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Show Summary
In this conversation, Nicholas McGrue, founder of Polymath Legal, discusses his journey in helping real estate investors navigate the complexities of capital raising. He shares insights on entrepreneurship, the importance of relationships in business, and offers advice for aspiring entrepreneurs. The conversation highlights the evolution of his firm, the significance of curiosity and strategic thinking, and the challenges faced in the legal landscape of real estate investment.
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Investor Fuel Show Transcript:
Nicholas McGrue (00:00)
At Polymath Legal, we help real estate investors lawfully raise capital so they can generate passive income while creating generational wealth. So if you’re trying to use other people’s money and they’re basically gonna write you a check and hope that you write them back a bigger check.then hopefully I’m somebody that you call beforehand because there’s lots of regulations and rules and whatnot. And so we try to make sure that we keep you locked up or not locked up, but tightened up. We don’t want you locked up at all. We keep you tightened up legally so that you don’t get locked up and you can focus on your deal and we handle all the legal stuff.
Quentin Edmonds (02:04)
Hello everyone. Welcome to the real estate pros podcast. I am your host Q Edmonds. You know what I’m going say? I am super excited to be here today. Excited about my next guest that I had here and listen, what he hit his profession is important to an investor. It hit me very, very clearly. Listen, he helped investors lawfully raise capital and he want to make sure that you are lawfully compliant. Okay.Right, right, sir. All right. This is an investor’s best friend here. So I want to thank you. want to thank and introduce you all to Mr. Nicholas McGrue. How did I do? Sir, McGrue?
Nicholas McGrue (02:46)
Got it right. Nic McGrue.Quentin Edmonds (02:48)
Nic. Yeah, that’s why we did agree on Nic. I’m sorry. I’m like, I’m all trying to be professional. Please have respect in your name. But I failed. This is what we agreed on Nic. My damn bro.Nicholas McGrue (02:58)
of lawyers enough so I try to like ease it casual you knowQuentin Edmonds (03:03)
You listen listen you hit me down on the head I’m trying calm myself down like it’s a good guy. You’re on our side for now For me that I’m big Nic. Seriously. Thank you so much man for being here I’m excited to do this with you and I be honest sir. I kind of want to dive in man. So I want you to tell people kind of what your main focus is these days, you know how you help the investor maybe give us a little bit of an origin story ofNicholas McGrue (03:09)
Yeah. ⁓Quentin Edmonds (03:29)
how you got into law, know, origin story about how you got into the profession that you’re in. And then man, if you don’t mind telling them what part of the world you’re in. so Nic, you got the floor,Nicholas McGrue (03:38)
Awesome,thank you. Yeah, I’m happy to be here as well. My name is Nic McGrue. I’m the founder of Polymath Legal. We’re located in Los Angeles, California.
At Polymath Legal, we help real estate investors lawfully raise capital so they can generate passive income while creating generational wealth. So if you’re trying to use other people’s money and they’re basically gonna write you a check and hope that you write them back a bigger check.
then hopefully I’m somebody that you call beforehand because there’s lots of regulations and rules and whatnot. And so we try to make sure that we keep you locked up or not locked up, but tightened up. We don’t want you locked up at all. We keep you tightened up legally so that you don’t get locked up and you can focus on your deal and we handle all the legal stuff.
The firm’s been around for 15 years now. So started back in 2010 and have always been working in business or real estate.
and started doing syndications and funds in the securities area with the raising capital in about 2012. And then I did a few for businesses actually had some clients that their companies need to raise some capital. And so we helped them do that lawfully. And then I had some clients that were real estate investors. And one of my clients said, you know, I’ve got 30 single family homes, sounds like that’s amazing. Good job. Cause I watched her kind of build this, which says, you know, I’ve got 30 single family homes, but the management’s crazy. I’m like bouncing around calling all these handymen.
