How a Real Estate Wholesaler Built a Brand by Helping Sellers First | Dakota Bailey

Dakota Bailey (00:00)
We don’t try to always make, the absolute maximum. Do we want to make a profit? A hundred percent. But sometimes we don’t actually even make money. And that doesn’t mean that we’re not going to do the deal. I see a lot of wholesalers. They’re just like, we’re not making anything. They’ve already listed the property. They already got it under contract. They already found the end buyer. But then let’s say a payoff comes up or something. They’re like, you know what? Like, they don’t even put the deal together because they’re not going to make anything. And for me personally, I see that as like an opportunity to help.

The buyer get a property that hopefully they’re going to make money on. The seller have a good experience with us, which is going to help us in the long term,

Quentin Edmonds (01:09)
Hello, everyone. Welcome to the Real Estate Pros podcast. I am your host, Q Edmonds, and I am excited today. I’m excited about my guests. We’ve been talking a little bit, and the number one thing, because I take a lot of notes, if y’all know.

Number one thing I got written down here, helping people. So he absolutely loves to help people. I love the way how he talked about building the brand in a healthy way. He is a founder, expert in sales. he’s been through a flip model, focusing out on wholesale. I’m love to get more into that, but he knows exactly what he’s doing. And you know what I love? I love when we get to peek and learn experience through the lenses of others. And so I’m so excited today.

That we get to learn from Mr. Dakota Bailey. Mr. Dakota, how you doing today, sir?

Dakota Bailey (01:58)
Good, man. Thanks so much for having me, bro. I’m excited to get into it.

Quentin Edmonds (02:02)
My man, well, listen, I’m glad you’re excited. I’m glad you’re here. I’m glad we get to do this. I’m gonna say this now and I’ll probably say it again. Thank you for your time, man. I think time is our most precious commodity. So, sir, thank you. I value you for being here today. I love to dive right in. 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 origin story, kind of how you got into the spaces that you’re in.

And then tell them where you are in the world. People love to know where people are geographically. And so Dakota, my friend, you have the floor, sir.

Dakota Bailey (02:33)
Let’s go. All right, yeah. So I’ll just start off with the last question you asked first. In Fort Wayne, Indiana. So we’re in the Midwest. and something that I would did want to point out too is a lot of people say help people and they just use this very general term. and so like what does that actually mean? And I was describing it to you, Q, right before, but I think in wholesaling we have a unique opportunity to legitimately help people and helping people

doesn’t mean that you don’t make money. It just means that you’re helping them with what they want to solve. A lot of agents get mad at wholesalers because they think that we rip people off. I say, no, we are looking for what they actually want. And if you can get really good at questioning and finding out what are they really looking for, not what their surface answer is, like what are they really trying to accomplish, then you’re gonna find out how you can actually help them accomplish that. Yeah. I also just really believe that, I described this to you too.

We don’t try to always make, the absolute maximum. Do we want to make a profit? A hundred percent. But sometimes we don’t actually even make money. And that doesn’t mean that we’re not going to do the deal. I see a lot of wholesalers. They’re just like, we’re not making anything. They’ve already listed the property. They already got it under contract. They already found the end buyer. But then let’s say a payoff comes up or something. They’re like, you know what? Like, they don’t even put the deal together because they’re not going to make anything. And for me personally, I see that as like an opportunity to help.

The buyer get a property that hopefully they’re going to make money on. The seller have a good experience with us, which is going to help us in the long term,

hopefully. and so at the end of the day, we’re gonna move that deal forward and hopefully get a review. And if not, if we don’t get anything, the absolute worst case scenario is again, like we said from the beginning, we helped somebody. And that to me feels good. I truly believe that this feels like actually helping people. And if you can really get yourself to know that you’re helping.

