Podcast Transcription

Melina: Welcome to “Flippin’ Off,” a purpose driven podcast about flipping houses and making a difference.

Dave: All right, well, Dave and Lina here New Wealth Advisors Club and we’re coming to you with you, we’re gonna have some fun. Let me just preface this really quick. This is kind of a lively group and we’ve been talking beforehand, and I’m already excited to get this going. So a few podcast ago, we had Tim and Oscar in the studio, we were talking about, you know, partnerships and collaboration and all that good stuff, and we had some fun with that. And today we have Tim and Oscar here as well, but speaking of partnerships, they’ve brought one of their newest partners Mister Mark Strayer, how are you?

Mark: I’m good.

Dave: You’re good.

Mark: Thanks for having me.

Dave: All right, well, I can see this…and you could see the smile on this guy’s face already. You just can’t help, but smile when you’re around this guy.

Melina: That’s true. That’s true.

Dave: Right, so crazy, the energy this guy puts off, but…

Melina: Especially he is within his 50s.

Male: Ish.

Mark: Yeah, that’s right, 50-ish.

Dave: Yeah, we did ish a few weeks ago, and it was all ish. So we’ll just stay in the 50-ish.

Mark: That’s right. Thank you, thank you.

Dave: Perfect, perfect. So with that, we invited Mark here today, and Tim and Oscar’s direction really they were talking about different partners, and what they’re doing and so forth. And we wanted to take some time to get to know Mark, and what’s been happening because it’s really, really is exciting. There’s a reason he has a smile from ear to ear. And so with that, Mark I’d like to back up just a little bit. I know a little bit about you and a little bit about what’s going in your life and so forth, but I guess we crossed paths a number of years ago. Is that true?

Mark: Yeah, it’s funny Dave. I believe it was 2012. I had got an invitation, and you know, timing is everything, and literally, a day or so before, I was looking, I’ve been looking for work. I’ve been laid off, and I got a job offer, and it seemed pretty good, but I’m like, “Okay. So, you know, I’m definitely, I still wanna do the real estate.”, and so I actually was at an orientation, and I realized I needed a job. Real estate for me wasn’t gonna happen next Tuesday. I wasn’t gonna get my first house in escrow in four days. So literally, there was a break, and on the break, I didn’t come back. Rhyming just wasn’t there for me.

Dave: Yeah, so guys, 2012 to Mark’s introduction like I like it. This club idea is cool, but you’re still looking for a job so you come out sort of our initial three day training ,and that first morning are like I say something to the effect of you’re not gonna eat on this tomorrow.

Mark: I think you said those exact words.

Melina: It’s probably right.

Mark: I’m like, “I’m not?”

Dave: And so you decide I’m gonna take you up on that. I’ll catch up with you guys someday later, and here we are four years later, four years later. So during the last four years, what have you been up to like what’s been going on?

Mark: Well, again, I find myself being in 50. I found myself laid off shortly.

Dave: Again.

Mark: Yeah, shortly after probably within half a year after my first visit with you. And then, I mean what am I gonna do. In all honesty, you know, I’m in my 50s. I truly hadn’t plan anything. I didn’t have the 30-year gold watch and plaque, and you know, there’s my you know my 401K and I didn’t have any of that, and it was scary. It was scary. I’d always like real estate, and I had remembered truly when you mentioned because I drove away and I’m like, “God, that place that’s for me.” But obviously, it wasn’t at that time for what we said, and I thought, “Well, I wonder if that company is still around,” and I truly I couldn’t like, “How did I find that the first time?” and one thing led into another, and I realized, “You know what, I seen an ad and I started research in ads and I remember the 10,000 square foot building.” I remember seeing that in the ad and I found the ad, and I’m like, “That’s the place. That’s real estate that said 10,000 square foot building.” and one thing led into another and six, seven months ago I found myself setting back where I was in 2012. I mean, I didn’t know, but the tumblers was just clicking for me, and I became a club member at that point.

Dave: Got it. You had shared with us previously about your own. So in between 2012 and 2016 coming to us, you still have the real estate bug in the back of your mind, yes?

