From Driving Semis to Multifamily Real Estate: Eric Neely’s 56-Door Investing Journey

Eric Neely (00:00)
then it dawned on me one day when I was listening to podcasts and reading audiobooks and my hold on these things that I’m listening to. And it was because of a pastor that I listened to talking about being guarding our heart on the things that we allow into our mind. Right. And I’m like, hold on now. I’m not guarding my heart. I was listening to politics. I was an angry person. And it was reflecting in my life.

And not the politics aren’t important. are. But when that was all I was listening to every day was the talking heads, man, I was angry and I couldn’t even tell you why. So when I started changing that and I started listening to sermons every day and started listening to self help, you know, Tony Robbins or, know, whatever coaching ⁓ type podcast, positive mindset type things, those were the relationships I was establishing in my life.

And it changed everything. I mean, it really did change everything.

Quentin (02:29)
Hello, everyone. Welcome to the Real Estate Pros podcast. I am your host, Q Edmonds, and I am excited to be here today. I have someone who I know is going to give us a wealth of knowledge. And I’m not trying to put no pressure on him, but I’ve just been talking to him and I love the way he thinks. I love the mindset that he has that anyone can do it.

And so I’m so excited that we get a chance to kind of walk through his journey, to learn kind of how he got to the space where he’s at. And so I’m super excited to introduce you all to Mr. Eric Neely. Mr. Eric, how you doing today, sir?

Eric Neely (03:08)
I appreciate the opportunity to come on here and just get to share my story. It’s been a fun journey getting into real estate investing and I love it.

Quentin (03:17)
I love it, man. Well, I’m glad to hear you’re right, man. We want to learn about the journey, sir. So Mr. Eric, I am the type. I like to dive right in. Right. So I would love for you to tell the people what’s your main focus these days. If you don’t mind, give us a little bit of an origin story, kind of how you got into the space that you’re in. And also tell us what part of the world you’re in. People love to know where people are geographically. So again, Mr. Eric.

What’s your main focus? Your origin story, sir, and where you are. Mr. Eric, my friend, you have the floor, Yeah.

Eric Neely (03:51)
Gotcha.

All right. or main focus, I would say understanding why you want to achieve what you want to achieve. And if that’s owning real estate, why? And to me, that that’s the key to getting started. And even beyond that, it’s the key to building any business. And so even if you have a big multi-million dollar large company, why are you doing it?

If can’t answer that, you’re just chasing dollars because that’s in the long run a painful thing to have to confront. And I think it’s what leads a lot of people to depression and failure. But understanding why is a key element. And so that’s a big focus of what I do today. It’s helping people get to that stage of developing the why behind what they’re trying to achieve in life. And with multifamily investing, which is

one area that I went into in my life. Um, it was really about creating some financial security in my life. So my background kind of led me up to where I am today. I, I’ve got 2 million miles of driving semis down the road all over the, all over the country. And during that time, about 20 years, I spent a lot of my time really just doing self-development, focusing on

building a better life and understanding who I am and what I want to achieve in life. And part of that story was investing. And so I learned all about real estate investing while I was driving down the road. And long story short, this guy who’s working 60 and 70 hours a week driving down the road and only home on the weekends and working all hours of the night, I bought my first 24 unit while I was doing that.

And then five years after owning that refinanced it, kept it, and then bought a 32 unit in a joint venture. And we still own and operate that today. So today 56 stores is where I’m at. And also through that process, we, did authentication with a partner of a hundred units and, we exited out of that one. And it’s just been a great journey. I know there’s a lot I just said there, but it’s,

It’s been a lot of fun and real while I never built a big real estate company and I do do the asset management on these two. ⁓ And I help with property management as well. Just making daily decisions, not necessarily cleaning toilets, but ⁓ you know, having my hands on all of that and remaining in the network and talking to guys who are doing 3000 unit operations, you know that.

It’s fun stuff. I really enjoy it. It’s a great tax benefit. for those who are wealthy out there, understand that they can use depreciation schedules to really offset a lot of taxes in their ⁓ portfolio. so, you know, there’s a lot of big pros to it. And I love that. And so and then where am I from? Wichita, Kansas, air capital of the world. If you’ve ever heard of Boeing or Cessna or Beechcraft.

That’s where we’re located. It’s right here in the middle of the country. You put a bullseye on a map and you’re gonna hit Wichita, Kansas. So that’s where we are today. That’s the quick and dirty on me. I’ve got five kids and a wife. I lead church ministry work. I run a leadership company and I do coaching. that’s, man, just throw it all out there. That’s who I am. I got two dogs and I love them.

