Welcome To The Real Estate Underground Show #94!
In today’s episode, we have a special guest, Dr Alex Tam. Dr. Tam is not only a chiropractor with 14 years of experience, but also a successful real estate investor and owner of Zephyr Equity Group.
In this episode, you’ll discover:
If you want to learn more about Dr. Tam or Zephyr Equity Group, feel free to reach out through LinkedIn, Instagram, Facebook, or by texting (775)717-0090. Get ready for an informative and engaging episode!
Resources:
Additional Resources:
Welcome To The Real Estate Underground Show #94!
In today’s episode, we have a special guest, Dr Alex Tam. Dr. Tam is not only a chiropractor with 14 years of experience, but also a successful real estate investor and owner of Zephyr Equity Group.
In this episode, you’ll discover:
If you want to learn more about Dr. Tam or Zephyr Equity Group, feel free to reach out through LinkedIn, Instagram, Facebook, or by texting (775)717-0090. Get ready for an informative and engaging episode!
Resources:
Additional Resources:
Greetings and salutations. Real estate undergrouners. It is Ed Matthews with the Real Estate Underground. Thank you so much for joining us today. Today is a very interesting conversation. The gentleman that we are about to interview, dr Alex Tam, is a chiropractor, a doctor of chiropractic medicine by day and a real estate investor, and by day, night, weekend, whatever else. And, alex, you and I met on LinkedIn a few months ago and I got very interested in Zephyr, your company, and I'm absolutely fascinated by your approach and welcome to the show. Thank you so much for carving out time in a very busy schedule, I imagine. So thanks, welcome.
Speaker 1:Oh, thank you for having me. Yeah, so, alex, for those I've been following you on LinkedIn for probably about four or five, six months now, and for those of us out there that haven't discovered you yet, why don't you tell us about Zephyr and your firm and your company and how you got here?
Speaker 2:Yeah, so Zephyr Equity Group. How we got started was I was initially just like a lot of people listening to your show a limited partner investor back in 2018. And I went to a conference, heard about syndication didn't know what it was, but I just jumped in and said, wow, this is a what a wonderful opportunity.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:Because I went to that conference for business. It was a business conference but, just like a lot of business owners, a lot of doctors, we don't know how to invest. And after a few years of doing that, I joined a real estate education program because a lot of my friends who were doctors were asking me about hey, what are you doing for investing? What are you doing for investing? I would tell them, but I didn't feel like I had the confidence to tell them exactly this is what I was doing because I was just limited partner.
Speaker 2:As a limited partner, sometimes it's easy you write a check, you send it in, you get a return, that's it. But when you're actively doing it, it makes a big difference. If I'm going to talk about it, I need to be educated and through the people that we've met in the educational program, we start really actively doing it. So that's now. We are three general partnerships in real estate, we have five other JV opportunities and we're closing on another one in about 40 days or so. So very exciting stuff over here, now that we're able to bring in other investors, other doctors, other business owners, really people who want to get into it. And that's how we got to where we are when we form Zephyr Equity Group.
Speaker 1:Excellent Congratulations on all your success. The thing I'm always interested in is how do you pick your partnerships and so, like for me, I went back to my alma mater and looked for accredited investors there and I'm a Silicon Valley Tech E-Key and so I spent a whole bunch of time there and I've also been reaching back out to my friends and colleagues and their friends and all that and to raise capital and to build awareness really, and I'm curious in terms of how you're finding your partners, or how do they find you? Probably, more specifically, what are some of the ways that you create that awareness and build relationships with your investor base?