Mark: You know what, I got to tell you this story. So yeah, I’m doing real estate of course I am. I’m in my bedroom I’m listening to webinars, and on the real estate on that right. I got notes, and I mean, and here’s a funny thing, it seemed like every week I was going to, “Well, you know what I’m going to get involved in short sales.” And it’s like what the heck is this tax lean thing? And I study all about that and I was doing massive nothing. I was doing nothing so I had no money, but I thought, you know what I see those signs, those signs so I ordered blank signs because I look down like, “Why, I couldn’t even afford to get in printed, but I mean I’ll hand write or something.”.

And literally, I had 50 signs, and I didn’t put out 50. I put out 10 or 15 signs. You know the signs, the “We buy houses.” And there was I put about on a weekend. I don’t know if it was a Monday…I didn’t know when it was, but I remember my phone ring, and I know the number I had and I looked and it’s like the fear just rose. I’m like. “Oh my God, somebody is calling on my signs.” And I’m like, “I let it go to voicemail or answer it. No, you know what I’m gonna let it go to voicemail.” And then I got so scared because it was like, “What? Are you an idiot? You got no money, you don’t know the first thing of what you’re doing. What were you even thinking Mark?” I don’t believe I even I answered that phone, and I can tell you this. I didn’t put any more signs out, and I needed help. If I was gonna do this, I needed help.

Dave: And you didn’t necessarily know that. Previous to that, you thought you could do this on your own.

Mark: Oh yeah, of course, I could do it on my. I got all that webinar knowledge.

Dave: Loving this.

Male: It’s so great, right.

Dave: It’s so funny. If we could somehow like get people to understand that like you got to get off the couch, you got to get out of your bedroom. You can listen to this podcast and this is certainly got some there’s a lot of great nuggets we’re having inthis podcast, but you’ve got to get up and actually take some action and get involved. So you come down and you say. “Okay I’m back again. I wanna join the club, get inside and tell us a little bit about your experience. What was it like the second time coming to you? And maybe some aha moments, maybe some different things. Can you give some highlights to that?

Mark: Well, I mean, for me the way the template and a lot of stuff started to come back and why I thought this is my place in 2012. Just the way things are set up. I don’t. Here’s probably my biggest thing. The club actually you can touch somebody whether they back in the room or over to the side. Here’s the deal and here’s the person that did that deal, and not just one time there’s like other ideas. Every single thing that happened for me at that club, there was an example right there, and on break I could walk right up and talk to that person. To me, that was huge.

Dave: Got it.

Mark: That was huge for me.

Dave: Yeah, those are the really big things that at least from Lina and I’s going through this and setting up the club, and dealing with all the challenges of the club atmosphere and the people because I got people right which the people are good, and the people are the problems.

Melina: Everything would be perfect if it wasn’t just for those people.

Dave: So much of the belly button, right honey.

Melina: Yes.

Dave: So given that, so that was an encouragement to you so you said, I’m jumping in. I’m doing this. Go ahead.

Mark: And I think some things with me has the weekend played out. I just started getting flushed with total excitement, but total fear because I came to the conclusion on that’s, well, Saturday really, but on that Sunday that I’m home. It’s over. I mean, all this BS you’re talking Mark in your bedroom or you gonna do all this stuff, it’s here. You know, I mean, I don’t wanna get overly religious, but I was sent there for a reason, and I got nervous about it. I mean, every single thing I needed was there, wasn’t no worrying about money, wasn’t no worrying about how do I put a deal together. You had all the education that I could come to. A short sale, okay no problem. I got a team of people to do short sales. I don’t know anything about short sales, but behind me there was you guys. Like I say is the tumblers click for me.

Dave: Wow. That’s so cool.

Melina: Awesome. My god, I love our club.

Dave: So at some point I was sitting here with Oscar and Tim, right. And Oscar and Tim have been putting together different teams and collaborations and partnerships, and different stuff. So Tim or Oscar why don’t you tell us a little bit about like you know you need this guy Mark who’s smiling from ear to ear, and been there.

Melina: Full of energy.

Dave: He’s been there, done that, left, came back, and how did you guys end up having, doing Mark or Mark doing to you whichever you wanna put it?

