I’m excited to have my buddy Niel Kluszczynski here with me today! He’s an Investor Fuel Member and today, we are going to talk about his story which will resonate with a lot of us. A lot of people identify with a feeling that we need to follow this traditional route of getting a job and all that, while we have a real passion for real estate that’s pulling us in as well.

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    [00:00:00] Mike: [00:00:00] Hey, everybody. Welcome back to the show. Excited to have my buddy Neil here with me and investor fuel member. And we’re going to be talking about really his story. I think a lot of people will identify I with, of, you know, feeling that we have to follow this traditional route of getting a job and all that, and having some passion for real estate, that’s kind of pulling us in.

    So I think it’ll resonate with a lot of you.

    Professional real estate investors know that it’s not really about the real estate. That real estate is just a vehicle to freedom. A group of over a hundred of a nation’s leading real estate investors from across the country meets several times a year at the investor fuel mastermind. Share ideas on how to strengthen each other’s businesses, but also to come together as friends and build or

    Neil: [00:00:50] fulfilling lives

    Mike: [00:00:51] for all of those around us on today’s show, we’re going to continue our conversation of fueling our business.

    This is our lives. I’m glad [00:01:00] you’re here.

    Hey Neil. Welcome to the show.

    Neil: [00:01:10] Hey, Mike, thanks for having me.

    Mike: [00:01:12] Navion good to have you on. Yeah. Good to have you on here. And honestly, when we were talking a little bit, a few minutes ago ahead of time, I think a lot of people, your story will resonate with a lot of people is, um, I think there’s a lot of people that are real estate.

    They grew up without a lot of money without a lot of resources and they wanted a better lives for themselves. And they saw real estate as a vehicle to kind of pull them out of their current situation or their past. And I think, you know, A lot of us feel that way. A lot of my story is different than yours, but has similar undertones.

    Right. And I think a lot of folks do so excited to get to know you better today and learn for, you know, I think we’re gonna be telling your story, but hopefully along the way here for folks that are listening, um, there’ll be some kind of tips and advice in here on how to, how to keep moving forward in the face of adversity that we all face when we’re trying to build our own business.

    Cause this [00:02:00] is. This is not the path of least resistance usually. Right, right.

    Neil: [00:02:04] A hundred percent.

    Mike: [00:02:06] Tell us a little about your background. I know you, you had some passionate early age, but kind of tell us a high level Sherman started in real estate.

    Neil: [00:02:12] Yeah. So from an early age, everyone remembers those homes in lifestyle magazines that you see on the supermarket shelves.

    So I would, I think I was like 12 or 13 would just grab one every time I went to the store and just get, I was just in awe, like just. Why is that that much? Why, why does that cost that much? Or why? Like the differences in the home and just how they looked and, uh, just got fascinated with it. Just I knew, and I even told all my friends from a really early age, like I’m going to be a real estate investor.

    Obviously you get, that gets laughed off. You know, when you’re. 18, but, um, you know, and then we kind of lost, lost touch life gets in the way, went to college and, and got, went into the corporate world at Coca-Cola and then kind of lost touch with real estate a little bit, just [00:03:00] trying to, uh, you know, just trying to live life.

    Right. And then, yeah. Um, you know, 2005 game. And, and I was like, alright, I, I really wanna like this. I’ve gotta do something like now I figured out like the kind of person I wanted to be. And, and you’ve, you’ve managed to not make mistakes in those early years. And you’re like, Hey, let’s, let’s give this a go.

    So got my real estate license and, um, with the concentration of trying to buy foreclosures, and then I started buying a few properties and. Um, now we’re doing about 20 deals a year, um, and looking to scale.

    Mike: [00:03:37] Yeah. Yeah. That’s awesome. That’s awesome. So, so what, we’re going to dig into this a little bit. So let’s talk about kind of the early years like you had, and I was the same way, but I can’t quite pinpoint what it was.

    So when I grew up, I didn’t have anybody in my family that was. I don’t, I don’t recall knowing of anyone that was an entrepreneur that had their own business and everybody where I worked grew up in a very blue collar area. So everybody worked in [00:04:00] factories or school teachers or nurses or whatever, but not, I don’t really remember.