Speaker 2:Oh, that's a great question, ed. In capital raising, it's really about building relationships. Being a Kiwo Prakter, I'm involved in different groups in the medical world. Since 2009 to now it's been 14 years. Every year we go to the multiple conferences and when I start posting on social media what I do, naturally other doctors starts to reach out. And the last two years, when I go to conferences instead of us talking about medicine, you're like hey, alex, what's this real estate thing you're doing? Tell me about it. You become the cookie in the room, right? They start that conversation because they're making money, except they're riding that stock roller coaster and they don't want to do that. And they start asking me why do you do it? And then we end up having conversations about it throughout the whole night, and that's how we start building these relationships.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it sounds simple because it is. The fact is that we are in the marketing and relationship business first and the fact is that it's a very simple process. You create awareness around who you are and what you do and the value system from what you operate. You meet people and become friends actual friends, right, you serve them and it's separate from the real estate thing. Just be friends, right, actual friends and over the course of time, trust gets created because you've done what you said you would do, they've done what they said they would do and you really become very good friends and at some point you're in the right to do business together. And sometimes that takes a month and sometimes that takes five years, but it is what it is right.
Speaker 1:But the thing is that the organic nature of that is really important, because I was just talking with somebody about partnerships and how they select their partners and I always liken it to dating. Right, you don't meet your potential significant other, go to dinner and propose Some people do, but not me and no judgment whatever If that's. I knew I wanted to marry my wife the 30 seconds after I met her. It took me years, but the fact is that you want to date first, and that's creating awareness and building the relationship at a level of trust, so that they know they can count on you, you can count on them. And at that point is when it makes sense to get married, so to speak, right To become partners.
Speaker 2:And you gotta make sure it's the right thing for them, Absolutely Based on what their goals are. What are they trying to do? Are they trying to stay for one thing or another? Do they have extra cash laying around that they get screwed in the stock market and now they're looking for something else? I want to make sure, if they're investing $50, $100,000, this is not their last 50 or 100,000. Correct it's hey, this is an investment. And then we have to talk about what are the challenges that come on per deal.
Speaker 2:So many of us want to talk about the good things and oh, here's the returns, here's two extra money in three to five years. Here's the IRR and we load up all the good stuff I like to talk about. Before we even dive into this, let's make sure you know what you're getting into, because it's not as liquid. So there's like the pro and cons. You're not going to be able to just, hey, invest the money in the next month, try to get asked for it back and it's taking time. But takes time to build this. It's not a get rich quick type of scheme and whatnot, and people have to understand. Okay, what are the challenges in this deal and what are we doing to mitigate against these challenges. We need to lead with that, because in real estate, so many people talk about the good and no one really communicates and try to be transparent about what the challenges could be and what we're doing about it. I think that's the most important part.
Speaker 1:When it's one of the things I admire about you and your team the most because we operate the same way and that I, so I always joke that I'm Irish, I'm half Irish, right, so I think, in terms of worst case scenarios, mushroom clouds yeah, isn't, yeah, yeah, yeah. How do we manage that? And it's worth backwards to none of that stuff happens and we're pleasantly surprised and everything goes well. But me and our team here are wired the exact same way. I would rather have you go in eyes wide open and know, because every project has a curveball right, every single one. Some of them are fairly minor and we handle them. Some of them are a pretty big deal and you hope that you catch everything during the due diligence process, but sometimes she don't, and it's okay. You just have to have a plan on how. Okay, here's how we're going to manage that and have it before it happens, not while it happens.
Speaker 2:Yeah, we recently did a diligence, a due diligence walkthrough, and found out that every HVAC machine okay 90 of them are going to really end and break down within the next two to four years, and that's every single one. It's due for it already, right End of life. Yeah, the seller did not want to budge on the cost, the credit, nothing at all, and we said, okay, it's okay, we walk away from the deal. And then, as an operator, we were operations first. Our teams that we work with are we're not going after deal by deal just for acquisitions and whatnot Right, and I think that's what separates what we do and I'm sure what you and your team does as well, versus some other people out there who are very transaction heavy but are not. Yeah, they just make money on act fees, not really operations.
Speaker 1:Sorry, I slipped into vernacular there. Act fees, acquisition fees for those folks.
Speaker 2:I know it's so easy for us to do that. Yeah, I was having a conversation the other day and when we talked about DSCR and three of us knew what it was, the fourth person I could tell by their body language. It just caught them off guard and I said have you heard that before?