Tim: Well, I don’t remember Mark from 2012.I don’t know that I ever really connected with Mark, but I remember in April of this year when he came around, and I remember connecting with him very briefly at the intro, and then spend a little bit more time with him during the initial three day training, and immediately I just knew that there was…there’s some real good energy. He brings with him a smile all the time, and he just really has this tendency to be able to connect with people, and I just was watching him, and I realized that he’s got one of my strengths.

I think the last time I was doing a podcast with you guys, we talked about how Oscar and I have the same strengths, and we have a lot of the same strengths. Well, one of my weakness is that ability to connect with somebody like right away. I have the strength to have been able to work with somebody who’s already warm, and who is ready to talk to me, but I have a really difficult time with just breaking the ice I guess with people and really connecting immediately, and I watch Mark all weekend long, every single time he went to somebody he connected. He was just great and I saw that as an opportunity to maybe reach out to Mark, and I talked to Oscar about him, and I Dave and Lina about him. I talked to you guys, and said, “There’s something about this that I really want to. He definitely fits in to what I’m trying to do in my business and I see ways for.”

Dave: Not trying, but what you are doing. You’re not trying to do this. You’ve been intentional going back a month ago we talked and the intentional conversation, you were intentionally looking for certain things, and characteristics in people and Mark had those characteristics that you recognize that you guys need to add to your team.

Tim: Sure, and I think that’s kind of the …it is kind of huge that you said that because before that, Oscar and I have been working, we’ve been putting together a team, and probably from the time Oscar and I started really building that like I knew the…I knew the person that I was looking for. I knew the strength that I was looking for inside of what we are building, and I immediately saw it in Mark.

Dave: Got it. And I think that’s really important because we’re trying to do it.

Melina: That’s so cute. Doesn’t that make you feel special? They intentionally courted you.

Dave: Wow, that’s pretty cool. So we fast forward, here’s Mark, Mark’s coming in. You guys are courting him now that. So we’re working on that stuff, and I think Mark is a really good example of when we talk about. So back drop we got to get an invite to our club. So if you listen to this, find someone who’s part of our club, and so you can get an invite. So Mark was looking back in those emails trying to find someone to give him another invite. You know, we’re not just open up to letting anybody come in. And so, he gets an invite, comes out, sees our introduction, a couple hours introduction. Yes, I wanna join. Comes back to our three days training, and one of the things that we encourage in that is that we allow people to repeat that training over, and over, and over again. In fact, by contract it says you can repeat it up to three times a year, and then I always tell people that don’t look at the three times a year because we don’t actually count. I don’t think you’ve missed one yet, have you?

Mark: I was gonna say, obviously, you don’t count. You know, I need that…Tim said something and it really, really is important for me in my decision process back many months ago, and that was when I walk back in there, I had seen any Tim. So I don’t remember you. I remember him, and I remember Oscar, and I can go down a litany of six, eight, nine people that I remember, and they’re still there, and now their real estate career is like, “Oh my gosh. I mean, look what has happened.” And that really was another tumbler for me that click.

Dave: That make sense.

Mark: It was huge.

Dave: And those are the things…

Mark: Nobody leaves.

Dave: Plenty of people leave.

Mark: Well, I guess though yeah.

Dave: You know who stick are the people who are actually doing the business. Otherwise, they would just be a social club, right. So that happens, you’re there, and Mark’s been a great example of I’m repeating every opportunity I get, and you got involved in some of our additional classes, and those things that specifically the class, and distress property acquisitions. So you get totally immersed in everything that we’re doing. I mean, this is like your full time thing now?

Mark: A 100%.

Dave: A 100%.

Mark: Yup.

Tim: And I remember Tim coming to us and going, “This guy’s gonna be a rock star.”

Melina: Yup, I remember that too.

Dave: Remember that?

Melina: Yes, I do.

Mark: Really?

Dave: Yeah, he probably don’t know that. This guy’s gonna be a rock star. He’s got what we call it.

Melina: Yeah, that’s true.

