Isaac Rowe Built a Real Estate Business Around Freedom, Not Just Money | Heartwise Investments

Mike Hambright (00:00.856)
Hey everybody, welcome back to the show. Today I’m here with an old friend, Isaac Rowe, joining us from Cleveland. We’re gonna be talking about like just kind of lessons learned, like how to use your business to essentially fuel the life and lifestyle design, which is all really how we started. We often end up in a different place, but it’s important to recognize that if that’s what’s going on, so you can get back there. So Isaac, welcome to the show. Yeah. Yeah.

Isaac Rowe (00:17.966)
true.

Isaac Rowe (00:21.858)
Thank you, appreciate the invite. It’s great to be here. We haven’t talked in a long time, so it’s nice to see you. Yeah.

Mike Hambright (00:26.506)
It’s good to see you, buddy. before we kind of jump into this, tell us a little bit about your background as a real estate investor.

Isaac Rowe (00:33.998)
So I got started in the business in 2012. I started as an agent and I got, I was working with a company back then that was doing a lot of lease options. So that’s kind how I got in the game and that lease option was a grind. That was intense way back. It was a lot more common back then in that market, but it was a grind and, I very quickly flipped over to being a investor agent. then I,

for a year or two, always wanting to be the investor. So 2012, 13, 14, I just, I was hustling on the MLS. I was on bigger pockets. I was finding investor clients any way that I could. And I was learning the game and I made some really good contacts, but I needed more, more inventory. I more houses to sell these investors. I had way more investors and I had houses to sell them. And the MLS was very, very challenging and you’re making a thousand dollars a pop back then. You these houses are cheap back then. Right. So it was grind, grind, grind doing 70, 80 deals a year, making an 80 grand, right?

Mike Hambright (01:18.22)
Yeah.

Isaac Rowe (01:23.374)
this is not enough money for this much work. So I very quickly flipped over. Back then I bought a home investors franchise back when it was new and it was like 2015. So I was like the third or fourth guy in Cleveland and I learned a lot in that. I got some good training and I was in that for four or five years and realized that I couldn’t scale and build the business I wanted within there.

Mike Hambright (01:25.357)
Yeah.

Isaac Rowe (01:43.458)
their system kept trying to grow and grow and grow and kept hitting walls. So I sold my franchise in 2020. Great timing just before COVID hit. I even told the guy that bought the franchise, no offense to home investors, but I told them, not buy this. This is not a good investment. But he was going to buy it anyway. And so he bought my franchise for me at a discount. He was convinced to buy it. So I’m like, well, don’t pay full price. I’m selling mine. So he bought mine. I got very lucky to be able to sell it. And since then I’ve been doing it my own. I hired my brother.

He’s my integrated back office guy. So together we really built a real small business, know, tried to grow bigger and have more W2 employees and kind of went through all that growth stuff and got really stressed and making more top line revenue, but making no more money and having a lot more headaches. So in the end, a few years ago, trimmed it back a little bit, run everything virtually. Now I run my company with with VA’s out of Mexico primarily.

Isaac Rowe (02:43.246)
But that’s me in a nutshell. So we run a virtual wholesaling company. I used to flip a ton. We were doing 10 to 15 flips at once at one point and just learned over the years that project management’s not really my skill set. So I didn’t really want to build that out. So just went back to wholesaling primarily. I really liked the marketing and sales side of the business and I feel very good.

and some Airbnbs. So that’s kind where things have settled at the current day.

Mike Hambright (03:11.98)
Yeah.

Yeah, thanks for sharing that. think for all of us, really all entrepreneurs, I’m sure it’s the same outside of real estate, is you go through these seasons in business and in life, right? And so you take a hard push into some direction and you might realize that, you realize what you don’t like. And you also realize what’s possible, right? So in some ways, I mean, have to cast a wide net sometimes to see what you catch and you just learn a lot about your tolerances and what you like.

Isaac Rowe (03:32.386)
Yeah.

Mike Hambright (03:42.713)
and what you don’t like and that’s just kind of how it works right.

