Why 98% of Real Estate Investors Fail (And How to Win)

Gordon Thornton (00:00)
the number one thing with it is that why I believe 98 % of people fail is because of this thing right here. And it’s not, it’s not the doom scrolling thing that we all get stuck on doing all the times as well. The problem is, that if sometimes this thing feels like it’s 50 pounds and we can’t bring it to our ear and actually start having the conversations and calling people like we should be doing, you know? And so that’s the hard part for a lot of people, you know?

Quentin (00:04)
Mmm.

Gordon Thornton (00:23)
You get in this business and you learn a strategy. You get, you learn a strategy, right? This is what it is. You got to go in there, invest time in learning a strategy. Then the next thing that happens is, well, now I got to get my systems in place, right? Like I got to get all my systems in place. I got to get my, my call or my, my, know, my, got to get my CRM in place. I got to get my landing page and I got to get all these systems, my skip tracing, everything else I’d be put in place.

And then I got that and now I got to get my skills and I got to develop all my skills. Right. And you’d see you’re building all of these things and you’re trying to do it. But the problem is, that time’s ticking away and you’re not doing the number one thing that you actually have to do. And that’s actually go out there and have conversations with people. Right. And so you’re sitting, this is what happens. And this is why 98 % of people fail because they, they spend all their time. You know, we’ve all heard that word analysis paralysis, right. And.

Quentin (01:06)
Yeah.

Yes, sir.

Gordon Thornton (01:15)
And this is where most people live in. And this is why most people don’t get it because they’re so busy. They’re so busy getting busy and getting ready that they actually never go out there and do it. And so by the time you know before you know it, nine, you know, 90 days, six months has passed and you’re looking at your bank account and it’s going the wrong way. Right. And you’re like, man, they told me this is all I got to do, but it’s not going that right way. And so you’re not only, you know, financially bankrupt.

Quentin (01:25)
Yeah.

Gordon Thornton (01:43)
You’re also like spiritually and emotionally bankrupt at this time because you have the self defeat going on. You’re like, ah, man, maybe this just isn’t for me. Maybe it’s just for that other person. Right. And that’s the game we got to play every

Quentin (03:29)
everyone. Welcome to the Real Estate Pros podcast. And do y’all know what I’m about to say? Y’all know what I’m about to say? I’m excited. I’m excited. I’m your host Q Edmonds. And I’m excited. Y’all know I say that all the time. But you know, y’all, the people that I get to talk to, it’s just amazing. And within two seconds, I’ll maybe say five seconds. Let me not be hyperbolic. Five seconds, maybe 10 seconds of talking to this guy. I knew I was going to love it.

just knew I was gonna love him. I knew I was gonna love talking to him. I knew that I was ready to pick his brain, get to know things from his lens. And that’s what we’re gonna do today. You know that’s what we do all the time, but y’all let me know. I’m telling y’all. Just watch what I tell you. This guy, you’re gonna love this guy. You’re gonna love the information that he gave. And so I would love to introduce y’all to this guy. He’s a connector like me. He loves relationships. And so Gordon Thornton, how you feeling today,

Gordon Thornton (04:01)
I appreciate it too.

I’m doing great now. I’m feeling well, alive and blessed, man. You know what I mean? Happy to be here, Absolutely.

Quentin (04:32)
Absolutely, absolutely man. Listen, I’m so happy

to have you here, man. I know people are get great value from this conversation. And you know, we talked before, know, of course we gonna talk about business, but I know life is gonna slip through our business conversation, cause it’s all connected, right? And so you have valuable lessons when it comes to business and when it comes to life. And so I’m excited ⁓ to get people to see things from your lens.

You know, and so I’ll be honest with you, man. I want to dive in. I want you to take people into your world. People that’s not familiar with you. You start where you want to start, but I just want to get into your brain, get into your heart. So tell people what’s your main focus these days and tell

Gordon Thornton (05:09)
Mm.

Quentin (06:06)
what markets you’re operating in as well. If you don’t mind,

Gordon Thornton (06:06)
Mm-hmm.

Mm hmm. No, absolutely. Absolutely. First off, appreciate you having me on, man. I really appreciate you. Give me some time here. 100 percent, right? But so what I and where I’m focusing on right now, really, number one thing is helping people get to where they want to go and help people build the business that they want to they want to build. And like that’s literally that’s what makes my heart sing nowadays. You know what I mean? Like that real real estate is such a great tool and it’s such a great vehicle for us all to be able to create the life that we truly want.

