Daron Campbell’s $4.5B Secrets to Real Estate Wealth

Daron Campbell (00:00)
33 years. $4.5 billion in transactions. So I’ve been around the track more than once. And the fact is, there’s nothing I haven’t seen.

out there and so that experience you can’t put a price tag on that experience. I’ve seen the good deals, the bad deals, the expensive deals, the no money deals, the all cash deals, you name it I’ve seen it and what that’s allowed me to do is crystallize some methods for people in any situation to start climbing out and if you’re stuck in a nine to five job you know you got some golden handcuffs on because you can’t go anywhere because you’re stuck with that nine to five.

But if you start investing in real estate, you make two or three good, smart moves, and you’re out of that rat race. You’ve graduated. And that’s what I’m helping people do.

Leonardo Prada (00:38)
Exactly.

Hey everyone, welcome to Investor Fuel Podcast. I’m your host Leonardo Wehdeking and today I’m joined by someone I’ve been looking forward to chat with. His name is ⁓ Daron Campbell and who’s been making serious moves in the real estate space. Daron, glad to have you here man.

Daron Campbell (02:08)
Yep.

Glad

to be here, my friend. Thanks for having me.

Leonardo Prada (02:22)
Excellent. I think our listeners are really going to take something away from how you’re approaching ⁓ real estate and capital and also building relationships nowadays.

Daron Campbell (02:34)
That’s right, that’s right. used to

have ⁓ a show I used to watch. I don’t even remember what the show was, but it says at the end of the show, or the beginning of show, says, if you’re not careful, you just might learn something. So that’s what we’re gonna do today.

Leonardo Prada (02:47)
Exactly, exactly. All right, so let’s just dive in, you know. So first of all, for people who may not be familiar with your world, can you please give us a short version on what’s your main focus these days?

Daron Campbell (03:01)
Okay, so as a real estate professional for the last 33 years, I’ve been both a real estate agent, a real estate investor, and what they call a syndicator, which is somebody who puts real estate deals together, raises capital, buys opportunities, and lets people kind of ride along with the investment. So, but my primary role, my biggest role, is teaching people how to become real estate investors, whether they have the capital or the credit or not.

And it’s kind of a myth I’m trying to dispel that you need a bunch of money to become a real estate investor. Or you need perfect credit to become a real estate investor. Or you need two years of tax returns showing that you make a half a million a year to become a real estate investor. Those are not true. You can buy real estate wherever you are right now, regardless of how much money you have in the bank or what your credit score is.

Leonardo Prada (03:51)
For sure, for sure. Now, and what markers are you operating right now?

Daron Campbell (03:56)
My favorite market is Southern California, so LA, Ventura County, Riverside County, and then I love the Las Vegas market. But I teach, I have mentees, I have students in about 30 different states. So what I do, it travels. No matter where you are in the US or Canada, you can do what I’m doing.

Leonardo Prada (04:18)
Alright, now can you tell us a little bit more about your presence in all 50 states? Like do you have investors and do you participate you know in different investment groups through the whole 50 states?

Daron Campbell (04:35)
Well, I currently don’t own in all 50 states, but I have a presence in all 50 states because I have the unique opportunity of being part of a real estate brokerage that’s in all 50 states. So what that does with my teaching and my mentorship business, it means if I get a new student or new mentee in Texas, I have a network in Texas.

who we can say, this what we want to buy in Texas. This is what we’re looking for in the state of Texas. And so could you access that for us, help us access that so that my mentee and I can begin his investing career in text. You could be in any state of the US and I have access to boots on the ground in whatever state that is. So no matter where you are, we can find your investment opportunities, creative investment opportunities in real estate, wherever that is.

Leonardo Prada (06:16)
All right, hey, I love that. Now, one thing, Daron, that really caught my attention about you was the way that you’ve been able to learn from and also create different scenarios from the different ⁓ groups that you are in. Can you give us a little bit more specifics into that topic?

Daron Campbell (06:40)
Well, I am an aggressive active group joiner, Leo. so everywhere I go, every city I go to, I look for the local real estate investing club. And I actually get asked to speak all over the country at real estate investment meetings and clubs and real estate associations for real estate agents and real estate investors. And, and I belong to some networking organizations. There’s one called young presidents organization. I’m a member of.