Dave: And when we say it, none of us know how to define what it is, but you just know when it’s there,. And one of those thing Tim said that you have a really unique ability to be able to come in, let people, let their guard down if you feel what’s the word I’m looking for. You can let my guard down, my defenses. I just feel like, you’re just inviting, and it’s like whatever is going on, “Hey, let’s just sit down, and be buddies, let’s figure out a way we can figure this out. And that’s played in really well to your guy’s partnership in particular because Mark goes out, and says, “I’ve got a homeowner. They said yes. What do I do? Help.” Which is perfect if I could somehow like can that, make that work like come in, create relationships. We say two things to really focus on when you come in this business. Number one, build relationships, check. Number two.

Melina: Motivated sellers.

Dave: Motivated sellers. Got to find leads. He does those two things, and he said like create a relationship I got a yes. Tim?

Tim: Yeah?

Dave: Help.

Tim: Totally, one of Mark’s strengths, I mean he has quite a few strengths, but one of them is the ability to when he is sitting, when he’s sitting with a homeowner or when he’s at a position where we knows he doesn’t know the answer, his first thing is that he’s very good at realizing that he doesn’t know that and realizing that there’s a team of people that do have those answers and being willing to reach out for help as opposed to I need to do this on my own.

Dave: The whole stupid thing of fake it until you make kind of idea.

Tim: Yeah, he’s very good at saying, “You know what, I need help.” And it’s okay that he needs help, and he reaches out for help when he needs, and it turns out to be the right time, and we can step in, and do what we do, and get things done.

Dave: And we, so we’re clear Melina and I was we, you, and your team, and your group of people. And I have no idea if anything was going on. I just hear one day, and he says, “Mark’s got a homeowner and they said yes, we got it in our contract. And it was initially for like 80 grand, and then Mark went back to him, and got him to 60 grand.” And Tim’s like, “Holy cow, he did all on his own.” He went and handle that, that conversation. I remember that, and then all of sudden it was just like, “Oh by the way, we just closed.” So, tell us about that a little bit. What the heck, I mean, that’s awesome.

Mark: Yes, I mean, there’s no doubt it. It was so awesome. And I can remember it was Sunday at 1:00, and this guy calls and I’m like at this time the phone ring, I’m like that is somebody calling on my sign. “Hello”, and I was very confident. And here’s another thing, the club has given me so much confidence because there’s nothing I can’t do. I mean, anything, any problem you got, don’t you even worry about it because we got a team that can handle it. And for me egos destroy people so I don’t have an ego, they destroy companies. Just a whole litany of things that I wanna go up into, but when I’m talking with somebody, hey, it’s just me and you and the call went and I could read between the lines that when a person says he’s in a hotel room, and he’s there with his mother, and they got this house that they need to get rid of, that’s a bell going off for me. And then he kept, he kept saying, “The home I’m asking 100 grand.” and then he would preference it with, the land is worth. Well, after a couple of those I don’t think at first I got, but then I’m like, “Wait a minute, and this home must be dilapidated.” And then, he said, “Well, it’s got some mold.” And that’s when it’s like, “Okay, we’re done with this conversation.”

Dave: Mold is gold.

Mark: And I learned in the club that mold was gold and it definitely is gold. And so anyhow point being was I set an appointment, and when I set that appointment that’s when I kind of shake him like I got to get 10 more, I mean, I set at an appointment, what the heck I’m gonna say to the guy. I’m like, and so that’s kind of you know and that all kind of happen from there. And I met the gentlemen and his wife the next day and I don’t know what, soon as I seen them, they got out of their car, I pulled up, I’m like perhaps salt of the earth people. That’s it. I mean, I went up, hug, hug mom, and it was just on. We just started having a real conversation and I was a solution for them, and I knew it. I didn’t know if I could be because I’m gonna have parameters, but I’m the solution. That’s how we rolled with it.

Dave: That’s awesome. So you end up ultimately on that when I can get them, do me the details of that, but you got it for 60 grand.

Mark: We did. And you guys decided not to fix it up because it need a lot of work I’m assuming.

Tim: It did need a lot of work, and we decided to wholesale it.

Dave: And you wholesaled it. And the buyer what they buy it from you guys for?

Mark: One hundred four.

Dave: Hundred one and four.

