How Real Estate Investors Can Avoid Burnout and Stay in the Business

Colin Beck (00:00)
I think that you can it was slowly over time. I think that’s the insidious part of it, where it’s like you don’t just wake up one day and you’re like, I’m burnt out. You wake up one day and you’re like, I don’t want to get out of bed. this has been happening for a while. And so I I like there again, there are so many things. It’s like, well, you start to internalize, I know, at least for me, you start to internalize these things where

I made this mistake. Well, am I feeling that okay? I I heard somebody say the other day, and I loved this. they were talking about highly resilient individuals. There are five traits of them. I don’t remember the first four, but the last one I thought was really interesting. And it was when when you start to move towards failure, a highly resilient individual will move to joy as opposed to fear.

Dylan Silver (02:20)
Folks, welcome back to the show. Today we’re joined by Colin Beck, a Cincinnati-based real estate investor, founder of Vero Home Cincinnati, who gained national acclaim after winning Flipping Showdown on HGTV. Colin, thanks for joining us here today.

Colin Beck (02:35)
Dylan, thanks so much for having me on the show.

Dylan Silver (02:38)
You’ve had a resurgence in your passion for real estate. What caused that?

Colin Beck (02:46)
been a long ride over the last three years. I actually jumped out of the business in ’23 due to some things going on in my personal life and a desire to really provide security and stability for for my family. And in that time I’ve done a lot of work on myself. And I actually I was thinking about it this morning even kind of what where am I at and and what do I think is kind of what I’m what I’m getting into. And

I had this really cool illustration of a kid playing playing on a playground. And I was just kind of spending time journaling through what does that look like? What does that what does that mean? And I think that’s kind of where my resurgence has come from. where in the past I had something to prove. I had something that I was like, I have to have the prettiest house. There’s a lot of vanity in the flips that I did. There was a lot of look how

much it goes for all of these different things. And it was so self-focused. And over the last couple of years I started realizing like, wait, this isn’t about me. This is this is about getting to offer something, offer a gift to the world. Well what’s what’s my gift to the world? Well okay I have no idea. And now getting to see that illustration this morning and say I just get to be a kid

on this playground, playing with whatever, whatever it is that interests me, knowing that my parents are there. And this is a little bit of a like my faith’s a huge part of of who I am. So realizing that I get to play and lean into this and meet the people, that it’s meeting you, it’s meeting all of these different people that have amazing stories and getting to to play in that that sandbox, whether it’s, you know, I the illustration was like,

You look at a kid. I have two kids, 14 and 11. And I remember when they were young on the playground and they’d find a friend and they’d be like, you want to do this? Let’s go play on the tire swing. Let’s go spin. This is amazing. This is amazing. And then all of a sudden they’d be like, I want to go play on the slide. Do you want to come do this with me? And they’re like, No, I want to keep playing on the swing. well, then you find somebody else on the on the slide and you meet and and so I’m like, that’s that’s what getting back into real estate and getting back into entrepreneurship looks like for me.

It’s, hey, I gotta go do that and I get to trust that my father’s off to the side taking the responsibility. I don’t have the responsibility. If I fall off the slide and I get hurt, he’s gonna be there with a band-aid. He’s gonna be there to comfort me when I fall. And I can tell you that that’s true because that’s what I saw. That’s what happened. I was able to sell everything that I had and come out completely debt free when I shut it down in in 2023, which is crazy to be able to walk through. I mean, we were running

Five simultaneous projects. We were, I mean, I had a residential remodeling business going on. We were flipping everything, tie all of that stuff up and be able to say, okay, I need to go focus on other things. And so where’s my resurgence coming from? It’s coming from the excitement to say, Hey, there’s a land deal. How does this work out? I spent like five hours yesterday trying to figure out how to play within the regulations of dividing land up because while it’s unzoned, it has really strict subdivision regulations. And then

You get into this, like, I’ve got a flip that I’m jumping back into. Okay, I haven’t played in that in a couple of years. What does that look like? So long answer to to kind of answer what you were saying, but that’s that’s really where my heart is and where the resurgence comes from. And then also being able to meet other people across the the time. There are other people that I’ve run into that are dealing with the same burnout that I was dealing with and being able to be like, hey, you might be feeling these things.

