How Discipline Creates Freedom in Real Estate Investing | Danny on Flips, Design, and Daily Routine

Danny (00:00)
I wake up at three o’clock in the morning every day. I have been, it’s been 13 years now.

I don’t miss my routine. I wake up at three, start with my prayers, start with goal setting, read the Bible, read a book, a couple pages, what, 10 minutes reading, and I visualize, and I do some breathing techniques, and then I start my day. I go to the gym at four, four to five thirty, come home, shower, get ready before the babies are up by six o’clock. So I’ve done that already every day.

Quentin (02:05)
Hello everyone. Welcome to the Real Estate Pros podcast. I’m your host Q Edmonds. Excited to be here today. Have another fantastic guest. And listen, this gentleman, listen, covers a lot of ground in real estate. If you want to talk flips, he can talk that. If you want to talk about design, he can talk that. If you talk about photography, he can talk that too. I mean, we want to talk project management. We can talk that too. So this gentleman cover a lot of bases and I’m so glad that he’s here.

I’m so glad that we get a chance to peek through things from his lens. And so I want to introduce you all to Mr. Danny Salik. Mr. Danny, how you doing today,

Danny (02:44)
I’m doing great, how are you man? Thank you for having me. This is exciting.

Quentin (02:45)
man, doing good. yeah,

absolutely. Listen, I always say you could have been anywhere in the world, but you’re here with us. So I appreciate you being here, And so listen, Mr. Danny, I want to dive in. I would love for you to tell the people what your main focus is these days. A little bit of an origin story, kind of how you got into the real estate space, because we love the heroes journey. Tell them where you are and what part of the world you’re in. People love to know what people are geographically. So.

Danny (03:06)
Sure.

So I am in the main line of the Philadelphia suburbs. So I’m sure you’ve heard of that, know, where Villanova is, Wayne, all that. So I’m in that part of outside, well, I’d say about 40 minutes outside of Philly. So yeah, that’s pretty much, you know, that’s my focus is with the business too. I try to stay within, I would say five miles radius of where I live.

Quentin (03:34)
Yeah.

Absolutely. But tell the people a little bit about what you’re doing, what you’re involved in, and how you got involved in it.

Danny (03:48)
So for the longest time I was in the fitness industry. I was a master trainer at one of the biggest gyms at that time at Bally’s and that was great. I loved doing it, you know, but it wasn’t gonna get me where I wanted to in life. You know, it was fun, it was great. I had a great time doing it. Helped a lot of people get in shape, regardless of what their goals was. But I also knew in the back of my head that I wanted to do real estate. So in 2005 I went in.

You know, back then we didn’t have online. So I went and took the course, actually sat through it, the six week course, passed the test. And then I literally sat on it for two years. I didn’t do anything three years from 2005, six. And then I literally saw my book in the corner of my room collecting dust, like literally. And I was like, crap, I need, I need to get moving here. I’m not getting any younger. So I got in the business, got my license.

Quentin (04:20)
Yeah

Hmm.

Yeah.

Danny (04:46)
Got into the business at end of 2008, 2009, in the worst time of the industry when the market had crashed. But I don’t complain. I don’t try to be negative. It was slow. So I learned a lot.

It was a good time to get in and learn. And two years of learning and doing a deal here and there, and then 2011, things started picking up. And then from there,

And I still trained on the side, you know, to get that money coming in. And then I believe 12, 2012, I just quit completely training. Well, at least at the gym, I had my own personal training business too, in-home training. I still did that. And while I just built up my, you know, real estate sales. And then 2019, I remember I was just sitting there with my head down because I was just bored of

I just didn’t fulfill me driving buyers around and showing the house. I just felt like I was built for more, to do more, create more, share more, be more, you know? And I just like, I said, that’s it, I’ve had it, I’m done, no more sales. Because no offense to realtors, I’m a realtor, like it doesn’t take a genius to go show a house, open a door, show a house. And you can’t force people to buy a house like sales, car sales.

Quentin (06:32)
Yeah.

Danny (06:59)
So if they like it, they buy it. So you really don’t do much. And I did that for years and I was like, I’m made for more. So I just started to feel uncomfortable inside, not enjoying that anymore. It wasn’t fulfilling. And everything honestly happened overnight. I went and asked an old friend, old family friend about giving me his money and letting me, you know, invest it for him in a flip.