You will scale like so crazily. If you feel like you’re ripping people off, I promise you, even if you do really well, eventually you’re gonna be like you you will not be able to continue to do this. But if you feel like you’re helping people and you’re making money, dude, it’s just like this accelerant that’s just insane. So my background, I came from car sales. I started car sales when I was 20 years old. you know what? Let’s go back even further. Let’s go back all the way to the beginning. When I grew up, I grew up

In a family that was on a lot of drugs. Like my uncles were selling drugs, making it, my parents were on it. one of my first memories was actually me getting off the bus. I’m walking up to the door with my older sister and I see my little sister there and my aunt and I can’t see my mom and my dad. They’re both gone. Like, hey, where are they? And my aunt just said very bluntly, Hey, your your dad’s in jail and your mom’s in the hospital.

my dad almost killed my mom. She was unconscious, broken collarbone. There was shots fired. I mean, there’s blood, water all over the house. It was crazy. So that’s one of my first memories. And that’s part of what made me who I am today, is because in that moment, I actually got asked this at a self help seminar. They’re like, what were you feeling in that moment? And I was like, I had to really think about that. Yeah. And that was the moment that I realized I had to step up as a man.

And I’m like, okay, I gotta take care of my sisters because now there’s no man in the house, right? My dad went to jail for quite a long time. It was probably like I think it was like five to seven years he was in prison. So then I felt like I had to be the man of the house. Fast forward, we ended up in foster care because of some other stuff that happened. And so again, luckily my sisters and I got to stay together, but I really felt this protection of like showing up and being strong for other people. Yeah. And so that’s where I started.

Fast forward to, high school, I turned into like this confrontational, very defiant person, not for defiance sake. It wasn’t just for authority, it was because I believed that they were wrong and because they weren’t actually telling the truth. And so that’s a very important distinction is a lot of the teachers told me that you’re gonna end up in jail, you’re not gonna be anybody, and were telling me like, hey, you don’t listen to anybody, and so you will never have a job.

And they were right in some sense, but I’ll actually listen to people if they’re telling the truth, if they’re worth listening to. I taught I described to you my mentors, but they actually know what they’re doing. And I can one of my giftedness, I’m a believer, and so I believe one of the fruits of the spirit is discernment. And so that’s something that I feel like was a gift that I was given from God was discernment. So I’m able to discern right from wrong what if people are telling the truth. And that was a gift that has been crafted from

my past and all of the things that I’ve experienced. So right after high school, I completely flipped the switch. It was something just shifted in me. I went from like this defiant kid who didn’t want to listen. I was like just pent up, like ready to go. Like, all right, let me work. And then I go to I started in landscaping making $10 an hour, not knowing that you got paid overtime if you work a crazy amount of hours. So I’m working like 60, 70 hours a week.

and then I saved up two, three grand to try to survive the winter time. If you know anything about Indiana, that’s still not enough. Like I thought it’d be enough, but I always had to find a winter job. So I ended up in trailer factories I went to a place in Texas. And then one winter I almost ended up in a trailer factory and then I had a pivot point. I decided, okay, I can either go to a trailer factory, which is where most of my family works, because they made good money.

Or I could go to car sales because like I had a guy call me and said, Hey, which one would you rather do? And I’m like, dang, you know what? I think I’d rather dress up nice and talk to people. That sounds kind of fun. Yeah. And so I decided to go that route. Fast forward, took off. sales person of the year, four years in a row. just did very well because again, I was more worried about not necessarily pushing certain cars because there were certain cars that got spiffs.

I was about like, hey, what do you want? What are you really looking for and helping people to get that? And so I just skyrocketed and giving people a really good experience and then it just took off. then four years in, read a book, Rich Dad, Poor Dad, and that’s how I got into real estate. And that’s kinda like my life story all the way up until this point.