Here’s how I dealt with it. Here’s, here’s what was true about me. And being able to come alongside and not say, hey, I’ve got to be rah-rah, but being able to say, like, hey, this kind of sucks. And just being able to honor that and have that be real, I think is an important place as a real estate community that we we have to come together and just be able to be like, hey, it can look really nice from the outside, but man, sometimes inside we’re just falling apart.

Dylan Silver (07:45)
You know, we don’t believe in regrets, right? You don’t wanna look back and say, I wish that this didn’t happen this way. But being able to, you know, have a different approach in the future is of course what we wanna have. Burnout is real. It’s particularly evident when you see, you know, flippers who are doing volume flips and, you know, huge transaction volume, realtors who have huge transaction volume, lenders, etcetera, and you think, well, they’ve got it made, but

It’s crushing them, right? And that’s how you get tired landlords, tired flippers, people going out of the business. What do you think would help avoid that if folks are already scaled, a successful business, how can they stay in the game without dealing with that burnout?

Colin Beck (08:20)
Yeah.

I think that community is the biggest, most important part of that. It’s having people around you that can say, Yeah, man, I know what that feels like. and it’s not even the advice piece. Like the advice piece is important, but it’s the being able to like I think there’s something powerful about just being able to honor the fact that it’s like, yeah, no, that like that can so I’ve had that happen. I know what that feels like. I know what it feels like to wake up at two o’clock in the morning wondering if.

You’re gonna get sued for this stupid thing that you jumped into or what it feels and it’s like that stuff’s all real. And I think sometimes we can be like, nobody else is dealing, right? Like I think that’s the biggest lie that we believe is we’re all alone, right? We’re powerless and we’re alone. And I think sometimes just honoring the fact that you’ve got somebody that says, no, I know exactly what that feels like. Wait, I’m not the only one. okay. I think that’s I mean, yeah, I think that’s I I think community is the the biggest place. And to have people that

You know, can just sit there and hear when the day sucks.

Dylan Silver (10:10)
Yeah, one of the

things that becomes a gift and a curse is you scale successfully, you know, your problems become amplified and then it starts to feel like, well now I’m just putting out fires. Once the problem gets to me, my job is to put out the fire. And so you wake up and from the moment that you wake up and after you check your phone to the moment you put your head down as as an owner, you’re putting out fires. And it feels like my job is to control the chaos. That can be very unsettling, right? And so if your identity is tied up in

being a realtor, being a flipper, being a lender, right? And that is what initially got you excited about the business. Yes. And now you realize I no longer have the ability to enjoy this because my job is just putting out fires. It becomes exhausting. And so that’s where we start to see you mentioned community. That’s also where we start to see, hey, how can we develop some level of joy, not just from what we’re doing within the real estate game, but also outside of this and not have it

Become everything that is our identity.

Colin Beck (11:14)
Yes. I think the finding identity. And that was I I think in my in my immaturity, that was I find my identity from what I do. I think so many people do. They’re like, well, I don’t really know who I am. So I’m just gonna go find something cool to do. And then I’m gonna look for affirmation in that, right? Do you like me now? Am I am I worthy of your love? Because look at what I’m doing. Look at what I’m instead of being like, wait, I am worthy in and of myself.

And so if I am if I am coming if I am showing up to whatever I do worthy, I can engage that more honestly. yeah, I think that’s man, yeah.

Dylan Silver (11:56)
You know, when we talk specifically about how on a granular level burnout can be avoided, delegation is part of it. It’s also recognizing where we’re strong and maybe where we need someone else who may be stronger than us in certain areas. But part of that as well is realizing that it is a possibility, right? And it’s it almost doesn’t hit you until you’re already in it. Right. It’s it’s like we talk with a lot of folks on this show.

who make a lot of money and then they realize, now I need a tax strategist. Now I need a CPA, right? It’s like probably should have thought this beforehand, but here I am. And so was there, you know, any point in time or a moment when you realize, man, I’m starting to feel burnt out, or did it all happen at once?