    Um, there was one guy that was a friend of the family, kind of a distant friend that I knew, um, was in real estate. And in hindsight now I know he had rentals and probably did some owner finance stuff. Um, but I didn’t know a lot about it, but I was interested in. Like flipping houses, but I don’t know why that, where that came from.

    And probably even back then, I’m going to totally date myself. But that was like way before flip this house and like all the cable. I mean, there was like this whole, which is going to make me sound super old, but, um, my dad was pretty handy and he like added up, you know, finished like our basement and did stuff like that.

    When I was in high school, I worked at Menards, which as you probably know, Menards is, it’s like the Midwest, uh, Oh, it’s like the stepchild of home Depot. Right. But, um, so I was around some stuff, but not necessarily real estate investors, but just kind of building and construction and some of that I didn’t.

    And, [00:05:00] uh, I don’t know why. I just, I’d always been kind of, I’ve always been different. I’ve always been kind of entrepreneurial had that spirit there. And so. Uh, it just took a while for it to kind of come out. So w what do you think, I mean, you said, you know, you had some early interest in real estate, but where did that come from?

    Do you think?

    Neil: [00:05:17] Yeah, so I have an uncle who was, he was into real estate out in Palm Springs and he was successful. So that, that piece kind of played it, but I was so detached from that. I didn’t know any of the details at all. Right. I just knew that. But he was, semi-successful doing that out there. Um, and then Carlton sheets, I’m sure everyone knows he has a late night infomercials, um, by the pool polo.

    Um, you know, it was a course. I had a blue, a blue binder. Uh, so between that the homes and lifestyles and my uncle, I think that kind of shaped me. And then also. Yeah. You know, you tend to find out sometimes it was like in [00:06:00] the, in the world that you’re in like, Hey, is this going to continue to happen? Or am I going to try to control some of this?

    So, um, I learned a lot early about what I didn’t want, you know, that was going on. And then that kind of, um, Projected me into a path that I was like, Hey, I have to change this. Or it’s always going to be like this.

    Mike: [00:06:19] Yeah. Yeah. I know my, my, again, most of my family were blue collar workers and I saw my mom working two or three jobs.

    My dad worked in a factory. It was dirty all the time. I just, I just. I think you’re right. I think a lot of us, sometimes we don’t know what we want, but we learn more about what we don’t want at a, at an early age. Right. A hundred percent. So, yeah. And then, um, so, so then you kind of follow the traditional route.

    So you, when did you, when did you do your first deal? I mean, you started to do some stuff relatively early on, right. But it was more hobby.

    Neil: [00:06:47] Yeah. Oh yeah. So I think I bought. I think I bought early 2006 ish, 2007. I bought a few places and like any old [00:07:00] school, hard knocks or education lessons. I mean, they didn’t, they didn’t really go very well.

    Right, right. So, um, you know, you listen to other people and instead of taking ownership of, of. You know, and stack and what you, what you need to do, like do your own research kind of thing. So, um, but you really have no one to blame at the end, but yourself. So I, I had a couple places and I own them for a few years, lost money every year and then sold them for a loss, you know?

    Um, but I think that’s, that’s pretty typical every time and failing forward, you know, just not getting too hung up on those, just kind of learning from them and making sure that you eliminate the mistakes on the next go round.

    Mike: [00:07:40] Yeah. Yeah. I think it’s like anything it’s like a, almost like a sport, right?

    You, you can’t help, but be bad or fail. Um, initially, and the problem for real estate is a failure could be devastating. It could be expensive. Right. And so I think, um, and did you have like a coach or a mentor or anything, or did you just kind of. [00:08:00] Self-taught or thought you knew what you were doing or what did you,

    Neil: [00:08:01] I think my path fashion to really want to change and get into real estate.

    Might’ve been a little bit of a hindrance. I maybe didn’t do all my due diligence. Um, I think the important part was like, not take that failure and just quit. No doubt the law, a lot of people, I mean that, that’s certainly an option and I’m sure I weighed at several times.

    Mike: [00:08:23] Yeah. I’ve said that forever.

    Like most people, so first off, most people fail before they ever do one deal because they’re like, Oh, this is harder than I thought. And they just like quit. Um, and then some people do one deal and they get sold. Like they’ll either. They don’t really know what they’re doing and they overpay and they, you know, they basically all along the way, they’re like, well, the rehab, this is, you know, they get estimates and like, Oh, I probably want it to fix that.