Quentin (06:14)
Absolutely. Yes, sir.

Yes,

Gordon Thornton (06:38)
You know, and it’s just one of these things where it has given me so much. And I want people to understand that like this journey is not like going to be some linear path journey. Right. And if you happen to be in a spot right now where you’re getting your butt kicked in and you just be like, I don’t know what’s happening. There’s a lot of people, right? Like because of the position that I’m in and because I’m a relationship builder and a connector, I have a lot of conversations with people all the time. And the number one conversation I’m having with a lot of people is, a lot of conversation of people get out of the business.

Right? lot of people like realtors, mortgage brokers, other investors, just because the market has changed and pivoted. Right. And so I really want people to understand that, like we can make it through this time. If we can make it through this time, like then we’re just going to continue to grow and grow and grow, you know, and real estate is a great tool, but that’s all that it is. It’s really about us working on ourselves every day and showing up as like just the best version we can be that day. And that’s really what inspires me. Yeah.

Quentin (07:36)
man, you gave me a staggering statistic that I did not know. You said 98 % of people that go into real estate never do a deal. I did not know that, man. So of course, that lets us know it’s not easy. There’s a stick-to-itiveness. I like saying that word, a stick-to-itiveness that some people just don’t have. And so man, what has kept you?

Gordon Thornton (07:41)
Mmm.

Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.

Mm-mm.

Yeah.

Quentin (08:06)
passionate, what has kept the machine running smoothly, what keeps you going?

Gordon Thornton (08:11)
I don’t know, man. I’m crazy. think sometimes my wife thinks I’m crazy too. Man, got to tell you first off, marrying the right person is like the number one thing you could ever do for yourself, 100%, dude, like 100%, right? Like, I’ve been married now for 24 years. I know I don’t look more than 30. So how can I be married in 24 years, right? But like really like…

Quentin (08:28)
I’m sorry. I’m sorry. Yeah.

Gordon Thornton (08:38)
And it is the number one thing that’s ever happened to me. Having a strong partner behind you is like the best thing that you could ever do for yourself. Right. So I just got to say that first. But. I look at it this way, but there’s a reason why we’re attracted into real estate. You know what I mean? Like why? What is attractive about real estate? Now, of course, like the number one thing that people it’s money. Right. Of course. Right. It’s the same conversation you have. It’s money and time, freedom and all that stuff. Right. But.

That’s what can attract you into it. But what’s going to keep you into it and keep you there when things aren’t going the way that you want them to go? Right? Like that’s the part that most people, that’s where that 98 % of people fail because look, if you lock watching YouTube, you look at on social media where they show all the highlights of all the stuff that’s happening, right? And you’re like, this is cool.

All they got to do is like, you know, like they have that ladder, right? You’re a wholesale is where most people start off, right? There’s really only two ways to make it in this business. You’re to the sweat equity or equity, right? You either got money or you don’t got money, right? There’s two paths. If you got the money, it’s going to be a lot easier, but unfortunately most of us don’t have the money. So it’s just going to be sweat equity. It’s going to be time that we have to put into it. Right. And the thing is, is that it looks great about all you do is go out there, have a conversation.

get something under contract and then I can wholesale this contract over to someone else and make 10, $15,000. Right? When you’re looking at that and they’re teaching you that principle, yes, it is very simple. 100%. But then when you actually go out there and you got to have the conversations with people and you got to really understand that you are a problem solver, right? And you got to go in there and just be like, Hey, I’m here to actually like help you solve a problem. You know,

Quentin (10:20)
Yeah.

Mm-hmm.

Gordon Thornton (10:26)
And when you can come from that angle of just giving enough service, things change big time. You know,

Quentin (10:28)
Thank you.

Gordon Thornton (11:05)
the number one thing with it is that why I believe 98 % of people fail is because of this thing right here. And it’s not, it’s not the doom scrolling thing that we all get stuck on doing all the times as well. The problem is, that if sometimes this thing feels like it’s 50 pounds and we can’t bring it to our ear and actually start having the conversations and calling people like we should be doing, you know? And so that’s the hard part for a lot of people, you know?

Quentin (11:10)
Mmm.