Mark: Hundred and four thousand dollars, and in like what, there’s like five days, five or six days. I mean, the escrow took a little bit longer, but it was pretty much done within seven days for sure

Tim: Yeah, we had a buyer real quick, were like immediately when we marketed it, we had a buyer, and escrow took traditional 20 to 30 days I think once we got through escrow, but we had a buyer immediately, got it in the escrow, and.

Dave: What did you guys net on that?

Tim: Forty-four thousand bucks.

Mark: That’s correct.

Dave: Forty-four thousand bucks.

Mark: Forty-four thousand dollars which allowed me to be able to concentrate on real estate full time. I mean, my last job made like $52,000 gross so after taxes I was making up, I was netting about 3200, got a hot a commission maybe I made four grand one month. I meant I was playing in the thresh. So I mean…

Dave: Thresh.

Mark: And I was, you know, a couple with some savings of 22 grand like bam.

Dave: So you guys split that 50-50?

Mark: Well, yeah, no, of course.

Tim: Yeah.

Dave: So you split them, so it’s 22,000 bucks apiece and that was within, and how long since you would come?

Mark: It was a little over 90 days, maybe four months I guess.

Tim: I’m trying to remember the timeline. I know you came in April, and I think we did that deal in August.

Mark: As a matter of fact, it was because I bought a lot and whenever. And you know it’s funny because I got my check, and most people are like, “Hey, they’re starting a business so what do they do? Put a dollar up is my first dollar I ever made.” I’ve got this little thing my check and a little silver thing and I rode on it. And so my first check is $22,000 to start my business.

Melina: Amazing. It’s amazing.

Mark: It’s beyond belief.

Tim: A bit better that a first dollar bill.

Dave: That’s a pretty awesome right. You were working at the time, right. You’re still working.

Mark: Yes, I was, yeah.

Dave: And since then?

Mark: Since then, no. It allowed me to be able to do this full time. I was able to couple with that a little bit of savings I had, I was able to do this full time, yeah.

Dave: That’s pretty awesome.

Mark: In August, September. I’m a real estate investor.

Melina: Boom.

Dave: Not afraid to answer your phone anymore?

Mark: Oh no, not at all. As a matter of fact, what the heck, and how come the phone didn’t ring. I got to figure something out here.

Dave: And that’s not a one hit wonder because we just had, you just did it again.

Mark: You know what, I did. And when I say I did it’s like it’s almost kind of embarrassing because I’m not doing anything, but here’s what I got that most people don’t get. I got these signs. Okay, so everybody gets that, and you can even believe the people that have come up to me, “Oh you did that I tried those signs once, and I have consistently, we just had a meeting over the weekend, and I consistently have my signs out, everyday for the six, seven, eight months that I have been involved. It is part of my marketing arm. That’s it.

Melina: Boom.

Mark: And I’ll tell you I did. I have another, we just got another check, but I have another call in a couple of weeks, but that don’t be like, “Man, I got to put the signs out I guess. Oh, it’s Christmas I got to put the signs out or whatever it maybe. You know, it’s a holiday.” So I put my signs out every weekend. Every weekend.

Melina: Nice, nice. Oh my gosh, if people could just get that. And here, I know I say it all the time, you know, consistent effort, consistent, consistent, and some people just don’t get it.

Oscar: And really, it goes back to what Tim just said, it’s a part time consistent. There a very few people to ever come just so we’re clear here, I don’t know of very many people have ever come and showed up with an overflowing bank account, and they had nothing better to do. That’s not like…that’s the normal club member that would come to our group. That’s more of the people that, you know what I want to get involved, and I don’t know you exist, I don’t know what this whole thing is all about. I want to check it out. Most people are not coming with an overflowing bank account. In fact, I can think maybe one or two people who had like significant savings who have ever come to our club.

And so here you are working full time, start your business part time consistently. You heard him say, “Everyday I’m putting out my signs,” and I know you’re putting mine on the weekend, pick them because disclaimer here bandit signs. They call it bandit signs for a reasons. You can get fined by cities for putting those out. So if you’re listening to this, make sure you know your local rules, that’s my disclaimer and because somebody will come back later, and be like, “You told me put out signs and I got a fine.” Guess what, if you put out signs, be prepared for a fine.

Melina: Yeah, or follow the rules.