    I want to fix that. You start to make all these shortcuts because you have this passion that want to do it, but it’s, it ends up being a series of bad decisions from lack of experience that caused you to lose money. And then you’re right. There’s a lot of people that we kind of refer to them as one and [00:09:00] done, right.

    They do one and then they’re like, or, or they do one and they. They may not lose money, like immediately, cause they can’t afford to lose money. So they turn it into a rental and they just rent it for 10 years to kind of ride it out and then eventually sell it off and be like, okay, you know, in their mind they’re like, okay, I broke even, or I made a little bit of money, but it’s like, yeah, your opportunity costs of.

    Sitting on that for years and years and all the headaches and managing it yourself and doing the maintenance yourself to dig out like that costs you a lot of money, right?

    Neil: [00:09:29] Yeah. And, and I didn’t, I didn’t put a value on my time for so long and that it’s like, Oh, you’re doing this for your future. Um, it’s all, it’s no big deal.

    And then like, but if you look back, it’s like, Oh man. Yeah. I’ve painted several, a lot of random. Yeah. Plenty of hardware stores, you know? Um, but I think that’s part of the game. When you first start, you just gotta figure out, um, the process and then figure out what you’re good at and not good at. And then try to delegate the stuff that you’re.

    They either don’t like to [00:10:00] do it or you’re not good at, so when

    Mike: [00:10:01] that was, when that happened, when, when you were going through that, that’s you had a job as well, right? Yeah,

    Neil: [00:10:06] I did. Yeah.

    Mike: [00:10:07] Yeah.

    Neil: [00:10:08] Yeah. I mean, it was an assorted level job there. What, I mean, the flexibility was great and that, that was kind of what kept me there.

    Um, I was off work at two 30 and then I had, I had free rein. Right. So, yeah, but it didn’t pay well, so it’s not like I could really accelerate the process that was going on.

    Mike: [00:10:26] Right. And that’s kind kinda what happens right. Is you’re in a corporate job and you realize you kind of see the light. Yeah. Well, if I put, if I had more time to focus on this stuff, I could make more money.

    And, uh, was there a time where you did a deal and you made pretty good money? And you’re like, wow, this is like way more than then what I would make in my job. If I, if I could do one of those a month or something like that. Right? Yeah. Right. Yeah. So then there’s like, that’s like blood in the water, right.

    You’re like, okay, like I see how this works or how this can work. And if I didn’t have this chain around my ankle, that’s a job, then I could, I [00:11:00] could ramp up. Right.

    Neil: [00:11:01] Yeah. You know, the light bulb turns on and you’re like, wait a minute. You’re like, and then you’re like, Oh, I’d have to work hours to make that.

    And you’re like, Oh, I could just duplicate this. You know? So when, when, when I started, I was doing like maybe one or two a year, and then you’re figuring out how to, how to take your money and kind of snowball it. I didn’t know anything about private money back then, you know, I was just trying, I bought low dollar stuff in the best neighborhood I could and then put some money into it and sold it and, you know, growing up in, in the manner that I did, yeah.

    I was super frugal and I was like, I’m saving everything. So I, uh, yeah, that’s kinda how it started. You know, you do a couple and you’re like, man, I see the light. Let’s keep going. Let’s keep going.

    Mike: [00:11:45] Yeah. So when did you, so when did you, you kind of in your let’s of call it your teenage years, right? You’re you’re like trying to try and do both, and then you see the light and jump in.

    So what, what was, what made you decide to jump in full time, kind of quit your [00:12:00] job and go off. And at that point

    Neil: [00:12:02] it was a mixture of thing. So I had set a goal, um, where, Hey, if I make as much money doing real estate, as I, as I did in the corporate world, I would go. And then that came and went and I, I still couldn’t leave because you just you’re.

    So I don’t know if conditions is the right word to like, have the safety and security net. Which is the corporate world, which is fantastic. It’s a fantastic route for them. A lot of people, I just, it never is. It never fit my personality. You know, I I’m okay with being or results driven. You know, I get compensated from the results that I put out and I’m okay.

    Taking the losses that come along with that. Um, and then I took a supervisor role and then I was in charge of Touche shifts of people. So I would get calls at five in the morning. I would get calls at. 10 o’clock at night. And I remember [00:13:00] it was a Saturday night and I was, I had just finished dinner with my, uh, my wife now.