Leonardo Prada (06:46)
I’m

Daron Campbell (07:10)
a bunch of mastermind groups I belong to, but the easy way for somebody to like kind of get us some cheap education about real estate investing is you can Google real estate investing clubs in Kokomo and I guarantee you there’s a real estate club in your town, in your city and they’re usually you know maybe five bucks, ten bucks to go to the meeting and go to the networking meeting and in that meeting you’ll meet five, ten, twenty, fifty people

all of whom are interested in investing in real estate and you can just pick up so many tips from those folks and then those groups hire me, fly me in to speak all over the country to talk about methods because what I do is I specialize in methods that help you creatively get involved in the real estate space. If you’re on a million dollars, Leo, in cash, you could go buy real estate and you know there’s no issue, no problem. But if you don’t have a bunch of extra cash,

and you don’t have a 790 FICO score, you go, well, maybe I’m left out of the game. I can’t play the game. That’s not true. So what I do is I focus on teaching people who might not have all the perfect credentials and all the cash in the bank and show them that they can invest in real estate as well. And you can win this game doing it.

Leonardo Prada (08:26)
okay hey that’s actually interesting and that’s not an easy task to do nowadays especially with rates going up you know especially i’m gonna tell you from my own experience in Florida. Florida is a market that you know it never it’s it’s not an up and down market it’s always going up you know because of the because of the demand that that you know

Daron Campbell (08:32)
You gotta know.

Pop Lazing Road, yeah.

Leonardo Prada (08:53)
Yeah, a lot of people are trying to move over there. So most of them, they don’t know what you know. So that’s actually where you actually come in. You know, you have a bunch of people that they have money because people when they go to Florida, they have money, especially when it comes to real estate, they want

Daron Campbell (09:02)
That’s right.

Yeah.

Leonardo Prada (09:14)
they want to invest and they want to get some equity or some profit out of their investment. So that’s actually a pretty good way you do. ⁓

Daron Campbell (09:26)
It’s beautiful because in markets like Florida, you got so much going on so much activity that

You might think, prices just keep going up and up. I’m getting priced out. The more I sit on the sidelines, the more out of reach it becomes. But that’s why we focus on helping people get in the game. You got to be in the game in order to win the game. And so that market’s going to keep running away from you unless you get in it. Now, once you’re in it, you’re riding the wave like everyone else, going up with it. But the longer you stay out, the further away it gets from your reach. So I help people get in the game.

Leonardo Prada (09:49)
Exactly.

Daron Campbell (10:34)
So somebody who starts mentoring with me tomorrow will own some real estate before the end of the year. That’s the promise I make to people.

Leonardo Prada (10:42)
Hey, that’s actually what listeners want to hear. All right, you know, they want to actually give their time to a rock star like you. You know, someone who knows the market, someone who’s been in the market for a long time like you have been. I have over here that you have over more than 10 years in the industry, right?

Daron Campbell (10:46)
Well, they need to know that it’s possible.

You’re

wrong, Leo.

33 years. 33 years. $4.5 billion in transactions. So I’ve been around the track more than once. And the fact is, there’s nothing I haven’t seen.

Leonardo Prada (11:08)
23 years. ⁓

Daron Campbell (11:19)
out there and so that experience you can’t put a price tag on that experience. I’ve seen the good deals, the bad deals, the expensive deals, the no money deals, the all cash deals, you name it I’ve seen it and what that’s allowed me to do is crystallize some methods for people in any situation to start climbing out and if you’re stuck in a nine to five job you know you got some golden handcuffs on because you can’t go anywhere because you’re stuck with that nine to five.

But if you start investing in real estate, you make two or three good, smart moves, and you’re out of that rat race. You’ve graduated. And that’s what I’m helping people do.

Leonardo Prada (11:47)
Exactly.

All right, perfect. Now Daron, what’s been the key to keeping that machine running smoothly like the way you do? Okay, what is the recipe for it?

Daron Campbell (12:11)
It starts with your mindset Leo. Number one, first you gotta understand that these creative deals exist.