Isaac Rowe (03:46.094)
Yeah, I think it just took me a little while to figure all that out, right? Like I didn’t get into business until it was like 28, 29. So spent my 20s just doing all kinds of other stuff and then always knew that I wanted to get into real estate eventually. So I really spent my kind of early part of my 30s figuring out what I really liked about the business. And then, I don’t know, four or five years ago, I’m 41 now, I’d say four or five years ago, I really started dialing into like, hey, why am I doing the things I’m doing?

I think it’s a super important question to ask you in all parts of life, right? But I really came to a point like why am I flipping all these houses? Why am I using a lot of wholesaling? Why am I wholesaling a less? Why am I, you know, I have a lot of stress. There’s a lot of things going on. What’s the point in this, right? And you realize at some point that you’re doing this because somebody else told you to. And whether their intentions are good or they’re a coach or, you know, I had a…

coaches over the years. There’s all kinds of reasons why we do what we do, but you have these moments where you start reflecting and when your life is in a position where you’re not really enjoying

Mike Hambright (04:46.358)
Yeah.

Isaac Rowe (04:46.51)
So I think I had that moment maybe five years ago or so, and I really just started tweaking the business and changing it to be something that I wanted to work in and be in. And I think that’s been huge for me over the years in terms of quality of life.

Mike Hambright (04:58.123)
Yeah.

Isaac Rowe (05:05.248)
so much, right? So it’s like, you know, once you get to a certain point with money, you have enough money to pay your bills and travel and enjoy your life, you know, striving for more money. For me anyway, it just wasn’t really the goal, you know, so it became much more about lifestyle. I got three little kids and I want to spend time with them.

And so I kind of had a come to Jesus moment there where I’m like, you know, what’s going on? So I reset a lot of stuff and it’s been great, honestly. Like it’s worked very well. I’ve been very, very happy.

Mike Hambright (05:36.012)
Yeah, that’s great. I think we all go through that. mean, everybody, everybody goes to that could be even during COVID during the downturn of the last few years could be a health issue or a health crisis, losing a loved one. There’s like a lot of things that could happen. Somebody steals from you. Like there’s all these things that happen in business. Yeah, there’s all these things that happen in business. Sometimes it’s many of those things. Sometimes it’s many of those things at the same time. But you go through this like season and you just kind of realize, OK, it’s

Isaac Rowe (05:52.278)
Yep. Had that happen too. Yeah.

Mike Hambright (06:05.965)
toughens you up in some ways and it basically forces you to gain clarity on what’s really important to you, what is it that you really want and what do you not want, know, importantly as well. So let’s talk about that a little bit. So you’ve got the wisdom now that, and honestly, we’ve been talking a lot about this at Investor Fuel. In fact, they did a little workshop.

Isaac Rowe (06:12.59)
Yep.

Isaac Rowe (06:25.55)
Some wisdom, some not all.

Mike Hambright (06:27.759)
I did. Yeah. Well, you’ll get it. It’s not a it’s it’s a as they say, it’s a journey, not a destination. Right. Clarity is the same way. And wisdom is the same way. But we’ve talked a lot about I’ve talked a lot about this just kind of gaining clarity over what what do you want in life and clarity for personal goals and business goals. And so let’s talk a little bit about this idea of because I believe this I say this all the time. Your business is a vehicle to help you live the life that you want. Right. And so I

Isaac Rowe (06:35.438)
Yeah.

Isaac Rowe (06:55.862)
Yeah.

Mike Hambright (06:57.653)
I think what happens is a lot of times people will kind of quote EOS their business like they’ve got KPIs and scorecards and goals for their business but they don’t start with what the goals for their life are. So you’re just like now you have this ship that’s running to hit some business goals without it being tied to your personal goals and at the end of the day who cares about the business if you’re not living the life you want to live right.

Isaac Rowe (07:09.73)
Yep.

Isaac Rowe (07:20.27)
Yeah, and if you are dealing with you know the ship can get out of control storms happen right and then if you have the bigger the ship you have the harder it can be to get back to harbor right so it’s like it’s it’s it’s very interesting for me as well you get in these situations where you look at your overhead you look at what you’re spending you look at what’s happening you look at your at your income your revenue and you’re like wait I feel like I’m making more money it gives me the perception that I’m doing better but you know how many how many people really pay attention to what their actual net number

Mike Hambright (07:25.303)
That’s true. Yeah.