Gordon Thornton (11:29)
You get in this business and you learn a strategy. You get, you learn a strategy, right? This is what it is. You got to go in there, invest time in learning a strategy. Then the next thing that happens is, well, now I got to get my systems in place, right? Like I got to get all my systems in place. I got to get my, my call or my, my, know, my, got to get my CRM in place. I got to get my landing page and I got to get all these systems, my skip tracing, everything else I’d be put in place.

And then I got that and now I got to get my skills and I got to develop all my skills. Right. And you’d see you’re building all of these things and you’re trying to do it. But the problem is, that time’s ticking away and you’re not doing the number one thing that you actually have to do. And that’s actually go out there and have conversations with people. Right. And so you’re sitting, this is what happens. And this is why 98 % of people fail because they, they spend all their time. You know, we’ve all heard that word analysis paralysis, right. And.

Quentin (12:12)
Yeah.

Yes, sir.

Gordon Thornton (12:21)
And this is where most people live in. And this is why most people don’t get it because they’re so busy. They’re so busy getting busy and getting ready that they actually never go out there and do it. And so by the time you know before you know it, nine, you know, 90 days, six months has passed and you’re looking at your bank account and it’s going the wrong way. Right. And you’re like, man, they told me this is all I got to do, but it’s not going that right way. And so you’re not only, you know, financially bankrupt.

Quentin (12:31)
Yeah.

Gordon Thornton (12:49)
You’re also like spiritually and emotionally bankrupt at this time because you have the self defeat going on. You’re like, ah, man, maybe this just isn’t for me. Maybe it’s just for that other person. Right. And that’s the game we got to play every

Right. And that’s the game. I call it the 8 % method. You mind if I share it with you real quick, dude? So, so 8 % of it is what I talk about all the time with everybody and that I speak with. Right. That’s 8%. So 8 % of your day is two hours a day. Right. Two hours of your day.

Quentin (13:07)
Please, please do,

Gordon Thornton (13:17)
should be 100 % dedicated, put some time aside, be dedicated to working on yourself, right? In the four major domains of our life, right? Like physically, what are we doing with ourselves, with our body? Like, am I actually sweating today? Like, am I moving? Just go out for a walk, get outside, right? The other thing is too, now I’m a Christian, right? I’m a believer of Jesus, right? And so that’s where I come from. So I say, hey, like, let’s go out there and spend some time, right? Inside the Bible, praying.

meditating, just connecting with the source and the creator of this whole place that we’re in. And then the other thing is I’m going to spend a little bit of time just actually being present with my family, being present and having a real conversation. Even if it’s just like, sometimes it’s like you can’t even see the person, maybe it’s just sending them a text and just saying,

I appreciate you. I see you. I see everything you’re doing. I know you’re running around all day doing this, whatever it would be. Or maybe you reach out to one of your parents and say, hey, thank you so much for all the sacrifices you did. Just be at a place of gratitude. Just go back to a place of gratitude every day. And then the last thing is, is at least spend 45 minutes a day learning something new in your business. That’s it. If you just do this one thing for two hours a day, you just break this down.

Just hit a single every day. It’s not about hitting the swinging for the fences and hitting the home run, right? We’re both sports guys. We would talk about sports the whole time, right? So I use that as an analogy all the time too, right? Like what happens? Hit a single, hit a single, hit a single. That’s what produces the runs. You keep on swinging for the fences, you’re gonna keep on striking out. You’re not gonna see anything. So it’s consistency, developing the habits that you need every single day. And before you know it, your life is gonna change. Just not gonna change overnight. But if you’re willing to dedicate yourself, you know,

Quentin (14:43)
Yeah.

Gordon Thornton (15:06)
I’ve seen with a lot of the people that I talk with and everything that’s in this business, it takes about two to five years to really break through. About two to five years. know, sometimes it takes longer. It took me longer than that too. So if you’ve been here for more than five years and you haven’t broke through, it’s okay. Just keep going. If it’s in your heart and you really want to make this happen, you can do it. You really can. If me, if this guy can do it, I barely graduated high school, man. You know what I mean? Like I get nothing going on there. You know what I mean? If I can actually break through and make it.

Quentin (15:32)
You

Gordon Thornton (15:35)
Anybody can trust me on that.