Quentin Edmonds (08:26)
Man, bro. So thank you, sir. thank you for sharing your story, taking us through the journey. so many different things that you said I find just kind of lines up with some of the things that we talk about here on the show, particularly when I’m talking to people. And so

I love how you broke down like what helping people, like really what that means and how that looks. And I love the fact that you talked about you a believer, because when you was explaining helping people, Proverbs 11:25 came to mind. And I’m gonna paraphrase it, but it says, When you refresh others, you in return will be refreshed. And so when you bless others.

Like you said, sometimes it there’s a money aspect to it, but sometimes you’re not making money, but you still are blessing and pouring into. And that’s why I believe you continue to be successful because you’re living by kingdom principles, right? You refreshing others and you in return is getting refreshed. And so I appreciate that, man. I appreciate everything you’ve said. And so, Dakota, I’m gonna ask you this. I always say destiny has no wasted moments, right? It has no wasted moments. Like we are learning from every leg of the journey.

it’s no losses, it’s just a lesson, it’s trial and error, where it reinforces the people we are today. So, Dakota, I’m loving everything you told me. I love how you just laid out your story. So I would love to know what has the journey revealed to Dakota about Dakota? Has it made you more disciplined? Has it made you more humble? Like what has this journey revealed to you about yourself, sir?

Dakota Bailey (10:35)
Man, there’s a lot that I’ve reflected on. the biggest thing about entrepreneurship, and I’m sure you’ve heard this quote, but they always say entrepreneurship is like the greatest self development journey you’ll ever go on, because that’s really what happens. Is like you have some crazy ups, you have some crazy downs, and what it does is it helps to reveal like who you really are and who God created you to be. And so,

I am super grateful for those. some of the biggest moments that I can think of, one of which was a divorce in my early twenties. That was one that took me, so I’ll just go back and kind of tell you guys where I was at then. I was twenty-four, I was making hundred and fifty thousand dollars a year. And Fort Wayne, Indiana, that was good money. I know for some people in some areas it’s not that much, but like, dude, if you’re making a hundred and fifty K, my house payment was eight fifty a month.

it was crazy. I was just stacking money, like and I felt like life was great. And it felt like, to be honest, my mindset was, hey, all the bad stuff happened to me when I was young. now that I couldn’t control, that stuff was out of my control. now that I can control my destiny, things are gonna be good because I’m gonna make good decisions, right? I don’t drink, I don’t party, I don’t do drugs, I’m not

Out there doing crazy stuff. Now that like you said, Proverbs. Proverbs is basically saying, like, hey, you do good, you will get good. But then you gotta remember about Ecclesiastes that says that, like, hey, life happens by chance. And even if you do everything the right way, there’s still a possibility that things might not go well. And then you got Job, right? That that’s a reminder that God’s ways are way bigger than our ways. And if we try to understand what He actually is doing, creating in us

we can’t even think about it for a second. And so all of those are true at the same time. if you do proverbs and you live by God’s principles, odds are things will be better for you. But chance happens, good people have bad things happen, bad people have good things happen, right? And then God’s ways are so much bigger than ours. So that’s really what it came down to in that moment was things were not just gonna continue to go up like I thought. And that’s what I found out was from that divorce.

And what was harder for me in that moment was it brought me back to the childhood trauma of honestly some stuff that happened with my mom because after everything happened with my dad, to be honest, my mom started dating a guy. That guy did some things to my sister. I was supposed to be the one to protect her. So I carried some shame, some guilt from that. and it also made me distrust women a lot.

And I did not realize that I have a distrust because I like of that whole relationship. And so when the marriage happened, there’s no blaming that on anybody else. Like, right? I was a part of that. I was in the marriage. And so that was like a reflection point for me. And I realized that I had a whole lot of trauma that happened from a long time ago. And I contributed to that without knowing it.

All of that being said, that was a huge moment for me that I learned a lot of like, okay, don’t let work overwhelm you. One, things are not like who you are when you’re really high makes a big difference. You know, like I was actually just talking to a friend this morning, and there’s a person of friend of ours who’s not doing so well right now in the real estate space, got a lot of debt, and he’s like, Bro, he’s so humble now. I’m like, humility is not shown when you’re getting crushed, right? That’s usually when it’s created.

