TRP097: The Path to a Powerful Partnership with Jake and Gino
August 11, 2020
Transcription
Randy: All right. Hey, I want to welcome you to today’s show super, super excited about today’s episode. We’ve got some phenomenal guests. They do not need any introduction, but we will give them an introduction because of yours. You know, many of our listeners will know Jake and Gino from the fabulous podcast that they operate in the training programs that they operate. Again, just an incredible partnership in two gentlemen that are amazing. And I want to welcome you guys here to the show today. Thank you so much for coming on the show. I know our listeners are going to be blessed and really inspired by what you guys are doing and how they can learn from you. So welcome to the show guys.
Gino: Thanks Randy, for having us on.
Randy: Oh, for sure. For sure. Well, let’s talk about how did you guys come together because you know, you guys make an incredible partnership. You know, you’re delivering dynamic results, not only on the podcast, but in the educational front, and then also in the multifamily asset front. But you know, that didn’t happen overnight. So let’s talk about how did you guys come together and why did you come together?
Gino: So it’s 2009. I’m in my kitchen, cooking a dish called Jake’s chicken, and I’m like, damn, I don’t even have a dish on the restaurant menu that is called, named Gino. Right? Who is this Jake guy? I said your name was on the restaurant. Sorry.
Gino: Gino’s like yucky or something like that. No, this is Jake’s chicken. So Jake’s chicken was awesome. Grilled chicken had a little bit of hot spice on top, a little paprika, a little bit of mixed herbs in there. Peppers.
Jake: Don’t forget those bets.
Gino: Let me get to it, bro. Let me see. I’ll tell you that still take garlic and oil. He got some, he got some mushrooms in there. You got some peppers in there. You’ve got some zucchini in there. Some hot cherry peppers. You lather that on top of the grill chicken. And the reason why we made this dish is Jake would go out and he’s a pharmaceutical rep. He’d go to doctor’s offices before. This was around the sunshine act around 2008, 2009. Things are starting to shift. He’s going to these doctor’s offices trying to sell. He was legal. He’s legal drug dealer trying to sell pharmaceuticals.
And I’m like finally meet him. And I liked him right off the bat. A couple of things that really stood out. And this is what I think everyone really needs to think about when they’re wanting me to partner, the expectations were there. I mean, he, when every time he came to the restaurant, he knew his, when he had to have his orders, he had a monthly schedule. He was the only pharmaceutical rep out there that could tell me Gino, January 23rd, I need $300 worth of food going down to the Bronx. And it was January 5th. Like this guy is prepared, he’s motivated. And he’s a really fun dude to be around. You really have to like your partner. If you don’t like your partner, don’t partner. It’s as simple as that, I speak. I’ve seen him three hours today, already out of five. Right? So that’s just the reality of it where we’re constantly talking 2011 comes.
He’s like, I’m outta here. I’m going to Knoxville, Tennessee. Like Jake where’s Knoxville, us new Yorkers really? Aren’t that good at geography? Right. So first time I heard of Knoxville, Tennessee, I open up computer. I look in, I see LoopNet 30,000 a door. I’m bursting. I’m like, dude, this is a good market. When you get down there, let’s talk about multifamily. So he gets down, there goes down by himself. Everybody it’s not easy. He went down by himself. His fiance was stuck up in New York for six months, went to live in a one bedroom apartment. And he was just doing his gig down there. And we’re looking for multifamily. I was the one who, you know, had been mentored. I want some coaching programs. I had the experience with the underwriting, but he was the boots on the ground. And he was more than willing to say, Hey Gino, how do we do this?
So we partnered. We both had the idea of, I wanted passive income because I had a restaurant I didn’t want to fix and flip homes and Jake and I could do this on the side. If we bought a 10 unit, we could still have our W2 jobs, our, you know, business end W2. And we could really do this on the side and scale it up. It took us 18 months to find that first deal, because we didn’t have credibility. We didn’t have the Jake and Gino model. We didn’t have Bi-Rite management and finance. Right? We didn’t have the credibility. We didn’t have a lot of the skill sets that we, that we teach, but we still were resilient. We still wanted to make it happen. And after 18 months we bought a 25 unit property. Three months later, we bought a 36 unit property though momentum.
And then six months after that, we bought 136 units. So for me, the moral of the story is I was blessed to find him as a partner because I knew that he would be a hard worker. There’s not a day that goes by this. He says to me, you know, I can’t do it. I’m too busy. Never heard that I was mouth worked seven days a week. He’s relentless, he’s tireless. He doesn’t make excuses and he’s willing to grow. That’s really important because what happens is, you know, being willing to grow is being willing to admit to mistakes, admit to finding a solution, admit to committing to it. And also when you look at it, what’s made us successful. As we said, in another show with you, Randy, it’s staying in our lanes. It’s really not complicating things and saying, Jake, do you know, we both want to really build wealth. We want to create generational wealth. We want to be able to refi these properties, buy additional properties. We don’t want to do single family home. We don’t want, as I joke around with Jake, do crypto, we want to really stay in the multifamily lane, really learn it really well and expand the multiple different streams of businesses that we have for multifamily. I think that’s what set us apart. And I think that’s, what’s made us successful.
