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How Jason & Kelley Ricker Escaped Corporate Life Through Real Estate Investing

By December 15, 2025Real Estate Pros Show

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Show Summary

In this episode of the Real Estate Pros podcast, host Q Edmonds speaks with Jason and Kelley Ricker about their journey from corporate jobs to achieving financial freedom through real estate. They share insights on personal and business strategies, the importance of communication, overcoming adversity, and the value of relationships in business. The Ricker’s emphasize the significance of mindset, consistency, and taking action to succeed in real estate and life. They also express their passion for coaching others and helping them navigate their own paths to success.

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    Investor Fuel Show Transcript:

    Jason Ricker (00:00)
    we see that as a big holding up point for a lot of people. take, you know, we’re in this information age where you can get, learn anything you want to learn, but until you get out and apply it, and it seems like a lot of people we’ve worked with, like they want it perfect. Everything needs to be perfect from your pitch to whatever, but if you’ll just start and just tweak it on the way as you’re learning, that’s what’s really helped us.

    Quentin (00:15)
    Yeah.

    Welcome to the Real Estate Pros podcast. I am your host, Q Edmonds. And today y’all get two for the price of one. I have two amazing people here and they’re going to tell you that, listen, you don’t have to be huge and have a whole lot of money to begin your journey towards success and wealth. And so I’m so glad that they’re here because they’re going to talk to you about how to get started in doing that. Also, they have

    They have servants hearts, so they want to coach. They want to coach people to success. They want to serve people. And so I am honestly, sincerely happy to introduce you guys to Mr. Jason and Ms. Kelley Ricker. How are y’all doing today?

    Jason Ricker (02:41)
    Doing great, glad to be here. Excited.

    Quentin (02:44)
    Absolutely.

    Listen, I’m so glad to have you here. I know our viewers, we want to get a ton of nuggets and knowledge from you all. And so I’ll be honest, I kind of want to dive in. I would love you all to just let us know what your main focus is these days. If you want to give us a little bit of an origin story about how you got started, you know, we love a hero’s journey. So you want to tell us a little bit of how you got started. We love that. And you want to tell us what markets you’re operating in as well.

    And so listen, the floors you got, please talk to us.

    Jason Ricker (03:16)
    All right, so we’re from Northeast Tennessee, a little place called Greenville in the Tri-Cities area. We were corporate people. We worked in corporate life for over 20 years of our lives, went to school for it and stayed in it. And we hit that 20 year mark, it seemed like, and we just decided we was ready for something new in life. So we picked up real estate. So we hit the ground running and within, I think it was three years, we were both out of our jobs.

    and created financial freedom and we just we’ve hit the ground running ever since and it’s been a fun and wild ride.

    Quentin (03:52)
    I love it. I love it. So let me ask you, how did the, was the conversation a smooth conversation between you two? You know, I’m married, you know, these conversations I had with my wife, you know, she’s a fast processor. I’m a slow processor. So we have to meet somewhere in the middle. And so was it a smooth process handling that conversation with each other, with y’all instantly on the same page?

    Jason Ricker (04:18)
    he started reading all these books, you know, like Rich Dad Poor Dad, Think and Grow Rich. And he’s like, I think you need to read these. And so I read them. And it was, it was kind of crazy. I thought he was the one that was going to do this, you know, like, you know, we were just going to invest on the side, you know, just to get a few rentals for ⁓ retirement and stuff. then I find out he tells me, I think you need to start this business. So I mean, he

    I was totally on board because ⁓ my job was extremely demanding and just really, really tough on me. And so

    I listened and we did it that way. But yeah, I had no idea going in that that’s way it’s gonna be.

    Quentin (05:54)
    Yeah, yeah. So for transparent moment on my end, I’ve been married for three years coming up on four years. And when we did our pre-marital counseling, one of the things we discussed, my wife told me like, listen, I want to get into real estate. I want to be an investor. And I was against it from jump. I was like, I’m not trying to be no landlord. I don’t know nothing about this. And so, you know, I am a professional kind of communicator. like.

    talking to people, freelance writer. Like I love telling stories, hearing other people’s stories. So I wanted that to kind of be my lane. It’s just so happened. I started partnering up with somebody that did a real estate podcast. And so now I’m learning all these things about real estate. And so now it’s like, I have to humble myself and go to my wife and say, babe, he was right. Yeah, we definitely, we definitely, you know, should have gotten a real estate. So it was a humbling experience for me because she’s always been ready to go and I’ve always been the one.

