Welcome to The Real Estate Underground Show #113!
This episode of The Real Estate Underground Show is not your typical investment story. It's a roadmap to success for anyone looking to break into the exciting world of multifamily real estate.
Join us as we welcome Jenn and Stacy Conkey, a powerhouse duo with over two decades of experience. They'll share their journey from single-family to multifamily properties, and how they've leveraged their knowledge to create the Remote Multifamily Investing Academy, empowering aspiring investors with the tools they need to thrive.
Here's a taste of what you'll learn:
This episode goes beyond the nuts and bolts of real estate. It's about building a successful and fulfilling career while staying true to yourself. If you want to dive deeper into real estate and learn more from Jen & Stacy, head over to https://www.wowcon.com/ for their events and https://rmfiacademy.com/.
Resources:
Additional Resources:
Welcome to The Real Estate Underground Show #113!
This episode of The Real Estate Underground Show is not your typical investment story. It's a roadmap to success for anyone looking to break into the exciting world of multifamily real estate.
Join us as we welcome Jenn and Stacy Conkey, a powerhouse duo with over two decades of experience. They'll share their journey from single-family to multifamily properties, and how they've leveraged their knowledge to create the Remote Multifamily Investing Academy, empowering aspiring investors with the tools they need to thrive.
Here's a taste of what you'll learn:
This episode goes beyond the nuts and bolts of real estate. It's about building a successful and fulfilling career while staying true to yourself. If you want to dive deeper into real estate and learn more from Jen & Stacy, head over to https://www.wowcon.com/ for their events and https://rmfiacademy.com/.
Resources:
Additional Resources:
Ed Mathews: Greetings and salutations, real estate undergrounders. It's Ed Matthews. And thank you so much for joining us today. You know, this is another one of those cool episodes where I have coerced some, some really accomplished investors into joining the show. And the cool part about having a podcast is they're here and I'm fired up, but they might not have returned my phone call had I just cold called them.
Ed Mathews: So. Awesome. You know that I, that I've got a podcast and even better that I have Jen and Stacey Conkey here. Um, so nice to see you. It's a pleasure to finally meet you and, uh, and, uh, welcome to the show.
Jen & Stacy: Thanks for having us. It's nice to meet you too. Yeah.
Ed Mathews: Yeah. It's a, so, you know, it's, it's a classic story.
Ed Mathews: I've been stalking you on, on YouTube for, for a little bit and somehow, our producer Janice, thank you, Janice, wherever you are. Had coerced you into joining the show. So welcome. And so for those folks who haven't discovered you yet, can you tell us a little bit about who you folks are and the remote multifamily investing academy?
Ed Mathews: And, and we'll get the ball rolling from there.
Stacy: Sure. So we're Jen and Stacey Conkey. And, um, we both, we didn't start off investing together because both of our journeys started about 20 years ago. We have, so we have kind of different stories that merged us together around 2015 and anyway, so we've both been investing for 20.
Stacy: We’re in 20 years and our journeys both led us to, you know, through single families and flipping and all of the different strategies through small multifamily residential to, um, our focus now over the last several years, which has been, uh, apartment investing. So in the, in teaching and training, cause that's, that for me has always been a huge passion.
Stacy: Even when I was an accountant, I was like, let me teach you about debits and credits. It was the most amazing thing ever, but you know, not everybody agrees. And that's okay.
Ed Mathews: No, I'm not that guy. I married that guy. I married that gal instead. So it's much better. She’s way smarter too. So thankfully.
Stacy: So we, you know, we, we enjoy doing real estate, real estate.
Stacy: Just, it's just logical. Like the numbers, it just makes sense. It's a great way to build wealth. And, um, I don't know that either of us are like passionate about real estate. I love real estate. It's cool. But, um, I personally am super passionate about helping like, The next generation of people go through this journey in a way that is so much less painful than it was for me.
Stacy: And to really have success, they don't give up on their dreams because this is totally doable if you, if you do it right, but that's absolutely.
Jen: Yeah. So, I mean, you sure already nailed it. We've been doing real estate for over 20 years. And for the first 12 of that, it was very much individually. And until we, our paths intersected when it did, um, Stacey, I realized was Very, very good and very skilled at taking some complex, I don't know, topics like real estate and investing and financing and all that stuff and breaking it down in an A to Z manner.
Jen: And she was also extremely good at explaining super patient, gracious, which somebody like me needed. Because I'm a very visual learner and I'm also a shark. So I'm like, once I decide it's like fire ready aim, but once meeting her and learning how to look at it differently and really getting down to a keystroke level of things that it made me realize.
Jen: Wow, you have a gift and she had been teaching people one on one and I wanted so much for that 12 years that I was grinding by myself, I wanted so much to have a community of people that I could just say, Hey, Ed, I feel like this contractor is acting, you know, without any integrity, you know, what would you do?
Jen: But I didn't have that. And so there were pains, there were very long, dark nights of the soul. And I wanted to create a community. And so I convinced her let's take this one on one strategy of coaching that you're doing. And I'm like, let's do one to many. And that is why we ended up doing the Academy.
Ed Mathews: Yeah. Awesome. Yeah. And it's, it's amazing because the, you know, the, the fact is, is that once you figure out the opportunity to scale, you can help a lot of people. I mean, you've helped well over a thousand, if I'm not mistaken.
Jen & Stacy: That was thousands.
Ed Mathews: Thousands? Plural. Okay, cool. And well, thank you. And congratulations. You know, the, the thing that I'm curious about is the, you know, the transition from, the grind, right.
Ed Mathews: In terms of moving from single family to small multi to, you know, medium. I refer to it as I steal this from my friend, Margaret Kozlark that, uh, it is a micro family. Is there is the term, you know, the smallish, you know, 20 to 50 units. And then above that, right. Is, is traditional big box multifamily.