Jake: Yeah. And I think, let me expand on that a little bit to rated, because I think so many people look at partnerships as this scary thing. And Oh, I’ve heard someone got in a partnership in this happened, or I had a bad partner in this happened. And the power of our partnership is not addition. It’s not. Jake brings this to the table. Plus Gino brings this to the table, equals to… this is multiplication. Okay. And here’s the crazy thing. I have zero units. If I don’t partner with this guy and he’s probably still doing duplexes, if he doesn’t partner with me. So don’t be afraid of partnerships. But I want to open folks eyes too.
The power of this vehicle, this crazy game that we’re in called multifamily. Now Gina mentioned that I was a pharmaceutical rep. I got into pharmaceuticals coming from a small town, thinking that I won the lotto. Okay. I never thought I’d make six figures a year. I’d never thought I’d heard of a company car. And then the regulations started coming down with Obamacare and it changed the, not only for the pharmaceutical reps, but also for the doctors at this same time, the, the leaders, you know, in the economy, the doctors that were always put up on this pedestal were getting wet and they were having to join these medical groups because the reimbursements were getting cut. So you had folks that were entrepreneurs had their own offices being basically absorbed into W2 positions. And I see this chaos happening all around me thinking what the hell I made it.
And now my world’s crumbling around me. And they’re telling me every year for a three year stretch, go sit by the phone and we’ll let you know if you have a job or not right at Christmas time. Come on. So the, the one outlier that, that really opened my eyes to this game was this doctor Nashi. He was the only doctor in that entire County that was not forced to join a medical group. I was calling on him and I was saying to him, I say, dr. Nashi, what’s going on here? All these other guys are worried about the reimbursements they’re joining these medical groups, what’s going on. What’s the difference. And this was the guy that was the most giving in society. He would volunteer the firefighters. He was always donating money. And the difference was he had invested in real estate early on.
Now we, we talk to you a little while ago and you’re talking about house hacking. This is a, this is a guy come out of medical school, his first house that he did, he house hacked it. And then he started buying assets year after year. And when everything came down and the reimbursement game change, he was the guy left standing with his own private practice, living life on his terms. You want to talk about me being in my twenties and something make an impression on me seeing everyone else get destroyed. And then Geno’s telling me $30,000 sounds like a good deal for these apartments. That’s where that fire was lit in my belly, because look at any moment I could have been, I could have been cut. And fortunately I was a high performer and they kept me on, but there was any time my job was at risk.
And so I’m so thankful and fortunate to be working with Gino, you know, just an A player, you know, performing in the multifamily space, driving the ship, being in control of our destiny versus someone else, you know, turn the keys over to some corporation and praying that, you know, it’ll work out or like these poor doctors that, you know, just got whacked in the medical group. So, you know, I think there’s these moments in life where, you know, you can really, if you really look hard, you can see what makes sense and where you don’t want to be. And that was enough for, you know, for myself and Gino to take it.
Randy: Oh, so awesome. There are so many great nuggets in there too. I love to like Gino the evaluation for Jake. And that’s one of the things I tell people all the time actions don’t lie, right? So when you’re evaluating, you see the results or the actions that’s telling you the truth about who that person is. Right? And so you look at Jake and he was a performer, always on top of it. and then even too you think about like, as you’re willing to make that move to go down there, you know, there’s sacrifice involved. You’re separating from your fiancé, you’re taking a one bedroom apartment. So you’re making a wise move to keep costs down and to put the work in, to begin to build this foundation. And that’s so critical.
Jake: And let me expand on that a little bit. I was getting crazy. So I’m living in this little one bedroom apartment. Didn’t have any Friends. I would go grind at work. Now, Go work out and look for apartment deals at night. And I was like, so like isolated in this little box. I would, I remember going to the grocery store Because I had nothing else to do. I would time myself to see how efficient I could get, get my groceries. And I was spending 45 to $48 a week. And then I was like, all right, gotta keep it. Yeah. Keep the finances. But that’s just because Look, my wife was up there. I didn’t know anyone.
You know, it was, it was tough. Look, I mean, things could have been a lot worse. I could have been homeless, yada yada, but I mean, you know, injecting yourself into a new area without your partner. You know, it was very challenging, but you know, fortunate sides with him who dares and it was well worth it. I would never trade it for the world. And I absolutely loved the opportunity that East Tennessee has given myself and my family and just, I feel like the most blessed, fortunate human being alive.