    Jason Ricker (06:45)
    you

    Quentin (06:49)
    to been like, I don’t know about this. so, and that’s why I asked that question. Thank you for shining light on that. You know, I would love to pick your brains about strategies. ⁓ I wanna ask this question if you could, I would love for you to answer it two ways. I would love to know some business strategies that you have used to be successful, but I also would love to know some personal strategies that you use that kinda.

    Jason Ricker (06:52)
    Thank

    Quentin (07:16)
    keep you anchored, keep you focused. know some people do meditation, some people may go to the gym, but what are some personal and business strategies that you found have really helped you along the way in your business journey?

    Jason Ricker (07:30)
    start with the personal? Yeah, so for the personal, when we got started, ⁓ we had a huge, ⁓ we had to have a huge mindset shift, you know, going from being a W2 employee to working for ourselves. And so every day, we would listen to ⁓ something motivational on YouTube. Like we love the older ones like Jim Rohn, you know, who was Tony Robbins, ⁓ first mentor.

    Quentin (07:40)
    Mmm.

    Absolutely.

    Yeah.

    Jason Ricker (08:00)
    We

    love to listen to him and Earl Nightingale. ⁓ Those are just two. But every day we would do that as we were trying to switch our mindset ⁓ from scarcity to ⁓ abundance. we continue to do that. Our faith. ⁓ absolutely. Our faith.

    Our faith has been huge. Like I’ve always believed like we, have felt in like the pit of my stomach that this, that God presented this opportunity for us, you know, and that he would be with us through it as long as we trust him and do the things that we’re supposed to do. And so that’s what we’ve always tried to do. Like every day, every week, just to keep our heads down and do.

    the things that we’re supposed to do to keep our business running and all that that entails. Yeah, and that faith or faith in Christ and how he works through us, that has gotten us through some tough times. As we’ve, you you run into challenges as you transition out of one career into another, especially if you’re like us and starting totally scratch and didn’t know what you were doing.

    You run into these challenges and that kept us grounded. Hey, there’s a bigger purpose. We’re trying to do this to not only help keep us going and feed our families, but we’re really trying to help a lot of people through real estate problems. So our faith, that’s been huge.

    Quentin (09:39)
    Absolutely. No, thank

    Jason Ricker (09:40)
    And then like

    some business practices, like one of the things that we do, like, you know, because we have a special dynamic. We work with each other every day, all the time, you know? And so having business meetings every week has been really, it’s been really important, you know,

    like he has all the things he does in his lane. And then I have all the stuff I do in my lane. And if we don’t talk to each other, you know,

    that can cause, you know, obviously if you don’t talk in your relationship, it can cause problems. Like I’m thinking he’s thinking one thing and in reality it’s something else, you know? And so just keeping open, constant communication is probably one of the biggest things that we work on all the time.

    Quentin (11:03)
    I absolutely love it. Yep, please, yeah. If you got something, Jason, please, absolutely.

    Jason Ricker (11:05)
    And I’m sure you got more. ⁓

    What else?

    The business side, I think the thing that has helped us probably more than anything is just being consistent with everything we do. We set goals each year. We set quarterly projects that we try to get done. Then from those projects, we set weekly to-dos. we’ve always found that if we focus on

    what we’re trying to go after and get the stuff done each and every week. Some weeks it might feel like it’s struggle, but in the end, the deals start showing up, the money shows up for the deals. We’re just super disciplined in how we go about it.

    Quentin (11:54)
    Absolutely. So I’ve heard faith, I’ve heard communication, I’ve heard discipline, I’ve heard that these are some of the strategies. And I said communication, right? Because communication was a big thing. And so these are some of the strategies that you use that you found to be successful. And of course, we know those can apply to anybody. Like if a person’s disciplined, great communication, and of course, know anchored in our faith, that can really help people. So I’m just saying that these are incredible strategies that you use. So people that’s listening.

    These are just some right. I’m not going to say simple to, to try to downplay them, but these are some things that you can put into put into action in your life that you will find that will really be, you know, big for your business. And so I appreciate you guys bringing that out. And I’m, know, you know, the journey to success has not always been easy or maybe it has been easy. So I guess I’ll ask it this way. Have you guys faced some adversity while you was trying to be successful, while you was building, you know, I know sometimes.

    Things go sideways, deals blow up sometimes in our face. Sometimes you have to pivot fast. So have you faced some adversity as you guys was building your business?

    Jason Ricker (13:03)
    We have, ⁓ I won’t say, I’ll never tell anybody that it’s been easy, but I’ll also say that it’s not hard. If you’ve got the right plan in place, you got the right mentors in your life, ⁓ you can get through it. But yes, we’ve had a time where we exhausted a bunch of money into getting started and building our business. And then we got into flipping houses and then we were in a flip house.

    Quentin (13:11)
    Mmm.