And I showed him how I can make money on his money. And he goes, really interesting. He goes, it was God sent. goes, you know what? I don’t like this. How about we do a partnership? I said, what? We create an LLC and we go in. He’s like, how much money do you have? I was like, I have like 20,000 at that time. He’s like, that’s fine. We’ll do a percentage. We’ll create an LLC. We went, met a lawyer. He did an LLC. We created a company.

bought my first flip like that same month. It happened so quickly. You know, and that was it. That’s where it started from. And I just started loving it after that. And even now, you know, the prices they are, it was a $72,000 property I bought with 10 investors looking at it. And I got it. I was the highest bidder. was like, are you kidding me? And I learned a lot through that journey, multiple contractors and

Quentin (08:01)
Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

Yeah.

Mm.

Danny (08:25)
long, long project. But in the end, I sold it for 250. Day one, still made a profit after six months and losing so much money. That was the beginning of it. And I just got the taste of that. I was like, wow, you know, look what I created here. So yeah, that was the start of the journey of the flipping. And then as things went on, did more flips, more flips.

Quentin (08:34)
Yeah. Yeah.

Danny (08:54)
Even when I was showing houses, I would give buyers advice what they could do with this space and that space. So I always kind of had it in me. And then it just actually came down to the paper at this point where I just started designing. just, from the heart, like I could just see it. I just have a vision. I could take the crappiest property and I walk in and I already know what I’m going to do to it. And then I just started doing rendering and it just starts.

Quentin (09:02)
Yeah.

Danny (09:23)
Everything just starts to come along, know, fruition. Everything that I visualized, I was trying to say. Yeah.

Quentin (09:29)
Yeah.

Man, Danny, sir, thank you for the journey, man. Thank you for taking us through. I, know, as you was talking, I was writing things down. Of course, for me, not of course, but for me, one of the things that stuck out was a master trainer in fitness. so quick, a little bit about me, Danny, I have lost over a hundred pounds twice in my life. Right. And so I’ve lost it, gained it back, lost it, gained it back.

Danny (09:51)
That’s amazing.

Quentin (09:59)
And now I’m in that phase where I’m losing it again.

And I go to the gym about five times a week, ⁓ really, really focusing on my health. But you know what I noticed? Why I would gain it back? Because I had not given over to the thought of self-mastery, right? I would let my mindset determine what I would eat, determine my mood.

And I got into back into the health unhealthy spaces of coping and unhealthy spaces of not taking care of myself. And so I learned like through this journey is that I only go, my body only go as far as my mind go. My mind, my body will go where my mind takes me. And so I’ve been really re retraining my brain, reworking my perspective. And now we, I’m just not trying to lose weight. Like, no, this is a lifestyle. This is who I am. This is who I

Danny (11:07)
Yes.

Exactly

Yes.

Quentin (11:28)
And I do, you know, I read a book that I love, Atomic Habits. I gotta be 1 % better every single day. Every single day. So I’m stacking these habits, right? And so, man, when I listen to you, how you talked it on in 2025, you you took a course, so you sat on it for two years. You was doing real estate on the side. You was bored with sales. Like I’ve watched you, you walked us through your journey of how you got into real estate and how it’s really successful and exciting now.

Danny (11:34)
every single day. That’s it. That’s it.

Quentin (11:57)
But before, while you was doing that journey, have a saying where I say destiny has no wasted moments, right? So as you’re on that journey, we’re learning different things about us. We’re learning different skill sets. We’re taking different moments and we’re applying them to where we are now. So I would love to know, Danny, what did you learn about yourself as you was building to success, as you was maneuvering through real estate?

Danny (12:03)
Exactly.

Quentin (12:21)
What did you learn about you? Did you, you seem like a disciplined person, but like, did you learn humility? Did you, did you learn stick-to-it-iveness? Like, what did you learn about you that really kind of highlighted, okay, this is something I’m learning about me on the journey.

Danny (12:37)
It happened in 2013 when I changed my… I always had good habits, but I aligned everything. My mind, my body, my spirit, my fate. And once in 2013 when I started to do this, and I’ll tell you real quick and I’ll make sense out of

I wake up at three o’clock in the morning every day. I have been, it’s been 13 years now.

I don’t miss my routine. I wake up at three, start with my prayers, start with goal setting, read the Bible, read a book, a couple pages, what, 10 minutes reading, and I visualize, and I do some breathing techniques, and then I start my day. I go to the gym at four, four to five thirty, come home, shower, get ready before the babies are up by six o’clock. So I’ve done that already every day.

Even with having kids, never, people would tell me,

you’re going to lose your routine, this and that. I said, never. It’s your mind. People allow their mind to come over and that’s an excuse. Nothing’s changed for me as far as my body, my mindset. So what I’ve learned is discipline. Discipline. Any business, any job, you need discipline. And discipline is freedom where people think as a negative connotation. They say, I don’t want to be disciplined like you would. I’ve heard that so many times in my life.