Quentin (08:09)
Man, well, thank you for not leaving out the last part, church ministries, five kids and a wife, two dogs, like leadership at church, I love it. My dad’s been a pastor for over 40 years. so, yes, serving the body of Christ, man, I’m with you, brother. So that’s amazing, sir. Thank you, man. Thank you for taking us through the journey. Man, I make a statement, I ask a question, I’m gonna love asking you this, because brother, you have

two million miles as a truck driver, right? So everything you just said, you gave me the summary of I don’t even know how many years and kind of like four minutes, right? So life happens and unfolds not in four minutes, but just over these years, Two million miles and everything, right? So Mr. Eric, I often say destiny has no wasted moments, right? Destiny has no wasted moments.

Eric Neely (08:53)
Sure.

Quentin (09:04)
I’ll do it out like this for you. We make our plans, but the Lord determines our steps, right? He determines the outcome, Yeah, right? I’m on the seat. There you go, right? So, sir, you know, we made plans, but God has unfolded and He’s unfolding the story. So I would love to know over your journey, sir, over the moments, over the miles.

Eric Neely (09:11)
Absolutely. Proverbs 16, 9. It’s right here on my wall. It’s right there on my wall, man. Yeah.

Quentin (09:29)
What has this journey, this real estate journey, this life journey taught you about yourself? Has it taught you discipline? Has it made you humble? Has it taught you resilience? Like what has this journey revealed to you about yourself, sir?

Eric Neely (09:42)
sure, all those words you just used, they’re certainly part of that story. I’d say…

It taught me how to establish goals. It taught me how to put a why behind it. Cause I didn’t really understand that that was so important, but it is because it comes into play in the resilience part. Because if you don’t understand why you’re doing what you’re setting out to do when the hard times come, you’ll quit, you’ll give up and you won’t follow through.

And so that’s probably been one of the biggest things that I learned was understanding why it is I want to do this. you know, for me, legacy was part of the answer was establishing something that I can pass down, pass on from any generation, something I can teach my kids, ⁓ but also something that I can use, you know, I’m not just building it for them. Well, I think that’s great. You know, it’s something that I’m using today in my own financial life.

And so, so that’s some of it. And I’ll tell you that going through that process is ultimately what led me to TWT leadership, the Wealthy Trucker leadership, that element of the business, because that’s my big focus is helping people establish that in their own life, establishing a 10 year vision and creating a five year pathway. And then ultimately one year.

Tangible thing that they can look at and say all right if I do this thing in this next year that really makes the next five possible and and then my tenure is becoming a reality and they’re really breaking that down into like two-week action steps I still have a real estate group that I ⁓ Meet with every three weeks we’ve met for the last three or four years and I’ve watched the other members of that group go from

I just having a dream of wanting to own, you know, like one of them, she owns a property in Colorado. It’s an Airbnb. She had that dream 10 years ago and today she owns it. She just bought it maybe two months ago. I think she just closed it. No, she closed down in May. So we’re doing this in June. She just closed down in a month ago. see hearing stories like that are exciting to me and being able to be a part of it and help people get to that is a lot of fun.

Quentin (11:48)
Yeah. Yeah.

Eric Neely (12:01)
And on them because I know the industry being able to do joint ventures and participate in syndications and in a small role, being part of the management team and being able to bring what I bring to the table has been a great way to earn equity and get involved in multifamily investing. So, ⁓ that’s what excites me about it all.

Quentin (13:00)
Yeah, man. I love, you know, one of the things you said is what’s your why? You know, helping people kind of develop their why and you understanding your why. ⁓ Pastor, you know, I heard I was at a pivotal time in my life. I heard a pastor say, when you know who you are, you know what to do. And man, that impacted me because that helped me figure out my why. Because when I know who I am, when I know my why, drop me in any situation.

I’m going to figure out what I need to do because I know my why. I know what I’m pouring from. I know the difference from the role I play to the identity that I am. You know what saying? And so, man, I absolutely love that, sir. And I love that you’re helping people develop that. Mr. Eric, what’s next for you in the business, sir? And I love the Wealthy Trucker, man. I’m so glad you gave me that because I’m seeing TWT. I’m so glad you put that out there. But what’s next for you, sir? Like, what’s the next real goal? What are you looking to solve with Scale Next, sir?