Ed Mathews: So I'm curious about your journey in terms of how you navigated, when was the right time to take the next jump? Did you skip any steps? And if so, why?
Jen: Uh, for, well, for me, I started in 2002 with flipping and wholesaling. We, I started it with my brother. He kind of showed up, took me for a drive, explained it.
Jen: Cause I was ignorant to it. I was working in corporate America as in a executive leader position. And, um, I just did flipping and wholesaling with him for a while. And then I liked it and I eventually decided buy and hold was the way to go. But. I did all small residential until I met Stacy. So that was in 2015.
Jen: And one of the things that I realized is like, she was already teaching people how to do apartments by then. And she had a really cool strategy for doing it, which was joint venture. And for me, I thought. I don't, that's exactly what I would want to do versus hopping straight into doing syndications until I know more about it, but I wanted to learn about it.
Jen: So we did, we went and got our commercial training to learn about syndication, then went to go implement and thought, Oh, my God, this is, it costs a lot of money. I have to get a securities attorney, got to get a PPM. You know what? Scrap that. Let's just go ahead and stick to the smaller micro buildings that you were talking about and leverage joint venture until we can, you know, get comfortable with that and stair step into a larger building, which is ultimately why we decided to use the stair step approach when we're teaching other people also.
Jen: So, so skipping steps, like, yeah, I've done that before and it's costly.
Ed Mathews: Yeah. And, and I, I, I hear you cause I've, I've had a similar transition. I'm a, I'm six, four and I used to be six, seven. It kind of cut me down. You know, the fact is, is that. There are, there are a lot of things that, you know, had I met someone like you or, you know, someone else, uh, along the way, I probably would have done, I would not have done a whole bunch of dumb stuff that slowed me down.
Ed Mathews: Right. And, you know, cause the thing is that like, like you, Jen, I'm, I started out as a flipper, right? I bought my first property was a multi, but every, you know, I realized I don't have any more money, so I got to go make some more, right. And so, you know, I would flip properties and I realized that, uh, very quickly, you know, I don't drink, I don't do drugs.
Ed Mathews: But, and I was telling this to, uh, another guest last week, you know, flipping is without a doubt, my cocaine. I absolutely love everything about it. Right. But the, the problem is, is that then, you know, entrepreneurial ADD kicks in and, you know, you build a business around flipping and it's, it's, it's kind of like empty calories, right.
Ed Mathews: In that. You know, you build one or you, you buy one, you fix it, you sell it. And then you got to go do it again, or you don't make any more money. Right. And you know, that was the thing that kind of, I had a friend of mine, you know, she, she was a property manager. She's like, you're not doing this right. I'm like, okay, educate me.
Ed Mathews: Tell me what's going on here. She goes, what is your ultimate goal? And I said, well, it's to build wealth and you know, we can get into my why. But you know, the fact is, is that she's like, you're not going to get there. I mean, you'll get there, but you're going to be 105 years old.
Jen: Tired.
Ed Mathews: Yeah, way tired. And, uh, and so, you know, that kind of opened my mind into, okay, I need to focus.
Ed Mathews: And so when I went full time, you know, I focused pretty much right out of the box on multifamily. And so I've been in, in that world for not as long as you, but about four or five years. In earnest. Anyway, enough about me. So in terms of the academy, um, I'm always interested in how you work with people.
Ed Mathews: Like, you know, I mean, there's a, there are plenty of folks out there that are online courses, online courses, online courses, but, but I actually think, you know, having known you at least through YouTube a little bit, you take a very different approach.
Stacy: It's funny because when we, you know, Jen is the one who had brought up the, you know, switching our model.
Stacy: Cause I was, I would just do one on one. So I was always traveling. We have four kids. So that was, that was a little bit challenging to do what your heart is passionate about doing, but then missing out on, you know, recitals and baseball games and stuff. But when she brought up the idea of doing one to many, and we really started.
Stacy: In earnest talking about that. One of the things that I had shared with Jen, it's no secret. Cause I taught, I don't know if I talk about it in YouTube videos, but I talk about it when I'm talking about stuff in general is when I got my education back in 2003, I spent 40, 000 to get an education in real estate investing.
Stacy: Cause I was like, I'm totally doing this. I want to do it, but I have to know how, so I'm going to invest my education. And the education that I received was awful. But like, it was, I didn't know it at the time because, you know, all you know, is everything is new, but when I went to implement it, it just was, it had so many holes in it that every single step I took, I was like falling on my face.
Stacy: And financially it was, it was horrible. So I, I became very passionate in my first year. Like if I ever figured this out and I was not convinced I would. At that point, but if I ever figure this out, I'm going to go back and teach people the right way, because this is crazy. People are going to lose money.
Stacy: They're going to give up on their dreams, and they're going to think they have to stay in a J O B forever, and that's, that's not okay. So I was very passionate about that, and then going back and starting to teach and teaching for other organizations. One of the things that was very disappointing to me, just be, I was just the educator.
Stacy: I wasn't the business owner. I was just training for someone else. Other people is it felt very much like it was all about just checking boxes.
Ed: Yeah, it was a fact.
Stacy: So yeah. And it was like, okay, cool. Um, did we do this for the student? Did we give them this binder? Did we give them this class? Okay. Check, check, check.
Stacy: And there was nobody seemed to care about what actually legitimately happened in that student's journey. Or life. And so when Jen and I started talking about doing this and starting the Academy, I was like, you know what? I, I honestly, I want to disrupt the multifamily education industry because I don't feel like anybody, this may not be true that nobody cares, but it certainly felt like it when I was on the inside, you know, this was many, many years ago, but I was like, they don't, nobody cares.