They exist. And two, you got to understand that if this guy, Daron, from the South Side of Chicago, a single parent household could do it, so could you. And once people get that belief, they go, man, if he could do it, I could do it. I mean, that’s kind of why I resonate with people. That’s why they like bringing me to their stage because that’s a pretty regular guy right there. And if he can do four and a half billion dollars worth of real estate transactions, then maybe I could do, I could own five houses myself, or maybe I could own that apartment building myself.

And I’m living proof that you can do it. You can get there from wherever you are to the promised land. And the promised land is financial freedom. That’s what it is.

Leonardo Prada (12:57)
No, yeah, totally. I totally agree with you. One of the things that I like what you just mentioned, it’s having the right mindset, you know, so ⁓ it’s that’s actually one of the most important things, you know, in this business and in every business, you know, in every task that you want to get on board, you need to have the right mindset. All right. Now,

Daron Campbell (13:19)
Well, think about it like this,

Leo. Bill Gates wasn’t born rich. know, Jeff Bezos wasn’t born wealthy. Elon Musk wasn’t born wealthy.

They created that wealth because they weren’t afraid. They were aggressive. They took the shots. They took the chances. And you know, I love what Wayne Gretzky always said. You miss 100 % of the shots you don’t take. You gotta wake up and be in the mood to take some shots. And if you take some calculated shots, all you gotta do is win once and you’re out of the rat race. Yeah.

Leonardo Prada (13:44)
Exactly.

and you’re out.

Exactly, exactly. Now, ⁓ I know that every operator has a moment where things got real, okay? Maybe a deal that went sideways or a time they had to pivot fast. Now, can you share a little bit, you know, from your experience obviously?

Daron Campbell (14:03)
who’s there?

yeah.

Hey, the beautiful thing about my resume, Leo, is I’ve been on the roller coaster. I’ve seen the top of the roller coaster and I’ve seen the bottom of the roller coaster.

Leonardo Prada (14:23)
The bottom

ones, exactly.

Daron Campbell (14:24)
⁓

man, and anybody that’s a massive success will tell you about their failures as fast as they’ll tell you about their victories. Anybody that says I never failed, I never got bumped in the head, I never lost is usually lying to you. Because the fact is, the best, the most successful folks are the ones that not never fail. They fail and then they get back up and they take another shot. I just watched a little interview with a guy. He’s on his 20th business. He didn’t become wealthy.

until he started business number 20 means he failed 19 times but he got up 20

and he then this one he just sold for 52 million bucks so he’s okay now but he had plenty of failures to go along with it I personally I’ve had many I’ve learned all the lessons I’ll give you one real quick one in particular I buy me and some investors bought a property that was gonna be a great flip we’re gonna make probably somewhere north of a million dollars in profit on it however we we got it

in bed with a lender that was not very good. That was not very friendly. They were not, I don’t know, we think the lender sort of had it in for us because we had a construction account over here. we were supposed to, every time we spend the money, we buy new windows, we buy new floors, we go back to them and say, hey, look, we just spent $30,000. Give us 30,000 of our construction money. They would look, they’d come out, take their time and come out and look.

And then they go back and they issue us $10,000. I go, but wait a minute, I just spent $30,000. You can’t just give me $10,000. They go, well, that’s all we’re allocating. And so what they were doing was sort of slow dripping our money. We’re paying interest on that money, by the way. But they’re slow dripping it back to us to slow down our project on purpose. Because at the end of one year, you got to pay them for their money again. You got to renew the loan.

And so then after one year happened, they said, okay, that’ll be $72,000 to renew the loan. And then they slow dripped the money again. And so we’re bleeding trying to finish the project while they’re over here holding the money and charging us interest on the money. So anyway, that was a big, expensive, ugly lesson. And it got me totally upset and it got a bunch of my investors totally upset. lesson learned, you better know who you’re borrowing money from. So that was an expensive one for me.

Leonardo Prada (17:27)
Yeah, I believe that we all learn from our mistakes. Okay, so for me, ⁓ I wouldn’t say failure, but being rejected and failure, it just…

Daron Campbell (17:32)
Yeah.

