The Vegan Entrepreneur: Building a Healthy Community in Real Estate

John Harcar (00:01.649)
All right. Hey guys, welcome back to our show. I’m your host, John HarCar, and I’m here today with Lance Wilson. And what we’re going to talk about with Lance is, know, besides his journey in business and in real estate, we’re going to talk about really blending your business with your passion, right? When you do that, you don’t really work a day in your life. Remember guys, at Investor Fuel, we help real estate investors, service providers. I mean, really all real estate entrepreneurs, two to five X their business.

We provide the tools and the resources to grow the business that you want to grow, which in turn helps you live the life that you’ve always wanted to live. So Lance, man, welcome to our show.

Lance Wilson (00:41.166)
What’s going on John? I’m excited to be here. Thanks for having me on.

John Harcar (00:44.809)
Yeah, no, I mean, I’m looking forward to our conversation. Now we’ve talked a little bit before. Two things that, you know, that we’ll go over today that really resonate with me a lot is, you know, blending that business with your passion, right? Doing something that you really feel passionate about, but also the health part, right? I’m not going to lie, I’ve got back in the gym lately. I’m really sore, but it feels good, right? So we’ll talk about all that stuff a little bit later, but first, tell our audience about you, right? You know, your background in business and real estate and, you know, what brought you to today?

Lance Wilson (01:15.822)
Definitely. Yeah. I got started in real estate right after college. It’s funny. Actually, my final semester of college, I was studying business and marketing. I almost dropped out. I almost didn’t want to finish because I read a book that probably most real estate investors read and that was Rich Dad Poor Dad. So after I read that, was like, I don’t want to work for a company or a corporation. just want to…

John Harcar (01:34.473)
Instead, poor dad. Yep.

Lance Wilson (01:41.432)
get into real estate. So I had one semester left in college. I was like, you know what, might as well just finish out the semester. And after that, I studied to get my real estate license while I was delivering pizzas at Domino’s for a year. then, so then after about a year, I got my real estate license in St. Louis, Missouri. And that’s where most of my business was, because I was born and raised there.

John Harcar (01:57.833)
Nice.

John Harcar (02:10.525)
Mm-hmm.

Lance Wilson (02:10.872)
But the beach has always been calling me. So I love the beach. So I decided to move to Los Angeles, California, Venice Beach. I sold my house. Yeah, beach. Yes. So I just love the beach. It’s my happy place. And so I decided, I told all my friends, I had a duplex at the time. I was like, I’m selling my house and I’m moving to California and everyone’s like,

John Harcar (02:22.621)
Dennis, huh? Okay.

Lance Wilson (02:40.76)
What? That’s crazy. Like you don’t know anyone there? Like your whole family’s here. Your friends are here. Why are you doing this? And I was like, I just, I just love the beach and you know, I can come back home whenever. So I ended up doing that. And you know, in real estate, especially as a real estate agent, if you move to another market, you’re essentially starting over. so exactly.

John Harcar (03:02.909)
Yep, gotta rebuild your brand.

Lance Wilson (03:07.662)
So when I moved to California, it’s funny, my old broker in Missouri, he actually made a funny joke about California real estate agents. said, yeah, in California, more people have their real estate license than their driver’s license. And he’s not too far off, but it was funny. So Los Angeles, it’s one of the most saturated markets with real estate agents. Almost anyone you know.

John Harcar (03:24.233)
Right?

Right.

Lance Wilson (03:38.03)
They know several people with the real estate license. So completely starting over in a new market not knowing anybody We were kind of like wow, how are we gonna stand out? So what we did my best friend and I were business partners we decided to Combine our business with our passion and I actually teach agents how to do that now and So we formed one of probably the most unique

real estate teams or one of the most unique niches and our team is called vegan realty and Because me and my business partner are vegan Yes, and it’s funny. Everyone’s like what does that even mean? Even the vegans are like what are the houses made of lettuce? Can we eat it?

John Harcar (04:14.685)
Vegan?

John Harcar (04:24.009)
Yeah, well, that’s kind of like I’m trying to figure it out but like how could I mean do you only serve vegan food at open houses?

Lance Wilson (04:32.117)
No, no, no. So all it is is we’re just both vegan. So we’re just a vegan team, but we represent, we help anyone. Most of our clients aren’t even vegan and they don’t care that we’re vegan, but we do, we do a couple of things that kind of separate us. So one is we donate a thousand dollars to animal rescues every time we help someone buy or sell a house.

So that’s one big thing that we do and that’s the heart and soul behind vegan-realty is the animals. So that’s our purpose and our passion is giving back to the animals every time we help someone buy or sell a house. So people love that.

John Harcar (05:12.381)
Let’s backstory that real quick. Why did you choose that? And why did you choose or why did you feel compelled or the need to give back like that?

Lance Wilson (05:25.79)
I’ve always, just wanted to come from, I’ve always just wanted to serve and give back. And actually I kind of lost my fire for real estate because, know, just selling homes wasn’t very purposeful for me. So tying in a bigger purpose that, you know, helps the world, really, really reignited that, that fire for real estate. Cause I combining the business with the passion.

John Harcar (05:41.829)
Mm-hmm. Sure.