Gino: Randy, let me share a story with you real quick. I’m kind of worried about this. it has nothing to do with CrossFit, nothing to do with crypto, nothing multifamily. It really has to do with selecting a partner, right. I was shooting a video this morning for the youth Academy and it’s, you know, what can parents do and skills to learn?
So one of the biggest skills you can teach your children is to be on time because you’re actually respecting someone else’s time. And as my daughter’s writing on the board for me, right? She says, wow, dad, that means that you’re so right about that. She says, I should have known. And I said, what are you talking about Gabriela? She goes, you know, dad, I was working with this lady in the church and she said, you know, I went to her the first day I got to her place. I sat in the car for 15 minutes, 30 minutes, 45 minutes later, she finally calls me and says, you know what, I’m stuck at the airport. I can’t get back. So my daughter said, I should’ve known right then in there that that lady then respect my time. And it was, it was, it was dawning. So with the partnership, when you have that gut feeling, or you don’t have that feeling, follow that feeling, and it was a great illuminating moment for me.
So I said, Gabrielle, and not only is it for you to be on time, but it’s also for your partner to be on time. And if your partner can respect that, or you can respect that, that you can’t work with that person. And she said, you know what? A couple of telltale signs after that. So you get that feeling. You can do one of two things. You can challenge your partner and say, next time you’re late we’re out. Or you can say, you know what? I came to business with somebody. So you had the opportunity and you have the responsibility. Cause my daughter, what she could have done was that very first time, she was only 18 years old at the time she could have said, you know what? I’m going to take responsibility. I’m not going to work with this person anymore. She let it go on for a little while longer. So ultimately we’re responsible for our actions, but by seeing that, and my respect, that person’s time, it really means a lot.
Jake: No, I was just gonna say the interesting thing about that is with partnerships, each business transaction, each deal should be a separate entity because then every time there may be nuances, things may change. Every time It’s a new relationship. It’s a new marriage. And I think that’s just a quick tip everybody out there. You don’t need to lump everything into one big pot. Every time that you do another deal, or you do a different management company. Do you know what I have over 25 entities that we manage together, but each time there’s been a separate agreement, separate relationship created. And I think that’s definitely something for folks to follow.
Randy: And there’s, there’s great wisdom in that too, because then it keeps, it’s like, it keeps you on your toes. So to speak that everybody’s operating not on what was been, but what we are continuing to create. And it keeps it where everybody’s operating from the same page. You know, I love to what you said. It reminds me of a advice. I got a good Lord, probably 25 years ago from a pastor, pastor Charlie, when I was involved in the ministry. And he’s like, Randy, look, if you’ve got cancer, meaning problems, he said, you got to cut it out quickly. You don’t wait. And so just like as that, you know, a situation with your daughter, when you identify that you hope it gets better, that’s what most people do. Well, and then it just grows instead of having the courage or the gravitas to step up and say, look, Hey, this is how I expect this to operate.
This is what I see. And then now you see if that person responds and like Jake, what you said earlier about being willing to grow, you know, Hey, yeah, you know what? That was a mistake on my part. I’m not gonna, you know, and then now you see whether that’s going to work. And so I think it is, you know, partnerships is key. I mean, we definitely have a lot of partners that invest with us and, you know, having the right people is critical, right? And that’s, that’s so key. UYwant to make sure of that. And I think it’s something that you may have mentioned earlier is like that it’s not something that you undertake on your own. You know, I look at like the doctor that you referenced that it’s like, look, he started off and was willing to do something different in beginning to move down this road of real estate.
And, you know, undoubtedly, there was people that helped him because that’s what the nature of this business is. You don’t do it alone. And the net result of that is because he was willing to do that when the tide shifted, he was standing firm. And I see that a lot of times with people where, you know, they want to come into this marketplace, they want to start investing. But gosh, I’ve only only been in stocks or I’ve only been in bonds. And I, you know, I don’t know, and I’m not sure. And it’s like, you need to get the education. Sure. But at the same time, there’s gotta be an element of knowing, Hey, this is the outcome I want. And I’m willing to take those steps. And that’s a beautiful story about you guys, both of you willing to take the steps to get where you wanted to be. So that you’re here, where you are today, that doesn’t just happen by hoping or wishing or praying that maybe that comes about it’s being intentional. Like you guys have been
Gino: Well, Randy, that calls it comes to with clarity, right? I think our relationship really escalated and really skyrocketed while as I was going through life coaching. So I became a life coach certified professional coach, not because I wanted to coach others, but I want personal development. And what life coaching told, taught me was, you know, what is your why? And if you can figure out your why you can out how to do it, I ultimately wanted to have my own business and a lifestyle. I wanted to leave New York. How do I leave New York and the restaurant business multifamily, great idea. Buy the assets, moved down to Florida. And then from there I can work with my family. So my family is, is key. You know, I have six children, we homeschool our kids. So they’re vital to me. So working at the restaurant five days a week on the weekends, on Christmas, on new year’s on Easter, it becomes a drudgery after a while.