Quentin (16:20)
Man man, listen, I told this guy backstage, I knew within a couple of minutes I was gonna fall in love with this guy. And I love this guy. All those nuggets that you gave, ⁓ Man, I hear you. I love how you said, what’s one of the major things keep running smoothly? Marry the right person, you know? And since you the boy of Jesus Christ, man, the proverb says, he that findeth a wife findeth a good thing and obtain a favor from the Lord. And so, bro, yeet.

Gordon Thornton (16:26)
sorry.

yeah.

Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.

Quentin (16:47)
I mean, come

Gordon Thornton (16:47)
Mm-hmm.

Quentin (16:47)
on, you, spot on it, man. And then the next thing you brought out, and I’m going to synthesize it this way, because I was a mailman for 14 years, 24,000 steps a day. People said, how did you do it? And I said, one step at a time. And so that’s kind of what you highlighted is that you just got to take the first step and then take the next step and then take the next step. And then sometimes you may have to climb a step. You know, sometimes you’re to feel the incline. You’re going to feel the burn.

Gordon Thornton (17:03)
Amen.

Quentin (17:15)
but keep moving. And that’s what I synthesized from you when you was talking, man. you know, another scripture I live by, says we overcome by each other’s testimony, by the blood of the lamb, by the word of each other’s testimonies, right? And so I would love to know, you know, every operator has a moment when things get real, maybe a deal goes sideways or a time when you had to pivot fast. Like, I would love if you could share one of those testimonies so people know you can overcome it.

Gordon Thornton (17:19)
Mm-mm.

Mm-hmm. Mm. Mm.

Mm-hmm.

Quentin (17:44)
So if you have a story

Gordon Thornton (17:44)
Mm-hmm.

Quentin (17:44)
like that, man, I would love to hear it if you’re willing to share.

Gordon Thornton (17:47)
⁓ Listen, mean, straight real with you, I’m going through that fire right now on a couple things and a couple deals. I’m just going through it right now. I got some things that are happening that I’m trying to liquidate some properties that we have because we have some other opportunities that we want to get into. We had the properties on the contract to sell, clear to close came in. We’re like, all right, cool. We’re moving forward. We’re all feeling good. We’re ready to go smoke a cigar and enjoy the victory. And then all of a sudden it’s like, whoop.

Quentin (18:14)
Right, right.

Gordon Thornton (18:16)
pulls it right out from under you and you’re like, no, not happening. Right. And you’re like, ⁓ man. Right. What’s going to happen here? How is this going to happen? And so then this other opportunity that we were going to do that one now is put on the back burner. We’re not sure if we’re going to do it. And it’s all it’s like, okay. All right. All right. Okay. What do, and then that’s where I always come back and I’m like, I could look at this and say, everything’s falling apart. Everything’s burning around. Right. Like I can look, we all have, can have a perspective. This is all just perspective.

Quentin (18:20)
Mm-mm-mm. Yeah.

Gordon Thornton (18:46)
Right. And so it’s like, all right, I can look at this and be like, maybe this isn’t for me. And maybe I shouldn’t go forward with this, but I choose to look at this as, okay, this is an opportunity for me to level up. This is an opportunity for me to look at this and see it and take it for the lesson that it actually is. And look at myself in the mirror. Right. It’s me versus me every day. It’s not me versus anybody else. It’s me versus me every day. And it’s like, all right, where do I need to level up?

What can I do to improve? Sometimes, man, all you gotta do is just, and it’s not about doing more either. Like to me, it’s not about always doing more. Like being an entrepreneur, being a real estate investor, we just, going, you never can shut it off. You’re just going, going, going, right? So it’s like, I can’t do more. Like there’s not much I can do, right? So I’m always like, no, who am I being? Who can I be? This version of me that I wanna be, how does that person show up in this circumstance, right?

And then that’s the identity shift that you have to take. And you’d be like, okay, now I can operate from this place. And it’s just, it’s an endless game, man. It’s endless over and over and over again. That’s the beauty of it. Yeah.

Quentin (19:55)
Yeah.

Man, bro, you dropping nuggets. I listened to a guy called Myron. You dropping nuggets, man. I listened to a guy called Myron Golden and he talks about… Okay. So we get it. So he always talks about preaching, preach about not being human doings or human beings. the best way, and I get this from this book called Atomic Habits, which is one of my favorite books.