Oscar: Or follow the rules, exactly. So you’re doing that consistently and then you got a check, and then you say, “Okay, I got the check.” That gives me the ability to leave the job that I’m making less or I predict I’m gonna make less at them during those full time. Then you switch to full time, you close another deal. What was that other deal? I can’t remember the number now, but you did very similar transactions?

Mark: It truly was. There was again I’m an option for people and I was an option for this person, and it’s about building relationship. That’s really, really for me that’s the key when I meet somebody. About building the relationship and making them feel comfortable to do what they do and feel comfortable talking with me, and opening up. You know, I don’t want to go into a hoarder home, and I sit out front for 40 minutes with these lady’s hand in my hand, and it was kind of like a, I was psychiatrist. I mean, we talked and talked and talked until she finally felt comfortable for me walking in that home. And so anyhow, I didn’t want to get off on a tangent although I did. And so yeah, I put the, we got into escrow with the help of Tim again, and yeah, we closed the deal. I think it was $38,000.

Tim: It was 38,000-ish, 38,700.

Mark: Right, right.

Oscar: That sounds exact.

Tim: It was 38,700, and yeah.

Dave: And that was wholesaled.

Mark: That was wholesaled to another buy on hold.

Tim: Yup, to a club member.

Mark: Buy and hold club member who’s actually going to be using that home to put a family, and through.

Melina: A veteran.

Dave: A veteran. Wow, that’s awesome. Through path of life, and what you guys have been doing trough you’re the non-profit over there.

Melina: Yes, the rapid rehousing or the permanent supportive housing program.

Dave: So cool, so cool, and in an area that’s totally needed out in the low desert, right.

Melina: Yes, exactly, very important.

Dave: You know, as I’m just looking at this, I’m just in awe right now, and thinking here this guy that’s 40, I’m trying to do the math and head hurts.

Mark: I could do it for you. It literally, in 65 days, I’ve got two checks totaling 41,000 and some change. It’s beyond belief.

Dave: Wow.

Melina: It’s exciting.

Dave: You know, I got to ask you this because I’m putting you on the spot here, I didn’t ask you in the spot or anything, but people all the time they’ll say things like so like 65 days. So you know that exactly. They ask us all the time. So what’s the average, and how long does take, and how long does that take, and I always say, “There’s no way for us to be able to come up with statistics or average.” Do you by any chance know how many times you got told no before you got those to yeses?

Mark: You know, and that is funny because I consistently do the bandit sign. I didn’t just get two phone calls, I’ve had, I’ve lost count of the phone calls that we, and I learned this again from the club, and the people that was calling they didn’t fit in our template, and now I think I’m good enough to tell within five minutes if they fit in our template.

Dave: There you go.

Mark: But way over 30.

Dave: No idea how many nos, but we know the yeses, right?

Mark: Yeah.

Dave: I mean, Oscar have been talking about that from the word go. You know, and she looked back, and I don’t know how many times I’ve been told no.

Oscar: It’s countless.

Dave: I can tell you how many times I got told yes though.
.
Oscar: That’s a number to remember.

Dave: Yeah. So be a professional no collector because eventually the yeses come, and you’ve been just awesome in doing that. We appreciate your energy around the club so much.

Melina: One thing I wanted to say, I was thinking about it, I didn’t want to interrupt the conversation with Mark, but something that Tim said that I think is important and he said that he talked about the skill set that he saw in Mark and that he was specifically looking for that skill set, and you know, interestingly, when I looked at Tim years and years ago, I saw a skill set in Tim that I thought was very much needed around the club in terms of leadership, and I don’t…I know for a fact Tim didn’t see that in himself. So I don’t want anybody to hear this conversation and go, “I don’t have what Mark has.” You know, you may not even know what skill set you have, and how needed it is.

Tim: You know, just to kind of spin off that. The thing that really needs to be clear about Mark and it maybe missed right, because the energy is contagious, it’s the whole bit. It’s awesome to have him around. But he mastered, and he coined it actually. So I’m gonna use hopefully I don’t mess up his words, but he’s taking imperfect action. Don’t worry about having it all down. It’s taking the action and letting it fall in place, and that’s really what he’s really embraced and done is taking imperfect action, and to me it was like a light went off for me when he coined that phrase. That’s the wording we’ve lacked.