Stacy: And somebody needs to care. So when we created the Academy. Jen was like, well, it's really important to me to have community. And that was not a thing for me. I didn't, that didn't even occur to me. Um, she's like, it's really important to me that people have a place to come in, talk to each other, share resources, share ideas, lift each other up, have a place to just like unload or get advice.
Stacy: And I was like, people need to, they need to have coaching. They need to not just have an online course. Cause we made an online course and it's amazing, but frankly, it doesn't matter if you have nobody to ask questions when you're doing it, because there's a million different things that can come up. So when we developed the Academy, we created a, we began with the end in mind and the end in mind for us was not how much money can we make, because we don't like the Academy doesn't, doesn't do anything for us financially.
Ed Mathews: And how many units do you own at this point? Is money, is it really about money at this point? No, you can stop and you'd be fine.
Stacy: Exactly. So we started off with, it's all about results. So when we started the Academy, it was how do we structure this whole thing so that our students get results? Because I know for a fact, not very many people get results in a multifamily or any kind of real estate education.
Stacy: There's not a lot of results that happens. A lot of checking off boxes. And so that's how we structured the program. So it started off with group coaching on zoom because we happened to launch right before COVID hit. So that worked out. So we did group coaching on zoom. Every one of our students has a one on one coach.
Stacy: All of our coaches have 15 plus years experience and we've worked with all of them.
Jen: We've been doing deals with them the whole time, you know? So it's like, we don't just bring anybody off the street. They have to know our system.
Stacy: Yeah. And then they have like the community part of it is networking on the calls and having a Slack channel so that people can post deals and talk to each other and encourage.
Stacy: And then we do live events. Every quarter so people can get together and do that. I feel like there's so much more. Oh, go ahead.
Jen: I literally was just going to say,
Stacy: I'm all passionate barfing at the mouth. Sorry,
Jen: selfishly, selfishly also when creating it, I wanted to create sort of a farming system for people that could bring us deals.
Jen: But I wanted to be able to watch them for a couple of years. So in the academy, everybody that's in year one, when they're done, they want to be in year two. And then by the time they get to year three, they're in year three, we're doing deals with them. And then by the time they're doing deals with us, like they never pay tuition again, and we just build a skyline together.
Jen: And that was my way of saying, Hey, we can, we can really leverage ourselves and economize our activity. By teaching people our exact method, watch them for the first couple of years, make sure they're not taking shortcuts and then get them on the team, build an acquisition team and have them bring everything to us.
Jen: And we do deals with them. And then we are collectively building a skyline. And that's why the academy is not necessarily a profit center for us in that way. It's a profit center in terms of. Building a portfolio in a skyline, right?
Ed Mathews: Yeah. And that's just proof positive how much you folks care, right? Is that, you know, you're investing multiple years in these folks.
Ed Mathews: And the, the thing that I heard from both of you, you didn't actually overtly say it, but, um, I know it exists as the accountability factor. Right. And, you know, I met, um, a lady, uh, Casey Franchini about a year ago, and she has a single family training. And that was one of the things that, you know, we talked about on that episode was that the accountability piece was so important because, you know, she's had the experiences, clearly you've had experiences.
Ed Mathews: I, I have had local. You know, experiences with local organizations where, you know, they have hundreds of students. And when I came in, uh, as one of the partners, you know, first question I asked is, okay, well, how many of your, however many there were, students actually bought a property? And the answer from the folks that we were acquiring the entity from was, 5%.
Jen & Stacy: That's not okay. Exactly. That's why we need to be disrupted. We literally let our students know when they come in. We score you like our team scores you. You're either red, yellow, or green. If you're in the yellow, you're going to hear from your coach. You're going to hear from our chief experience officer.
Jen: If you get to the red, I'm calling you. Like we are number one value as a result. Yeah. And if you're not getting results, I'm going to call you myself and say, what's up, why are you stuck? Let's get you thrown armor over and get into action.
Ed Mathews: I love that. That is a great idea. I'm going to borrow that. If you don't mind.
Ed Mathews: Okay. That's great. Yeah. Yeah. Because you know, the, I, the second I heard that I was on a mission, right? Okay. I'm going to talk to every one of these people that will respond to an email or a phone call as soon as possible. And I want to find out why. Yeah. Right. And, you know, the, it's the classic, you know, it's a classic challenges, right?
Ed Mathews: I don't know where to find the deals. I don't know where to raise the money and I don't have any money. You know, I work 60, 70, 80 hours a week. I've got four kids. I've got, you know, parents I have to take care of, you know, I've got a spouse or a partner or whatever, you know, that expects me to be around on Friday and Saturdays to help out with stuff.
Ed Mathews: And, you know, life gets in the way. And, you know, when I. Doug into those questions or those concerns, almost always it came down to fear. I'm, uh, you know, in some way, shape or form I heard I'm afraid. And so next mission, right? How do you know, folks like you and folks like me, let them know it's going to be okay.
Ed Mathews: Right. And so I'm curious about Jen, when you throw an arm around someone, if I'm a, if I'm in, if I'm a red light student and I get, you know, and I see you pop up my, my cell phone, Ooh, it's a little anxiety. So what, what'd I do? You know, uh oh. So I'm curious, you know, what is your approach terms of how you get folks back on track?
Jen: Yeah. So it's probably one of the most critical ways that we differentiate from any other training organization out there is that I'm an NLP master practitioner and I'm all about mindset and peak performance and flow. I even have a mindset coach team in the academy that I've trained over the years.
Jen: I've paid for them to go get NLP certified with my teacher. And it's really about getting that culture in where there's five reasons why people quit. And it's very simple. And so I teach that all the time when people first come in the five reasons. The first one is they have the wrong motivation and they don't understand why they're doing this, like why this is a must for them.