    And, uh, I get a call from someone and they’re like, Hey, blah, blah, blah. And it was like 1230 at night. And, and I was like, I don’t like, this is not like conducive to the life that I want to live. Right. You know, so the next morning, uh, I called my supervisor and I said, Hey, I want to come down to Fort Wayne and talk to you this week.

    And that’s kind kinda how it started. I

    Mike: [00:13:29] was the, that was

    Neil: [00:13:30] the beginning of the end. That was the straw that broke the back. But after midnight call.

    Mike: [00:13:34] Yeah. Yeah. Awesome. And then, and then you kind of, um, and I know your business is humming along now and then you’re, you’re on a path to, I think where you’re at now is this it’s just like life, right.

    It kind of saved your teenage years and coming to this, as you get older, you get more mature. Right. And you just realize what you’re willing to accept what you’re not trying to do things better. You just, you know, through trial and error, you just get more mature. Right. So, um, you’re at a stage now where you [00:14:00] realize that you’re, um, you’re probably the bottleneck on your growth, right.

    As you’re kind of in your own way. A

    Neil: [00:14:06] little bit. Exactly. Exactly. I was so used to doing everything myself for so long. That you know, now my wife works at so that’s its own dynamic. Right. But, um, but being able to trust other people, it is at first hard for guys like us, you know, cause we want it done.

    Right. We want to make sure that it’s. That that it’s got, because we can do it better than everybody else so that, you know, we, that, that stigma’s there. So, um, it’s been interesting. Yeah. We’re in a transition phase from a lot of different ways, you know, we’re transitioning from fix and flips to buy and holds.

    Now we’re transitioning to, to now growing a team. I mean, there’s a lot of. Oh, yeah, I’m absolutely the bottleneck. And there’s just a lot of growing pains. Right. You know, we’re doing direct mail for the first time. So we just have a, like a huge learning curve all at the same time while we’re raising a little guy, you know, [00:15:00] so a lot going on there, but you know, I’m happier now than I.

    That I have been. Um, cause when you’re, when your growth is stagnant for a couple of years and you’re working as hard as you can and you realize that no matter how hard you work, opportunities can come, but you just can’t capture them because you just, you can’t work in it. Yeah.

    Mike: [00:15:24] Yeah. Do you think, I know your son is pretty young.

    Do you think a lot of people, or do you think for you that was a little bit of a wake up call to say like. You know, I see people around me or there’s conceptually in real estate. There are people that have a lot more freedom in their life, a lot more flexibility. And you even know like the truth is, is you have, you’re kind of on call when you’re doing a lot of stuff yourself, you’re on call.

    But for the most part, you’re like, Hey, I could be here at three o’clock. Yeah. I can go have a lunch. Like you can, you’re controlling your schedule, but you’re still like, if your phone rings, you’re kind of on call. Right. But you start to, I think when you have kids or they start to get older or you start to [00:16:00] realize like, How do I get more flexibility?

    Like how do I, um, have the flexibility to go do what I want when I want, but not be on call as much because somebody else can handle that for me later, you think that was a little bit of, um, of the evolution was having a kind of realizing that maybe you have a little less control than you thought you did or.

    Neil: [00:16:19] I do yeah. A hundred percent. So I, you know, going into having a kid, like you don’t know what to expect. I mean, everybody tells you, Hey, where would this be? You know, this is going to happen. It happened, but everybody’s experience is different. Right. So I thought I would, um, Lose a little bit of my ambition and what would my identity be really, you know, afterwards, but the truth is like, there’s time for it all.

    You just have to be, you have to value your time a little bit more. Like, I, I, I really value my time with my family. You know, so there’s very few things that, that can pull me away from the hours of five. And when he goes to bed, you know, and [00:17:00] passive income is, is, you know, everybody starts real estate like, Oh, I

    Mike: [00:17:03] want to sit on the

    Neil: [00:17:03] couch and make it right.

    We all know that’s not the path it passive, isn’t it pass it. Right. But, uh, but yeah. Uh, so we’ve, we’ve, we’ve started going, going that route. And the idea is to. Work when we want to work and leave when we want to leave and, and, uh, be able to do things for him that we, he didn’t necessarily like, I didn’t necessarily get through to accomplish when I was

    Mike: [00:17:29] younger.