Isaac Rowe (07:48.11)
is how much money they’re actually keeping, right? You we get in growth mode all the time and we feel like growth equals success. I think a lot of people go, okay, if I spend this much more marketing and I do this many more deals and I get this much revenue, then I’ll be here. And the problem is, and you know, and I’ve done a lot of reading and research on this myself, just because I really love the mental health component and managing stress and all this. You realize that none of that stuff’s ever gonna make you happy. And when you’re young, I don’t know if there’s any way to know this, right? Like, how do you know until you figure it out, right?

You know, people tell you, I, a lot of people tell me, but I didn’t figure it out until I went through it myself and you hit a point where you’re like, actually, I did reach this point and now I want to be here. And this bar, the way our brains work, the bar is always moving.

The bar is always the next thing. We get very short term, you know, the house, the car, the trip, the monthly goal. These things only feed us for a moment and then we have to get something else, right? So I have a really good friend of mine who is extremely successful in real estate and just a great guy. And he has a saying he likes, he’s like, hey, Isaac, you know, a great life is everything you need and some of what you want, right? And one of the big things that I’ve discovered for me personally, and you I don’t…

Mike Hambright (08:31.329)
Mm-hmm. Right.

Mike Hambright (08:43.372)
Yeah.

Mike Hambright (08:55.457)
Yeah.

Isaac Rowe (08:59.662)
like to speak for other people or assume that it would work for somebody else, but it just helped me is, you know, wanting less.

has been a huge component of happiness for me. Just being in situation where instead of constantly thinking, because I’m a driven person, I’m a goal oriented person, or I wouldn’t be in real estate, you have to be a little bit demented to be in this business. You have to be driven and want something outside the norm. I think for me a big part of it has just been, if I can just choose to be focusing on, hey, I have a lot that

Mike Hambright (09:08.631)
Hmm.

Mike Hambright (09:17.813)
Yeah, right.

Isaac Rowe (09:30.542)
that’s great, I can really enjoy what is presently here, and instead of constantly thinking about what else I need to be building and doing, not that I don’t plan for the future, but just dial that noise down a little bit, it’s increased my contentment with everyday life massively. And it takes a lot of the pressure off, because a lot of times, you are doing very well and things are actually okay, but you don’t feel like they’re okay, because you have this giant goal in your head that you’re not hitting.

take a step back, you’re like, why do I need to hit that goal? Why is my brain telling me that this is the next thing that will make me happy? Because the last thing I got to that my brain told me was going to make me happy, made me happy for a week, you know, and then I’m back to wanting the next thing.

Mike Hambright (10:10.123)
Right. Yeah, it can get away from you, right? You can have goals that you don’t really know why you’re doing it. it’s you know, social media doesn’t help with like seeing everybody’s success reels of what’s going on. And like that’s. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Isaac Rowe (10:21.761)
Yes.

Yeah, and how much of that is real, Mike, too? How much of that is true, you know? I always wonder that. Yeah.

Mike Hambright (10:29.587)
Not not I mean, you know, it is the it is the highlight reel. It’s not like, you know, nobody’s nobody’s posting low light reels of the negative consequences of that. But there is a balance, right? I think there’s there’s something that’s I know it’s called like diminishing utility or something like that. It’s like I would love to have an ice cream cone right now. But that doesn’t like if somebody gave me 100 ice cream cones, like I don’t want that. Like I don’t even want that, you know. And so like, you know, the more ice cream you get, you’re like, I don’t really like ice cream anymore.

Isaac Rowe (10:33.741)
Yeah.

Yeah, yeah.

Isaac Rowe (10:46.221)
Yep.

Isaac Rowe (10:51.831)
Yep.

Mike Hambright (10:59.641)
you kind of destroyed it for me. And so, and there’s something to be said for simplicity in your life too when you realize that you know some of the toys we buy and so it’s like now I have to maintain all this crap and I’ve got to get oil changes and I got to park it somewhere and now I got hail damage and like that’s next thing you know you’re spending a huge portion of your life just maintaining the crap that you didn’t really need in the first place and it’s like just takes away from your joy.

Isaac Rowe (11:00.042)
Yeah, it’s too much. It’s too much.

Isaac Rowe (11:12.844)
Yeah. Yeah.