And I was like, I have more freedom than any of y’all. You know what I mean? I have more freedom. Y’all are like in the middle of the day, you have to go do this, do this. I’m like, I’m done. I’m usually done. Like for the last five, six years, I’m done my day by two, three o’clock in the afternoon. I never leave the house after 4 p.m. I never need to. I’ve done more than most people in the day. So what I’ve learned is my mindset.

Quentin (14:09)
Absolutely, yeah.

Mm.

Danny (14:34)
My mindset along this journey is the reason where I’m at. With the help of God, I just, very mentally tough. No matter how tired I am, if I sleep four hours, I have to get up at three and go do my hour of power, I like to call it, to get me started. Otherwise I’m off, man. I’m not the same. So that has helped me in every area of my life. My relationship with…

my kids,

my wife, my friends, myself, I’m happier. If they accidentally are sleeping, I’m miserable. Ask my lady, she can tell. She’s like, God, he slept in. I hate it. Because you know what? You’re catching the day and I hate being that. I hate to use the word loser, but to me, I feel like a loser if I sleep in. So it’s like my mindset has got me this far and it’ll get me further.

Quentin (16:06)
Gotcha.

Yeah, yeah. Now you brought up the idea how discipline actually gives you freedom because like freedom is the power to choose. And if you are given into our compulsions, like I’ll use me, if my compulsion is to overeat as a coping mechanism, that’s not freedom. That’s compulsion. I’m giving you the compulsion, the discipline to say, you know what? I want to eat, but that’s masking something more that’s going on inside of me. Like what?

Danny (16:31)
Nah. Yeah.

Exactly,

Quentin (16:42)
That’s

Danny (16:43)
yes.

Quentin (16:44)
freedom. And so the freedom is when you can control what you choose to do instead of being compulsive. And I think that translates very well to business because that buys into the idea is that the more disciplined you are with your business, the more you will get to choose. You’ll get, you know, and so you can’t be emotional when you’re in business. ⁓ can’t go off compulsion. You have to go on discipline. So I love how

Danny (16:46)
Yeah.

Yeah.

Exactly.

No.

Quentin (17:11)
brought up discipline because in this space called real estate, that’s one thing that we definitely need is discipline. cannot be emotional. got to let them look at the data, let the data make sense. You can’t force things. And I know you as a designer, you know, you can’t force round pegs and the square hole. like, it all got to be.

Danny (17:33)
That’s exactly what I was trying to tell you. so like, I don’t know, I’m so excited about my business that it has to be right. Everything has to have a flow. And if it doesn’t, I don’t care if I spend an extra thousand dollars to make it right. You know, and then, and to your point, that’s exactly what it is. Cause I’m so disciplined, I can’t unsee that now. I gotta change it. I don’t care. Let’s, let’s, let’s, you know.

Quentin (17:55)
Yeah, brah!

Danny (17:59)
Like any other person like, who cares? Maybe they won’t notice, but I know it’s there. If I know it’s there, yeah, somebody else is going to notice and they’re going to say, man, he did all of that. And for another thousand, that’s how I think that’s how I my project. ⁓ he couldn’t do that. Why not? You know? So I don’t, here’s the thing. I want asking price or over. And I don’t want to give them a reason not to.

Quentin (18:04)
You know, every time you see that house, you know, yeah.

Yeah, absolutely. Absolutely. Absolutely.

Danny (18:28)
You know what mean? So

that’s to your point. Yes, it’s discipline. I’m so disciplined in my life. It’s scary. And once you’re disciplined, to your point, it flows into everything you do. And people see it and everyone notices. Not that I’m trying to get noticed, but it’s a good notice. People see it. Who did the work? Like it’s my name on the line. You know, I’m also a realtor with one of the biggest companies.

in the world, Keller Williams, I’m sure you’ve heard of him. So, and it’s my name too, and you know, that goes a long way. so on the main line, it’s a small, it’s a big town, but small town, know, everybody knows everybody and you do something wrong, God forbid something happens. And my, I’m affiliated with KW and everything gets affected. You know, Jim Rohn says everything matters.

Quentin (19:01)
Yeah, yeah, absolutely.

Everything, everything, everything. Because these moments are compound, they’re compounding. So everything matters because each moment is taking you somewhere. Where is it taking you? What’s the end result? So everything matters, yeah, no. So with that being said, what is your next real goal? What are you looking to solve at Scale Next, man?

Danny (19:26)
Everything man, yeah.

Yep.

Yeah.

