Why Syndications Are the Key to Your Financial Future

Brett McCollum (00:00.993)
All right guys, welcome back to the show. I am your host, Brett McCollum, and I’m here today with Nic Espanet. And today we’re gonna be talking about real estate syndications. That’s right. Before we do guys, at Investor Fuel, we help real estate investors, service providers, and real estate entrepreneurs to 2 to 5X their businesses to allow them to build the businesses they’ve always wanted and allow them to live the lives they’ve always dreamed of. Without further ado, Nic, how are you, man?

Nic Espanet (00:26.69)
Doing great Brett, thanks for having me.

Brett McCollum (00:28.917)
Man, this is awesome. I am looking forward to this. We got to catch up a little bit, talk to each other a little bit before the show, get to know each other, and that was really, really quite cool. But I wanna talk, obviously we’re gonna talk about syndications, right? That’s kind of what we let in with. But before we do, let’s get some background, some, know, who’s Nic? You know, like, catch us up to speed, man.

Nic Espanet (00:48.63)
Awesome. Yeah, Nic has been at a live in Fort Worth, Texas. So the FW part of DFW, but been doing syndications for coming up on nine years. You know, started back early 16. And before that, I went to school to be a physical therapist. Did that graduated in 96 for was a physical therapist about 20 years and kept doing that in early part of the syndications. But, you know, back to, you know,

started looking for something different to do with my retirement. And just because the stock market would just, I would glaze over and I felt like I needed to pay attention to it. Don’t get to put your hands on it. And started just looking at different options in the real estate world. you know, through my research came across a multifamily mentorship program and joined that. And within a little less than two years was able to do my first syndication, which was a 100 unit property. And since it was, and,

About a year ago, I closed my ninth deal that I was out of those nine, I six of them. I’ve been the lead syndicator. And so a little more than 1500 units that we’ve been involved in. And currently we own about, I think it’s a 1,270 something units now. with three of them that have gone full cycle and we’re down, we’re at six right now, but and still looking, looking for other deals. think, you know, the market’s moving back in a positive direction as you know, 2024 was.

Brett McCollum (01:56.832)
Wow.

Nic Espanet (02:14.966)
slow for us and just the first year since 16 that I haven’t bought a property. But I think 2025 is going to be much more exciting to see some stuff. know, deals are starting to come to the market.

Brett McCollum (02:28.373)
Yeah, man, that’s super cool. So let’s back up a little ways. You were a physical therapist, correct? Were you more in home or was it hospital day? What was your practice?

Nic Espanet (02:33.966)
Correct.

Nic Espanet (02:40.414)
Initially, I came out of school and worked in hospital for eight, 10 years and then started even in that time I did some part time home health and then about the time we started having children, my wife and I, which I should have mentioned, have a wife and three daughters that we live in Fort Worth and one’s already in college, the other two are at home, still in high school and middle school. we, I did, so started doing home health.

just for a little more freedom, flexibility. And then towards the end of that, I was doing contract home health or running, know, I was working for multiple agencies with therapy assistants underneath me. So was a 1099 employee doing home health, which made the transition from physical therapist to full-time syndicator easier, because I could ramp down my physical therapy 1099 as I was bringing up the syndication or real estate side.

versus having a W-2 job where when you quit, you quit and you’re going from 40 hours or ever how many hours to zero, I was able to slowly transition.

Brett McCollum (03:46.453)
Yeah, very cool. Yeah. the, have to ask this. So I, before I was in, well, actually before, and then kind of my first couple, you know, year and a half into real estate, I was working for a marketing co and the marketing side of a physical therapy office. And our, our mission was a auto accident injury recovery. I got to ask it. It’s a, it’s an, it was almost like a, like a, I don’t, and I never will understand it, but I have to ask the physical therapist in unique.

Nic Espanet (04:01.614)
Cool.

Nic Espanet (04:06.114)
Okay.

Brett McCollum (04:16.466)
Why do physical therapists and chiropractors do this? I’ve never understood it because they seem to like not really get along so well and in my experiences

Nic Espanet (04:24.872)
butt heads. Okay. I thought you meant do the hand motion. Like I don’t ever, it’s a territory. mean, yes, it’s almost taught in school. It’s like a territorial thing of, and I don’t know why we can’t get along. actually go to a chiropractor now it’s one because I can go in without, having to have a doctor’s note without a referral. And I’ll be honest that the chiropractors set up a better business practice. One, a lot of them are cash only, so they’re not having to deal with insurance companies.