Eric Neely (13:57)
Um, next time I put together a workbook that, um, it really is helping guide people through this platform or the framework that I call life is like a truck. I’ll just give it a real quick. I know I don’t have a ton of time on the podcast, but you got faith, family, fitness, and finance are four key elements. And I tie that to a truck. You’ve got the cab, which is your focus and your purpose. That’s your faith.

Quentin (14:12)
Take your time.

Eric Neely (14:21)
And then you’ve got the trailer, which is your responsibilities. It’s your family. It’s your kids. It’s the things you have are hauling around in your life that you’re responsible for. got your fuel tanks, which is your mental fitness and your physical fitness. And this is important because when we aren’t thinking clearly, we can’t pull off goals. And then you got your engine. That’s your drive to succeed. It’s your finances. It’s the money. It’s money as a tool. And that’s important.

Because when we talk about money and we just want to own a business because we want to make all kinds of money, I’m like, man, money is a tool. It’s not a thing to set your goal on. You know, it’s a tool to make more money. Fine. I don’t care how much money you want to make, but don’t idolize it. Use it as a tool because that’s what it is. And then we’ve got mirrors on the truck. These are your reflection moments. Look back at your past failures. Learn from them. Turn them into wisdom.

Quentin (14:57)
Yes.

Eric Neely (15:13)
Don’t let them drag you behind. can’t stare in the mirror and focus on what’s ahead in your life. And then finally you got the wheels. These are your action steps. These are the habits in your daily actions that keep you rolling, give you traction in life. It’s prayer in the morning. It’s doing pushups. It’s whatever it takes for you to stay focused. It’s looking at an affirmation sheet.

pulling things out of the, they’re sitting here on my desk that keep me focused. And so why do I bring that up? It’s a workbook that I just developed and there’s nothing new about it. You know, this is all leadership stuff that has been taught for thousands of years. A lot of it comes out of proverbs and it’s, so it’s, it’s just a different way to frame it. And so for me, the next step is doing workshops, doing public speaking and really

Quentin (15:53)
Come on.

Eric Neely (16:03)
promoting the book the workbook and working through it with people whether that’s in real estate, which I love or Or just any area of their life. I don’t care if you want to own a You know a 2,000 unit portfolio or if you you want to build a dog washing business, it doesn’t matter. Why are you doing it and Your own worst enemy is yourself and your own negative self-talk and so helping people overcome that and

Quentin (16:19)
Yeah. Yeah.

Eric Neely (16:29)
holding them accountable to what they said they were gonna do. That everybody needs that. I don’t care what industry you’re in, everybody needs that. So that’s what’s exciting for me is just being able to help people. Adding value. know, got a multifamily was a value add play all day long. That’s how we’re gonna make so much money on these two properties, value add, value add. I’m talking about how do we add value to people every day in this business. So add value is the name of the game, my friend.

Quentin (17:34)
Man, family, mean, faith, family, fitness, finance, man, just some of the things you said. I love how you’re adding value. I love how you talked about doing pushups in the morning and affirmations because when you said it, I felt good because I actually did my pushups this morning. Mr. Eric actually did my pushups. ⁓ I try to listen to a proverb a day because I believe, like you said, it’s so much nuggets and instruction packed in. If anybody, anybody just read the first.

Eric Neely (17:49)
Nice. Good job. Good job.

Quentin (18:03)
chapter of five rips. It leaves out why he’s writing his five rips. You’ll be surprised at why he’s selling you he’s writing his five rips. So I mean, I do a five rips a day. And so, man, I love it. My wife, her dad, ⁓ we lost him five years ago, but he was a truck driver for many years. And so for her birthday last year, I bought her, I’m a truck driver’s daughter, shirt, you know. ⁓

Wawa was his favorite place to stop at. And so I bought a Wawa shirt. So I’m looking forward to telling my wife about you once we get off, because she has a soft spot for truck drivers because of her dad. And so you guys are doing, you your work is incredible. I was a mailman for 14 years. So 24,000 steps a day. And so when you said 24 miles, you know, it kind of registered with me because it’s just, it’s that daily grind. so, but I appreciate how.

Eric Neely (18:40)
There you go, awesome.

Quentin (18:58)
you have home knowledge that it’s a one it’s a help people, you know, and I always say at the, I believe that the foundation of any sustainable business is servitude. And so that walks me to the next question I want to ask you, because I love getting people that come on and show their perspective when it comes to the word relationship. And so you have synthesized relationship, you’re helping people. And so I want to hear your philosophy on that word relationship, Mr. Eric.

