Podcast Transcription

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

Melina: Welcome, everybody Melina Boswell here, founder of New Wealth Advisors Club and today, I have a bunch of my really great friends and family. Isn’t that weird? And so I’m going to actually go around and ask everybody to introduce themselves to change things up a little bit. So we’ll start over here to my right.

Christian: Hey guys, this is Christian Rios.

John: Good morning. This is John Slater.

David: What’s up everybody? David Boswell here.

Melina: All right. So I don’t remember how we were going to do this. You know what’s weird, guys? When we do these podcasts, we literally have a conversation for a few minutes before we start recording, and we decide kind of what the topic is going to be and what are the main key points that we want to hit. And I would say 90% of the time we hit them. But we really do not have any script. We basically have a topic that we choose that we’re going to speak on. And then we just kind of flow and go with it. And so today, I said want to change things up and now I’m like, all in my head.

David: So today’s topic is actually going to be titled, “From the Toilets to the Stages.” So just a little bit of context, how we came up with this name. there’s always been stories of mom, and dad when they first started out when the office was really small and nobody had really heard about NWAC yet. And Mom had to do everything. Between mom and dad, they had to do literally everything. So from cleaning the toilets to talking to people who are interested in getting into real estate, to actually doing the real estate deals themselves, you know, being active investors. And then the place has to be cleaned so somebody’s gotta clean the dang toilets. And so it was always this, you know, it’s always been this conversation of what it took to get the place going.

So really what the conversation is going to surround is the idea that if you want to make it somewhere in life you don’t get to not be the person who cleans the toilets. You have to be willing to clean the toilets and do everything in between. Because, for me, the word entrepreneur, it’s like a really fancy word. It sounds so good. If you say the word entrepreneur, think about what happens in your mind, when you say, entrepreneur. Everybody wants to be an entrepreneur.

Melina: They think so.

David: There’s, not.. Well absolutely, it has that connotation that’s like, “Sure, I want to be an entrepreneur, or I am an entrepreneur.” You know, you probably hear it from everybody.

Christian: And it’s crazy. I mean, right now, in this society, everyone is an entrepreneur, you know? And I love watching like, Shark Tank. And Mark Cuban’s, like, “No, you’re a wantrepreneur.” To people that want to be you know, an entrepreneur, “No, you’re a wantrepreneur.” So there’s a difference. But everyone nowadays, I think they just think they’re an entrepreneur.

Melina: Yep

David: It sounds good. But there’s so much ugly work that is not glamorous that goes into what it takes to really be successful.

Melina: Why do you think… What do you think the attraction is about entrepreneur? Like when you said, you said, David, the question was, “Well, what do you think about when you think of an entrepreneur?,” So what is it that everybody thinks about? Because I know what I think about. It’s probably very different for me. So but what do you think the general public thinks of when they say, “Oh, I want to be an entrepreneur?” What do they really mean?

David: It’s freedom of time. It’s spending all the money you want. I think people think that it means you have the big house and there is all these material items that are surrounded with… I think. probably if you ask most people, it’s going to be the freedom of time, though, I would say that. Like to be able to do whatever you want, and not have to wake up to that stinking alarm clock every day. I just know for me personally, that was, “How do I stop having to get up and be at the job site every day At 7am? It just became so monotonous and I know there’s other people feeling like that.

Melina: Yeah. If I think back to when I used to work a job, you know, 30 years ago. I can remember feeling dread on Sunday nights. Right? As the day would grow on Sunday afternoon, even when we would be away for the weekend or something, like. Sunday morning would be okay. But then like, almost after breakfast on Sunday, there’d be this feeling of, “Oh my God.” And you start to, in your head, go, “Oh, we’ve got to hurry up and get home because we have to get this done and that done.” And it’s just this dread that you feel because you know, Monday, your week is going to start and then I think you’re right, your time is no longer your own. Right? So…

Christian: It’s crazy everyone looks forward to Friday, then Friday is the day that you’re super happy. TGIF, thank God it’s Friday. So I think to answer your question, David, what came to me is everyone wants this, like what we’re experiencing right now, which is the time freedom, which is financial security. But they don’t see everything that we put in, you know, like, the years prior. And that’s what this whole conversation is about. So everyone wants this, they want to control their time, they want to not hit an alarm clock to go to another job. But if they don’t see that we still hit an alarm clock or still wake up early, but to work our business.