And so I said, Hey, why don’t you think about consolidating, you know, sell the 30 and buy just a one single, you know, 30 unit or so apartment building. well, she liked that idea, but she liked it so much that she came back. said, Hey, I think I want to go bigger than 30 units. I want to use other people’s money. Have you heard of this syndication thing? And I said, Oh yeah. And so, about 2014 was my first real estate syndication. And I’d say since 2016 or 2017, that’s about 70 % of what we do. So we’re creating syndications, funds, and other ways for our clients to.
raise capital so they can do their projects. The bulk of our clients are buying apartment buildings or building apartment buildings. We also have clients that are residential neighborhood developers. have clients that are buying office and industrial. So all various types of product that we help them raise for.
So I’ve always been an entrepreneur at heart and I was new at some point I was gonna have my own business and even in law school, law school teaches you it’s primarily geared towards litigation. So fighting in court kind of what we see on TV. After my first year, I enjoyed what I was learning. I enjoyed how it kind of reprogrammed my brain, how to think it’s all better. But I was like, I don’t really see myself fighting in court all the day. I’m just not really, I like to resolve things and move on.
And so was like, I really like this. I’m not going to drop out because I like what I’m learning and I got all this debt now. I can’t drop out. I don’t know if this is what I want to do. And then my second year, I took a course called entrepreneurship in the law. So basically it was teaching us how to advise business clients. And so it was a very different legal viewpoint. said, yes, this is what I want to do. And so after that, I focused taking classes in law school on business and real estate so that I could do that when I came out.
And I graduated in 2009, which was a bad time to be in the job market. The economy was tanking and I was applying for jobs that I didn’t really want because they were litigation jobs, but I was applying for them because I needed a job. And I’m competing with people that had graduated two or three years before me that they had gotten laid off. And so I’m applying for jobs that I don’t really want competing with people that are much more experienced. Some of the jobs were paying less than what I could have made straight out of college. And I’m like, this is not good. What is this?
And so I think we had a friend, one of my classmates, she was working at a tax consulting firm and they needed some extra coverage. And so they’re like, well, train you, but it’s not a full-time job. But that job allowed me to keep my bills paid. And in the meantime, I told myself, said, hey, you gotta, even though you don’t have a full-time job, you gotta spend the rest of the hours, you’re not working for somebody else. You gotta do that working for yourself. And so I was reading your practice books and teaching myself more about the law.
And then also building out my business plan for the one day when I would start my law firm, which I thought would be a lot further than it was. but I ended up doing that for about a year and a half where I’m kind of have that, that part-time job and it’s not even part-time. It was like, I might work a week, one month, and then three weeks to the next month and no weeks to the next month. Um, but it’s enough to keep things afloat. And so I was doing that for about a year and a half. And my original plan was to work at a firm for about three years and then start my own.
And I was like, man, I’m like halfway through that timeline already and haven’t really worked at a firm. And then I had a project with this company and I was out in New York. It’s a one week project that turned into two weeks, which turned into four weeks. And it good. They paid me well. And I was, they had me staying at like a fancy hotel in Midtown. food was taken care of like really nice. And I got taken care of really well and made good money as well.
when I were copied on some wrong emails where I’m seeing what they were billing the actual clients. And it was just me and two other people there the whole time doing all the work. And again, I got paid very well. But I saw what the company was getting paid. And I was like, oh, I think I might be going about this backwards. was like, even if I’m not getting that big, if I’m getting 100 % of it, that might be a little bit better. And so that’s kind of what gave me the courage to when I got back. I said, you know what? I’ve been planning this firm for a year and a half.
Now, now is the time. And I lucked out that one of my really good friends was a commercial property manager for a family owned real estate company. And the week that I started, they had fired their real estate attorney. And so she called me and said, Hey, you do real estate, right? And I said, yeah. And so I met with the owner of that company and that company ended up being my first client. And that’s the company that kind of allowed me to grow the firm and build it out even more.
Quentin Edmonds (10:38)
Man, sir, thank you so much for the journey, man. Thank you for walking us through it. Listen, thank you being very careful with your speech. Like I lawfully help people raise money lawfully. I didn’t see enough show like Breaking Bad and stuff. You some lawyers ain’t helping people lawfully. So I appreciate that. But I appreciate the journey. And honestly, I want to pick a little bit at the young Nic.I want to pick a little bit at the Nic that came into like to maturation as an adult. Like what are some identifiable tools, strategies, systems that you’ve learned that help you as a person along the way, right? Like there’s definitely some business strategies and we can talk about that as well. What are some personal strategies that you know that has helped you become the man Nic that you are today?