Lance Wilson (05:54.882)
So it just makes, it gives you purpose to your real estate career and just lights you on fire. Like it’s bigger than you. yes. And so that’s one big thing we do is donate a thousand dollars back to animal rescues. And another thing is we’re really big community based. So we would do probably one or two events a month.

John Harcar (06:05.969)
I love it, man. I love that.

Lance Wilson (06:24.312)
through our real estate team. And the events, it’s funny, a lot of our events weren’t really real estate related. Most real estate teams or agents do like home buyer seminars or something like that, which yes, we did a few of those, but we were just like, what do we like to do for fun? Let’s make an event on that with our real estate team. So I’m in Southern California, we like hiking. So we just set up group hikes through Vegan Realty.

John Harcar (06:46.685)
Mm-hmm.

Lance Wilson (06:53.682)
really had nothing to do with real estate, but I was like, it’s getting our name out there and people are showing up. And I was like, even if no one came, I was still going to go on a hike. So I love hiking. It’s healthy. And we don’t do a big pitch. just, every time we do a hike, we just say, Hey, thanks for coming to our event. Tell them we donate back to animals. And we’re just like, yeah, if you need, if you or anyone, you know.

John Harcar (06:56.766)
Right?

Lance Wilson (07:19.244)
looking to buy or sell a house, you know, we’d love to help you out. So we don’t do a big pitch, it’s more of a soft pitch. But we just do things like that. We did beach cleanups, hikes. We would have documentary nights at our office. We would do board game nights at our office. We would go to different vegan restaurants that just opened up and kind of collaborating with other vegan businesses. Just really bringing the community together. And that’s another passion of mine is just bringing people together.

John Harcar (07:24.989)
Mm-hmm.

John Harcar (07:46.685)
Mm-hmm.

Lance Wilson (07:47.188)
And that’s really how we kind of, we kind of became local celebrities in like the vegan community in Los Angeles. So that was, that was kind of how we got our brand and our business out there in a very successful market in Los Angeles.

John Harcar (07:59.442)
Right.

When you started in the market, mean, what were some of the biggest struggles that you had? mean, like you said, is a saturated place. So what were some of the things that you just kept running your head against the wall at?

Lance Wilson (08:13.678)
Well, so we started back in March of 2022 and then shortly after the interest rates almost doubled. So we were working with a lot of first time home buyers and then when the interest rates went up, kind of knocked them, uh, knocked out lot of our first time home buyers out of the market. So that was a struggle initially, but then there was kind of an adjustment period where, you know, buyers kind of realized like, okay, the rates aren’t going.

back down that low. But that was kind of a struggle that year was very slow for that. But we didn’t let that deter us. We just kind of doubled down on events because to us it was fun and we’re just building our database, our clientele. So we just doubled down when business was slow. And then it eventually…

John Harcar (09:07.881)
That’s awesome.

Lance Wilson (09:11.534)
you

John Harcar (09:11.633)
What kind of trends are you seeing right now or things in the real estate world that people should be aware of, keep an eye out for?

Lance Wilson (09:22.37)
Definitely, everything’s just super local. Neighborhood local, because LA, it’s it’s such a big market. It’s like 20 cities in one. There’s like a 20 million population. just having that super local neighborhood knowledge is very beneficial, because a lot of people just want to use general numbers for like LA or, you know, neighborhoods like that. So it’s just, it’s important to just get super local in your

John Harcar (09:33.062)
Yeah, right.

John Harcar (09:53.233)
Okay, so now let’s talk, what does your team look like right now? I know you mentioned that you have a partner, right? Do you guys have, how many agents do you have in your brokerage?

Lance Wilson (10:03.362)
So it’s just two of us. There’s the two of us and we’re under the Keller Williams umbrella. Keller Williams is our brokerage, but our team name is just Vegan Faulty. So it’s just me my business partner. And it’s funny, everything I hate doing, he loves doing. Everything he hates doing, I love doing. So I love lead generating. I love marketing. I love the events and all that. And I actually don’t personally like

John Harcar (10:13.161)
Okay. Okay. Got it.

John Harcar (10:22.281)
Mm-hmm.

Lance Wilson (10:32.022)
showing the homes and like doing the real estate side, but he loves that and he hates, yeah, and he hates Lee Jennings. So perfect, you know, perfect match.

John Harcar (10:36.573)
But he loves that. Yeah.

John Harcar (10:43.163)
Well, they always say, man, find someone that compliments you, That, you know, their weakness is your strength and your strength is their weakness. So, you know, I mean, that’s great. That’s great that you found someone like that. So I know at one point you had mentioned that you’ve done some investments. I mean, where do you look at or where do see your business going? Like, what are your goals? where do you guys want to go?

Lance Wilson (11:03.054)
Definitely. So our goal in 2025 for vegan reality is to donate $25,000, which means help 25 people find their dream home or sell their home. So that is our goal for being a relative. And I do, I know this is investor podcasts.

I do eventually want to get back to getting more rentals. I sold a couple of rentals when I was in St. Louis when I made the move to California. And that’s a strategy I see long term. I did wholesaling and I did a couple of flips and it just wasn’t my cup of tea.