Isaac Rowe (11:26.254)
Yeah, and I think that’s where the wanting part comes in, We have this kind of automatic desire for more in life, you know? And I think there’s nothing wrong with that. I think that’s a good thing to have, you know? Yeah, it’s just keeping it in check. then, especially if you’re really driven, which a lot of us in real estate are, and a lot of us probably listening to this are very motivated people, like we want to build something. We want to do something with our lives.

Mike Hambright (11:37.909)
Yeah, there’s a balance though, yeah.

Isaac Rowe (11:50.062)
It’s more than just real estate. It’s like it’s building, it’s achievement, it’s goals, it’s creating something, it’s legacy for your kids. There’s a lot that goes through our heads in a day to day life, but everything they say about raising kids and the things in life, what kids remember the most is just quality time. They don’t care that you went on a super fancy vacation. They don’t care about, they want time with you where you’re mentally present, right? So if building and creating is stressing you out to the point where you can’t live in your everyday life and enjoy-

than what are you doing? What’s the point? But it’s easier said than done. It’s easier to talk about this than to find that balance. it’s something that I work on consistently, and I’ve gotten a lot better at, but I definitely wouldn’t say that I found it.

Mike Hambright (12:22.881)
Yeah.

Mike Hambright (12:26.592)
Yeah.

Mike Hambright (12:35.147)
Yeah, it’s inevitably going to be one foot on the gas and one foot on the brakes. Like we want to grow. We want to feel accomplished. We want to achieve things. We want to help people. We want to serve all those things right. But it’s like, we want, we want to have fun along the way, but you got to, you got to like tap the brakes every once in a while. So doesn’t get away from you. I think a big part of it is just having clarity for what you, what you want your life to look like. Having this vision for what it could be your family. actually have this whole program.

Isaac Rowe (13:00.568)
Yeah.

Mike Hambright (13:05.131)
called the Fuel Five, but it’s like, know, what do you want your health and, you know, physical health and mental health to look like? Like, what do want your family to look like? What’s your relationship with your friends? Like, you know, all these things and literally being, having goals for each of those things and what you want that to look like. Otherwise, if it’s always just more with the business, then it becomes its own beast and you’re just kind of serving the beast at some point, you know?

Isaac Rowe (13:17.934)
Yep.

Isaac Rowe (13:33.838)
Yeah, for sure. I mean, I think maybe it’s a midlife crisis. I don’t know what you call it, but I turned 40 and I kind of had this moment and I was a little bit, you know, like I wasn’t super healthy. I was trying hard health wise, but I wasn’t super healthy. And I was kind of at a point where, and I had a buddy turn me on to a nutritional coach, right? Cause I tried keto and everything, right? And, and you know, I was at a point in my life where was thinking, like you said, like the fuel five type dynamic, like my physical health isn’t where I want it to be. What can I do about this? Right. And I’ve tried, I mean, I’m not, it’s not for lack of trying, right? I’m a very emotional.

Mike Hambright (13:39.052)
You

Mike Hambright (13:59.212)
Mm-hmm. Yep.

Isaac Rowe (14:02.542)
person, right? I try everything, you know. And I found a nutritional coach and I got dialed in and really and started going to the gym more and got my health in the best place it’s ever been and that has been the most rewarding thing I’ve ever done.

business more than anything else is just really dialing that in because I didn’t realize that the physical issues, you the headaches, the little bit of brain fog, the tiredness, you know, whatever it is that we think are just normal parts of life, you all that was gone. And I’m like, wait, this is all food related? Is this, is this real? Like all that I’ve done so much, you know, I’m I’m I’m a big believer in coaching. I’ve done life coaching and all kinds of stuff, you know, and the thing that changed my, my mental health more than anything else was just changing what I eat, you know, and, and I was like,

Mike Hambright (14:44.652)
Yeah.

Isaac Rowe (14:46.51)
It’s super hard to do that, right? So I had a coach who’s, this guy is strict, right? He’s no joke, right? It’s not for everybody. But it’s been amazing for me, but that’s just one of those factors. Like that pillar in my life wasn’t where I wanted it to be. And I had to make that decision. Hey, I want to do this for me. Like I am interested in this for me. It’s important to me, but it has a huge cost, right? Even that has been very challenging, very intense, making time to go to the gym, having my diet dialed in meal.

Mike Hambright (14:47.979)
Yeah.

