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Show Summary
In this conversation, Thomas Cox shares his journey through the world of business and real estate, emphasizing the importance of relationships, patience, and mentorship. He discusses the concept of infinite banking and how it can be leveraged for real estate investments. Thomas reflects on personal experiences with adversity and growth, highlighting his financial goals and the significance of being present for his family. He also provides insights on networking and the value of asking questions in building relationships.
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Investor Fuel Show Transcript:
Thomas Cox (00:00)
Starting off in real estate, if you can start off in real estate and accumulate units by the units, but don’t depend on the cash flow. But don’t depend on the cash flow. And I say that real estate, unless you’re an agent, real estate is not a full-time job. Yeah. Okay. So, so what’s your base? I don’t care if you’re a school teacher or a neurosurgeon that makes 2 million bucks a year. Don’t depend.on the real estate cashflow to pay your bills.
Quentin Edmonds (02:01)
Hello everyone. Welcome to the Real Estate Pros podcast. I am your host Q Edmonds. You know what I’m going to say? I’m excited to be here today. I really, really am. I’m excited about my guest. You really are going to love the things that he’s going to talk about. And I love how he wants to help people. He wants to help the business owners. He want to help investors. He want to help people with W-2s. Like he wants to make sure that he can help you.get to the place where you want to be and take advantage of so many different opportunities. And so I am excited for you all to get to know and get to learn from Mr. Thomas Cox. Mr. Thomas, how you doing today,
Thomas Cox (02:41)
that was any better cue, there’d be two of me. Thank you for having me.Quentin Edmonds (02:45)
Absolutely, man. Absolutely. I’m so glad you’re here. And listen, I’ll be honest, I want to dive right in, I want you to tell the people, tell them this and tell them what your main focus is these days. Give us a little bit of an origin story of kind of how you got started in real estate. You love origin stories. And then man, tell them where you are in the world. you know, demographic where you are. So Mr. Thomas, got the floor, sir.Thomas Cox (03:06)
Perfect. Um, I am from Birmingham, Alabama, lived here for a while, born and raised here, moved away for 15 years during a small stand of coaching college football. So I coach college football for 10 years. You did not know that because they didn’t talk about that earlier. Uh, I got out of coaching, Lord, the Lord let us out of coaching. Hey, look, forgive me if I talk about the Lord and what he’s done.Quentin Edmonds (03:25)
No, no, you you in the right place. I talk about him all the time. So you good, sir.Thomas Cox (03:30)
Yeah. the Lord let us out of coaching and we’re out. We got out of that and started our own business. And then 2017, I dove into the world. It is so funny to you. I saw a video. All my friends were business owners and things like that. And they all had their own business, but they all had the rental houses and I saw a video and you know, if you’re in real estate, you’ve seen Grant Cardinal. Okay. Yeah. And some people love him and some people hate him. Doesn’t matter what you think about him. He’s effective at what he does. Doesn’t matter. Okay. SoBut I’ll say this piece, he did a video queue and I saw the video. said, well, a house where I can buy an apartment and just have one route. You know how he has that, you know, you know, Italian accent. And so I said, don’t it. It makes sense. So I started instead of buying rental as single family homes, I started buying parts. so
Quentin Edmonds (04:02)
Bye!Thomas Cox (04:21)
The finance world, let me backtrack to when I was 18. The finance world has been a big part of my life. When I was 18 years old, graduated from high school. When I graduated from high school, I had a guy in the church say, hey, I got $2,000 for graduation. Because you know, when you send that graduation invitation, people send you about 20 here, 50 there, whatever. So I got $2,000. I spent $1,000 of it. I don’t even know where it went. OK? I took another guy. The guy said, give me $1,000. I said, what you going to do with my money? He goes, I’m going put it in stock. I said, OK.And he said, but here’s the key Thomas send me $25 a month. said, for what? He says, I’m going to do something. It’s called dollar cost averaging. I’m going to buy more shares every month. I said, I trust you, but the bad part is I don’t even remember the guy’s name. I’ve so ashamed of that. I’ve told this story so many times, but I don’t remember the guy’s name. So anyway, so we’re going through and I did that all through college because I had a great job in college. I did that all through.