But you how you know when you have humility is when you start to go all the way back up and then you find out how you treat other people then, how you show up then. That’s when you know if you actually learned the lesson. Everybody’s humble when they’re getting punched in the face. Right. And so that was just a big lesson for me. And honestly, I don’t think there was anything else that would have changed the way that I looked at myself because that was something that I cared about almost more than anything.

And then it was taken from me. I could have lost my job, I could have lost a lot of stuff and I’d have been fine. It wouldn’t have bothered me as much. But losing that made me really do some self-reflection. So that’s one big moment. One other big moment that I want to share just because, I talk a lot about my life and hopefully people can get some lessons from it. But I want to give a real life applicable for like real estate investors specifically, because this is a time that back in 2022, you could throw a house on the market and

Boom, 30k above list. To be honest, I started thinking I’m smart. I started getting an ego being like, bro, you know what? Everything Dakota touches turns to gold. And so when I’m underwriting, I’m like, close enough. Boom, let’s do it. And we didn’t lose money, like almost ever. Well, then you know what starts to happen is like again that mindset of like, nah, we’re so good that we’ll just run it and make it. We forget about the principles that got us there. It’s not me that’s making anything touch,

That turns into gold. It’s the principles that I’ve learned that I applied. and so that’s really where I had to take a step back when we started taking some losses on some flips. Back in 23, I think is when it started shifting. We started taking a couple. And then I looked at I’m like, I knew that up front. The numbers showed it up front. I just started thinking that I’m so freaking good that I can outsmart the principles that got me here. And that’s just not true. And that’s what I would caution people on is

Just not thinking that it’s because of what they do that gets them there. It’s the principles. It’s making sure that you have your RV, making sure you actually are running your numbers and not just thinking that you’re going to make it work. Now, on a wholesale, sure, you can take a risk because there’s not really a risk. As long as you set the right expectations with the seller, hey, don’t do anything until I get this contingency out of place. On a flip, you better run your numbers and be very, very confident in them and don’t think that you’re going to fix it on the back end. You fix it on the front end. But again, like we all know that.

But I’m telling you, like that mindset gets in once you start doing something, you start making some good money, you start thinking you can take more risk. Just don’t. So that’s what I’ve learned.

Quentin Edmonds (16:47)
Brother, you man, listen, man, you covered so much ground in that explanation. I appreciate it, man. You gave some gold nuggets. And so I love how you came back to like kind of giving like some practical stuff for people that’s within the real estate space, people that’s building, right? So I want to ask you a little bit about operations, right? So I want to know for you what’s one operational thing you’ve put into place, let’s say the last maybe year or two that has really helped you, be successful.

Dakota Bailey (17:14)
Man, I’m I would go straight to honestly our sales process because that’s what I feel like I probably know the best and have spent a lot of time in because when I hired our first guy, we didn’t even have a sales script. I was like, all right, bro, sit next to me and then I’ll just tell you what to say every time. And that’s how we did it. now we have a step by step process and it’s very calculated.

And so a couple tidbits I’ll just give you guys on the first part of it. So like in the intro, whenever we are getting right on the phone, there’s like I think it’s four or five things that we actually do. there’s a an actual checklist that we give our acquisitions guys that says, Hey, before moving on to step number two, I want these five things. So if it’s an incoming, let’s just say, you know, it’s a direct mail or something. One, obviously we want the address of the property. Seems simple, but sometimes you forget and you’re asking questions about it.