Brett McCollum (04:27.772)
sorry.

Brett McCollum (04:33.908)
Yeah.

Brett McCollum (04:52.011)
Yeah.

Nic Espanet (04:54.182)
and they do not have to have a referral. As a physical therapist, have to have a physician’s, at least in Texas, it may be different different states, you have to have a referral from a physician. So the patient has to see the doctor first, then go to the physical therapist.

Brett McCollum (05:09.493)
Yeah, it’s just so funny that there was always like inter-office stuff like, yeah, these chiropractors and then the car you see the chiropractors like, yeah, these PTs, you know, it’s like, like.

Nic Espanet (05:17.196)
I think some of it came back to the old school days where some of the chiropractors, know, like they think you can cure everything from the common cold, you know, and yeah, but I think there are great chiropractors with functional medicine stuff is definitely. And it’s when I have an injury now, that’s I have a guy that I go see that and he does, he’s not a crack your back. I mean, he looks at muscle and he’s a, you he always says that one to two visits, he’s not one of these, he’s not.

Brett McCollum (05:25.12)
Yeah.

Brett McCollum (05:28.609)
I’ll be-

I’ll be honest with you.

Yeah.

Nic Espanet (05:44.62)
of the mindset you need to come in once a week or once a month and be, yeah, or forever to be adjusted. No, that’s funny that you say that because I thought you were saying they always put their hand, but they do butt heads. And there are some people, but you know, think it’s instilled in us in PT school too, like, the chiropractors are mad.

Brett McCollum (05:47.201)
twice a week for eight weeks. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

Brett McCollum (05:55.553)
Sorry. Sorry.

Brett McCollum (06:02.111)
I think it is on the opposite end too on the Cairo side. But I’ve always thought because they’re complementary to each other and I’m like, man, if they could figure out how to work together like from a business standpoint, like we’re both like we’re entrepreneurs, right? So I’m always thinking like business models and things like that. Like I’m like, man, if I could put those two things together, responsible, like that’s it. Like that is like, cause people are, mean.

Nic Espanet (06:09.358)
Now they definitely can work together and then should.

Brett McCollum (06:32.063)
Life is tough and people are gonna get hurt in some capacity. And if you could put the…

Nic Espanet (06:35.31)
I mean, even if you’re just walking or standing, you sneeze sometimes, you people are injured. You don’t have to be doing something dangerous to be injured. A car accident to a slip on water. Yeah. Now that was not a question I thought I would get today. So, that’s good. Yes.

Brett McCollum (06:43.625)
I just want to I was just wondering to that speaking to the PT in the man.

See, I’m here to surprise you, man. Yeah, that was a different world, different time back then. All right, so you did that, you start, was there something back then that maybe, like you’re looking at retirement and thinking for the future, obviously. There’s a million ways to think about retirement. Why real estate, what was it that excited you?

Nic Espanet (07:15.214)
I mean, just, you know, I’m, I like to read a lot. So just hearing that it’s real estate is a great resource for, for wealth and freedom and independence. You know, having worked in the hospital and then work for agencies as home health, it was always having to ask somebody, we’re going on a family vacation or I need something off this Friday or need a couple hours off. I wanted to get into something where I was more my own boss. and so you’re just.

doing lots of research on what’s an avenue that makes that more likely to be possible. And I’m not trying to get out of work. I just love the freedom of real estate that I’m in Fort Worth. A lot of times right now we travel. I can take my laptop in a hotspot and I’ve not missed one of my daughter’s track meets this year. Now I have to run to the truck and set up and get my hotspot going and talk. We could travel really anywhere in the world. Time zones might get a little tricky.