    Jason Ricker (13:29)
    at one time and up to that point, we’d always done a lot of renovations ourselves. know, we’d work our jobs and then evenings we would work on houses. And as that grow started to grow, we was like, we can’t keep doing this. We’re losing too much time with our kids and all that stuff. So we done with the gurus told us, know, hire a contractor and just turn it over to them. Well, we hired one and we got extremely lazy with it. You know, we just let them do their thing. And long story short, before you know it,

    We were over $50,000 over our budget on this flip house. And that was probably one of the darkest times, because we really had to sit down and make a decision, hey, how are we going to write the ship here and how are we going to do it better? And then COVID hit right when we were getting ready to sell this thing. And we just felt our dreams starting to slip away because we were fixing to go upside down on a major deal and we’ve got all this money invested in it.

    You know, God worked it out, you know, even though it was a low time, man, we learned so much during that hard time. And it just really 180’d our business and we really just took off after that.

    Quentin (14:42)
    I love it. Thank you so much for sharing that story again. Like you said, you’re not going to say it’s hard, but there are some, you have to be intentional, intentional about putting things in place that, you know, that way that you put a system in place and watch the system run, you know, and that takes intentionality. And I love the way you phrase that. I really, really do.

    Jason Ricker (14:53)
    Yeah. Yeah.

    Quentin (15:45)
    And so listen, let me ask you, what’s the next real goal? Are you looking to solve something next or scale something next? What’s the next real goal for you?

    Jason Ricker (15:54)
    So we’re still 100 % into real estate. We love doing deals. We’ll continue to do that. We’re into, because the market has shifted somewhat here, we’re getting more into buying cheaper properties and selling those on terms. And we do that all with private money backing us. So that’s a pretty cool little adventure we’ve got going on. But the thing that’s really given us energy right now is showing others how we got out of corporate.

    plan we use behind that. And ⁓ we show them like three big problems that we run into and that was finding deals. And once you find the deals, how do you convert those over to good contracts? And once you start getting that going, getting deals moving, you run into this other huge problem and that is just tapping out in your business. It becomes overwhelming. we try to teach and show people, we wanna build a happy machine, something that satisfies

    Everybody we do business with, so they want to keep doing business with us, keep bringing us deals, bringing us money. But we also want to make sure that it satisfies us. We’ve created a life vision first and then our business is encapsulated in the life vision. So we make sure we take care of our family and friends first and then that business supports us. So that’s what we’re excited about right now is showing others how we did, how we’ve done that.

    Quentin (17:19)
    I love it, I love it. I wanna talk a little bit about relationships because obviously you’re out to help people, you’re out to coach people, help people. I love how you said this life business where you take care of yourself, your family, your friends, but it seems like you work very well together. And I’m interested, how has it been working with other people? Like when I say that, like building relationships, has that impacted you all in a positive way? Do you feel like?

    is one of the things that is important to you. How is it with building relationships with other people? How does that look? How has that impacted you in your journey?

    Jason Ricker (17:56)
    Well, really that’s what our business is, is just relationships. And we foster our relationships that we build ⁓ continuously. You know, it’s like, I love being able to connect people together. You know, it’s like somebody has a need and I know somebody that does that. You know, I love to be able to connect people together. But when we, when we do this, like when we meet somebody,

    Quentin (18:01)
    Mm.

    Yes.

    Yes.

    Jason Ricker (18:25)
    you know, and before we ever ask anything of anybody, we try to do something for them.

    Quentin (18:33)
    Mm. Mm. Mm.

    Jason Ricker (18:35)
    And

    then ⁓ we have meetings like lunches and stuff to where we just share ideas and thoughts and just try to help, ask them ⁓ what they need right now. And we just try to help them make that happen, whatever it may be. So relationships are absolutely everything and ⁓ we hold them dear to our heart.

    all the people that we’ve met in the masterminds we’ve been in. It’s just been so cool that we’ve been able to make friends across the United States. I think it’s built on no like trust too, it? Yes, absolutely. Everything from finding a good attorney to a mortgage broker to a title company to even motivated sellers and closing out good deals. It’s all getting to know people. ⁓

    creating a liking and a trust with one another. And that has been our ticket, I think so, for sure.

    Quentin (19:39)
    Yeah, I love it. I’m glad you brought up trust. You know, I’ve heard and I repeat the saying that trust is earned in drops and lost in buckets. Like sometimes it’s that slow trickle that allow trust to be built. And I’m so glad that trust is a primary thing that’s kind of on your mind. And I love Kelley, how you said before, I’ll try to show you the value I have. I want to bring value to you.