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah and sometimes it's a embarrassment or pride or whatever. They don't want to admit it, but they're then great. They say okay, here's what that means, right.
Speaker 2:Yes, yes.
Speaker 1:In terms of real estate as an asset class and you working there. Obviously you're a doctor. I know that you also run other small businesses. Clearly you're very highly competent in what you do and you chose real estate. And I'm curious what was it about real estate that drew you in as an opportunity to build cash flow and ultimately build wealth?
Speaker 2:Yeah, I look at real estate as a separate. It's another business, right? It needs marketing, which we know about. You got to know about people, right, you got to know operations, the finances. So it's running a business that is very long-term focus, not like a quick thing. We're not looking for a quick turnaround. You have to operate it well in order to be successful For a prolonged period.
Speaker 2:And what drew me to it is the fact that the idea of financial independence, which is where passive income matches your expenses, is doable in real estate over time. Growing up and I was never taught that I was taught work until you're 65. Then you hope that the money that you saved in your pension, 401ks and whatnot can pay you for the next 20 to 30 years if I end up living that long. But you're just hoping, right. But with real estate, oh my gosh, it's doable. And I sat down and I crunched the numbers. Okay, if I invest this much and the returns cash on cash is let's be conservative here is this percent. How much do I have to invest to cover my expenses? And I said it's possible. This is actually possible.
Speaker 2:As a doctor, you never know what's going to happen. If you don't work, the money doesn't come in necessarily, even though we have a phenomenal team and we've built a phenomenal team for it. What it came down to was I wanted something that was more reassuring, that was going to be stable. People always need a place to live Food on the table, clothes on our back, place to live. Those are some guaranteed things that we need, and I like the fact that it's a hard asset and that it's still very easily diversified. People say, oh, if you invest all in real estate, then it's not very diversification, and so you got to look at the three things here. You got to look at operators, location and an asset class. Right, right, you can't have all three the same, but as long as one of them is different, you're starting to diversify your investments. So that's why I love about it.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it's interesting. You are involved with projects all over the Midwest and Southeast, if I'm not mistaken, right? Yeah, so diversification is so important and, like you said, it's diversifying can be location, it can be the operator, it can be an asset class. So you put some money in multifamily, you put a little bit of money maybe in self-storage or industrial or whatever you're comfortable with, whatever you understand. But that's the key, right it is, you know, first off, understand it, but also, you know, spread it out a little bit. It doesn't. You don't want to buy 14 properties in the same neighborhood, in the same Zipco and Oak Frikes, right? So even to guys like you and me, that feels risky, right.
Speaker 2:Exactly, exactly, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1:And you know, in terms of the decision to be a capital raiser versus an operator, right, but you run other businesses, so why not run this business? What was your, what's your thinking in terms of where you fit in that kind of general partnership structure?
Speaker 2:No, that's a great question. I looked at the different roles in real estate when learning about multifamily. I didn't know that there were so many different roles. So one of my coaches told me is it Alex? You got to figure out what role you're going to play. And I said what do you mean? I thought I was just going to come in and buy apartments. So it said you can do that on a fourplex, maybe even a 20. But if you're going to get bigger, like the GPs that we're in is like 50, 96 units and up you've got to look at OK, there's partnerships. I said so what are the roles? They said you're either boots on the ground you're finding the deal, you're asset management, you're capital raising, you could be a KP. So finance there's multiple roles.
Speaker 1:So define KP for us.
Speaker 2:Kp is key principle, right. You have to be on the loan and you have to have a certain net worth OK, and also a certain number of liquidity, right. So I looked at the roles. I said, ok, what are we going to do? If I'm going to be boots on the ground, that means I'm going to be competing with other people who are already literally boots on the ground. And I said I am not in the Midwest and I am not in the South or the Southeast can't compete there. I'm used to what do I fit in best.