Leonardo Prada (17:46)
makes you stronger. like you said, like you said, the person that actually, you know, like try for 19 times and on the 20th, boom, he made the deal, right? It’s the same, it made me remember one ⁓ video that I was watching the other day that ⁓ Walt Disney was rejected like 300 and something times. ⁓ This writer from Harry Potter,

Daron Campbell (17:48)
yeah.

Yeah, yeah,

yeah, yeah.

Leonardo Prada (18:15)
She also was rejected like bunch of times.

Daron Campbell (18:18)
Every publisher, every publisher

told her no.

Leonardo Prada (18:21)
Exactly.

So what did they do? You know, they had a right mindset. You they knew what they want. know, so yeah, they kept trying. So that’s what we need to do over here. We need to keep on trying. And hey, that’s actually the kind of stuff that people don’t like to talk about enough. You know, they always like to highlight what they’ve done, you know, and their achievements. Okay, but they don’t want to share, you know, their

Daron Campbell (18:30)
And he didn’t give up. He kept trying.

Leonardo Prada (18:51)
negative experiences, you know, and honestly, and honestly, that’s what separates the folks who just double from the ones who stay in the game long term, you know.

Daron Campbell (18:52)
Right.

And I’ll tell

you this, I think you learn more from those losses than you do the victories. So, you know, that’s…

Leonardo Prada (19:09)
Yeah, when a victory

comes, everything is happiness. ⁓ exactly.

Daron Campbell (19:14)
And you’re a genius. If it all works

out, you’re a genius. So everything I did must have been right. But if you miss or you fail or you don’t quite make the mark that you projected, now you’re stuck having to look in the mirror and you put everything under a microscope and say, where did I go wrong? And that’s where you learn the most. So, you know, like they say, there’s no losses, only lessons. Well, that’s where the best lessons are. You know, the things that don’t quite go the way you had anticipated. That’s where I’ve learned the most, for sure.

Leonardo Prada (19:36)
Thanks, Hampton.

Correct, correct. Now, Derek, let me ask you this. What are you most focused on solving or scaling next in your business? What’s the next real goal for you?

Daron Campbell (19:51)
Well, we’re about to, what I’m gonna,

well, what I’m gonna do is I’m gonna take a.

thousand people and I’m gonna get them in the real estate game. I’m gonna mentor one thousand people and they’re gonna all become real estate investors and eventually real estate moguls. And so the key to that Leo is I don’t give you a fish. I’m gonna teach you how to fish and I’m gonna mentor a thousand people and teach them how to fish. Because once you learn what I know, you can’t unlearn it. Once you hear what I say, you can’t unhear it. And so I’m gonna show people how to buy real estate aggressively and

Leonardo Prada (20:14)
Out of faith.

Daron Campbell (20:27)
creatively no matter where they live no matter what financial position they’re in and you can’t unlearn it now it’s on you to go out and make that fortune because I taught you how and I showed you that you could do it too and I showed you that it didn’t matter where you were born and how much money your parents have or where you grew up you could still do this now that’s the challenge for people are like ⁓ man now I know this stuff I better do it it’s the beautiful thing but I’m gonna do that for a thousand people a thousand people who are willing to invest a little bit in their real education a real education

Leonardo Prada (20:48)
you

Daron Campbell (20:57)
⁓ that’ll change the trajectory of their life and their children’s lives. That’s my mission. I was put here to do that. ⁓

Leonardo Prada (21:04)
Wow, that’s actually that’s very big. That’s

very big, especially when you already got your business in place. ⁓ Now the next move can either compound things or create chaos depending on how you play it. But I’m pretty sure that you’re going to play it well. Okay, because you have the expertise and you have the years to back you up. so now I know.

Daron Campbell (21:25)
Exactly. Like I said, that comes

from having made all the mistakes and being able to tell you here’s what not to do.

Leonardo Prada (21:35)
Exactly, that’s right. Now, I know that a lot of people listening are either earlier in their journey or looking to level up and think, you know, think they’ll benefit from hearing this. All right. Now, when it comes about building relationships and growing and growing up your network, what’s made the biggest difference for you?