Jake: So everyone out there, I challenge you think about what you want, focus on what you’re looking for. Don’t focus on what you don’t want. I was always focusing on, I don’t want to be in the restaurant business. Well, that’s not what you, that’s what you’re going to get. What, what do you want to get? What are you focusing on? Ultimately, I figured it out through the clarity and through personal development that I just wanted to have a business where I could be anywhere that, that I, that I wanted to, and that I can grow it. I could scale it. I can be proud. And ultimately I can include my family into the business. That’s all, here’s, here’s the truth of it. The multifamily is not rocket science. We’re not going to sit here and try to paint it as this mysterious thing. I know we we’ve talked to Randy before about, you know, his days in the financial planning world and things and how they basically, you know, put things in Latin to mystify it and make people think it was over their head, right?
Here’s the deal. Multifamily is not rocket science. The reason Gino and I continue to win is because we are responsibility junkies. We know we show up every day, we take full accountability for our actions and we know why we’re doing it. You know, my, my biggest thing is I’m here to be a provider for my family, for my employees and all the residents that we take care of. And we’re very clear. You mentioned clarity. How do we do that for our residents? Our Beehag has to have an NPS score of 75 or greater. It’s not to buy all the apartments in the world is to deliver a damn good product day in and day out to make the lives of our employees, great. And I’m here to provide a life of abundance for myself and my family period. That’s it. And when you, when your responsibility junkie and you, you take things that serious to that level, things work out for you.
Gino: So Jake let’s tell everyone a Beehag is a Beehag is a big, hairy, audacious goal. You want to have, you also want, y’all want to set those big, scary goals. And an NPS is a net promoter score. We were using topgrading and net promoter scores really hold you accountable. And you know, you don’t only want to know when you’re doing something, right. You always learn when you’re doing something wrong. I mean, I remember on our second property, we land is Jake and I, and my partner, Mike, he’s got these nice Ferragamo shoes. We’re talking like $300 shoes. They’re nice loafers or walking around. And he steps in dog crap like, ah, great. And Jake was trying to keep the property clean. He’s got his shoes all dirty. That was a great learning lesson, dog stations. And that’s something that you have to know. You have to learn. You have to listen to your residents. You have to listen to your customers and shed the ego and try to grow from those experiences. And you will get better at this. It’s hard in the beginning, it’s hard to be responsible. It’s hard to continue to gain, take gut punches, but as you get more experienced and as you grow in life, it’s going to be easier. That level three problem of the mold mold is not even a problem anymore. The first couple it’s like the end of the world, someone passes away in the apartment
Or your, one of your units gets burned down. That’s a really stressful, difficult life altering decision, but after you’ve done it once or twice, then it becomes systematized a solution. It becomes another one of those is one of those.
Randy: I think it’s interesting too, for the listeners too. It’s like, you know, being willing to be honest about where you’re at evaluating, you know, are you getting the results that you really want and then being willing to make the changes in some of those changes can be uncomfortable, you know? And, and, but that’s part of what a journey is about is starting where you’re at taking the steps necessary to move forward. And again, I was just talking to an investor, I think two days ago. And that was the thing they’re, they’re looking at beginning that journey. They’re tired of paying so much taxes and they’ve heard, by a referral that, you know, Hey, multi-families got great tax benefits. So I want to learn about that. And that’s where it’s like, okay, if you’ve been doing it this way for 20, 30 years, it may be a little uncomfortable as you’ve got to take some steps, you’ve got to learn some new things you’ve got to, you know, as Jake, you said, it’s not rocket science, but you gotta still at least be able to understand the pieces. You know, and, and quite frankly, I know we talked about this before is in the, in that financial world. It is designed to be some mumbo jumbo where people just kind of blindly go, ah, okay. And say
Jake: The banks do it too. Like we, you know, we deal with Fannie Freddie, you know, sometimes CMBS, they try the same bullshit, you know, with the different terms and everything. And, and, and here’s the thing. I don’t mean that it’s not rocket science, that you shouldn’t get educated. You know, I’m very firm on the belief that to get in the game, to get that first deal done, that education times action will equal your results. Meaning that if you do educate yourself, you’ll learn some of the, the different lingo. You, you work hard, you put in the offers, you know how to underwrite, that will get you in the game from there though. It is a business and it comes down to people’s systems and culture. That’s, that’s, I’m very firm on that.