But you don’t have the address, and so you can’t actually look it up while they’re talking. Very important to make sure you get that right up front. Get their name. That changes the conversation. If you’re like, hey, by the way, my name’s Dakota. What was your name? Yeah. hey, nice talking to you. it completely shifts because if you guys have ever taken incoming calls, a lot of times they’re kind of confrontational. As soon as you ask their name, you feel the energy shift. I promise you guys. Ask their name. Even if they said it, yeah, this is Bob, I’ll call them because you sent me a letter.

you say awesome. Hey, what was the address of the property that we sent you the letter on? Awesome. And hey, by the way, my name was good. What did you say your name was again? Nice talking to you, Bob. but it just shifts everything, I’m telling you. the next one that we ask is where did you hear about us? Because sometimes it comes in from a TV ad. It comes in from direct mail, but really like, I got this letter in the mail, but honestly, I saw you guys on TV or I saw you on Facebook. I want to know which marketing’s working. And so we have our acquisitions guys ask that up front.

All right, now we’re getting down to like the one that’s the two questions that are most important before moving on. Okay. So you get a yes that they want to sell the property before moving on. And you ask that up to three times. And this is gonna sound crazy, but it’s so important to get that micro yes because you know what they’re looking for when a seller calls in? The only thing they’re trying to use us for is an offer. Once they get an offer, they’re gone.

They don’t care about you anymore. And so your opportunity is to when you get the offer that you they’re going to make a decision to move forward or not. Right. And so what we say is, hey, Mr. Seller, so if I’m able to get you, the right amount, is this something you want to move forward on today? Well, I don’t know. You just sent me a letter. What are you thinking? Well, I’ll definitely get you that, but I just want to make sure if I am able to get you the right offer, this is something that you would want to do. Well, I don’t even know what terms, and hey, I understand that completely.

But if we are able to make everything work out perfectly, is it something you would feel comfortable moving forward with right now? Yeah. Most of the time, you know what they’re gonna say? Yes. Even if they like it doesn’t mean that you’re gonna get a guaranteed yes at the end. But what it does is it gets them committed. And then now you have something to anchor back to. And they most of the time they’re going to say yes because they want that offer and they feel like this is the only way they’re gonna do it. And it helps to anchor it. All right, so this is sales. So once you get commitment, our goal is to pull back.

Always. So we do this right in the beginning. As soon as they say, Yeah, I mean, if you give me the right offer, then I’d move forward. Okay. Well, perfect. Well, hey, Bob, we don’t buy every property we come across. It really comes down to the exact condition, what you’re hoping to accomplish in the timeline. But what can you tell me about it? Boom. Right into step number two. And so that’s just the first part of it. But we make sure that happens and we make sure that we’re doing that and getting a yes. And I’m telling you.

Just by that alone will raise your probability of actually getting the call or getting the close at the end, getting the contract at the end of that. Now it’s not gonna work because they’re still gonna, go back and say no and like have it, but it makes it that much more likely because you got a micro yes. And there’s a lot of other stuff that we do in sales. But I’ve just got this down to an actual science because bro, there’s so much stuff in sales, and I’m sure you know this, but there’s the words you say.

There’s the tonality in which you say it. There’s the speed of which you say it. Like everything that how fast you respond. Everybody feels weird about AI because of how quickly you respond and all of it. It all changes the odds of somebody moving forward with you. We can’t force anybody to do anything, but we can definitely influence the odds of it. And so every single thing that you do does that. And I’ve started to break it down to a science. And so that’s what I feel like we do better than.

Honestly, probably anybody in the whole country. I did sales training for Ryan Paneda for like five years. I did it for his company. I know a lot of people that’s used script that I’ve made to close a ton of deals. So I think we do it probably better than anybody. But I spent a lot of time and I’ve learned it all from a lot of like the big, big names, and I took everything. Zig Ziglar, Grant Cardone, Jeremy Miner, Pace Morby, like all of the big names. I look all their scripts, Eric Klein, like I can go on Brent Daniels.

I looked at all of their scripts, not just from car sales, but then also from the real estate space. And then I combined them all together and I took the best of all of them and really made a framework. So that’s what I would say we do best, man.