What am I trying to solve I’m really trying to perfect my game Trying to get a flow into my business with with with you know the flipping I I don’t like this lag time this waiting period I’m just because I have You know a lot of and it goes back to this. I have so much energy. I have to keep moving I Need to keep moving. I like you said 1 % better. I want to be

25 % better in every flip I do. And I want to have a system going, a flow going, where one’s almost closing out. I’m already into the next one. The other one’s closing out. I’m already into the next one. And so with my business, it’s hard to do right now with lack of inventory. But I do work with investors, so that helps me keep moving. Even though I’m just designing and project manager still, I love it.

You know, I’m still working on projects and not driving around showing houses. You know what mean? So I have two projects that are coming in Philly. I’m excited about it because I’m still doing what I do love best. I’m designing and I treat their property like it’s mine. So I design it like it’s mine. Same way. Same way. you know, and in the end I listed and they sell day one. So to answer to your question, yes.

Quentin (20:53)
Yeah. Yeah.

Yeah. Yeah.

Danny (21:17)
I need a better flow in my business so I can keep moving. I don’t like this, you know, waiting a month to find one, you know, so I’m not gonna, I don’t like the word wish. just, I just need a flow in my business. Cause I don’t need to wait for cash. It’s not, and again, lot of people have cash issues. That’s the biggest issue. I can just keep moving the cash, but I need somewhere to move it to. Yeah.

Quentin (21:21)
Gosh.

Yeah.

Yeah, yeah,

yeah. I love it, man. I want to ask you this because I know you said, you you’re working with investors. You care about your product and your product that you’re presenting is obviously for somebody to buy. So I want to just get your perspective on relationship. Are relationships important in business? How do you go about building healthy relationships? Like, just from your vantage point, talk to a little bit about relationships.

Danny (22:00)
Yeah.

Well, know, real estate is all about relationship. If anything, you know, everything’s about relationship. Like Jim Rohn would say, forget about real estate. Everything, even if you’re in a job or nine to five job or any kind of business, either you’re a doctor, you know relationships is key. And I know there’s a lot of chatter about AI and this and internet. I’m old school, really, I’m old school. I love the face to face. I love picking up the phone.

and calling like I’ll check on if I haven’t heard from my investors. I’ll just text, hey, you got a minute to talk. I’ll just check in. I’ll stay in touch because I know that’s important. I’ll invite them to my ⁓ project openings so they can see what I’m doing. So I keep them, you know, in my life. If we haven’t done a project one year and we miss one year, I still stay tuned. I call them up. Hey, I just bought this property.

I’m going to tell you about it and invite you to an event I’m having. So I keep them in my life consistently for years because that’s part of building relationships. Or they’re like, hey, I want to sit down with you and talk to you about fitness. I want to get in shape. I’ll say sure. We’ll meet for lunch. So I just keep it going. You can’t have silence, no matter how good of a relationship you had and thinking, oh, they’ll call me when they’re ready. I don’t believe in that.

Quentin (23:26)
you

Danny (23:35)
constantly staying in touch.

Quentin (23:39)
Man, I love it, man. I absolutely love it. I love the energy you have towards your project, the discipline. I definitely love your perspective when it comes to relationships. So with that being said, if someone wanted to reach out to you, connect with you, collaborate with you, learn more about what you’re doing, how can they get in contact with you then?

Danny (23:58)
Yeah, you can call me directly if you like at 484-410-5417 or you can email me at [email protected]. So my business name is Mr. Mainline. You can Google me easily and I’ll be the first one. So my business name is Mr. Mainline Real Estate and that’s

Quentin (24:15)
I love it.

Yeah.

Danny (24:25)
pretty popular here. can Google that easily and you can easily find me. those are the two best ways, phone call and my email.

Quentin (24:35)
Man, I appreciate you, sir. Let me say three things to you. First, thank you for your time, because you could have been here in world, and I know you made time for us today. You moved some things around, so thank you for your time. Secondly, man, thank you for your story. Thank you for your narrative, talking about the things that you do. I put a premium on stories. I think stories have a way of planting seeds in people. We may never see the growth, but the seed is there, right? And so you planted seeds, and so thank you so much.

Danny (24:42)
Thank you for having me. This was great.

That’s true.

Quentin (25:06)
And definitely, lastly, man, thank you for your mindset, the way you think, your perspective, and bringing that mindset, your mindset to this platform. I appreciate you being here today,

Danny (25:15)
thanks so much, man. I appreciate it.

Quentin (25:17)
Absolutely. So listen, y’all heard Mr. Danny, get into the show notes, get in contact with him. Definitely make sure you’re subscribed here because we’re going to continue to bring up amazing people just like Mr. Danny. So sir, I say thank you again. And everyone else, listen, y’all have a fantastic day.