Randy: Sure. It is well in anything into, and I talk a lot of times in our show too, cause we’ve got doctors, attorneys, whatever, you know, different people, plumbers listening to us. And it’s like, this applies to every business. Even if you’re a doctor running a practice, it’s like you’re setting up systems, you’re setting up processes so that the employees or the team members are carrying that out. It’s just, I love what you said about a fire, right? It’s like, okay. I just told that to a team members here today about an insurance claim. We had a new team member that was added. We had a team meeting. I’m like, look, here’s part of the process that you need to incorporate into that process because undoubtedly there’ll be a claim again, in the future on something on one property or another. And you need to make sure you understand the process and that rule of thumb applies to everything.
And again, now that’s not sexy people don’t look at that and go, wow, that’s amazing. But it’s what generates the amazing results. When we look at you guys, you guys have had amazing results through your partnership, through the efforts you’ve put in, but it’s a result of that discipline, putting that efforts in. And so that’s where I think our folks can benefit from that. As they evaluate their own business, what processes are lacking, what do they need to do? What do they need to change? And what maybe is it that you need to bring in somebody? Right? Cause maybe that’s not their thing, but just like you two came together. That’s an ability to bring somebody in to be a help to you, to, you know, work in the area. Maybe that they’re not strongest,
Jake: You know, what’s sexy, Randy, you know, it’s so sexy and multifamily. What’s that keeping it boring, born with damn good systems and a well oiled machine. That is the sexiest thing in multi-family, I’m telling you do someone, I love keep it boring day in and day out, you know, do it, do what you’re supposed to do. Let’s get the returns is take care of folks. That to me is sexy. I don’t, I don’t like the, the, the highs and the lows and the lead ups. Let’s, let’s put the systems in place to manage the machines
Randy: For sure. It is it’s, you know, and that’s the thing, you know, creating wealth, managing wealth, it is not a sexy thing. It’s done in a disciplined way with mitigating risk, doing the, basically the same things day after day, my design, right. You’re doing the successful things day after day. I love it really for me, I get pumped up on it. I’m not a high end, low junkie guy. It’s like, I love the outcome. I love producing the result.
Jake: Yeah. That’s why the shiny object syndrome kills so many people that one day they’re at the Bitcoin the next day they’re over here fixing flippers.
Randy: Oh yeah, no, you nailed it. Like I’ve talked to investors that come in, they were over here in oil and it’s a high flyer and then they got their total ass kicked and lost money or, Oh, Hey, we’re over here. And I know Bob’s making money in this. And so I’m going to do that. And then yeah, it was good for a bit and then lost money or like the Bitcoin or cryptocurrency thing. And it’s like, that’s not the pathway to get where you want to go. It’s through a systematic approach, developing a process. That’s going to be carried out over time and then sticking with a working winning formula week after week, month after month, year after year,
Jake: Right vehicle. That’s a basic human need.
Randy: That’s right there. I mean, that’s where as it, I mean, people have to have a place to sleep at night. Right. And I know you guys just like us provide quality affordable housing for working Americans, right. And that’s, that’s the reality of like, people need a good quality place for their family and them to live at and that’s not going to go away.
Jake: You bring up something so cool because actually our the attorney from our title company came out to one of our events two weeks ago. And she’s like, can I bring my son? And he’s, he’s going to business school. And she said, there was so many teachable moments for him at the event. And she said she was pulling over at different stops. We’re going to visit in our properties. And she said she had so many teachable moments to him and explaining how the economy works. And Hey, there’s people that work at this factory that this
Is their home. And it’s important for these folks to keep up with that and make sure it’s a nice place to live. And that’s, you know, where a lot of their, their funds are going. And she said that he, you know, for his last year in business school, he got more out of that day at our money mixer then than the entire year. So that, that means a lot to us because when we were able to get folks in the community and influence them in a positive way like that and open their eyes at that, that was probably the most rewarding piece of that eventually.
Well, I love to what Gina, you said earlier too, about your, you know, your involvement in the kids. My daughter’s 16, she works in the company and then, you know, you’ve got your attorney with her son. It’s like the young people. It’s like, if they can get a hold of these principles at a young age, it’s like what a game changer, because this country where we’re at, you know, and I tell this to people all the time, it’s like the real estate that we work with. You know, you can’t build it for cost of construction. So there’s a limited supply of that type of product. You’ve got an ever growing demographic demand. And so, you know, just basic economics puts that to be a great area to be in because you’re serving a growing demand with a limited supply, it’s going to mean that what you have is valuable and you have the opportunity to benefit a quality or working class of America. That’s only getting bigger and bigger as the years goes ahead. And so I, you know, for, for my daughter, for your attorney son, for your kids, what a phenomenal place to start learning and you know, so how is it that you guys, what, additionally are you guys doing to try to spread that information? I know you’re doing it with your kids and is there an intention that happens also within the education part too?