Quentin Edmonds (22:20)
Love

it, man. could you have been more detailed? No, I’m joking. No, I’m playing, man. You are giving us gold, man. I appreciate it, brother. Dakota, what’s next, man? what is the next real goal? What are you looking to solve a scale next? What’s next for you, brother?

Dakota Bailey (22:35)
Yeah, if you mean in business or life?

Quentin Edmonds (22:38)
man, listen, give me both. how did that question hit you?

Dakota Bailey (22:42)
Yeah. That’s a good question because like that’s something like that I’ve been thinking so much about right now. Be and people ask that. So I wanna tell you the truth, okay? Because a lot of people will give you some canned answer and like, we talked about in the beginning, I wanna be really authentic and tell you guys the truth. The truth is when I was twenty years old, I knew exactly what I wanted to do. By thirty, I wanted to be a millionaire. that was the only goal in mind. I was willing to sacrifice quite a bit. I became a millionaire at twenty seven.

And so at that point I was just like, okay, I just kind of kept writing it out. When I’m thirty years old, I met my now wife. We’ve been married, and we have two girls. And so now everything’s different. Like when you get a daughter, when you get kids, things start to shift on what’s the most important. And to be honest, I haven’t identified exactly what is next because the sacrifices that you make are so much bigger.

Now it’s like I’ve realized what I gave up and what it took to get me here. When you’re 20, you don’t even think about it. You just know the goal. And now I’m realizing the sacrifices I had to make and what I’m willing to pay and what I’m not willing to pay. And so it’s something that I’m still creating today. I’ll give you like that’s the real answer, and then I’ll tell you what I’m doing in order to set myself up to do that. Because some people like I’m working on, I’m working on, I’m working on it, but they’re not doing crap. Right. So what I’ve

Done and I think I think a lot of entrepreneurs do is they keep themselves super freaking busy. And I’m very guilty of that. What I’m consciously doing now is I am deciding to I’m selling off my rental properties. So I’m selling off almost all of them. I’m reducing the flipping business to a 99% wholesale business, which is for simplicity’s sake, because we had, like I told you, we had 49 flips going on. The amount of contractors, the amount of bills that are being paid, the amount of insurance payments, the amount of accounting, it’s insane.

We’re going to a wholesale only model now, basically. And so the simplicity is there to where now I can actually see what’s happening. I can manage it easier. I can make tweaks faster. The cash conversion cycle shorter. Everything is more manageable. I’m also getting rid of other businesses that I do have and just basically giving myself more space to be able to actually think and decide what is it that I want to do. And so that’s what I’m actively working on now is getting things off my plate and saying no to more.

so I’m basically only taking what I got and then I’m also shrinking even down what I got, making it simpler. So I’ve been feeling way better now. because I can actually think.

Quentin Edmonds (25:06)
yes. man, I love the way you think it, man. every time you go into detail about something, I kind of want to piggyback on it. But I’m like, if I piggyback on it, we’ll be here for hours. So I love the way you think. I guess the last question I’m gonna ask you before we get into like how people get in contact with you, man.

I always like to get people’s unique perspective on building healthy relationships. You kind of talked about it, you’ve named some people, but I just want to hear your philosophy on healthy relationship building. you’ve talked about some you know relationships that you are, that help you out and you want to expound on that, that’s fine. But I definitely want to get your unique perspective on healthy relationship building within business.

Dakota Bailey (25:43)
Man, that one’s so interesting. because I believe I have a interesting belief. And when you hear it, it sounds bad. But then hopefully I can explain what I mean by it. I’ve been told that I’m a very transactional person. And so that’s very interesting. because I actually kind of believe that. And I believe that all of us are actually more transactional than we think. But when I think of a transaction, what I want to do.

personally is I want to give ten times more than what I ever asked for. That is my goal. Like when I show up, I want to make sure that I’m providing so much value that if I ever ask for a favor, easy yes, because you’re like, my gosh, of course. And that’s my goal is to make sure that I’m benefiting people’s lives and showing up to where no matter what I ever asked for, it’s so small in comparison. And so that is my goal and what I would like to do.