I can’t be gone for a long time, especially if we’re trying to buy stuff. need to be on-site occasionally or tour properties. even now that most of our deals are more in a of a cruise control mode, I can skip two months without going or one of my partners could visit. I try to go to every property once a month, but the ones that are running pretty smoothly, there’s not a need to go that often. We do every other week calls on them. I can set up from…

If I can get a wifi or a hotspot, I can work from anywhere. that was my just trying to find some more freedom as you know, I started having kids and you know, just my focus started changing where I wanted to be able to spend my time and being my own boss. You know, I work from home. So now and but can work from anywhere. And I haven’t had to ask anybody for a day off in four years.

Brett McCollum (09:08.513)
Yeah, that’s a special thing, right? That’s super cool. And it’s so many of us that when we look back on it, you know what I mean? Like that’s super like, I don’t have to ask.

Nic Espanet (09:18.958)
I think I worked more than I did at some, a lot of weeks and then I did it.

Brett McCollum (09:22.817)
I was gonna that was gonna you’re kind of leading me to a question that I was gonna tell you ask you that so you started doing that you bought a bunch of Now over the last handful of years, you’ve got it like your own I think it was like 2200 and change doors of your own

Nic Espanet (09:32.526)
Thank

We’re up to 1270 something 1274 I think units across six properties

Brett McCollum (09:39.923)
Okay. Yeah. so that’s incredible. Great job, by the way. And then I think you’ve co-syndicated or something that many.

Nic Espanet (09:45.048)
Thank you.

Nic Espanet (09:51.212)
Yeah, well, know, there’ll be a group of three to five of us that come together and raise the money. And then usually about three, three or so do the asset management. I am of those six, I’m still all but one and the one of the primary asset managers that are overseeing it. you know, that’s just making sure those properties and they’re all running operationally pretty well, but I still on a regular basis check things in, you know, the last three weeks we’ve been getting our K ones and stuff ready for investors. So that’s been,

Pretty time intensive, but it’s more down to one property. My wife and I joked that we, cause she’s doing the same thing. She taught, she was in sales and then taught at our kid’s school for a while. But we, we joked that we traded our nine to five job for a five to nine job. So, so there’s days where, know, I’ll come home from working out, especially in the winter when it’s, I’m not very sweaty and I’ll sit down at my computer at seven in the morning. I’ll suddenly look up and it’s seven at night. like, man, I’m still in my workout clothes for the day. Well, how have I not moved other than maybe a restroom break or a quick snack.

Brett McCollum (10:46.261)
What just happened here?

Brett McCollum (10:51.937)
Yeah. Well, that’s kind of what I was going to ask, right? Is like, so the mindset, I mean, you’re working for, I don’t know how many years as a PT, you’re doing that and you kind of get into the routine and the groove of like every day. Most people do, right? You get up, you go to work, you come home and, and then now I’ve got this business for the intentionality of building wealth, you know, growing, know, making good income and also ultimately time freedom.

Nic Espanet (10:52.014)
put in a good 15 hour.

Nic Espanet (11:06.638)
Sure.

Brett McCollum (11:20.649)
I don’t know about you, Nic, and the reason I’m asking these questions is because I know for me the intention has always been exactly what you said. But sometimes I find myself going, I created another job.

Nic Espanet (11:32.046)
No, I’ve had that same thought. But I know it’s hustling, because I did this change in my mid 40s when I did it. know, at the time, so that’s been, you know, had a dude, when was she born? Three year old, nine year old and 11 year old at the time he started. So I’m like, oh, this is, but you know, just get my, my nose to the grindstone. But I knew in the longterm it would make, it would create freedom.

Brett McCollum (11:49.601)
Hmm.

Nic Espanet (11:57.614)
But I have to be intentional when my kids get home from school to pause, go hang out with them for a little bit or go in the evenings or if they come in and ask me a question, I’m in the middle of an email, like, oh, I don’t to lose my thought. I’m like, no, let’s close the laptop, engage with them for a little bit. because it can, especially, but there are times when we’re in the middle of raising capital for a deal, there’s maybe two to four weeks that dad is not very available.

Brett McCollum (12:01.355)
Yeah, you have to.

