but take
advantage of the situation see where opportunities lie in in the absolute worst of circumstances and again then
that starts to open up the journey for other possibilities other destinations that's
good what advice would you give to your younger self as you're just starting out if you were just starting out
[Music] again suck it up and drive on like there was definitely some times
to where I was like oh man this is just too hard I can't tell you like the that first time that I lost my like losing
$340,000 of mine and my investors in capital and then having to go through that I was ready to throw in the towel
you if you talk to my wife she will say there were many like I'm I'm a grown ass man I don't cry right like that's sort
of the approach but be especially everything I've been through like there's very the only thing that really makes me weep is seeing the love that I
have for my wife and my wife has for me and my love for Jesus Christ other than that I don't like there's very few
things in life that will make me cry but man I tell you what I was I was a Broken Man and it wasn't so much the loss of
the money it was the fear of the Lost of the trust of the investors and by the way I had seven investors in that deal
five investors continue to invest with me today so there's something to be said about yeah uh your approach to how you
manage uh disappointments and setbacks such good and and learning
through the the mistakes and the pain and and continuing forward I love that
uh pick one of these and how you're focused on growing this year Family Faith Fitness finance and
future uh I would say okay one I'm going to have to go with family my wife has
struggled with uh endometriosis so it's a disease that affects the reproductive organs and her monthly Cycles are
excruciatingly painful to the point that she is blacked out uh she's in bed for
multiple days on end and so we have a surgery coming up finally we have identified a worldclass renounce surgeon
he is a train the trainer so he trains other endometriosis surgeons to remove the disease so we are going to be going
down in Miami we have an appointment with him October 4th and our prayer and our hope is that after that we she will
be on the path to be able to conceive and so um that is that is our Focus for this year I love that man prayers and
thoughts for you guys as that happens hopefully an exciting Adventure uh you know once you get past that all right I
got two more for you then I'm gonna then I'll then then we can land it what's a dream or goal that you have that you've
The Goal of Generosity and Pushing Forward the Gospel
not been able to make happen yet one of our dreams is to go down to
uh pagodia in Argentina so the southern tip of Argentina that's a dream and it's
more more for the lack of proper planning and just setting aside the time to do that but that is definitely a
dream of ours I like it I like it last one here at the end of life what do you
hope you'll be remembered for my generosity my generosity and uh and
really so I I believe that everybody needs to have a a higher calling a higher purpose than just making money or building a company that's that's that's
not going to last when you die you can't take any of it with you I mean we can see that cuz pharaohs you have all the
gold statues that they had in their tomb so you're not taking any of this with you uh My Hope and desire is that I will
be remembered as a gospel Patron pushing forward the gospel the good news of Jesus Christ and so the outer reaches so
that people's hearts and minds are focused and turned towards God that is my desire man I uh I I love this
conversation uh you are a a remarkable person and I I just it's been so cool to
be able to hear um your stories and to hear as well like how all of your
experiences have now informed uh what it is that you're doing like you said it's it's been just an incredible journey uh
really inspiring for both Nick and I and for our listeners um for our listeners ERS that want to connect with you that
want to learn more about the fund where would you send them what's what's the best SP best place to connect with me on
is on LinkedIn it's professional networking site uh so I'm not very big actually I got locked out of Facebook I
had the stinking two- Factor authenticator on my phone got a new phone and I forgot to transfer over the
two Factor so and and Facebook their customer service doesn't exist with them so I literally have not been able to log
in and I've sort of thrown my hands up like oh who cares so um I'm only on LinkedIn and uh so you can look up Edwin
D erson the thir three eyes and uh you'll find me or you can go to our
website BlueBay fund.com solid we'll we'll include links to both your
LinkedIn page and uh to your your fund page in the show notes so listeners do
check that out also there's links to uh the Abundant Journey page where you can check out all of our past resources
there do be sure to like And subscribe um to the the podcast share it with a
friend let's get Ed's story out in front of as many other people as possible to inspire entrepreneurship for the good of
the world so Edwin man thank you so much really wonderful to connect wish you all the the best and more success as you
move forward and uh listeners we'll be back with you again very soon thank you