Colin Beck (12:43)
I think it was a I mean, as you continue through where you’re just like

I think that you can it was slowly over time. I think that’s the insidious part of it, where it’s like you don’t just wake up one day and you’re like, I’m burnt out. You wake up one day and you’re like, I don’t want to get out of bed. this has been happening for a while. And so I I like there again, there are so many things. It’s like, well, you start to internalize, I know, at least for me, you start to internalize these things where

I made this mistake. Well, am I feeling that okay? I I heard somebody say the other day, and I loved this. they were talking about highly resilient individuals. There are five traits of them. I don’t remember the first four, but the last one I thought was really interesting. And it was when when you start to move towards failure, a highly resilient individual will move to joy as opposed to fear.

And it’s because joy keeps you in the in the prefrontal frontal cortex where you can actually start to make decisions. You can stay clear, you can solve problems, whereas fear moves you back to the amygdala, which will shut you down. And I notice, I think that when I got into this, solving problems was fun. And I think you talk about the resurgence. Solving problems is becoming it has become fun again because I have

I love solving problems. I like there. That’s what got me into this in the first place. I started like, go back to 2013 when I started doing this. It was because I was remodeling my house and I had a couple friends that were flippers and they were like, you know, you can do this for profit. I was like, I did not. I was just solving the problem of I was house poor. So I bought a fixer-upper instead of having a done house. And that solved that problem. And then I was like, well, I wonder if I can use flipping to pay off my house. Hey, check it out. I could. Right. Like,

And it was just like all of these different things where it’s like, I had a problem, I solved it, and I was focused on, hey, this is fun. This is fun. And then you start to get to this place where you’re like, I’m gonna lose all my money. I’m gonna lose whatever fears you start to have. I’m gonna get taken advantage of. if I don’t hire right, this is gonna happen. last time I hired, this happened. So I better not do that again. And you start to just like that was really that fear just started to take me over and take me down where it was like, I’m just constantly afraid.

What’s gonna go wrong? Who’s gonna tell me I’m wrong today? What’s and it’s and and and you like just lit like you said, it’s little by little chipping away that that, man, this isn’t fun anymore. Until you start to f and this is the fun thing of moving into others that you start to find things that you’re like, I like solving this problem. but like that means that I’m not working on my business anymore. I am escaping to this. that’s

And that’s where burnout starts to set in. You start to be like, I’m not actually spending any time on work today because I just don’t have yeah. And so I think as I look at the resurgence, it’s like, now the playground analogy that I started out with, what’s what like what’s fun to do? Not that I’m gonna run away from it when it gets hard, but looking at it and going, There in this life we will have trouble. There will be problems that we are going to have to address. I’m gonna have to address.

How do I look at it as a like, all right, and I’m not afraid of falling because I’ve already done that.

Dylan Silver (16:52)
You know, there’s this idea that in order to scale successfully, you need to have systems and operations. And then there’s people who love that portion of the business. And then there’s people who can’t stand that portion of the business. And then there’s people who make great realtors and flippers and the lit in the the the

X’s and O’s of flipping and the X’s and O’s of being a realtor, but then in you know scaling a pipeline and dealing with you know multiple projects or you know many, many clients, this can be all-consuming. And so when people are scaling, how important is it for them to bring people on, not just the community, but potentially, you know, people within their organization who can assist them in these capacities?

Colin Beck (17:37)
Yeah. I I think that I I the people that I’ve watched be successful, I mean, that is you have to put the team together and and you have to like everybody that I’ve seen be successful, and I I wouldn’t put myself in this place yet. but it really is bringing the right people around you, that it is all about people and that

I think that’s one of the coolest things about what the last three years have been. They’ve been a, we’re all humans. We’re all, we all want the exact same things. We all have the exact same fears. So how do we come together and also realize we all have unique gifts and unique ways that we interact with the world?

Dylan Silver (18:20)
You know, there’s this story which is you know all too common in real estate, which is

You scale this large business and you become burnt out. And one of the things that I think we don’t acknowledge is you don’t want to have to wake up one day and tell everyone who knows you as being a a realtor, being a flipper, whatever whatever your role is in real estate, that hey, I actually can’t stand this any longer. This is making me pull my hair out. Because they’re gonna look at you and say, What do you mean you can’t stand this? This is what you’ve been doing. We know you you love this. What they don’t see is the the toll that it’s taking on you, and maybe you’re losing the sleep over this.