Isaac Rowe (15:11.438)
All this stuff, anything we do that’s worth having in any of those five pillars is going to cost us something, right? And you only have so much energy to give on a day-to-day basis towards those things. So if you don’t control where you’re giving your energy to each of those buckets, then you will just be taken by whatever is in your face, right? And that’s the hard part to learn, I think, too, is just really managing your time, managing your focus and your energy. And realize, because when you’re 25 or 30, you feel like you have endless energy.

Mike Hambright (15:17.217)
Yeah.

Isaac Rowe (15:41.374)
endless focus and you are just go go go go.

And you a little older and you’re like, wait, I don’t feel quite that way anymore. I want more peace in my life. I want more stability in my life. I want more consistency. I want the people I love to be with me. I want to be traveling with the people I care about. I want to have the flexibility and freedom, but I also want to have peace in my day to day life. And that, to me, requires a very intentional focus. It doesn’t just happen. It doesn’t just happen on accident. It’s not like, I made all this money, so now, no, there’s guys that have way more money than me.

Mike Hambright (15:52.694)
Yeah.

Mike Hambright (16:09.238)
Yeah.

Isaac Rowe (16:15.632)
that would be a lot less happy from my understanding because they’re just completely consumed by what they built, right? And they have no space to be, you know?

Mike Hambright (16:23.147)
Yeah, or they’ve built a beast that they just can’t step away from because if they step away, the whole thing could be kind of a house of cards, right? So let’s talk a little bit about, part of that too, obviously is being intentional about putting in place the right team processes and systems and stuff like that, because that allows you to get some of the time back to focus on family health, like other things. I the business does not have to be…

Isaac Rowe (16:27.905)
Yep.

collapses. Yep.

Isaac Rowe (16:46.435)
Yep.

Mike Hambright (16:49.903)
You don’t have to be a slave to your business, right? And so put it in place some of those key things. Talk about that and the impact it’s had on your business and your life.

Isaac Rowe (16:52.312)
Correct.

Isaac Rowe (16:58.274)
Yeah, I I can’t overstate that in terms of the amount of hours I’ve gotten back because of systems and processes and the amount of time that I’ve been able to spend with my kids and the amount of trips I’ve been able to take. And, I’ve been all over the world.

Isaac Rowe (17:14.253)
and without systems and processes and the right people as well in those roles in my business it just never would have been possible. One of my problems is I’m a very driven person. I’m big on personality profiles and I know myself. I’m very high I on the disc profile. I’m very high D. That’s me. I’m terrible on S and C which is the organized detail thinking planning part. But I’m a doer.

friendly person. So I’ll make shit happen, but then I’m going to be creating messes wherever I go. So I learned very quickly that I had to bring in people who could bring the organization and the detail and the structure that I wasn’t that good at bringing. And even if I went and forced myself to do it, it was a major energy drain. I didn’t like doing it. I didn’t want to do it. So it cost me a lot more of my energy. Two hours spent building a system would cost me a lot more than two hours spent networking. I would love the network.

I love having coffee. I love putting a deal together. I love selling something but to build a system so you either have to bear down and create those systems yourself or you have to find the people who can do that for you. I was very fortunate. I hired my brother about five years ago now and on the profile he’s everything. I’m not basically. He brings the whole other side.

and he loves the back office stuff, what drives me insane and I hate doing, looking at the books. you know, he could sit there for hours and organize stuff and plan and build spreadsheets and manage the KPIs and help have the weekly meetings with the staff and all the things that I don’t want to do. So he’s really helped me to build out systems and I’ve had to be involved in that too and I’ve had to force myself as well even though I don’t…

Mike Hambright (18:30.817)
Yeah.

Isaac Rowe (18:49.294)
to become more organized and work on my weaknesses, but it’s also allowed me to really focus on my strengths, right? And spend time doing what I’m really good at doing, sales training, sales work, networking, putting together ideas and making stuff happen and driving things forward. That’s my sweet spot. But without the right people around you, you really get caught doing whatever has to be done at that moment.

Mike Hambright (19:13.815)
Yeah, you and I are similar in that we just love to network with people and we would prefer to just do that all day long, And one of the things I realized, so for me it was my wife, Lindsay, was, I mean have a much larger team now, but for many, many years Lindsay was essentially my integrator, right? She was the, well.