Melina: Totally.

Mark: Massive imperfect action.

Tim: Massive imperfect action.

Melina: Yeah, and so Mark, let me ask you this. Was that natural for you or did that take some years of getting that down and being comfortable with taking imperfect action?

Mark: It was definitely not natural. It is something that, and nobody’s asked me, but I’m not college educate, but I feel I got a master’s degree because I mean as we said here now, I have two books sitting by my nightstand and I try to read 5 and 10 pages everyday. I’m constantly trying to learn. So the people skill aspects has been decades.

Tim: I thought you told me you had a Ph.D.

Mark: Well. Yeah, I do. And if anybody doesn’t know what a Ph.D., it started many years ago, I got a Ph.D., and that was poor, hungry, and determined when I move to Ohio to out to California. I’m like, “I better get a Ph.D., because people out here got some money. I got to figure this out. I got no education behind me.”

Dave: Had you ever done anything in real estate or real estate investing prior to this club?

Mark: No, not at all. I mean, I owned home. And I owned a home back in the day where every month it was going up 10 grand, you know, and I’m like, “Wow, this unbelievable. I’m so smart, I bought this home.” No, that’s all I have. I had no real estate.

Dave: It was when the overnight millionaires. Yeah, you just put anything on application, and you just wait it was gonna go up. Yeah, so I just think it’s just phenomenal to think about and this is gonna be exciting for this whole group, right.

Tim: It is. A lot of cool things coming about, and a lot of things that are gonna be put in place that are gonna be cool, very cool.

Melina: Yeah. For me, the takeaways from are these. So one of the things I say to students all the time is believe. If you can’t believe in yourself because what I heard from Mark was he had belief that he was willing to do the work before he came to us, but he didn’t have the belief in himself, and so I know that a lot of students when they come to us, they don’t have that belief. So because Mark had already taken action all he needed was just to see the truth and he had lots of experience years back and then came back and saw us. So for him the belief was probably easier I think coupled with his Ph.D. I know, I mean that made the perfect the storm for him. But I think the thing that I want people to takeaway from, one of the things I tell students is believe in my belief or in our belief in you until your belief catches on or kicks, and I think that I think that Tim is a really good example of that believing in my belief or your and my belief in him. And that’s an opportunity for everybody to see.

Dave: And I think a good takeaway is that looking at or listening to Mark or what you just said with like the skill set, people not recognizing maybe what their skill set is or the need for whatever their skill set because we’re all different, you know. Looking at you, you totally different abilities than I have, and they complement each rather perfectly. Thank you Lord, by the way. I say that all the time. I may go way above my pay grade, but until death do us part.

So given that, I count my blessing, it happens a lot when you start seeing people that are drawn to one another, who’s working together and who is not. I see working together, who’s having success and who’s not, and anybody that’s listening to do this, you really got to get clear on that like what do I need, and how do I hone in on finding that need. Because Tim was clear, he’s humble enough to say this is something I’m not good, and/or Mark is going to be better at. Oscar, the same thing.

Guys that have had a tremendous amount of success close a lot of deals, and they’re not sitting there kind of hoarding to themselves, “Yeah, we’ve closed a lot of deals.”, instead they’re sitting there with open arms going, “Okay, who could we bring in to our cycle that’s gonna help us be bigger, better, faster in our business. How do we get there quicker, and then at the same time how do we be a blessing to someone else.” A brand new student who’s coming in here 50-ish, and saying, “You know, I need to do something different. I’m working this job with no retirement, very little savings.”, and I commend you because that is scary.

Melina: For use.

Male: I mean, that is scary to think you know, you’re three quarters of your life, and looking back and going job to job, and laid off to laid off, and you know trying to make ends meet, coming from Ohio to California, huge, and at the same time being you’re a perfect example of somebody’s being humble, you’re humble, you’re coachable, we’ll just say you’re older than the rest of us sitting here, and there’s no ego that you bringing into. I know it’s a couple of days, but there’s no ego involved in that you know like you set that all aside to say, “Okay, so what I’m doing isn’t working, watching webinars. And thinking I’m going to do this and then when the phone rings I’m scared to death, and I’m really not gonna do this.” You admitted all that. Nobody has to point that out to you, you admitted all that and said, “This is stupid. This just doesn’t work.”, you then search through emails and did everything you could to find the contact info of somebody in the club of five years ago, or four years whatever it was, and set all that aside, set aside your pride, and then said, “I need help. If I’m gonna do this, I need help.”