and continue to strive for. And I feel like I have done that in different ways. And I see a lot of other guys, they’re transactional in the sense of like, there’s different energies depending on which seminars you go to. Like I follow, Grant Cardone and I like him. But if you go to a Grant Cardone, they’re just like, hey, what do you do? How much money do you make? What and it’s like that’s a transactional that’s not very fun for me. And honestly, like I don’t do very well with him. And I don’t think anybody really does well. But when you go up to somebody and you’re like, hey, like, hey, what do you do?

how long you’ve been doing that for? Where what mark, you know, you really try to find out. And then you see if there’s anything that you can really do to help them. And then you create an actual relationship with them at that point. that’s how I’ve done it. I’m not just like looking for what I can do or what I can get, but like actually who I like and don’t like, which is one last thing that I do want to touch on is I’m honestly pretty straightforward and blunt.

with people. Like if if I don’t like them, I’m just like I just don’t talk to them and I just, I just will not really interact. And you will know if I don’t like you pretty quickly. doesn’t mean I’m gonna be mean to you. I love everybody. I’m gonna be nice to everybody. I’m gonna respect everybody. But at the end of the day, I’m not gonna be friends with people who I don’t feel like will benefit my life or I can’t benefit their life.

Right. And so that’s what I mean by we’re all transactional in that sense because I believe that if you have friends that are just tearing you down and holding you back, like you’d probably leave them, right? So that’s a transaction that you’re saying, hey, this is no longer serving me. So I gotta end this. So that’s why I believe we’re all transactional in a sense and something that I strive to do. And man, if you’re my friend and we’re there, you call me anything you need at any time, I got you.

Like no matter what, I feel like I’m a a very, very reliable person that if you call me and you’re in trouble or anything, like it’s done. Like I got you.

Quentin Edmonds (28:30)
Yeah. And this is why I love getting everyone’s unique perspective. So to kind of further your point, my father gave me some advice. I wasn’t even I didn’t know I needed it, wasn’t expecting it, but man, when he gave it a hit. So I went to his house, sat down, and I’m about to talk about something. My father says, Son, have you ever seen a tree eat its own fruit?

Dakota Bailey (28:55)
Hmm.

Quentin Edmonds (28:56)
And I’m like, dad, what? And I’ve never I’ve been through a divorce too. And I actually was coming to talk to him because I was on the brink of making that decision. my dad just said, actually again, have you ever seen a tree eat his own fruit? I’m like, no. And he was like, you’re right. He was like, the intent is for the tree to grow the fruit and for somebody else to pluck from it and be nourished by it.

He was like, so sometimes people are plucking from your fruit and it doesn’t feel comfortable, but you are there to nourish people. He’s like, but here’s the beautiful thing: there is a tree that you can go pluck from that’s going to nourish you as well because they’re growing fruit for you. So when I hear you talk about being transactional, it’s not talking about in an unhealthy sense, but no, but you I agree with you. There, you are supposed to grow fruit for people, and there’s people that’s supposed to grow fruit from you.

everybody don’t like apples, everybody don’t like plums, but some people like cherries, right? And you find with what’s going to nourish you. And the beautiful thing about a tree is that it contains the seed, and that thing it can keep going and going and going. And so I love hearing your unique perspective. And I agree with you so much.

Dakota Bailey (30:03)
That is an amazing amazing

Quentin Edmonds (30:05)
Yeah, right.

Dakota Bailey (30:08)
Is your dad Myron Golden or something, bro?