Speaker 2:I also have a marketing company that works with other doctors to help them market their companies as well. So we do Facebook ads, google ads and we do everything in-house for our practice. I said I know how to do that. And I said I do consultations and talk to people all the time and that's like building relationships, like capital raising. I said those two are going to be my go-to things and if people need extra KPs, we can play a role in that as well. Sure, so I've decided that's what I'm going to do versus the operations.
Speaker 1:It's interesting your approach and it's a very pragmatic and disciplined approach in terms of figuring out what value you bring to a team.
Speaker 1:It's the settle all the axiom highest and best use right. What do you bring to the table that's unique to the team and how can personally add value? That's sure there may be overlap, but by and large, what are you expert at that can deliver for however many people on a general partnership and capital raising? I've always been told so, coming from Silicon Valley. The single greatest skill that anyone can learn in business is raising money and being able to boil down very complex deals into something that's digestible by somebody. Who doesn't do that for a living, who doesn't invest in real estate for a living, is a valuable skill, Absolutely 100%.
Speaker 1:And, in terms of the partnerships that you've worked with, I assume there's multiple operators and so I'm curious when you're looking at a project and evaluating the operator and doing your own due diligence?
Speaker 2:I'm curious.
Speaker 1:I know it's a really long list of things that you go through, but I'm curious, at a high level, what are the key things that you look for in an operator that would warrant you introducing your investors to a project that operator has in its portfolio?
Speaker 2:That is the biggest responsibility as a capital raiser is making sure we vet the operators. Number one say, if someone presents a 100-unit deal and they say, alex, it's a great deal you want to raise. And I said, first of all, I need to meet you first. I need to know who you are as an operator, we become partners. If I'm bringing people into the deal, I'm not going to raise for you the first time I meet you. There's just, I just don't do it.
Speaker 2:Date first right, if we thought what's that? You want to date first? You don't want to get married day one, you got to date first. You got to date first. Maybe if we met, maybe it was an ideal situation. We met at a conference or on a Zoom call.
Speaker 2:We sit down, we have a meal, we get together and talk about why are you doing this? I need to know why you're doing this. What are you going for? What's the end game here for you? What's family life look like? Who are you like? And then you say I've done, we got a 100-unit deal down the pipeline. Ok, tell me, what have you done before? If you're only operating 15, 20, 30-unit deals and all of a sudden you bang out this 100-unit deal. I can't ask my people to jump in. I said unless one of my criteria is that you have to have done something similar or one of your partners the key guys have to done something similar. If you don't have someone close to you in your group that has done something similar and operated one for at least two years or have came in and exited one, then yeah, I'm not going to play ball because I don't feel comfortable putting my own money and my investor's money into a deal like that.
Speaker 1:I agree it's interesting. But Clarkshere we're getting into development and we're looking at an 80-unit development and it was the first thing I thought about it. I've run a general contractor as well. I've become one, but I've never built an 80-unit complex, I've certainly never run one. And job number one came down the pike was I need to find a partner who's been there and done that. And that was the first step of the project is you've got to find the person or group that has extensive experience.
Speaker 1:So it doesn't mean and I think the point you made is a really good one in that it's a fine point in that it doesn't have to be you or me. It can be a third entity, a third person who brings that's their best Tyson and best value is that they're an operator of large construction projects and or multi-family complexes, and that's what makes the team. I'm good at marketing. I'm good at relationship building. You are good at capital raising. My friend Bard is good at operating. His partner, eric is excellent at construction management. Ok, this is starting to fit. But until you have that, it's really hard to look someone in the eye and provide them an opportunity to invest in a project if you don't have all those details nailed down tight 100% yeah.
Speaker 2:if I don't feel like I can ask myself or a family member to invest, I will never ask any of my other friends, doctors and business owners to invest.
Speaker 1:That is the test. Right Is. Would I allow my mom to invest in this If the answer is yeah or no, then no that's it, yeah.
Speaker 2:if it's not 100% yes, then it's not even a go.