John Harcar (11:43.489)
for you. you planning when you do plan to or if you decide to get back into the buy and hold game are you gonna do it in LA or you gonna go to maybe a little bit easier market?

Lance Wilson (11:44.599)
Yes.

Lance Wilson (11:54.422)
I’m going to do it in St. Louis. I’m from, St. Louis is a pretty good rental market. You can buy properties for a great price and cash flow. I’m from there. Yes, yes.

John Harcar (11:58.897)
Okay.

John Harcar (12:02.311)
Yeah.

Good cash flow, yeah.

Yeah, I went to St. Louis one time to look at a five, five pack of properties. And yeah, it’s the funny part is, is that, you know, in, areas like that, you know, you can literally cross the street and be in a whole different ball game of value, for the homes. And that’s what, that’s what like for me, cause I did a lot of my stuff in Vegas and, and, and, you know, it wasn’t really like that to where, you know, how bad it is in St. Louis. So, well that’s awesome. So what do you, what do you attribute to maybe some of the keys to success for you?

Lance Wilson (12:22.03)
Ha

John Harcar (12:38.611)
Like, was it, you know, really dialing your mindset? Was it really just having, like, what are the things that got you to where you’re at?

Lance Wilson (12:47.334)
yeah, so whenever I do things just for me, I generally don’t have a big pull to do it. But like when I am serving others or it’s a bigger cause or a bigger mission, then it just elevates my level to do more and do better. So that’s why I do like tying in, you know, a passion or a bigger purpose with your business. Cause when it was just business and just me,

John Harcar (13:11.112)
yeah.

Lance Wilson (13:16.302)
You know, we let ourselves down, but we don’t want to let others down.

John Harcar (13:23.251)
Yeah. And I think too.

Yeah, no, just do it. I just do a brain fart. Sorry about that. So in your business right now, you guys are only doing retail. Do you guys do any type of commercial? Do you guys have any other asset classes that you specialize in? mean, any other things, part of your business that our audience should know that if they’re looking for something like that?

Lance Wilson (13:31.894)
I’ll do it.

Lance Wilson (13:51.084)
No, so we mostly just do residential, mostly single family homes. We have a couple clients who will do like a two or four family, but nothing commercial or it’s pretty much just single family.

John Harcar (13:53.96)
residential.

John Harcar (14:03.401)
Okay, cool. And if someone was wanting to get into the business and admit whether it’s just in the LA market or any market, what kind of advice do you think that you would have or maybe some things to make sure that they do to be successful or be set up for success?

Lance Wilson (14:20.64)
Yeah, so that’s a great question. When I first got my real estate license, I didn’t know the game. I thought you just show up to the office Monday morning and people, right? Right? So I would say the biggest shift is being a real estate agent is actually essentially being

John Harcar (14:33.789)
Yes, I get to show houses, right? That’s what I came here for, right?

Lance Wilson (14:46.87)
an entrepreneur or a small business owner. So most new agents, myself included, I came in with an employee mindset, like come into the office, someone will tell you what to do or hand you a client and you you do the thing, but you have to put yourself out there. You have to regenerate and you have to be consistent. But I would say the biggest thing is if you want to get into real estate, you need to have that entrepreneurial mindset and not an employee mindset.

John Harcar (15:00.797)
Mm-hmm.

John Harcar (15:13.181)
Yeah, that’s awesome. I appreciate you on here and sharing all this stuff, man. I I really do. If there’s any folks out here that are in the LA area that are listening that maybe have a property they want to sell or just resonate with what you’re, some of the stuff you’re saying, how is the best way for them to get ahold of you?

Lance Wilson (15:32.652)
Yeah, so you could follow us on Instagram, veganrealti. You can reach out to me. My email is LanceWilson at kw.com. And also, if really quickly, talking about combining business with passions, the other thing is I started a health-based community for real estate agents. That’s another passion of mine. So…

John Harcar (15:50.735)
yes, go ahead.

Lance Wilson (15:59.884)
There’s, started a podcast. It’s called the health and real estate podcast. So I would love if you all would subscribe to that, listen to it. And, in the LA market, we do events like once or twice a month where we’ll go on a hike for real estate agents, where I’ll bring in some kind of guest speaker about health. So we are doing in-person, health related events for real estate professionals, not just agents, but lenders, investors, all that. Cause health is wealth.

John Harcar (16:29.405)
Yep. You can have all the money in the world, if you die, you can’t spend it.

Lance Wilson (16:29.41)
You know, yes. So.

Definitely, definitely. And if you’re not healthy, you can enjoy the wealth, you know.

John Harcar (16:38.345)
And you can enjoy it. Yeah, well, cool. So yeah, I’m glad you brought that up. We forgot to touch on that. So guys, if you enjoyed this and you want to speak with them a little bit more, we’ll put all the information down in the show notes. I think you sent me both your phone number, email, and then some socials. And we’ll put all that down there. But thank you again for coming out. I appreciate you sharing all this information. And guys, I hope you enjoyed the show. We will see you on the next one. Cheers.

Lance Wilson (17:04.522)
Awesome. Thanks, John. Had a blast.