Jen: And when you do understand why it's a must for you, you will figure it out and get super resourceful. And when you hit your first challenge. Instead of falling back to what's comfortable and familiar, you're going to search through knowing that you must. So that's the first thing that we do. And so when I, when I reach out to somebody, the first thing I'm asking to say, I'm noticing that the results look like you're stuck, but I also don't want you to focus.
Jen: Only on results. I also want to focus on the process that's resulting in these results. So what's your process right now? Walk me through it. And nine times out of 10, they're not making the phone calls because they don't want to cold call somebody, or they can't make up their mind. They're in analysis paralysis, but it all comes down to, they're either worried about the future and how they're going to look on a call or they're caught up in the past and the identity that they have in their current role or their current job where they're a subject matter expert.
Jen: And now this is new, or they're too obsessed with themselves and how Sylvia they might look if they ask a question, it might be the wrong question. So that's usually those three things. So I'm usually trying to change their state, their mental state, change their story. And then once I do that, I can change their strategy and I could usually get somebody to make a decision and get back into the game with one phone call.
Jen: Sometimes it takes two, but that's what I'm looking for. I'm trying to, I'm listening to where are they stuck and what, because the life you focus on is a life you get. So what are they focused on that has them with blinders and not, not really seeing what's possible for them?
Ed Mathews: Right. Yeah. It's almost like they aren't sure they deserve to be successful.
Jen: Oh my gosh. Most of them are afraid of their own success because that means what do I got to do once I get it? Oh my God, how do I keep it? And what if I, what if I messed that up and now there's higher expectations of me?
Ed Mathews: Yeah. You know, it's, it's interesting. I have a, I had a conversation with my 16 year old, she's a softball player and she's pretty, pretty darn good.
Ed Mathews: And, uh, so she's on this national team and, you know, she's struggling. And, and I'm like, all right, well, you made the team. So it's not physical, right? You know, how are you feeling when you get out on the field? And she's like, I'm not sure I belong. I'm like, ah, okay, this we can fix your problems between your ears because physically you can do this.
Ed Mathews: So, you know, and that, and that's actually ultimately what her coach said too, was he referred to her as having a little bit of deer in the headlights for the first couple of tournaments, but once she realized, you know, you get those, and this is true of real estate investors. This is true of kids playing softball, you name it, right.
Ed Mathews: That 1%, you get that little teeny win and you build off of that. Right. And, you know, building off of what you were saying about NLP. So I'm a Tony Robbins guy myself. And so you were. Yeah, I was picking up what you were putting down and the, you know, the, the other part of it is, you know, I've got a, a fairly profound case of ADHD.
Ed Mathews: Right. And so, you know, I'm the, I'm the entrepreneur with the shiny objects and I'm always, you know, looking at what's, what's in my periphery, not what's in front of me. And, uh, you know, that is one of the things that the tools that I've learned over the years is to do that minimally, what's the minimum step I can take right now, cause I'm stuck.
Ed Mathews: Because for whatever reason, I've got shiny object syndrome or I'm scared or whatever. What's the one thing I can do right now that can take me one step closer to that goal. Right.
Jen: Absolutely. And I want to add to that too, Ed, because this will help you and maybe it'll help the listeners too, but add a second question to that and add the question of what must I do that I don't want to do in order to get the outcome I want, because that's really where that's really where the rubber meets the road.
Jen: It's not. You know what you need to do subconsciously, but you don't want to.
Ed Mathews: Yeah. I mean, my business planning exercise is RPM all the way just to go. Yep. You know, sorry. If you don't, rapid planning method is, is what it is. You google it, it is a miracle, but you, you know, that is exactly how I operate.
Ed Mathews: You know, on a monthly and a quarterly and an annual basis is, okay, what's the big hairy goal here? Here are the 20 things I can possibly do to go get it, and how's it gonna feel if I hit it, and how's it gonna feel if I don't hit it. Okay. And how does that line up with my purpose? And from there, it gets a lot easier.
Ed Mathews: It gets way less intense in terms of being able to move forward. Cause it, you know, the path kind of opens up. You just pick one or two things off that list and you just go do them. Right. And then you do the next thing. And then the next thing pretty soon you're, you know, it's December 1st and you're like, I blew my goal out of the water.
Ed Mathews: Oh my goodness. Right? Yeah. So I am, uh, yeah. I think if you put your mind to something and you, and you get it right, pretty much nothing you can't do. So.
Stacy: Can I just say something real quick? Yeah. You, I can't remember what word you used before. You didn't say worthy, you said Oh, long. Yeah, but there was something else.
Stacy: Whatever you said, it just, I was like, oh my gosh. In May when we had, um, because we have our quarterly events in May when we had our live event. Jen decided for our people who came, she did a, is it hypnosis or just a meditation? It's a hypnosis. Okay. So she had done a, a live hypnosis meditation for everybody.
Stacy: And not, and some people were like, Oh, I'm not comfortable. Like maybe two or three people were like, Oh, I'll stand out of the room. But everyone else participated. And it was very interesting because of the two of us, Jen's the more like the. Woo, an LP woo, all the things I'm starting to get into it, but, um, but she's very much into, you know, helping people in that way.
Stacy: And so the one she did was called you are worthy. And it was very interesting because the conference is a business conference. It's for real estate investing, but we have a very heavy mindset component. And when she did that, that hypnosis meditation afterwards, the amount of like relief and tears, it was like, it was really amazing to me.
Stacy: And I, I already started suspecting, but I started realizing just how much this and any business is about, not just mindset, but what our past and if our mom didn't say we were good enough, or somebody on the field teased me about having, you know, short legs or. Whatever random thing. And so all of us, all business people, all people have stuff that's from the past that we don't even know is operating back there and it sometimes stops us.
Stacy: So is that one on the, it's actually on our YouTube channel on the mindset playlist, it's like meditations with Jen or something like that.