She’s the brakes and I’m the gas, right? Essentially. she’s keeping the wheels on the bus behind the scenes because they would have fallen off if it was just me. But from a business maturity standpoint, one of the things I realized over time, I think I’ve become a little more introverted. mean, I’m on a podcast right now. I’ve done thousands of podcasts. That might sound weird to people that are listening. But one of the things I realized is the more I talk, the more tasks I seem to get. So you start to like, maybe I should just listen a little more.

Isaac Rowe (19:37.806)
Yep.

Isaac Rowe (19:49.73)
Hmm.

Nah, yeah.

Isaac Rowe (19:59.118)
Yeah, no, that’s true. That’s true. It’s a good point really. I mean we have we also run an event up here called Invest CLE in the in the Cleveland market and that’s been great too. But once again, it was like I had a point with running events. We’ve been doing events for almost 10 years and even that it was like this is so much work. There’s so much time. This is so much effort. So this latest go-around I was like look, let’s just build a team to do this. I don’t need to do all this. Let me just find some people who want to build an event with me and

Mike Hambright (20:17.825)
Yeah.

Isaac Rowe (20:27.27)
you know, create a dynamic where I’m just able to do what I want to do, speak at the event and help bring sponsors in with my network and help kind of create the structure and what other people can do what they’re good at doing which is the management, the leading of the event, the planning stuff that I just hate doing. So I’ve really been very intentional about, you know, I did want to run the event but I didn’t want it to take my life from me, right? I did want to have a…

state company but I didn’t want to be the person doing the day-to-day, overseeing all the nitty-gritty things that have to be done and managed in order to keep it from falling apart, right? So I understood that about myself and I built out a system and it’s not perfect but it’s been great overall that allows me to have those things that I want but also not lose myself in them and that’s a balance, right? In some weeks I feel like I’m completely consumed by the business and other weeks I’m in Florida hanging out with my friends and kids and doing whatever I want.

So there is no perfect, there is no place where I found where I feel like I’ve arrived, but I’ve gotten a lot better at it over the years.

Mike Hambright (21:29.367)
Yeah, and there is no balance either. I’ve kind of said balance is bullshit. Like you can’t have a balanced day or a balanced week. Like you could have a balanced year, but there are weeks or months where you’ve got to be head down on the business and there’s weeks or months where you’ve got to focus on personal things. like over time it kind of balances out, but you can’t really balance your week. Not as an entrepreneur, it’s just not realistic.

Isaac Rowe (21:38.882)
Yep.

Isaac Rowe (21:42.978)
Yep.

Isaac Rowe (21:52.854)
No, no. I’m definitely one of those faces right now where I’m just grinding it out in the business. There’s a lot going on, there’s a lot of changes happening, and there’s a lot that needs to be done. I’m just in it every day, working, working, working. And I love that too, right? I can really enjoy that side of it to a point, as long as it’s not permanent.

Mike Hambright (21:58.177)
Yeah.

Isaac Rowe (22:12.417)
A year from now, I’m still grinding it out every day. But there are seasons, right? It just comes and goes.

Mike Hambright (22:18.133)
Yeah. And I think the important thing, and this is probably where you’re at, is like, the hustle work is, it’s like, it’s not necessarily maintenance, it’s probably more building. Like I’m building stuff, like I won’t always have to do this and I need to get this thing built and then it’ll take us to the next level or it’ll simplify a part. If it’s like, if it’s just like the maintenance work that never ends, you know, you got to outsource that because it never ends, quite frankly. And right.

Isaac Rowe (22:27.842)
Yeah.

Isaac Rowe (22:32.215)
Yep.

Isaac Rowe (22:38.849)
Yep.

Isaac Rowe (22:42.613)
Yep, And you need people who will be okay doing that and feel good about it and give them a sense of purpose in their life, you know, in a sense of something that they’re achieving what they want, right? And that’s, so, you know, if you’re not gonna be happy or satisfied doing something long-term, then you really should find a way to not have to do that long-term, especially if you’re an entrepreneur. Like, I don’t think any of us are business owners because we wanna spend all.

Mike Hambright (22:49.772)
Yeah.

Mike Hambright (23:06.631)
Right.