My early years of being married and I did it, did it, just did it. So when I was 37, we bought our first apartment complex and then a partner, we split it. And I pulled some of that money and did that. So then two years later, we had an aggressive pay down stressor with two years later, we bought another apartment complex. And then a year and a half later, I bought another one by, by myself. So all that being said, I got my taste in real estate world. And here’s the thing I’ve always, and this is lesson number one, write this down.
Quentin Edmonds (05:34)
Yeah.Thomas Cox (06:28)
Starting off in real estate, if you can start off in real estate and accumulate units by the units, but don’t depend on the cash flow. But don’t depend on the cash flow. And I say that real estate, unless you’re an agent, real estate is not a full-time job. Yeah. Okay. So, so what’s your base? I don’t care if you’re a school teacher or a neurosurgeon that makes 2 million bucks a year. Don’t depend.on the real estate cashflow to pay your bills.
It’s just not, not a thing. Okay. So transition, we moved back to Birmingham. I’m running our business. And then, ⁓ I find out about this concept called infinite banking and one of my mentors. And we, I know we’re talking about mentors cause it always comes up. I got in Justin craft sat me down and told me about this thing. I said, what is this thing? He said, he says, it’s a concept where you can have your money grow.
contractually at a competitive rate that’s, you know, um, protected from lawsuits that is accessible, but also we’re going to, we’re going to borrow from that dollar and we’re going to go put that dollar to work. So we’re going to be making money here, but we’re also going to be making money there. And so he introduced me to this thing called Anthony bank and I started doing it and practicing it. And it’s just, it’s a wonderful concept. And I,
lived by it now on so many, it’s done so much for our wealth. And I’ve loved that. Quickly there, right around that time, I started what they call a private money fund. And the reason I did that is I had been loaning private money to people. I didn’t know what that world was. If you don’t know what private money is, it’s a fascinating world that people borrow money from you. You become the bank, you…
lend out the money at a higher than normal rate and you make the return. You make money by wiring money. It’s obviously a lot more than that, but that’s the concept. so to bring it all together, we’ve got a real estate portion of what we do. We’ve got a finance portion of what we do. And those two when married are a dynamic
thing that can create massive amounts of wealth and give a lot of freedom.
Quentin Edmonds (08:32)
You are my type of guy, I love stories. I love storytelling. I drive on storytelling. You’re going to hear me say at the end of this show when I’m talking to you, nothing in this world moves without story. Story powers everything, And so I’m listening to you tell your story. I’m writing down your resume, coaching football. Of course, you left that out, but you told me now and I appreciate you, but you coach football for 10 years.Seeing a video in 2017 brought your first apartment at 37. So you have been through some transitions, right? I have this saying where I say destiny has no wasted moments. Meaning no matter what we go through in life, destiny teaches us something about ourselves that show us who we are, right? So I would love to know what has destiny taught you about you? Through your different transitions, through your different moments,
Thomas Cox (09:08)
Yes.Quentin Edmonds (09:29)
within coming to this real estate journey. What has it taught you about yourself, man?Thomas Cox (09:33)
I’m a fire ready aim guy.And that is very, good in some ways, but it’s very, bad in some ways. So when you’re fire ready aim.
You typically move faster than you probably should and I’ve moved faster than I probably shouldn’t.
But it also allows me to be a first, an early adopter on a of things too. So I’ve an early adopter on a handful of things, but also it’s taught me some lessons. So I’ll give you a great example of one of the lessons I’ve learned in real estate that will amount to that. So there’s this real estate group that I got involved with and I know you’ve heard of it, but I’m not gonna mention the name.