Gordon Thornton (20:04)
love him, dude. He’s so fire. He’s so awesome. I love him too, 100%.

Mm-hmm.

Quentin (20:23)
The best way to change your identity, I mean, change your habit is to change your identity. The best way for a habit to stick is to change your identity. So who are you becoming? Because we’re human being, we’re constantly involved. And so you don’t get more by doing more, you get more by being more. Being a person that you’re to be, that’s going to be sustainable. And so, man, I hear you loud and clear. Like I said, you dropping nuggets, brother. You dropping nuggets. And so let me ask you this, What are you most focused on solving or scaling next? Like what’s the next real goal for you?

Gordon Thornton (20:32)
Mm-hmm.

Amen.

100.

Yeah, yeah.

Gordon Thornton (00:00)
Next real goal is building out our REI Cool Lab, our deals and data platform that we have here to really help as many people make it in this business as they can. Because like I said, 98 % of people don’t make it. And so what we’re building out here is we’re building out a platform where it’s like literally you come in here, we can help you build out your business where you can learn your skills, pick out the strategy you want.

get all the information that you need, all that stuff, right? But the number one thing is that we’re gonna help you work on you because like we were talking about, it’s the identity piece of why most people don’t make it, right? Because we have all these stories, we have all these generational beliefs, things that have been passed down to us, Most of them aren’t even our own fault. And that’s the number one thing, right? Like we gotta realize that it’s not our own fault.

Right? Everybody’s been dealt the cards, dealt some cards in life, right? And it’s okay. And that’s all right. And there’s nothing we can do about that, right? But what we can do is how we’re gonna show up and how we’re gonna react to the situations that we’re in, right? Now, of course we screw up, we’re human, right? So we screw up ourselves all the time and that’s okay. That’s the beauty of it. But we can’t live in this whole guilt and shame if we screw up either. It’s like, hey, all right, we own it. We take responsibility. Then we move forward. We put a new target in place and then we go forward, right?

And it’s that. And so that is my passion. My passion is people. People’s my passion. Real estate is simply the tool that we use. it. Right. And so that’s that’s that’s my whole entire thing. So what I want to do is I want to take away the whole entire problem of where people get in that analysis paralysis part where they think that they need this. They think they need that. They think we need this. I want to take that off the plate for them. And I want to be able to give them all that information.

Quentin (01:31)
Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Gordon Thornton (01:50)
all of that stuff and let them try and grow and prosper. That’s what I’m trying to do now.

Quentin (01:56)
Man, I love it, man. I love it. And this walks me right into probably my last question that I have for you before we wrap up. ⁓ Relationships, right? You just talk about people, connecting with people, caring about people. So when it comes to building your network and building relationships, what has made the biggest difference for you,

Gordon Thornton (02:02)
Yeah. Yeah.

Hmm.

Mm.

man. I really love, mean, again, I’ll go back to this thing right here. I mean, don’t be afraid to share your story out there. Like social media, now it can be a bad tool. It can also be an awesome tool, right? And to me, it’s an awesome tool, right? And I always tell people, I’m like, social media, if you think it’s bad, it’s all just an algorithm, right? So it’s like, if you think it’s bad and you’re seeing a lot of bad stuff, well, that’s cause you’re inputting a lot of bad stuff. Cause it’s just going to give you back what you want. It’s just a reflection, like anything else.

Our perspective, our life is just a reflection. That’s all that it is. So it’s like, all right, but that’s why you take this. Don’t be afraid to share your story. Right. The biggest thing for me and why I was able to get, have success and why, why I’m able to like raise money for projects is because I share my story and I don’t just share the good stuff. I want you to do the bad stuff too. Cause that’s the real stuff. That’s, that’s what actually is happening in this business. Right. Being authentically you, you know, and like that’s, that’s the truth comes across.

I mean, I’m the same person here that I am tomorrow or the other person if I’m talking about my story doesn’t change, right? Because this is where I have to live. so yeah, man, that’s just I would say, double down on just getting out there and sharing your story yourself, getting to meetups, right? Join those Facebook groups. Get out there. Don’t be afraid. You know, for me personally, too, people people say, it’s easy for you because you’re an outgoing person, blah, blah,

man, if they only knew how much fear actually lives inside this guy, right? And like, man, no, it’s because I just work on it. And I’ve had to work on it. I can’t tell you how many times when I first started in this business that I’d go to like, want to go to a meetup and I pull up in the parking lot, right? And I wouldn’t even go inside because I was like, man, I’m not doing any deals. Like, I feel like a fraud. I feel like I’m an imposter. Like, what am I doing here?