Nicholas McGrue (11:31)
Yeah, yeah, I love that question. I think one just personal trait that I have is that I’ve always been a curious person. If there’s something that kind of interests me, then I don’t want to just like learn a little bit about it. I want to learn it until I’m like, I don’t like this or learn it. And I’m like, oh, I love this. Let me dive in deeper. So I’ve always been a curious person. So I think as an entrepreneur, that just helps you a lot. That’s actually how I got the name Polymath legal came. A Polymath is like a Renaissance person, somebody who’s trained in many skills.And so for me, I like, yeah, I have lots of interests and then my clients also are doing lots of things. And so I wanted something more than, the law offices of Nic McGrue. And so I was like, yeah, I’m a polymath and my clients are kind of polymath as well. so yeah, I think that curiosity has always been very helpful because when you, when there’s a problem or something, I’m like, let me figure out how to learn this. Let me figure out how to resolve this. yeah. So I think curiosity has been very helpful for me. another thing about me that kind of just came naturally and law has, has strengthened it.
is that I’m very kind of strategic and forward looking. I think part of it’s almost a trauma response when I was younger, we didn’t come from a lot of money. So we didn’t really have the opportunity to make a mistake. So you had to have plans A, B, C, and D lined up because if something went wrong, you’re just out. And so it started out as a kind of a trauma response probably, but I’ve been able to harness it as a strength. But yeah, being able to forward think and think about, okay, what could go wrong? And if this goes wrong, how am I going to, how are we going to respond to that?
I think that has been good for me as a business owner and entrepreneur, and also as a lawyer guiding clients, it’s very helpful there as well. So I’d say my curiosity and my kind of forward thinking strategic mindset have been very helpful for me in my career.
Quentin Edmonds (13:11)
Thanks. Thank you so much for sharing, You know, I always tell people, especially when people share from just an authentic place, thank you for the gift of your vulnerability, right? Thank you for letting us dig a little deep, showing us, you know, some of the things you went through when you were younger kind of led you to kind of where you are now. You you talked about not having much money with you growing up, kind of got you forward thinking. So I appreciate that. And I definitely appreciate the word curiosity, like being curious. So my 2024 and I’ve never.I don’t pick anything like as a new year resolution. I’m being honest, I always let God show me a discipline that I need to work on. Right. So like my 2024 was rest, learning how to stop overthinking, stop doing too much, like doing too much when you’re not effective, you’re not productive. You just doing a lot because you think you got to do a lot. So 2024 was a very kind of getting essential for me, like essential about
When I say hell no to you, I say hell yes to you. And so 2024 set me up with 2025. When I got into 2025, know, what he hit me with is that I’m envious and jealous of a lot of people. And I’m not, and I’m not really confronting the stuff that I need to deal with. I’m worried about what everybody else is doing, why they succeeding. And so I’m, I’m genuinely envious and jealous. I didn’t think so. But once I broke it down, when I realized why am I, why am I so upset? Why does, know, like, when I compare myself to other people, I find myself in the front.
So that had to hit me. and so in 2025, I worked on that. And so now in 2026, he hit me with, need to be more curious. And I was like, well, what do you mean by that? He was like, you need to be curious about why you’re angry, why you eat the way you do, why you’re not making the money you’re making. And so curiosity has opened my mind up. And I don’t know if this is 27th word or not, but confronting now, now because I’m curious, I’m able to confront whatever’s in front of me.
Confront just means like you’re confronting turning your feet towards whatever’s in front of you and you’re really going after it And so I just said all that to say, you know that word curious really hits me and I understand exactly what you mean And I appreciate you bringing it up And so I want to ask you and you can piggyback on anything that I said, but I want to ask you the question What’s the next real goal for you? Like what are you looking to solve a scale net?
