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Show Summary
In this conversation, Beka Shea discusses her journey of self-discovery, emphasizing the importance of understanding one’s own wiring and strengths. She highlights the significance of accepting oneself and others, and the value of surrounding oneself with supportive individuals. This journey is portrayed as a lifelong process of growth and acceptance.
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Investor Fuel Show Transcript:
Beka Shea (00:00)
Mm-hmm. Yeah, I think even tying it back into understanding who you are. I’m a move fast and break things type of person. in a and I want to be a move fast and fix things person, which has been on my mind. But there was a period where I was getting started over a couple of years. I’ve done almost 200 real estate deals at this point between I’ve done 60 or 70 rehabs and maybe 120 wholesale deals.And and then I have some commercial syndication investments and I have some multifamily properties. But you got to start somewhere. And I think the key is like just getting started. My problem is I get started and I go fast. And so a couple years into my journey, I had taken on a bunch of private money to do deals and I was doing wholesaling, which wholesaling is mostly a marketing and sales game, right?
And I didn’t understand finances. And I would say this is the one thing I’ve worked with a lot of real estate investors. This is the one thing that real estate investors are willfully ignorant of. They kind of put their head in the sand like the bank account, you know, method of running your business. Do I have cash to do it? I’ll do it. And not understanding truly financials. And so that led me into a big hole where I was basically like a million dollars in debt and had to figure out how to get out of it.
Quentin (02:57)
Hello everyone. Welcome to the Real Estate Pros podcast. I am your host Q Edmonds. And you know what I’m about to say. If you looked at me long enough, I’m excited. I’m excited to be here. You heard me say this before too. My guests, they have a way of getting me really super excited, like right before I come on. Cause there’s always something that they say that really just sparks something in me. There’s always some type of synergy and connection. And today is no different. We have someone here.Listen, primary focus is like project management, but listen, she is an innate problem solver, have an engineering background. She is something that I’m not, she’s calm under pressure. And so I’m definitely looking forward to her maybe picking up brain on how she succeed at that. But listen, she has a story to tell. And so I am so excited to introduce you all to Ms. Beka Shea. Ms. Beka how are you doing today, Ma’am?
Beka Shea (03:40)
YouI am great, so happy to be here. Thanks for having me.
Quentin (03:59)
Absolutely. So happy that you’re here and listen, I am excited for people to be able to peek at things through your lens, to learn more about what you do, how you operate, some of the strategies that you use. But for now, what I would love for you to do, I want you to kind of take us into your world. Tell us what your main focus is these days. If you want to give us a little origin story of how you got started in real estate, we love origin stories.And then also tell them what market you’re operating in or where you’re stationed at. so right now, Ms. the floor is yours, Ma’am
Beka Shea (04:34)
Awesome. So my background, I went to school for mechanical engineering on a military scholarship. I’m from Pennsylvania outside of Philadelphia, about an hour west. And I spent four years as an officer in the Navy. And then I did mechanical engineering for about six and a half years up in Boston. And I loved it. And then I had the opportunity to move to Florida. My husband’s job moved us down there.I was still doing my engineering job, but that’s where my second daughter was born. And when we moved to Florida, I had always wanted to flip a house. I was doing engineering work, but I was like, oh, we can flip a house. It’ll be awesome. And we thankfully had enough financial margin. Like you and I talked about margin before the show. And I think about it in terms of that a lot. We have enough financial margin to be able to do that. And so I flipped three houses my first year. This was like 2013. And then
got the hang of it. And the next year I flipped six houses and then I flipped 12 houses. And around then I left my full-time job somewhere around that second year to do it. And I grew out of business doing rehabbing and wholesaling. And then, yeah, I just spent the next few years. I say I’m a reluctant landlord, so I don’t do much flipping anymore, which we’ll get into some of the backstory later. But I have been more in the buy and hold space in the past couple of years and really I feel like
Flipping and rehabbing allowed me to get my feet under me and get those assets in my portfolio. And then it’s just been a good run with them. So yeah.