You know what mean? I would have those thoughts and it would consume me, it eat me up and I wouldn’t even go inside. You know? And it’s like, man, what a story. It’s not even real. That’s something that’s just living inside of my own head. And I know other people feel the same way because then when I share that with other people, they tell me, man, you do that too? Like, yeah, man, we’re all the same. We’re all the same. You know, it’s just recognizing it and then being able to pivot away from it as fast as you can. And that just takes work. And that’s OK.

Anything worth it that’s good, it’s going to take work.

Quentin (04:48)
And I told y’all see why, y’all see why I love this guy, right? I told you, I tell me we share so many aligning factors. People wouldn’t know, man, I am a classic introvert. Like I wouldn’t know it, but I’m with you. I suffer from the imposter syndrome, paralysis by analysis. so you get it. And I thank you, man. I thank you for your vulnerability. I thank you for your story-shelling, for your authenticity, because people need to hear this. People need to know they’re not by themselves.

Gordon Thornton (05:00)
Hmm. Yeah, really.

Quentin (05:17)
hop on all the success stories, but people need to be a part of the journey, right? To see how it actually looks, to put the seed in the ground, to put the dirt on it, to actually watch something grow out of the ground, you know? And I think us sharing our journey, it gets people a perspective to where they are sometimes and be like, oh no, this is just part of the process. Just part of the process. Just part of the process. And so, I appreciate you, man. I appreciate you being with me through these technical difficulties.

Gordon Thornton (05:30)
Yeah. Okay, man. Trust it.

Quentin (05:47)
technical difficulties. I was excited about your story and I think I nailed it. I told people you was going to drop nuggets and man you have dropped nugget after nugget. And so man, it was a pleasure being with you today, man. So I want to do this. Anybody that wanted to reach out with you, connect with you, learn from you, like man, anything you want to plug, this is the time now. Tell people where they can get in contact with you and any other thing that you want the people to know as well.

Gordon Thornton (06:01)
Amen.

Thank

Awesome, man. I appreciate it. mean, obviously, like social media is a great tool, right? So anybody can hit me up, send me a message, you know, through Instagram, right? It’s my candles. Very simple. It’s just I am Gordon Thornton. Boom. That’s me. Right. Also, like right here, this thing I talking about this deals and data. So deals and data dot AI. Like come check us out, man. We can just go in there. You can schedule an appointment. We can talk. My calendar is right on there. If you want to hit me up, hit me up. I’d love to talk, even if it’s not about real estate.

Like even like if you’re going through it right now, I get it. Reach out. It’s okay. We’ll have a conversation. Now you might not like what I say too, but that’s all right. I’m going to hold you accountable.

Quentin (06:53)
Here’s the thing. I love

that you said that because here’s the thing. You can’t control what somebody say. You can only control how you respond. That’s it. My wife has a saying. She said, truth don’t care who tells it. Truth don’t care who tells it. And so if you got upset at the truth, that’s a you problem. And so that’s the time to get curious. Don’t get that and you’ll get curious. Because curiosity is going to power you forward to get to learn, to get to grow, to get to figure out.

Gordon Thornton (07:01)
Okay. Yeah.

Mmm.

Quentin (07:21)
Why is it that I’m upset? You know? And so I love that you said that, you. I ain’t may not like what I say, but listen, he ain’t gon’ say it, but I said, that’s on you though. My man Gordon’s got the truth though, that’s on you. ⁓ So man, listen, bro. Yeah, man. You know, man, I’m gonna be straight with you, man. This has been a pleasure. This has been a pleasure, man. Thank you for your story. Thank you for your perspective.

Gordon Thornton (07:31)
You ⁓

I appreciate that man, I appreciate that.

Hmm.

Quentin (07:47)
Thank you for just being in this space and doing it the right way. Your integrity, your heart, your servant’s heart, man. I appreciate you. And I know our listeners got a ton of value out of this. So again, Gordon, I appreciate you, sir. Thank you so much, Absolutely. Now, the rest of y’all, listen, you know you got value out of this? Subscribe. If you’re not subscribed yet, what are we waiting for, people? Go ahead and subscribe, because I can promise you we’re just going to keep connecting with amazing people like Gordon.