It was the shiny object syndrome about three or four years ago and all of them come and go. And I got involved in it. It was great. I thought it was the best thing since peanut butter. And I started doing different deals with people in this group. And, ⁓ I got talked into doing second lien loaning, second lien money. And I did two deals in the same month and we lost a lot of money. It was a true.
Quentin Edmonds (10:11)
Mm.Mm.
Thomas Cox (10:31)
ready, uh, fire ready. Yeah. I got over my skis. I lost a lot of money.So what, what, what is it taught? What does the universe taught me about that? The universe has taught me as, as I have to, I have to think clearly about what’s in front of me. Okay. Number one, number two, I have to pray first. Like, like when you remove too fast, we typically don’t hear the Lord. When we slow down,
The Bible is very, clear that he is a whisper. And I don’t want to preach, like the Bible is very, very clear that the Lord speaks in a whisper. is the gentle whisper. He’s not a volcano. He’s not a thunder. He’s a whisper. And so we have to be quiet in order to hear a whisper. And so sometimes we have to quiet ourselves, slow ourselves down in order to hear. And I would say that’s a pretty good lesson that I’ve learned.
And I think the older we get, I think the better we get at that just by nature.
Quentin Edmonds (11:59)
Yeah. Be still and know that I am God. So now man, you talk in my language, you know, I always spoke the scripture, we make our plans, but the Lord determines the outcome. And that’s a different translation, but we make our plans, the Lord determines our steps. And so I love it because he will allow us to plan, but we have to be willing to listen if he turns those plans in other directions. And we got to go with it. We can’t stronghold him.We got to say, Nope, let me Lord, I made my plan, but this is what you’re telling me to do. So I love it, man. I mean, you’re talking my language, sir. Um, and so you, I know you’re going to appreciate this. You know, the Bible talks about how trials come. come to make us strong. So what kind of adversity have you faced as you was building? Cause adversity looks different to everybody, but how has adversity showed his head and what, and what did you do to deal with the adversity as it came?
Thomas Cox (12:54)
say the biggest adversity would be those two deals were pretty hard for me. ⁓ They always say that you never invest any money or you’re not you can’t afford to lose. Yeah. And ⁓ and and and we did that and we lost it. And did it hurt us? Yeah. Did cripple my family? No. So that that was the that was the thing. My daughter got sick when she was one. That was the thing we had to rely on the Lord there as far as adversity is concerned.Lord Hilder, so it was great. ⁓ There’s some adversity there moving, moving my middle school and elementary school kids when they were in that at those ages was difficult. That’s not adversity because the Lord moved us and it was great. you know, everybody’s adversity is different. ⁓ My father died in 2020. That was hard, bro. Yeah, father died in 2020 and that was very, difficult for me and we were great friends. ⁓ And so that was difficult. So adversity rears its head and different for everybody.
Yeah, obviously how we how we respond don’t react how we respond to those things is what it is. But like it’s like we just said, responding slower. The Bible is very, very quick. We slow to speak and slow to anger. So we have to be slow to speak in the fact it’s my son. That’s my son’s verse.
Quentin Edmonds (14:07)
It’s myfirst scene. It’s my first scene, man.
Thomas Cox (14:09)
Listen, that boy will say some stuff. Listen, the other day, this little girl was picking on one of my son’s buddies. And she was picking on him. She was picking on him. was picking on him. And someone said something about drawing this girl’s picture on the board. And he goes, I don’t think she fit. And I went, aw man. But he did that because he was mad because she was picking on the other kid.Quentin Edmonds (14:12)
Yeah.Thomas Cox (14:36)
Yeah. Was I happy that he took up for his body? Yes. Was I upset that he was that he was quick to speak and heard a girl’s feelings? No. Yeah. But I did kind of pat him on the butt for sticking up for his people. You know what saying? I mean, so it’s the dichotomy there is hard. Yeah.Quentin Edmonds (15:33)
Nope, I definitely hear you, man. That’s one of my, that’s the scripture that really centers me within my marriage. I gotta be quick to hear, slow to speak, slow to rev. Because, know, honestly, one of the things has been my tone, the way, you know, I’m from Baltimore. I’m not sure if you know anything about Baltimore, but I grew up in West Baltimore in the nineties, very rough place. AndI have took on a persona of sometimes just being a bear when I get angry because I really literally had to fight my life growing up in Baltimore. But my wife, my wife is not my enemy. And so I had to learn to be quick to hear, hear the word of God, slow to speak and slow to rap. So man, I love that. That’s one of my favorite scriptures. So Thomas, me ask you, man, what is your next real goal? What are you looking to solve a scale next, man?