Isaac Rowe (23:07.351)
think we’d have a job if we wanted to be in that kind scenario where we didn’t have control of our lives and time, right? But you can very easily lose control of your life by having your own business as well if you’re not careful.

Mike Hambright (23:13.078)
Yeah.

Mike Hambright (23:17.879)
For sure, yeah. I think one of the challenges that entrepreneurs have is there’s something that they hate doing and they don’t realize that somebody else actually would love that. Because you’re just like, nobody likes accounting. And I’m telling you, there’s people that are like, man, I wish I could just sit at a desk and do accounting all day long. And you’re like, you can’t believe that that person exists, but they do. Right?

Isaac Rowe (23:26.486)
Yeah.

Isaac Rowe (23:37.582)
Yep, yep, and that’s what I my brother for sure. I’m like, man, like we’re getting ready to file taxes and I told him we had a meeting today. He’s like, all right, he’s gonna start reconciling the books. We have it all organized, but he’s gonna start going over the high level stuff and get it to our accountant. I’m like, oh my God, I would not wanna be you for this next week. But he’s like, okay, cool, I got it. And it’s just, yeah, it’s hard for me. I can’t relate to that, because I’m thinking, oh my God, that sounds like hell. But.

Mike Hambright (23:52.767)
Yeah.

It’s like a puzzle for him. He enjoys it, right? Yeah.

Mike Hambright (24:02.059)
Yeah.

Isaac Rowe (24:03.149)
good at it and he likes doing it. So yeah, it’s just it’s true. It’s true.

Mike Hambright (24:07.511)
That’s the key is finding those people that not only enjoy doing it but are better at you at doing the things that you don’t like to do and they’re out there. Yeah.

Isaac Rowe (24:15.437)
Yeah, they are. They really are. And I’ve been fortunate to find those people. And I think another thing we’ve learned over the years is that being cheap with staff doesn’t ever pay, right? So even though I hire out of Mexico, I do a lot of virtual assistant stuff, I pay more than anyone else does in Mexico that I know. Because what I found was if I was paying the same as everybody else, I got a much lower quality candidates on average. And I bumped what I paid, 20 or 30%. And the quality of candidates we got was wild.

Mike Hambright (24:45.59)
Yeah.

Isaac Rowe (24:47.629)
just been phenomenal. And it cost me relatively little compared because it’s not American wages, but they’re making substantially above the average wage in Mexico. And they love working with us, and they’re very high skilled people. So that was a huge lesson that took me way too long to learn, which is pay a little more for good people. Don’t be average or cheap. You’re never going to find the right people being cheap because they won’t even apply for your job.

Mike Hambright (25:06.785)
Yeah.

Mike Hambright (25:12.907)
Yeah, yeah, that’s great. So Isaac, if folks wanna connect with you, they wanna come to your event in Cleveland, they wanna do a deal with you, or bring you a deal, or buy a deal from you, whatever. Well, how do they connect with you?

Isaac Rowe (25:22.507)
Yeah. So Isaac.rowe on Instagram is the best way. We also have a website for our investor facing website, which is heartwiseinvestments.com. can sign up on there to get our deals.

to be in contact with us and get put on our list. If you’re looking for deals in Northeast Ohio, we are all over Northeast Ohio. We’re like in 30 % of the state, so we operate in a very, very wide area. So if you’re interested or you’re an investor or you want to chat business, let me know.

Mike Hambright (25:57.952)
Awesome, man. Thanks for joining us on the show today. Good to see you. It’s been too long. It’s been too long, my friend. Yeah, yeah. Everybody, hope you got some good value from today. At the end of the day, your business is a tool to basically fuel the life that you want to live. And I think if you start with very clear intentions on what you want your life to look like and build a business around it, that’s the right way to do it. think a lot of us…

Isaac Rowe (26:00.429)
I it. Thanks Mike. Good to see you man. Good to see you. I appreciate it.

Mike Hambright (26:19.884)
build the business and then we try to figure out how to fit our life into it. so if you’re not there, you will be because you’ll go through some trial that’ll force you to think a little bit about it one way or another. We don’t wish that upon you, but it’s just how evolution works. So appreciate you guys a bunch. We’ll see you on the next show.

Isaac Rowe (26:31.039)
Absolutely.

Isaac Rowe (26:35.79)
Thanks Mike.