Nic Espanet (12:25.73)
we had a deal that got pushed out and actually closed the deal from Disney in December of 2020 at the end of COVID. And so my wife has pictures of me all over Disney, like on my phone taking calls, because luckily we had signed everything and then had to meet up. They found one paper that wasn’t signed, a mobile notary had to meet me at our hotel room. So it’s kind of a fun story, but my wife’s like, Nic thinks that he’s a…

He’s doing the family trip, he’s getting it. We got a deal closed and it was able to get it done. it’s cuz that deal got stretched another three or four weeks and where we intended to close and we had the Disney trip booked way in advance.

Brett McCollum (13:04.949)
Yeah, that’s tend to how it goes, isn’t it? Like you’ll have something that’s like, hey, this has already been on the books, this is gone and inevitably, know, life finds a way, you know? But yeah, I live in Florida, right? So, I mean, as recently as a couple of weeks ago, we were at Disney for my wife’s birthday and I’m in line at Disney taking calls, you know? And not because I wanted to be, it was not, you know, but sometimes these things happen and it’s a tough, it’s…

Nic Espanet (13:11.726)
Yep.

Brett McCollum (13:33.077)
It’s a tough balance to know like I’m trying to be intentional, be present with my family, but also have the boundaries for when work is work, it’s work. But also prioritizing our wife and our kids and things like that. That’s tough.

Nic Espanet (13:47.2)
One, even just shutting your phone off in the evenings or leaving in another room.

Brett McCollum (13:52.449)
Because we always convince ourselves that it’s so, but it’s time sensitive right now and it’s important right now. We always convince ourselves of that. And it really is. Yeah.

Nic Espanet (13:59.918)
And 99 % of it isn’t. That’s rare. I’ve just finished a book, The Ruthless Elimination of Hurry. And I’ve heard this probably a dozen times, set times to check your email. But I always want to get back with people quickly. But I’m like, all right, I want to block an hour in the morning, hour in the afternoon, that all I do is email. And just I can delete stuff, answer, but I’m…

Brett McCollum (14:08.478)
yeah.

Nic Espanet (14:28.908)
really bad even on my phone, just trying to get an email, you know, reply back to somebody. My fear has always been if I don’t answer it when I see it, I’m gonna forget about it and I’ll get dropped through. I’m like, just leave it as unread, go through and sort where you filter only your unread emails, delete all the chaff that’s coming through and then get the ones that are important.

Brett McCollum (14:49.729)
Yeah, for me it’s text messages, right? And if I know that there’s a text on my, excuse me, a text on my phone, I struggle to like, I gotta look at it, I gotta look at it, I gotta look at it, I gotta look at it, you know? And it’s hard, know? Intentional focus is hard sometimes.

Nic Espanet (15:02.126)
some anxiety.

Nic Espanet (15:09.24)
What? Yeah. And my wife has said, you know, text message are for me as the receiver, not for the sender. the ex society now has an expectation that we reply back on a text right away. Whereas a phone call you used to not, you called somebody’s house and maybe got a voice answer machine. there was, if they, you once those started becoming more common, you left them a voicemail, they may have called you in the evening or the next day. but now we have this.

Brett McCollum (15:34.88)
Right.

Nic Espanet (15:37.286)
Everybody’s got a phone in their pocket, everybody expects to be replied to. we gotta remember that they’re there for us, not for, and there are times things are urgent, but most of time they’re not.

Brett McCollum (15:42.059)
Connected immediately. Yep.

Brett McCollum (15:52.149)
Yeah, Nic, I wanna ask you some questions on like some of the intricate, you know, syndication questions, right? So, you know, you jump in, you’re doing this, you know, let’s say now you’re two, three deals under your belt, right? So you got a pretty decent handle on it now. After you’ve done it for a little while, like maybe what are some of the one or two most like complicated issues that now that you got some experience underway?

Nic Espanet (15:57.967)
Okay.

Brett McCollum (16:20.811)
that maybe you didn’t expect. Because when you went through some mentorship, you got some guidance, you took the action, you started doing it, you’re doing deals, great. But I wasn’t, not that you weren’t prepared, but maybe something that you weren’t quite prepared for.