David: Right. Now earlier most of the time.

Christian: Absolutely.

Melina: Up at 5 am today.

John: It’s being your own boss, for me, it’s being your own boss. Whether it’s the time freedom or the financial security whatever it may be. Being your own boss where you’re now in control of your life, rather than somebody else telling you what you have to do and when you have to do it. I think that’s the big thing for me.

David: When you and dad were first, getting ready to start the club, like what did that look like? You know? You know how stressful that has to be not knowing whether people are even going to…You know, there’s just so many, I’m sure, so many thoughts.

Melina: Yes. For us, it was… And I’ll be very, very transparent. I wanted to build a business. And I…what I learned is that I could do real estate transactions, I realized…I learned that with the education that I got and the things that I had done, I could be a real estate investor. And so I closed a deal. And that’s really what changed things for me dramatically is that I closed my first real estate transaction. And mind you, I’ve been in real estate for a long time, but only as a retail loan officer. So I was an originator so I understood what it meant to close real estate. And I did a few real estate transactions on the retail side. And I knew that there was a way for me to make money on investing. And so the first deal that I did was a creative acquisition. And once I did that, I said, “Oh.” And it was a huge payday. Right? It was $83,000. And when I made $83,000, I was like, “Yes. I need to do this again.” Because I thought, “Well if I can do this twice a year, I’m good.” And so, but that’s just kind of the way that I think. And dad, Dave was such a big thinker, he was just a visionary, big, giant thinker. He didn’t know how to keep things small. So you know, he was like, “Let’s, you know, we should teach other people”. And he enrolled me in the idea that we had met people along the way trying to get into real estate investing. He enrolled me and how you going to leave them behind?

David: Were you always…? Because if you asked me, I would have said dad would have been the one who was going to make the club happen. And if you guys had to each decide.

Melina: Yeah..

David: Would you have?

Melina: No. I wouldn’t have.

David: Right.

Melina: Heck no, I wouldn’t have. No, because it was so much responsibility. So much like I was like, “Look, we can make our 250 grand a year and be done.” Right? And then we can, you know, we had grown accustomed when you were growing up, you always had us. You always had, dad and I worked our whole lives our whole business around you and Andrew, you know?. And you guys were so active, you guys were in so many sports. And so you were never…it was never a dull day. In fact, we just found our calendar, Kendra just found our family calendar. And she sent a picture of and she said, “Holy crap, you guys were crazy.” And I was like, “Yeah. Our lives were crazy busy.” But that was the freedom that it allowed us.

David: It wasn’t glamorous in the beginning.

Melina: God no.

David: So what did it take for you to continue to do all of the things in between that you had to do to continue going on and why?

Melina: So the why had everything to do with dad feeling like we could build it bigger. And also the idea that we loved to teach other people and to see other people have success. That really was the juice that kept us going. Because at the end of the day, we learned that we could make our couple hundred grand a year and be just fine. And then there just becomes something more. And dad was a very driven man, he was a guy who wanted to make an impact on people. His two words were “Provoking greatness” That is truly to his very core who he was.

So he would put everything on the line in order to be able to live out his core purpose, which was to provoke greatness in others. And for me, it was more I’m imparting wisdom. So I could do that with my kids, I could do that at you know, youth group, I could do it in lots of different places. I’ve been a mentor for so many years. And so we found ourselves in this place where we saw lots and lots of need, lots of people who wanted to become real estate investors. So that’s really what started to push us to open up an office. And we started with this really tiny office. And I was, to be honest, I was a little bit on board to open up the office. You know, I was like, “Okay.” And then it was…

David: Listen, if we’re being totally honest, if you can go out and invest in real estate already, you’ve already closed the deal made 80 grand, you can go out and do that again and again. You don’t have to enroll anybody. If we’re being honest and you want to do the easy thing and go make money…

Melina: Right, I could easily do that. That’s my never-ending conversation if we’re being honest. Right? I always say that to myself, “I’m really…we’re really good at closing real estate deals.”

David: So the point, I think that I’m hearing really clearly is that you know, you guys did not have to open the club but the real juice is when you bring other people up alongside you. When you get to experience somebody else who has had that same feeling that you had when you made the 80 grand, which kind of makes me look at John, I keep wanting to look at Johnny, you know. John worked his butt off three jobs, between he and Sally.