Nicholas McGrue (16:11)
Yeah, the bigger goal I’d say, so I’ve had the firm for 15 years, but really the first 10 years, I more so owned a job versus owning a business. It was primarily me. I might’ve had one or two employees here or there, but it me kind of just doing everything. And then 2019, I said, you know what, let me really focus and put some time and invest money as well into this firm and really think about growing it. so I’ve grown my staff and started learning how to really run a business with staff and manage.employees and things like that. And at one point, I think we even had six, six team members. Now with that, with that growth, I also learned that, you know, being lean is important as well. So we have three team members now, plus myself and leaned out and really have streamlined our processes and our systems. And so really the goal for me is to just continue that growth, continue building the firm because we are still small. And so I do,
still have a couple of different hats on for the business. And really the goal is to grow it to where I can just wear solely where the CEO hat right now. I’m CEO and head attorney and everything else, essentially, there’s a need.
And the team is great and they do their role very well. So I have to support it very well. But yeah, just looking to grow that even more to where can really just lean into the CEO role and focus solely on how well is this business running? How’s it growing? How can I be better for my clients, better for my employees and produce better services overall?
Quentin Edmonds (17:38)
Absolutely manna and I’m glad you talked about your team. Of course at the top of the show We talked about your relationship with investors. So that’s what I want to talk about a little bit relationship building, right? Is relationship building important to you? Has it served you well? What is your perspective when it comes to relationship building?Nicholas McGrue (17:57)
100%. I’m so glad to use that word. I actually have the trademark phrase relationships first. Uh, that’s our firms model relationships first. No, because back in 2010, when I was thinking about the firm and building it out and whatnot, I was thinking about, know, what have been, when I think about the milestones in my life at that time, and there’s been plenty more since then, but when I was thinking about the milestones in my life, especially when I was able to level up to a different, you know, to, to the next step of where I trying to go.there was always some relationship that helped me with that. And I don’t look at relationships as a way for me to take. It’s a give and take. Because the people that I have relationships with, I want to do what I can for them as well. But at that time, I realized I was like, yeah, the things that have allowed me to have the success I had had at that time all stem somewhere from a relationship. I talked earlier about working at that tax consulting firm. That came because I had a friend who thought well of me, who knew I was intelligent and could learn.
And she said, yeah, I can trust Nic. Let’s, have Nic do this. ⁓ that, the first client that I got that came because I had a relationship. so, our motto is relationships first. so relationships in business, especially with a service business, extremely important. And so, yeah, we try to build strong relationships with our clients so that we can be proactive when they have legal needs. I build, you know, professional relationships with my team because I do care about them. I want to make sure that they are happy at the place they’re working at as well. yeah, relationships.
High, high, high, high, high on the list for sure.
Quentin Edmonds (19:24)
Yeah,listen, man, we’re bright. So here we go again, talking about your forward thinking. mean, the fact that you can forward think and brand relationship first, let me know that’s like part of your anchor. That’s part of like who you are. That’s like part of your through line. That’s part of your DNA. Right. And so now, I hear you loud and clear and I am with you, man. Relationships are everything. You know, I say it quite often that I feel like my purpose is to unite, like to be a connector.
And my passion to do that is through storytelling. That’s why I podcasts and writing. But I believe we are all connected by something. It’s just finding that common denominator. Like you said, unfortunately, it may be trauma. It may be a trauma bond. But we’re connected in some type of way. It could be just different ways that we do things. There’s always a connector that connects people together. And so I like to use that relationship first because I truly believe
If we find a common denominator, we can truly relate on an authentic level. it has to be organic. We don’t have to force it, but there is something that you and I can relate to. There is something that we can relate to. And if I can’t relate to you, I’ll connect you with somebody else who you can relate to, you know? And so, so yeah, I hear you, man. Relationship first is brilliant. Listen, Nic, is there any topic that we haven’t touched that maybe you wanted to touch, you know, coming in? it anything in your mind you wanted to talk about?
Is there any kind of word of inspiration, education, motivation that you want to leave? Like, is there anything that you want to say to our audience right now?