Ed Mathews: Okay. I'll check that out. I have not found it. I will,
Stacy: we just recently had someone on our team add those on there. And that's why I wasn't even sure. I'm like, is that one on there?
Stacy: But if anyone's dealing with the, I don't know if I belong, or I'm not sure if I'm worth it, or I don't know if I deserve it, I think you said that. I don't know if I deserve this. That's a really good one to help. Clear out some of that because sometimes it's not, it's not even the next technical step. You know, this step, but why aren't you taking it?
Stacy: It's there's something going on in the background.
Ed Mathews: Yeah. Yeah. And I mean, the fact is, is that there are a lot of people, everybody's dealing with something, right? I mean, I like you, I was in corporate America for 24 years plus, and I got to the corner office and went, really? That's all this is right. And the other thing I realized, right.
Ed Mathews: And then the other thing I realized really quickly was everybody had the same insecurities that, that I did. And the people around me did, you know, I'm, I met really successful, just unbelievably impressive people. And when you get to know them, they're like, wow, he's, he's actually just a regular person.
Ed Mathews: And, um, so that, you know, for me, that was empowering. Cause I'm like, all right, if the guy I look up to or the gal I look up is scared, nervous. You know, uncomfortable in doing what they're doing and they're still do it. I, there's no reason why I shouldn't. Right. And it was like a breath of fresh air. And you know, it's one of the things that I, that I really love and admire about, you know, NLP and Tony Robbins and his teachings is, is just that, right?
Ed Mathews: Everybody deals with this. You're not different. In that respect, and so get over it, everybody is, you know, everybody's dealing with something and the fact that you, you know, recognize that and it's a big part of your course curriculum is, really exciting.
Jen: There's a lot of purpose to it.
Ed Mathews: Right. And so we're going to get into that, um, in a little bit, but you know, in terms of the, I think you have a book coming out or you have a book out actually, I take that back.
Ed Mathews: So tell me about the book and then I'm going to get into the final four.
Jen: Um, yeah, it's right here. It's Multifamily Freedom Hacking. Okay. Your, your playbook to long term cashflow. Okay. We got it. It came out in May. It came out in May. Yeah. Right before our event. Yeah. It's a good book. It literally, the first six chapters are all about mindset because that's 80 percent of this business.
Jen: It's 80 percent of life. Yep. And the 20 percent is in the mechanics of what you're actually doing in real estate. So the first six chapters are all about mindset. Work bookie, if you will, in that book, it's not just, it's not just a marketing book. It's an actual book. It's an action plan. It truly is a playbook with, with, um, actionable things inside of it.
Jen: We love it. We were very excited.
Ed Mathews: Yeah. And, uh, and like I said, I think I mentioned this before we started recording. I just discovered it this morning. So I, uh, you're going to see an ed@clarkst.com come across your database. Uh, because I'm going to order it. You know, the thing is, is that the, it's something that's there.
Ed Mathews: I mean, I've read hundreds of books on this stuff, right? And almost all of them are fluff, right? And I mean, even Rich Dad, Poor Dad, which I read every year, there isn't anything really, it, it's a mindset game, right? I mean, a book, but okay, what do I do next? Is, is one of the things that I found missing in that, right?
Ed Mathews: And I found it missing in most of the books that I've read in that, you know, and, and it's one of the things that, that I aspire to is, is okay. You know, here is the plan. You do this and you make a choice. Then you go here or here, right? And you move forward with a concrete plan because if you have a plan in place and you know what you're supposed to do next, you also know if you're on track.
Ed Mathews: And, uh, and if I'm on track, I don't. You know, I don't get a red score and get a phone call from Jen. I get a phone call maybe from my coach cause I'm slipping behind a little bit, but that's okay. The, you know, it's having that action plan is so important. I mean, I'm a systems guy. It's the only way I get through this business..
Ed Mathews: And you know, it's interesting. I had a, um, just for those folks out there, I had a bit of a medical issue in the spring and I was out for like 10 days and I mean out, like my wife took my phone and I was cut off from the world. It was 1985 in my world. Right. And the thing is, is that I got back to the office expecting a nightmare and my team, you know, all the bills got paid, all the residents got served, all the construction was on track.
Ed Mathews: Most of it, you know, the, the. It just, you know, social media was still, you know, being published because we tend to be way far out ahead anyway, but you know, everything happened. And the reason that it happened is because we have built systems so that everybody here and like your students, everybody knows what's next, right?
Ed Mathews: What do I got to, what are the three things I got to get done today? And, uh, it's so important. So right now I, I run the risk of making, you know, what is usually a 30 to 35 minute podcast, a two hour podcast. And so I'm going to, maybe we'll have to have you come back and we'll do part two, some, some other time.
Ed Mathews: But, in the meantime, I would like to ask you, let's get into the final four and let's talk about this and I'll leave it to you to, to decide who's going to answer what or both or whatever. So, you know, one of the things that I always, always cherished in my own travels is mentors, right? And. The, the fact is, is that I've learned, you know, as much as I learned in school.
Ed Mathews: Yeah, not so much. I had more fun in school than that. But the, you know, the things I've learned in, in the real world have been basically at the feet of people who were, you know, we're all reading the same book and there are five chapters ahead of me, so they could help me kind of jump, you know, Russell Brunson said that, uh, a book is 10 years, you know, of someone's life, and so you can start in year one and jump to year 10.
Ed Mathews: Just by reading those 200 pages. I'm paraphrasing, but that's basically what he said. And so I'm always interested in mentors and you know, who's helped you kind of jump forward and you know, what's the best advice you've ever gotten and who gave it to you?
Jen: Uh, well for me, it's definitely Tony. Um, we're, we're platinum partners with Tony.