Eric Neely (19:23)
First thing comes to mind is, uh, I think it’s a Jim Rome philosophy or quote, but it’s, uh, you are a product of the five people you surround yourself with. And so relationships absolutely matter. Um, and also it makes me think of, do prison ministry and that’s, that’s part of the ministry work I do. And when I talked to guys about, you know, when they’re getting ready to release out of prison and go back into society, I ask them, what’s your plan? And many times they don’t have an answer. And I’m like, listen, if.

your family or your friends or the reason you’re in prison today, you cannot go back to them because those relationships are what makes you who you are today. I don’t care how resilient you think you are. If you go to the drug house and you are rehabbed, unquote rehabbed, you’re going to be around those people. You will be like those people. So get away from those people. If that’s what you want, you know,

What is the simplest thing I think I like to tell people? If you don’t want to be an alcoholic, don’t go to the bar. It’s simple. Your relationships with other people matter. And I took that in the truck when I first heard that and started like, how do I implement this in my life? I’m driving a truck. I don’t see anybody. I only see people when I’m at truck stops and at the terminal and everybody’s dropping F bombs and I just…

Quentin (20:31)
Hmm.

Eric Neely (20:41)
how I can’t I can’t adjust that unless I quit. You know, that was my thought. And then it dawned on me one day when I was listening to podcasts and reading audiobooks and my hold on these things that I’m listening to. And it was because of a pastor that I listened to talking about being guarding our heart on the things that we allow into our mind. Right. And I’m like, hold on now. I’m not guarding my heart. I was listening to politics. I was an angry person. And it was reflecting in my life.

And not the politics aren’t important. are. But when that was all I was listening to every day was the talking heads, man, I was angry and I couldn’t even tell you why. So when I started changing that and I started listening to sermons every day and started listening to self help, you know, Tony Robbins or, know, whatever coaching ⁓ type podcast, positive mindset type things, those were the relationships I was establishing in my life.

And it changed everything. I mean, it really did change everything.

If I hadn’t had those, if I hadn’t had that time to do that, which I feel somewhat guilty almost in a way, because this is a thing that a Trucker can do. Any Trucker out there can do this. You can change your attitude. You can change your behavior. You can. You can do anything. You can learn so much behind the steering wheel of that truck because you have

Quentin (21:52)
Yeah. Yes.

Eric Neely (22:04)
all day long to devote to education, whether that’s audio books or podcasts, you can learn so much. And that’s what I did. Driving the truck, I learned how to preach. I learned how to teach. I learned how to buy multifamily, real estate. know, I go from a guy who never would dreamed of a million dollars in my life on something. And then I buy two multimillion dollar properties. know, it’s things like that when you have the education.

You can do anything. so relationship. That’s my long answer to why relationships are so important, because they are everything. If you surround yourself with the wrong people, you’re going to become those people. That’s the long and the short of it.

Quentin (22:38)
Yes.

No, man. Listen, you see the smile on my face as you was talking because 24,000 steps a day, six days a week, that’s all I did as well was listen to podcasts, audio books, sermons. That’s all I did, man. And you’re absolutely right. It started to rewire my brain. I started taking my mindset very, very seriously. And that’s where I started to adjust my life.

Eric Neely (22:48)
Yeah.

Yes

Quentin (23:10)
Everything had to line up with the mindset, with the person that I was trying to create, the person that God said I could be. Everything had to line up. And that’s why I said, when you know who you are, you know what to do. You can’t go anywhere without your mind, people. And so when you change that mind, that mind dictates where the body’s going to go. So when you tell your mind, this is what we’re going to do, your body has to start going towards it. And I know that sounds crazy, but I mean, y’all can check me. That’s how things work. You can’t go nowhere without this. So when you change that,

Eric Neely (23:36)
Absolutely other things were again.

Quentin (23:38)
Man, that’s why we know we talk about the law of attraction, which I think is real. But also what I more importantly think is real is when you have a renewed mind, you go after the thing that you are telling your mind we’re going to do. And so I hear you,

Eric Neely (23:53)
Yes. That’s

why, you know, I think about that all time. Napoleon Hill’s book, Think and Grow Rich, where you’re pulling some of that from, think. then I go to Romans 12, too. Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. And this is where I come back to focusing on money versus focusing on adding value. Man, can make, I shouldn’t say I, anybody can make as much money in the world as they want.

Quentin (24:07)
That’s cool.