Gino: I just had the epiphany about six months ago to create a youth Academy. Because a lot of the students who were with us, a lot of the members are like, you know what? This is great. Where can I learn how to teach my kids? And I don’t want to say my I’m a disciple of Dave Ramsey. I think Dave Ramsey is got some great information. I just think he stops. And when I hear cut up the credit cards were, we’re going to a cashless society, whether we like it or not, it’s happening. So we need to teach our young adults the difference between good debt and bad debt. The difference to you really utilize credit cards. I like a sinking fund. Why don’t we teach our children’s thinking fund? You want to, you know, you want to buy that chair right there. It’s going to cost you a hundred bucks.
I got 20 bucks, 20 bucks, five months, a hundred dollars in an envelope. Let’s save our money. Teaching our kids about delayed gratification, teaching our kids a difference about personal debt and business debt, teaching our kids on how to invest teaching our kids on what three types of investors, what they’re looking for, leverage liquidity control, whatever that may be. We need to teach our youth that we need to, you know, really, you know, you know, what’s the word really empower them because the schools aren’t doing it. And a lot of the parents don’t know where to start and need to get, get back to read Dave Ramsey. He has some great mantras, great models. Let’s set up an emergency fund. Let’s do some budgeting, let’s get three to six months saved. And you know, what, if he did that, you’re probably having not such a rough time during this pandemic.
Right? You can get through it, but most people don’t have that. They don’t have that star with, but that’s just the beginning. That’s just the beginning of the conversation. I want to start it there, but I bring it into personal development. Also, we have a lot of things with what parents can do skills to learn. You know, there’s so many different things that we need to teach our kids. I mean, you’re a 23 year old. How do you rent your first apartment? We teach kids how to do that. How do you, how sex, since I know Randy, you, you had mentioned the house act and the brr, right? How do you, how do you do that as a 25 year old? There’s a lot of information there, whether you’re going for a VA loan, FHA loan, a lot of different moving parts. So my goal and my mission is I always tell people, people, financial intelligence can change the world for the better that’s the bottom line.
So for more financially intelligent, it has nothing to do with race or class. It has to do with the financial intelligence. Those who have more financial intelligence are going to weather the storm and are going to empower those who have it are going to be more wealthy than those who don’t. And I ultimately say, you know, it’s not just about money. People think, Hey, it’s about money. Because if all you have, you know, we say Jake and Gino to people, some people are so poor. All they have is money. If you really think about that, that’s not what we’re only working for. Not only working for money, we’re working for wealth, we’re working for the ability to become stewards of our money. We’re, we’re, we’re the ability to control it, the ability to donate it to the ability to make an impact with it. So that’s ultimately as an entrepreneur and, you know, people who are hurt, who are poor mentally, I’m not talking about like the money wise, but poor, mentally, all they focus on is money.
Jake and I were beyond that. I mean, I wake up in the morning. I’m not thinking to myself, Hey, when’s my next cashflow check coming in. I’m thinking about what’s the next video I’m going to create to add value to people. And what’s the next, it’s like clockwork coming in the first, every month. And that’s what it is, but we’ve built up to that, right? So it’s ironic that, you know, when you’re poor, all you focus on is money. And when you become wealthy, you become financially free. That’s not your first or second thought. That’s maybe a third or fourth thought because you know, the more value you give to people and the more you give of yourself, you’re going to get that much more back.
Jake: Yeah. I want, I want to piggyback on that because the education piece is very interesting. We’re a vertically integrated group. We have property management in house, asset management. We have a mortgage company. We have a charitable arm rant cares, but the interesting thing about the, the education piece to it, we just love how everything works together was that we thought we were going to, you know, put out these, these products. We have, you know, an LMS system where people can go on and learn. And we have weekly classes that we teach. But our folks actually, it’s something that the live events that, that make the biggest impact. You know, we’ll bring folks together, whether it’s a weekend bootcamp or we have money mixers and they create partnerships and they come together. And the last two years, I think our folks have closed over 7,000 doors working together. And so it’s that kind of stuff that I just, you know, because it was, it was new back. You know, when we started this thing, I thought it was just, Hey, we’ll teach people to go and do it, but no it’s multifamily is a team sport. And when folks come together and one person may be strong in the underwriting and one person finds deals or one person, you know, maybe you have a good network to raise money. That’s when the magic really happens. And that’s one of the things that we love about the community,
Randy: For sure. It’s a, well, I think it is no doubt. It is. When you’re working in this space of real estate, it is a team sport. You’ve got to have the right people around you. You’ve got to be willing to admit where you need help at. You know, I mean, I have mentors in my life that I rely on in continue as I grow, you know, people that I connect together with people that have grown 25,000 unit portfolios and, you know, a Tony Robbins, other personal mentors as well, that it’s like, you know, that’s part of our life journey is to keep growing and, you know, no matter what stage you’re at, I remember a friend of mine ran one of John Maxwell’s company and had the blessing of being a part of his group and meeting him. And he said something so profound.