Nic Espanet (16:33.518)
Similarly learning a couple of them. One is buying older properties. Note, like we’re in a point now where we’re having to hold stuff longer than we originally anticipated. Make sure you have enough, you’re capitalized enough for long-term and below the line, you know, buying a 70s property, we come in and do a lot of repairs on the front end, but it’s still a 50 plus year old property that you’re going to have water leaks and sewer lines, but making sure you’re capitalized enough on these older properties for year three, four and five if you need it.

you know, another is choose your partners wisely. You know, there’s a, you, I, when I talk to people, your partners that are asset managing, don’t just jump. It’s almost like it’s a lot like dating, getting married, make sure you’re going to get along not only when things are easy, but when the poop hits a fan, how is everybody going to react? Because you know, in today’s society, it’s probably easier to get a divorce than it is to remove somebody from your team.

Brett McCollum (17:03.019)
Right.

Nic Espanet (17:31.638)
And so make sure you have somebody that has a good synergy, that your plan’s the same. And it’s hard, because you’re talking with people about partnering on stuff. until the poop hits the fan, you really don’t know how somebody’s going to act. And so that can be a challenge. So I’ve now got a small number of partners that I’ll do stuff with. And that’s people I want to know that have been doing this for a while and that are going to have a good demeanor as we go through things.

Brett McCollum (18:01.92)
Yeah, that’s because

Nic Espanet (18:02.446)
That’s probably when the biggest is, you know, don’t think you need a bigger deal. So you have to bring in more partners, stay smaller, stay midsize to where you can do it with a smaller number of people.

Brett McCollum (18:13.695)
Yeah, I mean that’s a huge because at the end of the day Nic has a vision for his future and I might have a part like and you might say hey Brett do you want to partner with me we get along great we’re nice like but my vision might be totally different than yours you know

Nic Espanet (18:25.294)
sure and when you’re going to sell and you know how it’s a and one thing that I go and I won’t say never but I want to have control of the asset management or have a larger vote make sure I have a enough interest in it that if if I’m the one that’s bringing the most money to the deal I want to have the most say in how the properties run and whereas at one point I was trying to trying to back off and say hey I’m gonna raise the money let somebody else do the most of the work and I just

Brett McCollum (18:46.751)
Right, yeah, setting expectations.

Nic Espanet (18:55.38)
It’s not necessarily from a control point, it’s just when things start going the wrong way, I want to make sure I can right this ship.

Brett McCollum (19:02.753)
Yeah, that’s huge, I mean, that’s everything. I’ve been on good partnerships, I’ve been in bad partnerships, I’ve done them both ways, and inevitably in life everything has to end. You and I, not going to be on this earth forever, right? So everything, even business, must come to an end at some point, right?

Nic Espanet (19:10.423)
Thank

Brett McCollum (19:31.701)
I in my younger years of in real estate would just, we’ll figure it out, Nic, let’s just get, let’s just start, you know? And then when it got weird, you realize, like you said, Nic, you realize kind of like what the motive of that person truly is. Some people don’t handle pressure as well as others. Some people, you you don’t know, you know? And yeah, that’s a great lesson.

Nic Espanet (19:51.502)
for sure.

Nic Espanet (19:58.798)
When I got in, when things are good, everybody gets along. If you’re sending money out and you’re doubling everybody’s money in two or three years, but know, 16, 17, 18, even a little bit in the 19, you can almost buy a deal back then and go to sleep. And it’s gonna double ever close to double everybody’s money or better. And so, you know, if you’re sending checks out, you can put up with a lot of friction and you’re not gonna have as much friction, you know, when we’re…

Brett McCollum (20:24.597)
Sure.

Nic Espanet (20:27.978)
coming through this down cycle, you start seeing true colors and who do you want in your foxhole at that time?

Brett McCollum (20:35.297)
That’s right. And what are you seeing? So, it’s not, mean, it is. I think 10 years removed from now, we’re gonna look back and go like, man, this was a weird cycle. Like, I think we’re gonna talk about it, you know? I don’t know that it’s the, everybody in real life is like, were you around for 2008? You know, the great, you know, I don’t know that that happens. I don’t know that it doesn’t, I don’t know. I don’t know what I don’t know. But I know for sure, and when we look back in this time, historically, it’s gonna be like, that was a moment in time that was rough.

Nic Espanet (20:48.299)
Sure.

Nic Espanet (21:04.865)
yeah.

Brett McCollum (21:05.001)
Okay. How are you guys navigating that today? What like, what are you doing?