    Yeah. And the things you could never do if you were in corporate America, right? It just wouldn’t be even an option.

    Neil: [00:17:37] Yeah, no, no chance. No chance. Just, just having like, um, you know, being able to take a day off when you want and not having to request it and get, Oh, we can’t do it that day. Right.

    Mike: [00:17:49] Two weeks paid vacation.

    And you’re like, well, what if I want to go, you know, What if I want more than that,

    Neil: [00:17:56] it’s going to be nice on Thursday. I want to take the day off. [00:18:00] Yeah, yeah, yeah. That’s right.

    Mike: [00:18:02] Absolutely. Absolutely. So you’re on, you’re on a good path to kind of scale that up. So you, let me ask you kind of a, a question. Um, you have a young son, my side is told you my son just turned 13.

    I pointed like this, cause he’s at homeschool. I mean, he’s supposed to be in school, but they haven’t started yet. And so he’s in my office here today. My wife works at me and she’s like, I got, she hasn’t been the office all week. She’s like, I got to go, I’ve got to go today to do some things. And so he’s, uh, his homeschool location is our office today, which probably common for a lot of people.

    But, um, what are some things like you, you grew up in a, in a certain way. I grew up in a certain way. I grew up in a, a very blue collar family, which I think I got really a strong work ethic from, because everybody worked really hard

    Neil: [00:18:47] to make

    Mike: [00:18:47] ends meet. And I worked really hard even though like, they, I feel like my family, they really had to work hard.

    I don’t have to, but it’s just this drive in me that I don’t know how not to now. And, uh, I grew up in the Midwest, like, so I’d probably some [00:19:00] Midwestern kind of values there of just rolling up our sleeves and working hard too. But, um, you know, w what are some lessons you’ve learned that you think will be different for your family, for your kids?

    Neil: [00:19:09] Right. Yeah. So

    Mike: [00:19:11] how do you break that cycle?

    Neil: [00:19:12] Yeah. Right. Um, you know, that’s obviously something that, that I’m going to continue to add the navigate through for the next 18 years.

    Mike: [00:19:22] Right. You’re just getting started.

    Neil: [00:19:24] Yeah. I think some of the things that I’ve I’ve thought through are, you know, my house growing up had just a lot of tension.

    You know, so there was a lot of stuff that I had to unlearn, you know, so I want to make sure that I kind of shield him from as much of that as possible. Um, but, uh, you know, we all my friends and I w you know, we talk about how do you, it, I feel that work ethic and that drive in someone that doesn’t necessarily have to go out and, you know, kill what they eat.

    Yup. You know? [00:20:00] Um, so I, you know, you, you have a lot more experience in that realm than I knew, so, Hey,

    what

    Mike: [00:20:05] do you got on that apparent wise? Yeah, I struggle with that. I’ll be honest with you. And I’ve talked to a lot of friends about this is when I grew up, you know, we, we all want to live better lives, right.

    And so what happens when you get there and your kids don’t see that struggle? And, uh, I’ll talk to, you know, everybody that’s watching this right now. I mean, if you go share this on my Facebook wall or post or somewhere, cause I’d love to get feedback. Cause my son’s 13, but we’re still trying to figure it out.

    It’s like, I’ll say this. When I grew up, like my dad mowed, the lawn probably was changing oil and the cars, like we were cleaning our own house. Like. I don’t do much of that. I mean, we have somebody that takes care of our lawn. We, uh, we don’t, we have somebody that cleans our house every week. You know, there’s just things that we do that we, from my perspective, we earned that, like, I worked hard to have somebody and I value my time.

    Right. So I’m like, well, if I could pay somebody out [00:21:00] 120 bucks to clean my house or whatever, like that would take me all day long and I have no interest in that. And why would I do it from it’s buying my time back, but we’ve been talking about this whole show, but what my. Well, when I was growing up because my parents did all of our chores.

    Like I did chores too. I had chores to help out. Right. And now we outsource that. So my son doesn’t see those efforts. Right. And so how do you instill that work ethic in somebody that thinks you’re are just hanging out on your computer all day long or running around telling, pointing your finger, telling people what to do, but it didn’t start that way.