Quentin (07:02)
I love it, I love it. right now I’m currently still in Florida, correct?Beka Shea (07:06)
sorry. Nope. I moved back to Pennsylvania in 2015. Sorry about that. Yeah, I moved back to move back to Pennsylvania in 2015 and where my parents are from. So we bought my parents house. I’m sitting in it right now. Actually, I’m sitting in my old bedroom, which is now my office and we converted. Yeah, we converted the basement into an in-law apartment. So it’s beautiful. We have eight acres, beautiful location. ⁓Quentin (07:08)
Okay. No, no, no problem. Yeah.Yeah.
Yo. ⁓ wow.
beautiful.
Beka Shea (07:35)
and I have three teenage daughters and an amazing husband. And yeah, we’re out in Chester County, Pennsylvania.Quentin (07:39)
Yeah. ⁓I love it. Well, I didn’t get a chance to say I’m in Maryland. So born and raised in Baltimore. So, right, we’re right, right, right, right by each other. Right. So no, absolutely. I know a thing about me and my parents, we’re thinking about buying a home together. They’re getting older. And so they’re in our childhood home now. But you know, I’m looking for something, you know, less steps, more, more room, you know, so I love when you said the in-law suite. Yeah, in-law place.
Beka Shea (07:48)
Hmm, we’re like neighbors.Thank
Quentin (08:12)
that you built. I absolutely love it. ⁓ So let me ask you this. What are some of the key strategies that you have when it comes to business? And I’m going put this to you also when it comes to life. So key strategies when it comes to business, key strategies to when it comes to life, to kind of keep you running smoothly, passionately, to keep that engine kind of going towards your goals.Beka Shea (08:37)
Okay, well I have to bring in here that I am still real estate investing, but my full-time, my active income is I do leadership consulting using a behavioral analytics tool called Culture Index. if you’ve ever done, have you ever done any behavioral analytics staff personality assessments?Quentin (08:56)
Yes. So gallop shrimp finders, right? That will fall in the same count. Yep. So yes. Yep. I’ve done some. Yes. Yes, ma’am.Beka Shea (08:59)
Yep.So I’ve kind of dedicated my life to this over the past couple of years and it has informed the entire way that I look at my life, which is I’m wired a certain way. There are things that I’m really good at doing. And there are things about how I’m wired that cause me to constantly stumble, you know, that if I, if I don’t stop doing them, then I’m going to keep having the same problems over and over. So
Quentin (09:21)
Mmm!Beka Shea (09:28)
Yeah, you agree. ⁓ And so my keys, and this I feel like is a lifetime journey, is just being at peace with who I am and leaning into my superpowers and then finding the people around me to, it’s that who, not how idea, but also just accepting the people around me for who they are and what they bring to the table instead of trying to make them be somebody else. So that’s my current…Quentin (09:31)
Mm-hmm.Beka Shea (09:58)
key to a happy life. ⁓Quentin (10:36)
Wow. So that’s interesting because I’m literally on that journey of radical acceptance, right? Radically accepting who I am and then radically accepting who the people around me, who they are. And I have been hitting myself up against the wall for many years because I have false expectations on people. I have, you know,Beka Shea (10:45)
Mmm, yes, great one.Mm-hmm.
Quentin (11:05)
want people to be something that they’re clearly not, instead of radically accepting and loving who they are and understanding that their strengths work well in my weaknesses and my weaknesses work well in their strengths. And that’s the reason why a lot of people are in my life is because we are intended to work well together. ⁓ I heard somebody say when it comes to an engine,Beka Shea (11:08)
sorry, sir.Yes.
Yes.
Quentin (11:29)
A car, a car can’t run without, well, a car can’t run without a battery. guess back in the day, I know what these new electronic stuff that’s going on, right? But just follow the analogy for me, people. I know things are changing, but a car that has a battery can’t run without a battery and a battery can’t run without positive and negative. They don’t, you don’t have two negatives on a battery. You don’t have two positives on a battery. It’s the negative and the positive that works well together. And that’s what I’m learning in my life. The things I don’t like so much.Beka Shea (11:36)
Mm-hmm.Quentin (11:58)
actually work well with the things I do like so much. That’s what powers my life. And that’s when I’m learning. And so I appreciate you saying that for sure. Like, you know, just even just germinating these ideas that you said. So listen, I want to ask you this, because I want the floor to be yours. I feel like I’ve done a lot of talking. But there, I’ve told people all the time, like, you get to success, but there’s a journey on how you get to success, right?And so there are times when things get real, when deals go sideways, times when you have to pivot fast. So has there been adversity that you faced in your life that has kind of led you to the success that you have now?