Jen: He's our mentor. And what he says all the time is it's not a lack of resources. It's a lack of resourcefulness, and that hits me all the time because I constantly, when I'm facing a challenge, um, sometimes I forget how many options I have, and it's because I don't feel like I can see them, but if I could just slow down and think about, okay, and ask more effective questions, that's another thing he always says, like, Don't ask the why question, ask the how, the what, the who, the when, the where questions.
Stacy: And that has always been helpful to me. For me, it's the same. It's the same person. Cause my journey in 2003 started at a UPW event, Tony Robbins. And that was what set me on the path that I'm on now. But one of the, probably the biggest things from Tony that's made an impact on my life is when he taught us to, I thought you were going to say it when you said along the lines of ask better questions, but it was, the question is what else could this mean?
Stacy: Because, you know, every day in business, things are coming up that we have to handle and face, you know, challenges and things like that. And I think solving problems is fun, so I don't mind it, but sometimes you have an emotional reaction to something. Or we're angry about something and something that Jen and I will ask each other.
Stacy: Cause depending on which one of us is like all fired up about something, it's usually, it's usually Jen. But sometimes me, the other one will ask like, well, well, what else could it mean? Because we, when we see a challenge or think someone's doing us wrong or someone's slacking off or whatever the issue is, what are the other possibilities that could be, you know, showing up as this behavior or in this way and what baggage Am I holding on to in the background that I'm assigning a meaning to that might not be there at all.
Stacy: And that that's made a really huge difference for me in the past couple of years is looking at that. So one, it's absolutely a hundred percent Tony Robbins. There's a lot of great mentors out there, but he's our, he's our number one.
Ed Mathews: Yeah. But that, that perspective going through that process that you just described, it creates a perspective, even if you're in the middle of it and the world is spinning around you.
Ed Mathews: It gives you that moment of take a step back and look at, you know, exactly what. Could this be actually right? There's the emotional reaction, which, you know, I'm an Irish guy. I, I tend to be like, you know, I'm more a Jen than a Stacey. I'm Irish too. Right there. All right. And, you know, the, but the, almost always when I look at a situation like that, my wife is a very, my wife, Patricia is a very calm person.
Ed Mathews: Almost always when she's like, are you looking at this? Right. She's right. And I'm wrong. Cause I'm too in it, you know? And so that's, that's very, uh, that's very, that's valuable information. So, uh, okay. Next question. You know, everybody, you know, leaders almost always universally are, are, are readers, right.
Ed Mathews: And, you know, reading these days can be a lot of different things, podcasts and audible books and physical books and conferences and YouTube videos and whatever. So I'm curious about two things. One is, Uh, how do you consume information? Like what's the way, I mean, cause I'm sure you're all busy. You're as busy as we all are, but also who are you paying attention to these days? And you can't say Tony Robbins.
Jen: No, yeah, no, obviously it's Tony. Well, for us, we have a pretty cool routine every morning that we do like clockwork, obviously Tony taught us how to prime the morning, but I love. At my let I love and I literally pay my Children to watch Ed Mylett YouTube videos and I will join them for school on Saturdays.
Jen: Right. But we also have a very cool rhythm on watching Joe Dispenza trainings on Sundays. And so those are my two right now. It's really at my let Joe Dispenza and really because I'm trying to learn about the quantum. But the way that we consume information just on a daily basis, we're daily readers. And for me, I like to read it while also listening to the book.
Jen: Cause I do the same thing. Yeah. It helps me stay off the charts. It's like, it helps you stay focused and it's two modalities. Which I think is, you know, we're, we're unicorns, Ed, Irish unicorn with you.
Stacy: And, uh, Stacey, your turn. Uh, well, I was just going to have Jen answer that one. Cause well, a lot of that we do, we do together.
Stacy: I do prefer audio books, um, because I also, I am definitely an ADHD person. I like to have many things going on at once. Cause you know, I want to be as efficient as possible in theory. Uh, but I like to listen to audio books while we're, you know, either walking or riding a bike, or if I'm, you know, putting away laundry or some, you know, God awful household chore.
Stacy: I like to listen to books. My primary modality is, um, audio. And so that's, that's what I like to do. But like, I listening to like who, not how, I think that is an amazing book. I'm about to listen to, it's called the YouTube formula. 10X is better than 2X, 10X is better than 2X. And then a book that, um, I just heard you mention it on your book club today with the guy who you said, you want to have to come one of our Never Split The Difference,
Ed: Oh! Chris Voss!
Stacy: That's one of my favorite. Yes. Yep. I loved that book. Brilliant book. Here. I'm jumping all over the place, but I love watching Ed Mylett too. Cause a lot of it, he'll be like, I'm kind of teaching you guys and talking to you about stuff that I'm actually having issues with myself in a fight. When I teach you, it makes me get stronger and Yeah.
Ed Mathews: Right. And, and the thing is, is that I find that when I decide, okay, I'm going to teach a subject, um, I go so deep into it that I learn a massive amount. So by the time I get in front of whoever I'm going to be in front of, you know, I feel like, you know, I feel like I'm an expert, but the, but the fact is, is that I've learned it inside and out.
Ed Mathews: And even if I don't present it now, it's, it's here. I've got it. So, you know, next hill to take, right? Okay. So let's talk about purpose. And I have a feeling this is going to be a little bit of a, uh, conversation. So, you know, what, what drives you, what gets you out of bed? What is your must?
Jen: My must is I feel like I was put on this planet to help.
Jen: Create breakthroughs and miracles for anyone that crosses my path. Um, that's why I got into NLP and doing breakthrough sessions, hypnotherapy. I love real estate. It provides our living. Um, it's not the end all be all for me. The end all be all for me is the fact that I put mindset into the program because I love to watch people transform and transcend it's you'll never see me hit snooze because I know that I'm going to impact lives today and it's going to be a ripple effect because whatever happens between us, then it cascades to other lives and it, it just, it enriches the whole human experience.