Quentin Edmonds (30:11)
I love Myron but my dad I’m look I’m gonna brag about my dad like my dad he on that level like he on that level like he has blessed a lot of people he’s just wealth full of wisdom and just even hearing about your background that’s why I said I didn’t want to piggyback too much on stuff that you said but even when you talked about your childhood because one of the things when I went to sit down with my dad I’m writing a book with him.

he was taking me through his childhood. And some of the same thing that you talked about, he went through. And I’m so glad that he broke that kind of cycle so that I could have, a better perspective. And I believe that’s what you’re doing for so many different people. So I know you carried a lot of weight, wishing that you could have done things differently. But listen, we don’t dwell on the past. Paul says, forgetting those things, but you are behind, pressing forward towards the mark.

And so I believe that’s what you’re doing. I believe God has graced you to be able to break the cycle in so many different ways. And so that’s when I told you we could be here for hours. We could have been here for hours, man. So I appreciate you so much, Dakota man. listen, sir, 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, sir?

Dakota Bailey (31:23)
Yes, sir. we got Instagram. I put a tag don’t know if it’s going to show for everybody, but it’s dakotabailey.invstr So that’s I-N-V-S-T-R. So it’s spelled a little bit different. So that’s actually my license plate to investor. But that’s on Instagram, that’s on YouTube, and then on Facebook, just Dakota Bailey. we also have an event coming up December first and second. We got Andy Elliott, Eric Cline Tommy Harr. We a bunch of people.

My goal is to bring the best to the Midwest, man. Like that’s the goal because I didn’t even mean to rhyme that. That just came out, bro. I’m like, name that sounded pretty good. I need to record that. The best Let’s go. Exactly.

Quentin Edmonds (31:58)
We’re just recording, sir. We got it.

Dakota Bailey (32:01)
But but I’m really excited for that because I see a lot of My goal is to get Paneda to come here too. because he’s like a mentor of mine, been one of the biggest mentors. I wouldn’t be where I’m at without him.

but at the end of the day, he always made fun of the Midwest and nobody no guys come over here, right? They always go to California, they go to Florida, they go to not now they’re starting to go to Texas more. But either way, I want to bring some cool people into Fort Wayne, into the Midwest, and really change the perspective because I mean, I don’t know if you experience this at all, but a lot of times when you’re when you stay in the same town, you start to think the same thoughts and you don’t realize how much opportunity there is out there and you start to think that it’s not possible for you, right?

And so I’m really trying to break that mold of the Midwest and think and people who feel like they’re not capable of doing something because of their own limited beliefs. Whether it’s you didn’t graduate high school, whether you live in Fort Wayne, Indiana, whether whatever it is, I really want to change that whole mindset. And I believe it happens one person at a time and it continues to create a ripple effect. And so that’s what I want to do is I want to create a huge freaking wave here in the Midwest. So if anybody can make it to that, it’d be amazing. Yeah.

Quentin Edmonds (33:05)
Man. So listen, let me say three things to you, Dakota. I mean exactly what I’m about to say. So first is a reiteration, man. Thank you for your time. Like I value the fact that you gave us some of your time. So thank you for that. Secondly, man, thank you for the gift of your integrity.

The gift of your authenticity and the gift of your vulnerability, man. I truly believe that when we tell our story and we show up in an authentic way, we plant seeds or at least drop seeds, right? Because sometimes people gotta intentionally plant the seeds. we have scattered seed, and you have done that today by being authentic, being vulnerable, showing up with integrity. And I believe that those seeds will take root.

Don’t know when, but I believe that they’re there so they can take root in any given time. So thank you for that. And lastly, man, thank you for your mindset, my brother. Thank you for the way you think and bringing that mindset to this platform. I greatly appreciate you coming on today, sir.

Dakota Bailey (34:06)
Let’s go. Thank you, Q.

Quentin Edmonds (34:07)
Yeah, yeah, absolutely. So listen, y’all heard from Dakota. His information is in the show notes. It’s there. The links are there. Go check him out, connect with him. Definitely make sure you are subscribed here.

Because I promise you, we’re gonna continue to bring up amazing people just like Dakota Bailey So, sir, I say thank you again. And everyone else, y’all have an incredible day.