John: Yes, I’m just thinking as we’re talking, because what Christian said, the idea of a one…What did you say?

Melina: Wantrepreneur.

John: Wantrepreneur versus an entrepreneur, and what makes somebody be an entrepreneur. You know, what is that different mentality that says, “I’ve got to do something different than what the next person does to be able to get there.” And whether it’s Dave and Melina setting up the club, creating this environment for people. And I was trying to think about, you know, what is it that drives somebody? What is it that makes somebody different? And suddenly, when something you just said, right, at the end was doing something for somebody else. Because when we started this business, and we said, “Okay, we’re working our jobs, we’ve got three jobs between us.” You know, Celine just reminded me earlier, we would go down to a training weekend, we’re at the club, and then all of a sudden, halfway through the training, I’d run into the office, get changed into my soccer outfit, leave the office, go coach, a soccer game, come back four hours later, change back into my shirt and pants and then you know, serve somebody else. Help somebody else’s experience, be a better experience, to help them decide if becoming a real estate entrepreneur is what they wanted to do.

So, as much as we were driven by the idea of creating our own business for working for ourselves and being our own boss. You know, is that really enough? Is that really enough to make you stick into this? Not an easy business. And having the extra caveat of, “I’m going to run my own business, but I’m going to help somebody else build their business.” I think possibly that’s, maybe that is the juice. Maybe that is the final kind of…

Melina: Did you just wake up to that?

John: Yes, maybe that’s the final icing on… mean, we’ve always done it.

Melina: Sure.

John: But I think people, you know, when I think of new people coming into our group right now, and they are saying, “Hey, I want to be a real estate business owner, I want to run my own company.” And it’s like, well, it’s great. But it’s, it’s still all about you. It’s still all about you. And we all want to run our own business and that’s great. What a great opportunity. But is it big enough? Because you can’t make it about the money. We always tell people, you can’t make it about the money in this business, you’ve got to make it about something bigger than money. And how many people really, really buy into the culture of this is not just about you?

David: Yeah. Most people well, all people until they’ve had money. It’s hard to wrap your head around the concept of it’s not about money because you feel like there’s always a life you’re not being able to live. There’s a life that somebody else lives that you can’t yet because you don’t have the money. But the truth is if you think about if you’ve ever wanted anything in your childhood, or whatever, if you’ve ever wanted something or looked on the horizon and saw like, you see yourself in some position, and it seems even unattainable for a while, but then you finally get there. And it’s just kind of like, ” All right, I got like a new car,” for instance.

Melina: Perfect example.Yeah. It’s the perfect example.

David: You want it forever, and you have any and then you’re driving around for a while it’s like, “It’s just a car like my only one drove too. It’s a little nicer.”

Melina: And then you start noticing everybody else has your stupid car anyway. You think your car is so special, no, it’s actually not. Everybody has it. And it doesn’t mean anything, does it? It doesn’t change your life.

David: No. It sure doesn’t.

Melina: Does it change your life? Not at all, nobody…

Christian: For a week or two.

Melina: Maybe for a week or two.

David: You can spend so much time chasing the dollar and not realizing that once you get there, you missed a whole lot in the actual grind. And so I know personally. Money is not the… It has nothing to do with why I’m, you know, why I’ve plugged so deep into the club. And let me be dead honest, my favorite part about being involved with the club is running around making videos with Kevin. It’s by far my favorite part. And because the honest truth is that when I got here a year ago, Kevin was, he had all of this potential to make all of these awesome videos and movies and he just wasn’t. That’s a simple fact.

Melina: Damn you Kevin.

David: I love you, buddy. But you know, and now…

Melina: He just needed to be inspired.

David: … being able to just come alongside of him as a buddy and put our passions together. And now seeing the fruit from what we’re doing. That’s everything for me, I know that he’s going to be able to take the skills he’s developing and go run his own business with the only those. So the juice is in the relationships, really, you know, you got to be willing to do the hard work to get to where you want to be. But you don’t want to miss the stuff that happens along the way.

Melina: Absolutely true.