Speaker 1:I agree. So, in terms of the folks that you meet and along the way, what do you think separates? I'm sure you meet the same. I affectionately refer to them as the dreamers, the folks that would love to get into our business but don't have the time, don't know where to get the money, don't know how to find deals. What do you think separates guys, folks like you or in this business, because obviously you're incredibly busy, because not only do you operate multiple businesses, but you have a beautiful wife and family, and I believe your wife is your partner, so that certainly helps. Yeah, and obviously you require at least some sleep at night, being able to Good sleep too. Yeah, quality sleep is important In terms of weeding through all that and becoming the entrepreneurial success that you're becoming or you have become. I'm curious what do you think separates guys like you and the folks that stop you in the grocery store and say, hey, I saw you on Facebook, man, I wish I could do what you do for a living. It looks like it's so much fun, right? Yeah?
Speaker 2:What your thoughts are. I believe it's the desire and the commitment. Ok, because we could desire some things. Right, we want certain lifestyles, especially on social media now. Oh, people want the fancy cars, the homes and all. Do you really want that? Yeah, and what are you going to do to commit to it?
Speaker 2:Also, at the same time, you have to understand this is where people get caught is they think they could just add on? What they don't realize is, in order to commit to that, you're going to have to sacrifice something. Yes, there's something you got to sacrifice, great. What is it? Tie or money? Are you going to sacrifice in order to achieve something that you haven't achieved yet? See, and that sacrifice piece is where it hits people in the face when they realize they need to do it. Not everyone's ready for it. No, like, for example, myself, to have that education, you gotta put in the time to learn. You gotta put in the time to build relationships outside of family time and work time. Yep, and building the sacrifice for this dream, for this goal, and how committed are you? I believe that's what separates what we do versus someone who says, oh, that sounds like a good idea. I wish I could do that too.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it really comes down to priorities minute by minute. I'm a huge fan of James Clear's book and comic habits. What do you want to be today? Yes, and it comes down to this. I was presenting at a local. I used to be a partner in the local real estate investors association. I was taking them through, taking a group of students through a time management process, and, yeah, I'm not gonna.
Speaker 1:It's a long conversation. Basically, what I did was I broke it down and said okay, look, you're gonna sleep eight hours a night, so that's a third of the hours per week. You're going to work. Let's say you work 60 hours a week, right, and so that's another block of time. And you wanna go out and have fun or have family time, so that's every week night. It's two nights or two hours a night, and on the weekends you're out and about for eight hours in some way, shape or form, either with family or going to have fun. Yeah, and when you add all that up, there's still about 25 hours left in. You've done all those things, yes, and there's still about 25 hours left in the week that you're able to decide what you're gonna do with them.
Speaker 2:Yes.
Speaker 1:And are you gonna go watch Netflix? Are you gonna play Xbox? Are you gonna do something else? Or are you gonna sharpen the saw and learn how to do this or something like this to help you advance your a little, take a step closer to that desire that you were talking about and turn it into a reality.
Speaker 2:Yeah, One number that I always pay attention to is okay, seven times 24, you got 168 weeks. That's it. You sleep eight hours a night, you still have 112. Okay, what are you gonna do with that 112? And that's, how do you break that down and how do you separate it? I think we'll clearly define the people who really want to Netflix and chill right Versus others. And I'm at the hall of core.
Speaker 2:then, Really, yeah, and you get to. People get to decide what they wanna decide, but they have to decide first that this is what they're gonna do Right on, and you have to clearly know learn it from someone who's done it before to know what you have to give up and what type of sacrifices you gotta make, Because if not, yeah, it's gonna hit you.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and that's another point. That's a really great point in that there are people. Success leaves clues, as Tony Robbins says. Right, that is that the fastest way to become a success in something, let's say real estate, since this is a real estate show the fastest way to do that is to build a relationship with somebody who's already done it, and one of the things that I know about this community at large, right, all bazillion real estate investors that are out there. If Alex calls me or I call Alex and say, hey, I have a question for you, can you give me 10 minutes? I have yet to meet someone that says, no, I will gladly help you, you will gladly help me, and because it's a gigantic pie, right, pizza pie, right, and there's plenty of slices for everybody, it's not. You and I are in the same business. We are not competitors, right, we're actually potential partners.