Nic Espanet (21:10.19)
I agree. think we, in 10 years, we will look back on 2023, 2024. Just right now, we’re looking at buying deals. We’re not buying on floating rates, even though I think that could be if rates are going to come back down. But just sticking to our principles that we maybe got away a little bit from in 21 as we’re getting a little over leveraged and on floating rate debt is, let’s stick with fixed rate debt.

I think interest rates are gonna stay around five. I think we got spoiled there for a while, having threes and fours. Maybe it’ll come back, but I think historically five’s been more the average, four and five, so high fours, low fives. But we’re planning on our underwriting, we’re building in more capital for the later years in case we need them. We’re trying to look at, I’m not eliminating 70s deals if it’s a-

really good deal and underwrites with us, have an extra capital for those later years, we’ll do it. But trying to focus on newer assets that once you hit the 80s, you start getting to PVC sewer lines. that’s one of our big challenges on some of these older properties is that the cast iron sewer lines are just crumbling and trees are taking over. And trying to get back out in the market, hit the meeting with investors.

touching base with them because some of our investors, stuff that was bought in 21 people are losing money, are potentially going to lose money. so it’s going to be, my last raise closed in December of 23 and we were able to raise close to what our goal was and it went well. And yeah, and we got the deal closed. But there hasn’t been much

many transactions since then. So I’m ready to raise another one to see what their sentiment is right now to, if we’ll be able to raise capital. keep hearing a lot of capital on the sidelines, people waiting to be deployed. But even my peers within my real estate group, we haven’t had anybody close a deal, I think one deal closing 24. At one point, we’re closing almost a deal a week, one every two weeks.

Nic Espanet (23:33.158)
within the group. So that’s slowed down a lot. I’m moving ahead, but I haven’t had a deal pencil out with where the price is, we will eventually something will. But I think it’s important is stick with our principles, stick with our rules of thumb. Where do we want our rent growth and our expense growth and expense to income ratio for certain areas and taxes and insurance? Where those just stay with what

with our principals and getting a good budget on it.

Brett McCollum (24:04.757)
Yeah. Yeah. And I, I love that you’re saying like a lot of what you’re saying, because a lot of investors I know will tend to compromise value to get just to get to like, cause, cause at the end of the day, I’m like, I haven’t closed anything in 20 to 24 and I have to do something. And so we start justifying this for that or, you know what I mean? And compromising principles that ultimately, you know, and for somebody that’s not been through a downturn Nic, you know, um,

Nic Espanet (24:14.03)
Thank

Nic Espanet (24:24.802)
Okay.

Brett McCollum (24:33.108)
You’re navigating it like a seasoned veteran, you know, because I’ve heard, you’ve probably heard too from our mentors and peers that have gone before us, like, you know, don’t do this, you know, but it’s really, can I ask you this? Have you had one that came in last year? There like, it a nice shiny object and you’re like, I think I want to try to do like anything like that at all.

Nic Espanet (24:52.75)
but there wasn’t much even to look at. We’ve, we’ve looked at a couple and made some offers, but, we, we did stick strong, you know, stick to our guns and, no, cause I think the wound is still pretty fresh now, two or three years from now, I may need a refresher. May need to go back and watch this recording, but, I now, you know, and now I like coming from healthcare, not having gone through a downturn, seeing some of the more seasoned people like, wait, you got to stick.

with your guns and I’m like, eh, you know, I don’t know if we, wouldn’t say I got that flipping about it, but I completely understand now. Cause it has been, you know, sleepless nights worrying about different things that are going to happen on these properties and where we’re going to get the money. it’s a, it’s, know, pain creates a, is a, is a strong teacher. And so having gone through this and the stress, it’ll stick now, now understand why some of these more seasoned people are, you know, talk about 08 and.

Brett McCollum (25:28.225)
Yeah.

Nic Espanet (25:50.816)
and the struggles they had and not getting over leveraged and things like that.

Brett McCollum (25:55.765)
Yeah, I think and I think you’re just for from the outside looking in, you know, it’s a you’re leading from the front meaning, you know, hey, this is hard. This is what’s going on. This is tough times, you know, but we’re still looking we’re still pursuing we’re still working we’re still going and that is a that is great leadership at the end of the day, man. So I want if nobody’s told you I think I see that from here and you know, and if no

Nic Espanet (26:17.72)
Thank you.