Gordon Thornton (07:57)
I appreciate you too, Been a pleasure. God bless you.

Okay.

Quentin (08:16)
And we’re going to continue to keep bringing you these amazing stories. And so I thank you for being here today. And to the next time, we’ll see you

Gordon Thornton (00:00)
Next real goal is building out our REI Cool Lab, our deals and data platform that we have here to really help as many people make it in this business as they can. Because like I said, 98 % of people don’t make it. And so what we’re building out here is we’re building out a platform where it’s like literally you come in here, we can help you build out your business where you can learn your skills, pick out the strategy you want.

get all the information that you need, all that stuff, right? But the number one thing is that we’re gonna help you work on you because like we were talking about, it’s the identity piece of why most people don’t make it, right? Because we have all these stories, we have all these generational beliefs, things that have been passed down to us, Most of them aren’t even our own fault. And that’s the number one thing, right? Like we gotta realize that it’s not our own fault.

Right? Everybody’s been dealt the cards, dealt some cards in life, right? And it’s okay. And that’s all right. And there’s nothing we can do about that, right? But what we can do is how we’re gonna show up and how we’re gonna react to the situations that we’re in, right? Now, of course we screw up, we’re human, right? So we screw up ourselves all the time and that’s okay. That’s the beauty of it. But we can’t live in this whole guilt and shame if we screw up either. It’s like, hey, all right, we own it. We take responsibility. Then we move forward. We put a new target in place and then we go forward, right?

And it’s that. And so that is my passion. My passion is people. People’s my passion. Real estate is simply the tool that we use. it. Right. And so that’s that’s that’s my whole entire thing. So what I want to do is I want to take away the whole entire problem of where people get in that analysis paralysis part where they think that they need this. They think they need that. They think we need this. I want to take that off the plate for them. And I want to be able to give them all that information.

Quentin (01:31)
Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Gordon Thornton (01:50)
all of that stuff and let them try and grow and prosper. That’s what I’m trying to do now.

Quentin (01:56)
Man, I love it, man. I love it. And this walks me right into probably my last question that I have for you before we wrap up. ⁓ Relationships, right? You just talk about people, connecting with people, caring about people. So when it comes to building your network and building relationships, what has made the biggest difference for you,

Gordon Thornton (02:02)
Yeah. Yeah.

Hmm.

Mm.

man. I really love, mean, again, I’ll go back to this thing right here. I mean, don’t be afraid to share your story out there. Like social media, now it can be a bad tool. It can also be an awesome tool, right? And to me, it’s an awesome tool, right? And I always tell people, I’m like, social media, if you think it’s bad, it’s all just an algorithm, right? So it’s like, if you think it’s bad and you’re seeing a lot of bad stuff, well, that’s cause you’re inputting a lot of bad stuff. Cause it’s just going to give you back what you want. It’s just a reflection, like anything else.

Our perspective, our life is just a reflection. That’s all that it is. So it’s like, all right, but that’s why you take this. Don’t be afraid to share your story. Right. The biggest thing for me and why I was able to get, have success and why, why I’m able to like raise money for projects is because I share my story and I don’t just share the good stuff. I want you to do the bad stuff too. Cause that’s the real stuff. That’s, that’s what actually is happening in this business. Right. Being authentically you, you know, and like that’s, that’s the truth comes across.

I mean, I’m the same person here that I am tomorrow or the other person if I’m talking about my story doesn’t change, right? Because this is where I have to live. so yeah, man, that’s just I would say, double down on just getting out there and sharing your story yourself, getting to meetups, right? Join those Facebook groups. Get out there. Don’t be afraid. You know, for me personally, too, people people say, it’s easy for you because you’re an outgoing person, blah, blah,

man, if they only knew how much fear actually lives inside this guy, right? And like, man, no, it’s because I just work on it. And I’ve had to work on it. I can’t tell you how many times when I first started in this business that I’d go to like, want to go to a meetup and I pull up in the parking lot, right? And I wouldn’t even go inside because I was like, man, I’m not doing any deals. Like, I feel like a fraud. I feel like I’m an imposter. Like, what am I doing here?