Beka Shea (12:41)
Mm-hmm. Yeah, I think even tying it back into understanding who you are. I’m a move fast and break things type of person. in a and I want to be a move fast and fix things person, which has been on my mind. But there was a period where I was getting started over a couple of years. I’ve done almost 200 real estate deals at this point between I’ve done 60 or 70 rehabs and maybe 120 wholesale deals.And and then I have some commercial syndication investments and I have some multifamily properties. But you got to start somewhere. And I think the key is like just getting started. My problem is I get started and I go fast. And so a couple years into my journey, I had taken on a bunch of private money to do deals and I was doing wholesaling, which wholesaling is mostly a marketing and sales game, right?
And I didn’t understand finances. And I would say this is the one thing I’ve worked with a lot of real estate investors. This is the one thing that real estate investors are willfully ignorant of. They kind of put their head in the sand like the bank account, you know, method of running your business. Do I have cash to do it? I’ll do it. And not understanding truly financials. And so that led me into a big hole where I was basically like a million dollars in debt and had to figure out how to get out of it.
And this was like 2019.
I to say so six years into my journey. So far enough into my journey that I thought I had figured it out. I remember getting up in front of my mastermind group and saying like, hey, I’m having this huge problem. But don’t worry. I never fail. I’m going to figure it out. And I would say I’m right now. But I thought I thought I was going to fix it in like a year. Not not in like 10 years. So. ⁓
Quentin (14:26)
Yeah, yeah, yeah.Yeah.
Beka Shea (14:34)
So that, you for me, hitting that roadblock and just understanding that if you don’t pay attention to your finances, they will, they will run you and getting some seasoned, I hired a fractional CFO, brought him in, we righted the ship, we started making money again, we figured out a plan to pay off the debt, but that for me was an incredibly humbling experience. And also I think has set me up for massive success now.But it’s like, you don’t want to wait a decade to see that success, unfortunately. Some of those lessons require it.
Quentin (15:48)
Yeah, yeah. Now you’re absolutely right. Some of the, you just said some of the lessons require it. And you know, you have a way, even since our kind of pre-call of dress dropping little, way you phrase things, really just connect with me because you know, you and I both, talked about who our anchor is. You know, we both have an anchor. We both see things from a biblical worldview. And I am reading this book right now by Mark Batterson.Not sure if you heard of him, he’s a pastor in DC, national selling best author. Went to his church and he gave away a free book to everybody there of his new books. I’m not sure if it’s out yet or it should be out recently. I mean, right, soon, but it’s called Gradually Then Suddenly. That’s the name of the book, Gradually Then Suddenly. And he says, things happen in our life two ways. Gradually, then suddenly.
Beka Shea (16:35)
Mmm.Quentin (16:44)
Right. And so like you said, there’s, there’s things as part of the journey that teach you the gradual way to success, the gradual way to discipline, to graduate, to learn how to get a hold of your finances. Right. But then once you let those gradual steps happen, sometimes things just happen suddenly. But it, it left actually was happening gradually, but sometimes you get to see it kind of suddenly, like, because you’ve put in, um, in aBeka Shea (17:10)
Yeah.Quentin (17:12)
And a long obedience is what he talks about as well. And so when I listen to your journey, he said, listen, you wish it didn’t take 10 years, but some of the things it did. And that’s just part of sometimes the gradual and then sometimes the sudden. And so like I said, you have a way of activating things in me. So I don’t intend to talk this much, but you always saying something that’s kind of very, perfect. Absolutely.Beka Shea (17:35)
Yeah, I love thatbecause it taught me what it taught me. And I think that it had to have been so big that I actually paid attention to the lesson. It taught me to be in my finances. Right? If it had just been a little blip in the road, would have I would solved the problem because that’s what I do. I solve the problem and then I move on. But it forced me to have the long obedience to my finances.
And to humble myself and say like, don’t get to, you haven’t earned the right to spend that money yet, right? Like you don’t just borrow, otherwise just racking up debt and credit and you have to earn the right to spend the money in business. So, yeah.