If you just set this goal about making money X dollars, you get there and that’s it. But if your goal is to become better every day, you can continue to pursue that goal. till you’re 80, 90 years old, his dad just passed away at like 98 years old or 93, maybe I think, and you know, that’s the truth. It’s like, you can grow and become better, become a better operator, a better father, a better husband, you know, that metric delivering more value. Like you said, Gino, it’s like, it’s there and you can start that at any place. Right. So you don’t have to get that’s what’s so it’s so odd. Like what you said is so true. It’s like when people are moving to accumulate money, a lot of times their focus is just on the money, but as you accumulate wealth, it’s really not.
It’s about delivering value. And it’s like, the truth is the sooner you focus on delivering value, the sooner that comes back to you and it’s like, that’s a biblical principle give, and it shall be given to you. I know a lot of people heard that in Sunday school and they’re like, ah, screw that. Right. You gotta see it first. Right? It’s like, you know, you heard it in Sunday school and you’re like, eh, doesn’t work, whatever, you know, but it’s just real, the more you give and deliver value to help people like you guys have done, the more comes back to you. I mean, that’s just the truth that I’ve seen that time and time again in our businesses and all the people we’ve helped as well.
Jake: Let me come this beacon for likeminded investors too. That’s the thing that’s really struck me is that like some of the people come together and it’s just, it’s all kind of love Fest, but yeah.
Randy: Oh man, it was phenomenal. I think of a doctor we’ve got that invest with us. His plan, the, the, the, the, the financial planner plan was spend your money die by 90, and you’re good. Right? And so he’s like, Oh my God. You know, and he had a decent amount of money, but not enough. Right. And then, so then by switching over into the real estate and the returns and the tax saving, it’s him and his wife free, and now they’re able to support like a boy scout camp down the road that they’re financially supporting to keep it open. They also support a orphanage like in Chile and they go down there and they have these resources now because of the changes they’ve made to make a greater impact. And they’re also able to then have a legacy financially for their kids versus the, you know, the ag Edwards or, you know, fidelity broker that says, Hey, just spend down. And hopefully you die. You know, average life expectancy is 87. You got enough to live through your 90. If you live past 90, you’re screwed. Right. It’s like, you know, that was not a good plan. And so that motivated them to make a change. And then what we do is now rippling effect to affect the boy Scouts in the orphanage, in their church where they’re tithing and giving. I mean, it’s just, I mean like what you guys are doing, how much more ripple effect does that have?
Gino: Well, Randy, the problem with the ag Edwards is model is it’s a scarcity mindset, really? You just shaving for a rainy day. Whereas I think the entrepreneur or the abundance mindset really sets it apart where you’re accumulating assets and you let those assets pay for your lifestyle. And, you know, maybe five to 10% of the people can think like that, but we can all think like that. We’re just tuned in to the middle class mentality. That’s what I was. I have six kids. How am I going to pay for six kids college education, well start six buckets and start saving for that. You don’t save for an event. You buy an asset to save for an event. And you know, I’m going to give everyone an out there, a tip about goal setting. I’ve set a lot of goals. I’ve hit a lot of goals.
I think when we look at a goal, just look at a goal and look in the sky and think of it as a result, you want to buy your first deal. That’s the result. Don’t worry about the results so much as worry about the person you need to grow into to get that result. There’s the key, cause you’re gonna have to put on a lot of muscles and you’re gonna have to fall in love with that system to do that, or the process. And the process is not rocket science, like Jake likes to say, but it’s underwriting 80 deals. It’s doing property tours. It’s networking with brokers. If you fall in love with that, you’re going to blow through that first goal and go to the 30th goal. And as you continue to stack on goals, you continue to become a better person, a smarter person.
You continue to grow. So always think about that growth mindset. And don’t worry so much about the goal because you will hit it because your results are lagging indicator of success, because it takes you a lot longer to figure out how to hit that goal. But then the amazing thing is the snowball effect. Once you hit that and you’ve done it three or four or five years, all of a sudden the snowball starts to really accumulate. And then you just got to continue setting more goals and continue to grow into that person that you want to grow into.