You know what mean? I would have those thoughts and it would consume me, it eat me up and I wouldn’t even go inside. You know? And it’s like, man, what a story. It’s not even real. That’s something that’s just living inside of my own head. And I know other people feel the same way because then when I share that with other people, they tell me, man, you do that too? Like, yeah, man, we’re all the same. We’re all the same. You know, it’s just recognizing it and then being able to pivot away from it as fast as you can. And that just takes work. And that’s OK.

Anything worth it that’s good, it’s going to take work.

Quentin (04:48)
And I told y’all see why, y’all see why I love this guy, right? I told you, I tell me we share so many aligning factors. People wouldn’t know, man, I am a classic introvert. Like I wouldn’t know it, but I’m with you. I suffer from the imposter syndrome, paralysis by analysis. so you get it. And I thank you, man. I thank you for your vulnerability. I thank you for your story-shelling, for your authenticity, because people need to hear this. People need to know they’re not by themselves.

Gordon Thornton (05:00)
Hmm. Yeah, really.

Quentin (05:17)
hop on all the success stories, but people need to be a part of the journey, right? To see how it actually looks, to put the seed in the ground, to put the dirt on it, to actually watch something grow out of the ground, you know? And I think us sharing our journey, it gets people a perspective to where they are sometimes and be like, oh no, this is just part of the process. Just part of the process. Just part of the process. And so, I appreciate you, man. I appreciate you being with me through these technical difficulties.

Gordon Thornton (05:30)
Yeah. Okay, man. Trust it.

Quentin (05:47)
technical difficulties. I was excited about your story and I think I nailed it. I told people you was going to drop nuggets and man you have dropped nugget after nugget. And so man, it was a pleasure being with you today, man. So I want to do this. Anybody that wanted to reach out with you, connect with you, learn from you, like man, anything you want to plug, this is the time now. Tell people where they can get in contact with you and any other thing that you want the people to know as well.

Gordon Thornton (06:01)
Amen.

Thank

Awesome, man. I appreciate it. mean, obviously, like social media is a great tool, right? So anybody can hit me up, send me a message, you know, through Instagram, right? It’s my candles. Very simple. It’s just I am Gordon Thornton. Boom. That’s me. Right. Also, like right here, this thing I talking about this deals and data. So deals and data dot AI. Like come check us out, man. We can just go in there. You can schedule an appointment. We can talk. My calendar is right on there. If you want to hit me up, hit me up. I’d love to talk, even if it’s not about real estate.

Like even like if you’re going through it right now, I get it. Reach out. It’s okay. We’ll have a conversation. Now you might not like what I say too, but that’s all right. I’m going to hold you accountable.

Quentin (06:53)
Here’s the thing. I love

that you said that because here’s the thing. You can’t control what somebody say. You can only control how you respond. That’s it. My wife has a saying. She said, truth don’t care who tells it. Truth don’t care who tells it. And so if you got upset at the truth, that’s a you problem. And so that’s the time to get curious. Don’t get that and you’ll get curious. Because curiosity is going to power you forward to get to learn, to get to grow, to get to figure out.

Gordon Thornton (07:01)
Okay. Yeah.

Mmm.

Quentin (07:21)
Why is it that I’m upset? You know? And so I love that you said that, you. I ain’t may not like what I say, but listen, he ain’t gon’ say it, but I said, that’s on you though. My man Gordon’s got the truth though, that’s on you. ⁓ So man, listen, bro. Yeah, man. You know, man, I’m gonna be straight with you, man. This has been a pleasure. This has been a pleasure, man. Thank you for your story. Thank you for your perspective.

Gordon Thornton (07:31)
You ⁓

I appreciate that man, I appreciate that.

Hmm.

Quentin (07:47)
Thank you for just being in this space and doing it the right way. Your integrity, your heart, your servant’s heart, man. I appreciate you. And I know our listeners got a ton of value out of this. So again, Gordon, I appreciate you, sir. Thank you so much, Absolutely. Now, the rest of y’all, listen, you know you got value out of this? Subscribe. If you’re not subscribed yet, what are we waiting for, people? Go ahead and subscribe, because I can promise you we’re just going to keep connecting with amazing people like Gordon.

Gordon Thornton (07:57)
I appreciate you too, Been a pleasure. God bless you.

Okay.

Quentin (08:16)
And we’re going to continue to keep bringing you these amazing stories. And so I thank you for being here today. And to the next time, we’ll see you.