Ed Mathews: It does. Yeah. It's, uh, you know, the thing is, is that what's, what's it, the, you know, the highest form of, of existence is service. Right. I think that's right. And, uh, you know, helping people get a little bit better every day is, something I think Tony calls it the juice.
Stacy: It is the juice.
Ed Mathews: Yeah. To get you cranking. I hear you on that one. Um, how about you, Stacy?
Stacy: Gosh. Um, you know, when, when, when all of this started 20 years ago at, at, uh, UPW, we went through the Dickens model, which is, you know, and I, I went there actually kicking and screaming the CEO of the company I worked for, like, brought me there.
Stacy: Cause he's like, I feel like you'd really like this. I was like, Oh my God, this is a blame. But I got there and I, you know, I was watching everyone jump up and down. And I was like, what is that? Like an hour later, there's me. Right. Anyway, I totally joined the call anyway, but he walks us through something called the Dickens model.
Stacy: And that was, there's, you know, there's 10, 000 people there. So it's not like he was talking to me. But my unconscious mind must have known there was something and he's like, pick some area of your life and then close your eyes and go a year out. You've literally changed nothing. What does your life look like?
Stacy: Then five years, then 10 years and 20 years. And it was during that process. I'd never occurred to me that I was on the wrong path. I had gone to college. I got my, my, um, accounting degree. I went and worked at Arthur Anderson, which, you know, at the time was a prestigious thing, but I got my CPA license. I was a controller for a public company.
Stacy: I was like, I am climbing that ladder. I am doing this. I'm let's go for it. And it was in that Dickens model thing that I was like, wow, I was picturing myself 20 years out. And I was like, I am miserable. I work 80 hours a week. I have a ton of money, but no, I, but nothing, but who cares? Who cares about money?
Stacy: At that point, I have a couple of kids that I don't know at all. I'm just, so I just, but I didn't know what that meant. All I knew is. Oh my god, I'm on the wrong, wrong path. The only vision I got for what the right path was, was so limited. And I was like, what the heck? And all I could do is look at, I could see Tony on stage and I was like, I'm supposed to do that.
Stacy: What that was, I had no idea. Plus I was terrified of public speaking, like terrified.
Jen: Now she won't shut up.
Stacy: Now I won't shut up. It's true. I was doing a conference call to on a recording by myself in a room at work as the controller. And I thought I was going to die of fear. I was that afraid of speaking.
Stacy: So when I got that vision of I'm supposed to do what Tony does, I was like, what? That's ridiculous. And then as time evolved, I realized it seemed to be, I'm like, Oh, that's now I love to, I love to speak and teach because of what I can do for people. And so I'm like, Oh. That's what it is. I'm here to do this in the space of real estate.
Stacy: Yeah. And more recently I've just learned that it might be real estate and it might be just, and it might be real estate and more. And as we continue to grow and ascend as human beings, it's like, who knows where this, this is going. But my purpose is really whatever I can do to help somebody step up to the next level.
Stacy: Or improve their life such that they're able to improve someone else's life. So we have a couple of students in the academy that when they started with us a few years ago, we've been watching them and now we've made them like junior coaches. So now, now it's not just that person that got to effect going to help them get real estate and learn it and all that stuff.
Stacy: Now they're able to help other people and that freaking gets me excited. I'm juiced. Yeah, the juiced, right? I feel like that's my purpose. Is lifting others up. For what? I don't know. But it's real estate right now.
Ed Mathews: Yeah. Well, I mean, lifting other people up doesn't have to be one thing, right? And I strongly suspect given your, both your personalities that, uh, there's probably three or four things cooking right now and they will lead to many other things down the road, which is really cool.
Ed Mathews: Okay. So if you had to do it all over again. And I, you know, some, some crackpot in Connecticut took a magic wand and wiped out your entire, uh, real estate portfolio. We'll leave the, we'll leave the, the knowledge and, uh, courses and all that alone, but if we wiped out all of the, uh, the real estate holdings, what would you do different to build it back?
Jen: I still have my knowledge.
Ed Mathews: Yep. You're still smart. Still know what you know.
Jen: Well, I wouldn't be messing around with single-family homes, duplexes, triplexes and quads, that's for damn sure. I'd be going. Great after the five to 35 unit apartment complex. I would start with joint venture, get a couple under my belt, learn how to raise capital, and then go for syndication.
Jen: And ultimately I would not do that for a very long time. I honestly would do that until I got a baseline of cashflow to pay for my needs while learning how to raise capital for other syndicators and be getting a piece of their deals, whether it's RV parks, mobile home parks, gas, and oil, you name it, self-storage.
Jen: I will raise money for those syndicators, which we do now that way I have, you know, I'm deep, deep in my wealth creation on my own portfolio, but then also I am being able to be diverse with other asset classes that I don't have to master, but I can raise for and have a general understanding of how it works because I know that that's just put gas on the fire when you do that.
Ed Mathews: And it's, you know, it's simple, it's math, right? Yeah. I don't, I, you know, whether it's a storage unit or a. Uh, a place where you can park your RV or a mobile home park or whatever at that level, it doesn't matter. Right. Right. What matters is that, uh, you are being conservative with your investors money and that you're taking good care of it.
Ed Mathews: And you know, you're partnering with the right operators to be able to, uh, effectively execute whatever plan is in place. Simple. Right. Okay, cool. Stacey, would you add anything else?
Stacy: It's really that it's, it's the identical thing. The only, the only thing that I would, would be a little bit different in my path is, uh, cause Jen's always like, why bother with all these little ones?