Christian: Hi, this is Christian Rios. As many of you know, I had been a member of New World Advisors Club for over seven years and got started when I was 17 years old, with absolutely no real estate experience. One of the biggest lessons I’ve learned from being in the industry is the need for authentic relationships. If you’re looking for an actual team locally in Southern California, with all the resources needed to close deals, register for one of our free workshops by visiting www.joinnwac.com. Thanks for listening to the Flippin Off podcast.

Melina: Go ahead, John. What were you going to say?

John: I was gonna say we always say how much you have to step out of this being about you. And even though we say that to everybody, I still think people just don’t get it. You’ve got to, you know, I met a couple of people last night, we were talking about their business and building their business and what they want to do, and you know, getting out there and actually taking action. And my whole goal around that conversation last night was you have to pour into other people because it will help benefit your business. But you’re doing it from the perspective of how can I help those other people first, and I’ll just get the ripple effect that happens from it. So that’s really the focus.

Melina: Absolutely.

John: Put everything into somebody else. And it’s what you and Dave did from day one.

Melina: That’s exactly right.

John: You know.

Melina: I’m always marveled at how people just don’t get it. People…I think that’s probably the most frustrating part for me, is people don’t understand that we joke about it all the time Dave used to say, “Are you kidding, you know, Melina went from the toilet to the stage.” Because that is the truth. And I can remember way back when, when we were opening up the office, and we would do introductions, inviting people in to get an overview and see what the office was. And I would, I would be the one who… we would get there early, like maybe an hour early, and Dave would be opening up his presentation, starting to prepare, and I would go through the bathrooms and I would clean all the toilets, wipe down all the sinks, mop the floors, change my clothes, and then I would sit at the front desk and invite people in, check them in. And then I would go into the room, and then I would get up on stage. So it was like the running joke. I literally had to do everything, you know, Dave and I did.

And Dave was doing all of the fixing light bulbs, and drywall, and ceilings and the AC doesn’t work and we did absolutely everything. And then we got up and we did all the teaching. And then we did all the coaching. And then we did you know, and then every single bit of money that we made, we poured back into the business, back into the people to provide a nicer environment to create a better opportunity for people. And then people walk in the door and they’re … It’s just bizarre to me. They maybe joined the club, maybe they worked their business for three months and maybe what, three or four hours a day, if even that, and I don’t believe for a second people do that on a consistent basis. I think people work their business once a week and for a few hours. That’s the truth. We all know, that’s the truth. And then they’re like, “This just doesn’t work”. And then they get frustrated. And I just want to say, “You’ve got to muster up the skill set and the grit that it takes to stay successful in this.” And I don’t believe you’re born with it.

David: Right.

Melina: I just don’t I think that you…

David: They say it doesn’t work. And that’s the most frustrating statement to me. And it’s more like you know it works.

Melina: You don’t work.

David: What are you going to do to make it work?

Melina: Right.

David: What actions will you take to make it work? How relentless are you going to be until it works? You have the facts in front of you, you know, there are real estate investors out there, people are making money in real estate. But what are you going to do to make it happen? Which, honestly I think the last point we can hit on this is that there’s a specific type of person that it takes to be successful and to be an entrepreneur. And it’s the kind of person… So let me say this, she’s saying she did everything. But the truth is, I still, I’ll catch her on the on her hands and knees in the kitchen, scrubbing with the toothbrush trying to get the grout clean, because she knows she can do the job right herself. And so that’s the same mentality that she still has and always had. It doesn’t just go away, you don’t all of a sudden, become successful and then that mentality is gone. You have to stay there, be relentless is what …

Melina: Absolutely.

David: I don’t know how else to say it like how you just have to not stop, you have to not give up and just push, push, push until, until nothing. And just until always.

Melina: You have to recognize that if you want to have a certain kind of life, and you want to have complete freedom over your life, there is a sacrifice that has to be given. And the reality is, in my opinion, the number one sacrifice that you have to give up is your being comfortable. You just got to stop thinking you deserve to be comfortable because you do not. You will have adversity. So whether or not you know, if you think somehow if you try to stay comfortable, you’re not going to have ups and downs in your lives, that’s a big fat lie. You are going to have ups and downs, you are going to have adversity, and the only question is, what is your lifestyle going to be when you hit those challenges? And for me, personally, I want a lifestyle that is more comfortable. I don’t work necessarily for money. But let me say this, having money and not having money, I’ve been there both times, and I like having money. And it does help when you have money to go through those adversities. And they’re going to show up no matter what. So who are you going to be when they show up? Who are you going to be?