Quentin (18:06)
Mm. Mm!So well said, you haven’t earned the right. That’s so well said. And I think that’s important for everybody to recognize for themselves when you’ve earned the right, when you haven’t earned the right. And sometimes, like you said, comes through just big things being in your life that makes you pay attention. And so I love that. love that. Ms. Beka, let me ask you this. What are your next, like
Real goals, like are you focused on solving anything or scaling anything next? What’s the next real goal for you? Business wise and if you want to sprinkle in personal, you know, we are here for that as well.
Beka Shea (18:52)
Awesome. I’m a huge goal setter. actually sit down probably the next two weeks. I’ll sit down in the November time frame and spend a whole morning just thinking about next year. And I start by debriefing this year. Like what were my goals for this year? How did I do? Where was I overly optimistic? What went right? What went wrong? And then I plan for next year. So it’s been on my mind lately. And the first thing is when I think back to this year debriefing it, hadtwo great hires that I brought on that just made my life easier. And it’s funny because I’m in that business. I use behavioral analytics to help CEOs build the right team and like hire for their gaps, right? And build healthy teams. And I started applying it to myself this year because I had earned the right. I spent a couple of years building my book of business. Now I finally had steady revenue and I was like, I want to get some help. And I made, I had made two key hires. I’ve just been
game changers. Like instead of running on the treadmill, like rat race treadmill every single day, I have breathing room and I’ve learned how to manage them, which is also part of the journey is learning how to lead people who are different than you and give them what they need, not just what you want to give them. So my goal next year is I have one more hire to bring on. actually interviewing for them right now and they’re going to be focused on my consulting business, just the client experience. I, my goal is to deliver just the most exceptional client experience.
If you’re watching this right now, you’ll see I’m in a crowded room. It’s because I’m hosting a fundraising dinner for a charity, inviting all my clients. It’s going to be this fancy schmancy event. And I have a couch in my office right now. So that’s the first thing is adding a person to my team for that and just continuing, not getting crazy, but just to continue that steady growth. And then on my real estate side, I started buying my rentals in 2017.
and did a refi on my portfolio. I’ve got about 12 small single and duplexes. Last year I did a 1031 exchange and just the value of my portfolio. went from when I hit that million dollar loss, I went from having maybe $100,000 to my net worth. And then when I started tracking my net worth, it was like 300 grand. And now due to my both investments in my
Quentin (21:09)
Yeah. Yeah.Beka Shea (21:15)
Mainly like two thirds of it’s my real estate portfolio. My net worth is like 2.8 million. So I want to unlock some of that equity and invest in either commercial real estate, light industrial, or where I’m really actually looking at buying a business. So I’d love to buy an HVAC or a septic business. If you’re selling one, if you’re listening to this and you’re in Eastern Pennsylvania, have you got an HVAC or a septic business you want to get out of?Quentin (21:20)
Yeah.Yeah.
Mmm.
guys
Beka Shea (21:44)
Call me.Quentin (21:45)
Yep, thereyou go.
Oh, you know, I love it. You know, so give give the viewers a little bit of peak. You know, that couch is one of the things we talked about earlier. We was like, you I feel for this couch. You know, can we kind of blur it out or put it back around? And we decided to go with it. And I’m glad you brought it up because, you know, again, this shows the journey, right? You are about to host something amazing. In the background. But also.
Beka Shea (22:04)
Yeah.If we do it well, we’ll raise
$10,000 for charity tonight. That’s my goal.
Quentin (22:21)
See that?And the benefit or one of the things that has to happen is that the couch gotta be in a room with her in order for her to go ahead and raise that, raise that you know, that money that she needs. And I just think that is something to kind of keep in mind, like there are bigger things that we are focused on and some of the smaller things, like the aesthetic things, right? Like sometimes the aesthetics may not look the way we want.
Beka Shea (22:29)
Yeah.Quentin (22:49)
but the dream and the goals are so much bigger, right? And we’ll deal with the aesthetics look in a certain way because that doesn’t stop the mission. And so, you know, I know this is just, I mean, I’m gonna bring up the word bravery because I know, you you want your background to look good, but it just speaks to you keeping the main thing, the main thing, right? Like you keeping the main thing, the main thing. And I love it, you know, and I know you, you know.Beka Shea (22:51)
YesMmm.