Speaker 1:But yes yes, and the fact is that the fact that you said that is really important is find a mentor or set of mentors who could help you figure out what your highest and best value is in this industry. And then, how do you become educated? How do you put in your 10,000 hours to understand and it's not that long, by the way To understand, to understand exactly how this business works and the role that you are fulfilling? How can you be exceptional at it, right, correct, correct? So I'm curious. You mentioned mentors and I jumped on it. I'm curious about your mentors, right, and I suspect I know who your coach was, but I'm gonna let you say, and because I'm a huge fan of both of those guys, the fact is that we all have mentors, right, and so at least I hope everybody has a mentor and a horse. And I'm curious, what was the best advice you ever got and who gave it to you?
Speaker 2:Some of the advice I've gotten that has laid out my foundation is early on, when I was in the beginning of practice, I was part of a group and this mentor there's some big things he said this. He said the hole you get through will never be bigger than the hole you give through. And I said what does that mean? And he says in life, people always think of, they take it. They never think about what they could give to others. And this was instilled to me back in 2010, 2011.
Speaker 2:And he says whatever you do in life, the more you're able to give, the world will give back may not be right away. He says it rarely is right away. Ultimately, the act of your universe will come back around and you'll eventually get. But if the only thing in your mind is what you can get out of everything instead of giving, you'll never get what you truly desire. And I think that's ultimately one of the best advice I've gotten from a mentor. So, whether it's me helping someone else, being on a podcast, being on a deal, if I'm here, I'm all in right. This is what I do at this moment and I practice that present time consciousness quite a bit to make sure I'm always there, which is really hard to do, right?
Speaker 1:You talk about the attention span of a human being. Right Back in the 50s it was about 20 minutes, a little bit better than 20 minutes, and these days, depending on the study, it's somewhere between three and seven seconds. So having focus and being able to create a space where you're present in that moment is really hard. So I'm curious about that how do you make sure that you're achieving that presence that you just mentioned?
Speaker 2:So nowadays, with electronics, it's so easy for things to just pop up, but at the same time, when you're dealing with people, you have to be very because first you got to really genuinely care enough about the other person for taking the time. Whether it's here or with a patient that we were with an hour ago, it's like they spent the time to get to where we are right now. I talk about this to my team all the time. I say if you're not giving the best experience for someone, then why are we here? Why are we even here? If you're not giving it your all, why are you even here? So I think the first thing is you have to care enough about people so that you're willing to give them all your attention. If you're not willing to give the attention, then just don't even do it Anything.
Speaker 2:I've always been told anything worth doing is worth doing well. If you can't do it well, then why would you do it? I take the same mentality that I do with treating patients as I do with everything. I've always been told how you do anything is how you do everything, and how we treat patients is I look at the whole picture and you gotta figure out where am I gonna be able to help this person to transform their life to where they are, to where they really want to be and desire to be? And it's the same thing in any business that I do. It's how can I help this person? Well, like we run the virtual assistant business, yeah, I won't hire someone for a virtual assistant If I don't want to hire that virtual assistant, and that's how I do everything. The same treatments that our patients get here is the same treatment that my mom gets, so that's how I do everything.
Speaker 1:That's amazing. That's why you're successful. The fact is that karma is a real thing and if you contribute, even at a charity level I'm not talking about just service like what we're talking about here, but even at a charity level I guarantee you the dollar you give that charity, or whatever your time, whatever, you get back five-fold. And again, you had it right. You know, it may not be today, but it may be five years from now when you need the services, that charity, for whatever reason. Right, american Red Cross, right, you never know, right.
Speaker 1:The 45 minutes it took you to donate blood at the American Red Cross. Five years from now, you may be on an operating table and need someone else to have done the same thing, and that's, I would submit, that's part of the payoff, and you're not doing it for that, but you're doing it because it's the right thing to do. But I hear you. The fact is that the highest level of, I think, human existence is contribution and making the people around you, making their lives a little bit better in some way, shape or form.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:If you could, why not? Why wouldn't you? And I think everybody had that power. Again, it's choice. You choose to do that or not, and you're either a giver or a taker.