Eric Neely (24:21)
Okay, but as long as they are adding value to the world and that’s their goal, that’s their focus. You can do that as a Christian all day long and be a multi-billionaire. I don’t care how much money you’re making. Or you could be the multi-billionaire who only cares about the money, the world be damned and you, in my opinion, are kind of garbage. I know that’s harsh language, but this is the vast difference. It’s the difference from being conformed to this world or being transformed and have your mind renewed.

Quentin (24:31)
Yeah.

Yeah, I hear you.

Absolutely.

Eric Neely (24:49)
It’s

absolutely two different people maybe achieving the same things in life, but doing it for very different reasons. so it just, yeah, I get on fire with that kind of stuff.

Quentin (24:55)
Yes

Listen, I see

and I tell you, we’re here, man. We’re here like you are literally stealing my thunder because this is what I talk about so much on this show is the mindset. You know, I don’t sometimes present it as a renewal of the mind, but you and I understand that’s what it is. It’s the renewal of the mind. And so try to try breadcrumbs, man, for people to get that mind renewed. One of the books I love to mention on this show is a book by Dr. Caroline Leaf called Switch on Your Brain.

Eric Neely (25:08)
Hahaha.

Yes.

Quentin (25:28)
called Switch on Your Brain. And she’s a neuroscientist, but she’s also a Christian. And so like the opening statement, one of the opening statements of her book, is she says, science is just now catching up to the Bible. And she literally talks about the renewal of the mind. And so, and how God designed it. Like she says, you can do brain surgery on yourself. That’s what she says because it’s plastic and exposed then. man, so that’s one of the things.

Eric Neely (25:39)
Yes.

Quentin (25:55)
I listened to you while I was being a male man. And man, that just started renewing my mind. You know what I mean? So yeah, yeah, yeah.

Eric Neely (26:01)
Absolutely. You know,

I love it. I think I’m going to look up that book. love reading and learning new things about this. I’m not a trained psychologist, but it’s in a different life. think I could have been if I liked college, let’s put it that way. If I liked college, I’d probably be a psychologist today.

Quentin (26:12)
Gotcha.

You’re my brother.

I feel the same exact way. Same exact way. Same exact way. Listen, man, I thank you, sir. Thank you, Mr. Eric, for coming on. 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,

Eric Neely (26:34)
Absolutely. Well, LinkedIn, I’m on LinkedIn, Eric Neely there. But then you can go to my website. So it’s a schedule call and learn more about kind of what I’m doing there. And that’s the thewealthytrucker.com

Quentin (26:45)
Yeah, yeah, I love it. But listen, sir, let me say three things to you sincerely, One, thank you for your time. Time is our most precious commodity. So man, thank you for the value and the opportunity to spend time with you today. I really appreciate that. Thank you for your time. Secondly, sir, thank you for your story. I often, you know, I get a chance, when I do, get a chance to say Jesus taught in parables, right? So stories are powerful, man.

They have a way of planting seeds in people. We may never see the growth, but the seed is there. And that seed can take hold and grow at any given time, two years from now, three years from now, five years from now. So thank you for coming on and telling your story, your narrative, literally planting seeds that can change somebody’s life. So thank you for that. Lastly, sir, thank you for your mindset. Thank you for the way you think and bringing that mindset to this platform. I appreciate you coming on today, sir.

Eric Neely (27:39)
Well, thank God for putting it in my head because he’s the one I have to ⁓ thank. he’s directing my steps, put it that way. It’s been a good journey and I look forward to the rest of my life. It’s like the word retirement. I don’t see that ever happening. I can do this till I die. So I appreciate you bringing me on cue. This has been fun. I love having the opportunity to be able to share my story. And you’re right, are a big deal. ⁓

Quentin (27:56)
You

Yeah. Yeah.

Eric Neely (28:08)
I went from the idea of the Wealthy Trucker. like, who’s going to like that? And no more I thought about it. I’m like, you know what? It’s a catchy thing that people are going to want to learn about. And there’s a lot of story behind it. And so I think it’s worth it. Anyway, thank you, man.

Quentin (28:19)
Yes, Yes, Man, valuable work

you’re doing, man. Valuable work. So again, thank you, man. Appreciate you. So listen, y’all heard this to Eric. Please get in contact with him. His information is in the show notes. Get connected to him. But definitely make sure you’re subscribed here, because I’m promising you we’re going to continue to bring up amazing people just like Mr. Eric. So sir, I say thank you again for coming on. And everyone else, you’ll have a fantastic day.