Stacy: But because some of the people that we teach do the smaller properties, it's really always been important to me to make sure that at the same time, in the same market that I know what it's like to go through what they're going through. And so that's, but it wouldn't be, it's not for the purpose of our investing.
Stacy: If it was strictly, the question is strictly investing. It's literally what Jen just described because the rest of it
Ed Mathews: Because you know stuff that they don't know yet, right?
Jen: Exactly. And I think that, you know, I probably took your question literal, meaning like if you took it away today in today's market, I would jump straight into apartments because right now investing in duplexes, triplexes and quads and single family homes, the margin is like, it's tough.
Jen: So the ROI to me, the juice isn't worth the same. Squeeze. So that's why I would start exactly with that pocket. You know, if it was four years ago, I might've started with something smaller and worked my way into it. But if I have my same knowledge, I'm going for apartments every time. There's just one.
Ed Mathews: And that's, and that's the huge difference between somebody, you know, I, I affectionately refer to them as dreamers, right?
Ed Mathews: The folks that stop you at the grocery store and be like, Hey, I would love to do what you do for a living. And, you know, the obvious question then is, well, what's stopping you? And let me help. Right. Yeah. And so the, you know, what's separating you from them is 20 years of doing this. And so, you know, just a disclaimer for everybody out there.
Ed Mathews: I am of a similar mindset to Jen and Stacey. I would do the exact same thing. I would never mess with flipping because I needed a 12 step program to get off of it. But the, the, but the, you know, the fact is, is that, you know, I've been doing this for 12, 13 years and, you know, Jen and Stacey have been doing this for, you know, 20, they started when they were in their, uh, you know, grade school and I think you were in junior high, right?
Ed Mathews: Seventh grade, fourth grade. Oh, goodness. All right. All right.
Jen & Stacy: We're not much, we're not much younger than you, but yes.
Ed Mathews: Well, I, I don't believe that, but that's okay. The, um, you know, the, the, the fact is, is that you have to start somewhere and, you know, starting small. Best thing I ever did was buy that four family that I, that I was the first deal I ever bought.
Ed Mathews: Cause I learned how to, I, well, first off I screwed everything up, but I only screwed it up on a small deal and it was fixable. And I learned, and I still own that property, in fact it's going on the market next week, and, cause I'm trading up, and, but the fact is, is that you need to learn this stuff. You've gotta, and the, the only way that I've seen as effective as, as possible is, just go do it, right?
Ed Mathews: Do it with guidance, do it with, you know, a mentor or set of mentors, but just, just start, take that first step. Cause you won't regret it ever. Um, and I was terrified, but, I I've told the story multiple times on the show, so I'll, I'll tell you, I'll tell you folks offline, but I, I blame, uh, my career on, on a, a woman who is literally a foot and a half shorter than I am.
Ed Mathews: And she scared the crap out of me and forced me to move forward. But, uh, the, uh, you know, the let's, let's, let's move on. Cause I'm going to digress. So, so when not talking about real estate, I'm talking about, you know, your personal lives, what do you like to do?
Ed Mathews: How do you spend your time?
Jen: In the RV with kids camping or, uh, playing board games where like. That old married couple that likes to invite all of our friends over.
Ed Mathews: I've got racco and Yahtzee sitting on my coffee table at home, right?
Jen & Stacy: Yeah, we, we love, we are obsessed with settlers of Catan. I don't even know if that's how you say it.
Jen & Stacy: Catan, Catan, however you say it, but that's a really cool game in our house right now, or sequins. We, we just, we are, or. What's the other one? We'll cover your assets. So that one is awesome. We play National Park Yahtzee. Yeah, we got that on our road trip. We love to play games. We love it so much that we actually have board game night at our events sometimes where all the students do board games.
Jen & Stacy: Just get to know each other. You know, it's fun.
Ed Mathews: A little competition, right? All right. So, uh, Jen and Stacey, I've, I've really enjoyed this conversation. And like I said, I could talk to you for days, but, um, the, the last question I have is If people want to learn more about You know, you folks or the remote, um, remote multifamily investing academy.
Ed Mathews: Um, you know, what's the best way to do that?
Jen & Stacy: I'm going to let you do this. Cause you did a great last, we have a resource page. We do have a resource page. What I'd say is depending on how people want to be involved, the events that we can do live, that that's, that's great. That's what truly juices us because we love seeing our people in person and that's our students and the public and those are called wow con warriors of wealth conference and that's wow con.
Jen & Stacy: com. So we do that once a quarter. We have an event coming up in February, um, in Orlando. That would be like, if you want to come in, like Be in be in our presence and let us speak into your life and give you an absolutely incredible transformation, transformational weekend and networking. If you're like, you know, I just understand more about [00:43:00] real estate or get to know a little bit more.
Jen & Stacy: We have a page. I realize now it's a little bit long. I probably need to create a bitly link. But we just figured that out today, but anyway, it's, um, it's, I will put it in the chat so that you have it for, for the future, but it's everything will be in the show notes. Okay. So it's our M F I a resources. com forward slash podcasts.
Jen & Stacy: So our MFIA is remote multifamily investing Academy, remote multifamily investing Academy resources. com forward slash podcasts. But we have a, basically it's a, you'll go to the page and there's a A whole bunch of videos. And the idea is we try to put it in order, like someone who's just kind of starting to get started in multifamily, um, where it's a logical sequence and it's our, it's like our masterclasses that we've done and, you know, to create content for people.
Jen & Stacy: So that's a great place to go and learn.
Ed Mathews: And, uh, yeah. All right. Well, Jen, Stacy, it was, it's truly a pleasure to, to finally meet you. And, uh, thank you so much for this, uh, uh, you know, this opportunity to speak with you and get to know you a little bit. And, uh, I wish you well and continued success. Thank you for having us.