Speaker 2:And if you're Exactly Right.
Speaker 1:And you can reform, you can be a taker and become a giver, I hope. But some people are just wired like you are, in that you recognize that pretty early on.
Speaker 2:And the interesting about that is also, ed, when you are used to an accustomed to giving, you actually surround yourself with more givers. So true as well. Automatically it comes back and it just goes around. You start because people who are not giving. They will start exiting from your life automatically. They'll self-select out.
Speaker 1:You're absolutely right, they will self-select out. Yep, yeah, absolutely. So I'm always interested in entrepreneurs like yourself, who I have this theory that and actually I'm gonna stop saying it's a theory because I proved it the leaders tend to be readers, and you, as a leader of your practice and your businesses and your real estate operation, I'm curious. First off, how do you, being as busy as you are, how do you consume information when you're looking to sharpen the saw, so to speak? It can be obviously some old school people like me.
Speaker 1:I like the physical book, right, although I do listen to a lot of podcasts and audio books as I'm driving around, because I can't listen to the news, because it makes me upset, but, yeah, so I try. I focus on productivity and self-improvement instead of politics, but there's so many different ways to learn now, right between YouTube videos and podcasts and audio books and physical books and conferences, webinars, you name it. So I'm curious how you sharpen the saw and what you use to continue to grow. And then I'm also curious about who you're paying attention to these days in terms of authors or creators.
Speaker 2:Absolutely. You mentioned leadership, and one of my favorite leadership books I actually have stacks of them right over there is the 21 Irrefutable Laws of Leadership by John Maxwell. I give that to our leadership team here. I urge people to read about it and read it, because I feel that whenever I hire someone, I'm trying to build a leader. I'm not just trying to build another person to work for me that can take tasks. I'm trying to build a leader. So I love John Maxwell.
Speaker 2:The key for me is I don't have time to sit and read and I read slow, so I rather play an audio book at 1.25 speed and at the same time. Recently, in the last couple of months, I realized I can work out, exercise and listen to podcasts, and I've drawn to at my let's podcast more recently, more than any other podcasts I have listened to. Maybe it's because he actually attended one of our medical conferences and spoke and after that I was drawn to it. And here's how I do it when I'm actively yeah, I had a connection, but you had a live connection and you feel like you're just drawn to it a little bit more. Sure, but you can work out and listen to it and there are some clips where I was like, wow, what did he just say again? And then I would listen to if I felt like while I was working out, and it was phenomenal, which most of his podcasts are. I will listen to it again when I'm not working out and I will pick up some even more phenomenal things from it.
Speaker 1:Because there's always layers in terms of the messages that are being sent.
Speaker 2:So that's how I absorb a lot of my information, of course, going to conferences- yeah, of course.
Speaker 1:So. Yeah, it's interesting. So I've discovered recently actually, that so I'm a slow reader as well and I can process audible at pretty high speeds. And the other thing I've discovered is, if I have a physical book and I'm listening to the whether that's on a Kindle or an actual book I read faster and retain more If, as I'm reading, I'm listening to it as well.
Speaker 2:My kids are crazy. So after I listen it's like someone reading to you. It is, but you have it in front of you. So when I listen to a book and I feel like it's great, I've got the Amazon go back on there and buy the actual physical book. I thought you already listened to it. I said, yeah, but there's things in there that I need to circle and highlight and take notes.
Speaker 1:Exactly, I'm a very active reader. It's so true, I do the exact same thing. That's funny.
Speaker 2:Yes.
Speaker 1:You look at a book that I've read. It's highlights and notes all over the place and big arrows and doggiered pages.
Speaker 2:Because you're engaging. You are engaging while you're reading, but I also want to use it.