Brett McCollum (26:23.221)
I guess this might be weird, I apologize if it is. I don’t think guys talk enough to each other and say this, but from the outside looking at me, I’m proud of you. I think what you’re doing is, I think it’s really cool what you’re doing, yeah. Yeah.

Nic Espanet (26:30.914)
Hey, I appreciate it.

Nic Espanet (26:35.768)
Thank you. No, and then that’s, you know, that’s, I’m to get on a side track so that guys don’t talk enough. There’s a men’s group that I’m part of that the guy put it together just cause men quit having meaningful male relationships as friends, you know, once they get out of college. So that’s a, it’s a group that we work there. The hook is they work out in the morning, 5.30 to 6.15 every morning. So it’s been, it’s called F3 for faith fitness and fellowship, but, it’s, it’s to create meaningful male relationships. So if you ever want to check it out.

You can edit that out if you need to.

Brett McCollum (27:05.726)
Yeah, that’s incredible. that we need like at the end of the day, like we need each other to like, you know, you’re you’re the leader of your home before you’re the leader of your business, you know, and when your business is struggling and then you bring that into the home and then all it’s like, you know, it’s like male good and true honest, you know, male leadership is it’s difficult, but it’s our calling.

Nic Espanet (27:17.358)
for sure.

Nic Espanet (27:27.663)
and peers that will lean and say, hey, man, you’re stepping out of line or have you tried this or something just to bounce things off of.

Brett McCollum (27:34.133)
Yeah, so I just wanted to tell you that from afar, man. Like I think you’re, you’re doing great. It’s gonna like, we will prevail. These are difficult, you know, and the way out isn’t to go around things, it’s to go through and we will. but yeah, Nic, if as we’re kind of wrapping things up here, if people want to connect with you in some way, you know, that sort of thing, what’s the best way for that to happen?

Nic Espanet (27:37.496)
Thank you.

Nic Espanet (27:48.398)
for sure.

Nic Espanet (27:57.166)
Yeah, we have a website, is flex equity group.com. I also have a, my calendar link is visit with Nic.com. Yeah, visit with Nic and there’s no K in Nic. So Nic at Flex Equity, actually, I think we have both saved, but just NIC at Flex Equity and the Nic’s meeting room.com is my calendar link.

Brett McCollum (28:09.354)
cool, yeah.

Brett McCollum (28:23.705)
cool, guys listen, like if you have any questions, syndications, things like that, like you know, I’m working through, I’m struggling with this, you know, like and you need another year to bounce things off of. I hope I’m not putting the cart before the horse here, Nic, but like.

Nic Espanet (28:37.986)
No, I love getting, I actually teach within the group that I’m part of. So I love teaching, but getting on, you know, help see if, you know, if there’s any pointers or if somebody’s new to the process and want to learn, kind of hear about my pathway from, from being a full-time physical therapist to being a full-time syndicator in, you know, some of the bumps we had and, but not any mentorship program at your mastermind. think it’s a great, but you can give me a shout, but.

Brett McCollum (28:48.18)
Yeah.

Nic Espanet (29:06.862)
I think finding somebody that’s success leaves clues and following a program. Yes, you can do it on your own, but I think it’s going to take longer and it may end up costing you. You’re buying stuff with multiple commas sometimes. so having somebody that’s walked down that path is very valuable to help hold your hand and lead you.

Brett McCollum (29:28.275)
no doubt. Guys, if you heard it, check that out. Go find his link, schedule a call with him, and you won’t be sorry. Nic, man, thanks for doing this with me today, man. Like, this is a great show. Tons of knowledge, tons of wisdom. Like, truly, there’s a lot of wisdom in what you were speaking, and I really appreciate you doing that,

Nic Espanet (29:37.838)
Thanks for having me on.

Nic Espanet (29:46.69)
Well, I appreciate you all having me on. Thanks, Brett.

Brett McCollum (29:49.579)
Well guys, it’s been a great episode and I encourage you to like, subscribe, you know what to do and we’ll talk to you guys on the next one. Take care everybody.