    That’s kind of how I synthesize what you said. Like you want to do something for someone else before you try to get them to buy into what you want them to do, you know, for you, you know, it’s like, no, let me make sure that I show you that you’re valuable and add value to your life. And I think that’s something that’s kind of at the core and the anchor of our faith is that, listen, let me make sure I can serve you because as I serve and refresh you, I know in return I’ll be, I’ll be refreshed.

    Jason Ricker (20:10)
    Yes.

    Quentin (20:37)
    I’ll plant the seed that way I can reap on the seed. And so I appreciate you guys saying that. Listen, is there anything else that may be on your heart that you want to share with the people as far as maybe something that will inspire them, educate them, motivate them, something maybe that you’ve been thinking about? I just want to open the floor. If there’s anything specifically that’s been on your mind that you like, know, yeah, let me pass this message on as well.

    Jason Ricker (21:03)
    Mm-hmm. I’ll start and then you just go ahead and start. Well, I just wanted to like continue with what we were just saying about helping others like our hearts truly are for others to help others and so I don’t we don’t ever help somebody expecting to get anything in return ever.

    And so I just wanted to say that because, I mean, that’s truly where our hearts are. And it’s just, it’s amazing how God uses that and just takes care of so many things that are just unexplainable. And I’d like to just add that like, you know, for the other Jason and Kelley’s out there, that you’re in jobs that you’re just not happy with and you’ve started real estate and maybe you’ve just stalled out, I don’t know, but.

    I just wanna let them know that it is possible, like you can do this. It’s not that hard, like I said in the beginning, but it’s not easy. It just takes a solid plan, a good framework, good mentors, like surrounding yourself with people who can keep you going, keep you motivated, answer your questions and just move you in the right direction. And I know this group, Investor Fuel, I’ve heard great things about that. You just, you…

    once you surround yourself with like-minded people like that and feed off of them and learn off of them and ask all those questions you need to ask, the magic really starts there. Then you take massive action. Yeah. Without action, you don’t have a business and you learn along the way and you are going to mess up, but that’s an education. We always pay for our education somehow.

    Quentin (22:36)
    Mmm! Oof! Mmm!

    In some kind of way, absolutely. Blood, sweat and tears, money. You’re going to pay for it some type of way. absolutely. And did I hear you, Kelley, did I hear you use the word massive action? Did I hear you say that? Massive action? Oh, I love that. I wrote that down. Like once you’re clear, take massive action because without action, you don’t have a business. Oh, I love that.

    Jason Ricker (22:57)
    Yeah.

    You do it.

    Yeah, I think that

    seems to

    we see that as a big holding up point for a lot of people. take, you know, we’re in this information age where you can get, learn anything you want to learn, but until you get out and apply it, and it seems like a lot of people we’ve worked with, like they want it perfect. Everything needs to be perfect from your pitch to whatever, but if you’ll just start and just tweak it on the way as you’re learning, that’s what’s really helped us.

    Quentin (23:32)
    Yeah.

    Yeah. Jason, what they say, faith without works is dead, right? So you got, you got to put the work in, right? Yeah. Yeah. No, absolutely. Absolutely. I appreciate y’all so much. This has been great. Thank you so much. Listen, if someone wanted to reach out to you, collaborate with you, learn more about what you’re doing, maybe learn more about your coaching style, how can they get in contact with you?

    Jason Ricker (23:45)
    Yeah, true.

    Absolutely.

    So we can be contacted on the social media platforms, Facebook and Instagram at The ARV Project. And that would be our website as well. It’s t-h-e-a-r-v project.com. That’s our website. ⁓ That is our Instagram account and Facebook account as well as The ARV Project. And then if they want to shoot us an email and chat and we’ll help them in any way we can, that is [email protected].

    Quentin (24:33)
    Yeah. Yeah. Well, there it is. Y’all have heard that. I told you, we gave you a two for the price of one. You’ve heard, well, in our world, they are one, but you know, but you know what I mean? Y’all see two people there, but these are two people whose minds are joined. They, they talk about their communication. They talk how they work well with each other. And so I thank y’all so much for coming on as a unit and just telling us your story, giving us your time and really giving us your perspective.

    I really believe, and one of you mentioned about having a mind shift. I really believe that you’re dropping nuggets today that will help people have a mind shift going forth in their business. so again, I thank you too so much for being here.

    Jason Ricker (25:13)
    Thanks for having us. Yes, absolutely. It’s a lot of fun. Thanks.

    Quentin (25:16)
    Absolutely. Well, listen, y’all got the value, y’all got the nuggets. Please make sure you subscribe so you do not miss out on these amazing people that we bring up. And you never know who’s going to be here, who’s going to be on. And so again, thank you, Jason and Kelley so much. And to everyone else, we will see you on the next time.

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