Speaker 1:I want to implement what I'm learning, whether that's a product seeding or something about the way my brain works, or learning, or real estate, or whatever. I want to hear it, I want to understand it. And then I want to turn around and I go stop. Okay, we're going to stop reading the book and I'm going to implement that while it's fresh in my mind and let's see if it works. Because the thing that I used to do which really wasn't effective for me, is, I'm a voracious reader, but I would read three or four books and then I'd be like, oh yeah, I remember reading something about the situation I'm staring at right now and, gosh, I can't remember which book it was from right. So I forced myself to make sure that when I find that gold nugget in that book, I stop taking notes and all that. But I stop and I figure out okay, how are we going to implement this and whatever it. You know, topic it yeah, that's huge.
Speaker 1:So, yeah, I actually get stuff done now. It's nice. So let me ask you something, alex If you had to do it all over again and you could take back all your knowledge and your expertise, but you couldn't take back the money or your portfolio. You know 15 years.
Speaker 2:I would have started 20 years ago instead of 15.
Speaker 1:I love it.
Speaker 2:Yeah, because how I've gotten to where I've gotten to was an evolution of changes that took place, and people always ask me what would you change? What would you change? And I said, the life that we have now is because of all the changes, sacrifices and the curveballs that were thrown at us. If I didn't have as many curveballs thrown at me in life, I don't, I can't guarantee you I'll be the same person that I am right now.
Speaker 1:You are the sum total choices you've made in life.
Speaker 2:Absolutely. So I said I wouldn't change what I'll do. I wish I would have done it earlier, because the time is where it's at. The compounding of time and effort is what produces the results. So true, so true.
Speaker 1:So that's, yeah, that's what I'll do, all right, that's an excellent answer when you're not talking about real estate or any of your other businesses, or and not saving your patients from bad posture and herniated discs. What do you like to do?
Speaker 2:in your free time. I just like to enjoy time with my wife and daughter. We love being in the outdoors. In Nevada there is the ranges in the mountains where we look at beautiful wild horses. We take our car out in the mountains and ride around there. Say, if we did that in the morning and then in the afternoon we'll go stand up paddle boarding right, or vice versa. You do one in the morning, do one in the afternoon. That's like an ideal day for us. If it would be like 100%, completely just for us.
Speaker 1:It's so much fun to have your family with you and your daughter, so I'm learning this now. I have a 20 year old daughter and a 15 year old daughter, and my wife said this to me years ago and it never occurred to me until she said it, which is that you only get the kids for so long, right, you only get them for 18 years, and then their life starts and part of our lives and all that. But it's different. You're not eating dinner with them every night, you're not driving them to school every day, you're not driving them over to their friends every day, right, it's entirely a different relationship. Now they're lying in with their significant other and their kids, your grandkids, and it's just different.
Speaker 1:So, huge yeah. So, alex, I've really enjoyed the conversation. Thank you so much for bringing all of your experience and wisdom and lessons learned over the years. If people want to learn more about you or Zephyr Equity, what is the best way to get in touch with you?
Speaker 2:They could hit me up on LinkedIn. Reach out to me there. Just send me a direct message on LinkedIn, instagram or Facebook, or just shoot me a text message and say hey, I saw you on Ed's show. My phone number is 775-717-0090. And just reach out, just connect. That's what I love to do is connect with people, and there's a lot of people who are thinking about investing that. Reach out to me on a regular basis and we direct them to, whether it's books. We'll tell them how I've done it. I don't like to tell people what they need to do. I just like to share. This is why I did it, and you need to figure out why you want to do it as well.
Speaker 1:Yeah, because the why is important, Because at some point the road's going to get bumpy and you better understand why you're doing it.
Speaker 2:Right, and why is not big enough? You get bumped off the road.
Speaker 1:Sure do. Yeah, alex Tam, thank you so much for your time and, once again, my friend, it's good to see you and I'm grateful for your being a guest on the show today. Thank you.
Speaker 2:Thank you for having me All right. Good to see you. Good to see you as well.
Speaker 1:All right, man. Hey, I thoroughly enjoyed our conversation. Thank you so much.