Nicholas McGrue (20:57)
I think I’d say since we talked kind of on my entrepreneurial journey and a lot of my clients are entrepreneurs as well, I’d say for anybody out there that’s in their journey, kind of as you were, kind of even what you were talking about, how you’re looking at like, why are other people doing this or how am I not there? I would say be kind to yourself and have patience. One thing early on, again, back in like 2010, when I’m starting the firm, I was also working on another small business with a friend of mine.And we were working and working and we’re like, man, why are, why is this not popping off? Why are we not getting there? And at the time I was like 30 or so, maybe even in my twenties. And I had the epiphany. I looked at my friend. said, you know, a lot of the people that we’re looking at that we’re trying to be, they’re like 35, 40, 45, 50, know, they’re much older than us. And so I was like, let’s just keep going. Either we’re going to be successful and get the, you know, the milestones and goals we want, or we’re going to learn from that. And either way I
call that successful as well. So I’d say, and now, you know, 15 years later, I still have growing to do, but I am, if you asked me 15 years ago, looking at me now, I’d be super excited. And so yeah, think give you, be kind to yourself as long as you’re trying to, you know, place a brick every single day, take a small step forward every day, be kind to yourself and know that you are doing the work and have patience. Time, I always think is a great equalizer. And so if you just keep taking a step forward every day,
and add some time to that, you’re gonna get there. It may not be as quick as you want, and it’s often not as quick as what we see on the social media or TV or anything like that, but it may not be as quick as you want or as quick as you see other people, but you keep moving forward, you’re gonna get to it, you’re gonna arrive to a great place. And sometimes even the place that you arrive is not where you were trying to go, but you realize, this is an even better place. So you be kind to yourself, have some patience, and you’ll get there.
Quentin Edmonds (22:42)
I feel like hugging myself like you just dropped a bomb. I’m when to be kind to yourself? Real fast yourself on the back, man. Like, no, man, you hit on so many different things. So my wife, me and my wife, have a saying that say time takes time. So like when we are trying to, when we are building our relationship, sometimes we’re button heads because we want to be faster or more, know, further along the way we are. And then we reset ourselves and say, you know what, big?Time takes time. Like it takes time for me to learn you. It takes time for these things to gel together. So I absolutely love that, what you said. And then I also say probably now once the episode I say Destiny has no wasted moments. Meaning like, you know, you get it right? And you get it right? it has, like it, there’s no, Destiny uses everything. It uses the scraps. It uses everything you’ve pour into you it has no wasted moment. So when you get to the destination with destiny misses course you got to be prepare just keep on attention
Nicholas McGrue (23:28)
love it, yeah.Quentin Edmonds (23:50)
you know keep developing yourself like you said I think that was so important because that really impacted me.want a person who love you. So I really appreciate you saying it, man. Absolutely, so listen, man, this has been great, Nic. Listen, if someone wanted to reach out to you, connect with you, learn more about what you’re doing, how can they get in contact with you, Sir?
Nicholas McGrue (24:21)
Yeah, you can find me on social media. So Instagram and TikTok, it’s Nic the lawyer. Or you can go to our website. The firm is Polymath Legal. So it’s www.polymathlegal.com. And on there, you can message us. It has our phone number. And you can even schedule a discovery call with us as well.Quentin Edmonds (24:42)
beautiful. Nic man, so I want to say sincerely first, thank you for your time. Because as you know, as a lawyer, Tom is important. ⁓Nicholas McGrue (24:51)
Invoiceis coming later. Invoice!
Quentin Edmonds (24:53)
God damn. look, look, look, ⁓ look, look, look, look,Definitely thank you for your time so I thank you forgiving us a little bit of your time today. Thank you for your story man. Like you know the late Kobe Bryant says nothing in this world these computers that we’re on, they have a story to it, you know, with commands. So everything has a story. So thank you so much for sharing your story. And lastly, thank you for your perspective. Thank you for the way you think. Thank you for bringing that mindset to this platform. I really appreciate you being here today, man. Absolutely. So listen, y’all got, y’all heard Nic, you got the value. We’re going to raise capital lawfully, right? Right? Yeah. You know, that was the through line here. Okay.
Nicholas McGrue (25:38)
My pleasure.Quentin Edmonds (25:51)
But now you definitely got the value from Nic. Please check him out. But definitely make sure you are subscribed here, because I promise you, we’re going to continue to bring up incredible people just like Mr. Nic. So Nic, thank you again. And to everyone else, we’ll see you on it next time.