I think the perfect story, to end this podcast with actually is Christian’s story. Because you know, if you talk about somebody who has the tenacity, who has the grit, who has the drive, and who has the vision and the self-discipline to do what needs to be done to get to where you want to go, I think it’s Christian. And we were just talking about a story that you shared, that I forgot about. So it’s great. You forgot about it too huh?

Christian: I just forgot about it and from this conversation, there’s so many good nuggets that people can take from it. And I think like for me personally, just to hit on this whole conversation, the reason I work is to have choices too, you know? Like work to have choices where you don’t have to take your family on you know, the cheapest hotel available. Like you want your family to experience nice things.

Melina: Seriously.

Christian: And to have a vacation. And I think what you were saying to Melina is about people, just people are chasing comfort every day. And to be honest, we do it too. Like I thought today getting in my car, it was a little cold. So I hit on the butt warmer, and it just changes it, you know?. And that’s what people that have a good business, that’s all they want to do. They just want to solve a problem to make people’s life easier. And I think we have to be okay with being uncomfortable. And that story that reminded me was, it was years back. I don’t even know how many years back probably six, seven years ago..

Melina: Yeah. I think it was seven years ago.

Christian: Yes, it was a while ago. you guys were hosting a holiday event or a Christmas party in the community, in the clubhouse, and it was a great event. I had a lot of fun and afterwards it was, you know, I left at 11, probably 12, it ended, went home. And I was like, you know what? I felt like, I think, just inspired from even that event. And I was like, “I know the kind of life I want to create, I know what I’m doing towards my business, like, I have to have fruit. It’s just a matter of time.” And I decided that night to go out and put bandit signs for my business. And I don’t think I really shared that really with too many people. But in all reality, I think those little details and those little actions are what makes or breaks people’s business. And what I shared too. It all comes down to what people do in the shadows that they end up getting recognition for, you know. And I think I was thinking about like Kobe Bryant, Tiger Woods, like how much practice they do without any recognition, but then they’re seen as like, the all-time best.

John: So true.

Melina: Yes, absolutely. It’s perfect. I love how you said that Christian, what you do in the shadows. So good.

So good.

Christian: Absolutely.

Melina: Yeah, I think that’s a great question. What do you do in the shadows? Now, are you bingeing on Netflix? Are you scrolling on social media? Are you doing anything that adds any value to the business that you are pretending you want to create?

David: Are you too comfortable?

Melina: Yeah, because that’s the truth. That’s the truth. And I’m not saying that bingeing on Netflix or watching a show is a problem. I’m just saying, you know, put it in your schedule. Right? Schedule it. It should be part of your book-ends. It should be part of the things that you do to schedule your life so that you create the life that you’re looking for, and most people just don’t have it to do that. So my, my admonition to everybody listening to this today is, you know, I feel like it’s a hashtag create your own life, design your own life. You know, like, it’s pretty like design like pillows. That’s bullcrap. The truth is to design your life by getting uncomfortable, being willing to work and do the things that nobody else is willing to do. And then the final thing is, what are you doing in the shadows? That tells the whole truth. Right?

Christian: So true.

Melina: Yeah. All right. Anyway, well, this was a fun day. I hope people are inspired. I think we talked a little bit of crap, huh?. So just keeping it real that’s what we do here. We keep it real and hopefully, that’ll help you feel inspired to get off the couch, to get off social media, and get on with your business.

So this is NWAC and we are Flippin’ Off

I’m Melina Boswell, your host of the Flippin’ Off podcast. I really hope you enjoyed it. If you did, we’d love for you to subscribe. Give us a five star rating and tell your friends all about us. You can find more episodes of the Flippin’ Off podcast on Apple podcasts, Spotify, Google podcasts, Stitcher or wherever else you like to listen to awesome podcasts like this. If you like what you’ve heard, we’d really appreciate it if you follow us on Facebook and Instagram and tell us the stories that you’d like to hear.

Tim Jackson is our senior producer. Luke Jackson is our editor, brothers. Josh Mauldin is our producer sound design by Frequency Factory. Our executive producer is Mind & Mill. This was all created by Dave Boswell for New Wealth Advisors club.