    And for you and your son and even my son, like he, he does, he didn’t see the early struggles. Right? To get to where you are today. So how do you instill that? I don’t know the answer. I don’t know the answer

    Neil: [00:21:44] I was waiting.

    Mike: [00:21:45] No, I don’t know the answer. Like I don’t have, it’s not like a. I don’t have it figured out, but I think, um, it’s a real issue.

    I think for parents that are entrepreneurs, you know, and the thing is, is I’m still in the struggle. It’s just different. Now it’s [00:22:00] trying to elevate to help more people impact more people. It’s not survival mode. Right. But there was a period when that existed, he just didn’t see that part. Right. And so, um, you know, I don’t know the answer, my friend, I wish, I wish I knew it, but let’s, let’s all he, you and me and everybody listening.

    Neil: [00:22:15] Yeah. If anyone wants to see the show heads tips, I mean, Hey. Where Mike and I can both use some,

    Mike: [00:22:21] keep learning. Yeah. Because the truth is, is it’s, you know, parenting isn’t hard and we only have one, we only have one kid and it’s, we’re still trying to figure it out after 13 years. So, uh, but you know, I hope that, um, there’s a lot of, you know, I guess on one hand, hopefully what is instilled in him too?

    Is he doesn’t. Have to go. There’s a lot of ways to make money. I mean, when I grew up, I thought you just have to go. I thought it was all physical. Like you have to go work hard, you gotta roll up your sleeves and work hard. And I’ve done that before. Right. But, um, there’s when you become an entrepreneur and you see that, um, there’s a way to buy back your time and make money and help a lot of people in the process.

    Right. [00:23:00] Um, but there’s another, there’s a lot of ways to make money and hopefully he’s learned enough and will have learned enough to know that. There’s a path. That’s not the traditional path, unless you want that traditional path. Right. But, um, I don’t know who would want that traditional path. I mean, I shouldn’t say that I there’s a there’s that everybody wants to take the risks and work whenever they need to, to get rolling.

    So everybody’s different, I

    Neil: [00:23:22] guess. Yeah. Finding something that you love to do that makes money is sort of like, like the unicorn, right? Like nobody believes it’s out there. Right? So if, if, if I can instill in him that whatever he enjoys to just go. Yeah, that’ll be,

    Mike: [00:23:41] I’ll say this I, this, this is one of the big differences.

    Whether my son gets into real estate, like who knows? I can’t imagine he won’t be involved in real estate on some level, but anything you can build up, it’s an asset. It could be a rental or a business that has recurring revenue. Like whatever it is. I think when you’re an employee, you don’t have that recurring revenue.

    Like [00:24:00] you go out and work and you get paid. And if you don’t go work again, you don’t get paid again. Right. And so when you’re building a business and if you do it right, even if, you know, if he’s interested in. Something with video games, which is clearly an interest of his right now. Like my guidance to him would be, find a way, way to generate recurring revenue from that.

    Right. Because I think that is we’ve chosen real estate as our path. Right. But I think that for a lot of people, there’s a lot of ways to make money that are not real estate, obviously. But do it in a way to where there’s recurring revenue coming in, because that allows you to work hard once and get paid on it forever for a long period of time.

    Right. And so I think that’s the difference of the kind of entrepreneurial mindset. How do I do something once and get paid over and over again? Then go do something once, get paid and have to go do it again to get paid again. That’s the cycle that I think we probably mostly want to break for our families, right.

    Neil: [00:24:52] A hundred percent. Yeah.

    Mike: [00:24:54] Awesome, man. Well, let me ask you a couple questions. So you’ve been, uh, you’ve been an investor fuel for a little while now, and I [00:25:00] would assume that some of your mindset of where you’re going now in your business was some influence that you got from inside of the group, but would you mind just kind of sharing your experience as being a member of investor fuel?

    Neil: [00:25:08] Yeah. Uh, so I, I, I was looking for something to kind of accelerate my growth. My business has been stagnant for a few years and it was just, it was just time, you know, you get to a point where you’re like in a row, you’re unhappy. And I told my wife, Hey, I need to seek out others that are, are in this. You know, so I scheduled a call with you guys.

    Um, everything I had read about you guys online. Um, fantastic. So I was like, all right, so I’ll just schedule a call. So yeah. Stinson and I hopped on a call and immediately it was not about you guys at all. Like, he was like, Hey, how can I help you? It was just a super casual conversation. And then after

    Mike: [00:25:50] the, after the call,

    Neil: [00:25:52] like you guys sent me so much like information about how to help me with my challenges.