Daron Campbell (21:57)
You know, you probably couldn’t tell, but I like to talk, right? So the biggest difference for me is I’m the squeaky wheel. I’m not afraid. And the reason I started, a lot of people say, hey, you’re a coach or you’re a teacher. No, I’m not. I’m a mentor. And the reason I call it a mentorship is because the most influential people in my life

Leonardo Prada (22:01)
Hahaha

Daron Campbell (22:18)
have been mentors, have been people who were doing the thing that I wanted to eventually do. That’s what a mentor is, guy or a girl who is doing the thing that you want to do, and then they allow you to model them. They allow you to tell you how to avoid the pitfalls and the potholes. And so I have created a mentorship so that people who are really willing to do the work, hey, and there ain’t no get rich quick scheme, Leo. So any of your people watching are going, hey, hey, make me rich tomorrow morning.

I’m not the guy. I’m not that guy.

Leonardo Prada (22:49)
That’s not gonna

happen.

Daron Campbell (22:53)
But if you’re willing to invest a little bit in your own self-betterment, your own financial education, and you’re willing to do the work, and it doesn’t have to be crazy work. I teach people how to do this in an hour a day, two hours a day, 10 hours a week. You could do this. You could begin your real estate investing career part-part time. And eventually by year number two, year number three, year number four, you could fire your boss. How about that?

Leonardo Prada (23:19)
Yeah, no and you know what? That’s something that you cannot fake. When you actually invest in yourself to become better because obviously look even on the Bible God didn’t create the world in one day. He took seven days to do it so everything it’s a process you know and in order for you to be on the wheel okay you need to prepare yourself. I right? Exactly.

Daron Campbell (23:24)
No!

That’s right, you gotta move your feet. You gotta move your feet

or the wheels gonna run you over. So you gotta be prepared to take some action. Now the best action to take is properly directed action, guided action from who? From an expert who’s already done it. So whatever you wanna do in life, go find somebody that’s doing the thing. Here’s what I found out also Leo, the most successful people are the greatest mentors because they’ll mentor you and you’re no threat to them. They’re not worried about it.

Leonardo Prada (23:50)
Yeah.

Daron Campbell (24:15)
So the guys the people that I’ve gone to and say could you teach me how you do that real estate deal? Could teach me how you bought that apartment building? They gave the advice so willingly and so happy happily because you know what I’m no threat to them They don’t care. They’re not worried about me. This guy owns my first mentor He owns about 800 million dollars worth of real estate. Am I a threat to him at all? No So he’ll open up the books and show me exactly what he did item by item by item with no remorse whatsoever Because I don’t threaten him

⁓ at all. And so the most successful people love being mentors.

Leonardo Prada (24:50)
Yeah, I totally understand that. ⁓ Daron, before we wrap up, if someone wanted to reach out, connect with you, maybe collaborate or learn more about what you’re doing, what’s the best way for them to reach out to you?

Daron Campbell (25:04)
There’s two ways and I think I’m learning that Instagram might be everybody’s favorite way. I’m just Daron Campbell at Instagram. D-A-R-O-N Campbell like Campbell’s Soup. That’s my Instagram handle. And then you could always just email me at DarrenCampbell at gmail.com. Either one of those. As a matter of fact Leo, for your people, I have an ebook and I’ll give it to them for free. All you gotta do is DM me on Instagram, ebook, or email me at Daron Campbell.

Campbell@gmail, ebook, and I’ll send them my ebook for free. It’s all about creative real estate acquisition. And I’ll give it to them because you need to at least know that this stuff exists. And then if you want to take it a little deeper, you can talk to me or one of my coaches and we can take it a little deeper. If you want to be a mentor, we can take that a little deeper. But just with no obligation, no nothing, I’ll give this book away for free because I need more people to know. I need more people to know.

Leonardo Prada (25:58)
Perfect, perfect. Well, listen, Daron, I really appreciate your time, your story and your perspective. Okay, we need more people in this space who are doing it the right way. All right. So thanks again for being here on the show. And for those of you tuning in, if you got value from this, make sure you’re subscribed. We got more conversations coming up with operators just like Daron, okay, who are out there building real businesses. All right. We’ll see you on the next episode.

Good

Daron Campbell (26:28)
Thanks, Leo.