Quentin (23:17)
You made important hires recently. You’re looking to hire again. And so I just want to speak to relationships for a little bit because you’re putting on a fundraiser. You’re going to have to talk to people building relationships. To me, seemed like that would be a big thing in what you do. You’re teaching leaders. I love how they say, you know, part of leadership is making sure that the, would they say the, the ladder.is against the right wall, right? It’s not just about having the ladder to do the work, but you got to make sure the ladder is leaning against the right wall. That’s part of leadership, right? Anybody can be in management and make sure we have the ladder, but is the ladder actually right in a position where we need it to be? And so with that being said, I want to talk about relationships for a little bit. So how important are relationships to you? So when it comes to growing your network, what’s made the biggest difference for you when it comes to relationships?
Beka Shea (24:13)
Hmm. Well, you said earlier, you said community is common unity and at my heart you asked at beginning of the show, what do I do really well? And I said project management. But actually what I do really well is building community. Although I’m not I’m not actually a super extrovert. ⁓ I build intentional community, right? Like when I’m around my people, I’m incredibly extroverted. But to go out and just network at events.like a chamber event or something, takes my energy down. But what I’m really good at is finding the people in that big space that have the right heart and the right mindset and then bringing them together to amplify them. like tonight, this is going to be a bunch of my CEOs. And while I’m raising money for charity, what I’m really excited about is for them to meet each other because there’s going to be some incredible friendships made.
around these tables tonight. And then the charity we’re raising money for, the Seven Figure Foundation, our whole goal is to get driven business leaders onto mission trips, onto impact trips, we call them. Because as a business leader, you and I, we get so busy and there’s no time, there’s no margin right? for stuff, we think. But if we can pause for two days, four days and go,
give back to other people, what happens is we come back changed and we amplify that and we’re renewed and we’re rejuvenated and we’re re-centered. And so the purpose of this foundation is not, it’s to help other people, but it’s actually to help ourselves by getting out of our busy, busy, busy lives and doing stuff for other people.
Quentin (26:03)
So well said, so well said. I’m looking forward to what you’re doing. I wish you all the best, but you’re doing, I know it’s going to be exciting and successful, especially if people already have a relationship with you. I think just, we’ll talk more about that because I’m like you. I always tell people my purpose is to unite and my passion is through storytelling. So I am like you. I am a connector. I love connecting people together. I think that’s part of one of my big purposes in life.Beka Shea (26:18)
Woohoo!Quentin (26:33)
is to connect people together, people that may have never been in the same room, just to connect them and put them in the same room and to find that common unity, right? And so everything you said, again, you have a way of just saying stuff that just deeply resonate with me. So I thank you so much. Listen, before we wrap, if someone wanted to reach out to you, connect with you, learn more about what you’re doing, what’s the best way for them to reach out to you?Beka Shea (26:58)
great email. I’ve gotten pretty good about an email system text messages. I suck at social media messages. I suck at but emails good. So Beka, you know, I feel like there’s so many communication methods. You got to you got to pick one that works and stick with it. So ⁓ Beka [email protected].Quentin (27:07)
YouAbsolutely.
Absolutely. But there she is.
Beka Shea (27:24)
You can find me on social media too. mean, like I’m usually on Facebook. I’m never on Instagram. I’m always on TikTok. But if you’re not making a dancing video, I don’t want anything to do withyou.
Quentin (27:36)
And there you is, the way to Ms. Beka’s heart is de-dance. You if you’re trying to sell something, you gotta… Exactly! Right, right! Before she know she… Exactly! She sucked it in and then realized, like, damn it, it was the dancing! Thank you so much, Ms. Beka listen I appreciate you, ma’am. I appreciate your story. I appreciate your perspective. Definitely appreciate your time. Thank you so much for coming and just adding value to our platform. I really appreciate you, ma’am.Beka Shea (27:37)
If you send me a dancing video, am in. You can have as much time as you want.Yeah.
Thanks for having me.
Quentin (28:08)
Absolutely. Well, there she is. heard Ms. Beka. You’ve got the value. Please make sure you’re subscribed. That way you can continue to receive the alerts when this amazing content is out. So again, Ms. Beka, thank you so much. And to everyone else, we’ll see you on the next time.