Thomas Cox (16:24)
When I was, when I moved back to Birmingham in 2017, I was in a B and I group, you know, B and I is business that working international. go to sit with a bunch of people, tell about your stuff, whatever. Yeah. And there was this lady in there and she was, she was in her second career. was in her late sixties, early seventies and she was, she was precious. So she retired from something and was doing this other thing. And she said, Hey, I’m old enough to where I don’t have to chase the dollar. said, my goal these days is to be a six figure giver.Quentin Edmonds (16:51)
So.Thomas Cox (16:52)
from a goal standpoint, that’s one of my financial goals. Now I’ve got a goal that I want to hit this year. But like from a financial standpoint, ⁓ that is a measuring stick that I’m trying to hit. I’m trying to be a six figure giver. That’s the main financial thing for me. I would like to slowly accumulate more assets. Now what does that mean? Is in units.Quentin Edmonds (16:57)
Yeah.Thomas Cox (17:18)
Is it properties? Is it businesses? I’m not really sure. I’m trying to go where the Lord leads me. Like I talked to a guy this morning about some units. And so I’m always on the hunt for stuff like that. So that’s my main goal right there. I would say a secondary goal is to make sure that I leverage every nanosecond of the day to be the best I can be.for my kids and my wife. My kids are 17, 14 and 10. And I want my daughter to be there. Like, Teagan’s got a fishing tournament tomorrow and he’s got a 7-07 tournament on Sunday and my daughter’s playing in Pullman and it just, I want to be there for all of it, you know? Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Quentin Edmonds (17:51)
Mm-hmm.My wife and now we have a saying, so I have a, I have a 22 year old, 17 year old, I’m sorry, 22 year old, 13 year old. And there’ll be that this year. But me and my wife, have a saying where we say, your presence is a presence. Your presence, you being there is a presence. And so I hear you, man, when you say you want to be there for your kids, you want to be there for your family because you being there is a presence to them. And I have never heard, this is the first time
When I ask that question about goals, somebody talk about being a 10 figure giver. You never heard that before,
Yeah, yeah, but you understand how it goes. Give and it will be given back to you. it’s like you are, press down, shake it together, running over, and you know that. And you know that means if I’m a six figure giver, that means he has given me more than enough to be a six figure giver and he’s still gonna continue to give it back to me so I can continue to give. And so, I’m loving this dog, man.
So man, now we got to talk about what I think is one of your favorite words, relationships. I want to talk about your perspective when it comes to building healthy relationships, when it comes to building business relationships, by talking to me about relationships a little bit Thomas.
Thomas Cox (19:08)
Yeah.sitting in office about a month, about four or five months ago. And there was this guy who has a $45 million book of business. He’s an asset. He’s assets under management does the market stuff. And he’s in his sixties ish. And one of the younger guys a little younger than I am. I said, Hey, what would you what would you give advice to anybody that’s new or younger in the business? And he goes 10 meetings a week.
He said your first, your first two or three years in any business, he said, you need to go by the office and wave at it as you’re going out to meet people. So, I will, I will tag. I’m going to challenge you Q. Okay. I’m going challenge you. Get 10 meetings a week. Never eat lunch alone. eat lunch alone. Go, go, go find someone. That’s five. That’s four or five meetings a week right there. Go find someone that who’s going to turn out a free lunch coach.