And so I know, you know, not just from this show, but in day-to-day, I know realtors who’ve said, Hey, I’ve scaled this business to this point. I’m actually done with this. I don’t want to do this any longer. And you look at them and you say, Yeah, but you’re the number one realtor in this city. Why would you do Yeah.

Colin Beck (19:11)
Yeah, I I dealt with exactly that. Wait, what what do you mean? Like, I remember having a friend of mine tell me, hey, you are literally built for this. And I remember him telling me that. And I see it as an encouragement now, but I remember at the time just being like, Man, I don’t, I don’t feel that. I don’t like I it was at one of those moments where it’s just like, dude, I feel like I’m barely hanging on by a thread. And he said that, and I’m like, man.

It helped me get through the next couple of weeks, but it was yeah. And and to now look at it and just be like, I think that’s the other thing too. We have to let people speak into what they see. And we have to, we have to believe that too. And I think that’s like it’s so easy for me to sit here right now and say it’s about believing what other like, ’cause it that’s a fine line, right? Cause like you also I I think it’s knowing who that circle is. They can speak.

Who you are, not what you do, but who you are. What he was saying was like, you’re built differently. And there’s something about your unique gifting that makes you ripe for this. And so being able to hear that and receive that, as opposed to receiving from, I don’t know, the text that I’m getting from whoever it may be that it’s like, this is awful, this is going sideways, this is, you know, the stuff that we just have to deal with.

And so yeah, I think there’s letting people and building that community, that tight community, because I think so often we can get so head down on something that we’re not we’re not taking the time to sit with people who actually know who we are and what we stand for and speak that over us so that we can just be like, it’s not I might be, I might be the top realtor or be the the, you know, but it’s like that’s not what it’s all about. That’s not who I am.

Regardless of how much money, like I one of the big things for me is separating my worth from the money that I provide. Cause it’s so easy to be like, well, like that’s such an easy I mean, my background before getting into real estate was outside sales. Man, you want to talk about a way to make sure that you are defined by the money that you bring in, go do outside sales. Literally, your number is everything that defines about you. What have you done for me lately? And so having to break that and

And not be how many houses have you flipped? How how much profit did you make on those? How much do you how like and and to be able to break it back down and just be like, yeah, I like, what do I want to build? And I think that’s what’s so fun about where I’m at right now and and the land deal that I’m looking at and the flip that I’m looking at, where it’s just like, this is this is fun for me again, where it’s okay, how do how do I make this a I’ve always wanted it to be a win-win for everybody, but how do I?

You know, like on the land deal that I’m looking at, partnering with one of my contractors on it, as opposed to just being like, I can do this on my own, which is then my history. And so saying, like, no, I want to look at partnerships and look at what I can get into.

Dylan Silver (22:17)
It’s huge, you know. What what do you think when you you talk about partnerships, right? And bringing people on, what do you what do you think is maybe the biggest mistake that ambitious investors make when they’re scaling? Is it that, you know, not having the right partnerships in place? Is it thinking that, you know, they can bite off more than they can chew?

Colin Beck (22:40)
Man, I don’t know. When you’re like, ’cause scaling looks different for every single person. For me, it was, I always wanted to go faster and never knew how to never knew how to grease the skids, but also never really, I I wasn’t comfortable. You hear this all the time. Get into the room that you like, you need to get into the room of people that challenge you. If you’re not being challenged, you’re not in the right rooms. And I think that that’s been one of the big things for me looking back into it this time is like, I want to be uncomfortable in rooms where it’s like, I don’t deserve to be here.

And that statement’s not true, but you know, being around the people that have already had the problems that you’ve had, because they’re like somebody’s already I think this is the other there’s so many lies that I believed back in the day. Somebody’s already solved all the problems that you already have. And they probably want to share how they solved that with you, if you would just ask.

Dylan Silver (23:34)
We are coming up on time here, Colin. anything you’d like to mention directly to our audience?

Colin Beck (23:41)
I think just like this is an exciting time. There’s always another opportunity out there. I think that’s been the most fun thing for me of watching my path over the last three years. And what is it? what does it look like? The the right opportunity has always showed up at the right time for exactly what I’m supposed to be doing.