Dude, I just commend you as a man just to be able to set that aside, and do that because in this day and age of people either whether they’re entitled because they’re breathing they automatically get something for free or whether it’s you owe me something, that kind of thing. Or you’re not putting on a façade, and being fake and phony or that like, “I’m all these.” You just said no, I need help. And you know, I just had to say, I commend you for it.

Melina: Yeah, and I just like to add that that translated to $40,000 in 68 days. I’m just saying. I feel like, humility works.

Tim: Forty-ish.

Melina: Forty-ish.

Mark: You know, I wanna say that I feel sitting here is so fortunate when Tim and Oscar approached me because they don’t, maybe they know, but my skill set, yeah, I can talk to people and all that stuff, but I have a patience of gnat. We have a couple of meetings, and Tim and Oscar will be talking about marketing arms and scrubbing stuff, and I am like I just sat there, like, “Oh, stop.”

Melina: Scrubbing stuff.

Mark: The scrubbing the list or whatever they’re doing, and I mean, processes and procedures, Oscar and Tim is creative, I have none of that. And I come the people with a little that I got. I’m happy, schnappy, whatever, and I can talk to some people. So I just got to say that I’m thrilled to be asked to even be working with both of them.

Dave: That’s awesome. Just awesome.

Melina: Oh my gosh, I love our club.

Dave: I know, it’s so great. Where else would people, we say this a lot, in pillow talk, but my wife and I will sit down and be like, “Where else would meet a group of people like this.” In other words, you know…

Melina: So opposite.

Dave: Yeah, opposite, where do you even go to build those relationships and find those people. So for us, go in seminar to seminar to seminar to seminar, right. Always in the same place, and we’re sitting there with hundreds of cattle ship all going to all these places, hundreds of people in the room who is in network. Try to connect with everybody. Find out later that everybody is in the exact same spot we’re in. We’re all broke and trying to figure it out, and then nothing like this exist. And I’m not saying your own horn, but the idea that the club works because of people like you, because the right people being drawn to our club, and then those people are setting aside their goes, and saying, “I’d rather work together. I’d rather close a deal with partners than trying to close something on my own in my bedroom that’s not really gonna work.”. And where else can you have that? You know, and gosh, it’s just a proud moment as we sit here gears. I mean, this is, I don’t know, I need another ish, but how many years is this now we’re doing. What are we talking nine?

Melina: Yeah, nine-ish.

Dave: Nine-ish years of building this, and putting all these together and here we sit with this is just one of countless examples of it works.

Melina: Yeah, for me, this is what I believe heaven will be like I really do. I think heaven will be just like that where it’s a bunch of people, misfits that have some crazy connection with each other and have authentic, real relationships no mask.

Dave: Yeah, very cool. Well, I appreciate you coming out Mark and sharing with us, and Tim and Oscar coming out again. Thanks for being great leaders and example to other as to what’s possible inside here. Mark I look forward to seeing your smiling face in each and every class.

Mark: You got them.

Dave: Every time, and I’m gonna be able to enjoy as we go into this next year, you being able to be that influence on the next person that comes in that could be 50-ish and finding themselves in that same scared to death spot, and just showing them, there’s hope. There’s light at the end of tunnel.

Melina: Or the 20-ish, and telling them, hopefully influencing or inspiring them to maybe skip a few steps.

Mark: Good way to put it. Yes, for sure.

Melina: Quicker paths to the Ph.D.

Mark: There you go, that’s right, that is great.

Dave: That’s awesome. So with that, we’ll sign off for the day, and it’s about that time on East.

Melina: Boswells flippin out, flippin off. Flippin up?

Dave: Always flipping something.

Melina: Flipping over.

Dave: Flipping over.

Melina: I thought flipping in.

Dave: Whatever it is, catch you guys at the next one. Take care.

Melina: Toodles.