Randy: I love what you just said about the lag indicator. I was just telling one of our team members about that. It’s like focus on the lead indicator. The thing you can control, focus on the daily, you know, contribution of what you’re able to do. You know, his was in the acquisition stuff, but it’s like, and I was telling him, it’s like, look, if I define my success on, Oh, we got this deal. It’s like, I’m not, I have a lot of unsuccessful days. Right, right. It’s like, I can define my success by, you know, how I’m empowering my team members and ask them, what do you see me doing on like Mondays and Tuesdays? He’s like, well, it looks like most of your days are meetings and empowerment for different team members. I’m like exactly right. I’m meeting with people, you know, holding accountability is empowering people. And then I can define it. My daughter, when I come home, she’s like, did you have a good day? I’m like, praise the Lord. I had a great day because I did this, this and this and this. And so I think that’s something that people, such a valuable point focus on what you can control, putting those work efforts and putting those lead indicators in. And you’re going to hit there. Well, so for the folks that are listening, what’s the best way for you guys to, for them to get in touch with you, to contact you, connect together with you. Okay.
Jake: Easiest way, go to jakeandgino.com/honeybee. That’s the book you see right behind me. We got some free resources. One of the ways that we got into our first deal was something called a credibility kit. And we’re actually going to give away for any of you. There’s a free copy of the credit credibility. And it’s basically your business plan. And, you know, allows you to showcase that to brokers, investors, whatever you may have on what you’re doing. And it was probably the biggest thing that took us from that 18 months of not getting any deals to, you know, allowing us the door to open and getting into game. And, you know, Gino had some other great resources there. You can check out our podcast, apply to work with our team at jakeandgino.com/honeybee.
Randy: Awesome. Awesome. What would you say closing remarks to our folks? Just a word of wisdom. Word of encouragement.
Gino: Oh, real quick, Randy, on, let me hit this first. Jake, 2008 was my pandemic. 38 years old, five kids. Dad had just passed away. I worked with my dad for over 20 years and I loved what I did, but I ultimately said to my building his dream or a building my dream, and it felt like I was building his dream. I doing it for 20 years. So I use that problem as a massive opportunity for myself to look within and say, what do I want? You know, where’s the clarity of my life. And that’s where we are right now for a lot of people in 2020 is a scary time. It’s a time where there might not be hope for people out there. Just look within, look at this as, as the problem, where’s the opportunity be able to reevaluate your life. What skills do you want to learn?
We can learn anything nowadays. We can stay home. We can do this online learning. We can really empower ourselves. So start asking yourself, are you building your own dream? And if you’re not building your own dream, what does it take to build your own dream? The second question you should ask yourself, where do you see yourself in three years? If you’re gonna be professionally and financially, you know, successful for me within three years, if I can give away a thousand scholarships to the Jacobs, you know, youth Academy, that’s a successful, that’s a successful three years, right? The second thing for me within three years, no number of units, just to continue to run a great portfolio and continue to have a great staff and also to just continue to love what I do. Maybe, you know, the 2 million downloads on the podcast would be great within the next three years, hopefully more, but really reevaluate your life and see what you need to do within the next to get there within the next three years and deconstruct it and reverse engineer and see what it looks like today. But don’t lose hope because this pandemic will pass just like 2008 did a lot of great stuff, came at it from me. And I’m sure if you reevaluate your life and think about what you want to accomplish the next years, it’s all achievable.
Randy: Awesome. Jake words of wisdom, closing inspiration,
Jake: The vehicle versus the passion that so many of us got caught up in. You know, if you follow your passion, you’ll never work a day in your life. You blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. Right. And I think the problem with that is I tried that I was, you know, grew up in a small town, played sports that that was gonna become a gym teacher. It was miserable, you know, from there I went on, I started to, you know, do personal training. Cause I’m like, I love being in the gym. People whined, Oh, Jake, you’re pushing me too hard, blah, blah, blah. I still felt like a babysitter that didn’t work for me personally. It may work for you. But I think if you pick the right vehicle in life, you execute it, you get damn good at it. It allows you to create a life of abundance for yourself and your family. And that’s when things start to get interesting. And that’s when things start to get fun. So Hey, multifamily might not be the right vehicle for you. We love it because there’s, you know, vertical integration there’s businesses within the businesses, stacked on stack on stack. Look, it’s a great spot from a tax perspective, we love multifamily. It’s the right vehicle for us. And we execute very well at it. That’s why we love it. And it basically provides for ourselves, our families, our residents, and our employees. So
Randy: Love it. Love it, guys. Thank you so much for coming on. I know it’s been a big blessing for our listeners here today and look forward to having you guys back on again in the future. Thank you so much. And just really appreciate you guys and thank you to our listeners here today.
Gino: Well, thanks Randy. Take care, everyone.