    Like for [00:26:00] just T just because, because it’s clear that you guys have a passion for it and enjoy it. So that, that was huge for me. And, and just to see that community, um, was, was fantastic. And then when I, when I came to the event, I mean, everything was just solidified, you know, the guys were super welcoming.

    Um, you could, you could talk about your challenges. Um, and talk about wins too. Right. And there’s no ego and, um, you’re just sharing information and sharing value. Um, and, and yeah, it was like hanging out with some of my best friends and some of my future best friends, all in the same room when we were in Dallas a couple of months ago.

    And I’m in a Facebook, like little message group with a couple of the guys. And I texted a couple of guys and we’re on calls and I mean, it’s just like, we’re. We’re friends. Like if like we just hadn’t connected yet, but we knew we were already friends. So, um, if you’re, if you’re looking to, you know, for any reason, just get from where you are [00:27:00] to, to accelerate your growth in any way, I, I have nothing but positive things to say about you guys.

    It’s been fantastic

    Mike: [00:27:07] for me. That’s awesome. That’s great. Yeah. And that’s, that’s, that’s, that’s what we’re all about, right? It’s not just a thing. You come to four times a year, it’s a community of people like 24, seven, 365 days a year to where we’re constantly asking questions. How do you do this? Anybody have a resource?

    I mean, even before we got on the call here, I saw somebody asks a question and people are like, Hey, call me and I’ll help you. Like, you know, set up it let’s do this. Let’s do that. Here’s what I did. And that’s just kind of how the group is. I mean, I think everybody starts to feel an obligation to answer questions and help one another, because they’ve been helped so much in the past.

    We just kind of see it’s this flywheel of like, I help others when they need it. And they helped me when I need it. And that’s that’s what is the basis of our group and the basis of any good relationship is we’re kind of all in, on helping each other, right?

    Neil: [00:27:52] Yeah. Yeah. Awesome,

    Mike: [00:27:54] man. Well, I appreciate you. A ton of folks wanted to, if we want to connect with you, so you operate, uh, we, we, [00:28:00] I should have asked us up front, but you primarily are operating in, in, uh, the South bend area is

    Neil: [00:28:04] South bend, Indiana st.

    Joe County. So we’re right next to Notre Dame.

    Mike: [00:28:08] Yup. Awesome. Awesome. So folks want to connect with you in any way we’re working to do that at,

    Neil: [00:28:12] if you could spell my last name, it’s a little dicey, but just, just. Uh, catch up with me on Facebook. Um, you know, we have a website, but that’s typically for motivated sellers.

    And then I have an [email protected]. Cool.

    Mike: [00:28:28] I’ll we’ll put a link to your Facebook profile down below for those things.

    Neil: [00:28:31] I’d love to help you. Yeah. If anyone has any questions, specific questions about anything I can potentially help with. I’m in.

    Mike: [00:28:37] Awesome buddy. Well, Hey, thanks again for spending some time and say, thanks for sharing your story.

    Neil: [00:28:41] No problem. Thanks

    Mike: [00:28:42] for your time. A lot of people resonate with that. We all, I mean, most of the people that I know, I know in real estate, um, are living a better life than what they started out in and they got on that journey for that reason to live a better life. And, um, you know, hopefully ultimately give a better life to our children [00:29:00] too.

    Right.

    Neil: [00:29:01] Absolutely.

    Mike: [00:29:02] Yeah. Awesome. Well, everybody, thanks for joining us. I hope you got some good value. If you haven’t yet subscribed to us on iTunes, Stitcher, Google play, wherever you’re watching right now at YouTube. Um, we’d love it. If you did, you could also find out about the investor fuel by going to investor fuel.com.

    Learn a little bit more about the group. We’d love to schedule a call with you and see if we can help you in your business. See if he might be a fit for the group. So appreciate you a bunch. We’ll see you on the next show.

    Are you an active real estate investor? If so, and you want to latch onto the power of surrounding yourself with over a hundred of them real estate investors. All committed to building stronger businesses and living richer fuller lives. You should jump on a call with us to learn more about investor fuel.

    Simply visit investor fuel.com to get started. [00:30:00] .