Quentin Edmonds (20:10)
Mmm.Thomas Cox (20:11)
Go find somebody at lunch with, okay? Go find somebody at lunch with, and here’s the thing, I wanna task you with this. Here’s what a win is at a meeting. A win at a meeting is if at the end of the meeting, they say, we’re gonna have to do this again, I don’t know, I didn’t learn anything about you. Okay? So the person in control of the conversation is the person that asks the most questions. So how can I sit down at a meeting with Quentin?and ask all these questions to where you know nothing about me. I am just being engaged in you. So a couple of tips, take your phone and put it up site, not on the table, but put it out of sight because the, the having it inside on the table is a, is a reflex. Yeah. We want to keep it out of sight. Number one, number two, have zero ask in the first meeting, no ask in the first meeting. And number three,
Ask the questions. Ask the questions, but don’t ask yes or no questions. Questions need to start with, hey, me about, hey, tell me more about so and so. Tell me more about this. What is your experience with whatever? 10 meetings a week has been something. And here’s the thing. You don’t always have to be closing business 10 meetings a week, but we need to sit in front of people. And you need to sometimes,
Quentin Edmonds (21:04)
Mm.Thomas Cox (21:28)
You need sit with your peers, but you also need to find time to sit with people that you’re not going to sell anything to, that you’re not, that all you want to do is learn from them. Yeah. Okay. So that’s my relationship stick.Quentin Edmonds (21:42)
Thomas man, ⁓ I mean, just love the way you think. I love the way you present. This is really good. Listen, if someone wanted to reach out to you, connect with you, collaborate with you, learn more about what you’re doing, man, how can they get in contact with you,Thomas Cox (21:59)
That’s great. I’m on all the socials. it’s my socials is thomascox.co thomascox.co is my website and then Instagram, TikTok and YouTube and all that stuff’s on there. So you can find me pretty much anywhere. Again, my website is thomascox.co. Um, and the thing that I, I would say our area of expertise is teaching infinite banking and what that looks like. And so if they wanted, if you wanted to learn more about that and see me and my partner teach on that.the best place to go would be, it’s really simple website, it’s called IBC, Infinite Making Concept, IBC.money. IBC.money, and that’s a great place to go to find info about what infinite making does, how it’s doing, what is this doing, all that good stuff. So that’s the best place to find me.
Quentin Edmonds (22:44)
Thomas, let me say three things to you. First, let me say thank you for your time because time is our most precious commodity. We do things to get our time back, control of our time. You could have been doing anything, man, but you chose to be here. So thank you for that. Two, thank you for your stories, ⁓ man, like I said, you know, and I got this from Kobe Bryant before he passed away. He was on one of the last interviews with Lewis Howes from the School of Greatness podcast. Lewis asked him,Thomas Cox (22:46)
Yeah, soQuentin Edmonds (23:12)
What is it that you still trying to do that you have not done? And Colby says, tell the perfect story. He said, nothing in this world moves without story. So everything moves without story. I’ll say it this and you’ll get this too. Jesus taught in parables. He taught in stories. And they said, why do you teach in parables? He said, because you know the kingdom, but other people don’t. So that’s why when you talk about six figure given and stuff, bro, you talk in story, you talk in parables.Thomas Cox (23:19)
Good.Quentin Edmonds (23:38)
So I gotta say, man, thank you for your story. And lastly, man, thank you for your perspective, for your mindset and bringing that mindset to this platform. I greatly appreciate you,Thomas Cox (23:40)
ThankYes, sir. Thank you so much.
Quentin Edmonds (23:50)
Absolutely. So listen, y’all heard Mr. Thomas check the show notes, get in contact with him thomascox.co and listen, I love Mr. Thomas. This is my guy, but definitely make sure you are subscribed here. Okay. Because I promise we’re going to continue to bring out amazing people just like Mr. Thomas. So sir, thank you again, man. Greatly appreciate you and everyone else. Y’all have a fantastic day.
